By: Frank Hyden, MMATorch Senior Columnist
Still no big MMA events so I’ll just cover some news stories. Sorry it’s another short one.
PFL CEO John Martin was interviewed by Bloody Elbow and talked about
the PFL moving away from tournaments in the United States. It’s an
attempt to showcase the bigger names they have more often. We’ll have
to wait to see how that works out.
I like tournaments myself but I can understand why they would want to
do this. This allows more flexibility but also the ability to make
certain matchups that aren’t strictly based on the “real sports”
aspect.
MMA is an individual sport so if someone gets hurt and has to pull out
of a fight it ruins it. There’s no team aspect, no “next man/woman up”
mentality. The fight’s just over.
As to whether this move pays off for the PFL, I think it does but the
real question will be if it does enough to sustain them. I hope so, if
for nothing else than I want them to provide competition for the UFC.
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Paramount+ has added essentially the entire UFC catalogue to its service. I say essentially because it’s always possible that it’s
missing something but I’m not sure what it would be. If you’re a MMA
fan the UFC-Paramount+ deal was one of the best things that’s happened to you in a while.
It’s so much better to be on just a single streaming service than to
be spread across multiple services (WWE fans are experiencing that
firsthand and a growing number are checking out because of it) or even
worse, to be on the Pay-Per-View model.
There’s also a few different ways to get Paramount+, either directly
through them or through a Walmart+ subscription. I’m not trying to
sell you anything here so I won’t go into more detail but if you’re interested I would suggest trying to lock in some deals now before
Paramount either just raises their rates outright or partners with
another streaming service (to try to fight Netflix, Disney+, etc.) and their rates go up that way.
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UFC Heavyweight Champion Tom Aspinall (15-3, 1 No Contest) is moving
forward with multiple eye surgeries after being severely fouled by
Ciryl Gane (13-2, 1 No Contest) in their fight at UFC 321 back in October. Aspinall is still dealing with major issues after Gane went knuckles-deep in both of his eyes. I’m old enough to remember some
people claiming that Aspinall “quit” in that fight. You would think
those people who have either quieted down by now or apologized but
nope, I still see some of them out there saying some really dumb
stuff. Why do some people insist on doubling down even after they’ve
been proven wrong?
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Speaking of someone doubling down after having a dumb hot take…
At UFC 323 Alexandre Pantoja (30-6) lost his UFC Flyweight Championship to Joshua Van (16-2) after trying to brace himself on a
fall and dislocating his elbow.
Sidenote- I’m also old enough to remember when UFC’s Chief Medical Physician Dr. Jeff Davidson told Megan Olivi that Pantoja suffered a
shoulder injury, not an elbow injury.
Anyway, Dominick Cruz (24-4) had a ridiculous hot take on X when he said that the fight should have been allowed to continue. I guess Cruz
was in such a rush to get this hot take out that he misspelled “allowed”, which is one of the reasons I’m surprised he hasn’t deleted that post.
On his podcast Cruz basically doubled down, saying that Pantoja looked
like he wanted to continue. Even if he wanted to, that doesn’t mean
that he should have been allowed to.
What’s wrong with saying, “Yeah, that wasn’t a good thing to say.
Nevermind.”? Why do some people insist on doubling down after saying
something outrageous? I know it becomes about clicks and views and all
that but no one can take you seriously after you continually say the
dumbest thing imaginable.
It’s like people doing the YouTube face in their thumbnails. Which, by
the way, has been proven to not increase clicks or views. Even if it did, though, it would only be a small amount. I don’t know a single
person who likes those exaggerated expressions. In fact, they’ll purposefully not click on a video with that junk on there because they
don’t want to support it.
Anyway, I’m getting off-topic and I don’t want to single out Cruz.
It’s just that not much is going on in the MMA world right now. He’s far from the only one who puts out ridiculous hot takes (Chael Sonnen,
to name one) and every single person makes plenty of mistakes over the
course of their life. I know I certainly have.
I just would like to see more people say “Yeah, I shouldn’t have said that.”
Then it’s case closed and we all move on.
If you’re a collector (action figures, statues, comics, cards, and more), you should check out
Nibble on the Toyrat website!
It’s an amazing experience that allows you to catalog your own
collection, search for items you want (across multiple storefronts!),
and buy/sell items with other users! You can even create and order your own custom toys!
It’s an incredible tool that you can use and there’s so much more I
haven’t even mentioned. I would highly recommend that anyone interested in collecting should join. Thank you.
My new epic fantasy book is out. It’s called Kingdom of Zarias: The End’s
Beginning. The exciting epic fantasy series Kingdom of Zarias
returns with the 4th book in the series. After the harrowing events of
Book 3 the residents of the Kingdom of Zarias continue on their paths.
Serena Summers continues to learn and grow as a fighter, desperately
seeking to become stronger before she loses anyone else in her life.
Daniel Summers discovers new parts of the world that open his eyes to
just how little he truly knows. A new hero, Lamar Abeers, arrives to join the fight against evil. Plus, Zach Summers, Tiana Highsmith, and
Xavien Ekens continue their journeys with their friends, and a new
ruler of Vhaharen is crowned. The world has found a little peace.
However, that peace is only temporary. In a shocking act of violence,
the monstrous villain Galren strikes from the shadows and changes the
world forever. This is Book 4 in the series. There’s lots of action, magic, and monsters in the Kingdom of Zarias. It’s like a tabletop game in novel form. It’s on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and many other places. If you’re interested, I would greatly appreciate it if you would check it out and support me. Thank you very much, have a good
day.
Comments and suggestions can be emailed to me at
hydenfrank@gmail.com and you can follow me on Twitter at @hydenfrank.
Thanks for reading and have a good day.
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