The Impossible Has Happend: A belated ode to UFC 202

Connor McGregor celebrates his latest and greatest triumph (Photo creds to www.dailymail.co.uk)

By: Joe Smeltzer 

In a year that has been so improbable, the impossible has happened!
- Vin Scully

That was a quote from my favorite sport, baseball, and I am using it to begin the first article that I have ever written on what was previously my least favorite sport; Mixed Martial Arts.


Until last Saturday, there was no sport in the world that I despised more than Mixed Martial Arts. While I've always respected what fighters go through, I've also felt that UFC was a place of arrogant asses, stupid nicknames, and 3rd-grade intelligence. I also felt the fights themselves were too barbaric for my liking. I thought that, while boxing was a sport that was violent, yet artful, UFC was just a constant bloodbath that lots of  bloodthirsty blockheads enjoyed. On Saturday, around midnight, all of that changed.

Last Saturday night, myself and a few  friends from college (Dakota, Mitch, and Ron), decided to watch the big fight between Connor McGregor and Nate Diaz. Because our dorm did not have access, we went over to the other underclassman's dorm. When we got there, there were a handful of people in the room. The people there were friendly, but because it was UFC, I had the urge to leave.

Then the first fight of a five fight card started. It was a youth vs. experience story, with the savvy Tim Means taking on Sabah Homasi, who was making his debut. Means took care of the rookie with a second round TKO. Up next was another rookie, Mike Perry, going against Hyun Gyu Lim. Perry faired better than Homasi, taking out Lim in the first round via TKO. I started to be intrigued.

Cowboy (Photo creds to sports.yahoo.com)

My intrigue progressed further with the next fight; a Welterweight clash between Donald ''Cowboy'' Cerrone and Rick Story. Finally, I found a UFC nickname that I didn't find stupid as hell. Cowboy took care of business with a second round TKO. Next, we had the light heavyweights. It was Brazil's Glover Teixeria taking on American Anthony ''Rumble'' Johnson. This looked to be a good, hard-hitting brawl, but it was not to be. The fight lasted all of 13 seconds, with Johnson getting one good shot to put the Brazilian to bed. Now I was starting to like this thing, but I still wasn't ready to admit that to myself. As we all know, the best was yet to come.

My opinion on Connor McGregor has been an odyssey. My first impressions of the young Irishman were that he was just another cocky UFC guy who was the idol of teenagers everywhere. My opinion of him turned to a positive one when he knocked out Jose Aldo in 13 seconds this past December. My love for McGregor grew to the point where in early March, just before he was scheduled to fight Nate Diaz for the first time, I considered penning an article entitled ''Why I love Connor McGregor''. I did not watch that match, but when I saw that McGregor had lost, I was disappointed.  Then came the retirement.

On April 19th, 2016, McGregor sent this tweet. I speculated that it was a hoax right away, and it turned out that, as with most things in life, I was right. This turned me against McGregor, as I now looked at him as a drama king, and at Dana White and UFC as a charade. I was indifferent towards McGregor in the coming months until, in early August, he made offensive remarks towards WWE wrestlers. As a long time wrestling fan and somebody who knows about a lot of what pro wrestlers go through, I was not pleased by this, and as a result was full on against McGregor. I even told some of my friends that I thought McGregor was a product of Irish ethnicity and unique interviewing skills and that he was not nearly the superstar that he was made out to be. I now know that I could not have been more wrong.

By the time the fight started, there was a head count of 21 guys in our small room.Those who could not fit were sitting outside, peeking in to see. As soon as The Chieftains rendition of the Irish classic ''The Foggy Dew'' blasted out of the speakers to introduce McGregor, I knew I was hooked. I still didn't want to admit it to myself, but I knew I was hooked.

Photo creds to www.bloodyelbow.com

The first round was a fairly dominant one for McGregor, and with a predominantly McGregor crowd around me, I figured I was in for a long night. But Diaz fought back in the second, although I still thought McGregor won the round.The 3rd round was where jaws began to drop. Diaz fought hard in Round 3 and came away the clear winner. But all who watched wondered how much more Diaz could take. The face above says it all. Diaz was a bloody mess, and he was fighting purely on heart, not physical strength. While Diaz was blind, McGregor was exhausted, and that began to show in the later rounds. As Round 3 ended both men had shocked the world just by going this long into the fight. After all, McGregor had only had one fight go to the 3rd round in his UFC career, while Diaz had only one make it into the 4th. Surely, it has to be over after 4.

It wasn't over. McGregor won Round 4 fairly convincingly, and we were going to a 5th and final round; something that fight fans and experts did not envision. At this point, I was full on converted, and I was ready to come to terms with that. I could not find the words to describe what I was watching. I never thought anything could ever convert me to something even resembling a UFC fan, but it had happened, and we still had one more round to go.

The 5th round did not disappoint. On a few occasions, Diaz came close to making the Irishman tap, just as he had on March 5th. But he just could not get McGregor on the ground, and Connor made it through.  Now it was up to the judges, and the world anxiously awaited what Bruce Buffer would announce.

The result was a McGregor victory by a majority decision. While McGregor won the fight, it would be beyond absurd to call either man a loser. What those two men went through for those 25 minutes is something that still makes my jaw drop a full eight days later, and it has changed my outlook on Mixed Martial Arts.

I still see problems with UFC. I still see Dana White as a jerk. I still see a lot of fighters as arrogant asses, and I still find non-fighters who walk around wearing ''Tap Out'' t-shirts as a major pet peeve. But I cannot deny what those fighters go through, and how entertaining a fight card is to watch. Connor McGregor and Nate Diaz are now athletes who I will follow, and Cowboy is not too far behind.

Last summer, I sent out a tweet proclaiming that I would never write about Mixed Martial Arts. But now I'll say it; UFC, you have my attention.