www.fight.ie Irish MMA Awards

Chris Shanks

I am a writer I have been for nearly 3 years. Being a writer in MMA is a strange position to be in. I get 5 hours sleep a night, I work tirelessly every single day of my life to bring inside information and news to the fans of this sport. Many of my friends do the same thing. I do this because I know that MMA is still young and I can influence the development of this sport.

I learned early last year not to post on forums because the doctor said my blood pressure had to come down. The amount of keyboard warriors in MMA is unreal, that is a downside to the sport as it develops in the decade of social networking but what are you going to do?

That being said, I will comment on the award ceremony. The FIGHT.IE awards this year was the first time it was done, obviously we will improve on some things, personally I would improve how the nominees are selected. Possibly a panel with members from every competitive club in Ireland. Even at that your always going to have someone that is annoyed with how the system works. After all they can always do it better. I would like to point out that the Fighters Only World MMA Awards were voted on by the public, like our awards were. I don't see how you can discredit our awards and not the Fighters Only awards that are accepted by the international community and televised, it is the same system.

It is not my problem if you don't have more friends to vote for you during the awards. Join a social club. I invite anyone, to have a go at doing "awards" If you can do it better I would love to learn how. I have learned that most people are all talk, but the leaders are all walk.

I promise all of you, FIGHT.IE will continue to develop the sport as they have done by formally recognising success. We have more plans for more events. I am not going to stop because people have hurt feelings. I will admit that this has annoyed me a lot recently because regardless of anything else the awards was a good night out.

I love this sport, I love the friends that I have made doing this. I don't post of forums actively because as I said I like being healthy and I find myself getting angry when I do go on to them.

If anyone would like to discuss what I have said here, I am more than happy to chat with you if you would like to drop me an email -- chrisshanks@hotmail.co.uk

I look forward to seeing you all at events in the near future.

tyreman1

at the end of the day fight.ie ran an awards nite, in my opinion i think the voting was a sham but this is something im sure john and his staff can work on...
other than that i took the awards with a pinch of salt....it was an enjoyable nite as i got to catch up with people from other clubs who i hadnt seen in a while...
altho the food was okay id av paid more for something better(my opinion)
people who actually care for the sport and its growth as a legit professional sport should be supporting these events ..(obviously if run correctly)
iv no loyalty to john or any of his companies but i think as he is d only one doing this we shud try support it with valid feedback so he can improve it in the future or take the chance and run an awards ceremony yourselves....



just back to the voting...
each competetive club (with active semi pro and pro fighters) shud be given a voting form.....each club gets one form and discuss between them who they think is fighter,promotion,personality ...whichever is the case
vote fighter X 1st......10 points
vote fighter Y 2nd......8 points
and so on...
then when all clubs render there decisions the points shud be tallied up..
this is just an idea iv had since the awards began taking votes,plus it eliminates proxy voting...im sure people could add to this idea and hoppefully make this a legit event for next year....

stephen...

Mrs Lynch

I most definately think the whole nominations and voitin can be sorted out and hope it is done asap so next years awards may be more fluent x

I do think panels can be good but someone is always goin to object so I think one club one vote for the main categories would be better but all possibilities should be explored x

Unfortunately I cudnt help out as much as I wanted to on the awards this year and to be fair to John it was the first time it was done and problems were goin to be encountered. However it was great nite to make bonds within the community and build relationships. No profit was made only a loss to Fightie!!

Hopefully I will get more involved next year and fairer systems in place so that everything can be verified and transparent x and hopefully more people wil get involved and look towards makin it positive event in the calender for us x

Urs
x

p.s. it was also suggested changin date to maybe Dec for this so smaller clubs could use it as Xmas gathering and hav it less formal, maybe cocktail (think actually only few ppl managed to get wot formal meant :P x) x

Barry.Oglesby

So next year we should have the following awards then:

Best Female Fighter who isn't Aisling Daly.

Best gym who hasn't had loads of wins.

dunkamania

Deleting 17 posts first thing on a Monday morning is not how I like to start my week. Flame wars are best left on Sherdog, and I have handed out a couple of 2 week bans. :mad:

colinlaird000

Barry I think to be fair, (And as you probably well know!:p) John K was the in my opinion the most likely contender for Coach, and likewise Ais as the standout female fighter. I suppose to be fair we are a little premature having a female catagory, but at the same time she still merited an award for her cotributions to the sport recently. If the system had been watertight, these guys would have recieved the awards regardless more than likely. Well deserved winners in an extremely flawed voting system. But onwards and upwards I say.

Lets put the whole thing to bed, and get a more transparent system for next year.

tyreman1

why was my posted deleted?

dunkamania

Restored, didnt read the full post, only the start.

Clive

Just to row in with my opinion, having votes on a per club basis is wrong. Billy-Joe who runs three "clubs" and Mickey-Joe who has affiliated his club ( which consists of three guys who "trane UFC") in his shed to Team BJoe should not carry equal weight to the four largest teams in the country.

Nominations should be made by public poll or by an experienced panel. The vote should be made on the night. Thus anyone who cares enough will go and bring their teammates, raising the profile of the event.

Just my two cents.

Barry.Oglesby

colinlaird000 wrote: »

Barry I think to be fair, (And as you probably well know!:p) John K was the in my opinion the most likely contender for Coach, and likewise Ais as the standout female fighter. I suppose to be fair we are a little premature having a female catagory, but at the same time she still merited an award for her cotributions to the sport recently. If the system had been watertight, these guys would have recieved the awards regardless more than likely. Well deserved winners in an extremely flawed voting system. But onwards and upwards I say.

Lets put the whole thing to bed, and get a more transparent system for next year.

I don't think you understood what I was trying to say.

My fighter Amanda was nominated with Ais for the female of the year. A few of my guys said they were going to vote for Amanda and I told them it would be an absolute embarrassment to Amanda, me, and our gym if Amanda was to win above Ais who in 2010 has boldly gone where only a handful of Irish fighters, male or female, have gone. So I told them if they were going to vote, to vote with their brains, and if they were still unsure, to vote with my brain and vote for Ais. The award was a forgone conclusion to anyone with half a brain, and was the most obvious example of why the awards should be picked by people in the know. Likewise the SBG award. How could anyone vote for any other team than the one who has picked up the most titles this year?

So my admittedly sarcastic post was directed at those who thought the awards were loaded in favour of anyone.

As for the awards themselves, I didn't go but I hope they were a good night. I may have gone of they were in Dublin but I couldn't afford the time.

tommyl2010

Chris Shanks wrote: »

I am a writer I have been for nearly 3 years. Being a writer in MMA is a strange position to be in. I get 5 hours sleep a night, I work tirelessly every single day of my life to bring inside information and news to the fans of this sport. Many of my friends do the same thing. I do this because I know that MMA is still young and I can influence the development of this sport.

I learned early last year not to post on forums because the doctor said my blood pressure had to come down. The amount of keyboard warriors in MMA is unreal, that is a downside to the sport as it develops in the decade of social networking but what are you going to do?

That being said, I will comment on the award ceremony. The FIGHT.IE awards this year was the first time it was done, obviously we will improve on some things, personally I would improve how the nominees are selected. Possibly a panel with members from every competitive club in Ireland. Even at that your always going to have someone that is annoyed with how the system works. After all they can always do it better. I would like to point out that the Fighters Only World MMA Awards were voted on by the public, like our awards were. I don't see how you can discredit our awards and not the Fighters Only awards that are accepted by the international community and televised, it is the same system.

It is not my problem if you don't have more friends to vote for you during the awards. Join a social club. I invite anyone, to have a go at doing "awards" If you can do it better I would love to learn how. I have learned that most people are all talk, but the leaders are all walk.

I promise all of you, FIGHT.IE will continue to develop the sport as they have done by formally recognising success. We have more plans for more events. I am not going to stop because people have hurt feelings. I will admit that this has annoyed me a lot recently because regardless of anything else the awards was a good night out.

I love this sport, I love the friends that I have made doing this. I don't post of forums actively because as I said I like being healthy and I find myself getting angry when I do go on to them.

If anyone would like to discuss what I have said here, I am more than happy to chat with you if you would like to drop me an email -- chrisshanks@hotmail.co.uk

I look forward to seeing you all at events in the near future.

can i ask who you write for?

John Ferguson

tommyl2010 wrote: »

can i ask who you write for?

I will nip in and answer this one (lol he was one of the lads who got the 2 week ban)

He has written for MMA Hitpit, Brit MMA and a couple of other sites

colinlaird000

Barry,

In short, I agree.

Glad thats sorted then

fedor.2.

The words ''piss-up'' and ''brewery'' come to mind reading this thread:D

colinlaird000

That sounds like Fedor has agreed to do the next awards! Class! I'm sure it'll be awesome :rolleyes:

Barry.Oglesby

colinlaird000 wrote: »

From looking around, there didn't appear to be that many clubs at the event, particularly the big guns. Come on guys! Its a bit of craic. I had anticipated that with the bjj open the next day, the place would have been bunged. In abscentia were the likes of Chum Sut, Gracie Barra, the majority of PCCB, Dogpound, and other Northern Irish clubs, who only live around the corner.

Its a bit sad that people down the road couldn't at least send a few representatives if they werent winning an award. I appreciate that its a fair trip up from the deepest recesses of Southern Ireland for some teams, but least try and make an effort.

Why should anyone have to make an effort to go to anything? I don't mean to be a stick in the mud but awards ceremonies (I've been to couple for other sports/organisations) are to me a bit of a pain in the arse and I'm sure others are of the same opinion. Believe it or not I have better things to do and friends and family to see at weekends as does everyone. Admonishing people because they didn't attend is a bit rich Colin.

Don't get me wrong, it's a fine idea and regardless of motivation (money or just craic) I'm sure it was a good night out. But don't tell me that I have to make an effort to be there. I don't have to do anything.

colinlaird000

Never said you did. I wasn't making judgement. Or at least I didn't think I was I guess from the point of view of going to random social events I'm fortunate enough to be in the DINKY catagory. And to be honest, as far as awards and all that go, in the greater scheme of things I'm more or less not that bothered. From my own personal point of view, I was just surprised that there weren't more familiar faces there. Lesson learned!Please consider this my last input in this thread

John Ferguson

fedor.2. wrote: »

The words ''piss-up'' and ''brewery'' come to mind reading this thread:D

Sorry, come again!!

Let's be very clear about this, apart for a few whiners and bitches on this forum the events went as any awards should. On the night it was organised and well run like every event any of my companies manage. There were 142 folk in attendance (more than some shows in this country get in their crowds) the majority of whom had a decent night out and at £16.50 per person it was great value too.

This event will be happening again next year, but first we need to work out a different way to decide the winners that the majority of the mma community agree with.

It is so hard to believe the reaction and bitching of some people when a person or company tries to do something for the positive of the sport. MMA has been in Ireland for 10 or so years and this type of event hasn't been tried before, so instead of trashing it get behind it (or at least have the balls to try it for yourself).

It was the same when I announced the first Cage Contender show, all the neah sayers came scuttling out from under their rocks with cries of "It will never work" (lol a few would have had me burned at the stake) but then I got help from Paul Cowzer, Connor Cassidy and a few others and guess what it worked (at least in my humble opinion)

One final thing are there any of the winners you would not agree with? This might give us an idea of how flawed the system was

Niall0

fightie wrote: »

It is so hard to believe the reaction and bitching of some people when a person or company tries to do something for the positive of the sport. MMA has been in Ireland for 10 or so years and this type of event hasn't been tried before, so instead of trashing it get behind it (or at least have the balls to try it for yourself).

Unfortunately that is the nature of internet forums. As long as people had a good time who cares?

John Ferguson

Niall0 wrote: »

Unfortunately that is the nature of internet forums. As long as people had a good time who cares?

Lol this is true

I'm well used to it at this stage but even I get wound up sometimes. For this sport to become more mainstream it needs people to pull together, that way we will all benefit. The more the public see the sport in a positive light the quicker it will become accepted by the masses. Paul mentioned about it being left to the people on the ground to do, my view is that we are all on the ground every day at the same level and every skill set is as important as the next. Nobody or role is more important for growth than the other. Promoters, coaches, clubs who run smaller shows, fighters, refs, judges, mma writers there are alot of skills in that little list so let's use them to grow the sport not to pull it apart

fedor.2.

fightie wrote: »

Sorry, come again!!

Let's be very clear about this, apart for a few whiners and bitches on this forum the events went as any awards should. On the night it was organised and well run like every event any of my companies manage. There were 142 folk in attendance (more than some shows in this country get in their crowds) the majority of whom had a decent night out and at £16.50 per person it was great value too.

This event will be happening again next year, but first we need to work out a different way to decide the winners that the majority of the mma community agree with.

It is so hard to believe the reaction and bitching of some people when a person or company tries to do something for the positive of the sport. MMA has been in Ireland for 10 or so years and this type of event hasn't been tried before, so instead of trashing it get behind it (or at least have the balls to try it for yourself).

It was the same when I announced the first Cage Contender show, all the neah sayers came scuttling out from under their rocks with cries of "It will never work" (lol a few would have had me burned at the stake) but then I got help from Paul Cowzer, Connor Cassidy and a few others and guess what it worked (at least in my humble opinion)

One final thing are there any of the winners you would not agree with? This might give us an idea of how flawed the system was

Didn't mention you at all, sorry if you got that impression;)

David Jones

For this sport to become more mainstream it needs people to pull together, that way we will all benefit.

Its a pity that not all clubs can agree on something as simple as the unified rules. I don't find it surprising that there is little agreement on something (no disrespect John) as trivial as an award show. Like any other martial arts group in the country, far more time is spend deconstructing something than building anything. Actually that isn't limited to martial arts, its a typically Irish thing. Whilst there are major holes in the nomination and voting procedure. I said it before that the awards were a nice idea.

John Ferguson

David Jones wrote: »

I don't find it surprising that there is little agreement on something (no disrespect John) as trivial as an award show. Like any other martial arts group in the country, far more time is spend deconstructing something than building anything.

I agree Dave, it's totally trivial but still it gets about 12000 views, yet when a serious question is asked like "what minimum standards should be at events" very few people give a view. I would have thought with the shear volume of events in for this year already the promoters could have kept the subject going on their own. Then maybe they don't want to give an opinion that they might have to deliver on??


no disrespect taken btw

David Jones

Promoters don't want to be told anything John, that's why we still have a rules issue. Everybody wants to be big fish in their own pool.

John Ferguson

David Jones wrote: »

Promoters don't want to be told anything John, that's why we still have a rules issue. Everybody wants to be big fish in their own pool.

But why should they be "told"? They invest in their businesss like the coaches/clubs do and will run it as they see fit. The reason as I see it that the rules issue is still on going is that some of the clubs are not happy, not the promoters. I know that both Rodney Moore and Davy Patterson are not letting fighters compete under the new rules.

colinlaird000

Wouldn't it be nice if the guys who fight had some say in how they were fighting? It should be down to the guys on the gorund. That or it just turns into a circus show. The same rules should apply across the board. At the end of the day, regardless of what they say (No offense John.) promoters more than anything else want bums on seats and notes in their back pocket. Its human nature to want to get back more than you put in. Thats why people get up and go to work in the morning, unless you are extremely fortunate.

David Jones

Told was probably a bad choice of words. It just feels as though there is a lack of support from clubs and certain promotions who didn't maybe come up with idea of rules standardization. I don't think anyone should be "told" anything. There isn't a governing body and given the history of martial arts governing bodies in this country that's probably a good thing. Quickest way to divide people is to form a committee. Anyway this was an awards thread but I guess it just mirrors everything else that goes on in the sport in this country. Fearing change for changes sake is not very progressive.

John Ferguson

colinlaird000 wrote: »

Wouldn't it be nice if the guys who fight had some say in how they were fighting? It should be down to the guys on the gorund. That or it just turns into a circus show. The same rules should apply across the board. At the end of the day, regardless of what they say (No offense John.) promoters more than anything else want bums on seats and notes in their back pocket. Its human nature to want to get back more than you put in. Thats why people get up and go to work in the morning, unless you are extremely fortunate.

Lol I will never take offense at that Colin, it's the truth and I always am the first to point out that CC is a business and is there to feed me and to be completely straight when I'm pushing to make the sport more main stream it's from a business perspective. I want to sell more tickets to my events!! Ok at the minute I get between 1800-3000 people paying into see my promotion and it's bloody hard work but I suppose it's only 15 months old. The majority of tickets are still sold through fighters (about 90%) that said with the right growth in a couple more years I would hope to be at the level where Irish MMA promoters are not reliant on pro fighters selling tickets to make an event work

cowzerp

Next year i reccomend that you make it the Cage contender awards and only use people who have represented the promotion, then there can be no arguments in reality and you will no who is the best as its happened on your show..

Thats my opinion, dont know if others agree or not but just throwing it out there.

John Ferguson

cowzerp wrote: »

Next year i reccomend that you make it the Cage contender awards and only use people who have represented the promotion, then there can be no arguments in reality and you will no who is the best as its happened on your show..

Thats my opinion, dont know if others agree or not but just throwing it out there.

Why would I call it the Cage Contender awards when it's clearly not? These are separate companies who do separate things and run independently of each other. I know people will be of the opinion that because my group owns them both they are the same thing but they are not. The fight.ie awards are to try and bring all the clubs, promoters, fighters etc together for a nights fun. It should embrace the whole year gone by in our community.

SDTimeout

Ah but something can have a name sake when effectively it is something else entirely. Vichy France being a prime example.

In that case, allow me to be the first person to invite you all to the official Andrew McGahon Irish MMA Awards.

cowzerp

fightie wrote: »

Why would I call it the Cage Contender awards when it's clearly not?

My point is i think it would work better if it was your promotions awards, then you know who is deserving of whatever, you cant be aware of who is fighting on all shows and the fact fightie and CC are ran by the same people means it's already considered to be Cage contenders night wheter you feel it is that way or not.

Any award won by Cage contender or in relation to cage contender is open to questions if on Fightie awards even if the winners are deserving, maybe clan wars will feel they had the best fight or best fighters etc...

Fightie is not neutral no matter what and thats fine as there is no reason why it should be.

Whatever happened the fight of the year anyway as that seemed to be forgotten also?

John Ferguson

cowzerp wrote: »

My point is i think it would work better if it was your promotions awards, then you know who is deserving of whatever, you cant be aware of who is fighting on all shows

That's why the nominations and voting were done by the public. It's not about what I think, although I was at almost every show held in Ireland last year.

cowzerp wrote: »

and the fact fightie and CC are ran by the same people

that is far from a fact, it is a fact that they are owned by the same company but they are separate. Just like the Indo and the Star are owned by the same company but ran by different people (and b4 anyone chips in I am not comparing the size of my business to that of Independent Media)

cowzerp wrote: »

Any award won by Cage contender or in relation to cage contender is open to questions if on Fightie awards even if the winners are deserving, maybe clan wars will feel they had the best fight or best fighters etc...

And they are entitled to that opinion but again it was the public who voted.
Lol of course I am bias on that one my reasoning being that last year CC had the most shows, biggest crowds, biggest fights, sold the most tickets etc

cowzerp wrote: »

Fightie is not neutral no matter what and thats fine as there is no reason why it should be.

But it should be Paul it is not an advertising vehicle for CC. Just have a look around the site, it is not biased towards any promotion or club.

cowzerp wrote: »

Whatever happened the fight of the year anyway as that seemed to be forgotten also?

Also? Why what else was forgotten?

cowzerp

fightie wrote: »

Also? Why what else was forgotten?

the entrys into the hall of fame, the votes made for the young lads teen mma league award..

John Ferguson

cowzerp wrote: »

the entrys into the hall of fame, the votes made for the young lads teen mma league award..

Hall of fame was shelved not forgotten, as was fight of the year. Maybe next year when more people support the idea we will do it.

The league awards winners were selected by the league and the winners are on the list on fight.ie. This was always going to be the case as stated in this thread (post 80 something)

wingnut4

Alot of negative feedback as expected.

Firstly the postives: Well run on the night, nothing at all to critise about on the organising of the actual night, a good job. was a great nights fun and catch up with people

Negatives: Voting system, I do think that the nominations should come from a committee or respected people in the MMA Community, most people know who they are, the likes of refs, judges, organisers, etc
As for voting, theres not much way round it, either a public vote as done but as you said it turns into a publicity contest

As for female fighter of year, I totally agree with Barry, it would of been an embrassment for anyone else to get that award, I myself voted for Ais as did many from my own club and rightly so. Ais should of got an award of her own. If you wanted to have an amateur female fighter catergory that would of made alot more sense. There were also certain female fighters missing from the catergory too, like Shona Maguire and Catherine Costigan (who has now turned Pro) that have done alot more than myself in terms of MMA. But as said this is something that can be addressed next year.

Theres going to be no argument in terms of who wins coach of the year or who wins club of the year etc, everyone will be biased and have their own opinion there. Obviously each person out of their own club will think that their coach is the best its only natural and members believe it.

Promotion of the year, well i wasnt surprised when cage contenders won it, i expected that due to the size. I personally think Clan Wars is the best show ive ever been on several occasions but if its promotion cage contenders have more money, larger crowds and therefore the word promotion and cage contenders makes sense for them to win.

Just a few points