Thoughts On Siyar Bahadurzada: If He's Unprofessional, Then We're All Hypocrites

I consider myself an MMA fan first and foremost, but I’ll admit that my first reaction was “Who?” when it was announced that Siyar Bahadurzada was recently part of an interview that saw him go on a verbal rampage and take surging promotion Strikeforce to task for not utilizing him in over a year since he signed his Strikeforce contract. Nevertheless, I soon learned exactly who Bahadurzada was, since the interview quickly roared through the internet and invited a host of controversy and discussion. Bahadurzada recently commented on the controversy, and he had some interesting points. Here are the highlights as well as my reaction.

First, this is some of what Bahadurzada had to say in a new interview with MMA Fighting: “It’s pretty frustrating, because [it's] a year of my career when I’m in top shape… I tell everybody I have a good and a dark side, and my dark side comes out every once in a while when I really feel I’ve been disrespected… I have been treated unprofessionally for the last one and a half year[s]. When you feel your prime is here and nobody gives a damn about your prime or your career, then you feel disrespected.”

I’d like to start out by saying that there are ways of voicing your concern without things getting ugly. Bahadurzada could have handled this in a more professional manner, we can certainly all agree on that. He didn’t have to take to the internet and vocally accuse Strikeforce of mismanaging him, he could have done several different things without putting Strikeforce in the cross-hairs and letting loose with a story that would surely drum up some drama in the court of public opinion.

But here’s the thing so few of us are willing to admit: we loves us some drama, we feed off of it, and we’d probably do the exact same thing if we were in his position.

So, yes, he could have handled it in a more professional manner, but let’s not throw stones in our glass houses, and let’s not be the pot calling the kettle black.

I empathize with Siyar Bahadurzada. I think he has a right to feel misused, and to be bluntly honest, he has a right to voice that concern any way he feels like it, including by taking to the internet and slamming the company he feels is mismanaging him. So what if he stirs up some drama? It’s his life, his contract, it’s his right. As someone who has gone to great lengths to both vocally give my opinion on controversial topics and vocally support that opinion, don’t tell me a fighter should have been more professional. He’s a fighter, he’s earned the right to air out his transgressions in any and every way he wants to.

I hate to take a stand against Strikeforce since I’m such a big fan of the promotion and far more often than not I wish them nothing but the best, but I’m firmly siding with Siyar on this occasion. Either use him or lose him, but don’t keep him in limbo and wrap him up in red tape while he’s in the prime of his career. And if he has to shout “mismanagement” from the rooftops in order for somebody, anybody, to finally start listening and paying attention? Then I respect him for having the stones to voice his opinion in that vocal of a manner, far more than I scold him for being somewhat unprofessional and disrespectful.

And that’s how I feel on the matter, fans and friends. What about you? What’s your take on this controversial situation?