Obiter Dicta Issue 6 - November 9, 2016 | Page 13

SPORTS Tuesday, November 10, 2015   13 Daddy’s Home kareem webster › staff writer I a lways enjoy a good storyline coming into a sporting event. I think a lot of people do. It adds to the hype. It raises the stakes. It gives you another reason to root for this person or that team, if you so choose. In non-team sports, like boxing or mixed martial arts (MMA), spectators often identify a little more with one of the competitors over the other. Instead of focusing on their acumen or prowess in the sport itself, spectators tend to take the personality, integrity, and moral views of the fighter and use that to judge whether or not they will cheer for them. In a sport as controversial as MMA, the fighter who takes on the role of the heel or anti-hero is often a big draw. Fans and people who tune in casually either want this fighter to succeed because their bouts are exciting or want this person to get the life smacked out of him or her. Either way, a lot of people tune in to see big MMA fights, whether legally or illegally. Whoever the photographer was took that picture (with that fortuitous click) above captured a scene that was the flashpoint to the biggest UFC fight of the year. It would appear that these two are in the middle of an embrace, as though Jon “Bones” Jones (left) had just returned from a long absence, away from his companion Daniel Cormier. Oh, it was far from two lovers being reunited. Trust me. Preceding this picture was the conventional fighter’s weigh-in, a press conference