i'm a big nhl fan. and i'm thinking back to times when players assaulted other players on the ice. marty mcsorley, dale hunter and todd bertuzzi are the assaulters in question and all three lost significant salary and time on the ice, and their careers were never the same after. i doubt ufc has the stones to do the same with mcgregor, so he's going to continue getting away with assault like this. because it seems to me that's what that was, straight up assault.
I do understand that hockey fights do actually have 'rules' and whatnot, but I can't help feeling a bit bewildered at punishments for assaults on the ice in the NHL of all places. Dunno if its been mentioned yet, but something else a bit sad I saw about this was that its in New York and mma spent so long trying to get accepted there.
the incidents i mentioned were not fights. in an nhl "fight", both players have to drop their gloves and square up to each other. the incidents i mention were straight up assaults on the ice. and no, that's not supposed to happen. and yes, i am personally vehemently against hockey "fighting". it's completely ridiculous that it happens at all--the numbers have gone way down btw--and that it ever happened. it's a remnant of a by-gone era. i only marginally follow mma, i'm more into sport grappling competitions personally. but i just can't help but think that is really really bad optics for this promotion. casual people are never going to take the sport seriously with stories like this. which is why if ufc had courage, they would bring the hammer down, but i'm guessing they'll make a small show, so the big show can go on. i'm assuming conor already knows this.
I bet we see more up and coming fighters copying McGregor's antics just to make a name for themselves. Such a shame for other fighters who don't need feel a need to degrade themselves, as well as for the sport and society as a whole. The UFC had made enormous strides moving MMA fighters away from their "cage fighter" stereotype, to being regarded as legitimate athletes. This type of crap knocks that progress back 10 years.
Khabib (or one of his people) uploaded this on Facebook not long ago, looks like Pettis is out too...
the interesting thing to me is it's gone beyond just talk to physical violence for some time. and i don't know if i've ever seen that anywhere else or with anyone else. i swear there was a press conference a couple years ago that almost turned violent right on the stage. did conor or the other guy try throwing a chair? or had to be held back by white? it seemed to everyone it was just an act, but maybe the guy really does have something wrong with him?
i have seen nhl bench-clearing brawls live in my lifetime mitch. but again, that's not me and what i look for in a hockey match--never has been. luckily, teams have realized that it's expensive to keep pure fighters on the bench. expensive in terms of winning and losing. let's not even get into european and south american football violence shall we.
every north american hockey fan recognizes that film. even better than a film, check out don cherry's rock-em sock-em hockey clips on youtube. i personally always love tough teams, but not goonish. and also appreciate things like speed and skill and i hate it when teams carry goons and fighters. gladly, i feel like the nhl has gotten over that. there are still tough teams, like the current nashville predators. but they're not goons.
That's why we have the law, and UFC doesn't have or need the stones to deal with people like Conor McGregor. This isn't the kind of thing you can defend yourself from in court even if you have Dana White's pockets. This is a lot deeper than negative publicity...McGregor is a potential felon convict, on the heels of getting his butt kicked by boxing's finest. Prison or the hospital might be exactly what Conor McGregor needs right now.
Which is exactly why he's been arrested by Police.... Anyhoo. The card is all over the place. Apart from 3 fights scrapped due to the bus involvement. Max Holloway didn't make weight!!! Pettis was a potential replacement who came in at 155.2lbs. Although apparently he asked for a cool mil to fight Khabib. Felder was refused by the Commission as not being ranked high enough. I think Al Aquinta is still being looked into. Utter chaos right now.
There was nothing "illegitimate" about cage fighting or the people doing it before. They've just tried to make violence palatable, pacified, so that people with sensitive stomachs who find violence ojectionable will stop whining. I think regarding fighters as just like other athletes is silly. The closer it is to an actual fight, the less it's like any other sport. Trying to knockout, strangle, and break another person is incomparable to an arbitrary athletic skill in my opinion. I think the attempt to make violence all neat and tidy and civilized is a bit of a joke. Let those of a more sensitive bearing look elsewhere for their entertainment. If a fighter wants to be a paragon of virtue and class I think that's admirable, it's one of the reasons I always liked people like Anderson Silva and GSP, but I think it's their business as an individual. Now as for outside the ring, Dana has loved the blood feuds for years and it's just been slowly ramping up. The good thing for Dana with his pretense of a squeaky clean image is that he can publicly decry the behaviour, and jump ship if it gets too thick, while reaping all of the benefits that the drama has always offered. When this story popped up my first thought was, "I bet Connor's coming back and it's a stunt to get back in the news." I honestly wouldn't be surprised if that was the case. I think it's a matter of standing out in the crowd. The classy guys stood out when everyone saw it as uncivilized barbarity and no one cared how the fighters acted. Now with the attempt to civilize the sport the animals are standing out in contrast, being the inverse of what it was before.
OK, I was a bit late... we have a 155 belt fight! Raging Al vs Eagle Khabib! @ufc on Instagram: “Your NEW #UFC223 main event: @Khabib_Nurmagomedov vs @AlIaquinta for the LW strap. Weigh-ins go down from @BarclaysCenter at 5pmET!”
