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“That fraudulent sport”
By Zach Arnold | October 6, 2008
A taste of what’s to come from the American sports media in regards to Kimbo Slice losing on CBS Saturday night. Jay Mariotti and Kevin Blackistone (a major boxing supporter and anti-MMA guy) were having fun ripping on MMA today on ESPN over the Kimbo situation. They both portrayed Kimbo Slice as the ‘face of MMA.’
Then, to open up Pardon the Interruption:
Tony Kornheiser: “and Kimbo Slice… possibly overrated?”
Michael Wilbon: “Ya think!”
Topics: MMA, Media, Pro Elite, Zach Arnold | 7 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback | Share This
So who’s to blame here?
Ken for injuring himself?
EXC for making some terrible decisions?
CBS for cheaping out, going with a company they could take control of and getting into a business they know nothing about?
Gary?
I think it’s all part of the overall picture. That and more. And that paints a really bad picture and we’re seeing it now all over the mainstream media.
I don’t recall Kevin Blackistone covering any boxing as a writer for the Dallas Morning News.
Don’t say you weren’t warned.
All those excuses: “The fighters will get paid more… the exposure is good… the more MMA the better,,, competition is good… it will stop the ufc from doing whatever…yamma yamma yamma”
Turns out there can be a downside to more MMA.
Mariotti and Blackistone are a couple of blowhards who know nothing about MMA, much less anything about the sports they generally write/rant about. Any amount of whining and pontificating any of these idiots spouts off only results in more publicity and exposure for MMA.
“Turns out there can be a downside to more MMA.”
Well, yeah! That downside you are getting at is over-saturation. Too much of anything is bad. I don’t think the landscape of major-league American MMA companies was quite there. The problem was just companies making dumb decisions, ESPECIALLY EXC. I think the absolute WORST thing ProElite did to the MMA world was buying out some smaller companies that were actually making decent money. Now the only smaller, and actual independent, American MMA company making money is Strikeforce. Shit, at least Affliction and IFL didn’t fuck up the future of some smaller MMA companies.
have you ever seen their show Around The Horn? its circus.
its as close to sports reporting as reality tv is to real life.
Yeah, but it’s still entertaining, unlike most reality TV (and let’s be frank, the entertainment and sports network is oldskool reality TV)