Comments on: Random Rants: Judging conspiracies; Bisping bullshit; Cro Cop’s cop out; and Cuban’s first card

By: el boxeo

el boxeo — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 03:40:06 +0000

i think it was worse cause so many more people saw it ( what i mean by that was that it was more accessible to people who might not normally shell out the bucks to watch it)

and if your an average fan and you see a one sided fight and a opposite decision.. then naturally your gonna be turned off or compare it to boxing… whats the point of watching something if its pre ordained who is gonna win…

and to the average fan.. they could care less about the 10 point system they use or not.. mabey an avid watcher would understand why this happend but the average fan sees it as highway robbery…

when we were watching live on the internet , we had a couple of people who occasionally watch ufc and are not hardcore watchers.. after that fight they were pretty much writing it off as boxing redux cause alot of them were former boxing fans but couldnt stand alot of the bs…

its funny cause we were talking about who was going to win right before hendo v jackson and somebody screamed out ” you know chuck liddell” is some how walking out with his belt back after they fight”….total joke but it sets a bad precendent on gaining new fans.. and after lack of regulation that later came out in certain articles, it could lead to the publics dismay with the sport just like boxing did….

By: kentyman

kentyman — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 02:00:44 +0000

No, no, no. Chin DOWN. This is a fight site, after all.

By: mike

mike — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 01:59:03 +0000

alright alright. that’s all fine. if i was going to get picky, i’d say that in the nick diaz interview, which is the thing that you’ve written that i have open at the moment, you invoke Pearl Harbor in an odd way in the 1st paragraph, you’re missing an apostrophe in “sports” in the 2nd, you misunderstand the term “glass ceiling” in the 3rd, you’re missing the word “before” between “shortly” and “the” in the 4th, and the last sentence of the 5th would probably be better off without the 2nd “as”. that’s not me nitpicking, that’s just me reading and being confused by your writing. i don’t mean to imply you’re stupid or uneducated. just, chin up, you’re better than that, go get ‘em tiger.

By: Sam Caplan

Sam Caplan — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 01:52:12 +0000

“Hehe … you said wad.”

Settle down, Beavis.

By: Sam Caplan

Sam Caplan — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 01:49:26 +0000

Kentyman:

No need to apologize. I’ve heard the comparisons ever since Insomniac came out. I talked a little more about the Attell comparisons in the blog entry where I linked to Linker’s post. You might find the story interesting.

By: Sam Caplan

Sam Caplan — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 01:48:07 +0000

Mike:

You’re really digging a deeper hole for yourself and are coming off as ignorant.

First, how do you know what I know or don’t know about the Kennedy assassination? Do you know my education level? I’ve read the Jim Marrs book and have seen various documentaries. I know the facts and I believe there was one shooter. And there are a lot of serious journalists who do believe he was the lone shooter. There are serious journalists who don’t. But to claim I don’t know what I’m talking about because I don’t share your opinion is insulting. You make it sound like all I know is MMA? Which is hardly the case.

In regard to Kennedy, let me clarify that I think Oswald acting alone in the shooting but that I personally believe there were people behind his involvement. To this day I find it interesting that there are reports that Oswald visited the Russian embassy in Mexico in the days leading up to the shooting. But that’s a topic for another place and another time.

I cited all the conspiracy theories in my piece as a why to point out how people have a tendency to go crazy and make things out to be more complicated than they are. There was no judging conspiracy at UFC 75. Just bad judging. And I have no idea why people are out there screaming bloody murder and making accusations of corruption with nothing to back up their claims.

By: Fightlinker.com

Fightlinker.com — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 01:45:12 +0000

Hehe … you said wad.

By: mike

mike — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 01:37:43 +0000

>Who’s the one who’s [sic] post fell flat on its face?

sam: didn’t say your post fell flat on its face. i did say that most of the big bloggers have reasonable opinions about MMA (i.e. 95% of your post), but it’s distracting to read something about the fight game that needlessly draws parallels to politics in a slipshod way. you are correct, the phrase “everyone knows that the Kennedy assassination was a conspiracy” contains several instances of hyperbole – “everyone” being one example, “knows” being another. let me clarify: “most people who consider themselves serious journalists [or, most people that write for Viacom] and are knowledgeable about what they write probably think that the JFK assassination was more complex than “Oswald shot Kennedy”". to wit, what i really think is that if you or other MMA columnists want to be taken seriously by the mainstream, write what you know, not what you don’t.

By: kentyman

kentyman — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 23:32:51 +0000

Damn, Sam, well said. I’m sorry I said you looked like Dave Attell on fightlinker.com…

By: Zack

Zack — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 19:15:22 +0000

amen to all points

By: cyphron

cyphron — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 18:08:57 +0000

I just found out that Doyel is an idiot. Check out fightopinion.com for the rebuttals to those quotes. He embelished some of them and made up others. Bad Doyel!

By: garth

garth — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 16:53:07 +0000

ah ha, here's someone who might be indicating a conspiracy on a bigger stage than just some blog comments...

By: garth

garth — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 16:44:45 +0000

I know this post was based on actual comments/posts made around the web…but are they really worth the effort?
I don’t, and didn’t (aside from some angry muttering, which, hey, Count Douche did, and Sam did, and I’m just a blogger so forgive me) think the Hamill-Bisping fight was a conspiracy, just bad judging. Matt Hamill said it spot on: Reevaluate your judging criteria. A guy who runs for 90% of a fight shouldn’t win, ever. This isn’t boxing. I’ve never met or interviewed Bisping, as I’m guessing a lot of fans haven’t either. What I know of him I know from TUF and other TV appearances and web posts. I’ve also watched a lot of fights, and that guy turned me into a non-fan after his fight. He can have any motivation he wants, or any emotional outbursts, or whatever. I’m not his freaking mom or his psychologist, I’m a fight fan. Every fight fan I personally spoke to face-to-face had the same reaction.
If you’re talking about people running their mouths on their blogs…well, that’s what they’re for! You’re doing it right now. Note this isn’t me agreeing or disagreeing…I’m saying you get your corner of the tubes to piss in, everyone else gets their own. You can call them out and smack ‘em around, obviously. That’s fair. It’s almost the same as your point about injuring your opponent, above. That’s the whole point of a blog. This last bit makes me wonder why I’m responding. I guess that’s the second whole point of blogs: get readers commenting, and get that pagecount up!
I’m trying hard to figure out what Mike means about this post falling on its face… does he mean it failed? Failed how? It was a rant, not an op-ed for the NYT. It seemed like a fine rant to me. Trust me, I like rants. I like to rant myself. While I do think the JFK assassination was a conspiracy, I don’t think it was ordered by Hilter’s brain or UFO’s or anything. I don’t know a damn thing at all about who did it, to be honest, other than there usually has to be a lot of creeps planning to rub out the king. That doesn’t mean I have tin foil lining my hat (not for that anyway).

By: Bdavis

Bdavis — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 16:36:16 +0000

Here’s what I think…as if anyone cares!
1. Who cares about the judging! Everyone know Cecil Peoples is a moron and not a very good judge! The fights are over. Get over it.
2. I could care less about Bisping/Hammil. I don’t like either anyway and could care less to watch them fight again but…….Hammil won on my card.
3. Give Cuban some time. He has money which is what you need to start a promotion. I want to see Fedor too but who really thinks Cuban is going to put him on the first card! Get real people!
4. The thing that pisses me off about Cro Cop is his lack of involvement in his last 2 fights. Broken rib? Maybe that could be part of it. He lost as he did against Gonzaga. I ‘ve seen all his Pride fights and he just killed people. Sure he stumbled from time to time but he always came back. I’m tired of defending him as well. He’s had two chances and has totally sucked in both of them. He’s my favorite but it’s time to put up or go home and stay.
5. Sam, you do a good job. You are a journalist and you are supposed to be objective. Do worry about most of these clowns. Keep up the good work.

By: jaydog

jaydog — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 16:19:20 +0000

I like it when Sam get’s fired up. In this case, I pretty much agree with everything he said. Cro Cop was my boy too, but now I’m getting tired of hyping him and defending him to my neighbors. As a journalist, Sam has to be careful how he approaches situations like the Bisping/Hamill debacle (due to relationship with fighters, promoters, and worse the risk of libel). Although I do think that too many of the developments in the UFC appear contrived (right down to the judges decisions), I don’t think there’s enough evidence to point fingers about that decision. It was an enflamed situation before and after the fight, largely due to the increased hype and scrutiny of the reality (which has good/bad effects on MMA/UFC). I think Sam’s job is to monitor the situation as it sorts itself out and encourage a satisfying resolution. On matters like these, I’d give him my proxy vote any time.

By: Sam Caplan

Sam Caplan — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 16:16:50 +0000

“…everyone knows that the Kennedy assassination was a conspiracy.”

Mike, EVERYONE knows? Just because you have a belief that it was a conspiracy that many others have as well hardly qualifies as EVERYONE knowing. That’s hardly an intelligent, rational statement.

Who’s the one who’s post fell flat on its face?

By: mike

mike — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 16:12:06 +0000

to be clear, your lumping of conspiracies is a bit off. granted, you were probably just picking random examples, not ones you have any particular knowledge of, but everyone knows that the Kennedy assassination was a conspiracy, the congressional investigatory commision included. Want a rant? Try the fact that pretty much all the major MMA columnists not employed by large companies (i.e. the blogs) have reasonable opinions about MMA but repeatedly fall flat on their faces when trying to extend their level of expertise a centimeter beyond the mat. Sherdog columns are the best evidence of this, but it’s all over, including and notably in this post.

By: Brian Everhart

Brian Everhart — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 15:35:42 +0000

Well said on all points!!!!

cheers!!

By: Luke

Luke — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 15:27:25 +0000

Hey Sam!!
Completely agree on Bisping, and the general cynicism of some media people, and fans alike. Its gone completely overboard. You hit on many of the feelings I’ve had for a few months now, and it felt great to hear someone else echo the same sentiments I’ve had for quite sometime. Keep up the great work. Its awesome to read.

Luke

By: Hywel Teague [FIGHTERS ONLY MAGAZINE]

Hywel Teague [FIGHTERS ONLY MAGAZINE] — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 14:44:56 +0000

Good points re Bisping, Sam. I agree wholeheartedly.

Although re your first post, the UK does have regulation for boxing, its provided by the BBBofC.