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By Anthony De Franco  March 20, 2010, at 11:15 am  Sometimes, I can’t believe the headlines that I read. However, this one is real, according to Sherdog.
The Ultimate Fighting Championship has been banned from German television. The Bavarian state office for new media (BLM) revoked the promotion’s broadcast clearance on Thursday for programming including “The Ultimate Fighter,” “UFC Unleashed” and “UFC Fight Night,” which had been televised on German sports television channel DSF since March 2009.
“The committee deems that television formats characterized by the extend of violence shown to be unacceptable,“ read a statement from the BLM. The BLM also described the programming as a “breach of taboos like punching a downed opponent,” which is illegal under article 111a of the Bavarian constitution. The paragraph deals with the glorification of violence in the media.
The BLM decision did not state an exact date when the UFC programming would no longer be allowed to air.
Marshall Zelaznik, UFC UK president and managing director of international development, took the same line as Karajica in a press release issued on Friday.
“We have been monitoring this development together with our partner DSF for a couple of weeks,” said the release. “Although we are not surprised by the decision, we consider it unusual to take action without listening to the concerning parties first.”
Zelaznik additionally stated that they are in the process of arranging a hearing with the BLM.
The really obvious thing to do here would be to point out the history of the country that is banning Mixed Martial Arts on television. So, we won’t do that. However, we will point out how incredibly stupid this is.
This is another one of those things where people make me crazy. We see worse things on television every single day than MMA. Hell, I walked through my living room today and saw one of the million cop shows on televison where they spent five minutes describing a brutal rape and murder. You are going to tell me that doesn’t cause violence, but punching a downed opponent does?
Please.
By Anthony De Franco March 20, 2010, at 9:00 am Sorry, but comments are closed Shane Carwin is not a larger than life personality. He’s real. He keeps a real job, and on the UFC 111 countdown show, he spoke plain English. It was refreshing.
That simple concept is extended to Shane’s walkout shirt.
The back has the US flag, and the words “Shane Carwin…Freedom Fighter.” MMA clothing companies love to use flags, and Shane’s shirt is no exception.
MMA Warehouse has it for 29.99.
For more UFC 111 gear, Check out The 3rd String Store.
By Anthony De Franco March 19, 2010, at 3:35 pm Yet another good post over over at The UFC Undisputed community site. This one focuses on the revamped striking game that will be in this year’s game, and answers some very important questions that we have all had since last year.
We’ve done a great deal to revamp striking. Last year, many of the reactions that could be generated in the Octagon (like receiving a body kick/punch/ elbow) were tied to pre-scripted animations. This meant that if you were tagged by certain strikes from your opponent, you’d lose control of your fighter for a very brief bit as you recovered your footing or stopped wincing from a body blow.
This time around, we’ve made the stand up much more true to life. Now the reactions generated by dealing and receiving blows and strikes rely greatly on our physics engine. Tech speak translation: the game is faster, more fluid, and more intense, with the player maintaining a greater amount of control over his fighter due to fewer preset animated reactions to fists/shins/elbows meeting someone’s chin/face/obliques. We’ll bring you all a much more detailed post on this topic in the weeks to come, as it has some important standup implications that we want to go in-depth on.
I remember a specific moment in which I realized that as good as 2009 was, it needed work. After watching 3rd String loyal fan and friend Brandon Steinberger and I make a match between Josh Koscheck and Jon Fitch look like an elaborate dance, two of my non-MMA fan friends wanted to play. They picked up the controllers, ran to the center of the cage, and threw elbows at one another from clinch range. The problem was that once one hit, the other person was frozen in an animation, so he couldn’t do anything to block. It was horrifying.
It’s good to hear that this has been fixed. Physics appears to be a big focus this year, which should make for a much more realistic game.
We’ve brought a new layer of striking defense to Undisputed this year by way sways and counters. Why take a haymaker to the face from Wanderlei Silva when you can duck it, right? Mastering the sway in 2010 is going to be a very important key to you competitive Undisputed gamers. There’s more than one way to sway out of the way of strikes, but we’re going to let you discover which sway is right for the range of strikes that will be headed your way.
Also, be sure to keep an eye out for Sway Counters. On the dev team, we refer to a perfectly executed sway counter as “the magic moment”. Again, we’re going to let you find out why we call it “the magic moment”, but it might have something to do with it looking awesome, being a sure sign of elite skills, and being able to do some horrible things to the guy on the receiving end of the counter.
Here is a dirty little secret. When last year’s game came out, I was only about two or three months into being truly obsessed with MMA. Now, I know so much more than I did then. One of the things I’ve learned is that blocking in MMA is not a very functional form of defense due to light gloves. Head movement is what separates good MMA boxers from great ones. Now that this will be represented, it will create a whole new way to counteract all those stupid people online who try to run the center of the cage and overwhelm you with strikes in the first ten seconds of the fight. Duck, Counter Hook, Give me my check.
By Anthony De Franco March 19, 2010, at 9:00 am Oh, look. It’s another GSP shirt. I’m shocked.
MMA’s most marketable man is coming up on a big fight with Dan Hardy next weekend. Hardy has repeatedly talked about how he is planning on knocking GSP out, and how he is afraid of the myth of Georges St. Pierre.
I know, you just want to strangle him don’t you? Well, you can’t. But you can support Georges St. Pierre by buying this new shirt!
It goes away from the normal patterns of all the other GSP shirts. No shield, but we get the GSP logo instead. No red and black, going the way of blue instead. It’s certain to not the same one that everyone else is wearing if that’s important to you.
MMA Warehouse has it for 57.99.
For more GSP shirts, check out The 3rd String Store.
By Anthony De Franco March 18, 2010, at 4:21 pm Women can fight. It’s that simple.
I’ve always imagined myself as somewhat of a feminist. I beleive that women have a place in MMA, the same way that they have a place in any other sport. However, I’ll be perfectly honest, I can’t watch women’s basketball. I can’t watch softball. Women’s MMA, I can watch, and I like it almost as much as the men. That should say something.
So, when I come across something like this, I make sure to bring it to the masses. This is Michelle “The Karate Hottie” Waterson. She is 7-3 in her MMA career. She weighs in at 105 lbs, so for those of you who think it’s important that she is good looking, she is. As a matter of fact, check this out.
Now, pull your tongue off the floor and focus. Michelle pulls off a truly spectacular move here, and although the ref is blocking it a bit, Bas Rutten, MMA godfather, goes nuts on Inside MMA.
A chick that looks like that and can pull off a flying armbar? Sold.
By Anthony De Franco March 18, 2010, at 3:49 pm After all the talk of who the UFC was going to use to counter Strikeforce’s CBS card, it looks like the answer was no one.
According to MMA Fighting, the San Jose based company will get to run it’s card completely unopposed.
Strikeforce has the spotlight to itself.
The long-rumored UFC event expected to counter the promotion’s April 17 CBS offering will not take place, MMA Fighting has confirmed.
Earlier this month, the UFC explored the option, going so far as to inform likely broadcast partner Spike TV that the show was a go, but the company has apparently reversed course, and a Spike source said the network has been told by the UFC that the show is no longer happening.
At the time, rumors of potential matchups pitting Mike Swick against Matt Serra and Wanderlei Silva vs. Yoshihiro Akiyama were quickly extinguished for various reasons, making finding a headlining act a challenge.
So, what does the mean for Strikeforce? Well, for one, they won’t have to worry about half their audience tuning into Spike TV instead. The other is that they now have no one to blame but themselves if this card bombs in the ratings. They were the ones that couldn’t get Fedor on the card because of his bloodsucking management team. They were the ones who decided having three title fights was more important than have five good ones. They were the ones that decided that Bobby Lashley should be on the undercard.
Personally, I think we are at a pivotal moment in the history of Strikeforce. If they prove they can draw without Fedor, suddenly all the bargaining power is in their hands. If not, then they are going to be faced with a situation where they have to cave to The Last Emperor’s every demand.
Nonethless, every single one of you should watch Gilbert Melendez defend the pride of our country against the Shinya Aoki and his stupid magic pants on April 17th. I’m a firm believer that it could be fight of the year.
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