I have a man cold. I warn you of this now in case I start to ramble or list out seemingly meaningless words. I am feverish and delirious.
As ridiculous as the notion is, some people still do not believe in the danger of man flu and man colds. If there are any of you that are silly enough to doubt this then I’ll refer you to this infomercial that I am assured is completely factual.
The next point of fact is that Anthony ‘Rumble’ Johnson
Where does the title come from I hear none of you ask? Well… this one time, at band camp…
Turns out that Rushy here many moons ago, used to train, fight, compete, etc, etc, not in anything as glorious as the cage but in local competitions nameably ‘Heyhead Street’ or ‘Pink Ele Park’ even the giddy heights of ‘The Feathers Inn’. Such grand locations where the challenger would expel such linguistically brilliant orations such as ‘let’s jump that little c*nt over there’. If any of you are not that quick on the uptake, I am the aforementioned ‘little c*nt’. It seems that the intellectually challenged but testosterone gifted idiots thought that a short guy was a good target to bully.
One such grandiose episode of fisticuffs ended in the challenger falling over and said Rushton here being a bit too gung-ho, punching the wall instead of the challenger’s head. Wall 1 Rushy 0. I am to this day rather grateful that the supposed target had taken up momentary ornithology as it turned out my hand and wrist had fractured rather nicely. Such compelling argument was put forward by a rather cheekily non-paying observer that one punches like a motherfucker and at the age of 17 that shit tends to stick.
Anyhoo… So Anthony ‘PLAM’ Johnson did what a lot of people didn’t think him capable of doing and he not only beat Gustafsson but he put him out. This was ruthless and clinical. Importantly it was unheard of. There are going to be a 101 people writing about this so, on that note, I’ll stop and jump to the Post-fight Press Conference.
I've mentioned in previous articles that I am acutely aware of the trap of churnalism and how it irritates me, as does bad reporting in general because frankly it gets us all a bad name. However, prior to the conference I was under the impression that those members of the press that are fortunate enough to be given access to ask questions would be of a high calibre, the elite if you will. So when I’m sat studiously watching the ‘Post Fight…’ and I hear questions such as this corker:
“Warrior: What went wrong tonight?”I have to wonder how people are chosen to sit on these panels. He got punched, in the face. That is all. It’s not as if this was a long drawn out five rounder, this was a massive punch on the back of heavy pressure. I’d like to briefly highlight the shock jock journo that tried to stir up a non-existent rivalry between Rumble and Bones. It would be nice if they mentioned the paper/site the reporters are representing before they speak so that we can dub them with white noise. It’d be more suspenseful.
Daily Churn: “Alex, do you ##############” Epic.
Colour Commentary
Saying that, if the TV commentary isn’t much better should I be expecting more from journo’s that generally aren’t getting paid?! Of course I refer to Daniel Cormier who fits both into this category and the last, proceeding section on pomposity. At the end of the TV footage he sat complaining about Marc Goddard’s supposed reticence to step in and that the fight should’ve been stopped sooner.Now I have to admit that at first, while the fight was ongoing, I thought it should’ve been stopped sooner but then I detached emotion because naturally we become hyped watching a fight and looked at it again. Was Gustafsson taking any undue punishment? No. Was he unconscious? No. Was he in front of 30,000 people that were arguably all there supporting him? Yes. So it only makes sense that he be given time to show he can work out of it. This really was a matter of seconds after all rather than minutes.
He then applied the same argument to fights being stopped sooner and indirectly referenced Dan Henderson’s “premature” stoppage. The stoppage that could ultimately have saved his eyesight in his left eye.
Now I realise none of us are infallible but if I can see this and he can’t, despite having access to better angled cameras and such like, then there’s something amiss. Importantly, he’s getting paid a shit load of money to sit there and get things wrong I mean commentate so surely the guy at home paying to watch this tripe criticism shouldn’t be the one calling things right.
Pomposity
Yes my other pet hate and something I’ve referred to in the past. This week, my dear and avid reader, we’ve been treated to a double dose of pomp.In reverse order, there is Daniel Cormier who I really struggle with. He’s like an anthropomorphic dichotomy; outside the cage he seems a good family man, humble and doting but then as soon as he talks about anything UFC or MMA related this new persona comes out and he’s suddenly the UFC’s Kurt Angle. But then Jon Jones is fake right? No Jon Jones is a prick, we all know that. Daniel Cormier though I cannot weigh up. His condescension of referee’s over the weekend was frankly disrespectful and laughably inaccurate.
The real example however of both hypocrisy and pomposity was TJ Dillashaw, the accidental champion who in all his wisdom and insight criticised Conor McGregor as being fake and undeserving of a title shot.
“Why is that deserving of a title shot? Dennis Siver is not on the way up; he’s not up there looking for a title shot himself,”This statement was in reference to McGregor potentially beating Siver (albeit from an earlier interview). On the face of it, it could be deemed a valid question. However… let’s take a look at Dillashaw’s record prior to his title shot shall we?
His previous four fights, the same number as McGregor had in the UFC prior to the Siver fight show results like this.
WLWW – and apart from Raphael Assuncao (who beat him) the guys he beat were as harsh as it sounds, journeymen, each with relatively mixed records of wins and losses.
Compare this to McGregor who had a four fight history of WWWW – First, Marcus Brimmage – up until his fight with McGregor was on a three fight win streak. Next up, Max Holloway who prior to this had only lost one in four and then the loss was against Dennis Bermudez. He’s since gone on to a four fight win streak. Diego Brandao, has only lost to Dustin Poirier in the four fights preceding his KO loss to McGregor and then Dustin Poirier who again was on a three fight win streak only losing to Cub Swanson prior to that.
So tell me, Tyler Jeffrey, who based on these facts, was/is the more deserving of the title shot?
Last of all, on my one man diatribe against this nonsense pomposity, I highlight again more comedy gold by Dillashaw.
"It's just the antics. To me, I can't get it. I'm just too professional for the way he acts."Yes, yes you’re a better man by far than all of us. It might even be true that he is professional to the ‘nth’ degree but what gets on my tits is again this innate ‘holier than thou’ mentality that seems to emanate from a few fighters in the UFC. It’s like they’re trying to emulate the great Hulk Hogan (before they found out he was being fed steroids). Going back to Dillashaw, he fought a few journeymen and then kicked the snot out of the champion. Well done son but don’t get ahead of yourself.
The Answer
Is McGregor staging this persona he’s accused of having? Honestly I don’t think so; I just think that unlike his ‘vitamin taking, God fearing American’ friends he doesn’t give a shit what people outside of his circle think about him. It’s the same for Michael Bisping, full on gob shite and renowned wanker but he is who he is. I reckon it’s a British/Irish trait; the majority of us don’t really give a fuck. We are who we are and that’s just how it is, we’ve enough to worry about with our dip shit government – don’t forget to vote kids – to start worrying about what some people we’ll never fight think of us. Oops, there it is. Would TJ Dillashaw have really commented if he thought for one iota of a second he’d come face to face in the cage with Conor McGregor?Answers on a post card to @Simon_Rushton and @KingdomMMA – winner gets to tell everyone how great they are.
Thanks go to MMAWeekly, Bleacher Report and Sports World News for unknowingly/unwittingly giving me sources for quotes, comments, etc.
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