By Kelsey Philpott Welcome to the latest addition of MMA Payout: Point, Counterpoint! After reading Payout contributor Jonathon Snowden’s latest piece entitled “Who Really Killed Affliction?” I feel compelled to respond and engage in some healthy debate here on the website. In his article Jon argues for the following: As the smoke cleared from Affliction Entertainment’s implosion, the media […]
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Update: Affliction Back with UFC
According to Kevin Iole at Yahoo! Sports, Affliction has decided to throw in the promotional towel in return for a sponsorship placement with the UFC. In addition, there’s talk of a major UFC announcement tonight on ESPN radio. Payout Opinion: It’s certainly a shocking turn of events – especially considering that Iole had earlier reported […]
The Issues of Referee and Judge Certification
‘Showdown’ Joe Ferraro has an excellent piece up at Rogers Sportsnet that details his experience with ‘Big’ John McCarthy’s referee certification seminar, C.O.M.M.A.N.D. (Certification of Officials for Mixed Martial Arts National Development). The course is broken down into three areas and participants require a passing grade of 90 percent (at minimum in all three) to be certified. […]
The Case for Legalization: Quantifying Economic Windfalls
By Kelsey Philpott While I may have argued for a fundamental shift in MMA’s approach to seeking legalization, I’m not naive enough to believe that the economics of the sport do not have a role in the legalization process. The fact of the matter is it’s simply not enough to preach the virtues of MMA as a […]
The Case for Legalization: Debunking MMA’s Safety Myths
By Kelsey Philpott The issue of safety is often raised when people start to discuss the merits of mixed martial arts and probably rightfully so. After all the sport can appear, to the uninitiated, quite dangerous if it’s given only a cursory glance. It’s also hard to fault those individuals: the speed and ferocity of the […]