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Monday MMA headlines
By Zach Arnold | February 18, 2007
Here’s your laugh track of the day – Ed Fishman says if PRIDE won’t sell, he’ll start his own MMA company. Here’s another knee-slapper from the article: Dream Stage Entertainment CEO Sakakibara is believed to be the majority owner of the PRIDE brand and its assets. Let’s introduce Loretta Hunt to this and this to gauge the Japanese scene right now.
Nothing screams momentum for an upcoming event you’re promoting when the main topic of discussion is who wants to buy you out and if don’t sell, how fast your business going to collapse.
Spend some time reading the headlines, including what kind of ‘athletes’ Art Dore is willing to accept to fight in a cage in Michigan.
Plus, notes on the political war in Utah and there’s a new poll on the right side of the page.
It’d be a shame if Rocky was indeed on the same diet involving anything outside of saying your prayers and taking your vitamins, brother.
BoxingScene.com is now adding MMA coverage. My guess is that if Fox Sports will add future MMA coverage, they’ll just syndicate content from BoxingScene (they already do this for boxing).
Results from our last site poll – Rank the Elite XC debut show.
- Average – some good and some bad moments: 63%
- Poor – this wasn’t good at all: 20%
- Fantastic – very promising future: 17%
The top story of the day involves the state of Utah, which according to this Salt Lake Tribune report is facing a political war between boxing allies and the current State Athletic Commission (along with MMA promoters and fighters). It’s a complicated story, so I advise you to read it. But, what it boils down to is this – a boxing agent/promoter wants to disband the current Utah State Athletic Commission in favor of a 3-person ‘Sports Authority’ and less state regulation for boxing and MMA events. The Athletic Commission members and MMA promoters/fighters are completely against the measure, stating that it would make it harder to run MMA shows due to the state allocating less resources for regulation.
Here is the contact information for most of the names involved in the article. Read the article first. Then, if you feel compelled to contact the individuals listed in the article, please do so in a professional manner. Contact information… The politicians – Greg Hughes and Mike Dmitrich. The Utah State Athletic Commission – information here. MMA promoter Mike Stidham – web page here.
- UFC Mania: Interview with Georges St. Pierre
- MMA Fever: Josh Koscheck wiki page attacked
- Royal Burnell: I expect behavior like this from my little brother (this is a must-read update on Art Dore in Michigan)
- MMA California: Fatal Femmes Fighting results
- The Fightworks Podcast: Interview with Rafael Lovato Jr.
- The St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Small-town guy is a big-time fighter (article on Matt Hughes)
- Bodog Beat: MMA stars come out in Costa Rica (look at Josh Barnett take all that money!)
- UFC Junkie: Karo Parisyan expected to fight in May
- The Houston Chronicle: Rich Franklin’s middleweight title quest, take two (long version of the story can be read here)
- Jake Rossen: Early 2007 MMA report card
- The Korea Times: Korean fighter Choi Yong-soo wins his second K-1 match
- MMA Lowdown: UFC is trying to educate the athletic commissions
Topics: All Topics, Japan, K-1, Media, MMA, PRIDE, UFC, Zach Arnold | 14 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Head on over to http://www.ProElite.com, they have recently posted 3 of 5 Prelims from the EliteXC show for free viewing (the other 2 are on the way). Great fights if you didn’t see them live and no one was trying to go ‘old school’ on anyone in these fights.
Also http://www.BodogFIGHT.com continues to up their already impressive website content with a fight-by-fight posting of their USA vs Russia PPV card. These all appear to be Uncut, which more than was put out on the PPV and the ION premiere last Saturday. This is a very nice gesture and marketing tool for their future endeavors.
Now if we can get the Video podcast of the Fight Opinion radio show, we could be very entertained. Whaledog getting liquored up, Erin in all her glory, and Luke and Zach could ‘rassle’ for us maybe. But of course I kid, except the a drunken Thaler and Erin gagging on the underbelly of MMA’s dark past – I would pay for that show. Come on Zach, start up a ‘Premium Fight Opinion Fight Club Members Only’ subscription service, and sign me up. 😉
Now if Ion can decide what it wants to be.
Great radio show this past time around guys (and girl.)
http://www.ufc.com/index.cfm?fa=news.detail&gid=4528
Imes vs. Heath – Something’s gotta give, and UFC wins regardless.
If the company is in such dire financial straits and they have a “white knight” in Ed Fishman, what the hell is the hold-up?
I’m assuming this relates to the fact that the Yakuza isn’t to wild about parting with their “Shell company” – wouldnt they at least realize some sort of profit? With the org apparently bleeding money like crazy you’d think this would be the perfect stop gap.
Someone actually willing to pony up some cash for what is appearing more and more to be a sinking ship.
Did I read that right?
“UFC officials have not confirmed that they are the other potential buyer” [paraphrased]??
Hasn’t Dana White been openly admitting this every chance he gets? I’d say the PRESIDENT of the company openly admitting this on the record is pretty good affirmation.
HERO’s announced that they want to do their first US show either May or June and it will be co headlined by Brock Lesnar and Royce Gracie (in individual matches)…intresting…
http://www.k-1fans.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=32305
“HERO’s announced that they want to do their first US show either May or June and it will be co headlined by Brock Lesnar and Royce Gracie (in individual matches)…intresting…”
About as interesting as when they said they wanted to do their first US show in February with Lesnar fighting on the bill.
Wake me up when they have a date on an athletic commission’s ledger. Y’all give too much cred to these Japanese promoters just babbling for the papers like they always do.
It is all about market. Pride has used Shamrock & Gracie on American PPV with almost no major increase in buyrates. The UFC uses each of these fighters, and they get great ratings.
I agree with Jordan … what’s said and what’s real are two completely different things. The subterfuge used by these guys has hit almost pro-wrestling standards.
To quote Bob Arum: “Yesterday I was lying. Today I’m telling the truth.”
Seems to capture the promoter mold to a ‘T’.
Critic,
That’s a HORRIBLE comparison to try and draw parallels. Since when has PRIDE outside of their last two events in the US attempted to “market” USA PPV’s.
I swear to god if Dana White stops short you’ll have a good idea of what he ate for breakfast…get back to me when you’re done knocking down strawmen.
You’ve neglected to point out the MONSTER DRAWS they made in Japan with the use of the Gracies’ throughout the 90’s. From Rickson’s fights, to building the legend of the Gracie Killer with Sakuraba, to the introduction of Bushido with Japan vs. The Gracies and I’m pretty sure the Shockwave show featuring the rematch of Gracie vs. Yoshida was a pretty big sell as well. As for Shamrock, I’m pretty certain there was a pretty big audience to see the Shamrock vs. Frye blood feud at PFC 19:Bad Blood.
I’m sure if DSE put the kind of build and marketing into their US PPV’s as they did with all of their pre-Shockwave ’05 cards they’d be doing monster business too. I think it’s a really difficult comparison to make b/c PRIDE’s situation now is a lot different then it was even 18 months ago; but looking at the way they were able to sell to their market vs. the way that the UFC sells to its market would be a far better comparison.
Because to me the comparison you’re trying to make would be akin to seeing how their PPV buyrates are in Japan, Brazil etc. I’m sure its just as neglible…they’re selling markets that are VASTLY different.
*The last paragraph refers to UFC’s buyrates outside of the USA.