Let’s all acknowledge the fact that when two people enter a cage and are subsequently locked inside, that they are not going to befriend one another. Fans of MMA understand that this is a sport where the more you punch someone in the face or choke them out, the more money you can earn. Consequentially, emotions run high and words are said to one another in order for the fighter to talk up his or her fight so more people will buy tickets. This runs hand in hand with self promotion and trying to make money based off of the exciting fights put on.
Imagine everyday you had to go into an office setting and the boss of that respective department had set up an MMA tournament to decide on a promotion. Awesome right? Absurd, obviously, but that’s the case in this sport. However, there is a certain amount of professionalism involved with this ordeal. Granted, understand that trash talking isn’t professional, but there are certain levels of talk and keeping it business like that don’t include personal or attacking statements. This all ties in to the events of yesterday, the brawl between Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier at a press conference… Yes a press conference, where tensions are so high that two fully grown adults can’t bear to look at each other without getting into a knockdown fight.
Press Conference Throwdown: Bones vs DC
This simply is just unacceptable. Now don’t misinterpret because everyone wants to see an intense stare down and maybe some slight pushing with an exchange of words. This is the fight game, these two will eventually meet in the Octagon and fight until one of them cannot fight anymore, hopefully. There has to be some hype to the fight and that is acceptable, what is just ridiculous is in that moment where Jones and Cormier were in each other’s face, Daniel Cormier simply shoves Jones back and immediately he throws a punch. This then turns into a huge ordeal as Jones marches through Dave Sholler and basically shoves him through the backdrop, this is a UFC official by the way, and goes after Cormierwhile 8 or 9 guys are trying to separate them. Jones ends up getting atop Cormier and starts launching punches at him.
Now, what does that show to anyone? It shows that fighters aren’t like the other professional athletes that can go through a game or press conference without punching each other in the face. On a side note, of course there are plenty of unprofessional actions in the past with the NBA or NFL, and of course not every player is a role model. However, there are thousands upon thousands of players that no one ever hears about anyway whereas in MMA, the fighters are put on display as long as they are on the main cards.
Stand your ground. The arguments here are that Cormier was just reacting to Jones getting in his face. Ok, understandable because he doesn’t want to look weak but there is also a huge profit in looking more professional and more adult. Taking the higher road can gain you more support from the higher ups and also the fans. Look at fighters like Cain Velazquez, Georges St. Pierre, and former champ Frankie Edgar, these guys were very respectful and only jabbed at opponents when they ignited the talk. Jones made first contact by pressing his face into Cormier and his response is to shove him backwards. Then it just escalates pointlessly with a punch being thrown. If the scuffle had ended there, without the punch, it would have been fine and just another heated stare down. However, it didn’t and it just showed how much like a playground bully some fighters are still acting. This gives off a negative outlook towards the UFC and also, the complete disregard for fans, reporters, cameramen, and UFC officials that were around the stage that was simply destroyed. Thankfully no one was hurt, but the consequences could have been catastrophic for the UFC if someone had been injured or even hit by one of the fighters. This is the whole point, neither fighter used his brain before reacting with his testosterone.
This event slightly passed by yesterday with more of a reporting type day instead of a analysis into how this affects the UFC and the two fighters. The advocating idea here is that a punishment should be handed down, nothing too harsh as tempers flare occasionally and mistakes are made. However, there has to be reprimand, starting with cutting off the trash talk between the two, since there will be about two months of media dates and stare downs before these two guys can legally punch each other in the face. Let’s hope these two can play nice until that date so this doesn’t have an encore performance on another stage and hopefully some much bigger men will be there to stop the two from fighting again.
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