Opinion: Cashing in Your Bottles, Cans & Cups

Editor’s note: The views and opinions expressed below are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Sherdog.com, its affiliates and sponsors or its parent company, Evolve Media.*** Even after 17 years of watching mixed martial arts obsessively and over a decade of covering it professionally, it’s still hard for me to wrap my head around a big fight week sometimes. Case in point, a listener rang into “Cheap Seats” this past Monday and asked me if the hype around UFC 202 (Online Betting) felt “big enough” at that point in time. Even though I was quick to point out that even the grandest Ultimate Fighting Championship events don’t hit their promotional stride until Wednesday or Thursday, I knew exactly what he meant. August is traditionally a leaner time for the UFC and ticket sales for 202 have been slow compared to the first Nate Diaz-Conor McGregor showdown at UFC 196 in March. It’s possible the event doesn’t hit a million pay-per-view buys. Yes, UFC 202 will be a financial success and spectacle for Zuffa regardless but what if that classic big fight hype never came and a classic rematch fell short of perhaps unfairly lofty expectations? And then, Wednesday, in Las Vegas’ Copperfield Theater, boys threw bottles. More accurately, grown men — your UFC 202 headliners, the men responsible for 2016’s hottest MMA rivalry and their respective crews — threw bottles. And energy drink cans and coffee cups. They threw everything; it was outstanding. Fight week was here. Maybe it’s a growing cynicism, maybe it’s folks finally growing up and accepting MMA for the freakshow it is, but I’m quite enthused to see nearly the whole MMA world embrace the Diaz-McGregor bottle shootout for what it was: two dudes who hate each other, about to fight for millions of dollars, completely freaking out in a way beneficial to getting attention and making money. I can’t say with certainty that their antics will ensure another 100,000 PPV buys, but the stunt obviously didn’t hurt. TSN’s Sportscentre here in Canada gave the incident considerable play on the overnight and morning editions, and ESPN in America got in on the act, too: while taping the Sherdog Radio Network Roundtable for UFC 202 on Wednesday evening, we needed to break briefly as co-panelist Brett Okamoto of ESPN was whisked away to do an on-camera spot for “The Worldwide Leader in Sports” on the bottle-throwing lunacy. Most importantly, did it make WorldStarHipHop? Yes it did, over 320,000 views and climbing as of Thursday morning. If people weren’t talking about Diaz-McGregor 2, they are now and all it took was a few bottles, cans and cups combined with delightfully poor judgment. As I said, I’m thrilled that people have if not outright celebrated the incident, have at least tolerated it. Is it chaotic, anarchic and immature? Yes. But was this really dangerous in any way? Only if you’re a truly literal “Think of the children!” …

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