Bellator’s Thomas Gets a Second Chance
Jake Rossen Apr 20, 2010
For reasons unknown to me, my local cable company does not offer
the primary Fox Sports Net channel. I thought this meant I would be
reading about Bellator’s second “season” after the fact, but it
turns out the live telecasts are available on the Madison Square
Garden network. I don’t know how that makes even a fraction of
sense, but there it is.
This was discovered in time to watch welterweight Ryan Thomas get one of the great raw deals of all time last Thursday, as referee Dave Smith decided he looked sufficiently contorted enough in a choke attempt by the debuting Ben Askren to warrant an intervention. Thomas popped right up to complain, then went backstage to watch thousands of dollars in prize and sponsorship money circle the drain.
Because of volcanic ash, “Judo” Jim Wallhead -- who sounds like a 1930s circus wrestler, and that’s intended as a compliment -- cannot make a scheduled trip to Bellator’s Thursday show: Thomas will step in for him against Jacob McClintock in what might be the sport’s second most accelerated example of a bad call made right.
(The first would be Kazushi Sakuraba’s unjust defeat against Marcus Silveira in a 1997 UFC event; Sakuraba threw an in-ring tantrum and refused to leave until he was granted an immediate rematch later that same night. And you thought this sport was batsh-t now.)
Good for Thomas, but McClintock is no pushover. Having already peaked for Askren, he may be trading on one disaster to walk into another.
This was discovered in time to watch welterweight Ryan Thomas get one of the great raw deals of all time last Thursday, as referee Dave Smith decided he looked sufficiently contorted enough in a choke attempt by the debuting Ben Askren to warrant an intervention. Thomas popped right up to complain, then went backstage to watch thousands of dollars in prize and sponsorship money circle the drain.
Because of volcanic ash, “Judo” Jim Wallhead -- who sounds like a 1930s circus wrestler, and that’s intended as a compliment -- cannot make a scheduled trip to Bellator’s Thursday show: Thomas will step in for him against Jacob McClintock in what might be the sport’s second most accelerated example of a bad call made right.
(The first would be Kazushi Sakuraba’s unjust defeat against Marcus Silveira in a 1997 UFC event; Sakuraba threw an in-ring tantrum and refused to leave until he was granted an immediate rematch later that same night. And you thought this sport was batsh-t now.)
Good for Thomas, but McClintock is no pushover. Having already peaked for Askren, he may be trading on one disaster to walk into another.
