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By In Mixed Martial Arts

We Are Who You Thought We Were

So a fight broke out at a fight, huh? Who could have seen that coming?

Even though a number of people could give the rest of us the I-told-you-so treatment, it was still a genuine shock when Khabib Nurmagomedov leaped out of the cage and jump-attacked Conor McGregor’s cornermen at UFC 229 on Saturday in Las Vegas. Why would he do such a thing after winning the biggest fight of his life, in dominant, legacy-defining fashion, no less? Didn’t he get ample revenge in the cage? Apparently, he didn’t…

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By In Mixed Martial Arts

Don’t Forget About Bellator

There is no escaping the shadow of UFC 229. The MMA return of Conor McGregor against anyone would be a huge deal, but against Khabib Nurmagomedov, it almost justifies its Rogan-esque hyperbole as “the biggest fight in UFC history.” With a press conference scheduled this week that, unlike their first one, will be open to fanfare and all its attendant chaos, there is no doubt that all eyes will be turned toward Las Vegas.

While I wouldn’t blame anyone for forgetting about Bellator MMA, I would pity them. The sport’s perennial second banana has been quietly making strides to secure its spot through creative and intriguing matchmaking. In doing so, fans, fighters and the sport itself have benefitted.

Let’s get this out of the way: Bellator is not — and almost certainly will never be — a comparable competitor to the Ultimate Fighting Championship. The kneejerk criticisms that it is a home for second-rate talent, an island getaway for unsatisfied UFC castoffs and a retirement plan for stars of yesteryear are all basically accurate. Yet positioning itself as a UFC foil is not Bellator’s role, and it’s becoming increasingly evident that it really doesn’t need to be. The main card of Bellator 206 on Saturday proved as much…

 

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By In Mixed Martial Arts

The Conundrum of Patience

One of the most commonly known and boringly worded axioms is that patience is a virtue. Patience in the midst of trying circumstances demonstrates a mastery of self and an authoritative willpower over one’s emotions, those torrentially fierce kneejerk responses that demonstrate how our most complex human capacities are still subject to our most base animal instincts. To overcome such reactions and maintain a level of composure when everything in us is screaming to burst out is a virtuous feat indeed. However, virtues often have another side. As writer Ambrose Bierce said, patience is “a minor form of despair, disguised as a virtue.”

The UFC 228 main event on Saturday in Dallas demonstrated how patience can simultaneously be a virtue and a vice. In the aftermath of the title fight between Darren Till and Tyron Woodley, it was clear how it can both aid and impede a fighter’s progress — sometimes at the same time…

 

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By In Mixed Martial Arts

High Stakes on Multiple Fronts

While much of the drama leading up to UFC 228 card will center around the headlining welterweight title fight between Tyron Woodley and Darren Till, the stakes will be much higher for the women’s side of things. No matter the outcomes, both the flyweight and strawweight divisions will undergo significant reshuffling, and each individual fighter on the docket has a lot on the line…

 

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By In Mixed Martial Arts

Violence, Money, and John McCain

When I think about late Sen. John McCain’s legacy within the realm of combat sports, the first thing that comes to mind, perhaps not surprisingly, is an episode of “The Simpsons.” In it, Marge lobbies to get violence taken off of TV because of its negative influence on children. After she writes a letter urging the network to “please try to tone down the psychotic violence in your otherwise fine programming,” the hyper-violent Itchy & Scratchy Show gets hilariously bowdlerized. Instead of finding new and exciting ways to brutally murder each other, the cartoon cat and mouse gently sway back and forth on rocking chairs drinking lemonade. Of course, to the relief of the children, the violence would soon return, more psychotic and psychedelic than ever.

McCain’s most infamous contribution to MMA discourse was referring to it as “human cockfighting” in 1997. A year prior, he saw a tape of the Ultimate Fighting Championship and said it was “barbaric” and “not a sport.” He wrote letters to the governors of all 50 states asking them to ban the sport. When McCain became the chairman of the commerce committee, which oversaw the cable TV industry, the major cable operators at the time stopped airing UFC events because they were “too violent for children.” I know what you’re thinking, and, yes, the UFC was only available on pay-per-view at the time, so it was a nonsensical rationale, but reason often has no place when corporations are currying favor from Washington…

 

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