The stories we tell ourselves

We all have our own version of the “truth”. I question whether human beings can truly experience objective ‘truth’ but that’s different post for a different time. I do however believe we often interpret events in a way that best suits our own personal narrative.

We like ‘our’ world to make sense to us. The idea of not knowing or being able to hang your hat on anything with certainty, can be too uncomfortable for most of us. Better we lie to ourselves than admit we know nothing.

Cooped up

I often wonder about the stories MMA fighters must tell themselves. What "lies" do fighters buy into that enables them to get into a cage or an octagon, with an absolute killer, waiting to tear their head off.

You would think that most fighters find out a long time before they get to UFC level that they are not bullet-proof. Yet, when the time comes and the bell rings they need to have 100% confidence that they will annihilate the killer opposite them.

Choking

So anyway, I was watching UFC Oklahoma on the weekend. Hometown boy Michael Chiesa was fighting the "Motown Phenom", Detroit’s Kevin Lee. Everyone was expecting a keenly fought, competitive fight. However it didn’t take long for Lee to establish dominance in the fight, getting Chiesa’s back and sinking in the rear naked choke.

Granted, Chiesa has fought his way out of similar dark spots in previous fights. He had indeed started hand fighting Lee’s choke. However at the point referee Mario Yamasaki stopped the fight Chiesa’s arms had started to suspend in mid-air. It looked like he was slipping into unconscious with less than 30 seconds left in the first round.

To me it looked like a reasonable stoppage:

Conscious unconsciousness

MMA fighters are aware that if they don't tap to a choke (like Conor McGregor was derided for doing his first fight against Nate Diaz), they could go to sleep (like Holy Holm did in her title defence against Miesha Tate). Neither of these narratives are easy to swallow. So many fighters cling to the hope that they can survive the choke until the bell or fatigue (of their opponent) intervenes.

It was no surprise that because Chiesa was neither fully unconscious nor did he tap out, that he protested vehemently about the stoppage. However to me the "truth" was he as clear as day. He was dominated and well beaten by an excellent display from Lee.

Alas, what I think doesn't always square with the public narrative. And the focus after the fight was less on Kevin Lee's breakout performance but more on the competency of referee Yamasaki.

Scapegoat

Pretty much everyone in the MMA circle has the same narrative around Mario Yamasaki. The narrative can be summed up in UFC president Dana White's response to Yamasaki's decision to stop the contest:

Mario Mazzagatti [sic] does it again!!! This guy is more concerned with doing this dumb ass heart bullshit then Ref'n the fight!!! Steals a great moment from Lee or let Mike fight it or tap. Nobody gives a shit that u can make a heart with ur hands like a 12 year old girl they want u to pay attention to what's going on in the fight and do ur job.

The official line is that 'Yamasaki' is an awful ref with a name that is difficult to spell.

Oxygen starved brain

However I'd like to offer a different perspective. When a fighter is being choked unconscious and is unable (or unwilling) to tap, the referee has a difficult call to make. Judging whether a fighter's lights have been turned off is more than just a matter of win or lose a fight. A decision delayed too long could result in a fighter losing faculties. When a fighter is stretched out, prone and helpless in a choke hold, it is better that a referee stops the fight a little early, then allow a fighter to spend a second longer than they have to with oxygen being starved to their brain.

However that didn't stop Chiesa from laying into Yamasaki:

Hollow argument

It sounds obvious but the best way for a fighter to avoid being a 'victim' of a 'bad choke-out call' is to not allow an opponent to get a choke hold on them in the first place. It is no tactic to allow an elite martial artist to get you in a strangle hold on the basis that 'you can take it' and their arms will burn out. 'I was going to survive, then give him the business in the next round', sounds hollow after the fact.

Anti-climax

As a punter it is easy to feel 'deprived' of a satisfactory outcome. We 'pay' to see spectacular KOs, submissions, choke-outs, rock-em-sock-em robots. However the participants aren't robots. They are flesh, bones and sentient beings. Their window in a truly brutal sport is a small one. Their life is hopefully a long one.

Chiesa will fight another day. He will do so with an easy story to explain his last defeat to himself. "The ref robbed me." Good he should have that. I hope he goes into the next fight bullish off the back of that perspective. However just because he believes he suffered an unjust loss, doesn't make it true.