Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Friday, August 15, 2008

KnowYourMMA.com

My good friend, Brandt DeLorenzo (who's also the owner of MMAOpinion), has started up a social networking site for MMA fans, writers and fighters.

The site is called KnowYourMMA.com, and it's a pretty cool layout, especially given that it's still just getting rolling.

It's worth checking out, and if you want to add me as a friend, my extension is "IronMan."

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

The Stupidest Article I've Ever Read

No, I’m not joking. I’ve called out a lot of idiot “journalists” on what they have to say about great fighters and the sport in general, but this guy takes the cake.

I won’t reprint all of the stupidity, because there’s a risk I may shoot myself, but this guy’s stupidity befuddles me.

So, since I’ve done this on forums, I’ll pick apart the insanity piece by piece, as sort of a Joe-Rogan-esque slowmo walk-through. I’m not Joe (or Frank Mir, for those who prefer the WEC commentary), but I’ll do what I can.

Now,hold on.. ..I personally have done a little time behind bars and i know that uttering death threats can get you 2 years in jail here in canada..but baby jay penn does it in front of millions of witnesses and gets nothing!!; and besides that (its ignorant and unsportsmanlike) conduct.


Alright, now lets set aside the fact that B.J. Penn is an American, that the comments he’s talking about were made within the United States an the fact that, in the lovely country I live in and write from, we have the first amendment, which defends B.J.’s right to talk smack. The fact is, this is smack talk.

B.J., admitedly, doesn’t have the most creative smack talk, but if you’re going to hate a fighter for using insults to psych himself up for a fight, then that’s fine. Still, to assert that there should be a criminal penalty implies that guys like Muhammad Ali should have been subject to fines for talking about how bad they were gonna whup their opponents.

Not only is it a bizarre claim, it’s ignorant of the culture of mixed martial arts, the culture of boxing, and the roots of many areas of the sport in professional wrestling promotional styles (which, realistically, trace themselves partially back to Ali).

Next up:

My first dis-like of penn came when he beat matt hughes.Penn still had 2 fights on his contract,but rather than honour his contract he takes off for japan and fights in k1 at 205 ..(made no sense to anyone but him).matt hughes avenged that fight in a rematch.And then the stage is set for him to meet Georges St.Pierre,GSP was looking to get a title shot ,and a win over bj would make that very likely.So the fight is on!! [I skipped stupid allegations about intentional eye-poking]

GSP had to go to the hospital after the fight to have his eye repaired.So then baby Jay Penn tells dana he is moving down to 155 so he can get a belt.Fast forwardto today he has the belt and he wants a rematch with georges st pierre (maybe he will poke both gsps eyes out this time).


O.K. So lets focus on this guy’s knowledge of MMA history, for which he would only have to reference Sherdog.com or “The UFC for Dummies.” Penn fought for the early part of his career at 155 and had his first title shot at that weight. Maybe that part happened while Einstein here was in prison.

Then you have the fact that the second Matt Hughes fight came after Penn fought Georges St. Pierre, though, since that portion of the article was impossible for me to translate from crazy-eeze, I’ll just ignore it.

What is really most absurd, to me, is that this guy thinks B.J. dropped down because he wanted a belt. B.J. dropped down because he wanted to fight Jens Pulver and Sean Sherk. He likes having the belt, to be sure, but those were the two guys that everybody wanted to see him fight.

Then, this guy veers off his bullet train to cuckoo town:

If Penn wants GSP so bad, have him earn it- as Silva is doing in LHW. Have Penn fight every 3-4 months (instead of the 7-10 he is now) so he can still defend his title that he wanted back so badly and have him work the ranks before getting GSP… hell, put him in the cage with Thiago Alves for #1 contender - at least that’d be something and he can say he deserved to fight GSP then.


I’m sure B.J. would love to fight Thiago, but Thiago’s not a #1 contender, and anyone who pays attention to the sport knows that bringing in a guy who has missed two weight cuts and tested positive for illegal substances over the course of his UFC career is just not something that you can do without being seen as the Don King wannabes you are.

Honestly, this article made me sick, but I’m glad it was sent to me.

If people are going to form opinions about B.J. Penn, make sure they’re based in fact and reason, not because the voices in your schizophrenic fantasy told you that all Hawaiians are evil and fat and lazy (which seems a lot more reasonable to me, because at least that voice in your head would be a source).