Keith Mills, WTF? Usually I follow and apperciate your articles, but your write up on Strawn VS Thomas is straight up fucked.
"In the co-main event Din Thomas returned to the ring in a dominant performance over John Strawn. Strawn was a game fighter, having taken the fight according to him with about two weeks notice but a largely undocumented fight record again according to Strawn neighboring 28-2."
"according to him with about two weeks notice", and again "according to Strawn neighboring 28-2."
Strawn took the fight on eight days notice.
Strawn has a VERY WELL documented record, as a matter of fact he has a 27-3-0 record listed on your very own FCF website.
Strawn is legit, and will be fighting for the VFC lightweight title in just two weeks. He actually took the Thomas fight as a warm up.
We are missing the point though, this article consistantly talks as if the reporter dosent believe the fighter when his own website has his record well documented.
First off it was a live report written on the road talking about a replacement fighter, what do you expect? There aren't resources, funds, or time to check every fighter while on the road, I have to wait until I return.
Second that was taken from Strawn himself from both the weigh-ins and post-fight at a Waffle House, hence "according to him". If it is inaccurate your beef is with him.
2 weeks or 8 days, 28-2 or 27-3...be real, that is trivial. Is your beef that Strawn himself doesn't know his own record or that he should be chastised for saying to me "about two weeks" instead of "8 days"? This deserves an "FCF WTF"?
Strawn is a nice guy who stepped up so I wanted to go the extra mile for him. If quoting him is not satisfactory the only other option for road coverage is not to mention him at all. Is that what you suggest?
The real solution is if you don't like it I encourage you to get involved yourself.
My issue isnt that anything is inaccurate, in fact you are right on the money. My issue is the way the information was presented.
The impression that the reader is left with is that you are doubting Strawn's record, not that you were sourcing him directly. That is the impression that I was left with, thus my issue.
In the event that you can't establish any facts for yourself it's good form for you to cite the source of the facts that you present, thus protecting your credibility. I think BigJim4x has the wrong end of the stick - If Keith reported the record as fact which then turned out to be untrue then he'd be responsible of inaccurate reporting. By stating the facts in the way that he has he has outlined the fact that the facts may not be 100% accurate.
In brief, I'm with FCF on this one and I'm arrogant enough to say 'Fuck You' to anyone who disagrees with me.
I use "according to" often in my writing, much for the same reason Keith pointed out before-- he had not the resources nor time to check on the fighter's info.
When I use the term, I certainly don't imply that I don't believe or doubt the fighter in some way. It is just my responsibility to provide accurate information, and if I can't verify something before it goes to print, I have to denote that.
He didnt give any inaccurate information at all, It just comes accross as doubting Strawn instead of citing him as a source.
From Keith's post Its obvious that he had no ill will towards anyone, and that is how I took it when I read it last night. In which case I publicly apologize to him for my rant.
This is why I cancelled my subscription to fcf years ago
Strawn is also a tough dude and if you haven't heard of some of the guys he's fought like Spencer Fisher than you need to start watching more mma than just the UFC
That was a horrible and very inaccurate report on Maxwell/Pulver. I don't even think he watched the fight, actually. Especially after watching the video of it posted here.
Miller, I post here regularly and follow lots of the smaller organizations as well - my post was more of a statement than anything else, I just found it rather odd that I hadn't heard of any of these guys, in light of the fact that I do follow MMA quite avidly.
VJ is someone I consider a friend and a business partner... and every article he has written that I have read comes across to me as middle of the road... reading the stated paragraph makes me believe that Strawn was written off as a fighter by the author and in a sense would make the reader inclined to belive the ensuing fight to be one sided. I have seen Strawn fight and he reciently fought Spencer Fisher... and next weekend he will be fighting Justin James and he just fought Din Thomas... Not sure how u could say he sucks or is otherwise not good.