Author: Jeremy Botter

Cris Cyborg vs. Holly Holm: The Best Fight in Women’s MMA History

On a brisk May night twelve years ago, Cristiane Santos walked to a ring in her hometown of Curitiba, Brazil. It was her first professional fight. She lost by submission, tapping out to a kneebar in just under two minutes. 
Mixed martial arts is f…

On a brisk May night twelve years ago, Cristiane Santos walked to a ring in her hometown of Curitiba, Brazil. It was her first professional fight. She lost by submission, tapping out to a kneebar in just under two minutes. 

Mixed martial arts is full of stories like this. People fight once or twice and lose and decide it’s not for them, and then they walk away and pursue some other, more normal career. Santos’ story could’ve ended that night at Show Fight 2. 

Instead, she returned later that year and won her second fight. And her third. It has been twelve years, and she still hasn’t lost another fight. And truthfully, it has been a long time since anybody even entertained the notion that she might lose again. 

When was the last time you seriously gave a Cyborg opponent a real shot at winning? For me, it was probably the fight against Gina Carano in 2009. Cyborg was mostly unknown at that point and Carano, forever the apple of all our eyes, was a heavy fan favorite. Cyborg thrashed her so badly that Carano never returned to mixed martial arts, opting to pursue other, less-violent career paths. 

I vaguely remember thinking Marloes Coenen had a chance of winning, at least the first time she faced Cyborg, but that pretty much went the same way the Carano fight did, with the only real difference being the greater extent of the beating.

Cyborg fights have become something of a routine. We always know what’s going to happen, and we know it’s going to be physical and violent and ugly and uncomfortable to watch. 

She is dominant in a more visceral way than other dominant champions like Georges St-Pierre or Demetrious Johnson. Those men are supremely skilled and entertaining; watching them is a pleasure. Watching Cyborg is like watching a tornado carving through a small Midwestern town. We know what’s coming. We’ve seen it before. We still can’t turn away. 

UFC 219 will be different. For the first time in forever and a day, Cyborg is facing an opponent who has a legitimate chance of not just lasting to the final bell. 

Holly Holm, the former world champion boxer, vaulted to stardom two years ago with her brutal knockout of Ronda Rousey to capture the UFC bantamweight title. Much like Cyborg did in sending Carano packing, Holm essentially ended Rousey‘s career that night in Australia. Rousey didn’t retire after that loss, but when she returned a year later to face Amanda Nunes, she was a shadow of a shell of her former self. The raging fire long present in her eyes was gone. Holm had extinguished it, just as Cyborg rattled Carano to her core. 

Holm will step into the Octagon to vie for Cyborg’s featherweight championship. It is a belt and a division essentially created as a way to keep Cyborg in the UFC and headlining pay-per-view events. The event-buying public seems perfectly content, at least for now, to watch Cyborg mow through hapless competition just as she did in the years leading up to her big turn in the UFC. 

But Holm is no patsy. 

There is a case to be made that this is the best fight in the history of women’s mixed martial arts. It won’t be the biggest financial success; Rousey is still the queen of that department even in the midst of her quasi-retirement from the sport. 

But from a quality, skill and technical perspective, there is no better match-up to be made at this point in time. Holm has been underwhelming since the night she beat Rousey, but she is still far and away the best counterpart for Cyborg, and will easily be the biggest win of Cyborg’s career should she prevail. 

The same goes for Holm. Critics will point at the Rousey knockout as the high point for Holm‘s MMA tenure. But in truth, Holm was always more than a tough out for Rousey; Holm had an overwhelming striking advantage that we all overlooked because we were blinded by Rousey‘s stunning pad-hitting and shadowboxing. In reality, Rousey was and is an atrocious and deficient striker who may have been misled by her coach to believe she was far better than she actually was. 

If Holm is able to beat Cyborg, especially in the same manner she beat Rousey, it will be a far greater accomplishment than her win over Rousey. Beating Cyborg means you must be a better striker, but even more it means you must endure. Cyborg’s initial onslaught overwhelms opponents like a dense morning fog, wrapping them on all sides; Holm will need to continually look for the light on the other side. 

But she can do it. She can endure, and she can beat Cyborg. She has a legitimate chance of beating the most terrifying woman on the planet. And of course, Cyborg has a chance of turning Holm into nothing more than another line entry on a long list of overwhelmed opponents. 

There is so much we can find out about both women and their skills and spirit. We’ll find out if Holm was a one-shot wonder, or if she truly is the breathtaking prospect many of us thought she’d be when she transitioned from boxing to mixed martial arts. 

And we’ll find out if Cyborg is indeed capable of being challenged, or if she’s just a fighter so advanced that it seems like she’s in the wrong decade, or perhaps the wrong millennium.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Cris Cyborg vs. Holly Holm: The Best Fight in Women’s MMA History

On a brisk May night twelve years ago, Cristiane Santos walked to a ring in her hometown of Curitiba, Brazil. It was her first professional fight. She lost by submission, tapping out to a kneebar in just under two minutes. 
Mixed martial arts is f…

On a brisk May night twelve years ago, Cristiane Santos walked to a ring in her hometown of Curitiba, Brazil. It was her first professional fight. She lost by submission, tapping out to a kneebar in just under two minutes. 

Mixed martial arts is full of stories like this. People fight once or twice and lose and decide it’s not for them, and then they walk away and pursue some other, more normal career. Santos’ story could’ve ended that night at Show Fight 2. 

Instead, she returned later that year and won her second fight. And her third. It has been twelve years, and she still hasn’t lost another fight. And truthfully, it has been a long time since anybody even entertained the notion that she might lose again. 

When was the last time you seriously gave a Cyborg opponent a real shot at winning? For me, it was probably the fight against Gina Carano in 2009. Cyborg was mostly unknown at that point and Carano, forever the apple of all our eyes, was a heavy fan favorite. Cyborg thrashed her so badly that Carano never returned to mixed martial arts, opting to pursue other, less-violent career paths. 

I vaguely remember thinking Marloes Coenen had a chance of winning, at least the first time she faced Cyborg, but that pretty much went the same way the Carano fight did, with the only real difference being the greater extent of the beating.

Cyborg fights have become something of a routine. We always know what’s going to happen, and we know it’s going to be physical and violent and ugly and uncomfortable to watch. 

She is dominant in a more visceral way than other dominant champions like Georges St-Pierre or Demetrious Johnson. Those men are supremely skilled and entertaining; watching them is a pleasure. Watching Cyborg is like watching a tornado carving through a small Midwestern town. We know what’s coming. We’ve seen it before. We still can’t turn away. 

UFC 219 will be different. For the first time in forever and a day, Cyborg is facing an opponent who has a legitimate chance of not just lasting to the final bell. 

Holly Holm, the former world champion boxer, vaulted to stardom two years ago with her brutal knockout of Ronda Rousey to capture the UFC bantamweight title. Much like Cyborg did in sending Carano packing, Holm essentially ended Rousey‘s career that night in Australia. Rousey didn’t retire after that loss, but when she returned a year later to face Amanda Nunes, she was a shadow of a shell of her former self. The raging fire long present in her eyes was gone. Holm had extinguished it, just as Cyborg rattled Carano to her core. 

Holm will step into the Octagon to vie for Cyborg’s featherweight championship. It is a belt and a division essentially created as a way to keep Cyborg in the UFC and headlining pay-per-view events. The event-buying public seems perfectly content, at least for now, to watch Cyborg mow through hapless competition just as she did in the years leading up to her big turn in the UFC. 

But Holm is no patsy. 

There is a case to be made that this is the best fight in the history of women’s mixed martial arts. It won’t be the biggest financial success; Rousey is still the queen of that department even in the midst of her quasi-retirement from the sport. 

But from a quality, skill and technical perspective, there is no better match-up to be made at this point in time. Holm has been underwhelming since the night she beat Rousey, but she is still far and away the best counterpart for Cyborg, and will easily be the biggest win of Cyborg’s career should she prevail. 

The same goes for Holm. Critics will point at the Rousey knockout as the high point for Holm‘s MMA tenure. But in truth, Holm was always more than a tough out for Rousey; Holm had an overwhelming striking advantage that we all overlooked because we were blinded by Rousey‘s stunning pad-hitting and shadowboxing. In reality, Rousey was and is an atrocious and deficient striker who may have been misled by her coach to believe she was far better than she actually was. 

If Holm is able to beat Cyborg, especially in the same manner she beat Rousey, it will be a far greater accomplishment than her win over Rousey. Beating Cyborg means you must be a better striker, but even more it means you must endure. Cyborg’s initial onslaught overwhelms opponents like a dense morning fog, wrapping them on all sides; Holm will need to continually look for the light on the other side. 

But she can do it. She can endure, and she can beat Cyborg. She has a legitimate chance of beating the most terrifying woman on the planet. And of course, Cyborg has a chance of turning Holm into nothing more than another line entry on a long list of overwhelmed opponents. 

There is so much we can find out about both women and their skills and spirit. We’ll find out if Holm was a one-shot wonder, or if she truly is the breathtaking prospect many of us thought she’d be when she transitioned from boxing to mixed martial arts. 

And we’ll find out if Cyborg is indeed capable of being challenged, or if she’s just a fighter so advanced that it seems like she’s in the wrong decade, or perhaps the wrong millennium.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Conor McGregor Is Rich and Out of Control

What would you do if you became fantastically, filthy rich in one night?
What would you buy? Where would you go? 
How would it change you? Would you still be the same person you are right now? Or would you be different in some way?
Therein lies th…

What would you do if you became fantastically, filthy rich in one night?

What would you buy? Where would you go? 

How would it change you? Would you still be the same person you are right now? Or would you be different in some way?

Therein lies the question for Conor McGregor, a man who once lived near the poverty line and who dreamt of riches, one who now has enough money to change the lives of generations of his family. Has his newfound wealth changed the core of who he is, or has it just stripped away a public-facing veneer and allowed us to see him for what he is?

If McGregor‘s sudden windfall has indeed stripped his exterior away, what we are seeing now is a man who believes he is above the rules, and a man who is petulant and childish when he’s told to quit doing something he wants to do.  

McGregor‘s New World Order-esque invasion of the Bellator cage in Dublin on Friday was merely the latest step in a crescendo of baffling social snafus. He can’t be blamed for being exuberant for his teammate; McGregor is a man who lives with his heart on his sleeve, even if he often covers it with vulgarity and outlandish clothes. But thousands of teammates have undoubtedly been happy for their fellow fighters in victory, and yet none have leapt into the cage the way McGregor did. 

The real issues are McGregor‘s pursuit of referee Marc Goddard and his assault on the Bellator official who was trying to get him down off the cage. 

Make no mistake about it: McGregor‘s actions constitute assault, plain and simple. Though his legions of fanboys will try their best to justify his actions, there is no way to do so.

His jumping in the cage to celebrate can be chalked up to passion and joy overruling every other instinct in his body. But the moment he didn’t get what he wanted, when Goddard had to tell him for the second time in a month that he was somewhere he wasn’t supposed to be, McGregor lost control. There is no justification for putting your hands on a referee or for slapping a Bellator production worker. 

The strangest thing about it is the silence from the UFC.

When former UFC fighter Jason High pushed referee Kevin Mulhall in 2014, UFC President Dana White released him almost immediately. 

“I don’t care how mad you are, how upset you are,” White said at the time. “You don’t touch a referee ever. Unforgivable. Don’t come back, ever.”

McGregor has done far worse than what High did on that June night three years ago. And judging by McGregor‘s short-lived Monday morning tweet (which he deleted within minutes), he still isn’t remorseful. 

“Bloke KO’d on floor bout a minute straight and ref trying to say, ‘Fight’s not over, Conor.’ That’s when I lost it. F–k yous all,” McGregor‘s deleted tweet said. 

And yet, we have radio silence from the UFC.

Do you think White will cut McGregor after his shove and slap heard ’round the world? If you do, I have some oceanfront property out near Albuquerque I think you’d be interested in. And we already know the athletic commissions aren’t going to do anything to McGregor because none of them want to risk losing the potential influx of cash he brings to their coffers.

What we’re seeing now is a weird circle of life. McGregor knows he holds more power over the UFC than any fighter has ever held. As such, he knows he can get away with things no other UFC fighter would dare attempt. And the UFC does need him, so it doesn’t punish him. That, in turn, validates McGregor‘s thinking, which only makes him feel even more above the law than he already does.

The UFC is in a tough position because it has no superstars to replace McGregor and Ronda Rousey. It has to cede to McGregor‘s demands. There is no other option. 

But in doing so, the UFC is only helping to strip away the last remnants of McGregor‘s veneer of civility. That’s allowing us to see even more of the monster we’ve all helped to create over the past four years. 

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

New UFC Champ Rose ‘Thug’ Namajunas Is Not Your Usual Fighter

Mixed martial arts is known for many things.
Violence. More blood than most people can stomach. Awful T-shirts. Real bad tattoos. Passionate/drunk fans. Dana White and Joe Rogan screaming at you: This is the biggest fight ever and you’d just be st…

Mixed martial arts is known for many things.

Violence. More blood than most people can stomach. Awful T-shirts. Real bad tattoos. Passionate/drunk fans. Dana White and Joe Rogan screaming at you: This is the biggest fight ever and you’d just be stupid not to order it, and you know we’re telling you the truth because our faces are so red.

Of all the things the sport is known for, subtlety is not one.

Life is full of shades of gray, of differing and wholly unique personalities and traits and relationships.

Mixed martial arts? Fighters seem to fall into one of two personality traits: Conor McGregor or boring.

And who can blame them? One look at the riches McGregor’s brash and outlandish promotional style has wrought, and it’s enough to make anyone consider taking the same path.

You can talk and say ridiculous things, or you can be respectful and never meet the same heights of superstardom. And forget about padding your bank account.

Which is why it was such a breath of fresh air to see 25-year-old Rose “Thug” Namajunas win the UFC women’s strawweight title last week. Namajunas, from her shorn locks to her anti-MMA demeanor, is more than just a new title-holder. She’s a superstar in the making and an immensely unlikely one.

 

Joanna Jedrzejczyk is a terrifying cyclone of sharp and pinprick-accurate limbs.

The first time I saw her doing her thing was at a media workout before her fight with Carla Esparza in Dallas a few years ago. The impression I left the gym with that day was: “Oh my God, this is the most terrifying person that’s half my size on this entire planet.”

And she was. Jedrzejczyk brutalized Esparza and took the championship, and she never looked back. But somewhere along the way, “Joanna Champion” became more than just a fun nickname. She started believing her own hype, which is easy to do when you’re obliterating all your peers.

Jedrzejczyk said a lot of hurtful things about Namajunas in the lead-up to their fight on November 4. Jedrzejczyk forgoes the standard MMA trash-talk bible and goes straight for the psychological jugular. During the conference call on October 25 to promote the fight, Namajunas spoke of how she believed her challenge could help promote mental health awareness.

“My dad died and he wasn’t in my life because he had schizophrenia, so it’s been something that my entire family has been fighting against since I can remember,” Namajunas said. “So this fight means a lot to me, and it’s not just about the belt. It’s more than that, and I just want to inspire other people to f–king do whatever the f–k you want to do, and do what makes you happy, and be a good person, and you can overcome anything.

“I’ve overcome some demons in my path, and just, every day I wake up and I’m f–king champion, so that’s just my mindset all of the time, and that’s something that—I think this fight could be a great PSA announcement for mental health awareness.”

Jedrzejczyk’s retort was as unexpected as it was brutal.

“How do you want to be a champion and deal with all of these things? You know what? You are not stronger mentally,” she said. “You are mentally unstable and you are broken already, and I will break you in the fight.”

Not exactly your typical pre-fight banter. Jedrzejczyk kept up the onslaught up to and throughout fight week, leading to an unforgettable visual during the public ceremony of Namajunas praying on stage, her eyes closed tightly, as Jedrzejczyk stood in her face and told her she planned on taking her soul the next day.

Pride goeth before a fall. And Jedrzejczyk fell. Hard.

 

The great irony of Namajunas’ win at UFC 217 starts with the way it actually happened: Namajunas did it using Jedrzejczyk’s own best tools against her.

Namajunas didn’t go in the Octagon and take Jedrzejczyk down and submit her. That would’ve been an impressive thing, but it could never hold a candle to what actually happened.

Jedrzejczyk has never been untouchable on her feet; she takes more strikes than you might realize. But she’s a survivor, always able to inflict more damage on her opponents than they on her.

Namajunas has never been known as a striker. Her best career moments have always come from grappling.

And yet, Namajunas stood in front of the world champion and beat her senseless with her hands and feet. She dropped her to the canvas multiple times and then finished her by knocking her to the canvas and then pounding her into submission.

Jedrzejczyk said she would mentally break Namajunas and insinuated that she wasn’t stable enough to mentally handle the pressure.

Instead, it was Jedrzejczyk who ended up folding under the weight of the moment.

There is no shame in tapping to strikes, as Jedrzejczyk did. A fighter’s long-term health is more valuable than many athletes even recognize. Anyone who senses they are taking damage with no way to recover must be applauded for recognizing it and doing something about it.

And yet there was something deliciously ironic about the moment unfurling the way it did.

Namajunas didn’t break. She did the breaking.

 

In 2014, I profiled Namajunas for Bleacher Report. I asked her coach Trevor Wittman what he believed Namajunas’ greatest strength was. Grappling? Athleticism?

No, Wittman said. It was her mental strength.

“You can win with technique. But with the mental aspect, you can reach greatness,” Wittman said. “It’s so cool to see her cry before a fight because she can look at herself in the mirror. She understands that fear is a natural thing in this sport. But she turns fear into belief.”

If Thug Rose goes on to become a genuine megastar—if she follows in the footsteps of Ronda Rousey and finds herself a genuine mainstream attraction—it won’t be the knockout of Jedrzejczyk that sent her there.

It won’t even be found in the minutes after Jedrzejczyk yielded when Dana White draped Namajunas’ new belt over her shoulder and she allowed joyful tears to flow, even if only for a moment. Joe Rogan cornered Namajunas for the typical post-fight interview we’re used to seeing, but it was anything but typical:

Rogan: I’m at a loss for words. That was unbelievable. The winner and new UFC strawweight champion of the world: Rose Namajunas. How does that sound to you?

Namajunas: Man, it sound like buttah. Sound like buttah.

Rogan: Does this even feel real?

Namajunas: No. It feels like a movie right now.

Rogan: There was so much tension and so much emotion leading up to this fight. The weigh-ins, she was saying all kinds of crazy stuff to you. And you were reciting the Lord’s Prayer. What was going through your mind when all this was happening?

Namajunas: There’s so much crap going on in the media, news and stuff. And I just want to try and use my gift of martial arts to try and make this world a better place. Change the world. This belt don’t mean nothing, man. Just be a good person. That’s it. This is extra. This is awesome, but let’s just give each other hugs and be nice, man. I know we fight, but this is entertainment. And afterwards, it’s nothing.

And that is the perfect illustration of why Namajunas is so refreshing, and why she has the kind of star potential promoters dream about, and why it’s likely we’re still in the first few chapters of a story that might just reach incredible heights.

She didn’t comment on the things Jedrzejczyk said about her, though she would have been perfectly within her rights to do so. She didn’t gloat. She didn’t fawn over herself.

“Be a good person,” she said. Let’s just give each other hugs and be nice.

It’s an earnest and simple message. We are highly politicized. Our differences have divided us so greatly that it’s difficult to imagine reconciliation. Social media is a wasteland of snark. Anger is our default setting.

It doesn’t have to be that way. Especially in mixed martial arts. Not everyone needs to be Conor McGregor. We don’t need another Colby Covington, with his penchant for xenophobic comments. We don’t need another super bro like Mike Perry. We have more than enough negativity in our sport.

Thankfully, we have one Rose Namajunas, and she’s the opposite of what we usually get in MMA.

And though she may not be able to offset all the negativity on her own, we’re still pretty lucky that she’s around to try.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

GSP Stuns Michael Bisping at UFC 217, Is Among MMA’s Greatest of All Time

The GOAT. The greatest of all time.
The first was Fedor Emelianenko. Then it was Anderson Silva, but Chris Weidman sent him tumbling from the top.
It was Jon Jones and would have likely stayed that way for a long time, except for his inability avo…

The GOAT. The greatest of all time.

The first was Fedor Emelianenko. Then it was Anderson Silva, but Chris Weidman sent him tumbling from the top.

It was Jon Jones and would have likely stayed that way for a long time, except for his inability avoid screwing things up.

And now we’ve pretty much settled on Demetrious Johnson, though doubters still exist due to the strength of the 5’3″ fighter’s competition (and because of that weird thing where males look down upon other males who are small in stature).

Those names are the four most often mentioned. You know who you never hear about? Georges St-Pierre. Not anymore, at least. St-Pierre used to be “in the mix” back in the day, before he decided to go on hiatus and UFC President Dana White started burying him as a guy who “didn’t want to fight” every chance he got.

Before UFC 217, St-Pierre was decreasingly mentioned as the greatest welterweight in history, which is somewhat mind-boggling and most certainly insulting.

And now, after he defeated Michael Bisping at UFC 217 by third-round submission Saturday night at Madison Square Garden, St-Pierre isn’t just the new middleweight champion. He’s back in the mix. He’s a contender for greatest of all time. A possible GOAT. And he’s the fourth fighter in UFC history to capture a championship in two weight classes.

St-Pierre returned after a four-year layoff to fight in the UFC 217 main event. He moved up a weight class, appearing mostly like a more muscular version of the guy we remember from back in the day. He was slower, of course, which is a thing that happens when you’re carrying around more muscle and when you’re four years older.

And maybe he looked a little rusty, too, in the beginning of the fight. It was kind of like he needed a little WD-40 to get the creaks out. The lubricant came in the form of a knockdown when St-Pierre closed out the first round by putting Bisping on the canvas with a combo that started with his patented Superman jab, the same jab we watched him use to great effect in capturing and carrying the welterweight title.

The second round went more in Bisping’s favor, as the champion darted and weaved, and tagged St-Pierre with great strikes. Bisping even got up from under a visibly tiring St-Pierre after a takedown, which is a thing that never used to happen to St-Pierre.

It made you feel like maybe St-Pierre was running out of gas, or maybe he’d run out of time altogether. His corner forgot to give him back his mouthpiece before the third round, which would normally qualify as the weirdest thing to happen in that one-minute space except for the fact Bisping’s cup had somehow broken and so his corner was forced to MacGyver his underwear into holding the cup in place.

The third round started, and Bisping looked good—just kept on right where he left off—then suddenly he was on his back again and fighting to stay conscious as St-Pierre tried to make him unconscious.

And Bisping, ever the tough guy, lasted through the ground-and-pound, but he wasn’t able to react when St-Pierre quickly moved to his back and sunk in one of those rear-naked chokes that makes your throat hurt even though you’re watching at home. Bisping, because he is who he is, refused to tap out and opted to have his own lights turned out, his eyes slowly closing as he watched the final glimmer of light and his improbable championship reign slip away.

Georges St-Pierre. Middleweight champion.

St-Pierre joined Randy Couture, BJ Penn and Conor McGregor as a multi-division champion. He has more in common with Couture than the others, of course; Couture returned from a layoff after losing his UFC light heavyweight title to Chuck Liddell in 2006 by moving up to heavyweight and spanking Tim Sylvia around the Octagon to capture the heavyweight title. But Couture’s layoff was only a little over a year long, not four years, and Couture’s overall legacy is mixed at best.

St-Pierre’s legacy? It’s not mixed. He’s the greatest welterweight in history. He hasn’t lost a fight in 10 years. He’s only lost twice in 15 years. And if those things weren’t enough to give him a claim to being the greatest, he’s now done what many consider to be the ultimate sign of a true all-time great: gone up in weight, faced a bigger man, put him down and taken his title.

Maybe he’s not the greatest in your eyes. Maybe you think Johnson or Jones or Silva or Emelianenko have the edge. That’s fine. The thing about the GOAT debate is that it’ll never go away. We’ll never have a consensus. 

But here’s one thing for certain: If you overlook St-Pierre at this point, maybe you’re watching the wrong sport. 

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Darren Till Mows Path to Stardom Through Donald Cerrone’s Dome

Here’s a big hot topic as of late: the UFC’s seeming lack of any prospective future superstars.
Ronda Rousey is gone and may or may not come back (she won’t be back). Jon Jones? He’s looking at some hard times spent on the sidelines after his second US…

Here’s a big hot topic as of late: the UFC’s seeming lack of any prospective future superstars.

Ronda Rousey is gone and may or may not come back (she won’t be back). Jon Jones? He’s looking at some hard times spent on the sidelines after his second USADA violation. Conor McGregor? Maybe he’ll be back to fight Tony Ferguson or someone else, or maybe he won’t; it’s not like he needs the money.

Where is the next McGregor, the big international star who becomes a bona fide drawing card across the globe? A glance at the UFC’s current roster reveals few candidates.

But, look, it’s not all hopeless. This is the same conversation we’ve had for over a decade. It happened when Georges St-Pierre went on hiatus. It happened when Chuck Liddell retired, and when Brock Lesnar retired, and when Tito Ortiz retired. A big star heads for greener pastures or a less-violent profession, and the hand-wringing about the sport being doomed starts all over again. Someone always comes along and picks up the mantle, and yet we’re always surprised when it happens.

But if you look a little closer, the rise of a star is almost always easy to predict because they typically have three traits in common: They can fight. They are media-savvy, with an innate understanding of using the press and promotional spots for their own good. And they understand that what’s truly important in the fight business is the business of the fight, even more so than the fight itself.

Which is why it’s easy to look at Darren Till and just say, man, this guy? He gets it.

Till went in the Octagon over in Poland on this fine Saturday and just absolutely, positively wrecked Donald Cerrone. He handed Cerrone his third straight loss, which is as rare of a thing in mixed martial arts as anything we’ve seen. And it wasn’t just the wrecking, but the way he went about it and the way he told us exactly what would happen before it ever started.

(NSFW: The following tweet contains profane language.)

Till walked Cerrone down and blasted him, without fear or trepidation—much the same way Cerrone used to do to people (and sometimes still does when he’s actually trying to fight with intelligence instead of counting the minutes until he can pick up his envelope at the pay window).

That was one trait. The second trait happened in the lead-up to the fight, when Till was everywhere telling the world exactly what he would do to Cerrone. Maybe it all seemed like so much bluster back then. Or maybe you didn’t know who Darren Till was or that he was an actual UFC main event fighter.

But then the media bluster turned into fact. Till did, in fact, obliterate Cerrone and made us question if Cowboy still has the chin and the gumption to keep doing the Cowboy thing. Without that performance in the Octagon, well, there’s only so long media bluster can hold up before fans start thinking they might’ve been sold a bill of goods.

The third trait really only works if you’ve been able to deliver on the first two parts. You can win fights all day, but if you can’t give an interview, there’s a certain limit to your potential stardom. And you can say ridiculous, non-sensical things until you’re blue in the face, but your limit is still something like, say, Artem Lobov.

But if you’ve got the charisma, the interview skills and the fighting down, then you’ve got a chance to use trait No. 3 to truly get yourself over. Which is exactly what Till did when he used his post-fight interview to set up a future fight with Mike Perry (also a brilliant promotional tactician).

If you’re one of those types who immediately started wondering why Till would target Perry instead of calling for someone higher up in the UFC rankings, well, you just don’t get it. And maybe you never have. The only real thing about the UFC’s rankings is just how embarrassing and devoid of reality they are. Seriously. They’re voted on by a panel of “media members,” but no member I’ve ever heard of knows anyone who actually votes on those panels.

The most important thing a fighter can do for himself is create fan interest in his fights. Like him or not—and there’s plenty of reasons to dislike him, starting with his ridiculous hair and clothing choices and moving along to the more serious matter of apparent racists inhabiting his corner on fight nights—Perry moves the needle.

And that’s what Till wants: a winnable fight that moves the needle. He can worry about the killers at the top of 170 later.

The whole thing should give you a little bit of hope for the UFC’s future. There may never be another Conor McGregor, and that’s both terrible and also good for our future. And while the UFC would no doubt love to have more Conor McGregors running around, you can be sure they’re very appreciative and enthused about the prospects of Darren Till right now.

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