Sonnen talked quite a few people into MMA fandom. You can handwring over if they're the "right kind" of fan or whatever if that's your bag, but his schtick created a lot of new MMA fans.

"And sure, I get it. MMA has juiced up dudes punching each other in the face and baseball has dudes hitting balls into a grass field. Yes, true, but MMA fighters know the deal. Nobody gets into MMA thinking they aren't ever going to get punched in the face or get ther arm twisted in a figure 8 and nobody who wants…

The pirates? You'll still be able to tell how many people watched it overall, roughly. Fan interest in an event is pretty easy to gauge.

Not really, no.

The state athletic commissions are a complete shitshow and always have been, so it comes as no surprise when their shit is laid bare that situations like Sonnen's or Diaz's are a joke, but I'd be pretty surprised to find that the UFC is fixing fights. If they are, they suck at choosing which ones to fix or how to do…

"How is this NOT as big of a draw as yet another title defense for Anderson Silva?"

I'm the first one to eyeroll at Marchman's bullshit and his defenses of it, but his last article and this one by Tucker really do highlight what is a serious issue for the UFC moving forward.

A serious, non-trolling thought:

Except that Subway sucks and Quizno's honey mustard chicken sub was the cat's tits.

The UFC right now feels like Quizno's did a few years ago. Rampant overexpansions without a customer base to support it. Where is Quizno's now?

"This Saturday, the UFC will run a card in Auckland, New Zealand ... Also this Saturday, the UFC will run a card in San Antonio, Texas..."

"The bottom line is that the UFC is more interested in making those three letters bigger than any of its athletes because as long as the athletes aren't bigger than the brand, the UFC has the power."

No, not all. Just more than men by a wide margin.

Says one of the men he's talking about...?

That's a lot of words wasted on a simple answer.

A decent concept, ruined by a flawed execution and turned historically awful by a noble but ill-minded commitment to the material that dragged on way too long. -1,000

You're overthinking it. You're technically right in terms of semantics, but that's how that phrase is used nowadays and no one, by and large, thinks it's odd or takes offense.

Oh, christ, can we keep this stupid shit on Jezebel, please?

You're the winningest baseball franschise ever. You can take off the inferiority complex hat. It looks silly.