Official Mixed Martial Arts Thread

[angel]

Conor breaks rulebooks though, he's suspended in Nevada (if they do it), and other comissions are only recommended to follow suit, not bound.  What comission is going to turn down 20 million ticket sales for their state from a Conor fight.  You are correct, but they need him more than he needs them (Nevada).   Like schmojo says, this 150,000 grand fine has already added that value and more of notoriety to Conor's brand. He could pay the fine in a month and still not ever fight in Nevada again, which literally costs them millions on lost revenue. Finally, someone is taking these fuckers on and I love it.

[Tofu]

if McGregor doesn't make NSAC content, he's still under contract with the UFC who would have to explain why they're allowing a fighter owing money to a major athletic commission (eventually leading to a suspension) to fight every time they seek sanctioning for an event or their personnel renew their licenses.

 

Maybe the UFC is big enough to get away with it at this point, but that's asking a lot of the organization that stood firm over his retirement gambit so that he can have the luxury of flipping off NSAC.

[schmojo]

Exactly. Conor and Dana are promoters, 24/7.

 

Enjoy the ride,  by all means,  but don't waste your time believing a word they say. 

[angel]

Well to quote the latter of those, we'll see how this thing plays out.

[Doomguy]

I see another UFC guy has jumped ship. So since being bought they've lost the Fertitta brothers, two match makers, and Sholler. It seems like everyone is cashing in and getting the hell out. Be interesting to see the state of things in a year or two minus Dana and the Reebok deal. 

 

 

[angel]

Yeah, I spotted that. Basically anyone who made money from the sale has re-evaluated, which is fair enough.  Scholler has gone to his boyhood NBA team though, its basically his dream job. 2 match makers though? Shelby is staying on, and they're getting someone else who's highly respected, who they've worked with before (can't remember who, it was on the Unfiltered podcast).

[Tofu]

1 hour ago, schmojo said:

Exactly. Conor and Dana are promoters, 24/7.

 

Enjoy the ride,  by all means,  but don't waste your time believing a word they say. 

Exactly. Most commissions uphold NSAC decision so unless he wants to fight the rest of his career outside the US he's probably going to have to pay.  The UFC is going to shoot him an extra 150K most likely.

[Doomguy]

16 minutes ago, angel said:

Yeah, I spotted that. Basically anyone who made money from the sale has re-evaluated, which is fair enough.  Scholler has gone to his boyhood NBA team though, its basically his dream job. 2 match makers though? Shelby is staying on, and they're getting someone else who's highly respected, who they've worked with before (can't remember who, it was on the Unfiltered podcast).

 

Ah I thought I'd heard they'd both gone.

 

Matchmaking is easy anyway to be fair. I think anyone on this forum could do it half asleep on a weekend. 

[angel]

11 minutes ago, Stevedave said:

 

Ah I thought I'd heard they'd both gone.

 

Matchmaking is easy anyway to be fair. I think anyone on this forum could do it half asleep on a weekend. 

 

I think you'll be in for some corrections on that one mind mate, it's apparantly extremely tricky. You get all the fighters texting you, you need to keep up relations, you deal with the camp versus camp stuff, fighters under the same management, on top of having to get consistent matches that are competitive. I think it might have been on the MMA beat, talking about how Silva came into the UFC cold, he just emailed them, was brought in, and ended up with them for like 20 years.

[Yobo Ahoy]

5-10 years ago it probably was easy, yeah. These days, with 600-odd fighters (a good portion of whom I freely admit I haven't heard of and probably never will) and 60ish events a year though... 

[glb]

Add in egos, and different levels of selling power, then potential injuries and suspensions and it must be a major headache just getting a single event to come off, let alone a full calendar.

 

Fantasy booking is a cinch; reality would be an absolutely nightmare.

[schmojo]

I know he's promoting,  but this is Bisping's third offense of homophobic slurs. Makes it very hard to root for him:

 

"“I will knock Brock Lesnar out with one f—king punch. I will pick him up and throw him out of the octagon like the pussy that he is. Am I making myself clear? F—k you Brock Lesnar! F—k steroids! F—k all you f—king f—gots that want to come out here and take steroids.”

[Doomguy]

Lesnar would smash Bisping into very small pieces. Steroids or not. 

[Tofu]

So GSP is no longer with the UFC.

 

He's saying his lawyers terminated the contract. The UFC had a deadline to give GSP a fight and they breached. This was the grounds for them being able to terminate the contract. Holy fuck. Dana's horseshit got exposed.

 

[angel]

Mousasi saying conor threatened him over twitter DM, seems like bullshit.

[Yobo Ahoy]

I dunno. I'd be more inclined to believe Gegard over Conor.

 

Anyway, the GSP stuff is big news. The idea of him fighting for Bellator or whatever seems absolutely ground breaking, much more so than Bendo or Rory. Could be interesting.

[schmojo]

I'd love to see GSP break Canadian PPV records elsewhere, but it'll always leave that huge 'what if?' in the air. 

 

As far as believing Conor's word over... well anyone else, let alone stoic voice of reason Mousasi? My brain's too intact to play Mac's game.

[angel]

Not so much that, conors not denied it. More like moose getting spoofed.

[skittles]

Why would he threaten Moose? He's a middleweight?! Haha. Seems like a good guy too.

[glb]

Did he take a screenshot? Was the username something like @c0n0rredpants? Don't doubt McGregor would get into verbals with anyone, but he tends to do it as publicly as possible to push himself.

[Yobo Ahoy]

UFC denying the GSP story. This is all just a smokescreen and is gonna end up with him vs Silva or Diaz at 206 isn't it?

[Doomguy]

2 hours ago, Yobo Ahoy said:

UFC denying the GSP story. This is all just a smokescreen and is gonna end up with him vs Silva or Diaz at 206 isn't it?

 

Ugh. I actually like the idea of GSP going to Bellator. 

[angel]

The MMA hour baffles me, Im not a huge fan of skype chats, I find them awkward and boring if im honest, what I mean is im amazed the fighters talk so openly against their employers. The UFC must absolutely hate the show, I'm amazed anyone goes on it..but every week they're lining up.

[Tofu]

9 minutes ago, angel said:

The MMA hour baffles me, Im not a huge fan of skype chats, I find them awkward and boring if im honest, what I mean is im amazed the fighters talk so openly against their employers. The UFC must absolutely hate the show, I'm amazed anyone goes on it..but every week they're lining up.

 

Because of Helwani

[angel]

That doesnt answer why lots of them shoot themselves in the foot. Im all for fighter chat, and I hate the boring ones, but there are ways and means to do it. GSP is just using the MMAH as leverage, but some of them are outright idiots in public, slamming the UFC, demanding bonuses, fights, title shots. I'd not go on TV or internet TV slagging off my boss in public, it's crazy. The UFC logs and files the lot, and I mean the lot. They have teams dedicated to trawling through every last bit of coverage to keep Dana informed.

[Tofu]

24 minutes ago, angel said:

That doesnt answer why lots of them shoot themselves in the foot. Im all for fighter chat, and I hate the boring ones, but there are ways and means to do it. GSP is just using the MMAH as leverage, but some of them are outright idiots in public, slamming the UFC, demanding bonuses, fights, title shots. I'd not go on TV or internet TV slagging off my boss in public, it's crazy. The UFC logs and files the lot, and I mean the lot. They have teams dedicated to trawling through every last bit of coverage to keep Dana informed.

He's probably one of the longest serving MMA journalists and is one of the first to help bring the coverage of the sport more mainstream. Most fans/fighters love him, he's very affable and all round seems like a good guy. No airs or graces with him. Fighters are more open with him, because he champions their rights and speaks truth to power.

[angel]

I know who helwani is man, my point is why do fighters openly slag off the UFC in his show, it never works out for them.

[Tofu]

33 minutes ago, angel said:

That doesnt answer why lots of them shoot themselves in the foot. Im all for fighter chat, and I hate the boring ones, but there are ways and means to do it. GSP is just using the MMAH as leverage, but some of them are outright idiots in public, slamming the UFC, demanding bonuses, fights, title shots. I'd not go on TV or internet TV slagging off my boss in public, it's crazy. The UFC logs and files the lot, and I mean the lot. They have teams dedicated to trawling through every last bit of coverage to keep Dana informed.

I know you do, I wasn't being patronizing. I was just commentating why I feel that fighters trust him and talk openly with him. 

[angel]

10 minutes ago, Tofu said:

I know you do, I wasn't being patronizing. I was just commentating why I feel that fighters trust him and talk openly with him. 

 

Ok, cool, I get that, but mate, even conor keeps it respectful for the most part, like on his 205 conference show he described Danas meddling as 'I was fine, something just happened, but here we are'. He pokes, but he knows who's paying his wages.

 

Dana holds a grudge, big time, see how he's thrown Jones under the bus repeatedly since her refused to fight Sonnen. He locks grudges down into his head and they stay held. He was on with Serra and Norton a few months back talking about Ariel's crying on his show, Serra asked if they'd ever patch it up, White said 'I duno man, once I'm gone, I'm a tough guy to get back'.

 

tldr, Dana holds grudges, fighters slagging off the UFC in media get presented to him daily on a spreadsheet. Guests on his show are playing with fire, especially as the show makes up half the stories on the site for the next 5 days.

[schmojo]

What do you mean 'even Conor keeps it respectful'? Conor has no actual beef with the UFC, he just publicly 'feuds' with them because it makes both of them money. Other fighters have legitimate issues with the company.

 

MMA is a sport that desperately needs the fighters to stand up for themselves. To have a voice outside the UFC distortion field.

 

Not to mention that fighting attracts independent, alpha-male types who aren't likely to go quietly down when they've got a problem. The MMA Hour is perfect for it.