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Cormier is a training partner, friend, and coach (wrestling) to Cain. If you fight someone like that then you have no spine.
They have a choice whether or not to enter the sport. When you are the Heavyweight Champion though it should be in your contract that you cannot duck a certain fighter if the match maker says that is who he needs to fight next to remain champion and keep SOME legitimacy to the title. A UFC Champion who refuses to fight the person who the matchmaker deems to be the top contender would then be found in breach of contract and liable to being sued by The UFC.
A UFC Champion has an image to uphold. If he ducks a fight on the grounds that he doesn't want to fight the top contender because they are friends, it cheapens that image and prevents the sport from being taken seriously. Friends compete against friends all the time in sports so why should UFC fighters be given a pass? Because their sport is too barbaric to compete in against a friend? That's the message they would send.
Lets explain why these guys don't fight
- They're friends.
- They share coaches, gym, etc -- very hard on the gym if they fight and nobody wants to leave (who corners who, etc).
- They spar every day; they have a good working relationship and fighting will almost certainly end it, if you've got a good thing then you want to keep it going.
There are unwritten rules in this sport such as friendships, loyalty, respect, and concern for one another.. Take it or leave it
It's beneficial for fighters to change training camps once in a while anyway because that way they get to learn new techniques from new people. If the same people train together every day and don't change to a different set of training partners, their progress will stagnate. I can think of former champions who ultimately ended up losing their titles at least partially because they liked the rules at their training camp and didn't want to go somewhere else where they might be forced to train in a way that might be uncomfortable, but would benefit their fighting ability and ultimately the longevity of their careers and the income their careers provide. I doubt there are a lot of good paying jobs available for former mixed martial artists.
The ultimate objective of every fighter is to be a champion. That's where most of the fame, notoriety, and of course money is - at the top. If a fighter doesn't want to challenge the champion because he likes his sparring partners too much he has a misplaced sense of priorities - a somewhat neurotic trait. They didn't get into this business to make friends. They got in this business to be the champ. If they've lost sight of that goal then a new training camp would be beneficial for more reasons than one.
Do the camps share fight records? Since GSP is the champion, if it was a team sport, shouldn't MacDonald be able to call himself the UFC WW champ? Should Cormier already be the HW Champ, since his team won the title this past weekend?
Nope. Doesn't work that way
Results, accolades and failures are awarded individually. The training may be team oriented (and that's just a matter of efficiency), but you don't get rewarded for training. You get rewarded for how you perform in the actual fight, and no matter who you have training with you, they're not getting in the cage with you come fight night.
That being said, I don't really care if teammates don't want to fight each other. The divisions are strong enough that there should be no need, there should be enough other fighters at that level to avoid them ever fighting.
When you get the #1 contender being a close training partner of the champion, THEN you may have an issue, but if they're that close, chances are they've already agreed that someone is going to change divisions.
honestly its naive to have a policy of not fighting teammates. every guy wants to be successful and their can only be one champ. bigger camps like Jacksons are starting to realize this.
derp....no need to state the obvious. The fight comes down to individual performance, but to get to that point and to train your skills you need a strong team behind you (coaching and training). The team aspect in MMA is stronger than ever, and it's producing the greatest talent we've ever seen.
stop to think, do you have the courage to fight your friends and then look at his face and you think was responsible for letting him disfigured...