Bellator 300
Female MMA pioneer and former UFC No.1 contender, Cat Zingano, competed for the Featherweight title over the weekend against long-time competitor and multi-organizational champion, Cris Cyborg, at the landmark Bellator 300 pay-per-view over the weekend. However, it wasn't Cyborg's dominant first-round defense that grabbed fight headlines, but rather a heated post-fight exchange between the two fighters that ended the night on an awkward note.
After her victory, Cyborg approached Zingano to offer the usual sympathy-laden gestures of respect for the courage and overall effort displayed during the fight, but Cat did not seem to be in the mood for niceties after yet another title disappointment.
While some may say that the challenger's attitude was just a typical case of sour grapes, it can also be seen as an understandable reaction from a fighter who has faced serious uphill battles, and come up short in obtaining gold in two separate promotions. One could go further still by considering that the whole situation was one that shed light on post-fight etiquette and that an argument can be made that gracious fighters are not always as good as we may think them to be.
On Humility
It has often been common practice for winning fighters to move to console the opponents that they had either beaten to a pulp or submitted in most combat sports. However, does this display of supposed humility hide something more dishonest? It is as Stephen King wrote in Pet Sematary that humility is half the sin of pride, and C.S. Louis went further still by claiming that;
"pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man."
In this context, the winning, and subsequent show of humility is a proud act that desires to show and simultaneously communicate that I am more humble than other fighters.
The trouble with being gracious or humble after a fight, or at the very least being excessively so, is that it can be construed as a slightly selfish means of amplifying one's win by enjoying the view that others perceive us as being humble. While I'm certainly not saying that fighters shouldn't show respect for gracing the cage together, winning fighters ought to have some kind of consent from the losing fighter to talk, touch, or engage with them in any way post-fight.
Another example of this show of "humility" that I found interesting/annoying, was manifested within a different promotion called One FC. In one instance, a fighter named Adrian Mattheis took on Brazil's Alex Silva, and after fighting back from adversity, Mattheis managed to win via TKO, even though the stoppage was too early.
Alex felt understandably upset, while Adrian, often credited with having one of the biggest hearts in MMA, began to cry, throw himself at his opponent's feet, and continue to grab and hug Alex despite the Brazilian being visibly annoyed and uninterested in this attempt at consolation. While many might say that this was just a deep show of remorse for an injustice that had been perpetuated in the cage, I instead saw a man simply augmenting his victory by playing to the perceived identity of a "humble fighter".
Cat's Always Land On Their Feet?
I have strayed away from the main focus of this article which is Cat Zingano, but the above example is important to put forward another way of seeing these kinds of interactions/gestures, and the example is hardly exhaustive. What does seem to be partially clear about the post-fight exchange in the Woman's Featherweight bout at Bellator was that Cat had possibly expressed to Cris before the fight that she had no desire for any engagement regardless of the outcome, and it should also be mentioned that she was quite clear on the Ariel Helwani Show that Cris was not one of her favorite people, even going so far as to label her an "awkward bully."
Cat's anger may very well be more attributed to the hard fact that the sun has set on a career that really should've been better than it was. Losing is always hard, but sometimes the best thing that winners can do is to refine the virtuous dispositions expected of modern-day warriors and find the mean between false humility and absolute indifference. In other words, let the defeated swallow that bitter pill of failure in peace, and consider that a certain degree of consent at all stages of the fight is important. When all is said and done, sometimes a silent nod and a quick handshake post-fight is enough.