FanHouse Dream.3

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban wants to become a big player in mixed martial arts, and I'm glad that HDNet, the cable channel he owns, provided live coverage of the Dream.3 show in Japan this weekend.

But Jim Murphy of The Savage Science makes some good points that reflect what I was thinking while I watched Dream.3: HDNet has some work to do on the production values of its live MMA coverage. Murphy writes:

my experience as a DREAM.3 viewer bordered on painful. Were it not my job to do a play by play narrative on the event I would have literally turned it off midway through. For the production and broadcast elements to be so qualitatively poor as to ruin an excellent night of fights is downright inexcusable. The HD Net US coverage of DREAM.3 was easily the worst overall production of a major promotion fight sport show that I've ever seen. In a lifetime of watching boxing, pro wrestling and MMA I've honestly never seen anything like it.

I'm not quite prepared to go that far -- I saw some 1980s pro wrestling shows that looked like they were being broadcast by a guy standing in his basement with a camcorder -- but HDNet's work is, from a technical perspective, clearly inferior to the product UFC puts out.

Even if you forgive HDNet for cutting costs by not sending its announcers to Japan, they could have done a better job of giving home viewers the feel of being there, they could have shown the clock to let viewers know how much time was left in each round, and Bas Rutten could have seemed like he cared more about the fights. It was a disappointing effort for HDNet.

Mixed martial arts has a perception problem in the United States. From the guy who runs CBS saying it was a mistake to sign a deal with EliteXC to athletic commission officials saying there's more drug use in MMA than in boxing to negative stories in the Washington Post and Associated Press, a lot of casual American sports fans are left with the impression that the sport is savage and dangerous.

But the reality is that MMA in the United States is far more advanced than MMA in other countries in terms of taking the health of fighters seriously. Take this from Dave Meltzer's piece about this weekend's Dream.3 show:

Japanese MMA is still a completely different animal than the UFC, because the former has no governmental regulation. There is no steroid testing. Many of the matches are made at the last minute, and in one case, a fighter, Melvin Manhoef, was in the ring just two weeks after taking a knockout in a kickboxing match, something that would never be allowed in a major U.S. commission state.

There's a certain segment of the population, and especially of the sports media, who begin with the premise that MMA is a despicable pseudo-sport that has no place on the American sports landscape. But people who are willing to keep an open mind about MMA see that the American version of the sport shows a dedication to the safety of its participants that makes U.S. sanctioning bodies, and the UFC, worldwide leaders.

American Eddie Alvarez and Japanese fighters Tatsuya Kawajiri and Caol Uno advanced in the quarterfinals of the Dream mixed martial arts Lightweight Grand Prix tournament today in Japan.

From an American perspective, the big story was the great fight put on by Alvarez, a Philadelphian who beat the Norwegian Joachim Hansen by unanimous decision. With a combination of great striking and effective takedowns, it was a tremendous showing for Alvarez, who runs his professional record to 14-1. Alvarez is the only American in the tournament, and if he wins, he'll be a budding MMA star in both countries.

American Nick Diaz turned in an impressive performance against Katsuya Inoue, winning their welterweight championship contender bout with a first round TKO at the Dream.3 mixed martial arts competition in Saitama, Japan today.

Diaz pummeled Inoue from the outset, bashing him with strikes repeatedly, and eventually Inoue's corner threw in the towel at 6:45 of the first round. Not many Americans are following the Dream.3 card (which is being broadcast live on HDNet), but here are some reactions from the few who are: