Breaking kayfabe.
The phrase is usually reserved for the professional wrestling circuit and refers to fighters breaking character when there is a supposed feud or alliance going on.
Where the UFC is involved, the lines between Mixed Martial Arts and the WWE often blurs in a hackneyed manner.
Conor McGregor is perhaps the greatest ever UFC star to ‘cut a promo’ by trash-talking, demeaning or causing a ruckus with his opponent. He did the talking, sure, but only gained true legend status by backing up his words with title-winning and loss-avenging deeds. “The guy is a f***ing unicorn,” UFC president Dana White once declared of McGregor.
Aldo, Siver, Brandao, Mendes, Dos Anjos, Alvarez and more were forced to sit back and take a verbal beating as McGregor dominated the microphone. Only Nate Diaz ever came close to truly rattling him.
The peak press conference stunt McGregor got involved in was in reaction to Diaz walking out of the UFC 202 press conference in response to the Dubliner showing up late. Curses and threats were exchanged before cans of energy drink and bottles of water were flung. McGregor had to be restrained by security guards as he attempted to bolt off the stage.
It looked as though ‘The Notorious’ had finally lost his cool. Not so. As his coach John Kavanagh later told Ariel Helwani:
“I had a plan to sit down and do this [refocus] speech with him. And, after the weigh-ins, we were backstage on our own and he just looked at me, dead in the eye, cold, and said, ‘The illusion of insanity is over. Now is game-plan’.
“I was like, ‘Woah, my job is done. What am I going to add to that?’
“He stood up there and did the screaming, the posturing, and just came back off-stage and, like a serial killer, he looked at me and said that. It blew me away.”
On Thursday, in Brooklyn, there was no illusion. Just pure, stupid insanity.
There is, of course, the possibility that McGregor and his crew were supposed to merely brace the bus carrying Khabib Nurmagomedov and to send a message that would be conveniently captured by cameras and camera phones. More free publicity.
It is an outlandish theory but there is smaller scale precedence.
Last summer, Michael Chiesa took a run at Kevin Lee after alerting the nearby security guards that he was about to do it. Sure enough, security swooped between the pair just in time.
And at the UFC’s 25th anniversary press conference, on Friday, TJ Dillashaw and Cody Garbrandt tore strips off each other for several minutes only to surprise and disappoint many fight fans at its’ conclusion.
Here is just a taste of their heated back-and-forth:
Garbrandt: “Do something about it!”
Dillashaw: “I already have motherf***er! I already dropped your ass. Face down, ass up, asking for more.
Garbrandt: “I dropped your ass too. I dropped your ass off the couch. I got off the couch and dropped your ass.
Dillashaw: “Alright b*tch.”
Garbrandt: “11 months inactive and I dropped you.”
Dillashaw: “Because of your p***y-ass little back.”
Brilliant. Excellent. Looking forward to the bantamweight title re-run at UFC 227 this summer. Nice work lads.
And then came the conclusion of an often fractious press conference and Garbrandt making a bee-line for Dillashaw. There was no security involved this time, and there was no need. The former ‘Team Alpha Male’ colleagues exchanged a back slap, hand-shake and warm words [below, first row].
Many fight fans watching the press conference were far from impressed with the chuminess between the pair.
So is this whole Garbrandt/Dillashaw feud fake or what? Just rewatched the #UFC25Years press conference and at the end Cody walks over to TJ and they shake hands, almost hug and chat. Like what?
— Jen (@Jmadams03) April 7, 2018
I really wish I hadn't just seen TJ and Cody shake hands after that press conference ended. Rule number 1 is always never break kayfabe.
— Chamatkar Sandhu (@SandhuMMA) April 6, 2018
https://twitter.com/KarlFletcherMMA/status/982406316282011650
Sometimes it’s hard to tell what’s real and what we’re just being sold.
Time to let the fighters do the fighting and take whatever breaks that come with that. Time to get back to the sport and let the show look after itself.
