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Hunt & Eastman canceled from PRIDE card
By Zach Arnold | October 17, 2006
Sherdog reports that Mark Hunt & Marvin Eastman will not appear on PRIDE’s 10/21 Las Vegas card. Instead, we will get Butterbean vs. Sean O’Haire in a match of former gaijin who worked in K-1.
The new opponent for Kazuhiro Nakamura, according to PRIDE’s Japanese HP, is Travis Galbraith. On the HP, PRIDE is pushing him as a guy who faced Georges St. Pierre (in 2002).
Here’s a PRIDE fan accusing UFC of sabotaging the upcoming Las Vegas show. I bring this link up because it represents one of the following outcomes:
- The charges against UFC are true.
- Some of the charges against UFC are true, but people will not care and say, “Well, PRIDE came to UFC’s home town, what did they expect to happen?”
- None of the charges are true, and it comes off like a political article before an election in which the writer is either trying to say “See, I told you so” or come up with an excuse for a negative outcome.
I expect the general reaction online will fall into category #2.
Meanwhile, Daily Sports is reporting that despite the reports about Mirko Cro Cop having foot surgery, PRIDE is still planning on Emelianenko Fedor vs. Mirko Cro Cop as the main event of their 12/31 Saitama Super Arena event. Also tentatively planned is Vanderlei Silva vs. Ricardo Arona and Dan Henderson vs. Kazuo Misaki in a re-match from the Bushido 8/26 Nagoya Aichi Rainbow Hall show.
Topics: All Topics, Media, MMA, PRIDE, Zach Arnold | 26 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Losing Eastman means nothing as far as I’m concerned but losing Hunt sucks – freakshow or not, that was going to be a FIGHT!
Hunt vs. Butterbean in MMA isn’t acceptible, and yet Nishijima vs. Phil Baroni is. Go figure.
I’d heard Eastman won’t be fighting because WFA won’t allow him to, since he’s supposed to be Rampage’s next victim but why is Hunt not going to? Is is he hurt, unable to be medically cleared, fail a drug test, etc? And what about Josh Barnett? I’d heard (You I think say) that he had to appear before the NSAC to obtain a new license to fight or something but I haven’t heard anything about that since, and the show is this weekend.
As far as the UFC antics go, from reading what Miletich said about him regarding his antics toward the IFL, it wouldn’t surprise me. I think it’s a stupid idea on their part since there is undeniably a crossover between fans and trying to rain on their parade is not a good idea. Not to mention that by messing with visas and rental cars, you could cost fighters a payday. The UFC apparently doesn’t pay most of its fighters well and apparently wants to increase the shows they run next year. Where do they think they’re going to get fighters from when the novelty of constant rematches between people who draw wears off? If they’ve thoroughly pissed fighters off by costing them money or making their life less pleasant (White has already alienated Militech, a guy who trains fighters who are “stars” in his own company)? You can only create so many stars from a reality tv show, especially one with declining ratings– and their star power is limited as most of them don’t seem to fare well against top level guys.
Also, antics like this send a message to other organizations and might impact how they react to the UFC expanding into their neck of the woods. And whether true or not, the way White has handled the possibility of any organization competing with the UFC isn’t good business. There is money to be made in the MMA and short of White getting the government to ban all forms of competition, inevitably someone as or more well connected will realize this and decide to legitimately challenge the UFC (Pride too if it is successful) and give White the headaches. And with his alleged antics, I suspect there will be a long line of people hoping to help put the nail in his coffin.
Just more indications that Pride doesn’t have the slightest clue when it comes to the american market. Sean O’Haire??? Don’t get me wrong, i like the guy, he’s one of the better big men in pro-wrestling, but seriously, bringing him in is one of the dumbest moves Pride could make. He carries a huge stigma with him, and that being that he was a part of WCW and WWE. The japanese audience might not care about it, as puroresu and kakutogi is more or less the same to them, but that’s a whole other ballgame in the USA. And just imagine what would happen if O’Haire actually won (which I highly, highly doubt), the messageboards would be swarming with posts like “That fight was a work”, and would bring a serious backlash with it, as the media would certainly pick it up and question the legitimacy of the sport. Not a good choice, Pride, definetely not.
And that Eastman’s off too… I find it funny, that many people (especially Pride nuthuggers) like to accuse Dana White of being the man who botched up Silva/Liddell, and that he was an idiot announcing the fight when not all was set in stone. Well, what’s up with Pride then? I know, Eastman/Nakamura has nowhere near the explosiveness of a champion vs champion match, but still – they announced the fight weeks ago, but failed to work out the paperwork and finalize the deal? People will most probably give the fault to the WFA, but do they really think they’d accept the deal at first but then back out just a mere 4 days before the fight was supposed to happen, because they suddenly thought it wasn’t a good deal?
So Kaz Nakamura is going to face Travis Galbraith now instead of the Beastman? Whoa, that will be a great fight, Kaz facing a man that Georges St Pierre once fought. Only a shame that i never ever heard of that man before, just like probably no-one else. Pride tries to convince the american market, that they’re “The Real Deal”, but they’re coming up with a guy like this? Hell, Pride nuthuggers are always putting the UFC down, because they bring in “3rd grade talent no-one knows about”, totally discarding the fact that they’re trying to bring in fresh fighters with good records and a good perspective. I wonder how they’re going to justify bringing in a guy who everytime he fought against good competition lost in the first round? But yeah, i know, he fought Georges St Pierre four years ago, that’s more than enough to grant him a spot in Pride’s first american show, right? So, what about Jay Hieron, Justin Bruckman and Thomas Denny then? No place for them on the card?
I guess that i’m falling into category #2 then. Hey, it’s “The House that UFC built”, and they’d be dumb if they wouldn’t try to pull some strings. But i think that it’s not as big as the poster over at sherdog tries to make it look. Will they have said to a few hotels and casinos “If you work with them, you’re on our shitlist”? Definetely, but saying that they’re threatening everyone from the top to the catering and limousine services? To quote Catherine Willows from CSI: “This is not the old Vegas anymore”. Just because the Fertittas are italian-american doesn’t mean that they’re Mafia, Lorenzo sure doesn’t look like the Capo di tutti capi to me. And somehow i don’t see Dana and Joe Silva popping up at a catering service, tire iron in hand, threatening to bust the owners kneecaps if he works with Pride. Or whacking a limousine driver because he drove Sakakibara. The UFC making sure that Pride fighters don’t get a work visa? Hell, why did the UFC have problems in getting work visas for their fighters, if they have so much pull?
And let’s not get me started about Pride allegedly spending 30 million $ on their “The Real Deal” show. Just a quick note: don’t you think that if they had that much money to burn, that they would’ve bought a better and bigger timeslot on FSN first?
So Pride is still banking on Fedor vs CroCop 2? Even though CroCop himself said that he’ll not be able to make it? They must be completely out of their minds, they can be glad if Mirko can walk to the ring without pain by then. And i wonder if there will be any uproar from the hardcore Pride fans about Silva/Arona 3 and Henderson/Mizaki 3. It’s not as if they are always putting down the UFC for doing rematches again and again…
Yeah, it’s weird that we didn’t get word of Barnett getting reinstated. In order to fight he would have to appear before the comission and pass a drugtest before the fight…
I don’t know, but i wouldn’t be surprised to see the card look a bit different come saturday…
If they’re going to try to force Fedor vs. CroCop 2 and CroCop tries not to fight, then we could have a potential fallout here and CroCop will be the biggest free agent in MMA by 2007.
Also, Silva and Arona 3? Henderson/Mizaki 3? If PRIDE is even LUCKY to get a free tv contract then K-1 is just going to kill them in the ratings.
Silva vs Arona 3? What about Diet Nog? Hendo vs Misaki 3? What about the winner of Bushido Final Conflict? Pride continues to eat it when it comes to title fights.
Preach:
Long post. You forgot to mention who you work for.
To the article:
There actually isn’t one way to make it in the “American market.” There’s no such thing as a stable, unchanging “market.” I haven’t the desire to explain further. Sorry.
On the actual summary (scribed by whom?): You select “2” as the majority response; I propose you speak for yourself. The UFC having that kind of pull in an athletic commission (of course they do) can only weaken MMA. Anyone who wants to put on a decent show in Las Vegas has to sort through the NSAC/UFC security system, a system that blocks fresh approaches from outside sources such as Pride, WFA and whatever other MMA banners that pop up. As someone who enjoys watching MMA I’d liked to see many shows from many sources.
Freak-show main events like “Shamrock vs. Ortiz” don’t cut it for those who’ve actually watched Pride, and actually have some understanding of how exciting mma can be. I want to see the best fight the best, and thus, I hope for Pride’s success in North America.
North Americans really should worry more about the “friendships” between big business and government. Really, you (maybe, we) should.
Is Fight Opinion a “Global Connection to the Fight Industry” or a fan-driven message board? If its suppose to be the former, why they heck did this writer link to a message board post on Sherdog that has no sources, no factual evidence and is basically a fan ranting at best?
Now we have a bunch of guys here perputating the same unconfirmed rumours/rants.
Rusticaz, what exactly are these “fresh approaches” you speak of? Stomps, Soccer kicks, knees to the head of a downed opponent? That’s all the State Athletic Commissions faults, not the UFC’s. People within the UFC have often stated that they’d like to see the knees re-introduced, but in the end it’s the SAC’s that make the rules, not the UFC, contrary to popular belief. And it will stay that way for a long, long time, as i don’t see an independent MMA governing and sanctioning body in the foreseeable future. For that to happen all the promotions would have to come together and more or less make up with each other, bury their differences and establish a governing body that’s entirely independent of the respective promotions, so that they don’t have any pull in decisions, rules etc. Otherwise we’d have a committee that’s just as corrupt as certain boxing and soccer entities. But as i said, i just don’t see it happening anytime soon, because they’d never get along. Pride would want their set of rules and regulations, the UFC theirs, the IFL would want their rules etc etc. And of course having one big MMA governing body would more or less mean interpromotional titlefights, unification bouts, all the stuff we know from boxing. Only that we wouldn’t have to deal with money hungry promoters like Don King, but entire companies who’d duke it out between each other for who get’s the bigger percentage of the fighters purse, which would probably lead to stalemate situations and fights simply not happening. So it’ll be NSAC, CSAC and NJSAC for a long time…
Preach, I dont see how u can compare the two botched events (Liddell/Silva and Eastman/Nakamura) in the same breath. First off the Eastman/ Nakamura match was set and ready to go but the WFA decided to pull a power play and get Eastman off of the show days before its supposed to happen (whether or not that was planned by the WFA…who knows) but u cant slight PRIDE for something that they had no control of. If anything it maybe a little to blame on Eastman as he should have asked WFA first if he could fight for someone outside of his contract.
The Liddell/Silva fight on the otherhand…was NO WHERE near complete (from the way that White even says it) all it was was Dana jumping the gun to try and appease the angry (albeit rightly so) fans after seeing Tito destory Ken in short fashion…so he thought hey this would make everyone happy (regardless of the fact nobody at the show knew who Silva was…way to go White). They had no contract, no guarnatees, hell no agreement to where a rematch would take place…and c’mon to expect Silva to even show up for the fight 2 mo after fighting in the OWGP…no way…honestly ur article has some truth too it but even u cant compare the two incidents (even if it is to bash the PRIDE nuthuggers)
Rusticaz: Good points. But I have to ask, since you raised it… who does Preach work for? (I ask only because I get the impression that it’s significant.)
Is UFC playing dirty? Probably. But the idea that UFC is so powerful they have power over government visas is just laugh out loud hysterical.
Seriously … the UFC doesn’t even have enough influence to get themselves legalized in half the country, but they have enough power with the feds to get visas pulled? This gets funnier and funnier the more I think about it.
Im pretty sure the Visa issue is more like UFC whispering into some LV NSAC’s ear saying hey maybe u should check the guy’s VISA and low and behold either its not legit or its not there. People in the wrestling business pull that shit ALL the time.
BSP: The only person i work for is myself, as an independent director/editor, mostly doing music videos for various record labels. So no connection to the UFC, which is probably what Rusticaz is implying, sorry 😉 Criticizing certain decisions of a brand doesn’t necessarily mean that the person works for it’s competitor. And especially if this person has problems with some of the competitors business tactics too 😉
And Josh, i think the comparison is ok to start with, simply because it was two fights that were announced but didn’t come to fruitition. We simply don’t know what really happened behind the scenes in the case of Silva/Liddell, if it was signed, if it wasn’t signed, if it was the UFCs fault, if it was Prides fault. It’s a case of he said, she said. Theres even a Pride guy (Mark Coleman) saying that it’s Prides fault. We just won’t ever know for sure, and it’ll become some sort of urban legend in MMA history. And us not knowing what really happened is the same with Eastman/Nakamura. Sure, Eastman tells us that there was a contract, but the question is if it was a legit contract to begin with. It could very well be that Pride made a contract with Eastman (thinking that his WFA contract would allow him to partake in a fight at Prides show), with the WFA stepping in and saying that his contract forbids him from doing so. As long as we never see any proper paperwork we just won’t know.
And the UFC whispering into NSACs ear about the visas – what complete and utter bull, sorry. The NSAC needs a work visa before they license any of the fighters, but first the fighter needs the visa to even enter the country. You know how it goes “Are you here for business or vacation?”, and then he’ll have to present his work visa if he’s there for business to complete the paperwork, no-one in their right mind would try to f* with the authorities. The chance of being deported and never getting into the US would be just too big. And i sincerely doubt that the UFC has enough clout to make the feds pull the visa of a Pride fighter.
I haveto argue wit u on that Preach… u can have a passport to enter the country, not a VISA…thats easy its the WORK visa that is hard to get and believe me (ive helped book a few indy wrestling shows) its VERY easy toclaim ur just here on vacation to get by them to enter the US. The Commision on the other hand, im not a 100% sure how lenient they are but I can definitly see PRIDE negotiating wit them to try and be lenient and then UFC coming in and saying hell no u cant do that.
And yes people have fucked with authorities before to work/wrestle here in the states…NUMEROUS times…and if u dont believe that then ur just as follish to believe that Don King is as squeaky clean as the former pope.
Umm, it depends on where you’re from if you need a visa or not. I’m german, and i can just come to the US with my passport, no visa needed, the only exceptions being if you want to stay more than 90 days or have a criminal record. But it’s just an elite few who have this advantage (western europe, Australia, New Zealand and Japan), the rest need a visa to even enter the US.
Thanks Preach. Fair enough.
Sorry, but I see no other words to describe these charges other than ‘Horse Shit’. First of all, the Marvin Eastman issue seems to be WFA related which we all know won’t have any UFC involvement. As an aside, what a waste for the WFA to go after such a talented guy as Rampage and then put Marvin Eastman in front of him.
Secondly, as Mike stated above, the idea that UFC has any ability to affect a fighters Visa standing with I.N.S. is completely laughable. Those issues are handled by Pride’s legal counsel which is probable a several hundred attorney firm that doesn’t screw up something as simple as obtaining a work Visa.
The fact is, the card is undergoing last minute changes. It happens all the time and not just to Pride. Anyone remember Tito Ortiz vs. Patrick Cote? What about Matt Hughes vs. Joe Riggs?
you guys are underestimating how easy it is to have visa connections. pay off one guy and he can have whatever you want held up.
Ommabudsman Says:
The link was perfectly acceptable to point out, because this is the audience that PRIDE generally has (online and with the hardcore fans in America).
It’s always interesting to keep your eyes and ears open in regards to what the trends are (and in this case, the trend is either UFC involvement or built-in excuses already being made.
Preach- fine and where do all the fighters come from? (western europe, Australia, New Zealand and Japan)…. so no Visa problems… Work visa is probably the issue and I think keishi hit it right on the button with his comment.
Well, you seem to forget the Russians and the Brazilians who are a vital part of Pride (and with Fedor, Belfort and Shogun of “The Real Deal”), who all need to get a visa even for entering (just as CroCop who was supposed to make a special appearance at the show).
BTW word makes the round that Belfort hasn’t gotten his visa yet, so he could be the next one to not make it on the fight card (not that this would be anything new, as he has had visa problems everytime he worked for the UFC). Seems to me that Pride underestimated the time it takes to get a visa granted, which can very easily take 2-3 months when you’re coming from a country that’s not exactly on the US christmas card list. A russian friend of mine once waited 13 weeks to get his!
The immediate comparison that comes to mind is ufc v pride = repuglicans v dumbocrats, or politicians in general.
Ufc has been putting alot of money into politicians pockets over the years and getting Ratner on the payroll gives them invaluable inside info at very the least, I imagine ratner may still talk with his associates in the NSAC.
It’s similar to when Don Rumsfailed worked for the company which produced aspartame which failed to get approved the FDA because its a poison, until Rumsfeld was brought into government and used his newfound politica power to get it approved.
Its a conflict of interests, or a collusion of interest as government does not seem to care who pays as long as THEY are paid off.
An excerpt…
“In January 1981 Rumsfeld told a sales meeting, according to one attendee, that he would call in his chips and get aspartame approved by the end of the year”
A must see 6 min video…
http://www.soundandfury.tv/pages/rumsfeld.html
One of many articles….
http://www.newswithviews.com/NWVexclusive/exclusive15.htm
The ufc’s m.o. has so many similarities to politics its not even funny.
That the ufc would use whatever tools at its disposal to prevent competition is already been proven by their legal battle to slow the IFL’s birth.
The only question is, who opened the tool box and which tools were used in this latest instance.
O’hair is going to get whaled on, and knocked out
quicker than when Musashi ko’d him…
Let’s hold back on specific political comparisons, please. The thread is being closed.