Tuesday, December 29 4:11 pm PT: Tuesday marked the return of Bruce Buffer and Jordan Breen on The Sherdog Radio Network. Breen and Buffer settled in for their final shows of 2009.
Bas Rutten joined Bruce Buffer on the "It's TIME!!!" program. Bas discussed his history in the sport of mixed martial arts, whether he still gets the competitive itch and other parts of his current career endeavors.
Jordan Breen came with his usual format of calls and emails. Breen also took listeners predictions for the new year. Listeners still have tomorrow's roundtable to get in their predictions for 2010 prediction contest.
Tuesday, December 29 5:48 am PT: Given the right mood and platform, I would advocate that A&E’s “Steven Seagal Lawman” -- lack of colon theirs -- run daily, like the evening news. It would require unprecedented effort on the part of production staff and crew members, who would have to race to compile and then edit footage in time for broadcast, but the result would be worth it: hours a week of the 58-year-old playing detective and beaming proudly whenever a perp finally recognizes him through his globular new frame. (Said perp inevitably bellowing “Holy sh-t, that’s Steven Seagal!” and compromising whatever anonymous authority police have earned.) It’s a damn fine show.
Seagal was interviewed recently by a radio station of undetermined origin and asked his thoughts on MMA. Having been privy to his previous delusions on the matter -- I was once told that he believed he had “students” who could handle Kazushi Sakuraba without incident -- this is not a quote that passes through my bandwidth unattended.
“They’re kind of mixed feelings,” he said. ”I feel that the martial arts should be something to train you to have character and humility…at the same time, it’s certainly teaching people great skills. So it’s kind of a mixed feeling.” These feelings, Seagal added, are kind of mixed.
Seagal has yet to take the tact of a Jean-Claude Van Damme, who has been seen embracing Fedor Emelianenko on more than one awkward occasion, but he appears to be keeping an open mind about things. And if he winds up disparaging it, it’s not for lack of supporting evidence: one suspect apprehended by Seagal on “Lawman” was wearing a Tapout shirt. At that point, the wizened aikido man can only shake his head, rattled by the shallow commerce of promoting a violent art, before heading to the set of “Driven to Kill,” where he will ram a number-two pencil into the eardrum of a drug dealer.
Tuesday, December 29 5:46 am PT: The UFC handed down instructions last week that fighters would no longer be permitted to sport Condom Depot as a sponsor. The brand had appeared on Zuffa programming since Andrei Arlovski’s bout with Fabricio Werdum in April of 2007.
What changed after two and a half years of fighter subsidization? Zuffa’s think tank emerges periodically to ban gear because of conflicts with other promotions, personality conflicts with strayed athletes, or for reasons unknown. Some speculation points to a pending UFC network deal, and a hesitancy to go over the air with a “lurid” banner affixed to a fighter’s board short. (According to Depot owner John Fidi, whom I spoke with several months ago, his intention to sponsor Kimbo Slice for an EliteXC telecast on CBS in 2008 was shot down.)
If the reason is homogenization, cut me a break: the double standard regarding sex and violence in the states is growing unnervingly bold. Films that feature blood splatter and severed limbs can grab a PG-13 -- so long as they don’t feature any nudity. As in MMA, gore is expected: sexual overtures are blacked out.
This archaic thinking isn’t originating with the UFC: if the ban is in anticipation of problems with television standards, the complaint should be directed at networks that are apparently taking cues from the kinds of practices that kept Lucy and Ricky in separate beds for most of the 1950s. Hulu.com -- a video site owned and operated by NBC and Fox -- takes Trojan ads, while the NBC and Fox networks cluck about taking any before 10 p.m. Can you believe it?
Tuesday, December 29 5:44 am PT: Guys like Benny Urquidez and Joe Lewis tried, but kickboxing never drew much attention in the states. It was too weird, too foreign, and too much a departure from the kind of John Wayne hoo-rah Queensbury rule set. It had a chance in the ‘70s, when Bruce Lee had helped inject martial arts into mass culture, but there wasn’t much organization and no real standout personalities. It just withered.
The story took a far different turn in Japan, where K-1 continues to flourish and attendance remains consistent despite a hot/cold reaction in that country to mixed martial arts. K-1 is one of the few promotional systems that works on an elimination basis: qualifying rounds are held all year, culminating in an absolute eight-man tournament and one undisputed champion. Tournament fighting isn’t really fair, and the most talented guy doesn’t necessarily win, but you can get a fairly good idea of who was the most effectively violent in a given year.
