MMA/UFC Discussion Thread MMA • Page 387

It still shouldn't be a PPV. Showcase the sport and then make 250 a PPV.

 

I’ll be streaming it. Not giving the UFC any money.

 

Same. If I can find one. Never seem to be able to. But at the same time also like Sunday afternoons at the pub lol. Obv won't be able to do that for this one though!

 

Shoot me a DM on fight day and I can probably help you out!

 

Yeah shoot me a DM if you need a stream.

I am excited for the card (that’s prob fucked up but). Just really missing sports in general and my anxiety throughout this entire thing has been beating my ass

 

Same here. I'm defintely skeptical of the UFC business practices, but I can't wait for some sort of sports and this card is the best in a really long time. I haven't ordered a UFC PPV in forever but I'm gonna pay since the streams shit out on me half way through the main event.

 

I still think AU/NZ have th best UFC time slot, good excuse to be at a pub 2-6pm on a Sunday
You’d be too drunk in the US when it’s over at midnight? I’d need to rewatch the next day

 

Hahaha yeah it’s pretty great I gotta say!

 

That actually sounds pretty great to me too. haha.

It doesn't bother me as much now that I'm older and don't go out as often, but it bummed me out when I was in my early 20s. None of my friends wanted to watch the fights so with the Saturday cards, I always had to decide if I wanted to go out and drink or stay in and watch the fights.

Side note, I miss the days of the UFC (and WEC or Strikeforce) taking place on random days of the week.

 

I became an MMA fan when Pride was towards its end (Pride 32) so I can’t really vouch for how fun it was to have UFC cards and Pride cards going on


But peak MMA for me was definitely UFC, WEC and Strikeforce always running cards

 

I loved WEC but those guys got squandered when they came over

 

I’d be weaselling plans for friends drinking to happen to be bars that bought the PPV

 

What do you mean? I had a conversation recently about there not being any Mexican fighters in the UFC, and it reminded me that there were dozens in the WEC and they just all kind of washed out of the UFC almost immediately for some reason.

Eh none of the bars around here actually show the fights aside from chain restaurants, so it’s hard to make that work lol

 

Don't know how WEC guys got squandered. Cruz, Faber, Pettis, Condit, Cerrone, Ben Henserson, Aldo, Swanson, Demetrius Johnson and Bemevidez all had great to solid runs in the UFC.

 

In addition to Condit, Brian Stann and Chael both had solid to great runs when they came over. Can't think of anyone that got squandered, the good to great guys were mostly good to great in the UFC.

 

Yeah I mean all of the guys in the Bantamweight and Featherweight divisions MADE the UFC's entire roster so that was a smooth transition, but the Lightweight guys really shined. I remember it was a pretty common thought (misconception) that the WEC's LW division was the B League compared to the UFC. Then two of them came in and won belts (three if you count Poirier's interim belt), and Cowboy has been one of the UFC's biggest stars and holds the total wins record.

 

I'm sure none of the people who trashed Stephen A. Smith for saying "Cowboy didn't show up" will acknowledge that Cowboy just basically confirmed that he had a point.

I feel like many people, including Joe Rogan and Luke Thomas, were so offended that someone outside of the sport had a "hot take" on someone that they admire and respect in their area of expertise and were quick to defend him. Which is understandable. But I couldn't believe that saying "Conor looked incredible, but Cowboy didn't show up" would be so controversial. Maybe it was his comment that "the lights might have been too bright no matter how much experience you have" was what got under their skin because I could see that not being completely accurate, but at a certain point, it doesn't even matter.

 

I spent an over hour when I went to Toronto looking for the September Tyson Fury fight and Cerrone fights that were on at same time on a Saturday night and found not a single bar showing them
I couldn’t believe it, I hope all North America isn’t that hard to find combat sports in drinking venues

 

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/ufc-2020-robert-whittaker-breaks-silence-on-ufc-absence/news-story/7e306d4a813b262d76b612dedfb83b7e

Whittaker is also on Ariels pod discussing it all I believe too

 

I think Smith’s delivery and clear lack of understanding what happens to fighters in the moment when they get hit in the ring is what mainly caused that backlash. He said Cerrone “gave up” when he didn’t, he was simply beaten and quickly at that. Smith made it sound like Cerrone threw the fight.

 

I get it though. Why would a bar spend money for the rights to show an event, when the event is going to be on their busiest night of the week? Fury/Wilder was especially egregious with a bad undercard and ring walks not starting until late at night. None of those guys are Mayweather. Conor is a draw, but everyone knew Cerrone would be a squash match.

 

I agree with your first sentence completely; I feel like he underestimated how badly Cowboy was hurt right off the bat and wrongly assumed he should have had more awareness to improve his position.

Maybe I'm splitting hairs here, but after watching the clip a few more times, I feel like people accusing Stephen A. of initially saying Cowboy "quit" or "gave up" are putting words in his mouth. He objectively never used those terms in the first clip that sparked everything:

Joe actually says "Conor had Cowboy basically done within the first 15, 20 seconds" which Smith agreed with. Later on, he said "You didn't learn anything from tonight's fight because Cowboy Cerrone just didn't show up" which is almost verbatim what Cowboy said himself. Smith's criticism (justified or not) was mainly that Cowboy never really gave himself a chance because he didn't attempt to get away from the shoulder strikes, and by the time he caught on it was too late.

Like I said, I think his tone and his avoidance of just putting things nicely or delicately rubbed everyone the wrong way, but what he said wasn't all that far from the truth. I also think that when he said he was "disappointed" in Cowboy's performance, he probably meant that in an endearing way (because he wanted Cowboy to do well), but everyone took it as an insult because he seems like an "outsider", if that makes sense.

 

Knowing how Smith has always talked live, he’s extremely tone deaf and didn’t realize how he sounded for sure. To say some shallow comment like “Don Cerrone is the bigger guy and he got finished in 20 seconds” shows he’s not very knowledgeable about MMA in general. The height difference shouldn’t have had him assuming that a fighter can’t be beaten quickly. He then later says “we didn’t learn anything about Conor tonight cause he didn’t get hit. I got hit as much as him this week, like come on” is just like reading casuals comments on social media. Moot facts that are irrelevant to what actually happened in there, and definitely rubbed me the wrong way when considering his opinion that night. He came across sounding very out of place and out of his element. I think it’s was overall the implied tone that everyone came to the conclusion he looked at Cerrone as a quitter.

 

For sure. He was definitely trying to armchair-quarterback his way into saying Cerrone should have done way more than he did. Cowboy said that Conor's hip bone accidentally made contact with him after he missed with the flying knee and it actually hurt him more than it probably should have. I don't think he was even really thinking clearly beyond that point in the fight so acting like he "should have done more" is pretty ignorant.

However, I'm definitely going to backtrack on my whole argument right now. I had originally thought that his comments only took place post-fight when he was talking to Joe Rogan (since this whole controversy stemmed from the Smith vs. Rogan feud), but I was unaware that Stephen A. had also spoken to Chael and Bisping later in the night. It was THERE that he literally did say Cowboy's performance was "atrocious", that he was "disgusted", that it "looked like he gave up" (none of which Cowboy agreed with). You can't find a video of it (because of course ESPN doesn't want to show it), but there are some articles out there that finally said where that took place. So after I heard that, any sympathy I had for him was gone.

 

Fuck, that 5/9 card is stacked. I haven't been keeping up.