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This didn't get mentioned in the OP, but it's something that I occasionally think about. Rugby union fans of a certain vintage would have heard of James Haskell, who represented England and spent most of his club career playing for the now defunct Wasps club (originally based in London, moved to Coventry, and collapsed in on itself because their finances were all hosed up, bringing just over 150 years of history to an abrupt, ignominous end), between stints in Japan with Ricoh, New Zealand with the Highlanders (yes, yes, there can only be one, etc) and France with Stade Francais - a club that raises a lot of money by selling a calendar of its players posing nude called Dieux du Stade. Apparently it's huge with the gay community. Can't imagine why. Here he is, during his playing days.  Bellator even did promotional photos and everything.  Sweet Jesus, just look at him. He's built like a statue of a Greek god. Of course, never mind that he spent most of his time playing for England during a recent nadir, in which every new talent was hyped to the heavens as "THE LITERAL GREATEST GREAT THAT EVER GREATED IS THE GREATEST WORLD CLASS TALENT AND IS SO MUCH BETTER THAN (insert player name here, usually from one of the current or former colonies like New Zealand or South Africa)! HE CAN BENCH PRESS AN ENTIRE BUS!" Yes, the English press would always scream and shout about bench press stats. Of course, the players would fail to live up to the hype at the test level, and England would lose to New Zealand, South Africa and Australia at Twickenham anyway more often than not. Anyway, he was apparently meant to be a big part of Bellator's expansion into Britain. He'd had some dabblings with MMA, as a commentator rather than a fighter, doing analysis and commentary for promotions like BAMMA, back when they were a thing. He was set to make his MMA debut for Bellator in May of 2020 in London, at Wembley Arena. I'm sure you know why that got delayed a tad. Unfortunately (or fortunately for him), sanity prevailed, as he decided MMA was not for him after having spinal surgery and called off his career before it really got started, at age 36, after 17 years of doing this for a living: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZzAwqLolOg I don't begrudge the guy for wanting to follow his dream and give it a go, but mate, you've got a hosed up spine, you're not too far off of being 40. Either way, we really missed out on a potential fiasco, and Bellator's answer to "CM Punk in the UFC." edogawa rando fucked around with this message at 01:13 on Dec 2, 2023 |
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Dec 1, 2023 06:53
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| # ¿ May 14, 2024 18:24 |
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