Mad respect to Burns for showing he's definitely a top 3 contender.
Mad respect for being willing to fight your own team mate to reach your goals.
But what the fuck is the point of having a ranking system (or a belt for that matter) if the promotion offering it makes fights out of thin air.
Whats the point of letting the media dictate rankings if you're going to ignore them anyways.
Why not regulate your own rankings if you regulate matchmaking.
Whats the point of even debating the greatest fighters ever when a 2 division champion like McGregor can challenge a gatekeeper, then turn around and demand a title shot and have the world argue that losing him to retirement if he doesn't get his way is a big mistake for the ufc.
In any other sport i can think of off the top of my head.
All the MAJOR sports with billion $ + markets have a prestigious trophy which is awarded to the team who was able to beat every other top team; usually in a tournament at the end of the season.
etc.... etc... i don't need to get into the format and details of other sports i'm sure everyone reading this is very familiar with it.
This is simply not what we have in MMA, as all promotions fail to properly rank and balance matchups. But especially for the UFC in the past 5 years.
Boxing is just-as-bad but honestly, that sport shouldn't exist to begin with in the way it is today (but thats a whole other discussion for a whole other thread)
Buying ufc 251 is buying into a pseudo wwe stagematch show.
This used to be a no-holds-barred tournament where the last man standing after a potentially hour long fight was the winner.
Now its just who can get casuals more excited to watch
Just-because-the-fight-makes-sense-and-burns-beat-woodley... doesn't make it legitimate or fair to anyone else who has clearly done enough to challenge the belt.
The pay inequality in the fight game is pretty disgusting. I still think professional athletes are disgustingly overpaid. But to go from 50 k for one fighter to 500k for the next to million(s) based solely on popularity is disingenuous.
Most people are of the mindset that Masvidal or anyone in his position should just shut their mouths and take a pay cut.
Imagine if your boss tomorrow said.
Hey i'm paying you less than you're worth, or i will be regardless of what you say, and if you don't like it i'll just hire some immigrant under the table at half your salary.
Sure its a grin and bear it situation. Sure you can just say, ok. You can quit. You can take the pay cut.
The reality is you'll weigh your options according to what your self worth is.
I don't blame Masvidal for wanting more.
I don't blame Usman for being boring.
Or burns for being hungry.
I'm not even sure i can blame Dana, i don't think he has enough power in the company anymore to degrade it to this level.
UFC is no longer the premium MMA fight promotion.
Its just a more violent WWE.
Rather than having Champions like GSP who are humble in victory and graceful in defeat.
We have backpeddling narcissistic midgets who run the gambit of psychological warfare and flamboyance.
Is that the fault of the UFC or the fault of the market?
Who made who. Did Conor Make the ufc, or did the fans make Conor.
I'm not watching this fight on PPV.
I'm bootlegging it.
For every fight made that is out of the norm where one man gets his job taken from him because another is willing to do it for less i will not support monetarily.
This needs to stop AND we need Olympic MMA.
Until then everyone can fuck off with their fake pound for pound rankings which mean nothing at this point, and never truly meant anything to begin with.
Either everyone fights everyone and we figure out who the best is or we keep the next-in-line format we've been doing for almost 20 years now.
MMA needs a Dragon Ball style world martial arts tournament.
At this point i'd rather just see untrained prisoners fight gladiator style for their freedom.