The Narrative Of UFC 189

First things first, I don’t care either way about the angry, noisy, flatulent (I just presume that) and violent Conor McGregor. Good for him, and I mean that seriously. I felt a twinge of Nationalistic pride when he vanquished his patsy opponent on Saturday night in Vegas, and his absolutely relentless act is actually growing on me a tiny bit. So, it would not be accurate to read this and file it under the much over used ‘hater’ tab.



I really couldn’t care about McGregor, either way. I don’t hate him, I don’t love him. I do think his angry, aggressive act is starting to have a detrimental effect on Irish male teens, who see themselves as his natural replacement once he finally gets his comeuppance, however that’s a story for another day.

My problem with Saturday night’s farce is that even a non-seasoned WWE UFC viewer, such as myself, could see clearly what happened. It was astonishing to see so many, blinded by Irish triumph, missing the overall context.

It’s pretty simply really. UFC knew that once Aldo pulled out they had to dash something together, and Chad Mendes was convinced to be the lamb to the slaughter. What would be interesting would be to find out what UFC promised Mendes to take this beating. Remember, he had a couple of weeks ramped up training, whilst McGregor was literally at the peak of his form. Mendes knew going into this he didn’t have a chance.

However, UFC managed to get him in the ring. At that point, what happened was clearly visible.

Mendes gave it a decent shot in the first, but his stamina, greatly curtailed by lack of training, started to give out. Once he realized he wasn’t going to be able to make an impression on the finely tuned Irish man, he literally dropped his gloves, waited for an excuse, and went down faster than you can say ‘dive’.

Did you see how fast that referee called the fight?

There’s no doubt in my mind that UFC told Mendes not to worry, they would ensure the referee called it the moment he got in trouble, thereby ensuring Mendes wasn’t exposed to too much of a beating.

The Irish media and fans have completely and utterly ignored the borderline WWE nature of the ‘fight’, but really, it was there for all to see. It was interesting to watch ESPN, shortly after the fight, basically say it straight out ‘Mendes went down very, very easily’.

Great, an Irish man is kicking butt and taking names at a high level in a sport. I am genuinely glad about that.

The problem is, the ‘sport’ would appear to be basically almost as scripted as WWE. Sure. There’s real blood, sweat and tears being spent, but don’t tell me there isn’t a narrative being constructed here behind the scenes.

It’s just too obvious.

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