The Heat and the Shine

It was all going well for about thirty seconds.  The heavily favored champion circled the challenger.  No serious strikes were thrown, but the expectation was clear: the champion would find a way -- via submission or standing -- to outclass a man who had been beaten several times before. Then the shot hit.  One shot to the head; cleaner than it was supposed to be.  The heavily favored champion would get hit, and he would not recover.  Not on that night; not in his career. The champion was Antonio Rodrigo "Minotauro" Nogueira.  He came into his fight on December 27, 2008 as the most resilient of champions.  He left as a shot fighter who would be finished four more times in his next seven fights. The story of Minotauro has become a sad one.  Twelve years ago today (but not tomorrow, as he lost decisively to a young Fedor Emelianenko on March 16, 2003) he was one of the two most admired fighters in MMA history (with Kazushi Sakuraba being the ...

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...

A void exists.  And voids don't last.  Either the void will be filled or the void will go away.  But voids don't last. The void is in the wrestling business.  The demand of fans and ex-fans for a more intelligent, grounded product has no supply to feed from.  WWE can't or won't give up scripted promos and "invisible camera" segments.  Lucha Underground is a fine product, but it's more television than wrestling.  Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG) thrills local fans in Los Angeles, but their goal has never been to go mainstream.  Surely there are other contenders, but none that have caught on.  And so the void continues. Voids cannot last because eventually the demand dries up.  People move on.  Fans become fans of something else.  How many have moved on to MMA or fantasy football or something else altogether?  But wrestling's void persists.  A hardcore fanbase and an intransigent monarch have sustained it. Nigel McG...

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 Champio...

Critics of UFC's decision to sign CM Punk are in an unassailable position.  They are right.  Signing CM Punk would be similar to a Major League Baseball team signing Nelly.  Punk's signing does alienate fighters; especially those on the border of UFC and the lessor fight promotions.  The move is -- at least in part -- a publicity stunt.  There is no way to counter these arguments.  Calling Punk's ESPN "car wash" a PR win is pointless to someone who wants to watch great fights.  Supposing that Punk's first pay-per-view will draw a great buyrate matters not to someone who's had to argue whether MMA is a real sport.  UFC decision makers have hurt the public's ability to accept MMA as a sport.  The detractors have that argument won. All is not lost, however.  UFC and CM Punk can still make the best of things.  They can still make a lot of money in the short term (the short-term money argument, of course, is the argument that proponents ...

There are so many interesting things about the story of David Schultz and John du Pont.  du Pont came from a colorful family of unimaginable wealth.  He was cut from Central Casting as a black sheep; awkward, a dreamer and almost certainly born with a mental illness.  Schultz was a habitual overachiever.  He was also a gregarious, giving fellow whose life was cut short in tragic fashion.  Pick any one of those things, and there is the potential for a good movie.  Foxcatcher didn't and it isn't. Foxcatcher is Mark Schultz's story.  Mark, played by Channing Tatum, is the younger brother of David, and is also a champion wrestler.  Mark and David both won gold medals at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles (a great accomplishment, but one sullied by the fact that the Soviet Union led a boycott of Eastern Bloc nations in retaliation for the United States' boycott of the 1980 Olympics in Moscow) and Mark won gold at the 1987 FILA world championships in 1...

UFC must be dreaming.  In a year so wrought with drug failures and sinking buyrates and miniscule ratings, they get Daniel Cormier.  They get the perfect fighter with the perfect personality at the perfect time. It's the silly season of sports.  At no other point in the calendar year would a press conference brawl have found this much of ESPN's oxygen. Cormier is a natural babyface.  He is humble.  Self-efacing.  Aware of his tics and flaws and, importantly, still supremely confident in his abilities. And there's Jon Jones.  For whatever flaws one wants to affix to him, this much is true: He was chosen by God to fight.