Brent Brookhouse

Simmons getting in for the African-American champion thing would be fine. He had a lengthy career full of reinvention. He had a good start in the NWA, then a good run as half of DOOM, then won the world title, WWF almost tanked him with the Farooq gladiator thing but rebounded with the Nation stuff that was at or near the top of the card for a long time and then the acolytes become APA. It’s a damn fine career with historic moments. And, the entire write-up is just "damn"

Yes, lists are subjective..etc. But this is a HORRIBLE list. There’s a knowledge hurdle one should be able to clear to write a major feature for a major outlet and dude clearly doesn’t.

A few of the issues:

1. No Jerry Lawler.
2. Yep, he originally thought KENTA and Kenta Kobashi were the same people. He now corrected that to where the entry is for KENTA. So…now KENTA is 34 which is way too high, honestly, and the list is entirely missing Kobashi, which is a crime.
3. He can’t keep any sort of standard thought process for how he is ranking. Sometimes it seems based on accomplishments, other times he will say one match was enough to include someone.
4. THE OMMISSIONS ARE SO CRAZY. Lawler (again), Perro Aguayo (jr or sr), Giant Baba, El Canek, Riki Choshu, Yuji Nagata, Dynamite Kid, Billy Graham, Gory Guerrero, Genichiro Tenryu, Jumbo Tsuruta, Dos Caras, Lizmark, Masahiro Chono, Steve Williams, Kensuke Sasaki, Carlos Colon……..i’d put ANY of those dudes on the list over The Miz, Christopher Daniels, Mike Quackenbush…and about 20-25 other guys on the list, honestly. And I’m sure I’m forgetting a lot of people myself in my quick thinking and looking around. I get knowledge limitations exist for everyone..etc. But if you do an "all time" list, you either need to have that level of knowledge or have a team set up that can offer insight on a number of fronts. This was SI, not a random tumblr account or something.

I don’t attend events because my job involves overseeing our coverage. I can’t do that live and I don’t actually enjoy it all that much. We’ve sent several people at various times (though, it usually depends on proximity as, again, there are budgets involved). I also know the people involved with the credentialing and it has been made clear that I would only need apply.

I could get credentialed (unless they’ve decided to change that). But there are travel budgets involved plus the fact that I can manage our coverage a lot better from home than from cageside on shitty wifi that doesn’t work 50% of the time

From what I’m told, the Media Source category gets very few votes. I’m planning to stump for us until there’s no time left. If we can pull it off, that’d be pretty hilarious. I’ll attend and get Diego Sanchez levels of sloppy for the acceptance

To what I’ve been told working the story for the last year, Cung was involved before the test.

- I wrote here at SBNation.com last month that I had spoken to sources who confirmed that it was the most serious the talks between the two sides had been since 2010.

- That has cooled considerably in the last few weeks.

- Floyd appears to have been using last night as a platform to establish that he’s the one who "wants the fight" since it appears as though it probably goes nowhere again and that’s a good way to save face.

- Drug testing hasn’t been the hold up in the fight for years. It was in the initial round of negotiations back in 2009-2010, but hasn’t been an issue for a couple years.

- Part of what Floyd said last night is that the fight would have to be on Showtime PPV and said that they’re #1. HBO is still far and away number one and it’s not particularly close. The idea that HBO would give up their slice of the pie as the bigger player of the broadcasters is pretty crazy and yet another reason this isn’t happening.

- Floyd is also pushing again to have a substantially bigger part of the purse split based on Manny’s recent losses (only one of which was ACTUALLY a loss). Which, cutting out HBO and having Manny take something crazy like 35% is a surefire way to tank the fight.

- While pointing out (accurately) that Manny’s PPV numbers are way down, he left out that so are his own. Which WAS initially a part of the motivation for finally working out a deal…that both men and their teams saw the slide that PPV numbers were on and realized the need to make a splash. But the sheer awfulness of the PPV numbers for Pacquiao/Algieri may have pushed Floyd into thinking the ball was completely in their court again which I’m pretty sure is going to kill the fight.

For me….I started watching MMA with UFC 10 from a local mom and pop video store (Phil’s Video, RIP). My mom had a boyfriend who used to steal DirecTV and I caught the first PRIDE Grand Prix which turned me from someone who would rent UFC takes into someone who went to Sherdog to argue about stupid shit with no knowledge (you know…as will happen on the Sherdog forums). I eventually had a blogspot blog that was just a hobby covering Boxing and MMA (it was called Bad Left Hook)

Scott Christ (a dude I’ve been friends with since we played little league together) worked for SB Nation running their Baltimore Orioles blog. He and I were watching a good amount of boxing at the time and he wanted to convince SBN to start a boxing blog and they liked to have an existing blog to reference. He showed them my blogspot site and, before I knew it, they’d registered BadLeftHook.com. Which kind of fucked me since my plan was to buy it at some point that same week. But then it was Scott and I running BLH but he was much more gung ho about doing it super intensively and i was more interested in MMA at the moment. So I approached Nate after I saw that Bloody Elbow had launched and asked if they wanted help.

So then I was just writing stuff whenever I felt like it at BE. It was Nate, Luke and me and I’d disappear sometimes for a few weeks, then I’d write some stuff. There was no pay so I felt no obligation. then Nate started asking me to do a little more and I suggested we do live blogs and started doing that for pretty much everything (like Cage Warriors streams and whatnot) and then staff picks and other stuff to kind of push us along. And the three of us would always go in and comment on the other guys’ stories to try and build up the comments. Eventually we were doing enough traffic that it paid a little bit of money and then a little more over time. But initially it was like $0 to $50 a month. So it wasn’t ever something I thought would be a career.

It got more and more fun, I did more and more, there was a little bit more money..etc.

Eventually I lost my day job and was able to devote all my time to the site and the company and I agreed to a deal that allowed it to become my full time job. They’ve done right by me over the years. I was lucky to just be in the right place.

Based on talking to people and why they’re afraid of him, it’s mostly nonsense. If he put a PI on me they wouldn’t have found anything interesting unless minor traffic violations are the kind of thing he wants to dig up. But most people are afraid of threats he makes, not actions he takes. Dangerous in his manipulation more than anything.

I mean, some of his behavior (bringing guns to meetings and setting them on the table so people knew he had them) is frightening. But for the most part he’s just a lot of noise.

Soon!

Ha, it’s not THAT hoodie. A different special hoodie.

I’m aware of the way the rankings are done now. There’s always going to be issues with those rankings and homerism..etc. I mean, the NCAA is a shit example if we’re talking about people "doing it right." Hell, just look at the Big 12 changing their entire championship structure at the very end of the season trying to get TCU into the playoffs.

As for doing it right:

1) can’t have only one sponsor and then tie pay into where fighters are ranked. Especially without an association having any power in determining how things will work. At least, you can’t do that and expect ethical journalists to contribute.

2) Take the power away from the UFC on determining who gets to vote and what fighters are eligible. Whoever takes it over needs to be completely transparent.

3) Keep rankings visible and transparent. I’m a fan of that aspect as it stands now.

I have some other thoughts too, but I can’t give away ALL of a column in the comments

I wouldn’t participate regardless, but there’s certainly a lot of benefit to taking control of the rankings away from the UFC. As far as controlling who is on the ranking panel, who can be ranked…etc…that’d be a great first step.

The AP system isn’t perfect in NCAA, there’s homerism, there’s unwillingness to change rankings based on results much of the time (i.e. if I ranked someone #1 pre-season, a lot of times that isn’t changing until they lose even if it’s clear there’s one or more better teams) and so on. But there’s an established set of ethics for participation.

But as long as the rankings have a direct impact on fighter pay, I can’t get on board with any form of participation.

Insightful.

Not really, no.

Bloody Elbow is a blog, we’ve done large scale journalism. There’s been incredible journalism done on blogspot sites and absolute shit garbage journalism done on major outlets.

By definition, journalism is not something only able to be done by an exclusive club.

It’s based on points accrued over a time period.

Here’s a primer.

Tone down the language. He’s expressing an opinion, don’t come back with "you start bitching."

Only warning

It blows my mind that anyone thinks that it’s no big deal for a complete overhaul of the financial structure of the sport without any sort of representation from the ones most directly impacted.

They vetted it with the guys (and girl) who can negotiate their own deal and who aren’t having to hold down a "real job" while also training to compete at an elite level? Wow!

Managers have been talking (publicly and privately) about how they have never pulled less than $10k in sponsorships for a fighter on the main card, regardless of ranking. Based on the pay reported by Gareth Davies ($70,000,000 over 6 years), that’s way more than anyone in the lower end of the rankings or who is unranked will ever pull under this deal. So the entire structure of how guys make money, in a hugely profitable sport that already pays out FAR lower percentage of profits to athletes than other national level sports was changed…with no input from the fighters (and I mean beyond the absolute top guys, that isn’t legitimate "input"). That’s a massive issue.

A journalist should have no participation in a system that A) has input into how a promotion conducts its business in a direct way like these rankings B) has any direct determination of how much money a fighter makes.

And I certainly can’t see it as being an ethical decision for a journalist to participate unless there’s an overhaul of the UFC’s business practices with rankings. I mean, the above points are a major issue that I’ll never get over as far as participation in the rankings. But White acting like he’s "all about ‘fair’" and that the issue is credible journalists voting when there are also issues like being a part of a manipulative system wherein they randomly decide hen to add or remove someone from the rankings is another issue.

Where is White’s dedication to more transparent guidelines wherein the same rules apply to everyone involved? That way we don’t have some guys out for two years while still being ranked and other guys yanked if they’re having a nasty, public contract battle.

Too many issues both from an ethical standpoint that expands into a flawed, one-sided system for anyone credible to involve themselves in the process.

I’m not going to say more than this:

You don’t get to tell a trans person how they feel.

Don’t push it any further.

Changes were enacted on the forms so that disclosure shouldn’t be an issue going forward. People keep acting like she didn’t disclose something on a form. There was no relevant field on the form in which to enter it. I know the response is "oh well, she should have anyway" but that’s a judgement call that is quite different. "Failure to disclose" sounds like she went out of her way to hide it in a system that asked for the information.

I’m fine with our decision. There were two fights (correct me if I’m wrong) where she was not asked to disclose the information and therefore did not.

I’d ask you to cite some more sources than Johnny Benjamin, who is far from knowledgeable on the matter (as is a running theme in his embarrassing "career" in MMA writing) and who blended weird misunderstandings of transgender individuals and sexuality in his thoughts on the matter.

I would say that the majority opinion is on the "no advantages" side

Debunking "unfair advantage" myths about trans athletes
Leading sex reassignment physicians weigh in on Fallon Fox

I mean, you can throw Dr. Benjamin as a counter but that’d be a mistake.

I don’t know that I agree that they did. That’s kind of central to the debate.

on the "didn’t disclose" front, I don’t know many people who disclose information that they aren’t asked on government forms.

…
…
…

• using a Game Genie