At UFC 162, Chris Weidman proved his worth after taking down Anderson Silva in the second round via TKO. Though Weidman should be credit for his historic defeat of the ‘Spider’, Silva’s demonstration of his humanity begs for many questions. Silva looked, and sounded, like he was ready to call it quits from the opening bell, which was very puzzling to witness. With that said, it will be difficult to answer all the questions after such a fight, but there’s one fact that should not be ignored; Nike is ruining the careers of Brazilian fighters.
Brazilian Fighters and the ‘Nike Curse’
Sports fans are quite used to these curses. One of the more recent and prominent examples would be the ‘Madden Curse’. Madden, referring to the popular football video game, has a different athlete on the cover of their cases. More often than not, the player on the Madden cover has a pretty poor season or a career-threatening injury. If you find this hard to believe, check out this article on Cracked.com.
This past NFL season, Calvin Johnson Jr. may have finally put an end to the wretched Madden Curse. Then again, the release of Madden 14 is not till August 28, so keep your fingers crossed for the one known as ‘Megatron’. However, if Johnson Jr. does put an end to the Madden Curse, there seems to be a shift from NFL players and the video game to Brazilian UFC fighters and Nike.
Even though the Madden Curse has been documented for more than a decade, the recent trend with Nike sponsorship deals and Brazilian UFC fighters is very comparable. The three fighters with major Nike sponsorship deals are Jon ‘Bones’ Jones, Junior ‘Cigano’ Dos Santos, and Anderson Silva. In the case of Jones, he has been reaping the benefits of his Nike contract from the start. He has yet to lose and is even considering a jump in weight class. He’s also not Brazilian, keeping him safe from the growing phenomena known as the ‘Nike Curse’.
In the other two case studies, things become very interesting. Firstly, Dos Santos had an immaculate UFC career before signing with Nike. He had just one MMA loss and beat top quality fighters before capturing the UFC Heavyweight Championship. Dos Santos kept an undefeated UFC record before facing Cain Velasquez for the second time at UFC 155, where he was completely outclassed. Interestingly, the shift from Pretorian to Nike seems to be a leading factor of his downfall. In Anderson Silva’s case, he should have stuck with the Burger King fight t-shirt, or a Sport Club Corinthians jersey. Sadly, Silva decided to sport the “Anderson Knows” Nike t-shirt, and his fate proved to be the same as Dos Santos.
Superstitions are a major part of professional sports, and it seems time for Brazilian UFC fighters to carefully choose their sponsors. Both Dos Santos and Silva were riding historical highs before suffering their individual downfalls. While Dos Santos is young enough to push forward, Silva seems to be on the verge of retirement. Nike has had a key role to play in both careers, and it is time for Brazilian fighters in the UFC to take notice. If they decide to support the ‘swoosh’ and sign on with Nike, hopefully they can put an early end to the ‘Nike Curse’, or watch it spin out of hand. After last night, surely Chan Sung-Jung will hope to see Jose Aldo wearing a Nike t-shirt at UFC 163, since it will only help his chances. Hopefully Aldo uses the evidence of his fellow countrymen and stays clear of Nike and their detrimental sponsorships.
