EddieVanHeineken wrote:I don't really get why people have a hard time understanding the concept of "selling a fight. "Throughout the history of boxing this has been going on. Go back and listen to Ali's promo's. Did people think that Tyson really wanted to eat Lennox Lewis' children? Go back and watch the interview with Tyson after that fight, he was very respectful towards Lennox and his mother. Most people didn't know that Tyson and Lewis trained together with Cus when they were kids. Tyson knew Lennox's mother very well. He did what he did to sell that fight because he knew it was his last big fight and he would most likely lose(although a little craziness may have slipped through lol).
The issue is that in order to get people beyond boxing or MMA fans there needs to be real or perceived animosity between opponents, this is true in all sports IMO. you can think that it is wrong and has no place in the sport but it is the way things are. The Lesnar vs Mir fight was so huge because of all the shit talking they engaged in prior to the fight. In combat sports, the general public is not really interested in opponents being respectful prior to a fight. Mayweather became huge when he did the 24/7 series and he engaged in all the shit talk against De Lahoya and people got to see the disfunctionality of his family. They want to see people go at each other prior to the fight, put on a good show, and then after the fight show respect.
In regards to Chael, he HAD to say all that shit to first get Anderson to agree fight and second to sell tickets and make it the biggest fight ever. Anderson DID NOT want to fight Chael at all. When Dana went down to Brazil for the press conference, he had to spend three hours convincing Silva to take the fight. There was an interview with Vinnie Maghaeles on Maruo's discussing how he as Brazilian agreed to train Sonnen. He said he spoke with Sonnen regarding all the trash talk. Sonnen stated he had to sell 80,000 seats at a stadium (this was when it was intially scheduled for Brazil). I don't necessarily agree with talking shit about someone's family, but a fdew years donw the road Silva will be grateful for Sonnen making this one of the biggest fights ever.
Oh, no...I get it, but I'm just stating the reason I believe that Silva wants to fuck him up and hates his ass enough to stoop to the level of shouldering him in his chops at the weigh-in, etc.
As far as "trash talking" in general, it's NEVER appealed to me in sports (except the old school WWF, NWA and ECW
) Hated when Ali did it, hate when Mayweather does it and I hate when Sonnen turns on the WWE shtick and does it. Let the fight speak for you. It might be what sells to the masses, but I hope MMA doesn't go down that road. Maybe they can plot out storylnes in advance for the next fight, or pre-determine the winners too.
"I was looking for that great jazz note that destroyed the walls of Jericho." - The Clash, The Sound Of Sinners
