Certain Fighters Need Reminding of Where They Came From
By: Daniel Kendrick
In light of Dan Henderson’s injury, prompting the need for a quick replacement in the upcoming UFC 151 main event, and Jon Jones’ refusal to accept Chael Sonnen as the replacement opponent, it got me thinking about a few things. Why is it that so many fighters get the title and then seem to forget where they came from or why is it that all of a sudden the money has to be right for a champion to fight a particular guy when they were supporting themselves and/or a family on lower money while he was coming up? Anyway, I came up with some pretty definitive answers that I think certain fighters should listen to and take into consideration the next time he/she believes themselves to be bigger than the fight game.
Earlier this week, Jon Jones was offered a fight against Chael Sonnen as the main event replacement when former Strikeforce light heavyweight champion and current #1 contender Dan Henderson, had to withdraw from the bout with a torn MCL. Though it was proposed as only an eight day notice, Sonnen jumped at the opportunity. It was assumed that Jones would be compliant, having already gone through a full training camp AND preparation for another strong wrestler, though understandably, Hendo has much heavier hands than Sonnen. Jones has seen Sonnen fight numerous times so there is really no surprises that Jones had not already seen in previous stout wrestling opponents. Fighters such as Matt Hamill, Ryan Bader, & Rashad Evans; all three who were basically tooled by Jones although he was disqualified against Hamill, are top tier UFC wrestlers. So what was trainer Greg Jackson meaning when he told Jones, “it would be the worst career decision ever”? Worst decision ever?!!! Against a guy whose biggest strength is wrestling, is smaller AND is taking the fight on short notice; meaning that he wouldn’t have nearly the time needed to prepare for the diverse, talent rich game of Jones? Are you kidding me? This is why the livelihood of so many undercard fighters got sacrificed?
Let’s put the shoe on the other foot for a moment. What if it were Jones who was on the undercard trying to fight his way to the bigger money? What if it was he who had to sit on standby, unsure if he was going to get his fight relocated to a near future card or if it was going to be scrapped altogether along with his paycheck? Joe Lauzon pointed out,
“Not only has this screwed over all the fans that bought tickets, non-refundable airfare, took off work, made arrangements, etc… but think of all the fighters. Fighters that put in full camps, flew people in that helped them trains, etc. By the time I actually fight, I spend close to 20k between corners, flights, expenses, coaches, etc… and then to have the whole show cancelled because ONE guy didn’t want to fight. This ONE guy that had trained an entire camp, who was the CHAMP and at the top of his weight class, who was going to fight someone who didn’t do the camp, and was fighting UP a weight class.”
It doesn’t only affect the actual guys who are on the card, it effects the pay of the sparring partners and coaches, and in turn, THEIR families. Is Jon Jones THAT selfish that this wouldn’t even cross his mind? If so, WOW!
Some fighters tend to forget that having the belt doesn’t mean you get to cherry pick who you fight because you’ve made it to where every fighter aims to be. You have to defend the belt because you have that responsibility now, whether that means it’s against a young, tough, top contender or in a rematch with a guy you’ve already beaten. A fighter has this responsibility because he/she was given that same chance. That’s the essence of it. You don’t win the belt and then spend the rest of the time basking in the glory and resting on your laurels.
For one thing, when it comes time for that champion to once again fight, he/she will be facing hungry competition that’s been staying busy and therefore, staying sharp. Secondly, if that champion were one of those top contenders, he/she would be one of the ones clamoring nonstop about getting the shot. As far as rematches go, did Chuck Liddell say that Rampage was unworthy of a rematch because, yeah, he won over in Pride, but he hadn’t proven himself in the UFC? He’s only fought once here so he needs to beat more guys before he fights the poster boy of the company! No, that didn’t happen. Anderson Silva threw a fit when he got disqualified against Yushin Okami in Cage Rage. Do you think he wasn’t happy to get another chance at Okami in the UFC? Yet, Silva is one of those guys acting like guys don’t deserve rematches.
I, along with the majority of the MMA fanbase, thought that Sonnen was more than worthy of a rematch against Silva considering that for 95% of the first fight, he completely dominated the champion. GSP has never cried about rematches. If you had a similar viewpoint to mine, you thought that going in, the rematch against BJ Penn was a very risky fight for him. I was one of many that held the opinion that BJ won the first fight and that the refocused “Prodigy” had the skills on paper to give GSP a world of trouble: great takedown defense, very hard to hurt, freakish dexterity that makes him very hard to train for, and if you can’t take him down, his standup is formidable to say the least. This was also a guy coming in with a world of confidence having annihilated most of the viable contenders in the lightweight division not to mention he was the champion of that weight class. Let’s also not forget to point out that he’s a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu ace, largely based upon that freakish flexibility, of course. This was a very risky rematch for GSP and yet there were no objections because BJ wasn’t a true welterweight, or he hadn’t fought in the division in years. He took the fight wholeheartedly because that’s what a true champion does.
What if Matt Hughes had flat out denied GSP his rematches? Or Matt Serra had denied him the same? I’d say those rematches proved quite a bit for the once defeated fighter. Yet champions such as Anderson Silva and Jon Jones seem to be following the Floyd Mayweather Jr. blueprint of believing that they are bigger than the sport and that certain top level contenders are unworthy of their greatness for one reason or another.
I’ve already pointed out that this kind of arrogance is unfair to other fighters for numerous reasons. It’s also unfair to the fans who pay their hard earned money to watch these fighters fight the best competition to prove that they are the best in their division. I’m just glad that I’m not one of those fans who had tickets for the event, plane fare paid for, a hotel room reserved, and had gone to the trouble of getting the time off of work, but I feel for those who did. Thanks Bones! Way to represent as the champion and pound-for-pound elite that you supposedly are!
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