"Well, honestly, and I've been talking about this for a while now, in my opinion, MMA has peaked. And the reason it has peaked in my opinion is because I think the sport has took itself as far as it can take itself due to the fact that, in my opinion, the monopoly killed the game. They give watered down events, shitty matchmaking by Joe Silva, and the overall rules of the sport. It makes the sport boring to watch. Whereas in boxing, there are a lot of stars being made right now...the MMA that I fell in love with is dead in my opinion. I feel like it has lost its soul and its personality... I feel like MMA is on the decline right now and boxing is on the come up," stated brutally honest and always outspoken Bloodstain Lane, the self-proclaimed "Mel Gibson of the f--king MMA community, the p4p most passionate mma fan, and the creator of the term Zuffa Zombie." If you know him, you know him, and if you don't, you need to. Check out what else he had to say about mixed martial arts, boxing, and much more.
PC: I have been keeping track of your videos. I gotta ask you, what do you think of the landscape of both mixed martial arts and boxing and the direction that each is heading in?
BSL: Well, honestly, and I've been talking about this for a while now, in my opinion, MMA has peaked. And the reason it has peaked in my opinion is because I think the sport has took itself as far as it can take itself due to the fact that, in my opinion, the monopoly killed the game. They give watered down events, shitty matchmaking by Joe Silva, and the overall rules of the sport. It makes the sport boring to watch. Whereas in boxing, there are a lot of stars being made right now. You can look at Canelo Alvarez, Sergio Martinez, Gamboa, Adrien Broner and Gennady Golovkin. There are a lot of guys right now in boxing that are making the sport a lot more exciting. And if you are on social networks, you will see that a lot more people are talking about boxing more than they are talking about MMA right now. Another thing that is really hurting MMAÂ…I don't even call it MMA anymore; it's really just the UFC. The UFC bought everything out and the injuries are killing the sport, and just the lack of stars, man. It's very, very generic. A lot of frat boy college kids coming out and they are all the same kind of person, the same kind of fighting, and they are all saying the same shit. They are all boxer/wrestler type guys. I feel like MMA is on the decline right now and boxing is on the come up. And like I said, if you are on Twitter or any of the social sites, you see more people excited for boxing right now than MMA.
PC: You named a lot of names in boxing that became stars on HBO, Showtime, or they were a part of an undercard to a huge PPV. How can MMA use their free networks like FOX, FX, and Fuel to create new stars, because it's just not happening right now?
BSL: They are not building any new stars, and if you really think about it, the only star that they have built over the last X amount of years is Jon "Bones" Jones. They are not building any new stars, and to be quite honest, I don't think they have any new stars. I don't see any outstanding signature fighters in the UFC right now to be quite honest. Like I said, I think the sport has peaked. I think a lot of guysÂ…it's the same shit. Everybody is saying the same shit. They definitely should follow the boxing model where they are building up young stars. Boxing has the Showtime fights on Friday [ShoBox], and they got Friday Night Fights on ESPN2. They are putting a lot of young stars out there and people are catching on to them. That's how I found out about guys like Adrien Broner. I really think that they should follow the boxing model. But you know what? I really could care less anymore because the MMA that I fell in love with is dead in my opinion. I feel like it has lost its soul and its personality; a lot of the guys nowÂ…it's become so fucking generic with the fighters now. Back when I was watching Pride, the fighters had personality: Fedor, Cro Cop, Shogun and Wanderlei Silva. There are only a handful of guys today that have personality today because that era is pretty much done. There are only a handful of guys that have that Bushido spirit that those guys possessed. Other than that, it's just a bunch of dopey fucking jerk job college frat boys that wanna start fucking doing MMA, and to me, that's not what I'm into, man.
PC: Frank Shamrock recently did an interview basically saying what you just said. He feels the UFC, and Dana White in particular, has taken the art out of it and have just made it look like something cool to do, which is why a lot of people are getting into it.
BSL: It's lost its personality. You know, I go to these gyms and I'm still debating if I wanna do MMA, boxing, or Muay Thai, but I go to a MMA gym and most of the people there are not fighters, man. They are just somebody who looks at it as something to do and they go train and they get a fucking Mohawk and their fucking fingernails painted, and honestly, it's just fucking assholes training in MMA right now. Boxing and MMA are a lot different, and I talk about this all of the time. First of all, if you are going to train in MMA, you have to have a lot of money. You gotta buy a Gi, you gotta buy shin guards and gloves. You gotta spend $6 to $700 on equipment. In boxing, you get some headgear and some gloves and you're good. Boxing appeals more to the blue-collar people; the poor people. That's the biggest difference between boxing and MMA. And that's why boxing isn't going anywhere. I forget who said it, but they said as long as there are ghettos in America, boxing will always exist. Boxing is the poor man's sport/blue-collar sport. MMA, on the other hand, is for rich kids that come from money because you need money to train in the sport. You have all of these fucking bozos who are training in the sport now, and like I said, they are not fighters. It's just the cool shit to do.
PC: Just to clarify, we are not comparing the two sports, because you have gone on record several times and said how different they are, but we are basically bringing down the direction they are headed into.
BSL: Absolutely! They are two different sports and you will always have these MMA assholes like Joe RoganÂ…and I don't hate Joe Rogan, I like Joe, but Joe said it's the closest thing to real fighting. No, it is not the closest thing to real fighting. Listen to me, the fights that I have seen end quick. It's about whoever gets who first. There is no pulling guard and fucking going for gogoplatas and omaplatas and shit like that. It's about who lets their hands go first and about who connected first. Real fights go from 0 to 100 miles per hour in a spilt fucking second. As far as MMA and boxing goes, none of them apply to real fights. I've seen Black Belts that I know personally get laid out in a bar fight. People gotta stop comparing MMA to boxing like that. They are both good sports and I have trained in both personally. Everybody can say what they want about me, that I'm a keyboard warrior and all this shit, but I've trained boxing for fucking 10 years of my life. I've done MMA for 4 to 5 years of my life. I trained at established gyms in boxing in Queens. I trained with Monte Barrett and those fucking guys. Boxing is actually a much harder sport in my opinion because first off, there are no other options but to stand there and throw punches. You punch and move. If one guy is better than you on your feet in boxing, you're fucked. In MMA, you could hold a guy, clinch the guy, go for a takedown or hold him against the fence. Boxing is the hardest sport in my opinion.
PC: You did a video about it and I know you despise the Bonnar/Silva fight. Elaborate on why this fight bothers you so much.
BSL: I think the UFC should just cancel them fucking selves already. The organization is a joke. Bald Bozo Fuck Dana White always talking about the UFC, where the best always fight the best, and no freak show fights. "We're not Pride." Yeah, you're putting on a freak show fight when you got a clown like Stephan Bonnar, AKA The Brooklyn Brawler or the Barry Horowitz of the UFC, fighting the greatest, in their opinion, MMA fighter of all time. It's a fucking joke. It's the equivalentÂ…if you are a wrestling fan back in the day of fucking the Undertaker wrestling Barry Horowitz. That's what it's the equivalent is. It's a joke for them to put that out there. I don't give a fuck if they want to say he is saving the card. He ain't fucking saving the card. I'm so sickÂ…I respect Anderson Silva and I respect his skill set and I do think he is one of the all-time greats, but it's just so convenient that he moves up to 205 to fight fucking stiffs and human punching bags like Stephan Bonnar, Forrest Griffin, and yes, Forrest Griffin is a fucking human punching bag, and that other fucking jerk job who is not even in the organization anymore, James Irvin. Yeah, move up to 205 and fight guys like that, but when you start mentioning Jon Jones' name, "Oh, we are friends." You aren't no fucking friends. You guys didn't grow up together. You probably don't even know each other's wives names. It's a fucking joke. So I'm disappointed in Anderson Silva for even taking that fight. When it was brought up, let's set up a fight between Anderson Silva and Nick Diaz, Dana White scarfed at the fucking idea. He said the fight made no sense. Are you kidding me? Yet you make Anderson Silva vs. Stephan Bonnar. I don't give a fuck what anybody says, Stephan Bonnar is a company man, okay, and I really believe he will be paid to lose the fight and take the fucking fall. I believe that was the case in the Forrest Griffin fight. I believe Forrest was paid to take a fall in that fight because you know why? He is a company guy. He is a Zuffa employee. That's why Dana loves those guys so much. It's just sickening, man.
Trust me man, people can laugh at what I'm saying, but the UFC is not gonna risk Stephan Bonnar beating Anderson Silva. If that happens, the whole mystique of Anderson Silva gets thrown out of the window and the whole mystique of the UFC gets thrown out of the window. Trust me, Stephan Bonnar will get paid to take a fall. People can say what the fuck they want, but that's what I believe and that's what's gonna happen. It's gonna be a highlight reel knockout for Anderson Silva. That being said, let's just say he wasn't paid to take a fall and Stephan Bonnar wins that fightÂ…I don't know what to say to that. I would put a video out that would destroy these guys. It's just really a sad fucking fight and it shouldn't be happening in my opinion.
PC: On the flip side, a lot of people didn't like the dueling cards in boxing, but I thought that showed how strong boxing is right now. Golden Boy didn't waiver on the date because of Top Rank's PPV and vice versa. That was a power move in my opinion for the sport.
BSL: I agree with everything you just said. I think that boxing isÂ…it never really left. The UFC was hot for a minute and they were doing good, and while they were doing good, look at the stars boxing created. Once Canelo Alvarez learns how to speak English, it's gonna be a wrap on a lot of combat sports participants. He is going to be the fucking guy. As far as the fights go, I'm not gonna say the Sergio Martinez fight was an amazing fight. Sergio Martinez schooled Chavez Jr. for 11 rounds. He took him to school, using angles and his speed, and beat the shit out of Chavez Jr. The 12th round was one of the better rounds I have ever seen personally, but with that being said, I do not want to see a rematch to that fight. Why do you want to see it when it's going to be the same thing? Chavez's style is not good for Sergio Martinez. He plods around too much and he doesn't have the footwork or the speed to keep up with a guy like Sergio and it will be the same thing. If you wanna do it for the money and you care about guys making money, yeah, make the fight, but me, I want to see another fight. I want to see Sergio vs. Triple G [Golovkin] or just another big fight. I don't feel like Chavez deserves a rematch. He didn't do anything besides that one big right hand he landed and a couple of hooks. As far as the Canelo fight, we all knew he was too big for Jose Lopez, but listen, it's not about that to me. I knew Canelo would run through him. Every time I see Canelo fight, I always see new improvements to his game. I always see something different he adds to his game. It's the little things that he adds to his game. Al Bernstein said he doesn't trust his defense, but I actually think he improved in his defense, but when you throw that many punches and combinations and the offense that he throws out, you leave yourself open to get countered every now and then. That's what happens when you are an offensive fighter. I like what I see in him. And just overall, it was an amazing weekend in boxing and month in boxing. Andre Ward looks unbeatable in my opinion right now. This guy is headed to be one of the all-time greats in my opinion. He just makes no mistakes. He is almost a flawless and perfect boxer. Then earlier, you had Triple G. It's been an amazing month in boxing and Dana White and the Fertitta's gotta be a little nervous because they talked a lot of shit about the sport of boxing. I remember Rogan did the ESPN interview with DiBella and they were saying boxing was over and when guys like Floyd, Pacquiao, and Hopkins retire, boxing is over. I did that video showing that he was completely wrong. More MMA fans are starting to tune into boxing now and they are starting to like boxing more.
PC: I appreciate the time. I enjoy the videos. I think they are spot on. Where can people check you out?
BSL: They can check my videos out at http://www.youtube.com/user/TheTeamTakeover and they can follow me on Twitter www.twitter.com/bloodstainlane. Like I said, the only fucking site worth checking on the internet for combat sports is FightHype.com. Fuck the restÂ…fuck all of the other boxing websites It's all about FightHype.com in my opinion.
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]