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Monday media notes: Tommy Morrison storylines
By Zach Arnold | June 11, 2007
Adam Morgan’s article about Tommy Morrison has officially made the rounds. When we mean made the rounds, we’re talking about USA Today’s Sports Scope. To the folks at USA Today — don’t be strangers, come by often.
Norm Frauenheim in The Arizona Republic has a column about Tommy Morrison. He once again claims that Morrison’s ‘fight’ against John Stover was an MMA fight, despite the fact that it clearly was not.
The event was promoted by McKinn and WFC owner Gino Carlucci. Is this the same Gino Carlucci that The St. Louis Post-Dispatch claimed in 2004 was a convicted felon that got sued for fradulent stock sales?
Just as the brokers at Sukumo operated behind false names, so did Carlucci. His real name is Gene D. Odice. He adopted an alias in the mid-1990s after a divorce resulted in multiple restraining orders against him and, ultimately, a no-contest plea to felony stalking.
Court and police records show that Odice and Carlucci share a birth date and Social Security number.
If this is indeed the same person, I would love to see Charles Jay along with other top boxing & MMA writers cover this angle in the Morrison ‘MMA’ fiasco. If the top writers won’t touch the story, then it is up to the bloggers to start some fact-finding missions.
Fraunheim hinted in his article that Morrison’s boxing agent/promoter, Peter McKinn (and partners), may end up signing Mia St. John to do women’s ‘MMA’. Wonderful. Thanks, boxing.
The IFL has signed a deal with Topps.
Mark Coleman and Kevin Randleman prepare for battle in Hustle.
Kazuyoshi Ishii is now doing the jailhouse rock. Somehow, I don’t think he will get the Paris Hilton treatment.
Over at MMA-Madness.com (registration is free, go sign up), I have a new article talking about the differences in the rise of MMA between Japan and America. There was a word count I had to abide by, but I suspect that if you are a newer MMA fan that you will find the article to be very informative. It’s not easy explaining how much of the rise of MMA came from professional wrestling.
Bad news for all bloggers who aspire for this to be their career profession. I sympathize with Mr. Luke Thomas.
Mickey’s, a top UFC sponsor, is running a promotion contest where the winner will win a trip to a UFC event and receive a training lesson from Forrest Griffin.
Onto today’s headlines.
- MMA on Tap: Ariel Gandulla joins American Top Team
- MMA Weekly: Gladiator Challenge – Global War event results
- 15 Rounds: Randy Couture interview
- UFC Junkie: Agent – Jake O’Brien’s injury is possible ‘career ending’
- The Houston Chronicle: Despite financial issues, IFL hopes to continue the fight
- The Houston Chronicle: IFL to restructure underperforming teams
- Inside Pulse: UFC Fight Night 10 preview
- MMA Review: Can the UFC crack the UK market?
- Xtreme Force: Boxing vs. MMA
- The Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette (Indiana): Carroll grad Jon Fitch on way to fame, glory in UFC
Topics: Boxing, IFL, Japan, K-1, Media, MMA, Pro-Wrestling, UFC, UK, Zach Arnold | 14 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
A bit off topic, but I see Charles Jay mentioned here alot. I haven’t followed Jay in awhile, but does anyone know if he plans to run for president again? In 2004, he first announced he was seeking the Libertarian Party’s Vice Presidential nomination, then pulled out to accept the Personal Choice Party’s presidential nomination. I talked to him a couple times during the election (I’m a member of the LP) and during a third party debate, he really held his own nicely. His name appeared on the ballot in only 1 state though since the PCP only had ballot access in Utah.
Anyways…just curious if he has mentioned any intention to run for office again in 2008.
His e-mail is [email protected] if you want to write him. He’s a smart guy.
Morrison = Idiot = Tito Ortiz. Anyway we can put that fight together?
is it just me, or is everyone else feeling worn out and tired of discussing MMA. I swear to god, K1 Dynamite depressed me and now i can’t snap out of it.
Fightlinker.com,
The Tommy Morrison debacle has got me more depressed then the K-1 Dynamite show. Adam Morgan said it best in his last article, which was “Move on Tommy.” I hope that this is what the media decides to do.
And I am sorry to hear about the the IFL, but the guys running it seem to be under pretty good standards and practices. As one of the articles said, they do not seem to be reaching for the panic button which shows some fortitude given their circumstances. They got their deal re-upped with MyTV…and all in all, I hope that they find some way to turn things around and keep the show going because I think that the IFL is good for mixed martial arts, both in America and around the world.
Addressing the pay criticism on the FO show:
1. The issue of there being no competitors to the UFC financially.
I definetly disagree, there are more competitors now than there ever was and for the most part they’re all offering good money. In a lot of cases more money to mid level guys and at the least a competitive amount to the top guys. Ortiz and Hughes have reportedly turned down 9 million and 6 million dollar offers (respectively). According White, K1 outbid him for Lesnar.
It’s doubtful (to many in the media) that they’ll get Fedor, I’m not sure if they can get Kang either. 2 years ago Lindland wouldn’t of been able to get the type of pay he’s getting now, it’s definetly a fighter’s market.
1. The issue of money not trickling down.
I’d disagree here as well, the fighters who they’re selling the PPVs with – are making alot of money and it’s based on how well the shows do. As far as their entry level pay, I’d compare it to any entry level job. McDonlads is a billion dollar company, but their entry level workers aren’t making 6 figures. The market dictates what they pay guys starting out. There’s a lot more to it than that but that’s the gist.
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I gotta disagree with your point about trickling down. I’ve said it many times on my site: if the UFC is serious about developing talent it needs to guarantee a guy enough to be a full time fighter. Locking guys up in 3 fight deals (roughly 1 year) where it’s possible to only make 9K is retarded. It wouldn’t cost the UFC a lot to guarantee a guy a decent income. If the guarantee were 8 or 9k, that’s enough to allow the guy to make 35k. I think Lay n Pray said it best: the UFC is the only major sport where the people in the stands have a higher income than the guys in the sport.
First, athletic commission payrolls aren’t the be all and end all, there is pay outside of fighters’ base salary.
Second, the UFC has never acted like a “farm league”, they’ll develop their talent but mainly it’s the responsiblity of the fighter/team/management to get an indivual to the point where they can be a fulltime fighter. The UFC can’t be the entire sport, they’re role is still‘promoter’.
Third, let’s not look at MMA in a vacuum, there are plenty of champion boxers who worked side jobs to support their career early on. I believe Marvin Hagler used to do construction while he was coming up. So I disagree with your last point.
First time fighters have the opportunity to prove themselves on the UFC level (mainly on the undercard), if they do their salary goes up. It’s no different from any other business.
Fitch started out making 2k/2k, his last fight he made a disclosed 28k, Gonzaga started out making 3k/3k he made upwards of 90k is last outing. Ect ect.
Guess we’ll have to agree to disagree.
Fraunheim hinted in his article that Morrison’s boxing agent/promoter, Peter McKinn (and partners), may end up signing Mia St. John to do women’s ‘MMA’. Wonderful. Thanks, boxing.
Boxing also gave MMA the former Hep patient Ray Mercer for that upcoming bout. I’m sure there will be more washouts to come. Hey, John Ruiz already knew the clinch well. Perhaps there’s a future for him in K-1?
[…] out, there are plenty of avenues to do so. No one has either positively or negatively addressed our update from Monday morning about the involvement of Gino Carlucci in the Tommy Morrison debacle. Outside of a couple of […]
Peter McKinn has an alleged history of forging commission and medical documents. Source of these claims:
http://ringtalk.com/index.php?action=fullnews&showcomments=1&id=1388
[…] No story here, just former UFC champs Mark Coleman and Kevin Randleman looking like the Green Hornet and Kato on the Japanese pro-wrestling circuit. (from FightOpinion.com) […]