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Fox Sports: "Zach Arnold's Fight Opinion site is one of the best spots on the Web for thought-provoking MMA pieces."

« | Home | »

Update on Oklahoma fighter Larry Shorman

By Zach Arnold | August 7, 2007

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Wednesday is the next meeting day for the Oklahoma Boxing Commission. Thanks to a couple of comments posted on our site tonight, the information as of tonight is that Larry Shorman (who got knocked out by Jeremiah Constant) is doing fine. You can read those comments here and here and here.

I thank the commenters for their updates.

The one thing I do find interesting is that the replies all come at once (Tuesday night) and two of them claim in symphony that our site claimed the event where Shorman fought Constant was “at a bar.” Just look at the report we filed on the web site. Not only does the report not claim that the event was at a bar, it has direct links to who owns the facility where the show took place at. Additionaly, our site clearly stated a link to a report on the Something Awful site. From the original Fight Opinion post:

Furthermore, I did not post any links until the person who wrote the report revealed himself. In other words, no anonymous sources or hidden posters. Not interested in that. I am glad Larry Shorman is doing well.

Two issues that were raised in the Something Awful post that were not addressed by the commenters:

  1. What was Shorman’s record going into the fight against Constant? Was it his professional debut?
  2. Was there a weight discrepancy between the two fighters?

These were the issues raised in the Something Awful post.

I did get a chuckle out of a fighter named Justin McCorkle who wrote the following:

People like Zach Arnold, the writer of this article, are one of the many who attempt to cripple our great sport of mixed martial arts. People like Mr. Arnold have no clue what level of training is required to compete in such a technical and complex sport. Fortunately for us, however, people like Mr. Arnold, despite his best efforts, will NEVER even put a small dent in our great sport. So type away sir – you only make the millions of supporters of MMA across the world snicker at your complete lack of knowledge for not ony the sport, but your credibility as a writer/reporter in that after reading my first paragraph, we can all see that Mr. Arnold does not even have his facts straight!

And there’s this item from here:

Bro, I’m sending the link on the news story out. One of my biggest gripes about MMA is that too often, the idiots get the spotlight that makes our sport look like a bunch of barbaric goons. Well done.

Topics: Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 6 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

6 Responses to “Update on Oklahoma fighter Larry Shorman”

  1. klown says:

    Definitely fishy. Smells like corporate PR damager control.

  2. Preach says:

    I got more than just a chuckle from Justin McCorkle. Of course “Warriors of the Cage” is a low-level show, what else should it be? Top-level? I’d say the UFC and K1 Hero’s would beg to differ. Mid-level? I don’t think that the WEC, EXC or IFL would be okay with that. Lower level? I honestly don’t think that WotC is anywhere near the level of ICON, Strikeforce, Rumble on the Rock, The Art of War or even King of the Cage.

    So, Larry Shorman is a professional fighter because he signed a consent form? Last i checked, a professional fighter is someone who trains rigorously, and professionally competes with the intent of financial gain (because that is what separates the pro from the amateur). Art Dore too let’s his “fighters” sign a consent form, does that make his “fighters” professionals? Or Art Dore a legitimate promoter? Any bum from the streets that just wants to throw down can sign a consent form, he doesn’t have to be a fighter to do that, as long as he’s able to write his name (And i’m not saying that Larry Shorman’s that type of guy). Handing out consent forms and waivers doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s a professionally run promotion, it merely shows that someone knows who to cover his own ass.

    It’s also great to see that this “Heavyweight Fighter” (nice way to underline that HE knows what he’s talking about, cause, yeah, he’s a fighter and Zach’s not) spends a whole paragraph running Zach down for “trying to cripple our great sport…” without realizing that he’s contradicting this statement by even posting it on this very site, because even the dumbest of village idiots could see by reading some post on this site (given that he can read, that is), that Zach is not running a “hate-blog”, but a site that both informs on the sport of Mixed Martial Arts (which he is most probably covering longer that Mr McCorkle even knows that it exists) and gives opinions on various topics, including how to better the sport (such as steroid abuse for example).

    And “millions of supporters of MMA across the world snicker at your complete lack of knowledge”. Well, it may not be millions, but as evidenced by dozens of threads on die-hard boards like Sherdog or the UG, people know who Zach Arnold is. And yes, there was some negative backlash towards him in the wake of his reporting on the Pride/Shukan Gendai scandal, but somehow all the naysayers have been silenced since their object of affection, Pride, went the way of the Dodo. There’s no snickering to hear, just the sound of crickets chirping. And judging by all the people that are commenting on this site, more people know Zach Arnold (and like his work as a writer), then there are people that know of Warriors of the Cage or a Justin McCorkle (Was that a cheap shot? Yeah, and it was intended as such)

    “In that after reading my first paragraph, we can all see that Mr. Arnold does not even have his facts straight” – actually, in your first paragraph you’re attacking Zach Arnold, and not presenting any “facts”. But yeah, i know, 1 and 2 are so near to each other that it’s hard not to get confused.

    So you see: Your attempt to impress us has failed. Miserably.

  3. Sammy says:

    I would never say that Zach doesnt know his stuff. He certainly does. He is very knowledgable about the fight business around the world.

    HOWEVER… as I’ve stated in previous posts, I dont think his all-out assault on the commission and promoter was warranted considering the limited amount of information he had at the time that actually implied that any wrongdoing had occurred. And I still see no evidence of that.

    Of course I believe all athletic commissions and promoters should be held responsible for wrongdoing, but at the same time, posting all of the contact information and conducting and and posting a background check for these parties, so that hundreds of ‘keyboard warriors’ can send the commission and the promoter angry, badly written, and even worse thought-out letters, based on little to no solid facts or evidence, is not a responsible OR effective way of addressing the supposed problem.

  4. D.Capitated says:

    I got more than just a chuckle from Justin McCorkle. Of course “Warriors of the Cage” is a low-level show, what else should it be? Top-level? I’d say the UFC and K1 Hero’s would beg to differ. Mid-level? I don’t think that the WEC, EXC or IFL would be okay with that. Lower level? I honestly don’t think that WotC is anywhere near the level of ICON, Strikeforce, Rumble on the Rock, The Art of War or even King of the Cage.

    Are you insinuating that Strikeforce is a “low level show”? I’d compare this show to KOTC or Gladiator’s Challenge, though.

    So, Larry Shorman is a professional fighter because he signed a consent form? Last i checked, a professional fighter is someone who trains rigorously, and professionally competes with the intent of financial gain (because that is what separates the pro from the amateur).

    The answer to your question is “yes”. He was clearly in the ring to fight and make money. Is he a great or even good fighter? I have no idea. Never have seen the guy. I’d guess not. But there’s no magical formula for how much one trains that makes you a pro fighter. You point out KOTC as being far above the level of this, and yet they put a street fighter with nearly no legit MMA experience (at least at that time) in with a K-1 level striker in one of their most famous historical bouts. The guy wore Vans in the ring and took one of the most immense beatings ever.

    And yes, there was some negative backlash towards him in the wake of his reporting on the Pride/Shukan Gendai scandal, but somehow all the naysayers have been silenced since their object of affection, Pride, went the way of the Dodo.

    Zach is willing to post links to anything as long as its MMA related. If I had an MMA blog and announced Sakuraba would be headlining UFC 80, he would put it up. That’s how this thing all started. The guy was “OMG PARALYZED I HOPE HE SURVIVES” to “Oh, he went to the ER and got discharged without even being admitted.”

  5. Richard Rowe says:

    I have to agree that this whole fight was very badly matched. I have taken pictures of over 20 fights, and never have I seen such a gross attempt at entertainment. It was so one sided that at times I wonder why they just didn’t hire bums from down at the half way house to fight. I am posting this because I was just threatened by the MatchMaker of this fight with violence. I will leave up the pictures that show what a joke fights at The Farmers Market are. Most of these fighters are very talented, and this is not a stab at them. It was the matchMaker that was at fault at this fight. I have talked to a few people with the Boxing commission, and they also agreed. The medical staff on site, and the refree Gary Ritter were outstanding in their efforts to controll this freak show.

  6. Jonathan says:

    Obviously Zach, you have no clue what “mixed martial arts” is. Also, stop trying to destroy this sport that you have invested so much time and effort in covering..

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