What’s really sad is people reporting Vasquez as the “first death in regulated MMA”, and completely forgetting about American Doug Dedge, who died fighting 9 years ago in a Ukrainian show.

Zach, its also arrogant for you to presume that everyone should prioritize what you personally think is important. People have their own values and motivations for why they follow the sport and if you want more discussion and response, you should write about what people are interested in and not criticize your readership for not being an alarmist on topics that some of us don’t find particulary alarming.

That tone of self-importance is ultimately makes this a blog and not a news site. I find it funny that anyone would qualify link farming and commentary as “reporting.”

In the 1980s, nearly all of the Vegas casinos were taken over by publicly traded companies or large legitimate investors as the FBI prosecuted dozens of mobsters that had been running things.

They’re as clean as Coca Cola now. Greedy bastards all, but there’s probably not as regulated and orderly an industry as the Vegas casinos in this country. The money involved is too big, and nearly all of the casinos have extensive teams of former FBI agents and other former law enforcement to keep things above board. A culture of corruption is bad for business, CSI plotlines not withstanding.

That’s not to say that the mobs can’t come back (they were pushed out to a large extent in the 1960s when Howard Hughes bought most of Vegas)…they’re just not there to any significant degree now.

“I almost felt as if people were completely desensitized or dehumanized in relation to the actions of certain individuals in the business.” – I do not think that humans do not care for one another. However, there is no purpose, physically, emotionally, intellectually, for me, or anybody on the internet, to feel sentiment for those we do not know.

About the business: We, the MMA community need to acknowledge Vasquez’s death in mainstream media because it is important.

Why is there no union for fighters? Would this address the points you bring up?

and also why the focus on Japanese organized crime when the Fertittas made/make their millions in Vegas casinos. Vegas is notorious for organized crime especially in the casino industry. It would seem important to look at our own institutions first before pointing fingers at Japanese institutions.

Thoughts?

I just don’t see where this qualifies. Usually a display of systematic corruption/incompetence is required for people to respond to something. One death isn’t systematic. And while you point out Holyfield getting licensed as evidence of the incompetence of the Texas commission, its unreasonable to expect MMA fans and writers to be familiar with the history of the commission in terms of boxing.

Another issue is that most MMA fans and writers simply don’t have the expertise to analyze the commission’s medical regulations on their own terms. I’m well educated as fans go, and I wouldn’t have the slightest idea how to approach analyzing the Texas regulations from a medical standpoint, to see whether or not there are any flaws. There aren’t any enormous flaws, or else fighters would be dying left and right.

I’m forced to ask, why isn’t Luke Thomas doing the hell-raising, rather than complaining that other people aren’t?

but hopefully this does bring into focus issues regarding fighter help and not sweep this under the rug. with regulation around it’s easy to assume everything is fine when there may be problems. health care is a big concern for these fighters, to make sure that they are in shape and that they have enough money to cover their medical bills