The Padded Cell

I've been watching a lot of old UFC and Pride fights lately, and am still amazed at the level of stupidity displayed by the vast majority of the contestants.

Don't get me wrong, I love MMA fights. But, like most sports, the players so often thank god for a win, but never blame god for a loss. How's that work exactly? The cognitive dissonance is simply astounding.

I'm going to single out one fighter who isn't normally so "god-overt", Rich Franklin.

Rich is billed as an intelligent guy, a former high school math teacher from Ohio. He's very literate, speaks very well, seems intelligent. But when he won the Middleweight title belt from Evan Tanner back in UFC 50-something, he made this statement after the fight:

I'd like to thank god for protecting me in the ring.

So let's look at this innocuous-sounding statement.

If god was protecting Franklin, we have to assume he wasn't protecting Tanner. Does that mean god had a vendetta against Tanner? What did Tanner ever do to god?

And where was god when Franklin later lost his belt to Anderson Silva? Was Silva more pious than Franklin, therefore Franklin was stripped of his belt by god? Did Silva sacrifice more unblemished rams to god than Franklin that month? And where was god when Franklin lost to Lyoto Machida before Franklin was a champion? Was Machida more pious than Franklin then?

Franklin lost twice to Silva. God must REALLY like Silva, except when Silva lost to a Japanese fighter in a Pride fight before he became UFC Middleweight champ. I guess the Japanese guy was more pious than Silva that day.

In a later UFC event, Franklin gave his opinion on who would win the big fight (not a fight he was in) coming up. At no time did he mention god protection as a determining factor, but discussed the skills of the two opponents. Strange.

I know, I'm talking about people who get punched repeatedly in the face for a living. But you'd think after all that time they'd have some sense knocked into them and realize it's skill and chance, not the protection of the big sky daddy that wins fights.

Idiots

Revenant