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Opinion: Mixed Martial Artistry
- Updated: August 22, 2016
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.* * * All great art is narrative in some way. Not that a piece of art needs to tell a story in order to be great, but what truly distinguishes something is its place in a larger context. While good art of any sort can be defined by the immediacy of its aesthetic, great art exists in narrative crosshairs that make it representative of something bigger than itself. It’s why classic paintings can capture a period of history as much as any account of facts or why our favorite songs tend to be the ones that bring us back to specific moments from our lives; they’re intertwined with the things going on around them in a fundamental, inseparable way. By any metric, Nate Diaz-Conor McGregor 2 at UFC 202 on Saturday was great art. It was a perfect blend of what we love about this sport, and it couldn’t have happened at a more perfect time. It contained all the grit, heart and technique you could ask for in a fight. Though both the first fight and the rematch were panned for being meaningless inasmuch as rankings and titles are concerned, the matchup’s aesthetic of outright fun has never been questioned. In this way, the rematch did not disappoint. Throughout the course of five rounds, they took turns finding their rhythm and falling victim to their weaknesses one moment and exploiting each other’s the next. The Irishman landed flush left crosses that dropped Diaz several times in the opening frames, bobbing and weaving around the attacks of his slow-starting foe in patented McGregor fashion. It was a reminder that, despite his entertaining brand of verbal warfare, “Notorious” has always cashed his checks through spectacular in-cage performances. Then, when Diaz found his groove, he was countering cleanly while putting his hands down, pushing McGregor back with his trademark Stockton Slap, pointing and laughing at his prey as he stalked him and communicating in the universal sign language of an upright middle finger. It was a showcase of Diaz in his most Diaz-esque, most fully realized form. Expectedly, the fact that both men turned in vintage performances made it so the result was somewhat controversial, which only enhances its lore. Aside from rounds one and three, which clearly belonged to McGregor and Diaz — and let’s be honest, either of those rounds could have been scored 10-8 with little argument from me — every other round was reasonably debatable. A signal of great art, in any medium, is its ability to ignite conversation, thoughtful or not. This fight did exactly that. Yet for all its clearly discernible aesthetic value of being fun and entertaining, what sets Diaz-McGregor 2 apart from almost every other fight this year is the context in which it took place. This year — hell, the last six weeks — has seen more behind-the-scenes movement than any time period I can remember. Even the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s run of buying Pride Fighting Championships and Strikeforce and absorbing World Extreme Cagefighting, while …
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