Dotseth’s Blog: A Week Away is Plenty When it Comes to MMA
Everybody has heard the saying “absence makes the heart grow fonder” and that is the way I felt last week as I took a break from MMA and hosted a local sports talk radio show here in San Diego. It’s what I have done most of my adult life, and I was looking forward to talking about the NFL again.
Like a lot of you I love the NFL but I forgot about the experience of talking to your average fan. The word “sucks” comes out of their mouth 3-4 times in each sentence.
“Hey Guys, I just want to say that our GM sucks, and he hired a coach that sucks, so now our team sucks! Thanks for letting me on the air, Merry Christmas!”
Wednesday I go back to hosting “Clinch Gear Radio” with Stephen Quadros and I honestly can’t remember a time in the past year where we ever took a call like the one above.
We get plenty of calls from fans who may not like a fighter, or are disappointed in a fight they laid out $55.00 to watch, but the majority of the callers are actually very nice.
It just makes me laugh that a sport that gets so much bad publicity has the most well spoken fans. I’m not blowing smoke, you can go listen to any of our past shows and you will agree. Maybe it’s because I host the show with “The Fight Professor” so people think they need to be on their best behavior, but I don’t think so.
One of my biggest pet peeves is people that criticize the sport without giving it a chance or taking the time to learn a little about the fighters themselves.
The NBA during the finals is OK, but I would rather wash your car then watch the Golden State Warriors play a regular season game, because it’s boring. It’s about as exciting as watching my neighbor throw away a bag of trash. I have been to plenty of games, met players and coaches who were good guys but it still doesn’t appeal to me as a fun way to spend any night of the week.
I have a buddy of mine who finally decided to watch a UFC fight after hearing me talk about how cool the sport was for years. No joke, the ONLY fight he has seen start to finish is the Frank Mir vs. Minotauro Nogueira fight from UFC 140. You know, the fight that ended when Mir snapped “Big Nog’s” arm!
I tried to explain that isn’t the norm, but it didn’t matter he was one and done. It’s OK at least he gave it a shot and the fight probably gave him a nightmare or two so it worked out in the end!
All kidding aside, it’s hard for me to believe any skeptic would not have enjoyed recent fights between Ben Henderson and Clay Guida as well as the epic battle between Dan Henderson and “Shogun” Rua.
These were two completely different styles of fights that were filled with drama and excitement, just like a great NFL game. Anytime I get a chance to be on the radio I will do it, but give me Lesnar vs. Overeem instead of “What do the Lakers do Now?” any day of the week. Happy New Year Everybody!
