SBNation.com User Blog: pdl

Alistair Overeem is Sick of Waking Up In Train Yards.

pdl — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 05:56:33 -0000

One of the most prolific unintentional visitors of train yards, Alistair Overeem, was once again awoken abruptly at the end of the line. It started with Bobby Hoffman in 2000. Started.

The Not-So-Flying Dutchman put on a good streak after that rookie loss. Somewhat cruelly, he was paired with UFC all-star Chuck Liddell as part of a UFC vs PRIDE bet. He fought like the younger man with nothing held back. Admirable, but mistaken.

It took a favorably mixed bag of wins and losses to earn a matchup with Mauricio Rua. We all know how that ended. There were other fights in between, but none left Alistair in need of waking. Kharitonov made it happen in 2007.

Alistair hadn't gone unconscious since the Bush administration. People were still deciding if Blu Ray or HD DVD was the future of gaming and video distribution. Last time Alistair Overeem went unconscious nobody had heard the name "Kardashian" ever.

It's 2013 now. Something has to be done to remind people. I didn't want to do this. I had to.

One of the most prolific unintentional visitors of train yards, Alistair Overeem, was once again awoken abruptly at the end of the line. It started with Bobby Hoffman in 2000. Started.

It's 2013 now. Something has to be done to remind people. I didn't want to do this. I had to.

Seth Davis is Right and It Is Your Fault

pdl — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 20:47:43 -0000

It's one day after the first real welterweight title fight in 18 months, and the morning kicks off with a strong batch of ‘outrage'. Seth Davis (@SethDavisHoops), a basketball analyst for Sports Illustrated and CBS Sports, implied that MMA is inferior to boxing for being "homoerotic" and he doesn't want his kids watching UFC.

You know the drill. Mainstream media said something bad about the MMA while putting up bonus points for calling it homoerotic and inferior to boxing. Everyone get mad! Scream that jiu jitsu isn't rolling on the floor with sweaty men, it's an extremely effective martial art. Those guys aren't hugging, it's called a clinch and it's very technical. Wanderlei Silva would like to have a word with you about it.

Stop it. All of you stop yelling at Seth Davis right now because this isn't his fault. It's yours.

MMA openly invites the "homoerotic" label at every turn. Just last night, longtime UFC commentator and personality Joe Rogan directly compared a fight to an openly gay celebrity having anal sex with another man. But let's not get hung up on what happened in the past 24 hours when we're only weeks removed from the birth of the catch phrase "let me bang, bro."

Write Julian Lane and TUF off as the gutter of MMA culture. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira is a lifelong jiu jitsu practitioner and still needs to ask "But what if the gay person has that malice of having physical contact with me, of staying there grappling?" If grappling isn't homoerotic then why would the jiu jitsu coach of multiple UFC champions, as well as a UFC and PRIDE heavyweight champ himself, refuse to train with a gay student?

For as much as people deride the so called "casual fans" for the culture of MMA, the core fanbase is the worst of the lot. It wasn't mainstream media who saw PRIDE and UFC champions unifying the middleweight belt and said "That looks like a man getting raped in the butt, I should make that more clear in an animation." Core fans did though.

An innocuous search for longtime training partners and black belts doesn't return results of their training or belt lineage. It's an oft repeated gay joke that gained so much notoriety, Michael Schiavello felt the need to address it in an interview.

Mainstream, regular people believe MMA is homoerotic. How could they think otherwise? It's what we've told them at every turn, from UFC representatives to the dedicated fanbase. Seth Davis isn't wrong. He's repeating what you, the educated core fan, have taught him.

10 Specific Reasons Why TRT is Bad for MMA

pdl — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 04:04:51 -0000

Talk of TRT has taken a backseat to the UFC's injury pandemic but shouldn't be forgotten based on the news cycle. It's a polarizing issue yet there doesn't seem to be any reputable sources to clear the air. So who to listen to?

I do not have a medical background, but what I do have are a particular set of skills. Skills that I have acquired over a very long time on the internet. Skills that allow me to make an argument and support it with facts, evidence, and trends. Skills that let me make it into a numbered list. In this case, it's the fighters themselves.

The most high profile case of TRT use in MMA has to be the [in]famous Chael Sonnen. He's also arguably been the most successful. He tested way above the acceptable T:E ratio after his first bout with Anderson Silva and raised a storm to the CSAC about how his testicles are broken. There was the dominating submission win over Brian Stann, the mediocre showing against Bisping, the a good round against Anderson Silva before getting knocked out.
For an outspoken advocate of TRT, Quinton Jackson sure isn't showing any benefits. Rampage missed weight for the first time in his career and proceeded to look terrible in his fight with Ryan Bader. He claims to have injured his knee mid-fight. The streak of bad luck continues with his recent injury that forced him to call off the Teixiera fight.
Dan Henderson gassed real bad against Shogun and was utterly defenseless for the final round. More recently he was unable to finish his training camp due to injury and dropped out of his title fight against Jon Jones.
Forrest Griffin is an overachiever. He's had an outstanding career and although Anderson Silva made him look a whole beat behind, that's just what Anderson does. That aside, has Forrest ever put on a worse performance than the final fight of his trilogy with Tito Ortiz? It's arguably the worst showing of his career and his first fight that was TRT assisted.
Frank Mir has an inconsistent build. He was in good shape as champion, then became Fat Mir post-accident, slimmed down to have a speed advantage against Lesnar, then added 30lbs of muscle to that to try and be as strong as Carwin. Saying he didn't appear in his greatest shape against Dos Santos doesn't mean much. What's telling is that in his first fight on TRT, Frank was beaten like eggs in a bakery.
Nate Marquardt had to sit out for a year because of his failure to follow the rules for a therapeutic use exemption twice in a row. He decided that the treatment that was holding his health together was too big of a bureaucratic pain in the butt and and stopped. Nate wouldn't let the lack of medical treatment hold him back though. He looked great in his pummeling of previously undefeated Tyron Woodley to take the Strikeforce Welterweight title.
Shane Roller is a similar case. He lost three fights in a row, quit TRT because he didn't want to do what it takes for an exemption, and is now on a one fight win streak.
Bristol Marunde is best known as a journeyman that Jacare got a rebound win off of. He was submitted in the third round.
Todd Duffee is still a guy and knocked out Neil Grove in India. So there's that.
Ken Shamrock is Ken Shamrock.

To recap:

High level fighter with losses to really really good fighters
Missed weight, fought poorly and lost, got hurt before his next fight.
Poor cardio, injured before next fight
Fought poorly, won a controversial decision.
Beaten like eggs.
Quit TRT, won his next fight by KO
Quit TRT, snapped a three fight losing streak
Submitted
Injury prone, coming off a win.
Still Ken Shamrock

It seems that TRT is more closely tied to poor performances than uncharacteristically strong ones. Fighters who expect to have a boost in performance or training benefits seem to perform worse and put on worse fights for us, the fans. And this is why TRT is ruining MMA.

The most high profile case of TRT use in MMA has to be the [in]famous Chael Sonnen. He's also arguably been the most successful. He tested way above the acceptable T:E ratio after his first bout with Anderson Silva and raised a storm to the CSAC about how his testicles are broken. There was the dominating submission win over Brian Stann, the mediocre showing against Bisping, the a good round against Anderson Silva before getting knocked out.
For an outspoken advocate of TRT, Quinton Jackson sure isn't showing any benefits. Rampage missed weight for the first time in his career and proceeded to look terrible in his fight with Ryan Bader. He claims to have injured his knee mid-fight. The streak of bad luck continues with his recent injury that forced him to call off the Teixiera fight.
Dan Henderson gassed real bad against Shogun and was utterly defenseless for the final round. More recently he was unable to finish his training camp due to injury and dropped out of his title fight against Jon Jones.
Forrest Griffin is an overachiever. He's had an outstanding career and although Anderson Silva made him look a whole beat behind, that's just what Anderson does. That aside, has Forrest ever put on a worse performance than the final fight of his trilogy with Tito Ortiz? It's arguably the worst showing of his career and his first fight that was TRT assisted.
Frank Mir has an inconsistent build. He was in good shape as champion, then became Fat Mir post-accident, slimmed down to have a speed advantage against Lesnar, then added 30lbs of muscle to that to try and be as strong as Carwin. Saying he didn't appear in his greatest shape against Dos Santos doesn't mean much. What's telling is that in his first fight on TRT, Frank was beaten like eggs in a bakery.
Nate Marquardt had to sit out for a year because of his failure to follow the rules for a therapeutic use exemption twice in a row. He decided that the treatment that was holding his health together was too big of a bureaucratic pain in the butt and and stopped. Nate wouldn't let the lack of medical treatment hold him back though. He looked great in his pummeling of previously undefeated Tyron Woodley to take the Strikeforce Welterweight title.
Shane Roller is a similar case. He lost three fights in a row, quit TRT because he didn't want to do what it takes for an exemption, and is now on a one fight win streak.
Bristol Marunde is best known as a journeyman that Jacare got a rebound win off of. He was submitted in the third round.
Todd Duffee is still a guy and knocked out Neil Grove in India. So there's that.
Ken Shamrock is Ken Shamrock.

To recap:

High level fighter with losses to really really good fighters
Missed weight, fought poorly and lost, got hurt before his next fight.
Poor cardio, injured before next fight
Fought poorly, won a controversial decision.
Beaten like eggs.
Quit TRT, won his next fight by KO
Quit TRT, snapped a three fight losing streak
Submitted
Injury prone, coming off a win.
Still Ken Shamrock

Sean Sherk is the hero of time. Save youself.

pdl — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 02:25:07 -0000

Sean Sherk - The Hero of Time from Jimmy Shaker on Vimeo.

Sean Sherk is the hero of time. Save youself.

Boxer Paul Williams Potentially Paralyzed in Crash

pdl — Mon, 28 May 2012 20:38:07 -0000

Edited and promoted to the front page by Tim Burke

Light middleweight Paul Williams reportedly was in a motorcycle crash, potentially leaving him paralyzed from the waist down. I'm no doctor, but the prognosis sounds bad.

Williams' scheduled surgery is said to "stabilize the healthy upper half of his spine by putting a protective wall around it," WRDW says
— Luis Ortiz (@Ortiz_BoxingNBA) May 28, 2012

Paul was still an active, high level fighter and is only 30 years old. But his career and accomplishments are not really important right now. Plain and simple, this sucks. If you're a praying kind of person or not, I think we all wish the best for Paul and his recovery.

Bad Left Hook has more coverage and info and more discussion. The initial report came from WRDW TV in Augusta, GA.

Edited and promoted to the front page by Tim Burke

Light middleweight Paul Williams reportedly was in a motorcycle crash, potentially leaving him paralyzed from the waist down. I'm no doctor, but the prognosis sounds bad.

Williams' scheduled surgery is said to "stabilize the healthy upper half of his spine by putting a protective wall around it," WRDW says
— Luis Ortiz (@Ortiz_BoxingNBA) May 28, 2012

Bad Left Hook has more coverage and info and more discussion. The initial report came from WRDW TV in Augusta, GA.

Bloody Elbow Looking for New Bloggers

pdl — Wed, 16 May 2012 06:22:57 -0000

Bloody Elbow Looking for New Bloggers

Bloody Elbow is looking for new staff bloggers. To wit: "We're especially looking for news hounds/multi-media bloggers who can keep the news flowing, post all the latest videos, animated gifs and other cool stuff from the world of MMA. If you remember the great Nick Thomas, we'd like to clone him."

HT: Kid Nate

Nick Thomas'd

From the Barstool to the Blog: Stephan Bonnar's UFC 139 Loss

pdl — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 00:34:39 -0000

Bloody Elbow's Josh Nason today mentioned an oft repeated tautology of sports; a win is a win. There is no doubt that the logic of that statement is rhetorically and philosophically true . However, when context is provided, rhetorical value is fundamentally undermined.

Enter Stephan Bonnar. A long time staple of the UFC who has competed for the promotion fourteen times professionally and twice in exhibition bouts in the Ultimate Fighter house. He is best known for his "American Psycho" fighting style and career defining moment in 2005 in a spirited and ugly brawl with Forrest Griffin. A fight that he lost unanimously. In the year between that fight and their rematch, it was clear who became a better fighter. It was a showcase that the work ethic and determination of Forrest Griffin made him into an ever improving fighter while Bonnar stagnated and tested positive for performance enhancing substances. Since then, he has gone 1-1 with the only opponent that even hardcore fans could pick out of a lineup and lost to Mark Coleman who was decade past his expiration date.

For the conclusion, crack a fresh brew and go to Head Kick Legend. You know you want to see where this is going and beer is good.

Nick Diaz's Post-Fight Statement on GSP: a pdl Production

pdl — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 03:58:15 -0000

You know, there's all these deal makers makin' deals and shit and I just wanna fight the best but George is, you know, he's scared to... GSP he's making a couple fuckin' million dollars to fight and then doesn't want to show up and fight. I wanna get paid and he's scared because he doesn't need to fight me or whatever because he made a deal with Dana White to fight Conduit instead of me. It's whatever you know, I don't like doing this shit, I'd rather go box and make some real money or swim or something if they aren't gonna fuckin' pay me. Getting hit by BJ Penn and ummm... Paul Daley is... and Robbie Lawler. I don't wanna be taking more punches from BJ Penn. It's not good for... your head. Then you got guys like George St Pierre who just hide from fighting and try to have the judges say they won and get paid you know? I made a deal to get paid and then they didn't want to because I wasn't at some fuckin' beauty pageant and George gets millions of dollars to be there but not at the fight? It's, you know, that's not how a fighter acts if they aren't scared. It's whatever though, I got bills and shit and I just wanna fight and get paid.

-Respectfully Yours,
Fake Nick Diaz

From the Barstool to the Blog: How pdl Makes Dana White into David Lee Roth and Nick Diaz Into an Irresponsible Local

pdl — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 08:46:59 -0000

Van Halen is awesome. They had musical talent, understood the value of showmanship, and they raised the bar for lavish excesses and rock and roll lifestyle. Nothing was done in moderation. Live performances, guitar solos, big hair, and drinking all were grossly exaggerated for the era. And they hated brown M&Ms.

One of the most publicly discussed and infamous riders in contract history is Article 126 of Van Halen's concert agreements, which stated "There will be no brown M&M’s in the backstage area, upon pain of forfeiture of the show, with full compensation." It is frequently cited as evidence of the ridiculous demands that celebrities can force upon normal working folk. Brown wasn’t even a different flavor. It was a trivial and meaningless stipulation.

The parts of the contract that really mattered were the other fifty plus pages of the contract which detailed the technical needs for the show. Since Van Halen did everything more extravagantly than their contemporaries they needed greater attention to detail for lighting support, load bearing girders for the massive stage, availability of electricity at specific amperage and locations, and all the other things that made their concerts run. So it was more than colored candies when they saw brown M&Ms in their dressing room. It was a warning that the venue hadn't read the contract and met the specifications to ensure that the show could go on.

What does all of this have to do with Nick Diaz and Dana White? Read the conclusion at Head Kick Legend and tell me what you think.

Kobe Bryant Fined $100,000 by NBA For Gay Slur

pdl — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 06:27:32 -0000

Kobe Bryant Fined $100,000 by NBA For Gay Slur

David Stern commented "While I’m fully aware that basketball is an emotional game, such a distasteful term should never be tolerated,"
"Kobe and everyone associated with the N.B.A. know that insensitive or derogatory comments are not acceptable and have no place in our game or society."

UFC commentator Joe Rogan infamously and unapologetically used the same epithet publicly to describe Tomas Rios and received no punishment or a public reprimand from his employer. Michael Bisping also dropped the slur during a heated staredown with Jorge Rivera at an office UFC weigh in. He was not punished, and the footage was used in UFC promotional videos immediately afterwards.

Frankly My Dear, I Don't Give A Damn (About Other Sports): How MMA Can Stand on Its Own Merits

pdl — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 01:30:07 -0000

The world of MMA is missing a critical point regarding the sport they so love. Lost in the rationalizations of safety, comparisons to boxing and football, and emotional reactions toward Bob Reilly's statements is that the sport serves a purpose to all multicultural societies.

Summarily, MMA began as a spectacle intended to prove superiority of one art taught regionally in Brazil. The sport was literally meant to be an infomercial for dojos, and it was quite an effective one for the Brazilian Gracie family. Although they had success in three of the first four events via Royce, the dynasties of styles were short lived in the early days with each one passing the torch once a critical weakness was discovered. Grapplers with bad takedowns got smashed by the strikers, the strikers would get brought to the ground and worked over by wrestlers.

Frank Shamrock went on to become the first well rounded reign of terror thanks to the "Alliance" team featuring his Pancrase oriented catch wrestling, Maurice Smith's kickboxing, and Tsuyoshi "TK" Kohsaka's instruction on how to survive and fight off your back. He submitted elite wrestler Kevin Jackson, used a wrestling slam to retire kickboxer Igor Zinoviev, and out-lasted the much larger Tito Ortiz to a TKO victory.

Flash forward ten years and look at the most dominant fighter in MMA today; Georges St Pierre. A man who combines American folkstyle wrestling, Brazilian jiujitsu, Japanese Kyokushin contact karate, Thai boxing, and Queensbury rules boxing into one marvelous art known as MMA. Therein lies the glorious untold story of the sport.

While many people focus on the financial boon a UFC event can bring a province, nobody explains what makes the sport fantastic. Those pushing for regulation futilely fixate on being comparatively safer than other contact sports when there's no inherent value to that thinking. But when a competition is the perfect symbol for a melting pot of cultures creating something greater than the sum of its parts... you have something special. You have mixed martial arts.

Demian Maia Seminar: Live Thread and Discussion

pdl — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 23:03:46 -0000

Demian Maia is doing a grappling seminar tomorrow at 10:30am PST. That doesn't mean a whole lot to the broader audience normally, he does tons of seminars all over the world and most of you don't live exactly where he's going to be. But this is different.

The Arena MMA is putting up a free live stream of Demian's no-gi seminar so you can soak up all the grappling goodness without getting off your cozy desk chair. And since the Night Crew is all going to be nursing bootleg Four Loko hangovers, you might as well spend the morning checking this out. Registration for the stream is free and takes OpenID as well as a billion other things, and there's even clothing giveaways for online viewers. Check it out, and discuss live with fellow BElitists here.

Buried Life on MTV features MMA

pdl — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 19:46:01 -0000

Buried Life on MTV features MMA

Dave Lingwood from The Buried Life enters the CAMO program for his amateur debut. Episode airs tonight (11/8/10) at 10:30pm.

UPDATED: Brutal Power: The Heaviest Hitters by Division

pdl — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 00:03:52 -0000

A few weeks ago, Bad Left Hook featured a fanpost listing who, in the author's opinion, were the heaviest punchers of each division. It got me thinking what a similar list would look like for MMA. Who do you simply not want to lay leather on your chin, at any costs?

The issue that arose quickly to mind was what heavyweight hits the hardest... Shane Carwin or Alistair Overeem? I think Carwin clearly throws heavier hands, but Overeem's knee is possibly the most powerful single strike in MMA. In the spirit of being to lazy to reconcile that line of thought, I decided to make two categories; one for punching and one for overall striking.

My thoughts on power are not that the greatest technique gets you ranked, but the ability to turn lights out. You'll notice fighters who are not highly regarded on here, but simply hit really fucking hard. That's all I'm looking for.

This list is a rough draft off the top of my head, with a few options in each category ranked loosely. If you all would be so kind as to provide suggestions of guys I missed, I'd love to have us come to a borderline consensus and have a workable final product.

UPDATE: The original list is in block quotes. The update is above it. Let me know what you guys think!

Heavyweight:

Hands: Shane Carwin, Junior dos Santos, Fedor Emelianenko

Overall: Alistair Overeem, Pat Barry

Light Heavyweight:

Hands: Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, Mike Kyle, Ryan Bader

Overall: Mauricio "Shogun" Rua, James Irvin

Middleweight:

Hands: Drew McFedries, Vitor Belfort, Dan Henderson, Robbie Lawler

Overall: Melvin Manhoef, Anderson Silva, Nate Marquardt

Welterweight:

Hands: Paul Daley, John Howard

Overall: Thiago Alves, Anthony Johnson

Lightweight:

Hands: Melvin Guillard, BJ Penn, Takanori Gomi, KJ Noons

Overall: Duane Ludwig (too dated?)

Featherweight:

Hands: Mike Brown, Marlon Sandro

Overall: Jose Aldo

Bantamweight:

Hands: Demacio Page, Brian Bowles, Joseph Benavidez

Overall: Miguel Torres

Now that we have a more complete list, here's what I notice:

Anybody at heavyweight should have KO power. Stefan Struve should be one of the least likely guys to score a KO based on body type but lo and behold he can do it. Big guys can just put you out. I will give Brock and honorable mention for being a gorilla, and with some more technique he could easily find himself an entrant on this list. Ray Mercer was left off because... he's not really an MMA fighter. Pedro Rizzo needs to fight somebody that isn't years beyond their expiration date, but has looked pretty crisp lately.

Light heavyweight brings more size, but fewer standouts for KOs than middleweight. My theory is that it's a more skilled division and harder to turn the lights out on somebody because of it. Poor sportsmanship aside, Mike Kyle can punch people really fucking hard. I had to make a tough decision between Thiago Silva and Ryan Bader, with Feijao being in consideration for overall power. Lots of guys at LHW that you wouldn't want punching you.

Middleweight has some serious sluggers. When Leben, Cote, Scott Smith, Sakara, and Wanderlei don't make a power list, you know there's some scary hands being thrown around. I'm not quite sure why it's so stacked with heavy striking guys, but there are some great matches to be made out of this. Lawler vs. Manhoef was such a treat.

Paul Daley is the king of his division for punching power. That's it. While Koscheck, Paulo Thiago, and Matt Serra have shown the ability to put people out, nobody has the level of consistency as Daley in power punching. Ben Saunders could make the overall list if he gets better striking from range, but his clinch work is downright nasty.

While there's some heavy hands in the division, here is no scary muay thai wreckingball at lightweight. The closest is Kenny Florian, who has very good technique and can certainly wear guys down, but does not turn off the lights with his striking. This seems like a huge opening for Jose Aldo should he move up.

As you get lighter, it's harder to knock someone out. Pretty standard rule of combat sports. Which makes what Jose Aldo does so spectacular. He may not be able to blast you with hands like Junior Dos Santos, so he makes his knees do the work. Incredibly impressive. His teammate Marlon Sandro has been on a tear of KOs lately, and his uppercut is nasty. Manny Gamburyan needs a few more wins before I'm totally sold on his power, but knocking Mike Brown out cold with a short punch is a damn good start.

Oh, Demacio Page... how did I forget you? Scary power, not to be messed with. Benavidez really impressed by turning out Rani Yahya cold. Very solid. Miguel Torres is still the most diverse striker with finishing power in the division. Dominic Cruz may have a tough time finishing guys at the very top of the division with his striking, but his heavy kicks certainly have potential to get some late TKOs. I'd like to see him go to later rounds with somebody who may be more finishable than Benavidez.

I'm considering making this a series, with the most relentless takedown artists and the most submission savy specialists (alliteration!) in the coming weeks. Is anybody else interested in that, or should I keep this a personal project?

Heavyweight:

Hands: Shane Carwin, Junior dos Santos, Fedor Emelianenko

Overall: Alistair Overeem, Pat Barry

Light Heavyweight:

Hands: Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, Houston Alexander

Overall: Mauricio "Shogun" Rua

Middleweight:

Hands: Drew McFedries, Vitor Belfort, Dan Henderson, Scott Smith

Overall: Anderson Silva, Nate Marquardt

Welterweight:

Hands: Paul Daley, John Howard

Overall: Thiago Alves, Anthony Johnson

Lightweight:

Hands: Melvin Guillard, BJ Penn, Takanori Gomi

Overall: Duane Ludwig (too dated?)

Featherweight:

Hands: Mike Brown, Marlon Sandro

Overall: Jose Aldo

Bantamweight:

Hands: Scott Jorgenson, Joseph Benavidez

Overall: Miguel Torres

Washington Combat: Battle of the Legends Results

pdl — Thu, 20 May 2010 16:53:32 -0000

Washington Combat: Battle of the Legends Results

Pedro Rizzo def. Gary Goodridge via TKO (Retirement) at 5:00 of round 2
Jordan Smith def. Gustavo Machado via Decision (Unanimous)
Marcos Galvao def. David Derby via TKO (Punches) at 1:37 of round 1
Ovince St. Preux def. Claudio Godoi via TKO (Arm Injury) at 5:00 of round 1
Gabriel Miglioli def. John George via TKO (Punches) at 0:56 of round 3
Matt Van Buren def. Manny Okorie via Decision (Majority)
Chris Buckner def. Jahmal McLennan via TKO (Punches) at 2:02 of round 3
Peter Simone def. Francisco Salgueiro via Decision (Unanimous)

Bloody Elbow Took a Turn for the Worse!

pdl — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 22:33:30 -0000

Yes, Bloody Elbow has jumped the shark ladies and gentleman. Nobody says a single ill word about Strikeforce and Scott Coker because they are too busy complaining about how they hate Dana White. And all they ever do is harp on [Dana White lying about Tito, the CGJJ/Mayhem fiasco, Anderson Silva’s 112 performance] and never cover anything else. They no longer talk about the substance of fights because they are too busy covering TMZ drama. This site is done and blows… but I’ll keep commenting forever and harping on that one time an editor, staff writer, or moderator responded negatively toward me. Because your site is bad and you should feel bad.

I have now effectively summarized about every fifth comment on any story in BE. Yet not one of those generalized statements is true. There is a constant stream of negativity about Strikeforce before and after each event, yet that's not good enough for certain people. Those same posters treat anything written about the UFC as bashing the organization if it contains an iota of criticism. We know the posters who always do this. It’s not mmalogic, who has his company line but is always good for at least a fresh take on any topic. He has better things to do. It’s the people who wish they were mmalogic, which is pretty sad.

If that’s not distracting enough, then the site is too busy focusing on one story and not bringing you any new news. The funny thing is that this complaint is registered about several different stories, which makes it clearly an insane statement. If you’re only covering one story, why are people saying that about three completely different ones?

And claiming that those stories or others prevent real fight talk… y’all are crazy. Find me a major fight, (Strikeforce, WEC, DREAM, or UFC) that has not been given its due diligence in a timely manner. Or an event that didn't have an active liveblog. There are still picks and predictions, the individual fight breakdowns, and the occasional Judo Chop. Just like always.

Here’s the deal ladies (both of you) and gentlemen.This site brings us more than who just fought and who is fighting soon. There is a fledgling media that needs to be its own check. There are different personalities in public positions of power that need to be accountable. There are contract disputes, business deals, and fighter privileges that responsible core fans should be aware of. And if you don’t like the BE brand of coverage and discussion, then Sherdog, UG, Fightlinker, MMA Weekly, CagePotato, or any other number of MMA sites will welcome you.

To the staff: Sorry for this, I’m just sick of the arbitrary hate. If nothing else, it will get condensed into this fanpost, right? Keep up the good work, and I’ll keep arguing with you about it.

PS: Quite frankly Bloody Elbownians [sp?], if you think this site is anything like TMZ and covers MMA drama, you have no idea what the fuck you’re talking about. The things that go on that nobody hears about or report on are stupid dramatic. It’s worse than high school, a sewing circle, and your mom’s book club combined.