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« | Home | »

Keith Kizer is fighting a losing P.R. & political battle with the UFC

By Zach Arnold | December 9, 2010

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New update at the bottom of the Mr. Kizer/Mr. Rogan portion of the article.

For the most part, Keith Kizer has largely been anything but bold as the director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission during his tenure in office. Other than not licensing Antonio Margarito, it’s largely been business as usual in Las Vegas. The economy has tanked in the States, especially in Nevada where jobs are scarce and the foreclosure crisis has hit the state hard. At this point, whoever brings money and business to the state is lauded as heroic. Kizer, for the most part, has not done anything to get in the way of UFC’s business affairs. In a sense, you could say he’s been useful to them.

Well, it looks like the sentiments have changed dramatically. If this was a mafia movie, a consigliere would sit Mr. Kizer down and read him the riot act. UFC is not happy with the way personnel matters related to officiating are being handled in the state. Joe Rogan, acting on his accord, is the perfect front man for UFC to rip into officials and into Kizer. As long as it’s Rogan and not Dana White or Marc Ratner doing the dirty work, UFC can publicly say that their hands are clean of the criticism. Rogan went on national television last Saturday and implored with the fans to verbalize their disgusting with officiating. He made the remark that the judging and officiating is so incompetent that the public attacks UFC for being ‘corrupt’ when they have nothing to do with bad referee work or judging whatsoever. In other words, it undermines the credibility that the UFC has with the public and that can alter the bottom line if people view the sport your promoting as fixed or a work. We all know UFC’s mentality is that their organization is the sport, so anything that hurts them is a call to action.

This is not a winnable war for Keith Kizer, neither in public nor in private. If the Fertitta family is angry, they have the financial muscle to make a difference. If they’re not happy with the ways things are run in Nevada, they can run shows elsewhere and help other states make money while Nevada is on the sidelines. Don’t think that the local politicians ignore this kind of thing. Commissioners come and go. but UFC and their deep pockets are not going anywhere. If you’re a betting person and had to choose between who’s going to last longer in power, Keith Kizer or the UFC in Nevada, Mr. Kizer’s drawing the short end of that stick.

In perhaps the next step in what could end up being a bizarre proxy war, there seems to be a heat-up in a war of words between Chael Sonnen and Wanderlei Silva. How about that. These two have been rumored for over a month now to be the next coaches on The Ultimate Fighter. Sonnen coaching on a UFC program taped in Las Vegas where Keith Kizer has to show up for weigh-ins. The amount of messages that would be sent by the UFC for having Sonnen be a coach on The Ultimate Fighter would be enormous. It would be a total slap in the face to Kizer, given that Sonnen claimed that Kizer approved of him using Testosterone Replacement Therapy. Kizer completely denies this charge. Given this scenario, the idea of UFC using Sonnen as a coach and rewarding his behavior by putting him on national television week-after-week would speak volumes about the seriousness in which UFC looks at the issue of PED usage amongst fighters in MMA. It would all but eliminate UFC from publicly ever taking the high road on the matter, but of course the tradeoff would be significant short-term financial gains for a PPV match between Wanderlei and Sonnen.

Update (12/9): Mr. Kizer’s getting flooded with angry fan response and he’s not happy with the tone of the feedback.

Bellator’s all-or-nothing play on FX

Since last Friday, the rumors have been swirling that Bellator’s season four series for 13 weeks will end up on the FX cable channel. The announcement will be made soon by the promotion that they landed this television deal and all I can say is that, for better or for worse, this is the best possible scenario they could have hoped for. They’ve jumped from ESPN Deportes to Fox Sports Net/Comcast Sportsnet and now end up on FX, a network where the standards are high in terms of drawing television ratings. The odds are most certainly against Bellator drawing big television ratings, but the one factor they have going for them on this deal is that it’s in prime-time, on a relatively good platform, and no pre-emptions.

The problem is figuring out what kind of commitment the network actually has to Bellator should the promotion fail in reaching internal rating benchmarks. What will happen to fighters who are under contract if Bellator’s deal with FX fails? Will it become as prolonged as the situation was when Elite XC contracts were up for the highest bidder? At the end of season four for Bellator, we’ll have a 100% definitive line-in-the-sand moment as to whether or not they will survive and grow or if they are dead meat.

Agents have a mixed history of success as promoters/matchmakers in MMA

Koichi “Booker K” Kawasaki, who was one of the three major agents during the PRIDE days, is now closely aligned with Sengoku. That certainly makes things interesting given the weakness of K-1’s position right now.

Monte Cox, who’s promoted many shows in the past, has a big show in Minneapolis at the Target Center this Saturday night where several of his fighters will be on the card including Travis Wiuff and Tim Sylvia (fighting Vince Lucero, whose record is 2-10-1 since 2005).

Fights not happening

Kenny Florian is out of his booked fight against Evan Dunham due to injury. Melvin Guillard takes his place.

It is unlikely that Nick Diaz will fight Mayhem Miller any time soon.

Other news & notes

If fear is a big thing for Georges St. Pierre heading into his fight on Saturday night against Josh Koscheck, he’s not showing it. He’s been extremely confident all the way. Spencer Kyte has more on the evolution of Josh Koscheck’s MMA career.

No one is safe: TMZ has Michael Johnson party photos after his loss to Jonathan Brookins last Saturday night in Las Vegas.

With the UFC-WEC merger complete and Zuffa not showing interesting in running events in Columbus, Ohio any more despite doing good business in the past in that market, Strikeforce looks ready to run in the market.

The National Post and The Toronto Sun have articles talking about the upcoming rush for MMA promoters in the Greater Toronto Area to get ready to run shows in 2011.

Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, UFC, Zach Arnold | 21 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

21 Responses to “Keith Kizer is fighting a losing P.R. & political battle with the UFC”

  1. Fluyid says:

    “He made the remark that the judging and officiating is so incompetent that the public attacks UFC for being ‘corrupt’ when they have nothing to do with bad referee work or judging whatsoever.”

    Except for when they (UFC) select the judges that they take with them to places like Abu Dhabi, etc.

    • 45 Huddle says:

      Rogan responded to this….

      “I also found it quite hilarious that he denies that the NSAC is 100% to blame for this judging situation and even brought up that we’re taking NSAC appointed judges to Canada.

      The NSAC for all it’s flaws is the most important ruling body in combat sports. To bring judges that aren’t appointed and approved by the NSAC would open up a whole new can of worms. The question would also come up as to who appoints those other judges? What is the UFC’s relationship with them?”

      It’s a 100% valid point by Rogan. Despite the issues with the NV judges, it would create even MORE issues if they didn’t use them internationally. And that’s not a road any promoter should want to go down.

      Which is why SO MUCH pressure is now being placed on Kizer. Over 50% of their 2010 UFC events (13 of 24) took place either in NV or internationally.

      They want a new set of judges for the majority of their events. And the only person in their way is Keith Kizer. Which means Kizer will either change or he is going to be pushed out. Which I think is reasonable. When a guy isn’t doing his job properly, it’s time to find somebody else who can.

  2. 45 Huddle says:

    1) The Keizer/Rogan/UFC issue highlights one of the BENEFITS of the business model the UFC has. Because they promote both athletes in every fight they have…. They care more about good judges then a boxing promoter who just wants a judge to side with their own fighter.

    2) I could easily see Keizer getting pushed out of the NSAC. Money talks, and the UFC has all of the power here. Keizer really needs to bend to their demands or he will lose his job.

    3) One thing Rogan said and is getting a lot of flack for…. But I actually agree with him…. Is that the UFC has no choice but to use NSAC guys when they go into unregulated areas. The UFC has to be very very careful to not give the perception that they are dictating the decisions. So it would be even worse PR if they hired judges who weren’t approved by the biggest AC in the country. What the UFC is really looking for now is for the NSAC to do their job… Get new judges…. So the UFC can benefit from it while in Nevada…. And then also use those same (better) judges when they go overseas. Which is why they are putting SO MUCH pressure on Keizer now. They want to expand overseas…. And they see Keizer’s lack of leadership as a hinderance. If you combine the number of NV & International shows up…. Keizer’s judges have far too much impact on the UFC. If the UFC can get better judges for those cards…. That fixes half of their MMA cards at least.

    4) Middle easy isn’t exactly reliable 100% of the time, but they do seem to have some good sources. They did publish some specifics of Bellator…. Like it costs them $400,000 per episode. If this is true, then for them to break even…. FX would have to invest $5 Million a season. That’s $10 Million a year if they did 2 seasons. I just don’t see that happening. And their live gates aren’t bringing in any business. Even if they have received flat fees from arenas in the past, if they can’t provide a big enough audience live, they aren’t going to get them again.

    5) I think Bellator’s TV deal is the 2nd best in MMA history (for America). And I mean ever. Better then MyTV. Better then CBS. Better then Showtime, FSN, etc…. It only pales in comparison to the UFC’s deal on SpikeTV. But the devil is in the details…

    How much is FX willing to pay for MMA? Are they doing a live feed throughout the entire country? I think that would actually be bad as one or both coasts would have a bad time slot. It would be better if it was at 8pm on each coast. How much are they going to promote the shows? Are they going to show commercials during Sons of Anarchy to hype it up or just let people discover it.

    Doing live shows in a season format is okay, but taking 3 to 4 months off at a time completely kills momentum for fighting. I really question if that format can work on the larger stage. And if they produce fights like they did last season, people are going to be bored and turn the channel instantly.

  3. david m says:

    Wanderlei vs Chael would BE EPIC!!!

    Chael = best talker in mma. Wandy can call him a roider and talk about his small testicles, and Chael can call Wanderlei a babboon.

    BTW, Chael would absolutely wreck Wanderlei.

  4. mr. roadblock says:

    Kizer’s job has two descriptions.

    1. Make sure promoters give the State of Nevada 4% of ticket sales.

    2. Provide the State of Nevada plausible deniability if some dies or is seriously maimed while competing.

    A chimpanzee could do the job.

    If UFC decides it’s only going to do 4 shows in Vegas next year, or comes out with a calendar that shows maybe 1 visit in six months, you can bet that there will be a new chimp in a suit sitting at Kizer’s desk.

    The real wrench in the works is that California keeps busting guys for PEDs.

    Does anyone think that PEDs are only done in California? No. But the chimps over there seem to take their jobs a little too seriously and are shining a light on the part of the sport no one wants to talk about.

    • EJ says:

      “Does anyone think that PEDs are only done in California? No. But the chimps over there seem to take their jobs a little too seriously and are shining a light on the part of the sport no one wants to talk about.”

      Or it could show that the chimps in CA are completely inept at their job considering how they bungled the Sherk case and the mess that was Sonnen’s hearing. The more that comes out about the CSAC they more umproffesional they look.

      • mr. roadblock says:

        It’s probably 50/50 them being incompetent under scrutiny and UFC putting pressure on them to ease off guys in the title hunt.

      • The Gaijin says:

        If I understand correctly, the “idiots” that are on the CA are not the third party laboratories running the tests. So say what you will, but you continue to live in a dream world where the only fighter that actually uses steroids is Josh Barnett. I’m sure if he was a Zuffa fighter, it would be the same song and dance about how the CA is incompetent and he probably used a tainted supplement or someone was spiking his pee.

        Somehow Sherk, Marquardt, Sonnen, et al are all victims of a tainted bureaucracy by some convulted reason, and none of them ever cheated.

        • EJ says:

          I have no clue if anyone of those 3 guys cheated, I do know that the CSAC let themselves open to being criticized and their credibility has been called into question with the way they handled those cases.

          That’s the difference between me and others, I can look at each case on it’s merits and make up my own mind. Unlike others who it wouldn’t matter how inept and mishandled a case against a fighter is they believe that he’s guilty because the CSAC says so.

          As far as these third party labs that everyone wants to act like have no problems and are on the up and up if you followed the Sherk case you’d know that is false. His lawyer went right after that lab and exposed them as being just as inept as the people in the AC.

          When I say idiots I mean the entire process and people running these test and appeals which has made everything they do be called into question until they fix it.

    • robthom says:

      “The real wrench in the works is that California keeps busting guys for PEDs.”

      ^^
      I have to disagree with this.

      False accusations are always wrong.

      But busting people who are actually doing that is right.

      Doping undermines calling this a real sport!

      (And no I dont care what they do in golf!)

      • robthom says:

        Maybe you’re not justifying it, you’re just saying that UFC is having a difficulty with it.

        Which is true.

        • Steve4192 says:

          I think he is being cynical and saying that their job is to maximize revenue, not to protect the athletes. Protecting the athletes is nothing more than lip service.

          Busting juicers hurts their ability to generate revenue, as demonstrated by the UFC’s absence from California after the Sherk mess.

        • Oh Yeah says:

          Reminds me of when one commission (NSAC) mentioned busting Lesnar hypothetically, and taking 250Gs.

          Not exactly sure how anyone but the commission is the winner in that circumstance.

  5. robthom says:

    “…verbalize their disgusting with officiating.”

    Disgust.

    “If they’re not happy with the ways things are run in Nevada, they can run shows elsewhere and help other states make money while Nevada is on the sidelines.”

    That wont happen.
    They would ride out trashy judging and blame it on “dont leave it to the judges”.

    I thought Kizer WAS the consigliere!

    🙂

  6. I get that it is a good alarmist headline to say “What if the UFC decides to stop running in Nevada?”, but they aren’t. Ticket sales being what they are, Nevada offers them something they can’t beat on their own, which are casino site fees. The UFC could run their events outside of Nevada if they wanted to, but it would be at the expense of their bottom line. I don’t expect them to stop and go to Montreal or Toronto instead (where they not only lack a big site fee, but also get taxed more), much less anywhere else in the US (where sluggish ticket sales are commonplace).

  7. […] new angle here, if you want to call it that, is that my article about Keith Kizer’s unwinnable war with UFC perhaps is proving to be prescient after […]

  8. […] translation: Get your head out of your ass, Keith Kizer. You’re not going to stop us. No one else has been able to, so […]

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