Jake Paul’s slow transition from celebrity meme fighter to honest professional boxer appears to be at something of a midpoint. The man once best known for prank videos and Disney appearances has carved out a surprising career for himself as one of the biggest stars in combat sports. Never mind the fact that most of his bouts exist purely on the low end of pugilistic craft.
Notably, Paul has made his name picking off former MMA/UFC champions and title contenders and other celebrity athletes that want to try their hand in the boxing ring. He may not be a great boxer, but he’s put in more dedicated boxing training camps than the likes of Tyron Woodley and Ben Askren. That’s a path, however, that has left plenty of critics in its wake; fight fans that want to see Paul take on more ‘real boxers’ instead of moonlighting mixed martial artists.
Jake Paul to fight 35-year-old journeyman Ryan Bourland
It’s seemingly in answer to those critics that Jake Paul has selected his last two opponents. Back in December, the ‘Problem Child’ took on 35-year-old 10-1 can crusher Andre August, finishing the fight via KO in round 1. Now he’s announced a bout against Ryan Bourland on March 2nd.
Much like August, Bourland has a record that looks pretty on paper. He’s 17-2 as a pro, stretching all the way back to 2013. A closer look at his career however, provides a lot more evidence as to why he’s been selected for this task. First and foremost, Bourland has only fought once since 2018, a 2022 win against 4-6 Santario Martin. Second, his 17 wins include just four knockouts (never mind the six listed on the poster, which includes two retirement TKOs).
Not one of Bourland’s KO wins had a record over .500, two were debuting fighters that never competed again. Video of Bourland’s fight against Codale Ford in 2018 shows a fairly light-fisted, busy fighter who likes to lead and work in combination. Not un-technical, but much like his record would suggest, not dynamic or dangerous either.
Be careful what you wish for
It’s been said before (especially by Jake Paul to his detractors), but fighting former pro MMA fighters is honestly a lot more of a challenge than most boxers take on early in their journey. Despite the criticism that Paul had been avoiding real competition, relative to his skill level, he actually was picking some tough fights.
Now however, it seems he’s looking for a couple of really big paydays. A chance to step in the ring with a legit top-level boxing draw someday and maybe even fight for a belt. It all has the sound of a pipe dream, especially the parts where Paul starts claiming that he’ll challenge Canelo Alvarez. But if he’s ever going to do it, he needs to pad out his record, get in the rounds and the ring time and the wins. Something he can’t do fighting once or twice a year against whatever name free agent the UFC happens to cut loose.
Essentially he’s giving fans what they want. A chance to see him in action against real, life-long boxers. It just turns out that means fights that are a lot less competitive or interesting than taking on the likes of Anderson Silva and Nate Diaz in 10oz gloves.
Also on the card, Jake Paul client Amanda Serrano will defend her featherweight IBO, WBO, and WBA titles against Nina Meinke. Owner of the IBF intercontinental featherweight title, Meinke (18-3) is on a six fight winning streak. Serrano has won four fights in a row since losing to undisputed lightweight champion Kaite Taylor in a 2022 ‘superfight’ event at Madison Square Garden. Earlier in the night, WBO light flyweight champion Jonathan Gonzalez will take on Rene Santiago.
Fighter pay is one of the most notable and unrelenting debates in the MMA industry. A business all but conquered by the UFC sees the promotion absorb far and away most of the revenue generated by their most notable talents. Past estimates have pegged the promotion as regularly taking more than 80% of revenue. With contracted athletes receiving less than 20%.
Despite those kinds of numbers, many current and former stars have defended the industry’s pay standards, claiming that they got a fair shake from UFC brass during their time there. Don’t expect former UFC champion Tyron Woodley to be among those voices, however.
Ex-UFC champ Tyron Woodley says he was making Donald Cerrone money
In a recent conversation with former flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson, longtime Roufusport talent and former welterweight king Tyron Woodley revealed that even during his time fighting for the UFC he had serious disagreements with Dana White & co. over the promotion’s pay scale. Most notably it sounds like he was pissed off to realize that he wasn’t making any more to be champion than perennial action favorite Donald Cerrone was to be a contender.
“I was going to leave the UFC after (fighting) Darren Till,” Woodley revealed (transcript via MMA Junkie). “I told them, ‘F—king cut me, dog. Ya’ll don’t want me here. Why ya’ll keep holding on to me, dog?’ We (kept) fighting and sh*t every fight because you know how I was. I was a gorilla. … I knew the numbers so well. I knew what everybody was making. I’m not finna go out there and be making the same as ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone.
“That motherf—ker ain’t never touched gold in his life. That’s just a principle thing. Sometimes when you’re an African-American in this game, they think you should just be appreciative. I’m not just appreciative. I’m thankful that you gave me an opportunity, but you didn’t give me the gifts. God gave me the gifts. I’m thankful to him.”
Woodley went to bat for Demetrious Johnson
Alongside his feelings about his own contract during his UFC run, Tyron Woodley also apparently got wind of Demetrious Johnson’s struggles to get a good deal from the world’s largest MMA promotion. Notably, that Johnson defended his belt multiple times without a typical $500k champion’s purse, and never got his share of PPV points. Once again, Donald Cerrone (reportedly making $350k a fight) was a source of comparison and consternation.
“You got DJ who got (11) titles, but you going to pay ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone the same as him?” Woodley asked, after revealing he’d argued with the UFC brass over Johnson’s contract. “Cowboy was making [$350,000]. He never touched gold ever. So, your reason behind him making $350,000 per fight is that he never complains, he takes any fight that you offer him, he’ll even fight injured, he’ll even fight last-minute notice. That don’t work for me.”
Tyron Woodley claimed Jake Paul fight was biggest purse of his career
We don’t have all the exact numbers from his MMA career, but Woodley reportedly banked $2 million for his fight against Jake Paul plus PPV points on top of that for the event’s 500,000 buys. It’s a number that, heading into the bout, Woodley claimed was the biggest of his career.
“Easiest fight of my career & biggest purse of my career all in one night. Basically, they brought me in to take out the trash,” Woodley crowed before losing a split decision in their first meeting.
Bloody Elbow’s own research has estimated that Woodley made somewhere in the neighborhood of $3,000,000 for his draw against Stephen Thompson at UFC 205, a PPV he shared with Conor McGregor vs. Eddie Alvarez. It’s not hard to see how, with a $2,000,000 base purse for his bout against Paul, the ‘Chosen One’ might have exceeded that figure for his debut inside the ring. Woodley was reported to have earned a $1,000,000 purse for the December rematch against Paul, which only sold 200,000 buys on PPV.
MMA is full of rules that act more as guidelines than hard and fast regulations. Things like strikes to the back of the head, 12-6 elbows, eye pokes, cage grabs; all of these happen often enough in the UFC that fans feel like they know and recognize them, but rarely are they so strictly enforced that they end up changing the outcome of a bout.
One rule that has come up several times lately in key situations, however, is the ‘grounded fighter’ rule. More specifically, the ability to throw knees to the head of a downed opponent especially when they have only one hand and both feet touching the canvas. The severity of the strikes in play in these situations often mean that fighters find themselves too injured to continue after eating what may be an illegal knee. But after years of regulatory meddling, what exactly makes a strike legal or not is one of constant debate.
Arnold Allen takes a loss at UFC 297
Even as recently as the UFC’s latest PPV, top featherweight contender Arnold Allen had a chance for victory snatched away during his bout with Movsar Evloev. After two rounds of getting soundly out-wrestled and out-struck by the former M-1 Global champion, Allen turned things around in round 3. Most notably, he landed a series of heavy knees with his opponent in a 3-point stance—knees that appeared to have Evloev badly hurt.
Unfortunately for Allen, despite many referees and jurisdictions in the US adhering to a version of the downed fighter rule whereby a fighter’s hands must be ‘weight bearing’ for them to be considered a grounded opponent, Ontario’s regulations state that any body part touching the canvas other than the soles of a fighter’s feet renders kicks or knees to the head an illegal strike.
The action was paused, Allen was served with a strong warning, and Evloev was given time to re-gather his bearings—with the Russian eventually going on to win a unanimous 29-28 decision.
“Caught a head-and-arm with about three minutes left in the round, I fired off some knees, and in the moment I believe they were legal,” Allen told fans on his YouTube channel (transcript via MMA Junkie). “I asked the rules backstage, and there was nothing to clarify. Mark Goddard is getting a lot of flack for his call, but when he came in and said he was reffing, me, my coach and my manager were very happy, and I still think he’s one of the best refs out there. I believe he made a mistake, and you know, it’s a tough one. … I do feel I was on to a sequence where I was about to set up a finish.
“My opponent was really hurt. The way he sat down, the way he was reacting from the knees. His hand was off even with the rule. Every knee that landed his hand was in the air. I lifted him up, knee, I lifted him up, knee, I lifted him up, knee. Even with that hand down, hand up rule, they were all legal. Then also its palm on the ground, a weight-bearing palm, not fingertips. So at minimum, it was fingertips when I lifted him up, and it wasn’t weight-bearing. It was just poking the floor, poking the floor. I do believe I would have set up a finish from there.”
California looking for large scale rules revision
It’s situations like the one outlined in the Arnold Allen fight that have California State Athletic Commission (CSAC) director Andy Foster looking to make a change to the grounded fighter rule that will have a sweeping impact on the UFC and MMA in general. Over the years, this rule has gone through a number of revisions that have left a massive mess behind them.
Initially most commissions held that anything other than the soles of a fighters feet touching the mat made them a grounded fighter. That regulation was amended by the ABC in 2017 to say that a fighter must have two points of contact other than their feet (i.e. both hands down), but most commissions ignored that directive creating wildly inconsistent application across the US. Later the regulation was tweaked again, to say that just one hand down would make a fighter grounded, but that the hand must be weight bearing. Once again some commissions made the jump, some didn’t.
At this point, it’s entirely on fighters to know exactly what rules are allowed by which commissions wherever they’re fighting. The UFC runs rules meetings for their cards, and athletes have chances to meet with officials—but as is obvious from Allen’s statement above, even those precautions are hardly foolproof.
Hopefully Foster’s latest move can relieve some of the burden from talent when it comes to jurisdictional inconsistency (although international commissions will likely still be a world unto their own).
“We’re going to get rid of the hand,” Foster said in a recent interview on the MMA Hour. “That’s my proposal. We’re going to get rid of it. If you want to be down, you need to put something else down. Knee, back, anything. Anything other than — you can’t be standing up, putting your hand on the ground. It’s caused too much confusion. A rule that we put in for safety has in fact created an unsafe environment, and it’s created an untenable environment for referees to regulate this. They all view it differently.
“Herb [Dean] likes weight bearing, others do different things, different commissions look at it different ways. You can’t have unified rules where the rules aren’t unified. We’ve got to get rid of this. It’s a situation that we, the regulators, have created. It’s our creation, it hasn’t worked, and we need to fix it.”
Reportedly, Foster expects the ABC to approve his proposal. The question then becomes, however, whether or not other athletic commissions will carry this legislation forward on their own. New ABC guidelines are all well and good, but if we’ve seen the landscape fracture with each new set of rules, it’s hard to think that another change will be the solution that fixes it all.
One of the most surprising pieces of fallout from the UFC’s latest PPV card came not from any of the fights or even the fighters. Shortly following the event, UFC commentator Jon Anik made headlines when he spoke about the backlash he’d received from Sean Strickland fans, after revealing that he agreed with the official decision that Dricus du Plessis deserved to win the middleweight title.
“And I don’t know if these fans are casual fans or not, right?” Anik told podcast co-host Kenny Florian. “But, I appreciate the passion. But, I’m getting to a point at 45 years of age, where I don’t know how much time I have left in this MMA space. Because, if I go do pro football I’m not necessarily going to be dealing with this lowest common denominator all the time. And, I dunno, man. I just feel like there’s a lot of malice and disrespect from the fanbase.”
Unfortunately for Anik, if he’d hoped that his feelings would quell divisiveness, that doesn’t seem to have been the case. Especially not from Sean Strickland.
Ex-UFC champ Sean Strickland responds to Jon Anik
After Anik’s statement started making the rounds in the MMA blogosphere Sean Strickland took a moment from reflecting on his title loss to respond to Anik’s feelings of despair over fan malice. Unsuprisingly, Strickland had no sympathy for someone that wasn’t himself.
What id say to Jon Anik calling mma fans" The lowest common denominator"
These people are way you have a paycheck, and you make way more than most… Maybe the NFL is a better choice for you than MMA….
Also you guys are a bunch of savage cunts.. I'm here for it…..
Maybe it was Strickland’s words, maybe it was continued fan backlash, maybe it was a call from UFC brass? Or, maybe it was purely further reflection on the state of affairs. However, in a post to his Instagram account on Saturday, January 27th, Anik posted an apology to “those MMA fans whom I’ve offended.”
“Last week on my podcast, I was in a heightened emotional state following myriad allegations of bias at UFC 297 and I made some regrettable comments relating to the MMA fan base,” Anik’s statement reads. “While I was surprised at the extent to which my comments were re-purposed and sensationalized, I need to be more responsible on an open microphone. So much work goes into the execution of just one UFC pay-per-view so it can be tough when my integrity on broadcast is called into question.
“That doesn’t excuse my retort. I am just a fiery, passionate, flawed, empathetic guy and sometimes my emotions lead the dance. To those MMA Fans whom I’ve offended, I am sorry. That was not my intention. For 12 years, I’ve prided myself on being accessible to the fan base and that will continue. I’ve learned a lot over the last 48 hours. On to Anaheim…”
Well, for those fans worried that we might find ourselves short of Anik’s services in the near future on UFC broadcasts, it doesn’t sound like he’s actually considering stepping away any time in the near future. So, that’s a plus. In the meantime, it seems like what had been a well-intentioned push-back on toxic fan culture and needless hostility as been snuffed out, quick. That’s a bit of a shame.
Update: Vince McMahon has resigned from his roles at WWE and parent company TKO after disturbing new allegations surfaced.
“Out of respect for the WWE Universe, the extraordinary TKO business and its board members and shareholders, partners and constituents, and all of the employees and Superstars who helped make WWE into the global leader it is today, I have decided to resign from my executive chairmanship and the TKO board of directors, effective immediately,” Vince McMahon said in a statement.
For the past several years WWE chairman Vince McMahon has been embroiled in a series of sexual misconduct scandals, some of them stretching back to allegations made more than 30 years ago. In 2022, the company’s board of directors launched an investigation into ‘hush-money’ settlements paid by McMahon totaling nearly $20 million.
As a result of that investigation, Vince McMahon was forced to step down as CEO of the WWE, and eventually announced his retirement. That move was short lived, however, with Vince McMahon returning to the pro-wrestling promotion just six months later to once again take control. In a recent report from the Wall Street Journal, however, one of the apparent recipients of McMahon’s payoffs has filed a lawsuit, exposing his alleged conduct in more disturbing detail.
Disgusting details have surfaced about the longtime WWE boss Vince McMahon | Joe Camporeale / USA TODAY Network, IMAGO
Wall Street Journal exposes Vince McMahon’s sexual assault claims
This lawsuit appears to have come about after McMahon failed to follow through on a $3 million NDA agreement. Paying only $1 million of the money promised before allegations of his past misconduct became public knowledge in 2022, at which point he stopped further payments. As a result the current lawsuit would nullify the terms of the NDA, along with granting unspecified damages.
In the WSJ article, the accusing party alleges that they met McMahon through a manager at her apartment building in 2019, where the WWE executive lived in the penthouse suite. McMahon reportedly showered them with gifts and pressured them into sex in exchange for employment with the WWE. After sharing photos and stories of his sexual exploits to other WWE employees, the plaintiff alleges that they were also coerced to have sex with former WWE head of talent relations John Laurinaitis, who is also named in the lawsuit.
McMahon controlled her professional and personal lives and subjected her to degradation, according to the suit. In the June 2021 encounter inside the WWE office, the suit said McMahon and Laurinaitis forced themselves on her and took turns restraining her for the other, while saying “No means yes” and “Take it, b—.”
The lawsuit also claims that at one point, during a sexual encounter McMahon “defecated” on the plaintiff’s head, as detailed in a report from Variety.
Citing an example of McMahon’s “extreme depravity,” on May 9, 2020, “he defecated on Ms. Grant during a threesome, and then commanded her to continue pleasuring his ‘friend’ — with feces in her hair and running down her back — while McMahon went to the bathroom to shower off,” the lawsuit says.
Eventually McMahon reportedly paid for an extended stay at a health clinic for the plaintiff due to her deteriorating physical and mental health.
Brock Lesnar named
One of the most notable names to come up in this new lawsuit is former UFC and current WWE superstar Brock Lesnar. Allegedly Vince McMahon shared sexually explicit material featuring the plaintiff with Lesnar, as a lure to get the former NCAA D1 national champion wrestler back under contract in 2021. Afterward, McMahon apparently texted the plaintiff that “part of the deal was f—ing U.”
WSJ reports that Lesnar asked the plaintiff to send a video of themselves urinating, then called them a “b—h” after they complied. Lesnar then attempted to “set a play date,” only to cancel the plan after a snowstorm prevented him from traveling.
WWE and UFC star Brock Lesnar was also named in the lawsuit. | Joe Camporeale / USA TODAY Network, IMAGO
TKO statement
The Wall Street Journal claims they have reached out to McMahon, his attorney, Lesnar, and the WWE for comment, but did not receive a response.
In the Variety report, a spokesperson for TKO claimed the company was currently “addressing this matter internally.”
“Mr. McMahon does not control TKO nor does he oversee the day-to-day operations of WWE,” TKO said of the current lawsuit. “While this matter predates our TKO executive team’s tenure at the company, we take [the plaintiff]’s horrific allegations very seriously and are addressing this matter internally.”
At one point Sage Northcutt looked as though he were the future of the UFC. Signed with a shiny 5-0 record at just 19 years old, the former poster boy of non-contact sport karate seemed headed for big things with his clean cut, wholesome personality and dynamic traditional martial arts style.
Unfortunately, the UFC is a terribly hard place to learn the ropes. A couple surprising upset losses and a few fights that were more difficult that expected and the Northcutt hype train felt all but derailed by the time he and the world’s largest MMA promotion parted ways in 2018.
Northcutt landed in ONE FC a year later, with the expectation of becoming a star for Asia’s largest MMA promotion instead, but a brutal loss to Cosmo Alexandre in his debut and bouts with injury and illness saw him sidelined for the next four years.
Sage Northcutt returns again
Finally, in May of last year, Northcutt made his return to competition—submitting relatively unknown AKA talent Ahmed Mujatab just 39 seconds into round 1 with a heel hook. Sadly, for fans hoping this would jump start his return to action, his injury troubles weren’t totally behind him.
“I would have liked to fight sooner than the six to eight months since my last fight, I wanted to fight very soon but I had a little nagging injury that I had going into my fight with Mujtaba and I got it checked up again after my fight,” Northcutt said in a recent interview.
No word on exactly what that injury might have been. Northcutt suffered multiple facial fractures in his bout against Cosmo Alexandre, but hasn’t publicly disclosed any other more recent injury problems. It may be worth noting, however that Northcutt did pull out of a 2017 bout against John Makdessi citing injury, but the exact nature of that issue was never disclosed.
Sage Northcutt talks prep for Aoki
Known primarily for his striking prowess, Sage Northcutt shocked a lot of fans when he won his last bout with a heel hook submission, the first joint-lock submission win of his career, and only submission since beating Cody Pfister in 2015. However, in a recent interview with MMA Junkie, Northcutt admitted that he’s been putting a whole lot of time into his grappling game. It’s something he says he won’t necessarily look to avoid, even against a submission artist with Aoki’s reputation.
“I’ve been working my grappling for the past several years a lot,” Northcutt revealed. “Great grapplers, great teammates, great coaches. So, I’ve been really, really preparing and training my grappling a whole lot to improve.”
“A lot of people know that Shinya is known for his grappling, but it’s not just a grappling match out there,” Northcutt said. “It is mixed martial arts. You have a whole different set of tools and same thing, it’s not just a striking match. So, I think really going out there and being ready for anything is very important.”
Of course, it doesn’t hurt Northcutt’s chances that Aoki is a full 13-years his senior, and has competed as low as 145 lbs in the past. While Northcutt pinged between lightweight and welterweight during his UFC run, he made his ONE debut up at 185 lbs. It seems very likely that the Team Alpha Male talent will hold a pretty decent strength advantage when he meets ‘Tobikan Judan’ on January 28th in Tokyo.
UFC 300 is still a work in process. As recently as this past Wednesday, January 24th, Dana White was on camera telling fans that the main event had not yet been set for the centennial PPV. There is one guaranteed action fight, however, that fans can already start getting excited about, with Justin Gaethje welcoming Max Holloway back to the lightweight division.
Holloway previously took a stab at 155 lbs back in 2019, when he fought and lost to Dustin Poirier for an interim lightweight title. A brutal war that had ‘Blessed’ looking notably out-gunned for power, the loss pushed the Hawaiian back to featherweight where he’s racked up five more wins and three more losses (with each loss coming to Alexander Volkanovski).
Justin Gaethje didn’t want to fight Max Holloway at UFC 300
It’s those losses that have left the 32-year-old Gracie Technics talent at something of a loose end. With no clear path back to title contention, fans have been left talking about potential superfights for Holloway with the likes of Aljamain Sterling, Henry Cejudo, or perhaps Charles Oliveira. Then Justin Gaethje came along and seemingly spoke this fight into existence.
“I kind of talked this into existence on accident,” Gaethje said in a recent interview (transcript via MMA Junkie). “I said, ‘I didn’t want to punch Max Holloway, but he’s also a guy that could fight for a BMF belt.’ That turns out into going to be having to punch Max Holloway. It’s the name of the game, and I am the best in the world at creating damage.”
Hopefully we avoid Gaethje/Cerrone vibes
This isn’t the first time Justin Gaethje has stepped into the UFC Octagon against an opponent he’d rather not face. Back in 2019, just a few months after Holloway’s fight with Poirier, the ‘Highlight’ took a fight with friend and sometimes training partner Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone.
“That was my friend, I didn’t want to do that to him, I’ll be honest with you,” Gaethje told the crowd after knocking Cerrone out, noting his anger at the referee for not stopping the bout earlier.
In the years since that victory, Gaethje has gone 4-2, winning an interim title for his 2020 bout against Tony Ferguson, but losing unified title shots to Khabib Nurmagomedov and Charles Oliveira. Most recently Gaethje avenged a 2018 loss to Dustin Poirier, knocking the ‘Diamond’ out with a head kick in the second round at UFC 291 last July. Stay tuned for more news and notes on the UFC 300 lineup as fight night approaches.
At this point, it seems crystal clear that the UFC has leaned into its place in the current conservative culture war. Once a man who swiftly cracked down on fighters like Miguel Torres and Frank Mir for their public comments, Dana White has branded himself as a ‘free speech’ champion of late, green-lighting his fighters to dive into whatever trash talk they see fit to bring to UFC press conferences and social media.
He’s taken his Power Slap brand to the Rumble social media platform which actively courts conservative creators and viewers, and made a public promise to trash Peloton bikes at the UFC PI after learning that they had asked Theo Von to pull a podcast segment featuring noted anti-vaxxer RFK Jr.
It’s a move seemingly sparked by White’s time of political favor during Donald Trump’s presidency, where he secured a chance to advise the President on national policy and gained a prime speaking position during the Republican National Convention. It’s also positioned the UFC to be a brand rehabilitator for Bud Light, after they faced a wave of conservative backlash for a brief ad campaign featuring trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
Sean Strickland fans irate over UFC 297
That kind of slant has been a boon for fighters like Sean Strickland, who have ridden the seemingly never ending wave of culture war topics to carve out their own fanbase in the MMA ecosystem. In the lead up to UFC 297, Strickland took the opportunity of a reporter’s question about his past homophobia to launch into a speech about how LGBTQ allies are “the definition of weakness.”
Following Strickland’s defeat on PPV, several pundits in the MMA industry found themselves facing a wave of backlash for their support of the title fight verdict, which saw Dricus du Plessis take a split decision over the Xtreme Couture talent—winning three of five rounds on two judges scorecards. One of those facing fan ire, apparently, was none other than UFC broadcast personality Jon Anik.
In a recent episode of his Anik & Florian Podcast with former title contender Kenny Florian, the longtime play-by-play announcer talked about fan reaction to his commentary—suggesting that it was bad enough he’s considering walking away from the UFC altogether.
“…even if you and I both thought Dricus du Plessis won the fight, we try to present that information respectfully,” Anik explained. “And when I go on to X or I go on to YouTube comments? It seems like a lot of these fans are just in attack mode.
“And I don’t know if these fans are casual fans or not, right? But, I appreciate the passion. But, I’m getting to a point at 45 years of age, where I don’t know how much time I have left in this MMA space. Because, if I go do pro football I’m not necessarily going to be dealing with this lowest common denominator all the time. And, I dunno, man. I just feel like there’s a lot of malice and disrespect from the fanbase.
“And we can disagree. Don’t take it from me, Demetrious Johnson and Kenny Florian thought DDP won the fight. I dunno, I’ve just been very off-put with the negativity that has permeated my feed since Saturday night and I’m just not sure how much longer I have in this space, honestly.”
🚨| Jon Anik expresses his frustration and even hints retirement from UFC commentary amid fan reaction to him thinking that Dricus Du Plessis rightfully won at UFC 297. 😬
Before all the fans got to him, Anik did have another interesting thought on UFC 297 and Sean Strickland’s experience with the judges. Notably that Sal D’Amato has been involved in each of Strickland’s last three split decisions, and has been the opposing judge to the majority verdict in every one.
In Sean Strickland's last 3 split decisions (v. Hermansson, Cannonier, & du Plessis), Sal D'Amato has been the dissenting judge in all three! His Hermansson card was forgettable. Other two are certainly defensible. But judges are human. He was vilified for that Hermansson card…
Anik gives Strickland & du Plessis a pass on trash talk
As for his thoughts on Strickland’s personality and the things that both he and Du Plessis said ahead of the fight? In an interview with MMA Fighting, Anik expressed the feeling that the UFC should probably draw a line somewhere when it comes to trash talk, but more or less gave both fighters a pass.
“Obviously, they both have value on a microphone, and they do, but I guess I’m not the most sensitive guy in the world when it comes to the words. A lot of people have taken stances in terms of that line, and we should keep wives and families out of it, and I’d be lying if I said that I think there absolutely needs to be some promotional line drawn. I just don’t know that words affect me as much as actions like a Jeremy Stephens push.”
Speaking personally, I’ll say I hope Anik doesn’t walk away from the UFC. In a commentary booth that can regularly devolve into live podcast territory, petty bickering, and general blind-leading-the-blind nonsense, he’s consistently been a driver of focus, research, and consistency. A UFC product without him will be notably worse.
Hitting the news this week, we’ve got a couple of comments for the commentary booths from both the UFC and Bellator/PFL. Plus we’re diving in on Khamzat Chimaev’s new trust issues, and Miesha Tate giving fans the hard sell on UFC 297.
The combat sports world is a constant circus of good news and bad. I’m just here trying to sort through it all to find those items that spark something a little more than ‘okay, that’s good to know.’ Join me for the latest Love/Hate to See It column…
LOVE TO SEE IT
Chris Curtis takes a shot at Dominick Cruz
Maybe time has dulled my memory, after all I’ve always felt that nostalgia is the most toxic of all emotions. It pulls us not to enjoy (or simply cope with) the world around us as it is, but to try and recapture some imagined past. Usually an era where we either weren’t even alive to experience it, or had no real sense of the multitude of problems surrounding us even then.
Did things really used to be better, or were we just younger and more foolish and free of woes?
What I’m trying to say is, that Dominick Cruz might be the worst regular UFC commentary booth member since Zuffa took ownership of the company back in 2001. Yes, even including Mike Goldberg.
Known for his long running Team Alpha Male feud during the height of his championship reign/injury epidemic, it turns out that the very feistiness that fueled his trash talk (and very likely his fighting career) is a personality trait that he can never turn off. When in the booth, calling that action, that often surfaces as a tendency for petty bickering, and an inability to let a singular observation go once it’s crept into his mind.
Lately, Cruz’s biggest fixation has been on the idea of ‘damage’ as a principal scoring criteria. Namely, in his mind, that the clearest (and perhaps only) signifier of damage in a fight are cuts. Every time a fighter gets cut, Cruz goes on a mini-rant about how they’ve now lost the fight because they’ve suffered the most damage. Never mind that it’s supposed to be an indicator of impact more than anything else.
Did a fighter get knocked down? Dazed? Wobbled? Were they slammed hard? Did the shots they took look heavier? Those are all measurements of damage too. Cuts and bruising are certainly a secondary or tertiary part of that scale, but to hear Cruz tell it, you’d think they made up the entire rubric.
It seems like fighters are getting tired of Cruz’s fixations as well. In a recent interview following his UFC 297 win, middleweight Chris Curtis took the ‘Dominator’ to task.
“I get s—t on by ‘DC’ and Dominick Cruz every time I fight,” Curtis said on The MMA Hour (transcript via MMA Fighting). “No matter what’s happening. DC was kinder than before, but Dominick Cruz is just like, ‘It looks like he’s sparring,’ and blah blah blah. Bro, [Barriault is] a solid man. He’s been knocked out once, I have been knocked out once. It’s not going to be easy to knock the other down, it’s just not.
“I hit him with some s—t that I’ve dropped people with, and he just kind of looked at it. I elbowed him a few times, I went to move in, he’s just staring at me like he’s back there. I hear Dominick Cruz say, ‘It’s just like a sparring match,’ and then, not to be a dick, but people are going to latch on to what the commentary says, and now I hear, ‘He didn’t even fight hard. It was a low-energy sparring match.’ Stand in front of me and let me hit you the same way.”
“Dominick Cruz, stand here Dominick Cruz, and let me hit you the way I was hitting him and see if it’s just sparring. No, we’re two large, solid men. I promise you guys, I was hitting him f hard, he was hitting me hard, I feel it since the fight. [Cruz] is like, ‘It looks like sparring.’ I’m just like, ‘Oh my God, the narrative is glorious.’ So I’m proud of myself, I’m very proud of myself.”
Here’s the thing. As he’s shown in several incidents over his UFC career, Chris Curtis can be a pretty sensitive guy. He seems to take criticism to heart, and doesn’t let go of it easily. To the point that we’ve even seen him get frustrated with opponents in the cage, when they don’t give him the fight he wants.
And, to be fair to Cruz, much like his teammate Sean Strickland, the ‘Action Man’ has a style that seems like it’s been born out of a ton of hard sparring. Where Strickland chooses a volume jab style, meant to score points and stay safe, Curtis chooses a back-foot, selective counter-striking style.
But I can’t help it, maybe I’m just petty too. Cruz’s work in the commentary booth is a continual drag. If the result of that is that he’s gonna catch a few strays, even when he might not be wrong, I’m here for it. Go off Curtis.
Big John McCarthy exits the booth
Probably one of the most surprising and strangest idiosyncrasies to pop up in the MMA world has been the commentary work of legendary MMA referee John McCarthy. A co-author (and sometimes outright creator) of many of the rules that define modern mixed martial arts, McCarthy has been a fixture in the North American MMA world essentially since day 1.
I’ve spoken to ‘Big’ John a couple times in my time working for Bloody Elbow. He’s a gregarious, generous speaker who will always give straight answers to questions, can fill in details whenever needed, and has a fantastic memory for the history of the sport.
He’s also just absolutely no fun as a play-by-play/color commentary figure in a broadcast booth. I don’t know why it is, I don’t know how it is, but the work just doesn’t seem to fit his style. His time with Bellator has come off as a mix of unfocused and low energy, seemingly often downplaying major swings in action, or simply missing key moments with off topic stories.
It has to be said, as well, that it feels like he’s had enough of a runway at this point that if he were going to improve a lot in the roll, he already would have. I’m not surprised Bellator kept him on in the position as long as they did. Like I said before, my experience of the guy is that he’s wonderfully easy to work with. But over time it felt like a marked downgrade of the product from its glory days with Jimmy Smith and Sean Wheelock calling the action.
“I am going to be staying with the PFL because I had a contract with Bellator, and it still has a year on it, so the PFL picked that up,” McCarthy explained. “Will my role be the same? I don’t think it’s going to be the same.
“I think it’s going to be more towards rules and regulations, scoring the fights and doing those things – making sure everyone understands what’s being done, if it’s being done in the correct way and what options do the officials have.”
McCarthy is definitely an asset that PFL would do well to keep. But if they can find a role for him that’s not one where he’s constantly on the mic, calling the fights? That seems like it’s the best idea for everyone involved.
HATE TO SEE IT
Khamzat Chimaev learns not to trust the UFC
It’s one of the most enduring factors of the UFC’s business model. Ever since the promotion took its first steps away from the tournament model in the mid-90s, there are no guarantees in the Octagon. Yesterday’s promise is today’s maybe and tomorrow’s change of plans.
It’s a fact that has driven a whole generation of rival companies. From Bellator and PFL, to PRIDE and now RIZIN, other organizations look to lay down a path to contendership, a way to be Pepsi to the UFC’s Coke. It’s also a lament that fighters find themselves singing time and time again, ‘What do I have to do to get a title shot around here?’
At some point it really does feel like this lesson should get learned. There is no fight booking promise the UFC would make that they would feel honor bound to keep. Nonetheless, Khamzat Chimaev is still very disappointed to find out that he’s not in consideration for the middleweight title.
“I heard Dana White said that, ‘I don’t think Khamzat is next for the title,’ that’s the bulls—t, man,” Chimaev told ESPN in a recent interview (transcript via MMA Fighting), after Dana White told media he didn’t think the Chechen-born fighter would be healthy enough to compete at UFC 300.
“If you promised me something, you have to answer for your words, and I’m the guy who always answers for my words. I don’t care if it’s some president, or a king, if you give me [your] word, you have to answer for that.”
“I will be surprised if that happens—if somebody fights [for the title] next, and not me. We’ll see, I didn’t talk with Dana, and I don’t know what he’s thinking. He knows better than me.
“In my mind, it should be me,” Chimaev added. “I asked Hunter [Campbell] to let me fight at UFC 300, so we’ll see what they say.”
I honestly can’t believe I’m about to say this, but realistically, the UFC is right not to guarantee these kinds of bookings. Combat sports always has been and always will be just as much about the grandeur and sizzle as it is about finding out who’s the ‘baddest man on the planet’. These aren’t team events and they aren’t golf or tennis where impact is low enough and repetitions are high enough that you can more or less guarantee a certain number of stars will shine at every event.
Even at its best, fighting is wild and chaotic and filled with the possibility of upset and injury. Maybe three months ago Chimaev looked like a great title fight option. But now a possible Adesanya vs. du Plessis fight looks like a better one.
Hate to see another fighter learning this lesson the hard way, but anyone who wants to compete in the Octagon is going to find themselves rolling with the punches—whether they want to or not.
Miesha Tate makes case for ‘dynamic’ UFC 297 co-main event
I know women get a hard time of things from MMA fans. Far too many of their fights are dismissed out of hand as a ‘bathroom break’ and comments are filled with the listless braindead droning of men who don’t think women should be competing, no matter how competent or entertaining they are. I don’t want to add to that noise. So just to start off, I’ll go ahead and say that I don’t really think Raquel Pennington vs. Mayra Bueno Silva was any worse than Alexandre Pantoja vs. Brandon Royval.
That said, I also seem to be one of the only people out there who thinks that the most recent UFC flyweight title fight was more dud than dynamic. In both cases, the first time challenger looked dramatically unprepared for their first real taste of the big stage. In both cases one of the title competitors seemed to gas out horribly early, and in both cases the winning champ looked hardly a half-step better than their competition.
That said, let’s not try to sell the co-main event of UFC 297 as some kind of resounding piece of entertainment.
Well didn’t we know that would happen, Mayra is young and doesn’t really pace herself which I think is very exciting but hard to hold that over 5 rounds. She did well for her first 5 round fight it’s not easy and a lot of pressure https://t.co/XV7m9ekJfP
Well no disrespect but you can’t claim the main event was any more exciting. Solid fights but if we must compare I thought the co main was much more dynamic and much closer to finishes multiple times https://t.co/lvPncYBvTi
Truly no sport has trouble with numbers like MMA. Mayra Bueno Silva is 32. Miesha Tate is 37. Raquel Pennington is 35. Nobody here is ‘young.’ I’m sure ‘Sheetara’ will be back to the top of the mountain soon, but she’s been in this business for 9 years. Relative to her division, she’s a top tier athlete in her prime, and she absolutely was not prepared.
This isn’t me trying to talk up Strickland vs. du Plessis either, as a main event. It was a totally reasonable, solid title fight. Nothing electrifying. But at least both fighters looked prepared. Du Plessis is younger and has never fought five rounds either, he was still ready for the task at hand. There have been plenty of great fights from women in the Octagon, fights we can all laud as entertaining. This wasn’t one of them.
Among the several story lines on offer at UFC 297 was the potential setting of the stage for what should have been one of the biggest fights of 2023. Dricus du Plessis’ build up to a fight with Israel Adesanya was at least a year in the making.
As far back as 2022 (if not earlier) du Plessis was making public comments, needling Israel Adesanya, Kamaru Usman, and Francis Ngannou over their claim to the title of ‘African’ UFC champion. As far as ‘Stillknocks’ was concerned, anyone that didn’t still live and train on the continent didn’t have shouldn’t be carrying the moniker. A stance that clearly got to Adesanya as du Plessis inched closer to contention.
Israel Adesanya ready for UFC comeback?
Unfortunately, despite months of (tortuously online) bickering and buildup, the UFC booked Adesanya for a title defense just two months after du Plessis’ most recent fight. The 30-year-old couldn’t make the date, and Sean Strickland took his place against the ‘Last Stylebender.’ The rest, as they say, was history.
With du Plessis picking up the win this past Saturday, and grabbing gold in the process, however, it seems that Adesanya fight is right back on the table. Despite coming off a loss and several months of hiatus, Adesanya was just about the first name on the champion’s lips.
“I saw Alex Pereira get into the cage and I thought, ‘Well, okay. Here we go again. Let’s do the face off right now. Let’s see if I can recover in time.’ But it looks like that’s not happening. But, right now I have to tell you, man, I’m really enjoying this.
“I would love—there was another guy who tried to take my shine. He lost his shine, now I have your shine. You didn’t get into the cage tonight, but Israel Adesanya, get your a— back in the UFC so we can settle this score.”
Adesanya responds
Just a few weeks ago Israel Adesanya made it clear that his return to the Octagon was imminent. Despite telling fans that he likely wouldn’t fight again until 2027, the Nigerian-born New Zealander teased a much sooner return to action in an interview with iFL TV.
“…Life has forced me to take some time off and I will. But you will see me soon. I said 2027 and the r—ds out there actually thought I meant that. But you’ll see.”
With du Plessis now calling him out direct, the City Kickboxing star took to his own YouTube channel to drop his thoughts on UFC 297, Strickland losing his title, and a potential title fight in his future. From the sound of things, we’ll almost certainly be seeing these two in the cage against one another this year.
“The main event, it was nice to watch,” Adesanya said (transcript via MMA Fighting). “I thought Dricus, I thought he would use his wrestling more in the middle of the rounds, but he did use it at the end, which was smart of him to steal the rounds. I thought maybe, my ‘guesstimate’ on watching this, [rounds] 3, 4, 5 he took. Now he is the fourth African champion in UFC history, so congrats to you my African brother Dricus du Plessis.”
“Legit I’m happy for him, I actually like his story,” Adesanya added. “But he still did what he did and I’m still going to test that ass.”
“Eventually, these two are going to end up fighting again, I’m sure,” White told reporters after the event. “But we’re not thinking about an immediate rematch right now.”
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