Fighters Only

Issue 121

November 2014

Following their unscheduled and unsavory Las Vegas punch-up, we ask two leading lights in the MMA universe for their opinions.

YES

ANTHONY JOHNSON

Leading light heavyweight contender

18-4

It was good for the fans but it was bad for the overall sport. With MMA still trying to go mainstream it’s acts like this that make it harder to attract sponsors to the sport, not just for the individual. The likes of Gatorade and Nike and that sort of sponsor don’t want to be seeing stuff like that.

Everybody keeps talking about how boxers can get away with it, but you’ve got to understand boxers get millions and millions of dollars a fight. You can’t compare mixed martial artists to boxers. Boxing has been around much longer than MMA. So I think it was bad but, of course, the fans obviously loved it. And we’re still talking about it now so it obviously made an impact.

CONOR MCGREGOR

Brash and bold featherweight contender

15-2

I don’t care if people think it was good for the sport or not, this is the fight business and these things happen. When two highly tuned athletes like that, with a lot on the line, come together it can be volatile. When two men are asked to go toe-to-toe, well, these things can happen. It was a beautiful thing.

And it’s not to sell the fight, like some people may be saying. That’s bulls**t. There is just a lot on the line and when two people come together under these circumstances these things happen.