Watch Kalib Run

A Fond Farewell

2011-01-15T02:51:06Z

(G'night Folks!)

In the immortal words of Jim Morrison, "this is the end my friend."

There isn't much to say about the ending. I could say it's not you, it's me but I am not sure if you'd believe me. But it really is me. Honest.

In the end I walked away because I couldn't keep writing, producing, editing, photoshoping without a living wage and there was none. It was hard to do but one has to have those small luxuries like being able to buy food and all.

But enough about the why. Let's focus on what happened here instead. I have many fond memories of contributing a small pieces to the MMA blogosphere, even if it was questions like whether or not the Octagon Girls would go to Abu Dhabi (yeah, this guy started that!).

Some personal highlights include witnessing Toby Imada's inverted triangle first hand, seeing Georges St. Pierre defend his title, some first-hand playing time with UFC Undisputed 2010, the brawl in Nashville and the host of interviews with professional media members and fighters a like.

I will always have fond memories of being able to write at WKR and interact with our loyal readers. It was a great pleasure to meet such fine contributors and I treasure the relationships that begun over our mutual love and adoration of mixed martial arts.

Everyone who came here made this possible and for that I am extremely thankful and amazed.

From time-to-time you may be able to read a contribution of mine at some random site though you can always reach me at watchkalibrun [at] gmail [dot] com or the my Twitter account @ZakWMMA if you want to shoot the ****.

Read Cageside Seats to see the latest work by S.C. Michaelson, Kaleb Kelchner, and Derek Suboticki.

In the end it seems only fitting to have the Doors play us out...

Thanks for all your support!

WatchKalibRun is Closing Its Doors -- The Last Post

2011-01-14T23:07:48Z

Yes, you read the title right. The big bosses are closing a couple factories and it looks like a couple MMA sites are out of luck (WKR, Boxing Bulletin). It has been a great run, some laughs. To the WKR community, thanks for reading. I guess that's it, I'm not one for sentiments.

So where will the writers here be headed off to. If you haven't noticed already, I'll let you know.

Kaleb K. - The straight man of the site especially compared to myself. Kalib Kevin Kelchner whose in-depth show reviews were well appreciated will now be writing for CagesideSeats. As you can probably see, he already started and abandoned me long ago. I kid.

Derek Subotecki - I know you're probably saying to yourself "Who?" He's also known as 'sub0". I bet you're still saying "who?" Either way, Sub0 is also at Cageside Seats, as well as his original spot Fightlinker..

Me - That's an interesting question. The plan is to go to CageSide Seats and write there (and that might still happen). I might just go back to BE and fanpost it up, might even bring back the OG name just to keep it thorough. I mean, that's how I got started, so it's not a thing to me. I've also got a couple other interesting proposals that I haven't said yes or no to. A few people told me I should start my own thing. I dunno, I'm kinda lazy. I did have a blog a looooong time ago (I'm talking Kimbo/EliteXC days that had maybe 3 posts and then I got bored [Shout out to the one cute reader reading this that knows what I'm talking bout]). Somebody even suggested that I go write for Bleacher Report (which if you don't know, is the direct competitor to SBNation). Wouldn't that be some sh*t? I dunno. Plus it's tax season, so I'm a little busy and will be on a semi-hiatus, so things are in the air. A restricted free-agent, if you will. Your best bet (if you care) is to follow my Twitter. I'll for sure be commenting over at BloodyElbow and Cageside.

Again, thanks to all the readers.

Wait, wait, you thought it was over?

What a ride this has been. I can honestly say I enjoyed most of the minutes and hours and days and weeks and months I put into this site. I knew this would be some wildness when the first piece I ever wrote had Shane Carwin crying salty tears (tears he STILL cries about to this day on the UG). I tried to tell you Shane, your cardio was suspect. You coulda been the champ.

So yeah, my fanposts over there opened this door and let me be honest, I didn't read WKR before I came here. I skimmed it and had an idea of how things were and that style of blog posting. It's funny because I kind of just jumped into the deep end with no guidance from the owner or feedback. Coming over here I was welcomed with racial trolls, being called a BElitist, and all-in-all hostility from a few "regular posters". I continued to write anyway and eventually the can of Raid got rid of the roaches and they stopped coming around. People cried and cried for Zak to come back (hell, so was I, I was kind of tired of being the only person writing). I was told that this isn't how WKR works. Not a care was given that day.

The SCM/WKR community clash hit an all-time high (or low in some eyes) when metricjulie declared "SC MIchaelson is RUINING WKR" (I ask you read it and then the evisceration in the comments section). She outlined her reasons (they were pretty crappy) and then took to Twitter to play the victim and garner sympathy from others who have been pissing and moaning since day one. Now, instead of discussing things like an adult in the very forum she "called me out in", she decided to take everything I said in response out of context and play up her victim angle on Twitter. It was fine because many saw through her words. The fanpost was rec'd by some folks (mostly the chased away and inconsequential nobodies [actually all, hahaha]), When I saw that intermittent manager of the site Zak Woods himself had endorsed this insipidness, I thought to myself for a half-second "Self, can you believe it? The manager of the site agrees with this nonsense. Maybe she's right. Maybe I should turn in my ~~keys~~ ~~pen badge~~ whatever the hell I should turn in and leave. i mean it's the right thing to do. The RIGHT THING TO DO." Then I thought to myself "F*ck that guy. If people don't like you for who you are, F*CK 'EM. F*ck 'em up against the wall with handcuffs and crazy glue on they eyes and mouth. LOL. I should've slapped myself for thinking that. The whole thing ended up emboldening me. So thanks Jules.

It was funny because the WKR community was turning around. It used to be you couldn't get 10 comments ona post here before. Now we're getting 10 easy on pieces. This isn't a free-for-all troll haven like it was (go to another place for that), so people are more likely to comment. I feel like the community was really built up which is why I'm not too happy with the decision to close. I mean I loved the atmosphere here. We didn't take ourself seriously, but when it was serious news, it was taken seriously by the MMA community at large. It's a site that provides a much different look at MMA than your cookie-cutter "take someone's news and add a couple sentences of opinion to it" site. But oh what a 6 months we've had.

Like I said before, Shane Carwin dislikes me a lot for a variety of reasons, one being the fanpost at BE about his skills before the Lesnar fight and the other being the piece I wrote about his past steroid use. You see, while most, actually let me go ahead and say all in the media chose to ignore the story (as if it was no big issue), I decided it was worth investigating. Yes, I'm tooting my own horn, allow me this. Along with Justin Klein the Fight Lawyer (one of my favorite blogs), we were the only two to actually look at the legal documents and present them to the public. I even broke it down in an easy to understand way the totality of the case. Did anyone pick up on that? Nope. I mean I did the work for you, just REPORT it to a bigger audience. Don't get me started on MMA media and what I've learned in the past 7 months about writing pieces to appease sources. Business is no better than the wrasslin business.

Then I got the opportunity to talk to Malki Kawa (MMA agent) on a variety of subjects. Now, I know people take things that agents say with a grain of salt (as you should), but the bother spent over 2 hours on the phone with me (on one night) as well as another hour the next night. Just the opportunity I appreciated and those were well-received by the public for giving a lot of insight behind the financial game. Then I got the opportunity to bust Chael Sonnen for planting fans in the audience at the Q and A sessions to ask him questions so he could give those rehearsed answers that some people seem to love. That drew me a lot of heat even from my own site and exposed me to the incestuous nature of MMA and the media. Funny how in hindsight that shows the level of sociopathy Chael Sonnen seem to exhibit. Oh, who can forget the Yves Lavigne story where I was wrong but then ended up right that started a big shitstorm. That was fun. I mean, if Yves hadn't been on the radio making similar comments to the ones reported in the allegedly fake article, then I would've felt really bad, but luckily there was a recording of him on the radio making what could be conceived as biased commentary against Koscheck.

Those are just some of the bigger things (I know I'm missing quite a few things), the last 6 months have been filled with highlights, so many I can't even remember them all. I mean for a person who's been writing for such a short time, it's been interesting. Even if this is that last thing I write, I gotta say, I'm quite happy with how it all turned out. And that's real spit.

Debunking the "You're Too Stupid to Understand The Business" Argument

2011-01-13T23:00:56Z

Let's get it straight. The UFC is not a sport. They are a business. I understand that. You should understand that. It's a given. That said, just because moves are made in the best interest of "business", doesn't mean that fans can't be upset with them. Going back to the booking of James Toney as a co-main eventer in the UFC to the controversial racial marketing of Cain Velasquez as a "Mexican" to the potential Lesnar/Mir III trilogy fight, there have been decisions that many questioned for various reasons that were made in the interest of business.

When the James Toney match was made, I was a critic of the match as I felt it would hurt the legitimacy of the sport and make MMA look foolish. I was told that it would generate "great interest" and more eyeballs meant "more buys". Instead of those increased buys, we were witness to a laughingstock of a fight with an old, fat James Toney getting taken down with a shoot Stevie Wonder could've seen. Not to mention, the building wasn't 2/3 full and the buyrate was much worse than predicted. Similar with the Velasquez marketing scheme, I was against it because of the potential divisiveness it would bring in the MMA fanbase and was told that I didn't understand business and it would poach the Latino market from boxing and draw big numbers. Well with a stronger undercard than Lesnar's fight at 116 and a 3-week Primetime build, it failed to match Lesnar's UFC 116 performance.

A couple months ago, there were whispers of a Lesnar/Mir rubber match throughout the MMA community. A number of fans were frankly disappointed with that matchup as it wasn't fresh (the two had just fought less than 17 months ago and fought 15 months before that). A Twitter campaign was started here on WKR to let Dana White know how the fans felt and White decided to rethink his decision. Of course, there were those in the media, like Dave Meltzer, who called those fans idiots who didn't understand the business.

Now, I'm not trying to say that all the decisions that the UFC has made that prioritized business above sport have been negative or bad. That's not true. One big example is giving Brock Lesnar a title shot just 4 fights into his MMA career. I think anyone can see that worked out well for all and brought more fans into MMA making it a bigger sport. Fans understand that the UFC's first goal is making money. That doesn't mean that fans can't have dissenting opinions on UFC moves. That doesn't mean fans are devoid of realizing moves are financially motivated. So it's insulting to fans when promoters, pundits, and people in the media talk down them as if they don't understand what's going on.

Are college football fans idiots because they want a playoff? The way the bowl system is set up is to make the most money. College football is a business interested in making as much money off games as they can. A tournament would be the best thing to decide the best team, but would hurt the bowl system. People in the media have argued for tournaments for years (decades), are they morons for not understanding the business? Should they not make arguments against business decisions? I'd say no.

You can make arguments against decisions while taking into account the business aspects of it and still come out on the other side. That doesn't make you a fool, a moron, an idiot or any other term.

Short and Long Term Business: A Look At Choosing Brock Lesnar As TUF Coach

2011-01-12T19:30:32Z

Yesterday it was announced that Brock Lesnar and Junior Dos Santos would be the coaches for the upcoming season of The Ultimate Fighter and will then meet in a Number 1 Contender's Match sometime after the conclusion of the season. This announcement comes to the chagrin of many due to several factors. One being Brock's reclusive nature and surly disposition with the media and the other being recent reports (spearheaded by Dave Meltzer) that Lesnar was looking for a way out of the fight game (and at the very least wouldn't take a fight of this nature). Other pairings were bandied about the media such as a permutation of Chael Sonnen/Wanderlei Silva/Chris Leben/Brian Stann and, more recently, Frankie Edgar vs Gray Maynard III.

There's no doubt that Brock Lesnar and Junior Dos Santos will do great business in the short term. The UFC's contract with SPIKE expires at the end of this year. Negotiations should be tense as while the UFC set PPV records last year (though avg PPV remained steady), their ratings have gone down (which is SPIKE's concern). The prelims of UFC 125 appearing on ION were a sort of "Hey SPIKE, look what we're doing" maneuver. Unfortunately, the ratings for those prelims weren't the best. It's unknown if the low ratings for the UFC on SPIKE are due to a lack of interest or the UFC's insistence on putting on lackluster cards.

The UFC will be looking for a contract that puts them at more of a focal point on SPIKE as well as paying them well and a commitment to marketing and advertising the UFC as it should be. The UFC will also want more flexibility in terms of putting programs on other networks (cable or broadcast). Well, what is a better piece of leverage than high ratings. The UFC is banking on major ratings when Brock Lesnar makes his return to weekly episodic television since March 8th, 2004 where he drew a 3.8 rating on WWE RAW. The Ultimate Fighter Season 10 averaged around a 2.2 rating and that was the best season by far. If this season can match or eclipse that, it is a feather in the UFC's pocket in terms of negotiations. This move makes great sense in terms of trying to gain great ratings.

The UFC is also looking to draw a great buyrate from the Lesnar/Dos Santos matchup. The UFC believes that a season of TUF will build towards that goal, I agree and disagree. As per the UFC's normal protocol with Lesnar cards recently, this card will be devoid of other name fighters and will thus be dependent on the draw of Lesnar. History has shown that Lesnar is a lock to draw a million PPV buys. The buyrates of his UFC 116 bout with Shane Carwin and his UFC 121 bout with Cain Velasquez, which had the benefit of a UFC Primetime buildup, were similar and neither fighters are considered draws. To draw a million buys with this matchup doesn't need the assistance of a TUF build.

A fight that could use a TUF build is Edgar/Maynard III. Using Edgar and Maynard as coaches would've been a better choice for long-term business. You have two fighters who, a couple weeks ago, no one was excited about who went out and put on an amazing fight. People are interested in a rematch and by proxy interested in those two fighters. The buyrate for UFC 125 was quite low and the rematch, to be honest, won't be doing great numbers either. The lightweight division is devoid of draws and stars, taking a big hit when former champ B.J. Penn moved up in weight, leaving the division.

I'd argue that a season of TUF worth of exposure could build up both fighters as stars (or at least bigger names. Gray Maynard, despite his fighting style, has a good personality that would win him fans. Frankie Edgar is a little bland, but every season can't be Tito/Shamrock. It's obvious that an Edgar/Maynard TUF wouldn't draw nearly the ratings that Lesnar/JDS would, but it's a short-term sacrifice for a potentially long term growth in a division that needs it. I understand the motivations behind the choice and know that it will make the UFC a boatload of cash in the upcoming months. I'm not even saying that Edgar/Maynard would've been a better decision. I am saying, however, that Edgar/Maynard needed TUF more than Lesnar/Dos Santos did.

Even Fox News Ruins Christmas

2011-01-12T04:56:04Z

I dunno how happy Dana White will be with this appearance by Jacob Volkmann. Volkmann talks about pay, amount of fights and his chiropractor business. I mean not to get into politics, but he didn't give one reason why he doesn't like "Obamacare" (which if you use that term, you're stupid) other than he has to "make calls" and "fill out paperwork".

Dana White and the UFC Continue "Make It Rain" Approach to New York Legalization

2011-01-11T20:15:19Z

New York State is one of the few states that still bars Mixed Martial Arts competition left in the United States. Over the past few years it has become a battleground between Zuffa (the UFC) and State Assemblymen Bob Reilly and Sheldon Silver. Both men are opposed to MMA (for a variety of reasons) and have worked to keep it prohibited in the state. Zuffa, on the other hand, has tried one basic strategy -- throw money at the situation. Bill King of the Sports Business Journal describes some of the aspects of their fiduciary fisticuffs

.So begins the latest installment in a push that began late in 2007, when UFC parent company Zuffa paid a well-connected upstate New York firm a $10,000 retainer to lobby on its behalf. Since then it has spent more than $1.5 million on lobbying and public relations campaigns in the state. It also has contributed $165,000 to election campaigns.

The tab for lobbying in New York last year eclipsed $500,000, based on public filings and interviews with UFC executives. Zuffa also contributed $130,000 to political campaigns, including $36,800 to incoming Gov. Andrew Cuomo, $34,000 to Democratic campaign committees, $10,000 to Republican campaign committees and $1,000 to $3,800 to a dozen different influential state senators and assembly members. Zuffa spent $530,000 lobbying in New York in 2009 and $595,000 there in 2008.

Zuffa has been lining the pockets of various politicians as well as paying a lobbying firm to assist them. That isn't the only financial incentive they have been using. Part of their argument stems their belief that the legalization of MMA will bring extra dollars into the New York economy. It has been shown that when Zuffa comes to town, there is an increased in revenue for that city.

However, as I have stated many times in the past, this is the wrong approach. Assemblyman Reilly appeared on Inside MMA and rebuffed this argument in a segment that sent many MMA fans into a tizzy. He rightfully explained that using money as a reason for legalizing something opens you up to a slippery slope. One could make similar arguments for prostitution and dog-fighting. Instead of focusing on his point (which was valid), people went apoplectic over Reilly comparing MMA to prostitution (which he wasn't).

UFC spent about $75,000 lobbying in Indiana in the 18 months leading up to the passage of legislation there in 2009, according to filings in that state. It spent $216,736 in Wisconsin, where lobbyists logged 366 hours with government officials on its behalf leading up to the law's passage last year. To get a bill passed in South Carolina in 2009, UFC spent $46,550 on lobbyists and contributed $4,250 to campaigns, giving $1,000 each to the chair of the committee where the bill originated, the chair of the subcommittee that reported favorably on it, the senate president and the senate majority leader.

While getting your "Pacman" Jones in a strip club on maybe have worked in smaller states, it's not the ideal strategy for a state like New York. I've always been a champion of Education and Public Relation (I've also suggested altering the presentation slightly in the UFC, but I'm extremely doubtful that will happen). Educate the population about the sport, let them know that it is no more dangerous than football or boxing. Throw money at research centers to fund studies on the "dangers" of MMA and use these findings to counteract the preconceived notions held by a majority of the uneducated public. Educate them on history and how MMA has been going on, in one form or another, since pankration.

There was an MMA Expo in NYC that most MMA fans didn't hear about. If the UFC had participated in that and helped promote it, it could've done bigger numbers than it did. Or, since the UFC doesn't like to share the headline, I've suggested in the past that they have their own event. A UFC Expo in New York City with grappling exhibitions and basically the same thing they had in Vegas and Boston, but just in NYC and not tied to a PPV. And while people are packed in, hand out some material with the names of the local politicians and tell the fans to contact them.

Now, that's not to say that the UFC hasn't been trying to get the fans involved.

Lobbying is the top-down piece of the UFC's legislative equation. There's also a piece that works from the bottom up. Since 2008, Zuffa has employed Global Strategy Group to design and manage a campaign to mobilize MMA fans to push for legislation. Zuffa paid Global $35,000 a month in 2008 and the first half of 2009, and $22,500 a month since then to build a grassroots campaign and drum up conversation online and in the media. The website it created and manages is packed with information that argues for sanctioning. It also offers easy ways for fans to e-mail legislators and craft letters to their local newspapers.

Now, I don't know exactly what that means by grassroots and "drum up conversation online and in the media" (I have my theories), but has anyone seen this website "packed with information"? If it exists, why isn't it promoted on UFC broadcasts?

So why the history and lesson on political machinations? Because the UFC has set up a press conference for Thursday, January 13 in New York City to announce their plan to bring MMA to Madison Square Garden and to also "release a new economic impact study" detailing "the economic benefits of regulating MMA in New York State". Yes, you guessed it, the "we bring money" argument. Also coincidentally, UFC 128 tickets go on sale in Newark, NJ just miles away. Well, you know that is no coincidence. Expect the rhetoric "look at the money Jersey is making" or "you don't want to have to go to Jersey to see MMA, do ya?" as well as Frankie Edgar talking about how as a Jersey boy, he always dreamed of fighting in Madison Square Garden.

While this is a new twist, it still essentially boils down to the same strategy of money which hasn't worked in the past few years. Perhaps the UFC should consult with Greg Jackson and see if he can cook up a better gameplan.

"Why's he grabbing his shoulder like that? Is there a bug?"

2011-01-11T00:41:59Z

"Why's he grabbing his shoulder like that? Is there a bug?"

Writer's Nitpicking Comments About Strikeforce Commentator Pat Miletich Epitome Of Media's Attitude Towards Strikeforce

2011-01-10T23:04:50Z

An interesting little quarrel over the weekend between former UFC Welterweight Champion and current Strikeforce commentator Pat Miletich and writer Michael David Smith sparked up over the weekend. Smith wrote an article following Friday's Strikeforce Challengers card entitled "Pat Miletich Should Tone Down the Shilling on Showtime" in which he criticized Miletich for some of the comments he made during the broadcast.

Not to get into specifics of his complaints (you can read it at your own leisure), but the gist of them were that Miletich embellished and played up opinions of fighters. Mind you, the card was full of Strikeforce's prospects like Daniel Cormier, Ovince Saint Preux and Tyron Woodley who are, by and large, unknown to the general public. He also criticized Miletich for "resorting to cliches" during his call of the fight.

Now, I am not an etymologist, but I know that Strikeforce is a promotion. The base word of that is "promote". This means Strikeforce is in the business of promoting. With that business comes exaggeration and hyperbole, even in commentating. Showtime is in a business relationship with Strikeforce to PROMOTE their brand of MMA. You can't compare MMA to other sports and I'll tell you why. Two reasons. The first is that MMA is not an established sport and has various companies trying to grab a piece of the market place. Commentators don't need to spice up the skills of the NFL players because it's understood that they are the best in the world. Strikeforce (and other MMA orgs in general) are competing to establish their brand in the greater mainstream of the US.

The second is that if you ever watch a hometown feed of a basketball game or a football game where the commentators are quite biased. Just because Miletich and the rest are hired by Showtime, that doesn't mean that they aren't going to pump up the product. Showtime has a vested interest in building the Strikeforce brand and as long as he isn't hurting the credibility of the product, there's nothing wrong with some fluffing. To be quite honest, the complaints Smith had were pedestrian and nitpicking as the things Miletich said were not that outlandish. Saying that Woodley is rising to be one of the best fighters, is that truly that big of an embellishment?

"The baddest man on the planet". We heard that ad nauseum in regards to former Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar. So I searched Mr. Smith's archives to find his articles chiding Mike Goldberg and Joe Rogan for their outlandish exaggerations and cliches. If I see another Black fighter called "explosive" and a "pure athlete", I'm going to be sick. And then I thought about how many fighters had "K-1 Level striking" or the many other cliches I've heard during UFC broadcasts. I did not find that article. And it made me think.

It's a pattern across all types of MMA media in which Strikeforce (the UFC's closest competitor) is criticized to a point where it seems as if they can do no right and yet when these same issues pop up in the UFC, you can barely hear a word. I hate to pick on Mr. Smith, but since I was perusing his articles, I read an article called "With Matchmaking, UFC Plays Chess While Others Play Checkers" in which he roundly criticizes Strikeforce for its poor matchmaking abilities and the inability to have forethought in their planning while at the same time praising the UFC for thinking two or three moves ahead. Now, 2010 was a bad year for Strikeforce in a few ways, so some of his criticisms are valid. However, using the UFC's title shot-making model is silly at best. Not to make this article a referendum on Joe Silva, but even a cursory glance at, well, every UFC title in the past couple years can see title shots promised, earned, taken away, number one contenders being held up for months or near a year for the fight, lackluster performances leading to title shots, "instant" rematches, interim titles, etc. Not necessarily chess being played their either. More like a game of Operation.

So, when Strikeforce announced their Heavyweight Tournament which basically laid out Strikeforce's booking plans for the next 3 title shots and the better part of 2011, one would've thought Mr. Smith would applaud them for their efforts. Yet, his article about the tournament was filled with conjecture and speculation basically doubting if said tournament would take place. Not to pick on Mr. Smith as he was not alone. He was joined by pretty much everyone in the media who basically derided the tournament and offered the opinion that it wouldn't take place. It was rare to see someone write about the tournament as something positive and potentially exciting to see. I mean, it has 4 of the top ten fighters in the world on 1 side and 4 of the top 25 heavyweights on the other side. We are, at the very least, guaranteed Fedor vs Silva and Werdum vs Overeem. It's rare, actually unseen before in recent MMA history, to see the next three title shots of a major promotions lined out.

I've read more editorial articles skeptically and critically written about the tournament written n the past week than I have seen in the past month in regards to Chael Sonnen's failed test, appearance in front of the CSAC, guilty plea for money laundering and suspension from the UFC by "major" MMA media. The media who basically ignored the Shane Carwin steroid story which Ariel Helwani called the most underreported MMA story of the year can find it in their hearts to criticize the smaller promotion. I wrote about that Strikeforce card on December 4th that went head up with a UFC live card and smoked it with exciting fights and the feeling that fans (and some media) were seemingly upset that Strikeforce has the better card.

Now, I'm not going to use Mr. Smith's words and call anyone in the media a "shill" or suggest in this article that there are writers with a financial incentive to gloss over negative Zuffa stories and attack other promotions. All I am doing is saying that I've noticed that big MMA media tends to nitpick at some promotions while not doing in kind with the others. If you look at what the media chooses (and chooses not) to cover, you might recognize the same patterns. This is not to say that Strikeforce (or Bellator or MFC, etc) are not to be criticized. In fact, I have criticized those promotions myself. However, it is a case of "what's good for the goose is good for the gander". If you're going to run through some with a fine-toothed comb, then run through all.

Writer's article on Milietich

Poll

Is there a bias in the MMA media?

Yes

147 votes

No

22 votes

169 votes | Poll has closed