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Dana White - "Do you want be a fighter?!" speech or Forrest Griffin vs. Stephan Bonnar fight - Which was more important for the UFC?

Which was more important for the UFC?

  • Dana White - "Do you want be a fighter?!" speech.

    Votes: 5 6.4%

  • Forrest Griffin vs. Stephan Bonnar fight.

    Votes: 73 93.6%
  • Total voters
    78
I have only ever received one phone call from a casual, and that was during the Griffin/Bonnar match. His exact words...

"What the fuck is this?????"

I told him to be thankful he's watching it live.
 
Tweak896 said:
People put tons of importance on trash talk or speeches, but really fights are what matters end of the day. Conor blew up because his talk matched his fights. Strickland probably would be a superstar if he was KOing everyone 1st round. Especially when you're luring in new viewers, you better hope there was a show on for their first time watching or they aren't coming back.
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Topuria has a much better chance at becoming a superstar if he just keeps his fucking mouth shut. Talented fighter, crazy power, but damn if that ego doesn't need a check. He's in the perfect division for his style, with only a couple exceptions. Just keep him off the microphone because he's not doing himself any favours.
 
PeterGriffin said:
Topuria has a much better chance at becoming a superstar if he just keeps his fucking mouth shut. Talented fighter, crazy power, but damn if that ego doesn't need a check. He's in the perfect division for his style, with only a couple exceptions. Just keep him off the microphone because he's not doing himself any favours.
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He's sort of getting picked up now as more of a superstar. I was shocked it wasn't earlier. Honestly I like how cocky he is when he speaks about how easy his opponents are and then finishes them. Probably will bite him in the ass one day, but seems like his confidence carries him and works.
 
Tweak896 said:
He's sort of getting picked up now as more of a superstar. I was shocked it wasn't earlier. Honestly I like how cocky he is when he speaks about how easy his opponents are and then finishes them. Probably will bite him in the ass one day, but seems like his confidence carries him and works.
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Absolutely.

I have no issue with Ilia's cockiness, and I think his has very good fight IQ along with the hands. I think Paddy's going to be a big problem for him if Paddy has a solid chin, and I think Ruffy gives Topuria problems. But guys like JG, Max, Chandler, Hooker, and Dariush all feed into Topuria's game perfectly, and I favour Ilia against all of those guys. Gamrot and Arman I am meh on. But Iila has a chance a greatness though at 155lbs. He's not built for 170lbs. He'd have to put on muscle to compete with the stronger WW's, and that'll come at cost to his speed and power.

And Topuria can talk all the trash he wants, but don't sit there and say stupid shit like "I'll give up my title before I give you crack at it.". I don't know what the end game of comments like that are, other than to act like a hot-headed child and look like an unprofessional.
 
The Griffin/Bonnar fight & the Tito/Liddell saga changed the game. I've been watching UFC since '99 & after those two things is when I noticed a shift in the UFC becoming popular. & then of course McGregor created a whole different shift the likes of us old heads have never seen before. Conor not only elevated the game, but he changed the whole fckn landscape of it.
 
theincognito said:
Both are kind of overblown in importance.

It was simply getting on TV that actually saved the UFC. They were just a PPV product before that.

Having the WWE as the lead in was also massive.

That whole cast of personalities - Leben, Koscheck, Diego, etc. - kept the viewer hooked and made the show a hit.

From then on it was just natural growth from the public having access to the sport for the first time.
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Nah the fight was huge but you are right that everything leading up to it was equally important. Getting on tv, wwe lead in, the personalities but then the fight at the end actually delivered and was a holy shit are you watching this moment and ratings spiked and showed Spike TV ok we need this.

If that fight is shit things might not have played out the way they did. Do I think UFC would have been kicked off SPike, probably not but I dont think Spike would have been as enthusiastic about keeping UFC like they were.
 
The fight. It made mma exciting to us TUF noobs
 
The fight easily. It got me watching UFC again after a decade of ignoring it because I thought it was a joke that wouldn't last. The speech was just typical Dana posturing.
 
PeterGriffin said:
Absolutely.

I have no issue with Ilia's cockiness, and I think his has very good fight IQ along with the hands. I think Paddy's going to be a big problem for him if Paddy has a solid chin, and I think Ruffy gives Topuria problems. But guys like JG, Max, Chandler, Hooker, and Dariush all feed into Topuria's game perfectly, and I favour Ilia against all of those guys. Gamrot and Arman I am meh on. But Iila has a chance a greatness though at 155lbs. He's not built for 170lbs. He'd have to put on muscle to compete with the stronger WW's, and that'll come at cost to his speed and power.

And Topuria can talk all the trash he wants, but don't sit there and say stupid shit like "I'll give up my title before I give you crack at it.". I don't know what the end game of comments like that are, other than to act like a hot-headed child and look like an unprofessional.
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Agree with (JG, Max, Chandler, Hooker, and Dariush), but I do think Paddy/Gamrot/Arman/Islam will bring something different. I said it before and people acted like LW was some sort of elite game where the size is too much to deal with, but really it was a bunch of guys with names and wild striking with very little defense.

I'm going to be honest I wish we could've seen him against Evloev or Jean Silva before he moved up, but he probably knew he had to move to LW before the names there retire. Max/Volk were the biggest for his resume at FW.
 
Speech itself was for the fighters, if they boycotted UFC would've been finished.

I still remember watching the forrest fight on my couch after wrestling practice right before i had to go to my dishwashing job
 
So we are comparing a speech by the pink goof to one of the most important fights in ufc history?
 
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Def the fight itself. Hard to explain to people nowadays how much that fight made mma explode among regular people at the time.
Still, that speech catching on among fans did foreshadow ufc's treatment of fighters and helped it gain acceptance among fans. There was an interview on Helwani a few years ago, may have been cub swanson, where they talked about how that quote was used by the org and fans against any fighter who tried to negotiate better deals.
 
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