A while back there was an unpopular opinions thread in the classic forum. Thought I'd do one here. Include any controversial, unpopular or unusual opinions you have about the sport or anything that doesn't match up with mainstream consensus. Here are some of mine. The UFC has been bad for MMA and Dana White is worse than Don King There is no such thing as "combat sports" and MMA is a form of boxing and the name MMA sucks We have yet to see a truly great MMA fighter (but there are candidates) The MMA world has some of the same problems as boxing (useless titles, bad scoring etc.) and is arguably worse The whole MMA vs boxing/wrestling vs BJJ arguments is just semantics Paulie Malignaggi is right about MMA fan culture
A truly Great MMA fighter, Daniel Cormier, Lyoto Machida, Khabib, Jones, Fedor, Igor Vovchanchyn, Stipe, anderson Silva, Prime Cro Cop, Wanderlei Silva, Rampage Jackson, Shogun Rua. In MMA its difficult to remain undefeated, too many variables involved.
For me, great and good are not the same and I rarely stick the great label on anyone still active. What made guys like Joe Louis great is that they transcended the sport, they gave meaning to what they did and were more than just really good fighters. All of the guys you've named are some of the best fighters modern MMA has seen, but none of them have really reached the stardom of a Mike Tyson or a Jack Dempsey. Sometimes I feel Khabib is going that way, especially tonight in Abu Dhabi, seeing how crowds across the world react to him. It'll happen someday, but MMA is still in its infancy and yet to come of age. (Ronda and McGregor were household names, but as fighters they weren't as exceptional as we've been led to believe)
So you want MMA to become popular globally in order for athletes competing in said discipline to transcend? Fedor, And Khabib (currently in the making) are the closest things to Global MMA icons. MMA has had many elite athletes, but in terms of popularity and legacy Fedor and Possibly Gracie comes to mind.
Global is a stretch, greatness is not just being the best in your sport but being a force outside it. Jim Brown was a great football player not just because he broke league records and was a phenom on the field, but the impact he had on society in general. Khabib looks like he'll be that guy, an awesome athlete and a superstar that'll change MMA forever. Fedor is definitely a candidate, but for me his legacy will always be stained by the steroid rumours and other dubious things. It's one thing to benefit from some home cooking, it's even worse when you brew it up yourself.
Fedor was never suspect of steroids, so where did these rumors come from? And also every athlete is high on drugs to enhance performance anyway. Jim Brown played in an American sport, solely exclusive to America (he competed in an era where they didnt test for human growth hormones in the NFL) , how did he change society in general? Fedor was a global icon in MMA, changed the way people see martial arts, Gracie was a global icon for introducing bJJ grappling to its fullest potential, Mirko introduced effective striking and takedown defense in to greater MMA, these people are pioneers. So you are nitpicking things to fit your agenda and bias, sorry pendejo I see through your attempts at Subterfuge. Also Fedor was a phenomenal athlete, so is Khabib. Many more of the people I listed are as well, how do you define greatness and “transcending” when it is subjective anyway?personally I think you dont know what you are talking about, and are just pulling things from your rear.
So I also get the hint that you are talking about Social issues, so if Fedor had united Russian and Americans globally, would Fedor thus have a greater legacy?
I never said it wasn't subjective this thread after all is about opinions. Sure, Cro Cop, Gracie and co. were some of the best fighters of their generation but even in their prime nobody outside of the small world of MMA knew who they were. Michael Jordan, Jim Brown, Jack Dempsey, none of these sporting icons were ever the very best at what they did, but they were icons in their time and they're still talked about today. They transformed their sport in a radical way. Before Dempsey boxing was basically illegal, before Jackie Robinson baseball was a segregated sport. They were both skilful and influential, even if you weren't a sports fan you felt their presence. Not a single MMA fighter has reached that legendary status just yet. Sure, Ronda and McGregor were household names, but they weren't the superb fighters they were promoted as being. A great fighter is a combination of both, phenomenal skill and a folk hero. Well, let's see here, Fedor made his name in a league run by the Japanese mob where steroid use was rampant and headed a corrupt governing body in Russia like a fox guarding the hen house. Now the steroid rumours are circumstantial, but that second fact compromises his integrity as an athlete. How can you be a great athlete when you cheat by manipulating the judges and referees that are supposed to make the sport fair? If the Maldonado scandal happened in any other sport, except maybe boxing, Fedor would have been disgraced and barred from competition.
Bad for MMA WTF,I understand the hate for Dana who seems an absolute arsehole but the sport has got to the heights it has because of Dana and more importantly the money put into the sport by the Ferttita brothers,any minor success the other organisations have had has been off the back of the work of those guys turning MMA into a mainstream sport.
This is more an unpopular opinion in here,but off the back of what I said above may as well add my unpopular opinion about Dana White being 1 of the best promoters in any sport,despite seeming to be a ***** Dana clearly has the support of a lot of people including from other sports such as boxing who want his involvement.
So they need a global “Social” issue to stand on? Like if Fedor had united Russians and Americans globally? And no Fedor was a known global figure in MMA, MMA might not have been big in every country, but American boxing back in the day was also NOT big in every country, did you forget that boxing was mainly an American sport back in its day? 95 percent of the participants winning belts were American for Crying out loud, people in foreign nations only knew about them because of the global reach American media had. Exum Wade already exposed American doping practices in the 80’s and 90’s, did you forget that the American Olympic Committee allowed PED users to compete in sports? https://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/17/sports/olympics-anti-doping-official-says-us-covered-up.html American sports is rife with hypocrisy and PED usage, even Carl Lewis came out about it as well https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/sport/2003/apr/24/athletics.duncanmackay All the most prolific drug cheats come from the United States American sports didnt start testing for steroids until the 80’s, and the technology was primitive at the time, so pretty much everyone including their grandmas were on roids. When did boxing start PED testing? I will give you a hint, not the 80’s, after that So does this mean those folk heroes you talk about are disqualified? Just because Fedor competed in an org run by Mobsters doesn’t disqualify his legacy or opponents there. Foreign fighters in America keep getting robbed blindly, at least in Japan those fighters were judges fairly for their performances, its Japanese customs to be ethical with your profession, yes even with the CEO of Pride FC being tied to the Yakuza. By the way, the Russian track and field doping scandal was politically motivated, the WADA is an extension of USADA, so it is inherent that the Russians would be victims of this proxy political play. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.gl...oliticization-of-doping-in-sports/5582163/amp
It's hard for any of those names to get to those heights when the sport has only just become mainstream meaning that there is almost no candidates outside of a select few that are still involved like Fedor.
This thread is just another (poorly subtle) attempt to discredit another combat sport, dont these people know you could like more than one combat sport at a time?
I don't buy the argument that if it wasn't for the Fertitas that MMA would not have grown. Sure, it would have taken a different path and grown slowly, but it wasn't dependant on them for survival. UFC has had a negative effect because of the way it promoted the sport. MMA's uniquely bitchy trash talk is rooted in TUF promotional reality tv show and rather than winning over fans of the established fighting sport, boxing, the UFC chose to antagonize them instead. Both have helped foster a toxic fan culture and that pushes people away. But by far their worst sin is the poor way they treat their fighters. Don King might have been a thief but at least he paid his fighters.
