Contributor: Josh Hall
Earlier this week, I wrote an article on the mental aspects of the Chris Weidman vs Anderson Silva title fight. In preparation, I watched the fight six or seven times to make sure I wasn’t missing anything, and then I came to a conclusion based on what I saw. It took a fair amount of time, but it was necessary to get an accurate representation of the ebbs and flows of this epic fight. Research is a big part of responsible coverage, and a necessary part of the job. Apparently those same standards are not being applied at Sports Illustrated, sadly. They held a roundtable discussion about the 162 main event, and quite frankly they should be ashamed of their collective effort.
You can view the video here.
For those of you that can’t watch the video, here is the full transcription (Your participants are Maggie Gray, Chris Mannix, Ted Keith and Andrew Perloff:
Maggie: Interesting. Over the weekend, a UFC fight, and it was an upset. Chris Weidman beat Anderson Silva and nobody saw this coming and most people didn’t even know who Chris Weidman was. Anderson Silva’s the champion. Afterwards, allegations of fight fixing. And Dana White shot them down, said there was no way this happened. This was just Weidman’s night and Anderson Silva was kinda messing around and ended up getting clocked in the face and getting the knockout. I don’t know, Chris, you cover boxing and you see… it feels like fight fixing is something from long long ago. Like that scene where the mobster’s in the back in the dressing room telling the boxer, “Hey…”
Chris: Sonny Liston, down with a punch sort of thing…
Maggie: Yeah, exactly, the Phantom Punch. It seems like something that happened a long time ago. Is this still a reality in these combat sports?
Chris: I think it still could be a reality. I mean I don’t have any direct evidence that would say that it is a reality. But there are plenty of rumors out there in boxing that this type of thing still goes on. Maybe not at the highest level, but still goes on in some cases… because there’s a lot of money involved. I mean HBO and Showtime put up a lot of money in these license fees and in order to put these guys in position for it they’ve got to win fights. And there’ve been some allegations about this stuff in the past. It wouldn’t surprise me if it was happening in this UFC case, I mean I just think it does happen a lot of times.
One thing that would surprise me though, Anderson Silva was in line to fight Roy Jones. There was a lot of talk about the crossover fight with Roy Jones and Anderson Silva. That would be a big fight for the UFC, for Roy Jones, for everyone. I don’t know why he’d take a dive in this fight, with that much at stake.
Maggie: Yeah it does seem… the timing seems a little suspect. I don’t know, do you guys watch these UFC events and wonder whether they’re fixed?
Andrew: My first thought, when I read the results on Sunday morning… Yeah, that it made me nervous. But I would have thought they would have fixed it for Silva. But UFC, and correct me if I’m wrong, is even less regulated than boxing, right? And boxing has this long history. UFC is still building its brand and it’s very marketing savvy. It has to cross your mind.
Ted: I don’t know, it seems like a curious thing, as he said. If they’re trying to convince people that this is a sport to be taken seriously I think the last thing you want to do is break the biggest rule in sports. Which is being caught cheating and sort of predetermining the results of a match. I mean this is a sport that most people kind of tune out for the violence and if they’re going to follow either boxing or MMA, they’re going to follow boxing because they’re used to it. As you said, they’ve dealt with these problems, and gotten past them in years past already. And now the UFC is going to introduce this at a moment where they’re just sort of breaking through a little bit. That seems unlikely to me.
Chris: It is a huge risk for boxing or UFC to do something like that because you will detonate your fanbase. If you lose the public trust based on that you go into sports oblivion if that happens.
Thanks to Zane Simon at Bloody Elbow for the transcription:
Since there is a great deal that needs to be addressed here, I’ll go through it piece by piece and we will clear the air on some seriously incorrect statements and equally baseless allegations.
First off, (looking at you, Maggie) his name is pronounced Wideman, not Weedman. This is a forgivable error, but once that would not happen by doing a few minutes of research before the segment.
“Chris Weidman beat Anderson Silva and nobody saw this coming and most people didn’t even know who Chris Weidman was.”
Weidman’s popularity aside, this was the closest an Anderson Silva fight had been on the betting line since he fought Dan Henderson at UFC 82 in 2008. Since then, Silva has fought the likes of former UFC Light Heavyweight champion Forrest Griffin, Chael Sonnen twice, and another former UFC LHW champ in Vitor Belfort. These are in addition to 6 other fights in the time span. I’m sorry, but these are things you should know before getting on a round table and discussing a fight. It is a part of responsible journalism.
Maggie goes on to talk about fight fixing, and SI lead writer Chris Mannix jumps in to bring up Ali/Liston and the “phantom punch”. I’m sad that I need to address this to a guy that covers boxing for a living, but there was no phantom punch. NONE. Here is video proof of the punch in slow motion. If you note the right side of Liston’s head, you will see it jiggle from the impact of the short right hand from Ali. This cannot be faked by the best of actors. It was certainly a surprising punch to knock down Liston, but it was a punch that landed nevertheless.
The panel continued their baseless allegations against the UFC, armed only with rumors and corruption in a different sport (boxing) as their “evidence”. They do get confused by the fact that there is no apparent benefit for the UFC to the fight being fixed in Weidman’s favor, but Andrew Perloff gets them right back on track with this gem:
“My first thought, when I read the results on Sunday morning… Yeah, that it made me nervous.”
Hold on a second. When you read the results??? You didn’t even watch the fight, and are on TV talking about the likelihood of the fix being in. Are you kidding me? What makes you even remotely qualified to discuss this without actually watching the event in question? I don’t know what to call this, but it sure isn’t journalism. But Andrew continued forward with proving he knows nothing about the sport in general:
“But I would have thought they would have fixed it for Silva. But UFC, and correct me if I’m wrong, is even less regulated than boxing, right? And boxing has this long history. UFC is still building its brand and it’s very marketing savvy. It has to cross your mind.”
No, Andrew, mixed martial arts (the sport is not called UFC) is NOT less regulated than boxing. The same commissions that regulate boxing cover all combat sports, including MMA. One Google search would have confirmed this, but clearly you didn’t have time for that. And if you think the fix has to cross your mind for marketing purposes, WHY THE HELL WOULD THEY FIX IT FOR WEIDMAN??? I see you guys mention this repeatedly, but no one seems to have an actual answer for it, or even try to give one.
Thank you, Ted, for looking at the situation from a more logical perspective and coming to the conclusion that a fix in this fight was unlikely at best. It is a shame your comments were left for last, since most MMA fans had already stopped listening in disgust thanks to your colleagues.
Sports writers, please do a little bit of research before you speak about a sport you don’t watch. Ask some people that do know. Do some digging and find evidence to back up claims before you get on TV and talk about them. Read Loretta Hunt’s (she is your co-worker, after all, and one of the best MMA writers out there) piece on the likelihood of a fix being in.
And above all else, if you are going to talk about a specific fight being fixed, THEN WATCH THE DAMN FIGHT!!! Thank you. I’m sorry for yelling, but it needed to be more than just said. Sports media gets a bad rap a lot of the time, and coverage like this does nothing good for fans and journalists alike. This wasn’t just yellow journalism; it was flat out lazy and irresponsible. You guys are better than that.
-Josh can be reached at [email protected] or @jhall282.
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