Words Are Cheap, Shut Up And Dance

I’ve made my opinion clear, regarding the differences between WWE/Pro-Wrestling and MMA and where each one should live. We talked a lot about the role of trash-talk in the hyping up of fights, and PPV sales generation. But we didn’t look hard enough at, how effective trash talk was through the years, and more importantly in the present. So, I decided to see what is the correlation between: The volume of trash talk a fighter puts out, the quality of said trash talk (There are levels to this game), their general level as a fighter and popularity. Before we dive in, here are some comments about this experiment:

Volume: How often a fighter trash-talks or does self-promo work.

Quality: How much sense the things a fighter says make, wit, bite, validity.

Overall quality: How good is the fighter, based on his record, performances and achievements.

Popularity: How much is the person celebrated, how much s/he contributes to sales and popularity of the sport.

General comments: This is not a scientific work, and what statistics and information I got is largely available to all of you. This is a pretty subjective exercise, but I tried to stay as unbiased as possible. Still, if you suspect I have a strong opinion on the matter, you are correct. Also, I will only consider legit top 10 fighters in their respective weight.

(Thank you Yaron, Ofir and Atsmon for reminiscing with me, bringing up some legendary trash talk, in preparation for this post!)

 

Tale Of The Tape:

Conor is, in my humble opinion, the most talented and successful trash talker – slash – persona in MMA history. Not a very bold statement, which in itself is the proof in the pudding. Conor spoke often, spoke well, for the most part kept it classy (within the realm of insults) and backed up his bragging very convincingly, until he didn’t. When Conor lost to Nate, and to Khabib, he wasn’t “exposed” as a “bad fighter”, we only saw that there are holes to his game, and that perhaps his heart was not in it enough at times. Conor is also the best seller in UFC/MMA history, with no real threat on the horizon.

Tale Of The Tape:

Lesnar didn’t speak very often, but spoke loudly, and did not suck at this. His experience as a pro-wrestler came in handy, in the way he handled the mic, and himself in the cage. Especially following his wins. Lesnar is likely the number 2 best seller, and we can definitely attribute this to his crossover fanbase. Brock brought many viewers to the sport, and if anything, he deserves the respect for that. As a fighter he was seriously compromised by Cain, and did not really get back from that.

Tale Of The Tape:

Georges did most of his talk in the cage. He spoke very little in terms of hype, and when he did try his hand at it, came off a bit goofy. The famous “I’m not impressed with your performance” was so Canadian of him, and he even apologized for that. It’s not his game. On the other hand, GSP was an actual draw – mostly, but not only in Canada – and for his time, was considered a sort of a golden eggs laying goose. You either watched him, hoping to see him lose, or watched to see him destroy another hyped-up opponent. But you watched. Georges is one of the GOATs.

Tale Of The Tape:

Ronda was not a very slick trash talker, and most of what she threw at the mic were Diaz level brags. However, Ronda provided the goods, with a very impressive run, and had the luxury of having the full support of UFC marketing machine. Her achievements in the cage, and constant exposure brought her mainstream attention, and drew people to the sport. It’s hard to quantify, and I don’t think she was as big of a draw as Conor or Brock (The other 2 who can lay claim to drawing people in), but she made an impact.

 

Tale Of The Tape:

Jones’ trash talk was almost exclusively saved for Daniel Cormier. It was sharp, it was aimed for the jugular, and – even a big DC fan as myself must admit – for the most part, was backed by facts, as irritating as that was at times. Jon is one of the best fighters ever, and it’s very likely that his life choices had hurt his popularity and drawing power. His PPVs are still some of the most anticipated ones, but I don’t recall numbers quite as high as some of the above (please correct me if I’m wrong).

 

Tale Of The Tape:

While DC is a smooth talker, with a quick reply at the ready, he did lose the trash talk battle with Jones, simply on the basis of losing the respective fights. He can hold the moral grounds, but Jones – for inexplicable reasons – remains the fan favorite in this battle. DC is very popular, but could be so much more (as is the case in general) without losses to Jones.

Tale Of The Tape:

The count is not smooth. He is witty, quick, creative and in your face. Bisping won, way more often than he lost, never looked terrible (expect that one time…) and has never succumbed to any verbal assault. He’ll always have the last word in an argument, even if it’s two words. You know. FU. Michael sold out events in England, and even if you don’t want to admit it, when the stakes were high – trash talk wise – you showed up just to see him eat crow (Where were you when Hendo landed that bomb?) There is no denying his skills, his heart and his endurance. Mike is legend.

Tale Of The Tape:

The diazes (Nick mostly) were always bitter. They have their style, they never apologized for it – quite the contrary – and in many cases also said things with some validity. Their command of the English language made them appealing for a far smaller crowd than they might’ve been able to engage otherwise, and the negative, whiny tone of said talk did not serve them well. Constantly criticizing the system, the organization, their opponents, and never owning their mistakes. Someone took them down? it wasn’t because they couldn’t defend it, it’s because of the pro wrestling rules. A fight didn’t go their way? The opponent didn’t fight to their advantage, everybody’s on steroids. It doesn’t sell much. Both brothers are very skilled, but seem to have gotten stuck in their comfort zone, which I believe, prevented them from achieving real greatness.

Tale Of The Tape:

Colby Covington is actually not a bad guy… I just saw a video that puts a stamp on what was suspected – it’s all an act. Colby decided to adopt the role of the heel, and takes it to the absolute limit, and then a couple of steps further. A very impressive run, culminating in a win over Robbie Lawler, in such a fashion that makes a title shot pretty much a done deal. Colby talks a lot. Colby talks a lot of nonsense, maintain a really trashy image, and treats fighters with very little respect. Can anyone tell me that this made him a huge seller? I do not see any supporting data. Yes, MMA fans and Trump family members talk about him, but beyond that…

Tale Of The Tape:

Perhaps the one guy in the list who made the most out of pure imagery. Kudos to Chael for talking his way into some big fights. He has a way with words, though sometimes there’s no real sense in what he says. He is loud and confident, knows how to play to his strengths, and j-u-s-t good enough to be taken seriously sometimes, or at least semi-legit in others. The thing with Chael is that he didn’t really back his talk up. There is just a gap between what he claims to be able to do, and what he actually did.

Conclusions:

As I mentioned, this is not a scientific experiment. But I think my thesis holds water. Trash talk does not sell. Especially, if it is not strongly linked to performance in the cage. We can see a guy like GSP selling out arenas with close to no talk, Rousey bringing eyeballs to the screen with little talk. We can see big trash talkers achieving less than stellar popularity, and at the very top, we have a person who came with a built-in following on the one hand, and group of people who wanted to see him fall on the other, as well as the one person who did it just-right.

My recommendation remains – as writers say “Show, don’t tell”. If you are not Conor McGregor (hint: you are not) just show up, fight, give us the performance that will make us care, and we will come. We will pay money to see good fights.

Or as Aerosmith, so eloquently put it – Shut up and dance!

UFC 226 AfterMMAth (The Paul Heyman Edition)

UFC226 showed us how this organization can generate a very exciting, touching moment, Make history, and within moments cheapen it with a ridiculous, unnecessary and unwarranted “segment”, WWE style.

Alright, let’s jump right to my picks. Then, we’ll chat about this, that and the other.

The Mark And Curse Of Cain (Fanboy Slim series)

October 23, 2010. UFC121 was the first PPV I watched at a movie theater. Accompanied by pretty much all of the Latin American population of Greater Atlanta Area, I sat and waited for the main event, in which Brock Lesnar would defend the heavyweight title for the 3rd time.

The contender was on an 8 fights win streak, against steadily better competition with 7 of the 8 ending via early stoppage. The general opinion around the water cooler (i.e. UFC forums) was that if Lesnar can take Cain down and hold him down, he will win. Otherwise, he is in big trouble.

I gave Brock a point for trying. But this is just one example of things that are easier said than done to Cain Velasquez. Cain thwarted the takedown attempt as if he wasn’t facing an incredibly strong and experienced wrestler, then went to work on rearranging the facial configuration of the champion en route to the heavyweight title.

Everyone then warned that Cain will get knocked out by the first challenger, Junior Dos Santos, and on the very first event on Fox he was. We can’t take this win away from Junior, but as it became plenty apparent, he enjoyed a very lucky punch to the right place at the right time.

After quickly dispatching of Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva by taking all of his frustration on the big guy, Cain met JDS again but this time, the fight was completely different. Cain dominated most of the fight and won what LOOKED like an easy decision.

Velasquez then defended once against Bigfoot with ease, before completing the trilogy with Dos Santos with a 5th round finish following another dominant fight.

The next fight took place about a year and half later, in the high altitudes of Mexico City and against the re-surging Fabricio Werdum. The challenger decided to have his camp in Mexico City, a move that evidently won him the fight. Cain arrived with very uncharacteristic poor conditioning, got tired very quickly and suffered his first submission loss.

Fast forward about 18 months and Cain returns to action in a fight against Travis Browne. Easy money. The next thing was obvious. A title shot against Stipe Miocic who dethroned Werdum. But then Cain had back surgery and we haven’t seen him inside the octagon since.

In the 5 years between 2012 and 2017, Cain fought a total of 5 times in the UFC. This is due to injuries that seem to have plagued the great one. There are reasons that seem apparent for these injuries. First and foremost, Cain’s fighting style is pressure based. Cain engages quickly and maintains the level of aggression he puts forth for as long as necessary to put his opponent away. When utilizing this tactic in the heavyweight division, muscles, bones and tendons alike are ground.  Add to that, the training style which we know Cain employs at AKA. What commentators and training partners called “Sharpening iron with iron”, meaning that Cain trains at similar intensity as he fights, and does so with partners the like of Daniel Cormier and Luke Rockhold. We don’t know much beyond this, and perhaps there are additional reasons for this frustrating string of injuries. The only thing we – Cain’s fans – know is that we miss him.

We received an update from LHW Champion Daniel Cormier about his friend and training partner, and although we do not have a solid return date, It seems likely that Cain is planning to resume his fighting career as early as he can.

On the always popular debate of “who is the best heavyweight of all time?” I have no way of proving my claim that Cain is indeed the one. Unfortunately, the curse of injuries made it difficult for him to string more victories over the top-tier HW fighters, to establish this.

Since I can’t convince you that this goes beyond simple bias, I’ll just say this – Cain is the most interesting and complete heavyweight fighter I ever watched.

Yes, there are better specialists such as Werdum, Overeem and perhaps Stipe when it comes to boxing. I assume that although Cain packs a punch, some of the others hit stronger (N’gannou, to say the least). But Cain holds a deck of cards that totals to a fighter who can use his wrestling to dictate the turf, the striking and guts to push the action, and for the most part, the conditioning to do that for as long as he needs to.

This is the mark of Cain. Not a dull moment in his fights. This is a man who constantly looks to do damage, further the action and dominate.

I am a little torn though.

Because I love Cain so much, I selfishly want to watch him fight as many times as possible. Because I love him so much, I also want him to be healthy and not sacrifice the rest of his life for a few more fights.

I hope that his return involves some adjustments in the training regime. Such changes that can support durability and sustained action.

• Who is your favorite heavyweight?

• Who do you think is the best and why?

• Let me know.

 

UFC 200 AfterMMath (Respect)

Welcome back,

It’s somewhat symbolic that this UFC 200 AfterMMAth post comes out on the 5th anniversary of the first centennial event – UFC 100. We’ve talked about the comparison between the two before the final card of 200 took final shape. It was, and still is an unfair comparison but it is interesting that on 200 we had a few UFC100 returns, Brock Lesnar being the obvious. But let’s not forget Jim Miller who fought in 100 and the fight that never happened, featured Jon Jones, another UFC100 card member.

This post will cover three events (and a whole lot of predictions) so excuse me if I breeze through a few to concentrate on the more important ones in the bigger scheme of things.

UFC 200 (and more) prediction extravaganza!!!

Hello everyone and welcome back to this here website.

What a week! Starting with some 4^th of July fireworks and only escalating from there, culminating in a fight weekend to be remembered. This post will be long enough, just predicting three separate events (UFC 200 including all prelims) so excuse me if I save on preamble.

Still, UFC200 is this Saturday and I can’t not say something about it, now can I?

UFC 199 AfterMMAth (He Shook Up The World)

Hello there MMA fans, and welcome everyone else to this After MMAth post, following one of the best cards in recent memory (which is filled with some really good cards).

Top to bottom – excellent card, with really no let downs in terms of performance. Thirteen fights, 8 out of which ended with a T/KO finish, 4 decisions (after some very interesting fights) and a draw. I’ll take that spread any time.

A Fan’s UFC 200 Conspiracy theory

Hello MMA fans and everyone else!

In the past few weeks, we’ve seen updates from UFC regarding the card of their upcoming seminal event – UFC 200 scheduled for July 9^th, 2016. To sum up fan reactions (including this fan right here) in a word, it feels – Underwhelming.