January 11, 2010, at 12:36 am
Before I make my argument, I’m going to participate in a little exercise that lawyers call discovery. That means that I am going to show all my cards, expose my evidence so that the whole world can see.
1. Varner was hit with a knee that glanced his head in his fight against Cerrone. Because of that, he “couldn’t continue” and a fight where the momentum was clearly in Cerrone’s favor was stopped, went to the cards, and Varner retained.
2. He then took a YEAR off, claiming that he had two separate injuries that kept him from fighting Cerrone. People clamored for the fight, and rumors began to circulate that Varner was ducking his opponent. The two continued to verbal spar and nearly fight each time they were in the same room.
3. After Cerrone lost an interim title fight to Ben Henderson, Varner was forced to fight Henderson. All he did in the lead-up to the fight was that the WEC was promoting the return of Urijah Faber, their biggest draw, more than they were promoting his title fight.
4. Just moments into said title fight, Varner looked for the ref to stop the fight because of something with his eye. It kinda made no sense. He was just hit with a kick to the body. I’m going to assume that he lost a contact. Otherwise, I have no idea.
5. In round three, Henderson locked in a hanging guillotine. It took Varner roughly three seconds to tap. No slam, no falling to the ground to defend, no trying to power out. Nothing. He just tapped.
6. After the fight, Varner said “Boo all you want. I came to fight, he came to grapple.”
Wow. What a guy. This dude wants to know why the fans hate him so much? Look at the six examples I just provided. All of those things seem to point to the same thing. Varner simply doesn’t have much in the way of heart.
As someone who covers the sport, I really don’t hate fighters. I have certain fighters that I treat as a “home team.” When they win, I get pumped. I never, ever get excited when someone looses. However, how could you not root against Varner after all he’s done?
The best part about the whole thing is that a lot of those things are excusable if they were the only thing a fighter has done. The quick tap could have been a case where the submission was just in really deep. The knee was a weird scenario. However, when you pile it all together, it paints an ugly picture.
Jamie. Listen to me. If you want the fans to like you, here is what you do: You shut up. You stop talking. You take your next fight and you win. You still stay quiet. Lather, rinse, and repeat. It’s your mouth that gets you into trouble more often than not.
As for the quick tap, I think that we all know what that means. I’m just not going to say it because I don’t want to create enemies. However, I think we all know that we need our fighters to show a little more heart than that.
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