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A different perspective on the Elite XC stand-up scandal
By Zach Arnold | October 12, 2008
Jake Rossen of Sherdog attempts to look at the story from a ‘realist’s point of view‘:
Let’s face facts: The vast majority of promoters and fans in this industry want to see a mediocre kickboxing match with four-ounce gloves. The stand-up rules, the restarts, the round durations, the illegal blows (no knees on the ground) all work to discourage ground fighting.
This is a business, and business dictates that extended stretches of patty cake inside someone’s guard is box office death. It’s why you saw Art Davie screaming for John McCarthy to stand up Royce Gracie and Ken Shamrock at UFC V, why Liddell claims John Perretti told him to keep his first fight at UFC 19 standing and avoid the ground if he wanted to be invited back, and why EliteXC is currently mired in a public relations nightmare over what they did or did not say to Petruzelli about taking Slice down.
The fighters have been so ingratiated into this practice that you can have a bout between an amazing wrestler in Sean Sherk and an amazing jiu-jitsu artist in B.J. Penn decided by nearly 25 minutes of striking.
This industry rejects at least 50 percent of its own product. It’s like Hostess trying to get rid of the filling in a Twinkie. Insanity.
At least Jake is willing to address the topic, unlike several of the more heavily-trafficked MMA media web sites.
Topics: MMA, Media, Pro Elite, Zach Arnold | 3 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback | Share This
Yeah I am really stunned how many sites, that happen to have EXC contacts, have basically ignored this.
Jake Rossen is right that not only the promoters but the casual mainstream fans are not very receptive to ground fighting. I think this sign points to the possibility that MMA’s popularity is really just a fad. The sport will never die and will continue to live with the support of hardcore fans. I don’t think the UFC will go back to the days where 100,000 PPV buys was considered a success. But when the UFC/MMA bubble bursts, it could easily get to a point where buys will average in the 200,000 range on the backs of hardcore UFC fans.
I love Jake Rossen, he is not only a great writer, but my favorite MMA writer.
I like what dave2 says.