Despite the fact that we’re in the middle of a string of UFC events, and this weekend had a bevy of boxing, plus a PFL card, it feels like a down week in MMA. So, now is the perfect time to get weird.
Let’s talk about The Odyssey and MMA fighters.
Hi Jed! First time, long time!
You’re very smart, so I wanted your opinion: if you were going to film your version of The Odyssey but could only cast MMA fighters, who are you choosing?
Have you been online for the past week? Maybe the last month? Well, in case you are a well-adjusted person who isn’t terminally attached to their Twitter (I am, sue me), Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey came out, and it’s been huge. So, I wanted to draft off that and have some fun, and since I’m in charge here, that’s just what I’m going to do.
By my reckoning, The Odyssey has 11 primary characters. It can be more or less depending on how you want to tell it (it’s a 3,000-year-old story that began as an oral tradition; there is no “right” or “wrong” way to tell it, it’s all interpretations). But doing a 20-person cast for every part would be too much, so instead, I’m sticking with my 10.
So, there it is. The MMA Odyssey cast. I welcome your notes.
I agree that McGregor will look to fight one more time to get out of his contract.
What I can’t understand is why he didn’t fight Chandler with a compromised pinky toe.
In the grand scheme of thing, we have seen fighters make the walk to the octagon with far worse injuries (cough Dillashaw cough) and far fewer dollars on the line.
Did Conor fumble the bag by dropping out of the fight?
Honestly, no clue. My best guess is that was long enough ago that Conor was not necessarily thinking about getting out of his contract immediately. After all, he had other avenues to make money (Hollywood loomed), and so perhaps he was just genuinely trying to fight out his contract but still win those fights.
Plus, I also think the MVP card had something to do with this. Yes, Conor’s been talking about returning for awhile, but he finally gets it all settled right around the time Netflix puts on an MMA card and he sees how much money is out there for him? It’s possible that’s just a coincidence, but I think once he knew for certain how much money there was to be made outside of the UFC, and realized he doesn’t have many years left in the sport (none, really), he pushed.
Of all the players at this World Cup, which three would you bet on to have the most successful MMA careers if they made the switch and committed full-time?
I want to be clear: I have no idea if there are any footballs who like, train MMA, or wrestled in high school or did golden gloves or whatever. This is purely based on vibes.
If you’ve got a better list, fire away.
Thanks for reading, and thank you to everyone who sent in questions! Do you have any burning questions about things at least somewhat related to combat sports? Then you’re in luck, because every week I put a prompt into The Feed for your questions. Fire them there, and I’ll answer the best ones in the Mailbag and try to get to the rest in the responses.
