I notate when I perceive that they are reading a PR bullet point each time, otherwise commentary is largely spontaneous… it is never “corn nuts to the core” obvious bullet points but pretty damn close at times.
Khabib walk-out: Cruz says a fight against Conor is bigger than any belt or division in that it is for “the #1 P4P spot.” (PR bullet point) Says the fight is for “the world.” Psychology-wise showing it encompasses the world he lives in (WME) for sure. Everything is riding on this fight.
Round 1: “The king is back, looking to regain his throne” from Anik states the expectation outright. (PR bullet point) Conor gets taken down in the first minute and they revert to fight fans, analyzing what Khabib is doing on the ground (1st round objective was draining his cardio/punching power by the way). Cruz points this out (around 1:20 and again at 0:40). Round ends with Anik saying “exactly the kind of start Khabib was looking for” after an obvious 10-9. Notice how the analysis is objective/based on reality.
In-between rounds 1 and 2: Conor’s corner says “he’ll get slower, that was his absolute best there” while Khabib’s corner calmly states “now do it Cain Velasquez style… keep your chin down and hands up.” Silence from all commentators while this happens. Likely they are hearing from the truck to start doing PR for Conor. But as rational human beings they have can’t… so they start to try and comply but can’t pick a logical way to do it. Round 2 commentary (coupled with a 10-8 for Khabib to make it even harder) is the result.
Round 2: Start of round Anik asks Cruz what he thinks of corner advice. Says Khabib’s corner “looks frantic” then says “they need to calm down and give him some real feedback.” Makes no sense at all, perhaps because Dom wasn’t listening to them when the truck was talking… but tries to comply with truck request and say something negative. In the first 10 seconds of round Anik states “every MMA round starts on the feet” in a hopeful tone then Dom says “Conor can land that left whenever he wants” (PR bullet points) despite not an ounce of reality whatsoever in this fight suggesting that. Less than 30 seconds into round Khabib drops him with the overhand, then takes Conor down. Now we see something interesting.
They are trying to be credible/do actual commentary while fulfilling the inter-round truck request. The result is utter confusion. First Dom shows Javier’s “Cain Velasquez style” advice had some merit by talking about alternating between striking and grappling (around 4:00). Then, in confusion, he says “striking goes to Conor but the grappling is just so one-dimensional and so over… he’s much better.” He is busy trying to downplay Khabib (one-dimensional) but literally can’t finish the sentence, likely due to excitement from the fight making things worse. Rogan, due to a combination of experience and likely being excited, goes full analysis mode and discards the truck request. Note that Dom (way less experienced commentating) does NOT do this. He is still trying to fulfill the truck request.
Dom goes from saying “Khabib saying he wanted to make Conor suffer” (3:12) to then saying “the power of his GNP… you can hear it landing here” and Rogan agrees it is the best in the sport (2:25). Rogan suggests it is close to stoppage by saying Conor is in “serious serious trouble” (2:15) followed by Anik (also less experienced like Dom) following his lead to say “Herb Dean is watching closely” and “how many shots can one man take?” RIGHT at the height of this 10-8 beatdown (2:00) Dom says “he (Conor) is trying to gas him out… but it just doesn’t look good.” Again… he can’t even finish the thought. Remember… literally one minute before he was talking about him torturing Conor and now he is saying Conor is gassing him out by getting 10-8d and his face wrecked. There is no logical explanation other than Dom being confused (hence “it just doesn’t look good” making no sense… perhaps a Freudian slip about his commentating predicament or Conor’s chances despite the fix). He is trying to set himself up to be the good company man while Rogan is busy letting his mind flow freely about the beat down. Rogan (again, more experienced) knows it won’t fly (you can feed bullshit to the public but not to this extreme) and says to Dom “no I think he is getting smashed.” And Dom immediately pulls back “it is a mixture of everything” (1:40) which of course makes no sense and Rogan stays on the attack “I don’t think he’s trying to gas him out… I think he is getting SMASHED” with lots of emphasis on the last word to imply to Dom “you sound fucking ridiculous, cool it.” Dom replies with “I agree… but he has no choice either.” Again, makes no sense and fits with a guy confused being dressed down by someone more experienced. Now, following Joe’s lead, they start to call it as they see it. 1:32 Joe leads by pointing out an illegal knee, 1:28 Anik points out toes interlocked in the fence to prevent Khabib improving position up to even stating “Herb Dean should be warning him there.” Again… this is why conspiracies don’t work in real life. Even if commentators know who UFC wants to win and they get notice on bullet points you need Kim Jong Un level fear and consequences to regulate a guy who is getting paid to impromptu talk into saying everything “right.“ That’s a reality.
Joe points out the kimura and Dom tries to look like he is behind the winning horse/jumping off the anti-reality train/quickly gets behind the winner stating it “looks tight, this may be it ladies and gentlemen.” When Conor doesn’t get tapped Dom says “why isn’t he (Conor) trying to get up?” knowing more than any commentator that statement makes no sense (again, confusion) to which Rogan replies “because he is exhausted and getting his face punched in” and Dom quickly replies “I agree.” (so why did you ask it Dom?)
Again, same pattern over and over… Dom trying to play ball but everyone is now following Rogan’s lead (who saw the fight close to stoppage and time to shift behind the guy about the dethrone Conor so they don’t have the situation of Dana shitting all over JDS on national TV after he disposes of Cain). Rogan states “Conor can’t get up… Khabib is so much better on the ground that he is surprised” to which Dom meekly says “I agree” again (around 1:00). Notice Dom knows MMA better than anyone (he fucking knows why Conor can’t get up) but he is the subservient position of just echoing Rogan’s expertise (because Rogan is taking the lead commentating now/subtly suggesting forget the truck, Conor is about to lose guys). At 0:40 Conor stands up and Rogan points out he is taking “long deep breaths” and Anik says “he is up… but for how long” and Dom says “Khabib can keep this pace for 5” and Rogan points out Conor has never finished anyone past the second and Anik confirms (0:15). Dom says “Conor hasn’t had an answer for Khabib in one bit” (guess he’s not gassing him any more Dom?) They sound like full-on Khabib fanboys now huh?
In-between rounds 2 and 3: Conor’s corner says “expect the low singles to come from half-way across the cage now” and “don’t chase him this round” and “you can spend the first minute on your recovery” and Rogan remarks “Khabib is not even tired here, that is what is terrifying.” Notice they are talking in between this round (the truck isn’t talking to them).
Round 3: As promised, Khabib wants to continue the humiliation and KO Conor on the feet (Dom actually comments on this @ 2:07 stating he is shocked Khabib is just standing right in front of him). Plenty of other Sherdog breakdowns here on how Conor was deterred basically standing with Khabib a whole round and not being able to do much, but I think Khabib wanted that standing KO in this round, especially after dropping Conor the last round. The important thing for THIS analysis is the lack of takedowns inspiring UFC personnel to believe all hope is not lost (the truck likely went from sullen silence to yelling “COMEBACK! COMEBACK! WE MIGHT PULL THIS OFF!” at the start of this round).
So this may explain the abrupt departure from reality to go into the twilight zone. At 4:42 Dom says “Khabib is tired too” (right after Joe said he wasn’t at all between rounds) and Joe says “well we did see him slow down vs Al” and now Anik falls in line with Dom’s lead and says at 3:55 “this is as fatigued as I’ve ever seen Khabib in that Octagon” (lol-worthy anti-reality there). NOTICE how anti-reality gets especially strong at the START of every round (just after when the truck communication can happen … for those of you who don’t know… think radio coordination to get people of one company on the same page, as this is done to varying levels on any production, but for stuff this expensive it would be more heavily invovled). AGAIN, Rogan, more experienced with commentating then counters and pulls everyone back (3:45) “I don’t think he is fatigued… it doesn’t like he is breathing heavy” to which Dom immediately (again) meekly agrees “yeah I don’t think he is tired” (LITERALLY right after he said he was tired one minute ago ha). Dom again says “he is not tired per say” perhaps sensing how stupid he sounds.
After striking/slapping/standing in the center Conor goes on a cheating tear of shorts/glove grabbing. Khabib gets him against the fence again and, in between multiple glove holds, points it out to Herb hoping if Khabib calls the BS fix out on national TV they might ease up on it being so blatant. Herb literally replies “let’s work” twice to try and redirect attention away from himself and blame Khabib for Conor cheating WHILE Khabib is pointing it out. Next level corruption. (around 0:15) Dom explicitly concedes “he is holding that so he can’t complete the takedown.”
in between round 3-4: Rightfully pissed at this, Khabib points out the glove grab happened 3 times to Herb yet again. Herb just says “stop… stop” and separates them. Khabib states “three times now… you said if it happened twice you’d take away one point.” This is important to note. Dom literally just pointed out the cheating seconds ago but now Khabib is pushing back on the corruption of Dean, so there is a power disparity (fighter vs UFC corruption, as opposed to UFC-on-UFC criticism). The best way I can explain this from a PR POV is “I can insult my family but you can’t insult my family” sort of thing. ESPECIALLY when someone is painted in us vs them terms (hint: Khabib was not considered the “good guy” by UFC). So this part is amazing in that Dom JUST SAID IT and now that Khabib is pointing it out on NATIONAL TELEVISION you hear the reactions. Rogan replies “HE SHOULDN’T BE TALKING” by reflex (another Freudian slip?). Anik then tries to segue way from this uncomfortable spot to explain to the public to not internalize what Khabib said by saying “Khabib is not in his element unless he is jabbing… and talking… to whomever… the referee or his opponent” which can be translated as “don’t listen please.” Ever been in a meeting with your boss when ONE guy shits on the company position? You better attack him, regardless of what you individually think of that position he took. That is the best way I can explain what’s going on here.
Round 4: Again… at the start of the round we delve into talking point land. Now Dom says “I swear that I think this is when he (Conor) was trying to get him (Khabib)” (4th round) even though no one on Earth (Dom included) thought that. Conor gets taken down after the first minute and they immediately revert back to reality/actual fight-analysis. Anik even points out Conor grabbing the fence in a last desperate attempt to save his life. Conor taps.
Post-fight: Now, in a perfect world, you’d communicate (in a split second) to everyone “ok it didn’t work… now let’s transfer some promo magic to Khabib” and everyone would be on the same page. But reality isn’t that efficient or quick. There is lag ESPECIALLY in something complex as organizing disparate individuals ESPECIALLY when preparation isn’t made. So keep that in mind. IDEAL world even if you’re a Conor superfan (as a promoter) you’d instantly transition as soon as Conor taps. But even string pullers are individuals with emotions. We see that here. Imagine if the Conor superfans from Sherdog ran the UFC. That is what happens here. No amount of money in the world would relieve the tears. Now I know what you’ll say: “but Khabib jumped the fence!” AGAIN… remember Dana cracking up when Conor threatened Khabib’s family? Remember the dolly footage being framed as a valiant defense of Artem? Remember Dana grabbing the liquor laughing while it was being pushed towards Khabib? When Herb facilitated the cheating? When Khabib fought every contender on Earth while Conor sat out, first maternity leave, then boxing, then ran out of excuses and did nothing for a year? Ok now remembering all that… you’re telling me jumping a fence is the crime of the century? Well… it is if you are a Conor superfan like the UFC is or MarcA/D1 wrestler on Sherdog (in that case you become a superfan of Tony overnight as well lol). These are upset people that just saw millions of dollars disappear, nevermind the “our goal just blew up and that sucks” factor which must be underneath the surface.
And we see that effect after the incident. Rogan says “this is the nastiest I’ve ever seen” (Nashville alone eclipsed it), then commentators start to paint the lie that Conor did nothing (they say this multiple times) when in reality he threw the first punch of course. Anik (to his promotional credit) at least states it was “out of character” for Khabib, showing some surprising mindfulness that there is promotional life after UFC 229 and perhaps realizing Khabib is now champion. The rest is pretty transparent though. Mirg self-righteously shakes his head in moral outrage (the same Mirg who set the bar for fight fixing with Vitor-Rumble when the bullet point was that Rumble needed to be fired), Dana White states he can’t put a belt around Khabib in order to prevent the crowd murdering him (guess what not putting the belt on Khabib does… it arrays the crowd MUCH more against Khabib by the way… this is an old trick to get the public on your side, encourage potential ugliness while at the same time framing it as righteousness), and Buffer (on the verge of tears) announcing the winner and immediately rolls his eyes, tossing the card, and storms off to show you how he doesn’t approve. Each of these moral stand-outs that rewarded/said nothing about Conor are deeply offended by cage jumping (when it is Khabib, not when it is Conor cage jumping to yell at Aldo).
Here’s the thing. I’m not cheering cage jumping or fighting that douchebag Danis after Danis of course tried to provoke Khabib without any sort of accountability. I’m a realist. And I’m not self-righteous. You can’t be good at PR and not be able to see other viewpoints and are constantly congratulating yourself on your morals (even if you see that people often like to be self-righteous themselves). Since I’m a realist I see their reactions above (to Khabib) and see their reactions to Conor and know… superfans deeply emotional. Of course, once they sobered up and saw the public backlash against them they’ve modified their position. Make no mistake… if that backlash didn’t happen KHABIB WOULD ALREADY HAVE BEEN STRIPPED BY NOW. But it turns out the public actually gives a shit about fairness, accountability and maybe even a very vague notion of honor. So the planned PR attack/stripping against Khabib would have hurt UFC much more than Khabib himself. They realized this, backed off the moral outrage essentially within a week. Of course the night of 229 we heard about how the governor was in mortal danger (lol) and Dana hinting Khabib would be stripped (“we’ll see” when asked and “you can’t do that in the UFC”). AGAIN… the stage was set to reinstall Conor as champ again (likely for vacant 155 belt vs Tony)… yet another doctoring procedure in a VERYYYYY long set of fixes. The ONLY reason Khabib kept the belt is A) they saw the public reaction (check other threads where this was well documented… Dana famously said “there was zero response from the public” with a sad look on his face in the interview with Okamoto, then saying “I was the most upset guy on the planet… no one else cared”).
