Texas Combat Sports: A whole lotta fightin' going on

I must admit I had not realized the volume of boxing and combat sport events in Texas. Here's a list of events coming up over the next 2-3 months from the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation website:

Event Schedule

All events are subject to change or cancellation.

Boxing

• 11/06/14 Dallas Petroleum Club, Dallas
• 11/08/14 Top Rank, Pharr
• 11/15/14 Top Rank, San Antonio
• 11/15/14 Blue Chip Promotions, Humble
• 11/21/14 Savarese Promotions, Houston
• 11/21/14 Tejanito Promotions, El Paso
• 11/22/14 Undercard Promotions, Dallas
• 12/01/14 Leija/Battah Promotions, San Antonio
• 12/05/14 Blue Chip Promotions, Houston
• 12/06/14 Xtreme Combat Productions, Robstown
• 12/06/14 Golden Boy Promotions & Leija Battah Promotions, Laredo
• 01/17/15 League of Extraordinary Fighters Boxing Promotions, Beaumont
• 01/23/15 Saverese Promotions, Houston
• 01/26/15 Leija Battah Promotions, San Antonio

Mixed Martial Arts (MMA)

• 11/07/14 STFC, McAllen
• 11/14/14 Legacy Promotions, Houston
• 11/22/14 UFC, Austin
• 12/12/14 Legacy Promotions, Houston
• 01/10/15 Fury Fighting Championship, San Antonio
• 01/10/15 Xtreme MMA, Corpus Christi (pro and amateur)
• 01/17/15 J and C Promotions, Brownsville
• 01/17/15 Back Alley, Arlington
• 01/30/15 Premiere Fight, Midland
• 02/13/15 Fury Fighting Championship, Humble

Combination Events (Boxing and Mixed Martial Arts)

• 01/16/15 Triple A Promotions, Laredo
• 01/17/15 Saverese Promotions, Houston

Amateur Mixed Martial Arts

• 11/15/14 Garcia Promotions, Dallas
• 11/20/14 USACA, Dallas
• 11/21/14 Icon Production Group (IASA), Victoria
• 11/21/14 Superior Combative Championships (SCC), Galveston
• 12/05/14 Savarese Amateur Association (SAA), Houston (Muay Thai)
• 12/06/14 CHASM Elite, Belton
• 12/06/14 Premiere Combat Group (PCG), San Antonio
• 01/10/15 Xtreme MMA, Corpus Christi (pro and amateur)
  

Kickboxing

• 01/16/15 Legacy Promotions, Houston

That's a lot of fights. And when you read the Sports pages or watch sports programming on local TV news (or for that matter, ESPN), there is almost zero fight coverage. The papers are doing a crappy job of covering what's clearly an emerging sport here in Texas and the fight promoters are doing a lousy job with publicity. I'm an actual fight fan - a casual one, but still ... you shouldn't have to hunt this list down on some obscure state licensing agency website. If the industry promoted itself properly they'd be telling folks like me about these events ahead of time.

The state just elevated a long-time staffer to become its new "Combative Sports Program Manager," fwiw, though I know nothing about the fellow to suppose that's a good or a bad thing. Texas' boxing regulation has been a running national joke for several years so part of me questions the decision to hire from within. Still, I hope he succeeds and does a good job. With our proximity to Mexico and the state's tough-guy culture, combat sports could and should flourish in Texas if the government and promoters can get out of the way of the growing number of fighters and fans.

Badminton suspensions place wrongly blame players for incentives created by Olympic officials

There's a stench of hypocrisy surrounding the decision by the International Olympic Committee to suspend eight badminton players yesterday for tanking matches to manipulate who they would face in the seedings. (See Washington Post coverage.)

By contrast, the Japanexe soccer (football) team will rest four or five of their starting players in its game today against Honduras, I heard on NBC, because they're already won enough to be guaranteed a slot in the elimination rounds. NBC color announcer and former Olympian Cobi Jones predicted a Honduran upset as a result. Similarly, yesterday I watched an Australian boxer who had clearly dominated the first two rounds of a fight get on his bicycle and avoid significant punching exchanges with his opponent throughout Round Three.

How are these episodes any different from the athletes who tanked badminton matches? (And if you don't think badminton players are athletes, you haven't seen the game played at the highest levels.) IMO the blame lies not with the athletes, who're only responding to the incentives created by those who set up the event. If you want everyone to try hard every game, make them all elimination matches. But don't blame players for maximizing their chances to win a medal under the rules, which is all that happened here. Don't like it? Change the rules.

Shaky NCAA bracket picks barely holding up

As we enter the Sweet 16 in the college hoops tournament, my bracket still looks pretty good. Three of the four teams I picked for the Final Four are still alive, where I have Baylor beating Syracuse for the title in what's only a bit of a homer pick. I didn't think Duke or Kentucky would hold up as well as they have, though - both look stronger than I anticipated - and I've been surprised at how, besides Baylor, the Big 12 teams seemed to all crumble. (I had Texas as a first-round loss, but was surprised Texas A&M didn't get through to the Sweet 16.

Anyway, since they're still alive I'll stand by my pre-tournament pick: Baylor over Syracuse in the national championship game. Somebody's got to win the thing; it may as well be the Bears.

Sic 'em.

UPDATE: Thanks to the Bears' collapse in the final five minutes of their game with Duke in the quarterfinals (the "Elite Eight"), not one of my picks made it into the Final Four this year. The lesson from this: Don't come to me for your sports betting tips.