When Trash Talk Goes Too Far | Opinion

Trash talk in combat sports is one of those things you kind of anticipate. These people are gonna beat the crap out of eachother, they both obviously disagree on who is going to win. They're gonna try to get in the other persons head or look cool on camera or bolster how they'll win the fight. It's fun to watch at times but sometimes it just goes too far.

You hear things like "I'm gonna knock him out." Or "She's not gonna make it past the first round with me." Attacks on their opponents toughness, critique of their prior fights or style. That's all good and well. Even encouraged, it promotes the PPV sales. Gets people wanting to watch. These types of insults are brushed off and after the fight, the fighters will still hug each other.

Once you step into immediate family, death threats, mocking the deceased. That reaches a low. A level so low that you can't justify it as a means to promote PPV sales. Daniel Cormier said Conor's latest Twitter smack talk against Khabib's late father is more like a cry for help. Whatever it is, needs to be managed. There's a certain level of respect that we should give everyone on this planet.

You've gotta be really insecure to bring someone's recently deceased father into a insult. Let alone including the globally catastrophic pandemic. Conor is done as a fighter with his recent losses, is this substance abuse? Did Khabib give him a serious head injury? Who really knows what's going on with Conor. Maybe Daniel Cormier is right.

Conor deletes the tweet which shows some form of competency to realize it was something he shouldn't have said. It was up long enough though that everyone saw it and it was archived. If the guy doesn't get his act together soon, he may wind up losing his ability to sell fights by continuously losing. Losing his endorsements for vile and unprofessional behavior.

So let's hope we see a 180 degree turn in behavior. Maybe Conor will give a sincere apology. Follow Khabib's lead by recognizing when to retire and move onto training the next best fighter. One can only hope.