Is there anything more grotesque?
-Don't look at the finger, or you will miss all that heavenly glory.
Kenny Florian wins the Track Suit of the Night Award. Channeling the spirit of Bruce Lee, Florian sported a yellow, Game of Death-inspired jacket and pants ensemble, and kicked Kareem Abdul Jabar in the face on his way to the cage.
- Foot in mouth.
Somewhat literally.
After claiming that Georges St. Pierre was just a wrestler after the champion's second fight with Serra, Jon Fitch assured audiences that St. Pierre would be too scared to stand and trade in their bout, with a hint of self-satisfaction that was curiously absent following their fight. That smugness must have gone missing somewhere in between pre-fight and when St. Pierre launched an unidentified object out of Fitch's mouth and across the cage.
Impressive in losing, Fitch displayed his trademark toughness to his largest audience yet, getting battered on the ground and on the feet en route to a lopsided decision loss. St. Pierre, for his part, dispelled any suspicions (originating mostly from rival camp AKA) that he lacked the drive and grittiness to defeat someone of Fitch's caliber across 5 championship rounds.
- Foot in mouth II.
With hype and momentum fast-abandoning him, Roger Huerta has been forced these last few days to "clarify" statements he made during interviews in the months leading up to the fight. Often quoted as being dissatisfied with the UFC's compensation, support, and general treatment of their fighters, Huerta has, since his loss to Kenny Florian, recanted his assertions that he was being over worked (as in the UFC's strenuous PR campaigns) and undercompensated (as in the $50.00 per diem that the UFC gave to Huerta on said campaigns). Huerta now claims that his words were put out of context and exaggerated. "I never bashed the UFC," he said at the post-fight press conference. "I was never saying that the UFC is bad."
Of course, while he can claim that his print interviews were taken wrongly, there is little to misunderstand about the interview Huerta gave at the weigh-ins for UFC 84, which I attended. When asked plainly if he thought that the UFC fairly compensated their fighters, Huerta replied, after a long, awkward pause, "No."
As a Florian fan, I was happy with the outcome of their fight, but as a fan hopeful for greater company responsibility towards, and compensation for fighters, the results don't bode well. Had Huerta won, he would have had a huge bargaining chip going into his upcoming contract negotiations, and, more importantly, a great deal of influence over both fans and company men when it comes to fighters' rights and pay. To date, those who have been most vocal over the UFC's financial abuse and lack of loyalty, such as Tito Ortiz and Randy Couture, have been dismissed as washed up, their concerns stemming from desperate greed at the end of their careers. For Huerta, a young fighter at his peak, to come out against the UFC's business practices surely would have opened more eyes to how uniformly the UFC mistreats its fighters.
I was never that impressed with Huerta as a fighter, but I greatly appreciated how strategically and responsibly he used the leverage that fame had given him to stand up (or begin to stand up) for himself and his peers.
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