T Jay Thompson’s interview on Elite XC’s demise is pretty painful. Asked about the media being unfair, he answers: “We did such a rotten job. We made ourselves susceptible to that.”

http://www.sportsline.com/mma/story/11060710/1

TH

Looks like you were wrong, jackass.

The bonuses change how a fighter approaches the fight, we all agree. That cheats the fans. I know you think it delivers a “better show” provided your better is the same as Zuffa’s “great”. I know that Leben has gotten a number of FOTN bonuses for plodding, sloppy brawls. I know that Dana White has gushed over Rob Emersons marginal skills. It hurts the fans because it impacts the fights. It stifles style development (why hone your technique if the sloppy boxing gets you paid more? why develop ground skills if you and your opponent are both fighting for the bonus, meaning you’ll be staying upright?) It impacts fight strategy, which de facto impacts fight outcome. Not only that, it does so in a way that is not transparent. In doing so, it cheats the fans.

From having read the Observer in the past, I imagine that Dave might put forward the argument that all/most professional sports do this: find ways to make things more exciting. Yes, that’s true and I’d never argue it. But there’s a difference. The shot clock in basketball was a rule change that impacted everyone equally and was made clear to the fans. The changes to the NHL rule-book a few years back were above-board, transparent changes in rules, not in how they would be enforced. Secret bonuses are not in the same category as this, it’s more in line with the steroid scandal in baseball, certain people are getting a benefit that the fan isn’t aware of. It’s stacking the deck, while the fans are left thinking that the deck is shuffled cleanly.

I may not have liked all the rule changes that came with the unified rule set, but I can live with them. Why? Because I know what they are and, to the extent humanly possible, they are equally enforced (some exceptions, to which there is usually a public outcry). These secret bonuses, hell, even the not-so-secret bonuses, are new rules that are unknown to the fan and not necessarily enforced equally. Anyone who is a fight fan should object to them.

I get why you’re speaking in generalities, but there’s a little more you could give us. Care to share with us how Zuffa might define a “great fight”? Maybe an example of a fighter who’s gotten many of those bonuses? Even an obvious one like Leben would be good. I mean, look at UFC 89. Leben was throughly outboxed and basically allowed himself to fight using a losing gameplan instead of taking down Bisping and perhaps getting the biggest win of his career. He then spoke about how it was the best fight of his career. Do you chart the line of morality at legality?

There’s an inherent problem in reporting UFC undisclosed bonuses: very few people know about them besides the UFC and the fighter. If the fighter tells you, it’s almost always in an off the record way. There aren’t enough people that know, if the numbers get reported then the UFC knows the fighter told about them, and there’s kind of an implied thing where fighters aren’t supposed to disclose numbers.

The UFC stuff I think we’d obviously like to hear more about. Also, Dave, since your site went subscriber only for certain stuff a lot of your stuff comes down to copy and paste on other sites and heresy.

I still think that it is a valid question to ask if Alvarez or Meltzer would have made this public if Seth didn’t spill the beans.