I rarely do scripted videos, but I have had a few video essays on the shelf for years. I wrote this one in 2013. The next video essay is about the connection between J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic fantasy novel “The Hobbit” and professional fighting.
Do you ever read Orson Scott Card? I don't necessarily like his views but he writes great science fiction like Enders Game. I just finished a series called the Homecoming Saga which is supposed to be a science fiction version of the book of Mormon. I'd love to hear more about the stories and parables. You mentioned the guy who built the equivalent of submarines. The son of Jared I think? Just like when you talk about warfare and battle formations without telling people to join the army you could tell the most interesting or accessible parts of the book of Mormon without being preachy. I'm ignorant about the church of latter day saints and would love to know more. I don't know if the essay format would work but this format would be amazing for ancient combat lectures
"Commentators are training you how to think" Man, I have *definitely* watched some fights where it sounded like the commentators were watching an entirely different match.
Ryan Hall had a match where he was on the ground defensless. The comentator says the other guy is in big trouble. Then Ryan Hall got pounded in 10 seconds.
I call the commentary bias "main character syndrome." It's the main character vs the other guy. Even if the main character is losing, the other guy isn't winning. The main character is just losing
In the States at least, some areas require that judges come from local sport commissions, so you don't necessarily see consistency even within a single promotion like the UFC.
@@alfredthegreat5452 Or how the 2nd round between Jones and Reyes, Jones was advancing but getting hit and Reyes was using footwork and landed Big Shots. But Jones won that ROUND - which was the decisive one at the end. Yan vs Sterling 2 - Round 1, Yan was advancing but getting hit like Jon Jones was. Sterling was using footwork and landing insignificant strikes. Sterling won - doing what Reyes did but won THAT ROUND.
Though pro wrestling be scripted, that takes nothing away from how impressive the athletes themselves are. To repeatedly pull off those moves without causing each other severe injuries is fairly awe-inspiring.
@@ausreir for sure. Some people talk shit about pro wrestlers because they aren't real fights but when you really think about it, they are stunt-men. Stunt-men that do everything live in front of an audience. That is fucking CRAZY. It can't be easy
There's been a history of refs fixing games in the NBA (look up Kings vs Lakers 2002). They too, did it for the money. Putting all your effort into something and it not being fair is a real spirit crusher.
I mean, even if the rules are followed exactly, it's still not fair. There is no sporting event ever in the history of sports that has ever been truly Fair. And the illusion that things can be there is more damaging to sports especially combat sports than anything else
@@davidpeters6743 well if sport were 100% fair A) everybody would win equal amount of times B) every event would be draw The better genetics, the privilege and the better training program and better conections, and finally luck win. Bunch of factors that are unequal
@@davidpeters6743 I don't think having a clean sport means it's unfair. Sure some people are physically superior that doesn't mean we should let them abuse PEDs or fight dirty with impunity. Nor should judges pick an choose when a fighter his landed effective strikes or take downs. Perfect example is Weili Zhang who should've lost to Joanna Jędrzejczyk but beaten Rose Namajuans both fights were scored wrong simply in favor of what was most financial beneficial. It's crazy to because Weili could've had a super fight with Valentina, but since having Zhang beat Jędrzejczyk made them better marketing choice at the time, and Namajuans winning was better at the moment Weili got screwed. Same thing happened to Joanna with them Rose fights.
@@tylerrobbins8311 Years of people trying to police PEDs has taught us one thing... no matter how obsessive or borderline insanely fascist your attempts to police people are... it doesn't work. There are Olympians being caught every year, there are entire countries with giant conspiracies. It's not like there's no rabbit punches in boxing, or sneaky headbutts. There is no fair in sports. In judged sports double no fair. But that's what you need to have a judged sport.
I'd also add the low wages to the fix list, it's easier to control fighters who struggle economically. It's also incredibly short sighted, the money brings better talent with better training environment etc. Also don't come to me with the bushido bullshit of "it's hard to stay motivated... silk sheets," they are professionals, not soldiers and boxing has proved that it's not true also. You know it's wrong when your champ gets the same money as a moderately popular boxer on an event 10 times bigger than his.
IMHO the biggest factor separating elite athletes from the regular kind is how much support they have from other people. People think it's genetics and in built talent, and those things matter but they are massively magnified by the fact that the naturally talented athlete is much more likely to have his or her parents let them live at home and focus on training instead of telling them to cut that shit out and get a goddamned job and move out. Coaches pay more attention to these athletes and there will always be a team mate willing to do after hours drilling with them. This removes the biggest obstacle to success: having enough hours a day to train your ass off and still get optimal sleep and not be in utter poverty unable to afford the quality nutrition to support that intense training etc. If I owned a gym, I'd tell young aspiring fighters, start thinking NOW about how you're going to optimise your lifestyle outside of fighting, it could take you 5 years of searching to find the job that allows you time to train but pays you enough to have savings like an actual adult and there are fighters at the top of the game who still rely on that
Unfortunately the entirety of corporate capitalism operates on the notion of short-term gains at all costs (which is why our planet is so fucked in many ways). You are right, it's far more effective long-term to invest in your workforce, get them happy, motivated, and train them up to a higher level so they perform better. But pretty much every large company out there treats their workforce like disposable assets to be worked until they break, which when you think about it is incredibly inefficient. You spend time training someone up, giving them experience in their position, and then you work them until they just fall apart, at which point you need to train somebody else to fill that position. It wastes time and money, and productivity goes down sharply over these people's careers. I honestly think much of the executive management we see in any organization are completely ignorant of basic economics, logically compromised, and are so dissociated from their workforce they can't see them as people. Dana's living the high-life, spending more money on a single poker night than most fighters earn in a year (if not multiple years because they don't actually have the ability to save that money). It's fucked up, and I do think there is an element of control, but it's also just traditional greed. Dana probably also gives favoured fighters bonuses if enslave themselves to the UFC, that's probably why some are saying "fighter pay is great, don't complain about it". Anyone who says some shit like "stay poor, stay hungry" most definitely doesn't fight for a living, and is probably so mentally deficient that getting punched in the fact might turn them into a vegetable. Imagine risking serious injury, or even death (because that isn't out of the cards), for less money than many people make working standard desk jobs. Not only that, but your promoter (who by the way is meant to be PROMOTING you, not just making money off you while leaving you to market yourself) is making billions of dollars a year, millions of which are likely from your contribution in regards to performance. Most high risk jobs pay more because of that danger, and while jobs like these could still stand to make significantly more given how much they influence overall profits (i.e. there wouldn't be any without these workers) the UFC really takes the fucking cake. It's extremely notable that the UFC has tried to suppress the information on fighter pay through things like lobbying the Nevada State Commission. Obviously there's some shady shit going on there, and they want to cover it up. NDAs and other forms of controlling employees from speaking out are also incredibly common, and I wouldn't be surprised if the UFC also has this. Honestly this is why economic regulation is so necessary, without it we know what happens, workers get exploited for the benefit of the people in charge. It happened in the industrialist era, and it's happening now. Fighters wages need to be fixed at a fair % of estimates (made by a regulatory body) for their contribution and the UFC needs to publish fighter pay.
@@0n344 seems like it's good to see what one can do to stand out in the gym while not being a tough guy/bad sparring partner. It's a difficult balance because showing your full powerlevel could result in retaliation from jealous folk, never get sucked into that, always be the better person, and be in it to learn and explore the art. Don't accept a fight if you don't have enough experience even if your coach wants you to, some coaches can get over excited about seeing you pull off a tornado kick and let you fight without basics like cage wrestling under your belt. Mostly saying this to others who may read your post.
@@AveSicarius"Imagine risking serious injury, or even death (because that isn't out of the cards), for less money than many people make working standard desk jobs." Your argument kind of presupposes that fighting is fundamentally important. I have no problem paying the guy that's willing to risk his life to do something that will improve everyone elses. That makes sense to me...but mma fighters aren't really improving people's lives, they are just providing entertainment. As much as people care about mma, I strongly believe that if it didn't exist something else would have caught those people's attention and would have filled that void. In constrast something mundane like plumbing is something that I almost never think or care about...but if plumbing wasn't a thing, it would affect my quality of life way more. You're complaining about capitalism, but really the same general logic applies on every level. If there's no fighters then Dana can't make money so it's unfair that Dana makes so much more than the fighters. But if there's no plumber, janitor, construction worker, etc... the fighter wouldn't be able to spend as much time training on becoming a fighter. So why is it fair that the fighter makes so much more money than the other(more important imo) people that made fighting as a career possible in the first place? I feel like if you really follow your logic, the problem isn't that the fighters aren't making enough, It's that the people building the bottom of the pyramid aren't making enough. "Fighters wages need to be fixed at a fair % of estimates (made by a regulatory body) for their contribution and the UFC needs to publish fighter pay." What's a fair estimate? Let's say that tomorow the top 100 fighters all die, there's no practical concerns that arise from this and the next guys in line just step up and everyone forgets that even happened within 20 minutes. Do you really think that would meaningfully affect how profitable mma is? We care about who is the best way more than we care about exactly how good they are. There would be basically no difference if all of the best fighters didn't exist, they would be easily replaced because all that would happen is that the "best" would be a different dude who is currently making 50 times less than the guy 100 spots above him. In more traditional jobs, the fact that someone is the best say engineer, doesn't really matter. What matters is the actual work he does, so it's fair that he makes a lot more than the guy 100 spots bellow him because there's a concrete difference in what they provide. But that logic doesn't really apply to something like the ufc where what the fighters provide is "being the best willing to do it" which is something that's basically never not going to be provided and therefore doesn't have a whole lot of real value.
I completely agree with all your points. I’m a life long martial artist who also tested himself in multiple combat sports. I think this video is critical to show how fight promotion manipulate their audience to believe false narratives. Once I fought at a ringed Kyokushin event (not a tournament, but a fight card). I was probably the smallest fighter on the card (5’6 135lbs) and I was fighting a guy who was 6’1 170lbs. I was actually okay with the size, but I was disturbed by how the announced me. I was a green belt in Enshin Kaikan at the time, and they had me fight the North American light weight champion. When they announced me they said “the world sabaki tournament champion” which isn’t true. The way I saw it was, they hyped my credentials to build the kyokushin fighter. I’ve been put in other shady situations like fighting a pro Muay Thai fighter when I was an ammy, but that tends to happen a lot in the states. Sorry I’m all over the place, I really appreciate this video.
Yeah, I think most people don't really see that this is an issue in all Combat Sports that are privately managed or promoted (it definitely happens less in official national or international events, like the Olympics, though these have their own issues). I have seen many people talk about this in regards to Boxing though, I just feel like they somehow can't connect the dots between fighters being padded massively in Boxing (where a good Boxer is going to fight mostly low level fighters until they get to a championship or contender bout) and similar things happening in other Combat Sports. Promotion is always going to be about maximizing money, and that means selling your fighters, but people seem to mistakenly believe in some sort of "honour" in regards to this, and that only the best will fight the best at all times. I would say that the UFC at least has good fighters fighting worthwhile opponents for the most part, but there's definitely manipulation going on behind the scenes to maximize entertainment value and build fighters up. I mean just look at the UFCs starchild, Conor McGregor, and how much favouritism he's been given in matchups. The commentators favour him, he's given championship shots right out of the door whenever he wants them, and he's been given much larger payouts than any other UFC fighter (relative to the card not just because of PPVs). The UFC isn't WWE, but it's still an entertainment sport, and honestly there's a serious amount of behind the scenes fixing going on that people don't see. The problem is that they claim to just be purely based on sporting competition, which clearly isn't true.
@@AveSicarius I'm almost positive most of the big fights in the UFC are fixed. The last fight between Usman and Edwards. The odds for that fight to end in the 5th round must have been outrageous.
Hi, Coach Dewey. I appreciate you putting this up. At around 19:00, you say Meisha Tate got an immediate rematch after losing to Rhonda Rousey. Their second match was actually over a year and a half after their first, and both had fought twice in the interim. Tate had recently lost a #1 contender match with Cat Zingano (stopped in the 3rd after winning two rounds), but after Zingano required knee surgery, Tate was tapped to coach TUF opposite Rousey. While your assessment that "sex sells" is pretty self-evident, it wasn't simply a matter of "pretty face vs. pretty face". Similarly, Chael Sonnen didn't get three consecutive title shots; after his first loss to SIlva, he fought his way back into contention with wins over Brian Stann and Michael Bisping before his second fight with Silva. Although there's no reason except for dollar signs why he got a shot against Jones, in a weight class he hadn't even fought in for years. Anyway, thanks for indulging my fact-checking; my brain wouldn't let me let it go. Here's to your channel's continued success.
I really liked this format. It is very useful to have a single video that sums up your thoughs on the subject. It is hard to hunt for every videos where you are talking about something when I want to hear you opinion about it again. And even more in a deep dive. Great work. Keep it up!
Wow, this was spot on. Especially the phenomenon of the UFC wanting fighters of certain ethnic/backgrounds to win and be champions because they want to use them to break into a particular international market. They do it big time with Izzy and Usman with Africa. They really want to break into the Mexican market and is even building a UFCPI there. And Wheli from China was a huge one, they really want to break into the Chinese market. Another thing that was spot on is they HATE when someone retires with the belt. I find this one strange at first, but after a while I finally understood it. That’s why to this day Dana HATES GSP, especially because he not only retired with the welterweight strap, but came back and took the middleweight belt, and then retired again which infuriated Dana. Great video!
abit biased here but you are right. Valentina, weili jones and many more. they are very good fighters but they opponents are cherrypicked if u really follow all the fighters you know they are ducking some of them. if they were really theese champions they had just said BRING IT to all of them! another thing i just found a 100% clear match mixed ufc fight from 2023 tell me if u want it. if i ever get the time i will make a video about it
I've been an mma fan since the early 00's, pick UFC fights every weekend since Tapology started. You have a unique perspective on mma being a well traveled fighter and i'm thankful that youtube gives people like you with so much to share a platform. I love the original content
It's hard for me to imagine GSP was carrying guys for the UFC. He never had a great relationship with the company. He left with their belt twice and even recently they were blocking him from boxing because he's still under contract. Seems to me that if he was doing underhanded favors like that for the company they wouldn't be stifling him and risking him coming forward with allegations. As for Chael, it's true that charisma matters, but he didn't get 3 title fights in a row. He lost in the final round of a title fight he was clearly up on the cards in. Then he beat Stann and Bisping. After that he fought for the belt twice in a row, losing both but he did have two wins over ranked opponents in between the first and 2nd title fight
No, bud, GSP wouldn't come forward with anything because then he would be blackballed and unable to make a living for the rest of his years on earth. He still needs the fight community, you speak 🗣️ you're out
@@yeeerrrrrrr I don't follow you. GSP hasn't made money directly from fighting since 2017. His current net worth is about 30 million. He's a national hero in Canada and he makes money independent of the UFC. I doubt he would be destroyed by allegations against the company. The fight community is much bigger than just the UFC. Ariel Helwani was blackballed and completely banned by the company but he's still the most successful MMA journalist on the planet
@@justinkennedy3004 lol yea he could have bet on it going the distance but you can Google that. You're not going to find any big odds on Dan going 5 rounds. We are talking about 12 years ago. Odds makers weren't doing a variety of odds on MMA back then. Their popularity was really just expanding. UFC 100 that happened just a year before was the first event they had that was extensively covered by sports media. GSP closed -700 for that fight and he wasn't someone who was finishing every opponent. There just simply wasn't a bunch of money in betting Dan goes the distance. If he really wanted to make money betting that fight he would have needed to lose
Seeing legends mostly or completely past it tempted back into the sport just to get destroyed by a current upcoming fighter is one of the most depressing sights in pro combat sports.
I don’t believe all fights are rigged, but many are, and it’s a recent issue in the UFC. For example: Nunes loss, Valentina’s loss, Nate tapping Tony with 2:09 left on clock (Tony NEVER taps!). It’s ALL about the gambling! The money from online and live betting brings in more money than everything else combined, so of course, why not “control” it??!!
I watched some highlights from Rousey fights. Many times, from my point of view, Rousey wouldn't even have the armbar locked in and the ref would call the fight. Rumors are Dana White was furious that Nunes won the fight against Rousey. Also, The Karate Nerd did an interview, still on TH-cam, with Bill Wallace. The interview reveals some interesting things from behind the scenes of UFC 1. Great content.
Please advise which of the "many times" of Ronda's 9 submission wins were called by the ref without her "having the armbar locked in"... (Hint - there aren't any) The ref will stop for a verbal or physical tap, or severe injury (eg dislocation or breakage).
Maybe u showed watch her 9 arm bar or sub wins and watch carefully she was known for breaking ur arm ince its locked in so alot of her opponent would tap soon as it was sunk in so they didnt get there arm broke
That one where the ref called it wasn't in the UFC and Rousey told the ref she said she tapped. But when you replay it you can't see the other girls mouth because Rhondas legs are wrapped around her face.
For every Mcgregor there's at least a dozen guys with his ability if not better. But you never hear about them because they don't draw in the casuals with their brand persona. People love a fighter who can talk a lot of good shit and back it up. Mcgregor gets title shots in multiple weight classes and water cuts 20-30 lbs so he can bully guys smaller and lighter than him. On the other hand you got guys like Tony Ferguson who win like 12 matches straight and get no title shots. UFC will bend over backwards and bend and flex the rules as much as they need to accommodate the big names who rake in the cash and all Dana white will do is wag his finger at them whenever they break the rules or beat up random people / T-bone pregnant women.
@@messithegoat4111 mcgregor is a casual he never defended he only has one win at lightweight every one are not in the ufc the only 2 relevant fighters he beat were poirier and holloway and they would murk him now he only fought midgets and barely beat a unranked nate diaz who got beat up by masvidal
Your right. They promote fighters casuals wanna see, because MMA marketing is all about knocking someone out. Heres a thought go watch boxing or kickboxing for knockouts. Reminds me. Griffin bonnar one of the greatest fights, decision. Most of the greatest fights are not one hit knockout fights
There’s a cool video of GSP and Dan talking about their fight. From how they talked about it, especially in regards to the arm bar early on it doesn’t sound like a fix or a carry on GSP’s part. It’s fun to watch I think you’ll like it.
When Ramsey Dewey said "he throws a lot of punches, and the commentator says he's a good boxer", I was thinking "somebody give this man a shield!"👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿
Your point about entry level professionals vs world class professionals is excellent. It's the reason why I love the Creed movie so much. The scene where he's challenging all takers in that gym for the keys to his car. He does well against someone his own level but when a p4p ranked fighter steps in and hands his ass to him, then takes his mustang; is exactly that. Then when he comes back in Creed II as the champ and beats that same guy, it's a great example of growth. Awesome content, as always, Ramsey.
One of the things that made Bill "Superfoot" Wallace retire from Kickboxing was when he was to good for the sport. I remember a story he talked about where before a fight the promoter pulled him aside and basically asked him to go easy on his opponent in the early rounds so that it looks competitive. In the first round Bill drops his opponent with a side kick and the referee proceeds to start counting one of the slowest 10 counts you have ever heard. Just hoping the fighter gets back up.
Fantastic, enlightening video! Boxing ended up following the money also. Moving away from the 8 weight class, one champ per weight class model. Adding more weight classes and more belts to make more money. “Boxing as a SPORT and SPECTACLE has led to the regression of boxing as a form or art and self defense” -Wylies Art and Science of Boxing
yep. and because it's not an honest sport, the interest X factor that can't be scripted or controlled waned, and people stopped watching boxing, when all they care about is knowing who is the unambiguous, unified *best*. meanwhile ... tennis, TENNIS!, the most boring goddam sport on the planet, pulls in billions of dollars because it's run properly-ish. everyone on the planet knows who's best for a given tournament, or over the course of a season. and everyone can dream about their local hero emerging from the qualifiers to win a slam, because they know that if he's actually best, like a story book, he will win. and they watch the boring match because they're watching the story unfold of the player-personality [and, admittedly, because of a genius scoring system that would make rock-scissors-paper exciting if you were invested in the players.] the UFC sucks because it doesn't understand how much people love freak outcomes that are at the mercy of unbreakable rules. they effing *love* it when someone points out that nothing in the rules says a dog can't play basketball.
Very good video as usual, Ramsay. I also liked the callout to pro wrestling, as many fans of MMA hate to acknowledge how instrumental pro wrestling has been in forming the way MMA fights are promoted and sold, so putting it out there in simple terms is worth it, if only for educational purposes.
Great video! Regarding the GSP-Hardy fight, I remember at the time feeling that GSP chose not to break Dan Hardy’s arm during the several opportunities he had. We know how strong GSP is!
He wasnt doing the arm bar properly there's actually video of his locker room right after where hes asking Danaher what he was doing wrong right after the fight
Gotta squeeze your knees so the fulcrum for the leverage on the arm starts below the elbow joint and not at the shoulder, splitting the breaking force. Charles Oliveira made this same mistake against Tony, allowing him to reach what seemed like an absurd amount of hyperextension. Delivering an armbar in this way can deliver breaking force but not devastatingly breaking force.
To be fair to Dan Hardy, he had just beat Mike Swick for the title shot and the only people ahead of him in the rankings were people George had already beaten. I'm sure they wanted to break into the UK market but there was also good timing on Dan's end as well. Also, Chael had to fight and beat Michael Bisping and Brian Stann before he got his rematch against Silva. You make some good points but he definitely didn't just get 3 title shots in a row. He did get 2 though.
So that line from "Gladiator" was true: "I wasn't the best because I killed quickly, I was the best because I gave them something they had never seen before."
Actually that may ring truer than any of Gladiator's depiction of Gladiator life, Gladiator games are very expensive so the Gladiators are trained, prepared and for slaves at the time were very well off given baths and healthy diet, the promoters (the Governor, Senator or maybe even the Emperor himself) will want the biggest show they can get so Gladiators typically didn't die, they even have Unions where if one of them dies in combat they are buried for free by their fellow Gladiators.
Same goes for the NFL, I love it, but I understand that they have underhanded means of skewing outcome of any competition they reside over. It’s not technically illegal either.
If it's clear the league makes more money when this team or that team is winning, it's not too much of a stretch to maybe the league keeps that team in the winner's circle.
I love this video. We need more open minded people that’s not scared to bring these antics to light! Thank you so much for your time and efforts for this video bro it’s amazing.
It's funny that Roga s commentating was mentioned I remember a fight between Rashad Evans and some other dude years back the fight was BORING!!! Hardly a pinch thrown by any fighter and my dad said it was fixed because they kept hammering about the speed of Rashad Evans and the inexperience of the other guy We both thought the other guy won the fight just based on activity and initiative The judges gave Rashad and once again in the interview Rogan was raving about Rashads speed I guess trying to convince the fans present and those watching that it was a good decision
For me it's amazing the UFC has become as big as it has. I understand the need & drive to make money, it's an absolute necessity if a business wants to exist. For the most part I buy in to what the UFC is doing, even though I've plainly seen some of the points made here.
Does anyone remember the GSP vs. Johnny Hendrix? Another way MMA fights can be "fixed" is with poor or incompetent judging or corrupt athletic commissions. GSP clearly lost that fight, but the judges decided to give it to him anyway. This wasn't the UFC's fault, because if the fans aren't satisfied then the UFC looks bad, but still, something smelled really bad in that decision for whatever reason.
The UFC is also trying to get us to look the other way for bad judging. The commentators will be like "You know how judging has been lately." I noticed this when Draft Kings started getting screen time during events.
If the ufc wanted u to look the other way from bad judging dana white himself wouldn't trash the judges for minutes at a time during the post fight conference. This is a dumb comment
@@UFC-NFLbad judging males the sport look bad. Dana's reaction to many bad calls definitely come off as genuine, whether it be refs or judges. Some have been so bad that a ref or judge hasn't called or scored a fight since. Some bad calls, yeah, he didn't seem genuine, so I'll meet you halfway there. On a side note, this just reminds me of Adalaide Byrd and her horrendous judging in both boxing and MMA. Not sure if she's still judging fights, but if she is, she shouldn't be. Literally has no clue how to score when it comes to either sport.
It is not illegal for the nfl to fix games, according to the rules, it’s not illegal to fix games….sports haven’t been real for decades.!. Great video, thank you
There was a fight between Kevin Holland and Kyle Daukaus where there was a clash of heads but the fight continued and Daukaus won by submission. The referee Dan Mirgiliotta was stamding firm that Daukaus will be awarded the win via submission. Mirgiliotta was called to the aisleway where Herb Dean and a matchmaker Sean Shelby would change his stance in the biggest mockery filmed. A matchmaker having any say is ludicrous since he has nothing to do with judging or reffing because they are hired and sanctioned by the state athletic commission . If you watch, you'll see.
Herb Dean was in charge of review. That whole submission sequence happened because of that headbutt. Holland was out cold when he fell forward. You could see Dan running in to call it because of the headbutt, but Holland was quick to react and try to fight off his back. In the end, he didn't get up off the mat until he tapped. Holland was fine with taking the L in the way that it happened. But the sequence warranted the review. Personally, I think going straight to no contest for headbutts is overkill. I think the affected fighter or both fighters should be given up to two minutes to regain composure, just like with accidental groin shots. If and when they feel they can continue, fight resumes. So the fight should have been restarted where they were standing once Holland or both of them felt ready after the 2 minutes or less. If one or both feel they can't continue because of the headbutt, then yeah, no contest. Accidental or not, it's still an illegal move and Dan should've stopped it when he intially was going to, which is what Herb Dean was telling him. Doesn't matter if Holland was quick to come to and resume. Point is he was now in a position of disadvantage because of the headbutt. So it was the correct call and really one that was more about the ref trusting his gut instead of reacting to what the fighters are doing. But like I said, I think headbutts like that should be given the same timeout as a groin shot.
A fighter like GSP not finishing Dan Hardy could also be explained by them having bet on themselves to win a decision. I honestly think thats what happened with Chito Vera vs Font recently... Chito had every opportunity to finish and never pulled the trigger...
Your getting enlightened ,rare thing for someone who started in tkd, A+,you should do more of these,the world is starved for authentic journalism,and that's what this was.
i remember hearing an interview long ago about that GSP fight shortly after i watched it. one of his friends asked him why he took so long to finish him off and his response was basically he never felt like he was going to lose that fight and he did not want to finish Dan off with strikes in front of his family and make them worried and that he really does not like hurting people if he does not have to, lmao. i wish i could find it but i laughed my ass off cuz anyone who watched that fight and was familiar with GSP knew he was taking it easy on Hardy the whole time
Great video Ramsey! One correction in the description is needed "In his book "Beyond the Lion's Den", former UFC champ and pro wrestler, Frank Shamrock" It's actually his brother Ken Shamrock as you said in the video at 1:10
"Carrying fights" is the only point I disagree with. As you said, even if it's happening, it's hard to proof. And for a fighter there has to be an incentive to carry a fight. If I was GSP and the UFC told me to carry Hardy through 5 rounds, I'd ask them: "Why would I? You pay me boni for finishes, which additionally look great in highlight reels, will get me more fans and also I have to spend less time in a cage with someone who wants to take my head off. What do you pay me to do this?" The few times we know of, when fighters were asked to do this (affliction *cough*), they often didn't do it and just smashed their opponent. And there are a lot of fights, that would have been lucrative and easy to carry. F.e.: Mickey Gall obliterated CM Punk in seconds, although the UFC invested heavily in Punk and would have benefited from a longer fight. So, it's possible that this is happening at the high level, but if so, there are probably bribes or threats involved. And proving that is nearly impossible without whistleblowers. So until we know this for a fact, it's a hard statement to make.
They couldn’t pay me extra to do nothin lol this ain’t wrestling this a FIGHT. I’m not carrying shit lol within those 5 rounds he could take me out and I’m supposed to essentially go easier on him yea ok😂
@@TherealSIRenity exactly. Tbf one thing I didn't mention are b- to c-league fights. In those I have seen this happening first hand. Usually in combination with paddening a record. Meaning, they brought a newbie to be slaughtered by an upcoming talent in a regional main event. Sometimes they tell the guy they're building up, to go easy for a couple of minutes to gain experience and drag out the show. But they also offer them a couple of bucks under the table for that.
GSP is an MKUltra victim. He talks about about not remembering things for hours and being abducted by “aliens”. These are both common things spoken about by MKUltra victims except some will say demons instead of aliens and it represents their handlers as well.
Salam again roach ramsey, I have 2 questions if you don't mind me asking, first what did you think Malakhra(the Sindhi Pakistani folk wrestling style that looks rather odd) Second are you at all familiar with the story of Choki Motobu, an Okinawan karateka who defeated some of thr biggest karate masters of his day but never even found 1/10th of their success, mostly because the karate he taught was just the basics with no specfic kata and had them do just full contact sparring matches and exercise, which scared away many students despite his fame
Malakhra is pretty famous in Sindhi villages and I think it's just pure straight but I also never saw a fite looking guy in it ( I only watched 3 of the fights cuz they end pretty quickly and take a lot of time to start)
@@ShahNawaz-uj9gy Its folk wrestling, not a lot of techniques involved, just grappling in the dirt and sand and the man with superior strength and stamine wins, pretty much every culture in Africa, Europe and Asia has some variation of this type of folk wrestling
I know this has been posted a little while ago, but I finally got to see this video. Coach, half of what you mentioned here, my teacher had told me about 4 years ago. Specially about Rhonda. “If it wasn’t because she was pretty she would be an unknown and not get manny fights.” Or, “Some of these fights they get nobodies and hype them up in order to get the champion to have an amazing record by putting him to fight people the champion can beat.” Keep it up coach.
I was a committed fan from the first MMA fight in the early 1990s until about 3 years ago. I realized how badly the UFC was taking advantage of poor fighters and paying them next to nothing. Dana was a billionaire but the fighters were left broke, broken and on their own. I could no longer enjoy seeing the hapless fighters getting the crap beaten out of them for sport. I quit paying for UFC and have a morality problem with the screwing of the people that put their health on the line, while Rogan and Dana sit and collect more than all of the fighters earn in their career in only one year. I'm now disgusted with the UFC and the F'ing of the fighters and won't support the UFC ever again.
"Give that guy the title shot! Who cares? Give em the title shot" hahaha. Commentators can make a fight actually seem totally different. Some fights are surprising to rewatch without the commentary. Great video 👍
had me laughing showing that footage of the predator and yoshihiro. What an epic war, one for the ages. No better way to illustrate a point about someone taking more than one shot 😂😂 btw brother I hope you're managing in shanghai.
A relatively recent match in the UFC that I felt was fixed was Ngannou vs Miocic. Miocic was an incredible fighter, but he wasn't making the UFC any money, so they wanted him to lose. They made them fight in a much smaller cage to give Ngannou a large advantage.
That is not true Daniel Cormier also fought stipe prior in the same small sized octagon and lost, ngannou was just better that night with no crowd, he was patient and took him apart.
I don’t even have to watch the video and I can tell you that MMA fights are fixed. Not all of them just a select few. Every single other major sport has been outed for cheating from insider information. Referees have been caught betting on games, players have been caught betting on games. Pete Rose isn’t in the Hall of Fame for this reason. They think Tyson may have thrown fights or waited until later rounds to knock a guy out just to make a few more million. Anderson Silva was unstoppable and then started Showboating and got caught by serious knockout. My question is this, why would every other major sport in the world get caught for cheating and fixing games or fights, and not the UFC or MMA. It’s naïve to think they can’t fix fights. I’m not saying Dana White himself goes to the betting window and says put $100,000 on some can to beat Khabib . Dana’s got deep pockets and so do all the people that own these organizations. they’re billionaires. they know a guy who knows a guy who pays a guy who pays a guy to make these bets. and if he speaks up well then you probably won’t hear from that guy again because we never heard of the guy in the first place.
The Undertaker is an old soul carnie-type, as pro wrestlers go. He WANTED to retire on a loss, at Wrestlemania no less, to give an up and comer some buzz for breaking his streak, and pass the torch to the next generation. Mark Calloway wanted the guy who beat The Undertaker at Wrestlemania to become as big as The Undertaker. Instead, Brock Lesnar (whose pro wrestling gimmick is basically his complete and utter disdain for pro wrestling) got it. Dude gave thirty plus years of his life as an utterly loyal company man to Vince (he was one of the few wrestlers to remain with the WWE during the entirety of the Monday Night Wars, and was basically Sergeant Major of the Army for the roster of talent, presiding over Wrestler's Court and ending The Miz's locker room ban despite The Code dictating only the wrestler who placed it could lift it, because Chris Benoit was the guy who banned him before his murder-suicide), and that was his reward. And he lost the match, clean, because he was an utterly loyal company man.
My coach quit Lumpinee when he had a gun pulled on him on the way to the ring and told to throw the fight. He just kept walking ...right out the stadium and never fought again. I'm thise people who only watch college sports and amateurs for the purity of the sport and not the business of fighting.
Thanks for making this video. The thorough breakdown help us understand that we aren't just imagining things in doubt 😂. I don't want to ruin the entertainment for future references but sometimes bouts look like a good demonstration, then others it's light sparing mixed in with some stiff sparing.
I apologize for writing three comments, but I promise I'm done after this. One aspect of the sport is that there is too much intermingling at the commission in regards to MMA and boxing. They are two very different sports. A decade ago, we moved to a new state due to my wife's job. I was staying at home with the kids, but wanted to find a gig that could work around my wife's schedule. So, I contacted the states boxing and MMA commission about judging MMA fights. They sent me to my first card. I didn't judge, but instead inspected gloves. During downtime, I realized that every member of the commission that worked that night were former boxers (amateur or military). I was the only wrestler there. One of the old guys even said "finally, someone with a wrestling background to work with us." I'm not sure why MMA cards are judged, reffed, inspected, and have oversight by boxing people. It's not unlike basketball refs working as baseball umpires.
You don’t need to apologize for leaving comments. More comments helps the channel grow. It’s not just that though, a boxing commission literally wrote the rules of the UFC. For some reason, boxing commissions in the US were given the final authority over the sport of MMA since the year 2000.
Interesting video. Any time there is money involved in sport, there's incentive to pull strings. It's a simple fact of human greed. The only thing we can hope for is we see a diversification of talent across MMA promotions. This keep promoters honest and not trying to string money above fighters' heads for particular "outcomes" and promotions focus more on quality, high profile fights over entertainment value.
Ronda is a great example of a fighter who had their record padded by punching bags for the sole purpose of generating revenue. As soon as she went up against somebody with solid striking she immediately crumbled.
GSP and his coaches in the post videos that night explained and did again that sub to understand why it didn't work. Thank you for not putting it but long times mma fans have memories.
In reality TV they purposely select the most volitile ones out of the bunch so yeah they are real people but the situation is artificial, though I don't think that the UFC has reached that level of deliberate "fakeness" at least in the US.
This doesn't just apply to MMA, it's also prevalent in boxing and in most mainstream sports. Football is filled with matches being won not by questionable last minutes pentalities or disallowed goals. Competitive sports are becoming more and more scripted.
People dont realize how often sports NEED the right people to win. You look at boxing for instance, when the Klitschkos were on top, boxing was in a huge slump. Boxers were like Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder started coming in and boxing's popularity was again on the rise. Fury had that feel good story of a fighter lost to drugs and depression, but making an amazing comeback to become heavyweight champ, Deontay had that knockout right fist, but a mostly padded record. Both had charisma and could talk your ass into buying a ticket. Even under scripted circumstances people need that feel good moment. Thats why for most of its history, the WWE always has the main event of Wrestlemania go off the air with the face or good guy winning. Its the culmination of the feud and the crowd needs to go home happy, or else it can taint how they felt about the whole show in general and hence whether they buy it again next time. There is SO much of this stuff, and stuff like Ramsey said, in our sports. I love watching MMA, but I've been bitching for a while how there is no real ranking system and people seem to get title shots willy nilly. I've even heard Dana White say stuff like "Who is his next fight? Oh I dont know Ill have to go back and we'll have to figure out who the best person to match him up against is" and the media asking the questions never says anything about it.
According to dudes like Frank Shamrock, Josh Barnett, and Bas Rutten, Masakatsu Funaki and Minoru Suzuki were so notorious and skilled at carrying their opponents opponents in early Pancrase that some of his opponents had absolutely no clue they were doing it and would go on to say their fights in Pancrase were totally clean without realizing there was a bit of a work to them. Because it was their promotion, they would regularly give their opponents chances to work to make their fights more exciting, almost like coaches sparring with their students, before flipping the switch and destroying them, and as far as I know, they never had opponents throw their fights make themselves look good personally (though there were definitely fixed fights in Pancrase in those days, and some of the dudes on their records had no place being in that ring). Frankly, I doubt they needed to. They were some legitimately scary dudes back in the mid-nineties, and it's no surprise that their losses were to dudes like Rutten (who famously outright refused to do any sort of working in MMA) or the Shamrocks. Hell, Suzuki is still pretty damn intimidating in his pro wrestling career. His presence still exudes that killer instinct, even if his body isn't quite up to the task of it.
Gorgeous George was a huge inspiration behind Muhammad Ali's persona with the whole "I'm so pretty.." Good video, nice to see somebody with a platform challenging the status quo rather than feeding into their sycophants delusions like a UFC Commentator
I rarely do scripted videos, but I have had a few video essays on the shelf for years. I wrote this one in 2013. The next video essay is about the connection between J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic fantasy novel “The Hobbit” and professional fighting.
😂. Excellent video Coach 💪
Lmao,it's primordial also to clarify the role of Tom bombadil in the rise and decline of the vale tudo 🤣
Wow, even though we love when you improvise as you go, sometimes a script helps, specially when you have 9 different items to cover. Great work!
I’m here for it !!
Do you ever read Orson Scott Card? I don't necessarily like his views but he writes great science fiction like Enders Game. I just finished a series called the Homecoming Saga which is supposed to be a science fiction version of the book of Mormon. I'd love to hear more about the stories and parables. You mentioned the guy who built the equivalent of submarines. The son of Jared I think? Just like when you talk about warfare and battle formations without telling people to join the army you could tell the most interesting or accessible parts of the book of Mormon without being preachy. I'm ignorant about the church of latter day saints and would love to know more. I don't know if the essay format would work but this format would be amazing for ancient combat lectures
"Commentators are training you how to think"
Man, I have *definitely* watched some fights where it sounded like the commentators were watching an entirely different match.
Ryan Hall had a match where he was on the ground defensless.
The comentator says the other guy is in big trouble.
Then Ryan Hall got pounded in 10 seconds.
Conors trying to tire khabib out by getting punched in the face is still my Favorite.
" he hurt him, he hurt him bad" still walking around just fine.
I felt like I was being gaslit during Ian Garry's last fight
Izzy vs Blacowitz with Joe and DC commentary and Mike Goldbergs "Next level Muay thai" on everbody that kicks"
I call the commentary bias "main character syndrome." It's the main character vs the other guy. Even if the main character is losing, the other guy isn't winning. The main character is just losing
Facts
Great way to put it too
Israel adesanya: the "main character" of the whole UFC
You know that a lot of UFC fighters complain about how some commentators show bias for a fighter they know personally? It's a BIG ISSUE right now.
Also known now as the 'max holloway' effect xD
There's definitely dodgy judging in the ufc. In one fight takedowns and grappling score high and the next fight it means nothing. Judges abuse this
In the States at least, some areas require that judges come from local sport commissions, so you don't necessarily see consistency even within a single promotion like the UFC.
Also volume striking over damage seems to change match to match
Yeah like how when khabib beat Tibau aggression was everything but when Marvin fought izzy aggression meant nothing.
@@alfredthegreat5452 Or how the 2nd round between Jones and Reyes, Jones was advancing but getting hit and Reyes was using footwork and landed Big Shots. But Jones won that ROUND - which was the decisive one at the end.
Yan vs Sterling 2 - Round 1, Yan was advancing but getting hit like Jon Jones was. Sterling was using footwork and landing insignificant strikes. Sterling won - doing what Reyes did but won THAT ROUND.
The officials are on the payroll, they probably get bribe money or threats to deliver the most convenient outcome that benefits the ufc
Though pro wrestling be scripted, that takes nothing away from how impressive the athletes themselves are. To repeatedly pull off those moves without causing each other severe injuries is fairly awe-inspiring.
Not getting hurt doing all that is simply amazing.
Too bad WWE is boring as shit
@@ausreir for sure. Some people talk shit about pro wrestlers because they aren't real fights but when you really think about it, they are stunt-men. Stunt-men that do everything live in front of an audience. That is fucking CRAZY. It can't be easy
Yeah, pro wrestling, should be considered the same as gimnastic, dance and ice skating in terms of athletic performance.
@@adoniscastro3648 interesting thought
There's been a history of refs fixing games in the NBA (look up Kings vs Lakers 2002). They too, did it for the money. Putting all your effort into something and it not being fair is a real spirit crusher.
I mean, even if the rules are followed exactly, it's still not fair. There is no sporting event ever in the history of sports that has ever been truly Fair. And the illusion that things can be there is more damaging to sports especially combat sports than anything else
@@davidpeters6743 well if sport were 100% fair
A) everybody would win equal amount of times
B) every event would be draw
The better genetics, the privilege and the better training program and better conections, and finally luck win.
Bunch of factors that are unequal
@@davidpeters6743 I don't think having a clean sport means it's unfair. Sure some people are physically superior that doesn't mean we should let them abuse PEDs or fight dirty with impunity.
Nor should judges pick an choose when a fighter his landed effective strikes or take downs. Perfect example is Weili Zhang who should've lost to Joanna Jędrzejczyk but beaten Rose Namajuans both fights were scored wrong simply in favor of what was most financial beneficial.
It's crazy to because Weili could've had a super fight with Valentina, but since having Zhang beat Jędrzejczyk made them better marketing choice at the time, and Namajuans winning was better at the moment Weili got screwed. Same thing happened to Joanna with them Rose fights.
@@tylerrobbins8311 Years of people trying to police PEDs has taught us one thing... no matter how obsessive or borderline insanely fascist your attempts to police people are... it doesn't work. There are Olympians being caught every year, there are entire countries with giant conspiracies. It's not like there's no rabbit punches in boxing, or sneaky headbutts. There is no fair in sports. In judged sports double no fair. But that's what you need to have a judged sport.
@@davidpeters6743 It's not hard to clean the sports up just cost money. Really it comes down to the promoters and organizations are greedy
I'd also add the low wages to the fix list, it's easier to control fighters who struggle economically. It's also incredibly short sighted, the money brings better talent with better training environment etc. Also don't come to me with the bushido bullshit of "it's hard to stay motivated... silk sheets," they are professionals, not soldiers and boxing has proved that it's not true also. You know it's wrong when your champ gets the same money as a moderately popular boxer on an event 10 times bigger than his.
IMHO the biggest factor separating elite athletes from the regular kind is how much support they have from other people. People think it's genetics and in built talent, and those things matter but they are massively magnified by the fact that the naturally talented athlete is much more likely to have his or her parents let them live at home and focus on training instead of telling them to cut that shit out and get a goddamned job and move out. Coaches pay more attention to these athletes and there will always be a team mate willing to do after hours drilling with them. This removes the biggest obstacle to success: having enough hours a day to train your ass off and still get optimal sleep and not be in utter poverty unable to afford the quality nutrition to support that intense training etc. If I owned a gym, I'd tell young aspiring fighters, start thinking NOW about how you're going to optimise your lifestyle outside of fighting, it could take you 5 years of searching to find the job that allows you time to train but pays you enough to have savings like an actual adult and there are fighters at the top of the game who still rely on that
Super troo
Unfortunately the entirety of corporate capitalism operates on the notion of short-term gains at all costs (which is why our planet is so fucked in many ways). You are right, it's far more effective long-term to invest in your workforce, get them happy, motivated, and train them up to a higher level so they perform better. But pretty much every large company out there treats their workforce like disposable assets to be worked until they break, which when you think about it is incredibly inefficient. You spend time training someone up, giving them experience in their position, and then you work them until they just fall apart, at which point you need to train somebody else to fill that position. It wastes time and money, and productivity goes down sharply over these people's careers. I honestly think much of the executive management we see in any organization are completely ignorant of basic economics, logically compromised, and are so dissociated from their workforce they can't see them as people. Dana's living the high-life, spending more money on a single poker night than most fighters earn in a year (if not multiple years because they don't actually have the ability to save that money). It's fucked up, and I do think there is an element of control, but it's also just traditional greed. Dana probably also gives favoured fighters bonuses if enslave themselves to the UFC, that's probably why some are saying "fighter pay is great, don't complain about it".
Anyone who says some shit like "stay poor, stay hungry" most definitely doesn't fight for a living, and is probably so mentally deficient that getting punched in the fact might turn them into a vegetable. Imagine risking serious injury, or even death (because that isn't out of the cards), for less money than many people make working standard desk jobs. Not only that, but your promoter (who by the way is meant to be PROMOTING you, not just making money off you while leaving you to market yourself) is making billions of dollars a year, millions of which are likely from your contribution in regards to performance. Most high risk jobs pay more because of that danger, and while jobs like these could still stand to make significantly more given how much they influence overall profits (i.e. there wouldn't be any without these workers) the UFC really takes the fucking cake.
It's extremely notable that the UFC has tried to suppress the information on fighter pay through things like lobbying the Nevada State Commission. Obviously there's some shady shit going on there, and they want to cover it up. NDAs and other forms of controlling employees from speaking out are also incredibly common, and I wouldn't be surprised if the UFC also has this.
Honestly this is why economic regulation is so necessary, without it we know what happens, workers get exploited for the benefit of the people in charge. It happened in the industrialist era, and it's happening now. Fighters wages need to be fixed at a fair % of estimates (made by a regulatory body) for their contribution and the UFC needs to publish fighter pay.
@@0n344 seems like it's good to see what one can do to stand out in the gym while not being a tough guy/bad sparring partner. It's a difficult balance because showing your full powerlevel could result in retaliation from jealous folk, never get sucked into that, always be the better person, and be in it to learn and explore the art. Don't accept a fight if you don't have enough experience even if your coach wants you to, some coaches can get over excited about seeing you pull off a tornado kick and let you fight without basics like cage wrestling under your belt.
Mostly saying this to others who may read your post.
@@AveSicarius"Imagine risking serious injury, or even death (because that isn't out of the cards), for less money than many people make working standard desk jobs."
Your argument kind of presupposes that fighting is fundamentally important. I have no problem paying the guy that's willing to risk his life to do something that will improve everyone elses. That makes sense to me...but mma fighters aren't really improving people's lives, they are just providing entertainment. As much as people care about mma, I strongly believe that if it didn't exist something else would have caught those people's attention and would have filled that void.
In constrast something mundane like plumbing is something that I almost never think or care about...but if plumbing wasn't a thing, it would affect my quality of life way more.
You're complaining about capitalism, but really the same general logic applies on every level. If there's no fighters then Dana can't make money so it's unfair that Dana makes so much more than the fighters.
But if there's no plumber, janitor, construction worker, etc... the fighter wouldn't be able to spend as much time training on becoming a fighter. So why is it fair that the fighter makes so much more money than the other(more important imo) people that made fighting as a career possible in the first place?
I feel like if you really follow your logic, the problem isn't that the fighters aren't making enough, It's that the people building the bottom of the pyramid aren't making enough.
"Fighters wages need to be fixed at a fair % of estimates (made by a regulatory body) for their contribution and the UFC needs to publish fighter pay."
What's a fair estimate? Let's say that tomorow the top 100 fighters all die, there's no practical concerns that arise from this and the next guys in line just step up and everyone forgets that even happened within 20 minutes. Do you really think that would meaningfully affect how profitable mma is? We care about who is the best way more than we care about exactly how good they are.
There would be basically no difference if all of the best fighters didn't exist, they would be easily replaced because all that would happen is that the "best" would be a different dude who is currently making 50 times less than the guy 100 spots above him.
In more traditional jobs, the fact that someone is the best say engineer, doesn't really matter. What matters is the actual work he does, so it's fair that he makes a lot more than the guy 100 spots bellow him because there's a concrete difference in what they provide. But that logic doesn't really apply to something like the ufc where what the fighters provide is "being the best willing to do it" which is something that's basically never not going to be provided and therefore doesn't have a whole lot of real value.
I completely agree with all your points. I’m a life long martial artist who also tested himself in multiple combat sports. I think this video is critical to show how fight promotion manipulate their audience to believe false narratives. Once I fought at a ringed Kyokushin event (not a tournament, but a fight card). I was probably the smallest fighter on the card (5’6 135lbs) and I was fighting a guy who was 6’1 170lbs. I was actually okay with the size, but I was disturbed by how the announced me. I was a green belt in Enshin Kaikan at the time, and they had me fight the North American light weight champion. When they announced me they said “the world sabaki tournament champion” which isn’t true. The way I saw it was, they hyped my credentials to build the kyokushin fighter. I’ve been put in other shady situations like fighting a pro Muay Thai fighter when I was an ammy, but that tends to happen a lot in the states. Sorry I’m all over the place, I really appreciate this video.
Yeah, I think most people don't really see that this is an issue in all Combat Sports that are privately managed or promoted (it definitely happens less in official national or international events, like the Olympics, though these have their own issues). I have seen many people talk about this in regards to Boxing though, I just feel like they somehow can't connect the dots between fighters being padded massively in Boxing (where a good Boxer is going to fight mostly low level fighters until they get to a championship or contender bout) and similar things happening in other Combat Sports. Promotion is always going to be about maximizing money, and that means selling your fighters, but people seem to mistakenly believe in some sort of "honour" in regards to this, and that only the best will fight the best at all times.
I would say that the UFC at least has good fighters fighting worthwhile opponents for the most part, but there's definitely manipulation going on behind the scenes to maximize entertainment value and build fighters up. I mean just look at the UFCs starchild, Conor McGregor, and how much favouritism he's been given in matchups. The commentators favour him, he's given championship shots right out of the door whenever he wants them, and he's been given much larger payouts than any other UFC fighter (relative to the card not just because of PPVs).
The UFC isn't WWE, but it's still an entertainment sport, and honestly there's a serious amount of behind the scenes fixing going on that people don't see. The problem is that they claim to just be purely based on sporting competition, which clearly isn't true.
fighting a pro muay thai fighter as an amateur is so dangerous lol
@@ram42193 preach bro. Muay Thai and kickboxing didn’t have much regulation in the US till recently.
@@AveSicarius I'm almost positive most of the big fights in the UFC are fixed. The last fight between Usman and Edwards. The odds for that fight to end in the 5th round must have been outrageous.
Tank Abbott has been calling ufc out since the beginning, now I believe him and think he was most likely the best complete ufc/mma fighter ever.
Hi, Coach Dewey. I appreciate you putting this up.
At around 19:00, you say Meisha Tate got an immediate rematch after losing to Rhonda Rousey. Their second match was actually over a year and a half after their first, and both had fought twice in the interim. Tate had recently lost a #1 contender match with Cat Zingano (stopped in the 3rd after winning two rounds), but after Zingano required knee surgery, Tate was tapped to coach TUF opposite Rousey. While your assessment that "sex sells" is pretty self-evident, it wasn't simply a matter of "pretty face vs. pretty face".
Similarly, Chael Sonnen didn't get three consecutive title shots; after his first loss to SIlva, he fought his way back into contention with wins over Brian Stann and Michael Bisping before his second fight with Silva.
Although there's no reason except for dollar signs why he got a shot against Jones, in a weight class he hadn't even fought in for years.
Anyway, thanks for indulging my fact-checking; my brain wouldn't let me let it go. Here's to your channel's continued success.
No surprise he didn't like this comment
@@bartholomew1608 I get it. Nobody likes the "Well, actually" guy 😄
I really liked this format. It is very useful to have a single video that sums up your thoughs on the subject. It is hard to hunt for every videos where you are talking about something when I want to hear you opinion about it again. And even more in a deep dive. Great work. Keep it up!
Wow, this was spot on. Especially the phenomenon of the UFC wanting fighters of certain ethnic/backgrounds to win and be champions because they want to use them to break into a particular international market. They do it big time with Izzy and Usman with Africa. They really want to break into the Mexican market and is even building a UFCPI there. And Wheli from China was a huge one, they really want to break into the Chinese market.
Another thing that was spot on is they HATE when someone retires with the belt. I find this one strange at first, but after a while I finally understood it. That’s why to this day Dana HATES GSP, especially because he not only retired with the welterweight strap, but came back and took the middleweight belt, and then retired again which infuriated Dana. Great video!
abit biased here but you are right. Valentina, weili jones and many more. they are very good fighters but they opponents are cherrypicked if u really follow all the fighters you know they are ducking some of them. if they were really theese champions they had just said BRING IT to all of them!
another thing i just found a 100% clear match mixed ufc fight from 2023 tell me if u want it. if i ever get the time i will make a video about it
I've been an mma fan since the early 00's, pick UFC fights every weekend since Tapology started. You have a unique perspective on mma being a well traveled fighter and i'm thankful that youtube gives people like you with so much to share a platform. I love the original content
It's hard for me to imagine GSP was carrying guys for the UFC. He never had a great relationship with the company. He left with their belt twice and even recently they were blocking him from boxing because he's still under contract. Seems to me that if he was doing underhanded favors like that for the company they wouldn't be stifling him and risking him coming forward with allegations. As for Chael, it's true that charisma matters, but he didn't get 3 title fights in a row. He lost in the final round of a title fight he was clearly up on the cards in. Then he beat Stann and Bisping. After that he fought for the belt twice in a row, losing both but he did have two wins over ranked opponents in between the first and 2nd title fight
I'm with you! This guy's selling wolf tickets.
No, bud, GSP wouldn't come forward with anything because then he would be blackballed and unable to make a living for the rest of his years on earth. He still needs the fight community, you speak 🗣️ you're out
@@yeeerrrrrrr I don't follow you. GSP hasn't made money directly from fighting since 2017. His current net worth is about 30 million. He's a national hero in Canada and he makes money independent of the UFC. I doubt he would be destroyed by allegations against the company. The fight community is much bigger than just the UFC. Ariel Helwani was blackballed and completely banned by the company but he's still the most successful MMA journalist on the planet
GSP could have bet on the fight going the distance. More reasons to carry someone than company man.
@@justinkennedy3004 lol yea he could have bet on it going the distance but you can Google that. You're not going to find any big odds on Dan going 5 rounds. We are talking about 12 years ago. Odds makers weren't doing a variety of odds on MMA back then. Their popularity was really just expanding. UFC 100 that happened just a year before was the first event they had that was extensively covered by sports media. GSP closed -700 for that fight and he wasn't someone who was finishing every opponent. There just simply wasn't a bunch of money in betting Dan goes the distance. If he really wanted to make money betting that fight he would have needed to lose
"who's popular on youtube? Give him a fight!!!"
Ramsey predicted the rise of Jake Paul
I made a video four years ago saying that he would fight in the UFC.
@@RamseyDewey curious how you knew that would happen
Seeing legends mostly or completely past it tempted back into the sport just to get destroyed by a current upcoming fighter is one of the most depressing sights in pro combat sports.
That's what desperate people to do.
@@jordandennis6794 desperate or greedy
I don’t believe all fights are rigged, but many are, and it’s a recent issue in the UFC. For example: Nunes loss, Valentina’s loss, Nate tapping Tony with 2:09 left on clock (Tony NEVER taps!).
It’s ALL about the gambling! The money from online and live betting brings in more money than everything else combined, so of course, why not “control” it??!!
I watched some highlights from Rousey fights. Many times, from my point of view, Rousey wouldn't even have the armbar locked in and the ref would call the fight. Rumors are Dana White was furious that Nunes won the fight against Rousey. Also, The Karate Nerd did an interview, still on TH-cam, with Bill Wallace. The interview reveals some interesting things from behind the scenes of UFC 1. Great content.
Please advise which of the "many times" of Ronda's 9 submission wins were called by the ref without her "having the armbar locked in"... (Hint - there aren't any)
The ref will stop for a verbal or physical tap, or severe injury (eg dislocation or breakage).
What should the ref do, let her break some arms? Lmao my elbow is still sore from practice and that's nowhere near what happened to her opponents.
@@badxradxandy uhh, yea, that's actually exactly what they're supposed to do.
Maybe u showed watch her 9 arm bar or sub wins and watch carefully she was known for breaking ur arm ince its locked in so alot of her opponent would tap soon as it was sunk in so they didnt get there arm broke
That one where the ref called it wasn't in the UFC and Rousey told the ref she said she tapped. But when you replay it you can't see the other girls mouth because Rhondas legs are wrapped around her face.
For every Mcgregor there's at least a dozen guys with his ability if not better. But you never hear about them because they don't draw in the casuals with their brand persona. People love a fighter who can talk a lot of good shit and back it up. Mcgregor gets title shots in multiple weight classes and water cuts 20-30 lbs so he can bully guys smaller and lighter than him. On the other hand you got guys like Tony Ferguson who win like 12 matches straight and get no title shots. UFC will bend over backwards and bend and flex the rules as much as they need to accommodate the big names who rake in the cash and all Dana white will do is wag his finger at them whenever they break the rules or beat up random people / T-bone pregnant women.
@@messithegoat4111 mcgregor is a casual he never defended he only has one win at lightweight every one are not in the ufc the only 2 relevant fighters he beat were poirier and holloway and they would murk him now he only fought midgets and barely beat a unranked nate diaz who got beat up by masvidal
Your right. They promote fighters casuals wanna see, because MMA marketing is all about knocking someone out. Heres a thought go watch boxing or kickboxing for knockouts.
Reminds me. Griffin bonnar one of the greatest fights, decision. Most of the greatest fights are not one hit knockout fights
@@skipper4126 wrestling rules mma don't let the fool you!
@RAYSANTANA It’s certainly the key stone of the mma arch. It lets you keep the fight on the feet and bring the person down for submissions
You think there are a dozen guys that could pull off a Jose Aldo level win like that!?
Its crazy a year later, now WWE and UFC are merging
😂😂😂😂
There’s a cool video of GSP and Dan talking about their fight. From how they talked about it, especially in regards to the arm bar early on it doesn’t sound like a fix or a carry on GSP’s part.
It’s fun to watch I think you’ll like it.
I’ve seen it.
When Ramsey Dewey said "he throws a lot of punches, and the commentator says he's a good boxer", I was thinking "somebody give this man a shield!"👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿
Your point about entry level professionals vs world class professionals is excellent. It's the reason why I love the Creed movie so much. The scene where he's challenging all takers in that gym for the keys to his car. He does well against someone his own level but when a p4p ranked fighter steps in and hands his ass to him, then takes his mustang; is exactly that. Then when he comes back in Creed II as the champ and beats that same guy, it's a great example of growth. Awesome content, as always, Ramsey.
One of the things that made Bill "Superfoot" Wallace retire from Kickboxing was when he was to good for the sport. I remember a story he talked about where before a fight the promoter pulled him aside and basically asked him to go easy on his opponent in the early rounds so that it looks competitive. In the first round Bill drops his opponent with a side kick and the referee proceeds to start counting one of the slowest 10 counts you have ever heard. Just hoping the fighter gets back up.
Fantastic, enlightening video! Boxing ended up following the money also. Moving away from the 8 weight class, one champ per weight class model. Adding more weight classes and more belts to make more money.
“Boxing as a SPORT and SPECTACLE has led to the regression of boxing as a form or art and self defense” -Wylies Art and Science of Boxing
yep. and because it's not an honest sport, the interest X factor that can't be scripted or controlled waned, and people stopped watching boxing, when all they care about is knowing who is the unambiguous, unified *best*. meanwhile ... tennis, TENNIS!, the most boring goddam sport on the planet, pulls in billions of dollars because it's run properly-ish. everyone on the planet knows who's best for a given tournament, or over the course of a season. and everyone can dream about their local hero emerging from the qualifiers to win a slam, because they know that if he's actually best, like a story book, he will win. and they watch the boring match because they're watching the story unfold of the player-personality [and, admittedly, because of a genius scoring system that would make rock-scissors-paper exciting if you were invested in the players.]
the UFC sucks because it doesn't understand how much people love freak outcomes that are at the mercy of unbreakable rules. they effing *love* it when someone points out that nothing in the rules says a dog can't play basketball.
Very good video as usual, Ramsay. I also liked the callout to pro wrestling, as many fans of MMA hate to acknowledge how instrumental pro wrestling has been in forming the way MMA fights are promoted and sold, so putting it out there in simple terms is worth it, if only for educational purposes.
I hate it when someone says that someone is the GOAT because they’re undefeated. Usually those fighters have padded records
Great video!
Regarding the GSP-Hardy fight, I remember at the time feeling that GSP chose not to break Dan Hardy’s arm during the several opportunities he had. We know how strong GSP is!
He wasnt doing the arm bar properly there's actually video of his locker room right after where hes asking Danaher what he was doing wrong right after the fight
Gotta squeeze your knees so the fulcrum for the leverage on the arm starts below the elbow joint and not at the shoulder, splitting the breaking force.
Charles Oliveira made this same mistake against Tony, allowing him to reach what seemed like an absurd amount of hyperextension.
Delivering an armbar in this way can deliver breaking force but not devastatingly breaking force.
To be fair to Dan Hardy, he had just beat Mike Swick for the title shot and the only people ahead of him in the rankings were people George had already beaten. I'm sure they wanted to break into the UK market but there was also good timing on Dan's end as well. Also, Chael had to fight and beat Michael Bisping and Brian Stann before he got his rematch against Silva. You make some good points but he definitely didn't just get 3 title shots in a row. He did get 2 though.
Good timing lol yes that’s exactly the point
I never understood the obsession with being "undefeated". I mean, is there ever a tennis great that went undefeated? This needs to change.
So that line from "Gladiator" was true: "I wasn't the best because I killed quickly, I was the best because I gave them something they had never seen before."
Actually that may ring truer than any of Gladiator's depiction of Gladiator life, Gladiator games are very expensive so the Gladiators are trained, prepared and for slaves at the time were very well off given baths and healthy diet, the promoters (the Governor, Senator or maybe even the Emperor himself) will want the biggest show they can get so Gladiators typically didn't die, they even have Unions where if one of them dies in combat they are buried for free by their fellow Gladiators.
Same goes for the NFL, I love it, but I understand that they have underhanded means of skewing outcome of any competition they reside over. It’s not technically illegal either.
Rams vs. Saints was clearly rigged. Most obviously rigged game in a whole
@@jordandennis6794 Rams Bengals too
If it's clear the league makes more money when this team or that team is winning, it's not too much of a stretch to maybe the league keeps that team in the winner's circle.
@@tomfoolery5844 true. Bucks Chiefs was rigged too but KC played like shit
#8 is so cool! They hyped you up 🙂 It's rare, but I love when it happens; it lets you know that you're facing a crowd favorite
I love this video. We need more open minded people that’s not scared to bring these antics to light! Thank you so much for your time and efforts for this video bro it’s amazing.
It's funny that Roga s commentating was mentioned
I remember a fight between Rashad Evans and some other dude years back the fight was BORING!!! Hardly a pinch thrown by any fighter and my dad said it was fixed because they kept hammering about the speed of Rashad Evans and the inexperience of the other guy
We both thought the other guy won the fight just based on activity and initiative
The judges gave Rashad and once again in the interview Rogan was raving about Rashads speed I guess trying to convince the fans present and those watching that it was a good decision
I thoroughly enjoyed watching this video essay. Thank you coach. Informative as always!🙏
Easily one of my favorite videos of yours, a lot of great insight presented here
For me it's amazing the UFC has become as big as it has. I understand the need & drive to make money, it's an absolute necessity if a business wants to exist. For the most part I buy in to what the UFC is doing, even though I've plainly seen some of the points made here.
Does anyone remember the GSP vs. Johnny Hendrix? Another way MMA fights can be "fixed" is with poor or incompetent judging or corrupt athletic commissions. GSP clearly lost that fight, but the judges decided to give it to him anyway. This wasn't the UFC's fault, because if the fans aren't satisfied then the UFC looks bad, but still, something smelled really bad in that decision for whatever reason.
Always thought GSP was the most boring fighter ever and never bought the hype
That's what fight comes to my mind also! The golden boy gsp.. 🥱
Lol, jks he's pretty great.. But Hendricks certainly won that fight!
@@presidentcomacho3816 because he was boring?
The UFC is also trying to get us to look the other way for bad judging. The commentators will be like "You know how judging has been lately." I noticed this when Draft Kings started getting screen time during events.
If the ufc wanted u to look the other way from bad judging dana white himself wouldn't trash the judges for minutes at a time during the post fight conference. This is a dumb comment
@@BBOFWOLFGANG He can trash them all he wants but its still happening
@@BBOFWOLFGANG Besides, he has to look like hes against it, right?
@@UFC-NFLbad judging males the sport look bad. Dana's reaction to many bad calls definitely come off as genuine, whether it be refs or judges. Some have been so bad that a ref or judge hasn't called or scored a fight since. Some bad calls, yeah, he didn't seem genuine, so I'll meet you halfway there.
On a side note, this just reminds me of Adalaide Byrd and her horrendous judging in both boxing and MMA. Not sure if she's still judging fights, but if she is, she shouldn't be. Literally has no clue how to score when it comes to either sport.
Ramsey! Your fighters are getting the best counsel offered. Thank you for the Lesson(s). Pure respect.
Have watched yet but fights are fixed by match making! If it straight up telling a other person to lose
That’s one way it happens!
Wherever GAMBLING is involved... you can bet it's scripted.
It is not illegal for the nfl to fix games, according to the rules, it’s not illegal to fix games….sports haven’t been real for decades.!. Great video, thank you
There was a fight between Kevin Holland and Kyle Daukaus where there was a clash of heads but the fight continued and Daukaus won by submission. The referee Dan Mirgiliotta was stamding firm that Daukaus will be awarded the win via submission. Mirgiliotta was called to the aisleway where Herb Dean and a matchmaker Sean Shelby would change his stance in the biggest mockery filmed. A matchmaker having any say is ludicrous since he has nothing to do with judging or reffing because they are hired and sanctioned by the state athletic commission . If you watch, you'll see.
Herb Dean was in charge of review. That whole submission sequence happened because of that headbutt. Holland was out cold when he fell forward. You could see Dan running in to call it because of the headbutt, but Holland was quick to react and try to fight off his back. In the end, he didn't get up off the mat until he tapped.
Holland was fine with taking the L in the way that it happened. But the sequence warranted the review. Personally, I think going straight to no contest for headbutts is overkill. I think the affected fighter or both fighters should be given up to two minutes to regain composure, just like with accidental groin shots. If and when they feel they can continue, fight resumes. So the fight should have been restarted where they were standing once Holland or both of them felt ready after the 2 minutes or less. If one or both feel they can't continue because of the headbutt, then yeah, no contest. Accidental or not, it's still an illegal move and Dan should've stopped it when he intially was going to, which is what Herb Dean was telling him. Doesn't matter if Holland was quick to come to and resume. Point is he was now in a position of disadvantage because of the headbutt.
So it was the correct call and really one that was more about the ref trusting his gut instead of reacting to what the fighters are doing. But like I said, I think headbutts like that should be given the same timeout as a groin shot.
A fighter like GSP not finishing Dan Hardy could also be explained by them having bet on themselves to win a decision. I honestly think thats what happened with Chito Vera vs Font recently... Chito had every opportunity to finish and never pulled the trigger...
Your getting enlightened ,rare thing for someone who started in tkd, A+,you should do more of these,the world is starved for authentic journalism,and that's what this was.
i remember hearing an interview long ago about that GSP fight shortly after i watched it. one of his friends asked him why he took so long to finish him off and his response was basically he never felt like he was going to lose that fight and he did not want to finish Dan off with strikes in front of his family and make them worried and that he really does not like hurting people if he does not have to, lmao. i wish i could find it but i laughed my ass off cuz anyone who watched that fight and was familiar with GSP knew he was taking it easy on Hardy the whole time
The UFC can legally fix fights, so if you think they aren’t taking advantage of that to make millions more then you’re as naive as a small child
Great video Ramsey! One correction in the description is needed "In his book "Beyond the Lion's Den", former UFC champ and pro wrestler, Frank Shamrock" It's actually his brother Ken Shamrock as you said in the video at 1:10
I know that, and I thought I had corrected that. I specifically re-recorded that line because I said it wrong the first time. Weird.
I swear it's weird how, despite not being biologically related, Ken and Frank Shamrock IMO look kinda similar.
@@seanseanston I have noticed that too!
@@seanseanston I thought they were brothers
@@meisterproper8304 not blood.
Every topic was explained spot on. Perception is a strong sense to control
"Carrying fights" is the only point I disagree with. As you said, even if it's happening, it's hard to proof. And for a fighter there has to be an incentive to carry a fight. If I was GSP and the UFC told me to carry Hardy through 5 rounds, I'd ask them: "Why would I? You pay me boni for finishes, which additionally look great in highlight reels, will get me more fans and also I have to spend less time in a cage with someone who wants to take my head off. What do you pay me to do this?" The few times we know of, when fighters were asked to do this (affliction *cough*), they often didn't do it and just smashed their opponent. And there are a lot of fights, that would have been lucrative and easy to carry. F.e.: Mickey Gall obliterated CM Punk in seconds, although the UFC invested heavily in Punk and would have benefited from a longer fight.
So, it's possible that this is happening at the high level, but if so, there are probably bribes or threats involved. And proving that is nearly impossible without whistleblowers. So until we know this for a fact, it's a hard statement to make.
They couldn’t pay me extra to do nothin lol this ain’t wrestling this a FIGHT. I’m not carrying shit lol within those 5 rounds he could take me out and I’m supposed to essentially go easier on him yea ok😂
@@TherealSIRenity exactly. Tbf one thing I didn't mention are b- to c-league fights. In those I have seen this happening first hand. Usually in combination with paddening a record. Meaning, they brought a newbie to be slaughtered by an upcoming talent in a regional main event. Sometimes they tell the guy they're building up, to go easy for a couple of minutes to gain experience and drag out the show. But they also offer them a couple of bucks under the table for that.
McNuggets vs Cowboy is the prime example 🤷🏻♂️
@@FFS33 You dont know shit about fighting lmao
GSP is an MKUltra victim. He talks about about not remembering things for hours and being abducted by “aliens”. These are both common things spoken about by MKUltra victims except some will say demons instead of aliens and it represents their handlers as well.
“Even if he wins he’s getting cut”-Dana White on Colby Covington before his heel turn
Salam again roach ramsey, I have 2 questions if you don't mind me asking, first what did you think Malakhra(the Sindhi Pakistani folk wrestling style that looks rather odd)
Second are you at all familiar with the story of Choki Motobu, an Okinawan karateka who defeated some of thr biggest karate masters of his day but never even found 1/10th of their success, mostly because the karate he taught was just the basics with no specfic kata and had them do just full contact sparring matches and exercise, which scared away many students despite his fame
Malakhra is pretty famous in Sindhi villages and I think it's just pure straight but I also never saw a fite looking guy in it ( I only watched 3 of the fights cuz they end pretty quickly and take a lot of time to start)
@@ShahNawaz-uj9gy Its folk wrestling, not a lot of techniques involved, just grappling in the dirt and sand and the man with superior strength and stamine wins, pretty much every culture in Africa, Europe and Asia has some variation of this type of folk wrestling
This was really eye opening. I look forward to your future scripted video essays.
I know this has been posted a little while ago, but I finally got to see this video. Coach, half of what you mentioned here, my teacher had told me about 4 years ago. Specially about Rhonda. “If it wasn’t because she was pretty she would be an unknown and not get manny fights.”
Or, “Some of these fights they get nobodies and hype them up in order to get the champion to have an amazing record by putting him to fight people the champion can beat.”
Keep it up coach.
I was a committed fan from the first MMA fight in the early 1990s until about 3 years ago. I realized how badly the UFC was taking advantage of poor fighters and paying them next to nothing. Dana was a billionaire but the fighters were left broke, broken and on their own. I could no longer enjoy seeing the hapless fighters getting the crap beaten out of them for sport. I quit paying for UFC and have a morality problem with the screwing of the people that put their health on the line, while Rogan and Dana sit and collect more than all of the fighters earn in their career in only one year. I'm now disgusted with the UFC and the F'ing of the fighters and won't support the UFC ever again.
Hell, Bruce Buffer is paid more then the fighters.
@@willsk7068 The Ring Girls are paid more than lots of the fighters.
@@DANVIIL they have more importance then Buffer.
"Give that guy the title shot! Who cares? Give em the title shot" hahaha. Commentators can make a fight actually seem totally different. Some fights are surprising to rewatch without the commentary. Great video 👍
had me laughing showing that footage of the predator and yoshihiro. What an epic war, one for the ages. No better way to illustrate a point about someone taking more than one shot 😂😂
btw brother I hope you're managing in shanghai.
It was the manliest fight of all time!
@@RamseyDewey indeed, no contest.
All sports are fixed. ALL SPORTS ARE FIXED
Joe Rogan said that Ronda Rousey could beat any guy of her weightclass in the World and could box Floyd...
Maybe he is stupid.
He is told to say that. That’s his job. But yes. Very misleading
For the record-I’d pay money to see Bieber or Cyrus fight someone who knew how to fight. 🤷♂️
It’s all SCRIPTED
I hope there's more to come for this type of scripted format videos, Coach Ramsey 👍🏻 It brings a different perspective to how i view an MMA fight now.
This explains why Masvidal even got a title shot, let alone two in a row.
A relatively recent match in the UFC that I felt was fixed was Ngannou vs Miocic. Miocic was an incredible fighter, but he wasn't making the UFC any money, so they wanted him to lose. They made them fight in a much smaller cage to give Ngannou a large advantage.
That is not true Daniel Cormier also fought stipe prior in the same small sized octagon and lost, ngannou was just better that night with no crowd, he was patient and took him apart.
I don’t even have to watch the video and I can tell you that MMA fights are fixed. Not all of them just a select few. Every single other major sport has been outed for cheating from insider information. Referees have been caught betting on games, players have been caught betting on games. Pete Rose isn’t in the Hall of Fame for this reason. They think Tyson may have thrown fights or waited until later rounds to knock a guy out just to make a few more million. Anderson Silva was unstoppable and then started Showboating and got caught by serious knockout. My question is this, why would every other major sport in the world get caught for cheating and fixing games or fights, and not the UFC or MMA. It’s naïve to think they can’t fix fights. I’m not saying Dana White himself goes to the betting window and says put $100,000 on some can to beat Khabib . Dana’s got deep pockets and so do all the people that own these organizations. they’re billionaires. they know a guy who knows a guy who pays a guy who pays a guy to make these bets. and if he speaks up well then you probably won’t hear from that guy again because we never heard of the guy in the first place.
When they say, "He sure can take a lot of punishment," I think that's the last person I want to be, lol
The Undertaker is an old soul carnie-type, as pro wrestlers go. He WANTED to retire on a loss, at Wrestlemania no less, to give an up and comer some buzz for breaking his streak, and pass the torch to the next generation. Mark Calloway wanted the guy who beat The Undertaker at Wrestlemania to become as big as The Undertaker.
Instead, Brock Lesnar (whose pro wrestling gimmick is basically his complete and utter disdain for pro wrestling) got it.
Dude gave thirty plus years of his life as an utterly loyal company man to Vince (he was one of the few wrestlers to remain with the WWE during the entirety of the Monday Night Wars, and was basically Sergeant Major of the Army for the roster of talent, presiding over Wrestler's Court and ending The Miz's locker room ban despite The Code dictating only the wrestler who placed it could lift it, because Chris Benoit was the guy who banned him before his murder-suicide), and that was his reward. And he lost the match, clean, because he was an utterly loyal company man.
Undertaker turned out fine. So
The goat of pro wrestling imo
This was great! Much as I enjoy ‘Questions With The Coach’, I hope you keep going with the video essays.
My coach quit Lumpinee when he had a gun pulled on him on the way to the ring and told to throw the fight. He just kept walking ...right out the stadium and never fought again.
I'm thise people who only watch college sports and amateurs for the purity of the sport and not the business of fighting.
Nice to hear an honest & real version of/opinion on this!
Loved it, the fact that it is unfair is what makes it one of the biggest combat sports behind boxing
Thanks for making this video. The thorough breakdown help us understand that we aren't just imagining things in doubt 😂. I don't want to ruin the entertainment for future references but sometimes bouts look like a good demonstration, then others it's light sparing mixed in with some stiff sparing.
Love you dude. You always come at things with a different perspective and I appreciate that.
I apologize for writing three comments, but I promise I'm done after this.
One aspect of the sport is that there is too much intermingling at the commission in regards to MMA and boxing. They are two very different sports.
A decade ago, we moved to a new state due to my wife's job. I was staying at home with the kids, but wanted to find a gig that could work around my wife's schedule. So, I contacted the states boxing and MMA commission about judging MMA fights.
They sent me to my first card. I didn't judge, but instead inspected gloves.
During downtime, I realized that every member of the commission that worked that night were former boxers (amateur or military). I was the only wrestler there. One of the old guys even said "finally, someone with a wrestling background to work with us."
I'm not sure why MMA cards are judged, reffed, inspected, and have oversight by boxing people.
It's not unlike basketball refs working as baseball umpires.
You don’t need to apologize for leaving comments. More comments helps the channel grow.
It’s not just that though, a boxing commission literally wrote the rules of the UFC. For some reason, boxing commissions in the US were given the final authority over the sport of MMA since the year 2000.
Cerrone vs McGregor is the best example of a fixed fight.
Why and how do you think that fight was fixed?
If you can bet on it, it's fixed.
the bag work though
What a well thought out, well put together and...TRUE video! Pride FC comes to mind, and I loved Pride! Good job, Ramsey! 👊
One of your best videos IMO Mr. Dewey. Keep up the great work, love your content
Interesting video. Any time there is money involved in sport, there's incentive to pull strings. It's a simple fact of human greed. The only thing we can hope for is we see a diversification of talent across MMA promotions. This keep promoters honest and not trying to string money above fighters' heads for particular "outcomes" and promotions focus more on quality, high profile fights over entertainment value.
Ronda is a great example of a fighter who had their record padded by punching bags for the sole purpose of generating revenue. As soon as she went up against somebody with solid striking she immediately crumbled.
Wrong. She fought good punchers and beat them. She only had a problem when she tried to punch back.
@@titianarasputin
I mean she tried to clinch / takedown Nunez multiple times during their fight and she still got TKO'd.
Well they weren't really punching bags, more throwing and submitting bags...
@@fellowtraveler2251 only when she got in trouble. she went into that fight with a stand-up game plan (and no stand-up skills to back it up).
GSP and his coaches in the post videos that night explained and did again that sub to understand why it didn't work. Thank you for not putting it but long times mma fans have memories.
As a life-long martial artist and retired pro fighter you never disappoint!
Plenty of fixed fights out there. Money is everything in the fight world. Legacy doesn’t pay the bills.
WWE is like a movie then UFC is like "reality TV", sure the fights are real but everything around it is produced
In reality TV they purposely select the most volitile ones out of the bunch so yeah they are real people but the situation is artificial, though I don't think that the UFC has reached that level of deliberate "fakeness" at least in the US.
Can't wait to see suddenly a rising prospect's opponent become ranked right before singing the contract to fight him!
The music at 14:20 slapps and fits the video pretty good, great job DJ Ramsey
Thanks
sorry but meisha deserved the title shot in a shallow division. she had the talent and the toughness.
This doesn't just apply to MMA, it's also prevalent in boxing and in most mainstream sports. Football is filled with matches being won not by questionable last minutes pentalities or disallowed goals. Competitive sports are becoming more and more scripted.
It applies to every controlled mainstream sport dude it's all corrupt follow the money.
People dont realize how often sports NEED the right people to win. You look at boxing for instance, when the Klitschkos were on top, boxing was in a huge slump. Boxers were like Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder started coming in and boxing's popularity was again on the rise. Fury had that feel good story of a fighter lost to drugs and depression, but making an amazing comeback to become heavyweight champ, Deontay had that knockout right fist, but a mostly padded record. Both had charisma and could talk your ass into buying a ticket.
Even under scripted circumstances people need that feel good moment. Thats why for most of its history, the WWE always has the main event of Wrestlemania go off the air with the face or good guy winning. Its the culmination of the feud and the crowd needs to go home happy, or else it can taint how they felt about the whole show in general and hence whether they buy it again next time.
There is SO much of this stuff, and stuff like Ramsey said, in our sports. I love watching MMA, but I've been bitching for a while how there is no real ranking system and people seem to get title shots willy nilly. I've even heard Dana White say stuff like "Who is his next fight? Oh I dont know Ill have to go back and we'll have to figure out who the best person to match him up against is" and the media asking the questions never says anything about it.
Was this video from before the UFC and WWE merged?
You can read dates, can’t you?
Very insightful. Thank you for taking the time to make this video essay.
According to dudes like Frank Shamrock, Josh Barnett, and Bas Rutten, Masakatsu Funaki and Minoru Suzuki were so notorious and skilled at carrying their opponents opponents in early Pancrase that some of his opponents had absolutely no clue they were doing it and would go on to say their fights in Pancrase were totally clean without realizing there was a bit of a work to them.
Because it was their promotion, they would regularly give their opponents chances to work to make their fights more exciting, almost like coaches sparring with their students, before flipping the switch and destroying them, and as far as I know, they never had opponents throw their fights make themselves look good personally (though there were definitely fixed fights in Pancrase in those days, and some of the dudes on their records had no place being in that ring).
Frankly, I doubt they needed to. They were some legitimately scary dudes back in the mid-nineties, and it's no surprise that their losses were to dudes like Rutten (who famously outright refused to do any sort of working in MMA) or the Shamrocks. Hell, Suzuki is still pretty damn intimidating in his pro wrestling career. His presence still exudes that killer instinct, even if his body isn't quite up to the task of it.
Just ask Tank Abbott, he's been calling out the ufc since the beginning
I love MMA and boxing, but God pro wrestling is so much fun
Excellent video bro, looking forward to other video essay's.
This format is really good. Please do more. Music is too energetic for the topic and your voice I think but writing is superb.
Gorgeous George was a huge inspiration behind Muhammad Ali's persona with the whole "I'm so pretty.."
Good video, nice to see somebody with a platform challenging the status quo rather than feeding into their sycophants delusions like a UFC Commentator
Boxing does this too. People can't conceive the idea that it happens in mma