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Cage Rage 24
Was it Unbelievable or did
you Feel the Pain?
As always after a Cage Rage- the MMA message
boards are buzzing. The promotion divides opinion like no other. Is it
the pinnacle of UK or a nightmarish post Guy Ritchie dystopia. Here-
looking at the main areas of dispute, we’re going to try and get to the
beef. Cage Rage- is it sweet as a nut guv, or a load of old pony?
The Fights
Cage Rage 24 was solid. A deep card with a proper main event. No other
promotion in the UK has the resources to pull so many names. Cage Rage
have been criticised in the past for the quality of their main events.
Tank Abbott has no place with an organisation claiming to represent the
“sport of the future” and I found Gary Turner v Julius Francis a
genuinely sad affair. Hopefully, the last instalment is a sign of
things to come. Ninja v Professor X may sound plain daft- but it stands
up and would be a headline fight on any promotion outside the UFC
(unless the UFC was in Belfast).
Down the card, there were solid match ups. Drew Fickett is a great
addition and most of the fights were well matched and significant. On
the night, we got a variety of fights- ranging from dour, technical
three rounders to mental slugfests and just about everything between.
Some people claim that they put on more strikers than grapplers. I’d say
that’s more a UK MMA thing than a Cage Rage thing. Our better fighters
tend to be stand up guys and fans want to watch strikers.
Tucked away down the bottom of the 24 card was Robert Paczkow v James
McSweeney. I mocked this in my preview as a low rent freakshow. Turned
out to be a throwback to the early days of modern MMA. A guy using his
head (and 23 stone) to adapt his skills to defeat someone from another
discipline. Interesting, exciting and, let’s be honest, funny as hell.
Cage Rage entertained me and proved me wrong.
Another accusation levelled at Cage Rage is that they look after their
boys. That certain fighters keep get asked back despite not being the
most talented. Shock, horror- promoters who build popular characters and
want to sell tickets. The UFC is full of reality TV stars with average
talent. Peter Manfredo was allowed in the same ring as Joe Calzaghe.
This is the way the world works.
Presenters
The amount of stick dished out on the subject of Mark Aplin is
ridiculous. MC is a key job in a small hall where you have to hold the
whole show together. With the big screen content- Aplin reads the cards
and that’s about it. The people who bitch about his voice and dress
sense need to get a life.
It is exactly the same deal with the anonymous post fight interview
dude. He does what he can with what he has to work with. All post fight
interviews are crap. All interviews conducted in the immediate aftermath
of any sporting event are crap. It’s a fact of life. If you had a panel of
Michael Parkinson, Jonathan Dimbleby and David Frost in the cage- they
wouldn’t get any sense out of someone who is in the process of
recovering from extreme mental and physical exertion.
Obviously, you don’t hear the commentary team if you’re in the Arena,
but they are an important part of the whole package. I think they are as
good as anybody. Rob and Malcolm are solid. I find Stephen Quadros has a
tendency to milk really obvious statements in the hope of making them
sound profound, but that’s hardly a major gripe. The commentary steers
clear of any criticism of anything or anyone- but that happens with any
in house production. Piped supermarket radio doesn’t tell you the
carrots will go off in a day or that the lads in the bakery wank into
the doughnut mix.
So we come to the biggy. Andrew Geer and Dave O’Donnell. The general
consensus is: you either love them or you hate them.
Me…I’m on the fence.
They remind me of small businessmen who advertise their own companies in
adverts. Self made men who have built their companies up from nothing.
Men who have learnt the hard way that you can’t rely on others. If you
want something doing right- you do it yourself.
I don’t think they are very good presenters. Both of them seem ill at
ease and end up going over the top too much. There is a home / Arena
divide on this one. At Wembley, the contributions of Dave and Andy are
minor snippets and being over enthusiastic is part and parcel of an
arena show. For the TV audience- it is a different story. Watching them
is tiring. Back to the love them or hate them thing. If say 30% of
newcomers to the sport fall into the second camp- that’s a large number
of potential customers hitting the off button. Their antics alienate so
many people- it would be in their interests to pack it in.
If Cage Rage are going to keep their TV production in house- they could
follow the lead of the UFC. The UFC shows are introduced by the
commentators- sometimes with a guest (What is Randy up to these days?).
That organisation is no stranger to hype, but they don’t fill gaps with
the owner hyping the card like a fruit and veg man at half four. There
is absolutely no need for the segments to exist.
You may say- it’s their show they can do what they want. Roman
Abramovich could manage Chelsea if he wants to- it’s his club. He
chooses not to. Why would anyone hurt their own company? You may say-
Dave and Andy are the faces of Cage Rage. Agreed, and they have done an
amazing job. Dana White is the face of the UFC in many ways. He is at
every event and somehow manages to take credit for every move forward in
MMA. In the build up to the show- he is everywhere. He is not a pro
presenter so you don’t see or hear from him on show night. It’s the same
with Don King and Lou DiBella in boxing. Centre stage for all the build
up; hidden away at show time to avoid scaring the children. Andrew Geer
and Dave O’Donnell are perfect for this role. I heard Andy do half an
hour on 5 Live the week before Cage Rage 24. He was fantastic. Really
eloquent and I’m sure he drummed up a lot of interest from his
appearance. Play to your strengths guys.
The Show
I won’t labour the bleeding obvious. Shooting a cannon of ticker tape
next to cage before a fight has probably been noted as a bad idea.
The big screens are ace for enhancing the fight action, but are poorly
used during the rest of the show. At Cage Rage 24- they showed a regular
trailer with a handsome chap telling the crowd- Hi, I’m Vitor Belfort;
and I’m fighting tonight at Cage Rage. No matter how nice or expensive a
trailer is; once it’s out of date it is worthless. Repeating them makes
them worse than worthless.
The talking head fighter intro’s add nothing. Worse still, they are
clearly scripted. Drew Fickett, the most American of Americans said
before his fight: “Mark Weir says he’s in a different league to me and
he’s right. I’m Premieeer League and he’s Conference.” Everyone round me
was aghast. That Fickett is some guy. Imagine a Yank who can accurately
use the English football pyramid system in a smack talking analogy.
Every single fighter is required to deliver the
same nonsense. It is sub WWE. The script writer should be sent back to
Blind Date. If anything has to be put on the screens- why not do a quick
bio to give the fans a little info about the fighters.
Ring walks and rappers. I read someone on a message board who said that
the ring walks are make the sport look stupid. They went on to say: “you
don’t get all this dressing up and rapping in a sport like Boxing”. I’m
not going to dig up Naz entering the ring on a flying carpet or Eubank
riding his motorbike down the aisle to demolish this one. I hate most of
the showbiz that surrounds combat sports, but I'm a sucker for a ring
walk. For me it’s not showbiz- it’s drama. If someone wants to dress as
a gorilla in the style of a Victorian lady (To Kong Watson), fair play.
As for rappers- never seen Floyd and 50 Cent? IBF Light Middleweight
champ Cory Spinks’ ring walks last longer than his fight’s. And he
dances with his rappers. Not a little roll- a full on, choreographed
dance routine.
Another Arena / home issue. In the Arena; Dizzee Rascal went down a
storm. For a few lasses sat near me- it was undoubtedly the highlight of
their night. On the box- with the music turned right down; it was dire.
Incidentally- all four fighters who came in with a rapper lost their
fights, as did all those who entered as Victorian lady gorillas.
Now to the girls. The lovely, lovely ladies. From watching the Cage
Fighter show on TWC; I get the impression that Cage Rage views women in
a similar way to the 1970s sitcom On the Buses. Birds are busty, up for
it and only be there for decoration. They should be happy to be objects
of lust and expect every remark they make to be twisted into an unfunny
double entendre. Women who are not crumpet may as well not exist. The
‘Cage Babes’ are an integral part of what Cage Rage is today.
There are four ring card girls. It seems I am in a minority of one in
the world of combat sport, as I don’t see the point of ring card girls.
As every other promotion uses them- singling out Cage Rage for criticism
would be pointless.
One thing other promotions (in Britain) don’t have is the dancers. About
ten stripy poleless dollies who gyrate during any break in the action.
Lets not beat around the bush- these lasses are what boozers advertise
as “erotic dancers”, doing moves designed to titillate. This one is
another Arena / home audience split. If gawping at unattainable women is
your thing, you can ogle them to your hearts content at Wembley. If not-
you can choose to ignore them. Even a killjoy like me has to admit they
do add something to the spectacle.
At home- where the next generation of potential fans are (including
women), there is no sanctuary. Any slack moment sees the director
ordering a camera to be stuck up some bint’s kilt to see her bits
thrusting. It is- in the true sense of the word- obscene.
The weirdest part of the Cage Babe experience are the greeters. The ring
girls and dancers are doing a job. They are doing it in skimpy clothing
in a sexually provocative manner- but they are performing a task. Before
the show- the girls hang in the foyer of the Arena and on the
staircases. They are there to be looked at. Perved over.
Before you dismiss me as some over sensitive puff- think about this.
Plenty of punters have their photo’s taken with the girls. When I was a
kid on holiday in Skeggy- you could have your photo taken on the front
with a parrot or a monkey. Something exotic that you didn’t have at
home. Is this how the average Cage Rage punter views women?
I have never seen a woman have her photo taken with a Cage Babe. So is
the message that women don’t count? Of the many lads I’ve having their
picture done, plenty leer and discreetly cop a good feel. A disturbing
number clench their fist and do a fighter pose.
To put it mildly, I don’t think the way women are portrayed in Cage Rage
is not very positive. At worst they are objectified in a manner that is
not acceptable. On 5 Live- Andy Geer said he was hoping to feature
female MMA at Cage Rage in the future. If this does happen- I can’t see
the fighters getting an appropriate reaction from the crowd.
There weren’t too many people in Wembley Arena to celebrate the
Brazilian victory in the main event. A combination of dirty London
weather and saving beer money for Christmas meant there were plenty of
empty seats at the Arena anyway. Cage Rage pride themselves on putting
on a party. The mix of pumping music and scantily clad dancers isn’t to
everyone’s taste, but the event runs like clockwork and there are no
dips in the action. The success of this formula means that Cage Rage now
have a live two hour slot on Sky Sports. Great news for the sport of MMA.
Bad news for the live audience. For the last four fights of the night-
you become an extra in a TV production. A series of early stoppages
meant the crowd were treated to the re runs of the undercard that the
viewers at home were watching. All the momentum of the show drops.
Casual fans- you know, normal people who don’t stay up at night worrying
about the decline of the Chute Boxe camp- headed for the exits. They’d
seen 10 fights; why hang around?
Once again- this is not Cage Rage’s fault. The Premier League organise
their fixtures to fit in with what Murdoch wants. MMA’s closest
relative, Boxing, is basically a TV sport. Many people who consider
themselves big Boxing fans have never been to a live fight. Success
involves doing whatever TV ask you to. The home audience are pandered to
at the expense of Man Utd fans and Welshmen who have to stay up till 3
am to watch their best boxer fight in their capital. The only suggestion
I could offer to keep the tempo in the hall up is to have a couple of
fights on standby, in case of early finishes. This is common practice on
big boxing cards.
Verdict
I think that Cage Rage 24 was an improvement on past Cage Rages. Good
matches, including a worthy main event. Hopefully, the Elite XC deal
will see even more talent boosting future cards. The fundamental
element- the standard of the fights- is sound.
Many of the criticisms of Cage Rage are, in my
opinion, unjustified. Their style is not really to my taste, but they
have built a strong brand and pull crowds, so they must be doing
something right. My worry is- the show will not grow any further if it
does not change. I don't think that Cage Rage can cross over to the
mainstream if it is presented to a TV audience in the way it is
currently.
I think that bringing in an outside production team for the TV broadcast
would be the best thing that could happen for Cage Rage. To let their
baby grow up and head into the big wide world. For them to
have the confidence in their product to let it be treated like a proper
sport. To be like every other sport you see on TV (except the UFC). Cage
Rage is a big enough and strong enough for this. If they concentrated on
what they do best- putting on a live show- Sky can decide what their
viewers want to see. My bet is, they tune in to see competitive fights,
not jiggling arses. There are plenty of other channels for that.
In the mean time- my advice is the same as with
every event. Get out and watch it for yourself. LIVE.
Why should we care about Cage Rage? Well, for a start; they are the
number one UK promotion in terms of size. They are based in London
which, for lazy journalists, is the only place that matters. They are on
Sky TV. For many people- they are the only example of UK MMA that they
see. If they do something well- we all benefit. If they mess up- the
sport in this country takes a hit.
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