MMA FANS around the world are scratching their heads at the latest kerfuffle involving the UFC and Conor McGregor. We have been watching a high school, teenage girl-esque drama unfold before our eyes.
The real victims of all this madness are the fans and the punters. We have been looking forward to a McGregor/Diaz re-match ever since McGregor’s shock loss in UFC196.
So how did all this weirdness begin? Who is to blame? What’s going to happen next?
The UFC/McGregor saga so far…
The UFC has been thrown into turmoil this week and as a result it looks as though their marquee event, UFC200 is in shambles.
What started with Conor McGregor refusing to stop his training schedule in Iceland and fly around the world to do some promotional work – interviews and press conferences and what not- has escalated out of control. As a result of McGregor refusing to interrupt his training to be trotted around like a show pony, Dana White and the UFC dumped McGregor from UFC200.
In an act of defiance, McGregor posted a tweet announcing his retirement, essentially pulling the old “you can’t fire me because I quit!” routine.
I have decided to retire young.
Thanks for the cheese.
Catch ya's later.— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) April 19, 2016
Since then the UFC has been scrambling to try and find a replacement for McGregor’s bout against Nate Diaz. But in another twist to this sordid affair, Diaz has turned around and told the UFC that if he isn’t fighting McGregor he isn’t fighting at all.
McGregor then released another tweet explaining that he wasn’t really retiring. The tweet, which was linked to a Facebook manifesto, explains that McGregor is paid to fight and fight alone. That before his last bout – which he lost to Diaz – he got lost in the promotion and publicity of the fight and lost focus on the training and the actual fight itself.
So now, just because the UFC was cracking a darkie because McGregor refused to perform like a trained monkey and smile and say controversial things in his adorable Irish accent, UFC200 looks to have completely fallen apart with both fighters refusing to fight in what was to be the Main Card. McGregor actually seems to have a pretty valid point: he is paid to fight, not perform for the cameras.
If the UFC weren’t so focused on money, money, money, then maybe they would appreciate the fact that their fighters want to fight and they want to win and that interrupting a rigorous training schedule ahead of a major bout could actually result in a poor end product. The fans and punters want the best possible fight.
This actually reminds me of a fight my girls – who are toddlers – had last week.
My youngest wanted my eldest to play “shops” with her, which required my eldest to front up to a “shop” and order a burger. But my eldest refused, she wanted to keep watching Spongebob Square Pants. Things escalated quickly between the two with threats of not sharing chocolate being hurled back and forth. The entire situation reached a violent crux when there was an allegation of a push and tears! In the end I had to separate the two before making them cuddle and apologise and promise to share everything forevermore.
Maybe all that needs to happen here is Dana White and Conor McGregor need to be separated for a while then told to kiss, cuddle, make up and promise to share their time and money equally with each other. Then we can save UFC200 from becoming a bit of a non-event.
If the UFC continues their shut out of McGregor the prevailing rumour is that they are flirting with the idea of Jon Jones stepping in to fill the void, depending on how he pulls up after UFC 197 this weekend. But that may all be redundant if Diaz really does refuse to fight if he isn’t pitted against McGregor.
Markets are already available on eight featured bouts that have as yet been unaffected for UFC200 through CrownBet.com.au:
Johny Hendricks – $1.50 v Kelvin Gastelum – $2.50
Diego Sanchez – $1.90 v Joe Lauzon – $1.90
Meisha Tate – $1.40 v Amanda Nunes – $2.85
Derek Brunson – $2.50 v Gegard Mousasi – $1.50
Jim Miller – $1.45 v Takanori Gomi – $2.65
Enrique Marin – $3.20 v Sage Northcutt – $1.33
Cain Velasquez – $1.33 v Travis Browne – $3.25
Jose Aldo – $1.80 v Frankie Edgar – $2.00
