Dana White Talks "Safety First" Greg Jackson Fighters on The Fight Fix
by Luke Thomas on Nov 29, 2010 10:07 AM EST
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PrintHost Dustin Green of Comcast SportsNet in Washington, DC, fresh off attending UFC 123 in Detroit, Michigan, had time to talk to SkySkrape of Tapout about their recent acquisition. The Vice President of the company explained why they sold their company to Authentic Brands Group, what that means for the future of the brand and the fighters they sponsor.
Green also sat down with UFC President Dana White and they followed up on White's criticism of Nate Marquardt's performance post-UFC 122 as well White's comments that Greg Jackson fighters are "safety first". Green got White to elaborate on that statement and talk about fighters like Leonard Garcia and Donald Cerrone, both Greg Jackson fighters, who do not seem to fit the mold of being risk averse.
You can also see The Fight Fix at CSNWashington.com.
SBNation and Comcast SportsNet are proud to bring you The Fight Fix here on SBNation.com/MMA and BloodyElbow.com every week.
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Good point, but not very long...
Semper Fi
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by ChicagoMarine on Nov 29, 2010 10:25 AM EST up reply actions
Yeah
I think it’s less about how many guys on Jackson’s roster do that and more a function of high profile fighters exercising that type of game plan in significant bouts.
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by Luke Thomas on Nov 29, 2010 10:36 AM EST up reply actions
Melvin Gaillard is a good example Dana should’ve thrown out. He looked like a completely different fighter against Stevens. He’s usually balls to the walls win or lose, but he did win.
It's official. Les Miles DOES NOT have a deal with the devil. He beat him Nov. 6th, 24-21.
The issue is, this is a sport. Fighters should fight however they feel gives them the best chance to win. If Melvin and his camp thought that going all out and throwing hands non-stop was putting him in unnecessary danger then they absolutely should take a safer route.
It’s an issue when a guy like Marquardt doesn’t do enough to get a win, but gameplanning is a part of the sport and regardless of how much Dana likes it, you can’t be a real sport but not want guys to fight in the way that they think give them the best chance to win.
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by Brent Brookhouse on Nov 29, 2010 11:21 AM EST up reply actions 1 recs
The issue is, this is a sport. Fighters should fight however they feel gives them the best chance to win.
I agree. Honestly I think a fighter is doing them self a disservice when they don’t fight to take as little damage as possible. That said, this is a sport and excitement hasn’t been overlooked by any sport. Hockey and football have made changes that favor the offence. More action is good business.
And both sports have suffered, in my eyes, as a result of those changes.
I like using semi-colons; they make me feel smart.
I tend to agree with football (don’t know jack about Hockey). The new rules of today are more for safety. Like or dislike them they do protect fighters to a certain extent. The rules truck is referring to happened around the 90’s. Points per game went up, as well as attendance. Fans want offense; they want points, that’s why soccer isn’t closely followed here compared to the rest of the world.
It's official. Les Miles DOES NOT have a deal with the devil. He beat him Nov. 6th, 24-21.
I don't know how you can say hockey suffered
The clutching and hooking turned hockey into a stalemate, and we’d be deeply entrenched in the “dead puck era” without the stricter enforcement. Two line pass was always a stupid rule. Goalie equipment was getting ridiculously large. There’s almost unanimous love for the shootout, as it gives resolution to each game. No line change after an icing was brilliant.
I couldn’t care less about the chintzy penalties being called. The rules are very clear, so don’t obstruct guys without the puck or put your stick on them. They’re just bad habits from the past.
but that’s what dana was saying.
Marquardt’s strategy in the 3rd round of the okami fight did not give him the best chance to win.
It looked to me that Marquardt threw out any type of strategy in the third round of the Okami fight and was just looking for that big right hand.
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by chrisbboy82 on Nov 29, 2010 11:55 AM EST up reply actions
I think the point Dana is saying is that Jackson is doing his fighter a disservice telling them that they’re ahead and to play it safe the last round. Whether Jackson actually thought Nate was winning he should have known that the fight was still pretty close. That is a lot different then the pep talk he gave GSP when he told him to hit Thiago Alves with his torn groin.
I don’t feel Dana is saying that Greg should be telling his guys to go all out but when a fight is close going into the final round that is the time to turn it up and seal the deal.
by YoungGun on Nov 29, 2010 11:58 AM EST up reply actions 1 recs
In Condit vs. McDonald, heading into the 3rd round, Jackson was uncharacteristically animated in telling Carlos he had to go all out.
The fact that he didn’t have a similar attitude for Nate when a title shot is on the line is confusing.
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A coach tends to know his fighter well and coaches in the way that best gets through to them. For a guy who has shown a degree of mental fragility like Melvin he may not want to get him all overly excited and get him to abandon what they trained. Maybe he felt that Marquardt would similarly react poorly in that situation.
Not every fighter responds well to piled on pressure.
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by Brent Brookhouse on Nov 29, 2010 2:31 PM EST up reply actions
also
Coaches have good days and bad days too. My experience in coaching is that you are often walking a fine line between massaging their ego and shocking them into realization. Sometimes, you hit all your moves. Sometimes you press the wrong buttons.
That being said, I’d probably trust Greg Jackson’s sense of what to say over Dana’s, who is pretty removed from coaching.
Use more judges.
I will definitely tune in next week to see what The Beard has to say!
It's official. Les Miles DOES NOT have a deal with the devil. He beat him Nov. 6th, 24-21.
by DayGeaux on Nov 29, 2010 10:36 AM EST reply actions 2 recs
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by Luke Thomas on Nov 29, 2010 10:44 AM EST up reply actions
Silva and Machida
Personally, I always thought Anderson Silva and Lyoto Machida are safety first fighters. Some guys styles look more appealing than others. Machida’s father calls him out for his performances and some of Silva’s peoples calls him out for not going for the kill often.
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Anderson has definitely been quite cautious at times.
Aldo too seemed pretty safety first in the biggest fight of his career so far. Not to pass judgment on him so soon though. It was only one fight after all, but worth noting nonetheless.
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In the case of Machida's dad
Apparently they have similarly differing mentalities “in” karate too.
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I thought White should have brought up Guillard as a perfect example of an exciting fighter who is now a “safety first” type of fighter with Greg Jackson, though. It would have helped drive the point home.
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by Luke Thomas on Nov 29, 2010 11:51 AM EST up reply actions
I haven't read all the comments
but when Dana says all this and then says his opinion means nothing, well that is absolute junk. Regardless of peoples opinion of the perfect example, Jon Fitch, he lost a title shot for having near perfect winning record. Dana’s opinion means EVERYTHING. Forrest Griffin? Tito, Chuck, etc. I refer to the following fan post. http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2010/11/26/1837477/you-wonder-why-were-not-mainstream-volume-2-personal-personnel-moves
"Of course, that's just my opinion, I could be wrong." - Dennis Miller
Why would you give someone a title shot this far in advance if they are on record as saying they won’t fight one of the 2 people fighting for the belt?
Fair point. Didn’t take that in to consideration. But do you think if that was not the case it would be any different? Maybe a bit.
"Of course, that's just my opinion, I could be wrong." - Dennis Miller
of course it would be different.
Then there would be a possibility of Fitch being put into a title fight that is easier to promote. Friend vs Friend, wrestler vs wrestler.
Either way, it’s not like this is some slap in the face to fitch. He is much more likely to get a high profile win fighting BJ compared to GSP. He’s probably going to be headlining a card in that fight, which is nice, and beating BJ can actually make people buy into the fact that he will have something different to offer GSP this time.
"something to offer GSP this time"
THAT is key to the Fitch loss-of-title-shot.
Dana White
I like his candidness about fighters on one hand, but White saying his opinion means nothing is BS, lol. Fighters that are playing it safe are on the chopping block in Dana’s mind, no two ways about it. Fighters putting on a great show will get much more leeway (Stephan Bonner ,Tito, Liddell, Griffin for example) This may be a sport but it is equal part entertainment. Fighters playing it safe are not selling PPVs, it is that simple. Jackson’s camp does seem to play it safe for some fighters (St. Pierre, Fitch, Evans, Marquardt, , but some of their fighters don’t (like Jones, Condit, Carwin, Jardine, Huerta, Arlovski). Tough to argue with an 80 winning percentage though.
In the end, fighters make up their own mind as to how they fight in the cage, so it is on them IMO.
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