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411 Fact or Fiction MMA: Does Ronda Rousey Deserve Special Media Obligations?

December 28, 2016 | Posted by Lorenzo Vasquez
UFC 207 Amanda Nunes Ronda Rousey Screenshot from video ufc 207

Welcome back to another edition of 411 Fact or Fiction MMA! I’m your host, Lorenzo Vasquez III, and it is my pleasure to bring another edition of the fact and the fiction making waves in mixed martial arts to you. By the way, thank you for your votes and comments last week. It is appreciated and I encourage you to do the same this week. Last week, I stepped up on short notice to challenge one of the best, Robert Winfree! As expected, Robert was game, but I made sure to make it no easy fight. Robert threw solid combinations and hit some impressive grappling exchanges but I held on as hard as I could as we debated the lack of promotion for Amanda Nunes during UFC on FOX 22, Paige VanZant’s future, and if Tony Ferguson vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov should be for an interim title in addition to more. When the dust settled Robert had slipped through to grab the narrow victory. Congratulations Robert and thank you for the effort and contribution.

This week, Alex Rella will try to make it two as he locks horns with the gritty, Todd Vote. This should be a nice back and forth fight as the tangle over Cris Cyborg’s UFC career after her failed USADA test, Ronda Rousey skipping out on UFC 207 media duties, the changes to the Unified Rules of MMA, and much more! Get comfortable and strap in because it’s time for another round of, 411 Fact or Fiction MMA! Shall we…

TALE OF THE TAPE
RED CORNER
“The Toddfather” Todd Vote
Contributor, Various 411 Zones
1-4-0

VS

BLUE CORNER
Alex “Little Mac” Rella
Contributor, 411 MMA Zone
1-4-0

If Cris Cyborg can’t prove her failed USADA test is a result of a prescribed “medical treatment” her UFC career is finished as she will have forever tarnished any accomplishments to come out of said career.

Todd Vote: FICTION I’ll say fiction here, because I can’t agree with the whole statement. While I do agree this further tarnishes her already questionable reputation as a fighter, I don’t necessarily see it as the end to her UFC career. The UFC has been willing to work with fighters who have failed tests in the past, and while Dana has never really seemed to care much about Cyborg, I just can’t see this being the end of her UFC career.

Alex Rella: FICTION I do believe she will be forever tarnished, but I’m going with fiction as I don’t think her UFC career will be finished. If the UFC is serious about making a women’s featherweight division respectable, they absolutely need Cyborg regardless of the outcome of this drug test drama. The women’s featherweight division might be the shallowest division in all of MMA and Cyborg is the one true star at 145. Holly Holm can carry it for a little while, but it hurts that Bellator has Julia Budd and Marloes Coenen (the #2 & 3 fighters in the division). A couple bantamweights will likely move up to 145, but the rest of the division is rounded out with fighters Cyborg destroyed like Charmaine Tweet and Faith Van Duin. The only true prospect at 145 is Megan Anderson. So the division is incredibly shallow. Having Holly Holm will help, but Cyborg will still be the top fighter and true star of the division regardless of her drug testing/suspension outcome.

Ronda Rousey limiting her exposure to MMA media in the lead up to UFC 207 is not a big deal, and she deserves the opportunity to skip out on the usual media duties.

Todd Vote: FICTION Conor McGregor had his fight canceled due to missing media obligations. While I don’t see it as that big of a deal to miss media duties, especially if you cleared it with the UFC before hand, I wouldn’t say she necessarily “deserves” to miss out on the usual media duties. She lost a fight, it’s not like she has had to deal with huge tragedy after huge tragedy. She lost a fight, which happens to everyone. Why does that mean she “deserves” to skip media duties?

Alex Rella: FICTION I just think it’s really lame and it’s another example that she hasn’t been acting like her usual self since the Holm fight. Rousey hasn’t been holding herself to the same standards she used to and she clearly hasn’t been living up to the persona she created. Rousey was the ultimate trash talking badass, but lately she’s been looking fragile. She doesn’t have to do as many media appearances as she used to do in the past, but this is really odd. It also highlights another example of the UFC being hypocrites in enforcing their own rules as they’ve punished other fighters for wanting to limit their media appearances in the past.

Cain Velasquez is the most disappointing fighter in, not just UFC history, but MMA history.

Todd Vote: FICTION I would rather a fighter pull out due to injury all day every day as opposed to seeing “_____ flagged for potential USADA anti-doping violation, fight canceled”. So for that reason alone, I cannot call him the most disappointing fighter ever. When Velasquez is on, he is a monster in the cage. His injury history is disappointing, Cain as a fighter, even though I am not a big fan, is not a disappointment.

Alex Rella:FICTION The guy is very disappointing at times due to his many injuries that have delayed title fights and other huge fights, but he is not the most disappointing fighter of all time. I don’t know who claims the prestigious title of most disappointing fighter in the history of MMA, but it is certainly not Cain Velasquez. Cain is a two time UFC champion, has the most knockouts all time in the UFC’s division, and is most likely one of the top ten greatest heavyweights of all time. He can be frustrating at times, but he has had an amazing career. Don’t expect him to fight more than once a year, but he is not the most disappointing fighter of all time by a long-shot.

SWITCH!

Jose Aldo fighting for an interim lightweight title is nonsense, whether he knows it or not, he is a pawn in negotiations, much like Khabib Nurmagomedov was in negotiations between Eddie Alvarez and Conor McGregor.

Alex Rella: FACT It is absolute nonsense as Jose Aldo has no right being in an interim lightweight title fight. That entire interview with Ariel Helwani was completely ridiculous and full of bullshit, I don’t even want to try to decipher if any of what he said was true. But lets look at it from the UFC’s point of view. Aldo has fought once at lightweight in his career and he lost that fight. At least McGregor was the lightweight champ in CWFC. Aldo is an all time great fighter, but he’s undersized for lightweight and isn’t the biggest draw in the world. So if he loses (which is very possible), that hurts his drawing ability even more when he goes back to featherweight. Plus, the UFC has complained about him pulling out of fights in the past. So what if he wins, then two divisions are held up by his frequent injuries and drama. It makes zero sense to give him this title shot, especially when Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson are the clear top contenders in the division and that’s an amazing fight most people want to see. If any of this is true, it is only because Aldo is being used as a pawn.

Todd Vote: FACT I mean, supposing it is the UFC saying these things, and not just Aldo blowing smoke. What point is there to strip the UFC featherweight belt from McGregor, make Aldo’s interim featherweight title the official featherweight title, then put Aldo in an interim lightweight title match? None of this is making any sense to me at all.

Mark Hunt is overstepping himself a little by asking the UFC to insert a clause into his fight contract with Alistair Overeem, which would give Hunt all of his opponent’s pursue if his opponent were to fail a drug test.

Alex Rella: FACT I’m so over Mark Hunt and his ranting lately. You lost to a guy that used banned substances, deal with it. It’s a risk that comes along with the sport. It was turned over to a no contest, so it isn’t going to hurt your spot in the rankings. Hunt whining that he should get 100% of someone’s earnings is never going to happen. There are false positives, gray areas in testing, etc., so no fighter (or athlete in any sport for that matter) will ever lose their entire salary due to a failed drug test. Hunt could argue that he should get something like 20%, similar to when an opponent misses weight. That is a decent argument that could potentially be implemented, instead he chooses to rant and rave about nonsense that will never happen. So, yes, Hunt is overstepping himself here.

Todd Vote: FACT Maybe he is a little bit. But can anybody really fault him for trying? He fought, what, five cheaters in a row? I’d be pissed too. That said, this is a bit of a stretch, and I don’t think anybody, Overeem’s camp to the athletic commissions, would be willing to sign off on this.

The changes to The Unified Rules of MMA about to come into play will hardly make an impact as they rely on the willingness of officials to enforce the new changes.

Alex Rella: FACT I like all the changes and they have great intentions, but it is all reliant on the referees and the judges to actually enforce/abide by the rules. There are great officials in MMA and then there are others where you have to wonder if they were snorting something before the show, go look at every time Clucky pops up in Robert Winfree’s coverage of the shows. The new rules on finger pokes and kneeing a grounded opponent should be easy to enforce, but I still don’t have faith in most of the judges to accurately score a fight.

Todd Vote:Fiction They shouldn’t rely on the willingness of officials to enforce them. The rules should be taught to the officials, and they should be told there is no gray area. It shouldn’t be “here are the new rules, use them if you feel like you want to” If an official is not enforcing the new rules, remove them from officiating. That seems simple enough.

So who won? Did Alex get the upset, or did Todd grind his way to victory? You’ve got until midnight eastern on Saturday to vote, so make sure you make your voice heard!

And that’s it for today but, as always, we’ll be back next week with another contest! And please, be sure to vote!

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411 Fact or Fiction (MMA), Cain Velasquez, Cris Cyborg Justino, Ronda Rousey, UFC, UFC 207, Lorenzo Vasquez

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