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Mirko out of open-weight tournament?
By Zach Arnold | August 5, 2006
By Zach Arnold
Update: Reaction on the Nokaut site.
This Croatian report indicates that Mirko Cro Cop is not working the PRIDE 9/10 Saitama Super Arena show. Sherdog claims it is a money issue.
This is a very bad sign for PRIDE, even if the end result (which is likely Yoshida filling in, creating yet another Yoshida vs. Silva match) will likely be better for business. Mirko has been awfully loyal to DSE on many big fights, and now suddenly once the Fuji TV deal is dead — he’s not so cooperative. Mirko vs. Silva was, on paper, a tremendous match (and one that I felt Mirko could win for sure). Silva vs. Yoshida is always fun, but the result is not really in question now. It’s certainly not fair to either Barnett or Nogueira.
The most interesting note in all of this story is that the Croatian report does indeed name the WFA as the promotion that made a big-money offer for Mirko to work in America in October. The rumors right now suggest that WFA is going to run their October show in Las Vegas, meaning Las Vegas in one month will have shows from WFA, PRIDE, and UFC. PRIDE, right now, looks to be the big loser in all of this.
Update: I am astounded at some of the reaction online to the news of Mirko leaving. The same people who bitch over and over about how fighters don’t get paid enough (such as in UFC) are now complaining about Mirko having a money dispute with PRIDE. Hello… this is a business. If PRIDE didn’t have Mirko under contract throughout the tournament, that’s their problem. If Mirko is in a position to leverage for more money, why shouldn’t he do it? The anti-UFC, pro-PRIDE crowd can’t have it both ways here.
Topics: All Topics, Japan, Media, MMA, PRIDE, Zach Arnold | 15 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Re: the update. If Pride didn’t have him locked down under contract before now, it’s their own fault.
I think the reason why people are reacting like that is how Mirko is handling the situation. I view it as classless in my own right, and I’m a big Cro Cop fan.
On the money thing…I think most people on Sherdog view $150,000 as enough money to fight in PRIDE, compared to what the UFC usually pays (well to low and mid carders at least, and Rich Franklin’s low pay even though that was Rich’s own doing there.)
Pizza – when you are normally getting paid $300,000 USD (or even more, sometimes) per fight, and suddenly the money isn’t what it used to be… things change real quickly.
I doubt Yoshida will be physically capable of filling in. Whoever they select will be a difficult choice for DSE to make. Fedor would be an obvious choice, but he never fights unprepared and costs even more than Mirko. I’ll wager on Roman Zentsov.
Zentsov would be intriguing (if Fedor acted as his “manager”), but I seriously doubt he would sell tickets. PRIDE needs someone who can fill seats in that building. It has to be a Japanese fighter.
The only other option would be to take Fedor off the Las Vegas card and put him against Barnett, and match Silva vs. Nogueira in the semi-finals if they wanted to reshuffle the card.
Aleksander v Kharitonov is the alternate fight. Either of those guys or Shogun would be good in my opinion. Tough to put Shogun in against Silva in round 1 though. The chances of them working the fight to give one of them an advantage in the finals would seem probable to people even if they had an honest fight.
My prediction is that Mirko will get his money and do the fight.
Since Pride now has a working relationship with the UFC, they should approach Dana White and try to get Arlovski to fill in. That would spice up the tournament in a big way.
Re: Diamond Dave- Why would UFC send one of their guys off to Japan to lose badly? The whole nature of the Pride UFC relationship is Pride is dying and needs an outlet to get themselves over in America, and UFC wants to cherry pick their talent. Pride has no leverage in this deal and I doubt Dana would send Arlovski over just because he seen Arlovski lose to Sylvia and figures Barnett or Nog could probably destroy him.
Plus Arlovski’s never fought in Japan and the replacement for Mirko needs to be someone who could actually draw. If he was still UFC champion their’d be something there, but there’s not.
I hope this is just a public renegotiation ploy by Mirko and he and Pride come to terms quickly. This tourney loses a lot of luster if Cro Cop bails and it’s another black eye that Pride doesn’t need right now.
Note that the $150,000 is a bonus for winnig the owgp, not his wage for the entire night. I do understand why he would want more money but this is his last chance to win a big title, at least in Japan. If he winns it then he can go for the dough. For me this is proving that Mirko lacks the mental power to go all the way, and that he is simply blaiming DSE and make it a contractual dispute.
Regardless of whether it is a pay cut or not, he should be fighting because he loves it, not for the damned pay check. You gonna tell me 150k isn’t going to put food on his table? Pathetic.
Any why isn’t Roman Zentsov the replacement? He won his fight for precisely this sort of situation, right?…
Re: Rich, Dana white has sent Pride representitives to Japan in the past eg; Chuck Liddell almost losing to Overreem and then being destroyed by Rampage. The organizations do have working relationship together presently. Dana White knows that there is a great possibility that Vandereli will beat Chuck, why would he not take a chance on Arlovski unless he is admitting that the former champ had a paper title. The Japanese fans are not regional as far as fighter reconization. They do know of Arlovski and I am certain he would draw.
Comments Zach?
If Dana thought he could make a good cut of money by loaning guys to PRIDE, he would do it. I would say the chance of it happening now would be 25%, at most.
Pride has met Mirko’s demands:
http://www.vecernji-list.hr/newsroom/sports/more/605988/index.do
re:Donut, I cannot read the post, but would Pride feel Mirko’s loyalty was not with them and quite possibly cut him from the field for going public with this type of extorition?
Zach could you validate the Donut post?