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Press Release: UFC Creator Art Davie and RipeTV Launch XARM, First Combat Sport for the Digital Age
By Zach Arnold | November 18, 2008
LOS ANGELES, Nov 18, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) – RipeTV.com, the web’s top destination for short-form video entertainment for men 18-34, teams with UFC creator Art Davie to debut an entirely new sport, created for the digital platform: the first-ever XARM Heavyweight Tournament on November 19, 2008.
The XARM tournament, consisting of 10 fighters, combines arm wrestling with contact sports like boxing and martial arts. The first competition takes place in San Bernardino, CA. The winner of the Heavyweight Tournament will earn the title of “XARM Heavyweight Champion” and the top prize of $10,000.
“In XARM, there’s nowhere to run and nowhere to hide once you step up to the table. It’s hard-core hand-to-hand combat.” said Art Davie, CEO of XARM and creator of Ultimate Fighting Championship(R) (UFC). “The action is tremendous. This is the most intense 3 minutes in sports.”
“It’s action, it’s entertaining, it’s real,” said Ryan Magnussen, CEO of Ripe Digital Entertainment. “We know our audience will love this show and advertisers will benefit from the viewer interest and expected viral pass through.”
The fighters in this first-ever tournament come from a variety of fighting backgrounds including mixed-martial arts (MMA), arm wrestling, weightlifting, football and kickboxing. Athletes participating in the XARM Heavyweight Championships are: Bond Laupua, Rick Vardell, Homer Moore, Justin Del Mugnaio, Rick Cheek, Frederick Steen, Ivan Gatoloai, Steve Walston, James Cordrey and Andy Flennoy.
An XARM bout features 3 one-minute rounds with athletes tethered to the XARM table in a belted harness. The combatants’ grip hands are strapped together and fighting gloves are worn on their free hands. Punching, striking, kicking, chokeholds, and submission moves are all part of the official XARM rules. The winner of the match is the first athlete to pin his opponent’s arm, knock him out or make him submit.
In the event the bout goes the full three minutes and a decision is needed, three XARM-trained judges score the match on a special, “10-point must” system.
Ripe Digital Entertainment (www.ripetv.com) will also release XARM match video via VOD (Video On Demand) on Time Warner Cable and Comcast as well as via its mobile partners for view on handheld devices. XARM is optimized for the limited screen size of mobile digital delivery due to the small circumference of the tethered fighting area, bringing viewers as close to the action as they’ve ever been in combat sports.
About Ripe Digital (www.ripedigital.com)
Ripe Digital Entertainment was founded in 2004 as a multi-platform entertainment destination for men and has emerged as a leading digital media Company with distribution to 100 million screens across the Internet, Cable VOD and Mobile video enabled devises. Ripe is exclusively focused on producing, editorializing and monetizing entertaining short-form video programming around men’s lifestyle, automotive enthusiasts and music.
About XARM (www.xarm.com)
XARM is a new combat sport wholly owned by Piranha Entertainment LLC. Working with Art Davie, the creator of the hugely successful Ultimate Fighting Championship(R) (UFC), Piranha has set plans to develop a live sports league with multiple revenue streams for the domestic and international marketplaces. Based in Seattle with offices in Los Angeles, Piranha Entertainment creates and produces concepts and content for all forms of broadcast media, with a focus on digital platforms.
SOURCE: Ripe Digital Entertainment
Ripe Digital
Jonathon Barbato, 323-785-4800
jonathon@ripedigital.com
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That Youtube clip caught me off guard. I can’t wait to show it to people without telling them what it is.
Ugh.
Can’t we just get a decent pro kickboxing org in the US?
What a load of shit. Anyone feels a bit BASEketball-ish? The whole combining of sports thing? Except this is even more retarded.
This is the most retarded thing I have ever seen!
On the record, I hope I never have to see or hear from this non-sport again. Wholly ignorant and without any redeeming or positive values, I can say I’m embarassed that there’s even a shadow of a relationship to the history of MMA. In a world of Jerry Springer though, it could find its audience.
If you ever met Art Davie, you shouldn’t be surprised by this.
At first, I wasn’t sure about this XARM thing, but once I heard the extremely bad heavy metal, I knew it was something I could get behind.
I will be lobbying Art Davie shortly to add cheesy gladiator imagery to attract my redneck brethren.
I’m Speechless.
This is hilarious!!
“The fighters in this first-ever tournament come from a variety of fighting backgrounds including mixed-martial arts (MMA), arm wrestling, weightlifting, football and kickboxing.”
OOOHHHHHH! Football players?! Hell yes! As we all know, football is one of the most effective martial arts out there, and we all know how well meathead footballers do in combat arts! (rolls eyes in disgust and sarcasm).
Seriously, I am absolutely speechless. Actually I am more disgusted at the notion of football being a martial art. You might as well have tea ceremony people do this. That’s more of a “martial art” than fucking football. I would take hockey, rugby, Australian football, and rhythm gymnastics being more martial arts than fucking football.
I would totally take part in XARM competitions, because it looks like it’s fun to do (or maybe it is fast and sweet cash that does it?) but it is a stupid concept. Why not just combine tennis with jai alai and call it tenalai?
THAT LOOKS AWESOME~!~!~!
Maybe Sylvester can do an “Over the Top” sequel featuring this.
The trailer could have that Drowning Pool song!
This has to be the worst conceived idea for a ’sport’ in history. I’m in total disbelief.
Wow. And, I mean WOW.
I’m actually appalled by the notion that Art Davie & the other idiots behind this really believe there’s a market for this trash. Or, maybe I’m even more afraid that there is …
I don’t know.
This concept takes everything that’s honorable about fight sports of any sort, as well as the sport of arm wrestling & chucks it out the window in favor of three minutes of carnage. It’s disgusting.
Not only is it a crap “sport” whose only appeal is to the lowest common denominator in society ( I can’t believe that they actually had kids in the audience! ), but as soon as someone gets seriously injured during one of these contests you just know the mass media is going to call this garbage an offshoot or variation of MMA. Potentially reversing years of progress that MMA has made in the public’s eye.
I don’t want to come across as hysterical about this or anything, but damn it, I can see the headlines now. They won’t scream “MAN INJURED/KILLED IN ARM WRESTLING MATCH”, nope, they’ll say “MAN INJURED/KILLED IN MMA MATCH!”.
Gary Goodridge also takes part…wtf ?
What happens when someone is knocked out, goes limp, crashes to the floor and rips his shoulder out of his socket because he is still attached to the other guy?
Absolutely moronic. Art Davie should be lobotomised to prevent inflicting further pain on people with eyes.