Khamzat Shemayev is fighting before a press conference with an MMA fighter he’s not supposed to be facing. He throws bottles at his supposed opponent, Nate Diaz. He lost three kilograms in weight and landed in a small fight against Kevin Holland.
A complete failure for the Swede in Las Vegas.
nothing. I don’t think so at all. On the contrary.
Mixed martial arts is not a water sport. This is not where we find young role models. The world’s leading organization, the UFC, had all kinds of issues to contend with and got through all kinds of insanity without losing viewers.
Take on the sexiest and most lucrative fighter ever in the business – the Irish Conor McGregor.
In the octagon achieved lightning-fast victories. On the outside, his jaw dropped even faster that, for example, he could do a multi-billion dollar fight against boxing superstar Floyd Mayweather Jr. McGregor’s match logically and frankly had no chance of winning but it tickled the entire world.
McGregor caused much worse scandals than what Shemayev approached in recent days in Vegas. Shemayev’s actions might place him among the bad guys, but that’s rarely a negative in the martial arts world. Serious and unexpected tickle too. That’s how it is.
Then it gets a real hard climb
Both Nate Diaz and Shemaev’s puns Belongs to UFC Governor Dana White’s big favorite in the organization. Diaz is credited for what he has accomplished. Shemayev on what you can expect to be able to perform for many years to come.
Smacking dents on the fingers with a less-than-exciting match means nothing to the future. Assuming Shemayev does as he did before and wins his all-new match.
In this case, nothing really happened. The fight against Diaz was all about prestige but not a title fight and thus not very important for a new fighter who had already demonstrated the ability he could reach.
Losing Chimaev would be a completely different matter.
The basset player who screams early in a fight before winning titles has a real uphill battle before he can convince the UFC that he’s worth investing in.
For anyone who really wants to see how Chemayev will deal with an absolute top opponent, it’s clearly sad to have a fight in the middle of the milk instead. And you have to think a little about why Shemayev behaved the way he did.
Given his critical skill, he doesn’t feel like someone who needs to lose self-control due to some external provocation.
On the other hand, if he really sees himself as a star entitled to take any liberties after five fights for the UFC, he could quickly run into problems that could prematurely change his career.