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Thursday trash talk: Bad behavior does not pay

By Zach Arnold | June 6, 2007

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Best Chute Boxe Highlight ever !
Uploaded by IvanCanello

“The Stephen Quadros Show” on Sherdog makes its debut on Tuesday, June 12th at 12 PM PST.

Steve Sievert of The Houston Chronicle is reporting that Marlon Sims and Noah Thomas have been kicked out of the UFC. Read Steve’s post in its entirety. This has not been a good PR week for Dana White on various issues.

Read the full entry.

In Part II of the NBC Sports interview with Dana White, there wasn’t a lot of newsworthy material in it other than Dana lamenting on the fact that he ‘hates’ the six-week taping process of The Ultimate Fighter because it takes him away from doing normal UFC business activities. He also said that his kids come to UFC shows and that Chuck Liddell is their favorite fighter. More interview notes here.

Fight Network Radio seriously needs to use Feedburner for its RSS feed to update their radio show podcasts. Their current feed requires constant refreshing in RSS services such as Bloglines. FeedBurner would solve some of these problems (John Griffin tries to help out here). They would significantly increase online listenership if they worked diligently on podcasting feeds. By the way, Mauro Ranallo asked Dave Meltzer (13 minute time mark) about the “Coke needs us, we don’t need them” comment from Dana White in the NBC Sports interview. There were only two sites even discussing this story – us and Sprawl ‘n Brawl. Furthermore, you could tell Ranallo was reading from our post because he read the title of our post verbatim. Two things made the mention on FNR by Ranallo odd – 1) He wouldn’t mention where he read the post (it was us) and 2) He wouldn’t discuss in-depth what Dana’s comment was about, which is actually a story with substance (regarding UFC and corporate sponsorships). A warm thanks to ShoutFan for using the Dana White quote we transcribed.

All drug tests for fighters at UFC 71 come back negative. Everyone clean.

I got another notice from Crave Online to syndicate Sherdog “ultimate fighting news” content on the site. There’s a rumor that Crave is also looking to purchase the WrestleZone.com & MMANews.com web sites. Consolidation seems to be the key buzz word these past few months.

Onto today’s headlines.

  1. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune: Interview with Dana White
  2. The Fanhouse (AOL Sports Blog): Debating whether UFC fighters should unionize
  3. CBS Sportsline: How to sell 50,000 tickets to a UFC event
  4. Bloody Elbow: The Problem with MMA television
  5. The Guam Pacific Daily News: Guam a worldwide MMA player after 10 years
  6. The New York Post: The new mistress in MMA — Jennifer Santiago
  7. IFL HP: ‘Dear Don’ talks about dumb family members and snack foods
  8. The DeSoto Explorer (KS): Chuck “Lie-down” Liddell
  9. Boxing Scene: Antonio Tarver says boxing is an ‘art’, not MMA
  10. The Denver Post (Woody Paige): Mind, mouth fuse in ring (a positive article about Max Kellerman)
  11. UFC HP: Jason Black – Filling the Void
  12. Real Fightings (video): Matt Masterson vs. Thomas Russell from FightFest
  13. Q. Harlan: The wonderfully wacky world of Mixed Martial Arts (yet another Brian VanOchten fan)
  14. Jordan Contreras: UFC vs. Boxing (he likes the MMA)
  15. Xtreme Couture MMA: Xtreme Couture MMA opens gym in Florida
  16. Five Ounces of Pain: Mini-interview with Calvin Ayre

Topics: BoDog, Boxing, IFL, Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 19 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

19 Responses to “Thursday trash talk: Bad behavior does not pay”

  1. Michaelthebox says:

    That HL has nothing on Surfrider’s Shogun HL.

  2. Adam Morgan says:

    Grrrrr. Can’t load Sievert’s post about Sims/Thomas. Does it say they’re kicked out and not on the card for the 23rd anymore?

  3. Body_Shots says:

    Steve Sievert of The Houston Chronicle is reporting that Marlon Sims and Noah Thomas have been kicked out of the UFC. Read Steve’s post in its entirety. This is not been a good PR week for Dana on various issues.

    I don’t see how people can bitch about ‘Dana’ promoting the street fight on the tv show, making a speech condeming it then puting those kids on the finale. Then bitch when we find out that in fact they will not be on the show and are out of the UFC? Sort of damned if you do….

  4. John Griffin says:

    Agree with you that Fight Network Radio need to sort out their feed. I randomly get shows appear out of order or just 1 of the 2 segments for that day. I have sorted out the feedburner feed but they still need to get their shows up:

    http://feeds.feedburner.com/FightNetworkRadio

  5. Jim says:

    I don’t think that they’ve been kicked out of the UFC, I think Dana means that they won’t ever fight each other in the UFC.

  6. Zach Arnold says:

    John – I tried to use that FeedBurner link in Bloglines and it doesn’t seem to feed.

  7. 45 Huddle says:

    I saw something interesting about the WEC Rating.

    1. It is the fifth highest rated show on the network.

    2. It drew more of the key male demographic then the NHL on that channel.

    What this basically means is that the Versus Network is a crap channel. For a .39 to be a moderate success on Versus means the channel has nobody watching it. I wouldn’t be shocked to see the UFC shop the WEC around to like ESPN for possibly a weekly show at some point.

  8. JThue says:

    So let’s be fair to Dana White – he meant what he said to the guys on the show – it wasn’t just a promo(Meltzer was high on the p-word in this week’s newsletter). Yes it looks messy, but I think it’s good to see UFC win one over Spike and that they do have some pull around there after all of the Spike Creative Controll-incidents this year. I’m not saying DW is not a hypocrite, but it applying here just seemes an unfair accusation. All reports have said it was Spike’s idea and Spike’s decision to book it.

    How long left on the TV contract-contract anyway? And would a deal with ESPN interfere with the Spike-exclusivity?

  9. MJC_123 says:

    TAKEN FROM FIVEOUNCESOFPAIN.COM

    White said the following:

    They’re not fighting on the finale. Not only are they not fighting in the finale, they’ll never fight in the UFC. Spike wanted that fight. It ain’t gonna happen. No (expletive) way is that fight going to happen. Those guys will never fight in the UFC – ever.

    Kudos to the UFC for standing up to Spike. Sims and Thomas are going to fight, but let them do it somewhere else. By trying to book the match, Spike made White look hypocritical following his rant about the street fight between the two and then his decision to kick them off the show. White has also been critical of the Kimbo Slice vs. Ray Mercer matchup scheduled for the Cage Fury Fighting Championship promotion.

    The good news with this announcement is that we might get to see a great third place match in the tournament on the live finale. For instance, let’s say Nate Diaz fights Joe Lauzon in the final (not a spoiler, I am just predicting), you could then have Gray Maynard fight Manny Gamburyan or whoever else makes it to the semis.

    This is the second time in which the UFC and Spike have had some issues. The UFC originally wanted UFC 72 to be televised on Spike but Spike passed on it, based largely on the fact that they are promoting an upcoming Fight Night event as well as the live TUF 5 finale on June 23.

    White has praised Spike in the past but I wonder how he feels about them right?

  10. Ivan Trembow says:

    “How long left on the TV contract-contract anyway?”

    One year (it expires in mid-2008)

    “And would a deal with ESPN interfere with the Spike-exclusivity?”

    Yes.

    Also, the full report on the WEC’s ratings is at http://www.mmaweekly.com/absolutenm/templates/dailynews.asp?articleid=4083

  11. Euthyphro says:

    Steve Sievert of The Houston Chronicle is reporting that Marlon Sims and Noah Thomas have been kicked out of the UFC. Read Steve’s post in its entirety. This has not been a good PR week for Dana White on various issues.

    I. Zach, after you bashed Dana as a hypocrite for promoting this fight, the only thing you can say is “this has not been a good PR week for Dana White?”

    a) No acknowledgment that maybe he isn’t as hypocritical as you made him out to be? Sievert’s article suggests that he believes White had a change of heart — and if that’s your position as well, then you should say so to explain why you’re not retracting your earlier comments. Personally, I’m not so sure. I hope Sherdog or someone else is able to speak to Marlon and/or Noah to find out what they knew and when.

    b) Where is this negative PR you speak of? UFCMania.com doesn’t count — that’s catering to psycho-fans who will watch no matter what. I doubt more than 5 total people will skip the next UFC PPV because of a blocked sponsorship. In fact, I’d say it’s a positive PR week. Dana backed up what he said on national TV (during TUF) — that those fighters would never be in the UFC.

    II. To Jim who didn’t think this meant they would never fight in the UFC, he said directly “Those guys will never fight in the UFC – ever.” Not that those guys will never fight each other in the UFC.

  12. Euthyphro says:

    I saw something interesting about the WEC Rating.

    1. It is the fifth highest rated show on the network.

    2. It drew more of the key male demographic then the NHL on that channel.

    What this basically means is that the Versus Network is a crap channel. For a .39 to be a moderate success on Versus means the channel has nobody watching it. I wouldn’t be shocked to see the UFC shop the WEC around to like ESPN for possibly a weekly show at some point.

    It’s probably a sweetheart deal for Zuffa that pays well. Versus is desperate for programming that will beat big bass fishing and Chuck Norris’ Glorified Sparring League. Is it currently a crap channel? Yes. But they’re trying to grow — the NHL contract was a step in that direction, and WEC was another.

  13. John Griffin says:

    Zach – bloglines doesn’t seem to play well with the hardcore sports radio site. This probably due to the lack of permalinks in the feed so it’s probably best to use an actual podcatching client.

  14. DarthMolen says:

    Umm. So I am nothing? 😉

    http://mma.komikazee.com/news/comments/nbcsports_interviews_dana_white/

    Dana White gets all jiggy with it on NBCSports spouting his usual bravado. We here at Komikazee add our two cents to the interview where Dana only drops 1 or 2 eff-bombs.

    He hit on a number of topics. Dana mentions that he doesn’t think that the UFC is mainstream. He wants to be able to go out on the street in Las Vegas and have their stars names be as recognizable as Shaquille O’Neal. No matter what Dana says, The UFC is well on the way with Liddell on the cover of SI and Randy Couture getting the cover of ESPN the Magazine, plus all the ESPN coverage that happens before an event. Dana’s comments are just the mark of a good businessman not to be satisfied where you company is today and always wanting more.

    Dana also talked about corporate sponsorship. He poo-pooed the idea of needing corporate sponsors like Coke, etc and stated he was happy with sponsors such as Mickey’s and Toyo. One of the qualities that I like about Dana is that he is definitely loyal to paying customers. If you were around in the beginning, he will ride your bandwagon until the wheels fall off and there ARE sponsors where the wheels are falling off, I.E. Amp’d Mobile and Xyience . Now realistically, if a corporate sponsor like Coke came with a nice contract for Zuffa then Dana isn’t an idiot. He would take it in a heartbeat. Most of what Dana spouts is rhetoric and changes at will as the winds of business blows a different direction.

    I also think that Dana undersold both the Fertitta’s and himself by stating that they weren’t business geniuses. To take an organization that was as buried as the UFC was when they acquired it to the heights that it is now takes tireless work, happy thoughts, and plenty of pixie dust. The Fertitta’s pulled the proverbial rabbit out of the hat and now have a quarter of a billion dollar entity under their pervue. You don’t stumble into that kind of prosperity. You have to work at it and be good at what you do.

    Look at the highly successful off-strip Station Casino’s franchise, which the Fertitta’s own, and you can see a pattern where these business men have taken something that nobody has done before and made it not only work but profitable as well.

  15. Dedwyre says:

    That’s a good video, but it reminded me of how often Wanderlei Silva was allowed to hold the ropes while he stomped on his opponents. I hate that.

  16. Adam Morgan says:

    I know of a perfect place for Sims and Thomas:

    Cage Fury Fighting Championships.

  17. This is the second time in a month that the UFC and Spike have had ‘issues’

  18. Sam Caplan says:

    Adam, that’s not even funny because it’s probably going to be exactly what ends up happening.

    Getting dropped by the UFC actually could work out better for them in the short-term. Their grudge match probably would have paid them 3G a piece based on entry-level UFC contracts. Now, they can shop their feud around.

    Those two guys are going to make some money together, they should probably end up being friends.

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