Elsalvajeloco

The bar is so low for wrestling and TBH combat sport films in general that anything that does remarkably well with the critics (i.e. gets a good overall score on Rotten Tomatoes) is refreshing. Both did well with critics so that automatically puts them in a different tier than No Holds Barred and Ready to Rumble. In the case of The Iron Claw and The Smashing Machine, it doesn't hurt to have the A24 label. However, I would say wait until we get through the Golden Globes, different critic choice and guild awards, and the BAFTAs film awards before attaching the Oscar buzz tag. Also: Ten years ago, Foxcatcher got Oscar noms. Compared to the actual documentaries on the subject (John DuPont and the murder of Dave Schultz), the film was cheeks. I am not saying I am happy it got shut out, but I am glad that isn't the shining example for combat sports films. It's been ten years and it's like the film never came out, which goes to show you that Oscar nominated/winning films in some cases have very little staying power. Keep in mind, this was director Bennett Miller coming off the success of Moneyball.

Here is the template for this week: BONUS EVENT #1 Top Rank Boxing on ESPN: Navarrete vs. Suarez (05/10/2025) - San Diego, CA (Pechanga Arena) WBO Super Featherweight Championship: Emanuel Navarrete vs. Charly Suarez - Navarrete, DEC Interim IBF Lightweight Championship: Raymond Muratalla vs. Zaur Abdullaev - Muratalla, DEC Samuel Contreras vs. Dyllon Cervantes - Contreras, TKO, R5 Andres Cortes vs. Salvador Jimenez - Cortes, DEC Giovani Santillan vs. Angel Beltran - Santillan, DEC Perla Bazaldua vs. Mona Ward - Bazaldua, DEC Alan Garcia vs. Cristian Medina - Garcia, DEC Sebastian Hernandez vs. Azat Hovhannisyan - Hernandez, TKO, R3 EVENT #14 UFC 315: Muhammad vs. Della Maddalena (05/10/2025) - Montreal, Quebec, Canada (Centre Bell) Belal Muhammad vs. Jack Della Maddalena - Muhammad, DEC Valentina Shevchenko vs. Manon Fiorot - Shevchenko, DEC José Aldo vs. Aiemann Zahabi - Aldo, DEC Alexa Grasso vs. Natália Silva - Silva, DEC Benoit Saint-Denis vs. Kyle Prepolec - Saint-Denis, TKO, R1 Mike Malott vs. Charles Radtke - Malott, DEC Jessica Andrade vs. Jasmine Jasudavicius - Jasudavicius, SUB, R2 Modestas Bukauskas vs. Ion Cuțelaba - Bukauskas, TKO, R2 Navajo Stirling vs. Ivan Erslan - Stirling, TKO, R3 Marc-André Barriault vs. Bruno Silva - Barriault, DEC Daniel Santos vs. Jeong-yeong Lee - Lee, DEC Brad Katona vs. Bekzat Almakhan - Almakhan, DEC The Saturday events deadline is May 10, 8:30 p.m. CT

The early word for The Iron Claw was it was gonna be nominated for Oscars. AFAIK it was not. Doesn't mean it wasn't a success in any shape or form especially given that a lot of films don't end up on some shortlist, but it does mean that people tend to toss out "Oscar buzz" loosely when they can just say it was a good film.

UFC 315: Muhammad vs. Della Maddalena May 10, 2025 Montreal, Quebec, Canada (Centre Bell) UFC Welterweight Championship: Belal Muhammad © (170) vs. Jack Della Maddalena (170) (first defense) - Della Maddalena, DEC (unanimous) UFC Women's Flyweight Championship: Valentina Shevchenko © (124) vs. Manon Fiorot (125) (first defense) - Shevchenko, DEC (unanimous) José Aldo (143) vs. Aiemann Zahabi (142) - Zahabi, DEC (unanimous) Alexa Grasso (126) vs. Natália Silva (126) - Silva, DEC (unanimous) Benoit Saint-Denis (156) vs. Kyle Prepolec (156) - Saint-Denis, SUB (arm triangle choke), R2 (2:35) ESPN / ESPN+ Preliminary Card: Mike Malott (171) vs. Charles Radtke (171) - Malott, KO (punches), R2 (0:26) Jessica Andrade (126) vs. Jasmine Jasudavicius (124) - Jasudavicius, SUB (rear naked choke), R1 (2:40) Modestas Bukauskas (205) vs. Ion Cuțelaba (205) - Bukauskas, DEC (split) Navajo Stirling (205) vs. Ivan Erslan (205) - Stirling, DEC (unanimous) ESPN+ / Fight Pass Preliminary Card: Marc-André Barriault (185) vs. Bruno Silva (187)* - Barriault, KO (elbows and punches), R1 (1:27) Daniel Santos (146) vs. Jeong-yeong Lee (146) - Santos, DEC (unanimous) Brad Katona (136) vs. Bekzat Almakhan (136) - Almakhan, KO (punches), R1 (1:04) *Forfeits 20% of purse for missing weight Event Bonuses ($50,000) Performance of the Night: Marc-André Barriault Performance of the Night: Jasmine Jasudavicius Fight of the Night: Belal Muhammad vs. Jack Della Maddalena Attendance: 19,786 Gate: $6 million

I believe Craig posted as much in the Upcoming Movies thread so it's probably the same source that likely multiple people are using. I mean the film isn't out yet. The Iron Claw got "Oscar buzz", and we see where that went. Truth is, whether it's actually good or bad, opinions are probably going to be all over the board especially if you feel some way about Dwayne. Also, they've been trying to make the Smashing Machine into a film for a long, long time. Like all that was prior to Black Adam so I am not sure how much of it's about rehab. I think this is the first time he had actual time to do it given his various other projects. Now the Scorsese project? That one came outta of nowhere, and he's never been connected to a director of that magnitude in his entire career besides the aforementioned Safdie coming the closest of anything he's done recently.

WAKAMANIA! The various clips of Waka training to get her first big win and beat Nanae and KAIRI were money. https://x.com/Kiwi__011/status/1638667071805444097

There is a world where the Higher Power storyline ends up with Kevin Sullivan as the man really pulling the strings. It would probably be more intriguing than the hogwash we got where they immediately pivoted on the SAME episode as the reveal.

It doesn't help that Kevin Sullivan got really unprofessional one night at a Clash show and just started shoot whooping his ass as someone who is probably all of 5'6" or 5'7".

Yeah, when news came out he was directing one of those, my belief was they're just picking names out of a hat. Outside episodes of House of Cards, I don't remember him directing much stuff right between his most notable works and 50 Shades.

Since there are not many mid sized arenas (really any off the top of my mind) in the Detroit, a lot of the boxing cards in Detroit post the height of the Kronk Gym have been at the Masonic Temple. Outside of the The Armory in Minneapolis, very few venues look aesthetically pleasing no matter what event you hold there. Maybe the the theater at MSG/the old Felt Forum and Paramount Theater and that's mainly cause the ceiling lighting is easily recognizable. Other than that, most of them have been shuttered or demolished or like The Myriad in OKC and Olympic Auditorium in LA, repurposed for something else.

It's funny cause now Inoue is basically now a more technical Tito Trinidad, who was pretty much one of my favorite fighters, as he has went up in weight. He went from being an infallible destroyer to one that can be very much touched and affected. However, at some point in the fight, he is going to come back and get you out of there. It's clear that unlike a Manny Pacquiao, who somehow went from flyweight to junior featherweight with ease, he really belongs on the smaller end of the scale.

Well, I mean this is what Dana has always wanted. He has been trying to get a boxing promotion off the ground for about 10 years and been frozen out. He has also been bitching that the people who run boxing ran it into the ground. In today's climate, this is the first time that everyone is weak enough for Dana to enter boxing. It also doesn't hurt that UFC had an established connection with the Middle East longer than what boxing has. That said, the structure boxing has had in place for what? More than a century plus? There is no way fighters (specifically the bigger name boxers) would allow for purses to be driven down to the point where marquee fighters are making less than what's been the asking price for megafights for their particular era. Canelo-Crawford wouldn't happen unless some crazy (and more importantly, wealthy) person was willing to bankroll it just like Foreman-Ali in Zaire wouldn't have happened unless it was under the auspices of a promotion overseen by Mobutu's government with added guidance from Don King. The same goes for what happened with Ali-Frazier III taking place in the Philippines under Ferdinand Marcos' reign. I think the biggest obstacle for Dana not being able to enter boxing besides being frozen out politically is they (Dana along with the Fertittas pre-Endeavor) simply won't willing to spend enough money in a time someone like Floyd Mayweather is commanding nine figure purses once everything is tallied up and Canelo is making more than $30+ million guaranteed per fight. This is twenty to twenty five years after everyone considered Tyson, Holyfield, Lewis, and some of those guys breaking the $10 million mark as absurd and about thirty five to forty years after Ali, Frazier, Foreman, and the four kings of Ray Leonard, Tommy Hearns, Roberto Duran, and Marvelous Marvin Hagler getting in the neighborhood of $4m-10m for their fights against each other was considered mind blowing. The fighters, who have much better representation than most MMA folks, will not allow the sport to go backwards. They might be able to drive down purses for some of the guys on the way up fighting six, eight, and ten rounders, but the fact that come this July, boxing for the first time since TV was a thing will no longer be on linear TV pretty much decided it was headed that direction anyway. A lot of the guys we saw coming up the past 25-30 years and their promoters depended on the quarter million to two or three million dollars given by the TV networks and the venues to put on cards to be divvied up between the A side fighters with the rest left over given to their opponents. That's gone now, which is why Turki Alalshikh funding these cards and also Amazon on the PBC side is critical. They're replacing the much needed money streams because unlike UFC and WWE, boxing is not getting major rights fees. They had been depending on the same system established in the PPV and premium cable eras from 35-40 years ago. I mean AEW is getting more money TV wise than Top Rank is/was if I am not mistaken and Top Rank's aforementioned last show on ESPN is set for July. Top Rank Boxing has been around since the early 70s and had a connection with ESPN since the inception of ESPN. AEW is what? Six years old and already lapped them? That's why Dana is like a shark smelling blood in the water even though UFC's TV rights are coming due as well and they're probably getting booted off of ESPN too. They still will make a multiplier of whatever anyone in boxing is making and far exceed them in terms of revenue and profit. That's why Bob Arum casually floated the idea of selling Top Rank when UFC got sold in 2016, and Bob Arum has NEVER EVER been close to selling Top Rank Boxing save for that moment since Top Rank has been in existence. This is basically Vince McMahon in the mid 80s and his competition is still doing fine or able to get by financially, but now they're extremely vulnerable and the time seems right to make a move. However, try as they might on the legislation side, guess what? Trump won't be President forever, phantom third term included. More importantly, by the time this all shakes out, he will be at the end of his term/way too old and on his way out. Okay, the Ali Act gets repealed. Then, in five years, a more liberal regime makes legislation with much more specificity than the Ali Act aiming to empower fighters more than the original especially in light of UFC's own antitrust lawsuit that just closed, then Dana and Turki Alalshikh are shit outta luck. They're playing with matches if they legit try to make that move. As powerful as Turki Alalshikh is in Saudi Arabia, he cannot be as powerful in the United States. If he does try to make a power play or has a terrible gaffe, he might fuck around and get himself kicked out of having any connection with U.S. based entities just like Daniel Kinahan did a few years ago when it was found out he was a notorious criminal or it became more readily obvious he was. Kinahan went from a being potential major player to it being disavowed he had any connection with the sport of boxing. As much as he's already been established as symbolic of human rights violations and trying to silence his critics in his own nation, just on the business end, I would hope Turki wouldn't overplay his hand like that. If he does, we might not see another major superfight in boxing for a decade or so. Dana knows as much about politics as a third grader and perhaps less than a third grader, matter of fact. Worst case scenario, Dana gets to say he was on top of the boxing world for 1-2 years before it reverts back to actual boxing promoters or at least someone with a semblance of knowledge on how to promote. They missed the window for real substantive change by about three or four decades. They are also on the radar after having to pay out for the class action lawsuit. Right now, it would take as long as it took for them to get in New York state to run shows in the mid 2010s, which was about seven or eight years to change what they needed to change. They might still be trying to get into New York if a major union friendly politician blocking them didn't get arrested and his friends and allies didn't get voted out of office in the state of New York. It is going to take a combination and convergence of different things to happen. The only thing that's in place now is the fact the boxing hierarchy is in severe disarray because one guy has a ton of money to work with. That's it. One executive order from Trump isn't going to change anything. He has no control over boxing politics just like technically he really has no actual power over Hollywood. He can float some ideas out there with his old ass pals like Voight and Stallone who haven't been relevant in decades and make one grandstand announcement like he did the other day, but he cannot actually control Hollywood or to the extent he believes he can cause most of it isn't funded by the U.S. government. Same goes with boxing. The U.S. government has went after boxing since the Italian mafia days and before that the illegal unsanctioned fights during the turn of the century and still cannot get significant control over it.

True indeed, but boxing prior to the Ali Act, the top tier guys ALWAYS made more than anyone in walk of the life. The problem is once you get past a certain tier, boxers don't make a certain amount same as MMA. Forever and day, you had guys on HBO and Showtime fighting in featured fights working as a NYPD police officer or working construction or teaching P.E., or some other 9-to-5 job. Hell, don't let it be a PPV card where you need three or four televised fights underneath the main event. You're getting people straight off their couch. Christy Martin fought and beat up some poor black woman from Atlanta who had to have been just getting off her shift at the Waffle House. I believe that was on one of the Tyson undercards years back. If that woman got paid more than $15,000 to get concussed by Christy Martin, I would be extremely surprised. And that's where boxing falls short itself. Granted, you sign the contract and know very well what could happen. However, it ain't worth the money even if most of the beating is purely cosmetic and you got stopped in round 1 taking minimal damage. At least with a Christy Martin, her defense was her offense and she's blocking punches with her face. You might mess around, get lucky, and land as many as you take with her. The other cases? You're fighting world class opposition who in the case of guys like Vasyl Lomachenko and Andre Ward have upwards of 300 or 400 amateur bouts prior to the pros. You have ZERO chance of being even semi competitive. Those guys are rightfully getting top dollar. You as an opponent? No. That's the getting fed to the lions in the Colosseum aspect of the sport.

Boxing is weird in that technically, the Ali Act has been violated and circumvented in several different ways cause boxing politics seem to supersede what should be happening. I mean a lot of this has changed in the last 5-10 years cause there is no more HBO and now no more Showtime. So a lot of the cold war in boxing has pretty much disappeared. That and Saudi Arabia is bankrolling many of the bigger cards (see this past weekend). However, prior to that, Top Rank fighters rarely faced Golden Boy fighters. Up until last year, Eddie Hearn's Matchroom Boxing promotion that has had a longstanding rivalry in the UK with Frank Warren's Queensberry Promotions going back to when Eddie's father Barry promoted against Frank Warren throughout the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s. Those two promotions rarely had fighters face each other especially as the TV situation changed over the years. With four different sanctioning bodies and a lot of presumably greasing of palms and corruption, a lot of promoters got to keep belts in their stable or at least in their region for years. Hell, the super middleweight titles outside of short stint with Roy Jones in the mid 90s stayed in Western Europe for the better part of 10-15 years. To be fair, stateside, a lot of belts rarely got defended outside of North America. We're talking a sport where even the poorest countries have had somewhat thriving boxing scenes. Boxing politics has made it where everything goes where the money goes. Hence, why you have so many cards in Saudi Arabia now. That and there are less mid tier promoters. I mean back in the day you had Forum Boxing funded by Dr. Jerry Buss that had Mark "Too Sharp" Johnson, Daniel Zaragoza, "Chiquita" Gonzalez, a very young Marco Antonio Barrera, Juan Manuel Marquez, and many others. You had AB Stars promoted by the Acaries brothers out of France that grabbed up some of the lesser known guys at the time like Winky Wright, Wilfredo Vazquez, and Ike Quartey. Cedric Kushner promoted Sugar Shane Mosley when he was rising up the ranks as a pound for pound superstar. You had Main Events under the Duva clan which had a plethora guys from Holyfield to Lennox Lewis to Fernando Vargas, David Tua, and Pernell Whitaker. So you had people other than Arum and King and the bigger international promoters like Frank Warren. Now? It's Arum who isn't really a power player anymore at his age and his family runs Top Rank now, De La Hoya whose stable is very top heavy, Eddie Hearn, and Frank Warren. That's four folks between the entire world. And honestly, those four now pretty much work to service Turki Alalshikh. He is the only one that matters now.

Iron Chin, Glass Stomach: The Bo Nickal Story

I think Hansen's way to make up for it was to just hit the whatever blurry target headed his direction as hard as humanly possible.

Jack Dorsey fired a 1,000 people in an email in all lowercase. Google Image Search Jack Dorsey and imagine how it would feel to get your walking papers from that man. And that's one of the nicer mass layoffs that have happened over the last several months. It's crazy how vilified someone like say a Ted Turner was given decades later that we literally have actual Lex Luthors running amok. Not just one, but like several.

I am currently in my 1996 rewatch and boy, I am about to come up on Mongo wrestling. While I am excited this means that Mongo is no longer on commentary, it feels like this is super rushed considering Nitro only started in September of the previous year. I mean IIRC by July, he's doing matches as a Four Horseman and in the main event of one of the Nitro episodes at Disney MGM Studios. Hell, I believe it's the one with the infamous NWO attack. That's way too much in a span of 2-3 months. I think a lot of what happened with Mongo not being a "good" worker is a bit of self sabotage on WCW's part. You can let him be a Horseman but let him be sort of mascot/lesser JJ who also can act as muscle. Then, when WCW is in Chicago or Texas, let him get in the ring and win a glorified squash. I mean that's what they did damn near everytime WCW was in Chicago anyway, and it worked. They're having him wrestling in single matches and long extended stretches in multi-man matches....like why? The great thing about wrestling is you can hide people when you want. Why expose his inadequacies as a performer when you don't stand to gain from it?

Did he start off with poor eyesight? Usually, that's something that comes with older age. I mean if you at one point could see very well, you can wrestle purely based off muscle memory once it starts to go. Either way, he had been in wrestling for a long while before it became readily apparent he couldn't see.

It doesn't sound like the main event is a barnburner either early knockdown aside.

Got stuck in the wrestling transfer portal and cannot get out.

Didn't Shayna just sign a new deal not too long ago? That's diabolical.

I was so incredibly young when I started watching wrestling so I wasn't able to differentiate between heels and face until much later when it started making sense to me. Therefore, the people I throw out there are from when I clearly knew the difference cause the list before then would be just an assortment of random wrestlers. I am thinking probably when WWF had their most talented in ring guys on the heel side minus Bret and Perfect. It had to be like Razor and Shawn and then months later when Owen turned at Royal Rumble 94. Cactus Jack during the Sting feud probably predated them all by a little bit. I know Jack had some matches with Sting and then had another set of matches with Sting. Taker before he officially turned babyface with the stuff with Jake is also on there now that I think about it.

Here is the template for this week: EVENT #11 Garcia vs. Romero: Fatal Fury Times Square (05/02/2025) - New York City, NY (Times Square) WBA World Welterweight Championship: Ryan Garcia vs. Rolando Romero - Garcia, DEC Devin Haney vs. Jose Ramirez - Haney, DEC WBO Super Lightweight Championship: Teofimo Lopez vs. Arnold Barboza Jr. - Lopez, DEC Reito Tsutsumi vs. Levale Whittington - Tsutsumi, DEC EVENT #12 Canelo vs. Scull: Fatal Fury Saudi Arabia (05/03/2025) - Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (ANB Arena) WBA Super World/WBC/IBF/WBO/Ring Magazine Super Middleweight Championship: Saúl Álvarez vs. William Scull - Álvarez, TKO, R9 Bruno Surace vs. Jaime Munguia - Munguia, DEC Martin Bakole vs. Efe Ajagba - Bakole, DEC WBC Cruiserweight Championship: Badou Jack vs. Noel Mikaelyan - Jack, DEC Marco Verde vs. Michel Polina - Verde, TKO, R3 Brayan Leon vs. Aaron Guerrero - Leon, TKO, R2 EVENT #13 UFC Fight Night on ESPN 67: Sandhagen vs. Figueiredo (05/03/2025) - Des Moines, IA (Wells Fargo Arena) Cory Sandhagen vs. Deiveson Alcântara - Sandhagen, DEC Reinier de Ridder vs. Bo Nickal - Nickal, DEC Santiago Ponzinibbio vs. Daniel Rodriguez - Rodriguez, DEC Montel Jackson vs. Daniel Marcos - Jackson, TKO, R2 Cameron Smotherman vs. Serhiy Sidey - Smotherman, DEC Jeremy Stephens vs. Mason Jones - Jones, TKO, R2 Yana Santos vs. Miesha Tate - Tate, DEC Azamat Bekoev vs. Ryan Loder - Bekoev, TKO, R2 Marina Rodriguez vs. Gillian Robertson - Robertson, DEC Gaston Bolaños vs. Quang Le - Bolaños, dec Don'Tale Mayes vs. Thomas Petersen - Petersen, DEC Juliana Miller vs. Ivana Petrović - Petrović, DEC BONUS EVENT #1 Top Rank Boxing on ESPN: Inoue vs. Cardenas (05/04/2025) - Las Vegas, NV (T-Mobile Arena) WBA Super World/WBC/IBF/WBO/Ring Magazine Junior Featherweight Championship: Naoya Inoue vs. Ramon Cardenas - Inoue, TKO, R7 WBO Featherweight Championship: Rafael Espinoza vs. Edward Vazquez - Espinoza, DEC Rohan Polanco vs. Fabian Maidana - Polanco, DEC Mikito Nakano vs. Pedro Marquez - Nakano, TKO, R3 Art Barrera Jr. vs. Juan Carlos Guerra - Barrera Jr., DEC Emiliano Vargas vs. Juan Leon - Vargas, TKO, R2 Raeese Aleem vs. Rudy Garcia - Aleem, DEC Patrick O'Connor vs. Marcus Smith - O'Connor, TKO, R4 The Event #11 deadline is Friday, May 2, 7:00 p.m. CT The Saturday events deadline is May 3, 4:45 p.m. CT The Event #13 deadline is Sunday, May 4, 6:30 p.m. CT

UFC Fight Night on ESPN 67: Sandhagen vs. Figueiredo May 3, 2025 Des Moines, IA (Wells Fargo Arena) Cory Sandhagen (135.5) vs. Deiveson Alcântara (135) - Sandhagen, TKO (referee stoppage), R2 (4:08) Reinier de Ridder (185.5) vs. Bo Nickal (185.5) - De Ridder, TKO (knee to the body), R2 (1:53) Santiago Ponzinibbio (170) vs. Daniel Rodriguez (170.5) - Rodriguez, TKO (strikes), R3 (1:12) Montel Jackson (136) vs. Daniel Marcos (135.5) - Jackson, DEC (unanimous) Cameron Smotherman (135.5) vs. Serhiy Sidey (135.5) - Sidey, DEC (unanimous) Jeremy Stephens (155) vs. Mason Jones (155.5) - Jones, DEC (unanimous) ESPN2 / ESPN+ Preliminary Card: Yana Santos (136) vs. Miesha Tate (135.5) - Santos, DEC (unanimous) Azamat Bekoev (185.5) vs. Ryan Loder (185.5) - Bekoev, TKO (punches), R1 (2:44) Marina Rodriguez (115.5) vs. Gillian Robertson (115.5) - Robertson, TKO (punches), R2 (2:07) Gaston Bolaños (135.5) vs. Quang Le (135.5) - Le, SUB (rear naked choke), R2 (1:54) Don'Tale Mayes (259) vs. Thomas Petersen (250) - Peterson, DEC (unanimous) Juliana Miller (126) vs. Ivana Petrović (125.5) - Miller, DEC (unanimous) Event Bonuses ($50,000) Performance of the Night: Quang Le Performance of the Night: Azamat Bekoev Performance of the Night: Reinier de Ridder Performance of the Night: Cory Sandhagen Attendance: 15,627 Gate: $2.47 million