filleting Salmon for throwing a fight

Sean Salmon is an idiot and an embarrassment to the sport of mixed martial arts and to athletes everywhere. He should be banned from competition and forced to wax Tim  Sylvia’s back for a living.

Salmon is a fighter – he’s 16-8 with an 0-2 record in the UFC and I honestly had to Google him to find out who he is – and a sometimes writer for MMA Junkie. His latest piece about the life of a professional fighter is – style and grammar aside – appalling.

He starts by saying that what he has to say “just might embody the spirit of MMA.” What follows is a description of his alcohol abuse and an instance where he intentionally lost a professional MMA bout. In against an inferior opponent who went for an armbar, Salmon says, “I defended it (only to prove to myself that he couldn’t get it), and then I put my arm back in to give him the win so that I could return to England, healthy.”

He didn’t throw the fight because he had a bet on the other guy or was being pressured by the promoter or the mafia or yakuza or anything. He didn’t have a gun to his head or the head of any of his loved one. He just didn’t want to continue fighting because he didn’t want to get hurt.

He didn’t tap because he was trapped in a spot he couldn’t escape from, he didn’t tap because he was gassing, he didn’t tap because he was over-matched and had lost his heart. He tapped because he might possibly get a few cuts and bruises that would interfere with an upcoming trip to England. Against an opponent he’s already stated he was beating.

Sure, he goes on to write about how embarrassed he is by his actions and how he’s completely turned his life around, stopped drinking and started taking fighting seriously and really I don’t give a fuck about that. He threw a goddamn fight! I don’t care why. I wish it had been gambling or Japanese gangsters or something, anything. His reason for doing it just doesn’t make any sense to me. But somehow, in his mind, it embodies the spirit of being an MMA fighter.