Ufc 276, the conference: Adesanya, Cannonier, Volkanovski, Holloway, Strickland

With the necessary adjustments, why don’t they also do it for our football matches? Coming from Italy to see a Ufc event, one wonders when arriving at the time of the press conferences. For its events, and this is the most important of the year, the NBA of mixed martial arts organizes two. A rectory, gathered in its headquarters away from the lights of downtown Las Vegas, where the athletes parade one by one, telling the journalists seriously. The other is done the next day, and is the starter of the show.

the row

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The 2.0 press conference is held in the venue where the fight takes place two days later, and is open to the public. To see Adesanya, Cannonier, Volkanovski, Holloway and company talking (not fighting, talking) at the T-Mobile Arena, on the Las Vegas Strip, there were at least five thousand people, a quarter of those present at the meeting which needless to say is sold-out for months: you can find something online, but from two thousand dollars upwards. They queued in a 42 degree sun, torture. Ufc in front of the entrance has placed its mark, three meters high: you arrive and take a selfie like you do the cross in church. The heat is not only that of the Nevada sun, the event is perceived, there are people of all ages and they are already singing when the images of the fighters appear on the screen, let alone when they come out. Some of our leaders could take inspiration: can you imagine Vlahovic or Lukaku talking in front of the full curve, answering a fan’s question or confronting each other in words before doing it on the pitch? It does not replace the counterpart with the press, of course, but participates, creates the event, warms it up as it should.

the show

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So far the idea, but then it should be put into practice with more homegrown canons. Because Ufc made a difference when it was able to make a very hard sport and extreme sacrifice even a prime time show. And in this he hits hard, even below the belt. The fighters are eccentric, the spectators more. The idol of the youngest is “Sugar” Sean O’Malley, fabulous kickboxer, thin as a spaghetti (1.85 by 61 kilos), completely pink hair (sober, he usually has rainbow): he shows up on stage in a jacket, the takes off and is shirtless. Then comes Brian “bam bam” Barberena, dungarees and very long beard, and gradually all the others. The day before they were calm, in overalls, now they are gaudy, gassing and gassing people. The reporters’ questions only serve to light the fuse, they do the rest. Imagine 7-8 at Ibra all together, they provoke and respond, and in the meantime people are doing anything but silence.

Words?

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Even if they are not opponents, it does nothing. Sean Strickland, an emerging middleweight who understands how it works, stands up and teases everyone. Adesanya, who is the undisputed champion of middleweight, tries to impose his charisma as an alpha male with subtle jokes but at some point he can’t make it and sbrocca. Poor Pereira, a Brazilian, does not speak a word of English, when it is his turn he gets translated and while they answer the people in chorus say “Usa, Usa”. The beauty is that Pereira has beaten Adesanya twice in their past in kickboxing: these are two of his seven defeats out of 109 fights across all fighting disciplines, but Strickland points this out and another verbal battle starts in the frenzy of the public. They call them “mic-skills”, skills with the microphone, and since in fighting entering the mind of the other counts a lot, if you have them they weigh. They make you character, that’s how Conor McGregor’s dizzying rise began. What do they say? It matters little, it is the how that makes the difference here. It ends with the face-to-face. Pereira and Strickland shake hands and smile, Adesanya does the same with his opponent Cannonier. O’Malley’s opponent Munhoz doesn’t speak all evening because no one asks him questions. Quite a frenzy, in the meantime at least a couple of hashtags are spurting in trend. And it’s just the appetizer.