Roar Guru
Joined July 2011
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[caption id="attachment_37193" caption="Wallabies\' David Pocock watches as Wales\' Stephen Jones is tackled against Australia. AP Photo/Tim Hales"][/caption] Everybody watching the international friendly between Manu…
You need to have actual fighting skills to enter the UFC. SBW wouldn’t last 1 round with even a journeyman fighter.
Sonny Bill Williams for the WWE?
Why is this article tagged with “wrestling” when there is no wrestling in the WWE? They are stunt actors and circus clowns. Nothing more. SBW can barely string two sentences together. I really don’t think he has the bombast to be a stunt actor in the WWE.
Sonny Bill Williams for the WWE?
Comparing NRL athletes to the roided up circus clowns and professional stuntmen of the WWE is quite ridiculous. None of the WWE actors have real “grappling” or “submission” skills, so what was the point of this article?
NRL heavyweights wrestling to the top
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yDA3QSgFwU
UFC partly to blame for 151 cancellation mess
Just a point in relation to the mini-series and subsequent events in Australian sport. Did anyone else consider it ironic that this series obviously (and perhaps understandably) glorifies Packer’s role as leading the band of outsiders in their war with the cricket establishment only to then years later play the same role as the establishment in holding back the complete professionalisation of Rugby League? The Packer/ARL establishment ended up being ambushed in a similar way by Murdoch’s Super League project. What goes around comes around.
HOWZAT!: Kerry Packer vs David Lord and the World Series battle
I think squash would be a great inclusion. The problem is – $$$$$. Getting included in the games is more about what the sport can generate in terms of potential sponsorship money for the IOC than the actual benefits of including the sport from a purely sporting point of view. This is going to be the biggest hurdle for inclusion that squash will have to overcome.
Squash aces crave Olympic shot
Thanks for the article Andrew. Would love to see this match-up, but I can’t see it happening due to the weight difference. I think this highlights the problem female MMA has at the moment. It’s hard to get good quality match-ups as none of the divisions are deep in talent. No fault of the girls, it’s just that the big promotions (i.e., UFC) don’t want to put female fights on their cards. They should take a look at female boxing at the Olympics. It was one of the few positives for boxing at the Olympics.
Who will Ronda Rousey fight next in Strikeforce?
Great article Luke. I share your frustration. Though I would say that at least your sport did have some coverage during the Olympics, albeit undermined by the footyheads and their ineptness. Try following sports that don’t even get coverage on the box except maybe a 30 second ‘highlights’ grab of one of the Aussies getting beaten.
As for Eddie’s appointment to the AA board. This may not be a bad thing. He is very connected to the business community of Melbourne. It might work for AA or it might not, but it’s a better position for your governing body to be in compared to most Olympic sports.
Fools gold: Australia's First Footy Olympics
I can give you quite a few anecdotes regarding wrestlers who have played RL and RU, including myself. However, to keep it simple, I can generalise and say we go quite well in the physical stuff – tackles, rucks, etc., but we are sadly lacking in the creativity department when we get our hands on the ball in space!
In any case, I think the problem is that the game of RU is too elitist and there is not enough done to build the sport in working class areas with tough little working class kids taking up the game. RU is going backwards in this area for mind.
The Wallabies are playing the champs of world rugby. Bring on Quade!
Great read! So many Olympic memories there. Bring on Rio!
London 2012: 30 things from the 30th Olympiad
Tremendous read David. Thanks so much for posting this.
HOWZAT!: Kerry Packer vs David Lord and the World Series battle
I’m all for her emergence as it will help the sport go further mainstream. Don’t know if you caught the women’s boxing at the Olympics, but it had a quite positive impact as far as I can tell. Pity MMA will never be a part of the Olympics – at least for quite a while.
As long as she doesn’t become the Danica Patrick of MMA if you get my drift. It would be too easy to ‘protect’ her status as a star and not set up match-ups with worthy contenders.
Ronda Rousey key to future growth of women's MMA
Australia is not sporting ‘multi-cultural’, but mono-cultural. We don’t win medals across a broad range of sports like other countries do.
Who is the greatest sporting country?
Agreed here as well. That Men’s volleyball final was magnificent!
Sevens should bring curtains down at Rio
Kasey – I say it’s the politics more than the popularity of the sport as to why it will or will not be be included in the Olympics. You need a strong political body lobbying for MMA’s inclusion. What international sporting body with strong links to large corporations is going to do that? The only body that might do it is Wrestling’s controlling body – FILA. They do run 2 events in international competition – MMA and something they refer to as ‘Pankration’. Pankration is a lot more restrictive in terms of rules and protective wear compared to their MMA format. They also have made submission wrestling with and without a gi official styles they support – they just call it ‘Grappling’. So FILA would be the best bet since they have the existing links internationally and with the IOC.
However, FILA like most large bureaucracies is beset with internal feuding and you can guarantee they won’t make an effort to introduce Pankration or MMA unless key powerbrokers within FILA are satisfied and this means medals, prestige and money. Sorry, but Brazil, the USA and Japan are not powerful countries within the FILA structures. I won’t even describe the years of struggle just to get women’s wrestling into the Olympics due to key countries within the FILA hierarchy fighting tooth and nail against the women being included (Iran and other central Asian countries in particular).
So basically I think MMA being in the Olympics comes down to politics. The UFC is a promotional organisation, not a political body with close links with various national Olympics committees as well as the IOC itself.
Olympics highlight the silliness of code wars
Kasey, the rest of the world calls it ‘Folkstyle’. It’s similar to international Freestyle in that you concentrate on leg takedowns, but the difference is once you get to the mat.
Folkstyle awards points for holding down your opponent and controlling him. The guy caught underneath is therefore desperately struggling to get out of being underneath. The guy in the controlling top position is wrestling to maintain the top position and (as they refer to it over there) ‘rides’ the opponent underneath them. This is totally different to the international style where the wrestler caught on the bottom is just defending being turned over by their opponent to get back exposure. This is the main difference, but there are a few other subtleties.
I might add that a lot of Colleges over there run Folkstyle Wrestling programmes and just about all of the Team USA wrestlers (both styles) are recruited from their NCAA Collegiate wrestling programmes.
Olympics highlight the silliness of code wars
True that. However, it’s unlikely to be included in the Olympics for a while, if ever.
Olympics highlight the silliness of code wars
Just to clarify Terry, without going into too much boring historic detail, Greco-Roman is originally a French style of Wrestling. The original style from Ancient Greece is probably more like Freestlye with some submissions added. In any case, Greco-Roman is a very popular wrestling style in a lot of different countries nowadays (just not Australia unfortunately). Quite a few flag bearers in the opening ceremony were Greco-Roman wrestlers. Wrestling as a sport predates just about every other sport.
Olympics highlight the silliness of code wars
Greco-Roman Wrestling boasts some of the most physically and technically gifted athletes at the games. Just because it’s not big or understood in Australia doesn’t mean it should be derided. I’m happy for rugby to be included in the games, but should we be surprised that a football code with its roots in the upper classes of many of its participating countries was included at the expense of other sports that were seeking entry?
Olympics highlight the silliness of code wars
“Wrestling/boxing should be MMA cage fighting.”
– I agree in dropping boxing, but Wrestling needs to stay, MMA is about winning the UFC at the moment. The Olympics should be the pinnacle event of your sport.
The Olympics is great, but could be much better
You may not be aware, but Judo and Wrestling are two quite large international participation sports. We don’t really have a strong history of participation in this country so inevitably you ‘exclusion list’ is biased to some degree. There are all sorts of different games and sports, but only the various forms of wrestling are indigenous to every culture in man’s historical development. The wrestlers and Judokas at the Olympics are some of the finest athletes on the planet. The Olympics is their pinnacle event and millions of people around the world will be watching their country’s participants in these 2 sports just as closely as we in Australia follow the swimmers, runners, hockey players, etc.
The Olympics is great, but could be much better
Some very good points here. It’s definitely needed, not just in Mir’s case, but just in terms of development by adding depth to the various divisions. There’s only so many bouts the UFC can put on the card so developing a ‘minor league’ stream of fighters will only be good for the sport and the fighters in the long run.
UFC: Frank Mir's brilliant move to Strikeforce
Very interesting round-up. Thanks Rabbitz! Good to see some of the more ‘obscure’ sports getting a wrap on the roar. Can I press you for a prediction of Australia’s final medal tally in the shooting disciplines?
Aussie shooters on target for London
Am I alone in thinking the inclusion of Argentina in an expanded SH 4 nations rugby championship is a great thing for the game, both internationally and within Argentina itself?
Sporting officialdom gone mad
Outrageous decision to drop wrestling. I am currently writing an article on this issue – re the politics of it in relation to the IOC – nothing to do with MMA.
As far as MMA being compromised – no way. Most of the US wrestlers come via the High School/Collegiate style, not the Olympic styles. Only a small fraction of the US wrestlers get involved in the Olympic programmes. However, it was an important post college pathway that will now be cut off.
Dumping wrestling from Olympics will TKO MMA