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For those who missed out on last week’s edition, I have a somewhat sheepish revelation. Far from cancelling the column, cutting back on my workload, or just feeling like I couldn’t find the right stories, I simply forgot about the damn thing until it was too late.
I won’t be doing anything to make it up to anyone, sometimes that’s just the way it is. But I hope everyone enjoys this week’s column nonetheless. We’ve got Dustin Poirier giving back to the lightweight community, Weili Zhang and Joanna Jedrzejczyk palling around, as well as a Matt Brown revelation and a Colby Covington update. So, let’s dig in…
LOVE TO SEE IT
Dustin Poirier giving back with Benoit Saint Denis fight
Over the many years since its inception it’s become clear that the UFC created something of a monster with their in-house rankings system. A panel composed almost entirely of fringe media figures has, over the past decade, turned itself into a key element of both the matchmaking and negotiating process. Once something that fighters openly derided and rejected as a useless gimmick, today few cards pass by without multiple calls for a ‘top 15 opponent’ after an especially thrilling victory.
But it’s not just a goal to aim for that’s reshaped the UFC’s weight classes, it’s also a recognition that as a fighter rises in the rankings, their position as a future title contender becomes more and more undeniable. The UFC may not want Belal Muhammad in a title fight, they may not be interested in letting Curtis Blaydes fight for gold. But if these men simply refuse to go away, sooner or later they’ll get their chance. The UFC’s own system demands it.
The fallout of that logic is that, once a UFC talent reaches top 5 status, much of their priority turns away from getting to fight as often as possible, and turns toward getting just the right fight to compete for a belt. More and more, fans see elite MMA talents who are loath to fight anyone who isn’t already in title contention. After all, what’s the point of taking on someone down in the rankings if a loss means exiting ‘the mix’ and a win means nothing more than treading water.
Despite the fact that it may have taken a little extra negotiating to get there, that makes Dustin Poirier’s recent statements on his upcoming bout against #12 ranked Benoit Saint Denis something entirely refreshing. With a only a little tread left on the tires, and with a firm grip on the #3 spot in the lightweight division, the ‘Diamond’ had every reason not to want to fight the former French paratrooper. As he revealed in a recent MMA Hour interview, however, Poirier wanted to give Saint Denis the same chance he got earlier in his career.
“I thought the offer in the UFC would be something more like that,” Poirier said, revealing that he had been looking for something like a ‘legacy’ fight against RDA (transcript via MMA Junkie). “I needed something to get me up in the morning. I respect this sport, and I honor this sport, and I’m 35 years old now. This guy is a young, hungry lion who is on a streak. I think he finished five fights in a row. Somebody gave me my shot to crack in, so I respect the game. That’s what I’m doing. Let’s see if I still (can do it). March 9, buy the pay-per-view and we’ll see. We’ll find out.”
Indeed, go back to 2017, and Dustin Poirier was sitting at the #9 spot in the lightweight division coming off a majority decision win over Jim Miller. Just a few months prior, he had been cold-cocked by Michael Johnson in the first round for a knockout loss. That fact didn’t stop #3 ranked former champion Eddie Alvarez from giving Poirier a chance to secure the biggest win of his career to date.
An illegal knee turned that bout into a no contest, unfortunately. But Poirier’s action forward style and thrilling exchanges up until that moment put him firmly into the elite from that moment forward. Fights with Anthony Pettis and Justin Gaethje followed, as well as the Alvarez rematch. Long story short, the Louisiana native has been a top attraction ever since.
Maybe he can pass on the same kind of shine to Saint Denis? Maybe he’ll slam the door on a next-gen talent looking to use the ATT fighter as a stepping stone. Either way, it should be a hell of a lot of fun. Credit to Poirier for taking a cool fight that he absolutely did not need.
Joanna Jedrzejczyk and Weili Zhang share some quality time
Such is the way of Google these days, and perhaps also of my increasingly foggy memory, that I can only half remember the anecdote I’m about to relay—and can see no easy way to track it down. If that sounds like something your dad would do to drive you crazy, please note that I have no children, so the best I can do is inflict myself up on my readers.
Anyway, years ago now, I recall some fighter who was asked one of the more banal kind of media questions our industry tends to feed fighters when we have nothing more topical on which to latch on. The question went, approximately, ‘What advice would you give to other young fighters?’
I may not remember whether it was MMA or boxing, but the answer always stuck with me. The advice was simple enough: Don’t be afraid to make friends with your competition.
Combat sports, as a rule, tend to run on aggression and isolationism. The person you trained with yesterday might be your opponent tomorrow. For many, the desire to fight breeds its own hostility just for the sake of maintenance.
But the point this old guy had to make was a great one. Essentially, that this kind of lifestyle is lonely. Most other people won’t get it and can’t relate to it. But your opponents can and will. These are the people that will understand what you’ve been through and who can share your experiences. Don’t push them away.
That said, it’s cool to see now-retired former UFC strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk hanging out with current champion Weili Zhang. The two women put on an all time classic war in 2020. Even if their 2022 rematch didn’t live up to that level, they created a piece of MMA history together. A couple years later they’re on social media chumming it up, and the vibes couldn’t be more positive.
Maybe one of these days we’ll get to see Colby Covington and Jorge Masvidal out to dinner together at Papi Steak. Wouldn’t that be a beautiful thing?
HATE TO SEE IT
Matt Brown reveals career disinterest in negotiating with the UFC
I guess I’ll start this out with a pretty simple statement. If any pro fighter is happy with their fighting career, I’m happy for them. I’m especially always happy for a guy like Matt Brown, who has made his reputation by being an action-first badass, even if it never brought him particularly close to title contention.
Matt Brown sounds like someone pretty content with what their time in the UFC and MMA in general has brought them, so I can’t knock that. All that said, however, I really do hate to see that that satisfaction has come with little to no pushback against UFC brass and the contracts he’s had from them over the years.
In a recent interview with MMA Fighting, Brown gave his insight on the recent kerfuffle between Dustin Poirier and Dana White. Mostly noting that he doesn’t really understand the idea of negotiating contract terms from one bout to the next. As far as he’s concerned, the UFC gave him a fight, he took it. Negotiations over.
“They ask me if I want to fight this guy and I say OK. I’ve never really negotiated or asked for a different guy, it’s not really been my style. For me, it’s been pretty simple. I’ve always been happy with the way they treated me and the pay they give me and everything. I don’t really know what they mean when they say they didn’t come to terms. The terms are, you’re going to fight a guy on this date, go do it.”
“I probably should have negotiated more than I have,” Brown said with a laugh. “I can only speak to my own personal experience here. When they have offered me a new contract, I said, ‘Thank you, let’s go. Who am I going to fight?’ I never really negotiated that either. Maybe I should have. Maybe in retrospect I should have, but I never did. I’ve always just been happy to fight.”
There was a point in the interview where Brown does admit that he once negotiated one contract with Dana White directly. Saying that the process more or less involved he and White having a friendly chat, White asking him to throw out a number, and immediately agreeing to that number. “I probably should have asked for more,” Brown recalled, “but I thought I got my worth and it was pretty simple.”
I don’t want anyone to think that I’m lamenting this position just for the sake of spiting the UFC. As much as I may think they take advantage of the fact that most talent seems happy just to be there, the truth is that sports in general (but fighting in particular) are one of the few professions out there where the longevity of the most necessary talent is most severely capped.
With a nearly 20 year career under his belt (17 of which have been spent with the UFC), Brown is one of a very rare few who get to make up for a lack of short term earnings with long term staying power. For so many others, they Octagon will chew them up and spit them out, leaving their time as athletes over before they know it. Sometimes even leaving them unable to even take part in that which they’ve built their whole lives around.
For every Matt Brown or Andrei Arlovski there’s a TJ Grant, Alex Reyes, or Chris Holdsworth. Which is to say that, whether it’s the UFC or Bellator or PFL or RIZIN, I want to see fighters squeeze every penny they can out of their time as fighters. Once they’re done fighting, who knows what work will be left for them. Coaches, managers, and promoters can all move on to the next hot talent. Fighters can’t. I’m glad Matt Brown is happy, I just hope other fighters don’t follow that lead.
One legged Colby Covington
There’s no way to sugarcoat this. Colby Covington’s performance against Leon Edwards at UFC 296 was no good. It was butt, plain and simple. Already a two time title contender, Covington looked edgy from the moment go, and it was only after several rounds that he found his way into the contest, securing the final frame on every judges scorecard.
That was close to two months ago. Plenty of time for ‘Chaos’ to synthesize the loss and figure out what his next move was going to be. Only, this is MMA, and like most other high level combat sports, the most important part comes not from learning or correcting, but from the maintenance of the ego. Covington couldn’t have lost to Leon Edwards because Edwards was just a better fighter on the night, more prepared and more ready to perform. There must be another reason. Something that guarantees if they ran back the fight, Covington would win.
“I couldn’t plant or explode off it to use the wrestling and pressure I planned to use,” Covington said in a recent interview with Submission Radio (transcript via MMA Fighting), in which he disclosed an injury to his left foot. “I didn’t want to disclose this information until I had the X-rays back home, but here they are.
“I knew straight away it was bad. It was the first kick I threw, it landed right on his elbow. He was in orthodox so I kind of got a little overzealous and I wanted to rip a high kick to his orthodox side because I didn’t know if he’d be defensively sound from southpaw. So, the first kick I threw, a high kick, it was kind of like a middle kick, it landed on his elbow.”
“Haters will still find a way to hate on me for fighting 25 minutes on one leg while landing over 100 more strikes than Leon,” Covington added. “But you know what, my haters are so broke they can’t even pay attention so f*** them.”
For the record, Covington got out-landed 57 to 44 by Edwards over 5 rounds. Although he did hold a 44 strike advantage (109 to 65) in total strikes, almost all of which came from round 5, where Covington secured three full minutes of top control against the champion.
I don’t want to come off overly harsh on Covington (I already got a chance to take my shots in the immediate aftermath of his loss), but sooner or later fighters gotta realize that this kind of disclosure doesn’t help them much at all. Fighting is dangerous, and people get injured all the time. MMA history is writ large with tales of top talent fighting through gruesome pain to seal a victory. Say what you will about Jon Jones, but his toe was basically falling off when he beat Chael Sonnen to defend his light heavyweight title.
If Covington wants to believe that his injury is the only reason Leon Edwards beat him back in December, that’s his business. But trying to sell it to everyone else more than a month later, after well all watched that fight? No sir, I can’t buy it.
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