Tales From The Cage

The UFC may be having its worst year ever in terms of high-profile fights.  Let's take a look at the main event fights from the pay-per-view events so far this year. UFC 208: Holm vs De Randamie UFC 209: Woodley vs Thompson 2 UFC 210: Cormier vs Johnson 2 UFC 211: Miocic vs dos Santos 2 UFC 212: Aldo vs Holloway UFC 213: Romero vs Whittaker UFC 214: Cormier vs Jones 2 UFC 215: Nunes vs Shevchenko 2 Outside of UFC 211, 212 and 214 it could easily be argued that none of the events were in high demand by fans. And of those 3 events, all 3 were helped out by great supporting cards. Heavyweight title fights are always popular, Holloway is a rising star in the company, and the return of Jon Jones all helped draw fans in. UFC 214 was probably the only event that would have been sold on the strength of the main event alone as the rivalry between Cormier and Jones was just that intense. Let's compare that to the same stretch of events (January - September) from 2016, a...

Mark Hunt and Antonio "Bigfoot" Silva engage in a brutal war at UFC 193 in November of 2015. Combat sports are inherently dangerous. The entire point of the sport is to render your opponent unable to continue before he can do the same to you. So it's no surprise that many fighters don't have long careers, at least at the top of the sport, and those that do tend to show the effects of their brutal craft. But when should a fighter decide enough is enough and walk away? Antonio "Bigfoot" Silva has been fighting professionally since 2005 and has a record of 19-12-1. His claim to fame is being the first man to defeat the legendary Fedor Emelianenko when he submitted the Russian in 2011. After entering the UFC in 2012, Silva only managed three wins from 2012 to 2016. He's lost eight of his last ten fights and has been knocked out in all but one of those losses after only being knocked out twice in his career previously. In recent fights, Silva has lo...

When it comes to MMA, everyone loves a finish, whether it comes by KO/TKO or submission. But if given the option, how would you prefer to see a fight end? Obviously, a one-punch knockout or a head kick finish is highly entertaining and can make fans jump out of their seats in reaction. That's what I believe most fans would choose if they had to pick  how a fight should end. The act of rendering an opponent unconscious with a single strike or a combination of strikes draws people back to the gladiator days (luckily without the death and dismemberment). It's made more exciting by the fact that a knockout can come out of nowhere (see Uriah Hall's  finish  in UFC Pittsburgh). Submissions though, there's something to be said for forcing your opponent to quit in a fight. Whether it's a case of prolonged grappling leading to an eventual submission or sinking something like a guillotine choke in when the opponent goes for a takedown, giving your opponen...

A lot of kids grow up watching sports, and many of those kids choose a favorite athlete in the sports they watch. I had a Mario Lemieux poster on my wall growing up, my friends had posters of Michael Jordan, Emmitt Smith, John Elway and countless others on theirs. They seemed larger than life and for myself and my friends, those athletes were who we wanted to be growing up. With that fame, there seemingly comes a level of responsibility as an athlete. If you know that kids are looking up to you, then it only makes sense that you should behave in a way that makes you worthy of being looked up to. But is that fair? And if it is fair, how far does it extend? Do we limit it to "mainstream" athletes? Those in the NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL, etc? What about MMA fighters? Does it extend to them? This comes to mind recently because of the actions, both inside and outside of the cage, of one of the sports most popular fighters. Jon "Bones" Jones may be the greatest combat...