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Fox Sports: "Zach Arnold's Fight Opinion site is one of the best spots on the Web for thought-provoking MMA pieces."

« | Home | »

Friday fight notes: It’s Ultimate Fighting, not MMA

By Zach Arnold | July 26, 2007

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I want to send my condolences to the family of Jesse Marunde, as news hit yesterday of Marunde’s death at age 27 due to a massive heart attack. If you have ever seen World’s Strongest Man events on ESPN TV, you would instantly recognize the American strongman.

The Cherry Hill Courier-Post is doing an MMA story and is looking for feedback from fans. You can contact the author here for more information.

MMA Madness has relaunched and it’s a good site design. Go check it out.

Luke Thomas took up my challenge yesterday to show Washington Post columnist Leonard Shapiro that, yes, MMA fans can read and write. Here’s the response Luke received.

If you need any further proof of how far UFC is going the extra mile to basically brand MMA as “Ultimate Fighting” in America, here you go.

Onto today’s headlines.

  1. Sherdog: Vadim Finkelstein interview
  2. Sam Caplan: Wetherspoon out of Friday’s match vs. Jeremiah Metcalf (plus a preview of the ShoXC event)
  3. Kevin Iole: KJ Noons isn’t picking between boxing and MMA
  4. Dave Doyle: Introducing the Yahoo Sports MMA Top 10 poll (plus 1-5 here)
  5. MMA HQ: UFC title picture
  6. On the Mat: Josh Barnett interview
  7. The Saipan Tribune: Frank “The Crank” Camacho is UFC material
  8. Fox Sports: IFL Q & A w/ Savant Young
  9. MSNBC: Delicate difference between boxing, MMA
  10. The Oregonian: Report card on MMA promotions
  11. The Cumberland News (UK): 14 caged Cumbrians set to battle it out for title
  12. The Glenwood Springs Post-Independent (CO): Raymond Huffman blitzes first opponent
  13. The Epoch Times (NY): UFC steals boxing’s thunder
  14. The Daily Iowan (IA): Point/counterpoint on Iowa City’s ban of MMA at locations with alcohol
  15. Savannah Now (GA): Muhsin Corbbrey to fight on Showtime tonight

Topics: IFL, Media, MMA, Pro Elite, UFC, Zach Arnold | 23 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

23 Responses to “Friday fight notes: It’s Ultimate Fighting, not MMA”

  1. John Griffin says:

    At least it’s not “The Idiot’s Guide to Cage Fighting”.

  2. Zach Arnold says:

    Answer your e-mails. 🙂

  3. I don’t want to brag, but Finkelstein basically just repeated what I claimed in my article here on FightOpinion a month ago:

    read article here

  4. white ninja says:

    fascinating that Dana and Fedor’s manager feel the need to conduct their detailed negotiations via Sherdog

    very professional and conducive to producing good long term relations : (

    well looks like Calvin Ayre pissed them off too – so bodog isnt a competitor for Fedor’s services

  5. Zeppelin says:

    While I can understand Zuffa’s tentativeness in letting an outside person such as Finkelstein have a hand in promoting a UFC event in Russia, especially when considering White’s micromanagement over everything, I cannot understand why letting Fedor fight in annual Sambo tournaments is such a big sticking point. It’s not like all the non-hardcore UFC/TUF fans will all of a sudden wake up and realize they can watch some Sambo tournament held in St. Petersberg.

    They didn’t have a problem with Diego Sanchez competing in ADCC 2005 and that was in Long Beach, so why not let Fedor participate in Sambo matches half the globe away?

  6. Zach Arnold says:

    If people are having trouble accessing this site today in Firefox or other browsers, please let me know immediately — e-mail me at [email protected]. I have a feeling that WP is corrupted. Ever since I went to 2.0, I’ve had nothing but corruption problems with WP every other month.

  7. Zach Arnold says:

    Already having people send e-mails stating the same troubles. I need serious WP experts to consult me today. I cannot figure out why every other month WP is acting up.

  8. Stu says:

    According to this site certain plugins can be the cause of the problem
    http://www.webtekconcepts.com/2007/05/13/wordpress-blank-page-bug/

  9. Zach Arnold says:

    It’s not the plug-ins – because I decided with WP 2.2 that I would not use many at all.

    Interestingly, the beta test site for the new Fight Opinion on the same server works fine – admin interface, theme, everything loads.

    So, it’s something that has to do with the root directory, WP on it, and the database. Now, I’m not sure what the issue is. It’s a problem for sure. I am not in the mood of doing another re-install or delete and clean install again. Something is up, but I don’t know what it is. The more WP upgrades there are, the more trouble there seems to be.

  10. UFCDaily.com says:

    I haven’t had any problems accessing the site ever in Firefox. Is your version of WP up to date. It shouldn’t affect it but it might be good to use instant upgrade and see if that solves any problems. Email me if you need another mind to research the problem too!

    -K

  11. Asa says:

    Have you looked into the htaccess issue I emailed you about? That seems to be the most likely culprit.

  12. Sean says:

    Len Shapiro writes “…whaling away on their faces…”

    What the hell is “whaling”…? I guess he can’t spell. The guy is a complete tool and should be ignored.

  13. 45 Huddle says:

    A lot of people are now blaming Dana White for not signing Fedor. The main argument is: “Fedor only wants to do Sambo once a year, why not let him. Dana White Stinks!!!!”

    If anything, the interview on Sherdog.com makes Fedor’s manager seem slimy.

    1. He is trying to package Fedor along with his team to sign with an organization. Imagine Derek Jeter’s agent telling the Yankees: “You can sign him, but only if you sign his 3 minor leaguer friends to Major League contracts.”

    2. He is using these negotiations to try and run UFC Russia events himself.

    3. He is asking that Fedor compete in Combat Sambo. I’ve never heard of one sports league…. That would allow a star to compete in a different sport with the potential to get hurt. Heck, Aaron Boone’s contract got voided by the Yankees for playing basketball and getting hurt in the off season. That was directly written into his contract. That is typical sports in America.

  14. Torgo says:

    The “Ultimate Fighting VS MMA” debate is hilarious to me. It’s the kind of thing only an uptight fanboy would ever care about.

  15. 45 Huddle says:

    I agree with Torgo on this one.

  16. Zeppelin says:

    It seems that Fedor and his management care a great deal about advancing MMA in their native country as well as making sure Russian fighters are given their just due in the growing sport. I can’t fault that. It does show how patriotic Fedor is.

    As for the comment about signing Fedor but also his other team mates, I don’t think its all bad. I think Pride tried that route and got great fighters out of camps such as Russian Top Team/Red Devil, Chute Boxe, and BTT. If signing Fedor meant that we could also see Alexandr Emelianenko and Zentsov, that’s a plus IMO.

    Again, it was okay for Diego to compete in ADCC 2005, so why should an annual Sambo tournament be a sticking point?

  17. Boog says:

    “I don’t want to brag, but Finkelstein basically just repeated what I claimed in my article here on FightOpinion a month ago: ”

    Huh? A big part of your article was that Fedor wouldn’t want to fight in the UFC because the UFC can’t give Fedor “compelling” or “fresh” matchups.

    But Finkelstein said “they currently have one of the, if not the, strongest, heavyweight divisions in the world. “

  18. Zach Arnold says:

    Vadim is a smart and crafty backer, make no mistake about it. There’s a reason he got success in the fight business.

  19. white ninja says:

    “It seems that Fedor and his management care a great deal about advancing MMA in their native country as well as making sure Russian fighters are given their just due in the growing sport. I can’t fault that. It does show how patriotic Fedor is.”

    Finkelstein is a powerful Russian businessman close to Putin

    Im sure he gives a shit about advancing MMA other than as long as it lines his pockets

    Red Devil fighters, other than Fedor and Alex, are not up to UFC quality so i dont think Dana wants b class fighters on his PPVs

  20. MildernhardPark says:

    “Red Devil fighters, other than Fedor and Alex, are not up to UFC quality so i dont think Dana wants b class fighters on his PPVs”

    So Why Do We See All Those TUFers, sans A Couple, Polluting Every UFC Card??? Oh, and Kiril Sedilnikov is Probably the Biggest Prospect in MMA At the Moment.

  21. white ninja says:

    So Why Do We See All Those TUFers, sans A Couple, Polluting Every UFC Card???

    cause they’re marketable? just a thought…

    nothing much marketable about a bunch of sloppy arsed russian fighters who lose to no names just as much as they win. although i suppose all of the success of the Russia v USA series on the east coast, first started by euphoria, then M1 proves me wrong

  22. captain~swing says:

    45 Huddle said:

    “1. He is trying to package Fedor along with his team to sign with an organization. Imagine Derek Jeter’s agent telling the Yankees: “You can sign him, but only if you sign his 3 minor leaguer friends to Major League contracts.”

    This actually does happen in baseball and I suspect other sports as well. I think the most common occurrence is a Pitcher asking/demanding that “his” Catcher come with him from another team. I don’t really follow baseball, or football for that matter, but I have heard of Quarterbacks asking for specific Receivers or Linemen.

    Nearly all fighter agents are trying to sign their “B” level fighters to contracts at the same time they’re trying to get their “A” level guys. If you’re an agent and you’re not trying to get your other clients signed- you’re a bad agent.

    ~the captain

  23. iain says:

    45 huddle: uh it happens all the time in MMA that managers leverage their big dude for smaller guys. Stéphane Patry did it for David Loiseau when Patrick Côté was going to fight Tito. Same shit with having Lionheart fight on the usa canada card. Finklestein is not slimy for that.

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