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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 | »

Wednesday war room: Does the MMA media kill negative stories?

By Zach Arnold | September 11, 2007

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The Chicago Sun Times is reporting this morning that Illinois Governor Blagojevich has signed state legislation to sanction MMA starting in 2008. More on the story here.

Here’s a report claiming that Michael Bisping’s father was attacked in the 02 Arena car park. Michael himself also has some comments to add to the discussion.

UFC VP Marc Ratner fires back over criticism surrounding UFC 75 (very dismissive of the Internet reaction) and more media (over)reaction. Also, Frank Trigg on how reporters hold back stories on UFC and how Fox Sports handles IFL coverage.

Blowback at Sports Illustrated.

Mark Cuban is generating press attention for his move into MMA, starting with The Dallas Morning News.

MMA Junkie notes that Marcus Davis, Paul Taylor, and Houston Alexander are getting bonuses for their fights at the UFC 75 event. The dilemma? Ivan Trembow clues you in.

New activity for Pro Elite with the SEC. Activity of any significance?

There were rumors a while back about a big MMA show at The Target Center in Minneapolis and yet I didn’t hear much reporting about the upcoming show. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune has an article on the mystery show coming up this weekend.

5 Oz. of Fury? Sure sounds like 5 Oz. of Pain, except Sam Caplan wouldn’t spell Quinton Jackson’s first name as “Quenton.”

AOL Fanhouse talks about the differences between violence in American football, MMA, and boxing.

Fightlinker is attacking me for a lack of Japanese MMA coverage. Silly fool.

Kevin Iole once again calls his readers ‘keyboard warriors’.

Don’t forget to listen to the latest edition of Fight Opinion Radio. Plus, a brand new MMA Madness radio show.

411 Mania now has MMA rankings.

Rich Bergeron is now issuing press releases about Xyience’s $25 million USD lawsuit against him.

A new MMA game simulator.

Remember how Mike Swick vs. Jonathan Goulet was going to be a top match on the upcoming UFN 9/19 Las Vegas card? Swick pulled out of the fight due to injury and has been replaced by Dustin Hazelett. According to Goulet online today, his fight with Hazelett is now in the opening match slot.

Onto today’s headlines.

  1. MMA Junkie: Matt Hamill – UFC 75 judges need to re=evaluate scoring
  2. UFC Mania: UFC 77 – Josh Burkman vs. Forrest Petz
  3. Sam Caplan: Gilbert Melendez vs. Tetsuji Kato (Shooto) set for 9/29 Playboy Mansion show
  4. Fox Sports: Boxing events falling apart in September
  5. The Baltimore Sun: UFC 75 – What the principals are saying
  6. MMA on Tap: TKO 30 – Apocalypse updated card
  7. MMA Analyst: Mainstream MMA media is disappointing
  8. The Orlando Sentinel: IFL puts the team into MMA
  9. The Associated Press: Mike Tyson set for hearing in drug case
  10. The Sun (UK): UFC 76 will be a real knockout
  11. The Nevada Appeal (Reno/Carson City): Gina Carano making a name for herself (an interesting article to read)
  12. The Honolulu Star-Bulletin: Scott Junk gets his shot at UFC 76 against Christian Wellisch
  13. Style Weekly: Blood Money – local entrepreneurs are cashing in on the Ultimate Fighting phenomenon

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

23 Responses to “Wednesday war room: Does the MMA media kill negative stories?”

  1. Manos says:

    Is a keyboard warrior anything like a culture warrior?

  2. Bisping vs Hamill II. Guess Spike Tv has the main event for their next show..

  3. Iole is nothing but a joke.

    And the Analyst took my article. WAHH!!

  4. David says:

    Mr. Arnold, why do you pay any mind to Kevin Iole? You post news on here like he is a star himself. If he is a loser don’t link him. I think the fact that he called anybody a keyboard-warrior even ONCE is too much.

  5. Zach Arnold says:

    Last I checked, Yahoo Sports and their MMA section did a million unique views for August. Somebody is reading him.

  6. Ivan Trembow says:

    It’s not surprising that Marc Ratner would adopt the tone that his bosses usually take in response to any criticism from any source.

    In the meantime, MMA Junkie has a story up that Marcus Davis, Paul Taylor, and Houston Alexander are already set to receive their UFC 75 bonuses for Best Fight & Best Knockout, which is strange given the fact that Dana White was so emphatic in his ESPN interviews a few weeks back about none of the fighters getting any of their secret money until all of the drug test results are in (and taking into account the fact that it takes a minimum of 5 to 7 days for the drug test results to come back).

    Then again, if the UFC is only drug-testing four out of eighteen fighters on any of these unregulated UFC events at which there is no athletic commission other than the UFC Quasi-Commission (and given that they have never even said who those four figthers are), would that mean that only the four drug-tested fighters would be eligible for the bonuses?

    Or are the 14 fighters who are not drug-tested just assumed to be clean based on some sort of Scouts’ Honor system?

  7. Zack says:

    “Or are the 14 fighters who are not drug-tested just assumed to be clean based on some sort of Scouts’ Honor system?”

    Dude, they’re his friends and he trusts them.

  8. Bisping’s own account of the story around his father has been posted on Bisping’s website, bisping.tv

  9. Croatian Strength says:

    If UFC runs their own testing in unregulated markets and fines/suspends/fires someone for failing, I wonder if they have a case to sue the UFC as they employ self confessed drug users like Joe Rogan and Eddie Bravo without them ever being censured.

  10. Jeremy (not that Jeremy) says:

    ProElite:

    You have some officers selling relatively small amounts of shares. It’s possible that for cash flow reasons the top people are not receiving cash compensation right now, and they’re making up the difference by selling some shares and derivatives.

    That’s just speculation though.

    By itself, it doesn’t mean much. Those filings are more informational to give some small assurance that there isn’t insider trading going on, or that you can detect it if there is.

    You might want to watch over the next week and see if something negative comes out about ProElite, but I suspect that this is just a standard liquidity play for the officers. It’s never smart to keep all your eggs in one basket.

  11. LR says:

    You can’t discount that Kevin Iole doesn’t matter in the MMA community. He gets a lot of hits and a lot of reads. Sometimes he actually has an opinion and other times, it seems to be in line with the UFC’s opinion on a situation. Either way, people are reading it.

  12. Mick S says:

    To respond to a few of the comments up at the moment the Bisping v Hammil fight was not a fix, the UFCs knows that would do no good for them and its just plain stupid to think they would do this.

    Its interesting everyone claims Mike got the ‘hometown rub’ even though it was in london not liverpool and the one british judge actually scored the fight in Hammils favour. Having re-watched the fight several times I only think more now that the decision was correct, the commentators biased comments have swayed alot of people and there was several times Bisping caught Hammil with repeated head shots that the commentators completely ignored.

    Apart from the first round Bisping controlled the floor and stopped Hammil getting any real offence once he had been taken down, plus Bisping was pretty much back on his feet as quick as he had been takendown most times so this has to score in Mikes favour. The third round is a clear points win for Mike, Hammil’s cardio is terrible and he could hardly hold his hands up and Mike landed alot of punches in this round.

    I agree that the after fight comments were quite arrogant but after reading his apology and explanation of what had happened after the show with his father I think people should get off his back, I mean he’s already asked for a re-match to prove he can beat him so he obviously isnt worried about facing Hammil again due to the lack of damage hammil caused after the first round, and if Hammil really is this great fighter everyone says then he’ll beat him, but I doubt that will happen. A longer stretch training with Rampage Jackson at Big Bear should prepare Bisping for that fight and I fully expect him to beat Hammil again hopefully on US soil so all this Fix/Home Favourite rubbish can be put to bed.

    This was also a fight that had it happened during TUF3 I think Bisping would have knocked him out as Hammil had nothing but takedowns at that time, for gods sake he got kicked by Kenndel Grove and sat in his room for 4 days sulking after.

    Big props to Hammil though for his after fight comments, he may not have had any class talking going into the fight but he showed class after.

    Oh and D.Capitated Bispings striking isnt awful and he does have a good chin, check out any of his previous fights and that will prove it. The mans never been beaten in any competition, MMA or Kick Boxing. He’s not Rampage Jackson or Fedor but he’s young, up and coming and could be a future champ if he dedicates himself enough.

  13. D.Capitated says:

    Oh and D.Capitated Bispings striking isnt awful and he does have a good chin, check out any of his previous fights and that will prove it. The mans never been beaten in any competition, MMA or Kick Boxing. He’s not Rampage Jackson or Fedor but he’s young, up and coming and could be a future champ if he dedicates himself enough.

    Huh? I didn’t say anything about Bisping or his striking.

  14. Mick S says:

    Sorry D.Capitated, it was the comments above yours by The Gaijin on monday. Please accpet my apologies.

  15. Please for the sake of baby Jesus let’s stop dissecting the Bisping/Hamill fight. Both guys have agreed to a rematch and we’ll get to see who really wins when they fight that one.

  16. The Gaijin says:

    Bisping got outstruck and rocked by Hamill – someone with suspect stand up himself. Bisping was also got himself caught by Sinosic in his last fight.

    His striking is certainly overrated and it showed last weekend. His head movement was non-existent and his ring generalship consisted of running away and throwing defensive jabs.

    The fact that he would fight a fight where there is even a need for debate over who won with Hamill exposed how much he has been protected thus far.

  17. Grape Knee High says:

    In the long run, does it really matter who actually “won” the fight officially on the books? Regardless of who got the “W”, we learned something about both fighters:

    1) Maybe Hammill isn’t all that bad. (He’s still not good, though).
    2) Bisping isn’t all that good.

    Reversing the “W” or the “L” doesn’t change that.

  18. Both Kongo and Hammill fought with a conservative hide-behind-the-jab style. Its tough to look good against fighters who don’t open up. The difference between Crocop and Bisping is that Hammill tired out and Bisping managed to pull out the win. Bisping needs to learn how to do better against guys who don’t open up, but I think he proved that he could at least find a way to win.

  19. The Gaijin says:

    “In the long run, does it really matter who actually “won” the fight officially on the books? Regardless of who got the “W”, we learned something about both fighters:

    1) Maybe Hammill isn’t all that bad. (He’s still not good, though).
    2) Bisping isn’t all that good.

    Reversing the “W” or the “L” doesn’t change that.”

    100% agree – I think I posted something similar to this a few days ago. The damage was done in the court of public opinion.

    Look at the ridiculous amount of backlash over the decision – Bisping isn’t going to be able to by hyped off of this “W”…his image has been damaged pretty badly among the fans, both hardcore and casual.

  20. The Gaijin says:

    45:

    I’ve just been thinking about how we seem to be on the other side of some close/controversial decisions…and it dawned on me, that while you felt Tito Ortiz beat Forrest Griffin – the very arguments you forward on behalf of Bisping winning his fight are much stronger and more applicable for Forrest.

    That being effective jab/striking, ability to avoid and stuff the takedown.

    If you watch both of the fights over again – Forrest DOES what you argue Bisping did, but FAR FAR FAR more convincingly. He clearly dominates the 2nd round of the fight and actually follows it up into the 3rd round with effective strikes and takedown defense on an increasingly gassing Tito.

    Comments? Thoughts?

  21. The Gaijin says:

    “Both Kongo and Hammill fought with a conservative hide-behind-the-jab style.”

    How the hell do you accuse Hamill of fighting a “conservative” style that’s hard to look good against? Did you even see the fight? He had Bisping backpedalling, stumbling and wobbliing b/c he was on the defensive and taking the fight to him…

  22. D. Capitated says:

    Fighting behind the jab isn’t a “conservative” idea. Its a smart one based in hundreds of years of tried and true experimentation.

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