UFC Fight Night 99’s Gegard Mousasi: ‘Nowadays, the good guys always come last’

Fighting used to be a lot easier for UFC middleweight Gegard Mousasi.

In the early days, when the 31-year-old Dutch-Armenian fought in Japan, the routine was simple: fight, get paid, go home.

Now, things are a little bit more complicated. Being a part of the industry-leading promotion means he needs to bring more to the table than just fighting skills. The former DREAM and Strikeforce champ needs to sell fights.

“It’s entertainment value,” Mousasi (40-6-2 MMA, 7-3 UFC), who on Saturday rematches Uriah Hall (12-7 MMA, 5-5 UFC) at UFC Fight Night 99, told MMAjunkie. “It’s like a soap opera. People like the drama, people want to see breakups and makeups. I don’t know what they see. They like to see expensive stuff on Instagram. It’s not just fighting.”

Mousasi didn’t know that until he signed with the UFC after a run in the now-defunct Strikeforce. But recently, he figured he would take another approach to his career. Rather than repeat the usual tropes about his fights, he would simply tell people what he thought.

The result showed at the post-event press conference for his most recent bout, a one-sided drubbing of ex-champ Vitor Belfort at UFC 204. He mocked the antics of current two-division champ Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz and made a passionate case for high-profile fights – or a rematch with Hall, who knocked him more than one year ago in an upset.

“I figured out, it doesn’t matter if I’m polite or not, or if I’m humble and respectful to my opponent,” Mousasi said. “It doesn’t matter. People will like you or still hate you for that. Now, I just speak my mind.

“Still people don’t like it. Some people like it. At least I’m being myself. I say what I feel. I don’t make things up. I don’t feel like I’m selling somebody something. I’m not an actor. I’m just more outspoken.”

Mousasi, the No. 7 ranked fighter in the USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA middleweight rankings, pointed out the shallowness that resonates with combat sport’s biggest stars and the “popularity contest” driving UFC matchmaking decisions. He doesn’t regret his choice of words. If doing that makes him “the bad guy,” he’ll happily be cast in that role.

“I’m not promoting anything,” he said. :I’m just being myself. I understand how it works now. Being a quiet guy and saying, ‘I like this fight and I respect my opponent,’ nobody gives a (expletive) about that.

“Nowadays, the good guys always come last. It’s the idiots. People like that. If you’re a bad guy, people are interested to know you. I can play the bad guy. I don’t need to be liked. If they hate me, they’re going to want to watch me lose. People want to see a reason people are fighting each other. So I’ll give them a reason.”

If there was one reason Mousasi would suggest to watch Saturday’s fight, which headlines the UFC Fight Pass-streamed event at SSE Arena Belfast in Belfast, Northern Ireland, it would be his goal to avenge what he considers to be a fluke loss. He believes that after dominating the now No. 15-ranked Hall in the first round, he became overeager and got caught by the spinning back-kick that set up his loss.

“I started off very quickly, because I got complaints from the UFC that I had a boring fight with (Costas Phillippou), so I thought, I’ll show them I can finish guys,” Mousasi said. “I felt I needed to prove something. I’m not going to make that mistake again.

“I’m not going to be patient. I’m not going to want go through him. I’m going to take my time, but I don’t believe it’s going to last three rounds.

“The first round, I was dominating. I started off very quickly, because I got complaints from the UFC that I had a boring fight with Philippou, so I thought, I’ll show them I can finish guys. I felt I needed to prove something. I’m not going to make that mistake again.”

And after realizing the way the UFC really works, he said, he’ll never make the mistake of caring too much about what others think. He’ll just call it like he sees it.

For more on UFC Fight Night 99, check out the UFC Rumors section of MMAjunkie.