You Play to Win the Game

Contributor: Tim Hickey

One of the most anticipated fights during last weekends UFC on Fox card was the matchup between two top 10 welterweights in Rory MacDonald and Jake Ellenberger. Many pundits and fans touted the bout as potentially the best on the card, and a possible fight of the night candidate, with the winner being even higher up in Dana White’s proverbial “mix”. What occurred when these two men stepped into the cage was that Rory started the fight at range, working a stiff jab and front kicks, and Ellenberger had no answer for it. So what did Rory do? Did he decide to abandon something that wasn’t working and winning him the fight so that he could be more exciting? No, he did what any smart fighter would do and continued to frustrate his opponent with sharp punches and good footwork, not allowing for Ellenberger to get comfortable or try and land one of his power punches. Rory ran away with the fight, but the fans in attendance, and his boss, were less than impressed.

“He (Rory) went out and bullied BJ ’cause he could. He didn’t try to bully Ellenberger, you know what I mean? Don’t come in and say you fought a, you know, my fight was great and technical and all that, and I did this and that, and that I belong in the top 10. Talk all this shit, and don’t go in there and try to perform. He didn’t do anything. Threw a few jabs and front kicks, thats all he did. Do you think anyone is screaming to see him in a fight again? I understand your defense of Rory, but we are in a business that you are only as good as your last fight…..if you’re Rory, and you’re that fucking good, you go out there and impose your will on him and show the world.” – Dana White, during the post fight scrum.

I have a couple of issues with what Unkey Dana has to say about this. He is the first guy who wants to go out there, and say in the mainstream media that everyone of his fighters are martial artists, and every fighter is this great technical fighter, but in the end he could care less about technique of the fighters. He wants every fight to be Griffin vs Bonnar. During the post fight, he went out of his way to talk about how great the Herman/Smith fight was, but shit all over Rory. While the Herman/Smith fight was fun, it was the equivalent of watching two dudes fist fighting in front of the bar. There was not a ton of technique involved, just two dudes brawling. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that, it makes for some fun television.

My point of contention with the statement above is the fact that Rory did impose his will on Ellenberger. He completely flustered the guy into standing there and eating punches over and over again. Rory did what he had to do and did it with great technique. He stayed at range (where he obviously held the advantage) and made sure he didn’t put himself into any unnecessary danger when fighting a powerful wrestler who has bombs in his hands.  Rory came to the cage with a gameplan, and the longer the fight went on, it was apparent that whatever Jake Ellenberger’s plan was, it wasn’t working, but he did nothing to change it and to try to take Rory out of his game. So, even though MacDonald had a game plan that was working to perfection, limiting the damage he took to his head all while winning the fight, he is expected to throw caution to the wind and just pinwheel punches?

Maybe Rory asked Andrei Arlovski about what happens when you are winning the fight from the outside with crisp boxing against someone with dynamite in their hands, when you just decide “You know what, fuck this, let’s get bonkers with it”.

It is one thing for fans to shit on the fight. I don’t mean to come off as elitist, but most fight fans are the equivalent of the Just Bleed guy. They want constant action all the time with no breaks, constant winging of punches until someone falls down. As a consumer, they have the right to that opinion. They don’t care that these guys are highly trained athletes, knowing that a loss can set them back in terms of their pay scale, and in some cases, cost them their jobs. They spend weeks with their trainers going over film, formulating a game plan and training specifically for that plan so that they can walk away victorious. Do you think if Arlovski could, he would go back in time and not throw that flying knee, and instead continue to box Fedor up and possibly win the fight?

Anyways, I know this is ending up being a semi coherent rant, but the comments that Dana made frustrated me as a fan of the sport. Burying one of your young up and coming fighters cause he didn’t “WAR BRO!” kind of pisses me off. No fighter should have to worry about deviating from a successful gameplan, and put himself into unnecessary  danger, just so his boss doesn’t throw him under the bus to the media. I am one of the people who thinks the onus of this fight not being super exciting shouldn’t be on Rory MacDonald, but should be on Jake Ellenberger for just standing in front of him and letting him work him from range. Cause as Herm Edwards so famously said, “You play to win the game”.

Last time I checked Sherdog, Rory MacDonald had a W by his name at UFC on Fox 8. I guess he won the game.

-Tim can be reached at [email protected] or @timhickey80.