MMA Inequity: The disrespect of ‘The Damage’

[nuraknu]

When a fighter personifies the definition of a gritty warrior, one might think that they would be given their proper due and respect. This is not that case.

Inequity is a disease in MMA that will always be spreading to those it shouldn’t. But that doesn’t make it right or okay. Somebody has to point out everything wrong with these instances.

Let’s do a quick example. Say you do six days of overtime at your job in an effort to boost your chances of getting a promotion. Then you have a fellow employee who only does two days but for one of those days he went home early.

If the person who did one and a half days of overtime got the promotion over the guy who did six that wouldn’t make a lot of sense or be very fair now would it? Well, welcome to UFC logic.

Darren “The Damage” Elkins personifies grit as a fighter and his style proves it. Always working and willing to grind things out to earn an ugly win (ugly for his opponents that is).

A lightweight for about half of his career, Elkins would eventually drop down to featherweight where he has gone 13-3 since doing so in 2011. Currently riding the third-longest active winning streak in the UFC’s 145-pound division with six, he ranks only behind the two very best fighters in the division, Brian Ortega (7) and the champion, Max Holloway (12).

Just from knowing that, you’d probably think that Elkins is pretty highly ranked, right? Wrong....

Read more: MMA Inequity | The disrespect of 'The Damage'

 

[nuraknu]

@Drake did you write this? This is a great piece. Highly recommend reading the whole thing.

 

[Filthy]

it's sounds like UFC isn't very good at promoting...

do you have any other evidence to support this claim? Besides every fighter not named Jon Jones or Conor McGregor?

 

[FrankieNYC]

@Drake did you write this? This is a great piece. Highly recommend reading the whole thing.

@Drake has become a really good writer

Good stuff

 

[kneeblock]

Was this written by a family member or training partner of Elkins?

 

[Drake]

@Drake did you write this? This is a great piece. Highly recommend reading the whole thing.

Thanks so much, man! Glad you liked it. Got the next piece in this series planned for this week. Damn, UFC Boise...

@Drake has become a really good writer

Good stuff

You said it, not me...!
Thanks a bunch, bud.

Was this written by a family member or training partner of Elkins?

Nah. I'm actually anti-TAM.

 

[Sheepdog]

I'm not buying this recent Darren Elkins narrative. Firstly, there are guys like Assuncao who are being screwed much harder out of title shots.

Secondly, there's nothing wrong with seeing things in context. Elkins is the comeback king but he was getting whooped on by Bektic and Johnson before pulling off the comebacks. That showed incredible heart, but we want to see the best get title shots and the best don't get destroyed like that in the first place. He also won a decisios vs Bermudez that more people scored for Bermudez than him. Johnson had lost 4 of his last 5 coming in to that fight, Bektic had not yet proven himself vs a top 10 fighter and Bermudez was coming off a a KO loss and is now on a 3-fight skid.

It's not at all unreasonable to ask that Elkins beats someone ranked higher than 7 and does so without it having to be one of the GOAT comebacks to get a title shot. This is just something people want to get behind so they have something to complain about. It's not based on logic.

 

[nuraknu]

It's not at all unreasonable to ask that Elkins beats someone ranked higher than 7 and does so without it having to be one of the GOAT comebacks to get a title shot. This is just something people want to get behind so they have something to complain about. It's not based on logic.

Agree about Assuncao. I think part of the point was that Elkins should have been offered a higher-ranked opponent than someone who could cause him to drop out of the top ten in a flash, which is a perspective I also agree with.

 

[Sheepdog]

Agree about Assuncao. I think part of the point was that Elkins should have been offered a higher-ranked opponent than someone who could cause him to drop out of the top ten in a flash, which is a perspective I also agree with.

I didn't actually read the first post properly, but I have seen elsewhere that people want him to get a title shot. If it's just the rankings that people are arguing over - the UFC rankings are shit anyway and I honestly can see a counter argument for every single guy above him. He probably should be currently ranked higher than Bektic but that's ignoring the fact that Bektic was beating the shit out of him for most of that fight, just beat Lamas and is otherwise undefeated. Maybe Emmett and Zombie due to inactivity but note that in Zombie's last fight he KOd Bermudez whereas Elkins eeked out a split dec. and Zombie is a previous title challenger.