Cheat 2 Win: Is The Late, Great Eddie Guerrero MMA's Most Powerful Pro Wrestling Influencer?

Some Late Thoughts on UFC 286

Some late thoughts on UFC 286.

I learned a lot in my four years in the United States Army, not all of it bad. You meet people from all across the country (and the world) in the service, and the institution reflects that, becoming a true representation of the various Americas in a way nothing else quite manages.

In the Army, the whitest of white bread learns to talk about being “back on the block” and to call a beat-up old car a “hooptie” despite having never heard the famous Sir Mix-A-Lot song.

You learn to “break it down Barney style” for the less intellectually gifted and “drive it like you stole it”. You watch your “Six” and keep eyes peeled for “Blue Falcons”. These are life lessons I carry with me to this day, learned the hard way in formations filled with people both just like me and people so different they might as well have been space aliens.

Most of all, you learn one motto that stands above all others, a guiding light for how to conduct your life in and out of combat: “If you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying.”

In pro wrestling, that spirit was best represented by the incomparable Eddie Guerrero. Lie, cheat, steal, there was no deed too vile, no depth too low, nothing Guerrero wouldn’t do to win a match (or the heart of his beloved Chyna).

His was no garden-variety skullduggery either. No, Eddie was slick about it. When the ref was down, he’d bring a chair to the ring but not necessarily to waylay his foe. He’d, instead, throw himself to the ground and pretend his opponent had been the one to knock him senseless. It was genius, and his genuine spirit, sly smirk and passion for the business overwhelmed the audience to the point that they didn’t just forgive his evil ways—they embraced them.

This kind of blatant cheating is endemic in the mixed martial arts as well. Some of our most iconic fighters were chronic rulebreakers. Sure, there were villains like Jon Jones and Josh Koscheck who stuck their fingers out and “Lisa Simpson’ed” their way to victory. But even a beloved champion like the “Iceman” Chuck Liddell was notorious for his gouging, his karate inspired eye thrusts earning him the mocking appellation “the eyesman” from opponents.

Jon Jones, the former King of the Foul

Jake Shields, in the days before he was a conservative social media influencer, nearly upset the great Georges St-Pierre after a number of blatant gouges. When Jones struggled with Alexander Gustafsson, the old finger in the eye helped turn the tide. In MMA, cheating just makes sense. Why shouldn’t you cheat? There are almost never any consequences.

My friend (and Hybrid Shoot author) Chad Dundas from the Co-Main Event Podcast has even built his own martial art around this concept. Dundasso—always cheat. The way the rules are so lackadaisically enforced, it’s a sucker move to do anything else. Either you’re the poker or the pokee. And, when it comes to eyes at least, you don’t ever want to be the pokee.

The latest Dundasso proponent is current welterweight champion Leon Edwards. His win over former champion Kamaru Usman at the O2 in London was a tour-de-force in Guerrero-ism. He grabbed his opponent’s gloves throughout to escape some tricky predicaments, recorded no fewer than five low blows, multiple eye pokes and two blatant fence grabs to avoid being taken to his back. Sure, he eventually lost a point. But is there any surprise he won the bout after the extra-legal carnage he wreaked?

It was an awe-inspiring display. The story of MMA has been it’s rapid-fire evolution over 30 years and that’s true when it comes to massaging the rules as well. Sure Royce Gracie grabbed Kimo’s topknot, Tank Abbott tried to toss Cal Worsham out of the cage and Gerard Gordeau gently nibbled on Royce’s earlobe in the early days of the UFC. But none of them could have imagined the kind of underhanded chicanery Edwards used to preserve his championship status.

Some, like potential future challenger Belal Muhammad might call him a dirty fighter. To that I say “yeah” and “so what?” Perhaps Edwards is a blatant and incurable cheat. He’s also the champion. Long may he reign.