UFC Vegas 42: Max Holloway, Cortney Casey, and Media Inconsistency
The same folks that vehemently argue Holloway is featherweight's best pay little attention to Casey's career full of shaky scorecards, even when they're fighting alongside one another this weekend
Officially, Alexander Volkanovski beat Max Holloway in their second meeting 477 days ago on Fight Island, edging out the Hawaiian challenger by split decision to retain the UFC featherweight title.
Many disagreed with the verdict at the time and some are still out here, all these days later, with the champion having navigated another successful title defence and “Blessed” looking to build off his dynamic performance against Calvin Kattar in January this weekend when he steps into the Octagon opposite Yair Rodriguez, clinging to their version of the result, unable to move beyond recognizing the popular former titleholder as the man they see as the rightful lord of the 145-pound weight class.
Of the myriad questionable decisions that have been handed down over time, this is the one that seems to have the longest shelf-life and the most people still actively working to convince others to see things their way and recognize Holloway as the real featherweight champion.
It would be endearing if it weren’t so unnecessary, so selective, and so representative of the inconsistent nature of MMA fandom and media coverage.
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Max Holloway is a terrific fighter — one of the best fighters walking the planet — and if you need him to have championship gold draped over his shoulder in order to recognize or acknowledge that, I don’t know what to tell you.
He looked outstanding in both of those ultra-competitive battles with Volkanovski, and turned in what to me is the single most impressive individual performance of the year against Kattar back in January, talking to the commentary team while sticking his jab and slipping punches en route to the unanimous decision victory.
He’s 15-3 over his last 18 appearances, and those setbacks have all come in championship fights, including one up a division at lightweight against Dustin Poirier. Title or not, there is no denying that “Blessed” is amongst the best in both his division and the sport, but for a bunch of folks, it seems like that general statement isn’t good enough.
In their eyes, Holloway is the best, and recognizing him as anything less is unacceptable. It doesn’t matter what the scorecards said — neither the first time, nor the second time — and it doesn’t matter that Volkanovski very recently solidified his place atop the division with a successful title defence against Brian Ortega.
He shouldn’t have had the gold to begin with.
That’s Max’s belt, and Max is the best.
No, I don’t want to talk about the first fight. He won that one too. No one ever brings that one up because the second one was so clearly a bad decision and the last result is the only one that matters anyway, so even if he lost that first fight and they’re 1-1 against each other, Max won the last one and that’s all that matter.
I don’t understand this approach.
I get supporting your favorites and having opinions on outcomes, but is “Max beat Volkanovski in the second fight” really the hill you want to die on? Is that really the one MMA position you refuse to move off? What is so terrible about Max being perhaps just a sliver behind Volkanovski in the featherweight division at the moment?
It’s not like anyone is out here saying “Alexander the Great” blew him out of the water and is orders of magnitude better than Holloway. Most people see the champion as 1A and the former titleholder as 1B, but that still isn’t good enough for some folks, which just feels wild when you think about all the other freakishly close decisions those same people and innumerable others happily and easily let fade into the ether.
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Consistency is a big thing to me, which is probably why I have trouble existing in this space, because MMA media and fandom is wildly inconsistent.
Holloway isn’t the only fighter that dropped a split decision in an ultra-close championship fight in 2020, yet Dominick Reyes didn’t get nearly the same kind of “uncrowned king” support as the popular Hawaiian fighter continues to receive to this day.
Is it because he lost to Jon Jones? Is it because he’s far less popular and established than Holloway? Is it because he lost in his bid to claim the vacant title last September?
You could make a case for Colby Covington and Zhang Weili each deserving the nod in their respective championship fights last weekend, but there hasn’t been even a modicum of the intense challenges to those scorecards from fans and media as there remains to the verdict from Volkanovski-Holloway II.
Again, is is because they lost to more popular champions? Is it because everyone agreed with how the fights were scored? Is that all this is? Are folks just dealing from a “with me or against me” stance and concerned only about their positions being right?
And what about the fighters that drop debatable split decisions in non-title fights — where’s the passionate, unwavering support for them?
How come there is no one out here arguing vehemently that Cortney Casey not only deserved the victory in her last fight with JJ Aldrich in March, but in her split decision losses to Felice Herrig and Michelle Waterson too?
Holloway is still universally regarded as one of the two best featherweights in the world regardless of how that last fight with Volkanovski was scored, but Casey is teetering on the brink of being cut every time she steps into the Octagon because she’s officially 9-9 in her professional career and 5-8 inside the Octagon, and yet no one is out here making much noise about the numerous times she’s landed on the wrong side of the results in ultra-close battles.
If people are so worried about the judges getting it right for Holloway in a championship fight, shouldn’t they similarly be considered about the officials doing right by Casey and literally everyone else as well?
Is the issue that you want the judges to get it right every time, or just when they get it wrong in your eyes or in a fight with one of your favourites? Or do only the big fights matter and everyone else has to suck it up and accept that the judges get it wrong on occasion?
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I love that Holloway and Casey are fighting on the same card this weekend, because the way some media treat their recent split decision setbacks underscores the larger issue of inconsistency within the media as a whole.
As I said above, no one in the media is out here hustling hard to highlight that Casey got hosed in March and has been in between as many as six fights that legitimately could have gone either way, and landed on the wrong side of the results in five of those contests. Because she’s 9-9 for her career, Casey is categorized and portrayed as a tough out, a veteran presence; a good fighter that just can’t seem to win the close ones — but how much does that change if she’s 11-7 or 12-6?
Holloway goes from being the silver medalist to the gold medalist — from No. 2 to No. 1 — and people want to argue about it all the time, but Casey going from potentially being cut to probably holding down a place in the Top 15 and rightfully being recognized for the ultra-competitive slate she’s faced over her career is something a lot of those same folks don’t have any interest in discussing.
They want to argue for the big star, because doing so will generate engagement, but can’t keep that same energy when it pertains to a lesser known fighter who has been impacted far more by the exact same thing.
It’s akin to seeing folks be upset that UFC President Dana White stated the promotion has other options at strawweight beyond former champ Carla Esparza, who is the clear No. 1 contender, when they’ve made the same “Yeah, but you’ve got to think about what fans want to see, what sells more on PPV” arguments countless times in the past.
So many of these folks want to argue that this isn’t a meritocracy and that “deserves has got nothing to do with it” until someone they feel deserves an opportunity and merits a chance gets passed over because the promotion thinks there are more marketable, more appealing options available.
Hell, a bunch of them probably argued against Esparza getting a title shot because “she’s boring” and “fans aren’t interested” fairly recently, but now that she’s the publicly supported candidate, none of that matters; she deserves her chance, the UFC are meanies for looking elsewhere, and how dare they make a decision that is better for their business… in this instance.
How hard is it to pick a position and hold to it, instead of switching stances in order to constantly being able to argue the most popular side?
Either Esparza should get the next shot because she’s earned it, she deserves it, or we shouldn’t ever talk about things in those terms because earned or not, fans would be more apt to purchase a pay-per-view with someone else challenging Rose Namajunas for the strawweight title next time out.
Either you care about wins and losses and working your way into position to challenge for the title, or you’re down with hustling Khamzat Chimaev into the Octagon with Kamaru Usman next because he’s got the most buzz and that fight would sell more than any other in the welterweight division at the moment.
Either every janky decision needs to be talked about and held out something no one can forget or we have to move on from all of them because the results are the results; you can’t just make a point of never letting go of the Holloway verdict and forgetting to mention how questionable scorecards have impacted the careers and rankings and records of innumerable other fighters, including one fighting alongside “Blessed” this weekend.
It’s not that opinions can’t change and that you can’t shift your position on something, but they shouldn’t flip-flop as frequently as they do in comparable instances.
And when they do, it makes it seem like you’re just out here wanting to argue whatever side is going to get the most likes and retweets and is most supported by the cool kids, which isn’t how this is supposed to work.
You shouldn’t have conviction only when it pertains to subjects and instances where the majority shares your position, but it feels like that’s where we’re at these days.
Holloway maybe getting jobbed by the judges should never be forgotten, but who cares about the many times Casey suffered the same fate; she’s not popular, not a former champion, not a big enough name to worry about, even though their situations are pretty similar.
It really is just so frustrating.
I wish I wasn’t the only one that cared.