A Final Word on the Strikeforce Blood Work Situation
by Brent Brookhouse on Aug 15, 2010 4:00 PM EDT
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John Wood, the fighter whose blood work was lost prior to the Strikeforce Challengers show, has sent along the following statement:
Last night was pretty crazy but I don't want to blame Strikeforce for my fight getting scratched last night. It's not their fault. This is on the commission of Arizona. I took the fight on four days notice and had my bloodwork sent in on Wednesday. They told me they didn't have it so I had it sent again on Thursday . I went to check on it a little bit before my fight and they told me they didn't have it and my fight was being cut. It's aggravating but it's on the commission not Strikeforce. Strikeforce doesn't handle the paperword thats' the responsibility of the Arizona commission.I just want to put this behind me and get ready for the next one. Everything happens for a reason.
I am willing to acknowledge that I was likely too hasty in assigning much of the blame to Strikeforce in the original piece.
However, I think it is important to acknowledge that there is a lot of blame to go around.
Primary responsibility should be assigned to the Arizona commission. If blood work can be sent in twice with the fighter speaking to them about how to submit it due to the rushed nature of being a last minute replacement and still they claim it "wasn't received," that speaks to a general lack of communication and organization on the part of the commission. I find it hard to believe that Wood would travel on his own dime to the event and cut such a drastic amount of weight (20+ pounds the day of the weigh-in) if he did not actually submit his blood work.
But I do think there has to be some responsibility assigned to the Strikeforce method of undercard booking. The way they operate is to have a local promoter put together their undercard which makes sense to a degree in that local fighters sell a good portion of tickets. The problem is that delegation of putting together the card does not free the promotion from any responsibility when it comes to those fights. When these situations are not overseen and taken care of with the assistance of the promoter you end up in a situation like this where a guy travels and cuts over twenty pounds as a last minute replacement and another guy goes through a full training camp and neither guy is getting paid. When you choose to delegate, you are responsible for who you choose to delegate to and have to own up to the results that come from your decision.
There are some that have said that Strikeforce is a small promotion and they don't have the resources to stay as on top of the athletic commission and the fights that are being made by the promoter they're "outsourcing" to. But this is a promotion putting shows on Showtime and CBS and who signed Fedor when he was recognized by most as the best fighter in the world. You don't get to simultaneously be so big that you're competing on a national stage and claim to be so small that you can't oversee all operations when it comes to your cards.
But, on the same note of accepting responsibility, I do want to repeat that I was probably too careless in the initial article by placing more blame on Strikeforce than was fair.
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You're a class act, Mr. Brookhouse.
You’re also DEAD RIGHT on the responsibility and delegation issue.
"I'm AJB and I endorse this nut-puncher."
I think there's no likely about it.
You definitely jumped the gun on this one. But it doesn’t matter, sometimes these things happen and with other Strikeforce mishandlings it was easy to presume and add another instance to the list.
The thing that I don't want to get into in the article (but that I'll point out here) is...
I reached out to Strikeforce WELL before reaching out to the fighters. I waited hours and hours for a response before I ran the story, which made it clear that I would publish Strikeforce’s response as soon as I got it. Which I did, within 10 minutes of getting their response it was up and it was put as the lead story on the site. I mean, we didn’t bury their response as an update to an old story.
But regardless…here it all is.
Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
MMA Editor - SBNation.com
by Brent Brookhouse on Aug 15, 2010 4:39 PM EDT up reply actions
Ehh, I've heard this "waited for a response" line before
And it came from Loretta Hunt when she ran a story that caused the infamous, defamatory Dana White youtube rant. she said she gave Dana a couple of days to respond.
In the case of Dana White, a couple of days isn’t good enough. Both promoters, but Dana White more so, are incredibly busy people and giving them a few hours or even a few days time frame really isn’t an adequate window for response. It’s just not realistic to expect a response so quickly from these guys compared with small time promoters or even managers.
This is the problem of professional blogs in general, the concern is to break the story before anyone else does because of page views, traffic and rank, which results in mistakes like when stories are run unverified. At least in your case you admitted your mistake.
As a former reporter and a holder of a Journalism degree
I would argue your comments are ill-informed and unrealistic.
A reporter informs a person he (in this case) has information he wished that person to comment upon. Under your scenario, all it takes to make sure that information never sees the light of day is simply to not pick up the phone and not call back. Bad quarterly earnings report? No story if Zuffa doesn’t respond. Did Matt Hammill have a staph infection? No story will even see the light of day unless everyone called responds. Did SF mess up some bloodwork that cost a fighter a paycheck? No one say a word until Scott Coker gets back to us, in a week or so. That’s your model of journalism?
Yes, BE’s initial assertion this fiasco was SF’s fault was premature. But after waiting hours for an organization with a media relations office to respond, he published what he had. Only THEN did SF decide it would be in its best interest to respond. And at the end of the day, some version of the truth has been revealed.
And interestingly enough, had SF provided the same statement to Brent within 6 hours of him asking for it, which they certainly were able to do, this whole mess could have been averted.
Was BE wrong for making assumptions without a full set of facts? Sure, and Brent said as much. But to ask Brent to withhold publication of any story until all relevant parties decide to respond is simply impractical at best and bad journalism at worst.
"I might know a couple things that you don't know. 'Cause I've been young, but you ain't never been old." - Elvin Bishop
by duck on Aug 16, 2010 9:36 AM EDT up reply actions 4 recs
I never said an indefinite wait
But a few hours to a couple of days isn’t enough (for Strikeforce and UFC respectively) in my opinion. Then there’s making sure the information being presented is solid and not just speculation. There’s also the issue of where a Bloody Elbow reporter is on the pecking order of media the UFC or Strikeforce are going to deal with. It’d be easy to dismiss this and say UFC and Strikeforce only talk to outlets that help their agenda, but let’s presume if ESPN asked Strikeforce about this instance they’d get a speedier response then Bloody Elbow. Bloody Elbow really aren’t that entitled comparatively.
In this particular case though, missing blood samples on multiple occasions that results in a fighter not fighting, to me, would suggest a Commission problem first and foremost, and not a Promoter problem, and clearly Brent pursued the wrong avenue from the get go for whatever reason.
Sometimes these things happen at the office...
Nick Garcia is the Brian Russell of MLS but 10 times worse.
by SSreporters on Aug 15, 2010 4:20 PM EDT reply actions 3 recs
I think it really speaks to the type of image Strikeforce has cultivated.
GSP is an alien sent here to humiliate our men and mate with our women
I’m not exactly sure how faxing works, but is it possible that the fighter faxed it to a “wrong number”?
Hard core MMA fan since UFC 99
by ChiCubs23 on Aug 15, 2010 4:55 PM EDT via mobile reply actions
If it was the wrong number the fax wouldn’t have gone through, unless the number he dialed just happened to be one of the, I dunno, .01% of phone numbers in this country that are actually hooked up to a fax machine.
by ufc4 on Aug 15, 2010 5:13 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
Brent I love it when you got on people's asses for screwing with fighters. Especially the little guys.
I even like that you went after Strikeforce here, even if you were proven wrong in the end you are hopefully keeping them honest. And there is a lot to keep them honest about.
As for the outsourcing of the events, I can see why people look at it this way. And I can also see why people want to hold Strikeforce responsible, since their name is at the top, but the truth is that when Strikeforce holds an event outside of the Bay area, there are always two events taking place on the same day: the televised main card put together by Strikeforce and the prelims which is put together by a local promotion. The two share the expenses of the arena. Strikeforce gets the benefit of a local promotion helping them with logistics and the local promotion gets to piggyback on the Strikeforce promotion, but really this was a KITC event followed by a Strikeforce event and the fans got to see both for the price of one ticket.
Only Woods and the athletic commission are to blame
Brent, you seriously jumped the gun. In fairness, you admitted it several times above, though always with a caveat. And I think you should update the article with your comment:
The thing that I don’t want to get into in the article (but that I’ll point out here) is… I reached out to Strikeforce WELL before reaching out to the fighters. I waited hours and hours for a response before I ran the story, which made it clear that I would publish Strikeforce’s response as soon as I got it. Which I did, within 10 minutes of getting their response it was up and it was put as the lead story on the site. I mean, we didn’t bury their response as an update to an old story.
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But regardless…here it all is.
THIS is where Strikeforce is to blame.
Bottom line is that the blood work and licensing are the responsibility of the Arizona AC. Woods knew they lost his documents twice, so he should have known to bring an extra printed copy with him to the arena.
Also, I’m guessing this,
There are some that have said that Strikeforce is a small promotion and they don’t have the resources to stay as on top of the athletic commission and the fights that are being made by the promoter they’re “outsourcing” to.
is aimed at Luke and his comments on the first piece about this topic?
by mma_critic on Aug 15, 2010 5:38 PM EDT reply actions
Oops... and self reply
Strikeforce is responsible for one other thing… both fighters should be paid, at a minimum, their contracted pay. Win bonus would be nice, too, but not entirely necessary. But both should be paid.
by mma_critic on Aug 15, 2010 5:41 PM EDT up reply actions
I think that's what everyone has been saying...
Even I who think Strikeforce holds a lot more blame than you and many other people do, that’s really all they have to do to rectify the situation. Yeah, they oursourced to someone that didn’t even attempt to follow up on their fights. Yeah, if the person they outsourced them to didn’t follow up with the commission to make sure everything was taken care of, then they should. However, after all is said and done, all Strikeforce has to do to “make it right” is pay out like 8 grand or something probably total. That’s it.
Associate Writer - WindyCityGridiron.com - Artist formerly known as Sklz711
That’s sound good and all but should they really do that? Did they sign, book, and agree to a purse with the fighters? No, I believe RITC did all that. So you are asking Strikeforce to instantly take care of RITC’s responsibilities. That is a terrible precedent to set becuase all other future promotions they work with will know they that if they drop the ball Strikeforce will pick up the pieces for them.
Now if I was Strikeforce I would definitely put as much pressure as possible on their partner to make sure they clean up this mess. And if they refuse to, then and only then do I think they should step up and make it right, but they should also start looking for someone else to work with in Arizona at that point.
If you complain about Zuffa fighter treatment, you better speak up now.
Strikeforce should follow the UFC’s lead and compensate guys that have their fights pulled last minute.
The UFC paid Dustin Hazelett his contracted show & win purse when Karo pulled out last-minute at UFC 106.
I do want to repeat that I was probably too careless in the initial article by placing more blame on Strikeforce than was fair.
It is the difference between journalism, and trying for gossip headlines to increase pageviews.
Let me clarify one thing...
if you think we got any hits above and beyond what we get for any other piece for ANY of these pieces you’re crazy wrong. A story about two undercard fighters that 98% of fans have no familiarity with on a Challengers undercard is not going to do dick for traffic. I wrote it because we had the fighters and their camp coming to us giving us details on the situation and nothing pisses me off more than fighters getting dicked out of money because of the mistakes of promotions and athletic commissions.
But if anyone seriously thinks that I’d write a story about John Wood and Christian Grosinsky in an effort to get more pageviews they’re wrong.
Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
MMA Editor - SBNation.com
by Brent Brookhouse on Aug 16, 2010 9:03 AM EDT up reply actions
Worthless apology
Hey, I stepped in dog crap and tracked it all over your white carpet but, while I’m sorry, it’s not my fault. It’s the dog’s fault. And your fault for buying white carpet, and the carpet maker’s for not properly treating the carpet to resist dog crap.
So let me get this straight, you jump the gun, then continue to blame strikeforce because they didn’t anticipate one fighter bowing out and the Az A.C. Dropping the ball on the test???? Because this exact scenario has happened how many other times? Never? Would that be a good guess? Strikeforce is supposed to operate under the assumption that something that has never happened before will happen? That’s your position? Great. Nice apology.
by Ironbuddha on Aug 16, 2010 2:14 AM EDT via mobile reply actions
I never said I was apologizing for anything other than assigning blame for the lost blood work to Strikeforce. Actually, I never said I was sorry for ANYTHING. I said I take responsibility for the initial article and running with the information I was given.
I still hold them responsible for not overseeing their undercards, which is why a promotion like the UFC does not have this situation happen. It happens for smaller promotions at the regional level all the time because they don’t have large staffs to oversee every step of the process of getting fights booked and fighters licensed, but Strikeforce isn’t operating as a small regional promotion. They’re trying to compete as a national promotion, they need to be able to oversee their undercards and work with the AC and fighters to ensure that guys are getting everything taken care of.
If you can’t see the difference between my clarifying who lost the test and my explaining the reasons that I still think Strikeforce bears some responsibility we should probably stop talking.
Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
MMA Editor - SBNation.com
by Brent Brookhouse on Aug 16, 2010 8:54 AM EDT up reply actions 2 recs
HEY IDIOTS
Let me settle this “page views” argument right here and right now. Do you think for 10 fucking seconds of your dumbass life that a story covering a topic like this is even in the top 15 traffic-driving page(s) on a site as big as this one? Please die a horrible death. Now. I’ll tell you what’s in the top here:
WOTM stuff (heavily linked elsehwere), Shane Carwin steroid stuff, Tim Sylvia stuff, FanShots, Chael on HDNet, SF firing Fedor, Mirko in against Mir
And variations thereof. If wanted to manipulate the news for pageviews, I sure as hell wouldn’t talk about SF undercard fighters in a fight that never took place.
Follow me on Twitter: @MMANation.
by Luke Thomas on Aug 16, 2010 10:04 AM EDT reply actions 1 recs
Hey, Luke’s back, everyone!
Also, I demand to know where my insightful commentary has me on that list.
When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are in a confederacy against him. - Jonathan Swift
Contributor for WatchKalibRun.com
Still Subo at Fightlinker.com
by Derek Suboticki on Aug 16, 2010 10:51 AM EDT up reply actions
In gereral
Its clear that the original story was posted far too hastily. It appears to be an attempted smear against Strikeforce (which are frankly, not uncommon on BloodyElbow), however I do appreciate the author (Brent) coming forward and explaining the situation. I just really hope mistakes like this aren’t made in the future, because I think this whole drama took attention away from what was otherwise a good challengers event put on by Strikeforce.
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