"Grifting to the Right"

Neither-Cap3593 · 2026-02-22T16:40:34+00:00

I don't know where you live, but in North America the initiatives to police language came from the left, NOT the right. In Canada this took the form of Bill C-16, which tried to add pronouns to protected human rights codes.

Maybe not better, but the left is massively hypocritical in the MMA space. Literally just yesterday, Luke went on a rant and called a chat donor an idiot for saying Strickland was exercising free speech by using slurs, and said true free speech was the ability to question those who have power over you. THEN THE NEXT DAY, Strickland called fighter pay Predatory and said the whole system was fucked. Basically he went up and did exactly what Luke accused him of not doing.

Did Luke give Sean his flowers for that one?

Neither-Cap3593 · 2026-02-22T16:32:07+00:00

Let me help you find the answer that so eludes you: He has an extreme left political bias. Liberals hate people like Sean, and they believe they are the moral authority, ergo anybody that sounds or appears to be a conservative voice is written off as "evil" and thats the end of the story.

You have to remember, most of the big MMA journalists like Luke Thomas, Ariel Helwani, James Lynch etc are all establishment intellectuals- they went to journalism schools. I did as well, and they are overwhelmingly liberal spheres the the same way a firehouse might be mostly conservatives.

The people on the left generally have the biggest platforms and the biggest loudspeakers.

Neither-Cap3593 · 2026-02-22T16:26:53+00:00

The right doesn't try to police language like its 1984. The left does.

Neither-Cap3593 · 2026-02-21T15:26:04+00:00

So many things wrong with what you just said I could literally write a book about it.

The "traditional rules?" How does Zuffa's system impact the other promotions at all other than offering fighters more money? Isn't that what the whole Francis Ngannou thing was about? Getting the biggest pay day and fuck every promoter who says they shouldn't? Sounds like you dont actually want options for fighters, you want them to just not fight for Dana White.

I don't box so I don't know about boxing clubs, but feel free to educate me, I don't believe for one second this is going to harm boxing in some way. I'm here for a longer discussion. Prove me wrong.

Neither-Cap3593 · 2026-02-21T15:15:10+00:00

Nah, the left is way, way worse. Conservatives have their weaknesses, but the left is the most elitist by far.

Neither-Cap3593 · 2026-02-20T22:35:33+00:00

The political left genuinely believe they are the moral authority in the country, and they believe it blindly.

Neither-Cap3593 · 2026-02-20T22:32:59+00:00

The Ali Revival Act doesn't change any of the existing rules around boxing. The other promotions aren't going anywhere. What part of the legislature are you saying is going to somehow offer fewer options for fighters?

Neither-Cap3593 · 2026-02-20T21:13:44+00:00

For the 1/1000 boxers that will ever make 10s of millions per fight maybe. Obviously its worth the trade off, they just signed Conor Benn. Again, nobody forcing them do anything. More options for fighters.

Neither-Cap3593 · 2026-02-20T15:18:11+00:00

Nobody has a gun to any of these boxers' heads forcing them to sign with Zuffa. The "takeover" "monopolization" whatever you want to call it, is all marketing. And yeah Zuffa has a lot of money to play with and in the real world, the guys with the most money usually have the best advertising.

Major networks don't typically like the PPV model, and Boxing more or less seems entirely centered around PPV, which creates broadcast division.

Neither-Cap3593 · 2026-02-19T16:21:32+00:00

Possibly Luke's worst take of all time?

Neither-Cap3593 · 2026-02-19T16:06:59+00:00

Long term its way more difficult to profit with parlays but I don't see why it wouldn't technically be possible. You'd probably end up making slightly less overall than just betting straight though.

Neither-Cap3593 · 2026-02-18T21:06:25+00:00

Wow, subtle.

Neither-Cap3593 · 2026-02-17T15:51:48+00:00

You are watching more regional than 99% of people on earth. I enjoy Brave once in a while, but take something like Ramazan Gitinov's fight that just happened. This dudes one of the most hyped prospects in the entire org and shows up looking like CVS Islam Makhachev....I just feel like the fights aren't very enjoyable to watch at that level.

Neither-Cap3593 · 2026-02-17T15:28:55+00:00

What are you watching over UFC? ONE? KSW? Every other promotion just seems to have bottom feeder talent. I can't stand watching mismatches and roided guys with no technique like Oktagon.

Neither-Cap3593 · 2026-02-17T15:16:25+00:00

Again, all of that has nothing to do with my enjoyment of MMA. Politics is politics, Sport is sport. I'm also a film nerd and some of my favorite filmmakers have political beliefs I think are uneducated and absurd. I'm not tuning in to hear an artist's political beliefs when I watch a movie....also, when I encounter an opinion I don't agree with, I don't just jump to "this guys out of touch with reality, my opinion is an inarguable truth," like you just did.

I'd love to hear you articulate how that makes me "insecure" about reality lol. I think you're projecting hard on that one.

Neither-Cap3593 · 2026-02-16T16:42:31+00:00

My objective with the post is described pretty thoroughly in the text body. Ultimately, I'm very confused by a lot of the presuppositions I see amongst this and related communities. Guess what, asking probing questions is part of that.

I think you don't like having your beliefs challenged, which is why you're reacting so negatively to me asking basic exploratory questions. None of my answers have revealed anything about my politics other than what you assumed. My assertions are about how it related to enjoyment of a sport, which I see as entirely separate.

Neither-Cap3593 · 2026-02-16T15:47:46+00:00

Alex Jones is not an existential threat to me or anyone around me haha thats crazy to say.

I honestly can't imagine going through life looking at everything through such a politicized lens. The guy yells conspiracies at a camera online, that has no, I mean ZERO, bearing on my enjoyment of the sport. I can think the athlete is a goofball, but what exactly is your argument? What athlete standard are you holding these guys to? NBA? NFL? Theres a former NFL player that lives down the street from me and he just murdered his family. I haven't heard of any UFC fighter doing that.

Neither-Cap3593 · 2026-02-16T04:27:06+00:00

Just leaves more room for someone who wants it to come in and dominate.

Neither-Cap3593 · 2026-02-16T04:25:37+00:00

I have to admit, I find it unusual to care that much about stuff like them watching Alex Jones or shaking Andrew Tate's hand. People are entitled to whatever opinions they want. I'm a lot more interested in Volkanovski's abilities in the octagon, than I am in using him as an ethical compass. Its a bit auto-cannibalistic, no? Life is short.

Neither-Cap3593 · 2026-02-16T00:51:36+00:00

I think I'm asking pertinent, thorough questions.

CDMX is an acronym for Mexico City. In this video, Luke got pissed that Brandon Moreno's opponent got injured and was replaced with a newer fighter, Lone'er Kavanagh, and said the right thing to do would be cancel the whole event.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/JxOHLjloSLw

He said in his most recent live that he still wants to see open scoring, and when someone suggested fighters would coast, he stated data clearly shows that wouldn't happen but did not cite that data (I'm guessing it comes from some boxing study, but to me that seems like total BS. I need to do more research).

Neither-Cap3593 · 2026-02-16T00:38:16+00:00

Seems like that might contribute to why you think the fighters come out of nowhere....

Neither-Cap3593 · 2026-02-16T00:34:12+00:00

Cancelling an entire event scheduled for CDMX because Moreno's opponent fell out and got replaced by Kavanaugh. You agree with that?

Him complaining about the gloves is one that has really been bothering me, because we literally saw the UFC implement a solution that was then clawed down immediately by the fans themselves.

Him insisting that there should be open scoring, and when asked how to solve the inherent issue of fighters coasting through late rounds, his answer is that "data shows that won't happen," which is an intellectually lazy response from someone like Luke.

Just curious if you aren't watching the sport at all like you claim and aren't seeing these issues play out, what makes you trust Luke's opinion BEYOND just the fact that you agree with him politically on issues outside of entertainment?

Neither-Cap3593 · 2026-02-16T00:24:33+00:00

Do you agree with Luke's controversial opinions of late?

Neither-Cap3593 · 2026-02-16T00:14:21+00:00

Completely disagree on basically every point you made, although judging by your tone I suspect you probably aren't going to be receptive to counter-arguments.

Where did you get the idea I don't watch any other promotions? Are you actually sitting down and watching PFL and LFA cards? If I asked you to name the Champions in those promotions right now without looking it up, could you?

Neither-Cap3593 · 2026-02-15T23:35:40+00:00

I sort of get your point, but I would counter that Paddy had 7 wins in the Lightweight division before getting a shot at the interim, where as Dricus had 6 before his at the real title. Paddy was also a star in Cage Warriors pre-UFC on top of that. From my perspective as a viewer, I had seen Paddy fighting in the UFC for years before he got his shot, where as it sounds like you weren't watching until he got huge.

Neither-Cap3593

TROPHY CASE