Barber suffered her first-ever professional defeat after losing by unanimous decision to Roxanne Modafferi at UFC 246 earlier this month. “The Future” notably tore her left ACL during the fight and had the doctor check on it following the end of the second round.

Barber, however, seemed baffled by that as she felt the doctor gave away her injury to Modafferi. She also added that it made the injury more prominent to herself and that if she saw her opponent get their knee treated, she would have targeted that body part.

Of course, Modafferi didn’t target Barber’s left knee at all. But that didn’t stop Barber from making those comments while her father also claimed that the doctor would be taken to court.

For Bisping, all this is ridiculous as the doctor was simply doing his job and making sure the fighters are healthy enough to continue.

“The doctor’s just doing his fucking job,” Bisping said on his podcast. “If you get an elbow in the face and it’s pouring blood everywhere, and the doctor goes ‘stop, stop, stop, I’m going to take a look at it’ — you can’t go ‘oh, he’s highlighting my cut face!’ It’s tough shit. But you got injured in the fight and it’s his job to say ‘hold on a minute, I need to check that leg.’ Because let’s say it’s really fucking torn and it’s bad, you can call off the fight and say she’s not fit to fight and she’s going to do herself more damage.

“He was looking out for her! I get it, she’s a young fighter, it’s her first loss, she’s not used to dealing with it — but it’s not a good look.”

Barber was a huge betting favorite going into the fight, with many touting her to break Jon Jones’ record of being the youngest-ever champion in UFC history in the future. Although she can still break that record, this defeat was a big setback.

Bisping advised her and her father to deal with the loss and come back stronger rather than continuing to make excuses.

“Just deal with it, accept it, you got beat fair and square by the better person on the day,” Bisping added. “Come back and get them next time. Bitching about this, you’re not going to win any fans in my opinion by doing this.”

The post Michael Bisping berates Maycee Barber’s excuses: ‘You’re not going to win any fans’ appeared first on The Body Lock.

The former lightweight champion suffered his second loss in a row following his unanimous decision defeat to Michael Chiesa at UFC Raleigh this past weekend.

It also put him at 1-4 in his last five fights. But it’s not like he’s getting outclassed or knocked out in those defeats. After all, he didn’t suffer much damage in his loss to Chiesa, who mainly controlled him on the ground and outgrappled him.

However, he is suffering from being undersized in the welterweight division, especially when his last four losses have come against bigger opponents.

And former teammate Michael Bisping isn’t sure where the Brazilian goes from here.

“It’s a tough one for Dos Anjos because where does he go now?” Bisping said on his podcast. “The problem is for him, he’s too small for welterweight. Yeah, he makes welterweight. In fact, two weeks ago when I was in the gym, he was 185 pounds. So he’s not a small welterweight.

“But he is too small. Look at Kamaru [Usman], look at Chiesa. There’s some big welterweights out there. He’s too big for 155 because making 155 kills him and he did that for a long time and he’s a little undersized at welterweight.

“He’s the perfect candidate for the 165-pound division. But listen, well done to Michael Chiesa. Biggest win of his career. And maybe fighting Colby Covington then.”

Dos Anjos would certainly be a perfect candidate for a 165-pound division. It’s a weight class that many, such as Kevin Lee, Dustin Poirier and Nate Diaz have previously called for as well.

However, UFC president Dana White doesn’t seem to be on board with the idea.

The post Michael Bisping not sure where Rafael dos Anjos goes now following Michael Chiesa defeat appeared first on The Body Lock.

Fresh off the fastest knockout in UFC history following his flying knee on Ben Askren, Masvidal appeared on the ESPN post-fight show and was standing alongside Bisping. For those who don’t remember, the two don’t like each other, or at least, that was the case.

It appeared the beef started when Bisping ripped up a Cuba flag while Yoel Romero was competing against Robert Whittaker at UFC 213 two years ago. Masvidal, whose father is Cuban, and is also a teammate and friend to Romero, naturally took offense.

No disrespect to all of the English but @bisping is a bitch #easymoney https://t.co/S2DKTJmnJb

— BMF.eth (@GamebredFighter) July 8, 2017

They then confronted each other in a heated altercation leading up to UFC 217 in New York a couple of months later.

There were multiple other confrontations between the pair that followed, including one in China, right after Bisping was knocked out by Kelvin Gastelum. Leading up to his UFC London fight with Darren Till, Masvidal revealed in a previous incident that Bisping was talking smack to him in front of his family. Bisping, meanwhile, would deny this.

Regardless of who was telling the truth, it was clear they did not like each other. But for Bisping’s part, he did hope to end the beef should he have crossed paths with “Gamebred” during UFC London.

And that seems to be the case as Masvidal explained how Bisping, now retired and inducted into the Hall of Fame, earned his respect.

“Right before my fight with Till, if Bisping wanted to be an asshole, he could have,” Masvidal said on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show. “It was right before my fight. And he wasn’t. He was anything but. And that showed me so much fucking respect and class from him. We hadn’t really ever seen each other. So he’s just seen me, he looked at me, shook his head and put his hand down. I forgot what he said. ‘Good luck’ or ‘good day,’ something like that.

“I just thought it was cool that he wasn’t a dick when he knew I had a fight coming up. He could have tried to fuck with me, throw me off my zone. Which wouldn’t have worked but you know, there’s a lot of assholes like that. And it was just cool that he didn’t. So after that, I was like ‘man, this is bullshit. Let’s just put it in the past.’ You know?”

Of course, Masvidal’s problems with Askren don’t seem like ending anytime soon.

The post Jorge Masvidal says beef with Michael Bisping is over appeared first on The Body Lock.

Insofar as utility for the UFC, Bisping is unmatched; not only was he a successful fighter who had fought under the UFC banner for a decade, he also proved a uniquely successful promotional figure and provided value even post-retirement as an analyst and commentator. “The Count” was a lock for the UFC Hall Of Fame even prior to his title run; however, his legacy as a fighter is controversial despite an array of late-career performances that stand up to anyone’s in middleweight history. It’s a true testament to Bisping’s late-career technical renaissance that he became champion post-prime in a division where his opposition was scarier than ever.

The Gatekeeper

In truth, early-career Bisping wasn’t particularly good; his reputation as a gatekeeper at that point was a relatively sound one, as the challenge to beating him was more his unique attributes for the weight class than anything else. Bisping had a good idea of how to effectively leverage these attributes, but it wasn’t a function of technical depth; at that point in his career, Bisping basically just threw 1-2s over and over, but kept such a torrid pace that middleweights simply couldn’t keep up over the distance. Combined with excellent defensive grappling and underrated finishing instincts (despite not being particularly powerful, if Bisping saw his man tired, he’d pour it on in the pocket and in the clinch), Bisping was relatively successful despite a shallow offensive game.

What let Bisping down against the elite fighters of his time was his lack of reliable defense; in conjunction with his relative discomfort as a counterpuncher and his lack of power for the weight class, Bisping’s vulnerability in the pocket meant that an opponent who committed to just wading forward and punching him could often do so. In fact, one of the promotional angles for Bisping’s fight against Jorge Rivera was Bisping getting tagged by right hands often, and Jorge being able to throw a right hand. C.B. Dollaway was able to reliably catch Bisping with the left hook (dropping him on the exit in the first round, and basically spamming it for the rest of the fight with a disturbing amount of success), and Wanderlei Silva tanked through the offense of Bisping to get a close decision.

Bisping’s defensive vulnerabilities made him a notorious call-out target for a middleweight looking for a step-up; a fight against ‘The Count’ meant an opponent who could be hit and leaned on his recoverability relatively often, and also meant (more often than not) a huge stage on which to perform. Bisping was a bit of a project for the UFC from the beginning, as the man to open up the British market, so he got some preferential treatment in terms of promotion; Bisping helped that along with his own antics (his weigh-ins were famous for a lot of aggressive pointing and Bisping jawing the entire time), as well as a style guaranteeing a fight that wasn’t likely to be boring. Bisping was aggressive enough that his one-sided fights were demolitions where Bisping did nothing but attack for minutes at a time, and he wasn’t hard to drag into a war.

Bisping inhabited that space for the better part of his career, as an action fighter and a test for someone meant to be elite; each time Bisping seemed to get a crack at the elite, though, he would falter, and he had real trouble amassing momentum from 2012 through 2014 (a seven-fight stretch in which he alternated wins and losses). Bisping had almost gotten to a title shot with the preceding winstreak, only to lose a very questionable decision to Chael Sonnen; he went 3-3 in the following two years, and sustained a vicious eye injury at the hands of an absurdly-enhanced Vitor Belfort in the process. Bisping still found success, putting on a classic performance to rip apart the face of Cung Le, but the one-sided loss to Luke Rockhold in November of 2014 seemed to signal the end of the line for Bisping’s title hopes in the face of a bigger, more athletic, better-rounded generation.

The Contender

That Michael Bisping was able to win the belt after all can largely be attributed to Jason Parillo, Bisping’s coach after Bisping’s split with Wolfslair. Parillo hasn’t built a stable as recognizable as the more notable MMA supergyms, but the fighters who spent time in RVCA have reliably shown stronger boxing fundamentals and pocket defense; Rafael dos Anjos honed his boxing with Parillo before he dominated Robbie Lawler in a career-best performance, and Cris Cyborg developed some of the best boxing and defense in WMMA after she joined Parillo. Bisping was no different; with more miles on the clock than almost anyone and an eye that seemed dire at best, Bisping strung together unusually thoughtful performances and showed skills that he hadn’t fully leveraged prior.

The best example of such technical development was the first two rounds of Bisping’s fight against Anderson Silva; the fight overall ended up controversial, due to a third-round knee severely stunning (and, as many maintain, knocking out) Bisping, but it can’t really be denied that Bisping won the first two rounds in a fashion that most didn’t see happening. While a lot of Classical Bisping was there (constant feinting and activity), some useful new wrinkles were comfort under fire and a good left hook; the former allowed Bisping to hold Silva off as he charged forward at the end of round 1, lacing him with counters on the way in, while the latter allowed Bisping to use the left hook as a throwaway punch and step in with a combination as Silva threw himself out of position.

The Rockhold rematch showed similar skills, but also a sort of fight IQ that Bisping hasn’t shown in the past; early Bisping fought his fight every time, but at UFC 199, Bisping did everything possible to accentuate his strengths in the face of Rockhold’s limitations. Bisping’s approach against Rockhold in 2014 made the American look invincible, as Bisping ran forward with 1-2s and got nowhere, but Bisping circling away from the left kick and drawing out the check hook to force Rockhold to actually box made him look uncomfortable. Bisping pressed his edge and got the first-round knockout, sitting down on a shifting counter left that caught Rockhold clean before he could bail out of the pocket. It was one of the smartest rematch performances ever, and one that could have only been executed by the Bisping of RVCA.

The Champion

If there’s a tragic aspect to the Bisping story, it’s that he didn’t join Jason Parillo sooner; Bisping hit his best iteration in early-to-mid 2016, where he still had enough athleticism to make his technical developments relevant, but he plummeted athletically soon afterwards. ‘Peak’ Bisping was more his second peak than his first, when he seemed to hit his stride with Parillo in his corner and put together showings that suggested that his technical development more than made up for his athletic decline; however, if both had converged, Bisping’s career would likely be seen with far more respect. As is, Bisping had two performances that gave hints of a more polished and smarter competitor, but his first title defense (getting tagged multiple times by the one-note right hand of Dan Henderson) was decidedly shaky and suggested that he was athletically too far gone.

Even a clearly declined Bisping still had one great performance left in him, against one of the greatest fighters of all time in Georges Saint-Pierre. Granted, the fight wasn’t exactly a legitimate title defense, but the fight was excellent despite both Bisping and Saint-Pierre looking like diminished versions of themselves. While the fight didn’t show that Bisping could have hung with prime GSP, Bisping did show a few tools that very clearly gave Saint-Pierre’s usual tools some trouble; Bisping was able to jab with GSP with a good amount of success, and frustrate his top control with a very good getup game and a Ferguson-esque guard approach (cutting GSP open with elbows from the bottom). Bisping came away with a loss, but the performance was respectable at the very least.

The Gastelum loss meant very little, considering the circumstances; Bisping entered on short-notice, and it was only three weeks after the loss to Saint-Pierre (the fill-in was only even possible because Shanghai didn’t have an athletic commission). What it did serve to do was confirm the conclusions that one could have drawn since UFC 204; Bisping was declined enough that any edge in skill probably wouldn’t mean much in the face of speed and power. Gastelum’s technical approach was somewhat reminiscent of early Bisping, in the sense that it relied on constant 1-2s and relentlessness; while Bisping was able to pour on volume early, it was really only a matter of time until Gastelum’s power became relevant in the face of his athletic edge and Bisping’s defensive issues.

Michael Bisping turned out to be an intensely controversial fighter, largely due to his title reign being outright bad; no one had any illusions that Dan Henderson and GSP were the ones deserving to fight the champion, especially when Robert Whittaker won the interim title and never got a unification bout. That said, Bisping’s career is the kind that deserves a Hall Of Fame induction even beyond just “opening up the UK for the UFC”; it takes a very special fighter to make the sort of strides Bisping did in just a few years, so late in his career, to beat a fighter as excellent as Luke Rockhold, especially when Rockhold had proven to be a prohibitively difficult fight for him in 2014. There are very few underdog stories as compelling, and that win alone justifies Michael Bisping’s status as a legend of the sport.

The post A Retrospective on Michael Bisping appeared first on The Body Lock.

Two notes before we get into the list.

• There is a difference between the “greatest” upset and the “biggest” upset. Greatest is subject to historical context and fan favoritism while measuring the sheer scale of the upset is not.
• We consider both odds going into the fight and pundit analysis. As you know, there are many fights in which the odds do not reflect fan or expert opinion.

For example, Nate Diaz beating Conor McGregor on short notice is considered an upset. But Nate was the biggest fighter Conor had ever fought, and he faced a height and reach disadvantage for the first time in the UFC, the Irishman plausibly crumbled. So despite a huge fan reaction, the fight didn’t make this list.

Honorable Mentions:

• Amanda Nunes def. Cris Cyborg
• Frankie Edgar def. BJ Penn I
• Fabricio Werdum def. Cain Velasquez

5. Holly Holm def. Ronda Rousey/Chris Weidman def. Anderson Silva I

Starting off the list, we have a pair of upsets that are nearly identical in what they represent.

Both Rousey and Anderson stomped their respective divisions. In their primes, both were the face of the UFC. And both of them saw a fall from grace arguably unmatched by any other UFC ex-champions. So why are they so low on the list?

Well, as I’ve stated in the case of Holm vs. Rousey, a lot of knowledgeable pundits and fans believed the upset was plausible. In Rousey’s case, Holm was the best athlete and striker she’d faced in a threadbare division. Before the Weidman upset, reliable fighters and pointed out that the American was a stylistic nightmare for Silva (they were right).

So while these upsets are significant in UFC history, the actual magnitude is much lower.

4. TJ Dillashaw def. Renan Barao I

There was no way to see this coming, because the TJ Dillashaw that stepped in against Renan Barao was a different fighter.

For a long time, Dillashaw existed as a typical boxer/wrestler hybrid. He came into UFC 173 with an 8-2 record, splitting his last two fights. Considering the opposition Barao embarrassed, people had little faith in a man who’s most recent win was a unanimous decision over Mike Easton. As it turned out, a different man stepped into the ring.

Against Barao, Dillashaw morphed into an unbelievable striker. He faked, dodged and countered Barao’s increasingly panicked haymakers. Instead of attacking him head-on, he constantly shifted stances and sidestepped to find angles. If Barao’s defense was a colander, Dillashaw’s fists and shins was a steady stream of water. It is not an exaggeration to say that Dillashaw became twice the fighter he was before seemingly overnight.

And it wasn’t a fluke either, because Dillashaw is now the greatest bantamweight in history.

3. Rose Namajunas def. Joanna Jedrzejczyk I

The same as #4, but even better.

Young and hungry, Rose Namajunas didn’t impress in her early fights. The fact she got a title shot with a 6-3 record and splitting her last two revealed the lack of depth at women’s strawweight. The loss came against Karolina Kowalkiewicz, a fighter that lost to the champion already. Conversely, Joanna Jedrzejczyk was a multiple-time world champion kickboxer and undefeated. With all due respect to the strawweights of the time, Joanna looked like an actual championship caliber fighter in a division full of good athletes with rudimentary skills.

Then Rose came out and pasted her in one round. Nothing indicated that the woman who submitted the comparatively diminutive Michelle Waterson. And yet her razor-left hook dropped Joanna in the fight’s opening action. As though to silence anyone doubting it as a fluke, Rose stepped in deep with another left which this time put Joanna down for good.

The young, athletic girl with rudimentary skills evolved into a terrific power striker with no warning.

2. Michael Bisping def. Luke Rockhold II

Now we get into challengers who, even after winning, were the provably inferior fighter.

For the longest time, Michael Bisping was the bridesmaid instead of the bride. Good enough to beat talented middleweights, he fell short against title-caliber opposition. Sometimes, it was a questionable decision such as his decision loss to Chael Sonnen. But many times, fighters simply outclassed him.

He’d made incremental improvements to his game over the years. He developed a decent left hook, didn’t run straight backward after every exchange and could actually hang in exchanges. But he still nearly lost to a geriatric Anderson Silva. So when he filled in for Chris Weidman on two weeks notice to rematch Rockhold, few had faith.

A few years ago, Rockhold was the best middleweight on Earth. Other than a setback against the TRT-infused Vitor Belfort, the lanky Californian had dissected every UFC opponent including Weidman.

Bisping did better; he didn’t run into check hooks and he baited Rockhold into missing several times. But he still couldn’t reach Rockhold with his power punches, and the few body kicks he ate visibly pained him. But then Rockhold stepped too deep on a missed jab and tried to pull straight back like he did every other time.

Except Bisping’s left hook caught him on the chin perfectly. Rockhold never recovered and went to sleep seconds later. It wasn’t a lucky punch; Bisping was aiming for that sort of collision whenever he threw his left over the top. But it was the best punch he’d landed in his entire career, and would land since.

On short notice, the rightful underdog found the perfect shot to take out a fighter he had no business beating.

1. Matt Serra def. Georges St-Pierre

Georges St-Pierre is, without a doubt, the greatest welterweight in history. Depending on how you view  Jon Jones’ drug tests and Anderson Silva’s quality of opposition, he may be the greatest MMA fighter ever. His record clocks in at an outstanding 26-2. Matt Hughes had the luck of catching St-Pierre in his eighth professional fight, well before his best. But the second loss? No one saw it coming.

By UFC 69, GSP was 13-1. His final win came via head kick over Matt Hughes to take the belt, avenging his only loss. Matt Serra, on the other hand, split his last six fights and fought four of those at lightweight. He gave up height, reach and speed and the only reason he got the fight was because he won the TUF 2 tournament.

At 5-foot-6 with a 69-inch reach, Serra was on the small side even as a lightweight. At welterweight, GSP dwarfed him almost comically. The NY native found himself at a disadvantage in height, reach, agility and talent. Plus, he’d only finished one opponent in the UFC and that was five years ago. There was no plausible way for him to win.

Keyword: Plausible

As GSP used superior footwork and striking to do what everyone expected him to do, Serra kept swinging at the Canadian’s ribs with his right hand. They weren’t anything to write home about, but GSP couldn’t just ignore them. Even if he won the striking exchanges, he had no intention of taking Serra’s power hand to the body repeatedly. So three minutes into the fight, Serra stepped in for a right hand and GSP lowered his guard.

Except Serra was aiming for his head.

It caught the champion behind the ear and Serra swarmed him. His short reach let him pump out right hand after right hand all of which landed and hurt GSP. Just 30 seconds after the miracle punch, a right caught GSP squarely on the chin and the rest is history.

Serra never recaptured the magic of that night. He couldn’t. GSP crushed him in the rematch and he retired off a 1-3 skid. Have them fight 20 times and GSP would win 19 of them. But somewhere in there, a short and proud New Yorker caught lightning in a bottle.

So, if Anthony Smith manages to beat Jon Jones where would he make it on this list? Stick around for part 2 to find out!

The post The 5 biggest upsets in UFC history appeared first on The Body Lock.

Trash-talking your opponent is nothing new. Think back to your childhood and no doubt there would’ve been that one little punk who sassed you in front of all your friends with a well-timed jibe. You threw some heat back their way, set a date and time (usually after school behind the bike-sheds) and by the end of the day the whole school was there to watch the super-fight go down. Really, apart from a few trifling differences, huge six-figure paydays and a vast outreach to millions of spectators among them, the fight game hasn’t changed all that much. It’s an inescapable fact that trash-talking sells fights. Instead of yelling at that one kid you don’t like, you now sit back and send him or her a few barbed tweets, wait for the incensed replies, and hope that the matchmakers are paying attention.

But it’s only been in the last several years that fighters have begun to elevate trash-talking to an art form, to make it as important to their game as strength and conditioning, or cardio. Why? With so many promotions and so many hopeful prospects to fill them, fighters can’t just rely on spectacular finishes alone to gain the edge.

Trash-talking then and now

Gone are the golden days when silent killers like Royce Gracie decimated the competition, only to bow and praise their opponents afterward. Honor, humility, and respect were all hallowed virtues to live by, and anyone who did not display these qualities was no better than a know-nothing street brawler.

That was a time when the world had yet to wake up to the phenomenon of MMA, when fighters earned not much more than concussions and coupons to the local restaurant for their efforts, and social media was merely an echo of some shadowy future. Those early pioneers fought for the love of their craft and the respect of their peers, not their bank accounts.

Fast forward a decade or two, and while those trail-blazers may have become MMA royalty, their code of ethics has largely been subsumed by the very street brawlers they once fought against. One of the earliest fighters to reach a greater audience through trash-talking was Chael Sonnen. A middle-of-the-road wrestler, it was his wits and his quick tongue rather than his fists that propelled him to early fame. And perhaps he was the first to ever practice his lines in a mirror beforehand, who knows?

[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=”16″] “I’m sore, tired, under the weather, over-trained and under-motivated and still tough enough to beat this guy.”   [/perfectpullquote]

[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=”16″]“I want an easy fight. Anderson Silva, Wanderlei Silva, either of the Silvas. Bigfoot Silva. They all suck. Gimme a Silva!”[/perfectpullquote]

[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=”16″]“Two half-naked men are going to get into a steel cage and fight for the applause of a drunken rowdy crowd; you don’t need to plan for that.”[/perfectpullquote]

While many had mean or amusing things to say about their opponents before fights, it was Sonnen who wrote the blueprint for creating hype, and even though he often lost, beaten by opponents who paid more attention to their training, he remained a crowd favourite simply because people really wanted to see this disrespectful loudmouth get his head kicked in.

When it goes right

These days it seems as though every fighter and his dog has a few choice lines to spit whenever there’s a microphone handy. And with social media serving as an all-pervasive and immediate forum, they don’t even need those anymore. With only a few belts to go around, and hundreds of fighters clambering over each other for them, it’s the one with the biggest lungs who succeeds.

You may be thinking, hang on, what about guys like Cerrone, Lawler, Lauzon, Teixeira, Miller; crowd favorites who’ve never had a bad word to say about their opponents yet. And while that’s true, they had to fight through hell to get there, in a time when there were far fewer contemporaries on the roster. They and those of their ilk no longer need to self-promote when they come with a readymade sachet of rabid fans that only takes a moment in the microwave to prepare. The new breed has no such luxury and must seize every opportunity they can, fighting tooth and nail to single themselves out from the crowd. And we as fans are then forced to listen to whatever ridiculous nonsense they have to say just to get to the seemingly less important bit where they do the actual face-punching thing.

The McGregor effect

Where would Conor McGregor be if he wasn’t a fan of the spotlight, if he just kept his head down and concentrated on his fighting? Given his technical skill and power, no doubt he would still be great, but it is his mouth that has propelled him to the top of the mountain, not his abilities alone, and it has polarized fans the world over.

Let’s take his win over Jose Aldo, for example. A rooster in a run of hens, McGregor burst onto the scene and immediately woke everyone up with his damned irritating early-morning yodeling. Having only fought a handful of times against fairly second-rate competition, he was fast-tracked into the title picture because the UFC saw a quick and easy route to huge profits and a greater global outreach. Harness the love of the casual fan, and you’re golden, baby. It’s likely that not even the UFC foresaw the kind of monster they were about to unleash.

When his title fight was announced, McGregor immediately launched into a relentless campaign of sledging and insults, of heinous disrespect and public spectacle that lassoed the attention of millions. Here was this wild-eyed little Irishman who nobody could really understand very well, capering about in front of the cameras like some bearded clown. He fired one-liners and gags left and right like a possessed assault rifle, all at a target that had never experienced such a barrage before. And added to that, Aldo’s English was almost non-existent. Sitting at the press conferences vibrating almost out of his chair with rage, he knew he was being mocked, yet he didn’t know what the Irishman was, in fact, saying to him.

[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=”16″]“If this was a different time, Oi would invade his favela on horseback.”[/perfectpullquote]

[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=”16″]“Tell him ‘Oi’m his daddy.’ Sit on my lap, boy.”[/perfectpullquote]

[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=”16″]“After that Mendes fight, which arguably could have gone to him, you look like you’ve had a stroke, the left side of yer face is droopin’. Oi’m worried about you. Oi love you like my bitch.”[/perfectpullquote]

It’s no surprise, then, that Aldo was looking to even the score when they eventually met in the cage. McGregor’s relentless onslaught had effectively won him the fight before he’d even entered the octagon. So angry was he at McGregor that Aldo erupted forward wildly, game-plan thrown out the window, and wound up on the floor, minus his belt.

Would McGregor have had the same success if he’d kept his mouth shut and been respectful to his opponent? It’s impossible to say, but it can’t be denied that it was his mind and his confidence to use it that packed as great an impact as his left hand that night.

Another noteworthy occasion where trash-talk swayed the outcome of a fight was Nate Diaz versus Donald Cerrone. Bullish to the last and utterly impossible to intimidate, Diaz’s staunch disrespect came to a head when he flipped Cerrone’s Stetson from his head at weigh-ins. Did the hat really need to be present, considering it was indoors, and probably night at the time? No. But on the flipside, if there’s one thing you don’t do to a cowboy, it’s mess with his Stetson, so you can appreciate why Cerrone might have been a little bit salty about the whole affray. Desperately wanting to put a cork (and his foot) in Diaz’s mumbling grill, Cerrone effectively forgot how to Octagon, and wound up on the wrong side of one of the biggest significant strike tallies in UFC lightweight history.

When it goes bad

At best, trash-talking is a little irritating, but entertaining nonetheless. At worst, it’s hurtful, disrespectful, ugly, and largely unnecessary. And more than that, it can only have heinous consequences for the perpetrator if things don’t go the way he or she planned. We return to Chael Sonnen as a prime example. After his first contest with then UFC middleweight champ Anderson Silva, which was his to lose up until that unfortunate triangle choke in the fifth round, he campaigned relentlessly for a rematch, using every opportunity he could to openly and venomously (albeit in amusing and cleverly worded ways) deride Silva both personally and professionally. It eventually paid off, and Sonnen got his rematch. It paid off perhaps a little too well, as Silva’s ire was raised, ending in a stoppage win for the Brazilian in the second round.

We move to two recent examples of trash-talking gone wrong that occurred on the same card. Let’s start with former UFC strawweight queen Joanna Champion (I’m not even sure there are enough consonants in the English alphabet to go in her last name), and her bout against then-challenger, Rose Namajunas. Up until that night, Joanna had blitzed every opponent she had ever faced (with the exception of her first fight against Claudia Gadelha, but that’s another story), so her confidence going into the fight was riding an all-time high. And why not? She’d come off a dominant win against Jessica Andrade, a lady-tank many thought would be the Polish killer’s staunchest test.

Joanna is famous for her pre-fight nastiness, writing mean things on her water bottles, getting into the faces of her opponents, whispering evil little comments into their ears at weigh-ins, and even in the case of Rose, giving her beak a little tap with her fist. It had worked to tremendous effect in the past. She intimidated everybody, not just other girls in her division, and it certainly appeared as though Rose was scared stiff. And then Joanna took her trash-talk a step too far.

[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=”16″]“The boogie-woman is coming for you!”[/perfectpullquote]

[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=”16″]“You know what? I will take your soul.”[/perfectpullquote]

She started to believe her own hype, to believe she truly was unstoppable. It’s the Rousey curse. As soon as you say your goal is to retire undefeated, you will be defeated. Khabib, pay attention to that, please. The next night, the boogie-woman was exposed, the 0 taken from her record as well as her belt and a significant proportion of her reputation as well.

And then there’s Michael Bisping. Where to even start? He seems to have a God-given talent for making mortal enemies of not only his opponents but also nearly everyone around him. Even his kids famously root against him. And it’s been remarked upon before that it took Bisping just days to do what Sonnen could only manage after years of trying: to bring out Anderson Silva’s dark side.

Enter Georges St-Pierre. An MMA legend, future hall-of-famer, and as far as Bisping was concerned, cake money. Here was another instance of a smooth-tongued trash-talker overflowing with confidence and a penchant for performing in front of a crowd, utterly rinsing a man who was famously none of the above. And to boot, St-Pierre’s English has never been the greatest. It was shades of McGregor versus Aldo.

Bisping had the opportunity for months to work his way into the Canadian’s head, and boy did he do his best. Though it no doubt lost him plenty of fans, he was laying the foundations for a performance in the cage that would secure not only his belt but his somewhat egregious legacy as a giant-killer. He did the same to Silva and then Luke Rockhold, so why not St-Pierre? After all, how many interviews and press events did they do side by side? St-Pierre could only laugh awkwardly and stutter out some faltering retort in the few instances when Bisping drew breath, knowing he was losing the battle of words abysmally.

[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=”16″]“Come on Georges, you look like a history teacher.”[/perfectpullquote]

[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=”16″] “Look at your big fat face, taking all those protein shakes…”   [/perfectpullquote]

[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=”16″] “If you want to go out filling holes, that’s up to you pal.”   [/perfectpullquote]

[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=”16″] “Listen, Georges is a very good wrestler, but do you know what the best takedown in the game is? A left hook.”   [/perfectpullquote]

As an aside, here’s the thing with trash-talking. You can’t knock somebody out with an insult, no matter how cutting it is, nor how fluidly it’s delivered. Where it served McGregor well in one fight, arguably gaining him the belt, it famously abandoned him in the next. Like trying to smash a window with a gummy bear, all of the Irishman’s best artillery simply pinged off Nate Diaz’s impenetrable armor of belligerent stoicism. And when the cage door was closed the tables turned, Diaz not only mocking and slapping his opponent, but forcing him to tap as well. There has never been a better example of trash-talk gone wrong in all of MMA, and it prompted one of the most iconic lines in UFC history:

[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=”16″]“I’m not surprised, mother***ers.”[/perfectpullquote]

The same scene was repeated when Bisping had to shut his mouth and start using his fists. Unlike Aldo, Georges St-Pierre was unmoved by his opponent’s endlessly quotable barbs, and it ended in Bisping taking a little nap, effectively rendering all of that tireless groundwork before the fight a waste of time.

A new era

2017 could be said to be the peak of trash-talking when we consider the spectacle of ‘The Money Fight’.

This was an opportunity for Conor McGregor’s fast-talking prowess to shine. In an event that quickly stole the world’s attention, the Irishman was put on stage in front of an audience of millions; not just followers of MMA and boxing, but an entire legion of casual fans who hadn’t previously paid any attention to the world of combat sports. He had the stage, a microphone, a willing audience and a passive target in Floyd Mayweather who, like Aldo and St-Pierre, just wasn’t in the same league. Did Mayweather sit down with pen and paper with the aim of listing possible taunts, only to get called away after jotting down just the one line, “Hard work”, or was that the best he could come up with?

Conversely, McGregor had the world eating out of his hands. With little resistance coming back his way, he easily made himself the hero, and Mayweather the contemptible villain, destined for a humbling defeat. Just as he did in his MMA career, McGregor wrapped around himself the aura of perfection, and drew a sparkling gauze down over the eyes of everyone watching. How could he lose, when he had so thoroughly destroyed his lesser competition in the build-up? After all, all Mayweather could do was sit in the cocoon of his numerous bodyguards and smile mutely back at the crowd, the microphone in his hand all but useless. Was it even turned on? Does anybody even remember what he said in riposte to McGregor’s ceaseless assault? There are too many gems to quote:

[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=”16″]“His little legs, his little head; I’m going to knock him out inside four rounds, mark my words.”[/perfectpullquote]

[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=”16″]“On the count of tree, everyone scream, ‘fook the Maywedders!’”[/perfectpullquote]

[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=”16″] “What are you doing wit a schoolbag on stage? You can’t even read!”   [/perfectpullquote]

The fog of invincibility Mcgregor had conjured for himself was back thicker than ever, which only made the fight’s outcome that much more anticlimactic. He had spectacularly failed to live up to his own hype, trounced by Mayweather round after round before being stopped in the tenth.

McGregor’s unabashed response? “I go tru a wobbly patch in the tenth, oi tort it was an early stoppage, but fair play to him.”

The Money Fight is a good example of what happens when the spectacle eclipses the main event itself. It doesn’t really matter that McGregor lost. He was never expected to win. All the world wanted was to be entertained, to be offered up a satisfying illusion that we could all buy into, and he provided it. Has there been any other fighter in history who can benefit as much from a loss as a win than the Irishman?

Still think trash-talking is for you? Then consider what we’ve learned. Be really damn good at fighting first. It’ll do you no good to go sassing everyone from the champ to the mailman and have a record of 2-7. Second, have a good call-out ready should you win and be interviewed afterward, and it’d probably be a good idea to have a little practice by yourself in the locker-room beforehand. Speak clearly, and don’t stutter. Call out the best of the best, and not just in your weight division either; that way if any top dogs take the bait and you win, you leap-frog a whole swathe of competition. Stick to what you’re good at. Remember, slamming a potential opponent for his or her terrible ground game only to be slept in a rear-naked choke in the first minute doesn’t send a particularly strong message. Make your slander interesting; consider alliteration, or even rhyming a few words. Hey, it worked for Sonnen, didn’t it? Speak in a weird accent? Even better. And above all, keep your shots above the belt.

While McGregor may have provided us with the trash-talk gold-standard, it can come at a cost. Fans are fickle, and if you push the boat out too far they’ll turn on you. In the cutthroat world of today’s MMA scene, young fighters have to be well-rounded, and that includes their actions outside the cage. The qualities that the early era legends swore by, respect and humility, still ring true now. Do whatever it takes to get that belt and make bank, certainly, but when the fight’s over, thank your opponent for a battle well fought, regardless of the outcome.

Or not. Kick up a stink and storm out of the cage swearing black and blue that you won while the crowd boos you out of the arena, and then whinge about it on social media afterward. After all, the only bad press is no press at all, right?

The post Trash-talking in the UFC: Stories of slander, rhymes, and strange accents appeared first on The Body Lock.

The fight started out exactly as expected with Gastelum advancing smoothly while Bisping circled away from the power hand. Bisping kept catching Gastelum with jabs and counter rights while Gastelum’s most significant shot came in the form of a left body kick. That changed about halfway through the first round when Bisping stepped in for a right hand and missed wildly, at which point Gastelum flattened him with a right-left hook combo.

He then called out Robert Whittaker to much celebration and chagrin, raising a couple of interesting questions.

Is Kelvin Gastelum good enough to fight for the Title?

On the one hand, Bisping was widely regarded by fan and critic alike as the weakest middleweight champion in recent memory; Whittaker, Yoel Romero, Jacare Souza and even Rockhold stand above him. His knockout over Rockhold for the title was scintillating, but no one really believes he’d win a rubber match. There’s also the issue of his absurdly quick turn around after absorbing a good deal of damage in the fight with Georges St. Pierre.

On the other hand, Gastelum handed the fighter with the most UFC wins his worst loss ever. Most of the people that finished Bisping abused some kind of PED and none of them could do it in the first round. Gastelum’s movement and boxing proved superior, which means he beat the ex-champ at his own strengths.

Plus, he’s developing more and more wrinkles in his game despite being relatively young. Gastelum, instead of frantically firing a counter, shifted his lead leg to give more torque on his left hook. Think about how much skill and composure it takes to do that when you’re in close quarters with an opponent.

But that brings up another question . . .

Should Kelvin Gastelum fight for the title?

Now, this question is only relevant if St. Pierre doesn’t unify the belts against Robert Whittaker; Gastelum acknowledged as much by calling out the latter man rather than the former. Gastelum is now 4-1 with 1 NC at middleweight in the UFC. Considering that the No Contest was originally a first-round knockout over Vitor Belfort overturned for marijuana usage, Gastelum is technically 5-1 in the UFC middleweight division with 4 finishes.

His lone loss was a three-round banger against Chris Weidman, in which he nearly finished the ex-champion. Weidman is much better than his record would indicate and before his recent slide, he was well on his way to becoming the greatest middleweight of all time. Considering that Gastelum would have finished Weidman with strikes if not for the bell.

But despite the skills and the record, Gastelum falls far short of another candidate: Luke Rockhold.

I and many others believe that Luke Rockhold is the best middleweight in the world despite no longer holding the belt. He owns victories over Jacare Souza, Michael Bisping, Lyoto Machida, Chris Weidman and most recently David Branch. There’s really no way to justify Gastelum getting a title shot ahead of Rockhold.

If push comes to shove, a Gastelum vs Rockhold eliminator for a shot at Whittaker’s interim belt may be the way to go. As of now, let’s just appreciate that Kelvin Gastelum is proving himself to be a far more dangerous middleweight than anyone could have hoped.

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