Monday, June 7, 2010

UCL Postscript

There were actually two underground shows in New York State yesterday, with the UCL rocking the secret location in the Five Boroughs and an event going on in Upstate New York near Albany.  Since cloning technology is where it is, I opted to go only to the UCL - something about riding the subway to a vale tudo event just makes it that much more appealing to me.  Anyway, it was an entertaining show, with James from Ozone Park utilizing both striking and grappling to take the four-man heavyweight tournament.  Also, the folks from CNN Money seemed pleased.  Check out their website in the next couple days for some sort of news piece.

ROC Amateur Show Postscript

Some very impressive performances by some very impressive fighters, including Kempo-stylist Robert Plotkin and Team Endgame's Hector Mercado.  But TSMMA fighter Mike Fischetti's sheer dominance in the cage illustrates an issue that's arising in the amateur league: if you're a badass and you clean out your division, who are you going to fight?  I mean, once you've gone through everyone locally, how financially feasable is it for promoters to fly in a capable fighter from out of state?  Ultimately, as the competitors are amateurs, it might not be that feasable at all (at least in the long-term).  So then you've got the Fischetti's of the world (and guys like Julio Arce and Al Iaquinta when he was an amateur) just wrecking people with no one really coming close to putting them in danger.  The solution to this problem absolutely does not involve forcing anyone to go pro - an amateur fighter should be allowed to compete at that level for as long as he and his team feel he needs to, as that's what the amateur leagues are for.  And really, there might not be any solution to this problem.  But it is something I thought about while watching Fischetti dispatch Team Serra/Longo's Eddie Lenoci.