Why Tate deserves more, Holm is still a champ, & Diaz & McGregor are crazy brave
Earlier this week I wrote about how it is high time that Nate Diaz start getting paid better. I should have also mentioned Miesha Tate in the conversation.
Now that she's the new UFC bantamweight champion, I hope she and her management are able to negotiate a far better deal than she has now. The charismatic and popular star headed into UFC 196 as the number one title contender, and a former world champion.
Still, she was paid just $46,000 to show, and another $46,000 because she won. The new UFC champion, who has starred in a reality show, is sponsored by major corporations, and is one of the most recognizable names and faces in women's MMA didn't even clear six figures in official purse Saturday night, even though the event may be the biggest in the promotion's history, and was watched by millions.
That is absurd.
It was Tate who helped launch Ronda Rousey into superstardom with their heated rivalry and season coaching The Ultimate Fighter opposite one another. Rousey is a promotional machine on her own, but to create the type of star she has become, it certainly took two to tango.
Tate's treatment by the promotion has certainly been lacking in more ways than purses. She was passed over last fall for a title shot, despite being the number one contender and being publicly promised on by the UFC's president.
Then, she was nearly passed over again for UFC 196, when the promotion initially tried to insist that Rousey was ready and able to rush back into a pointless immediate rematch with Holm after being dominated by her. Turns out, despite Dana White's insistence that Rousey was ready to begin training for a fight again, she was suicidal, and needed time to recover.
So, Tate got the call. Better late than never.
Now that she's champ, hopefully she won't have to threaten a retirement as she did a couple months ago, just to get what she deserves and has earned.
Humble, but for how long?
Conor McGregor likes to say he's humble in both victory or defeat. Usually, he's humble in either victory or defeat, for a day or two.
After that, he returns to bad-mouthing opponents in the most personal of ways. After losing to Nate Diaz on Saturday -- his first defeat in the UFC -- McGregor was gracious to his opponent, took full responsibility for the loss and gave only real, not back-handed, compliments to Diaz.
Hopefully McGregor won't go back to the childish and bigoted insults the type of which he hurled at Jose Aldo and Nate Diaz in the past, when he starts campaigning for his next bout. The Irishman is better than that, and can be one of the more thoughtful, and interesting people in the sport to listen to.
A note on Holly Holm
Holly Holm is a fighter's fighter. She'd rather train than talk trash, and she'd rather take risky fights instead of waiting for gimme mega-bouts.
That's how she ended up in the cage with Miesha Tate, even when the UFC wanted her to wait for a rematch with Ronda Rousey. Holm fought technically and well, for most of Saturday's five rounds.
In the second round, Tate nearly finished her, with wrestling and a ground submission attack. Holm still hung tough, hand-fighting like the dickens to prevent a rear naked choke even after Tate had gotten under her chin.
In the fifth round, however, Tate connected her hands and locked in a full rear-naked choke. It was very similar to the one that would make Conor McGregor tap-out quickly in the next fight, to Nate Diaz.
Holm, however, did not submit. Apparently the thought never occurred to her, if you listened to her at the post-event press conference.
After she went out-cold, Holm's arms began moving back and forth, as if punching. Holm was fighting, even in her sleep.
She lost, but anyone who is that much of a warrior should always be considered a champion.
False narratives
Two ridiculous ideas were pushed hard, by different corners of the world, leading up to and during Saturday's main event. UFC president Dana White talked-up how crazy brave McGregor -- a featherweight -- was to fight at welterweight, while also diminishing the challenge Diaz was facing in fighting McGregor with no training camp.
Don't believe the hype - Diaz fought McGregor with absolutely no training camp. He took the fight with less than two weeks to go.
White said Diaz was training for an unnamed triathlon so being in shape to fight MMA for five rounds would be no big thing. It was the type of thing only someone who has never trained for a triathlon or an MMA fight could say or believe.
Sadly, the notion was picked up by TV commentators as well. The truth is, there was always a question of how well Conor's bigger body would hold up, and how well Nate's would, without the benefit of a training camp to condition it.
Running isn't punching, swimming isn't wrestling, and riding a bicycle isn't anything resembling fighting a man trained to kill, for 25 minutes in a cage.
At the highest levels, the bit of sharpness, timing, and conditioning honed through long and focused training camps is often what makes the difference in a fight. Diaz went into UFC 196 with none of that, and still won.
That is simply amazing.
What Conor McGregor tried to do was also almost unbelievable. Some tried to downplay McGregor fighting at welterweight because he supposedly walks around at that weight, but there are weight-classes for a reason, and Conor McGregor is a featherweight, plain and simple.
Sure, he fought in the UK at lightweight several times. The bulk of his career, and almost all of his major success has come at 145 pounds, however.
Yes, he cuts a lot of weight to compete there. So do all of his opponents.
Weight-cutting is a part of the sport, unfortunately. That Conor McGregor would compete at a weight class nearly 25 pounds heavier than he weighed-in at just a couple months ago is almost idiotically brave.
As great of a fighter as McGregor is, he's even more brave than good. It was a huge gamble, and I'm not so sure the damage he took was worth the risk, but no one can say that Conor McGregor doesn't lay it on the line and isn't willing to back up his talk.
