1. Tough Talk: Quality stuff, I’m going to go back and listen to their earlier shows.
2. Conference call: Rampage to coach TUF practically confirmed. And yeah, Dana is a bit irrationally exuberant, but he’s right, this is a better fight than Hughes/Sera.
3. Five Star: Unlistenable.
4. Goldman: Wow, it’s amazing when your biggest cheerleader, a guy that you go back with for fifteen years, is skeptical about your business prospects. That can’t be a good sign. Also, is it just me, or should people be preparing for a TV-less IFL for a few years, presuming that they continue holding fights? Larkin is certainly right that if you’re losing money by receiving inadequate television revenue to cover production costs, you probably shouldn’t do it, but television does provide significant mass market exposure that you don’t get via the hardcore channels (internet basically).

Ya know, the Van Damme movie…

They have no bearing on a outcome of a fight, have no result in the behind the scenes contract negotiations, nor have any impact on a fighter skills/talents. In general, they really have no significance on what goes on in MMA, so why talk about them.

Because the majority of our readers would want to know. That’s the primary reason we posted a story about it. We have a lot of hardcore fans who could care less about such trivial things, but we get a lot of very casual fans who like all aspects of the UFC, including the ring girls.

I compare it to a newspaper baseball beat writer who writes a small story about the veteran organ player who’s retiring or the bat boy who got recruited to play baseball at a local college. It doesn’t really impact the team, but the fans like to hear about it.

As for Fightlinker, I enjoy the site, and I read it often just like you do Jeremy, I just don’t care for this story.

Sometimes an event is just an event, and part of combat sports events is the tradition of card girls. I find fightlinker’s expose to be hilarious mainly because, like everything else, it’s utterly beside the point. That’s what makes the site worth reading.

He could be interviewing the venue janitors or the Aramark employees and I’d probably still read it.

In all fairness though, the new girl is much, much, much better at working the crowd than either Arianny or Ali. Those two always seemed kind of standoffish.