As many of you know, Ultimate Fighting Bantamweight Champion Ronda Rousey was upset by Holly Holm. Ms. Holm’s victory is called, ‘the greatest upset in UFC history’. What does this have to do with technology?
Days earlier, EA sports announced Ronda Rousey would grace the cover of the video game UFC 2. Then the undefeated champion got defeated. In June 2014, Jon Jones was considered the greatest of all UFC fighters. He made the cover of video game UFC that month. Shortly thereafter, Jones suffered an injury at practice. His match with Daniel Cormier was delayed. The press conference turned into mayhem. He tested positive for cocaine use and was stripped of his belt. Rising UFC star Alexander Gustafsson made the cover alongside Jones. Gustafsson hasn’t won since. In February 2012, Anderson Silva made the cover. The next year, he suffered a severe leg injury and tested positive for steroids. And then there’s Brock Lesnar. He made the cover of UFC Undisputed 2010. Months later, he lost his belt and suffered an injury that eventually caused him to retire from MMA. At least Lesnar found redemption. He went back to the WWE, won the WWE World Championship and broke the Undertaker’s Wrestlemania win streak.
Sports curses are nothing new. There was Boston Red Sox’s curse of the Babe. There is the Chicago Cubs’ curse of the billy goat. And why hasn’t the city of Cleveland won a major sports title since the mid-1960s? And other covers have been jinked as well. Look at the Sports?Illustrated cover. It’s often been linked with jinxes. For example, in 1987, the Cleveland Indians made the cover, with the title ‘Believe It!’. After the cover, they lost 101 games and finished last that season. In the 1950s, baseball legend Eddie Matthews was one of the first to make cover. A short time later, he was injured and had to miss a week of baseball. And there’s the NFL Madden video game curse. In 2004, Micheal Vick made the cover of NFL Madden. Guess what happened two or three years later? I rest my case. Are UFC video covers cursed?