It doesn't appear from your comments that you really understand the purpose of weight classes in combat sports.

I think a fighter like GSP who has made the UFC tens of millions of dollars and garnered the UFC an enormous amount of mainstream credibility has more than earned a #1 contender status if/when he decides to come back. Anybody who thinks they're being passed over should take a look at the hours he's spent in the cage…

If GSP wants to stretch out his viability as a fighter, then guess what: he's put in five and a half hours of cage time that has earned him that privilege. White should do whatever he needs to do re: the belt, but to act like GSP owes the UFC or fans or internet tough guys who so blithely dismiss the toll this kind…

Goodness knows Goodell has never been accused of targeting certain players or organizations, has he? After all, a legitimate sport like professional football would never hear of such a thing!

Conflating the damage done to fighters' brains and bodies, particularly a fighter like GSP with an insane amount of cage time, with the inconvenient "consequences" of working in retail is just ignorant, to put a rather fine point on it.

nothing with a "weight class" is a sport.

As clever as references to ICP are, perhaps you could, you know, actually explain why you think that mma is not a legitimate "sport?"

Yeah, having to work on Black Friday is roughly equivalent to taking hundreds of blows to the head and body from men at the absolute peak of human ability to deliver such blows.

Yeah, having to work on Black Friday is roughly equivalent to taking hundreds of blows to the head and body from men at the absolute peak of human ability to deliver such blows.

Then White should put a firm deadline on a return, make clear the title will be vacated if not defended by then. And if that happens, announce that GSP is the number one contender if and when he wants to come back, and thank him profusely for all he's done for the company and for the sport.

A dude who has spent nearly five and half hours of time in the cage fighting for our entertainment doesn't owe anybody shit. If he never fights again, he's more than earned every nickel he's been paid.

Could you explain why you believe MMA should not be considered a legitimate "sport?"

Dementia or no dementia, you shouldn't kill your wife and son.

Don't you think there is a third option that allows for the fact that at the time he died, Benoit had the brain of an 85 year old Alzheimer's patient?

And it's not like the Braves have the cash laying around to foot the bill for a special election, either. I mean, c'mon...400k? That's like a whole .4% of their yearly player payroll, for goodness sake!

Well that's completely different.

I disagree to an extent: the public can (and maybe even sometimes should) be involved in funding things like sports stadiums, but when that happens, they should absolutely be considered investors in the businesses they are supporting and should get the appropriate ownership/return on their investment.

The important thing to remember is that owners of pro sports franchises are rugged individualists who earned what they have by pulling themselves up by the bootstraps, and any talk to the contrary is class warfare.

Oh, then I was joking, too. I wasn't seriously pointing out what a pain in the ass people who want to diagnose everyone with a substance abuse problem are, I was just having some fun. Try and relax, ok?

That's a really transparent dodge, my friend. If you really don't think that anyone who merely expresses fondness for a mood altering substance should be considered diseased, why would you suggest that someone "get to a meeting" for doing just that?