Issue 055
October 2009
There is a saying in sport that to ‘talk the talk, you’d better be able to walk the walk’. Put in MMA terms, if you promise to turn somebody’s lights out, you’d better make damn sure you find the switch before they find yours.
Just ask Rampage Jackson after he promised on eight occasions to “whoop Forrest’s ass” at UFC 86. In pre-fight trash-talk terms, Rampage clubbed his foe to the ground and delivered a whole heap of brutal ground ‘n pound. But when it actually came to walking the walk in Vegas, the figure of a limping Jackson was as symbolic as the belt around Griffin’s waist. On this rare occasion, Jackson’s fists had failed to do the talking.
However, there is a different side to MMA, a vastly more noble side that flips the opening statement on its head. To become a true legend of MMA, a legend in victory and defeat, once you have ‘walked the walk like a champion’, you’d better be able to ‘talk the talk like a champion’. Put differently, when you’re on top, you’d better show some respect. Brock Lesnar take note.
In a sport pioneered by Royce Gracie, the epitome of humility and respect, Lesnar failed to act like a champion on UFC’s landmark 100th birthday. Frank Mir is a fighter respected around the globe; Lesnar’s decision to continue mocking the former champion post-fight should not have been the action of a man who had just fought only his fifth MMA fight. The ensuing apology helped, but on a weekend when Chuck Liddell and the late Charles Lewis Jr were inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame, Lesnar made sure he was as far as he ever had been from gaining such an honor himself in the future.
UFC 100 had been the polar opposite of the event that preceded it, UFC 99: The Comeback, featuring Rich Franklin and Wanderlei Silva. In all my time reporting on MMA I can honestly say the names of Franklin and Silva rank as one and two in my list of the most humble fighters I have met. Wanderlei, looking like a man who has to go five rounds with Clay Guida just to get out of bed every morning, makes a reporter feel like you are the one doing him a favor. Meanwhile Franklin admitted after the win over Silva that he had to fight tooth-and-nail just to convince himself he belonged in the same ring as The Axe Murderer. This is Rich Franklin, the former UFC middleweight champion of 30 fights, doubting his worth. Compare that to Brock Lesnar, a current champion of only five fights.
Fortunately the Forrest Griffin–Anderson Silva clash has quickly reminded us of what the sport is all about in its purest sense: Two warriors leaving it all on the line before embracing at the climax of the war. Two men who can walk the walk and then talk the talk. That’s not to say trash talk has no place in MMA. It most definitely does, but only when it is served with a healthy dose of respect – if not for each other then for the sport as a whole.
Matt Hughes and Matt Serra got it spot on. Serra called Hughes a dick, Hughes told Serra he wanted to make him bleed. The hatred was there, the hype and intrigue reached boiling point, the two men went toe-to-toe and then at the end of it all they embraced out of respect for one another. The blueprint for champions: Actions after the fight are every bit as important as those before it.
Look at Michael Bisping vs Dan Henderson. Bisping took a page out of Rampage Jackson’s ‘I’ll whoop his ass’ manual, promising to knock Henderson out. If you talk the talk, Michael… But on the flip side, Henderson ruined his classy pre-fight calm by landing a totally unnecessary blow to an unconscious Bisping, a blow Henderson admitted was to “shut him up”. Like Lesnar, an apology followed, but, like Lesnar, Henderson failed to talk like a champion.
That is why the likes of Rampage Jackson, Wanderlei Silva and Chuck Liddell sit at the very peak of most fans’ ‘favorite-fighter’ lists. Yes we love their aggression, yes we love their spectacular highlight-reel knockouts, and yes we respect their classic victories. But what sets a true champion apart from the rest is his ability to talk the talk – regardless of the outcome of the fight.
Jackson argued the Griffin decision but admitted Forrest deserved the win. Wanderlei contested the Franklin result but showed clear mutual respect for his foe both during and after the fight. And Chuck Liddell, fresh from one of the greatest shock defeats in UFC history to Rashad Evans, simply stated: “Fair play, he caught me.”
All three have delivered their share of trash talk over the years, all three have then walked the walk. But, most crucially of all, all three have shown dignity in victory and defeat – the sign of a true champion.
