As Jon Jones-Israel Adesanya trash talk threatens to devolve into unseemly spectacle, UFC misses danger signs yet again – Sports News , Firstpost
Personalities sell. Rivalries sell. Trash talk sells. It also helps if you can fight well. Here’s a look at the endless trash-talk culture that has associated itself with boxing and MMA.
The combat sport game has a dirty little secret: Nobody really cares about the best fighting the best. Not in boxing and certainly not in MMA. This has been proven time after time when it comes to ratings, ticket sales, and most importantly PPV buys.
Personalities sell. Rivalries sell. Trash talk sells. It also helps if you can fight your backside off.
Take Terrence Crawford and Vasiliy Lomachenko, for example. Two of boxing’s premier fighters in their divisions, (lightweight and welterweight) and widely acknowledged as sitting atop of boxing’s mythical pound-for-pound rankings.
Crawford’s switch-hitting skills and killer instinct have been compared to the legendary Marvin Hagler. Lomachenko, with his balletic footwork and unorthodox but highly effective fighting style, is something of a boxing unicorn.
Little wonder that he is often compared to the character Neo from The Matrix movies.
Both are darlings of hardcore fans, but aren’t PPV stars or household names. Which is a crying shame.
Meanwhile, Floyd Mayweather became the biggest draw in combat sports history by transforming his persona from ‘Pretty Boy Floyd’ into the heel ‘Money Mayweather’.
The Mayweather-McGregor bout was not short of trash talking, although the same cannot be said of the fight itself.
Mayweather, in between putting casual audiences to sleep in the ring and making boxing purists gasp, made hundreds of millions of dollars through his ‘black hat’ persona (which unfortunately seems to have spilled over into his real life).
Inflamed by his theatrics, boxing fans and casual audiences repeatedly forked over their hard-earned monies to see him beating down and precious ‘O’ taken away. It never was. One can still hear his laughter as he danced his way into the sunset, taking his undefeated boxing record with him.
Over in the UFC, heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic recently met former titleholder Daniel Cormier. Both are among the very best heavyweights that sport has ever seen and absolute professionals. That entertaining fight, a battle for supremacy and bragging rights, drew a respectable but hardly blow away 500,000 buys.
Tony Ferguson, until recently, was on an absolute tear, winning 12 straight fights. One of the most exciting and eccentric characters in the sport, he’d only fought on PPV once until recently. That event drew an anemic 200,000 buys.
Ferguson, who was gearing up for a fight with UFC lightweight king Khabib Nurmagemadov, was derailed by the hard-hitting Justin Gaethje. That event, which did a far more noteworthy 700,00 buys on ESPN Plus, still fell far short of the magic million mark.
Conor McGregor, meanwhile, who has become the very definition of a part-time fighter over the past four years, is the biggest draw in UFC history. His fight with Donald Cerrone, a middling fighter at best, did a million buys on ESPN Plus earlier this year.
McGregor, coming up short against Nurmagemadov in 2018, did an eye-watering 2.4 million buys (a record that has never been broken). A possible rematch with the Dagestani fighter could exceed even that lofty mark.
Khabib Nurmagomedov (right) mauled Conor McGregor in the ring after enduring days of trash talking from the latter. Image courtesy: Reuters/File
What do Mayweather and McGregor have in common? Both showcase their lifestyles of the rich and famous lives prominently on Instagram, have a penchant for legal trouble, and have brash love it or love-to-hate-it personas.
This brings us back to what sells in combat sports: Personalities, personal issues, and rivalries.
And that brings us to the tale of Israel Adesanya and Jon Jones. And UFC chief Dana White. But more on him later.
It all started so swimmingly.
In February 2019, Israel Adesanya was preparing for the toughest challenge of his young UFC career: MMA legend Anderson Silva. Adesanya, who’d made his UFC debut in early 2018, and had a string of victories to his name, was already being compared to Silva. And one other man – then UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones.
Jones, who many in the know regard as one of the greatest fighters in UFC history, at the time niftily sidestepped any notion of stylistic similarities while being complimentary of the young prodigy.
“We have similar body types and we’re both black,” Jones told UFC . “And that’s about it… I do respect him, a lot. I think he is going to be a force to be reckoned with. He is great for the sport, great talker and he finishes fights. He is a very exciting young man.” Adesanya, known as ‘The Last Stylebender’ was expected to defeat Silva who, at 44, was already on the downside of a hall of fame career.
Everyone in the business recognised it for what it was. It’s how every combat sport has operated since its inception: In order for a fresh, young fighter to build a name, he has to pick the bones of an old-timer. One preferably wise enough to show the young fighter a new wrinkle or two, but aged enough not to really be a threat.
There you go with that weird shit again, it’s every time with you. Stop embarrassing your father like that https://t.co/429xL4kYq6
— BONY (@JonnyBones) October 5, 2020
Adesanya did what was expected of him. Although, ‘The Spider’ held his own enough to wonder if all the talk about Adesanya was overblown. A year later, much has changed. Jones, amidst constant legal troubles and a bitter spat with his employer, has vacated his UFC light heavyweight title and is eyeing a move up to the far more glamorous heavyweight division and a chance to go down as the GOAT (Greatest Of All Time).
Adesanya, meanwhile, has gone from a worthy contender to the throne to champion of the UFC middleweight division (recently dispatching the formerly undefeated and highly-regarded Paulo Costa).
What’s also changed is the relationship between the two men: trash talk, usually in the service of hyping a possible bout down the road, has over the past year given way to something deeply personal.
It was Jones who fired the first shot this week by asking Adesanya if his father (whom he consults with on strategy) thought him ready to face up to Jones. Adesanya, in turn, brought up Jones’ mother. His dead mother. Classy.
But some in the MMA world are eating it up.
Which brings us to good, old uncle Dana.
White, salivating over a possible bout between Jones and Adesanya, told UFC Arabia on Friday, ” That’s the fight to make, 100 percent. I think that a fight between those two is massive.”
Which is exactly the UFC playbook for the two biggest fights in recent memory: Mayweather vs McGregor and McGregor vs Nurmagemadov (the UFC, for legal reasons, co-promoted the former).
Mayweather vs McGregor: Race to the bottom
The 2017 Mayweather-McGregor bout, a true cross-over event that took hold of the imagination of casual fight fans, generated an astonishing 4.3 million buys (an estimated $600 million) at the box office. The lead-up to the fight, which many found far more entertaining than the bout itself, was an absolute disgrace.
Some thought Mayweather and McGregor took trash talk to a new level. I thought it took trash talk to a new low.
Your mileage may vary, but you can determine for yourself.
The promotional tour that spanned four cities, beginning with Los Angeles, saw the Irishman indulge in racism calling Mayweather a ‘monkey’ and telling him ‘dance for me boy’. The American, meanwhile, rightly accusing his McGregor of racism, then turned around and referred to him as a ‘f%^&%’.
While one can argue it was all in the service of selling a spectacle, it had all the elements of making for a combustible spectacle outside the ring after the fight, thanks to the large contingent of Irish supporters who’d flocked to Vegas (and who, rumour has it, had been drinking heavily).
Thankfully that did not happen.
But the danger signs went unheeded.
McGregor-Khabib: Disgrace in a cage
A little over a year later, McGregor would take on the toughest challenge of his career: Nurmagemadov. The lead-up to that fight made McGregor and Mayweather’s barbs look like a tea party.
The fight, which the UFC had helpfully dubbed ‘Bad Blood’, saw the Irishman repeatedly step way over the line by taking shots at his opponent’s faith, family, and calling his manager a ‘f#%##^^ terrorist snitch rat’.
Nurmagemadov, a devout Muslim, bided his time.
White, meanwhile, made no move to pour some water on the flames. After all, he knew full well that McGregor’s verbal volleys only served to put more money in the UFC’s pocket, and by extension, his pocket. At no point did he publicly chasten his star or tell him to tone it down.
And why would he? McGregor had become the biggest star in the company based on showcasing his fighting skills and his motormouth. And White knew, as do all of us who follow the sport, that many of the UFC’s predominantly young, white fanbase get a kick out of McGregor’s ‘antics.’
In between, McGregor, upset at his teammate Artem Lobov being cornered and confronted by Nurmagemadov, turned up with a posse in Brooklyn and caused chaos. McGregor ended up hurling a dolly at a bus on which Nurmagemadov and a bunch of other UFC stars and staff were on (some of whom were injured).
White called it ‘the most disgusting thing that happened in the history of the company’. Indeed, so disgusted was White that he promptly handed McGregor a championship bout against Nurmagemadov and heavily used that footage in service of promoting the bout.
We all know what happened next. Disgrace inside and outside the cage.
Nurmagemadov proceeded to maul McGregor in the bout. Perhaps taken aback by the Dagestani’s ferociousness, McGregor at one point told him during the bout “it’s only business.” To Nurmagemadov, it certainly was not “just business.”
After tapping McGregor out in the fourth round, Nurmagemadov proceeded to taunt his fallen foe and then spat on him.
McGregor’s corner, not taking lightly to this act, proceeded to hurl epithets at Nurmagemadov. Who stepped out of the cage and proceeded to brawl with them.
Meanwhile, a teammate of Khabib scaled the Octagon and sucker-punched a still recovering McGregor. The events could have resulted in a full-blown riot. Many in the arena were shaken. The image of the UFC took a beating. White loudly proclaimed his ‘outrage’.
It was, in all honesty, a disgrace.
But it seems White hasn’t learned his lesson.
If anything, the opposite seems to have occurred, with White leaning in, accompanied by a proliferation of fighters, from Colby Covington (who sports a MAGA hat and ‘baits liberals’) to Jorge Masvidal (who before each fight vows to ‘baptise’ his opponents) talking more and more trash in an attempt to get noticed.
While neither Jones nor Adesanya are even close to the basket case that is McGregor, both are proud men and quick to address any slight.
White ought to pay heed before it’s too late.
And tamp things down before it’s too late.
And now, let’s look at a brief history of trash talk and, in my opinion, the best at it in combat sports.
Trash talking hall of fame
Contrary to what McGregor, Mayweather or Muhammad Ali fans would have you believe, men, and women, have been talking trash since the inception of fisticuffs.
“I can lick any son of a bitch in the house” – So would frequently say John L Sullivan, the first world champion of boxing with gloves, after walking into saloons around America.
“Do something Jeff, this here is for the championship” – It was Jack Johnson, the first African-American heavyweight champion of the world, until the earliest 20th Century, who paved the way for Joe Louis, Mike Tyson, and a host of other black champions. Until Johnson, black fighters would battle over the ‘World Coloured Heavyweight Championship’.
Johnson, who practically invented the ‘hit and not get hit’ maxim of the sweet science, was a scientific fighter in an era of sluggers. But worse, it was the way he would routinely mock white fighters while beating them up that was so aggravating to audiences. White audiences, that is.
The most famous example of this came during the very first ‘Fight of the Century’, when Johnson taunted his opponent Jim Jeffries by saying, “Do something Jeff, this here is for the championship.”
Jeffries was no ordinary fighter, but a former undefeated champion lured out of retirement by an incredible payday by racists trying to establish the myth of white supremacy. Johnson, while exchanging unpleasantries with Jeffries’ team and ringside observers, handed the former champion an ungodly beating and sent him back into retirement.
“If you even dream of beating me, you better wake up and apologise” – Muhammad Ali, arguably the greatest trash talker and heavyweight boxer in history, has far too many quotable quips to recount. While Ali mostly mocked his opponents with a playful twinkle in his eye, his mean streak would surface on two notable occasions: against Ernie Terrell, who he described as “an Uncle Tom” and Joe Frazier, who he derided as a “gorilla”. Even the most hardcore devotees of ‘The Greatest’ find themselves twisted into knows trying to defend these attacks.
“Lennox Lewis, I’m coming for you man. My style is impetuous. My defence is impregnable, and I’m just ferocious. I want your heart. I want to eat his children” – By the end of his career ‘Iron’ Mike Tyson had devolved into a parody of himself. But it is important to remember that Tyson, the youngest heavyweight champion in history, was a true phenomenon.
The man who was genuinely the most feared athlete in the world, was imminently quotable both before and after bouts, once telling an interviewer about his opponent that “He was crying in there, making woman gestures. I knew he was breaking down.”
“We’re not just here to take part… we’re here to take over.” – Before the Conor McGregor clown cart went entirely off the rails, the Irishman was, at one point, genuinely entertaining and engaging. His undeniable fighting skills brought him to the dance, but it was his work on the mic that captured the imagination of fight fans. Unfortunately, much like Mayweather, ‘The Notorious’ one seems to have bought into his own hype.
“Conor McGregor, you’re taking everything I work for, motherf$%^r. I’m gonna fight your f$%$%%g ass. You know what the real fight—the real money fight—is: Me” – Much like Ali had Frazier, the name the public will most associate with McGregor is Nate Diaz. Diaz, who endured a hard-scrabble existence on the mean streets of Stockton, a place most known for its high rate of violent crime.
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