Shocking News: Boston Globe Completely Misses The Point of MMA!

Sarcasm intended. I’ve spent the last couple of days reading the quotes from the The Boston Globe’s coverage of UFC 118, and as usual, I find myself saddened, horrified, and pretty much at the end of my rope with “the mainstream media.”

Let’s start with one of the most famous sports writers in the country, Bob Ryan. Bob has appeared on many an episode of Around The Horn on ESPN. He’s the one who looks like he’s about six hundred years old.

These guys are athletes. Make no mistake about that. A boxing round lasts three minutes. These rounds last five. They do need to be trained in multiple disciplines. No one can ever say these guys aren’t superb athletes, but that doesn’t mean the sport they practice is the prettiest thing to watch.

Now you can’t say everything goes. They did away with eye-gouging some time back. But kneeing and elbowing are prime tactics, and, c’mon, what’s so artistic about that? If you love a flat-out barroom brawl, replete with wrestling, kicking, kneeing, elbowing and, yep, punching, then this may be the sport for you. But to some, a little of that goes a long way. Frankly, after watching an evening of UFC, up close and personal, I came away with a better appreciation of boxing.

Wait. An old white guy who has made money covering boxing doesn’t like the UFC? I’m shocked. As usual, someone of Ryan’s advanced age can’t see the beauty of our sport the way we do because he failed to educate himself before going in. Do you think that Bob Ryan spent any time in the newsroom of the The Boston Globe researching the proper technique of throwing a knee was? How about the beauty of a well placed leg kick? Yeah, somehow I don’t see that happening.

Ryan sees us as something less than him and his beloved sport of boxing, and I’m not surprised. You can’t teach an old dog new tricks, nor can you show him something new and have him admit that it is equal to something he’s known since he was five.

However, Ryan’s quotes weren’t even the most egregious in the paper that day. Of course, I can’t find the quote right now, but it went something like this.

Surely WWE Strongman John Cena would do just fine against UFC fighters like Shogun, Couture, and St. Pierre.

Wow. First off, let me say this. I mean no disrespect to Pro Wrestling. I am not one of these MMA fans that think that there is no connection between the two, and that many Fans of the UFC haven’t tuned into a RAW or two over the years. However, are we serious people? Are you telling me that the UFC light heavyweight champion Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, who is a high-level muay thai striker, a brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt, and owns some of the most devastating highlights in the history of the sport would lose to a pro wrestler? This is even some a guy like Kurt Angle who could at least make the case of being an olympic wrestling gold medalist. This is John Cena, who’s only training is in pro wrestling.

Again, not bagging on wrestling. Bagging on whoever in god’s name wrote that story.

I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating. We need to stop worrying about what big name newspapers write about MMA. We need to stop worrying about Bob Ryan. I realized from being around my share of sports writers that none of them are very open to having their minds changed. We are going to have to wait until guys like Ryan retiring from writing about sports and take up organic gardening instead. As our generation starts filling the spots that guys like Ryan have in papers, the UFC will get it’s due.

For now, we play the waiting game.

Original Story: http://www.3rdstringsafety.com/2010/0...