Tim Cowlishaw made a bad joke and now the MMA blogosphere is lighting torches and sharpening pitchforks. 

Cowlishaw, of ESPN's Around the Horn, wrote a long piece explaining why MMA, and the UFC by extension, doesn't appeal to him and how he will not be attending UFC 103 in Dallas tonight. Nothing new for the older generation of sports fans, right? 

Except in this case Tim made a bad/homophobic joke and Steve Cofield of Cage Writer rightly called him on it. 

As an MMA fan/blogger I think it is important to point out that there is a homoerotic quality to MMA and we have all been at that bar where someone screams the f-word at two fighters who are wrestling on the mat. But you know what? Homoeroticism exists in all sports and machismo culture. Take the movie 300 for instance, or the NFL with its male-on-male ass slapping and "no homo" jokes. 

Look, Cowlishaw is really one of the good guys in the mainstream vs. MMA narrative that we get trapped into. Tim knows MMA isn't a bloodsport, that tremendous skill is involved and that MMA is the combat sport that young people are attracted to (as he argued on Around the Horn this past Friday). Tim's article was simply an expression that MMA is not his cup of tea because he is an old boxing fan. And you know what? That's alright, my dad is the same way. 

Cowlishaw may love NASCAR but it isn't my thing and that's alright too. People are allowed to like different things than one another. The lesson here is to avoid writing bad/homophobic jokes about a sport that we don't like. Think about that next time you want to call a soccer player a p@#%^