I want to start this with quotes from Dana White about why Conor McGregor was taken off the UFC 200 card.
“I didn’t prevent Conor from fighting at UFC 200,” White said. “Everybody, if you look at [last week’s] news conference — Joanna Jedrzejczyk came in from Poland. Claudia Gadelha came in from Brazil. This is what we do. This is how it works.
“I didn’t prevent him from fighting at UFC 200. He knew what the deal was. I told him what the deal was. He opted to do that.”
“This isn’t we say, ‘Hey, you have to do this.’ I will bend and try to make it work for these guys and girls. That’s the truth, the whole truth.”
I have a lot of respect for Conor. Conor and I just had — you know, you have to show up and do the PR. You have to do it.”
Here is Dana White on why Ronda Rousey wasn’t required to do any media for UFC 207.
“Ronda has given more than anybody. If you look at the amount of press that’s been done by any fighter in the UFC, in UFC history, Ronda smokes everybody by a long shot. This is what she wanted,” White said about Rousey’s media blackout during fight week. “The only thing she cares about is focusing on winning. She’s done a lot of things for this company. I say it all the time about Conor, too, but Ronda’s done a lot of things for us, this is what she wanted so I gave it to her.
“Listen, there’s so many different fighters that I have to deal with different egos, personalities, whatever it might be, you can’t miss a press conference. This is the way she wanted to do it. So I said OK.”
Now, here is McGregor on why he wanted to miss the ONE press conference in the lead up to UFC 200.
“I am just trying to do my job and fight here. I am paid to fight. I am not yet paid to promote. I have become lost in the game of promotion and forgot about the art of fighting. There comes a time when you need to stop handing out flyers and get back to the damn shop. 50 world tours, 200 press conferences, 1 million interviews, 2 million photo shoots, and at the end of it all I’m left looking down the barrel of a lens, staring defeat in the face, thinking of nothing but my incorrect fight preparation. And the many distractions that led to this. Nothing else was going through my mind.”
I will always play the game and play it better than anybody, but just for this one, where I am coming off a loss, I asked for some leeway where I can just train and focus. I did not shut down all media requests. I simply wanted a slight adjustment. But it was denied. There had been 10 million dollars allocated for the promotion of this event is what they told me. So as a gesture of good will, I went and not only saved that 10 million dollars in promotion money, I then went and tripled it for them. And all with one tweet. Keep that 10 mill to promote the other bums that need it. My shows are good. I must isolate myself now. I am facing a taller, longer and heavier man. I need to prepare correctly this time. I can not dance for you this time.
I’m doing what I need for me now. It is time to be selfish with my training again. It is the only way. I feel the $400million I have generated for the company in my last three events, all inside 8 months, is enough to get me this slight leeway. I am still ready to go for UFC 200. I will offer, like I already did, to fly to New York for the big press conference that was scheduled, and then I will go back into training. With no distractions. If this is not enough or they feel I have not deserved to sit this promotion run out this one time, well then I don’t know what to say.
Who was making the more reasonable demand? Can you see why media would say that Dana White gave Rousey special treatment?
McGregor who at the moment is the face of the UFC and has generated millions for the company with his fights was taken off the company’s biggest card because of ONE press conference.
While no one can take away what Rousey has done for the UFC and women’s MMA, she has been largely silent in helping the company for the last year after her loss to Holly Holm.
When McGregor lost to Nate Diaz even though he talked a ton of trash, he was a gracious loser, did all his media requirements and congratulated his opponent.
He came back stronger and avenged his loss.
Hate or love him, he was a professional in defeat.
Athletes have a job, media has a job, mutual respect is needed. It is easy to drink in the adulation, but much harder to show professionalism in defeat. Even when it is hard, the majority athletes show up even if they would rather be anywhere else in the world.
It’s tough, no one will deny that, but it is part of the job that you are paid to do, point blank. When Dana White bends the rules for Rousey it just adds to her sense of entitlement and being coddled.
I don’t even blame Rousey, because she is allowed and encouraged to do this by her boss, so if he doesn’t care why should she care?
There is also this narrative that Rousey is being treated differently because she is a woman. Here is what ESPN Ramona Shelburne had to say about that.
A couple of weeks ago, as I finished a feature story on her comeback attempt, a male colleague said to me, “Boy, I hear she’s just getting worse and worse. She’s storming off the stage in New York. She’s refusing to help promote the fight.”
It was an arresting statement. “Worse and worse”?
In reality, she’d gotten better and better after the loss to Holm. Being out of the spotlight had helped her spirit and psyche.
“I’m just getting my life back,” she said.
But to many men, she was just another woman they didn’t want to be around after she’d fallen apart. There was too much emotion, too much intensity and unpredictability to deal with. So in the great tradition of women being given tranquilizers to help calm their nerves or women running into the bathroom at work to avoid crying, it was easier to call her broken and bitter than to try to understand her.
While no one knows what she is going through personally, she has gotten “worse and worse” in how she handles thing professionally after her losses.
That has nothing to do with her being a woman. If anything she is getting more benefit of the doubt and comfort than say a Cam Newton, Marshawn Lynch or Odell Beckham.
Speaking of Odell Beckham when he shows his emotions his sexuality is often questioned, he is called a diva and emotionally unstable, last time I checked Beckham is a man, so this isn’t a one way street.
If McGregor acted like Rousey he would get the exact if not harsher treatment from media. Part of equality is being treated the same not just when things go well, but also when they go bad.
It is a catch-22, if media were not to give Rousey credit because she is a woman, they would be rightfully admonished, but that also means being a woman shouldn’t be used as an excuse of why we can not critique her.
This isn’t about being a woman this is about being a professional and that is something she has not been.
People love to say Rousey doesn’t owe anyone anything, but the reality of the matter is respect works two ways, if you want people to respect your job, how about respecting theirs.