One of the great myths in all of sports is the Madden Curse – the belief that the athlete on the cover of the EA Sports Madden video game would have some terrible luck and grave misfortune afflict him. From Garrison Hearst to Michael Vick to Shaun Alexander, there are plenty of stories of Madden athletes seeing a downturn in their careers after appearing on the cover of the video game. Even though Madden ’16 star Odell Beckham Jr. had another great statistical year, he was suspended late in the year in an incident with Josh Norman where he completely lost all semblance of sanity. Cursed.
Given the events of the weekend at the UFC 196 PPV, we have to wonder whether or not the Madden Curse has now transferred over to another video game franchise from EA Sports. Take a look at the cover athletes that were on the box for EA Sports UFC 2, set to be released on March 16th, and tell me that there’s not something spooky happening here…
#UFC196 pic.twitter.com/fOz35VGSzV
— BLACK ADAM SCHEFTER (@B1ackSchefter) March 6, 2016
Sorry, wrong one.
Yep, that’s Ronda Rousey and Connor McGregor. Both victims of massive upsets in their last fights in the octagon. Rousey was defeated for the first time in a professional fight after she got blitzed by Holly Holm. The loss was so devastating for Rousey that she spoke out about having suicidal thoughts in the aftermath.
The big-talking McGregor wasn’t going to be able to back it up in the cage forever, and he got choked out by Nate Diaz this past weekend when trying to move up in weight class. McGregor is still going to talk trash and be one of UFC’s vocal stars, but the loss puts a massive dent in his aura of invincibility and hopes of becoming UFC’s next crossover megastar.
I know what you’re thinking… one video game cover does not make a jinx. And you’d be right… but let’s now examine who was on the cover of EA Sports UFC, released in June 2014, and see what happened to the careers of those fighters.
Jon “Bones” Jones and Alexander Gustafsson donned the cover of the first EA Sports UFC game. Nearly a year after appearing on the cover, Jones was stripped of his Light Heavyweight Championship after his involvement in a hit-and-run accident and suspended him indefinitely. He’ll finally make his return to the octagon in April in a rematch with Daniel Cormier, 15 months after his last fight.
As for Gustaffson, he’s lost his only two fights since appearing on the cover – in January 2015 versus Anthony Johnson and in October 2015 versus Cormier for Jones’ vacant title. Gustaffson is currently on medical leave after the fight.
Maybe it’s the nature of mixed martial arts, where so many talented fighters compete and the margin between victory and defeat is a razor’s edge. Many fighters have looked unstoppable… at least until they were stopped. Nevertheless, right now there’s compelling evidence that there is at least the beginning foundations of a UFC cover jinx because right now EA Sports UFC is batting 1,000 in cursing its fighters.
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