Power Glove Love

The 12 people that read this know that I am a fan of MMA and have been since UFC 1. I followed the sport when it went ‘underground’ and the internet was the only place to get results. As such you can imagine my excitement when it was announced that CBS was going to cover a live event. Once the card was announced the excitement waned. Come on Elite XC, I understand Kimbo is very popular and he has the magic ‘it’ factor. Articles and interviews about Kimbo in print and video make him very likable. I want him to do well because he could bring huge popularity to the sport. After watching the event I watched the post fight press conference, and even though many of the fights left a sour taste in my mouth and I was very bitter while watching, Kimbo made me laugh. He indeed does have ‘it.’

With that said, Elite XC this is MMA not ultimate boxing. You put a big brawling card together and it did not properly represent the sport. I am a big fan of Robbie Lawler and Scott Smith. They put on exciting fights and are maniac mad dogs in the ring but it is a guarantee the will not willingly go to the ground. The same can be said about all the fighters. This is not a bad thing and you always want fighters who are willing to bring the heat but for the first showing of MMA on prime time network TV why don’t you show how exciting judo can be. For an audience that has never seen this sport before they are now going to think that every fight ends in a KO, a doctor making a decision, or controversy. This was like a live version of UFC Unleashed except the editing was nowhere near the production level of the folks at Zuffa.

I don’t want to get into a fight by fight specifics but as a whole, this was what I thought it could be but what I hoped it wouldn’t become. Lets just pray the rating are better than expected and that Elite XC can get their shit together. Everyone says Dana White is an asshole, but now I can see why he was so adamant on maintaining all the production aspects and using a network purely as the vehicle in which to portray his product.

JGR

josh [at] powerglovelove [dot] com