This may be a small rant, but it will definitely include some fact checking on my part. Recently, the mainstream media outlets have begun to sink their teeth into the sport of MMA. We have Sherdog latching on with ESPN, MMAJunkie providing content to Yahoo! Sports, Sports Illustrated has done numerous articles on the sport, and there are various major television networks that all have MMA columnists and press for the mixed martial arts events nowadays. CBS, NBC, Fox, the list goes on and on. What do most of these mainstream media outlets have in common? Fact checking. I'll be the first to admit that I've made a small fact checking mistake before, and who knows, maybe I'll make one in this article, but I will say that the mainstream media has made numerous errors and created this web of humor between the MMA fans that actually keep up with the real news. Let's take a look at the latest Sports Illustrated Article by David Epstein:

Though constantly trying to distance itself from the deflated world of boxing, UFC took a step back toward its combat counterpart Saturday night with Bisping's split decision win over Matt Hamill. Judge Chris Watts scored all three rounds for Hamill, who did the only real damage with his fists in an uneventful fight, but judges Cecil Peoples and Jeff Mullen inexplicably scored the fight 29-28 Bisping. Hamill dominated the first round, had the only takedown and won the boxing in the second. Bisping may have won the final round, but it was close. It's hard to imagine how Hamill did not win at least the first two rounds, which would have given him the fight. The fight was in London, and Bisping, an English native, was cheered heartily when he entered the Octagon to "London Calling" by The Clash. (Hamill entered to "Born in the USA"). When the decision was announced, though, even thousands of homers booed.

This is an absurd statement. I would hardly say that the decision in the Matt Hamill vs. Michael Bisping fight was highway robbery enough to compare it to some of the horribly judged boxing bouts that have occurred in the sport. I will agree that I thought Matt Hamill won the fight, but I must say that I do not think for a second that Matt Hamill decisively won the boxing match during the second round. If you read my latest posting on the fight, the boxing was pretty even. I would even go as far to say that Bisping had more crisp counter punches and landed more effective jabs. Hamill hung on to effectively make the round even in the standup by throwing small quick jabs, but Bisping showed more of a boxing display than Hamill. The reason I scored Hamill winning the fight was due to his takedowns ie. Octagon control and aggression, none of those mentioned in the article by SI. Also, Matt Hamill scored two takedowns during the second round. Yeah, it seems like a very small detail, but you wouldn't see major media outlets making that mistake during a NFL game. I also hate the fact that Epstein insinuates that there may have possibly been a hometown favor in the judging. Chris Watts, the lone UK Judge, scored it 30-27 Matt Hamill and the second round was close enough to really sway the fight either way depending on how the judges looked at it. Give it a rest.

It's time to admit Pride was overrated

Since Zuffa LLC, the owner of UFC, purchased the Pride Fighting Championships in March, MMA enthusiasts have scoffed at the idea that UFC fighters could stand with the best from the Asian league. For starters, the latter enjoyed a larger following among typical sports fans in Asia than UFC did in America, and had among its ranks Fedor Emelianenko, the consensus top fighter in the world. On Saturday, UFC light heavyweight champ Jackson was never in real danger against double-Pride-title holder Henderson. (Note: Though Jackson has extensive Pride experience, I'm counting him with UFC because that's where he has been of late, and was when Zuffa acquired Pride and the UFC/Pride debate heated up). After the fight, Jackson confessed that the only body parts hurting were his knuckles, "from going upside [Henderson's] head." Additionally, Mirko Cro Cop, who was considered the most dangerous striker in the world when he fought in Pride, has looked completely helpless in two straight losses in UFC. That brings me to my next observation...

So, the whole basis of this little blurb is that Epstein considers Quinton "Rampage" Jackson a UFC fighter. Even if we get into this very trivial debate of UFC fighters vs. PRIDE fighters, lumping someone like "Rampage" Jackson in with the UFC fighters is somewhat ridiculous. It's much like lumping Anderson Silva in with PRIDE, you can't really do so because he hasn't been in one organization for more than 4-5 fights each.¹  Rampage has had 17 fights in PRIDE and spent nearly 6 years in the organization. He's fought 3 fights in the UFC in a timespan of 6 months. A PRIDE fighter owns the UFC belt. And then along came another PRIDE fighter with a belt, and two PRIDE fighters fought each other in the UFC championship. Basically, the Light Heavyweight Division is dominated by former PRIDE fighters. "Shogun" Rua, Wanderlei Silva, "Rampage" Jackson, Dan Henderson, and could potentially be more stacked with an addition of Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou. The argument is rather pointless considering they are now all UFC fighters, but if you want to make the argument that PRIDE was better than the UFC because some MMA enthusiasts made the argument, I believe the Light Heavyweight Division is falling under their control. We will know at least within the next 6 months if that is true.

The Cowboys wouldn't practice on a basketball court...

Nor should UFC fighters stick to a conventional, roped boxing ring. Cro Cop hadn't trained in a cage before his UFC fight in April when he was knocked out by Gabriel Gonzaga in the first round. Gonzaga got Cro Cop on the ground, shoved him up against the cage and battered him with elbows. When Cro Cop got up, he was so dizzy he couldn't block a vicious high kick that put the lights out. Cro Cop's Saturday opponent, Kongo, is a striker like Cro Cop, and the bout seemed to be a perfect chance for Cro Cop to stay on his feet, get a win and get his confidence and UFC profile back up. But all Kongo had to do to take the Croatian parliament member out of his game was to shove him up against the cage. Cro Cop could do nothing but clinch and hope to block the flurry of knees when he repeatedly found himself with his back to the fence. Cro Cop supposedly did some cage training before this fight, but it clearly was not enough.

"Crocop supposedly did some cage training before this fight." That's the problem quote in this blurb. Did you even watch the UFC 75 Countdown show or skim any MMA articles leading up to UFC 75. I would think that if you were a writer covering MMA for a major sports publication, that you would actually make an effort to find news and report it correctly. There are stories on the 'Net that refer to Crocop's rigorous training prior to this fight. There are stories out there talking about his new trainers, people he brought in, and the fact that he had a CAGE DELIVERED TO HIS BASEMENT. There is actually no "supposedly" about it. It was mentioned on National television during the Countdown show that he had been training in a cage for quite some time in the space of his own basement. Maybe I am overreacting to such shoddy fact checking, but I think that statement makes it sound as if Crocop was still not taking this fight seriously.

You be the judge. Crocop won the first round, broke a rib, and then was gassed and unaggressive the rest of the fight, Arguably, some feel that the "nut" knees he ate in the groin in the second could potentially have deducted points from Kongo, possibly drawing the matchup. But I thought Crocop looked much better in the cage during the fight than his previous fight. He seemed to have no problems moving around and straying from Kongo. Yeah, he was beaten, but throwing Crocop under a bus and stating that he "supposedly did some cage training" is absurd if all you had to do was Google Search for two seconds and come up with this. That article was on August 10th, and he most likely had it before then. A lot of fighters don't even have a cage to train in, so he actually had a huge edge. Epstein should either give Kongo credit where credit is due or wait until he has more information before writing an article.

Yahoo! isn't much fun 

There are other cases in the media, such as that of Kevin Iole of Yahoo! Sports. Many MMA sites ridicule him for his very "inline with the UFC" articles that seem to be pushing a Dana White agenda more than anything. Choice facts are left out of some articles. Fightlinker has a few of them such as the story regarding Chuck Liddell vs. Wanderlei Silva never materializing. Dana came out and said that Wanderlei pulled out, and Wanderlei came out literally 24 hours later with a video online explaining his side of the story. Wanderlei's side of the story was never in the Iole article, and it makes the case that Iole is sticking to Dana White's story and making Silva look bad. For me, I didn't care so much because I don't read Iole's articles. They are either too plain or basically what I hear from Dana White every time he does a press conference. Normally a fact like that left out wouldn't bother me, but when I hear from fans and critics online sourcing Iole's article and also leaving those facts out or the infamous "Well, Iole didn't say anything about Wanderlei's lame reason, so White must be right.", I tend to cringe at the mainstream media for leaving out small facts like that.

Another great dose of Kevin Iole can be seen here. MMAHQ did the article referring to Iole's column talking about the Georges St. Pierre vs. Josh Koscheck fight. Iole seemed to really fuel the hatred toward St. Pierre, and extended the mental problem that Pierre supposedly has. I guess you were wrong. It was much more an opinion piece than fact, but it was definitely a bit odd.

Suggestions...

All I want to see from the mainstream media these days is some solid reporting with some hard facts about the event. Interviews, reports, and breaking news with actual facts instead of thrown in cracks about fighters. Can you do that? I mean, can you really write an article that doesn't have a completely absurd statement that makes zero sense to anyone who has watched MMA for over 10 years? I will say that most mainstream media articles aren't bad at all, but there is obviously a problem with some of the writers not doing their homework. Don't lump the sites and blogs that do the real work and actually research their topics into your blogosphere and web of poor fact-checking.

An interesting article by Kevin Iole at Yahoo! Sports came out with a few choice quotes that I found unbelievably surprising that somebody would actually say these things to a mainstream media reporter. Now, I'm not a huge fan of Kevin Iole's writing. I wasn't a fan of the St. Pierre articles saying he's pissing everyone off. Kevin, it was a bad headline, and bad choice of words for the article. Koscheck is pissing people off more and more as we get closer and closer to this fight. This latest article has all the proof you need to really hate this guy. Let's take a look at some great quotes by Koscheck:

Koscheck was critical of Hughes' decision to stand and trade punches with St. Pierre. He said, "Matt Hughes is slow, he's a farm boy and he's white. He has no speed and no athletic ability. He's a wrestler. Matt Hughes should just have been trying to take him down, take him down, take him down."

Listen asshole, that's racist. I don't care if you want to sit there and defend it against the "drunken, racist UFC idiot fans" as you stated, but that is a generalization. The statement isn't different than saying "Michael Jordan is a city boy, he's black, he's lazy.". That's racist, my friend. You are making a generalization that blacks are lazy in that statement, and in your statement, you are making a generalization that white farm boys have no speed or athletic ability. If you would have left out the damn sentence "He's white.", there would be no problem, but the sentence has no bearing in the quote other than to make the statement a racist one. But did you stop after that? Hell no, you had to show off your intelligence a bit more.

"I'm racist? Yeah, that's a good one," Koscheck said. "First off, I'm more white than I am black. I was raised white. I'm the darkest (skinned) one in my family.

Alright, so basically you are saying you are white, but.. you are making racially charged statements about white fighters. So, you are saying that you also have no speed and no athletic ability, oh wait..that's right, you aren't a white farm boy. Shut up! This is ridiculous. What is racism, my friend? According to Dictionary.com, racism is "The belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and that a particular race is superior to others.". Hmm, you do believe that his race accounts for a difference in his ability. So yes, it's a racist comment. And your defense is that you are more white than black... WOW!

You want to stop being called a racist in the media, act like Randy Couture, a class act. Or just don't add "He's white." in any of your pre-fight smack talk. I'm all for hyping up a fight, Josh, but cut the damn "white" statements out of your pre-fight interviews. It's ridiculous and you sound like a bigot against white people, which in itself is insane. If you wanted to talk about what Matt Hughes did wrong, all you had to say was he didn't take GSP down. We all know what your gameplan is when you fight GSP, but explaining to media reporters that you are different and that Matt Hughes was a white farm boy who didn't take him down is stupid. Thanks for the laughs, Josh Koscheck.

I was hoping I would never have to hear about Brock Lesnar again after news surfaced that he was dealing with pro wrestling agents after the MMA bout he had with Min Soo Kim on June 2nd at the K-1 Dynamite Show. But.. Brock just couldn't help himself. He popped up in my internet browser claiming all sorts of unimaginable feats that he was going to force onto the MMA community. Lesnar interviewed with MMAWeekly and was stated as wanting to fight MMA now, not pro wrestle. He said that many of the MMA organizations have been "playing games" and that he's tired of it.

We're playing the games, but I'm tired of playing games,” stated Lesnar. “It's time for somebody to make a move. I'm going to go down to the UFC and see what the hell is going on down there.

Well, Lesnar.. here's a little information on what's "going on down there". Basically, we have a huge heavyweight division that would literally manhandle your steroid-ridden size and barebone MMA skills, yet you are still asking for a gigantic contract. Now, I'm assuming you are asking for a big contract. I could be wrong, but considering you are not signed yet by any organization and now you are publicly coming out with ridiculous statements, it's either you are trying to get more hype and money or nobody wants you. I wish it was the latter because I don't think you are worth our time, but I'm sure a lot of organizations want to see you fight again.

Asked if he has talked to UFC President Dana White about his interest in competing in the Octagon, Lesnar answered, "We've spoken. I cannot deny or confirm anything. I'm just telling you this, I'm going to be there Saturday night and I'm looking for a win. I don't care who it is. If I had to fight somebody, I'd like to fight Randy [Couture]. I'll fight [Gabriel] Gonzaga. We'll see what happens."

So, he wants to fight Randy or Gonzaga. Listen Lesnar, if you actually trained, you may have a chance against someone like Couture who runs off pure cardio and has some damn good wrestling skills. Your pure strength may actually beat him, and Gonzaga, until he proves his ju-jitsu is for real, may not stand a chance. But right now, both of these guys would probably destroy you in the ring. I can only see you charging like a bulldog right into a clinch and being outsmarted.

Questioned if the UFC is where he'd like to eventually compete, Lesnar responded, "The UFC, they're the big dogs on the street, obviously. You've got Randy Couture, who he's definitely going to be past his prime here. You've got Fedor [Emelianenko]. There's nobody out there that is unbeatable. Okay? All the media builds Fedor into this great monster. Well, every monster has his day. “There isn't a guy like me walking around that can do the things that I do. These guys, they don't know. Let's put it this way, in college, or everywhere that I've gone, everybody has said that I'm one strong son-of-a-bitch, and that's what I am, and I'm able to back it up. "

Ugh... everyone says I'm one strong son-of-a-bitch, big deal. Everyone says Wanderlei Silva hits like a damn truck, and people say Couture is amazingly strong as well. What difference does it make? I guarantee you that in most of Fedor's fights, mainly against Hammerhouse guys like Coleman, he was outpowered and still managed to easily submit his opponent. Fact is, it's skill that wins these battles. Butterbean got tapped by Minowa. That's a true David vs. Goliath battle. Butterbean didn't know anything about ju-jitsu though. The best line in this entire quote is "All the media builds Fedor into this great monster.". Lesnar, seriously, this isn't the god damn WWE. You don't run around town screaming like you are having a roid rage making up fake subplots. The media doesn't have to build up Fedor. His damn resume speaks for itself.

"I enjoyed watching Randy beat the sh*t out of Tim Sylvia. I enjoyed that. I mean take a look at this guy, Tim Sylvia, the guy’s feet; they're damn near webbed. He looks like the Swamp Thing. The guy is a vulture. He can't wrestle worth a crap. He's got a jab and a little right hand. There's no way. I'd double-leg his a** right through that cage so fast, and that would be the end of the fight. I'm tired. I'm tired of this. Brock Lesnar wants to fight somebody, somebody with credentials, and Tim Sylvia ain't the guy."

To be honest, I'm not a huge fan of Tim Sylvia either, but publicly talking shit about a guy who was UFC Heavyweight Champion is downright rude. Look at Randy Couture, he's an ambassador to the sport, soft-spoken, does great interviews, signs autographs, the works, and is NEVER a jerk to anybody in the media, opponents, or fellow MMA fighters. He's a true sport in every aspect of MMA. But then you have assholes like Brock Lesnar who acts like a little high school girl calling people out and saying they "suck" because he isn't getting what he wants, an MMA contract. Quit being a rude jerkoff. If you want to seriously fight MMA, fight some damn fights and prove you can hang. My guess is that if you ever run into the top guys, somebody like Fedor will literally rip your arm off.

On an ending note, I noticed he stated that nobody has his credentials in MMA. What kind of farce statements is that? Let's look at your credentials, Brock. Hmmm... oh look, you won some shitty fake wrestling championships in Japan. Wow, the IGWP fake WWE of Japan title, just like WWE - video. I'll say this, it takes some incredible physical attributes to do what you do in Pro Wrestling, but it's not MMA. People are really hitting you. I see Lesnar being another Mark Kerr. He may be able to stomp the crap out of a lot of guys, but people are going to start figuring out that hitting you in the face is the way to beat you. I think it'll be quicker than Kerr though. Kerr went for years without dealing with huge competition. I think people will definitely go for the throat on Lesnar right off the bat with heavy hands to his head. Back on point, you have a NCAA championship. So does Josh Koscheck, so what? I would say Mark Coleman has higher credentials as well. He has a NCAA championship, and he placed 7th at the Barcelona Summer Games. It's ridiculous how much non-factual crap comes out of this guy's mouth. Anyways, that's a bit of a rant, but I'm kind of sick of this guy just strutting around staking all these horribly bad claims. I actually want to see Lesnar get a deal. To Dana White, get Lesnar now so someone can shut him up.

Please note that this article is a rant. Yeah, yeah, rants aren't great for factual statements. There are some statements that are that of my own opinions.  It's an opinion piece people, laugh a little.

I woke up this morning to the flurry of new news stories regarding the same garbage we've been fed for the last month. Countless articles regarding Georges St. Pierre's mental state for the fight, Fedor's possible K-1 signing, Brandon Vera finally returns to the UFC, and last but never beaten to death enough, Who will Wanderlei Silva fight next. Let me just get this off my chest from the start... who gives a shit. He's going to fight regardless of the countless fantasy scenarios you're gonna post on the various forums on the Internet and you are going to kill our brain cells. You are going to feed new MMA fans a load of crap that they will believe, and therefore make it even harder for the intelligent fans who actually enjoy watching the sport to talk about MMA. It is cause for many headaches that have been all over the MMA community lately. So, here is our sitdown, our little discussion on edicate for all of you childish fans who like to rip into the forums with utter garbage like "Tim Sylvia just rules, man... he will just own everyone." or my personal favorite "Chuck Liddell could dominate Fedor." It's statements like those that enable the Sherdog-esque forum contributions from kiddies trying to prove to be the tough guys in the MMA community. Ugh, make it stop. Let's go over some rules for posting and trying to converse with actual fans who watch the sport.

Rules to Live By

When you post a comment on a forum or post that regards a matchup or prediction, simply saying "Koscheck rules, he will win." is a waste of your own time. Nobody read that line, they completely skipped the comment as soon as it said "..rules." in it. The person skimming the article noted that it was only 2 small sentences long and completely ignored it. Make an effort to explain WHY you think Koscheck will win the fight. Reference some actual facts. Wikipedia is a great source, and Sherdog has a complete database of fight records for you to look at. These are also great resources for analyzing fight cards. Here's an alternative to the above disgrace for a comment: