The point of the article is that they could have very well changed their own set of rules or done something to increase excitement, instead of letting good promising fighters go because they are not marketable or exciting.

Also Dave, I guess I don’t have a problem calling out the UFC on inconsistent sporting decisions as long as you do the same for every other sporting league.

The problem with Iain’s argument was that he claimed that the UFC no longer belonged in the group of actual “sports” because of what they did. When in fact I believe if held to that same standard, many other “sports” would fail to meet that bar as well. My point is that consistency is needed rather than singling out the UFC.

Like him or not, getting rid of JOB for losing to a true top level fighter like Arlovski and not being ‘exciting’ seems to contradict how fighters like Brandon Vera are somehow still considered UFC contracted fighters. Josh Koscheck was a ‘boring’ young fighter when he had his first few TUF and post-TUF fights, but they didn’t fire him. Lyoto Machida has a boring, almost point-fighting defensive style and rarely pushes the pace but is still contracted (granted his win record is good).

Also, while I believe your intentions were simply to post a counter-point to Iain’s article, you have to admit the headline is a bit.. Inflammatory.

The key point I was trying to make is that all “sports” will bend the rules of “sport” to meet their business goals; some more than others. Clearly, sports like boxing or MMA probably do so more than say, the Olympics. Nevertheless, it happens everywhere. So to call out the UFC for doing what everyone else is doing is disingenuous in my opinion.

It is a valid argument to say that it was a bad choice to fire JOB for being a wrestler. I’m not in any which way a fan of his, I actually kind of dislike him and his style, but they have kept lesser fighters around in menial undercard fights for far longer than JOB.

What I think the writer of this rebuttal sort of missed was that Iain was referring to not just the isolated incident of JOB getting canned for being ‘boring,’ but instead that this is generally how UFC operates. They make crass, silly decisions that are seemingly based on how they are feeling that afternon.

That aside, I don’t think anybody who is discussing UFC on the net hates them, I think its more that we/they watch it all the time and have watched it for a very long time. It is a matter of loving the sport and having watched it grow. The fact is, writing nothing but praise for a company is boring. How often do you get so excited about something that you feel the need to sit down and pound out some eloquent, long prose about how amazing something was? Not everybody can be like Eddie Goldman towards YAMMA.

The internet MMA media is very anti-UFC. They can take a story about the UFC releasing a hesitant fighter with injury problems and spin it that the company is going down the tubes. That is the way they operate.

Zach Arnold does not take unfair shots at the UFC, but he gives others the opportunity to do so at his website. He should probably look for writers that want to help grow his site with informative articles about the UFC. He is going to have to keep on begging for donations if he keeps on using UFC haters like Liddle.

Why writers want to cozy up to the hardcores with articles attacking the UFC, I have no idea. The hardcore fanbase is very bothersome in my opinion. They are going to watch regardless, so catering to them is just a lot of hassle.