Issue 054
September 2009
This is YOUR page to tell us what you think of all things Fighters Only and MMA! What do you like? What don’t you like? Who do you want to see fight who? Send us your pics of you with fighters – and if you can slip a copy of FO into the pic, even better! Write or email in and the most interesting letter gets an FO T-shirt.
Write to us, including your contact details, by email to [email protected]
Just read your article regarding the Silva vs Jones fight... What a load of rubbish (the idea of the fight that is). Although his effort in his last few fights has been questionable, Anderson Silva has been like a phenomenon in not just the UFC but in MMA as well, and the thought of putting him in with a great (but has been) boxer isn’t a “good for business move”. It’s more a laughing stock.
There is no questioning Jones was embarrassed in his fight with Calzaghe (who in my opinion wasn’t at the peak of his career), and he was shown up, and shown-up big time. Now they wanna put him up against a well-rounded athlete, and I’m sorry to any boxing fanatics, but MMA guys train a hell of a lot harder. Don’t get me wrong, boxers can pack a punch, but what happens when their punching power is strapped in an armbar?
The UFC are going down the right road at present – Anderson Silva is a great athlete and has defeated some legends (Henderson, Franklin et al) and putting him up a weight and against Forrest Griffin is a true test moving him forward, putting him against Jones would be like pulling a ‘Return to Go’ card in Monopoly.
Dan Wilson, via email.
Hello, just want to tell you that I have been a huge fan of the sport for over 10 years. I picked up your magazine for a good read at the beach. Let me tell you I could not put it down. Loved your articles. I would love you long time if you can, in one of your issues, give us readers a list of gyms that are good in different cities. PS Give us more up-and-comers, xxx
Veronica, San Diego, via email.
Hi Veronica, there are many gyms worth checking out in San Diego, including some of the best MMA, BJJ and Muay Thai gyms in the country. We’d suggest speaking to each of them and checking them out before signing up to anything though.
Hi,
I just recently returned back from a tour of Iraq. I came across this picture of me reading a copy of Fighters Only on one of Saddam Hussein’s thrones on Christmas Day 2008, and thought you would like to see some of the places readers enjoy your mag.
LCpl Chuck
Just thought I’d send in a response to Richard Cartey’s take on the division debate in MMA and, more particularly, his focus on the different “championship” weights.
From a fans perspective of MMA, one of the attractions of an MMA event, over say boxing, is that it’s the card that matters, not just the headline bout, and it is the quality of the fights across the board that decides whether fans feel an event was a success or not. Often with the UFC the ‘fight of the night’, submission or KO may not even get televised because it was among the unaired fights of the undercard. Belts are fine for ‘world’ champions, but I like to think that the majority of MMA fans are more into the fights and less bothered by the belts and the hype that surrounds them, especially when not all the world’s best (a nod to that fighter whose name begins with an F) get a crack at fighting for them.
I don’t really care that much about title fights, well, I don’t care about the titles. Anderson Silva is a great example of what can go wrong with a champion. There’s no denying how great he can be but his last few fights, all title fights, have been crap, among the worst on the card. The fans of MMA haven’t just absorbed the wins and continued to wave the flags. Boo-boys can often just be those people ignorant of the great ground game unfolding before them when what they want is a tear up, but they can also be fans of the sport who call a turkey a turkey. So fighting for a title doesn’t guarantee anything and MMA fans know this. On the other hand there have been times I’ve been watching a fight and wished it was for a title so there’d be another two rounds of action.
Richard Cartey’s right, we don’t need more weight divisions for belts, but maybe we should see more catchweight fights filling in the gaps between weight divisions.
Roger, via email.
