I, for one, enjoy looking over the links provided on fightopinion.com because there are lots of stories and opinions that are either interesting or laughable. Hearing that the UFC is releasing guys like Sokoujou and Werdum and is replacing them with folks such as Ray Steinbeiss is really funny in how transparent the reasoning is. No offense to Steinbeiss, but he is not a world class fighter. Hasn’t beaten a world class fighter. Probably belongs on MFC undercards. Maybe headlining an ICE show in the midwest. He’s in the UFC because he is cheap and because people who watch the UFC do not really care who is fighting in the UFC outside of the main event. 

Now wait, I know what you’re thinking: Stacked cards! Not like boxing! After all, Nate Quarry was really a top end fighter when he fought Maia, right? Well, he wasn’t really, and you didn’t need to be any sort of genius to realize that. The UFC 91 undercard was amongst the weakest ever done by the organization, however the number of “clean finishes” (read as KOs and submissions) allowed lots of fights on the air with the “action” hardcore fans crave. That few of the fights featured guys who were very good was brushed away easily. Its easy to pretend that Jorge Gurgel in a bad kickboxing match was meaningful, but much tougher to make the authentic argument that it really was.

UFC 91 has since been lauded by more than a few internet pundits to be perhaps the best show of the year. I naturally disagree and think it wasn’t even as good as UFC 81, but then again what has my opinion ever mattered? Instead, it is reiterated repeatedly as to the value of branding over stars (even when there’s a 550,000 buy difference in the course of 4 weeks) and undercard bouts that are the comparative equal of some undercard NJPW juniors match done 15 years ago between some roided up guys that are now dead. It should be no shock then that the burst of interest in MMA mimics that of pro wrestling circa 1997, with tons of poorly coded websites bursting with ridiculous rumors from unconfirmed sources, in large part because many of the writers (thanks chiefly to the puro and Meltzer connections) are people who lived through that very era.

This takes me to discuss the articles of a particular website. No, not the revamped Figure 4. I’m talking about the poor man’s Meltzer, Wade Keller, and MMATorch.com. Mind you, Keller showed little interest in MMA throughout the 90s and 00s, in fact, he rarely released even basic MMA results as part of his newsletter or referred to events occuring within the US or Japanese scene. He does seem capable of understanding his limitations, however, and has instead decided to give the job of writing about MMA to other people. Unfortunately, those others seem to be about as educated as he is about the sport. The first article I ever bothered to read from the site was one that popped up recently discussing why it is that pro wrestlers are likely to switch to MMA: 

So many others have left WWE and pro wrestling behind. Lita, Trish Stratus, and Rob Van Dam (for the most part) are just a few examples, even though they may have left for different reasons. Then there are those who have turned down WWE offers or left the company for the freedom and fewer dates of TNA. They include big names such as Kevin Nash and Sting. Especially for older wrestlers, TNA is perfect- you can live a relatively normal life, you’re not on the road 300 days a year and you can still make a relatively good living as a pro wrestler. 

This is an astounding paragraph to read. In fact, its not terribly out of context, because he continues on like this more skillful in writing about why TNA is a decent alternative than why any pro wrestler who has never actually competed in a real sport (sorry, bodybuilding). It is a trainwreck with no clear direction other than to slam the nonexistent 300 date work year of a WWE pro wrestler, with particular ignorance to why it is that the gulf between the Lashleys and Terkays of the world and the Super Porkys and Solars is so deep (hint: $$$$)

There is so much more than that, however. There was also their amazing breaking story over Figuregate, which ended with nothing more than acknowledgement that the UFC was rather aware of the figures many months old existence. Not ridiculous enough? How about star ratings? You know, there is a reason why Dave Meltzer doesn’t do them for MMA, people. Worse yet, how about the “first classic match in MMA history” being Sakuraba/Royce? Yeah, seriously. The prior 7 years of Pancrase, RINGS, UFC, Battlecade, Extreme Challenge, IFC, and Hook N’Shoot events had apparently produced no classics that even mildly compare with the 90 minute hugathon that was Royce/Sakuraba in terms of historical value. Hell, forget them: Neither had Brazilian Vale Tudo, any of the infamous tournaments in Russia, or even the decade-plus old Shooto organization. 

To Keller’s credit, he often attempts to use pieces from the ancient days of the Torch to bulwark his defense of being a long time fan. I say “attempt” because Bruce Mitchell’s recalled statements hardly do much to help a defense of the sport. Nor does Keller’s own review of the UFC circa-1994, which features a number of interesting statements.

Is Royce Gracie the Frank Gotch of his era? Is he a legitimately tough fighter with enough grappling and martial arts skills to defeat most opponents, but then “does business” (i.e. plans finishes) with those whom he might lose to? If the gravy train is lucrative enough, there will be a long line of credential-filled opponents willing to “do the job” for Gracie for a big payoff. That’s how it worked in the olden days, and that’s how it might just be working now.

Again, I am not taking things out of context. He follows to say that he thought UFC 3 and 4 were equally questionable as to whether or not it was fixed. Today, he claims to be running a site with intelligent MMA analysis. Hell, he is bothered by the lack of straight punching in 1994. Hah! A decade later and I’m making that same argument, though I’m not doing so because I think the sport is a fraud.

Unfortunately, the problem with folks like Keller rushing in to try and argue the finer points of a sport that they clearly and totally do not understand is that, well, they are forced under those circumstances to communicate using the knowledge the actually have. Imagine being told about cricket by someone who’s exposure to the sport is recent. Now imagine that person doesn’t even watch sports, but instead is dedicated primarily to model trains. To him, comparing the evolution of the batsman swing to, I dunno, old school Lionel trains and something new and computer controlled may be adequate among his social circle. However, like watching part time MMA fans rant about face/heel dynamics and how they apply to the sport (as well as stick and ball sports, movies, etc), its probably going to connect poorly to the masses. What MMA needs if it ever wants to bust out of being a fringe sport (which it assuredly is) are people who can cover it dedicated to the sport and primarily willing to work within the fabric of what MMA actually is rather than through the colored lens of something else.