MMA in MMVIII
It's been an interesting sports weekend. I was up late watching the Red Wings go up 3-1 in the Stanley Cup finals; it hasn't been often that I've been able to catch a game, since we don't have Versus on our cable system. They're a game away from having their first post-Yzerman Cup win.
Unfortunately, the Pistons weren't so lucky last night; Boston came in and dispatched them, giving us a back-to-the-80s throwback of a Celtics-Lakers series, with Paul Pierce playing Larry Bird, Kevin Garnett playing Kevin McHale and Kobe as Magic.
Rasheed Wallace disappeared last night; they're might be a missing-persons report out by now. 2-12 and an o-fer-6 from three. It may be time for the Pistons to look to move him and retool; for whom, I'm not sure, but a productive Wallace has Detroit in the finals, which he wasn't.
Another back-to-the-past moment happened as I heard of Manny Ramirez hitting homer #500. I can remember driving down to Canton about this time in 1993 to watch the Indians' AA farm club with their next big star, Ramirez. At the time, he reminded me of Hal McRae with his good solid stance and power to right center as a righty. He has that McRae like batting average, having a .312 career mark as we go to press compared to McRae's .290, but I wasn't counting on Cooperstown level homer numbers.
However, the interesting thing that got my attention was the debut of mixed martial arts on prime-time; when I started channel surfing during the Red Wings games, I saw that CBS was running a card of MMA with the highlight being a heavyweight match featuring "YouTube street-fighting phenomenon" Kevin Ferguson, who uses the nom-de-guerre Kimbo Slice. Slice looks like a cross between
Mr. T.'s Clubber Lang from the Rocky movies and one of Worf's DS9 drinking buddies; "It is a good day to bash someone's head in."
Slice is now 3-0, having let the Cauliflower-eared "Colossus" James Thompson take him to three rounds. A journeyman MMAer with a 16-8 record coming in, Thompson almost had him in submission mode, having him pinned and applying elbows to head late in the second round, where Slice was literally saved by the bell. However, Slice proceed to slice open that big right ear of Thompson early in the third with a nasty volley of punches, getting a third-round TKO and leaving the Slice legend tarnished but intact. His first two foes in organized MMA didn't get out of the first round.
MMA seems to hit an interesting spot as a combination of boxing and pro wrestling, but without the fakery (that I know of). With pro wrestling seemingly in decline and more people being able to pick Slice out of a lineup than the heavyweight boxing champ, we might start to see this interesting-but-brutal sport make it to the big time.
It's not good news that it's becoming popular, since it appeals to the lesser angels of our nature. However, it does seem to be a cleaner, less raunchy alternative to the WWE, having legit competition without as much trash-talking or sexual innuendo. It will be interesting to see if the various MMA schools can become mainstream sports or whether they'll merely grab the cable shelf space of wrestling.
Unfortunately, the Pistons weren't so lucky last night; Boston came in and dispatched them, giving us a back-to-the-80s throwback of a Celtics-Lakers series, with Paul Pierce playing Larry Bird, Kevin Garnett playing Kevin McHale and Kobe as Magic.
Rasheed Wallace disappeared last night; they're might be a missing-persons report out by now. 2-12 and an o-fer-6 from three. It may be time for the Pistons to look to move him and retool; for whom, I'm not sure, but a productive Wallace has Detroit in the finals, which he wasn't.
Another back-to-the-past moment happened as I heard of Manny Ramirez hitting homer #500. I can remember driving down to Canton about this time in 1993 to watch the Indians' AA farm club with their next big star, Ramirez. At the time, he reminded me of Hal McRae with his good solid stance and power to right center as a righty. He has that McRae like batting average, having a .312 career mark as we go to press compared to McRae's .290, but I wasn't counting on Cooperstown level homer numbers.
However, the interesting thing that got my attention was the debut of mixed martial arts on prime-time; when I started channel surfing during the Red Wings games, I saw that CBS was running a card of MMA with the highlight being a heavyweight match featuring "YouTube street-fighting phenomenon" Kevin Ferguson, who uses the nom-de-guerre Kimbo Slice. Slice looks like a cross between
Mr. T.'s Clubber Lang from the Rocky movies and one of Worf's DS9 drinking buddies; "It is a good day to bash someone's head in."
Slice is now 3-0, having let the Cauliflower-eared "Colossus" James Thompson take him to three rounds. A journeyman MMAer with a 16-8 record coming in, Thompson almost had him in submission mode, having him pinned and applying elbows to head late in the second round, where Slice was literally saved by the bell. However, Slice proceed to slice open that big right ear of Thompson early in the third with a nasty volley of punches, getting a third-round TKO and leaving the Slice legend tarnished but intact. His first two foes in organized MMA didn't get out of the first round.
MMA seems to hit an interesting spot as a combination of boxing and pro wrestling, but without the fakery (that I know of). With pro wrestling seemingly in decline and more people being able to pick Slice out of a lineup than the heavyweight boxing champ, we might start to see this interesting-but-brutal sport make it to the big time.
It's not good news that it's becoming popular, since it appeals to the lesser angels of our nature. However, it does seem to be a cleaner, less raunchy alternative to the WWE, having legit competition without as much trash-talking or sexual innuendo. It will be interesting to see if the various MMA schools can become mainstream sports or whether they'll merely grab the cable shelf space of wrestling.
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