I've written on several occasions about my dislike of Fight Night.
I don't like the concept of amateurs with no skills at defense receiving a beating.
I don't like the broadcast with the same stale gags and the four-man team of announcers all going "OHHHHhhhhhh" whenever a blow is struck, and you can't tell what has happened and they all talk over each other anyway.
And I don't like the thought that the first time someone gets seriously hurt in the ring -- I know, it hasn't happened in all these years -- it could go very hard for The Ticket.
Of course, I don't really expect to have any influence on things like this to begin with, so the survival of Fight Night isn't all that disappointing. I conceded defeat in last year's column on the subject.
So this year, I'll content myself with pointing out something of which the Ticket hosts seem unaware:
Laurence Cole is not a good boxing referee. He is very poorly regarded in the profession. His father "Dickie" Cole held a number of high posts with Texas and boxing organizations, and promoted Laurence's refereeing career with plum assignments, or so it has been reported. His performances in the ring have been roundly (NPI) criticized, and he has even been suspended from officiating bouts in Texas. His poor ring command is regarded as dangerous for boxers. Check it out:
Laurence Cole Called Out by Boxing Writers
But The Ticket seems to think it has a legitimizing presence with Cole in the ring. It doesn't.
Hope everyone gets home safely and with brains intact tonight.
Fight Night may be the hosts' favorite of the year. But I guhgree completely that it's unlistenable garbage via radio. Never did some of the research online like you did about Cole, but this just reinforces that I'll be doing anything other than listening tonight. I'll admit, though: if Mike in D[ouche]ville were to climb back in for a rematch with Jake, I wouldn't miss it.
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty much with you. Not about the referee, as I have no opinion on him. But I have no interest in Fight Night, and not sure why anyone else does.
ReplyDeleteI am seeing that Laurence Cole is still consistently officiating World Title matches so, he is kind of a big deal and it absolutely does legitimize the event to a degree.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.premierboxingchampions.com/fight-night-june-29-2019
https://www.badlefthook.com/2010/6/10/1511235/poll-worst-referees
ReplyDeletehttp://www.boxing.com/laurence_cole_is_an_idiot.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZLNFBFu57w
https://roundbyroundboxing.com/judging-the-refs-the-2015-laurence-cole-awards/
Just a sample . . . .
Agree. Broadcast of the fights is pure garbage. The best radio is the guys sitting around at round tables without the distraction of "fights". A generic guys night out with round tables beats stupid fight night. I think the hosts mistake what is the most fun for them with what is good radio for the P1s. The other beat down is the constant interview of the "fighters" in the weeks leading up to the "fight" night.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the P Man on this one. It's a huge liability risk for Cumulus and the station. I know they sign releases but in today's litigious society the risk of a "payday" is always there.
ReplyDeleteDoes the security detail at the Bomb Factory do a good job of keeping the crowd under control? I have seen YT videos over the years where the fights in the crowd were better than the ones in the ring.
In fairness to The Ticket, and in partial refutation of my own point, Fight Night is mainly for the benefit of the P1 who attends the event. Being at the joint is undoubtedly more fun than listening to it on the radio.
ReplyDeleteAnd it's nice to hear Rich Phillips's voice again.
I wonder if Junior's Fiance is at Fight Night... You know, the local news anchor that shall not be named..
ReplyDeleteI just never understood why anyone would want to participate in an event where they aren't getting a single dime and the station makes a boat load off the sponsored event.
ReplyDeleteMy guess: Sole opportunity for their fifteen minutes of fame, courtesy their favorite radio station. They get to be on the shows the week before and get to hang, briefly, with their radio heroes.
ReplyDeleteI listened to almost all of it. The blow-by-blow was mostly incomprehensible, no shock there. Some very random observations:
(1) Almost no Gordon. Very strange.
(2) Mike Sirois, not a major presence in the broadcast, cracks me up.
(3) Bob's steady voice and sly observations were a highlight. I laughed out loud when he made some remark about a fighter needing to regain some energy in round 3 after having spent all of it in the first fifteen seconds of round 1.
(4) George mentioned that the fighters spend some time with "trainers" before the fights -- probably tips on defensive necessities to keep fatalities manageable.
(5) Corby only made one AIDS reference that I heard.
(6) I miss Rich Phillips.
Emergency Brake of the Week rarely goes to the best E-brake. Gordo's Mr. T cancer comment was the worst candidate of the three. The callers that vote get this wrong more times than not IMO with the Muser candidate often winning over much better candidates. Classic examples include some of Killers flub ups that continue to be replayed to this day losing out to a Muser having a minor misstep. Take away the vote from the callers.
ReplyDeleteRe: The e-brake, I agree the best candidate does not always win. But, the best part are the callers upsetting Jub and what not. Remember back in the day when shows would roll screenless once in a while and we'd hear similar bits from callers? The e-brake voting is the only throwback to those days.
ReplyDeleteNot that I'm saying The Ticket needs more segments with callers. I can't remember the last time I heard the Musers or Hardline actually take calls.
The Musers take calls every Friday (and Monday during football season)
ReplyDeleteRe: Emergency Brake
ReplyDeleteIf a Muser is nominated they will almost always win. Gives callers a chance at some nut kicking.
Re: Fight Night
Of all the events they do, I think it's odd that they like Fight Night the best. Maybe it's a closet desire to participate.
Agree about the beating the crap out of each other, listening to it, it would seem that there are a lot of mismatches. Especilally in light of football CTE data, why do it? Live and let live. Retire fight night.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing worse than the beat down of amateur fighters at Fight Night is the beat down we P1s are subjected to before and after the fight. How many times do we need to hear from guys in their 40s to 70 bragging about what a voracious party guy Siroise is. My god the postmortem on fight night is annoying enough to stun a Mastodon. Retire Fight Night or risk losing more listeners. I am hereby threatening to switch to the fan if Fight Night continues, at least during the build up and days after the event.
ReplyDeletePlains, I don't think you ever caught the Hardline in the early days. They took calls and it was great, for the most part! The callers became "personalities" in their own right. You had "J D" the ultimate Cowboys fan; Paul the damn Viking; the little effeminate piano player that Greggo would have him close out his call by playing "Satin Doll", so so many! But that was back when it was the real Hardline. Back before it became 90% weak Corby TMZ ramblings!
ReplyDeleteYou're right, Slinky, I didn't get to Texas until 2004.
ReplyDeleteBut it's my impression that it was the bits that really brought taking calls to an end. Many more bad bits than good, guys who think they have a bag but entirely lack a bag. Then there was Blue with his increasingly racial take on everything -- really tiresome. I'm glad they don't take calls except very rarely. (Musers on Friday, the occasional screenless fill-in segment.)
The piano guy was Rogers in Hammerstein. There too was the Greek Man, Hippie in Euless, Pittsburgh Dave, Sideshow Bob, and others. Rhyner would often, and unironically begin a call in conversation by say "Let's mosh." Frankly, it's how the station was built. It was that truly intimate interaction with the listener that made The Ticket what it is today. They took your call and spoke to you like a guy sitting next to you at a sports bar would--a dude who you become fast friendship with. Now.....I'm told how to think by Corby, how to live my life by Jr and Gordo, and how I am to watch sporting events by Bob, Jake, Sean Bass, et al. They should change the station's name to The Prescription.
ReplyDelete1045: Nice composition! I don't think things are that bad at The Ticket, but liking your style. More please.
ReplyDeleteAnd no, I didn't write that comment.
IMO, the phone calls in the early days had value, but as time went on people started calling in just to do bits. That gets tiresome pretty quickly. The Musers and BaD Radio have carved out a spot for those calls, and they work in that context. I think Mike grew weary of the homers from Cowboy Nation and Longhorn Nation (disclosure: I'm a UT ex) and just decided calls added nothing to the presentation. It's probably just as well, because all callers to the Hardline would do now is just argue with Corby.
ReplyDeleteIs there anyway to get a petition started to replace Hardline with Country Force?
ReplyDeleteIt seems obvious listening to the post Fight Night promos that a lot of the overreactions during the fights are just to get on the promos.
ReplyDeleteI doubt the reactions are to be on the promos, but rather for there to be promos, period.
ReplyDeleteBoy a day like today with the Zeke contract news shows the difference between the Fan and the Ticket. While the Fan was breaking down every detail of the contact and implications, Gordo was in the middle of a 15 minute soliloquy on the difficulties of trans-gendered relationships when a lesbian partner changes sex. Maybe it was a bit whimsical and funny but I think as more young people grow into sports talks fans the Fan becomes a clearer choice especially as the main host become more and more "olds" with each passing year. I love the humor of the ticket but on days like today perhaps a little more hard core sports talk are in order? The side by side comparison of the Fan and Ticket in the wake of the Zeke signing was embarrassing IMO
ReplyDelete10:19: Another perspective:
ReplyDeleteMany of us care enough about the Cowboys that we want them to win, and we understand the importance of Zeke to them winning. But We also do not care about the details of the contract.
Also, Sturm will most likely cover the same turf that you wish the Musers would have. And when he does, I will tune out.
Another perspective: I instantly punch out ANY time Gordo shoehorns in yet another segment on (and generally in praise of) bi/gay/tranny/sexual deviancy, regardless of breaking Cowboys news, or anything else for that matter. He's done it to death yet somehow seems to think that there is an appetite for more of the same.
ReplyDeleteAs Norm would say, I feel free to get my sports talk somewhere else at those ever-increasing moments. Different strokes I suppose...
Per Ed: I punched out on Gordon/George sexual orientation talk today. George and Craig just need to lay out when he starts that stuff, which is really only a vehicle for baiting George. I agree -- it's hugely tiresome.
ReplyDeleteIf Zeke doesn't care about the details of his contract why should I?
ReplyDeleteI agree with the above comments about Gordo's fascination with nontraditional sex behavior. My comment was about how I just don't care about details of a contract.
ReplyDeleteI would venture to guess more people that listen to sports talk (even the Ticket) would care to listen to contract details in the immediate hours following the breaking news than Gordo sexual deviant talk. I am just guessing here but am I right?
ReplyDeleteNorm and Donnie had some interesting chat on that topic (Elliott contract, not sexual deviance) today.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to listen to Gordon torture the English language in attempt to avoid the male/female binary. Ditto with his self-censorship vis-a-vis his characters (depending on the character's "voice type") and even no longer calling the Cowboy cpu The Big Black Cowboys' Computer (which was the actual name of the computer used by the team). What's more interesting is what he chooses not to censor. For example, the machine gun fire of subtle and overt unflattering depictions what he would now deem offensive if spoken of (no matter how obliquely) an African American foisted upon Fake Tiger's asian mother. Or the none too subtle orientalist positioning of the fake Michelle Wei.
ReplyDelete@11:18
ReplyDeleteI had noticed that they no longer referred to the Big Black Cowboy Computer.
The Hardline is also bad about picking and choosing when something they would otherwise consider offensive can be used for comedy. We've heard Corby's stereotypical Asian and Mexican drops a hundred times. On Wednesday they introduced an NFL segment as the NFL Gay Bar complete with Danny doing an effeminate, stereotypical vocal. But then Community Quick Hits is often an exercise in expressing outrage over the social justice news story of the day.
Corby quote "I was there when they tore down RFK like in the 90s". I drive by it a few times a month for work. Indefensible. What an idiot.
ReplyDelete@ 11:45 am. Get over it snowflake! It's called "humor"! I don't like Corby, but good on the fella's for not kowtowing to all the politically correct bullish!
ReplyDelete@CEB perhaps you missed the words "picking and choosing" (and thus his point) in 11:45s comment. The lament is not that they run against the PC grain on occasion but that they more often do not....and unfailingly from the perspective that a difference of opinion is indicative of ignorance....
ReplyDeleteI wonder if the K-Ticket interwebs eggheads are able to actually track and pinpoint the times at which punchouts do indeed occur (for whatever reason). if so I have a hunch they could fairly easily tie back to individual segments and associated subject matter, and/or during show transitions, and thus substantiate actual impact on listenership, as opposed to the speculative sampling engaged in by myself and others on this board. Maybe DA would have some insights on the technical capabilities that the men behind the curtain possess....
Long time lurker here but I finally felt compelled to comment after listening in disbelief to the penultimate Hardline segment today which consisted of Corby reading the snack menu at at&t stadium. I was jogging the streets around Hockaday when Skip signed on and have listened ever since -- but reading a MENU and pathetically trying to pretend that's entertaining is so crazy lazy arrogant that I just had to call it out. Yuch.
ReplyDeleteMan, you've been a listener that long and it just now dawned on you what a spare Corby is?!
ReplyDeleteThe fact that Jub actually looks cooler and better with a Jubhawk than with his “normal” hair should make him reevaluate his old hairstyle.
ReplyDeleteLol! I remember Glenda could not stand Corby!
ReplyDeleteSo when do we discuss the hermeneutical key to understanding one Jake Kemp, Chappy Kemp?
ReplyDeleteI think Jake's Spaulding is funny. Chappy - not so much.
ReplyDeleteChappy is not a character. You do know that?
ReplyDelete