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Showing posts with label #DCBlog #SummerOfSports #UFC #MMA #MixedMartialArts #UltimateFightingChampionship. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #DCBlog #SummerOfSports #UFC #MMA #MixedMartialArts #UltimateFightingChampionship. Show all posts
As a result of the unprecedented shutdown of all sporting activity last year, this 2021 Summer of Sports has seen plenty take place: Giannis Antetokounmpo taking his place as the NBA' new king by way of an epic Finals MVP performance, the Lightning denting the Stanley Cup in their celebrations of back-to-back NHL titles around Champa Bay, England getting stung again in penalties while Lionel Messi tasted his first major trophy for country with Argentina, and golf's new generation taking over in Jon Rahm and Colin Morikawa winning the U.S. and British Opens after Phil Mickelson's PGA Championship win. But the world's eyes are now on Tokyo as The Games of the XXXII Olympiad have taken over our attention a year later than scheduled due to the pandemic.
Two years ago, Giannis opened more than a few eyebrows in another aspect of our entertainment landscape: reality television. When asked by the media of what his plans were in getting set to lead a team of NBA All-Stars against LeBron James, the Greek Freak gave a namedrop to three MTV shows in the genre: Are You The One?, Ex On The Beach and The Challenge. And when he reported back to training camp before what would become a successful campaign to the NBA title, a face mask he wore bore the symbol of 7-time champion Johnny Bananas who won the season of the ladder that was the only game in town when much of Season 35 of the fifth major pro sport was the only sports event on primetime television in a COVID-stricken America.
The Challenge more than filled the void for both the MVP and athletic-hungry sports fans alike, who joined with reality viewers and those who've been with the show from day 1 for Total Madness. A person who competed with Bananas in that $1 million final a year ago this month was Bayleigh Dayton, who forms one-half of Big Brother showmance Swayleigh with husband Chris "Swaggy C" Williams, who she met on BB20 in 2018. Chris himself is a basketball fanatic who, along with Bay, met Lakers boss Jeannie Buss when Dwayne Wade & LeBron James played one more time on the court. And earlier this month, Swaggy got to pay it forward to the one member of his family he's known all his life as they experienced one of the summer's biggest sports events: the climax of a UFC trilogy in Sin City.
Amidst what has been a chaotic Saturday to say the least, we were planning to offer a SocialPulse doubleheader covering this week's episodes of The Challenge Final Reckoning and Are You The One? Season of Fate. But because of my desktop computer not being available to me to edit the posts, they will instead be posted tomorrow.
Meantime, tonight we had quite literally a barn-burner at UFC 229 as Conor McGregor lost to Khabib Nurmagomedov by submission in the 4th round, which then turned into a brawl that stretched out into the crowd outside the Octagon at T-Mobile Arena. Last year, DCBLOG featured a look at how three MTV family members got to experience Conor's most recent appearance in a combat sports arena: a boxing match against Floyd Mayweather during VMA's weekend.
We began this Labor Day weekend with a Pulse Extra to bring you how the Trifecta community saw last week's Video Music Awards and the big fight that took place all before we brought you the 'Pulse of Episode 7 of Dirty 30 as well as the cast's adventures inside the Forum. Now, what about that fight?
Two weeks ago, the sports world's marquee attraction took place in Las Vegas, where in a time of renaissance for the sweet science, boxing fans were treated to its latest chapter in what has been a stellar 2017 for the sport. The year has seen the long heavyweight title reign of the Klitschko brothers come to an end, Manny Pacquiao once again get robbed of a disputed decision and Terrence Crawford become boxing's first undisputed champion in a decade. And before the upcoming mega-fight between pound-for-pound stars Saul Canelo Alverez and Gennady "GGG" Golovkin, another marquee boxing event took place, featuring a man who we featured here meeting a Challenge newbie.
Back in March during Invasion, we told you about the night in the Hollywood Hills where Floyd Mayweather, Jr.celebrated his 40th birthday with the likes of Justin Bieber, Mariah Carey and a host of other famous luminaries during Oscars weekend. Challenger Kailah and her boyfriend, rapper and reality TV veteran Mikey P., were among those who were the lucky ones to be invited to join the Money Man as he turned the Big 4-O, and they got to celebrate in only a way Floyd can: a lavish, over-the-top party. This came at a time where those in the fight game were speculating that he would come out of retirement one more time to try and reach 50-0, the first undefeated professional boxer to reach that plateau, in a fight against an unlikely opponent from another combat sport.
Mayweather has fought some of boxing's greatest names, but the thought of him facing off against UFC mega-star Conor McGregor was something that wasn't even in the cards a couple years ago when he fought a lonely Andre Berto after his much ballyhooed bout with Manny Pacquiao which turned out to be a snore (though it did give my family reason to remodel our house in one week). But the cards fell in place for the '96 Olympian and the Irish superstar to get in the ring on that VMA Eve in Las Vegas and for a moment many thought that Conor would be the one who would put the 1 next to the 49 in Floyd's final record. But him gassing out towards the late rounds led the veteran to get the TKO stoppage in the 10th round, but not before McGregor was able to hold his own and earn respect.
For a sport whose crowds at big super-fights are comprised of mainly those in the rich and famous, there was room for Conor's boisterous Irish contingent to make their way into T-Mobile Arena to turn it into a European soccer match. But there was also some room for those who shelled out hundreds and sometimes the four figures to watch it live instead of forking over $100 for a pay-per-view ticket. And for two Challenge champions as well as the newest host of the social love experiment, they had their own view of this latest boxing mega-fight.
Earlier this year, we saw the fairly calm but beautiful golden girl of Team San Diego that won that Challenge five years ago, Ashley K., make her return to The Challenge. She was able to hold her own both on Invasion and on Champs vs. Pros as well as that mini-Challenge inside Universal Studios, not to mention compete on last summer's streaming series The Runner. For there, she was able to walk out of Thailand with a charming boyfriend in Dario, and they moved to his old stomping grounds of Las Vegas - a town that's already chock full of members of the Trifecta.
Of course, Sin City has staked its claim as the Fight Capital of the World, and when the opportunity came for those at Mayweather Promotions to reach out to those who wanted a chance to get on camera in the most high-profile position of serving as a ring girl for what is sure to be Floyd's last-ever fight, Ashley submitted her name with the chance to be one of those carrying around the round cards in between rounds. She won the right to be part of the handful who did those duties in both the main event later that night and the undercard bouts that took place earlier in the lead-up to May-Mac. And those who watched the undercard bouts earlier in the day on FOX, they got to see Ashley in the ring alongside "The Classy" Jimmy Lennon, Jr. ... perhaps maybe only a handful might've recognized Ashley from her three Challenges.
As for those who had those lucky seats, one of them happened to be not only a Challenge champion but also someone who just met a Greatest of All Time. Not long ago, we showed you true Challenge and Real World O.G. Syrus getting the chance to meet heavyweight champion Mike Tyson, adding to this stellar list of celebrities he has gotten to cross paths with. He got to pay $5,000 for a seat at Mayweather vs. McGregor and posted a picture of his ticket on his Instagram with the caption, "Sittin pretty enjoying the #mayweathermcgregor." And below, he captured a video of the final moments of the fight and the barrage that gave referee Robert Byrd reason to say enough.
And in the latest chapter of The Busy Life of Terrence J., on the same weekend that he hosted the red carpet at the MTV Video Music Awards which we covered here earlier today, he also got to do some of the events for Fight Week up in Vegas... you can be lucky that it's just a one-hour flight from Sin City to Los Angeles. This included him hosting the Friday weigh-in which featured a performance by Cardi B., and him also doing rehearsals for both that and his VMA's duties all in the matter of a many hours and some frequent flier miles.
For the man who hosted this summer's SafeWord which has helped MTV to increased viewership, that preshow from the Forum and who will be taking over as host of Are You The One? in 16 days from tonight when Season 6 takes flight, this is the start of a busy stretch for him in not only doing press for this show but also filming a movie role too. We sure wish we would have that busy but crazy life.
Amidst my focus on the MTV Trifecta on here and the Summer of Sports blog series I plan to do here also, I wanted to take a moment to do a special edition of DC FORUM to offer my thoughts on a story in the sports and media worlds that has become so big in the past week that it became too big for DCBLOG to ignore. So here we go...
The past week has been a most eventful one for those who follow the fight game: the passing Friday night of the man known as call "The Greatest," Muhammad Ali, the unexpected death of MMA star Kimbo Slice late Monday, and UFC 199 on Saturday night. There at the Forum in Los Angeles, Michael Bisping became the first Englishman to win a UFC championship when he knocked out champion Luke Rockhold for the middleweight title and culminating a long journey to the top of his sport; Dominick Cruz defended his bantamweight strap, and Dan Henderson make what's likely his swan song in the cage after a nearly 20-year career with a great KO win.
Saturday also came news of two major bouts coming to the sport that has seen immense growth in the past several years: mega-star Conor McGregor returning to the Octagon in mid-August at UFC 202 for a rematch with Nate Diaz after he gave the Irishman his first loss in KO fashion; and WWE superstar Brock Lesner returning for what's billed as MMA's own Super Bowl: UFC 200 taking place next month in Las Vegas. That fight card also features Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier for the undisputed light heavyweight crown; Miesha Tate defending against Amanda Nunes the women's bantamweight title once held by Ronda Rousey; Jose Aldo vs. Frankie Edgar for a shot vs. McGregor in the fall; and bouts featuring TJ Dillashaw, Johny Hendricks and others.
Typically, the announcements of these bouts are a tightly-kept secret until they're revealed to the world, but on Saturday the UFC were beaten to the punch by the person who's considered the top journalist in mixed martial arts. Ariel Helwani is to MMA what Adam Schefter and Jay Galzer are to the NFL, Adrian Wojnarowski is to the NBA, Ken Rosenthal in baseball and Bob McKenzie in hockey: the top insiders in the sports they cover and the person fans go to for big news and scoops on their favorite sport. Those stories were broken by Helwani, who works for MMAFighting.com, in the Forum's press room while the undercard bouts took place, just hours before the Lesner and McGregor/Diaz fights were announced on the pay-per-view telecast.
There were no embargoes issued to the press on those fights, so after confirming with his network of sources, Helwani went ahead with reporting the news on his Twitter @ArielHelwani anyway - just as he would do of other stories involving the sport, and almost immediately the news got to the UFC's top brass - including head Dana White and owners Frank & Lorenzo Fertitta (for whom we wrote about of them supporting TJ Lavin in our post on his accident). And in a snap judgement, and also with a checkered history between him and the insider that had developed over the years, White sent people to escort Helwani and two members of his MMA Fighting site from UFC 199 before Bisping's win and blacklisted him from the promotion, all for leaking news of those two fights. Here was Helwani's tweets...
"I was escorted out of the building by Zuffa staff before the main event. Credential taken away, too. Didn't see Bisping realize his dream. My long-time colleagues @ekc and @allelbows were also escorted out of the building w/ me. Sorry to report no post-fight coverage tonight. I love this sport & this job with all my heart. Did nothing unethical. I reported fight news. That's it. & then told we're banned for life. My teammates and friends @Ekc and @allelbows are the very best at what they do. I wish they didn't have to leave with me. They did nothing. Here's hoping cooler heads prevail. I sincerely love every fighter & fan of this sport. You have helped me realize a dream. Thank you." - @ArielHelwani
At our house, my family maintains an extensive library of VHS tapes and DVD's covering all sorts of genres, from movies to concerts, sports and more. For me inside a few red storage boxes, I have nearly 60 tapes that have about 300 hours' worth of Olympic coverage (mostly from since Beijing 2008), plus most every Super Bowl, Grammys and other events & shows I've recorded in the last 20 years. Sometimes I would always like to think of my VCR as sort of the poor man's TiVo.
Somewhere deep in our collection is a tape that one of my dad's co-workers gave him back about 20 years ago in 1994, and it's of the 2nd & 3rd editions of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Back then, this tape might not have been as significant or as huge as any other sports event. But in the long term, it would be part of the beginning stages to what is now a billion-dollar industry that's now a big part of our sports landscape, something those pioneers back then could never have imagined.
Over the years, we have all wondered about which sport can step up to become the next big thing in the American sports landscape. The NBA came back from a dark decade of the '70s to become a worldwide phenomenon. NASCAR would overtake open-wheel racing to become the premier form of motor sports here. Golf has benefited from Tiger Woods' dominance to see enormous growth in the entire sport worldwide. After a devastating lockout 10 years ago, the NHL has recovered to see great growth on both sides of the border. And as the record interest & viewership of the 2014 World Cup proved, soccer has come of age in mainstream America.
It's also the same thing when you talk UFC and mixed martial arts. It has done what no one ever thought would be possible when it began in 1993: overtake boxing to become the most popular combat sport among U.S. sports fans. What began as just a sport that intended on bringing together all forms of martial arts into the same octagon would then go through a dark period when a powerful Senator threatened to bring it all down. But thanks to a move towards the sport becoming more regulated, its purchase by new investors and a new TV show, the UFC would eventually experience a resurgence that would bring the sport full circle to the point where it's not just a niche sport, but now fully in the mainstream. Although my family still prefers the sweet science, I'm starting to appreciate mixed martial arts and the excitement & intensity of it.
