PPV
UFC 220 – Predictions
These days are rough on yours truly. Not hunting for sympathy mind you, just stating a fact. So, today I will be extremely brief in hopes that come Sunday, I’ll be able to pull off a nice AfterMMAth post to compensate. And so… with no further ado…
Let the predicting of UFC 220 coming up today, January 20th on PPV commence. (All credits go to UFC/WME-IMG for all photos.)
We ride!
Thomas Almeida by TKO
Francimar Barroso by DEC
Calvin Kattar by DEC
Daniel Cormier by SUB
and now! The moment millions of MMA fans around the world have been waiting for, from Boston, Massachusetts! This is the main event of the evening!
Stipe Miocic by DEC
Don’t forget to get back here by Monday morning for the after MMAth!
Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii-t’s TIME!
Ultimate Fighting Championship (What’s In A Name?)
In 2002 the World Wrestling Federation (A.K.A WWF) lost the court case, and the ensuing appeals to the cute pandas and had to re-invent itself. True, It was a change of one letter, which doesn’t sound like much, but I’d like to point out a couple of things that followed very closely:
The F (for “Federation”) became an E (for “Entertainment”)
The “wrestlers/Fighters” became “Superstars”
The female “wrestlers/Fighters” became “Divas”
Notice the significance? Not only did Vince McMahon change the name of this organization, but the terminology and jargon. That was done, in accordance with the fact that this promotion is in fact an Entertainment business, with superstars and divas as… well… stars.
The pro-wrestling terms “Mark” (coming from the carnival days – the mark of a deception/trick etc. a person “buying” the act) and “Smark” (“smart mark”, a guy who knew the whole thing is staged) quickly disappeared, and everyone began to openly discuss the “entertainment” aspect of the business as the factor directing it.
When Brock Lesnar joined the UFC in 2008, the majority of the MMA fanbase – pardon my French – lost their shit.
“Get back to fake wrestling!” was the sentiment. “We don’t need your WWE $h!t!”
See, MMA fans became ones because they wanted to see real competition between skilled fighters who actually used the different martial arts to prove superiority.
Fast forward to present day (Mid 2017 more or less):
The “Biggest fight in combat sport history” is between a Mixed Martial Artist and a retired Boxing legend.
The next biggest fight according to general fans vocal opinion – a 3rd encounter between two fighters who never seemed to have anything to prove to each other. Well, other than who can back his trash-talk better.
Already scheduled is a fight between current MW champion, Michael Bisping (who to this day defended his belt against a 45 year old almost retired legend and another 40 year old legend who came back from a horrible injury) and the legendary WW champion and all-time best – Georges St. Pierre (who is coming back from a 4 year break).
When some of us MMA fans pointed out that the direction UFC is heading in is far from where we think they should, we were met with a cold shower of responses “educating” us about the business.
“Conor makes a gazillion in a month”, “No one wants to watch Demetrious Johnson win another fight”, “Bisping doesn’t sell PPVs” and so on and so forth.
During the last couple of years, UFC (for the most part) went through a very significant transformation.
From the leading MMA promotion, attracting the best talent in order to provide consistently improving level of competition, thus becoming more popular, what we see now is an organization obsessed with making money in any way possible.
Fights are booked – so it seems – more frequently based on crowd demands and less on achievements or reason.
Fighters (seeing where the wind blows) understandably increase their “PR” or “Promo” work to get ahead.
I don’t know about you, but it really is starting to look like more of an “entertainment” business than a fighter’s promotion.
Which brings me back to 2008.
What happens is that the very same people who were ready to go after Brock Lesnar with tourches and pitchforks, chasing him back to his “WWE $h!t”, are now criticizing others for showing their dismay with this direction of entertainment first and sports/competition/MMA later.
As I wrote in various forums, for me, “This fight won’t make as much money as the other” is not a satisfactory reason. Call me crazy, but I still like MMA because I love watching two skilled individuals test themselves against each other. I know…
“Shut up already! You’re going to watch anyway!” Sure I will (Read my confession), what else is there to do? But I do think we deserve a more level headed approach. One where the important business decisions take more than just the bottom line into account.
Let WWE lead with “fake feuds” and “promos” and let’s focus on what we’re here to do. Sure, color your fights with whatever “background” and there’s always some trash-talking to do. But this is martial arts we’re here to watch and I, for one, still remember that it’s about respect. Respect for one’s self, for the arts and for the fans. What can I say?
When it comes to MMA I’m a “mark”.
Bellator 180 – AfterMMAth (Gone in 60 seconds or so)
So… Bellator MMA had their big NYC card last night, and since it was kind of big deal, I decided to do an AfterMMAth post for this historic event. This, for the first time, will also feature in CombatDocket. Thank you guys for having me.
Fixing MMA – Part Four
The name of this post should tell you that there are three more parts. Links to all can be found at the end of this post.
UFC 201 AfterMMAth (Shots fired)
Welcome back folks,
Last night’s event turned out to be just as advertised. Well, except for the fact that pretty much every fan favorite lost… But we won’t let that get in the way of looking at my predictions, and discuss a few related issues will we?
Let’s dig in.
UFC 201 – Predictions
Hi everybody!
Woke up this morning with a feeling I might be forgetting something… Dang, That’s it. Forgot my 201 prediction post!
A great main event tonight and do NOT sleep on the co-main or the one before that… you catch my drift, don’t you? So…
Continue reading
UFC 199 – Predictions
Hi everybody!
Well…
Just before UFC 198, I was very busy. Too busy to do a prediction post… But AS PROMISED, I made some time to predict an event that – even after losing its original title challenger – looks absolutely great on paper, and is likely to prove just as good as it looks!
Continue reading
A Fan’s UFC 200 Conspiracy theory
Hello MMA fans and everyone else!
In the past few weeks, we’ve seen updates from UFC regarding the card of their upcoming seminal event – UFC 200 scheduled for July 9th, 2016. To sum up fan reactions (including this fan right here) in a word, it feels – Underwhelming. Continue reading
UFC 193 – Predictions
Hi everybody!
Here we go! one of two awesome cards (on paper) to close out 2015 is coming up this weekend and I for one, am super excited!
Pretty much all the events leading up to these two (193 and 194) served as appetizers, what with the never-ending UFC promo work during every break… I won’t lie, I’m sold. I especially look forward to one women fight. Oh yeah, a woman champion is involved. She’s a “bad-ass” fighter who looks to destroy her opponents, always moving forward, looking to cause damage and further her career and legacy. I am, of course, referring to… Joanna Jedrzejczyk!
Gotach! 🙂
Bet you were thinking Rousey like most of the population, but while I truly respect Ronda, I find Joanna’s fights more fun to watch. Something about her style perhaps, or the speed with which they take place.
These two women title fights are not all this PPV is about but they are the most hyped (and rightfully so). I will elaborate more when we review the results, but for the moment…
Let the predicting of UFC 193 coming up this Saturday, November 14th on PPV commence. (All credits go to UFC/Zuffa for all photos.) We ride!
Stefan Struve by TKO
Uriah Hall by UD
Mark Hunt by KO
Joanna Jedrzejczyk by TKO
and now! the moment millions of MMA fans have been waiting for, from Melbourne, Australia! This is the main event of the evening!
Ronda Rousey by Submission
Don’t forget to get back here by Monday morning for the after MMAth!
And of course, don’t forget to watch UFC 193 on PPV – This Saturday, November 14th!
Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii-t’s TIME!
Gil Shalev 