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May 2nd bonus round of links

By Zach Arnold | May 2, 2007

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By Zach Arnold

ESPN was in full non-MMA fan mode today for their sports programming. On the Jim Rome is Burning program, guests Randy Sklar and Andrew Siciliano both put down MMA as a replacement for boxing (they are right) and called boxing more technical and a science. On Pardon the Interruption, Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon talked about the theme of De La Hoya vs. Mayweather being “Will this fight save boxing?” and then went into their usual UFC tirades about how it’s bare-knuckled fighting from the 1800s that ‘happens on barges’. Kornheiser and Wilbon said boxing is dead after this fight. E-mail PTI.

Of course, if you talk to people like Keegan Walsh, you know that boxing is not dead. It may not be in great shape in America, but in places like Japan (with the Kameda brothers) and Germany (big growth there) it is doing well. Very well.

  1. MMA Insider: Dana White appeared on Scott Ferrall’s radio show Tuesday night
  2. CBS Sportsline: De La Hoya-Mayweather will separate boxing from thuggish UFC
  3. UFC Junkie: UFC equals the “Ultimate Farcical Clown”
  4. Five Ounces of Pain: Tito Ortiz interview excerpts
  5. The Valley Star Online: UFC Champ Chuck Liddell’s Top 5 Action Films
  6. The Baltimore Sun: Breakout MMA victory for Binky Jones
  7. Inside Fighting: Matt Lindland reflects on Fedor loss and relationship with UFC
  8. Mad Squabbles: UFC & UK (Luke’s hitting upon Jeff Thaler’s long-standing theory here)
  9. MMA HQ: WEC on Versus Network
  10. Fox Sports: Anacondas’ Jay Hieron digs down deep
  11. The Fight Network: UFC aiming to run four more UK shows before the end of 2007
  12. Nokaut: Interview with Karo Parisyan
  13. Sherdog (radio): Monte Cox & Ken Pavia interviews
  14. The Keene Equinox (New Hampshire): MMA club KO’d by controversy

Topics: Boxing, IFL, Media, MMA, UFC, UK, WEC, Zach Arnold | 18 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

18 Responses to “May 2nd bonus round of links”

  1. Psygone says:

    The CBS article is a total Hack piece. The message board posts ripping on him are far more entertaining.

  2. D. Capitated says:

    Kornheiser and Wilbon have been saying boxing is dead for eons. They did it before the De La Hoya/Hopkins fight and the Tyson/Lewis fight too. I’m sure we’ll hear it again for the next fight that does 750,000+ buys.

  3. Rollo the Cat says:

    I actually smile when I hear about mainstream sports commentators blasting MMA. It is nothing but frustration and desperation.

    Dana saying he is negotiating with a TV network to televise the UFC is big news to me. HBO is fine, but NBC would mark the beginning of new era in sports.

  4. muhr says:

    Kornheiser and Wilbon aren’t even legitimate boxing fans they’re bandwagon jumpers.

  5. D. Capitated says:

    I don’t think Michael Kornheiser has anything to worry about from the UFC. He doesn’t do any serious coverage of boxing and I doubt the audience that’s coming to watch him and Wilbon talk about the NFL and Tiger Woods is so desperate for UFC coverage that it will sink their program.

  6. AJAX says:

    I’ve been a listener of Jim Rome’s radio show for over seven years now, and if you haven’t listened to it, everything he says in the radio program is said over again on JRIB, almost to the letter. MMA is an exception though, as his T.V. guests put MMA down, on the radio, with all the De La and Maywether talk, he coined MMA as an unstopable force during an interview with non other than Teddy Atlas. Atlas, as candid as ever, said MMA is a tough subject to address, but nontheless gave it props more than any other boxing honk I’ve ever heard. I saw the Gonzaga konckout on ESPN, and I promise that Jim Rome(who has by far the most listened to daytime sports radio show) will jump ship to the MMA bandwagon in due time. A perfect example is Nascar. It used to be the left-hand turn league on his radio show, and now Nascar uses him as a stepping stone. For myself, the only thing that excites me is a rumer I heard that Dana is going to be working for Knees to downed opponents. Also, Akira Shoji has been Mr. Pride for too long. I nominate Josh Barnet for the second coming of MR. Pride. With all the bad moves Zuffa has been making during the Pride takover, making Josh the official new Mr. Pride might excite Japanese fans. He is perfect…

  7. 1000 Cent says:

    If I said it once offline to my friends, I said it a thousand times sports fans in the United States (especially ones that don’t follow MMA) are an ignorant group. IMO, you are not going to change their mind…Well, until Zuffa holds a show in a large sports arena, that grosses over 100,000 people, and has a tremendous build up to the main event from advertising, that everyone forgets what actually happen.

    Once that happens, everyone and their mother in the sports community will say they were in attendance for the first Ultimate Fighting Challenge (yeah, I know it’s wrong, but don’t try to convince a sports fan that). Sports is entertainment, plain and simple and all it takes is an ESPN to turn a “bloodsport” or “mini war”, and turn it into the new “America’s Pastime”.

    More people have died in Arena Football than in the sport of Mixed Martial Arts, but do some research, and find out who owns a good amount of the Arena Football League. Think about that for a second :D.

  8. robnashville says:

    That Karo interview on Nokaut is gold….. he’s shootin’ on everybody…. i loved this line

    Karo: Dana shows a lot of love towards me. He loves me because I give him good fights and he’s excited about that. And he told me you’re going to be with me until the day you die, I said alright, that could be a good thing, that could be a bad thing, but I want to think of it as a good thing.

  9. hbdale309 says:

    Damn, Karo beat a 260lb Rameau Thierry Soakajew(sp) in Judo. Wow, that’s a massive size diff.

  10. Leroy - GL says:

    Money talks for Jim Rome and his various shows. He’s made a living making fun of NASCAR (in his terms “NECK-CAR”) but it was impossible for him to ignore the power and reach of the sport. Eventually, he’ll be sucking up to the MMA world a lot more, especially when the sport continues to expand with mainstream audiences and network TV.

  11. Preach says:

    Chuck just earned a few more points in my book by declaring “Best of the Best” his favorite martial arts-film. That one’s a gem that’s severely underrated. Only weird that he gave “Karate Kid” the second spot, while “Return of the Dragon” is absent. Oh well, at least he had a beautiful death scene in “The Death and Life of Bobby Z”.

    And speaking of that film – anyone interested in a review? I’m working on one right now, and would post it over here if anyone’s interested. The film stars Chuck Liddell, Tim Sylvia, Robbie Lawler, Oleg Taktarov, Pat Miletich, Ben Rothwell and Rory Markham (and of course Paul Walker and Larry Fishburne)

  12. chis says:

    That Mike Freeman thinks NFL is more violent then UFC,what a cock has the idiot never seen a Rugby game.

  13. chis says:

    Cage Rage got a Tv viewing of 80000 on Sky Sports last weekend.

  14. Liger05 says:

    80,000. I would like to know how many PPV’s the UFC sold in the UK on Setanta Sports. I dont expect it to be too high considering the advertising and promotion for the PPV was poor. Will be interesting to see the numbers in comparison to what a WWE PPV sells on Sky Box Office.

  15. Read the book, and read Sam Sheridan’s book about the filming. When’s Bobby Z coming out anyways?

  16. Grape Knee High says:

    Anyone else catch in the Scott Ferrall link yesterday that Dana White said that the UFC is actively pursuing Fedor?

    The implications of that signing speaks volumes as to Zuffa’s future plans for PRIDE and his past statement that “PRIDE fighters would stay in PRIDE”. I think what most people suspected is pretty clearly coming to fruition: that PRIDE will simply be the Japanese/international minor league counterpart to the WEC. It will just be a feeder league for lower weight classes; I have no doubt at this point that any and all marketable HWs will be routed immediately to the UFC. PRIDE is dead; long live Bushido.

  17. Preach says:

    It’s going straight to DVD in the US, Fightlinker, as far as i heard in late august, early september. It’s having a VERY limited theatrical run over here in Germany (3 copies, and only this week) under the title “Let’s kill Bobby Z”, before coming to DVD next month as “Kill Bobby Z”. It’s a fun little flick, with some nice fights choreographed by one “Patrick Miletich” 😉

    I could’ve done without seeing Timmay’s naked flabby butt though… Oh the horror!

  18. Jeez, I’ve been waiting for like 3 months for this movie to come out and now i find out it’s already out. That’s what i get for being a social hermit.

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