F3 Championship
Not too good, pretty bad and dam ugly!
The Editors View!
By the time I got to the first day of the F3 Championship I was already pissed off thanks in no small part to the fact that the four hour journey from Johor to Kuala Lumpur had taken 6 1/2 hours thanks to a super lazy obnoxious and just plain awful coach driver who took every opportunity to stop as an excuse to run off to find himself a quiet corner to grab some panties and jerk away a load or something equally as pointless. This f**ker left the Larkin station in JB at 9:00am, we had already been on board for forty five minutes as they had told us the coach was ready to go. By 10:00 am we had stopped twice to pick up a couple of people and each time those stops were 20 minutes or more.
We eventually seemed to start heading out of JB proper at 10 am. At 11 am the driver was obviously in need of another wank as he pulled into a food stop. I tried to ask him how long we would be there he just grunted and pointed to a bloke outside, obviously two pay grades above him as he had the power of speech if not the actual power of customer service or manners. He told me we would be stopping for 30 minutes.
It was the usual place coaches stop in Malaysia, not some shiny new service station but a scabby food hall offering lots of not very interesting food that's been sitting around surrounded by flys for god knows how long. After 30 minutes people were waiting outside of the locked coach for masturbators anonymous who eventually turned up a further 20 minutes later. He then proceeded to drive his shitty heap of a coach at walking pace all the way to Kuala Lumpur by some very f**king long boring ass route. Eventually we got to TBS at 2:30 about the time the event was supposed to start.
We grabbed a taxi and headed to our hotel to drop our stuff off and then straight into a taxi to the event.
You can imagine after all that I was not in the best of moods, in fact all I wanted was to be entertained!
Now, if you were a casual fan who turned up at this place you would have NO idea what was happening, only one entrance was open and there were NO signs pointing you towards it. There were NO posters, banners or otherwise in the area around the stadium that I could see. Of course being a Malaysian run event there were f**king many inside the stadium in case the few brave souls who found their way in should wonder where they were.
The people manning the gate could not give a dam and I am pretty sure that only the very stupid would have paid to get in as nobody really seemed to give a dam, or did I just arrive while they were on a break?
These F3 events as far as I understand are Government sponsored events. As far as I am concerned the government are being cheated, the money being given to run these events is either being wasted terribly by people with no idea or not being put to the purpose it is supposed to be used for.
I know from previous events that the fighters get paid a pittance for taking part and indeed at this event I know for a fact at least one of the fighters was conned out of some of his promised purse because he won too easily! (Anybody, who has fought in Government sponsored Muay Thai in Malaysia will be familiar with that con), But, I am getting ahead of myself here.
So, I walked in at around 4:00pm having missed all but the last two fights of the first day and well, it was a f**king joke, the stadium - Badminton Stadium, Cheras is perfect for the type of event, there is not a bad seat to be had, everybody is close to the action and would have a great view.
Sadly the crowd was so pathetic that finding a good view wasn't an issue.
I suspect that if you take out all the fighters family and friends and thier gyms people there was not one member of the public paying to get into this event.
So there have been some changes since the last F3 event. Firstly unlike the show in Johor, this one had dual language announcements including the guy who is becoming THE VOICE of Malaysian MMA and with some justification, Matt Pellino, who as well as being a fighter and trainer over at Muayfit also seems to have a great future as an MC, just sayin!
The sound set up was also very good and that was it for the plus points.
The event once again had it's share of controversy as a couple of fights definitely went to the hometown fighter regardless of who actually had one. We had seen this before of course at an F3 event back in the early part of the year at the last KL show.
The sad thing is some of the fights at this event were very good and the crowd appreciated them but the event lacked real atmosphere. Of course also following the usual F3 lack of interest pattern there was not one booth selling any kind of snacks or refreshment no booth's selling MMA, Boxing of Muay Thai related equipment or T-Shirts. It wasn't an event it was more an afterthought.
The people who decided to run this event in the afternoon really don't seem to have any idea.
The annoying thing is MMA in Malaysia would benefit from a show like F3 if it was run properly, a chance to showcase the sport to Muay Thai and Boxing fans, sadly for that to happen fans have to turn up!
I am done with F3, the organisation, the marketing, the crooked judging, the lack of money being paid to the fighters, the whole event leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
MMA in Malaysia does not need this event and I would suggest that the fighters and gyms should boycott future events unless the money promised is paid and unless 'real unbiased' judges are present at ALL bouts.
Instead support the MFC, UB, Legionnaire and of course the new Tune Talk sponsored series the Malaysian MMA Invasion that is coming in 2013 - That really could go a long way to breaking some new names, giving gyms a much better place to showcase their fighters and the fighters can expect a much better reward. We will learn a lot more about that series later this month when the official press conference tells us all the facts.
As a marketing person the state of marketing in MMA in Malaysia has always driven me to distraction but the people behind the F3 events really do take it down to even lower levels of could not give a damness!
Seriously people I'm ready and willing give me the f**king job you can have me for a fraction of the Rm250,000 I used to get paid in the UK 5 years ago.
Oh yes there were some fights as well, a few of them were really good, a few as I said were good fights badly judged and a few were just dull or badly matched. Really though six fights a day! Honestly - In one night twelve fights a real show, not this lame ass waste of time.
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| Nik "What's my f**king name?" Harris |
To the people of Malaysia if you wanna see what your government spend your tax dollars on I give you exhibit one! Maybe somebody ought to have a look at where the money gets spent.
