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Tuesday talk: Dynamite in Japan
By Zach Arnold | June 4, 2007
By Zach Arnold
The K-1 Dynamite!! show on Tokyo Broadcasting System (show was on June 2nd, aired June 4th from 9:00 PM-10:54 PM in Japan) drew an 11.1% TV rating. Not terrible at all considering the circumstances regarding the show. In other words, no real damage for K-1 in Japan. In fact, because the Japanese press played along with K-1’s company line, this show may in fact be a plus for them in the end. Incredible. Furthermore, a well-connected Japanese fight industry source that I deeply trust insists that K-1 made money on the LA Coliseum show via TV money from TBS (along with other deals including South Korean TV) and sponsorship money from Softbank. This is the perfect example of compare-and-contrast between K-1 and the IFL, two companies that share a similar business model except one is able to generate millions of dollars on television rights and the other company is making $50,000 USD/show on MyNetworkTV.
According to a Las Vegas source (not associated with Zuffa), the IFL show scheduled for the Las Vegas Hilton on June 16th is supposedly a ‘four wall deal.’ Generally, it means that the rent is free for the facility (in the case of the IFL, they are expected to be using a ballroom) and that costs for advertising, producing, etc. are picked up by the promoter. The promotion is supposedly going to be paying retail for everything else (hotel rooms, transportation, ec.) The IFL had originally scheduled a show at the Reno Events Center (about an hour away from Ken Shamrock’s Lions Den facility in Susanville, California), but cancelled the booking and shifted it to the LV Hilton instead. The Hilton is handling the box office.
On Yahoo Japan auctions, a mystery fighter from the PRIDE 34 show is auctioning off his winner’s trophy. The current bid is 81,000Y with the minimum asking bid of 120,000Y. Since the auction is in Japanese, the obvious question is who the seller is. The Japanese fighters that won on the PRIDE 34 show were Makoto Takimoto, Shin’ya Aoki, and Yoshihiro Nakao. Unless one of the foreign fighters who won on the show gave away their trophy…
The city of Winona, Minnesota has banned ‘Ultimate Fighting’.
Rumor killer of the day — Keith Kizer and the NSAC did not deny Frank Mir a fight against Tim Sylvia for the UFC 74 card.
The Oregon News-Review has a good article about the rise of MMA in North America titled Why fight it?. Send some positive e-mail to the author.
Todd Martin jumps from The Wrestling Observer to The Los Angeles Times to now Sports Illustrated. Talk about a writer making his move upwards. Here’s his first MMA article for SI. I need his agent right about now.
A man’s MMA training helped thwart a would-be robber.
Cage Force has a show coming up in Tokyo at Differ Ariake on June 9th. This promotion has a good track record so far for producing interesting cards with good action. Top matches on the show include Kotetsu Boku vs. David Gardner (Team Quest), Takumi vs. Eiji Mitsuoka, Miki Wataru vs. Artur Oumakhanov, and Wataru Takahashi vs. Tomonari Kanomata.
Onto today’s headlines.
- The Mississauga News (Canada): Fighter from Kombat Arts Training Academy wins judo metals
- Bloody Elbow: Making the case for Jake Shields in the UFC
- Fox Sports (Dave Doyle): Thoughts on the WEC on Versus debut show
- Grapple Monkey: Royce vs. Sakuraba 2 - The Yawner (I’ll bet he’s excited for Royce/Sakuraba III no-time limit in Japan in late 2007)
- MMA HQ: Jens Pulver headed to WEC Featherweight division?
- MMA Weekly: UFC announces main card line-up for UFC 72 event in Ireland
- Sprawl ‘n Brawl: WEC 28 event videos
- The Orange County Register: New MMA series at Irvine Marriott
- The Canadian Press: GSP - Fists are fine but what about his head?
- UFC Junkie: UFC 74 set for Mandalay Bay Events Center
- MMA on Tap: Gladiator Magazine hits newsstands around the globe
- The Grass Valley Union (CA): Mad for MMA
- Radio (Eddie Goldman): No Holds Barred: Rich Bender of USA Wrestling on 2007 World Team Trials and Working with IFL
- UFC Junkie: Sean Salmon leaves UFC
- Serra BJJ: Matt Serra a newly-married man
- MMA Fever: UFC 72 - Victory preview
Topics: Canada, HERO's, IFL, Japan, K-1, MMA, Media, PRIDE, UFC, WEC, Zach Arnold | | Permalink | Trackback | Share This
New episode of The Low Blow. If you’re gonna take two minutes to try out our show, this is the episode to do it with.
Listeing to the Fightlinker.com show right now, and I am liking it so far.
And I am amazed that K-1 “made money” on this event. They need to count their lucky stars that this didn’t end the corporation. Could any event be less organized and less put together and still go off?
Low Blow peeps,
I can’t say I appreciated the juvenile humor of the show.
MMA takes itself too seriously!
[...] of gloves: FightOpinion.com) This entry is filed under Matt Hughes, Georges St. Pierre, Matt Serra, Josh Koscheck, The [...]
Sad to hear about Sean Salmon. But he never really impressed me and it sounds like he is realizing he can’t cut it at the big leagues.