Kaku is out of town. Still taking the scenic route back from Vegas, I suppose. He told me to take over the blog in case anything interesting happened while he was gone, but I'm even lazier about updates than he is.
I am also much less diplomatic than my pal, so when I was thinking earlier today about a topic to talk about, I decided to go with one of my favorites: the tragicomic life of one Zach Arnold.
This guy would be harmless, except for the fact that he's duped 5-10 equally verbose people and make-believe "journalists" into thinking that he is knowledgeable about (a) Japan and (b) MMA. That's laughable when you consider the colossal number of errors he's made in translating/paraphrasing Japanese news over the years (mind you, I have to admit to not being anywhere near perfect myself, despite my best efforts with language teachers as an American trapped in Tokyo over the last couple of years) and his even more limited knowledge of MMA, not to mention anything that's a real sport (read: excluding "puro resu.").
I do confess, however, to reading Zach Arnold's stuff from time to time over the years. Yes, I get tired of reading in Japanese from time to time. But if there's one thing that this guy is a master of, it's burning bridges. You have to wonder how a guy who used to have a half-decent fighter or sports entertainer on his internet radio show from time to time (the Mike Sempervive days, I guess) can't get anyone for his shows nowadays. And how the fightopinion.com forum attracts no more than about three active (meaning at least one post a month) contributors.
Well, burning bridges takes practice. A good way to hone your skills in this department is to enforce a heavy censorship policy. Like his neo-con idols, Zach Arnold can't seem to tolerate the slightest disagreement with his ideas. Of late, it seems that he's again taken to his quarterly weeding out of troublemakers on the Fight Opinion comments sections, going so far as to erase comments that these troublemakers might have made several days earlier. First, he's been focusing on people who are able to identify when he's stretching the truth about some Japanese-language materials or when he's just plain unable to understand them, and who are bringing these issues up on his site. (This would include people like "b," who commented recently on one of kaku's articles. Don't worry, b -- you can comment here as much as you want without fear of getting deleted.) Second, he's been eliminating people that have raised certain things in Zach Arnold's undisclosed work history that may explain much of his hardline stances in favor of, or against, certain promotions. This would include a certain poster named "Allen," who on a multiple of occasions raised the suggestion that Zach Arnold failed in a past attempt to get a job with the Pride organization.
So here's an open call to any of you that might have a story or two about Zach Arnold. I don't know much about the guy, but I'm sure some of you guys out there -- like b and Allen and some forum people over at the UG or Sherdog -- could help us out greatly in forming a more colorful and accurate picture of this mysterious shah of Fight Opinion.
(Besides, I'm too tired to write any more. Damn vodka tonics.)
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