-
Strikeforce Ponders Cowboys Stadium
By: Jake Rossen
Herschel Walker file photo: Dave Mandel | Sherdog.com
There is a reason the records for MMA attendance in the U.S. pale to some of the better-attended sports events: fighting is an intimate activity, and sprawling only applies to technique, not spectacle. Get too far past a 20,000 seat arena and you run the risk of turning athletes into specks of undefined motion.
But because there’s a cache around a big audience number, the UFC has floated the idea of running an event in Cowboys Stadium, the ostentatious 80,000-seat mini-town in Dallas, Texas. To circumvent the visual problems, the stadium has a giant, 160-foot HD screen hanging overhead. (You, too, can leave the confines of your living room to feel the energy of a sporting milestone by -- watching it on a screen.) Now MMAFighting’s Mike Chiappetta reports that Strikeforce has had internal discussions about the same thing: the company allegedly flirted with the idea for October, using former Cowboy Herschel Walker as an incentive.
When Manny Pacquiao -- one of the better draws in boxing -- fought Joshua Clottey last spring, the arena hosted 50,000 people, a portion of whom were boxing fans and a portion of whom were probably just thrill-seekers into the novelty of watching a fight in something more impressive than a Roman coliseum. Considering Pacquaio has consistently attracted ten times the attention of Strikeforce on their best day, you can imagine that filling up those seats would require putting several thousand prisoners on furlough.
The UFC could get away with it, though in either case it has the potential for major embarrassment: what happens when you throw a party and no one shows up? It’s better to have a packed 10,000-seat venue than an empty 80,000-seater. I don’t think the plan will go beyond idle conversation -- unless Pacquiao wants to start stuffing takedowns. Read more -
Poll: Herschel's Place in the Cage
By: Mike Fridley
Dave Mandel/Sherdog.com
The map below displays regional data for the current poll. Refresh (F5) to update:
Read more -
More from Herschel on Steroids, the UFC and a $600 Payday
By: Loretta Hunt
D. Mandel/Sherdog.com
More from Herschel Walker:
On Peoples’ Reactions to His Fight: “I got a lot of people I hadn’t heard from in a long time that just couldn’t believe that I would be doing this and after it was done, they just thought I performed so well. The people that are close to me weren’t shocked at all because they know the type of person that I am. They know the dedication I put in.”
“People were shocked because they couldn’t believe my body, but I said ‘What’s so strange about it?’ It isn’t like I changed. It’s been like this for a long time.”
On Talk of Steroid Use: “I think what was upsetting for me is to hear someone mention that I’m on steroids or something. That’s totally insulting to me because I’ve never taken a drug before in my life. And I’m so against anything like that and I’ve been against it my whole life. I would go through any test anyone ever wants to give me, so for anyone to just suggest, just because I busted my butt for years working out, that I’m on steroids, that’s insulting me. If they knew what in the world I do, they wouldn’t ever suggest that. I’d say anyone in professional sports, in football, that’s ever taken a drug -- steroids or anything-- should not get a second chance. I think they should kick them out.” Read more -
Strikeforce Post-Mortem: Punches in Bunches, Football’s Revenge, and More
By: Jake Rossen
D. Mandel/Sherdog.com
Nick Diaz is not a knockout artist in any traditional sense: you don’t need to fear a lunch box of a hand crashing into your temple. What Diaz does instead is arguably more impressive: instead of connecting once, he transmits force over and over and over again -- 95 times in the first round alone against Marius Zaromskis on Saturday. If the first ten don’t wear on you, the next 85 will.
Diaz’ evolution from a pestering striker with a black belt reserve to a genuinely threatening combination artist has been fascinating to watch. Western boxing has had a tradition of being the most criminally under-represented element in MMA. Part of the blame lies in the ineffectual nature of a boxing stance -- feet planted -- which will get you kicked or swept into a coffin; part of it is just the handyman nature of the sport and the limited time afforded to any one element.
Diaz is by no means a striker who can step into a boxing ring, a suggestion made -- hopefully in jest -- by commentator Mauro Ranallo last night. By boxing’s standards, he is eccentric at best. But in a sport where bad boxing is the only kind being practiced, eccentric is enough. Read more -
5 Questions: Strikeforce Edition
By: Jake Rossen
D. Herbertson/Sherdog.com
Is Zaromskis ready?
Sixteen fights and five years into a steady career, Marius Zaromskis has made it very easy for amateur filmmakers to create a highlight reel. But of all that ridiculous footage, only Hayato Sakurai presented as a serious and accomplished problem. Against Nick Diaz, Zaromskis will be dealing with a new level of ability and someone far less likely to succumb to a reverse-somersault guard pass. This fight decides whether the stunt man is a novelty or something better.
Is the women’s division a two-trick premise?
Quickly: name the rightful number-one contender to the Strikeforce 145-pound female title following Saturday’s Santos/Marloes Coenen bout. Give up? It’s a silhouette with a question mark. Despite adding to the women’s industry with a pending 135-pound weight class, there’s a serious deficit of talent at the upper levels to keep Santos -- or anyone -- busy at the top.
The UFC once dismissed any thoughts of a female influx for that exact reason. No one is doing anything to prove them wrong. Read more -
Poll: Walker's MMA Debut
By: Mike Fridley
D. Mandel/Sherdog.com
The map below displays regional data for the current poll. Refresh (F5) to update:
Read more -
Walker a Student of the Game
Read more -
Video: ESPN MMA Live
This week, MMA Live rolls out the red carpet for its year-end awards show. Two of the winners join the show. Plus, 1982 Heisman Trophy winner Herschel Walker stops by in advance of his MMA debut. And Brock Lesnar’s trainer checks in with an update on the UFC heavyweight champion. Read more -
The Stunt Man: White Dismisses Herschel Walker Deal
By: Jake Rossen
Herschel Walker is a tremendous athlete, and quite honestly, I think he could threaten Brock Lesnar for the heavyweight championship of the world. I think it will cut into our business. Strikeforce is a legitimate threat to our bottom line.
Read more
Or not. Really -- what else is Dana White going to say?
Speaking to a Spike podcast Wednesday, White was gnawing at news Strikeforce had signed ex-NFL great Walker to a fight contract. "I think it's ridiculous,” he said. -
Herschel Walker’s MMA Aspirations
By: Jake Rossen
I didn’t grow up a Herschel Walker fan. (Or a football fan. Or a sports fan. I read a lot of books, and I have the athletic talent to show for it.) I asked a friend to summarize Walker, and I was told he was maybe the greatest running back in college history. He had a couple of good years as a pro, and the Vikings once traded nearly a dozen men for him. It sounds like his poster occupied a lot of walls.
Read more
Maybe that ignorance colors my perceptions a bit when I see that the 47-year-old Walker has announced his intentions to enter mixed martial arts: It doesn’t do much for me. He’s training at the American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose, which is smart, and he thinks he might be ready to step into a Strikeforce arena by November of December, which is OK. All proceeds from the fight, he told Fox Sports Radio’s Tony Bruno, will go to charity. That’s one way of countering criticism.
But all I’m seeing is a man approaching 50 who may or may not still have an athletic gift. Forty-seven is a hell of a time to be starting any career: The people that tell you you’re never too old to learn something new weren’t thinking of getting punched in the mouth. If Strikeforce is looking to be taken seriously as a legitimate contender in this industry, employing a slightly more capable version of Jose Canseco for ratings and attention isn’t the best way to go about it.
