UFC + NFR = Alphabet Soup of Modern Gladiators
By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
Rodeo has down-to-earth, humble cowboys riding bulls and bucking horses when not wrestling steers to the arena dirt, while UFC has over-the-top theatrical fighters talking trash before engaging in hand-to-hand combat in metal cages.
So, you don’t think of National Finals Rodeo and Ultimate Fighting Championship as crossover athletic pursuits.
But NFR contestant Tim O’Connell, a three-time world titlist in bareback riding, enjoyed hobnobbing with UFC belt holders Wednesday whe UFC staged a panel chat with six fighters competing in a trio of championship cage matches in Saturday’s UFC 245 fight show at T-Mobile Arena.
Tim O’Connell in action. Photo credit: ProRodeo/PRCA photo by Dan Hubbell.
O’Connell, a 28-year-old Iowa native who has nearly $1.5 million in pro rodeo earnings, posed for photos with the likes of UFC’s women’s star fighter Amanda Nunes, a 31-year-old Brazilian considered the fiercest woman’s fighter on the planet.
At first blush, you wouldn’t think a cowboy from Iowa and a MMA star from Brazil have much in common. But the bareback rider said there is one common denominator.
“We’re the modern day gladiators,” O’Connell observed. “I love the fighting game.”
LVSportsBiz.com chatted with O’Connell after he met a half-dozen UFC fighters competing in three world championship bouts.
“She’s a humble, dominant champion,” O’Connell said of Nunes, who has a down-to-earth personality you might see on the pro rodeo circuit.
Nunes has succeeded former UFC star Ronda Rousey as the promotion’s premier woman’s fighter, but has not been pumped up like Rousey was by UFC to become a mainstream sports star in the U.S.
“UFC blew up Ronda and Ronda killed it,” O’Connell observed.
O’Connell is a former high school wrestler who wrestled in weight classes from 112-135 pounds. O’Connell said he grew to love UFC during the time of UFC star’s Georges St-Pierre’s reign as a two-division welterweight and middleweight MMA champion.
O’Connell said he brings the mindset of his old competitive wrestler days to the rodeo arena, especially when it’s time to ride the “baddest of the baddest horses.”
He joked the cowboys’ animal opponents in the rodeo arena have a hefty weight advantage over them unlike the UFC fighters who punch, choke and wrestle each other in the UFC Octagon.
“It’s kill or be killed,” he said of the similar mindset in the two different sports.
By Saturday night, Nunes hopes to keep her belt in a fight against Germaine de Randamie, while O’Connell would relish another gold buckle.
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