A Hundred Bucks.

So, did you spend 100 bucks US, or your local equivalent, on the Mayweather-McGregor fight?  If you did do you feel it was worth that 100 bucks?   I could vaguely imagine paying 100 bucks to see something like that live.  After all there's nothing like the atmosphere of actually being there.  But 100 bucks to watch a TV show?  No thanks.

It will be interesting to see what the final take for the whole thing is.  Did they sell as many views as they expected.?  Whatever the sales it will be a lot of money.

Do They Want Someone To Die?

I watch both boxing and MMA, but at times it's hard to do so without wondering about the ethics of doing so.  Fighting can be dangerous, and sometimes it can be lethal.  Former UFC competitor Tim Hague died after a Friday boxing match.  Hague, 33, fought Adam Braidwood in Edmonton, and was knocked down several times during the fight before being knocked out.  Although he left the ring under his own power he subsequently collapsed, and passed away.  His last boxing match was in April, where he lost by TKO, bringing up the obvious question of whether he should have been allowed to fight by the Edmonton Combative Sports Commission.

This tragedy came only a short time after another Canadian boxer, David Whittom, was severely injured during a May 27th match in Fredericton with Saskatoon boxer Gary Kopas.  He was placed in a medically induced coma after being taken to hospital.  Whittom is another fighter who it could be argued should not have been allowed to fight.  Despite some early success he had racked up a career record of 12-24-1, including losing 18 of his last 20 bouts.  In other words he'd become a human punching bag, hired to be an opponent even though he obviously had no chance of winning.

And what did I find out this morning?  That UFC Hall of Famer Chuck Liddell is talking about fighting again, this time for Bellator.  Liddell last fought in 2010 at UFC 115, when he was KOed by Rich Franklin.  His last three fights were all losses by KO.  He's 47.

Unfortunately I would be entirely unsurprised if he does fight for Bellator.  I've criticised them in the past for signing over the hill fighters, the most notorious example being MMA pioneer Ken Shamrock.  Shamrock was 51 when he fought the late Kimbo Slice in 2015.  He would later fight Royce Gracie, who hadn't fought in years and was really too old to be fighting as well.  Then there's Kimbo Slice.  Slice died in June of 2016 of heart failure, shortly after a mass was found on his liver.  Yet somehow Bellator managed to get him cleared to fight in February of that year.  Keep signing these kind of fighters and you're just increasing the chance of someone sustaining a severe injury, or even dying in the cage.

You Never See It.

Watching boxing this afternoon on TV I was once more struck about something I've never seen in a fight.  Referees don't get hit.  Given the situations they often have to insert themselves in, with punches flying madly about, you'd think we'd regularly see them eat a punch.  But they don't.  Then again perhaps if you're a ref who gets in the way that badly you don't end up being a ref for long.

I Could Be A Boxing Judge.

Seriously, I could.  I couldn't be any worse than the judges at last night's boxing card in Chicago, as presented on ESPN's Friday Night Fights.  If you saw it, did you think the Kermit Cintron-Adrian Granados fight went Cintron's way, as one judge decided, or that it was a draw, as the second judge decided?  I sure didn't.  Or how about the other 10 rounder, featuring young fighter Donovan George against veteran Mexican fighter David Lopez, which had an identical split?  Again, not me.  So, if the powers that be in Illinois are reading this, I'd be perfectly wiling to fly out there and judge some fights for you.   I'm sure I'll do a better job.

Don't Take Me Out To The Ball Game.

I sure would love to know what's behind the Rogers Sportsnet schedule for the Toronto Blue Jays this year. They have exclusive TV rights(not surprising since they own the team), and there are some games they aren't airing. This evening's matchup with Tampa Bay is an example. Instead we get a NASCAR race, and this applies across the network. Is NASCAR really a better ratings generator in Canada than the Blue Jays? I have no idea. Unfortunately the Saskatchewan radio broadcaster for the Jays, CJYM/CFYM, isn't broadcasting the game either. Bummer. On the other hand TSN is boxing crazy today. They'll be playing a several hour continuous block of boxing programming tonight, including the De La Hoya-Mayorga matchup from HBO. I guess I'll have to watch people beat on each other instead.

I was watching ESPN's Friday Night Fights this evening. No, I'm not writing this via time machine, rather that's when TSN here in Canada played it this week. It was recorded before Friday's Tyson-Williams fight, and the regular commentators and guest Buster Douglas, who fought and beat Tyson back in '90, expected Tyson to win, as did most of those who posted to ESPN's website. Only 6.8% thought Williams might win. I hope at least some of those folks bet some money on Williams, as the payoff was likely rather nice.

Too bad for Tyson. This loss probably diminishes his chance of getting some really big fights lined up, and he apparently needs the money, as he supposedly owes the IRS a big whack of cash.

Even boxing is becoming grist for the reality tv mill. There will be two boxing themed reality shows this fall, with contestants competing to get a chance at a professional boxing career. One involves Sylvester Stallone and former champ Sugar Ray Leonard, while the other has involvement from current boxing superstar Oscar De La Hoya. Is this the kind of thing boxing needs? Boxing's image is tarnished enough in the eyes of many without linking it to the less than classy reality tv genre.

I just watched G.I. Joe: The Movie on YTV. Pure cheese, including wrestler Sgt. Slaughter as himself. Wonder what ever happened to him? And its interesting how in shows like that no one ever gets permanently hurt, leading to lots of shooting without anyone actually getting shot. Can't traumatise the kiddies.

In the last 6 months or so I've been watching boxing on the sports channels for some reason. In a way its surprising that they play as much as they do, as boxing is arguably still continuing its long slow decline. Generally I find fights in the lower weight classes more entertaining than the heavyweight stuff. The lighter guys tend to be better at actual boxing, while the heavyweights tend to sort of club at each other. One thing I can't say much good about is the froufrouy trunks some of the boxers wear these days. Some of them look like almost like skirts, others have silly fringes and so forth. Looks more like what a professional wrestler would be wearing than what a boxer should be wearing.

I've also been watching the UFC stuff that gets played up here. These are all old fights, not the current matches which are generally pay per view. Some of the fights get into a rut where you end up looking at two guys on the ground who look like they're humping each other. Its obvious from watching these things that they don't have the same kind of money to devote to the actual filming of them as boxing, as the production values tend to be a bit less. One match I saw had real mix problems, because you could barely hear the announcers over the crowd noise. And watching boxing, UFC, and things like Thai kickboxing sure makes wrestling look even phonier than I already saw it as being.