UFC: What Price Friendship?

Friendship...

This is Grandma Dee's favorite subject.

If I were a preacher, this would come up somewhere in every sermon.

Christianity to me is all about friends.

I have had many battles on this, but my whole impression of Jesus Christ was that he was a friend to every man.

Prostitutes, Lepers, the blind and the lame...Jesus spent time with them all.

What I hate about religion is the cliques it encourages.

There are groups who consider themselves "good, Christians" and exclude those they deem unworthy of Christ's love.

But, this is regarding MMA, so what relevance, if any, does friendship have in MMA?

To Dana White, friendship must always have a price tag attached to it. Finding the correct figure is all he needs to do to schedule a fight between two training partners who are friends.

Not everyone disagrees with Dana.

BJ Penn has said that he would gladly step up to fight any of the young men he has mentored, such as loyal Joe Lauzon.

Well, great for BJ and Dana White if he wants to set up a fight between the two, but setting up a fight between Keith Jardine and Rashad Evans does not have a price tag—it is a matter of the heart of two brother warriors.

For ages it has been deemed unethical for doctors to have family members as their own patients, so why should the thought of two members of the same camp who are not willing to face each other in the cage so enrage Dana White?

It would seem that to Dana, everything has a price.

Well, Grandma is not on board with that and admires others who share her sentiments about loyalty and friendship.

When Rich Franklin said that fighting his friend Matt Hamill last year was fine with him, I did not doubt that he could accomplish the feat, but my big concern was, could Matt Hamill say the same about fighting his mentor, Rich?

In the end, when Hamill lost, I ,like his coaches and those close to him, believed he just did not have it in his heart to go all out against his friend.

The feelings and impressions that I get about matters like this are very strong gut feelings. Those who know me, especially from my career as a nurse, know that I will always follow my gut feelings. So far I am 100 percent by doing so.

My husband has always argued with me about Georges St.Pierre having said that he will never fight any of his friends and training partners.

To my husband and others this is perceived as being "unprofessional."

Not me. I would have difficulty purposely injuring a stranger, let alone deliberately setting out to do harm to a friend.

So, will Dana finally hit on "the right price" and be able to get Rashad and Keith to square off against each other?

Will friendship prevail against Dana's materialistic and often tyrannic tactics?

Does the UFC or MMA recognize the concept of friendship?

I have told you Grandma Dee's views, but finally, "What would Jesus do?"