Def Jam: Fight For New York meets The Ultimate Fighter?

[diego]

Natural talent is natural talent, it will be there regardless of whether someone is ghetto/gansta/from da streets. None of that means shiet.

I seen some crakheads that won't go down...you get beat up since you wore diapers it helps in the ring

[Pork Chop]

I think the "thugs are stronger" argument's pretty much played out and proven false.

In basketball you've got the europeans coming in and making a strong presence.

In boxing you've got guys like:
Calzaghe, Hatton, Marcos Antonio Barerra, the Klitschkos, and even Muhammed Ali
who were never thugs, but reached the highest levels in the sport.
Manny Pacquiao, one of the most interesting active boxers at the moment, grew up poor but was never some kind of thug.

More often than not I think, the thug type gets shown to have questionable heart in the ring...
Sonny Liston; or that guy that sucker punched his opponent after the fight with just hand wraps on (and I believe later went on to kill Max Kellerman's brother).

I believe guys like BHop are good boxers IN SPITE of their thuggish past, not because of it.
You could make a solid argument that Tyson's thuggish past is what destroyed him.

The best thai boxers of all time (off the top of my head) would include Diesel Noi, Samart Payakroon (sp?), and Somluck - all of whom are pretty stand up guys.

When it comes to Brazillians... the Gracies were kinda rich kids.

"empty barrels make the most noise"
Talking & acting tough are totally different than actually being tough.

I'm not sure which crack addicts you're talking about, the ones that I saw were always wasting away, missing teeth, and had a hard enough time standing up straight when they WEREN'T being hit.

[brothernumber9]

I missed the show the other night. What happened? Also, I'm surprised no one has mentioned the TUF premier that came on last night. 8 fights in one night, with Rampage crackin one liners on the side. Was pretty good.

[kamikaze]

It's actually good to see MMA catering to the african & latino community, but I think a lot of changes really do need to be made in order for this show to be taken seriously. I don't have problems with rappers involved in this show, but they have clearly shown their lack of knowledge in this field, and I feel that lets down true mma fans. Do you think the rappers will get together with the coaches to learn more about this sport, and make better decisions to improve the team? I hope so. My fingers are crossed.

It's cool to see older traditional martial artists as coaches, but how can they really prepare these fighters in mma? They're one-dimensional in a multi-dimensional sport! The only person that knows anything about MMA is Shonie. My money is on him. It would also be cool to see a match between "Mr. International" and "Pretty boy Floyd", but Mayweather won't do it. He'll just hide behind his money, and continue to bash mma (even though he owns a mma team).


Despite all this, Iron Ring is not too bad so. Every new shows starts off a little shaky, but will improve with time. There's probably a lot of people that invested in this, so I'm still showing my support. Good luck to all of you guys!

[SevenStar]

I also don't think that just because some hip hop artists may enjoy martial arts as a pasttime that hip hop needs to be "connected" to it. Hell...there's country stars, rock stars, comedians, and all sorts of other celebrities that like martial arts. Only genre that's trying to attach itself it the hip hop scene...but again it's for obvious reasons. It goes hand-in-hand with social deliquency.

This connection is not new. martial arts, graffiti and video games are among things that have been associated with martial arts years, as I mentioned above. Most notably, wu tang clan, but there are several hip hop artists who train, and many of them incorporate it into their lyrics. It really has nothing to do with MA making them better fighters / delinquents. Hell, where I grew up, a guy who had to be "taught" to fight was a wuss. training in a martial art was not a way to establish street cred...until you used it on someone.

[SevenStar]

I think the "thugs are stronger" argument's pretty much played out and proven false.

In basketball you've got the europeans coming in and making a strong presence.

In boxing you've got guys like:
Calzaghe, Hatton, Marcos Antonio Barerra, the Klitschkos, and even Muhammed Ali
who were never thugs, but reached the highest levels in the sport.
Manny Pacquiao, one of the most interesting active boxers at the moment, grew up poor but was never some kind of thug.

More often than not I think, the thug type gets shown to have questionable heart in the ring...
Sonny Liston; or that guy that sucker punched his opponent after the fight with just hand wraps on (and I believe later went on to kill Max Kellerman's brother).

I believe guys like BHop are good boxers IN SPITE of their thuggish past, not because of it.
You could make a solid argument that Tyson's thuggish past is what destroyed him.

The best thai boxers of all time (off the top of my head) would include Diesel Noi, Samart Payakroon (sp?), and Somluck - all of whom are pretty stand up guys.

When it comes to Brazillians... the Gracies were kinda rich kids.

"empty barrels make the most noise"
Talking & acting tough are totally different than actually being tough.

I'm not sure which crack addicts you're talking about, the ones that I saw were always wasting away, missing teeth, and had a hard enough time standing up straight when they WEREN'T being hit.

I have seen crackheads beat up people on several occasions. One of them used to box when he was younger.

As for the ghetto hardness thing, yeah it's played out. But it does have some validity, just not among people training to fight.

[SAAMAG]

This connection is not new. martial arts, graffiti and video games are among things that have been associated with martial arts years, as I mentioned above. Most notably, wu tang clan, but there are several hip hop artists who train, and many of them incorporate it into their lyrics. It really has nothing to do with MA making them better fighters / delinquents. Hell, where I grew up, a guy who had to be "taught" to fight was a wuss. training in a martial art was not a way to establish street cred...until you used it on someone.

Hey Seven....

I know what you're saying man...that the connection isn't new...the 70's it was the whole kung fu connection and now it's going more towards MMA. All I'm saying is that it's the only GENRE of music that constantly tries to attach itself to things. The only reason I don't like it this time around...is because it's degrading MMA and martial arts as a whole with the image it's representing. They don't know what the hell they're doing and are just trying to leech on for rep. You gotta see the negative connotations associated with that scene as it is in that show.

But who knows...maybe it will get better, and they'll drop the whole gansta b.s. and practice the arts for the arts, and not because they want to attach themselves to it.

[Pork Chop]

I have seen crackheads beat up people on several occasions. One of them used to box when he was younger.

As for the ghetto hardness thing, yeah it's played out. But it does have some validity, just not among people training to fight.

I guess I just haven't crossed paths with any athletic crackheads - all the ones I met were old or women.

I think a good fighter has to know hunger; the desire for something strong enough that it lets him ignore what his body's telling him. Kids that grow up poor tend to know this more intimately than kids that grow up rich; but I don't think it's limited to one or the other. I've known a lot of lazy a$$ rich kids; but I've also met quite a few lazy a$$ poor kids too.

[Suntzu]

i fought Terrance Hill.... i know Mike Easton is a monster(they made the 1st round in NY)..... and i trained with Binky Jones and Tenyah Dixon(both of them didn't make the show)..... not crackheads imo.....

i've only watched 1 episode.... the rappers are annoying..... actually Nelly came across pretty normal.... but it IS BET..... imagine if Mtv did the same

mma doesn't have a squeaky clean image anyway..... BET will not make the image better or worse.... what it will do is open it up to more kids(who sadly watch BET like its the greatest thing on earth) who may or may not know it even existed..... that to me is not a bad thing....

the real fun is when we put the 2 fan bases together.... the drunk loud mouf wannabe thugs side by side with the loud mouf drunk hillbillies..... Dr Kings dream realized

[Pork Chop]

WTF!?! Binky didn't make it?
Geeze
I gotta catch this show just to see how bad it is...
Bad thing about not having cable anymore is that i gotta go out of my way to torrent stuff and I've just been reluctant with that one - too busy watching contender asia; which is like oxygen for me, I need that stuff.

[Suntzu]

http://www.dailymotion.com/relevance...ngs01e02_sport

this is the only ep i watched..... people gotta remember its entertainment..... and "black" entertainment at that.... so its gonna be more "raw" than the mainstream would like.... and that's by design ofcourse....

i'm all into Contender Asia..... but that show is visibly more European than the US version.... i mean where is all the hyper-masciline trask talk and drunken pranks

[Pork Chop]

i'm all into Contender Asia..... but that show is visibly more European than the US version.... i mean where is all the hyper-masciline trask talk and drunken pranks

Yodsenklai trash talks a little; but really, I don't miss the trash talk. Maybe I'm not a "normal 'merican" but I can relate a lot more to the guys on Contender Asia. A lot of the nonsense that goes on on TUF really turned me off to MMA.

I'll watch that show here in a sec...

[Shaolin Wookie]

I seen some crakheads that won't go down...you get beat up since you wore diapers it helps in the ring

No, it just means you got beat up a lot, and now you're wearing adult diapers from the brain damage that resulted from those incessant beatings.

It's the crack, not the beatings that make him invincible. (But only in his head...it's kind of like Achilles.....).

[Shaolin Wookie]

I guess I just haven't crossed paths with any athletic crackheads - all the ones I met were old or women.

I think a good fighter has to know hunger; the desire for something strong enough that it lets him ignore what his body's telling him.

Are you weaving a metaphor that fighting is like crack?

BTW, all crackheads have an "inner Tyson" that only comes out if 1) they're broke, and 2) you have crack in your pockets, and when the crackhead asks if you've brought enough for the whole class when you take a snuff, you say: "Back off, beeyatch! This is independent study!".

[mattb]

..... imagine if Mtv did the same

Don't they have already have a show called "the ultimate fighter"? Oh wait, I get the realworld and ultimate fighter mixed up all the time, sorry.