Tuesday, February 2 6:38 pm PT: Despite the congestion of MMA coverage in “mainstream” media over the past five years, there’s still some uncharted territory left. While we wait for Andy Rooney to chime in, the sport can make do with a front-page mention in The New York Times.
Tuesday’s edition featured a leading story on the marriage between Christianity and fighting as a way of recruiting young men into church activity: Memphis local John Renken performs double duty as a pastor and MMA coach.
“The school’s motto,” writes R.M. Schneiderman, “is ‘Where Fist, Feet and Faith Collide.’” Something tells me Pastor Renken is more of an Old Testament kind of guy.
The status afforded to a front-page narrative in the Times shouldn’t be glossed over: it’s a telling example of the sport’s perpetually-growing influence in culture. The Internet has made ink less of a valued commodity, but this is still real estate that means something.
Tuesday's radio shows packed a little extra punch for super bowl weekend. Joining Bruce Buffer and myself for "IT'S TIME!!!" was former NFL New York Giant Michael Strahan. Michael discussed his thoughts on the sport of mixed martial arts. As well as the Super Bowl matchup between the Indianapolis Colts and the New Orleans Saints.
Jordan Breen also returned for another edition of "The Jordan Breen Show."
Tuesday, February 2 10:46 am PT: For people who enjoy societal train wrecks, Twitter has proven to be a wonderful tool. Instead of idiot celebrities being audited by their PR people, they’re free to circulate staggering stupidity in real time.
Jose Canseco to his 324,000 followers: “I guess I may have to show Herschel Walker who the real bad boy of the sports industry is. If the powers that be are reading, I want in.” (Jose threw a few random capitalizations in there -- omitted for clarity.)
Who could possibly advocate civilization’s decline in such a fashion? Cesar Gracie’s camp, which posted a video inviting Canseco to come train with them. While I have yet to meet a freak fight I’d turn off, a Canseco/Walker promotion runs the risk of turning Walker into a punchline -- something he largely avoided in the build-up to his recent fight by coming off as sincere and serious. Greg Nagy was a bit of a heavy bag, granted, but once you agree to fight the guy who couldn’t finish off Danny Bonaduce, you’re in another area code of absurdity. Does Shaquille O’Neal get the winner?
Tuesday, February 2 10:28 am PT: You remember the noise about Mark Burnett wanting to get into mixed martial arts in a big way: there were talks of an MMA reality series featuring Jose Canseco and Herschel Walker as opposing players who would fight. (Reality be damned, they both actually fought, which will continue to fold my brain into odd shapes. If I let it.)
That show idea fizzled, but Burnett is now taking some kind of responsibility for California-based promotion King of the Cage: HDNet announced that a monthly series of live fight cards under the “Mark Burnett Presents: King of the Cage” banner will begin this Friday, Feb. 12.
"King of the Cage and Mark Burnett are pioneers in their respective fields, and we are excited to feature 'Mark Burnett Presents: King of the Cage' on HDNet as part of our commitment to being the home of MMA," said Mark Cuban, Chairman and Co-founder of HDNet in a release. "The award-winning story telling of Mark Burnett will bring the personalities of MMA to life in a way that has never been seen before."
Ignoring the narcissism of the “Mark Burnett Presents” qualifier -- useless to anyone who doesn’t read “TV Guide” with a highlighter -- the idea of a regular series of live fight cards is intriguing. And if Burnett can help shape personalities out of the unmolded clay athletes the promotion normally relies on, it’ll be a welcome change. But is anyone really that invested in the “Cage” brand, which has come to represent overstuffed fight cards of highly dubious quality? And didn’t Burnett get singed with his “Contender” reality series that turned boxing into a weep-fest?
Advancing age seems to be the one sure antidote in athletes previously known for bad temperaments. An entire generation that knows George Foreman as a doughy, Bible-belting grill pitchman has little idea he was once a surly boxer with a stare that could shatter glass. The calendar has a way of mellowing your arse out.
It’s that march of time -- and God knows, maybe some medication -- that’s kept Mike Tyson largely out of trouble since his retirement from boxing in 2005. He’s so demure at this point that, rather than feel sheepish on the U.S. version of “Dancing with the Stars,” he opted to make an appearance on the Italian version. The show could mark the first time he’s spun a woman around a floor with her consent.
No idea if this was a one-off or if Tyson -- who has clearly lost weight -- is involved in some kind of elimination tournament similar to the American edition. Either way, Chuck Liddell is now free to feel even worse about himself. Tyson can actually move. A little.
(Alert courtesy of SportIllustrated.com’s Jimmy Traina.)
Combat sports have always had the sadistic business sense to feed graying talent to younger, faster, better stars -- a torch-passing where the losing party gets third-degree burns in the process. It’s cruel, ugly and it never makes anyone feel too good.
It’s therefore encouraging to hear that Strikeforce wants Pat Miletich slotted against a slightly gimpy Frank Shamrock. (This opposed to either guy against a 20-year-old who craps concrete.) Miletich told FiveOuncesofPain.com that he’s agreed to the fight, proposed to take place before summer, but that Shamrock is sitting on his hands.
“Frank Shamrock and I have verbally agreed to fight each other, but from what I understand he’s being difficult in the negotiations,” Miletich said.
Like Saturday’s Coleman/Couture headliner, which had roots in the late 1990s, Shamrock/Miletich was flirted with before Shamrock took to cleaning up dog deposits with SEG’s lowball offers. It’s a few years too late, as most of the good fights usually are, but so what? There are at least a dozen fights in this genre to be made that feature charismatic athletes who could talk enough of a good game to interest people despite their title irrelevance -- Don Frye/Ken Shamrock from 2002 being the model example. Shamrock is 37, Miletich is 41, and plenty of fans are old enough to care.
