If you were to ask me, ‘Hey Chael, what's it take to be a star in the UFC?' I could give you a pretty good guess, but that's all it would be. I don't really know.
Every year there's something called a Fighter Summit. And the very first one we went to, Dana White touched on this topic, and I'll quote Dana, because he was right. Dana said, ‘I don't know what it takes to be a star. It's a very strange formula.' You take a guy like Conor McGregor, it's overnight. You take a guy like Brock Lesnar, he just walks into the spot.
But the one constant the stars have is they win their fights. Every time you win, you get another fight. Every time you get a fight, you get promotion, marketing and media. Those things are what makes stars. It's the same thing with football. It's not whoever throws the most touchdowns. It's whoever makes it on ESPN or FOX Sports 1 the most that becomes the most famous quarterback. That's just how it works.
Fighting is an expression. It's a form of speech, and that's why they call it martial arts. It's an art. The greatest form of expression, or at least the most common that we have as human beings, what separates us from the animals, is speaking -- the ability to communicate. That's also an expression and an art, and they go hand in hand.
People bring it up to me, ‘Well, you're only in your spot because you can talk well.' Okay, first off, you could be right. But second, what, am I supposed to apologize for this? No. This is expression. I don't know any other way to communicate besides speaking. I mean, maybe I could pump it out in Morse code, but I don't think as many people are going to understand as when I just say the words. So yes, I think that everybody could do a better job of that.
I'm not a fight fan. If two guys walked outside right now and got into a fight, I'm not going to go out and watch. However, I'm a UFC fan, because I know who's fighting. I know why it's important to them, I know a little about each guy. And the UFC can't do all that on their own. We depend on fighters to tell the story. Why should I want you to win? Or, why should I want you to lose? Most importantly, why should I care about this match? And that's what the UFC does so well, they tell that story. Help them. They'll give you a medium. They'll give you interviews. Help them. When they do that, don't miss a chance.
I'll see a guy have a microphone in his face, and they'll ask him, ‘Who do you want to fight?' They will say time and time again, ‘Whoever the UFC wants me to fight.' Look, we're all just kind of banging our heads into a wall, going, ‘Listen genius, we know that's who you're going to fight. You have to fight who the UFC wants you to fight. The question was, who do you want? And you just missed your opportunity.' This is America. You're not going to get anything you don't ask for in this country. Don't be afraid, and don't be ashamed to ask.
I think a lot of guys don't pay attention. They don't pay attention to the industry. I don't think they pay attention very well to the fans.
We also deal with a misconception. There's a tremendous misconception. You'll hear this about martial arts -- martial arts are about respect and honor and all of these things. Don't forget, mixed martial arts is just a term that the Nevada state legislature created in 2001 to pass a law. It's not real. It's not what we're doing. We're fighting in a steel cage. That's what we're doing, with extremely limited rules.
One of the guys I enjoy being on camera the most is Nick Diaz. He hates it though. It's like, Nick, how can you possibly hate this? You're so good. Everything he says is interesting or funny. His post-fight speech with Joe Rogan after he lost to St-Pierre, this was gold. I'd have paid $50 just to hear that.
In a traditional martial arts gym, whether it's karate or kung fu or aikido, these guys will tell their students, ‘Whatever you do, make sure you never get in a fight. Walk away. Don't ever fight anybody, because you could really hurt them.' Now what they're really saying is, I know what I'm teaching you doesn't work. I don't want you to ever test it, because if it does, your father is going to quit bringing me $50 each month. Reality time: this isn't about honor and respect. This is about beating your opponent. This isn't about competition. This is a dirty and nasty sport that we do, because for some reason, you love it. And there's no need to apologize for that.
