This is a column by Morgan Campbell, who writes opinion for CBC Sports. For extra details about CBC’s Opinion part, please see the FAQ.
The time period “slap combating” is, in fact, a misnomer.
In an actual struggle, each combatants have an equal probability to inflict injury, and to defend themselves in opposition to it. But you’ll be able to lose one in all these slap contests — which appear to be all over the place recently — on a coin toss. First particular person to ship a blow may knock their opponent unconscious, and by no means must take a shot.
Or the primary receiver may climate that first influence and proceed competing, however compromised. Balance, depth notion, rhythm and weight switch all thrown off by that preliminary concussive slap. In a extra equitable setup, each opponents would…
Wait.
What are we even doing?
Overthinking it, similar to the parents making an attempt to promote the brand new Power Slap League would really like us to. If you requested me to explain the game because it seems, I’d name it artless and harmful. Slap combating needs to invoice itself as a house run derby for fight sports activities, nevertheless it appears like extra of a beanball contest. The distinction is that no person would ask Mookie Betts to face within the batter’s field and take an Aroldis Chapman fastball to the earhole. We would know it is a prescription for damaged bones and mind trauma.
But with Power Slap and its friends, if we carry out the correct psychological contortions, we will persuade ourselves it is a respectable sport, and never a lowest-common-denominator spectacle. So, in fact, right here comes Dana White, president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), and the manager heading up Power Slap, forward of the promotion’s debut occasion, to decorate the enterprise up as one thing moreover a spot the place muscled-up powerful guys go to undergo concussions.
Downplaying the hazard
In a video clip that rippled by means of social media earlier this week, White and an interviewer talk about how slap contests aren’t really that harmful.
“They take three to 5 slaps per occasion; fighters in boxing take 300 to 400 punches per struggle,” White stated. “Nobody’s asking you to look at. Oh, you are disgusted by it? Watch The Voice.”
Dana White on why he pursued a Slap league! <a href=”https://twitter.com/danawhite?ref_src=twsrcpercent5Etfw”>@danawhite</a> <a href=”https://twitter.com/powerslapleague?ref_src=twsrcpercent5Etfw”>@powerslapleague</a> <a href=”https://twitter.com/ufc?ref_src=twsrcpercent5Etfw”>@ufc</a> <a href=”https://t.co/zSbp6snsTT”>pic.twitter.com/zSbp6snsTT</a>
—@ninamdrama
From one other sports activities govt, I’d ponder whether that sort of spin stemmed from disgrace. You know you are promoting one thing crude and harmful, so that you current it as nuanced and comparatively protected, simply to move off criticism, and to really feel higher about your product.
Except we dwell in a post-shame period, and White’s presence in entrance of cameras is the most recent living proof. On New Year’s Eve he was captured on digicam in a nightclub in Mexico, slapping his spouse, Anne. Three weeks later he is doing interviews, promoting open-handed strikes as sport.
Power Slap was a cynical hustle even earlier than that video of White hitting his spouse surfaced, and when you suppose this week’s advertising and marketing push feels hypocritical, you may have some extent. My kindest evaluation? It’s the most recent instance of a star blurring the road between advertising and marketing and dishonesty, besides…
What line?
If Tom Brady can inform us his sports activities drinks struggle concussions and viruses, why cannot his buddy Dana White declare with a straight face that “slap combating” is each safer and extra nuanced than it appears? Who are you going to imagine: Dana White or your mendacity eyes?
Right right here, I may debunk White’s particular claims, however first let’s give him credit score.
Over his almost twenty years within the public eye, White has crafted a private model as a straight shooter who favours blue denims, black T-shirts and the occasional F-bomb. When he has an issue with someone — fighter, referee, journalist — he’ll allow them to know, in public or in personal.
He additionally opens every post-fight information convention by asserting the night’s attendance and gate receipts. If you suppose transparency like that’s widespread, ask the president of your favorite MLB crew how a lot ticket income they acquire every evening. Most professional sports activities groups guard that information extra carefully than U.S. presidents do prime secret paperwork, however White routinely shares gate income figures to the greenback.
After the video of White smacking his spouse went public, a number of figures on the intersection of combined martial arts and the mass media used their megaphones to absolve him.
Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports questioned whether or not White’s workaholism price him his self management.
“For a lot of his grownup life, he is gone close to warp velocity to construct the UFC,” Iole wrote. “It’s OK to loosen up and now not really feel the necessity to push.”
UFC contender Sean O’Malley urged on his podcast that White’s spousal abuse was justified.
“His spouse slapped him,” he stated. “That’s impolite, and it deserved a slapping again.”
White, in distinction, made no excuses when he addressed the incident at a information convention in early January. He additionally defined, basically, that suspending him would solely harm the UFC and its enterprise companions. The solely seen blowback was borne by Power Slap, which noticed its debut occasion pushed again by per week, to Jan. 18.
Dana White says the one punishment that may come from slapping his spouse can be within the public eye.<br><br>”This is how I’m labeled now.”<br><br>Full interview: <a href=”https://t.co/swwUo75xCD”>https://t.co/swwUo75xCD</a> <a href=”https://t.co/F2svIyEHAu”>pic.twitter.com/F2svIyEHAu</a>
—@MMAJunkie
A seven-day delay, to an aggressive promoter like White, simply offers extra alternative to hype the occasion, even when it means spewing half-truths and falsehoods.
The interviewer within the viral video units White up by noting that Power Slap members will not be defenceless, despite the fact that slap fighters stand with their arms at their sides as their opponent winds up and unloads. Defence, or the dearth of it, distinguishes slap combating from different fight sports activities.
As for White’s declare that boxers repeatedly soak up 400 punches per bout?
It fails a fundamental math check.
According to CompuBox, super-flyweight champion Roman Gonzalez lands extra punches per spherical — 31.4 — than another world-class fighter. Across 12 rounds, he would join 377 occasions, nonetheless wanting the 400 landed punches White claims are throughout the regular vary for random boxing matches.
We do not know if White was mendacity or simply exaggerating for impact, however we all know he is aware of higher. He’s a former newbie boxer, and he co-promoted the bout between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor in 2017. McGregor absorbed 170 punches that evening, and nonetheless took much less seen injury than Sorin Comsa did within the different video clip that coursed by means of social media this week.
One slap induced half his face to inflate like an air mattress, and blood to trickle from his ear.
A grotesque scene, and an categorical ticket to spotlight exhibits and social media feeds. The kind of free publicity each internet-savvy sports activities outlet chases lately, and the sort of viral clip that might spell success for Power Slap’s debut occasion.
But organizers like White may not say as a lot in public.
Too very similar to asking individuals to look at, and so they’d by no means try this.
