Sheep-Goats posted:

They should have just changed it to an exhibition or whatever. The first time you end up in a spot like this as a fighter you usually don't know what you're supposed to do so you just go out and murder the other person because your prep was to be maximally ready and fight to your fullest and it's hard to put the brakes on a train. People who have been fighting for a long time but haven't managed to climb the ladder far enough end up doing these fights from time to time and you learn to take it easy on the chump so long as the chump isn't swinging for the fences (which puts you at a small risk of losing to a chump, especially in mma). An undefeated fighter will be given shots up the ladder very often even if he's only like 6-0. Once you have a defeat it's like you're begging for any meaningful and therefore potentially monetarily rewarding contest at all, especially if you're a boxer, but also if you're an mma fighter. Your coach is usually a fighter with a deep history in the sport but who never made it to the upper crust, which means he's likely to have a 30-7 record or something like that, and he remembers what happened to his prospects after his first loss, so often your coach will tell you to take no chances and just put the opponent dead away, even if they're obviously poo poo and almost no risk to you.