Midnight Mania! That's why the new UFC 230 main event is nonsense

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"Despite my rage, I'm still only a rat in a cage"

I was thinking recently of one of the best UFC promotional videos, before UFC 183's untitled main event, involving Nick Diaz and Anderson Silva. This involved the elder brother Diaz pacing in the dark, surrounded by screens with his face, and the Smashing Pumpkins song "Rat in a Cage" playing in the background. The song was particularly well-suited to Diaz, a personality known for screwing up the system, ignored the press conferences he did not want to attend, and exiled his promoter, the Ultimate Fighting Championship, for everything from the sale of "Wolf tickets" seen as their preferential treatment of his rival George St. Pierre. Nick was also penalized with a ridiculously severe penalty for weed use by the NSAC, although the test had a questionable value, a penalty that many perceived as a result of the poor vision of the commissioners at the NSAC. respect for his rebellious attitude.

His younger brother, Nate Diaz, illustrates many of these qualities. Nate (rightly so) called the UFC title belts of "fairy tales," criticized the promotion for having under-promoted, and even slapped the president of the UFC. UFC, Dana White. His frustration stems fundamentally from his understanding that he works with a monopoly society that systematically underestimates their workforce because they can, by paying less than 17% of their incomes to fighters, while forcing them exclusive long-term contracts. Diaz knows this because he knows the world of professional boxing, where the greatest fighters regularly earn 50 to 70% of the income. He has also demonstrated his willingness to hold his value for years, if necessary. The UFC does not benefit when one of their fighters gets the bargaining power – like Diaz after smothering Conor McGregor at UFC 196 – and knows how to use it, like Diaz did, forcing contentious negotiations before his revenge with McGregor at UFC 202.

It's hard not to see a punitive revenge motive in the latest UFC decision, to miss out on a major and compelling event between Diaz and heavyweight champion Dustin Poirier for a fight between a woman who turns out not to be an important draw and who fights a complete stranger. . (No disrespect to Valentina Shevchenko and Sijara Eubanks, this is only a statement regarding their attraction to casual fans).

For the story, when the UFC could not find any major UFC 230 event at Madison Square Garden, Nate and his opponent Dustin Poirier tried to help their promoter with a free buzz, Nate "announcing" 165 lbs. "Super lightweight" weight division, with himself and Poirier as the UFC 230 winner at Madison Square Garden for the fight for the inaugural title. It was a good idea, immediately supported by a number of other fighters, including Conor McGregor in a recent interview. The UFC has a high concentration of talents between 155 and 170; Most of the most important lightweights on the list are struggling with major weight cuts, like Kevin Lee, who has been demanding this division for years. This could also potentially set up a great match with the winner of the UFC 229 main event clash between Conor McGregor and Khabib Nurmagomedov. Dana White, however, seems very reluctant to the idea for reasons that are not entirely clear.

Dustin Poirier seems to blame Nate Diaz for not having managed to make their fight the main event. It is the UFC who are the promoters; this extraordinarily unpopular decision is up to them alone. In the current era of UFC depreciated titles and temporary belts that appear and then disappear in response to the evolving needs of the promoter, a new division is a new idea that does not seem to be inconvenient. The welterweight should perhaps go from 170 to 175, but in the current landscape, it just means a little less weight for the fighters in this division to cut.

Although the UFC has not created a new division, it's hard to understand how a five-round main event between Poirier and Diaz, both of which have demonstrated their ability to bring high-level violence to events principal, is a reality. Less more convincing than a fight in which Team A featured a Pay-Per-View sold at a disappointing price of 100,000 PPV. Seriously, it's the bottom of the barrel for modern UFC events. It does not get worse than that. In comparison, Nate Diaz presented the largest event in the history of the PPV PPV, an untitled grudge match against Conor McGregor at UFC 202. The shock of Diaz in this bout was larger than three combined belts, including a second historic belt for McGregor. A few months after this event at UFC 205. Diaz and Poirier will be fighting just one month after McGregor's return this Saturday, an ideal time to bring the Diaz-McGregor rivalry back to center stage.

Dustin Poirier is not bad either, a fascinating figure with decent micro talents who dominated the free cards of Fox and Fox Sports 1. Poirier has not made a single boring fight since at least his fight of the year with Chan Sung June, win or lose – 17 consecutive exciting fights. He has three bonuses in his last three fights. The clash with Diaz not only deserves, he screams enough for five rounds.

Reactions were universally negative, fans of MMA online have all wondered what the promoter thought.

It is not too late to repair. The UFC must make Poirier against Diaz a main tournament in five rounds in front of Shevchenko against Eubanks (I never even understood how we lost our match against Shevchenko against Jedrzejczyk for that). Everyone, including Shevchenko and Eubanks, would win. At present, the UFC ensures that all parties involved lose and we can not do anything about it. Diaz, despite all his rage, is still only a rat in a cage.

Insomnia

Dana White did try to explain her refusal to consider 165 and did not even give any coherent reason not to do so.

Tony Ferguson was delighted at the press conference of UFC 229, and that makes sense.

Daniel Cormier criticized Jon Jones because he became a strong power after Suga Sean O'Malley was forced to withdraw from UFC 229 after a positive test.

Looking back on a hilarious Jon Jones moment with Ovince St. Preux:

I'm not the biggest fan of Brendan Schaub but it's pretty cool:

Anthony Pettis has been training hard for Tony Ferguson

Back to a fight Andrea Lee before arriving at the UFC:

Michael Bisping shared this really amazing video, which made me feel small in the best way possible.

Gina Carano says that instead of letting her choke you, you could simply take a class.

Random earth

Mess with the rhinoceros and you get the picpecker.

How is this level of competence right?

This account contains some of the most haunting and poignant images of the internet.

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