Opinion: Talkin’ Reckless and the Virtues of Silence
Fight promoters will say or do anything, but that doesn’t mean they should. Let this week in MMA be a reminder of that.
At their best, promoters are able to effectively embody the modern carnival barker, raising interest and intrigue where there was skepticism or indifference prior. However, P.T. Barnum never had to defend the virtues of a sponsored apparel deal for an entire sports league on television or explain why he thinks it’s a good idea to co-promote events with a murderous tyrant. As a promoter, talkin’ shop can be dangerous, and sometimes, discretion might actually be the better part of hype.
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“I’m sure this guy is making over $100,000 a fight,” White mused as he read Landsberg a list of Schaub’s alleged sponsors, all while claiming the Reebok deal is “no different from other sports” -- as if Ultimate Fighting Championship fighters had any bargaining hand in the arrangement. The next day, Schaub joined Joe Rogan for his UFC Fight Night companion podcast. Schaub claimed White misrepresented his sponsors and invented one of them entirely. Rogan described the White-Schaub tiff as a “pissing match,” which is a surprisingly apropos way to put it.
“You’re in a pissing contest. He pissed on you,” the UFC color
commentator told Schaub. “I saw him on that Landsberg show. He
basically pulled his d--- out and peed all over you.”
That’s where we are, but a better question is, “Why?” Schaub might have been vocal in his displeasure about the Reebok deal, but that is simply more proof that Zuffa did not do its due diligence before pushing the deal through. Schaub is far from unique in this particular department. White may not be a fan of Schaub on a personal level, but to use a major television platform to dress him down is truly lamentable for a promoter.
White does not help the case of the Reebok deal by trying to emasculate Schaub; in fact, he only raises skepticism by resorting to an ad hominem attack on a fighter when asked to discuss the issue. Worse, by sitting there naming off rink-a-dink sponsors and doubting Schaub’s claims, White makes his entire promotion look podunk, as if to say “Ha! You think guys like him can actually make money in the UFC?!”
Of course, White is never one to quit while he’s ahead. When Landsberg broached UFC 187 headliner Anthony Johnson’s history of domestic violence -- three women have brought charges against “Rumble” over the last six years -- White reminded us that the UFC had led a full investigation into Johnson’s legal issues before deeming him fit for the Octagon again. Yet, moments later, Landsberg asked him specifically about Johnson’s 2010 domestic violence case, and White said, “I don’t know exactly what happened to him then.” This before claiming that Johnson was actually being terrorized by the complainant.
White has done “Off the Record” before and should have known what was coming. Chael Sonnen walked off of the show when Landsberg pushed his buttons and Sonnen did not have any good prepared material with which to respond. White should have reasonably expected Landsberg, in his true puckish fashion, to get under his skin. That’s exactly what happened, but rather than taking it out on Landsberg, like “CM Punk” did, he took it out on Schaub. There are reasons that powerful and influential people prepare to go on television; it is not a sign of weakness. Rather than anticipating the hard questions about Schaub’s claims or Johnson’s past and preparing bulletproof answers with UFC PR staffers, the ever-cocksure White adlibbed and wound up looking both clueless and deceitful.
You might think that would dissuade White from talking wild over the next few days, but you’d be wrong. He went on “The Jim Rome Show” on Wednesday and proclaimed that a Ronda Rousey-Cristiane Justino fight would do over two million pay-per-view buys. Dude, why jinx it like that? What good can possibly come of a promoter making a prediction like that? Not only is White’s prediction astronomically unlikely, if we actually get the Rousey-“Cyborg” fight, even a cool million PPV buys would be seen as a failure now. “Under-promise, over-deliver” is the maxim, not “promise 400,000 more buys than your biggest event ever for a fight you’re not sure you can make.”
Rousey-“Cyborg” would be one of the biggest fights in MMA history and easily the grandest women’s bout ever. White’s hyperbole cheapens it, while simultaneously installing a built-in, objective standard for sure-fire failure. Yet, in spite of all his reckless jawing, White was far from our most intellectually or morally offensive promoter this week.
World Series of Fighting Executive Vice President Ali Abdel-Aziz talked with BloodyElbow.com’s Karim Zidan in an interview published on Wednesday. On the surface, it was a venue for Abdel-Aziz to discuss WSOF inking flyweight prospect Magomed Bibulatov, which is perfectly reasonable, given that Bibulatov is a fantastic unbeaten blue-chipper that he should be proud to flaunt.
Unfortunately, Abdel-Aziz was also keen to lavishly praise Bibulatov’s chief patron under the Akhmat MMA banner, Ramzan Kadyrov. You see, Kadyrov is not just a gym leader and/or fight promoter; he is also head of the Chechnyan Republic and a brutal warlord. I lack the deep historical and political knowledge and nuance to do justice to Kadyrov, but let’s just say that his Wikipedia entry is just over 4,000 words long, and more than 1,300 of those words are in a subsection titled “Accusations of Human Rights Abuses.”
“The fact he will go and train with these fighters is something remarkable; a leader of a country supporting our sport of MMA and investing in it is great,” Abdel-Aziz said of Kadyrov. “The guy trains almost every day with the fighters. He tries to help them and invest in them, which I think is something beautiful. Normally, a president only cares about politicians and select people.”
As if that did not show a startling lack of awareness of the man and the situation, Abdel-Aziz doubled down.
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“I never thought about co-promoting with anybody before, but a team like that? WSOF would do it ... there isn’t another promotion in the world I would co-promote with,” he added. “This is the only guy I would ever get in bed with.”
Abdel-Aziz’s desire to see fighters from the Caucuses flourish as athletes and build stable lives through combat sports is noble, but to say a real-life barbarian is “the only man you’d get in bed with” is out of touch and beyond insensitive, to the point of near-insanity. This is not to say Bibulatov and other fighters like him, whether from a politically charged geographical region or simply backed by dubious political characters, should be categorically disqualified from competing in the sport. After all, criminal organizations have been the shadow lords of boxing and MMA gyms the world over for decades. Abdel-Aziz considering this co-promotional effort in his head is one thing. To actually verbalize it in an interview, let alone discuss someone like Kadyrov as a philanthropist and kindred spirit, is both tone-deaf and incompetent.
Disregard for a moment whatever the release of strawweight champion Jessica Aguilar from her contact this week may signal for WSOF’s plans to promote women’s MMA in the near future. If you were a woman, would you want to fight for a company where the promoter views a man like Kadyrov as a business or ideological ally, given that he supports honor killings and believes women are chattel? What if you were a fighter from Russia or a former Soviet state who happens to personally oppose United Russia? Ali Abdel-Aziz isn’t explicitly signing off on Kadyrov’s politics, but to be publicly ignorant of them while flattering the man is still a politically charged maneuver. A more rational response would be to have eschewed the Kadyrov puffery and acknowledged his role in Akhmat MMA, while putting the focus back on the signing of Bibulatov and his potential. “Go off script, talk co-promotion, praise alleged war criminal” is never part of the flowchart in interview prep.
Speaking of Russian MMA, the gold medal in ghoulish promoter speak this week (unfortunately) goes to Coliseum Fighting Championship promoter Oleg Rajewski. He was the only man with the poor taste and judgment to speak up in support of former heavyweight notable-turned-convicted sex offender Aleksander Emelianenko following the Pride Fighting Championships veteran’s 4.5-year sentence for sexually assaulting his housekeeper, Polina Stepanova.
“There was pressure on the investigation; that is a fact. If the process was quiet, Aleksander would’ve probably only gotten a suspended sentence,” Rajewski told Soviet Sports, blaming both politicians and the media for characterizing Emelianenko as a criminal.
Emelianenko was accused of extorting sexual favors from the Moldovan national after taking her passport and forcing her to drink alcohol and smoke marijuana. He allegedly told the victim she could jump out of the window if she wished to leave the apartment.
“She had no intention of writing a statement herself, but it was recommended [to her]. A lawyer who previously worked for [Russian businessman] Sergei Polonsky represented the simple girl,” Rajewski added, combining both political conspiracy and victim blaming in his cruel commentary.
The 33-year-old Emelianenko fought just once for Rajewski’s Coliseum FC, suffering a knockout loss to Dmitriy Sosnovskiy in less than two minutes in January 2014. It is bad enough for a promoter to turn a blind eye to Emelianenko’s sordid criminal past or the fact that he has hepatitis, but how do you publicly go to bat for the guy? What value is it to Rajewski? Even if an Emelianenko appeal was successful down the line, I doubt he’ll be headlining any Coliseum FC cards anytime soon.
By its nature, fight promoting is, in part, a con. Yet, there remains a difference between bluster and bull, a difference between using your mouth to keep your product in fans’ hearts and minds and using your mouth to inflame those fans’ sensibilities. Fight fans might be a strange breed, but they don’t want to see promoters undercut or trash the fighters they promote; they don’t want them to fawn over warlords, even warlords who love MMA; and they certainly don’t want them showing public contempt for sexual assault victims.
We kvetch and complain when promoters speak without saying anything of substance. When that substance actually exists and it turns out to be rotten at its core, it’s infinitely worse. It makes you pine for the sanitized, monotone stylings of Bellator MMA President Scott Coker, his rote catchphrase -- “I’ll have an answer for you next week” -- ringing out like the voice of a million angels.
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