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411 Fact or Fiction MMA: Was It Foolish to Announce a Potentially-Injured Jon Jones for UFC 200?

May 4, 2016 | Posted by Lorenzo Vasquez
UFC 214 - Jon Jones vs. Daniel Cormier

Welcome back to another edition of 411 Fact or Fiction MMA! Like the girlfriend who breaks up with you and then won’t stop calling you, I’m Wyatt Beougher, and I’m only here this week to ensure a smooth transition to my successor. I’ll also be competing this week, and I’ll be making my transition back into the ranks of the regular Fact or Fiction competitors. Without further ado, though, I’m going to turn things over to the man whose capable hands I’ll be leaving this column in, Mr. Lorenzo Vasquez!

Hello everyone and thank you Wyatt! It’s an honor. I must say, the pressure is on brother! I’m burning baby but here we go! You’ve been an exceptional host for the past four years and it is an absolute honor to take your spot as host of 411 Fact or Fiction MMA. The torch is mine to watch over now and I plan to keep it burning into eternity, or at least until the social security checks start showing up in the mailbox. In all seriousness, I hope I can keep this baby rolling with the same soul and taste as my precursor. Wyatt you’ve been king of this column, thank you again for passing down the torch. With that said, let’s get things rolling as Wyatt makes his return to the ranks by vying to topple his successor, myself the Corpse Grinder. Will he return in form, or will ring rust get the better of him, as we tackle such topics as Conor McGregor’s fall out with the UFC, the idea of Dada 5000 fighting again, Rory MacDonald hitting the free agent market, and much more.

TALE OF THE TAPE
RED CORNER
Wyatt Beougher
Retiring Host/Reviewer/Columnist, 411 MMA/TV & Movies/Wrestling Zones
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VS

BLUE CORNER
Lorenzo “Corpse Grinder” Vasquez III
New Host/Contributor, 411 MMA Zone
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With Jon Jones potentially facing a six-month medical suspension due to a possible broken bone in his left foot, it was foolish for the UFC to announce the title unification rematch between Jones and Daniel Cormier as the main event for UFC 200.

Wyatt Beougher: FACT Admittedly, “foolish” is probably a little strong, but the spirit of the statement reads, to me, as a FACT. Realistically, by the time this column goes live and people actually get to read this, Jones will have had the x-ray that determines whether or not he’s able to fight at UFC 200, so why wouldn’t the UFC wait a few extra days to announce a replacement main event that may end up needing replaced itself? I’m sure that even if Jones’ foot is broken, Dana will be hoping for an orthopedic doctor to clear “Bones” to return to the cage in time for UFC 200, but at this point, it just would have made more sense to wait an extra week and see if there was a realistic chance of Jones’ fighting at UFC 200 before actually announcing the fight.

Lorenzo VasquezFact If you ask me, announcing Jon Jones for UFC 200 when he may have a possible broken bone in his left foot, is taking a chance. The UFC obviously scrambled to find a replacement for the original headliner, Nate Diaz vs. Conor McGregor. They needed something big and Daniel Cormier vs. Jon Jones was the best they could do with the time they had. Maybe, they all have an idea of how serious the injury is and that’s why they announced the match-up. It could be that doctors strongly feel there is no broken bone and they/he or she are just playing it safe. So, in that case, Jones gave the UFC the green light to announce the fight. Still, it wouldn’t have hurt for the UFC to wait a fews days to be absolutely sure the interim champion was good to go. There is the potential it could broken, after all. And, if so, there goes another main event out the window.

https://twitter.com/CowanRory/status/725187339446792192

If Jon Jones is unable to get cleared to fight at UFC 200, the UFC will have no choice but to put Conor McGregor back on the card.

Wyatt Beougher: FACT I’m honestly still surprised that they haven’t added McGregor back onto the card. I realize that doing so makes Dana look like he caved to a certain segment of fans and probably to most of his roster, but Zuffa has always been motivated by the bottom line, and no one is able to move that line so far into the black as McGregor. And while White continuing to insist that McGregor will remain off of the card, if Jones’ x-rays do come back showing substantial damage to his foot that will keep him off of UFC 200, realistically, what other option do Dana and Joe Silva have? McGregor and Diaz are supposedly still training for the fight, and short of a highly unlikely Rousey return or possibly offering GSP ridiculous amounts of money to offset the sponsorship hit he’ll take because of the Reebok deal, they don’t have anyone else who can get the buyrate into the seven figures. Hell, I’m a huge Jones supporter (at least as far as his work inside the cage), and I’m not even sure he has enough juice to get UFC 200 over a million buys, though the fact that it’s a grudge match will certainly help.

Lorenzo VasquezFICTION We can easily say this is a fact because there is no other seller like the featherweight champion and, therefore, no other choice. Conor McGregor is the “money man” right now. If you want UFC 200 to be the biggest of them all, you better get the brash Irishman back on there. But, unfortunately, the UFC doesn’t work this way. Childish as it may be, the brass are serving the Irish fighting sensation a hearty dose of, we’re the boss and no matter how big you are, to us you’re still the little man. It’s an absolute reality of the workings behind the doors in the UFC. In order for the UFC to show who is boss, they will make-believe there are other options no matter how ridiculous it may sound. So, because of this, we have to say fiction.

Scott Coker is correct when he says Dhafir “Dada 5000” Harris should not fight again after nearly dying in his fight with Kimbo Slice.

Wyatt Beougher: FACT Look, my job is environmental health and safety, and part of that entails assessing my employees’ overall health and ability to perform at their job. I’ve been extremely fortunate that in over a decade in the field, no one on any of my projects has had the kind of medical issues that Harris had during and after Bellator 149. If they did, I wouldn’t even want them to be talking about coming back to work this soon after sustaining such a serious health scare, so I’m on the same page with Scott Coker here. If Harris can manage to get his weight under control and get a clean bill of health from a cardiologist and/or doctor of internal medicine, then maybe, maybe, I’d consider him stepping back into the cage, but until then, I have to side with Coker here.

Plus, I can’t imagine any commission is going to be too quick to license Harris, especially after he was posting to his social media about the litany of issues he faced just while he was actually still in the cage. It’s one thing for a commission if a fighter dies as a result of damage sustained during a fight, but if Harris had in fact passed away after being cleared to fight by the Texas Commission of Licensing and Regulation (which is, for some strange reason, abbreviated as the TDLR), I can only imagine that it would be a huge black eye for a commission that is already known for being lax (hence why a lot of Nick Diaz’ fights were scheduled there prior to the UFC adopting their own drug testing policy).

Lorenzo VasquezFACT It’s too bad Scott Coker barely figured that out. Dada 5000 should have been nowhere near that cage the night he fought Kimbo Slice. I have no idea how Dada was even allowed a license to fight without passing a physical to show he was in fight shape. If a fighter nearly dies due to lack of fight preparation/conditioning, he shouldn’t have been in there in the first place. Bellator should have done a better job of making sure their fighters were in shape and ready fight leading to that night.

As far as Dada is concerned, this is all evidence to say he should not be competing at a professional level and maybe not even at an amateur level. The guy does not like to train hard or take professional fighting serious; and, having the scare of nearly dying, he shouldn’t even consider lacing up gloves again. Promote your backyard thing instead, because there is no sense in putting your body the on line, not after nearly dying from poor conditioning and fight preparation. You’ve never taken training serious, hence, you likely never will and in that case this game is not for you.

SWITCH!

In light of referee John McCarthy disclosing his conversation with Lorenzo Fertitta, in which Fertitta claimed Conor McGregor was guaranteed $10 million for UFC 200 and he never imagined having a problem once said fighter reached such a pinnacle, coupled with the fact that McGregor lost to Nate Diaz and proceeded to have his bluff called by the UFC, it is safe to say McGregor will never again come close to earning a guaranteed $10 million.

Lorenzo VasquezFICTION You can’t say that just yet, not by a long shot. This whole fiasco has generated a ton of attention from multiple media outlets, not just your typical MMA media outlet. If anything, it’s helped Conor McGregor strengthen his fan base and the hate many carry for him. If you loved him before, you love him even more now. And, if you hated him before, well, you hate him even more now. People are either going to tune-in to watch his next fight to see him stick it to the man, or to see him fall again and laugh even harder.

The Irishman is one helluva draw, and if he doesn’t lose again and plays his card right, his star power will reach a new height in this game. He may have took a hit with the loss to Nate Diaz, but his fallout with the UFC over UFC 200 patched it up quickly and now you have Conor McGregor the crusader and champion for fighters rights. if MCGregor can keep it together and continue to push limits to a certain extent, he can absolutely make it to another big event-MSG, UFC 300, etc.-and find himself looking at a guaranteed $10 million. If he can play the cards right, it’s possible. Now, if the UFC decides to keep him on the shelf for an extended period or if he loses to Diaz again or too the winner of Aldo vs. Edgar, then it may be difficult to say MCGregor will see a guaranteed $10 million. You can’t say, “it’s safe to say say,” not in this ever unpredictable sport. Conor could go on a skid upon his return and never regain his positioning or we may just be seeing the beginning of his reign.

Wyatt Beougher: FICTION Unless the UFC keeps McGregor out of action for an extended period of time or he starts dropping fights left and right, he’s going to be a valuable commodity for a promotion severely lacking in pay-per-view draws. Assuming the rematch with Diaz happens at some point in the next few months, I don’t think even another loss is going to hurt McGregor all that much, so long as he admits that jumping to welterweight was a failed experiment. If that happens and he is able to come back and beat the winner of the Jose Aldo/Frankie Edgar interim featherweight title fight, McGregor is still going to be the UFC’s most marketable fighter, so there’s really no reason to believe that his earning power won’t continue to grow should he keep winning fights and promoting them as only he can.

Plus, if you look at the response to this UFC/McGregor dustup, it really hasn’t changed fans’ perspective of him – the people who hated him before still hate him now, and the people who defended him are defending him even more because he wasn’t holding out for money but because he wanted to focus on his training to be a better fighter. I would even go so far as to say that for some people who were undecided about McGregor, the fact that he was trying to better himself as a fighter may have swayed them to his side, as, in the long run, that’s going to improve the product that they see in the cage.

And for those who say that he won’t have an opportunity to fight at another show as huge as UFC 200 again, look no further than Jon Jones and Jim Miller, both of whom fought at UFC 100 and will again be appearing at UFC 200. Had McGregor fought at UFC 200 (or should he, if Jones is, in fact, unable to compete), he would be a few weeks shy of his 28th birthday; Jones was about a week shy of his 22nd birthday when he fought at UFC 100 while Miller was just shy of his 26th birthday. With UFC 100 and UFC 200 coming almost exactly seven years apart, UFC 300 should arrive around McGregor’s 35th birthday – by no means a spring chicken, but also not significantly older than Jim Miller will be at UFC 200. Plus, both George St. Pierre remained a championship-caliber fighter into his early thirties and Anderson Silva until his late thirties, so it’s not entirely impossible that McGregor will still be a draw in 2023 when UFC 300 rolls around.

With that said, though Conor McGregor lost this battle with the UFC, the repercussions may yield favorable results for fighters in the not-too-distant future, if they continue to stand up for more power over their own careers versus the power the UFC currently yields.

Lorenzo VasquezFACT I’m a little iffy on this one. If fighters follow McGregor’s lead, the UFC and its fighter contracts/policies could be in for a whole other ball game. The UFC would have to reconsider their way of handling business with fighters which could lead to big changes in fighter pay, sponsorship, fighter negotiating power, et cetera. However, fighters must follow suit. They have to play ball Conor’s way and get on board for the long haul. The problem I am seeing is very few will actually stand behind McGregor on this when it is time to get dirty. They will speak their mind and show verbal support, but when it comes time to actually turn down the UFC, I am having trouble believing enough will have the courage or thought, to do so. Either way, McGregor’s latest action should, in some shape or form, help raise the bar when it comes to the power fighters yield over themselves. How long it takes and to what magnitude will be determined by the actions of other fighters.

Wyatt Beougher: FACT And again, I think it’s worth mentioning here that McGregor hasn’t lost his battle with the UFC yet. Until UFC actually kicks off, I’m not ruling out the possibility of him fighting on it, but assuming you consider this a loss, I still think that McGregor has shown other fighters that sometimes it’s worth walking away from money to stand up for your principles. It will only take another fighter or two doing the same thing (let’s say, for argument’s sake, Ronda Rousey and Jon Jones) for the UFC to seriously sit back and reconsider how they do business, and, in McGregor’s defense, how many people in Des Moines, Iowa, are going to buy a UFC pay-per-view just because McGregor appeared on their local radio station or evening news program? Look at the highest-rated program in television history, the Super Bowl, which is almost continually breaking viewership records – the NFL has two weeks to promote the big game and the players are only required to be there and available to the media for a single week of that time. I don’t see any reason the UFC couldn’t stick with a similar model rather than interrupting fighters’ camps, especially when it’s for a landmark show like this.

I mean, this could actually be FICTION if no other fighters follow McGregor’s lead and actually stand up for their training or whatever other conditions they have issues with the UFC about, but we’ve already seen some fighters like Jose Aldo express discontent with some of the UFC’s business practices, so perhaps McGregor will be the lightning rod that galvanizes them into action.

Looking to test the free market when his UFC contract expires after his bout with Stephen Thompson at UFC Fight Night 89, Rory MacDonald will have to win impressively to really make it worth his while.

Lorenzo VasquezFACT I think so. Rory MacDonald is going to get big offers from outside the UFC win or lose, dull performance or not. To organizations like World Series of Fighting; Bellator; and One FC, Rory is going to be a big commodity and they will throw some big money his way if he says “yes” to them. But that leaves out the UFC and I have a sneaky feeling the UFC wants to keep his contract/pay neutral. They can only accomplish that if Rory loses at UFC FN 89. I just have a feeling Mr. White and company don’t care all too much about the Canadian.

In addition, I believe the UFC has the most to offer MacDonald. They can increase his pay, increase the amount of his undisclosed bonuses, and they have the welterweights the former title challenger needs to be fighting. MacDonald is still top notch and a potential win or two away from another title shot where if he wins he will increase his all-around earnings. In my opinion, he needs to win and knock this “hotshot” prospect off the ladder to gain some leverage over the UFC and really see what he is worth.

Wyatt Beougher: FICTION I actually went back and forth on this one, but I ultimately went with FICTION, for the simple fact that while winning impressively over Stephen Thompson will certainly help Rory MacDonald’s chances of getting a better payday on the open market, he’s still head and shoulders above the majority of the other fighters currently plying their trade outside of the UFC. I’m sure Scott Coker sees the dollar signs in a match between MacDonald and Bellator welterweight champion Andrey Koreshkov, who just demolished a former UFC champion in his last bout, and I have a sneaking suspicion Ben Askren will be pushing for One Fighting to offer MacDonald a deal just to give him an opponent American fans have actually heard of. And what about Rizin? Putting MacDonald on the other side of an openweight tournament bracket from Wanderlei Silva could potentially help their Q score.

And, realistically, these other promotions don’t necessarily have to outdo the UFC in hard money if they can guarantee MacDonald that they won’t mess with his sponsors like the UFC has done with the Reebok deal. Bendo was pretty much at the top of the food chain in terms of Reebok sponsorship payouts, but he still felt the grass was greener (pun intended) on the Bellator side of the fence. So yeah, an impressive win is likely to improve his offers everywhere, but even if he wins a boring decision or loses a close fight, I still think he’ll have his suitors.

So who won? Did Wyatt put his successor to shame or did I manage to hold him off? You’ve got until midnight eastern on Friday to vote, so make sure you make your voice is heard!

And that’s it for today, but we’ll be back next week with another contest! Please, be sure to vote! Wyatt, thank you for your four years as an outstanding host. Your virtuoso will be missed!

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