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The Tennessee state House passed a bill that would create an athletic commission to regulate and oversee mixed martial arts competition in the state, but a similar ball has stalled in the Senate. Why? Earmarks for a local wrestling program. Get a load of this:
Sen. Bo Watson, R-Hixson, argued that the wrestling program at the school near his district should benefit because many professional fighters have a background in collegiate wrestling.
"It is a sport that is very popular within the state of Tennessee," Watson said. "I think it's a great amendment, I think it's a great idea."
"If that's an earmark, then so be it," he said.
The proposal would direct any money above what is needed to pay for the operations of the new commission to be deposited into an account to fund scholarships at NCAA Division I wrestling programs in the state. UT-Chattanooga is the only public school that competes at that level.
The money would be generated from a tax on licensing fees, ticket sales and televised fights.
Senate Democratic Leader Jim Kyle of Memphis objected to directing money to specific programs - especially amid a growing budget shortfall.
"Earmarking ties our hands," he said.
Sen. Douglas Henry, D-Nashville, argued that the money could be better spent on trying to alleviate potential layoffs of state workers.
Watson responded that his proposal wouldn't go into effect for two years after the creation of the commission and that the budget situation could be different by then.
I'd have to agree that earmarking for wrestling scholarships seems to be a misplaced priority, although I'm torn on this issue. God knows in the age of Title IX funding I'm all for the promotion of collegiate wrestling programs. But there is documentation (most recently in the Washington Post) that the popularity of mixed martial arts is causing a boom in the interest of high school wrestling programs. That interest gets narrowed somewhat by the lack of wrestling programs even at Division I powerhouses due to budget cuts and Title IX, but the interest is still there and climbing. My dilemma is that in principle I find earmarking to be back door funding for special interest - in this case, my special interest. I would love to see wrestling programs protected, but it's hard to justify that at the expense of programs that could help Tennesseans in serious need.
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Although Hardcore Championship Fighting never positioned itself as a competitor to the UFC, Dana White is correct when he says he makes it look easy. Maybe a little too easy:
The news comes after a period of great optimism for the Canadian organization. HCF was expected to announce this week that it had been purchased -- a move that Crawford hoped would put the promotion among the few legitimately vying for the No. 2 spot behind the UFC.
HCF had made waves since it started promoting last July, signing such high-profile fighters as Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, Renato Sobral, Gegard Mousasi and David Loiseau.
Crawford would not speak on the record about the causes of HCF's demise. However, he said that both he and former partner Dave Houshiar will continue as MMA promoters, each with his own event.
Without more information I'm not going to bother to speculate. But I will say is that through observation and deals that have fallen through for me personally, I've seen MANY mid-tier MMA promotions be unable to establish any momentum towards fiscal solvency. The fact is this business is tough and by all accounts, HCF was well respected by fighters, fans, and the staff involved. If even they cannot string together enough successful shows to keep business afloat, what on earth is the IFL going to do?
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The best part of TUF this week.
However, Leben's UFC 85 bout with Michael Bisping now appears unlikely to take place. The bout was set for the televised main card of the June 7 event.
I don't really hold anything against Leben, he tried to do what's necessary and it didn't work. They had a backup plan incase this happened, and now we'll see it. Most likely are Yushin Okami and Dan Henderson, Henderson was willing to fight Franklin on this show, so it wouldn't surprise me if he gets called on for this one.
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Sam Caplan at 5oz does some speculating based on Dave Meltzer's report that Lashley's non-compete deal with WWE is expiring:
Being a former WWE U.S. champion and ECW heavyweight champion is meaningless when it comes to MMA, but I think his credentials as a former NAIA wrestling champion in college and his past training at the American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose, Calif. are very relevant. The fact that he also served the U.S. as a member of its Army is also a plus for him.
At age 31, time is against Lashley. However, he has an existing fanbase thanks to his WWE background and he's really a great athlete. He's without question someone who could really make some money for an MMA promotion if he was managed properly.
Unlike most of the fighters out there on the free-agent market -- Fedor, Barnett, Arlovski, Tim Sylvia -- Lashley comes with a built-in audience in the U.S.
If I was Dana White or Gary Shaw I'd be on the phone with Lashley RIGHT NOW offering him anything he wants to fight for me.
Update [2008-5-9 10:4:18 by Kid Nate]:
I don't get to say this often, but it looks like my lack of knowledge about contemporary pro-wrestling has bitten me in the ass. Word from the mouth-breathers is that Lashley isn't popular enough with the knuckle-dragging set to be an immediate draw. Ah well. Guess its around this time that I start accusing people of being racist.
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I came across two posts today singing B.J.'s praises.
Marc Staehling of Total MMA gives Penn this glowing writeup for his demolition of Joe Stevenson:
At UFC 80 in January, fans around the world were given the pleasure of seeing the real "Prodigy" in action. B.J. ripped through the very tough Joe Stevenson like a buzzsaw, dropping him in the opening seconds with an uppercut, and then dominating him on the ground and standing for the entire fight. Penn's top-game looked phenomenal as he remained in an advantageous position throughout the bout.
This B.J. Penn looks to be on a completely different level then pretty much anyone in the weight class in the world. It'll be interesting to see how the Sherk fight goes down, and where B.J. goes from there.
The FightMetric report on the fight between Penn and Machida shows just how well Penn did. For starters, Penn got cracked by several huge shots in the clinch...and was completely unfazed. Though wild with his stand-up striking, he landed more HiPer Strikes than Machida.
Using the ten-point must system, FightMetric gives the fight to Penn 29-28. Overall, the effectiveness scores favor Machida 185-183, which is within FightMetric's margin of error. That means Penn effectively got a draw against one of the top five light heavyweights in the world. And when you think about it, that's pretty ridiculous.
HT to BE reader Smoogy for the gif.
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"When I was cutting weight for my last fight against Joe Stevenson, we were in London trying to find water that I could drink; all their water had at least 5mg of sodium in it. I finally found one that had only 3mg, so I downed an entire gallon before reading on the label that there were 56.3 mg of sulfate in it. Stressing, I woke Jason to ask, "what the hell is a sulfate?!", but he didn't know. Rudy went upstairs to find out from someone else, but we ended up calling the nutritionist in Seattle. Turns out a sulfate is a salt of sulphuric acid. I started freaking out! I was at 158 before drinking the water. The nutritionist told me to not stress out, that I would make it worse although I was close to having a nervous breakdown. She told me to go to sleep and not stress too much. I told myself, 'This is a test; this is all part of being a champion. The fight is only a portion of it.' So I had to talk myself down and relax and concentrate on breathing to go to sleep. I woke up at 163 and cut back down to 155 pretty easily."-- Tracy Lee writes about her first day in Hilo covering BJ's training.
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If you can believe it, they are actually taking a page out of the YAMMA playbook. Unreal:
...
While not addressing the issue directly, it's likely that the IFL's decision to use a six-sided ring is based on claims by critics that their product looks too much like boxing on television. Publicly, the IFL is indicating that its audience enjoys the ring and that they are going with a six-sided version in order to create a larger fighting environment.
"From a production and live event standpoint, the ring has proven to be the most fan and media friendly environment, as well as providing the safest possible environment for our athletes," IFL CEO Jay Larkin is quoted as saying in a press release. "The Hex allows for the larger surface that is utilized in other MMA organizations while still retaining the advantages we have enjoyed with the ring."
I just don't understand this. Was anyone crying about the ring only having four sides? Did ANYONE you know say, "You know what the IFL needs? A six-sided ring. That four-sided ring is for boxing, not MMA." No, you didn't because no one said it.
I feel for the IFL because they take so much abuse in the punditocracy when they show flashes of brilliance at times. But this is not one of those times. Not by a longshot.
-- picture from fightlinker.com
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MMA is not legal in Ontario, Canada and that's a shame. A really big missed opportunity shame:
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He thinks we need it or the sport will "end up like boxing". To wit:
I think it has to change. The exclusivity has to go away or else we're going to have the same problems with becoming a fractured sport the way boxing has. The top guys have to be allowed to fight each other. That needs to happen in this sport. Even if it means that you have to put your champion out there and sometimes you lose, it's still great for marketing the sport and it's necessary for the integrity of the sport. For the sake of our fan base, that needs to happen. WAMMA is one group that has the potential to help make that happen, and I hope it will.
WAMMA does indeed have the potential to make it happen, but they are also facing incredibly difficult odds. I find the idea of a sanctioning body in a sport based heavily on the professional wrestling business model to be an incongruity, notwithstanding that the key player in the matter - the UFC - most certainly will never join their efforts. That inability to capture the most important and meaningful fish in the big pond will significantly reduce WAMMA's legitimacy if not remove it altogether.
And as a fan of the sport I'd like to state I would want to see the best fighters face each other. But part of the push for non-exclusivity is clearly a business move by smaller organizations to practice "unite and conquer". In other words, I absolutely do not buy the argument that the promoters of non-exclusivity are merely interested in preventing the sport's fracturing or rewarding the fan base. They are interested in being more significant and active players in the sport and use the non-exclusivity line to attract high-level free agents who don't want to overcommit to a smaller show and to leverage themselves against the might of the UFC.
I'm sure everyone is well-intentioned, by and large. But you have to see this for what it is: there's no reason or incentive for the UFC to ever join WAMMA and trying to do business without them as a sanctioning body is almost as good as not doing business at all.
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"It was off, then on, then off again ... now it's back on," said Diaz's trainer, Cesar Gracie (Pictures). "I won't really believe it until he is on the plane tomorrow morning heading to Japan."
Diaz will spend his last few hours in the United States cutting weight before heading to Japan to face former King of Pancrase Katsuya Inoue (Pictures) in Dream.
"Tonight we will be pulling an all-nighter cutting weight," Gracie said late Wednesday. "Nick was under the impression he wasn't fighting. So now we have to get the weight back down before he leaves."
I'm with Cesar on this one. I'll believe it when I see it at this point.
It's never a good thing to have a fighter so unsure if he will be fighting or not, needing to pull an "all-nighter" to cut weight, and then flying in last minute with little chance to adjust to the jet-lag/time difference. I've seen too many boxers and MMA fighters get wrecked by not being able to properly adjust to one, let alone three, of those factors.
It'll be interesting to see where the odds are put on the fight. If Inoue has a + before his line, I'll be making that play.
You've got to hand it to Diaz though, it's never dull with the guy.
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I keep hearing good things from friends in New York City who've already seen it. More importantly, they echo almost word for word the sentiments of this reviewer:
For me, Mamet is a real hit and miss director. While I generally enjoy his films, I find that at times his stylized dialogue comes off as precious and pretentious. I absolutely hated his film, HEIST, and I thought that STATE & MAIN, while cute, was wildly over praised. I was, however, a huge SPARTAN fan, and I'm happy to say that REDBELT is almost (but not quite) as good as SPARTAN.
Mamet's dialogue, while still very distinctive, is a lot more naturalistic than usual, and helping matters is the fact that he has an absolutely first rate cast delivering it. Chiwetel Ejiofor is quickly establishing himself as one of the best actors of his generation, and he gives a terrific performance as Mike Terry- our conflicted, but stoic and pure hero. Not only can he spout off Mamet dialogue like it's the most natural thing in the world, but he also comes off very well during the (few) fight scenes. Supposedly Ejiofor has no previous martial arts training, but this is not obvious at all while watching the film.
If this ends up being half as good as Spartan I'll be impressed.
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