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- Jun 16, 2014
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Nicco's public statement is genuinely bizarre. It represents one of the most extraordinary statements I have ever seen emanate from a professional fighter, and needs to be dissected.
Here it is:
I want to say thank you to all my continued supporter, unfortunately my first time ever missing weight means the loss of my title that I’ve worked my ass off for. And if you ask me it’s completely uncalled for, there have been plenty other fighters who have not been punished for a lot more, unfortunately I’m not one to be running my mouth so I don’t bring in the big bucks.
I had stopped sweating early, my kidneys shut down, and I had an imbalance of electrolytes, my sodium levels were way too high. When I got to the hospital the doctor had told me that it was the best idea, that if I had waited even 30min longer it could’ve led to cardias issues. With that said I had no intention to drop out of the fight. I looked good at open workouts. There have been multiple occasions where athletes after the TUF show have been metabolically impaired. It take a little longer to allow yourself the time to bounce back to your proper weight. In my case it was that with the accusation of illness and injury.
I had asked for a fight in October knowing this and had some legit people on my side also asking on my behalf, however the matchmaker and whoever else only gave the September at to choose from. So with no other choice and with the internet backing a lying bully (Valentina), I was forced to accept the date or have the threat to get stopped anyway.
This was the only time I signed a contract the statements this egomaniac (Valentina) has said are completely false and nowhere near the truth. Her idea of the reality is so far fetched so the fact that she trained for me 3 times must mean a couple things, she’s obsessed with me and has too much time on her hands. Not only has she been disrespect and jealous of my efforts and accomplishments also blocking me first on Instagram during her first fight at 125, but the fact that she takes pride in kicking a person while their going through surgery and having their kidneys shut down truly demonstrates what a martial artist should not be!
I did everything I could to make weight in the amount of time offered to me, I had no choice but to. Luckily I have a documentary being made following this entire process and it will soon be available for everyone to witness themselves.
When you’re stuck between a rock and a hard place you stick up your dukes and get down to it and that’s precisely what I do and will continue to do.
The plan for now is to be able to live a healthy lifestyle for the longevity of my career and livelihood. Until I can confidently adapt my body and walk around at a lighter weight I will keep doing all that I can when it comes to making indigenous lives matter and will not be hushed in terms of the wrong doing that has been established, not only with my people but also with me.
Never have I experienced working with an opponent who is so heartless and disrespectful, you can absolutely guarantee I’m coming back to make my stamp and take back my belt.
Thoughts:
[1] She attacks Valentina for being 'obsessed' with her. Well, duh. An elite fighter should be absolutely obsessed with her opponent. Nicco's mindset and lack of comprehension of this rather obvious fact indicates that she is simply not an elite fighter. Nicco views this as Valentina having 'too much time on her hands'. Wow.
[2] Nicco raises Native American issues and discrimination. Nicco's comments on this are fascinating. She promises 'not to be hush in terms of the wrongdoing' that has been perpetrated 'not only with my people but also with me'. LOLLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL. Wow. The ego and victimhood are pathological.
She apparently thinks her being unprofessional, missing weight, and being stripped should be mentioned in the same conversation as centuries of oppression and genocide committed by European settlers in the Americas.
[3] She continually complains that everyone is bullying her (the UFC management, Ariel Helwani, her TUF coaches, the fans, now Valentina): this is not a sign of someone with the mental resilience of a world champion athlete. It has been her hallmark throughout 2018.
In fact here she explicitly says that Valentina is 'a lying bully', complains that 'the internet' was 'backing' Valentina, that the UFC threatened to strip her anyway, and thus she had 'no other choice' but to fight in September before she would (allegedly) have been ready. The mental weakness glimpsed in these comments is worrying. She even suggests that Valentina is bullying her because she was blocked on Instagram. Valentina is also 'so heartless and disrespectful'. LOL! She has a victim mentality and, by her own admission, is not strong enough to stand up to those attempting to 'bully' her.
[4] She takes no responsibility whatsoever for the botched weight cut. None! It is almost as if it happened to someone else! It was Nicco's responsibility to be professional and make weight. She failed.
[5] The message concedes that she will not return to the cage until she can 'confidently adapt [her] body'. She will instead focus on 'making indigenous lives matter'. So, in other words, she has done a GDR and gone MIA.
I also have no clue why she didn't move to a high quality gym after winning the title. That is a sign that she knew she had bitten off more than she could chew.
Look, on a human level one can have some sympathy with her. She was the 14th seed out of 16 and won a reality show with a 3-2 pro record beforehand (4-2 now). She is clearly out of her comfort zone. That is always difficult - I'm sure most of us will have been in that position, professionally and/or personally - and one should feel sorry for her as a person. The problem is that she is voluntarily competing in the world of high-level athletics, and needs to be able to turn up and compete without this kind of psychological breakdown.
I can pretty much guarantee that not only will Montana not be the champion again, but she will never even sniff a title fight in the future. The UFC have no faith in her and would make her dominate half a dozen elite competitors before risking getting back in the Nicco business in the form of a title shot. She is nowhere near good enough to defeat elite opponents.
The lessons we should take away from this whole sad, sorry methodology of trying to add more women's weight divisions in the UFC are (i) no more crowning champions via TUF (Esparza got brutally murked and Nicco got stripped) and (ii) rely on elite fighters, not also-rans like Germaine.
Germaine and Nicco both disappeared after finding themselves holding a UFC strap. Carla seemed to collapse.
115lbs recovered from the Carla debacle thanks to Joanna. I don't think 125lbs and 145lbs will be so lucky for quite some time. They are perceived as joke divisions, and a big part of that has to be the methodology behind how they were created. Putting a relative nobody like Germaine in a world title bout because you have a PPV slot to fill was asking for trouble. Likewise, doing world championship tournaments on TUF-level peanuts purses (twice!) will not attract many, much less all, of the best athletes. The best fighters would be much smarter to avoid the TUF shitshow of living in the house etc, and just wait until the division is established in the UFC. They can then go after the champion and have the ability to prepare properly rather than while living in the house.
I hope there are no repeats of the 115lbs, 125lbs, and 145lbs experiments in 'how to create a new division'.
Here it is:
I want to say thank you to all my continued supporter, unfortunately my first time ever missing weight means the loss of my title that I’ve worked my ass off for. And if you ask me it’s completely uncalled for, there have been plenty other fighters who have not been punished for a lot more, unfortunately I’m not one to be running my mouth so I don’t bring in the big bucks.
I had stopped sweating early, my kidneys shut down, and I had an imbalance of electrolytes, my sodium levels were way too high. When I got to the hospital the doctor had told me that it was the best idea, that if I had waited even 30min longer it could’ve led to cardias issues. With that said I had no intention to drop out of the fight. I looked good at open workouts. There have been multiple occasions where athletes after the TUF show have been metabolically impaired. It take a little longer to allow yourself the time to bounce back to your proper weight. In my case it was that with the accusation of illness and injury.
I had asked for a fight in October knowing this and had some legit people on my side also asking on my behalf, however the matchmaker and whoever else only gave the September at to choose from. So with no other choice and with the internet backing a lying bully (Valentina), I was forced to accept the date or have the threat to get stopped anyway.
This was the only time I signed a contract the statements this egomaniac (Valentina) has said are completely false and nowhere near the truth. Her idea of the reality is so far fetched so the fact that she trained for me 3 times must mean a couple things, she’s obsessed with me and has too much time on her hands. Not only has she been disrespect and jealous of my efforts and accomplishments also blocking me first on Instagram during her first fight at 125, but the fact that she takes pride in kicking a person while their going through surgery and having their kidneys shut down truly demonstrates what a martial artist should not be!
I did everything I could to make weight in the amount of time offered to me, I had no choice but to. Luckily I have a documentary being made following this entire process and it will soon be available for everyone to witness themselves.
When you’re stuck between a rock and a hard place you stick up your dukes and get down to it and that’s precisely what I do and will continue to do.
The plan for now is to be able to live a healthy lifestyle for the longevity of my career and livelihood. Until I can confidently adapt my body and walk around at a lighter weight I will keep doing all that I can when it comes to making indigenous lives matter and will not be hushed in terms of the wrong doing that has been established, not only with my people but also with me.
Never have I experienced working with an opponent who is so heartless and disrespectful, you can absolutely guarantee I’m coming back to make my stamp and take back my belt.
Thoughts:
[1] She attacks Valentina for being 'obsessed' with her. Well, duh. An elite fighter should be absolutely obsessed with her opponent. Nicco's mindset and lack of comprehension of this rather obvious fact indicates that she is simply not an elite fighter. Nicco views this as Valentina having 'too much time on her hands'. Wow.
[2] Nicco raises Native American issues and discrimination. Nicco's comments on this are fascinating. She promises 'not to be hush in terms of the wrongdoing' that has been perpetrated 'not only with my people but also with me'. LOLLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL. Wow. The ego and victimhood are pathological.
She apparently thinks her being unprofessional, missing weight, and being stripped should be mentioned in the same conversation as centuries of oppression and genocide committed by European settlers in the Americas.
[3] She continually complains that everyone is bullying her (the UFC management, Ariel Helwani, her TUF coaches, the fans, now Valentina): this is not a sign of someone with the mental resilience of a world champion athlete. It has been her hallmark throughout 2018.
In fact here she explicitly says that Valentina is 'a lying bully', complains that 'the internet' was 'backing' Valentina, that the UFC threatened to strip her anyway, and thus she had 'no other choice' but to fight in September before she would (allegedly) have been ready. The mental weakness glimpsed in these comments is worrying. She even suggests that Valentina is bullying her because she was blocked on Instagram. Valentina is also 'so heartless and disrespectful'. LOL! She has a victim mentality and, by her own admission, is not strong enough to stand up to those attempting to 'bully' her.
[4] She takes no responsibility whatsoever for the botched weight cut. None! It is almost as if it happened to someone else! It was Nicco's responsibility to be professional and make weight. She failed.
[5] The message concedes that she will not return to the cage until she can 'confidently adapt [her] body'. She will instead focus on 'making indigenous lives matter'. So, in other words, she has done a GDR and gone MIA.
I also have no clue why she didn't move to a high quality gym after winning the title. That is a sign that she knew she had bitten off more than she could chew.
Look, on a human level one can have some sympathy with her. She was the 14th seed out of 16 and won a reality show with a 3-2 pro record beforehand (4-2 now). She is clearly out of her comfort zone. That is always difficult - I'm sure most of us will have been in that position, professionally and/or personally - and one should feel sorry for her as a person. The problem is that she is voluntarily competing in the world of high-level athletics, and needs to be able to turn up and compete without this kind of psychological breakdown.
I can pretty much guarantee that not only will Montana not be the champion again, but she will never even sniff a title fight in the future. The UFC have no faith in her and would make her dominate half a dozen elite competitors before risking getting back in the Nicco business in the form of a title shot. She is nowhere near good enough to defeat elite opponents.
The lessons we should take away from this whole sad, sorry methodology of trying to add more women's weight divisions in the UFC are (i) no more crowning champions via TUF (Esparza got brutally murked and Nicco got stripped) and (ii) rely on elite fighters, not also-rans like Germaine.
Germaine and Nicco both disappeared after finding themselves holding a UFC strap. Carla seemed to collapse.
115lbs recovered from the Carla debacle thanks to Joanna. I don't think 125lbs and 145lbs will be so lucky for quite some time. They are perceived as joke divisions, and a big part of that has to be the methodology behind how they were created. Putting a relative nobody like Germaine in a world title bout because you have a PPV slot to fill was asking for trouble. Likewise, doing world championship tournaments on TUF-level peanuts purses (twice!) will not attract many, much less all, of the best athletes. The best fighters would be much smarter to avoid the TUF shitshow of living in the house etc, and just wait until the division is established in the UFC. They can then go after the champion and have the ability to prepare properly rather than while living in the house.
I hope there are no repeats of the 115lbs, 125lbs, and 145lbs experiments in 'how to create a new division'.
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