Just A Thought

So let's count how many fighters we're probably going to be missing on the DYNAMITE card.

Gina Corano is out due to stomach bug.
Antonio Silva is out due to undisclosed reasons
Gabe Ruediger is out due to being "not mentally fit"
Ray Sefo is out due to undisclosed reasons
Marvin Eastman is out due to undisclosed reasons
Choi Mu Bae is out due to undisclosed reasons
Choi Hung Man is out due to undisclosed reasons. The excuse is possibly because he's got Hatton's.

And now Bernard Ackah might be the next to be a victim of "undisclosed"

So out of this whole card, three fights have been pulled with possible fourth happening and two interesting fights have be made trite and unwatchable.

Y'know, I was prepared to be all up in FEG's face for not turning in crucial paperwork at the right time to get properly licenced. But with this many people being pulled of the card....I'm starting to think that FEG got set up all along by CSAC and they're the one pulling this crap.

My Dog Knows Judo

I've got a great mutt at home. He's a Lab. Sometimes, when the day is nice and the day is boring, I take my dog outside for a long run. I also wrestle with my dog sometimes. He's great with his skills on the bottom. He knows how to defend from the choke, he's got a mean spider guard and an equally mean upkick. He does need to work on his top position though. I can easily tie up his head and arms with one arm. He also tends to want to go for the groin shots now and again. That's a big no-no Fido.

So you're wondering why am I talking about my dog's ground skills. Well, I'm thinking of signing him up to do amateur MMA. I'll train him to do a couple leg locks, maybe the anaconda choke, have him run a few ground and pound drills and then set him off. Watch out Rampage! Here comes Poochie!!

You realize how ridiculous that statement was?

Here's another one.

Dogfighting is just like the UFC because both are brutal sports.

Ok. Ok. So if Dogfighting is just like the UFC...where's the athletic commission in this?

What are the rules?

Do dogs get one minute breaks between rounds?

Are there any rounds?

Is there any weight divisions?

Say that we should support both sports because one wants to perceive itself as on the level of the other is really retarded. It's so retarded that even the retards say it's retarded.

I mean, do you see fighters getting shot in the back for having a broken limb and then buried in the back yard? I don't think so.

Saying that dog fighting is on the same level as the UFC is saying that high school wrestling is promoting unmitigated violence.

Yes, you little Jimmy will grow up a killer because he's a state wrestling champ.

I think what it all melts down to is that, when it comes to competitive violence, the US hasn't a clue what that is. We've conditioned ourselves into excepting the hocus pocus of violence and not come to real grasp with the fact that no matter how much you dress it up, competitive violence is just that. Violence.

The UFC brings in that harsh realization and people don't know how to take it. A lot go with the flow. A whole bunch of others slam the hell out of it.

It's this confusion that allows the pro-dog fight lobby to hook on with this petty and silly notion and has the media giving them that leeway and not calling them on their bullshit.

This needs to stop and needs to stop now.

New Dawn Fades

A chance to watch, admire the distance,
Still occupied, though you forget.

-Ian Curtis, New Dawn Fades

The buzz around the MMA community is the new Sports Illustrated cover for this week. Of course I've posted said cover above. The article is also real nice. Go check it out.

Of course this getting everybody hyped now. Everyone dancing, Singing "calu calai" Making love to their people and throwing big bashes.

The general consensus believes that we've finally won. Victory is ours.

Yet all I see are bodies of the fallen.

Yes, this is a great victory...but not MMA. UFC maybe, but not MMA. If this was a big victory for MMA, we would be hearing about more companies beside the UFC.

At first, I thought this was deja vu. Back in 1987, Vince MacMahon had a total strangle hold on the pro-wrestling industry. He was taking the best pro-wrestlers out of the territories and put them in his league, all the while giving syndicated tapes to local channels to compete with the local promotions in their areas. This two headed beast help popularize...you thought I was going to say pro-wrestling didn't you? No, pro-wrestling was stagnate by the end of '87. WWF is what the people wanted. If you weren't WWF quality back in that time, to hell with ya.

Now we're in 2007.

The same thing is starting to happen now. Don't believe me? Quick, tell me the last local event you were at. Be honest.

None right?

Exactly.

And why not?

It's not UFC quality. Correct. You don't know the fighters. Correct. The promoter doesn't sound like a bald headed fifteen year old. Correct.

Don't feel too bad. I haven't gone to any local events either. Of course, unlike you, I have good reason not to.

If this were about MMA, you'd hear more about the IFL, Pro Elite, BoDog, anybody outside of UFC being promoted. Nah. UFC is the big name.

The UFC can have the worst roster in the history of MMA and people will eat it up because they're too lazy to look around and they'll just lash on the loudest and bright. Just like an angler fish.

And this isn't just MMA. I've seen it happen to a lot of different subjects. Even today.

So when do we start to celebrate?

We celebrate when the sport is fully sanctioned in the US and the world.

We celebrate when jerkwater promoters who don't know the difference between a gogplata to a Go Go Gadget Copter are stopped by the full extent of the law for abusing a clause that affords martial arts full autonomy.

We celebrate when fighters get better pay.

We celebrate when Japan cleans it's act up.

We celebrate when there is stable avenues in the sport for a high volume of fighters.

UFC got on Sports Illustrated. Good for them.

It's just a magazine cover.

PS: NASCAR is Pro-wrestling....but with cars.

Jihad on Art Dore!!

Art Dore. The self proclaimed King of Bay City.

I'm going to make this short and sweet because I feel that if I talk about these guys, I will be giving these assholes free advertisement and I'm much higher then them.

Greg Ahrens did an interview for the Detroit Times talking about how he will ignore the Dept. Labor and Economic Growth (DLEG) prohibiting running the Cobo Arena. Here are the highlights.

These are so slanted it's just....here I'll show you.

State officials said they are considering going to Wayne Circuit Court to request an injunction against the program.

"Mr. Ahrens' events are in violation of the Michigan professional boxing statute," said the state's chief investigator, Barrington Carr, "and are probably a nuisance."

Amateur martial arts events are not covered under the act Carr cited, but the state believes it has jurisdiction over Ahrens' shows anyway because he sometimes pays fighters, and there is "a boxing component" to the bouts.

Ahrens said the purpose is to force state officials to rewrite the boxing regulations to include oversight of mixed martial arts, which are growing in popularity nationwide thanks to a proliferation of pay-per-view events. Then fighters could be paid legally, he said.

That has got to be the stupidest excuse ever on how to get MMA regulated in Michigan. That's like saying I'm going to stab anyone and everyone because there are not specific rules and regulation for blade murder. How about talking to Brett Ratner, Greg? How about sitting down and writing a rough guide on a piece of paper, Greg? How about lobbying Greg?

It goes on.

MMA events "are everywhere now," said Art Dore of Bay City, promoter of Toughman, which has proven a far more dangerous style of ring combat. "In Ohio, I think there are 40 or 41 MMA events this month alone."

Yes, Art. Ohio runs 41 events because they're licenced and regulated. That means they talk and work with athletic commissions. Unlike other people.

If you don't believe me I can get the OSAC Director's email for you. I dare you to talk to him. I triple dog dare you to talk to him. I doubt you have the balls.

No deaths have been reported in MMA events. Fighters, who wear 6-ounce, fingerless, palm-less gloves, are allowed to use any martial art form of striking, grappling, kicking or submission holds.

Dore, however, said at the last MMA event he attended, a down, clearly unconscious opponent was struck three or four times before the referee intervened. "It was pretty brutal," Dore said.

I love this thing that always comes up. You know the thing where the uneducated casual fan yells and screams about how a fight should have ended sooner because the first strike knocked out a fighter and the following strikes that follow seconds after were excessive. And then they go blame the ref for being "too slow" It's like their sense of time is warped and the refs are supposed to have super sharp eyes and super speed to qualify to officiate.

For Art to say something like this either was to show off his ignorance of the sport or a low handed way of bringing MMA down to his level. Either way, it's pretty stupid.

Saturday's MMA event has nothing to do with Toughman, Ahrens said, but "the state is painting me with an Art Dore paint brush." Dore has no part of Saturday night's promotion, Ahrens said, but has been hired as ring announcer "because people love him."

So people love him. If I come and bring the families of the fourteen people who died in his ring, you think they will love him too? How about those five vegetables? You think I can be a buddy of Dore? You think he'll let me frequent his steakhouse/martini and cigar bar if I call him a scoundrel, a liar and a sad waste of water and carbon wasting my planet's resources?

The state also complains that Ahrens does not insure his fighters up to $50,000 for injury, twice that for death, the coverage for boxers. Ahrens said the 50 fighters expected Saturday night will be insured "$5,000 per occurrence."

That's cool. What insurance company you using?

He could not remember which insurance company issued the policies, he said, but both he and Dore said Ahrens frequently purchases such coverage from an insurance company registered in the Cayman Islands owned by Dore.

So the fighters aren't getting insured and they're not getting paid. In fact, you have fighters pay to fight.

Why are they fighting for you again?

Ahrens said Detroit emergency officials would be informed the bouts will be taking place, but will not be present. "Our doctor says those people just get in the way," he said.

You need to fire your doctor then and fast. Show me one instance where emergency officials are "in the way" of an event? Calvin Ayre had emergency officials on call every time he throws a Bodog card. Hell, high school football has an ambulance sitting just outside the field. Why are you denying emergency assistance?

Or are you lying again?

Ladies and gentleman of the MMA community, I urge you, nay, plead with you to call Jihad on Art Dore and Greg Ahrens. They are hurting the sport in the state of Michigan and are trying to make themselves look like martyrs while doing so. Please send kind, helpful mail to Barrington Carr, head of the Enforcement Dept. Here is the address.

Enforcement Division
P.O. Box 30018
Lansing, MI 48909

email: bcsinfo@michigan.gov

Please send kind and helpful mail that not only shows support to Carr, but also helps him at least understand a bit about MMA and how it needs to be protected from the Dore regime. I urge everyone to get everyone and their grandmothers involved. Please! For the sake of the sport!!

We need to stop The advances of Art Dore. If we don't, I'm afraid that we'll have our first fatality pretty soon.

Sports Media! Stop Putting Your Mouth On The Water Fountain Of Boxing!

Boxing.

The Sweet Science.

It's been all over the media all week. Mainly because of the De La Hoya/Mayweather fight. While this has been important news, the Sports media has been taking this story in a whole different and wrong direction. So, instead of wasting paragraphs of flowery language and colorful metaphors upon a sports media that chooses to be willful ignorant unless the almighty dollar is involved, I will do the rest of this post as a question and answer post. Because I'm a gentleman of restraint and I'm doing it for you, my lovely fans. You don't deserve my hate. You just deserve the facts.

Here we go.

What is the Sports media doing?

They are pretty much taking this great match and creating this glorious myth of being "The Match That Saves Boxing" and then are using this as some sort of metaphysical "Dutch Courage" to strike back on MMA with what ever they got.

Really? I haven't seen much of that. Is there anyone specific?

So far from what I've seen, most of the ESPN "lunch crew" (Jim Rome Is Burning, PTI), Wally Matthews from the Vs. Network (which is home to the WEC) and some actor posing as a journalist on CBS Sportsline (you're going to have to google that one.). Expect a steady flow happening today and tomorrow and depending on the fight, a large blow up next week of orgasmic magnitude. Wear a raincoat and bring an umbrella.

Does Boxing need to be saved?

Not really. It's doing fine and well around the world. Anyone who think it needs to be saved is either weird or on drugs. I think it could be a possible end of the way...boxing is marketed. Also it could be the possible end of the current format that boxing uses at the moment. But, the end of Boxing as a whole? I doubt it.

Ok. But let's say for kids and giggles that the sport of Boxing does need to be saved. Will this fight save it?

Not really. How is one boxing match going to erase the mistakes of the past? It's like your brother constantly being the ass of the family for years and then he joins a church custodial staff just to make you forget that he's the ass of the family. If anything, this is a steadily hyped boxing match. And it will breed interest in more steadily hyped boxing matches involving Mayweather and De La Hoya. You can't actually believe that one match will make anything better. It has to start to be and remain consistent to be taken seriously again. It has to be cleaned up, start following a beneficial agenda and have an actual format to rely on.

If Boxing is relying on this match on saving them, it really shows how much brains makes up the higher ups in this particular promotion.

What does MMA have to do with any of this?

Absolutely nothing.

Then why is the Sports media so adamant about attacking it?

I don't know. Other then Caligarian mesmerism, the only explanation I can give is that they can't come to terms with the problems in Boxing and instead of doing their jobs and talk about these problems, they pretty much lash out at the newest popular thing in denial. MMA was just passing through the neighborhood at the time.

Is MMA killing Boxing?

Hell no. And if it is, it's not intentional. Sure you have Dana White saying that the UFC is killing boxing, after De La Hoya retires boxing is over, blah blah blah. This is the same guy who got in an F-bomb war with Pride's two bit guppy on satellite radio. His words don't mean crap.

What I find interesting is that those who are still hanging off Boxing's sac are saying that it's mostly the young (21-35) that is watching MMA. Am I disputing that? Absolutely not. There have been facts and figures who state this is a fact. What's really silly is that the Sports media thinks that it's ONLY the young that is growing the sport of MMA. They're totally wrong on this. It's not only the young growing this sport, it's Boxing's future neighbors, the Traditional Martial Arts community that has put some effort in growing this sport as well. To totally ignore this fact is what shows the true base of Boxing's arrogance. A sport whose basis is a mix of other highly technical combat sports that get little to no coverage or props from the mainstream save clips for the Olympics is being bashed by the so called Sports media as a "bar room brawl" over the fact that a less technical combat sport that has many variations of one focal point of attack is losing fans because they're turned off by the constant scandal that combat sport is plagued with and are starting to enjoy advanced styles of striking and new ideas of ground technique.

In short?

Because Sports media doesn't understand the gogoplata, they're gonna hate on the gogoplata.

De La Hoya or Mayweather?

De La Hoya. He's more into the fight then Mayweather is.

PS: If your Sports media is spending more time covering the length of Jarrod Saltalamacchia's name more then a UFC card, you know you're in trouble.