THE TORCH: THE #1 WORLDWIDE BRAND IN COMBAT ENTERTAINMENT COVERAGE - OVER 250 MILLION VIEWS & LISTENS PER YEAR REREACHING MORE FANS EVERY WEEK THAN ANY OTHER INDEPENDENT SOURCE • VIA THE WEB, MOBILE, PRINT NEWSLETTER, AND ITUNES
Following Herschel Walker's successful MMA debut on Saturday's Strikeforce: Miami event, another former pro athlete that has "fought" a mixed martial arts bout wants a piece of him.
On his Twitter account, Jose Canseco said the following: "I guess I may have to show Herschel Walker who the real bad Boy of the Sports industry is. If the powers that be are reading, I want in."
Canseco, of course, made his MMA "debut" in Japan in 2009, getting manhandled by Hong Man Choi in the first round of DREAM's Super Hulk Tournament. The former Major League Baseball player and steroid user/whistle blower is now trying to lobby for another chance in the sport.
It would be one hell of a media spectacle for the sport, but if any organization touches this with a ten foot pole it will likely go down as one of the worst ideas in the history of the sport.
Penick's Analysis: This would seriously be the worst idea for Strikeforce to even consider, and I don't think Scott Coker and Showtime are that stupid that they'd go along with even entertaining the possibility. Canseco's an absolute joke, was destroyed in his only MMA fight, would get destroyed by Walker and it would make a mockery of the sport to have it on any type of major event. For his sake I don't think Walker would go along with it, as he's taking things seriously and understands how difficult this sport is, and if he fights again they'd be best suited placing it on a Challengers card instead of hyping it for a major event, as there has been some backlash on such an amateur bout being placed on a more high profile event. Canseco needs to realize that he failed at Celebrity Boxing, he failed at MMA the first go around and there aren't many people that would want to have anything to do with putting him back into a second one.
ALERT: Every Tuesday night, listen to the MMATorch Livecast from 9-10:30 p.m. ET or listen now to the most recent shows by clicking here. Listen live this coming Tuesday as Jamie Penick, Rich Hansen, and Matt Pelkey discuss the latest MMA happenings. Online listen at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/mmatorch or call into the show at 646-716-8090 to either just listen or participate.
"There's still a large contingent of people, that they just want to see these guys almost die, or the other guy almost die and come back, and sometimes fights are like that. Certainly they are. But sometimes you get technical masterpieces too, and to hate a beautiful, technical fight - you're not really a fight fan...
Diaz has a granite chin, possesses perhaps the best recovery in the sport, his pace and conditioning are second to none and he sets records with the volume of his punches almost every time he steps into the cage. Nick Diaz is simply designed to fight the way he fights, and not many other fighters are...
"There was a lot of poison going on around there and I'm really disappointed because we had a good thing going. It was a good thing and I think people's egos got in the way. Well, not people just Javier, his ego got in the way, and too many cameras in the gym and him trying to build himself up and his brand, his AKA brand...