SB Nation User Blog: AnnieAgee

Couture-Vera was just a repeat of Sylvia-Vera

AnnieAgee — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 19:06:39 -0000

As usual, Randy Couture found a way to just win. It wasn't pretty, but it sure was effective. Did anyone else feel like they were watching a replay of Tim Sylvia vs. Brandon Vera? It was basically the same deal. Sylvia kept Vera pressed against the fence for the vast majority of the fight. Vera managed a takedown, even passed to side control, but couldn't manage to do much with it. The outcome would be different, of course, given that Vera managed a knockdown against Couture and never really damaged Sylvia, but the gameplan and execution were basically the same. The funny thing is that conventional wisdom after the Sylvia fight said that Vera was just too small to deal with the big heavyweights. Now that he's dropped to 205, he succumbed to the exact same tactic. Seems like the issue is not so much size but strategy.

CBS/Strikeforce Broadcast Quality Unacceptable

AnnieAgee — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 14:00:25 -0000

I'll leave it to others to debate the quality of the fights themselves (though I thought the two that went to decision were dreadful), but I felt it had to be said that last night's Strikeforce broadcast had so many awful, maddening, amateurish problems that the entire experience was marrred. I thought the commentary was as poor as it ever was with EliteXC (even without Bill Goldberg), but my main problems are two:

1. The camera work was atrocious and the producer did nothing to make things better. There were far too many times I found myself staring at the referee's ass. Of course, this happens in other organization's broadcasts as well, but usually because the referee walks into the shot. In CBS's case, the producer actually switched cameras to a shot that was already blocked by the referee. And because none of the other camera angles provided a significantly better view, they just stuck with the obstructed view or went to a very narrow shot, through the fence, that was extremely hard to follow.

2. The pacing at the end of the show was totally unacceptable. From the time that the Shields-Miller decision announcement ended and the time that the introductions for Fedor and Rogers began was 13 minutes. Worse, 12 minutes and 30 seconds of that time was commercials, with CBS breaking in twice, briefly, to show a shot of Fedor backstage and reminding us that the main event was coming up. As I sat waiting for the main event, which did not begin until after the scheduled end time of the event, I got angrier and angrier as commercial after commercial came on instead of going back to the action.

In the end, I'll put up with most anything to get a chance to watch Fedor and getting to watch for free was a nice bonus. But is it too much to ask that a nationally televised card, produced by a network with decades of experience with live sporting events, promoted by a company with a dozen major events under its belt, headlined by the greatest fighter of all time, at least have production values that don't make me angry?

It's not Dana's language, it's his hubris

AnnieAgee — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 13:54:38 -0000

Listen, I'm not about to blow a gasket because Dana White used disparaging terms about women and gays. I get the feeling that these are terms that he uses quite frequently when the cameras aren't rolling. While the words are hateful in origin and hurtful in context, it's beyond my scope to level much ire against Dana's vocabulary. He's probably talked like that his entire life and it's not something we can change.

What baffles me, what infurates me, is his hubris. There are plenty of cases where public figures make politically-incorrect statements because they didn't know a microphone was on or they thought they were speaking off the record. But this was Dana White's own production. He has complete control over what appears in his video blogs, was well aware that the language he used was sure to offend, and yet he still chose to broadcast his little rant without any edits. That video can't ever be recalled, so he must have known that his words could be thrown back in his face at some point in the future. And still, knowing all that, he didn't just rubber stamp the broadcast, he insisted on it. That's not "ballsy," it's megalomania, and it makes me very nervous.

A Eulogy for Evan

AnnieAgee — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 20:31:15 -0000

Reading a lot of the comments from regular fans on MMA blogs, there seems to be a common sentiment in the wake of Evan Tanner’s death: it hurts more than people expected and they’re not exactly sure why. Most never met the man at all, yet they feel for his loss like a member of their own family. Let me put in my two cents:

The fan-athlete relationship between Evan Tanner and the MMA community was not like the relationship with other fighters. Evan was our child and we were his protectors.

We supported him, encouraged him, and cared for him both physically and emotionally, more so than he cared for himself. And he, in turn, looked to us as more than just the people who cheered for him while he was in the cage. He slept on our couches, cried on our shoulders, and eventually, rejected all other sponsors so he could cast his lot with the only people who ever really gave a damn about Evan Tanner. That was us.

His blog posts were not philosophical missives, or mere news updates. They were letters to us. Go re-read some of his entries, but imagine that each one started out with “Dear Mom and Dad…”

We understood and accepted the contrasts of a man so physically strong, but compulsively weak; able to demonstrate almost super-human self-control one day and absolutely none at all the next. Flaws and fragility are not tolerated in MMA. We need our fighters to be entirely tough. When we see a chink in their armor, we have no use for them anymore. But we were never cheering for Evan the Fighter; we were rooting for the future of Evan Tanner the human being. It didn't matter that he lost his last two fights, that he sunk his boat, or that he repeatedly fell off the wagon. You couldn't stop pulling for Evan. And that’s what made our fandom unconditional; we neither pitied nor envied Evan, we just loved him.

Fighting was not a job to Evan and it wasn’t his way of life. He hinted at this on several occasions, but the truth was that fighting was the only reason Evan was still alive as of last week. We knew this, we always knew this, and that’s what made the bond so much stronger. Our fandom was not the difference between a win or a loss or a sponsorship. Subconsciously we always knew that supporting Evan meant keeping him alive. We did it as long as we could.

And now our job is done. Evan is gone. That little space in our hearts that was always keeping an eye out for Evan is empty. And it hurts like hell.

R.I.P.