A post on Facebook from number one light heavyweight title-contender Anthony “Rumble” Johnson Monday caught my eye. Johnson had recently lost out on a championship fight when Daniel Cormier pulled out of UFC 206 with injury. Johnson said he was game to fight a short-notice opponent, as long as it was at heavyweight.
The former welterweight has had success at heavyweight, including a decision win over former world champ Andrei Arlovski in 2013. Johnson had gone on record saying that Arlovski had turned-down an offered rematch with him.
On Monday, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/RumbleJohnson/posts/10208054805393842" target="_blank">Johnson jumped on Facebook</a>, saying he was “feeling annoyed,” and to apologize to “The Pitbull.” According to Johnson, Arlovski called him to set the record straight.
“I would like to apologize to Andre Arlovski for saying he declined the fight with me... Come to find out that he was Never offered the fight. Although [New UFC matchmaker] Mick [Maynard] told me he reached out to Arlovski camp and they declined. Idk the dude and he's already telling me lies as a match maker. Thanks for letting me know you were never offered the fight Arlovski...”
It didn’t take me long to jump on a high-horse. I reposted Johnson’s post on my own Facebook wall, commenting that “Anthony 'Rumble' Johnson is giving insight into an age-old promoter and matchmaker practice - Blatantly lying to fighters.”
Having been in the sport in some form or fashion – as an amateur fighter, a journalist, and a coach – for over 17 years, Johnson’s allegation that a matchmaker had misled him certainly sounded familiar. I’d never dealt with the UFC’s new matchmaker Mick Maynard in any capacity, but, like all people with a decade or more in MMA, I’d come to experience and observe plenty of instances of promoters and matchmakers lying to athletes, and coaches.
I’d had regional matchmakers and promoters switch opponents at the last-minute, seen others tell one side a certain narrative while telling another fighter’s camp a completely different thing, and even personally observed the highest-level matchmakers on international shows disparage and disrespect their fighters. The fight game is a callous thing, and with the pressures that matchmakers and promoters often find themselves under while scrambling to put together or save events, they don’t often seem to speak of or consider fighters and their lives with the most sensitivity or empathy.
Shortly after re-posting Johnson’s annoyed statement, however, I was made aware of a tweet from Arlovski’s manager Abraham Kawa. If Arlovski had told Johnson that he hadn’t turned down a proposed rematch, his own manager painted a different picture.
“@Anthony_Rumble the fight was offered and the whole team (coaches incl) turned it down. Stop going at @Mickmaynard2,” Kawa’s tweet read.
Well, that confounded the issue. I dug deeper with sources close to the situation, and Kawa’s account was backed-up.
Several hours later, Johnson himself once again posted on Facebook. “Now it's a bunch of middle men with this Arlovski situation,” the post read. “So somewhere along the lines things were mixed up. I'm not apologizing again soon yall need to have a group meeting and solve the issue. I'm done with it so it is what it is!”
Fights are often first offered and discussed quite informally, so there often isn’t some easily accessible tangible paper trail to find out who is more right than wrong in situations like these where conflicting claims come out from different sides in spurts. Fighters accept and reject fights for any number of reasons, every day, and promoters often make public private conversations, or their version of them, in order to pressure them or affect public perception.
In turn, would-be opponents often help promoters by disparaging other fighters they were told did not accept a fight. That’s what Johnson seemed to initially think happened with him and Arlovski.
I don’t know where the truth lies, here. I do know that I rushed to judgment in tacitly accepting Johnson’s allegation that the UFC’s new matchmaker lied to him.
My experiences in the sport can certainly be valuable or even essential to my work as a writer. And, I still don’t trust most promoters any further than I can throw them. Many folks can say the same thing about journalists covering this sport, however, and everyone deserves a chance to prove themselves in their work.
Mick Maynard has built up one of the stronger and more respected regional MMA promotions in the world, Legacy Fighting Championships. Maynard is an able talent-scout and now that he’s stepped up to an incredibly difficult executive role in one of the biggest sports organizations in the world to replace the best matchmaker that has ever worked in MMA, he certainly deserves a shot to show what he can do without people jumping to conclusions about his ethics and approach.
The sad truth is that there has historically always been a great deal of deception and manipulation, to say nothing of exploitation, in the fight game. When a new face shows up, however, we should hope that they take things in a positive direction, and encourage them to do so.
Maynard is in the biggest of the big leagues, now, and I bet he’s up to the task. I’ve been told that he took exception with Johnson’s initial allegations.
If that is true, frankly I am encouraged that someone in his position might be concerned with protecting a positive, honest image. The fight business needs more executives who care, and I’m hoping that new ones like Maynard keep a good balance of that care in while they fulfill their other duties.
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