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Report: Chris Leben tests positive for Stanozolol
By Zach Arnold | November 3, 2008
There’s good news and bad news. The good news is that UFC actually did drug testing for their latest UK event. The bad news? Chris Leben, who main-evented against Michael Bisping, tested positive for steroids.
Dave Meltzer: ESPN planning on an MMA reality show
The interesting angle to this story, if it’s true, is that ESPN would be paying the fighters directly. So, in essence, they would be paying for talent without having an official ‘promotion.’ The question is if ESPN would retain the rights over those fighters or if the fighters would become free agents after the show is over. If it’s the latter, then UFC obviously would have a tough decision to make. Would UFC support ESPN’s efforts at this show, in hopes that ESPN would create yet another talent factory for UFC to take advantage of, or would UFC look at ESPN’s attempt at a reality show as an assault on The Ultimate Fighter show on Spike TV?
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, UK, Zach Arnold | 21 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
So, in addition to being someone who skipped out on his court-mandated requirements and left the continental United States when he got a slap on the wrist for a drunk driving arrest, and then never told his employer that he had a warrant out for his arrest and wouldn’t be able to travel to the U.K. until they already found out, now he’s also someone who has tested positive for steroids. The combination of those two things should be enough to warrant being released from his contract.
ESPN already cancelled Wednesday Night Fights for 2009, so perhaps they’re looking at MMA as replacement programming? I’d be fine with them going from independent cage show. Wouldn’t hurt the UFC, certainly.
What is hilarious: Hey look kids, another MMA promotion of sorts! Gee, I thought when EXC and the like folded that was it and no one would ever want to enter the water again….
But after EXC’s floundering (and Affliction likely to soon follow), I doubt you’re going to see a “major player” trying to make a splash and compete with UFC right out of the gate.
If ESPN is smart, they will build up gradually or partner up with someone like Strikeforce. If they try to “play with the big boys” they’ll soon see how much money they’re tossing away in the short term and pull the plug before huge losses mount.
I wonder if the fighters were informed ahead of time about the testing on the UK show? If not, it could be a pretty good indication about how many fighters may or may not be on ped’s. If so, Leben is as stupid as I initially thought he was.
bl,
Pretty sure you’re thinking of Diego Sanchez from one of the earlier California.
They CSAC required testing but the results were not disclosed. I could be off, but I think that’s what you’re referring to. I think this is the first UK show that’s had testing.
Any chance EliteXC trying to hold it’s fighters has any connection with ESPN?
A weekly fight series of up and coming fighters would be nice. Anything else could be a waste. After 9 seasons of TUF, this concept is really really played out.
45,
I like the idea of a weekly fight series of up and comers. However, how is anyone (ESPN, UFC or whomever) supposed to be able to afford such an operation? It costs a lot of money to throw on televised events every week. You could keep fighter salary costs low if you had a bunch of newbies making $3,000 to fight and $3,000 to win on your card. For 8 fights, which is the bare minimum for live events basically (including prelims), the payroll would only be a modest $72,000. But there are many other costs to promoting an event that have to be recouped.
If you are a new company trying to break into television, the best method of doing so is not reality tv, which is getting stale for mma, or a weekly fight series, which is too expensive. Instead, I think Strikeforce has the right idea. They air old taped fights every week on NBC and they are planning on holding occasional live events with NBC. That is the best strategy right now to make sure that your promotion has regular TV exposure while also keeping costs low. The only knock on the Strikeforce deal is that their show is on too late at night. Staying up until 2 AM+ is just too much for me to tune into Strikeforce. I imagine Coker is trying to get an earlier time slot.
ESPN can dip their toes like Cuban or NBC, ally themselves with some minor promotions, do production and broadcasting of tape delayed and live events on a shoestring (leave the event production up to someone else, just do the broadcasting), maybe own a contract or two. This is a model that’s proven to work so far.
It’s a way to extend their involvement in MMA without actually either going head to head with UFC or getting married to UFC.
The Gaijin,
It was Anthony Torres, at UFC 75 like I said.
Why was my comment removed 🙁
For a weekly TV show, the best format would be to have one TV taping every 3 or 4 weeks. Once a month the show is live. The rest of the card is shown throughout the rest of the month. At the same time, have a live weekly studio announcer to have updates on the sport, so it still feel current.
That concept would make the idea more fiscally possible, but the old fights could hurt the programming. It’s tough to say.
It seems like every station is trying out the sport. SpikeTV, CBS, Showtime, BET, NBC, Versus, HDNet, & now ESPN. Really, there aren’t many more options. Most of the other channels on TV aren’t for this demographic. Should be interesting to see what happens.
On a side note… I’m not a big boxing fan, but I remember reading stories a few years ago how ESPN’s involvement in the weekly fights had been reduced. If my memory is correct, ESPN use to give like $40,000 to the promoter doing the weekly show. However, a few years ago, that ended. By this happening, it showed ESPN was less involved in the sport, and made it harder to get quality fighters on the telecast.
The idea is flawed. ESPN had terrible difficulty with The Contender. The reason beign people understood the fighters on the show were not high level and rejected it. There is a big difference between ESPN and SpikeTV in terms of maturity/professionalism. You can’t take a TUF clone and put it on ESPN otherwise it will flop hard. I think dave2 has the best idea of compiling footage like Strikeforce, but ESPN has no quality MMA video library which means they will have to partner or buy someone that does or start fresh.
There is a real need for innovation right now with how MMA is beign presented on mainstream television and I have no idea how they will go about it. I guess if it were me I would take ESPNs superior production and use them strictly as the promotional vehicle for upcoming fights and more importantly developing indepth fight countdowns similar to HBO.
One thing i disagree with is using low level fighters for cheap. This is where things become problematic for those wanting to involve themselves in combative sports, since not many people want to watch two “tomato can bums” go at it even if their up and comers. People want the best, or atleast the best you can offer them. Otherwise they won’t watch. Unless of course you lie and tell them they are the best like a good promoter would.
Thanks to Chris Leben, we now know that the UFC was serious when they said they would drug test in the UK.
If ESPN is serious about getting into MMA, they will be the first truly legitimate competitor to the UFC. Unfortunately, with their track record, this sounds more like them trying to score a quick buck.
Oh, I’m not saying the idea would work. I’m just saying if they do it, there is a way to save money.
The problem is that MMA is that to get it to look good on TV, it costs a lot of money in production. The lighting as to be really good due to the ground fighting. The camera angles are hard to get with a cage. Just in general, it isn’t cheap to produce it and make it look really good.
Shame on you Chris Leben.
ESPN should just show old Global & AWA tapes instead.
According to Sherdog:
1. It is ESPN Deportes, not ESPN that will have the programming.
2. The English Stations would not have any MMA.
3. Deportes only has about 4 Million Subscribers.
4. Only 13,000 of them actually understand Spanish (I made that fact up).
So much for ESPN.
That’s actually interesting that it would be on ESPN Deportes, because UFC should and would interpret that as an attack on them in terms of the Latin market. UFC has made baby steps, but not a full leap into countries like Mexico, Puerto Rico, etc. If ESPN can make in-roads into that market without much liability, then I think UFC will pay close attention to this development.
The problem is that they want to use Jorge Masvidal & Eddie Alvarez. No offense to Alvarez, but he doesn’t exactly have the hispanic feel. kind of like Roger Huerta… both feel way too American.
Is Roger Huerta even a proven draw for Hispanic-Americans? I’ve seen Hispanic MMA fans criticize Huerta for not speaking Spanish properly and coming off as a poseur.
He comes off as more of a dandy than a poseur. Deportes is a really strange choice…is there a promotion in Mexico that I’m not aware of, or is this another situation where they’re taking content that they made for ESPN Brasil or ESPN Latin America and moving it over to ESPN Deportes?
I don’t think ESPN Brasil even covers Vale Tudo or Luta Livre.
That’s too bad that Leben tested positive… he looked good during that fight.