Mike Freeman/MMA Bashing

[LWPD]

What's really unfortunate about the ignorance detailed in the article below is that it's reflective of an endemic problem...a tolerance for ineptitude. When I first heard about this I thought it was probably some kid writing a free 'opinion piece' similar to the nonsense often found on pro wres 'news' boards. Yet that's not the case here.

According to his bio...the author Mike Freeman has been 'a full-time sportswriter for the Dallas Morning News, Boston Globe, Washington Post, New York Times and the Florida Times-Union covering every aspect of the sports world.' That an established 'sports journalist' can have such a poorly thought out article 'published' on a mainstream site like CBS Sportsline...on a topic he obviously has only a rudimentary understanding of...is a reflection of the state of sports journalism.

To his credit Dave Meltzer called this clown out on his site yesterday:

"Freeman wrote another column, where he took obviously the stupidest response letters to his last column and used it for a column to show MMA fans are racist and stupid. He didn't have the balls to print an intelligent response."

Excerpts from:

De La Hoya-Mayweather will separate boxing from thuggish UFC

By Mike Freeman
CBS SportsLine.com National Columnist

Mixed martial arts will never be as good as boxing on its worst day. Many of the ultimates are nothing but thugs and ruffians. All that league has done is take a few former nightclub bouncers, knuckle crackers and parolees, put on some fancy TV graphics and told them, "Kick the other guy in the nuts."

No skill is required to knee someone in the groin (and it happens despite rules stating it is illegal). I'm kneeing Doyel in the groin now. See, was that difficult?

Next on Spike TV: Man eats another man's face. Then some dork will call it a sport.

The UFC has no credibility. UFC equals the Ultimate Farcical Clown league.

And please do not wax poetic about the UFC's popularity. Of course people watch the UFC. It's human cockfighting. It appeals to the lowest common denominator of human existence.

The message boards and my e-mail will be irradiated with balderdash about how the mainstream media is simply a bunch of snobs and we don't "get" the Ultimate Farcical Clown league. I love the NFL. Only Roman gladiators had a more dangerous sporting profession. The NFL is more violent than the UFC, but football at least possesses a veneer of being civilized.

Boxing is almost comically imperfect. It is full of crooks, con artists and ear biters (and that's just a weekend in Atlantic City with Mike Tyson). Despite its faults and notwithstanding the massive greed that has caused boxing to collapse on itself like a dying sun, boxing has more charm in its broken pinky than the Ultimate Farcical Clown league does in its entire crappy organization.

No UFC goon has or ever will possess the grace and natural showmanship of De La Hoya or the true fearsome fighting skills of Mayweather.

Notice the word: skills. This match will not resemble a bar-room brawl but meticulous, highly practiced, man-to-man warfare between two skilled, all-time athletes.

It is only a matter of time before the UFC suckers, er, fans realize they have been fooled by a Jedi mind trick.

The UFC should be banned; the De La Hoya-Mayweather bout should be embraced.

The fact a non-heavyweight match is getting so much attention shows that boxing still has appeal (and even I once thought it was dead). The fact boxing has survived despite so many scandals and crooked promoters demonstrate it has resilience.

"This (fight) is important because boxing is at its lowest point and boxing has been at its lowest point for quite a while now," De La Hoya told the New York Post. "Boxing is always taking these low blows left and right from people. This will give it a good shot in the arm."

The fight can do more than that. It can begin a resurgence perhaps not seen before in American sports. If the fight is particularly competitive, casual fans will give boxing another look and the all-important advertisers will again open their wallets instead of turning their backs.

Then maybe we can begin to put the sad joke that is the UFC behind us.

And once again we can get excited about a real sport.

[Knapik]

It would be great to have a few minutes to talk to this guy and shut him down. The first sentence alone infuriates me so much

[dukedave]

lwpd said:

According to his bio...the author Mike Freeman is completely retarded.

[/i][/quote]

I think his bio says it all.

[Darth Turkish]

And it recently came out that Mike Freeman lied on his resume that he graduated from the University of Delaware.

I am afraid talking to him will do no good, Knapik. He either is a) writing this piece for attention, b) has nil interest in learning about other martial sports even if you showed off all of the good techical aspects c) is a complete friggin moron. I am going to go with d) all of the above

his "Ultimate Farcical Clown" should say it all, as that is perhaps the absolute worst attempt at a mockery I have ever seen. It sounds like it was made up by a fourth grader.

But I think a fourth grader would have found some more clever.

[dukedave]

turkish said:

his "Ultimate Farcical Clown" should say it all, as that is perhaps the absolute worst attempt at a mockery I have ever seen. It sounds like it was made up by a fourth grader.

But I think a fourth grader would have found some more clever.

Ultimate Fart Chomper. There you go. Much better, although I'm not a fourth grader.

[Darth Turkish]

I was thinking "Ultimate Fools' Circus", and I am a fourth grader.

[DUCE]

lwpd said:

What's really unfortunate about the ignorance detailed in the article below is that it's reflective of an endemic problem...a tolerance for ineptitude. When I first heard about this I thought it was probably some kid writing a free 'opinion piece' similar to the nonsense often found on pro wres 'news' boards. Yet that's not the case here.

According to his bio...the author Mike Freeman has been 'a full-time sportswriter for the Dallas Morning News, Boston Globe, Washington Post, New York Times

There you go. New York Times.

(see o'reilly's war with the new york times)


---->Seriously though the New York Times has been letting some trash get space in its publication so all you had to say was "New York Times" and that whole article made sense.

[Trent Lawless]

How did Bill O'Reilly get in a discussion about MMA when I wasn't looking? Cancel my subscription!

The point this dipwad seems to be missing over and over again is that in boxing, there's a certain level of strategy and tactics involved, but basically you're going against a guy with a pretty similar fighting background as you. In MMA, you might have a guy well-versed in wrestling having to work on his judo skills or vice-versa or any number of permutations of styles. Sorry that's too complicated for him to grasp.

Don't worry. MMA will continue its rise, and hopefully boxing can go hand-in-hand with it. No reason they have to be mutually exclusive.

[DUCE]

markcpc said:

How did Bill O'Reilly get in a discussion about MMA when I wasn't looking? Cancel my subscription!

The point this dipwad seems to be missing over and over again is that in boxing, there's a certain level of strategy and tactics involved, but basically you're going against a guy with a pretty similar fighting background as you. In MMA, you might have a guy well-versed in wrestling having to work on his judo skills or vice-versa or any number of permutations of styles. Sorry that's too complicated for him to grasp.

Don't worry. MMA will continue its rise, and hopefully boxing can go hand-in-hand with it. No reason they have to be mutually exclusive.

exactly what Mark says why does the New York Times slop writers get hired by promotional agency to smeer the competition? Because American's love reacting to outragous opinions. (The no spin zone starts here)