2020 was a year where the simplest of controversies could linger for a long time. Everyone is trapped inside their homes, or at least those who are following the rules are, and tensions are high. Thankfully some sports have returned and kept us entertained and for hard-core martial arts fans we had things like Submission Underground.
SUG is a grappling event card of equally matched opponents that have considerable skills in grappling disciplines. Each pair gets five minutes in which they have to submit the other. If there is not a winner they go into a series of overtimes. A recent event had some controversy in one of those overtimes and people are still trading shots about it.
In the main event, Donald Cerrone and Rafeal dos Anjos squared off in a match that went into overtime. It appeared at one point that Dos Anjos tapped and it was stopped but shortly after it was determined that the tap was actually a hand push. They went into another overtime and this time there was no doubt that Donald secured a submission victory.
The next day the headlines were all praising Donald for a double submission win. This has not set well with Dos Anjos or his camp. As is the way with the Internet, people on social media have constantly reminded him that he lost twice. One of those was Conor McGregor.
He started off his tweet innocently enough. He praised the UFC for a great year of events. He applauded himself for having the highest pay-per-view buy rate for his fight with Donald Cerrone. Then he congratulated Cerrone for his double submission win. One of Conor’s many rivals is Rafael dos Anjos so there was no doubt he would be paying attention. The former lightweight champion wasted no time in firing back.
Rafael is correct. He did defeat Cowboy both times they fought in the UFC and in all fairness he was very gracious in defeat until fans and trolls annoyed him enough that he wasn’t.
It’s amazing what passes for drama in 2020.