I think it should be required reading for MMA fans considering the reactions I read after Imada-Curran fight. A lot of people were cursing Bellator and Bjorn Rebney after that fight, accusing the promotion of fixing the fight to allow Pat Curran to get to the finals for a showdown with lightweight champ Eddie Alvarez. That scenario might sound plausible in an Oliver Stone movie but, like most conspiracy theories, it breaks down under scrutiny.
I thought Imada won that fight fairly convincingly and said so on-air. When Bjorn and I went into the cage for the check presentation we congratulated Imada and waited for the inevitable unanimous decision we thought would come after the commercial break. When they said it was a split decision I was shocked, when they announced that Curran was the winner my jaw hit the floor. It led to perhaps the worst interview of my career for a variety of reasons. Foremost among them was the fact that I didnt have any questions in my head for Curran. I dont get the decision any sooner than the audience does and I had assumed that Imada would get the nod and had prepared to talk to him, not Curran. Another reason was the fact that as I was about to ask Curran how it felt to win in front of his hometown crowd, they started booing, which necessitated me switching questions just as the words were coming out. Maybe I'm being hard on myself, but I think I ended up sounding like a total idiot.
So I was surprised, but if there was a conspiracy it certainly didnt have to involve me, but what would it have to entail? The casual fan might not know this, but organizations are not allowed to supply their own judges, they are entirely under the discretion of the state athletic commission (Florida in this case). The judges are not beholden to Bellator in any way, they are paid by the state and trying to influence them in any way means you probably won't be promoting a show for the rest of your natural life.
And why would Bjorn take the risk in the first place? Pat Curran had been the Cinderella story of season 2, but it wasn't as though fans were lighting up the chat rooms in anticipation of a fight between him and Alvarez. Its true that it would have been difficult for Bellator to sell fans on a fight between Imada and Alvarez, a rematch of a fight that wasn't that competitive the first time around, but a match featuring a deserving Imada is a lot more appealing than one featuring a fighter that the fans believed rode in on a bad decision. For Bjorn Rebney and the powers that be at Bellator to risk their livelihoods over putting that match together would have been suicidally stupid.
If Bellator were in the fight-fixing business, Curran would not have even been in the finals at all. Roger Huerta was clearly the favorite at the outset of the lightweight tournament and was the most marketable fighter in Bellator's roster. I thought he won his semi-final match against Curran, it wasn't a robbery by any stretch of the imagination, but I thought Huerta won the last 2 rounds. Bellator clearly didnt have any hand in that decision, so why would they take a bigger risk on a lesser name?
Fans often point to some of the horrendous and corrupt decisions that have plagued boxing over the years and argue that if it could happen there, it can happen in MMA. It may be true that a big organization MIGHT be able to pull some strings and get a fight fixed (my lawyers have advised me to add that I am in NO way accusing the UFC or any other organization of ever fixing a fight to my knowledge;), but MMA works along very different lines than boxing. Boxing relies heavily on the "superfight" between (usually) undefeated stars. A fight like Mayweather-Hatton can generate tens of MILLIONS of dollars for Vegas, bookmakers, promoters, etc. Everyone in the industry is under a lot of pressure to make sure that both of those stars stay unblemished as they head toward their showdown. MMA, as a sport, is much more forgiving. One loss can certainly delay a mega-fight, but an undefeated fighter is virtually unknown in the big promotions and there is almost no matchup that cant be made after a few victories.
Take Rua-Rampage for example. Rashad Evans beat Rampage and earned the right to be the next fighter to take on light-heavyweight champion Mauricio "Shogun" Rua. Lets say it was Dana's fondest desire to see Rampage take on Rua, he could risk the future of his company by using his considerable influence to fix the fight, or he could wait a year, give Rampage a couple of decent fights and have him fight for the title anyway. It isn't rocket science, any of the top 5 guys in a division are only 2 or 3 fights away from a title shot at the most, there's no need to have someone on the grassy knoll to make sure things work out a certain way.
There will always be doubters out there, but they should still read the book, might give them some perspective on things...
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