Yahoo Sports writer Dan Wetzel on UFC vs Mayweather

[dagreat1]

Here is the link. Interesting read.

http://sports.yahoo.com/box/news;_yl...yhoo&type=lgns

I wrote Wetzel and this is what I had to say:

Mr. Wetzel, Regarding the Mayweather vs UFC article you wrote up, I am not sure how closely you follow the sport of MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) so I will give you some background on some of the fighters adding credibility to Dana White's stand on MMA vs Boxing and Mayweather vs ANY top caliber MMA fighter (Sherk is not even the best, he is merely the best in the UFC).

Also, this "Boxing vs MMA" matchup has already been done and this was well before the sport of MMA had evolved. It was a Muhammad Ali aka Cassius Marcellus Clay vs Antonio Inoki bout who was a pro wrestler versed in the art of grappling. This bout took place on June 25, 1976 and 2 days prior to the fight, Ali had the rules altered so that Inoki could only throw kicks if one of his knees were on the ground (obviously he was scared of the leg kicks as he should've been and this was apparently the result of Ali watching footage of an Inoki match just prior to the fight)
The link as follows:

http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache...lnk&cd=1&gl=us

Ali suffered damage to both of his legs from the repeated low kicks from Inoki and those were thrown from his back. Simply put, Mayweather has no idea what would be in store for him if he were to step into an MMA cage or ring and fight any of the worlds best MMA fighters. Sherk would not even be the best candidate to expose the weaknesses in Mayweather, there are top caliber Light Weights in which are versed in Striking, Wrestling and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. These well versed fighters would use their takedowns to setup strikes and their strikes to setup takedowns. Mayweather would have basically a 1% chance of winning vs any of the top ranked LW fighters and whether or not he truthfully knows this has yet to be seen but he would find out pretty darn quick if he ever cared to step up which he will of course not because he just likes to talk.

MMA fighters are phenomenal athletes, they train up to 8 hours per day, 7 times per week and run upwards of 10 miles per day.. The days of the 1 trick pony are far behind us, you simply must be a well rounded/versed fighter in at least 3 aspects of MMA or you will be destroyed by someone who is. Those forms are Boxing or Muay Thai Kickboxing (Muay Thai is the more effective form IMO due to the kicks which are far more lethal than punches), Wrestling or Judo and Jiu Jitsu (this is needed to avoid being submitted via joint manipulation or submitted via strikes).

Take Jens Pulver, an MMA fighter for the UFC who left after winning the Light Weight Title in 2002. He became a professional boxer in 2004 and went 4-0 then got back into MMA and went over to Japan to fight in PRIDE (which ZUFFA now owns as well as the UFC) where he was absolutely decimated by Takanori Gomi who is a wrestler with phenomenal hand speed and vicious KO power. While Pulver was the more technical boxer/striker, the fact that it is MMA and you must watch for takedowns completely altered the fight. Pulver was knocked out in the opening round (PRIDE rules, 10 minute first round followed by 2 5 minute rounds, also PRIDE takes place in a ring and not a cage like the UFC). Pulver was also completely picked apart and knocked out when he faced Hayato Sakurai in PRIDE who has phenomenal Muay Thai kickboxing and incredible KO power in his hands and feet (and is very large for a LW as many of them cut 10+ lbs to make weight).

There is also Antonio Rogerio Nogueira who has been training boxing since the age of 6 (he is 31 years old now) and is the current Heavy Weight Brazilian Championship and the South American Games champion who is currently training for the Pan-American games. Granted his boxing is not on par with Mayweathers however there are professional boxers in MMA and if they were 1 dimensional and only used their boxing skills, they would get eaten alive in 49/50 fights.

There are Olympic Medalist Greco Roman Wrestlers in MMA ala Rulon Gardner (Olympic Gold Medalist who defeated the best Greco Roman wrestler in the history of the sport Aleksandr Karelin) Randy Couture, Matt Lindland and Dan Henderon (Kurt Angle is also trying to make a move into MMA) as well as NCAA National champions and these guys are not 1 dimensional fighters because they know they would get their butts handed to them and these athletes are as good at Greco Roman as Mayweather is at boxing.

Educate yourself on the sport of MMA, it is not going anywhere and dominates boxing in PPV buys. The only time boxing has massive PPV draws is when De La Hoya fights. The numbers do not lie, in 06 the UFC took 4 of the top 6 grossing PPV events including #1 with over 1 million PPV buys (Chuck Liddell vs Tito Ortiz).

Regards,
Honor_Among_Thieves

Doubt I get a reply from him but it's whatever.

Are all noobie sportswriters this ill-informed in regard to MMA?

[Dork8503]

Originally Posted by dagreat1

Here is the link. Interesting read.

http://sports.yahoo.com/box/news;_yl...yhoo&type=lgns

I wrote Wetzel and this is what I had to say:

Mr. Wetzel, Regarding the Mayweather vs UFC article you wrote up, I am not sure how closely you follow the sport of MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) so I will give you some background on some of the fighters adding credibility to Dana White's stand on MMA vs Boxing and Mayweather vs ANY top caliber MMA fighter (Sherk is not even the best, he is merely the best in the UFC).

Also, this "Boxing vs MMA" matchup has already been done and this was well before the sport of MMA had evolved. It was a Muhammad Ali aka Cassius Marcellus Clay vs Antonio Inoki bout who was a pro wrestler versed in the art of grappling. This bout took place on June 25, 1976 and 2 days prior to the fight, Ali had the rules altered so that Inoki could only throw kicks if one of his knees were on the ground (obviously he was scared of the leg kicks as he should've been and this was apparently the result of Ali watching footage of an Inoki match just prior to the fight)
The link as follows:

http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache...lnk&cd=1&gl=us

Ali suffered damage to both of his legs from the repeated low kicks from Inoki and those were thrown from his back. Simply put, Mayweather has no idea what would be in store for him if he were to step into an MMA cage or ring and fight any of the worlds best MMA fighters. Sherk would not even be the best candidate to expose the weaknesses in Mayweather, there are top caliber Light Weights in which are versed in Striking, Wrestling and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. These well versed fighters would use their takedowns to setup strikes and their strikes to setup takedowns. Mayweather would have basically a 1% chance of winning vs any of the top ranked LW fighters and whether or not he truthfully knows this has yet to be seen but he would find out pretty darn quick if he ever cared to step up which he will of course not because he just likes to talk.

MMA fighters are phenomenal athletes, they train up to 8 hours per day, 7 times per week and run upwards of 10 miles per day.. The days of the 1 trick pony are far behind us, you simply must be a well rounded/versed fighter in at least 3 aspects of MMA or you will be destroyed by someone who is. Those forms are Boxing or Muay Thai Kickboxing (Muay Thai is the more effective form IMO due to the kicks which are far more lethal than punches), Wrestling or Judo and Jiu Jitsu (this is needed to avoid being submitted via joint manipulation or submitted via strikes).

Take Jens Pulver, an MMA fighter for the UFC who left after winning the Light Weight Title in 2002. He became a professional boxer in 2004 and went 4-0 then got back into MMA and went over to Japan to fight in PRIDE (which ZUFFA now owns as well as the UFC) where he was absolutely decimated by Takanori Gomi who is a wrestler with phenomenal hand speed and vicious KO power. While Pulver was the more technical boxer/striker, the fact that it is MMA and you must watch for takedowns completely altered the fight. Pulver was knocked out in the opening round (PRIDE rules, 10 minute first round followed by 2 5 minute rounds, also PRIDE takes place in a ring and not a cage like the UFC). Pulver was also completely picked apart and knocked out when he faced Hayato Sakurai in PRIDE who has phenomenal Muay Thai kickboxing and incredible KO power in his hands and feet (and is very large for a LW as many of them cut 10+ lbs to make weight).

There is also Antonio Rogerio Nogueira who has been training boxing since the age of 6 (he is 31 years old now) and is the current Heavy Weight Brazilian Championship and the South American Games champion who is currently training for the Pan-American games. Granted his boxing is not on par with Mayweathers however there are professional boxers in MMA and if they were 1 dimensional and only used their boxing skills, they would get eaten alive in 49/50 fights.

There are Olympic Medalist Greco Roman Wrestlers in MMA ala Rulon Gardner (Olympic Gold Medalist who defeated the best Greco Roman wrestler in the history of the sport Aleksandr Karelin) Randy Couture, Matt Lindland and Dan Henderon (Kurt Angle is also trying to make a move into MMA) as well as NCAA National champions and these guys are not 1 dimensional fighters because they know they would get their butts handed to them and these athletes are as good at Greco Roman as Mayweather is at boxing.

Educate yourself on the sport of MMA, it is not going anywhere and dominates boxing in PPV buys. The only time boxing has massive PPV draws is when De La Hoya fights. The numbers do not lie, in 06 the UFC took 4 of the top 6 grossing PPV events including #1 with over 1 million PPV buys (Chuck Liddell vs Tito Ortiz).

Regards,
Honor_Among_Thieves

Doubt I get a reply from him but it's whatever.

Are all noobie sportswriters this ill-informed in regard to MMA?

At least he gets the point across. There are alot of mistakes in their but the guy defends MMA which is awesome because 5 years ago that would have never happen. At least other people besides us no Mayweather talks out of his ass.

[Adambomb]

Possibly the best boxing analyst out there in Max Kellerman used to get questions all the time on Friday Night Fights about Boxing Vs MMA dream matches. His answer every time was that unless the boxer took a year to become versed in grappling and submission defense he'd lose every time.

[scottsec]

MMA rules Sherk would kill PBF.

[DonFrye]

Loudmouth idiots like PBF, Tyson, and Tarver are exactly why boxing is in its current predicament. You can't discount their skills, but the allure of boxing hinges on the "Sweet Science" and "Gentlemanly Art". I think guys like that ruin the whole image of boxers in general. Luckily, MMA has some really respectful and classy guys at the top and they are able to carry the torch.

[Legend]

Originally Posted by dagreat1

Are all noobie sportswriters this ill-informed in regard to MMA?

Yes. Good job on the letter by the way.

[Beatts35]

i read the artilce as i've read many of his articles' on yahoo sports.

overall he really let the quotes tell the story. other then one or 2 mistakes (saying the UFC doesn't allow guys hands taped) he didn't do a bad job. i think he stayed pretty nutral on the idea of a top boxer getting into an mma fight. i really wish that people in the media, especially sports journalist would refer to mma as mma and not ufc/ultimate fighting.

if a match like this happend sherk is actually a great candidate to fight mayweather. he can take a punch and has fought much bigger guys before. he has one of the fasted most powerful single legs in mma. (kos may be the only guy with a better shot than sherk). their is an argument for having a guy like mayweather fight a great striker. maymeather is one of the best strikers in the world. so having an mma kickboxing match would play into mayweather's favor, other then never having defended kicks of anykind. i say have sherk put him on his back and show him what mma is all about.

[Krazikarl]

and has a very biased opinion no less, terrible article.

Just because you disagree with the opinion doesnt mean that its biased. The author gives a lot of space to both sides of the debate and even lets Dana get the last word in with the challenge at the end of the article. He constantly expressed doubt about some of Mayweather's claims.

Yes, I think that he overrates a puncher's chance in a fight like this. Of course I think that Sherk would win really quickly in a fight and all that. His point: "No one really knows what would happen at such an elite level." is only somewhat valid at best. A boxer could argue that no A level boxer has fought in the UFC, only C or even D level guys. I certainly dont think it would make a difference and that they would all lose, but if an A level boxer took 6 months to learn some basic take down defense, I'd say he'd have a sizable chance (25-35%?) to beat a top level MMA guy.

So, you may disagree with things, but he does give both sides space to express their opinion and issue their challenges. The original post in this thread was well constructed in that it challenged his opinions with specifics. Lets not let this start to get more irrational than the article by whining about bias when its really not there.

[Krazikarl]

Most sportswriters are not terribly objective and dont pretend to be. They have an argument, and try and make that argument in as reasonable as terms as possible. Thats the whole point of being a sportswriter: you take an angle, and run with it. I mean, watch PTI on ESPN someday. Thats all those guys do and they are great at it.

Yeah, if you are just reporting news (a la Sportscenter), then you are supposed to be neutral. But articles like this are not meant to be just reporting news (he has no new news to report really).

PS - I also think that if Mayweather wins, Dana will issue him a very public offer to fight for big bucks in the UFC against a reasonable challenger (probably not a champion). It would either shut him up or would be great for MMA's continuing push into the mainstream.

[Marlo Black]

Pretty Boy Floyd must be back on the snort again, he'd get his little head popped of by tons of lightweight MMAers, not just Sherk. He has no clue. It's just like watching that goddamn 24/7 shit on HBO about Mayweather/De la Hoya. He's lives in fantasy land.