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Media notebook: The evils of MMA

By Zach Arnold | June 5, 2007

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All the latest on the IFL here and here.

Frank Warren (British boxing promoter) claims that the UFC offered a commentating job to BBC personality (and boxing writer) Steve Bunce, but he turned it down due to it not being enough money. Read the post for Warren’s anti-UFC rant as well. Luke Thomas at Bloody Elbow thinks that the fighter payroll for the WEC 28 show this past Sunday stinks.

Everyone’s new favorite sports writer, Brian VanOchten, has his own blog. Despite many MMA writers and fans writing e-mails to The Grand Rapids Press in regards to VanOchten’s drive-by anti-MMA column yesterday, the newspaper published zero letters in response to VanOchten’s article. Keep sending the e-mails in ([email protected], [email protected], and [email protected]). VanOchten’s name is now making the rounds on MySpace blogs. He really picked on the wrong audience.

Read on…

The Evil of the Ultimate Fighting Craze, so sayeth Liveprayer.

However, even in this sanitized form, it is still a brutal contest between two men with the goal of incapacitating your opponent. I will guarantee you that as this sport gains in popularity, there will emerge competing “leagues” who will do away with many of the new rules to take it back to a more brutal form that the masses will crave. I have said for many years now, that there is only one place for reality television to go, one place for Pay-Per-View events to go, and that is to display people getting killed. The only thing that is missing from ultimate fighting is the “death shot,” that moment when one man has clearly beat his opponent, rendered him helpless, and then wins the match by killing him. I have no doubt that it won’t be very long before you will be able to pay $79 on PPV and see that type of “sporting event.”

Don Barrie in The Peterborough Examiner:

The recent Jackass television shows and movies gave rise to kids trying some very stupid and dangerous stunts resulting in some serious injuries and the occasional death.

The craze seemed to have ended as quickly as it started.

Hopefully UFC, which is nothing more than street or bar fighting between some extremely fit men in an octagon cage, will have an equally quick end and with it the mimicking antics by impressionable kids.

Topics: IFL, Media, MMA, UFC, WEC, Zach Arnold | 26 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

26 Responses to “Media notebook: The evils of MMA”

  1. Mount up! Lets get him!

  2. Ditch says:

    “Okay so it isn’t more barbaric than boxing. BUT IF THEY TOOK THE RULES AWAY…”

    Good golly.

  3. The Citizen says:

    Its funny when the mainstream finds out last.

  4. Liger05 says:

    Frank Warren is right about the salaries. Boxers figthing on a smaller scale than the UFC can more than the majority of those fighting on those big UFC PPV’s.

  5. Mike says:

    That “blog” is further proof of VanDoubleChin’s hackery. It’s all fluff about the West Michigan Whitecaps, whatever they are. Like “the first 1,000 fans at the park tomorrow night get bobbleheads.”

    And it isn’t even a real blog, he doesn’t allow comments.

    I almost feel bad for him. Imagine if you wanted to be a sportswriter and make it big and get on Around the Horn, but instead you had a horrendous combover, four chins, and you had to spend your life regurgitating West Michigan Whitecaps press releases to fill out a blog. You’d lash out at people too.

    (No offense intended to anyone in West Michigan).

  6. Adam Morgan says:

    “The only thing that is missing from ultimate fighting is the “death shot,” that moment when one man has clearly beat his opponent, rendered him helpless, and then wins the match by killing him. I have no doubt that it won’t be very long before you will be able to pay $79 on PPV and see that type of “sporting event.”

    Wow. These people are so uneducated. This is mixed martial arts, a sport, not a George Carlin comedy special, people. The “death shot”? I mean, seriously, come on.

  7. Jonathan says:

    Adam,

    Clearly he is confusing “Death Shot MMA” with “Finish Him” from the Mortal Kombat game series. once again, I think these writers need to differentiate between video games and real life mixed martial arts.

  8. Stu says:

    I actually got contacted by the Executive Sports Editor at The Grand Rapids Press in regard to my e-mail to them and was asked for permission to publish my e-mail in their Sports Mailbox, she also wrote “And, rest assured, yours would not be the only letter on this subject!”.

  9. Zach Arnold says:

    I can’t find the Sports Mailbox on the GRP site. Does anyone know the link to it? Here’s the main page for the GRP:

    http://www.mlive.com/grpress/

  10. Stu says:

    They have a more general letters to the editor section covering everything, maybe that’s what she’s talking about.
    http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ssf?letters

  11. Euthyphro says:

    Do we have an update on K-1 paid attendance yet? I want a laugh on this boring Tuesday.

  12. Yeah. I don’t think it’ll get published in that paper unless you’re praising God, Guns or The Gipper.

    Just a hunch.

  13. Jeff says:

    All must hear Mauro Renallo’s podcast on Fight Network Radio. His opening comments about K-1 Dynamite are priceless.

    http://www.hardcoresportsradio.com/programs/fight/

  14. Tomer Chen says:

    Adam,

    Clearly he is confusing “Death Shot MMA” with “Finish Him” from the Mortal Kombat game series. once again, I think these writers need to differentiate between video games and real life mixed martial arts.

    Don’t some martial arts claim that they have a ‘Dim Mak’ (“Death Touch” or “Touch Point”), actually?

  15. D.Capitated says:

    The article about the WEC is pretty ridiculous. We’re talking about a B class organization here, one argurably below the level of a Shooto or Cage Rage worldwide. Guys in prelims being paid more several thousand dollars is very, very kind. Especially since boxers in the same position are usually making $100 a round.

  16. UFCDaily.com says:

    I have to agree on WEC pay being low. This is not indicitive of just the WEC but my biggest gripe with the sport is fighter pay and there is nothing changing this. We expect all fighters to drop everything and train all out for a fight only to be paid a $1,000. Try living of of $10,000 a year (ballpark) and I think most will see just why the pay is such an issue.

  17. 45 Huddle says:

    For fighters to be paid more, does the company have to make more?

    The paid attendance was probably around $75,000 tops. I know previous WEC shows ranged from $50,000 to $100,000. Then there is production costs for a live show. That can be anywhere between $200,000 and $400,000. Even with money coming in from sponsors and The Versus Network, the show almost definitely lost money. This is directly the reason why the fighters aren’t getting more.

    All this stuff about paying more is complete BS!!! Pride paid more at one point and is out of business. IFL is going out of business. This is a very expensive sport to run. So many companies have tried to turn a profit, and can’t. So this is why fighters purses haven’t gone up.

    Secondly, the fighters know getting into this sport how the pay structure is. They know it means living off of beans until they make it. But Zuffa pays well. A guy like Jon Fitch, after sponsors, is making 6 figures a year. Not too shabby for a current mid carder who has little TV exposure.

    People like to complain and compare the pay to boxers. Oscar & Floyd are getting paid millions at the expense of their entire sport. They shouldn’t be getting paid that much, as it completely hurts the rest of the undercard, and boxing is hurting because of it. And comparing to to other lower level sports athletes, it is about the same. Minor League Baseball players (who in their own right are ultra talented) get paid crap. Olympic Athletes do it for peanuts, and the Olympic people make millions off of them.

    In the perspective of all sports, there is little to complain about fighters pay.

  18. 45 Huddle says:

    As for the WEC being B class, I disagree. The talent level is already better then Cage Rage. And Shooto is so over rated. Their “great” champions consistently struggle against the American Style Fighters.

    Look at the way Hughes dominated Sakurai. Or Penn dominated Gomi. Or back in the day the way Uno struggled with Pulver For as much attention as that company gets by the hardcore fans, it pays garbage and beyond Pride stacking their entire Bushido cards with their talent, hardly have made it past the big time against the American style fighter.

  19. GassedOut says:

    I can tell neither of the writers has ever set foot in any kind of dojo for a serious martial art or even studied self defense.

    I wonder what these “gentlemen” would say if they knew that real martial artists that train for self defense think that there are too many rules inside the ring/cage to be useful for their purposes?

    When’s the last time any fighter in the sport fishooked another, for example? Or struck to the back of the head deliberately? Kicked the groin on purpose? Raked the nose and eyes of their oppoent to deliberately blind them? Struck with the elbow or forearm to the brachial plexus origin nerve in the neck (the result if done correctly completely disables your opponent for a few critical seconds)? Punched an opponent in the adam’s apple (can kill if done right)? Any and all of those SHOULD be against the rules (there are other things I’ve ommitted, I’m using examples), and generally ARE!

    It’s very clear to me that they have a demographic they are trying to reach, and they are adding their own take and stating it as fact. When I was managing editor of a small newspaper, we had a term for this. It was irresponsible journalism. Or how about the word that orignated in ancient Greece? Demagogery. Either way, it’s terrible and the writers should be ashamed of themselves.

  20. Drew says:

    And Shooto is so over rated. Their “great” champions consistently struggle against the American Style Fighters.

    Anderson Silva was the former Shooto Middleweight Champ and he seems to be doing okay in the UFC 😛

    Shooto has been turning out great fighters like Hansen, Gomi, Ishida, Kawajiri, Aoki and Shoalin.

    I agree with you that the WEC is better than Cage Rage, but Shooto is hardly overrated.

  21. D. Capitated says:

    As for the WEC being B class, I disagree. The talent level is already better then Cage Rage. And Shooto is so over rated. Their “great” champions consistently struggle against the American Style Fighters.

    Cage Rage has no problem bringing in name or former name heavyweights and light heavyweights. WEC is essentially there to push sub 170lb guys, for whom the market in America is minimal at this stage. That the WEC is on TV doesn’t mean they need to pay out like a boxing PPV for the 6th fight down on the card. Good god.

    Look at the way Hughes dominated Sakurai. Or Penn dominated Gomi. Or back in the day the way Uno struggled with Pulver For as much attention as that company gets by the hardcore fans, it pays garbage and beyond Pride stacking their entire Bushido cards with their talent, hardly have made it past the big time against the American style fighter.

    Shooto is the only place in the world right now for legitimate talent under 145 to test themselves. The number of fighters that have come out of there and been highly successful in PRIDE and the UFC is obvious. I feel pretty comfortable in thinking that BJ Penn would likely have had less problems with almost anyone on the WEC card than he did Gomi, so really, your point is kinda ridiculous.

  22. 45 Huddle says:

    Actually, Penn had almost no problems with Gomi. It was a one sided butt kicking.

    You say Shooto fighters have been successful in both the UFC and Pride. What homegrown Shooto fighter has been successful in the UFC?

    Uno? Sakurai? Mishima?

    There isn’t one that I can think of.

    Look at Gomi for a second. The real poster boy from Shooto. His disappointing fights are to Penn, Aurelio, & Diaz. All train in the states.

    Look at Sakurai against fighters his own size. Shields & Hughes made him look average.

    I just don’t understand why this company is always praised for having such great talent. Their fighters do well against other Japanese and the Brazilian style. But they are merely average here in the states.

  23. The Gaijin says:

    I think you need to take into account the fact that a lot of Shooto guys are undersized when they come over here. I bet if you put Shooto guys into the WEC they’d have a FIELD DAY.

    Sakurai and Gomi are the only ones I can really think of that are actually bigger.

    As for the Gomi-Diaz example, I’m sorry but I don’t think I really get what anyone’s point is. Diaz fought in the UFC at 170lbs…he lost (all close decision battles) to guys at 170 and then came in and fought Gomi at 161lbs did he not?…So he moved down in weight and beat someone by pulling off an insane submission and that’s evidence that Shooto guys don’t do so well in the US?? I’m not totally convinced.

    Shaolin Ribeiro and KID Yamamotto could most definately come over and dispell that myth pretty damned quickly. Alexandre Franca Nogueria would likely do pretty well in the 143 division as well.

  24. The Gaijin says:

    Also,

    Don Barrie being a writer for my hometown paper, that really shames me. What an unintelligent idiot, mind you he’s considered a joke by most people that read the “Examiner” anyways, which is about the most pokey hometown newspaper going.

    The Examiner is also a huge pusher of local area boxing clubs and routinely gives them pretty nice pieces on events and local boxers, so take that all with a grain of salt. And of course, they never seem to mind putting in big write-ups featuring extensive recounts of fights that occur on the ice for the Petes games (OHL Jr. A Hockey team) or on the floor of the Lakers games (OLA Jr. A & Sr. A lacrosse teams).

    While he at least doesn’t completely demonize the sport, I’d like for one to point out that fights happen at school all the time always drew a crowd (even without good old YouTube – apparently the new “demon TV”) and bucket fights were popular back when I played minor hockey and lacrosse and they are FAR FROM a new craze.

  25. liger05 says:

    Oscar De La Hoya & PBF are not the only boxers who earn more than MMA fighters.

  26. grafdog says:

    Way to conform 45 huddle! And generally wrong again.

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