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9:22 am
August 28, 2010
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Fear is the MindKiller
| | Clearfield, Utah | |
|  Official Member | posts 94 |  
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via Cagepotato.com
"Sunday morning, you wake up. Splitting hangover headache. You roll
over and nausea sweeps through your body. You will yourself not to puke.
“Where am I,” you think, “and who is this fat chick?” The night before
is a total blur. There are significant gaps. You remember being at the
bar, yelling unintelligible shit at a TV. Some guy you don’t know kept
buying you shots. You might’ve left a bunch of voicemails for that girl
you like. After that you must – wait — then it hits you. Holy fucking
shit. Randy Couture LOST to James Toney last night.
Scary though, huh? Consider the above paragraph a kind
of public service announcement. Some don’t-let-this-happen-to-you type stuff . Here at The Potato we are nothing if not realists. We believe
wholeheartedly in expecting the best while preparing for the worst, or
whatever the terrible cliché says we ought to do. For that reason, it’s
probably a good idea that we all spend a few minutes considering the
possibility that Toney might actually beat Couture at tonight’s UFC 118.
You know, just in case. It won’t be easy, but we can get through this
together.
First, if you are unlucky enough actually have friends who like
boxing – if you do, bravo, your friend group is more diverse than mine –
and assuming you haven’t lost it in the drunken aftermath, do not turn
your phone off. It’s imperative we don’t let these people see us sweat.
Keep in mind what would’ve happened if Couture had won. Boxing people
would’ve shrugged it off with a mumbling denial about how “Toney was
washed-up anyway” and then gone back to reading their newspapers or
making calls on their landline phones or whatever else these
past-worshipers do.
In the interest of keeping up a united front, it’s best that we come
up with a cover story right now. We’re going to use the boxing people’s
own arguments against them, got it? Practice saying it with me:
“Couture is old, man. Dude is 46. Of course he lost. Let’s see Toney fight ‘Shogun,’ then we’ll talk.”
There, that wasn’t so bad.
Secondly, let’s go ahead and stay off the internet for a few days.
You know the one guy who picked Toney to win this fight is going to
author some kind of “I-told-you-so” blog and that’s just going to make
us fly into a rage. And the message boards? Let’s not do that to
ourselves. The good news is, it’s only a couple of weeks until the next
UFC event, so people will essentially have no choice but to move on
soon.
Also, know in advance that you’re going to hear a lot of stupid
people say a lot of stupid things over the next days or weeks. Some of
these people will be on television. Don’t think for one minute you’re
going to get out of this mess without the Tony Kornheisers and Jay
Mariottis of the world sputtering at top volume about how Couture’s loss
means something significant about MMA's future. Michael Wilbon might
even take this opportunity to yell the name “Rampage Jackson!” over and
over, which is always his rhetorical strategy when MMA comes up. Ignore
these men. These men are cowards, Donny. At the very least, they’re men
who don’t know anything about mixed martial arts or, for that matter,
boxing.
Essentially, it boils down to this: If Randy loses to James Toney
tonight, it won’t matter. It doesn’t mean anything. It’s just two old
guys fighting in a cage. Nothing more. So, keep your chin up, little
fella. Take an aspirin. Get some sleep. You’ll feel better by Sunday
afternoon. I mean, at least about the fight. The fat chick, well, we
can’t help you with that."
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10:27 am
August 28, 2010
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naturalbornfighter1
| | Glasgow, Scotland | |
|  Post Leader | posts 633 |
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That was a great article buddy! Thanks for posting it. I really fear for Randy losing. I believe in the boxing world that this will be the one event that will ALWAYS be used to prove the superiority over MMA if Toney wins.
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12:42 pm
August 28, 2010
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Dickey
| | Nebraska | |
|  Post Chaser | posts 207 |
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Entertaining post! I have a lot of respect for boxing, but I make my home in MMA. I think, whatever way it goes, I'll shrug it off and say good fight. I just would prefer to see Toney get it because he's so arrogant. I also agree with naturalborn
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10:37 am
August 29, 2010
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Dickey
| | Nebraska | |
| Post Chaser | posts 207 |
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Woo! Everyone can take a deep breath now. Couture fought a very intelligent and to-the-point fight. He didn't toy with Toney, he simply went out, took him down, gave him a quick lesson in MMA ground n pound, and tapped him out. Simple and easy. Toney got showed what Mixed Martial Arts is about, and Randy regained his "hero of MMA" status. Great fight Randy, good try Toney.
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3:43 am
August 30, 2010
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naturalbornfighter1
| | Glasgow, Scotland | |
| Post Leader | posts 633 |
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Phew! Im glad too buddy! He executed the game plan perfectly. He made it look so easy it kinda makes me wonder what I was concerned about. It was excellent for a number of reasons.
Randy proved that you need a full tool kit rather than just a hammer. If you're going to tighten some screws a hammer won't help you too much. Boxing is only one component of MMA.
I LOVE the way Randy and Dana White reacted to the fight. They both acted with class. I can Imagine a Michael Bisping or Brock Lesnar type of character reacting after the fight once they won – "Go back to Boxing" or even worse along those lines. Randy and Dana both praised Toney for being courageous enough to step up to the plate to defend his sport. Randy Respectfully declined the offer of a pro boxing match against Toney citing the reason that it would prove nothing as they are different sports with different rules and that Toney would KO him in the first round.
After all of the trash talk and carrying around a doll of Couture in a dress Toney could have been humiliated by White and Couture but they praised him instead. They brought a new level of respect to the sport of MMA inside and outside of the cage.
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7:07 am
August 30, 2010
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Dickey
| | Nebraska | |
| Post Chaser | posts 207 |
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Yesterday I had a lazy day and just lounged, so I decided to check out some of the message boards and they are full of hardcore boxing fans saying Randy's a pussy for taking him down and "dry humping" him, and that MMA is dishonorable and boxing has more history and is a "real man's sport." One boxing fan said that MMA will never be an Olympic sport because of the fact that they take it to the ground. I jumped into the argument, I don't know why, and came back with how the term "MMA" may be new, but you can trace organized fighting (ground and all) back to the ancient Roman Olympics with a sport called Pankration, which was practically MMA, ground fighting and all, and was one of the highlights of the Olympics. Also, I said if taking it to the ground is dishonorabe, why is wrestling an Olympic sport? Also, stand up fighting was never organized till about 300 years ago. He never replied.
Unfortunately, there was a lot of "fighters" calling boxing a "pillow fight" and full of pussies. I tried to put up a respectable argument, that's how I always try to be, and I grew up on boxing and love the sport. I've really had nobody intelligent argue with me. Good sign I suppose.
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4:44 pm
August 30, 2010
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naturalbornfighter1
| | Glasgow, Scotland | |
| Post Leader | posts 633 |
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Well done for setting the record straight with them buddy!  I can see why they get so defensive. If Toney had ko'd Randy then I'd have tried to defend MMA too. I think the way they are defending it however is very juvenile.
I went on to a news portal on sunday morning. On the MMA portal it was all Couture beats Toney or Edgar beats Penn stories the whole way down the page, I then went on to the boxing section where there was only one Boxing website covering the story, The day before it was littered with Toney-Couture headlines.
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8:38 am
August 31, 2010
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Dickey
| | Nebraska | |
| Post Chaser | posts 207 |
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Yea, thanks man, and to be honest, as my closing statement in the argument I stated that, "Put a straight up boxer in a cage, the odds are against him. Put a true MMA fighter in a ring, the odds are against him. They are two different sports." I mean sure MMA is much more dynamic and true-to-life, but Boxing is also a combat sport in it's own right. They just don't mix. True, correct boxing technique doesn't apply all that much in MMA because of the prumb, kicks, takedowns, and ground game. On the other hand, true, correct MMA technique isn't effective in boxing because it has a wider scope and can leave some gaps for boxing-only techniques. I think the debate is kind of dumb. It's like comparing proffesional rowing to white-water rafting, each's technique is not really effective in the other's situation.
Also, to be completley truthful, Toney was far past his prime and wasn't the greatest representative for boxing. He was at his best back in the mid 90s when he was at middleweight. Not heavyweight ten years later. Maybe Mayweather vs St. Pierre or Klitschko vs Lesnar (Both boxers with legitimate grappling training before fight).
I would like to see an MMA rep jump into the ring. It may have happened and I haven't heard of it, but it would be interesting to turn the tables. I know Andrei Arlovski was thinking about moving to boxing and I know of many MMA fighters who were previously accomplished pro boxers.
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10:24 pm
September 1, 2010
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Dickey
| | Nebraska | |
| Post Chaser | posts 207 |
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Need your guys's opinion here. I found myself in a debate today defending MMA.
The other guy's argument was that ground striking is the reason it will never be
Olympic because striking an opponent while he is on the ground is
disrespectful.
My argument was that ground striking is simply another way to work for a victory, by getting in an advantaged position, then going to work.
He said that it is dishonorable because the opponent cannot strike back effectively, making it unfair. Also, speaking of unfair, that MMA's weight classes leave too much of a gap and boxing's "light" and "super" tag on each core class makes the bouts more fair.
In retaliation, I said that if striking an opponent when he/she cannot strike back effectively is dishonorable and wrong, then all boxers must strike within the shorter one's reach, so they can always strike back, and one boxer cannot be caught in the corner, because they won't have a fair chance to move and circle. Therefore, a boxing match will always be fair. As far as the weight classes, I said that the diversity makes the smaller fighter (or bigger) have to employ some intelligence in the sport and learn to adapt, not to make it unfair. If boxers are so worried about being a fair fight, why do they not create height/reach classes, too? Or style classes? I've seen many bouts won and lost because of the height, reach, or style of one boxer stopping and being effectively used against the other, in a way that he could define as "unfair."
After some more name calling and personal shots on his part and my quietly observing his useless rants and aggressiveness, he said that MMA is all just punks and brutes trying to prove themselves and hurt others. Nothing more.
Again, I contradicted him to the point where he had no further argument by saying that there is a major difference between 'mixed martial artists' and 'MMA fighters.' MMA fighters go into the cage/ring looking to kick someone's teeth in and say they're the best. Mixed martial artists not only compete, but study, learn, respect, and love the sport. We train in it to learn different ways to express ourselves. It is mixed martial ARTS, not FIGHTING. Sure, that's the name used, but true martial artists do not need to prove that they are the best, they express themselves through their bodies and actions. Popular MMA media, like UFC, WEC, and Strikeforce have given the wrong idea of it and turned it into a vicious, testosterone-filled bloodbath in order to get viewers. Don't get me wrong, I love a good, tough fight; but I do not watch it to see the wicked knockout or the gushing cut. When I watch a fight, I pick apart the techiques, critique it to the best of my ability, put myself in one of the guys places, learn from it. That's the difference between Mixed Martial Arts and Fighting.
Any comments on this? Was it at least a decent attempt to intelligently defend MMA? I have no idea why lately I've been finding myself in these debates, but I try to handle myself smartly and be conservative and respectful in my argument. I really had no reason to post this besides that it's late at night and I felt the urge to post on here. Good night everyone!
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3:40 am
September 2, 2010
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naturalbornfighter1
| | Glasgow, Scotland | |
| Post Leader | posts 633 |
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Sounds like you put up a pretty strong case, well done buddy! You might want to add that striking on the ground can be done from the back too. I remember Joe Riggs landing a devastating elbow from the bottom as his opponent was trying to ground and pound him.
Striking on the ground is also part of the chess match as one fighter has created a dominant position and is proving it by working the striking game. On the opponent's side of the equation he must find a way to block/ smother/ divert the blows, escape the dominant position and work to a better position. If he can't then he has lost the battle, if he can then the contest continues. It is merely a way to assert superiority.
With the weight divisions you could argue that the 6/7lbs weight differences in boxing is fairer but maybe a bit too extreme as there are so many three weight world champions, a few four weight world champions then you have guys like Floyd Mayweather, Manny Paquiao, Oscar De La Hoya, Tommy 'the Hitman' Hearns and 'Sugar' Ray Leonard who can all stake a claim in winning 'world' titles in five to seven weight divisions.
I believe Tommy Hearns had a 7 inch reach advantage over Sugar Ray Leonard when they fought.
One of the many reasons Boxing is dying is the amount of weight divisions that create 17 or so world champions which people lose track of because there are so many. If they counter you're argument with a correct number of weight divisions you can counter them back with 'sorry I lost track because there's so many' heehee.
For your reach argument I believe Tommy Hearns had a 7 inch reach advantage over Sugar Ray Leonard when they fought.
Many fighters In MMA have successfully campaigned at multiple weight classes such as Randy Couture and BJ Penn and many have fought above their natural weight class successfully such as Frankie Edgar, Anderson Silva and Jens Pulver.
"After some more name calling and personal shots on his part and my quietly observing his useless rants and aggressiveness, he said that MMA is all just punks and brutes trying to prove themselves and hurt others. Nothing more."
To this argument I would have retaliated with this – Many people say the same thing about boxing but I wouldn't as that is stereotyping and coming from a completely uneducated standpoint.
Keep fighting the good fight buddy!!!!!
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