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Golden Boy MMA - Chuck vs. Tito III


Egg Shen

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Did any of the classic fighters from the boom period get out of this sport in one piece? Randy Couture I suppose. But Tito, Shamrock, Chuck, Rampage etc. So many of them are a complete mess or need the money.

What should be the out for an MMA fighter, to keep their dignity? Its a young man's game, but so many want to continue on.

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Boxing is the same, guess its just the adrenaline and rush of it all. When you are that much of an alpha male it must be tough to accept that you aint what you once were and always have that feeling in your head that you can get there again if you just have one more shot at it. For others its just an easy way to make decent money.

That said, i just listened to Tito's sitdown with Schaub. Outside of him playing it up for the cameras in fight mode i cant help but like the bloke, he even addresses the fact that he completely cocks up his words continuously, felt a little sorry for him.  Gonna watch the Chuck one later.

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GSP was the big example for me of a guy from that 2005-2010 boom period who got out at the right time. He did it better than anyone else. Won the title, beat all the top fighters in his division (sometimes twice), avenged his only two losses so his record is close to perfect, made a shitload of money and got out of the game relatively unscathed. Of course, even he couldn’t stay away though and came back to fight Bisping last year. It worked out well for him but if he keeps doing that it’s only a matter of time before it’s his turn to get fucked over by this ruthless sport. Like Egg says, it must be so hard to know the right time to step away. Especially when it’s all you know and you can make good money doing it.

In Boxing, I guess the two obvious examples are Floyd Mayweather and Lennox Lewis. Floyd can’t help himself and keeps coming back to do stuff. Wouldn’t surprise me if he fights again but he’s probably too smart to fight anyone with any kind of shot of beating him. Lewis did it much like GSP. Avenged his losses, beat the names like Tyson and Holyfield, made his dough and was sensible enough to not live recklessly and was able to get out in good nick. He’s a true, and sadly fairly rare, boxing success story of a top boxer who beat the system. Whenever you see him interviewed now he seems really happy with what he’s done, and rightly so. He doesn’t slur his words and he still has an aura to this day. When he’s at a show it’s like a boxing royal has shown up or something, it’s weird. I think it’s the way he carries himself as well, that elder statesman thing. GSP could be that for MMA. As long as he doesn’t get greedy and come back one time too many. I’m hoping we get to see him vs McGregor at some point. Preferably in Canada. That’s a proper superfight and it’d be a travesty if it got away. I’d like to see GSP do that, mop the Octagon with McGregor, make an insane payday and fuck off back to Montreal for good.  

Oh and from the barely attended weigh in...

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Come on, Chuck! For fuck’s sake. Please don’t lose this one. 

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Yeah when you watch the actual weigh in video, when Chuck’s approaching the scale he’s doing his Herman Munster walk. 

Saying that though, remember how Dan Henderson used to look in basically everything you saw out of the cage? He walked like a 90 year old doddery old man collecting his pension and the bastard couldn’t turn his head without moving his entire upper body. He had all the flexibility of the Z-Man Galoob I had as a kid. Yet you watch his last fight against Bisping and it was a legit FOTY contender and he nearly had Bisping out of there a few times. You just never know. Once the adrenaline kicks in I’m sure Chuck will move a bit better than we’re seeing in these clips. But I’ve still got a really bad feeling this is ending in tears. 

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9 hours ago, IANdrewDiceClay said:

Did any of the classic fighters from the boom period get out of this sport in one piece? Randy Couture I suppose. But Tito, Shamrock, Chuck, Rampage etc. So many of them are a complete mess or need the money.

What should be the out for an MMA fighter, to keep their dignity? Its a young man's game, but so many want to continue on.

 

Rich Franklin got out when the losses started adding up and his body was slowing down. He invested his money well and works for ONE nowadays. Which from some of what I've heard means Rich goes over to Singapore alot and hooks up with models. He seems really happy and living a great life.

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9 hours ago, IANdrewDiceClay said:

Did any of the classic fighters from the boom period get out of this sport in one piece? Randy Couture I suppose. But Tito, Shamrock, Chuck, Rampage etc. So many of them are a complete mess or need the money.

What should be the out for an MMA fighter, to keep their dignity? Its a young man's game, but so many want to continue on.

I think it's partly a case of it being hard to stop doing what you're doing, because by doing so you have to admit that you're getting old.

The money aspect will play a part too, with the two guys fighting in this event having made somewhere in the region of $5 million total over their career as far as disclosed pay and fight night bonuses go, so there's probably a little more on top of that for various odds and ends.

Even so, people hear the word "millions" and assume someone is set for life, which isn't always true, especially in the US. You buy a decent house, you're paying, what? Well, the average price of a family home in LA is around half a million dollars or so according to Trulia.com, so if you're even somewhat of a "celebrity" you're paying more unless you're living next to the average Joe.

Throw in around $150,000 to put a kid through four years of college, multiplied by how many kids you have, divorces, cars, general living and so on.

Money disappears fast, so I'm guessing that what both Chuck and Tito have made isn't enough to see them set for life by any stretch, and that's without them squandering anything, just above-average living.

Plus, most of these guys pass their earning prime early in life. Even now they both have another 30 odd years of living to do, hopefully.

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Rich was smart enough to not do the Chuck style "well I got brutally knocked out last fight but I'm sure I'll do well next time". Untill everyone was begging him to stop.

 

More of a name in Japan but Genki Sudo has had a hell of a post MMA career. Actor, tv presenter, singer, written about 10 books and is the genius behind the bonkers World Order who are a popular band in Japan.

 

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3 minutes ago, Cousin Jim Bob said:

Rich was smart enough to not do the Chuck style "well I got brutally knocked out last fight but I'm sure I'll do well next time". Untill everyone was begging him to stop.

You need to remember that Chuck didn't start to earn anywhere close to decent coin until his first fight with Couture at UFC 43, and by then he was already 34 years old. He didn't start making good money until relatively late in his fighting career, so to expect him to call it a day so early is a bit off.

From his real breakout fight against Tito in their first encounter to the point where Rashad sparked him and handed him his third loss in four fights only four years had passed.

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Aye, waste of time for all involved. The only winner was Tito's ego and the fighter's bank balances. There was nothing redeemable about that at all. The scene of Chuck slumped against the cage, while Tito was restrained from doing his dopey post-fight celebration will surely go down as one of the saddest in MMA history. 

And fucking hell, please never let Tito near a mic again. 

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You could actually see in Chuck's eyes after about 30 seconds that he knew he'd made a mistake. 

You can be in great shape physically, you can do all the right things, but your body isn't moving anywhere near fast enough at that age to be able to do that, especially after such a long layoff. If he'd been fighting on and off for the past ten years or so then possibly, but not with that long away.

The problem is, he probably didn't know that until it came fight time. In the gym he likely felt great, even in sparring, but christ, he's got no business being in there. Still, hopefully he pocketed some decent coin from it. It's a shame that a lot of these guys who set the sport on its way didn't really benefit from the money that they helped usher into the game, so there is that.

Were there any positives? Not many, but I did like the "big fight feel" to the main event, it was kinda old school. Oscar is going to have to up his game if he's going to compete with the UFC and Bellator. It's fine for Tito to say that fighters will get paid what they deserve, but you have to wonder where that money is going to come from? 

You have to wonder what Dana felt. He's probably seen it, and he must know that if the new owners of the UFC had retained Chuck in his "job for life" this would never have happened. 

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And that’s exactly why I was so down on this fight. All it’s achieved is giving Tito the last laugh. Like Jim said, that image of Chuck slumped against the cage and Tito celebrating was a real low point for me as a fan. Just sad. There were points in the fight when I genuinely had to check the clock was running at full speed because they were moving so slowly I thought I was watching a laggy video. Worst of all, Tito will forever use this fight to say he was the better fighter now, even though when they fought twice in their prime Chuck bashed him. 

I’m trying to take something positive away from it, and all I can think is that at least now this should stop any more Chuck comeback fights happening. If he’d somehow won this he’d be calling out Chael or Wanderlei or fucking Rampage now. And if Tito did this, imagine what a Wandy or Rampage might’ve done to him. Doesn’t bare thinking about. 

And to think Chuck wanted to fight Jon Jones 😳

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