Since I joined the UFC in October 2010, I’ve been involved with a lot of promotional events in Canada with the UFC, but last week I was part of one that had a personal connection for me.
Myself and fellow fighters Sam Stout, Mark Hominick and Matt Mitrione were joined by the UFC and the Toronto Police to host a UFC Community Works event that promoted anti-bullying.
I think it went great. I saw some mixed reviews, but overall I thought it was a positive experience and so did most of the media there. Naturally some people were a little bit upset or opposed to the idea of MMA fighters talking about anti-bullying. I can understand to some extent but really I don’t consider what we do as bullying.
We compete in this sport that might look barbaric on the outside, but we’re all trained to do what we’re doing. It’s totally different when two fighters step inside the Octagon because both of us are choosing to be in the situation. With bullying, it’s not reciprocal, one of the parties doesn’t want to be there.
On top of that, when we’re in a competition, we have a lot of people around us to protect us. There are the officials who can stop the fight at any time. I have my corner who can call off the fight if needed. I myself can tap out so I can stop it whenever I need to. And there’s also some honour involved as we’re two martial artists competing.
In a bullying situation, the person doesn’t have an out where they can just say they don’t want to be bullied anymore. And when it continues over a long period of time, that’s when it can become a psychological problem as well. Obviously we want bullying to stop whether it’s the physical aspect or psychological.
It was great to work with the Toronto police, as well as the UFC, and the schools that were involved, getting hundreds of students to come out to the Rogers Centre in Toronto to hear us talk. I personally felt privileged to be given that opportunity to share my thoughts with them.
Of course, before I got my UFC opportunity, many of you know I applied to be an officer with the Toronto police, but I was not accepted because I chose to follow the path to be a UFC fighter. I’m very happy where I am right now in the UFC, so there are no regrets for me. But who knows what the future holds for me.
Then on Saturday I got to be in attendance for the second show in Toronto at UFC 141. A couple of my friends had disappointing losses, but it was a good card overall and exciting to watch.
Frank Mir’s win over Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira was incredible to see the tides turn the way they did. It was a great show of heart by Mir, as well as skill. It was also a great show of skill by Big Nog, he came out showing some strong hands to knock Mir down. Mir was trying to recover and then all of a sudden he got Big Nog’s arm locked. That was incredible.
I was a little disappointed to see how happy the crowd was when Big Nog’s arm snapped. I understand the adrenaline of crowd and they were all going crazy, but I wasn’t too crazy about the break.
Then there was Jon Jones and what can you say? He is the man. I thought Lyoto Machida could cause problems for him and did to some extent in the first round but it was mostly an inactive round. Then Jones came out strong in the second and it looked like he figured some stuff out. He put the pressure on and gave it to Machida, which was so impressive. That’s why he’s one of the best.
As for the local Canadians, it was great to see Mark Bocek redeem himself in Toronto, but I was disappointed for Claude Patrick, I thought he pulled out a close decision, but it didn’t go his way. It was also really tough for Mark Hominick to get caught early like that. He makes one small mistake and it was over. We all know he’s a warrior but he didn’t get to show it.
Despite the much smaller venue than the first time in Toronto, I think MMA is still as big as it ever was in Ontario. You can’t just look at the numbers. I was in the arena, and it was a packed house, it was electric and it seemed like everyone loved being there. It was louder than Rogers Centre. If you missed the show, you missed out because it was a great card.
I personally had mixed feelings about not being a part of that card itself. Obviously I would have loved to be on the card and make up for first one in April, when I lost to Jake Ellenberger at UFC 129.
But I’m really glad I was on the first one. That was a great experience. And everybody wants to fight in their home town, as it’s always exciting to fight in front of your fans.
But the truth of the matter is I have to start fighting on some international cards and build some new fans outside of my home country. Most of my fans are Canadians, which I totally appreciate and will never turn my back on, but I definitely need to build a fan base and fighting at UFC 141 in Las Vegas on Dec. 30 will give me that opportunity.
Competing in the fight capital of the world won’t be so bad. I’ve never done it before, so it should be a good time. The hard work of my training camp is mostly done, but there’s still plenty of preparation to be done for my fight.
Join me again next week when I discuss my matchup against Dong Hyun Kim. In the meantime, follow me on Twitter @seanpierson.
Sean Pierson takes on Dong Hyun Kim at UFC 141 on Friday, Dec. 30 in Las Vegas.
UFC 141 will be shown live on pay-per-view at 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT. Watch live preliminary fights on Sportsnet starting at 9 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. PT.