Punked

 Word has reached the Blob that there was a Great Big Fight in something called Mixed Martial Arts last night, and one tattooed guy beat the tar out of another tattooed guy in, like, five minutes, and that was a good thing because the tattooed guy who got the tar beat out of him is a colossal ass.

His name is Conor McGregor. You might have heard of him, even if, like the Blob, you don't follow MMA.

The guy who beat the tar out of him is named Dustin Poirier, and this was the third time they'd fought. You might have thought it was Ali-Frazier III -- aka, the Thrilla In Manila -- the way it was hyped, but it wasn't. Poirier's simply better at whatever this is, and he punked the punk the way he punked him the second time the two fought.

This does not mean McGregor still isn't the biggest draw in MMA, which says nothing good about MMA. That the face of your sport is, as noted, a colossal ass who's still reasonably skilled but whose mouth is what he's best known for these days is not exactly something to crow about.

And he's getting more colossally ass-y, apparently. In the run-up to the fight he trashed Poirier's wife and threatened not just to beat Poirier but literally murder him, bragging he would send Poirier out of the cage in a coffin. Poirier thought this was a mite beyond the pale, and he was right. 

But when you've got little left to sell but hype at this point, you have to keep upping the ante. So there McGregor was lying all bloody and with a fractured tibia last night, making a gun with his finger and pantomiming shooting Poirier in the head with it.

Nice.

Ali used to taunt opponents, too, especially Frazier. That was cruel at times, too, but it was also vaudeville, and the media for whom he performed it mostly caught the wink that came with it. Also, he never went after Frazier's family or threatened to murder him.

Then again, boxing wasn't MMA. The standards were, shall we say, somewhat different, as corrupt as the fight game often is.

I suppose McGregor's fans would counter by saying he's just a new Ali for a new age. And I suppose you could say that.

I just can't do it without laughing.