Everyone and their dog that watched that fight know that Ortiz got a GIFT decision and got a pretty generous decision against Belfort (who conveniently was in the last fight of his contract). The UFC protects their fighters and stars as much as everybody else. There was a reason they gave Leben to Silva, Sanchez to Cro Cop and O’Brien to Herring etc etc. It was just bad luck that you had guys like Serra and O’Brien ruining their plans and making them look stupid b/c they were supposed to be tune-up fights and their big boys lost.

I feel like these comment sections just turn into a revolving door

Since this conversation is more alive then the one below it, I will post this info here…. From The Wrestling Observer….

The following fighters got bonuses for their UFC 71 fights:

[LIST]
[*]Din Thomas – $30,000 for his submission. Ended up receiving $58,000 overall
[*]Kalib Starnes – $30,000 for great fight. Ended up receiving $40,000 overall
[*]Chris Leben – $30,000 for great fight. Ended up receiving $40,000 overall
[*]Houston Alexander – $30,000 for knockout. Ended up receiving $38,000 overall.
[*]Quinton Jackson – $30,000 for knockout. Ended up receiving $255,000 + more.
[/LIST]

Quinton Jackson & Chuck Liddell both received a portion of the PPV Revenues. Therefore, each probably received between $1 Million to $2 Million Plus….

How the hell with a straigh face can you even try to say that UFC doesn’t protect/coddle their stars or have gift decisions unlike big, bad old PRIDE?

It’s a completely ludicrous statement! Chuck Liddell and Franklin are two picture perfect examples of guys who they had in mind to be their “faces” or “stars” and made matches to “preserve their star status”. When they finally went up against “world class” talents and not guys from TUF or fighters who played to their strengths or were downright overrated or didnt belong there (I’m looking at you Tito Ortiz and Jeremy Horn) they were made to look pretty pedestrian.

Bonnar and Tito Ortiz (re: Griffen) were given complete gift decisions to preserve their star status – Tito’s in order to justify a completely unnecessary and ridiculous rematch with Liddell who had already proven Tito didn’t belong in the upper echelon of fighters much less fighting for the belt again!!

As for guys deserving shots and getting held down – I direct you to Mr. Matt Lindland who was a picture perfect example of getting completely F#cked over b/c he was nowhere near as “poster boy-ish” as Franklin.

I could go on and on and find tonnes of other examples but these are just off the top of my head.

It’s the fight game and it doesn’t matter what organization or sport – they will find guys that are marketable and do everything they can to make their stars look good.

But of course why am I surprised at your shilling attempts on behalf of Dana and the boys?!?!

“And how about the scene in Brazil? Is that place more 2nd class image with 3rd world politics? Is corruption just as rampant there as it is in Japan?”

Brazil has its own forms of petty corruption. You may not see huge organized crime ties, but perhaps the biggest problem you see in the Brazilian events is when a gym promotes an event, has all their guys fight, and the referees and judges are closely linked to that gym.

For instance, I know one of Daniel Acacio’s recent losses in Brazil, the guy he fought (I THINK it was Luis Sapo) was a teammate of the referee. None too surprisingly, Acacio complained about stand ups, and other stuff like that which played a role in the outcome of the fight.

Brazil, despite its stature of a fighter factory, something which will continue for years to come, doesn’t seem to be viable as the home base of an A level show. At best, promotions like the UFC or bodog could run a show there every so often and draw a very good crowd.

Eh, not really. Both organization’s standard shows are run at Korakuen Hall. Good DEEP shows sell out Korakuen Hall, and good Shooto cards sell out Korakuen Hall. However, Shooto have drawn 4200+ at Yoyogi’s Second and Pacifico Yokohama, which is bigger than anything DEEP have done in a while.

As for TV deals in Japan, no one really has an outstanding one. All the organizations are on Samurai TV. Shooto and Smackgirl are on J-Sports/ESPN. ZST is on GAORA. Pancrase is on Sky-A. The ‘best’ TV deal is GCM/CAGE FORCE, who air on TV Tokyo, the smallest of the sixth major networks.

You also mentioned that w/o a major ally the UFC will have a hard time running shows in Japan successfully to win over the Japanese fans. How about forming alliances with smaller groups like DEEP and Shooto? Will that increase their chance?

And how about the scene in Brazil? Is that place more 2nd class image with 3rd world politics? Is corruption just as rampant there as it is in Japan?

DEEP gets larger crowds then Shooto, but nothing close to what K-1 or Pride would get. Don’t forget Pancrase as well. They seem to have a deal with Bodog going. Ever since their dominance in the sport in mid 1990’s, they haven’t done much in terms of cultivating talent. They have produced Misaki & Marquardt, but that is about it.

You see a lot of Sherdog.com type of fans complain about the UFC, and how it isn’t Pride. There is a real denial about Pride at this point. Pride was running shows they couldn’t financially afford. They ran their company in a horrible way. They constantly kept fighters down like Paulo Filho & Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, who deserved title shots and never received them. They would alter their tournament brackets to give a Heavyweight Fighter like Mirko Filipovic a roster of fighters (who were all smaller) such as Minowa, Silva, & Yoshida in order to get to the finals and make him look better then he honestly is.

Basically, they were very much like what boxing is here in the US. They ran their business into the ground, and built up phony stars that even the US MMA Media bought into. Guys like Rodrigo Nogueira, Henderson, & Rampage got gift decisions against Ricco Rodriguez, Yuki Kondo, & Murilo Rua respectively. This was all to preserve their star status.

The reason why I bring this up is because this is completely against how Zuffa runs their business in the UFC & WEC. Yes, they do try to build stars, but they still give competitive fights, and at the end of the day are trying to show who the best fighter is. This is completely different then the Japanese way. These two styles of matchmaking just do not mix. The UFC can make it in Europe, because they view sports much like America does.

For Zuffa to be successful in Japan, they would have to become an American Boxing like organization and start to coddle their stars. That just isn’t going to happen.

And this is why we probably won’t see the UFC break out in Japan in a major way anytime soon.