That is awesome! Love it.

ROFL instant classic.

LOL thats so funny

Sixdemon...I agree with much of your last post.....the small purses, etc. But I can only think of one fight that ever went to a draw (before judges) due to length of time without a finish....the first superfight between Shamrock and Gracie in UFC V. Were there others?

Also, I would disagree that they are completely different. MMA was made to look llke boxing to gain acceptance, and was consciously done so. One good example is gloves. Gloves make the sport MORE dangerous, not less. But public acceptance JUMPED when they mandated the use of gloves....the ignorance of the public at work. They watched the UFC bareknuckles and said,"that's dangerous and barbaric." Put gloves on them and now it's "safer...more like boxing." Right.

I would agree that the sanctioning side of the sport has helped in many ways, but it has hurt in many ways....

I also do not think that in any way are the actual fighting styles/training similar...only the organization and promotion.

Lastly, watch a teaser for the next UFC....I think you'll agree that the UFC promotes the fighters, not the UFC. When was the last time you watched an advertisement that had a guy saying,"Amazing speed, amazing moves, martial arts you can't find elsewhere...the guys most skilled in their craft, etc." No...what you hear is,"Anderson Silva...undefeated in a gazillion fights defends his title against dangerous Damien Maia, etc." I promised you, every ad is about the fighters, not the promotion.

Well, if you think MMA is only the UFC then there haven't been many. Outside the UFC, there have been thousands. If you want a current example, last September at the Art of War in Macau Thailand's Arthit Hanchana completely clowned China's Dai Shuang Hai for 15 minutes, putting on a Muay Thai clinic while his opponent didn't land a single blow or takedown. Since at the time AoW didn't use judges or scoring, the fight was ruled a draw. Predictably this drew raucous boos from the crowd. The reaction was so bad that at their next event they began using judges and a scoring system. Having no judging leads to completely absurd and unsatisfying conclusions, especially in one-sided fights that don't end with KO or Sub. Would you prefer a guy get denied a win bonus after he pistol-whips his opponent for 15 minutes but doesn't manage to finish him off? Or should a title not change hands just because the fight goes the distance?

I think you're also overlooking the vast improvements that fighters have made since the early days of the UFC. Back then guys had no idea how to cross train or develop better cardio, so yes most fights were going to get finished one way or another. Guys who didn't know what jiu-jitsu was were going to get subbed, out-of-shape guys were going to gas, brawlers were going to stand in front of each other and swing like apes until one went down. Fighters have evolved their skills and training to the point that a lot more fights will go the distance now than they did back then, when few people knew what they were doing. This is especially true at the elite levels. In the absence of judging/scoring, what do we do with all these fights that go the distance?



This is a vastly oversimplified view of a pivotal point in MMA's history. Public acceptance most certainly didn't "jump" when gloves were introduced. The process of public acceptance of MMA is still ongoing, and to get where it is now took years of lobbying by passionate and dedicated people (and no, not just Dana White). It's not as if they slapped some small gloves on these guys and people stood up en masse and said "okay, this is safe and perfectly acceptable now because it looks like boxing." People still say it's "dangerous and barbaric" despite it's growing popularity.

And let's look at those gloves. If people really wanted MMA to emulate boxing they probably would not have chosen gloves with less than half of the padding of traditional boxing gloves. We're talking about 4oz gloves that really only cover the knuckles and help prevent broken hands.

The idea that MMA gloves make the sport more dangerous versus bare knuckle is highly debatable and there really isn't a lot of solid data to support any position. All we have at this point is common reasoning and anecdotal evidence. Bearing that in mind, I would say that MMA is not any more dangerous with the 4oz gloves versus bare knuckle. I guess you could say it's a little less dangerous because at least it helps a little bit with hand injuries, but you might also say it allows guys to hit a little harder so it's more dangerous. To me it's a wash, so why not have them to afford a little hand protection and maybe slightly reduce the incidence of cutting?

I think a much stronger case can be made that using no gloves or the 4oz MMA gloves is significantly less dangerous than the larger boxing gloves. The padding in boxing gloves allows fighters to take repeated blows to the head that are delivered with maximum force, resulting in a type of damage that is far more dangerous to the health and safety of the fighters (especially long term) than the type of striking in MMA. I am hoping that we get some long-term data on this in the future. MMA is such a young sport that only time will tell what kind of long term health issues it will present for the athletes.



I'd love to hear some of them, although I'm guessing they'll be greatly outweighed by all the good sanctioning has done for the sport.



Then I will continue to be perplexed by how you can see so many similarities between the organization and promotion of MMA and boxing.



On a superficial level they do promote the fighters, especially in the last few years with the 24-7 style buildup shows. I mean obviously you have to include the name and accomplishments of the fighters in the ads, but that doesn't mean they're being promoted over the brand. If you look a little closer though you'll see that their promotional style is much more similar to the WWF or other pro wrestling companies, not boxing.

First and foremost is the emphasis of the UFC brand over any one fighter's name. Look on any UFC poster and the UFC logo will be as big if not bigger than the main event fighter names. Now go look at a big boxing event poster. Oftentimes you won't even see a promoter name...you'll see the fighters, front and center with huge pictures and names. Now go find a pro wrestling poster - which one does the UFC poster more closely resemble?

Which individual does most of the media promotion of the UFC (radio, TV, print, etc.)? Is it GSP? Couture? Penn? Nope, Dana White. In fact, Dana White has not made any secret of the fact that he believes the promotional brand is the most important thing to promote, not any particular fighter. That's why Brock Lesnar was the biggest joke in the world until he was signed into a contract with the UFC. And oh, that's also why Fedor sucks.

If it's about the fighters and not the brand, why was the last event called "UFC 112: Invincible" and not simply "Silva Vs. Maia"?

I'm not saying that Zuffa doesn't care about fighters, or that they don't do a good job of promoting their brand, but to say it's like boxing is just crazy.

I would bet that a poll of casual fans/laypeople (who still provide the bulk of the revenue stream for MMA and who its continued growth depend on) would reveal that a lot more people know "UFC" "Ultimate Fighting" and "Dana White" than "Anderson Silva" and "Damien Maia." A similar poll related to boxing would probably have the opposite result: more people would know "Oscar De La Hoya" and "Manny Pacquiao" than "Golden Boy Promotions" or "Gary Shaw."

genius.

Looks like its by the same dude who did the run forrest run gif

edit: I see gif has already been posted in thread

That gif is even better than the one with smiling Fedor punching Anderson.