« Chris Benoit dead at age 40 | Home | IFL fudges numbers? »
Tuesday headlines: K-1 signs a big deal
By Zach Arnold | June 25, 2007
The top story of the day from Japan is K-1 doing a business tie-up with the Kyoei boxing gym, with the focus on K-1 using Russian boxing and MMA talent. K-1 hopes that it creates a big impact on all of their various shows in terms of boosting talent.
Medical suspensions coming out of this past weekend’s shows (Tuff ‘n Uff and TUF 5 Finale) in Las Vegas.
Patrick Cote announced on The Underground Forum that he’s fighting Kendall Grove at the upcoming UFC 74 event on August 25th in Las Vegas.
WWE aired footage of The Pegasus Kid (Chris Benoit) vs. Jushin Liger from August 19th, 1990 (Tokyo, Ryogoku Kokugikan). Yoshinori Tsuji was doing commentary in Japanese for TV-Asahi during the match. It is still amazing to see Jushin Liger going as strong as he is today while many of his contemporaries are retired or dead. WWE has an update on the story. The New York Post has a story as well. The Calgary Sun has comments from the Hart family. T.J. Madigan remembers Chris Benoit the wrestler. The Sydney Morning Herald has further comments. Over at the Crime Blog, they are trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together on this story. It’s quite a read. On Youtube, there are a ton of Benoit tribute videos already online.
If you take a look at Technorati, the news on Chris Benoit is drawing enormous blog traffic. Over at F4W, a message board poster (Carlos) asked whether or not wrestling fans are following the worst business in the world (pro-wrestling). That sentiment is being asked by many today. How should people react to this story? People like to make fun of the professional wrestling business and claim that it’s devoid of reality. If anything, the darker side of the business has more reality than any competitive sport imaginable. It’s the twisted side of the wrestling business that both eats its own participants and also has a broad, dramatic appeal to the masses. Ironically and tragically, in a business that lacks credibility on a mainstream scale in North America, it’s the dark and in-your-face tragedies that only the wrestling business produces that creates so many different emotions at once. From Shin’ya Hashimoto and his mysterious death (stroke), to Jumbo Tsuruta and his stories of needing a liver transplant (he died in Manila on the operating table while getting an allegedly black-market liver transplant from a young victim shot earlier that same day), to the various deaths in both the Hart and Von Erich families, to Chris Benoit on Monday…
Royal Burnell on the Chris Benoit news story:
Instead of somehow putting their feet down, the wrestlers go with the punches. Some become roid freaks. Others become junkies. Some become both. Most don’t see their 50th birthday.
And the general populace don’t care. I mean, it is “fake” isn’t it? That’s how well this system operates. The more the cloud of ignorance, the better the system works.
Admit it. If this was a major industrial job or even a movie production house and they start touting the numbers of deaths pro-wrestling had, you’d be all over it like stink to s$&%. But because pro-wrestling is pro-wrestling. Who cares, right?
I quit.
Luke Thomas loves Kimbo Slice and called him ‘a national treasure’ on our radio show a few weeks ago. So, to say that Luke has been on the Kimbo bandwagon is an understatement. I would like to give him credit for having the foresight to see what kind of star Kimbo could quickly become in America. Kimbo Slice was a topic of conversation during ‘The Big Finish’ on PTI today (audio here). The New York Times and PTI all in a single day.
ESPN’s Page 2 columnist Jim Caple says:
95. Ultimate Fighting Championship bout (various dates, Vegas). Because you can’t buy tickets for dogfighting at Michael Vick’s house.
Onto today’s headlines.
- UFC Junkie: TUF 5 Finale salaries
- Sam Caplan: Sean Gannon approached by K-1
- MMA Ring Report: Nogueira talks UFC
- The Valley Vanguard (Aaron Crossen): Lessons for the UFC to learn
- The Rebel Yell: ‘The Prodigy’ looks to fulfill his potential
- Sports Illustrated: Rootin’ for Bas Rutten – former MMA star thriving as teacher and announcer
- Fox Sports: Is full-on Frank Shamrock comeback in the cards?
- Fighter’s Only: BJ Penn post-fight interview from June 24th
- Sprawl ‘n Brawl: MMA Big Show: A blogumentary
- The Daily News Record (VA): MMA club out of the chute – two former Turner Ashby wrestling champs have started a successful MMA club
- The Grand Island Independent (NE): Jake Ellenberger shines in two sports
- Jake Rossen: The Tao of Frank Shamrock
- MMA on Tap: TKO announces competitors for Sept. 28th card
- The Chronicle Herald (Halifax): Lightning fast – Roger Hollett’s rise up the MMA ladder
- The BBC: Boxers bounce back in Sweden
- The Bucyrus Telegraph (OH): Ex-Shelby wrestler Joe Heiland unbeaten as MMA fighter
- UFC Junkie: Matt Hughes says he will next fight on December 29th
- Sam Caplan: TUF 5 Finale did a 2.0 rating
Topics: Canada, IFL, Japan, K-1, Media, MMA, UFC, WWE, Zach Arnold | 7 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
K-1 should just do Kickboxing and leave MMA to Zuffa.
Zach, while you’re a great resource in finding actually damaging material out there, harping on Jim Caple is making you look like the Geico caveman. There are fish too small to fry, and Caple’s throwaway line and bad attempt at humor is ignorable. Snide little comments like this is nowhere near the Lower Hudson article is the long run insignificant.
I’m sure ESPN will make it up by giving Randy Couture an ESPY. 🙂
POOR RESPONSE TO IFL IN LAS VEGAS
“The Nevada State Athletic Commission released attendance and gate receipt figures for IFL Las Vegas Monday, and the numbers were shockingly poor.
According to the NSAC, only 996 tickets were sold for the June 16 event, which showcased two matches with playoff implications at the Las Vegas Hilton. The show produced a total gate of just $93,270. The struggling promotion provided 1,842 complimentary tickets.
IFL Las Vegas featured fights between the New York Pitbulls and Toronto Dragons, along with the Nevada Lions and Tucson Scorpions. The IFL will hold its league semi-finals Aug. 2 at the Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, N.J. The finals are scheduled for Sept. 20 at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Fla.”
I still think the lack of live TV doomed the IFL from the beginning.
Randy has one win over a guy who isn’t top 5. He should not be voted fighter of the year. Gonzaga is going to crush him anyway.
Yeah, finally the boxing ban in Sweden is gone. I didn’t read the entire article, so are fights in Sweden still only going to be six rounds, two minutes a piece at the most?