Congress Starting Hearings on Possibly Expanding Muhammad Ali Act into MMA

I do hope it passes because the fact that fighters are locked in to a specific promotion is drastically unfair no matter which way you slice it. It might not be so bad in the UFC if not for the Reebok deal, but that's a thing, and it is essentially artful ass******y. Champions clauses etc...it's all pretty ******* gross, especially when you consider the redistribution of income generated that is redirected to the fighters has been calculated at anywhere between 5-15%.

I think it's important from that angle, but there's a few problems as far as I can see:

a) I doubt it does very much to change the real term take home purses of most fighters.At the end of all things, what a fighter gets paid is contingent on their ability to draw. Mighty  Mouse is an exquisitely talented fighter who is probably the best MMA practitioner alive, but despite this, he's never going to d raw, and this really is mostly down to the fact that he has to carry a big mac in both arms. It sucks, but it is what  is.

b) The reason that boxing is such a deck stacked ****show of ducking and record padding is largely owing to the fact that there are so, so, so many belts and so many ridiculous weight classes, and the reason these exist is because there are so many circuits and such a huge competition pool to cherry pick from. Now, I love the sport of boxing, but the long and short of it is the best rarely ever fight the best in their primes, which is why It's been such a welcome change to see fights like GGG vs Canelo and the upcoming Lomachenko vis Rigondeaux bout booked.Holy ******* ****--what a fight!!

In any case, what I think will happen is that if you apply the Ali act to MMA, you'll basically get the same thing happening. That's just what those parameters devolve to. The answer as to whether or not that's better or worse than the status quo largely depends on your world view. I'm ultimately for it, because even though there are downsides, it still results in greater fighter autonomy.

That, and we still get ridiculous money fights sans Alki act in MMA. We literally just GSP get the strap having done nothing whatsoever to earn the shot. He'd never even fought in the division before, forgetting the fact he hadn't even competed for four years. Before that we had Diaz Mcgregor which also made no sense, and the rematch, which made even less sense, and then we had Bisping vs Hendo which also made zero sense.

So it's not like cherry picking and deck stacking doesn't happen in MMA right now. It does. The Ali act might make it more prolific, but it  will not fundamentally change something which doesn't already exist.

* Edited at 11.05.2017, 1:52 AM ET *

and that's to simply make bouts based on linear rankings. End of.

However, that's not great for business.

I talked about boxing in my earlier post, really to fix boxing you'd have to can every other promotion that wasn't the ring belt.

The history of unionization is strewn with the wreckages of corrupt officiation. Legislation is always better, because it involves checks and balances and shonky characters have to negotiate the legal system in order to enact shady doings. Last I heard Cowboy Cerrone was spearheading the movement, which screams complete ******* disaster if you ask me.
 
Mcgregor will never be the MMA equivalent of Mayweather. I'm not a flomo but he's kind of a once-in-a-generation boxer, love him or hate him. He's completely full of **** though and isn't TBE, that would be sugar ray robinson.

In any case, if anyone thinks that Mcgregor lasting 11 rounds against Floyd, in his 40's, having not fought for two years or anybody of any note since pacquiao prior to that, having done no sparring leading up to the fight and having dieted on burger king means anything at all, they are ********.

Floyd hasn't been the best boxer going for some time now. You put Mcgregor in there with Errol spence JR and he likely goes to sleep and never wakes again.

Conor is basically a great striker with a great left cross, and I think when he actually does fight someone with blistering wrestling attack and a crazy blast double, and pocket boxing defense he'll be crushed, utterly. I don't think Tony's muay thai insanity bit will be enough to get it done, I think Mcgregor counters him into la la land. But I'll still be rooting for him if that fight is made.

The Ali act is far, far from perfect, but it's better than a kick in the face with a golf shoe I suppose.

* Edited at 11.05.2017, 2:11 AM ET *

and I can tell you that a lot of what happens in the states looks completely bananas to us, down  under. There's not many maxims that always prove to true, but one that always does, in my experience at least, is 'the fish rots from the head'.

I think the root cause of a lot of it is the voting system in the states.

In Australia, voting is compulsory. You don't turn up at the ballot, you get get nasty fine in the mail. Now, the American system is based on the idea that by not forcing people to vote, you thereby exclude the people who have no interest in politics, and make uninformed polling choices. But really, all this does is playh into the hands of multinationals who routinely pork barrel politicians. Gerrymandering, for example, does NOT happen in Australia. It's illegal. And the winner of election is the candidate who gets the most votes, not who gets the most votes the fastest, which is an insane system that clearly needs to be abolished.

Here's what really happens when you force people to vote under penalty of a fine; everyone knows they're going to have to turn up, and if that's the case, you might as well develop a reasonable opinion on who you want to vote for and why. If you really do hate every candidate, you can do a thing called 'Donkey voting' which is that you vote for some ******** candit from a party that has absolutely no chance of getting elected, or you can write your own name in the ballot and vote for yourself.


As an outsider, I can tell you that I have watched over the last decade as the US voting public gets comprised of more and more extremely left and right wing voters. By having a system whereby there's no penalty for not turning up to vote, you're actually creating a system where all the nutters turn up to vote and the fence sitters, the moderates, just can't be bothered. And that's why you're getting extremely left and right wing candidates, because you have a system of primaries which the nutters also turn out for and the moderates also take a pass on.

It's a system that filters out the normal person and attracts heavily partisan lunatics like flies to ****.And like the song says, clowns to the left of me jokers to the right.....on one side of things, you've got ridiculous SJW morons and at the other end of the spectrum you've got fascist bigoted dimwits who think America can return to circa 1950's prosperity if you eat enough burgers and deport evil fruit picking Mexicans. The whole thing is a dog and pony show man. That **** would just never fly down here.


In Australia, if a Prime Minister isn't performing, they get axed. We turn over state figureheads at a very alarming rate. And frankly I think that's a good thing.

* Edited at 11.05.2017, 2:48 AM ET *