The Moment. pic.twitter.com/n2mqrsydmh
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) March 6, 2016
Matt Serra exploded into a ray of pure joy when Nate Diaz tapped Conor McGregor at UFC 196. The former welterweight champ and coach of Chris Weidman has a long history with the Diaz brothers. They’re old school. The last of a dying breed of fighters in MMA. They may not want to touch gloves, and flip the bird at their opponents, but they see no reason for niceties in fist fights. Outside the cage, they’re respectful warriors, and Matt Serra knows it. So, when Conor McGregor mocked Nate Diaz for teaching jiu-jitsu to kids, he knew it was a pointless low blow in an attempt to emasculate Nate, who was only doing the right thing for his community. This led to a classic ‘Serra rant’ on the Three Amigos podcast.
(H/T Bloody Elbow for the transcription.)
I consider the Diaz brothers friends. They’re like extended family, them being under Cesar and me being under Renzo, we’ve always had mutual respect. They’re such respectful guys. People don’t know that about them, but they really are. You know what’s not around anymore? There’s no code anymore. There’s no loyalty. They’re good guys, they’ve got a f*cking code, and they’re warriors, man.
I was so f*cking happy seeing Nate win. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy Conor McGregor, but the shit where he went in on Nate about teaching the kids jiu-jitsu, now look, it’s one thing to be witty and this and that, but now you’re writing some sh*t, trying to be clever…you know what? You start crossing lines and your karma is not good, either. You start making fun of the guys teaching jiu-jitsu classes…he could be out in the hood doing dirty sh*t, but he’s in there teaching kids martial arts, you dumb f*cker. How dare you. That’s f*cking stupid. You want to make your money, make your money, but that’s stupid.
He had much nicer things to say about Holly Holm, who was confident-yet-respectful leading up to her UFC 196 loss to Miesha Tate. Holly chose to go out on her shield, and Serra acknowledged her bravery for going to sleep.
Listen, what a f*cking warrior Holly is, that she took a nap. You heard her in the post-fight f*cking…press conference. They’re like, ‘Well, why’d you choose to go to sleep?’ She didn’t choose to go to sleep. She kept believing that if she got out, she could win the fight. Tapping wasn’t a f*cking option. How do you not respect that?
With all of that machismo out of the way, it’s probably not a good idea to think getting put to sleep often is a good thing for brain cells. Still, Conor tapped awfully fast for someone who collects heads and makes people dance for him (as long as they don’t look him in the eye).
(Via Bloody Elbow)
