Thread by @FOLLOWMOKOU, Been thinking about mma a lot, lately.Been thinking about DC/Stipe 3. Seen [...]

Been thinking about mma a lot, lately.

Been thinking about DC/Stipe 3.

Seen a lot of the discourse, think I've got something to add to it.

If you're not keen on mild discussion of suicide or death then bow out now.

For a long time DC inspired me, and I want to talk a lil bit about why I've cooled on that. He "aint it" for me anymore.

I don't want to write too much about growing up, so I'll tell the talk about my friends. I don't have many, and a lot of the ones I did have are either in jail, dead or so high on drugs I can't even seen a reflection of what they used to be in their eyes anymore.

I miss them.

I have a lot of scars, and a few dozen hospital trips. I wasn't good to myself, because I didn't think myself was any good. I'm better now, but that's how it was. Fair few times I was pretty sure I wasn't waking up back up; maybe that was my intention.

When you are trying to put your life together after that, somebody like DC matters a lot. Before the Stipe fights, I got it, and I got him - I think I kinda still do.

You lose that many times and your life starts becoming defined by how you respond to loss.

Hearing a successful person talk into the camera about how much that drives you to fight back harder is an inspiring thing. DC isn't fake when he talks about that - wasn't then, isn't now.

Sometimes you need to see other people succeed when all the voices in your head tell you you can't, and never will.

I'm not ashamed to say DC was one of the examples that got me through a lot of impostor syndrome when I went back to University for the third time; and actually graduated.

So why am I cool on him now? Well, it's one thing to use your loss and pain and motivation to get you through the worst times - but what happens when you win?

And I mean to most people DC won. Double division champ, clearly favoured by the UFC, fantastic family and no doubt a successful career in coaching/commentating. Husband, father, champ. That's it, right?

But what did DC do when he won? Started fouling harder than the man who beat him twice with striking that was built on the threat of real damage to the other man's retina.

Fair enough rules are rules and refs are cowards - but don't downplay threatening permanent harm.

Taking a pro-UFC (and doin a fair bit of dogwhistling about anti-unions) stance every chance he got, up until showing he cared jack shit about fighter safety in the middle of a pandemic?

You for real, trying to be the "good guy" and the "caring dad" after that?"

And come on, don't try and tell me he was playing it up for the drama or to hype the third Stipe fight. You don't make comments that question the willpower of a man who works as a first responder in a GLOBAL FUCKING CRISIS.

Don't you mma twitter people try and tell me he didn't mean what I'm saying he meant either. I've seen your twitter threats, you all know what feinting and "disgusting your intentions" means; even if it's happening with words instead of limbs.

And I'm not saying there's anything 100% wrong with being a shill either, within reason. Dc's got a family and kids and their future to think about - get paid, I get it!

I guess it's It isn't really about what DC does, what he's done is amazing.

It's about how he sells it.

Oh shit back to my childhood again. I grew up with better friendships in the Indigenous Australian community than I ever did with my own. I don't get on with most of my family, but those people I liked just fine.

And in a lot of ways to be Indigenous in Australia's a hard life. A lot of your culture is stripped away; gone, left to bleed out into the earth itself.

To survive that I believe you have to have at least one part yourself that's totally true. No compromises. The honest you.

That's how they survived. That's how I survived.

I think for DC that's the fight game. The man cried over losses - I really believe for DC, fighting is truth. So what is DC now he has that power?

He never adapted his style, that's why two greater men beat him (one whom clearly wasn't as good an athlete). He never used his power to be a critic of the UFC, he just pedelled the whole "fighters wanna fight" without examining the power structures or how they affect fighters.

DC's athleticism and power (personal, social and even now political I guess) didn't fail him. His own character did. He had no power, he got (earned! dont get me wrong, he earned it for sure) it, and now he's not "part of the man",

He's uncritically supporting systems and philosophies that pull the ladder up from other fighters, selling that whole 'fighters wanna fight' bullshit (e.g., the fuckin disgraceful way the UFC's handled the whole covid deal).

You were on welfare for a fucking while!

You know exactly what it's like to feel forced to fight to put more cash in your pocket. You've fucking been there! Don't pretend to be a caring dad when the second the UFC's hand is up your arse you go dead quiet about that on account of other fighters in the middle of Covid ...

I don't have a lot of power. I'll probably never have the power DC did. But I can say with the little progress I've made I spent it talking about ways to better examine how I got here and how to both help others and myself.

I guess all the bad stuff I went through taught me a real sense of empathy. It's not the best sense of empathy in the world, but it's mine.

And I genuinely feel like as I've gotten better, I've used it.

I think the opposite's true for DC.

The more powerful he's become, the less empathy he's had for others. The less he's empathised with systems that make their "grind" harder.

That is not inspiring. That is disconnected with the rest of DC's story. It's fake.

And that is why I don't look up to DC anymore.

Latest Threads Unrolled: