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Today’s chalkboard (4/16/08)
By Zach Arnold | April 16, 2008
Before we head to today’s news links, I wanted to give a tip of the cap to Michael David Smith over at AOL Fanhouse. MDS has been spearheading a big effort over at that web site to increase the volume of MMA coverage, feeling that there was clearly an underserved need for legitimate MMA writing in the US sports media. I give him credit for sticking to his guns and making it work. I know that there are more and more mainstream media outlets trying to cover MMA now since it’s the ‘hot thing’, but AOL Fanhouse’s coverage of UFC and MMA lately has been very good overall. No complaints.
Onto today’s headlines.
- The Toronto Star: UFC popularity skyrockets (writer says UFC has arrived as a mainstream sport)
- The Sun (UK): Greg Nelson says that Sean Sherk is falsely accused of taking steroids
- The Sun (UK): Michael Bisping writes article saying Charles McCarthy is delusional
- The Chronicle Herald (Canada): Trash talking heating up between Jason MacDonald and Joe Doerksen
- Michael David Smith (AOL Fanhouse): UFC 83 preview and predictions
- The Mansfield News Journal (OH): C.B. Dolloway proves he’s ‘TUF’ enough
- Kevin Iole: Pete Sell should mind his own business
- Bloody Elbow: UFC 83 preview - Demian Maia
- Sherdog: Hardcore Championship Fighting postpones May 10th card
- Five Ounces of Pain: Does Canada really want Canadians?
- Fightlinker: How bad was Scott Ferrall? This bad.
- MMA Junkie: Denis Kang discusses DREAM GP, UFC negotiations
- Total MMA: GSP - a Canadian perspective
Topics: Canada, DREAM, MMA, Media, UFC, UK, Zach Arnold | | Permalink | Trackback | Share This
MDS, you have my support forever!
Watching that clip of Ferrall made me want to punch a baby. There’s one more reason I’m glad I decided against ordering YAMMA.
wow i totally agree with Kevin Iole.
Iole says that a 7-4 fighter shouldn’t question a fighter like GSP. LOL @ Iole telling someone to be quiet.
By the way, the UFC 170lb champ is only 9-4.
Looking forward to the “Paul Bradley gets kicked off” episode of TUF. This season has been pretty good so far, largely thanks to Jackson and Griffin.
Ah, I had forgotten how much the suspense of each fight is diminished when there is only one fight per episode and all of the episodes are formatted to have the fights end between 10:55 and 10:57. In the Taylor-Dolce fight, for example, you knew that it couldn’t end in the first round (because that would be before 10:55), and you knew that it couldn’t go the distance (because that would be after 10:57), so it was a foregone conclusion that the fight was going to end sometime in the second round, it was just a matter of how.
Ivan….I’d like to see a quarter hour breakdown on the TUF ratings.
I 100% agree with you about knowing the decision. The answer is having the fight start the show. The thing is, would the rating fall off following the fight or would viewers continue to watch. Basically each week should be the fight, then the build up to the next fight. The end of the episode would be a cliffhanger for next weeks fight. Problem solved.
That might be a solution, or they could just not use the same exact format every week and not have the fights always end between 10:55 and 10:57.
The best way to know when a fight ends on TUF would be to see when the fight starts. If the show starts at 10:00, and you see the fight starts at about 10:35 then you know the fight is going the whole distance. If the fight starts at about 10:52 then you know the fight ends early. I personally don’t mind that (I don’t need to be surprised or “shocked” to enjoy something. I spoil myself on what happens for boxing, MMA, pro wrestling, movies, TV shows, etc. all the time. I know Aerith dies in Final Fantasy VII, but I enjoy that game a lot still) but I could see many casual or non-fan types be turned off by that.