SB Nation User Blog: Day Man

Lift the ban watch - NY: Major protest scheduled

Day Man — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 02:53:40 -0000

The following is an email that was forwarded to me regarding an upcoming protest of the MMA ban in New York. Enjoy...

For Immediate Release

Contact Byron James, 516 312 6573

Committee Legalize Mixed Martial Arts New York State

FORMER MARTIAL ARTS WORLD CHAMPION AND FILM STAR WILL BRING 10,000 CHILDREN TO ALBANY TO PROTEST GOVERNOR DAVID PATTERON’S BUDGET CUTS

Lifting the Ban on Mixed Martial Arts Would be an Economic Boom for the Cash Starved State of New York

Albany,NY---Former Martial Arts World Champion and Film Star Lou Neglia is bringing 10,000 Karate Kids to protest Governor David Patterson's chop of Children’s Programs, that are going to be cut because of the 14 billion dollar deficit.

Neglia is calling on a March on Albany, next week on the day before Bruce Lee’s birthday, November 26, 2008. The group is calling for Mixed Martial Arts to be allowed in New York State to make multi-million dollar revenue to save children in need. New York State is losing hundreads of millions of dollars to other arenas according to a recent economic impact statement. Over 36 states in United States have legalized Mixed Martial arts.

A study commissioned by the Ultimate Fighting Championships and conducted by HR&AA Advisors revealed a UFC event at Madison Square Garden would generate $11.5 million in economic activity and $400,000 in tax revenue for New York City and $555,000 in tax revenue for the cash-strapped state. An event in Buffalo would generate $5.3 million in economic activities. Thirty-six states currently allow professional martial-arts matches, as well as Washington D.C. and two Native American reserves. Syracuse and Albany are among the other upstate cities that would be in contention to host the matches.

According to the report, a martial-arts event could attract thousands of visitors, bringing in $1.1 million in revenue for the Buffalo area. The report states $300,000 alone would be spent on overnight stays.

Martial-arts events in Buffalo would require about 300 staff, resulting in the creation of 57 new jobs, according to the report.

The group wants the Legislature to pass a bill that would allow the state Athletics Commission to regulate martial-arts matches. Without the regulations, the events cannot be held in New York. Mixed martial arts events include karate, kickboxing, wrestling and jiu-jitsu, a Japanese sparring method.

Lou was a film Icon in Bruce Lee Post Era of the martial arts movies staring in blockbusters like ''A Hard Way to Die, ''Fist of Fear'' and ''One Down Two to GO''. He has been featured on several magazine covers and is known in some circles as the “Brooklyn Bruce Lee”.

Kim Couture's signing with Strikeforce: Top video on FoxNews.com

Day Man — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 23:17:14 -0000

A video detailing Kim Couture's signing with Strikeforce and subsequent return to MMA currently holds top video honors on the FoxNews.com website.

The link to the video is prominently displayed on the main page of the Fox News website and is accompanied by headshot of Kim Couture.

Regardless of whether you agree with their viewpoint, Fox News is a major news outlet and this type of mainstream coverage is seldom seen and has the potential to be very beneficial to the sport of MMA.

Dissecting the Iceman

Day Man — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 09:53:35 -0000

First of all I just want to say that I hope Chuck is/will be physically and mentally ok following the fight. The knockout was undeniably brutal and of the type that can have lasting effects on a fighter.

Regarding Chuck's current situation, he is 1-3 in his last four fights and clearly has holes in his game that leave his chin open for flash knockouts.

A couple of years ago I got to talk to Jim Lampley and I asked him how a guy like Roy Jones could go from unbeatable to middle of the road in what seemed like one year's time. He told me that Jones was amazingly physically gifted, to the point where his physical skills, especailly his quickness and handspeed, were enough to keep other boxers from ever landing anything against him so he developed bad habits like leaving his hands down. Jim said that when you get older your reflexes slow down and can no longer protect you from the bad habits you developed throughout your career.

I believe this to be the same situation as with Chuck, except that in this case the holes are being exploited not simply because of a decline in physical ability (although its unlikely that at 38 years old that Chuck is at his physical peak) but by an increase in talented strikers in the UFC that can exploit any weakness in their opponent's game. The days of single dimensional fighters competing in the UFC are dead and the day of the freak athletes who also are well trained strikers is closing in fast. Look at the guys who have caught Chuck on the button recently: Rashaad Evans and Rampage Jackson, both are amazingly gifted athletes who have been forced by the increased competition in the UFC to spend significant time training their striking rather than maintain a single dimensional wrestling based style. Top it off by the fact that the increased exposure and income that UFC fighters have received over the last few years has allowed them to establish relationships with world class striking coaches.

Chuck had the same holes in his style when he looked unbeatable. He never needed to address those holes because they were never exploited. Unfortunately for Chuck the evolution of the UFC also includes increased use of video tape. Top level fight coaches like Greg Jackson can sit down and watch every single fight Chuck has ever had, over and over, picking up weaknesses and devising a game plan much the same way coaches in the NFL device gameplans tailored to attack the weankesses of opposing teams.

Chuck still has plenty of options for big money fights in the future and hes still very exciting to watch but much like Roy Jones, his bad habbits have finally caught up to him, unlike Jones, the driving factor has been the evolution of the sport.