UFC 3/21 Broomfield, Colorado (1stBank Center)
By Zach Arnold | March 15, 2010
Note from 3/15: Because Versus is owned by Comcast, Comcast Sportsnet channels aired the “Countdown to UFC” preview show on Sunday night. I watched it and came away impressed with Jon Jones. I came away with the same impression of Brandon Vera that I always have — he talks better than he fights. I am most interested in watching JDS vs. Gabriel Gonzaga and I thought the preview show did a good job of highlighting that fight.
TV: Versus
TV start time: 9 PM EST
Dark matches
- Light Heavyweights: Eric Schafer vs. Jason Brilz
- Welterweights: Mike Pierce vs. Julio Paulino
- Heavyweights: Brendan Schaub vs. Chase Gormley
- Welterweights: John Howard vs. Daniel Roberts
- Light Heavyweights: Eliot Marshall vs. Vladimir Matyushenko
- Lightweights: Clay Guida vs. Shannon Gugerty
- Middleweights: Alessio Sakara vs. James Irvin
Main card
- Heavyweights: Cheick Kongo vs. Paul Buentello
- Heavyweights: Junior Dos Santos vs. Gabriel Gonzaga
- Light Heavyweights: Brandon Vera vs. Jon “Bones” Jones
Topics: MMA, Media, UFC, Zach Arnold | 16 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback | Share This
Independent World MMA Rankings – March 12, 2010
By Zach Arnold | March 12, 2010
From the office of the Independent World MMA Rankings
March 12, 2010: The March 2010 Independent World MMA Rankings have been released. These rankings are independent of any single MMA media outlet or sanctioning body, and are published on multiple web sites.
In addition to the numerous MMA web sites that publish the Independent World MMA Rankings, you can also access the rankings at any time by going to www.IndependentWorldMMARankings.com.
Some of the best and most knowledgeable MMA writers from across the MMA media landscape have come together to form one independent voting panel. These voting panel members are, in alphabetical order: Zach Arnold (Fight Opinion); Nicholas Bailey (MMA Ratings); Jared Barnes (Freelance); Jordan Breen (Sherdog); Jim Genia (Full Contact Fighter, MMA Memories, and MMA Journalist Blog); Jesse Holland (MMA Mania); Robert Joyner (Freelance); Todd Martin (CBS Sportsline); Jim Murphy (The Savage Science); Zac Robinson (Sports by the Numbers MMA); Leland Roling (Bloody Elbow); Michael David Smith (AOL Fanhouse); Joshua Stein (MMA Opinion); Ivan Trembow (Freelance); and Dave Walsh (Head Kick Legend).
Continue reading this article here…
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Why did UFC 110 reportedly not draw big on PPV?
By Zach Arnold | March 12, 2010
I’m actually asking this question for real — because the main event was great on paper. It had meaning and significance, too. Plus the news about the show being a sell-out in Australia was known for a couple months. And… the show aired live on PPV (Sunday afternoon Australian time = Saturday night American time), so it wasn’t taped and there weren’t spoilers on the Internet beforehand.
- What does this mean about where Cain Velasquez ranks as a (non) drawing card?
- Did UFC 109 with Coleman vs. Couture really hurt the buyrate this badly? (That would be scary.)
- Has the core PPV buying audience shrunk significantly? (As opposed to just being more selective.)
From the latest edition of The Observer (go subscribe to it if you can):
I don’t have a number of buys, but based on trending data which has historically been pretty accurate, it could be in the 215,000 to 240,000 range, basically along the lines of the tape-delayed foreign shows. This was foreign, but wasn’t tape delayed. One cable industry source gave an estimate of 215,000.
(Update 3/12): UFC’s hype show, part one, for Georges St. Pierre vs. Dan Hardy, drew a rating somewhere in the 0.8 range. In other words, it was comparable to the rating that Hogan vs. Flair drew in the final quarter-hour of TNA’s Monday Night show. A hype show did better than anything TNA could ever produce on Spike. No surprise, really, but just more affirmation of how smoking hot the UFC New Jersey event will be.
Topics: MMA, Media, UFC, Zach Arnold | 48 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback | Share This
DREAM 13 (3/22 Yokohama Arena)
By Zach Arnold | March 12, 2010
- Open-weight fight: Minowaman vs. Jimmy Ambriz
- Welterweights: Ryo Chonan vs. Andrews Nakahara
- Lightweights: KJ Noons vs. Andre Dida
- Lightweights: Katsunori Kikuno vs. Kuniyoshi Hironaka
- Featherweights: Yoshiro Maeda vs. Cole Escovedo
- DREAM Featherweight Title match: Bibiano Fernandes vs. Joachim Hansen
Update (3/12): You can also add Josh Barnett to the card (versus a opponent to be announced). It was indicated that there may be a “triangle” feud involving Barnett, Overeem, and Fedor in DREAM’s Heavyweight division.
Topics: DREAM, Japan, MMA, Media, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | No Comments » | Permalink | Trackback | Share This
Report: Asashoryu involved in new pro-wrestling promotion
By Zach Arnold | March 10, 2010
I’ll give him this — he always is up to something interesting and pro-wrestling is in his family’s DNA. The group he will reportedly be involved in is called MAP (Mongol Asashoryu Pro-wrestling) and the debut show will take place on 3/21 in Tokyo at Shinjuku FACE (smallish building). The Daily Sports report notes that Asashoryu will not wrestle, but is cooperating as the face of the project with business manager Akihiro Ichinomiya (age 31). Ichinomiya’s older brother happens to be Shoichi Ichinomiya, who is a comedy wrestler in Japan.
Apparently, the plan is to recruit local Mongol talent and bring them into the fight game. It’s interesting that Asashoryu is deciding to build up political connections this way in the Japanese fighting landscape. Essentially, he is putting himself in position to become a fixer/producer for bringing in foreign talent from the Sumo world into pro-wrestling and perhaps down the road in MMA.
The Daily Sports report discusses the idea of the Ichinomiya brothers teaming up versus a Mongol army of wrestlers on the 3/21 Shinjuku show. The report also claims that Asashoryu & Ichinomiya are currently in Mongolia (Ulan Bator).
The news is currently on the front page of several Japanese news portals including Yahoo’s main page.
Topics: Japan, Media, Pro-Wrestling, Zach Arnold | 3 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback | Share This
WEC’s poor ratings show that Strikeforce should not waste their time going after them
By Zach Arnold | March 10, 2010
The news coming out regarding WEC 47 drawing a 0.46 cable rating on Versus is bad news for Zuffa and informational news for CBS & Strikeforce.
First, the piss-poor rating should be cause for concern with UFC’s upcoming March 21st rally with Brandon Vera vs. Jon Jones. America is all about branding and despite years and years of Comcast trying to push Versus as a major network, American viewers simply aren’t buying into it. ESPN and its family of networks continue its dominance and Spike TV had long track records and programming that built those brands over many years. Versus has tried desperately with WEC and the NHL to try to boost ratings, but it simply hasn’t worked. UFC is a strong brand but it’s unlikely that they are going to build up Versus long-term like WWE helped build up Spike TV in the late 90s and early 00’s.
Second, WEC’s poor ratings not only indicate that the company is in a slide, but it also shows that Strikeforce has won a small battle amongst the hardcore fans. When Strikeforce on Showtime, a pay channel, is outdrawing Zuffa’s child on a semi-non-premium cable channel. So, the idea that Strikeforce should move their 4/17 Nashville event to 4/24 to try to screw with the buyrate for the WEC debut PPV would be a reactionary one and one that wouldn’t be productive for Scott Coker. Strikeforce needs to worry about expanding their base instead of fighting with Zuffa’s Jr. company over hardcore fans. Running on 4/17 instead of 4/24 also avoids competition against the Super Six boxing series on Showtime.
Regarding the paid attendance for WEC’s event in Columbus, Ohio being over 8,000 — that’s a great number for the company, but WEC’s main purpose is that as a television property first and a live gate property second. In many ways, WEC serves the same function for UFC as DREAM does for K-1 — draw ratings, make money, and control the television pipeline away from the competition. WEC drawing low ratings on all non-Urijah Faber cards will ultimately defeat the purpose (and the push) that existed for being on Versus in the first place. It just adds more pressure onto Zuffa’s junior company to pop a good number on PPV or else face the realities at hand.
The big question at hand — will the move to PPV essentially cannibalize the deal with Versus? If WEC fails on PPV and continues to draw low ratings on Versus, will it force UFC to essentially merge WEC into their fold and run shows on Versus as UFC (along with the gluttonous amount of programming already on Spike TV)?
Topics: MMA, Media, UFC, WEC, Zach Arnold | 15 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback | Share This
UFC press conference today in Japan
By Zach Arnold | March 10, 2010
The promotion held a presser today in Tokyo with Jamie Pollack (photo), counsel for Zuffa, leading the announcement of the fight card for their 3/31 event at Bojangles Arena in Charlotte, North Carolina. Pollack’s last time in Japan wasn’t so great — he was sent by Zuffa to try to head-up the shinsei (newborn) PRIDE resurrection attempt after the asset sale with Nobuyuki Sakakibara.
At today’s press conference at Wald 9 in Shinjuku (Tokyo), it was announced that the UFC Charlotte event would air on TV Tokyo, the smallest of the free-to-air broadcast networks in Japan. In other words, UFC will not make much of a dent in the Japanese marketplace. TV Tokyo is a pay-for-play station. You bring the sponsors and pay for the time, you get it. The 3/31 show will air on TV Tokyo on 4/8 in a one-hour slot from 10 PM to 10:54 PM JST.
Pollack at today’s presser (photo) said that UFC was aiming to expand into Japan and that signing “big names” like Gomi, Okami, and Uno were part of the marketing plan. OK. In usual grandstanding bluster, the TV Tokyo sports executive at the presser said he hopes the UFC show will draw a double-digit rating. (A realistic rating would be in the 4-to-6 % range.)
A taped video by Dana White was played at the press conference, saying that the three Japanese fighters (Gomi, Okami, and Uno) are “Japanese legend fighters.” Which means those fighters will all fight in the top 3 slots on the card, right? Nope — Okami fights 3rd and Uno 4th, both dark matches in America.
Topics: MMA, Media, UFC, Zach Arnold | 10 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback | Share This
UFC 3/27 Newark, New Jersey (PPV)
By Zach Arnold | March 8, 2010
Dark matches
- Welterweights: Matt Riddle vs. Greg Soto
- Middleweights: Rousimar Palhares vs. Tomasz Drwal
- Light Heavyweights: Rodney Wallace vs. Jared Hamman
- Lightweights: Kurt Pellegrino vs. Fabricio Camoes
- Middleweights: Ricardo Almeida vs. Matt Brown
- Lightweights: Nate Diaz vs. Rory Markham
Main card
- Lightweights: Jim Miller vs. Mark Bocek
- Welterweights: Jon Fitch vs. Thiago Alves
- Welterweights: Ben Saunders vs. Jake Ellenberger
- #1 Contender’s match (Heavyweights): Frank Mir vs. Shane Carwin
- UFC Welterweight Title match: Georges St. Pierre vs. Dan Hardy
Topics: MMA, Media, UFC, Zach Arnold | 24 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback | Share This
ASTRA 4/25 Nippon Budokan (J-ROCK)
By Zach Arnold | March 8, 2010
Hidehiko Yoshida retirement show.
Featherweights: Michihiro Omigawa vs. Micah Miller
Featherweights: Akihiro Mori vs. Tatsunao Nagakura
Welterweights: Che Mills vs. Yuya Shirai
Also scheduled: Makoto Takimoto, Kazuhiro Nakamura, Denis Kang
Topics: Japan, MMA, Media, Zach Arnold | 1 Comment » | Permalink | Trackback | Share This
Sengoku 3/7 Tokyo, Ryogoku Kokugikan
By Zach Arnold | March 6, 2010
- Heavyweights: Yoshihiro Nakao vs. Sentoryu (Henry Miller)
- Welterweights: Akihiro Gono vs. Diego Gonzalez
- Lightweights: Kiuma Kunioku vs. Leonardo Santos
- SRC Middleweight Title match: Jorge Santiago vs. Mamed Khalidov
- Featherweights: Shigeki Osawa vs. Kyung Ho Kang
- Featherweights: Yuji Hoshino vs. Nick Denis
- Featherweights: Marlon Sandro vs. Tomonari Kanomata
Topics: Japan, MMA, Media, Sengoku, Zach Arnold | 4 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback | Share This
K-1 4/3 Yokohama Arena
By Zach Arnold | March 6, 2010
- K-1 Super Heavyweight Title match: Semmy Schilt vs. Errol Zimmerman
- K-1 Heavyweight Title match: Kyotaro vs. Peter Aerts
- Badr Hari vs. Alexey Ignashov
- Alistair Overeem vs. Dzevad Poturak (Bosnia)
- Jerome Le Banner vs. Ruslan Karaev
Also scheduled to fight on the card: Sergii Lashchenko, Jaideep Singh, Mitsugu Noda, Takumi Sato
Topics: Japan, K-1, Media, Zach Arnold | 1 Comment » | Permalink | Trackback | Share This
WEC 3/6 Columbus, Ohio at Nationwide Arena
By Zach Arnold | March 5, 2010
Dark matches
- Lightweights: Ricardo Lamas vs. Bendy Casimir
- Featherweights: Fredson Paixao vs. Courtney Buck
- Featherweights: Leonard Garcia vs. George Roop
- Lightweights: Danny Castillo vs. Anthony Pettis
- Featherweights: Chad Mendes vs. Erik Koch
- Bantamweights: Scott Jorgensen vs. Chad George
Main card
- Lightweights: Bart Palaszewski vs. Karen Darabedyan
- Featherweights: Deividas Taurosevicius vs. LC Davis
- Featherweights: Jens Pulver vs. Javier Vazquez
- Bantamweights: Miguel Torres vs. Joe Benavidez
- WEC Bantamweight Title match: Brian Bowles vs. Dominick Cruz
Topics: MMA, Media, WEC, Zach Arnold | 41 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback | Share This
Mike Tyson vs. Evander Holyfield III coming soon?
By Zach Arnold | March 5, 2010
- Ringside Report: Done deal – the return of Mike Tyson to boxing (he could face Vinny Maddalone! Oh my…)
- The Guardian (UK): Spare us the spectacle of Iron Mike creaking back into the ring (plus news about Hitman Hearns becoming homeless)
- The London Times: David Haye cautions Mike Tyson against return to the ring
- Deadspin: Mike Tyson’s comeback can’t ruin these great times for boxing
Like…
- Associated Press: Yuri Foreman vs. Miguel Cotto booked for Yankee Stadium on 6/5 (love Arum saying, “This is a great thing for my legacy.” Plus — a bar mitzvah nearly stopped it from happening?)
- AOL Fanhouse: Arum claims outdoor stadiums are the way to go to promote future shows
- New York Daily News: Yankee Stadium to be scaled to 30,000 seats for the fight
Topics: Boxing, Media, Zach Arnold | 9 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback | Share This