Tweet
By Cliff Rold - Last Saturday night, as he went down to defeat for the third consecutive time, the once great Mixed Martial Arts battler Fedor Emelianenko was left right where so many of his fans, and MMA fans in general, were.
He was left to wonder what might have been.
Earlier this year, this scribe penned a column after the last Fedor loss reminding that big fightsa are best served when hot. The gist was simple: the inability of Team Fedor and the UFC to do business, when Emelianenko-Brock Lesnar looked like it could clear Fort Knox, was a warning for boxing.
The warning was most applicable, at the time, to the failure to have made Wladimir Klitschko-David Haye and Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao. The assumption beneath such thinking is that the failure to make the massive fights the fans truly want can do grave harm to the sport.
Watching Fedor felled for the third time in a row, another thought came to mind.
What if it’s all b.s.?
What if no real harm is done at all?
Emelianenko-Henderson happened in front of a rabid, paying crowd and certainly many more were watching at home on Showtime. In the lead to Haye-Klitschko, which ultimately did happen (even if most have already forgotten or at least want to), both fighters sold out arenas against men other than each other.
Mayweather and Pacquiao?
Yeah, without fighting each other, the sport has just been a rudderless mess. I mean, all they do is sell around a million pay-per-views against whoever they fight every time out, leaving people to ***** and moan that they haven’t fought yet and then shell out for the next chapter in the saga. [Click Here To Read More]
He was left to wonder what might have been.
Earlier this year, this scribe penned a column after the last Fedor loss reminding that big fightsa are best served when hot. The gist was simple: the inability of Team Fedor and the UFC to do business, when Emelianenko-Brock Lesnar looked like it could clear Fort Knox, was a warning for boxing.
The warning was most applicable, at the time, to the failure to have made Wladimir Klitschko-David Haye and Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao. The assumption beneath such thinking is that the failure to make the massive fights the fans truly want can do grave harm to the sport.
Watching Fedor felled for the third time in a row, another thought came to mind.
What if it’s all b.s.?
What if no real harm is done at all?
Emelianenko-Henderson happened in front of a rabid, paying crowd and certainly many more were watching at home on Showtime. In the lead to Haye-Klitschko, which ultimately did happen (even if most have already forgotten or at least want to), both fighters sold out arenas against men other than each other.
Mayweather and Pacquiao?
Yeah, without fighting each other, the sport has just been a rudderless mess. I mean, all they do is sell around a million pay-per-views against whoever they fight every time out, leaving people to ***** and moan that they haven’t fought yet and then shell out for the next chapter in the saga. [Click Here To Read More]
Comment