Monday, March 31, 2008

Knock That Shit Off (a note to some MMA writers)

Now, there are writers I disagree with. I don't agree with alot of the guys at sherdog, I don't agree with alot of the guys that the UFC hires to write hype pieces. Still, I respect those guys, because they respect the fighters and do some research.

But when you step into the arena of "MMA commentary" and throw out a piece where your first reference is to Hulk Hogan, you need to reevaluate your decision and head back to the WWE forums.

I would like to say that this is just a shot at John Curry, but he's not the only one doing this. Still, since I got emailed a link to his article, I think I'll point out exactly what bothers me about this guy.

First, look at the guys he's criticizing:

Chris Leben, who holds some of the most exciting knock out victories. He knocked out Alessio Sakara, Terry Martin, Jorge Santiago, Jorge Rivera and Jason Thacker (not to mention submitting Edwin Dewees and going the distance with Patrick Cote and Luigi Fiorvanti). I don't think there's any surprise that they keep him around, since he pretty much promotes himself.

Jens Pulver. I'll get to my problem with that listing in a minute.

Tim Sylvia, who is hardly overrated, as he's one of the most disliked fighters in the sport and is now fighting with a small show no one cares about.

Ortiz and Evans. Obviously, his failure to mention that Tito Ortiz is a six time UFC lightheavyweight champion and his comparison of Ortiz to Hulk Hogan says enough, but I think what says more is that he totally ignores Evans' knockout of Jason Lambert and the fact that this guy won TUF after being the last pick in his weight class and by beating a guy who is almost a whole foot taller than him.

He mentions Kimbo Slice, who is a product of his own hype, not of his organizations, and while he's not the best fighter, he doesn't claim to be. He's a generally modest guy who's matchups get alot of publicity because he's fun to watch.

Now, even if we ignore that this numbskull left Brock Lesnar off of his list and put Lyoto Machida (one of the most unhyped fighters around, despite coming off of a chokeout of the man many of us thought could bring down top guys in the 205 pound class) on, it makes alot more sense when you look at some of the ridiculous and fallacious factual errors that he makes.

He suggests that Jens Pulver dropped down a weightclass after he returned to the UFC and lost to BJ Penn and Joe Lauzon. Never mind the fact that Pulver had been competing as a 145 pound fighter since 2003. Never mind the fact that Pulver is 10-0 with 10 finishes in that weight class. You can say that he dropped down because he felt like he couldn't compete at 155, that's true, to some degree. But it's also true of Urijah Faber, who commited to fight full time at 145 after losing to Tyson Griffin.

Anyway, I hope I've made my point. There are some great guys in newmedia, and some guys with ideas that I disagree with. But there are also guys who just make stuff up to fit a bizarre Hulk Hogan fetish, and we could pretty well without them.

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