NSAC...as Spike Lee Says...Do the Right Thing

GSP is a better fighter than BJ Penn.

If they fought 100 times GSP would win 95 of those fights. He is bigger, stronger, quicker and has much better cardio. That fact is not sitting well with BJ "The Prodigy" Penn. So upset was BJ that he latched on to a lapse in judgment by GSPs corner and rode it all the way to a formal complaint.

While I will agree that there is some good that can come from this...Vaseline needs to be handled with more care...the fact that GSP would have won that fight regardless needs to rise above everything else.

Keith Kizer and the rest of the NSAC need to put a procedure in place to avoid this from happening again but they should not overturn the victory or fine or suspend GSP. To do so would validate the ego-centric rants of the king of all Sore Losers = BJ PENN.

GSP > BJ

Rember the name...Jon "Bones" Jones

UFC 97 Redemption Official Fight card

Monteal, Quebec Canada...home of Strip Clubs, the Tri Star Gym, Lots of Snow and about once a year...the greatest fighters on the planet earth. The UFC returns to Canada for "UFC 97: Redemption,"

For the Main Event of the evening...One of the greatest fighters at any weight, Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva squares off against fellow Brazilian Thales Leites. If the "Spider" wins it will be his 9th victory in a row with the UFC...a new record. If he loses then we wil have a new MW champ and Silva will lose a little of that God-Like shine he carries around.

With 11 other fights, UFC 97 sold-out in less than one week...just like the UFCs last trip to Canada (UFC 83) where the organization's all-time attendance (21,390) and live gate ($5.1 million) records were set.

The Card is not bad:

MAIN CARD (televised)

• Middleweight champ Anderson Silva vs. Thales Leites
• Chuck Liddell vs. Mauricio "Shogun" Rua
• Krzysztof Soszynski vs. Brian Stann
• Cheick Kongo vs. Antoni Hardonk
• Luis Cane vs. Steve Cantwell

PRELIMINARY CARD (un-televised)

• Mike Ciesnolevicz vs. Eliot Marshall
• Xavier Foupa-Pokam vs. Denis Kang
• Jason MacDonald vs. Nate Quarry
• Ed Herman vs. David Loiseau
• David Bielkheden vs. Mark Bocek
• Ryo Chonan vs. T.J. Grant
• Sam Stout vs. Matt Wiman

Not really sure why Kang v. Foupa-Pokam is on the prelim card and Soszynski vs. Brian Stann is on the main card. I am sure that the almighty Dana has his reasons.

I always love to watch Silva fight...a true artist. I don't know how many more cans they are going to throw at Congo before giving him a shot for a shot...love to see him vs. Carwin or CV. I really hope that Liddel beats the snot out of Shogun. Primarily because I like Chuck and want him to be relevant for a few more years...the clock is ticking FAST. Also because I love to see ex-pride guys get dismantled...Kang, Soku, Shogun, CroCop....WEAK performances in the Octagon. Shogun BARELY beat coleman and looked like ass doing it.

I love this shit.

MMA needs Nick Diaz

Reported by MMAJUNKIE.COM

While Diaz responded that he was planning on fighting regardless, he later told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) that he took exception to Shamrock's address of his personal choices. "I don't really give a rat's ass (if Shamrock doesn't approve of me using marijuana)," Diaz said. "So does Michael Phelps. He's an eight-time [expletive] world champion Olympian, the best Olympic champion of all time. That's a little incentive to get with the program, don't you think?

I love it...Diaz urging everyone to "get with the program" and start smoking weed....so we all win gold medals?

I don't care what anyone says...Nick Diaz is good for MMA.

When authenticy outweighs intelligence

Jeff "Snowman" Monson is for real.

There are millions of fake people in the world. Jeff Monson is not one of them.

He had an arrest warrant with his name for allegedly spray painting an Anarchy sign on the Washington State Capital building. Typically you would try to avoid anyone seeing you do this...not Monson. Monson is Atypical.

Monson decided to deface government property while having an ESPN photographer snap away. No Joke. Not surprisingly EPSN published the shot and the detectives had the break they needed for a warrant. Keep in mind...it's not like he's holding less than an ounce in Massachusetts...he could face up to 10 Years at ass rape camp and a $20,000 fine. Not to mention an additional $19,000 for the cost of clean up.

The man has beliefs and he is willing to suffer the consequences for his method of communicating that belief. Either that or he didn't think it through to the point of realizing that he would get caught.

Idiot or Radical?

My vote is Radical. If you disagree and think that he is an idiot then I suggest that you let him know exactly how you feel.

Why I care, the Final Chapter

I have discovered and am now a completely devoted fan of a sport that consistently delivers everything that is primal about enjoying sports. Clarity of a victor…physical struggle, skill, hard work, rivalry, honesty…purity. Emotion. It makes me care and I’m down with that.

It makes me care like I care about the Red Sox, no Joke. This coming from a Life long fan that has been to 19 of the last 20 opening days (only missing one when my son was born). With the Sox, as a fan, I have been crushed and elated and pissed and proud and crushed. Make no mistake…it’s all good. You need to feel the “Crushed” or it is impossible to feel the “Elated”.

Imagine taking all the sporting contests in the world and shooting them all through the type of filter that they use to get salt out of ocean water (a very strong one) and after all the excess crap was filtered out what you had left was the purest elements of sport on the planet.

I have seen the product of such a process and it is Mixed Martial Arts.

and THAT is why I care.

Why I care Part IV

At the core of every sporting event is emotion.

The avalanche of this reality has had me subconsciously seeking a higher purity of sporting competition. I was on a quest for that elusive raw emotion that has been delivered so many times in the past yet can’t be forced into appearing on demand.

It’s the reason why we love rivalries…because they are highly effectively at conjuring up the potent, brilliantly raw emotion of sport.
Red Sox / Yankees is one of the best examples…every game gets better because the story-line continues to grow.

More blatantly…rivalries are so prolific in this arena because they are the result of mixing competition with history.

Why do I care Part III

Think of your favorite sports team…any sport.

Ok, good. So, think about a time when that team wasn’t playing well.
Examples: The New York Yankees in the 80’s, The Oakland Raiders the last 5 years, The 76 Tampa Bay Bucs…you get the idea.

Can you feel it? It’s so bad that you want to avoid Sports Center as to avoid any coverage of their poor play. Well…you would probably still watch it but you would turn away at the first mention of your ailing club.

The Embarrassment, Empty blackness, Thick Morose, complete and utter hopelessness…that may be a bit overboard.

Amazingly, most can remember having that feeling at some point…Now think of a time where that same team lost an extremely important game…maybe even after they were winning.

Ok, hold that feeling. Good.

The pain, it gets sharper…it lingers. Truly heartbreaking. Depressing. All true sports fans know of the pain of which I speak.

Now think of a time where your team was on top of the world. i.e. The 2004 Boston Red Sox, The Jordan era Chicago Bulls and The New England Patriots since 2000. Feels good, no?

Why do I care. Part II

Relatively speaking, this Sport is as Pure as it gets if you are looking for competition. In the age of Baseball Steroids, NFL convicts and NBA brats...MMA (in it's current form) is a true contest that taps into the core of every Mammal walking erect with opposable thumbs.

One on One. Are you confident in your own ability to engage with and subdue another human? There is no place to hide. There are no teammates to take the blame. You must stand alone and you must compete.

If there is an absence of purity...you may be entertained but you will not be moved with emotion. RE: Harlem Globetrotters. No emotion = No one really cares. That's what most guys on the couch with a beer really hate to admit, the reason why they love sports is because it's emotional.

Why do I care. Part I

For the cognizant portion of my 38 years on this planet...I have been a huge sports fan. More specifically; a fan of competition. I can watch and enjoy any sport at any level, as long as the competition is real. However, over the past 5 years my passion for watching and analyzing MMA has been unparalleled and unrivaled. I am an absolute 100% fight freak.

Why? Why do I care so much? Why do I, a Vice President of a Marketing company with a wife and 2 kids, endlessly surf the web for the latest news on MMA...even if it's that a 3rd rate fighter in a lower rung organization has a hang-nail...I need to know. Why? The answer is simple: Purity of competition.

The most important question for all of MMA LAND...

...is can the growth trend continue?” I can tell you right now that I do not know the answer. However, I know that if the answer is yes then MMA will eventually be one of the most popular sports in the world. “Socceresque”, global popularity.

However, if the fan base does not continue to grow the sport will eventually end up the very same way it started; an underground cult.

For anyone who is thinking of that scenario as a good thing, you are sorely mistaken and foolish.

If the new fans simply dry up it would start a chain reaction of economies that would result in a sad shell of a formerly great and promising sport. As fast as this sport soared in popularity…it could decline twice as fast.

In the immortal words of Christopher Cross circa 1981 “I know it’s crazy, but it’s true”. The quality of MMA as a sport has a direct correlation with the quality of athletes. This should not be surprising to anyone as that equation would hold true in any sport. The point is that the best athletes are (at least in part) fighting for the money.

You can try and kid yourself that there are fighters that “don’t do it for the money” that notion is truly false. Name one that would continue to fight…long term…for free. It simply could not happen…life is not free. Therefore the higher the prize the better the athlete. George St. Pierre is a perfect example of a guy who could have played any sport and played it well…an unreal athlete…and has chosen to fight.

No new fans = No new deals with Sponsors
No new deals with Sponsors =

Without continued fan growth, MMAs