d-d-d-dAz

Apparently he broke the roof of his mouth, and severed the nerves/roots leading to his upper teeth. Ouch.

Even if you’re not interested in watching the fights, I’d go out of your way to watch Ilima-Lei’s walkout and finish. Ariel (and others) have called it the greatest crowd in Bellator history. Honestly, it was fucking insane. A deeply patriotic crowd of hardcore fans who’ve been starved of quality fights for a decade is a recipe for greatness. It genuinely felt like a Conor-in-Dublin moment. I was sat cageside, supposed to be acting professional, and when the finish happened I jumped about 6 foot in the air and punched the sky. Just an incredible thing to be a part of. She could be a real star for them now.

Day 2/3: Day 2 was the ceremonial weigh-ins for 212 and the press conference for 213. Obviously a tonne more fighters turned up, which was cool - but the real highlight was meeting Nate Diaz. Some kid on the prelims from 212 fights out of Stockton, and he was here for that. When he entered the room there was a palpable sense of excitement. Press conference for the DAZN show was fun, though I’d say the 2 co-mains were far too friendly to one another. King Mo calling out Mitrione was kind of crazy, King Mo isn’t that big in person. The first fight on the main card should be fun - the two dads of either fighter got into it at the press conference. I’d never attended a small room weigh-in before. It’s kind of crazy, to be honest. Without a lot of fans there, there’s a real spooky atmosphere as it’s lots of amped up and/or terrified friends and family members. Day 3: Quite a fun night of fights. AJ McKee still looks outrageously good and Michael Chandler took the ugly route. Turns out that Primus’ leg kicks weren’t a fluke, though - that second round he had Chandler doing a chicken dance all over again. The Frank Mir finish was tough to watch. I don’t know what he’s still doing fighting to be honest, the minute he got cut he looked like he was trying to find a way out. I’m not a fan of his, but that’s Frank fucking Mir tapping out standing to short rabbit punches.

See Point B. I'm not privy to their financials - i'd assumed they'd done their costings and could be financially solvent by establishing a niche audience, monetising via modest subscriptions and adverts - and yes, maybe even having their own channels on linear TV. It seems that their overheads didn't make that possible, and their business plan was based around renting the rights - something they, obviously, didn't announce at launch. Had I known that in order to work they had to take their niche rights and then try and sublicense them non-exclusively, i'd have said they were crazy. You can't rely on sublicense deals, that's insane. Those sorts of deals should just happen organically, and be a nice extra revenue stream. Being reliant on something you can't guarantee is only ever going to end one way.

Day 1 in Hawaii: Bellator booked our hotels, so I’m in the same ‘village’ as the fighters. So far I’ve seen Chael, Rampage, Coker, Herschel Walker, Paul Daley, Mike Goldberg, Douglas Lima, Neiman Gracie. It’s kind of weird. Chael is fucking huge.

It’s not massively surprising. They hinged their UK model on being able to act as a ‘landlord’ of Sports rights - buy them at a premium, carve them up and rent the linear rights individually to TV stations at a premium. Might have worked in a less myopic market, but there’s only 2 things that make money in the UK sports media industry: 1) British Football 2) Complete exclusivity of a niche right that you can monetise with subs and adverts. Trying to sell something that wasn’t British football and trying to retain the digital rights was never, ever going to work.

I can't read. Nothing to see here.

“2006. 7 years old.” Fuck this thread..

It wasn’t. But before the Cormier showdown, the cameras caught Lesnar greeting Rogan and asking to be on the podcast (to which Rogan said ‘anytime’). I can’t imagine Brock actually freeing up time to do it, and if he did I imagine his advisors would stop it. He doesn’t strike me as a conversationalist, and he’d definitely say something offensive.

Nicely phrased. A catchphrase made popular by a gameshow, To Tell The Truth, that started in 1956: the same year from which you inherited your approach to consent. Got to love those little coincidences.

Probably got a bit to do with it, you massive racist sex offender.

Potentially. But then you risk running the country by referendum. Which isn’t what a representative democracy is supposed to be. That is an absolute democracy, and that does not work. A referendum was held, and the result has never been adhered to. As a remainer, I have to be honest and say that the arguments we’ve circled back to (after 2 years of negotiating) are the same ones remain made during the referendum. And we lost. There has to be a marker laid here. If we do not leave the EU at all, then we have to accept that we have told large swathes of the population, who to Keith’s point do not give a shit about any of the reasons why leaving is insane (hence why remain wasn’t listened to), then democracy takes a significant hit. There’s no way around that.

I think the base level effect on our democracy, both functionally amongst certain demographics and on a higher level intellectual basis, if we don’t leave will be profound. But the effect on our actual economy if we do leave will be equally profound. Thats why this is brutal. If economic reality is allowed to win, which frankly I almost think it should, then we risk proving democracy is a sham, and degrading any remaining soft power that provides the liberal west in discussions with the ‘regressive’ east. Fundamentally, this is potentially the most definitive turning point in the history of the democratic epoch. Whether the campaign tactics were dodgy or not, that as an issue has no cut through: the message to political skimreaders, who are the majority of people, will be ‘your vote matters... to a point’... and that slope is dodgy.

Apparently MVP/Daley is going to be live on 5Spike, to avoid that very thing

Apologies for double posting, but its been over a week. WHY does no one care about Bellator... you bastards Bellator have announced a double header at the Mohegan Sun in February, with the Saturday DAZN card headlined by MVP/Daley and Kongo/Minakov (with the winner facing either Bader or Fedor, depending on who has the strap). Good couple of fights, that. Also, the second DAZN show is next week in Hawaii, and a certain stuttering dreamboat is going...