Opinion: The Problem With Accepting Short-Notice Fights

Editor’s note: The views and opinions expressed below are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Sherdog.com, its affiliates and sponsors or its parent company, Evolve Media.

As we all know, injuries are a part of the game when it comes to mixed martial arts. They often come at the most inopportune times and have left gaping holes in highly-anticipated events. In some cases, injuries have tanked an entire card. But it’s something that we MMA fans have come to understand over the years and organizations like the Ultimate Fighting Championship have stated that they will look into ways to make training less of an injury risk for their fighters.

But one thing that has become increasingly interesting is the notion that a fighter needs to take a short-notice fight when the opponent that he or she has been training for ends up being on the shelf with an injury. There’s a certain amount of pressure that we have put on fighters to keep cards intact. However, what we don’t pay attention to is how it can affect the future of a fighter.

Ever since Jon Jones refused to face Chael Sonnon on short notice at UFC 151 and resulted in the entire card being cancelled, fighters seemingly have made it a point to take a short notice fight or have the risk of being cast as the bad guy by fight fans.

The latest in this ongoing saga has been Daniel Cormier’s injury that has forced him to pull out of his light heavyweight title defense against Jon Jones at UFC 197. Fortunately, with about three weeks to go, the UFC found a replacement in Ovince St. Preux. UFC 197 will remain intact and everyone will be happy, right?

Well, that’s the difficult part. Should Jones have remained on the card and risked his opportunity to regain the light heavyweight title he was stripped of by facing a wild card in St. Preux? There was probably a risk versus reward contemplation done by Jones and his team prior to accepting the replacement. Let’s be honest, OSP is perceived to pose little threat to Jones and is viewed as an opponent to keep the former champ busy considering that he hasn’t fought in over a year.

If Jones wants to fight in order to knock off a little cage rust, that’s fine. The same can be said about Khabib Nurmagomedov, who is awaiting word on whether he’ll remain on the April 16 card or be pushed back after Tony Ferguson had to pull out due to having fluid in his lungs. It makes sense that Nurmagomedov would want to fight whomever they put in front of him because he has been inactive for two years.

But what about the consequences for taking a short notice fight? Of course, rearranging your entire game plan for a new opponent on short notice can be troublesome. Although Conor McGregor has been commended for facing Nate Diaz on short notice and in a totally different weight class, perhaps this can be viewed as a case when a short-notice fight backfires. Obviously, we’re not taking into account that Diaz was essentially pulled in with little preparation and he deserves a great deal of credit for pulling off the victory. However, would it have benefitted McGregor to decline a rematch and wait for UFC lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos to become healthy? Perhaps.

But therein lies the problem with short-notice fights and fighters feeling like they have to be company men and accept them or else the entire card will go up in smoke. It just isn’t fair to the fighter.

In boxing, when a big name is injured, they won’t seek a replacement. They will go on with the rest of the card if they feel it makes sense. MMA cards are often infinitely more stacked than your average boxing card. Yes, losing your headliner sucks, but so does putting a fighter in a position where he feels like he cannot say no. In most cases, it is truly a no-win situation because the new opponent almost always yields a lesser reward than the original one. And if the upset does occur, it ruins everything for that particular fighter.

Let’s just say that Jones loses to OSP. What happens to the Cormier fight? We saw what happened to McGregor when he accepted a fight against Diaz on 10-day notice and the turmoil it caused. Things can get messy when you throw together fights to please the fans, whom often have a short attention span anyway.

There are some fighters who are ready to fight all the time (Donald Cerrone) and others who want to fight to please the fans and get that extra check in the banking account (McGregor). But there are times that fighters are put in the precarious position of “take this fight or else…” and it could backfire.

The reality is that Jones should be able to sit this one out if he wanted to because it does little for him in the title picture and an injury could occur that sets him back. The same should go for any fighter who accepts a fight on short notice. No athlete should be forced into that position unless they truly want to fight. They shouldn’t be baited with “interim” titles or thrashed by fans who have never fought professionally. Maybe we should be a little more understanding of their position.

We’ll get over it.

Andreas Hale is the editorial content director of 2DopeBoyz.com, co-host of the boxing, MMA and pro wrestling podcast “The Corner” and a regular columnist for Sherdog.com. You can follow on Twitter for his random yet educated thoughts on combat sports, music, film and popular culture.