Reply to Mike Stidham

Mike Stidham,

There is a reason you have not heard of us.  This is a hobby site which we do in our spare time, for fun.  Thanks for taking the time to comment on our blog, I felt it deserved a full posting.  I am glad to see a joke that I wrote in 15 minutes on my phone can create such a response.  Now I know what Loretta Hunt must felt like when Dana White called her out.  You guys have singlehandedly quadrupled our highest monthly traffic total in one day!

In response to your comments, I would like to say first I can totally appreciate where you are coming from and I am glad to see your Google ego alerts are configured properly.  I would probably do the same thing if I were you.  A naughty 41 year old male with a sweet Myspace page.  I cant help but think its going to be a long hard road for you.  Especially if you take the time to personally respond to every blog that mentions you.  Especially our blog.  We are called the “Really Big Deal” but I can assure you, it is a subtle sarcastic jab.  It is clear from the tv show and website that subtlety is not your strong suit.

Please take everything on our site with a grain of salt.  This blog and the podcast were simply created to entertain ourselves.  Just things we enjoy, like you and your robo-hulks beating up refrigerators.  The fruits of our respective labors.

Marketing your show as “a throwback to the roots of no holds barred fighting” probably works great for a small subset of MMA fans.  The cross over WWE fans who refuse to drink Miller Light because its “too ethnic” and who refer to the ground game as “dudes humping”.   So when I read about about “no ground fighting” agreements and the “only get paid for KO” rules of past bouts it seems like a throwback of the worst kind.  These arrangements only heighten the stereotype of MMA as human cockfighting.

The stereotype is one that I often have to overcome when I explain to people my love for MMA.  If you would listen to or read our other posts you would probably find that we greatly enjoy the smaller shows (MFC, Shooto, Sportfight, WEC, MCC, ETC).  Like you mentioned, it is how the sport came into being.  But it is also the reason that the sport is considered illegitimate.  You probably understand better than us, it is a blessing and a curse.

No question that your show is compelling, for all the same reasons I enjoy seeing local events.  You get to see the up and comers and the inevitable washouts.  But just because some “named” fighters have fought in your organization doesn’t mean the televised fights were of interest to me.  I am by no means qualified to run an Mixed Martial Arts organization, but I would think priority number one would be to ensure the legitimacy of the sport and play down the spectacle aspects.

I would again like to stress that we appreciate your comments.  They have been a shot in the arm motivator to get us back into a respectable posting rhythm.

Yours Truly,
Tony@RBDMMA

Up for discussion this week on the show:

The UCE has a rule stating “No elbow or forearm strikes allowed unless agreed upon by both fighters.”  I really dislike
elbows (and knees) to the head of a ground opponent and this is the first time I have ever seen an option like that in a North American fight organization.  Do they distract from the art of the sport and cause more harm than good or are they a necessary strike? Follow up, why no karate chops?

Mark Pavelich’s MFC, Dana White’s UFC, Tom Attencio and friend’s Affliction.  Whats in a name?

Our New Top 10 List: The Top 10 Acronyms Replacements for TUF 10

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Tags: UCE