Kevin Iole has burst onto the MMA scene in 2007 as the UFC appointed “mass media” MMA guru. Iole nowadays makes appearances on pretty much every UFC Pay-Per-View hype show on SpikeTV and on their UFC: All Access shows.
In the past I’ve kept quiet on my personal opinions on the articles Iole writes. Half the time his content is decent and on-the-mark; half the time it is full of outlandish statements and illogical conclusions.
Iole’s article today on Yahoo Sports regarding Georges St. Pierre threw me over the edge finally, I guess. I don’t know if its the fact that I am a huge St. Pierre fan, or if its just that I’ve let too many of his articles slide past my radar without commenting on them.
To start with, this is the article “excerpt” that Iole used as a teaser for those of us who read posts by way of RSS
How does a fighter as talenter and likable as Georges “Rush” St. Pierre manage to tick off so many of his opponents?
First of all, the spelling errors are his; I’m aware that “talenter” is not a word. Second of all, I didn’t realize the George St. Pierre “ticked off so many of his opponents.” News to me, so I kept on reading the full article.
Iole begins his article with the following paragraphs:
Georges St. Pierre was talking a lot, but answers were hard to find. He promised “a brand new, better version” of himself when he takes on Josh Koscheck at UFC 74 on Aug. 25, but one gets the impression his thoughts keep drifting back to April 7.
In the weeks after the fight, the 26-year old St. Pierre showed less class than Britney Spears as he tried to justify how an 11-1 favorite couldn’t make it out of the first round.
St. Pierre showed less class than Britney Spears…???? WHAT!!! I don’t even know where or how to begin to list all the idiotic things wrong with that statement. Maybe Iole should be covering Spears for the Inquirer and give up MMA journalism. Later on Iole says:
This is a guy with wins over Matt Hughes, B.J. Penn, Sean Sherk, Karo Parisyan, Jason Miller and Frank Trigg.
Yet somehow it always seems there is an explanation needed after a St. Pierre fight. The tantalizing part about St. Pierre is that there shouldn’t be.
Again, what does that mean? “Somehow is seems there is an explanation needed after a St. Pierre fight…” What explanation was needed after the Hughes fight where he dominated the “greatest welterweight champion of all times (sic),” as Dana White likes to say. What explanation was needed after St. Pierre defeated B.J. Penn after getting poked in the eye in the first round. What explanation was needed after St. Pierre defeated Karo and Mayhem; or after he comletely dominated Frank Trigg and made him look like a little school girl? It’s more like it seems there is an explanation needed after each Kevin Iole article I read.
It gets better:
If there ever were an elite athlete in the UFC who gave off the distinct impression he doesn’t know how to get where he’s going, it’s St. Pierre.
St. Pierre is polite to a fault and can be charming and engaging when he chooses. But he’s also the type of guy who is far too quick to point fingers.
He denigrated Serra after Serra’s surprising knockout victory and told Hughes in the octagon after Hughes’ stirring UFC 63 win over B.J. Penn that he wasn’t impressed.
St. Pierre is “polite to a fault”? I don’t believe that for a second. “He’s also the type of guy who is far too quick to point fingers…” Really? Every interview I’ve ever heard with GSP immediately after a fight, he is nothing but gracious in defeat and accepts full responsibility for his loss. Oh, by the way, St. Pierre wasn’t the only one who wasn’t impressed with Hughes “stirring” victory over B.J. Penn at UFC 63. I don’t think anyone was impressed at all. In fact, I think Iole needs to look up the word “stirring” in the old Webster’s Dictionary because Hughes was clearly getting his butt handed to him in that fight until B.J. Penn tore the muscles clear off of his rib cage late in the second round.
[Matt] Hughes raves about St. Pierre’s ability and said he has more ways to win than Koscheck. Many who watched UFC 69 on television saw Hughes beaming after Serra knocked out St. Pierre and assumed Hughes was pleased because he wouldn’t have to fight St. Pierre. But Hughes said he was only excited because it meant he would get a shot at Serra, with whom he has had a long and loud public feud.
“All that was was me excited when I realized I would get to fight Matt,” Hughes said. “It had nothing to do with Georges. I respect Georges as a fighter and as a person. Serra had been running his mouth about me for a while and I was excited to know that because of that fight, I’d get to fight Matt.
“But Georges is a guy I have a lot of respect for. I know how good he can be when he’s right.”
For someone who Iole claims “manages to tick off so many of his opponents” it sure sounds like that isn’t the case. In fact, it sounds like pretty much all of his opponents have nothing but the utmost respect for Georges.
Next time you write another opinion piece, Kevin, please make it at least somewhat logical and backed up with accurate information. Better yet, just don’t write anymore and save me some time so I don’t have to read this crap.
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tom b
Ben Cartlidge
Shawn Smith
JStein
StuDog
LaM
Angelina
george does always have a excuse after he losses a fight maybe not immediatley but a couple days later but i have to admit this guy does take it to far
yeah but his excuses are based what he did wrong. its not like hes saying “i lost because i hurt my back” or “my big toe hurts” or something like that. he said he lost to Hughes because he wasnt mentally ready and he said he lost to Serra because he didnt work hard enough for it. you cant really expect St.Pierre to say i lost because hes better then me, nobody says that. what did Liddell say after his loss “i got cought, i made a mistake and got cought” how about Franklin “i thought i owned the clinch game, i made a mistake” are all fighter making excuses for there losses, yeah maybe a bit but if we didnt ask why they lost they wouldnt tell us why they think they lost.
i think the article is actually very good and i agree with what he says about Matt Hughes who doesnt make excuses and who usually performs at his extremely high level every single event.
haha its a tough situation to lose an important fight, but its not like these guys are going public claming it wasnt a legit loss or anything. They got the cameras in their face and asking them, “why do you think you lost?” lol. Its hard to answer that question without it sounding like an excuse, but in my opinion, none of the guys mentioned are making any excuses.
About the injuries, same thing, all fighters have some form of injury during training or during the fight which will take away from their performance. In most cases the interviewers ask the fighters if theyre injured aswell, so they respond yes to be honest about it and the media twists it, like they twist everything. If you see what else they say, all these guys say things like “he was the better man tonight, I cant take anything away from him, hes a great fighter”, etc..
Especially in regard to GSP comment where he said he wasnt impressed.. If i remember correctly, Hughes said that about GSP first, and GSP felt Hughes was disrespecting him. I think Dr.J put it best, Kevin Iole was just talking sh*it..
Oh i forgot to say something.. about Hughes saying “i love it!” after GSP lost to Serra. The reason i think he said that was not because he hates GSP or he wants to fight Serra. The reason was simply that it was another night that showed us anything can happen in a fight. Like when GSP beat Hughes, eveyone was instantly convinced that GSP is a much better fighter than Hughes and would he beat him everytime from now on. Serra showed that GSP is not some invincible guy and Hughes was happy because Serra proved that. Im still on the Hughes bandwagon, im picking him against anyone in the division and thats that..
Dude:
How does a fighter as talenter and likable as Georges “Rush†St. Pierre manage to tick off so many of his opponents?
First of all, the spelling errors are his; I’m aware that “talenter†is not a word. Second of all, I didn’t realize the George St. Pierre “ticked off so many of his opponents.†News to me, so I kept on reading the full article.
Were you trying to be ironic here or something? You get on someone else’s case for spelling, then IN THE VERY NEXT SENTENCE, misspell St. Pierre’s first name. And what is “the George St. Pierre” anyway. No need for the “the.” This, right after you get done calling someone else out for not being able to spell. How are we supposed to take anything you say seriously when you call someone out for a misspelling, then you don’t even know how to spell GSP’s first name. Oh and even your blog commenters don’t agree with you on the story. This is my first time visiting this blog and probably the last, though I might come back after “the George St. Pierre” loses next week to see what you say.
@J.Rodz
how about WHEN St.Pierre win next week you promise NEVER to come back here! how can we take Dr.J serious, because he has a clue about what he is talking about.
p.s. can you send me the link to your kick asss, awesome mma site so i can read some “real” mma news. LOL.
On second thought I will keep coming back! What could be funnier than someone who gets on someone else’s case for spelling, but doesn’t know how to spell GSP’s first name! It’s like a free night out at a comedy show!
@J Rodz
You win the door prize. I did spell Georges name incorrectly to be tongue-in-cheek. If you would quit being a baffoon and actually read the rest of the post and other articles on this site you would see that I know how to spell GSP’s name.
The extra word “the” is also a reference to a past article about Assuerio Silva. But then again this was your first visit to MMAHQ so you really have no idea what you are talking about.
But hey welcome to the site. Keep coming back and making me money.
Honestly, I don’t feel Iole knows enough about MMA to make these bold statements (or indeed to be paid to write an MMA column.) While I agree with the gist of the article, ” St. Pierre defeated B.J. Penn after getting poked in the eye in the first round” is really clutching at straws, BJ wrecked GSP in the first round. It wasn’t a finger in the eye that won the round, it was BJ’s utter dominance. Georges won the fight but bias **** like that undermines your whole article.
wow Doc you seem to be getting a lot of hate for calling out this tool Iole. all i can say is you guys are picking one or two points about Dr.J post that you didnt like and overstating its importance, while missing the point completely. the point was that this guy Iole is constantly writing moronic dribble about sh*t he has no idea about. normally i would just ignore this tool and his articles but the problem here is, is that a lot of “new” fan are reading this sh*t and taking it as facts and its sad to see someone misleading people. you have to buy sh*t just because someone told you its chocolate and you dont have to buy in a fight like Ortiz vs. Evans 2 just because they are going to hype it up.
well put, R.J.
any time you attack someone else people will attack you back. the whole point of the article was that I finally got completely fed up with Iole and his garbage articles. This isn’t the first and only stupid article he’s written. This is just the one that I happened to snap on and break apart.
Well, all I can say is Iole doesn’t look like he knows a thing about.. ANY kind of SPORT, he looks like he should be writing articles for a *** mens column in the NYT. I would like to see him get in an octagon … lol … then write an op ed on what the sport is like, because he doesn’t seem to have a clue. Oh…. and it’s a blog, so who cares about spelling anyways…. Iole is actually getting paid big bucks to make sure his writing is concise and accurate so me thinks he needs to use that little spell check thingy ma jigger at the top of his computer screen thingy…
@Doc J,
I have two questions for you.
1. What exactly is it in this article that makes you mad?
2. In all respect and just a question, have you ever done any training in mma.
@Zak,
Again, its not just this specific article from Iole. If you read his work consistently, he makes a LOT of outlandish statements and comparison and also makes quite a few statements that aren’t completely accurate. Sure, in and of themselves, they make not be inaccurate and new MMA fans wouldn’t know the difference, but for someone who truly follows MMA they stand out like a sore thumb. And that is the problem, those new to the sport are being misled and fed info that isn’t the whole truth or even the accurate truth.
@Zak,
Oh, and I’ve trained in wrestling and grappling (and some karate way back when). Not specifically MMA “training” but I may in the future.
He came up with some lame excuses after the Serra fight but that was a few days/week later and I’ve never heard him make excuses other then that.
GSP is a respectful guy and i dont know why anyone would bash him for being disrespectful
his lame excuse was that he underestimated Serra and didnt work hard enough.
I think Kevin wrote a good article.
Why did Hughes laugh after GSP lost…
Serra talked down about him…
and I know a few others did…
Article
while I don’t know what level of disrespect is being shown here, it does show a pattern of past fighters having issues here.
“Keep coming back and making me money.”
wow…….
by the way…not attacking you by any means. Just stating my point of view on it.
cheers
“What explanation was needed after the Hughes fight”?
This one: “Being French Canadian, Georges wasn’t aware that men had testicles, so he didn’t understand not to kick Hughes in the balls 3 times.”
(Kidding!)
GUYS PLAN AND SIMPLE… GSP WILL DESTROY KOZ IN THE FIRST ROUND… LOOK AT HOW ST PIERRE THREW SHERK AROUND LIKE A LIL BIOCH…KOZ WILL NOT OUTWRESTLE GSP… NO WAY IN HELL
@Jemaleddin
its a little know fact that French Canadian men actually have three testicles, just look at how many children a typical French Canadian family has.
@Handel
Hughes laughed at St.Pierre because he is a d*ck head and he was happy to see someone knock out the guy that knocked him out. Matt Serra was talking sh*t about St.Pierre because St.Pierre said some stupid stuff a few days after the fight (he said he wasnt ready and if it was Hughes he would have called the fight off) i did say in the past that what GSP said was disrespectful and dumb. i dint think GSP was trying to down play Serra’s skills, he was trying to say he f*cked up and wasnt ready. he went about it the wrong way and pissed off Matt Serra and rightfully so i would be pissed off too if i beat someone in a VERY important fight and he turned around and said i wouldnt have fought you if i though you were as tough as the former champ. the point of all this is just because St.Pierre pissed off Serra and Hughes is a prick doesnt mean he pisses everyone off. ask Miller or Trigg or Penn or the other 8 fighters he beat if they dont like St.Pierre.
the only thing i didnt like about what gsp said about serra that if he would of been fighting hughes he would of pulled out of the match
As someone who is married to a non-native speaker, I find that a lot of what Georges says are the mistakes of someone who has not learned the subtle nuances of the english language. It bothers me because people often complain when fighter doesn’t try to speak english, then roast them when they say things that come across as quirky or rude.