F@$% the Octagon
Best selling author Matthew Polly, who wrote American Shaolin and Tapped Out and is a sometimes blogger for the ever…
Best selling author Matthew Polly, who wrote American Shaolin and Tapped Out and is a sometimes blogger for the ever awesome fightlinker.com, today covers The Octagon™.
He hates The Octagon™.
I f—ing hate it. I’ve fought in an Octagonal cage, in a boxing ring, and even on top of a platform in China. Of all three the Octagon is by far the worst. As a journalist I’ve covered fights in all three, and the Octagon sucks balls. Let me tell you why.
More Boring Fights: You can’t cut off an Octagon, because it’s basically a f—ing circle.
It’s Too Big: The flyweights have taken a lot of undeserved crap lately for putting on some boring fights. The problem isn’t that they are too small; it’s that the Octagon is too big.
Can’t See Shit: It’s hard to imagine a better way to obstruct the view, short of a black box. I’ve covered cage events from ringside and turned to see that every journalist and most of the audience in the $1,000 front rows seats were leaning back and craning their necks to stare up at the fucking Jumbotron for a clearer view of the action.
On a Positive Note: The grappling component of MMA makes a platform too dangerous. As fans of Pride can attest, there are few more awkward moments than four Japanese referees wearing white latex gloves trying to pull a couple of heavyweights who have gotten tangled up under the ring ropes back into the center of the ring. A cage does contain the action and limit the number of restarts… The Octagon looks badass. More importantly, the Octagon defines the UFC and a cage distinguishes the MMA brand from boxing and kickboxing. Zuffa is more likely to fire Dana White than to fire the Octagon. And frankly, there are worse ideas, like Bob Meyrowitz’s YAMMA Pit—a circular bowl that caused every fighter to trip and fall.