Hobby Drama

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The original was posted on /r/hobbydrama by /u/Nomerdoodle on 2024-11-20 15:09:55+00:00.

MMA? Great guy, never meddum

What is MMA? MMA stands for Mixed Martial Arts, a combat sport in which two fighters use a variety of striking and grappling techniques to try to defeat the other. As the name suggests, MMA fighters will adopt and mix techniques from a variety of martial arts during a fight. Common ones include: Boxing, kickboxing, judo, wrestling, and Brazilian jiu-jitsu (“BJJ”). The specific rules and regulations for fights vary depending on the organisation (or, specifically – the athletic commission in the jurisdiction the fight takes place. However, that's too much detail for this post). Since this drama takes place during Ultimate Fighting Championship (“UFC”) events, we shall only discuss and explain how fights work in the context of the UFC.

What the hell is the UFC? The UFC is the largest MMA promotion in the world. Many people often use UFC and MMA interchangeably, although this is not strictly the case. There are many other notable MMA organisations in the world. Rizin and One in Asia. KSW, Oktagon, and Cage Warriors in Europe. As well as PFL/Bellator in North America. However, UFC is undoubtedly the biggest and most notable, and is the focus of this post.

A UFC fight consists of 3 five-minute rounds (5 rounds for a title fight), with a one-minute intermission between rounds, during which the fighters rest, get advice from their coaches, and have any cuts cleaned by a UFC 'cutman'. There are quite a few ways to win a fight, but the most common are:

• Knockout, if a fighter is unable to continue;
• Technical knockout (“TKO”), when the referee stops the fight on a fighter's behalf;
• Submission, when a fighter admits defeat, usually by tapping on the opponent's body; or
• Decision. If a fight has not ended by the end of the last round, 3 judges will decide who won. Each judge will decide who won each round, the majority of rounds won on each judge's scorecards wins that scorecard for that fighter. Whichever fighter gets 2 out of 3 scorecards wins. In practice, there can actually be draws, but that's not relevant for this post so I won't explain how (there are quite a few, albeit, rare circumstances in which this can happen).

Now, to the two men who are the focus of this post. Despite being two of the most exciting fighters of their generation, in many ways they could not be more different to each other. These differences are somewhat the cause for the dramas we will discuss today.

Conor McGregor is the biggest star the sport of MMA has ever known. He transcends the sport in a way that no other fighter has. If you were to ask your parents, who in this hypothetical scenario, have no interest in sports, to name an MMA fighter (if any), it would be a fair assumption that the one fighter they might be able to name is Conor.

The reasons for Conor's meteoric rise in popularity are really twofold. Firstly, he was loud, brash, and charismatic. Secondly, he could back up his trash-talk in the cage. Born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1988, he became a 'double champ' (more on this later) in the European Cage Warriors promotion, simultaneously holding both the featherweight and lightweight championships, before signing with he UFC in 2013.

Conor's rise to prominence through the UFC rankings was legendary. Primarily a boxer, he used incredible speed and timing to win most of his fights by knockout.

Adding to his legendary status were his post-fight interviews and press conferences, where his charisma and confidence shone through.

By November 2016, Conor had again achieved Double Champ status, this time in the UFC, again holding both the featherweight and lightweight championships. He was also a household name by this point, and to capitalise on his fame, he would take a two-year hiatus from the sport of MMA, to have a very lucrative professional boxing fight against Floyd Mayweather, you may have heard of this happening. This left a Dagestani-shaped hole in the lightweight division, which by the time Conor returned, would be filled by a certain Khabib Nurmagomedov.

Khabib was also born in 1988, in Dagestan, a then-autonomous republic of the Soviet Union, now treated the same as any other Russian republic. A rural, mountainous area, its dominant religion is Islam, which Khabib himself adheres to.

Khabib is one of the most dominant fighters of all time. Known for his relentless, brutal wrestling style. He would smother his opponents, take them down, and pepper them with vicious 'ground and pound'. Khabib was raised as a wrestler his entire life, including growing up wrestling bears. Yes, really.

Unlike Conor, Khabib was not known for his interviews or press conferences early in his rise. His English was rather broken early on in his UFC career, and even when a translator was used, he was humble and respectful of his opponents. However, by the time of his 8th UFC fight, his English had improved to a decent level, and he turned his attention to Conor. Incidentally, this was the same event at which Conor won the lightweight title, and also Conor's last fight before his boxing hiatus, but Khabib wasn't to know this at the time.

UFC 223 – when even your drama has its own drama, it's dramception

UFC 223 took place on Saturday April 7 2018 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. It is one of the most cursed events of all time, and where our drama really starts. Perhaps the most anticipated fight in the UFC at the time was Khabib vs Tony Ferguson, another dominant star in the lightweight division. They had been scheduled to fight 3 times in the few years prior, but all had fallen through for a variety of reasons. The two were scheduled together again at UFC 223 - 4th time's the charm, as the classic adage goes. Due to Conor's hiatus, the UFC had indicated that Conor would be stripped of the lightweight title, and the winner of the bout would become the new lightweight champion.

Fight week arrives! Both fighters are in New York, and are healthy. There's no way it gets cancelled again, right? Right? Tony Ferguson tripped over a cable during media obligations and tore ligaments in his knee, and is therefore out of the fight. If that sounds too ridiculous for you, do also note that Tony's injury was announced on 1 April. Yep. Fans naturally took this very well, with one of the best-rated comments on the relevant r/MMA thread stating: "I'm going to light myself on fire".

Featherweight champion and legend of the sport Max Holloway is put in as a replacement. The fans love Max. This wasn't the fight they had been expecting, but it was still hype as hell.

During his weight cut, Max was declared medically unfit to compete and told to stop cutting weight. The UFC are now really scrambling to save the main event. Another lightweight, Anthony Pettis was supposed to be fighting on the card, but his fight had been cancelled (we'll get to that, I promise). On weigh-in day, Pettis fails to make the championship weight limit of 155lbs, he's out. Paul Felder offered to step in, but the New York State Athletic commission declined as Felder was not officially in the UFC lightweight rankings. This is going well.

The eventual opponent is Felder's original opponent, Al Iaquinta. Khabib beats Iaquinta in a very one-sided decision victory and becomes the UFC lightweight champion. Everyone's happy, UFC 223 drama is over, let's all move on with our lives.

Dear reader, this isn't even the real UFC 223 drama. This is the warm-up act, the complimentary glass of champagne you get before a sit-down meal at an event.

One of Conor's friends and teammates, Artem Lobov, was also scheduled to fight at the event. He had given an interview to Russian media, in which he criticised Khabib for pulling out of fights. On Tuesday in fight week, Khabib runs into Artem in the hotel and has a friendly chat and slap.

It is reported that Conor is in Dublin when this make...

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