Oh yes, you've been waiting for it and now here it is. Our guest columnist has temporarily backed out, and so I am stepping in to write on some fine MMA action. Since I am not half as knowledgable of a fan, and about one third the writer that Phil is, you're going to get a very different MMA column than you would have.
See, we were all set to have "Phil's Phists of Phury!" run every couple of weeks, and we may still get that in the future. Right now I, your humble Willie, will fill in until that AWESOMELY named column becomes a reality. Now there are dozens of MMA sites out there, and one or two of them are really great. Mmamania.com is my favorite, and Yahoo Sports' UFC coverage as well as Sherdog are all three excellent. Those sites will give you your inside info, breaking news, and more. HERE you will get a big fan's perspective on MMA on TV, going on in the business, and most importantly, what big fights are coming up and why you should be excited!
So to kick things off I want to talk to the people who like boxing but don't like mixed martial arts. Look, I grew up a boxing fan. I watched old fights of many of the greats. I was a George Foreman fan when I was 8. Boxing is dead though, baby. D -E - D. Let's think about the biggest boxing match this year, maybe in 5 years, De La Hoya - Mayweather. What a terrible, garbage boring, tapfest. People think MMA is boring sometimes because 2 fighters are on the ground and not slugging away? Yeah let's compare two brutes with tiny gloves that are attempting to either elbow each other's faces open so badly they can't see through the blood - or catch the other in a submission hold and break his arm at the elbow. Let's compare that to two cats who wear gloves with 3/4 lbs of padding, and attempt to either tap each other enough times to outscore the other, or hug him until the ref makes them stop groping one another.
Pretty easy to see which one is more exciting. That DeLaHoya - Mayweather fight was terrible and boring. It was point sparring, the sort of boring thing you quit when you're 11 and your Mom makes you take Tae Kwon Do. No one was trying to win through superior strength or just a violent imposition of will, they just wanted to love tap the other guy until the judges gave them a win. Boo.
Look, boxing died 20 years ago, or more. The promoters keep any real fights from happening, there's too many groups claiming the world champ, and the crookedness is too deep. Let's just declare boxing dead, and move on to a real combat sport.
And now for something completely different.
I like The Ultimate Fighter TV show, but I think we're seeing some tires and lug nuts starting to fly. (That means the wheels have come off, for you Yankee readers). It's still great to see fighters thrown into this pressure cooker, great to see elite fighters coaching newcomers, and great to see guys fighting not for a big purse, but just for the chance to fight on the big stage. So how could we make the show more exciting? Part of searching for unknowns means you're going to have some fighters that just won't pan out, and I just don't want to watch those guys. How about we take 8 of the top teams or gyms in the business and have them send in their top prospects? Team Quest, Militech FS, Couture's gym, etc. etc. could all send in a guy. This would seem to help out the scouting process a lot.
Next time, we talk about big fights coming up, and how happy we are that TV show writers are not writing.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment