re: UFC fans. Connor McGregor is the ultimate IRL troll

what's your point in showing me that?

I don't hate the dude, I just don't like flashy "all about the money, I make you better blah blah bullshite" guys. If he keeps winning, good for him because he's a damn good fighter, but I hope he loses.


eta: and I see he's from WWE. Congrats Dana White. WWE=UFC

It's awesome

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IMO, if UFC wants to be more of a sport, and not entertainment only, they need much less of this shite. Sure it hypes him up, but I have more respect for the guys who respect the sport and each other

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You are 100% wrong. It's all about creating a persona that resonates with prospective fans and their wallets... and different sports need to drum up interest in different ways.

For a team sport, you build around a school, or ideally around some aspect of the community. For instance, the Pittsburgh Steelers, in making themselves The Steelers, directly appealed the working class community.

In gentleman sports like tennis and golf, the marketing machine that drives the industry pushes the agenda more than the players themselves. Roger Federer, Tiger Woods, etc. are as popular as they are because Nike, Taylormade, Wilson, Rolex and other brands pay a lot of money to create a persona that appeals to casual fans across the world.

For the above sports-- individual and team alike-- there is a vested monetary interest in having players be ideal role models. There is a close tie to the community on the behalf of team sports and there is the perception that if you buy these golf clubs or wear this Nike gear, you are being like Tiger or Michael Jordan, etc. There's a lot of gear to be sold to a lot of fans and their children.

In fighting sports, it's different. Outside of shorts, there's not a lot of gear to be sold (excluding Affliction / Ed Hardy t-shirts... which is indirect). There's no jerseys to speak of and not many people are going to buy boxing gloves or mma gloves. While the supplement industry makes endorsement related money, that's just about it. Lacking the same level of community allegiance that sports teams enjoy and lacking the level of marketing cache for shoes, jerseys & athletic gear that tennis, golf & team sports inspire, fight sports can only bank on generating interest by having people take a more vested interest in the fighters themselves.

This directly means that it's important to have at least a few guys with larger than life personalities to draw interest. Nobody outside of hard core fight fans are going to care if a couple of hard working, decent men who are good fighters square off against one another. It's more interesting to see two personalities get together... some will want to see the heel get his arse beat; others will pull for him and his politically incorrect ways.

Some sensitive souls may be turned off by this, but it draws more interest than it loses. And Conor McGregor will retire comparatively more wealthy for playing the bad behavior up than acting like a gentlemen. Given that he's likely looking at a 5-10 year career, do you blame him?

Again, I never mentioned boxing. Dana wants to be different than the WWE, but he lets stupid shite like this go on during a conference where there are other fighters trying to also promote their own fights.

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I believe what many of us are saying that a few years ago UFC fights had more to do with putting two very evenly matched opponents in the ring with a great anticipation for who was going to leave victorious. Now the sport revolves around pressers and tweets.

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I wonder what would happen if you compared the number of press conferences that are held by LSU football to the number of games they play.

well said

You must be from Ireland. Cause my pee pee be Dublin

So many monster cans in one video...