The Tumblr of Luke Thomas. Via SB Nation and SiriusXM Radio, I pay my mortgage through expertise in face-punching contests. Follow me on Twitter: @SBNLukeThomas or friend me on Facebook for more of that and less of this.
I was on Spike TV’s MMA Uncensored Live last night. Just for a brief moment, of course, but I gave an update on the health of Muhammed Lawal. Watch the entire episode above. My segment is in the A block.
I was a guest again on CSN Washington’s ‘The Fight Fix’. This week? A preview of UFC 146’s all-heavyweight main card. As a corresponding piece, I also wrote a piece comparing the UFC 146 main card talent with that of the entire Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix. Feedback welcome.
Here’s yours truly on the set on Spike TV’s MMA Uncensored Live. I don’t say much in this clip, so watch the entire episode. I actually got the opportunity to do a fair amount of speaking, so a big thank you to the good folks at Spike TV for the opportunity.
And yes, that’s the old Total Request Live (TRL) studio in Times Square. Crazy.
Here’s yesterday’s episode (#3 to be precise) of Spike TV’s ‘MMA Uncensored Live’. I come in at roughly the 14:28 mark. My role? I discuss why UFC 146’s line-up of ranked, heavyweight talent is unprecedented in the history of the sport. I also give a health update on former UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez after speaking to Javier Mendez, his trainer at American Kickboxing Academy (AKA).
The lack of depth in women’s MMA is obviously hugely problematic, but it’s not entirely bad and the ascension of Strikeforce women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey is proof.
My first appearance on Spike TV’s MMA Uncensored Live. There will (hopefully) be many more of these to come. Thanks to the good folks there for giving me this opportunity.
In this episode, I discuss Dakota Cochrane’s past in gay pornography (yes, that’s the first thing I ever talked about on national television) as well as Rampage Jackson’s admission he used Testosterone Replacement Therapy (TRT) prior to his bout at UFC 144.
I will be chatting today over at MMA Fighting at 1pm ET. We’ll talk UFC 144, look ahead to Tate vs. Rousey, scoring of Henderson vs. Edgar and whatever else readers wish to discuss.
The latest in my podcast with Bloody Elbow’s Nate Wilcox (MMA Tete-a-Tete: Coarsening the Discourse). This week’s edition we cover:
- UFC on FUEL 1 results and grade the FUEL broadcast
- Weigh-in on Dana White vs. Mayweather
- UFC 144 and whether the opportunity cost is too high to do the show
- Britney Palmer in Playboy and what a complete non-story it is
Part 1 is the video linked above. Watch part 2 here.
What makes UFC 145’s main event so special? I explain on this edition of CSN Washington’s The Fight Fix. The long and short of it: too many converging factors of appeal for any other potential main event on the horizon to rival. Evans ‘Count of Monte Cristo’ vengeance against Jones messianic complex; former training partners now divisional rivals; title opportunities and intense fan expectation.
Möbius Strip Journalism
I do my share of complaining about horse race reporting in politics. Well, more than my share. (Quick definition: horse race journalism is news about politics in which the only question that counts is: who’s gonna win?) But there’s a reason I complain about it. Sometimes the crazy passes by so quickly we don’t notice how fantastic it is that people get paid to pull this stuff off. Unless someone complains. Which someone is me.
Last night on MSNBC one of the horsiest race journalists around, Roger Simon of The Politico, offered an observation so exquisitely circular, meaningless and empty that I had to coin a new name for it: möbius strip journalism.
“The Möbius strip, also called the twisted cylinder, is a one-sided nonorientable surface obtained by cutting a closed band into a single strip, giving one of the two ends thus produced a half twist, and then reattaching the two ends.” Link.
That’s what Simon does in this clip. He’s trying to speculate on the chances that Rick Santorum will come out a winner in New Hampshire. So this is what he says:
The problem for Santorum here is not getting in double digits, he will. The problem is how we in the media define Romney’s success or failure here. If Santorum can keep Romney’s margin of victory below ten percent; that is, if he can keep Romney to a single digit victory, Santorum will claim that he had a very good night and I think the media will agree with him. However, this is a tough state to do that in. Romney lives here. Neighboring governor. The polls show him 27 points up….
Now that’s some twisted cylinder reporting! One media person (Ed Schultz of MSNBC) asks another media person (Roger Simon of Politico) about Santorum’s chances of coming out with some kind of win (who’s gonna win? being the ”one-sided nonorientable surface” I just told you about) and the media person’s answer is: Depends on what we media people say about it, but I can predict what we media people will say. There: I just did!
Now that’s “cutting a closed band into a single strip, giving one of the two ends thus produced a half twist, and then reattaching the two ends…” Isn’t it?
Watch the clip and see if you agree.
