Conspiracy theories are something that have picked up a lot of steam with Americans since 2011. Fueled by a secretive government and wave after wave of awful things that seem to happen to everyday people, I don’t blame a lot of people for looking for more meaning in these situations as opposed to them just being mindless, senseless acts of violence. The MMA world is not immune to these sorts of conspiracy theories, either, as over the past week there have been many a fan who believe that Luke Rockhold and Vitor Belfort had somehow “fixed” their fight and that Rockhold took a dive to make Belfort look good in front of a Brazilian audience.
Now, let’s get this out of the way here, this has happened in MMA before, specifically in PRIDE. There is a good chance that one of your favorite fights might have been fixed. That is kind of a sad reality to reflect on, isn’t it?
Anyway, Luke Rockhold confronted these conspiracy theorists and explained that he would not, under any circumstances, take a dive in his professional fighting career. Sure, you might see Rockhold nod before Vitor throws the kick, but fighters do a lot of things with their heads during a fight, it doesn’t mean that they are signaling for someone to give them brain damage.