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Here’s your precious mainstream media coverage of MMA
Of all the misconceptions about the media, the idea that it has a liberal bias is my favorite. As now-Senator Al Franken put it, “asking whether the media has a liberal bias is like asking whether al Qaeda uses too much oil in their hummus.” There are TONS of media biases, including but not limited to Who Owns Me, Is Anything Bleeding and Hot Girl Missing!111!1!1!! All of these, however, are facets of the same goal: to capture the ever-shrinking attention span of a public with seemingly infinite sources of infotainment and gifs of chimps drinking their own pee. MMA’s fandom isn’t enough to generate critical mass-type coverage by itself; it needs some pro wrestling fans, or people that like “oohing” at only the craziest of knockouts, or – in this case – click-happy morons that see the word “transgender” and have to give it a click.
It certainly isn’t Fallon Fox’s fault that this is happening to her. She didn’t style herself as a champion of transgender rights and has given every impression that she simply wants to compete. In fact, she didn’t even disclose her gender reassignment to Sports Illustrated until it was clear that the story would break regardless. So now, CNN – complete with a video in which the lady in the bottom box doesn’t say a single word – has assigned someone named Michael Martinez to just refuse to Google anything having to do with mixed martial arts. There might be tens of thousands of people that get THIS as their first taste of MMA coverage.
That opponent, Ericka Newsome, was knocked out this month with “a tie clinch,” or a knee to the chin, 39 seconds into the fight without anyone knowing of Fox’s background.
A simple understanding of the human language (and perusal of the sub-minute fight video, which I’d bet good money Martinez didn’t watch) should indicate that a clinch, while perhaps instrumental in the landing of a knee, is not, in fact, a knee. I mean, I guess I should be happy he didn’t go with “tie plum”. Lmgtfy, you lazy, lazy man.
Who loves a shoddy journalist more than anyone? If you said “a subpar manager”, then you’ve been watching this sport for a while!
What was unfair, her last opponent and her manager say, is how Fox didn’t disclose until after the fight that Fox had a sex change operation. …
It was “unfair I didn’t know it, but it didn’t matter that she fought me,” Newsome told CNN. “I feel that it should have been disclosed to me ahead of time…so we are aware and able to be better prepared for the situation.”
How does one change their preparation upon finding out that their opponent used to be a man? You can’t grow longer bones, for God’s sake! (Also, for the record, let it be known that, when Fallon Fox refers to the medical community being behind her, Dr. Johnny Benjamin is not in that camp, being too pissed about the Kimbo lynching and the fact that Rousey/Carmouche had 5 minute rounds.)
She and her manager are going to appeal the loss in Florida on the grounds of how Fox failed to disclose being a transgender person and how the referee stopped the fight too early.
“They should have let the fight go,” manager Matt Hamilton said. “She should have thrown at least one to two more shots to confirm it. On that particular basis, that’s one of the things we’ll appeal with, as well as not having it disclosed.”
I hope to liveblog this athletic commission hearing, assuming Florida gains access to the Internet between then and now.
The cherry on top:
Newsome wants to fight Fox again, Hamilton said.
“We would love a rematch,” Hamilton said.
There’s really nothing like someone – anyone – reporting what an MMA manager says with complete and utter credulity. Especially when the manager vacillates from lobbying for a no-contest based on Fox’s transgender status to advocating for a rematch in the same interview.
This guy got paid to write about mixed martial arts.
The Return of Rodriguez, or Unofficial Fightlinker Mailbag
[Note from Subo: This is by Rodriguez, my shepherd to the airwaves and Jackal Radio compatriot in a past life. Still remember him picking Mir over Carwin. Haha. Anyway, he wrote this and I hope he writes more now that he's not twelve.]
Oh, hello there. I almost didn’t see you, reading my words and whatnot. My name is Rodriguez and I’m here to answer questions and chew bubble gum…and I accidentally swallowed all my bubble gum (sad face). Although I haven’t been the most active contributor to the site with my last post being almost three years ago to the month, I can claim to know a lot about this whole “MMA” thing. Claim. Anyway, I’m sure there’s a few people out there with questions that are gonna bug them all day if they don’t get the answer. For you Jackals, I’ll do my best to answer any and all of those questions. Except the stupid ones. Send those to Ben Fowlkes because he needs something to do in Montana or wherever his scrap heap cabin is. You can mail your questions, comments, past due notices and non-expired pizza coupons to fightlinker.rodriguez@gmail.com and I’ll probably maybe read them, or something. With that being said – let’s dig in!
- “How many big name acquisitions must fail in the UFC before everyone admits that the level of other organizations does not compare?”
Why you askin’ me questions like that? Fine, I’ll answer it: because there are good fighters in the UFC. Top guys can’t help but gravitate to Zuffa for their deep pockets, massive viewership and sexie Octogon girls. That being said, the talent level is matched up appropriately – so what actually constitutes “failure” to you people? Does it mean having more losses than wins in a promotion? If so, then explain the difference between Hector Lombard taking six seconds to smash Jay Silva in Bellator and if he had done it in the UFC. The question should really be ‘How many big name acquisitions must stop being the big fish in a small pond before everyone admits talented guys want to fight in the UFC?’
- “The UFC continues to add fighters & fight cards. Are they growing on paper or actual revenue?”
I’m no accountant, but I’m sure the UFC ain’t broke right now. It’s a safe bet to say they’re growing on paper based on the amount of fights being produced compared to the previous year. In terms of revenue? That I can’t guesstemate. It’s easy to assume that everything they do costs money, but you also gotta remember that they also make it through more avenues than they can lose it (i.e. ticket sales). I don’t know how much it cost to finally run shows in Sweeden, Germany, Japan, Ireland, Narnia and other countries I’ve only heard of in Dr. Seuss books (I’m looking at you, Macau), but just remember that these international shows are investments intending to be the spark that starts an inferno. If it worked in the US, Canada and Brazil, then that’s reason enough to send an Octogon and Nick The Tooth to other countries to see if they can build a fanbase there, too.
- “There used to be a very elite group of top UFC fighters that got the coveted PPV percentage contract, but now it’s implied that most big names get the same deal. Why would anyone but the biggest money earners have that in their contract?”
Agents are overtaking managers in this sport. You got companies like WME turning “fighters” into “clients” now. Once you cross that line, they can use their knowledge of the scummy entertainment world and dig their claws deep into the contract of anybody they represent, looking for any loopholes or demands they can get for their ‘no-you’re-totally-cared-about-with-full-attention’ UFC client #152 a.k.a. Eddie Alvarez or whoever sells their soul along with a deduction of monetary percentage for their services. Somewhere, Monte Cox is shaking his head in disappointment. Things like this and guys’ refusal to fight others based on them are why Dana feels it’s better to keep contracts – and the written bonuses in them – under wraps.
Well, that’s it for the inaugural un-official mailbag. If there’s enough emails in my inbox after this then there’s gonna be one next week. Until then, I’m gonna have a sit down with BigHeathenMike to gently let him know that I’m forcefully taking away his writing privileges.
Update: Fox Sports 1 will include damn-near weekly UFC fights from launch date
Look forward to more of this as ESPN falls further and further behind the curve.
Details are forthcoming, and it doesn’t appear that the news has made its way into any linkable form, but via Richard Deitsch’s Twitter account covering the announcement:
[tweet https://twitter.com/richarddeitsch/status/309012080718123008]
[tweet https://twitter.com/richarddeitsch/status/309014280110485504]
[tweet https://twitter.com/richarddeitsch/status/309014656238899201]
Holy shit!
[tweet https://twitter.com/richarddeitsch/status/309014656238899201]
HOLY SHIT!
[tweet https://twitter.com/richarddeitsch/status/309012886632681472]
Fox is hyping this network as a full-on challenge to ESPN, complete with a nightly highlight show meant to counter Sportscenter. Lofty goals, to be sure. But with that arrangement of immensely popular sports buttressed by actual playoff games, I’d say this is slightly better than Fuel (or Spike, for that matter) as far as MMA real estate goes.
Update:
Fox Sports One will air 12 UFC “Fight Nights” on Wednesdays from Aug 17 through end of year. Bouts will air from 8PM-11PM.
— Richard Deitsch (@richarddeitsch) March 5, 2013
So that’s 12 over the final 19 weeks of the year, which is better than one every two weeks for those math-challenged Jackals (read: Jackals that aren’t glassjawsh) out there. And they’re full cards! Are they all going to be in the same place? How good will the fights be? Will there be prelims on Facebook so the arena isn’t completely fucking empty? There’s nothing like news on a slow news day just punching you in the gut like this with goodness, is there?
Possible “Outlying Issues” That Led Josh Barnett to Decline a UFC Contract
CagePotato done seen the future.
According to Barnett’s manager Leland LaBarre, Barnett has officially declined the promotion’s latest contract offer.
“We agreed on guaranteed compensation,” LaBarre said. “In fact, we never even countered. We accepted their original offer.
“However, there are some outlying issues — one in particular — that as of this point we were unable to agree on.”
As sad as I am that Zuffa didn’t try to stick Josh with a “whatever Bellator offers + a buck” offer, this raises all new questions about Josh’s motives for turning down the deal. There are barely ANY heavyweights that aren’t in the Evil Empire’s grasp anymore. And how often do you hear about MMA contracts not being signed when money isn’t the problem? Let’s run through a few possibilities.
- Refusal to remove green and brown M&M’s from backstage green room
- Fears a Geronimo dos Santos rematch
- Took out a restraining order against Daniel Cormier after their bout
- Believes that the right kind of shit talk will draw Cole Konrad away from futures trading
- Zuffa’s ongoing and indefensible ban on cool metal shit during walk ins
- Fears a Nandor Guelmino rematch
- Knows that Joe Rogan will put up more of a fight during his insipid post-fight nonsense
- BECAUSE JOSH BARNETT’S A FUCKIN’ REBEL, MAAAAAAN
Or it has something to do with the fact that Josh Barnett has been caught by the NSAC and CSAC (which aren’t the most widely respected regulatory bodies on the planet) a combined three times for using performance enhancing steroids. It’s really anybody’s guess. Eager to hear your suggestions (and the gnashing of your teeth/lamentations of your women).
h/t MMAFighting
BeLOLator
Is there part of you that’s wondering whether that guy’s only job was to hold the towel in anticipation and then toss it when Aoki started getting destroyed?
