Same guy a couple days later basically reiterates that Miragliotta was reffing the fight for the purpose of Kimbo winning, though he now shifts the rationale.

None of this matters though.

“Dan Miragliotta, when the fight absolutely, positively has to go your way.”

Gee, I always thought that blog post was a tongue in cheek joke.

Michael Wilbon just trashed the fight and MMA on Pardon The Interruption. He made it a point to say that it was a phantom punch that put Kimbo down and of course that the fight was fixed.

I’m not really sure and I don’t think he was either about who was actually behind fixing the fight. First he said that Kimbo took a dive and then soon after he said that others tried to fix the fight for Kimbo by getting Petruzelli to fight him.

Very shoddy editorializing going on but I guess it doesn’t matter because he just seemed totally dismissive of the entire sport. He’s just trying make all kinds of accusations and hopes one actually sticks.

Not surprised this kind of crap coming out of ESPN nowadays. Sports journalism has become the home to the functionally retarded and incredibly lazy. People are not capable of rational analysis or willing to do the work, so shoddy research forms the basis of dogmatic and closed minded preaching. It’s why Skip Bayless has a job.

Saying there was a fix is just lazy journalism. These same idiots can’t make the “human cockfighting” argument anymore so insinuating there was a fix between two horribly untalented fighters isn’t surprising. They’re not capable of any deeper analysis.

People don’t watch Chuck Liddell because they’re hoping he’ll throw an armbar on somebody. They watch Chuck because he’s going to throw strikes. Part of being a fighter is to put on a show, it’s been that way since the beginning of the sport.

There isn’t a single thing that happened in that fight that I haven’t seen before. And instead of discussing great fights that have occurred or are coming up, we’re stuck letting the “Shortbus Kids” dominate and dumb down the level of discussion about MMA.

“HOWEVER – in the UFC I can’t remember anyone (in recent memory) getting stood up from a side mount. So it FELT like the refs were instructed to make things more “exciting” by encouraging the stand-up.”

Are you kidding me??? Cro Cop vs Gonzaga and Mir vs Brock Lesnar HAD HORRIBLE STANDUPS!!! Is that RECENT enough for you?

Like this one?:

http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2008/6/1/543425/the-fixer

There’s a ton of reactionary stuff on pages 18 and 19 that look shockingly similar to the ones shown here with this new “massive controversy”; New York Times and USA Today raise their eyebrows! Jim Rome trashes the show! Where have I heard this before?

It’s not the ref’s job to pimp any brand, that’s the ring announcer’s job.

Most successful professional sports (boxing especially but also team sports) are going to be Entertainment first, Sports second but the promotion needs to be sport-ish enough to not lose legitimacy with the mainstream. Obviously ProElite has went too far in the entertainment direction with Kimbo Slice as they are being mercilessly crucified after Kimbo Slice was exposed.

As for who should have had the title shot, I’d say Fabricio Werdum is probably the most deserving UFC heavyweight for a title shot versus Randy Couture. Couture vs Werdum would probably draw even less than Couture vs Gonzaga but it reflects poorly on the sport when a man can leapfrog into a title shot just because he beat Heath Herring and has some WWE fame. (and I’m saying this through a PR/business perspective, not a purist fan perspective. I don’t see myself as a purist fan myself) Of course this isn’t anywhere as bad as what ProElite has done with Kimbo Slice and the Shaws should be ashamed of themselves.

“And as it was pointed out on the Fight Opinion Radio show this week, when did it become the refs job to hype the fight during INSTRUCTIONS? “Hey, let’s make an exciting fight for all the fans! Now touch gloves!””

Refs making fights exciting is no different than big John saying “Let’s get it on , C’mon” with an assertive aggressive voice.