Lessons from UFC 203’s wild night
Leading up to and immediately after his UFC 203 loss to Mickey Gall, much of the world has treated Phil…
Leading up to and immediately after his UFC 203 loss to Mickey Gall, much of the world has treated Phil CM Punk Brooks like he’s a heroic Make a Wish foundation child. He’s so brave, I’ve heard.
He’s trying to make his dream a reality.”
Professional fighting is brutally hard, and every athlete puts in years upon years upon years of grinding, has to overcome injuries, and faces the thrilling loneliness of walking into the ring. Within the context of professional MMA, Brooks didn’t work particularly hard, certainly not for a long time, and he got paid far more than most UFC athletes, with a lot less on the line.
He was given an opportunity by gimmick-loving promoters, to the tune of a $500,000 show-purse, and he took it. Good for him.
For me, however, there is nothing inspirational about a millionaire taking shortcuts and using his clout to make a plaything out of an otherwise professional sport’s league. Furthermore, Brooks’ delusion heading into UFC 203 wasn’t very endearing.
He promised to choke or knock Mickey Gall out. He mocked Mickey Gall’s record and said that the brown belt was not a real pro.
Brooks mocked how little Gall – who has trained in mixed martial arts for nearly a decade, since he was a teenager – was making to fight at UFC 203, compared to the pro-wrestler. Basically, Brooks looked his gift horse in the mouth and acted like a deluded jerk.
He can certainly be forgiven much of his defensiveness given the harsh spotlight of fame he lives under. The neophyte can also be forgiven a lot of his delusion because his teammates and coaches told the world and him that he was ready to fight and to win.
He was lied to but didn’t know enough to realize it.
Given the historical constancy of corruption in prizefighting, fair and good matchmaking is one of the most legitimizing keys in combat sports.
Brooks’ fight weakened the UFC’s hard-earned claim to legitimacy, even as it endangered his own health. I wrote last week’s column because I was concerned for his health given how poorly prepared he was to fight.
I said his fight with Mickey Gall would get ugly, fast. It did.
Brooks grew an instant cauliflower ear, got cut open in seconds, and then took a bunch blows to a head that he’s said had been concussed many times during his days as a professional wrestler. Phil Brooks didn’t have a clue out there, and his inevitable loss was a punctuation on the most embarrassing fight in UFC history.
Afterwards, he said that he’s better than that. He isn’t.
How we perform on fight night is exactly how good we are – whatever we do is exactly what we were able to muster under the parameters we knew would be in place. Of course, we can all improve after bad losses.
There are few things more demoralizing than losing a fight. I’ve personally lost a fight even quicker than Brooks lost his Saturday.
It’s an awful feeling that hurts to the core of your manhood. What Brooks does now, will demonstrate how much he actually loves MMA.
He says he loves it, but it is a lot easier to enjoy something when everyone is going easy on you in the gym and you’re promised a huge payday for doing it. It is much harder to get up every day and continue your training with no payday coming your way.
Phil Brooks is not good enough to get paid for training and fighting MMA. At his age, he likely never will be.
Still, if the rookie loves MMA and jiu-jitsu, truly loves it, he’ll continue training. He’ll do it for himself.
Roufusport is close to Chicago, where Brooks lives. He can still get there frequently without too much trouble. I know Chicago area fighters who do just that, each week because they see the value in training at such a high-level gym.
There are also great gyms in Chicago for Brooks to continue his training.
Brooks can continue to train and learn and improve, for the rest of his life. Maybe, he’ll enter the novice divisions at some local jiu-jitsu tournaments in a few months. Maybe, after a few more years of consistent training, he can do a local smoker with another guy in his 40’s.
Phil Brooks can and should continue to train and compete for the love of it, but he has no place fighting on anyone’s television.
If Phil Brooks’ UFC experience was the spark of what will become a lifelong love of martial arts, then that is beautiful and worth it. If he walks away from real training after taking his first beating, then all this ridiculousness was for nothing.
Referee mistakes and the teep heard around the world
Former heavyweight champion Fabricio Werdum is often a trolling bully to opponents, who is open to bending any rules he can get away with. Like many champions, he’s a ruthless competitor.
With that said, Werdum didn’t do anything wrong against Travis Browne during their UFC 203 contest. He also didn’t do anything that offended me, afterwards, in kicking Browne’s menacing coach Edmond Tarverdyan.
In the contest, Werdum threw a right punch that injured one of Browne’s fingers when Hapa attempted to parry the blow. In understandably shocked pain, Browne grabbed his own hand, turned away from Werdum and appeared to make an appeal to the referee for some time out.
Then, Werdum followed up like he should have, landing a hard left punch to Browne’s head. Then, for some wrongheaded reason, referee Gary Old Baby Brock Lesnar Copeland stopped the action.
Let’s be clear – when a fighter is hurt from a legal blow and asks for time to recover, they are saying that they are no longer able to continue. If they are no longer able to continue fighting after taking a legal move from their opponent, then that’s a TKO win for their opponent.
Despite alarmingly increasing goof-ups from referees like Copeland who are effectively allowing timeouts, there are actually no timeouts in MMA, as such. If there is a lull in action and the referee wants to have a cut examined or have glove tape fixed, or if they give an athlete time to recover from a blow they deem illegal, that’s one thing.
Giving fighters time to recover from legal techniques with timeouts is a corruption of the rules, and athletic commissions need to have serious talks with referees so overwhelmed by the action in front of them that they’re granting them. For his part, Werdum absorbed a horrible eye-poke that was not spotted by the referee and still managed to get the decision win.
After all that, he was confronted with a screaming pro-fighter and coach in Browne’s trainer Edmond Tarverdyan. Edmond looked to be angry and threatening as he screamed at Werdum from just feet away right before the official decision announcement was to be made.
A simple teep-kick from Werdum kept Edmond at bay. Werdum then put his guard up, his coach Rafael Cordeiro walked coldly towards Edmond and Werdum’s teammate, and the UFC-banned and former world title challenger Renato Babalu Sobral stormed the cage from the audience at the sign of trouble. Another Werdum cornerman smartly removed the fighter from the situation.
As for Browne’s corner, Edmond kept yelling but backed away, and Ricky Lundell made a plea for everyone to settle down. The Ohio commission that regulated UFC 203 is reportedly not taking any action regarding the melee.
Although Ohio is a do-nothing commission, as evidenced by their sanctioning Brooks because the UFC told them to and because they were too ignorant not to realize the difference in skill and experience between he and Brock Lesnar, not taking action against any of these teams is the right choice here.
I don’t really have a value judgement for the actions of both fighters and their teams during the fracas. After watching one of Werdum’s coaches get him away from the squabble and two others walk right into the fire on his behalf as Browne’s coaches lost track of him and backed away after Edmond’s initial outburst, I can, however, certainly say which set of guys I’d rather have in my corner.
Is it time for Overeem to walk off into the sunset?
Alistair Overeem finally made it to his UFC title fight, and gave himself a chance to win. With unorthodox but effective tactics, the Dutchman nearly finished Miocic.
Ultimately, however, he lost at the end of a mercurial first round. One day, hopefully, Overeem will be proud of his effort, even as he’ll still be disappointed in the outcome. Overeem will also hopefully do a bit of looking back and reconsidering things, sooner rather than later.
He’s a great and effective fighter. But The Demolition Man has gotten knocked out, a lot. Twice in last two years, four times in last three, and 10 times over the course of his legendary career.
All that is on top of decades of professional fight training and the damage sustained in the gym. With an astounding near 60 fights, Alistair has fought and won more than most ever will.
He’s also gotten knocked out more than most. Two things are certain, right now, for the slugger – Alistair Overeem can still fight well, but he’s only going to continue to take more damage, win or lose, if he fights on.
Hopefully, the 36-year-old is at a place, financially, where he can at least consider retirement.
About the author:
Elias Cepeda has served as a writer and editor covering mixed martial arts and combat sports, as well as public and cultural affairs, since 2005. He began as a staff writer for InsideFighting, and not long thereafter became publisher and editor of the page. Cepeda then went to write for Yahoo! Sports’ boxing and MMA pages, and edited their Cagewriter blog. He was hired away by FOX Sports, but after several years departed over philosophical differences with the executive leadership around important issues of journalism ethics. A student of and sometime competitor in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and MMA since 1999, Elias brings a unique and vibrant presence to reporting, and enjoys trying to highlight shared humanity and connect common experiences from seemingly different worlds.
We are honored that Elias is writing a weekly column for The UnderGround.