History was made last night for the sport of MMA. Junior Dos Santos and Cain Velasquez squared off for the Heavyweight Championship of the World and in just a minute and 4 seconds Junior was pulled off of Cain Velasquez and won the fight by TKO. Junior was so emotional he was brought to tears after the fight. You could just see how bad he wanted it. Cain was humble in defeat congratulating his opponent saying he fought a great fight. It's too bad that a great heavyweight spectacle was overshadowed and the debut of the sport of MMA on network television was all but ruined by the President of the UFC.
After the fight, just like the before the fight, the show went to the booth and Fox broadcaster Curt Menefee. Alongside Menefee was UFC President Dana White and former UFC Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar. Dana was visibly upset from the onset. Dana began to throw Cain Velasquez and his entire training camp at the reknown American Kickboxing Academy under the bus. Dana questioned why Cain didn't go for the takedown early in the fight instead trying to stand and bang with Junior. Dana called it stupid gameplanning. Then, and most shocking to me, he said, about his new champion, that he is known for getting tired in the latter rounds of fights. That was his first comment made about his newly crowned champion. Not congratulations, he fought a good fight or like Brock Lesnar said, "Hats off." On top of this you could see by Dana White's body language how upset he was. So upset that Junior Dos Santos won and Cain lost. So upset that the fight only last 1 minute which aside from scripting the fight you have absolutely no control over.
Now let's move onto the postfight press conference. After watching the Fox postfight I was stunned that Dana acted the way he did and thought it could just be the heat of the moment and he needed some time to cool off and that the press conference would be different. I was wrong. Dana basically repeated the same thing and then, and I dont know what prompted this, told the fans to stop "b***hing" about not seeing other fights and if they wanted to see all the fights they should have bought a "f***ing" ticket. This is the President of the UFC calling out it's FANS. My mind was completely blown after this and I was mulling all night exactly what I was going to say about Dana White this morning.
First let me point out some of the idiotic comments Dana made. Before the fight Dana was said and I quote, "Whether this fight lasts 30 seconds or 30 minutes, it's going to be an exciting fight." So obviously with it lasting a minute and 4 seconds Dana shouldn't of had a problem. Dana said that Cain should have came out and went for the takedown early and not stand and trade with Junior. Dana, the fight lasted a minute and 4 seconds, it was still very early in the fight. Cain was in the feeling out process, finding the range getting prepared to shoot in for the takedown. Did you want this to be a wrestling match where Cain laid on top of Junior for 5 rounds? That would have been the worst case scenario all around. The next thing Dana said was that Junior is known for getting tired late in fights. Really? That's odd, I've watched all of Junior's fights and have never seen him gas. Obviously come the 3rd round your not as fresh as you were in the first round but he has never gassed or come close to gassing. The beating that Junior put on Roy Nelson was a 3 round beatdown that, thanks to Roy's incredible chin and durability, went to a decision, but Junior was far from gassed. For Dana to negatively comment on the newly crowned champion is stupid, thoughtless and groundless based on what he said. Dana acted like a spoiled brat kid who had just gotten his new toy taken away as opposed to the supposedly unbiased President of the company.
Dana White singlehandedly made the sport look bad. Brock Lesnar had more professionalism and this is a guy who spent a long time in the WWE. Cain was a cash cow for Dana and was hyped up as this Mexican-American wrecking machine who beat the untouchable Brock Lesnar so he, in turn, is invincible. Junior went out and dissipated the air of invincibility with a single punch and Dana's new heavyweight ATM, Cain Velasquez, went down in a heap. Dana should have been able to disguise his emotion on the nationally televised broadcast but he wasn't able to and showed blatant bias toward Cain. So much so that it was sickening. It's like Roger Goodell going to an NFL game and wearing a specific teams jersey. A big no no.
Lastly, I want to say that I hope the next show can bounce back and Dana learns to control his emotion no matter the circumstance. There were a few kinks in the first MMA production on network television but overall it was a good product that hopefully attracted new fans. Also, a big congratulations goes out to the new UFC Heavyweight Champion, Junior Dos Santos. He did what he does and finished the fight early. I said before the fight that he has the best hands in the heavyweight division and he proved it last night. The best thing about it is, it couldn't have happened to a nicer person.
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