Anatomy of making a fight: Thiago Santos vs. Jimi Manuwa
Thiago Santos: “My manager Alex Davis said ‘let’s provoke him on Twitter, say he turned it down.’ At first I said ‘no, Alex, that’s not my thing,’ but he said, ‘Trust me, let’s try to get this fight.’”
Mixed martial arts is not exactly a real sport. The most deserving athlete does not always get the matchup. Instead, if more people will pay for a fight, then it’s more likely to happen. That’s why CM Punk was a UFC fighter, twice. That’s why Brock Lesnar is getting a title shot. Wise managers and interested fighters realize this, and will adroitly use the social network to build fan interest and to goad opponents into a taking a fight.
One of the wisest managers in the business is Alex Davis. When Glover Teixeira was pulled from a light heavyweight fight vs. Jimi Manuwa at UFC Fight Night 137 on September 22 in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Davis saw an opportunity for his fighter, middleweight Thiago Silva.
This is what it looked like from the outside:
https://twitter.com/TMarretaMMA/status/1029787936659845120https://twitter.com/POSTERBOYJM/status/1030356797327069184https://twitter.com/POSTERBOYJM/status/1030356196660862977
During UFC media day in Brazil, Santos offered a view into Davis’s kitchen.
We volunteered to fight Manuwa and he didn’t accept it at first, said Santos as transcribed and translated by Guilherme Cruz for MMA Fighting. But then my manager Alex Davis said ‘let’s provoke him on Twitter, say he turned it down.’ At first I said ‘no, Alex, that’s not my thing,’ but he said, ‘Trust me, let’s try to get this fight.’ He sent me that text and I put it on Twitter, provoking Manuwa.
That tweet went viral, a lot of people sharing it, and the UFC put more pressure over him because there was no one else and there was no main event for UFC Sao Paulo, so he ended up rising to the bait.
Through that trash talk — which is not much of my thing, my manager helped me with that — we made the fight. I went there and replied to him, said I don’t disrespect any opponent, but that he’s coming to Brazil and I would respond to him really well.
I don’t know, I think that really got in his head, he was a bit angry, said some crap on Twitter, said he would teach me a lesson through violence, something like that [laughs]. I found it funny, I even favorited the tweet [laughs], but I didn’t pay any more attention. My goal was to get the fight and we had already got it, so it’s done.
I think I have to do more of that, but I can’t lose my identity, my characteristics. I’m cool, no disrespect. I think there’s a limit to that. Maybe I’ll do it, but always with respect. There’s a limit, in my opinion. Guys like Sonnen and McGregor always cross this limit that does exist for me. I’ll do it when I think it’s necessary but without losing my identity.
During a Skype interview at the same media day, Manuwa denied the tweet got him to take the fight.
So what does that mean? That I’m scared fight him, that I think I’m gonna lose? asked Manuwa of the first tweet, above. No, that’s not the case.
He’s manager did a s*** job in getting the fight done. It doesn’t matter what… Listen, I’m no trash talker, I’ve always let the fight do the talking for me, so it doesn’t matter what he says or I say, we’ve got a fight and [will] find out who’s the better man. It doesn’t matter he said or I said or his manager said or whoever said, we’re gonna fight on Sept. 22.
