And again, you don’t appear to KNOW anything negative, except for a subjective dislike of Goldberg. Yes, of course you have every right in the world to not like EXC. The argument here is accusations about the company BEING “shady”, as you’ll notice Mr. MMA Critic started out, and you followed up on. I absolutely commend you for sticking around in the discussion, by the way.

Regarding your pointing out of dates – fine, I was probably wrong, and am perfectly fine with withdrawing that part. I never said they had taken over the contract though. The deal is that it’s the same fight, the same matchmaker, and EXC got the Showtime deal WF was banking on getting in order to put the fight on in the first place. There’s obviously a connection of some sort. But anyway, we can disregard that whole point, and then what is left is…

STRIKEFORCE have CLAIMED there’s a contract dispute, and everything from the fight still being on to Strikeforce changing their show dates indicates nothing has been done wrong. THIS IS WHAT WE KNOW. How on earth does this put EXC in a bad light? If anything, it(looks like)’s Strikeforce who have acted like babies, and/or Shamrock who’s word can’t be trusted. Then again, Shamrock has never said he wouldn’t take the Baroni fight, so perhaps he’s just being naive in signing for two fights in two months.

Past that point, yes I am giving them a hard time because honestly I don’t see why I shouldn’t. When this was announced and Penn was attached, I was very excited to see what would come of it. Should I have held back on my excitement for it because i hadn’t seen it yet? That’s dumb. PEOPLE JUDGE THINGS BASED ON WHAT THEY KNOW ABOUT THEM. I don’t pretend to know more than what i read on the internet. However, considering I run a website that tries to link every single MMA article out there, I’d say I know enough to be allowed my opinions.

There’s something called ‘attacking the argument, not the person’.

As a side note, I am an idiot because i confused Mario Lopez with Carlos Mencia … don’t ask me how i did it but there it is. As for Goldberg doing a good job on the WFA show, i respectfully disagree, but that’s a point of opinion.

- BEEEEP. That’s the buzzer for “wrong answer”. STRIKEFORCE have CLAIMED there’s a contract dispute, and everything from the fight still being on to Strikeforce changing their show dates indicates nothing has been done wrong. THIS IS WHAT WE KNOW. How on earth does this put EXC in a bad light? If anything, it(looks like)’s Strikeforce who have acted like babies, and/or Shamrock who’s word can’t be trusted. Then again, Shamrock has never said he wouldn’t take the Baroni fight, so perhaps he’s just being naive in signing for two fights in two months. Either way, why didn’t Strikeforce complain earlier when this fight has been set since fall ‘06?

“and are being sued by someone who is claiming he was pushed out of the organization.”

- Yes, one claim by one man, which even if based on truth may not mean anything at all, since we do not know the details or how incriminating the accusations are.

“Are we not supposed to question this? Are we not supposed to say ‘Hey, why is EliteXC hiring the president of WFA, the largest bellyflop of an MMA organization ever?”

- Who are you to decide that because a man failed at running one company he is not qualified for a different job in another? There were plenty aspects of WFA that were universally praised. Why would you even question this without having anything to point to that makes it seem like a bad/weird decision? ‘Dude, that guy was the captain when Team X ended bottom of the league, so Team Y signing him to be their youth scout is nuts!’ …

“’ or ‘Hey, Bill Goldberg and Mario Lopez seems like an odd announcing team’”

- Go ahead! But how on earth does personal preference in announcers make grounds for arguing that a company is making questionable decisions? Goldberg and Lopez aren’t exactly two random people from the street with zero MMA-knowledge.

“But at this point there is no product to judge. So I judge them based on the news.”

- So you judge an announce team you haven’t heard yet and an employee you haven’t seen in action? And if you can’t judge a product until you’ve seen the end result, how come you’ll take a lawsuit at face value based on one man’s claims? Or decide EXC have stolen a fighter illegally when there to this point has been nothing pointing in that direction?

I mean, if there were ten lawsuits filed and heaps of contract-breach claims from other promotions, sure, the amount of accusations in themselves would accumulate to a reason for suspision, but what we have seen so far really is nothing at all, not LEAST since it is a new promotion, and we know no one gets off to an easy start in a business like this.

Yeah, the UFC has been involved in tons of stuff. Past the stuff we know about, the amount of skeletons and dirty laundry in their closet must be impressive indeed. Yeah, I do cut the UFC slack because the quality of their end product is above and beyond everyone else. I’ll also be the first to say that EliteXC’s show is good. But at this point there is no product to judge. So I judge them based on the news.

Jungle Fight also has put on a few works and paid fighters to take dives, so as enjoyable as some of their shows have been, I wouldn’t call them “respected”.

http://www.sptimes.com/2006/11/25/Sports/Lacy_bout_drew_15_000.shtml

But seriously, for all the bashing boxing writers get from the MMA-community for their unfair bashing of “our” sport, it’s hilarious to see some of the very own people on “our” side be just as unfairly judgmental the other way.

2. There are two sides to that story, and even if it was Lappen’s fault, he’s brought into a different company in a different position, and he’s obviously not useless. Not to mention, what exactly was shady about WFA in the first place? All I saw was money not being paid and everyone being honest about it. There’s nothing shady about screwing things up. EXC hiring him is “shady” only if you decide to not think anything over at all.

3. Jungle Fight, closely associated with lunatic Antonio Inoki, which, if put under the same (ridiculous) spotlight as EXC means JF are proven criminals. *sigh*

AND by the same token UFC is the mafia since it’s owned by two casino-brothers and run by a boxing-mark. Good gawd that’s shady.

Sheesh, get some proof or at least serious indications already.