The weekend in sports showed a great deal about what’s right and wrong with sports today. Let’s take a peek.
You don’t need me to tell you how hot MMA is today. The hard-core fans know all the nuances of different fighters and can debate ad nauseum’s whose background and techniques make for the better fighter. As a general sports fan, I dip my toe in when a personality or story pulls me in. CBS and EliteX brought that Saturday night with the Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson v James Thompson bout headlining the first prime time network airing of MMA. I joined in with the Robbie Lawler-Scott Smith bout, which was becoming a terrific fight until Lawler accidentally poked Smith in the eye. Smith seemed to be trying to get his eye cleared when the physician called the fight, leading to alot of chaos and frustration on both fighters. What was supposed to be the typical powderpuff type of fight for an upcoming fight turned into an embarassment for everyone involved. Thompson dominated Kimbo for much of the bout, turning the streetballing legend into a Greco-Roman what-not-to-do instructional video. Kimbo finally landed a couple of blows in the 3rd/last round, popping this huge cauliflower appendage that used to be an ear on Thompson’s head. After a few more headshots that Thompson was weathering, the ref stopped the fight. Thompson was flabbergasted (these guys are supposed to basically fight until someone submits, right?), and Kimbo almost passed out on the canvas and during the interviews immediately following in the ring.
Mission accomplished for MMA and CBS, as MMA Junkie reports this morning great initial ratings for the telecast even without the Kimbo-Thompson fight (which started after 11:00 EST). But on a night that should have been a terrific introduction to MMA, the sport fell flat for the casual newbie. The announcers overhyped and were so intrinsically tied to the success of the episode, had difficulty for blunt commentary. None of the three could state that Thompson won the first two rounds (when even I could figure that out), nor could they come out and say that he needed a knockout or miracle to keep the Kimbo locomotive surging along. It came off like the WWF, exactly what MMA is not. And I don’t think this was Kimbo’s fault as he seemed quite clear that he was working very hard trying to figure out this MMA thing. No, the whole thing was just a bit off (including the MMA version of the University of Georgia paying the Citadel $500k to travel to Athens and get beat up, which is basically what Gina Carano did when she had to give Kaitlin Young 12.5% of her pay when she couldn’t make weight). That this came from a sport seemingly sophisticated in creating cards and excitement for pay-per-view makes the whole thing even more difficult to figure out.
This weekend was also the end of NASCAR’s racing on Fox for the season, with Kyle “The Evil Man” Busch taking his third race in five weeks. NASCAR gets so many things right when it comes to the drivers and the integration of marketing with the purity of the sport, but I have to say I’ve always been a sports purist when it comes to NASCAR and “The Chase.”. In a word, I hate it. For anyone new to NASCAR, drivers race to see who is in the top twelve in points after the summer (or at some point in the future). The top twelve then are in “The Chase,” and everyone virtually starts even for the last ten races (drivers start now with 5,000 points plus ten points for each race won in the first 26 races, but it basically all starting from scratch).
The Chase was invented to force fans to watch the races at the end of the season when most people are on to college football or the NFL. The fact that the marquee race of the season is the first race always complicates things for NASCAR, but back to The Chase. Maybe I’m just dumb, but I’ve never liked the fact that someone can dominate a season (like Busch is doing now) then have to have all that wiped out, all for the glory of television ratings. Of course, that is the essence of American sport, the irrelevant regular season vs the end-of-season tournament. At the halfway point in the season, only Jeff Burton is within 150 points of Busch, who is starting to make stock car (and truck) racing look like Formula One with Michael Schumacher. I just don’t like it.
What is right with televised sports? The Memorial was won this weekend by white-hot Kenny Perry, the best player in the post Tiger-knee-scope era. He finally held it together to put up a -3 final round and take Jack’s tourney. Seeing Nicklaus there to greet Mike Weir and Matthew Goggin on the last hole was pretty special, and it had to be overwhelming to Goggin, the Aussie who barely kept his PGA Tour card last season. Today is another special part of golf, with US Open qualifiers being held around the US. Top pros join everyone from journeymen to top college players to grizzled amateurs to teaching pros to local high school hotshots, all trying to play their way into our national championship.
Maybe I’ve become an old fart cynic. You be the judge.
