I’ve lost the plot
A new direction for The Fight Library, the correct one.
For far too long I’ve worn too many hats in the combat sports space.
I wanted to be Jack Slack, Dan Carlin, Luke Thomas, Ariel Helwani, Nina Drama, Bane Davis, McGregorRousey, Napoleon Blownapart, iShowSpeed, Jose Youngs, Hero With A Thousand Holds, The Fight Site, Mr. Beast, Joe Rogan…you get the idea.
I forgot that I was also supposed to be true to Blaine.
What do I like? What do I enjoy doing, learning, creating?
Fighting sports. That’s what I like. But as seen above, that can take a million different forms.
After wearing all of these hats, I’ve determined I don’t like most of them.
The end of something I hate
A long time ago I realized I hated interviewing fighters. But it wasn’t that I didn’t like talking to them. Athletes are fascinating. I hated talking about the upcoming fight day in and day out.
How’s camp going?
What are you expecting from your opponent?
What’s next if you win?
Anyone can do this. But it takes someone special to do them well. I am not that person.
I’ve come to feel this same way about The MMA Show, my weekly, sometimes twice weekly MMA show.
I like telling stories. I like talking about Milo of Croton. I like the Mike Tyson: Facing a Giant article I wrote. I liked following Tom Scott around as he competed in karate. I liked discovering the trail of John L. Sullivan.
While I watched and enjoyed Natalia Silva beating Wang Cong, I did not like talking about it. This has been eating at me for a while. I don’t like the weekly show.
I like creating.
So I’ll be shutting down The MMA Show and the Heavy Hitters Boxing Show. Those will be archived on here and I’ll be starting a new YouTube channel.
“Oh aren’t you worried about monetization?” Na, bruh this isn’t about money.
The future of Fight Library
Where do we go from here? The thing I love most is making Fight Finders. Those will be reuploaded to the new channel, same brand, but a different mission.
The future of Fight Finders will be for me, Blaine Henry, to experience the history of fighting.
Since doubling and tripling down on The MMA Show, I’ve really lost sight of making that and it’s been a year since I’ve made a new one.
There’s a dozen or more episodes I have in mind and more gestating. You can expect new Fight Finders episodes 2-4 times a year starting in 2027. Maybe another this year for fun.
That leads us to our second pillar: history.
The history of fighting is fascinating. I ready books about fighting; the philosophies, the stories, the technique.
I’ve talked about Taumas the Strong, Milo of Croton, and Tom Molineaux in the past. These are niche stories shuffled through history to our own ears and eyes today.
There will be more of that.
I’m going to tell long form, ultra long form, and bite sized stories about the heroes of the past that built the sports we love today.
In terms of writing , I’ll also share great stories I’ve discovered through my reading and watching of fight history.
Lastly, I’d like to try my hand at photography. Nothing beats a great picture in fighting and I’d love to just take pictures for fun.
The new fight library will be an art project, one that I make for fun.
I’ll also share antecedents about my time training. But that’ll be very seldom.
The upload cadence will, understandably, be much less. But I hope to provide you guys a body of work that is interesting, engaging, and unique that isn’t just another MMA show.
Stay tuned for a new YouTube channel and a website.