The Thin Line Between Confidence and Arrogance

The first day of August had started with a bang, and until now most of you still cannot get over about UFC 190, where we saw "Rowdy" Ronda Rousey destroy Bethe Correia in under 34 seconds, and retain the UFC Women's Bantamweight Championship.

But what's more interesting though is before the actual fight, that is, during the weigh-ins, where Correia screamed at Rousey's face during the staredown. As a result, the iconic picture of it has ended up having various memes, including the photo above. I think Correia will be perfect as Frieza.

Another aspect that we should also point out is the hype-up of the fight. Despite the fact that Rousey had finished all but one of her previous fights within a round, Correia displayed much confidence heading into the bout, stating that she planned to give Rousey the worst beating of her career. In addition, Correia also remarked about suicide, probably alluding to the suicide of Rousey's biological father, Ron Rousey. She said, 

"I will give her a rematch if she doesn't cry too much. She can't take the pressure. I will give her the chance to get the belt back. Please, don't kill yourself, don't commit suicide, because I will give you the rematch."

Rousey responded via Twitter:

"Suicide is no joke or selling point. My father will be with me the day I hand you the comeuppance you deserve."

Correia later apologized for that remark by saying she did not know Rousey's father committed suicide, but still bashed Rousey with her alleged post-Olympic drug use. Nevertheless, we all know what happened on August 1.

Someone once said, "Confidence is silent. Insecurities are loud." Yet despite fighters like Rousey and Correia having great promo-hyping skills, everybody will agree with me in saying that their trash talking and publicly downplaying the opponent's abilities, even though both are good ways to generate more publicity to the sport, sometimes get into our nerves.

Aside from Rousey, there are other fighters who have the skills to back up their promo-hyping, like that a**hole by the name of Floyd Mayweather. Most of us hate him in all aspects, yet he has an undefeated record of 48 wins, and will tie Rocky Marciano's record of 49-0 if he beats Andre Berto this September. But I don't give a f*** about him even if he wins his upcoming fight, or beats Marciano's record. I have already cursed Mayweather by saying his fate is written on Luke 12:20, when he said that he will never have a rematch with Manny Pacquiao "at this particular time... because he's a sore loser and he's a coward."

Because of this, I realized that there is a thin line between confidence and arrogance.

We do not exactly know if a certain fighter is being confident or overconfident, even if he/she has the skills to back it all up. Especially for undefeated fighters like Rousey and Mayweather, wherein their unblemished records has become part of their ego, yet both of them have different ways to maintain their perfect record. 

However, there are still people who don't have the balls to prove they are what they say. Consider the fight between Ben "10" Nguyen and Julian "Julz The Jackal" Rabaud in Nitro MMA 11 in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia on March 8, 2014. 

During the weigh-ins, Rabaud placed his fists on Nguyen's face in his attempt to build hype for his upcoming title defense, though he was probably got a little overzealous. It is clearly shown that Rabaud displayed arrogance in the staredown, while Nguyen is uncomfortable with the confrontation, which should have probably signaled Rabaud to take it easy.

However, during the fight itself, Nguyen knocked out Rabaud in under 25 seconds of Round 1, and became the new Nitro Bantamweight Champion. Nguyen is now in the UFC in the flyweight division.

While the internet is currently enjoying this fact at Rabaud's expense, there are other fighters who are also at his situation. Like the British-Pakistani boxer Usman Ahmed, whose video of him having a long dancing entrance and later knocked out also went viral over the internet.

However, take note that the viral video consists of two different fights. The long entrance was from his fight against Chris Edwards for the British and Commonwealth title, which he lost via decision. The knockout, meanwhile, was from his fight against then-undefeated Ashley Sexton for the English flyweight title. As stated, footage from the bout went viral including Ahmed's over confident ring entrance followed by his speedy knockout. Ahmed went onto claim he "gave a lot of weight away" during both fights, and stated that both boxers were a stone heavier than him, he said with the help of a nutritionist he's got the full weight on.

To sum it all up, though confidence help you prove to everybody you can do it, sometimes, too much is very dangerous. It can lead to arrogance, and it will be nerve-racking for someone as such when he /she loses a fight and let his/her fans down. So it is very important for a fighter to remain down-to earth and take a look back from his/her roots, so that he/she will be loved, not hated, for life.

I, the Pooch, have spoken.

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