Last weekend was the Vieira vs Tate card, and I want to talk about that and a few other topics:
Advice from DC
Advice from Chael
“He’ll never be one of us again.”
Vieira vs Tate
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Advice from DC
I read this week that DC is urging fighters to chase the belt, not money fights. Tip to readers: advice from DC, Chael, or Bisping is purely propaganda and not intended to advance the interests of the fighters. They are fight promoters, trying to push whatever narrative.
Mr. Cormier says – “As an organization, you’d always want that belt to be the grand prize. You don’t want a McGregor fight to be the ultimate prize for the competitor. The prize needs to stay the championship and it seems like right now things are changing. Things are changing all around the world in terms of sport right? The money is changing everything across the board in all sports and I think the same thing is happening in the UFC.”
The rise of Conor McGregor has led to his opponents experiencing an incredible increase in pay when facing him in the cage. Therefore, there is never a shortage of fighters calling out McGregor for a fight, any given day of the week. Everyone wants the money fight. But DC asks fighters to chase the belt.
We have seen examples of fighters starting Go Fund Me campaigns to pay for their training, giving interviews saying they only have $17 in the bank, or begging for bonuses. But DC says don’t chase money fights.
Chasing the belt is a fool’s errand. Chasing the belt is insanity when someone else has the power to deny you the fight to get to the belt. Chasing the belt is impossible when a fighter can refuse to fight. Being unpopular can also hinder your title hopes. A fighter can say in interviews that he/she wants the belt, but in reality, they can’t chase the belt. It’s out of their hands.
Now, sometimes the MMA gods provide us with a little treat. Glover Teixiera won the belt off Jan Blachowicz. Glover’s strong grappling game overpowered the Legendary Polish Power. And if you’ve been reading my blog, you’d know I predicted this.
Advice from Chael
Clearly, Chael has seen the analytics on social media chatter about Khamzat Chimaev vs Gilbert Burns. He plays matchmaker and sees Neil Magny getting that fight, not Gilbert. Of course. Can’t derail the hype train just yet. In the meantime, Usman will get more fights to defend his belt. The moment he passes GSP is when he will get a new challenge.
“He’ll never be one of us again.”
This is comical. Back just a little while ago, it was important to become champ. As I said before, the rise of Conor is what ushered in the money fight era. Mr. Smith is saying that Conor is so rich now, he’s out of touch:
Anthony Smith: “This is the second time that Conor’s come at me, and this one is not even my fault, and I don’t give a sh*t what Conor thinks about me, but I don’t know why he’s taken aim at me twice,” Smith said on SiriusXM’s Fight Nation, which he co-hosts with R.J. Clifford. “But as I thought about it, I think I figured it out. Conor has been uber, uber successful. He’s made more money than he could ever spend. He’s made true, like, generational wealth. Like, his kids’ kids’ kids’ kids are going to be just fine because of the things that Conor’s accomplished. What Conor can never get back, is he’ll never be one of us again, and it drives him absolutely crazy.
“He used to be one of us. I found myself sitting at the desk wondering, like, does Conor miss what it felt like to be in the gym and just be one of the guys? Because he’s alienated himself from everybody. Like, I’ve been around him a little bit. I don’t know him. But I’ve been around him, and he was one of the guys, and he kind of sold out, and he starts taking shots at people, and he kind of sold his soul for all that money. And that’s fine if that’s what you want to do.”
Two things to unpack there: Conor has sold his soul for money, and he’s not one of the guys and it drives him crazy.
Conor is taking shots at people because he’s on the losing end for a change. He’s the biggest draw in the organization and he just took 2 Ls from Dustin Poirier – the 2nd included a leg break followed by a humiliating meltdown in the cage. The first was after an agreement with Poirier to make a donation to his charitable foundation. Conor loses that fight and Poirier started asking for his money. Shady business.
Mr. Smith suggests McG’s wealth is a bad thing. Evil. Sold his soul. Remember the belt/money conversation? Chasing money, fighters started saying, “I’m a prizefighter,” in order to signal the U turn. A fighting career does not last long and you need to secure the bag while you can. Now you have DC and Anthony Smith acting like money should be a secondary motivation. I understand DC’s reason for saying this – he’s a company man and feels this approach is detrimental to the company – but not Smith.
I want to talk about Miesha’s fight later.