When a play DOESN'T come together Wait, wait. Now I understand. Now I can see it clearly. Now it all starts to make a bit more sense. What am I talking about? I'm glad you asked. Lets take a look at some rather...questionable and very hypothetical situations.
Imagine New York Giants head coach Tom Coughlin announced shortly after his team's shocking championship win that the NFL gave his team a bonus for not blitzing Patriots QB Tom Brady.
Hmmm...
Still with me? Ok. What if Buster Douglas announced the morning after he knocked Mike Tyson out that Don King had agreed to line his pockets with a nice bonus had he bunched only with his off hand?
Maybe that one isn't so much a stretch, but you get the picture.
Let's go a bit further.
How about if then-Bulls head coach Phil Jackson declared the NBA's intention of paying out a lump sum for beating the Suns since Jordan dished off the ball instead of driving the dagger in himself? Or the NFL paying the Bears and Mike Ditka for winning without having Walter Payton run it into the endzone in favor of William Perry?
I think you get where I'm going, but let's imagine just one more thing;
If any of the above had actually happened, think of the anarchy and amageddon that would follow! Federal investigations, non-stop questioning, job terminations, and possible jail time.
So why then, is Seth Petruzelli's announcment that Elite XC had paid him to "stand and trade with him", and "They didn’t want me to take him down, let’s just put it that way. It was worth my while to try to stand up and punch with him" not being put under such massive investigation?
I know why...and so do you.
It doesn't surprise anyone.
Just look at the line of tomato cans Elite XC has put in front of Kimbo and then look at their knockout loss count. It makes sense now that Tank Abbot stood in the middle of the ring and traded blows until Kimbo almost took his head off. It makes sense now that something as simple and universal as a single leg takedown hasn't even gone through one of Kimbo's opponents heads as a gameplan. It makes sense why the referee stood James Thompson up after he rained down more on Kimbo than Katrina did New Orleans.
It all makes sense, doesn't it?
And now, what do they do? They've tried and tried to make this man a legend before he was even anything more than a street fighter with no professional credentials at all, and even compromised the legitimacy of their very own sport to do so.
Now that Seth Petruzelli has exposed the fact that Kimbo may very well have more glass in his jaw than a chandelier, every fighter alive is probably chomping at the bit to take the payoff to stand up and throw with him. And hey, why not? What do they have to lose?
In those very brief 14 seconds, and Petruzelli's ensuing interview, Elite XC flushed 60 million dollars and 2 years of work right down the tube...and I loved it.
Remember, I have been leading the charge the entire time. I have questioned every fight they have put on the air that involved Kimbo. I have cried foul at the very mention of his name and sight of his face.
And now, Seth Petruzelli would be invited to be the Best Man in my wedding, if I weren't already married, because he single handed exposed the fraud and charade that is Pro Elite and Elite XC.
Single handedly.
You are a God among ants now Seth! From the bottom of the hearts of MMA fans across the globe..."THANK YOU!"
But just incase anyone from Elite XC is reading this or just happens to come across it, I find it only fair to tell them that I am for sale. I'll be more than happy to take a payoff to quit exposing your company for what it is, and it probably wouldn't take 60 million dollars and 2 years to buy me.
Just drop me a line at Troy@aroundtheoctagon.com to get my address, we can negotiate the rest from there.
And I wouldn't feel right if I didn't play the "7 layers of Kevin Bacon" in the middle of all this madness. Seth knocked out Kimbo, which exposed both the fighter and the promotion...aroundtheoctagon.com's own Tom Lawlor was in Seth's corner...so if you really think about it, TOM LAWLOR was the mastermind behind the whole exposure of Kimbo and Elite XC.
Good job Tom. You just moved up my Christmas card list.
Troy
The Battle for the IFL On September 15th, the International Fight League filed for Bankruptcy. Bad news, right? Not necessarily.
Rumors quickly began spreading that the UFC had acquired the IFL, but despite those rumors, Mark Cuban's HDNet channel has emerged as a potential buyer for the IFL's remaining assets. If the sell is approved and goes through, Cuban would buy all of the IFL's intellectual properties, including it's film library, five-roped ring, team trademarks, and website. The deal would also include all of the IFL's remaing broadcast contract, including it's deal with with the Fox Sports Network.*
In case you've been living under a rock for the last decade or so, Mark Cuban is as close to a modern day King Midas as the UFC's Dana White. He turned his love for webcasting and College basketball into a $5.9 billion buyout from Yahoo! in 1999. Less than a year later he bought one of the most woeful franchises in professional sports --The Dallas Mavericks-- and turned them from a perrenial loser (40% winning percentage in the years prior to Cuban's purchase), to a yearly favorite to reach the NBA finals, a feat they accomplished in 2006.
Cuban's aggressive approach to business and improving his assets could bode well for an organization trying to find a niche in the ever growing MMA landscape. As he showed in his turn around of the Dallas Mavericks, Cuban is certainly not afraid to spend money if it yields returns, so he certainly would not be opposed to throwing the money around to get the top notch fighters, and his saavy business sense and marketing genius could grow the federation. Cuban is also afforded more pipeline's to potential new viewers through his assocation with the NBA.
But there is one rather large hurdle; does the "team" concept actually have a place in the MMA world?
Chances are that the IFL was on the right track in December when it announced it would leave the tradtional "team" concept seen in many of the other professional sports in favor of 3 man teams from already existing training camps such as Miletich Fighting Systems, Team Quest, The Lion's Den, and America's Top Team as well as a few others. Unfortunately that new direction was not given enough time to expand and flourish as the league's financial situation caused them to file bankrupcy and cancel their remaining events.
If given enough time to bring attention to itself, the IFL's new concept could very well have been intriguing enough to grab it's share of the MMA target audience. With Cuban's aggressiveness and deep pockets, it shouldn't be a surprise to see the IFL return to operation and and grow to meet, no scratch that, surpass it's level of noteriety.
And on the other hand, if the UFC is the one that acquires the IFL, Dana White's genius could certianly expand the IFL brand awareness and base audience, as he showed after the UFC acquired WEC.
Either way, in my opinion, the IFL wins.
*Credit Sherdog.com
The Ultimate Effect With the next Season of The Ultimate Fighter in full swing, now might be the right time to take a step back and re-examine the effect TUF has had on the UFC. It all goes downhill from there.
Joe Stevenson has won five fights since winning the TUF second season championship, but got handled with relative ease by BJ Penn (but who hasn't?). Kendall Grove is a dismal 3-2 since beating Ed Herman in his season's finale. Michael Bisping is suceeding, but hit what some consider to be a low point when he was all but handed a gift wrapped, home-cooking win over Matt Hamill by the judges in his hometown. Travis Lutter went for back-to-back losses against Anderson Silva and Rich Franklin. Nate Diaz hasn't been able to sniff a PPV fight and has been limited to Spike TV Fight Nights. Mac Danzig is 1-1, including being dominated by Clay Guida, since being crowned TUF Champion. And finally, Amir Sadollah was forced out of his first fight since winning the TUF Championship by injury.
Maybe the sucesses of Griffin, Evans, and Serra has spoiled us. In fact, I'm certain it has. It is easy to forget that it took Griffin 5 wins and 2 losses across 3 years before his Cinderella-like win. Evans has still remained unbeaten in his 7 post-TUF fights and is just now starting to emerge as a championship contender 3 years after he beat Brad Imes in season 2. Sure, Matt Serra got a title shot immediately after his TUF finale win, but he had been fighting in the UFC since 2001. So it is a long unfolding process, and as with any process that develops future superstars in any sport (NFL Draft, pay attention), there are bound to be as many misses as ther are hits.
So the gap between the TUF Championship and a WORLD Championship is more the Grand Canyon than the Rio Grande, and a lot of that has to do with the current World Champions. Georges St. Pierre will be seen as one of, if not THE, most dominant Middleweight Champions in UFC history by the time he is done. BJ Penn can be about as unbeateable as St. Pierre when he wants to be. Anderson Silva is pound-for-pound the best fighter on the planet...well, second best (Fedor, I'm looking at you, guy.) The Light Heavyweight title scene is about as crowded as a day-after-Thanksgiving Mall with Griffin, Jackson, Evans, and Lidell all willing and able to beat the other on any given day. And Antonio Rodrigo Noguiera and his Heavyweight title is the only division without a TUF champion (Rashas Evans won as a Heavyweight, then dropped to Light Heavyweight. No season since season 2 has had Heavyweights participate).
Maybe the old addage is right; Patience is the companion to wisdom. However, it becomes more and more difficult through programs such as The Ultimate Fighter to become attached to a favorite fighter and have to wait three years to see them reach the apex of the sport, and when they struggle, it becomes easier to dismiss them and move on to the next fighter we latch onto the following season. This is, after all, an "out of sight, out of mind" society, and with the only two TUF winners to claim a World Title, Dana White has managed to try two different schools of thought; take it easy and continue to develop the winners such as he did with Forrest Griffin, and is doing with the likes of Michael Bisping? Or throw them immediately into the mix such as he did with Matt Serra, and tried to do with Travis Lutter had he managed to make weight against Anderson Silva (which he got demolished in the fight regardless)?
To me, Matt Serra beating George St. Pierre was one of the biggest upsets in UFC history, and if Travis Lutter had beaten Anderson Silva, that win would have mirrored Serra's massive upset. But despite my disbelief that Forrest Griffin would actually beat Rampage Jackson, I honestly felt that he belonged in that fight, something that was lacking in the Serra/St. Pierre and Lutter/Silva fights.
So the point of all the mind-less prattling is this; be patient with the TUF fighters, because as Forrest Griffin says "The Juice is worth the squeeze".
Houston, we have a problemThere are very few sporting events that capture you in such a manner that the memory of it can be recalled at will -- every small detail of it -- without detail and without hesitation.
In my life there are only a handful. I can recite just about every play of the 1999 Superbowl when my beloved Tennessee Titans fell one short yard away from the greatest comeback in Superbowl history. I can remember Phillip Fulmer and the mighty University of Tennessee Volunteers beating the Florida State Seminoles for the National Title in the Fiesta Bowl back in 1998. I remember watching the Houston Oilers meltdown as the Buffalo Bills came back from the largest 4th quarter deficit in NFL playoffs history, and I can play back --without error-- Michael Jordan and the Bulls ripping the heart out of Charles Barkley and the Phoenix Suns in Game 6 of the 1993 finals. And for some reason, I can remember the first time I saw Houston Alexander fight.
I'm not quite sure why it resonated with me so soundly. It surely wasn't of the same nature of the other events etched across my memory, but it is there;
Keith Jardine -vs- Houston Alexander.
I'll be honest, I didn't give him much of a shot. Probably due in large part to the fact that he was a relative unknown to me at that time, and Jardine had garnered quite a following off of The Ultimate Fighter. But I was wrong, and 48 seconds after the bell started the fight, I knew it.
Jardine connected on a left hook that rocked Alexander, and when Jardine came in for the kill he walked straight into a buzzsaw. The ensuing beatdown on Jardine, as breif as it was, made me want to toss a towel at the TV and stop the fight myself.
I was certain that I had just seen a future top contender for the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship.
My how the times have changed.
Since that fight, Houston Alexander has suffered three knockout --including an eight second knockout at the hands of James Irvin-- and a submission loss. But I still get excited everytime I see his name on a card.
He fights relelntlessly and straight forward, almost giving no thought to an exposed chin with more glass than a chandalier, and no consideration of his brute style exposing him to BJJ fighters and wrestlers who are just more multi-dimensional.
Yet I still get excited. Every single time.
So can you imagine what is going through Dana White's head? Here is a fighter with a 2-3 record who has lost his last three fights. Release him and move forward, right? The math is simple, right?
Or is it?
With emerging competition from Affliction and Elite XC, surely releasing Houston Alexander would ensure the fact that he would appear on one of those two organization's cards in no time.
And I would be excited, because that is how I get when Houston Alexander fights. And I am not alone. It's high risk and high reward; either he knocks someone out, or he gets knocked out, but it is always entertaining.
Could you imagine the slugfest between Houston Alexander and Elite XC's Kimbo Slice? Or what about Houston Alexander versus Tito Ortiz on an Affliction PPV? It couldn't hurt either promotion, could it? Yet on the other hand, should the UFC and Dana White continue to book a fighter on their shows just to keep him off of the competition's broadcasts?
It's a tough call, and I'm glad it is the UFC having to make it and not me.
Clearly Alexander has proven that he does not belong in the Light Heavyweight title scene, nor should he be considered anything other than an exciting, yet mediocre fighter, but his name alone would draw fight fans to another promotion just to see which Alexander comes to fight, because on his "on" days, he could turn someone's lights out in the blink of an eye, but on his "off" days, it could all be over in 8 quick, very sudden seconds. It's kind of like a fortune cookie. They are pointless, but you just want to see what they are going to say.
So if I were to give Dana White any sort of advice on this one, I'd tell him to give old Houston just one more chance. It should make up for that controversial 8 second knockout that wasn't really a knockout.
Interim means Temporary, right? Interim - adj. Belonging to, serving during, or taking place during an intermediate interval of time; temporary. That seems pretty easy to understand, right? When a champion is stripped of his title, an Interim -temporary- Champion is crowned until the reigning champion returns.
Matt Serra was the UFC Welterweight Champion when a herniated disk forced him out of action. Georges St. Pierre beat Matt Hughes in his place and was crowned the Interim -TEMPORARY- Welterweight Champion. When Serra was able to return, his first match was against the Interim Welterweight Champion, St. Pierre. Unfortunately for him, Serra was not able to reclaim his title and the Interim adjective was dropped from St. Pierre's title reign.
Seems fair right? So lets take a look at another example;
Sean Sherk, the UFC Lightweight Champion at the time, tested positive for steroids. STEROIDS! Although he disputed the results, he was stripped of his title and UFC President Dana White declared the winner of BJ Penn and Joe Stevenson at UFC: 80 would be the Interim - TEMPORARY - Lightweight Champion. After serving his suspension, Sherk returned at UFC: 84 to fight Penn but was defeated, thus removing the Interim label from Penn's title reign.
Do you see a pattern? Let's look at one more example;
At the brisk young age of 43-years-old, Randy Couture returned to the UFC after a brief retirement and knocked out reigning UFC Heavyweight Champion, Tim Sylvia at UFC 68 to claim his third Heavyweight title. One title defense later, Couture announced he would be leaving the UFC. Dana White announced that despite his plans to quit, Couture would remain the UFC Heavyweight Champion. In the meantime - or Interim, if you will - Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira defeated Tim Sylvia for the UFC Interim Heavyweight Title. So on September 2nd, 2008 when Couture and the UFC announced Couture would be returning to the Octagon, surely it would be to fight Nogueira, right?
WRONG!
Couture - the UFC Heavyweight Champion - will return to fight Brock Lesnar at UFC: 91 only not for his Heavyweight Title. You know, the one that Nogueira has. No, unlike Sherk and Serra, Couture has to fight his way back into a match with the Interim Champion. How is that for uniformity of policy? Sherk tested positive for Steroid and he got a shot at his title when he came back. Couture, a legend and one of the most decorated fighters in UFC history, has to beat someone with two professional fights to even get a CHANCE to reclaim his belt.
Don't get me wrong, I feel that Couture will beat Lesnar, but that is beside the point. The point is that was a precedent established in the first two cases that was completely ignored. While I do understand that the UFC already had Nogueira scheduled to fight Frank Mir at UFC: 91, could Couture's return not be scheduled for UFC: 92? That would have been the right way to do it. While Couture should beat Lesnar, nothing is certain in the UFC. One punch, one mistake, one opening, and Lesnar has the God-given ability, size, and skill to snatch the fight away from Couture. What happens then? Does Couture still get a shot at the Heavyweight crown that is still rightfully his?
No.
Dana White is the closest thing to King Midas walking the face of the planet right now. Everything he touches, creates, or is involved with seems to turn to gold. And when the Lesnar -vs- Couture match was announced, he knew what he was doing. Lesnar has exploded on the scene, carrying a large army of faithful fans with him. So a fight with a UFC legend such as Couture seems like a cash graab to be sure. I know the UFC is a business in addition to one of the governing bodies of the most intense sport on the face of the planet, but I had always hoped that they wold handle things like this correctly. This decision is dangerously boxing-esque, and to be honest, I'm not too sure how someone like Nogueira could proudly call himself the Heavyweight Champion until he actually BEATS Randy Couture...whether he wins or loses against Lesnar.
And I also understand that the Heavyweight Crown is a secondary concern for Couture as he has said many times the reason for his return was to fight Fedor Emelianenko in what would probably be one of the biggest fights ever in any sport. But let's play Devil's Advocate here. Would a Couture loss against Lesnar not water that would-be legendary match-up down? As a matter of fact, would Couture not walking into that fight as UFC Heavyweight Champion not hurt that fight? Granted it would still be one of the defining fights of the sport, but even one loss for a 45-year-old man who has defied all odds and stayed highly competitive if not dominant into his forties would start raising red flags as to the condition of his career. ESPECIALLY a loss to someone new to the sport like Lesnar...and his 1-1 record which has been mediocre spotted with flashes of what he could be.
Good job, Dana.
This is a "Sham"...rock What's the matter? Was Muhommad Ali not availible, Kimbo? What about Evander Holyfield? Butterbean?
I will give credit where credit is due; EliteXC knows how to market a fighter. Who else could have taken a youtube sensation who made a name for himself by beating up crackheads and neighborhood bad asses in backyards and parking lots, and turned him into a household name? I mean, I have a ESPN the magazine with Kimbo on the cover and a full fledged feature article about him inside. I've even seen him on a Madden Football commercial, and on a late night talk show. He seems to be everywhere. Job well done.
But here is the problem. Kimbo Slice has accomplished nothing! NOTHING! And yet he is still continously shoved down our collective throats in such a brilliantly ingenious manner. What do I mean? Well, you've seen his record. He has beaten the likes of former Boxing Heavyweight Champion Ray Mercer, and former UFC badboy Tank Abbott, and has done so in remarkably convincing fashion. How does that translate into "has accomplished nothing!"? Well Ray Mercer was 46 years young when Kimbo made him tap out to a Guillotine and had never fought an MMA fight before in his life, and Tank Abbot was a brisk 44-years-old and the loser of 8 of his last 9 fights when Kimbo tried to dislodge his head from the rest of his body with those massive bombs he throws around.
He's beating names that every Average Joe knows, but he's doing it when they are so far past their primes that even George Foreman thinks they should have retired.
So who is next on the Kimbo Agenda? None other than "The World's Most Dangerous Man" Ken Shamrock. I had mixed emotions when I heard about this match-up. It was even hard for me, a pretty avid follower of the sport, to seperate the name from the fighter. Ken Shamrock. Ken freaking Shamrock. Certainly he is the guy that will walk into the Octagon and teach Kimbo a thing or two about MMA, right? Surely he would be the guy to finally remind Kimbo that MMA isn't fighting Johnny from down the street for fifty bucks and a case of beer, right? I mean, this is Ken Shamrock we are talking about.
This is Ken Shamrock. This is the guy that fought Royce Gracie to a draw. This is the guy that beat Bas Rutten amd Dan Sevren. He's a former MMA Champion. This is Ken Shamrock. The only problem (or the good thing about it depending on wether or not you are a Kimbo advocate) is this fight is not with THAT Ken Shamrock. This fight is against a 44-year-old that has only won once since 2004. Do I need to go back even further? Okay, this is a fight against a 44-year-old that has only won twice since 2001, how's that? Or how about only winning 3 times in this decade? But he is a name, and that is what they want Kimbo to beat, not the fighter.
Brilliant.
But despite all of that, deep down inside of me there is a small twinge of faith that says Ken Shamrock could still very well go in there and beat the holy Hell out of Kimbo Slice. It COULD happen. Right? Well unfortunately for me, that small flicker of faith is drowned out by the fact that I seriously doubt EliteXC will let their boy go out and get beaten in front of the world. I have a sickening taste in my mouth about EliteXC (one that my editor and the founder of this wonderful website doesn't want me to hit on too much). It seems fabricated. It seems synthetic. It seems like it should air Monday nights on USA...if you catch my drift. So no, I don't suppose Ken Shamrock CAN go beat Kimbo Slice, I'm sure EliteXC has made certain of that.
So as disillusioned as I am about this whole thing, I will still tune in. I will still watch Kimbo beat Ken Shamrock, then I will sit back and smugly laugh as I think out loud "How many more times are we gonna see Kimbo beat up an old man?" And the answer is a simple as 2+2; "As long as we let them feed it to us."
WWE & MMA
Ok, I will admit it. I grew up watching professional wrestling. I watched it every Saturday as a child, every Monday as a teenager, and every time it was on the air as a twenty-something. So when I first saw that the UFC had signed Brock Lesnar, I sighed. Not a sigh of relief or excitement, but one of panic. Now hold on and let me explain. Having grown up on professional wrestling, I always knew that it wasn’t 100% percent legitimate. I understood that. To me, it was common knowledge that while it was indeed physically demanding, it was certainly not a competitive sport. But I also know the type of person that BELIEVED it was real. While those numbers have dwindled (hopefully), there are still the types that believe that the "superheroes" or "super anti-heroes" that Vince McMahon has created are real. When Brock Lesnar stepped into the Octagon against Frank Mir, I knew that somewhere there was someone out there that wished it was the Undertaker inside the octagon instead of in the audience, or maybe even Steve Austin. It scared me. I know that the target audience of professional wrestling and MMA are relatively close, and I know Brock was signed not only for his potential and ability but for his drawing power in said demographics, but I also am fully aware of the downside of that drawing power. You know the guy. The overweight, sloppily drunk, sign-wielding madman that really still believes Hulk Hogan stands for vitamins, prayers, and the American way. So when Brock made his debut, I rooted against him. I wanted him to lose. I wanted to cut the head off of the snake before it got out of control. Already we had professional wrestlers everywhere. Austin and the Undertaker in the audience, Brock’s wife Sable desperately clasping her hands tightly together in anxiety, and a former WWE World Champion standing in the ring. Even before the fight, the UFC continually aired a promotional video of Brock giving a pro-wrestling-like interview about how he was going to beat Frank Mir into oblivion. The only thing missing was a steel chair shot and someone impersonating Mike McCarthy making the quick stoppage. I didn’t like it. I felt invaded. But something strange happened in the minute-and-a-half to two minutes that the fight lasted. Brock Lesnar actually showed that he could actually fight. No, scratch that. Brock Lesnar showed that he could step into the octagon against a former Heavyweight Champion in his debut match and not only compete but nearly take him out in the first round. I’ve watched that fight several times now and am still as equally impressed as I was the first time. So now with Lesnar’s second UFC fight just around the corner, I’m not hoping to see him lose. I want to see him grow as a fighter and learn from his mistakes. I want to see him remind everyone that Brock Lesnar was a WRESTLER long before he was a PRO-WRESTLER. That he IS NOT the UFC’s answer to MMA Hype-Juggernaut Kimbo Slice. And I am going to hope and pray that the wrestling fan I was so worried about invading the sanctuary that is my MMA viewing pleasure caught on to the two Network TV EliteXC events that aired free-for-everyone. I mean, EliteXC is probably more their speed anyway, right Kimbo? |
THE World Champion
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
Perhaps a fireman? A superhero? A policeman? President of the United States? Or maybe even at one point you thought you wanted to be THE World Champion of a sport, right? That's right, THE World Champion. I seriously doubt at any point during that fantastic idea did the thought spring up of being forced to share that very same dream with 85 other people. Well, that is what happened to every single Boxing World Champion across the four sanctioning bodies (IBC, WBA, IBF, WBO for those of you keeping score). And if the world of MMA isn't careful, it could very well happen there too.
I had truly hoped that MMA had dodged that bullet when the UFC acquired PRIDE, then bought out the WEC. We finally had that sports utopia on an undisputed Champion at every weight class...for the most part (Fedor Emelianenko, I'm looking at you). But let's face it, MMA is the hot ticket these days, and just like any other popular explosion, success breeds imitation. Suddenly, EliteXC springs to life behind the massive cult following of Youtube hero Kimbo Slice. And now Affliction Entertainment has used its massive influence on fighters to string together two cards with some serious firepower.
Now I know what you are thinking; "There is no way EliteXC or Affliction can be compared to the UFC." Ermmm. Yes and no. To anyone who has followed the sport of MMA for some time, it is pretty clear that the UFC is the cream of the crop. Well actually, even to most laymen. It has the name recognition and the legacies of Chuck Liddell, the Gracie clan, Matt Hughes, and the list goes on and on. But imagine for one second that the very first exposure you had to the world of MMA was last weeks network EliteXC. Imagine a world where EliteXC Lightweight Champion KJ Noons has claim to be the very best Lightweight Champion in the world...BJ Penn be damned. Or EliteXC Welterweight Champion Jake Shields being able to dispute Georges St. Pierre's championship reign as the very best Welterwight on the planet. Do I need to go on after those two examples?
I understand that the MMA business is booming much like Karate did in the 80's, and that's why you can open a phone book and find a listing of MMA schools just about in any city in any country at the moment. And I also understand that the structure and format that MMA uses is almost identical to Boxing's. But the simple fact is that right now it seems anyone and everyone is looking to strike while the iron is hot. Why else would a network TV channel latch onto a federation who's main attraction is an ex-bouncer who beat up crackheads for money? Simple. The same reason Kimbo beat up crackheads. Money. And it is that greed that will continue to water down MMA championships. You don't believe me? Did you read what I said earlier? KJ Noons has a claim to the very same title BJ Penn has. Lightweight Champion.
So what's next? I don't know if Affliction has any plans of crowning champions of their own, but why wouldn't they? And what happens after that? And so on and so forth. So maybe in ten years we are sitting here with MMA in the same predicament as Boxing. Corruption. Promoters protecting certain fighters at the expense of the integrity of the sport. Controversy. And questions. Tons of them. Let's face a potential future where there are five champions per weight class. Let's face a potential future where an MMA version of Don King tries to dictate to the viewers which fighter to like through a diatribe littered with butchered adjective after butchered adjective.
In the immortal words of John Lennon. Imagine. Hopefully that is all we will have to do.
08-01-08
