Herschel Walker Representing MMA on ESPN Is a Step Back
By: Reverend Turk Vangel Posted On: January 14, 2010 at 10:39pm
Former NFL Pro Bowl running back Herschel Walker (0-0) is on a whirlwind media tour this week promoting his January 30 Strikeforce fight. He is starting with 790 The Ticket and WQAM and ending with “The Scott Van Pelt Show” that will also run on ESPN2 and ESPN Radio. The massive exposure given to Walker and his mixed martial arts debut is a step back for a sport that has been on the rise and working hard to become more mainstream.
Walker is a very athletic man having been a two-time Pro Bowl running back in the NFL. He has also been training tae kwon do long enough to earn himself a sixth-degree black belt. I respect his decision to try out this sport and to want to test himself in what many consider the most complete test of a man’s will to overcome. The ultimate in mano-a-mano. However it is how it will be perceived by the main stream that worries me the most.
MMA has been growing rapidly and with that come new fans and new detractors. As the host of MMA Gospel Radio and a writer for this site, I spend a lot of time reading about and researching the sport and all the latest news. Call it a job hazard if you will but it lends me to constantly bring up the sport in conversation. I can’t tell you how often I hear that MMA is becoming more like professional wrestling. Fighters.com’s second-ranked heavyweight and UFC champion Brock Lesnar (4-1) crossing over from pro wrestling to MMA and his post fight antics have not helped the matter. Then we are forced to hear about former Major League Baseball All-Star Jose Canseco (0-1) fighting in Japan with little to no training at all.
Enter Herschel Walker and his media tour. Walker is currently 47-years old and has only been training at American Kickboxing Academy for a very short time. Main stream media and new fans to the sport will see this a publicity stunt much the way pro wrestling brings in names like former boxing champion Mike Tyson and NFL Pro Bowl linebacker Lawerence Taylor. Strikeforce may be using it as a publicity stunt but let it be known Walker is taking this fight very serious. Never the less I have to believe this is a step back.
MMA is pushing into new markets with the Strikeforce fights on Showtime and the UFC going to Abu Dhabi and Australia this year, not to mention that fans will not get to see the UFC live on Versus. This explosion of MMA on many different cable channels leads to more exposure and a potentially broader fan base. The last thing a new fan needs to see is someone they remember playing football in the NFL stepping into the cage well past his prime.
Many organizations have been pushing the fact that mixed martial artists are the best athletes on the planet. The sport is not “human cock-fighting” and no longer features bar brawler verus jiu jitsu master. These men and women take the sport very serious and many have been training for years to get where they are now. When athletes like Fighters.com and UFC welterweight champion “Rush” Georges St. Pierre (19-2) are getting endorsement deals with Gatorade and Under Armour, finally proving to the world that MMA fighters are true athletes, we have an ex-football star like Walker bringing down the sport.
When is the last time you saw a retired baseball player strap on shoulder pads and play in the NFL? These things do not happen except for the rare Michael Jordan in baseball appearance. The world needs to know this sport is serious and only for the most well conditioned and highly trained athletes. Not everyone can step inside the cage. Well, that is not true. Canseco stepped inside the ring but is that what we want shown on ESPN? If Walker suffers the same fate will it prove the sport is not to be taken likely? If he wins will fans think the sport is a joke and not very hard? Only time will tell but I do know it is a step back for the sport I love.
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Comments
I have to disagree. Like the old adage says, “There’s no such thing as bad press.” In marketing parlance, you build a sale through AIDA: Awareness, Interest, Decision, Action.
Anything that increases awareness is a Good Thing ™, and Walker moves them past that into Interest. Even if he’s a failure (and he quite possibly will be), other fighters and fights will be showcased, and if that gets them to build more Interest, so much the better.
If anything, perhaps the casual fan will see that it’s not as easy for an athlete in one discipline to transition. It’s called MIXED martial arts, after all.
Walker will only continue to get booked by continuing to draw eyeballs. If he loses too many times, that will cease to happen. But if his being there, even for one fight, grows the market, I fail to see how you could argue that it’s bad. Fighting will always have a negative image to many by it’s nature. For a lot of those people, you can’t change their minds. For the ones that you can, guys like Walker are how you approach them.
Of course, guys like Fight Pastor do as well.
What about UFC bringing in Lesnar and Kimbo? And it seems James Toney will be next. How does that help MMA, other than putting fans in the seats and with PPV? Walker has been training in martial arts a lot longer than all 3 of them. He is well known- as a well spoken, respected all-around athlete. How does that compare with a WWE actor, a back yard fighter and a washed up boxer? I’ve got no problem with Walker competing in MMA. He isn’t a farce, he’s a martial artist, he’ll represent the sport well in the media, unlike Lesnar’s lack of class. How good will Walker be in the cage? I guess we’ll find out. But good for him giving it a shot and good for SF.
Of course you’re gonna say that. You’re a zuffa zombie. That’s all this site is about.
If Walker had signed to fight on a ufwwe event you’d be telling us how heroic he is. No?
kill zuffa all year long
I guess you missed the part where I credit Walker and said that I respect his decision to step into the cage.
My big issue is with how the media will see this as well as the average fan. I agree that Brock looked bad at first and his antics still continue to be a black eye for the sport. Kimbo is a joke as well.
I used Walker due to his tour of ESPN and other major media outlets.
Rob, you make a good point about the casual fan seeing how hard it is to transition to the sport. However what if he wins?
What if I told you that a washed up 48 year old old former boxing champ would defeat a 33 year old former UFC Champ? Well it happened back in July of 2009 when Ray Mercer knocked out Tim Sylvia in 9 seconds. Not only did he beat Sylvia but he became the first man to defeat Sylvia by TKO/KO…and Sylvia has fought some of the very best the sport has to offer.
Now, I point out the above not to suggest that Mercer is a great over-the-hill athlete who is better than Sylvia’s oher competition but I mention this as something to think about before people make a conclusion about Walker’s upcoming fight. Besides being a legit athlete (albeit, past his prime) Walker by all accounts is taking this fight very seriously and does not appear to be in it just for a payday. Strikeforce has got to do something to get it’s name out there if they hope to survive and thrive where all other MMA organizations have failed when they try to claim a slice of the UFC empire. I still believe that Dana White thinks that Kimbo is not up to UFC standards as a fighter but he quickly realized was EliteXC saw…that Kimbo put people in seats at arenas and butts on the couch in front of the television and that’s what SF is hoping with Walker.
In ending, many other people such as Reverend Turk Vangel can think that Walker’s upcoming fight is bad for the sport or it’s a joke but Walker may not realize this and the core question of ” is Herschel Walker Representing MMA on ESPN Is a Step Back?” will only be answered after his match…win or lose.
“However what if he wins?”
Not sure I understand the question. If he wins, he might have had a weak opponent, or he picked up enough skills to at least debut to a win. I don’t think one fight ever tells the entire story on a fighter (except perhaps in the case of Lesnar v. Herring). With a loss, he’ll either go back to the drawing board and try to improve, or he’ll exit the sport. With a win, he’ll get the confidence he needs to build upon. For the media, it means they’ll have another round of stories about a cross-over athlete, and it’ll shine even more light on MMA.
Remember, he’s just ONE fighter on a card with maybe a dozen other fighters, who will all have a chance to shine even brighter thanks to the attention on Walker. Walker may get the majority of the ink, but it’s a great opportunity for the other fighters as well.
All Hail the Zuffa Zombies!
Good points, but I don’t care what the mainstream media think.
Sure, there will be some freak shows that people gawk at.
I’m not sure Hershel Walker is one of them. He was a legit martial artist to begin with
with a name people recognize. If he wants to progress in the sport, it’s good on him,
and interesting to me as well (especially given his age).
What can the media do?? Nothing. The Juggernut is already underway.
Let them try to stop it.
The next big test may be if there is a serious brain injury, broken neck or death in the ring.
The scripts are already written for that one, on both sides probably.
But I don’t think a little sillyness going on around the fringes will have a major impact.