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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: Where’s my PRIDE?

By Zach Arnold | September 25, 2007

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The opponent Akihiro Gono will be fighting at UFC 78 is Tamden McCrory.

Information on the next ShoXC card.

How much did it cost Pro Elite to buy out Future Fight Productions, Inc. (Icon Sport) of Hawaii? The data can be found here and here. In total: $350,000 USD in cash, 200,000 restricted PE shares (50% at closing, 50% in equal installments over the next three years), plus covering a portion of FFP’s EBITDA.

Tiger Weekly, the college newspaper of Louisiana State University (LSU) in Baton Rouge, equates MMA to legalized dog fighting. The author’s e-mail is here.

Quinton Jackson is now on TMZ.

Other headlines…

Today’s headline in Nikkan Sports regarding the latest UFC activity — “PRIDE’s disappearance.” More of the article can be read here in Japanese. The long and the short of the article – PRIDE is officially dead in the eyes of the Japanese and that’s the only story angle they really care about when it comes to UFC.

Must have been an incident involving PRIDE fans:

“The UFC brings out too much testosterone in men, it seems,” Nelson said. “We’re just not that kind of place. For this to happen here is very uncomfortable.”

Is the PRIDE vs. UFC debate over?

The Evansville Courier Press profiles Jeff Osborne and HOOK ‘n SHOOT.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that local MMA promoter Randy Greenman was found dead. Foul play is suspected.

UFC’s PPV business in Q1 of 2007 is up by 35%.

More details on how CompuStrike works.

The Vancouver Sun says that the city’s MMA ban reeks of snobbery.

Good news on the Matt Hamill front.

Notes from the IFL’s Tuesday conference call.

Andrei Arlovski loves Jerry Springer.

Yves Edwards is joining American Top Team.

Royal Burnell has anger for Kevin Iole & Gary Shaw.

Will we see Nogueira vs. Kongo at UFC 79?

A Q & A with Daniel Puder.

The Associated Press talks about women loving ‘ultimate fighting.’

“Somewhere between the Chippendales and the gladiators, there is a lot here that’s similar,” Danish said. “A lot of people get big thrills out of others’ pain.”

Topics: IFL, Japan, Media, MMA, PRIDE, Pro Elite, UFC, Zach Arnold | 24 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

24 Responses to “Wednesday war room: Where’s my PRIDE?”

  1. AntiChris says:

    MMA-Analyst forgot the 155

  2. Rollo the Cat says:

    Regarding the artcle, “Is the PRIDE vs. UFC debate over?”, will anyone back me up that the camera work in Pirde wa a main factor in convincing people that Pride fighters were superior? With the ring, you can shoot the fight from a lower angle, giving the fighters a bigger, superhero, godlike presence on the screen. With the Octagon(tm), you are always above the action, which has a diminuitve effect on the image of the fighters.

    Also, Zach, have you linked to the interview with Joachim Hansen, yet? I don’t remember seeing it here. He said the UFC acquired his contract but only offered him half the money speciifed in the contract. He said he hired lawyers to get his release, but nothing came of it. I wonder if they took a close look at whether the contract really was transferable in the first place. And why won’t the UFC release him if he isn’t going to sign?

  3. manos says:

    Does anyone else kinda think this IFL ad kinda makes it seem like they’re desperate for fighters?

  4. Rollo, what the hell are you talking about? Did you ever watch Pride? The angle is identical to most boxing and kickboxing telecasts. It’s just a camera angle.

    What convinced people that PRIDE fighters were good was that for the majority of its existence, PRIDE promoted better fights than the UFC. When Fedor vs. Mirko one was happening, UFC was promoting Arlovski vs. Buentello. And so forth. That doesn’t necessarily say a whole lot about the quality of any given fighter, but it does say a lot about the depth of talent in each organization. For a few years (roughly 2003-2007) Pride had more of it.

  5. Jeremy (Not that Jeremy) says:

    Oh boy, the new FO radio is up.

    Please post flames here for my segment which now seems to be horribly outdated since a certain someone apparently ponied up the hundred and fifty bucks for the full report 😀

  6. LR says:

    Are you talking about the 155 division? I suppose Takanori Gomi is a possibility, but I would see BJ Penn absolutely crushing him again. I see BJ really running that division, but I suppose it’s a possibility.

  7. Rollo the Cat says:

    “Rollo, what the hell are you talking about? Did you ever watch Pride? The angle is identical to most boxing and kickboxing telecasts. It’s just a camera angle.”

    The comparision is between Pride and the UFC, or the ring and the cage, and what each configuration allows. Camera angles are not just camea angles. Ask any photographer or artist.

  8. LR says:

    Camera angles aren’t all they are cracked up to be. Cage Rage has the overhead cam, which in my opinion was horrible in certain instances.

  9. Rollo the Cat says:

    “Camera angles aren’t all they are cracked up to be. Cage Rage has the overhead cam, which in my opinion was horrible in certain instances.”

    That’s close to my point.

  10. AS says:

    Jeremy,

    Great job. I think you did a great job explaining the financial process, I learned a lot.

    If you’re talking about me ponying up $150 bucks, I’m just a poor student. My information is based on a Wrestling Observer subscription, info from friends on Wall Street, and a calculator.

  11. Jeremy (Not that Jeremy) says:

    AS that’s brilliant. I just assumed that the volume of info that you were getting came from an analyst’s report.

    I’m not familiar with Wrestling Observer. Could you post a link? Maybe I should start reading it. I should probably get back to reading Street & Smith’s Sports Business as well, it’s been years.

    It’s a good way to geek out if you’re into that stuff, but it’s kind of expensive too.

  12. Tomer Chen says:

    I’m not familiar with Wrestling Observer. Could you post a link?

    Their website is here, but Dave Meltzer publishes his issues on paper, so I’m guessing the report was in the weekly issue.

  13. AS says:

    Jeremy,

    Could you give me some info on Street & Smith Sports Business? The post above pretty much covers the Observer.

    I’m working on getting my hands on some more of the financial stuff. I’ll keep you posted.

  14. jim allcorn says:

    I haven’t read any of Mr. Burnell’s stuff prior to today’s piece, but while he seems like a boxing “hater”, he DOES make a very good point with regards to Shaw’s plans to create more weight classes. It’s an idiotic move IMO & the last thing that MMA needs.

    One of the biggest faults with boxing & the public’s distain for it is the rediculous amount of weight classes & sanctioning bodies that make it impossible for the average fan to keep track of who the champions are. I had hoped that when Pro Elite began buying up so many of the smaller organizations like Strikeforce, Icon & Cagerage that Shaw’s plan was to consolidate the belts & move toward having one champion per division. But, now with his making noise about the “need” for more weight classes, I’m afraid that he’s going to bring some of the very things that have harmed boxing so much into MMA. Something I DEFINITELY don’t want to see.

  15. Jeremy (Not that Jeremy) says:

    As:

    http://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/

    You have to register for a lot of their content, which basically means subscribing. Subscriptions are expensive though. It’s possible that you could piggyback on other people’s trial account access with bugmenot.com, I haven’t checked lately.

    They offer a two week trial and some free issues of the hardcopy as well.

  16. Zack says:

    I don’t like that overhead cam shot at all. Cage Rage has mostly gotten away from it, although it made some of their earlier shows a lot harder to watch than it should’ve been. Elite XC was also rockin that shot a bit on their last show in Hawaii.

    Downloading the radio show now…

  17. Rollo the Cat says:

    “I had hoped that when Pro Elite began buying up so many of the smaller organizations like Strikeforce, Icon & Cagerage that Shaw’s plan was to consolidate the belts & move toward having one champion per division.”

    They didn’t buy Strikeforce…thank God.

  18. Fan Futbol says:

    Rollo,

    I definitely agree with you, and on more than just camera angles. In other words, I think camera angles, lighting, the sound (Pride ring was noisy) — all those things (in addition to the likelihood that a larger percentage of Pride fighters used performance enhancing drugs) contributed to the perception that Pride fighters were superior. I made this point a few days ago on these forums, and no one weighed in.

    FF

  19. Preach says:

    Sherdog reports that Kaz Nakamura has tested positive for Marihuana, and has been suspended for three months.

    That is… weird, to say the least. I honestly don’t think that he’s smoking weed back home in Japan, as the risk of getting busted is just too big over there, as even the possession gets sentenced with up to seven years of jailtime. And i just can’t imagine that he’d be as dumb to do it over in the US, shortly before he’s supposed to fight…

  20. No wonder he had a stupid haircut.

  21. Jeremy (not that Jeremy) says:

    Maybe coming to the US is the equivalent of going to the Netherlands for Japanese?

    I’m totally tired, and sick. Have a good night.

  22. grafdog says:

    Remember when the Extreme fighters John lewis Ralph Gracie Perretti etc…were on springer in the early 90’s? Remember Extreme fighting?
    This was back when springer decried rather than promote such deviant behavior.

  23. Zack says:

    Extreme Fighting was the shit. Their 3rd show was one of the first events I ever saw on PPV. I remember being HYPED when Maurice was coming to the UFC. EF Champ vs UFC Champ!

  24. AS says:

    Jeremy (Not That Jeremy). Email me, I’ve got some stuff for you to take a look at. [email protected]

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