The Heat and the Shine

CM Punk's journey to UFC Fighter is complete. At UFC 203, he made the walk. He stepped in the cage. To borrow a memorable Arn Anderson promo, he said what he was going to do and then he did it. In many eyes, that was a win. The cynical might ask, "A win for who?". It is a fair question. Victory, after all, is in the eyes of the beholder. Punk surely won. The world can debate his level of self-awareness, but most agree on this: he lives to prove people wrong. 'Fake' wrestlers don't step in the Octagon, and he did. For others, victory is less clear. Wrestlers, fighters, fans, announcers; they hold opinions across a broad spectrum. Some love the effort, some hate the spectacle and many carry ambivalence on those very topics. "What harm was done?" is a common refrain from supporters of this and other spectacles. The injured party can be summed up in a single word: excellence. That concept, which drives so many admirable parts of Western civiliza

It is time for another edition of Coors Light Cold Hard Facts (because Bud Light doesn't pay me).  Past discussions of Facts (not actual facts) and Fictions (more predictions and speculation, really), concerned UFC's business decline in mid-2014  (boy, was I wrong on that one) and   cable & satellite providers' distaste for WWE Network  (three out of four correct; much better).  The discussion centers on UFC again, but this time to discuss a topic that bridges business and competition: UFC fighters failing drug tests. Fact or Fiction: UFC business is being hurt by recent drug test failures Fiction.  (At least for now.) There are two angles for looking at the effect of drug test failures on UFC business: losing fights and alienating fans.  They obviously haven't lost any fights yet.  (Though World Series of Fighting -- and has there ever been a successful sports venture besides baseball [and poker is not a sport] to use "World Series" in its name? --

Have you ever been told, “you suck”?  You probably have.  Maybe recently.  It is never pleasant and it always causes conflict. When you are great at something, being told, “you suck,” usually means little.  You accept the words, consider the source and move on.  It causes a reaction.  It makes you wish ill towards the person who told you, “you suck,” if only for a moment, but it doesn’t stick.  They suck.  They can’t touch you.  You know it.  They’re not worth it. But what if you’ve never been told, “you suck”?  What if you were a child prodigy who made the state finals in his first year?  What if you won three state championships in high school?  (Think about that.)  What if you won two national championships in junior college, and were a Division I (the highest level of amateur wrestling in the United States) All-American your senior year? What if you were an Olympian? What if you competed for World Championships? What if you won were an MMA rookie as you neared your thirt

It is time for another edition of Coors Light Cold Hard Facts (because Bud Light doesn't pay me).  Whenst last we separated Fact (not actual facts) from Fiction (more predictions, really), it was to discuss cable and satellite providers' distaste for WWE Network .  Your humble essayist is back, this time to discuss the business issue of the moment: UFC's declining pay-per-view and television numbers. Fact or Fiction: UFC's pay-per-view decline will reverse itself this year Fact. Yes, there are fewer MMA fans than ever (at least since the boom).  Yes, GSP is gone.  Yes, Cain and Ronda are hurt.  Yes, (about) 500k for Weidman/Ronda is unimpressive.  But it's got to get better. The first half of 2014 was about as ugly as it can get.  UFC has had exactly one PPV main event in the marquee weight classes (Light Heavy and Heavy) this year, and it went head to head with LeBron and Kevin Durant in the playoffs.  Ronda fought twice, which helped.  Otherwise, it's

Dana White wishes that there were no performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) in UFC.  It is a scandal he doesn't want.  They cost him money that could be used for other things.  Fights cancel that fans want to see. The problem is that performance enhancing drugs aren't going away.  Professional athletes are as paranoid as they are competitive.  Many fighters use.  Most fighters believe that other fighters are using.  Some fighters just want an edge and don't care.  Whatever the case, they're here to stay. History has taught us that anti-doping measures are an endless cat-and-mouse game.  The 1988 Olympic 100 meter final was called the dirtiest sporting event of all time in an ESPN documentary.  When analyzed years after the race, every sprinter's urine sample was found to contain some type of PED.  The 2012 Olympic 100 meter final saw nobody test positive, but would anyone be surprised if a test done ten years from now found those samples dirty? The status quo is

The Nevada State Athletic Commission banned testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) and the people celebrated.  The people who put on the fights, cover the fights and watch the fights all reacted in unison.  "Yay!  A win for fair play." It is a win for fair play.  As MMA fan/anti-drug advocate Lance Storm liked to say, TRT doesn't level the playing field, it levels the player.  The egalitarian ideal is that each sportsman trains and studies and uses his natural talent to compete under the agreed upon rules.  People born with a disability must compete with that disability.  Being born with low testosterone would be treated no differently than being born with a poor work ethic.  Some will succeed, but most will never join the elite. The Nevada Commission's ruling is also a win for the public perception of MMA.  The scolds have been held at bay.  The loudest online fans and the most muckraking journalists will have to wait another day to complain. Some complainers

Welcome to my lawsuit.   For years I played your game.  I made a lot of money.  I had a lot of fun.  It was my choice.   But you told me that you were keeping your game safer than you really were.  Other players used drugs.  They used drugs that made them stronger.  More aggressive.  Gave them better vision and focus to hit me.  You put my health at risk.  I knew the game was dangerous.  But that was something different.  That was like handing my opponent a crowbar before he walked into the cage.   Now I’m screwed.  I get angrier than I used to.  I forget things that I’ve known for years.  People have to tell me their names three or four times.  It’s hard to keep a job that way.  Or a wife or a family.  And you’re still fine.  You dissed the rank and file fighters.  Now my fight is going to court.   You see there are two keys to my lawsuit.  You knew; that’s the first key.  You knew that my opponents were using these Superman drugs.  You knew that your testing was in

It's done, and just in the nick of time.  With about 72 hours to go until an embarrassment of Crystal Pepsian proportions, the deal got done for Fox Sports 1. On Saturday, that means fights.  But what does it mean today?  One thing it means is that Fox took a heck of a hit in opportunity cost. Fox Sports 1 has attractive programming scheduled beyond UFC.  On Saturday night, Fox imports Dan O'Toole and Jay Onrait, witty ex-anchors of TSN SportsCentre, for the nightly highlight show, "Fox Sports Live".  On Monday afternoon, Regis Philbin begins a studio show, "Crowd Goes Wild".  And one week from next Thursday, Fox Sports 1's marquee property (sorry, UFC), college football, kicks off. The problem is that they're all too late.  Today, O'Toole and Onrait don't mean squat. (sorry) And Regis means even less. (not sorry) College football means something, but that is two weeks away.  And the sum total of all of it is too close to nil in the ga

Dave Scholler , UFC's head flack (technically Director of Communications, but I view the ol' Variety-style term "flack" for PR people with some fondness) took me to task a bit on Twitter recently because I wrote that UFC scaled the pricing too high for the UFC pay-per-view in Milwaukee on August 31.  Dave correctly pointed out that tickets had yet to go on sale to the general public, so my criticism was unfair.  My point was that anyone who wanted to but a UFC Fight Club membership for about $80 USD could gain the right to buy tickets, so essentially the event was on sale with an extra $80 tax added to each ticket order. Tickets to the August 31 UFC pay-per-view in Milwaukee are on sale now, and sales are meager thus far.  The Ticketmaster arena map shows that the cheap seats on both the upper level ($70 plus fees) and lower level ($150 plus fees) sold pretty well.  The best ringside seats ($400 plus fees) have also sold.  The problem is that the other sixty perce

WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE By Ben Miller Email: benjamiller@icloud.com Twitter: @benjamiller UFC 155 is in the books and it showed once again that Raven was right.  About a decade ago the former ECW champion appeared on an audio show with Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez saying that all that matters is the finish.  On a night where three of the five pay-per-view fights were one-sided and uninspiring, nobody is talking about anything except the final fight because it was that damn good. The second Cain Velasquez vs. Junior Dos Santos fight was fantastic to a neutral observer and dramatic as hell to anyone with a rooting interest.  Yours truly was rooting for the Brazillian (blame an overreaching pre-show essay for that) and from the opening bell it was a riveting tale of survival.  Cain was a monster in a perpetual state of attack and Junior kept fighting and fighting to survive the beast.  For supporters of Velasquez some of the drama may have been lacking (drama fund

The Cost of Abandoning Fair Play: Why UFC 155 Won’t Draw By Ben Miller Email: benjamiller@icloud.com Twitter:  @benjamiller   The temptation is to blame the mismatch.  A year ago, the striker knocked out the wrestler in a minute.  What has changed?  The wrestler still wants everyone on the ground.  The striker still seems to always be able to stay off the ground.  The striker isn’t getting any shorter and the wrestler isn’t getting any younger. And so maybe the mismatch is the reason that Junior Dos Santos vs. Cain Velasquez for the heavyweight championship at UFC 155 has tepid interest.  No front page headline on ESPN.com a day out.  The sports section of the Los Angeles Times (the newspaper from the nearest major media market to Las Vegas, the site of the fight) has nary a mention.  Deadspin.com has a feature, but even that is a feature about the  bumbled promotion of the challenger . The problem with blaming the mismatch is that the sporting public seems fine with