HDNet Raises The Bar

While watching the Strikeforce “Desctruction” event I noticed how it felt like the old days of boxing. I was constantly being reminded of when I was growing up watching all of the great boxing matches.  Back then, when you said you were watching “the fights”, that only meant one thing.  There was no MMA.  The “fights” were classics from Marvin Hagler, Sugar Ray Leonard, Tommy Hearns, on to Roy Jones Jr., Oscar De La Hoya, and yes – Mike Tyson.  You were going to be hearing the introductions from Jimmy Lennon Jr., Mills Lane saying “let’s get it on”, and the famous “let’s get ready to rumble” from Michael Buffer.  Now when you ask your buddies if they want to come watch “the fights” there is only one thing that comes to mind…MMA.  As great as the UFC is it just doesn’t have that feel on fight night like the great boxing era did.  Don’t get me wrong, I love watching the UFC.  A matter of fact, I never miss one.  The UFC has set the standard for mixed martial arts.  Their events are crisp and have a certain formula that they never stray from, and it works.  It’s great, there are no Megadeth concerts in between fights (Affliction) or hoochies dancing in front of the camera all night (EliteXC).  I like watching attractive women dance in next to nothing but that was ridiculous.  As great of a job the UFC has done, that old school feeling of ‘fight night’ is missing.  HDNet kinda hit on that tonight.  The Jimmy Lennon Jr. introductions were there along with a few more subtle hints of nostalgia.  Remember the compu stat box?  The UFC has done a little of this lately as well but not a great job of it.  Tonight, it was more like boxing’s compu stats.  There was also a moment tonight on HDNet when they had a camera on one of the cornermen and they said “let’s take a listen to the corner”.  The fight went on, the commentators shut up for a brief moment (that was nice), and a small screen off in the corner had the cornerman shouting instructions.  It was reminiscent of the split screens of Freddy Roach, Lou Duva, and Emanuel Steward giving directions from outside the ropes.  Yeah, so the title is a little misleading.  HDNet isn’t close to raising the bar at anything when it comes to the UFC but it would be nice to see the UFC reapply some of these traditional boxing tactics to their own television programming.