​​By Elias Cepeda 

The past week or so in MMA brought almost as much fistic action outside of the ring as it has inside of it, with some of the UFC's biggest stars engaging in extracurricular brawls (or near brawls) with one another backstage, at press conferences, and in the street.

Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier got into it before they could take the stage of a UFC press conference in Dallas (video courtesy of UFC ON FOX's YouTube channel). 



Then, during the press conference, Michael Chiesa charged Kevin Lee, only to be restrained by security personnel and then punched by Lee (video again courtesy of UFC ON FOX).



Also at that press conference, Valentina Shevchenko got too close for bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes to be comfortable, and so "The Lioness" promptly shoved her own fist into her challenger's face before security had to again swoop in (video courtesy of MMAFightingonSBN).


 
Most recently, world featherweight champion Cris "Cyborg" Justino and Angela Magana got into a verbal confrontation on the streets of Las Vegas during this past weekend's UFC fighter retreat that quickly turned physical when the Brazilian reportedly punched "Your Majesty" in the face (video via FanSided's CagePages). All of that over the course of just about a week represents a pretty much unprecedented level of out-of-cage pugilism for the normally civil and respectful UFC roster.


 

I also happen to have no real problem with any of it.

 
Sure, it is sad any time there is actual strife and enmity between people. Also, I would never relish any fighter sustaining real physical injury as a result of these run-ins.
 
Such an outcome could negatively financially impact them because they'd have to miss a fight. Chiesa and Lee certainly were cutting it close by going at it just six weeks before they are scheduled to fight in Oklahoma City. Even a small cut could have derailed their contest. Then again, I never enjoy seeing athletes hurt during actual sanctioned competition, either.
 
Certainly, the wisest thing is almost always to walk away from any slights or any potential physical confrontation that one can, outside of a sporting context especially. Still, I'm uninterested in singling out any of these fighters for vilification.
 
Just about all of these incidents are understandable, if essentially unfortunate, and I'll always be slow to outrage over two grown, consenting, unarmed adults hashing out their differences with a one-on-one physical showdown.
 
Chiesa could and perhaps should have ignored the mentioning of his mother by Lee, but I certainly understand that he chose not to. Some battles are not fought to win, but simply because they need fighting.
 
For Chiesa, mentioning his family was a line he could not abide his opponent crossing. I can't fault him for that. I also can't fault Lee for punching a man who just threatened him and then angrily charged him.
 
Daniel Cormier seemed to have a similar line about mentioning family, claiming that his nemesis Jones had spoken about his children before the light heavyweight champ went after the former title-holder.
 
For her part, I'm guessing the reasons Magana found herself punched by the longtime featherweight queen had more than a little something to do with the strawweight's completely classless insults of Justino in the past. For example, Magana chose to make fun of Justino's appearance on social media, grabbing a photo of Justino at an appearance with children suffering from cancer and comparing it to a horror movie villain.
 
Justino's own father is currently fighting cancer, and it takes a strange mentality to make fun of someone as they give a little sunshine to sick cancer patients as Magana did.

"You don't respect nobody. Fu*k you. Fu*k you," Justino can be heard saying during video of her confrontation with Magana. 
 
Afterwards, Justino punctuated her reported action with a verbal lesson. "Don't talk shit," she said.
 

"Respect me."

 
Respecting one another is a good rule of thumb and I personally would have a lot more difficulty defending someone who makes fun of people's looks while they help cancer victims than I would defending someone who decided to punch them in the face for doing so.
 
We should all aspire to a reluctance to react violently to mere insults. Still, "fighting words" exist, and those who spew them should be ready for the reactions they can understandably provoke.
 
Beyond that, outrage over confrontations between fighting rivals turning physical at media events has always struck me as particularly disingenuous or unknowing. Promoters make fighters who are training to separate one another from consciousness stand inches away from one another, with their fists raised -- a distance and pose any savvy and self-defense minded individual is trained to not allow -- for cameras and then admonish them on the rare occasions when those moments are taken to their next logical step, before using footage of those fracases to promote a bout and enrich themselves.
 
It's all a bit silly. I can understand lamenting when things like all of the above happen.
 
I love that MMA athletes largely keep things in the cage and ring and teach us about skill, courage, and class. Mixed martial arts is beautiful because it has taken real self-defense and turned it into a sport that can be practiced.
 
It is still all about fighting, though. It's never not about fighting.
 
Because of that, I'm rarely offended when a fight breaks out.

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