Media Ariel Hits Out at the 'Bastardized McGregor Effect'

[Mr Dilkington]

Ariel is only interested in the drama. It's what keeps his show and profile afloat. He never does a technical breakdown on a fighter, he just cares about who said what about who.

He's like the tabloid newspaper of MMA media.

 

[FightFan87]

If they want to get more youngs eyes on screen, they do not need more WWE antics, but some fortnite skins. Maybe get someone into the mortal combat game. Work with game modders and streamers.

 

[Benoitthegr8]

If they want to get more youngs eyes on screen, they do not need more WWE antics, but some fortnite skins. Maybe get someone into the mortal combat game. Work with game modders and streamers.

Next will be Fighters having beefs over losing Roblox dollars.

 

[Deleted member 585708]

I'll take pro wrestling angles over two boring guys not selling the fight.

Sounds like you might enjoy pro wrestling then.

 

[Bojka]

No one's forcing you to watch the press conferences. I rarely watch them.

 

[FightFan87]

Next will be Fighters having beefs over losing Roblox dollars.

Can't bet real money so we doing this in v-cash

 

[Frank Kain]

Fuck that, I'll take the fighters that perform in the cage over the ones that talk and shit the bed.

Agreed, for instance, I was as excited to see WonderMan and Sanko’s mancrush get in the octagon as much as CC/Leon. Having said that, getting on CNN and in the 1st 5 minutes of SportsCenter or McAfee, etc.. really helps drive the sport. So it ain’t going away, since Ali onwards, this is the stupid game. Promotion..spectacle.

 

[cmw43]

Stating the obvious.

A lot of fighters saw Conor's success and thought they could get a piece of that, but had neither the wit nor the fighting skills to pull it off. Colby just took it to such an extent that it had to return some result, though I think people in the MMA bubble have an exaggerated impression of how much of an effect it's had.

Even Conor himself got lazy with his shtick, and just started being shouty and obnoxious.

Without Colby's character he'd be in the same place as someone like Dariush.

 

[ColombianFist]

He's right. people will try to emulate things that could benefit them and in this case the wannabe mcg trying hard to shit talk into a better spot. The UFC won't do shit because good or bad publicity is publicity, so they take anything to promote stuff (the trolley incident?).

 

[The Blue Bird]

Ariel should just disappear to israel and never come back

 

[Shaddows]

https://twitter.com/jedigoodman/status/1736821502157500730?s=20

Cliffs:

- Ariel says prime Conor shit talk was great, loads of fun and you could have sold tickets to the press conferences
- Says Conor went too far later but the moments from prime live on
- Now guys are trying to emulate that but they have no gift for talking so they're just resorting to stuff like dead family members and child abuse
- UFC never does anything to any of these guys and so this will just continue
- Props for guys like Leon who 'rise above it'

Largely agree with Ariel here and its intersting to note the modulation of the UFC back towards carny-ass shit since Endeavour took over. The long-running attempt to legitimise the sport has kind of been abandoned in the face of chasing the lowest common denominator.

It gets to a split in the fanbase too - some people are really just here for the violence and carny-ass shit (in a way I think Powerslap is almost better for these people than MMA), then you've got people who want to see the violence as part of a sport which has a few bare minimum standards to respect the craft thats going on within those fights.

Ariel bless in this instance I feel.

I hate to admit Ariel is right.
I share the same view, and had that opinion for longer than him.
Because I disagree "Conor" was all loads of fun at all!
IMHO Sonnen was the one blurring the line with jokes. But he was great at it. Yes, he had some moments you knew it was forced, scripted, but Sonnen is a great storyteller, so that's why he could "cross the line" (i.e. mentioning Spider's wife cooking his meat, etc"
He is the one who "blurred" the line a fighter could cross.
But during the "world tour" with Conor & Aldo, Conor fans would say "Aldo, you suck (or many other slurs)" and Everyone cheered, including Dana, who was the one who should have stood up for his fighter, his CHAMPION. He should have said that "one more word of disrespect to the champion, He would end the Q&A from fans ... or something like that. But instead, he stood there smiling and laughing, loving what he was seeing: The piles of money Conor would bring.
IMHO That was the point where it became clear that bashing/disrespecting fighters was OK for the fans as well, just sake of profit. So it's not surprising that the next copycat (Colby) would be someone who has no charisma and is such a poor actor, that he can't even convince the public how "bad-ass" he is! It's all so fake, that he has to resort into bringing dead relatives just to get a reaction from the crowd.

I don't blame the new owners. I blame Dana. Because he was doing that (putting profits over the sport) during the Fertitas as well.

 

[shunyata]

Didn't Dana cut a guy a few years back for making a joke on twitter about a windowless van using the phrase "rape van"?

 

[Guy LeDouche]

I dislike Ariel, but he’s got a solid point here.
Especially the fact that this kind of “promotion” will persist because it’s the kind of behavior the UFC rewards and values.

 

[mma fighter]

McGregor wishes he could take credit for all the shit talking, but he can't. This kind of stuff has been going on for a long time. Remember when Mike Tyson said he would eat an opponents kids?!?!?! Or literally threatening to rape a man??

 

[panem-et-circenses]

It’s cage-fighting. I think the fans — collectively and with some prompting — tried to change the image of MMA during the end of SEG, Zuffa’s run, and PRIDE, the latter of which is still glamorized, but the dream to get UFC recognized with a spot on ESPN has been a failed project for a lot of older fans, and the veneer has started to scrape off. Full blown trash, white trash, and dehumanizing (we have ourselves to blame, too) is definitely more apparent to anyone who isn’t a new fan. I mean, I can’t imagine White creating something as trashy and abhorrent like Powerslap 15 years ago. The cat has been out of the bag for awhile, but him slapping his wife and remaining the guy is telling.

I guess what I’m trying to say is, the sport is inherently going to have a bottom of the barrel element, something that was pushed down as much as possible while the martial arts of it all, and the great personalities, were promoted. As people care less and less about the sanctity of MMA, the more the trash is exposed. So, today things seem pretty lowbrow, and it’s less cool to be an MMA fan, too, imo. At least you can get behind bare knuckle for being pure, or YT boxing for being an honest circus, but in the UFC where we’ve just had a pathetic title fight full of humping, the buildup of said fight bringing a world champion to cry because of how ugly it got, yeah, you feel used.

 

[LaChiflera]

Ariel definitely is either a Sherdog member or he stalks the forum because that’s what this forum has been saying for a pretty long time.

 

[JohnMandick]

Do you know what salty means?

Yes, it's one of the five basic tastes on the surface of the tongue when my balls are in your mouth.

 

[ineverpost]

https://twitter.com/jedigoodman/status/1736821502157500730?s=20

Cliffs:

- Ariel says prime Conor shit talk was great, loads of fun and you could have sold tickets to the press conferences
- Says Conor went too far later but the moments from prime live on
- Now guys are trying to emulate that but they have no gift for talking so they're just resorting to stuff like dead family members and child abuse
- UFC never does anything to any of these guys and so this will just continue
- Props for guys like Leon who 'rise above it'

Largely agree with Ariel here and its intersting to note the modulation of the UFC back towards carny-ass shit since Endeavour took over. The long-running attempt to legitimise the sport has kind of been abandoned in the face of chasing the lowest common denominator.

It gets to a split in the fanbase too - some people are really just here for the violence and carny-ass shit (in a way I think Powerslap is almost better for these people than MMA), then you've got people who want to see the violence as part of a sport which has a few bare minimum standards to respect the craft thats going on within those fights.

Ariel bless in this instance I feel.

It's too far when you start losing. Then you just sound like an asshole. With Conor it's his natural personality so he's really being himself win or lose. Colby is seriously forced. You know he spent time rehearsing his lines and then it seems out of place because he has to force them out before he loses the mic.

 

[CPH]

Ariel's position on this lines up with mine 100%. I could have said/written that word for word.

 

[13Seconds]

I'll take pro wrestling angles over two boring guys not selling the fight.

Then maybe stick to pro wrestling lol.

I got tired of that shit when I realized it was fake. Was probably 12-13 at the time but each to their own