Gladiators, money and the media
The Slugfest in the Executive Suite
By AMY CHOZICK, NYT
ATLANTIC CITY
BEYOND the pinging slot machines and the felt-topped card tables at the Caesars casino here, inside a steel cage built for maximum pain, Darrell Horcher is slipping a triangle choke hold on Chris Liguori.
Fists land — left jabs, right crosses, quick combinations to jaws and abdomens. Knees sock solar plexuses. Hands claw faces. Bodies smack and thud. From the crowd, the refrain goes up: “That’s got to hurt!” After three rounds, Mr. Liguori is bleeding from his right eye. On this chilly December night, the decision is unanimous: Mr. Horcher is the winner.
So it goes in the Ramboesque world of cage fighting, more politely known as mixed martial arts. In this hugely popular — not to mention lucrative — sport, fighters employ agonizing moves like the “modified guillotine” and the “bicep slicer” as they punch, kick, knee and choke each other into submission.
But it’s got nothing on Hollywood. In fact, two media heavyweights are locked in a smackdown of their own over the future of this sport, which Senator John McCain has likened to human cockfighting.
In one corner is Ari Emanuel, the Hollywood superagent who represents the Ultimate Fighting Championship, the premier cage-fighting league. In the other corner is Philippe P. Dauman, the urbane chief executive of the media conglomerate Viacom.
(More here.)
ATLANTIC CITY
BEYOND the pinging slot machines and the felt-topped card tables at the Caesars casino here, inside a steel cage built for maximum pain, Darrell Horcher is slipping a triangle choke hold on Chris Liguori.
Fists land — left jabs, right crosses, quick combinations to jaws and abdomens. Knees sock solar plexuses. Hands claw faces. Bodies smack and thud. From the crowd, the refrain goes up: “That’s got to hurt!” After three rounds, Mr. Liguori is bleeding from his right eye. On this chilly December night, the decision is unanimous: Mr. Horcher is the winner.
So it goes in the Ramboesque world of cage fighting, more politely known as mixed martial arts. In this hugely popular — not to mention lucrative — sport, fighters employ agonizing moves like the “modified guillotine” and the “bicep slicer” as they punch, kick, knee and choke each other into submission.
But it’s got nothing on Hollywood. In fact, two media heavyweights are locked in a smackdown of their own over the future of this sport, which Senator John McCain has likened to human cockfighting.
In one corner is Ari Emanuel, the Hollywood superagent who represents the Ultimate Fighting Championship, the premier cage-fighting league. In the other corner is Philippe P. Dauman, the urbane chief executive of the media conglomerate Viacom.
(More here.)
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