Comments on: James Toney: My first MMA fight will happen in June or July

By: Miller

Miller — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 17:17:17 +0000

lol I forgot about the Bodog show on Ion in 2007. They had a few good fights on it, but Mark is right to say Col. Bob Sheridan had no business in MMA announcing. But he still wasn’t as bad as Damon The Dog Perry.

By: Mark

Mark — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 17:10:25 +0000

This “Fedor is a curse” crap is so old it went to high school with Helio Gracie. Why are you going to blame a fighter for a bunch of people making stupid business decisions? The buck stops with the management who okayed the dumb decisions.

RINGS was a dinosaur product Fedor wasn’t even the focus of.

PRIDE was mobbed up before Fedor got there. Like, from day one. You know, its original figurehead either killed himself to avoid Yakuza problems with debts or was murdered by them and covered up to look like a suicide because of those issues before Fedor even got there.

BoDog was run by people who knew nothing about MMA and they had an awful television product that actually made people NOT want to see more of them. Why do I want to pay to see a PPV when you’re showing me some washed up no-hit-wonder singer as a host, one of the worst announcing teams ever, and a WWE reject putting submission holds on models? What did they ever do to promote their actual product? TNA laughs at them.

Affliction overpaid far more people than just Fedor or any M-1 fighter.

You can easily say Jerry Millen was the curse because he was everywhere Fedor was but RINGS. But there is no curse, this is a new sport where a bunch of n00bs are learning on the job and making dumb decisions that put them out of business. Last time I checked Fedor wasn’t a CEO. Even if he is overpaid in your opinion what is he supposed to do, turn down money explain to the management how to be financially responsible? No, you’re an athlete with a short span to make enough money for support your family so you take every dime you can get.

By: Zack

Zack — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 19:58:49 +0000

Thanks, guys.

By: The Gaijin

The Gaijin — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 19:56:01 +0000

It was a PPV.

http://www.mmaweekly.com/absolutenm/articlefiles/3034-BodogFightStoryGraphic.jpg

By: Zack

Zack — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 08:41:31 +0000

Didn’t Bodog run a non-PPV from Vancouver that failed too? Or did they just tape that show to air at a later date. It was the other show that wasn’t in Costa Rica.

Also, it’s way too simplistic to say that Fedor killed Affliction. Did you see their payroll? I was live at both shows. If they didn’t have Fedor, the live shows would have died. I’ve been to 10+ UFCs and the only fight that had the energy in the building similar pre-fight to Fedor v Sylvia/Arlovski was Randy/Chuck 3. And the place was just as packed as it was when I was in the same building for UFC 59 (and at UFC, people didn’t stay for the main event…I’d say it was 2/3 full tops by the time Sylvia/Arlovski went on.)

Ed. — Yep, Vancouver show… forgot if it was PPV or not… I just remember Eric Pele vs. Bigfoot Silva.

By: JStein

JStein — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 04:55:47 +0000

This was an absolutely wonderful post. Walking through the history of Fedor’s recent run is particularly interesting. Glad someone took the time.

By: Dave2

Dave2 — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 04:25:28 +0000

I don’t think it’s right to consider Fedor a plague/curse. Rather M-1 is a parasite. They don’t understand the concept of, you scratch my back, I scratch yours. They will just latch onto a naive host and suck them dry and then move on to the next naive host. I’m dissapointed in Coker. He was such a great businessman but then he sold his soul to Showtime/CBS (speaking of plagues/curses…) and M-1 and now he has no control over his product. Strikeforce is going to fold I’m afraid.

By: The Gaijin

The Gaijin — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 03:53:57 +0000

Too funny – but a pretty poor trolling attempt. I basically stopped listening after “crazy Russians”…b/c if that’s the type of logic you’re bringing to the table I really don’t even need to hear the rest.

No one is saying that M-1 isn’t in it for themselves…but the BS about them being the cause of multiple promotions failing is some cosmically hilarious conspiracy theory. Correlation =/= causation.

By: white ninja

white ninja — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 03:01:32 +0000

Thanks Gaijin – now I see the light. Its all coincidence that every promotion Fedor has headlined has folded. Must be everybody else’s fault

Pride = Fedor’s defection from Pride to Inoki led directly the yakuza scandal = destructon of Pride = led to destruction of the fledgling Inoki promotion. 2 for the price of one : )

Bodog = crazy russians and crazier promoter fall out in disarray after one event; arguing about whose logo should be bigger on the fight mat

Affliction – same as above; except with double the life of bodog = uneconomic due to accepting crazy demands of the headliner and inability to put on fights

SF = still breathing; but Vadim will bleed them dry soon enough

M1 is a parasite; great business for Vadim (not clear how good it is for Fedor)

By: Zack

Zack — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 01:13:54 +0000

Toney is extremely out of shape right now. If they hot shot his debut and have him fight in a little over a month, it most definitely is a freakshow. At least give the guy a few months to get into shape if he chooses to do so and give him the normal amount of notice to train for the fight/opponent.