And away goes the sport of fighting…

I figured it might happen, I was just hoping every single darn day when I woke up that I was wrong. Right now, if you turn your head to the left about forty five degree’s you’ll hear them coming, you’ll hear them running towards you in their skinny jeans and their beards and their pink t-shirts with the collar flipped up, you’ll hear them screaming, “That offends me” or “You should be nicer, you can’t hurt another persons feelings.” I’m telling you, we might as well cut off our private parts and be ready for the future because the future is not one designed for men. It’s one designed for what I like to call Man-Boys. And you reading this, if you are already offended, if one fighter is trying to irritate another fighter and he says, “You’re a joke, I am going to beat you until you quit. I’m going to make you my bitch.” If you read that and think, oh my gosh, how can he say that, it’s so mean and offensive and aggressive it shouldn’t be tolerated, I’m going to complain. Well, then, you’re a man-boy. You’re not a man, and your not a boy, you are right in the middle and really the worst kind of people. I hope no one ever breaks into your house to murder you or your family because screaming, “this isn’t fair this offends me” does very little to stop an attacker.

It’s already happening though, as is we see reporters asking Dominick Cruz to apologize for the things he said to hype a fight. To hype himself and what probably got into his opponents ear and made him train harder and promised us a better chance at a better fight. There are reporters claiming that Conor McGregor needs to apologize for the things he’s saying, that it should not be tolerated as it’s offensive to people. I am a super nice person, insanely nice I’d like to believe, but I have been known to tell people to shut the **** and go **** themselves. It happens frequently, more so now that I live on the East Coast. It’s part of a regular conversation. Does that make me seem like dullard? Yes. It does. But do I care if I offended someone in the process who was trying to explain to me that Canada is the future and we should all be like Canada because not only do they not keep track of the score when their kids play soccer, now to make sure it’s fair and no one gets upset losing, they don’t even let the kids play with ball. That way everyone wins and no one’s feelings get hurt. (this is true, they actually do this).

I hear things like that and every single part of me starts to die. Keep in mind, there are times where even me, even I think… ehhh… to far, scale it back just a little bit there champ. But that is after someone like Bernard Hopkins (who did time in prison, so, I mean, give him a pass) says to his opponent, a guy who’s brother committed suicide, “I’m going to make you wish you killed yourself just like your brother did.” I hear that, and I see people stomp on a Countries Flag and even I think, ehhhh… Too much. Scale it back a little. Leave immediate family, women and children and national pride out of it. I mean, you can be a beast but that doesn’t mean you have to be a savage about it.

”I hate what is called the PC (political correctness) agenda the world now has. I hate it and everyday I feel it ruining us as a people. Men are no longer allowed to be men and women no longer allowed to be women and soon enough, fighters will no longer allowed to be fighters.”

Is it wrong for McGregor to say that someone is a traitor to their country and named their kids typical American names? It boarders on being a jerk, because it’s tip toeing up to the line of saying you abandoned your heritage and such, but Rafael dos Anjos could simply say, we love our country of Brazil, but we assimilated here and wanted to fit in, not try and make it Brazil. Suck an egg. And that would have been the end of the conversation. Score 1 for dos Anjos. He could have even went further and said, it’s better than showing up in American and putting an Irish pub in every damn city. But, he missed that golden opportunity. Is it wrong of Fabricio Werdum to tell Cain Velasquez to stop walking around with the Mexican flag and saying over and over how Mexican you are when you barely speak the language, live in America, were born in America and so on. Well, no, that is a valid point. You can be proud of your heritage and ethnicity, but you can’t completely discard your Nationality unless you are renouncing citizenship or trying to make fans and cultivate an image, which he got called out on. I agree with Werdum in that arguement, he didn’t trash anyone, he said stop saying something your not. Be honest. Or I will choke you, in front of your “people”.

This is the problem we are facing now. The sport of MMA is going more and more mainstream. It’s getting bigger and gaining a wider audience and they will soon have limited edition Reebok scarfs and cups and stuff and while some people think that is a good thing, it’s going to change the entire landscape of fighting into what I think will be much worse. And yes, there should be respect in MMA. In all combat sports. Saying, may the best man win, just means good luck to both of you, I don’t want anything bad to happen to you, I want nothing but good in your future, but I am going to beat you in that cage. That’s okay, did we stray a little away from the respect and honor to hype fights, yes, we did, but at the same time, we always wanted to say those things we just didn’t. Even a monk who is fighting thinks, this guy is hitting me, I hope I knock him out. That doesn’t mean your a bad person, you think it, might as well say it before the fight, get some stress out, get some people interested.

I hate what is called the PC (political correctness) agenda the world now has. I hate it and everyday I feel it ruining us as a people. Men are no longer allowed to be men and women no longer allowed to be women and soon enough, fighters will no longer allowed to be fighters. Every interview they have a fighter will need a publicist on hand to make sure they don’t offend someone. Ken Shamrock will no longer be able to say, “I’m going to beat you until your living death.” Which to me, was hilarious. But fighters will now have to say, “I am going to do my best to do better in the contest on the night of our skirmish, but not so much that he walks away sad or upset, but just enough so that we can remain friends. I respect him as a person, his wife, she’s a wonderful mother and I have nothing but good things to say, so, thank you, thanks for coming, God, Buddha, Allah, Yahweh, Jesus and I guess that L.Ron guy please watch over us and may both men be satisfied with the outcome of the fight. Thanks for coming, I brought cookies”

It’s the future everyone. Start getting ready for it.

Writer: Derek Bergey

Photo: Daniel Patinkin