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Wednesday news & notes
By Zach Arnold | December 6, 2006
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Our new MySpace Monster account (link here) is generating a pretty fast amount of friends. OK, not Mayhem Miller level, but we’re trying. Also, please donate to our web site if you haven’t already. November and December have been very busy months on the site in terms of bandwidth. Thanks for all of your support.
- Events: Throw Down in H-Town 2 (BJJ tournament on 12/16 in Houston w/ both gi and no-gi events), more information here (or use this e-mail contact).
- IFL: Ivan Salaverry will fight on their 1/19 Oakland, California show
- UFC Mania: The skinny on UFC mainstream press coverage
- A Different Take on MMA: Top 5 dirtiest fights in MMA history
- Ivan Trembow: Will DSE really sell PRIDE to the UFC or WWE?
- Radio: NHB – Kurt Otto & JD Penn
- Houston Chronicle: Pat Miletich sees star status for MMA in five years (this includes a link to an audio interview)
- MMA California: Kimo’s Resurrection In U.S.
- Lassen County Times On-Line: Iron pit fighters successful in Oregon
- PR Newswire: Launch of mymmaspace.com for MMA social networking
- UFC HP: Sizing up Sanchez vs. Riggs
Topics: All Topics, IFL, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 10 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Whoa, when i added your MS-account there were like 3 or 4 people, Erin, Quadros and Thaler. And it seems that there are quite a few mma-related MySpace-clones popping up, http://www.fightingspace.com/ for example has been up and running for around a month now.
I still have more “friends”
add me
You may have more “friends”, but i have the better looking profile 😉
But now back to the topics:
I don’t know if i’d put the Fitch/Joslin or the Sakuraba/Smirnovas fights into the category “dirty fights”, more into “bad refereeing”. Especially if you have them paired with “fights” like Frye/Yvel. Sakuraba/Arona would’ve been a better fit, with Arona trying to open up Sakus cuts even more with his fingers.
I also remember a Gracie fight where the fighters spat on eachother and the japanese fighter got out of a submission by pulling himself out of the ring. Of course lets not forget Hackney/Joe Son … just because it’s ‘legal’ doesn’t make it kosher.
BTW:
I love how you make snide comments bordering on “anti-Pride” and lock out comments.
Thus far any the media coverage like “WWE or UFC are going to buy PRIDE” from other sites for one thing is misguided and garbage journalism to begin with and should be read with a grain of salt. And to be as even handed as possible – you’re constantly crowing about the sure demise of PRIDE and it’s all been rumours thus far…the only news you post is the negative news and when you do post it, I’d say its bordering somewhere between restrained jubilation and outright gleefulness.
You wonder why you take heat from people when you flip back and forth from saying: you’re providing editorial commentary/opinion AND/OR providing news & information, whenever it seems to fit your case. I realize its your site and you can run it anyway you see fit – but don’t act like you’re providing clear and balanced news when you delete posts, lockout comments and provide your own biased opinions on all topics.
i for 1 love to take in a good pride event but i must say thier fans make it hard to like pride and i root for thier demise i dont want them sold i want them to go under and fast.that way thier fans can shut up already its sickening.
Oh my god … you mean Zach says bad things about all the organizations from time to time??? Face it, if things were going well for Pride then that’s what would reflect in the reporting. Speaking as someone who reads pretty much every peice of MMA news floating around, it’s general concensus that Pride has been in trouble since their TV deal, and the longer they go without television the worse it is. And lets face it, if they were able to get back on TV in Japan, they would have been able to by now.
There’s a BIG difference between being critical of an organization when its necessary AND digging up and reporting every piece of negative news with sheer glee and spite, as well as downplaying any positive news with respect to that organization and/or attempting to find negatives to say about the positive news itself (i.e. its 1st NA show was considered very successful – 6th largest gate in mma history in Nevada I believe – Which was still reported with skepticism and doubt).
I agree and I think that everyone else who’s not a complete nuthugger that PRIDE *is* facing turbulence and lean times – but for the last 2+ years – from the Morishita incident, to yakuza, to tv deals: this “chicken little, the sky is falling” and celebratory dance orgy over the corpse of PRIDE on this site is a little bit much.
fightlinker:
Don’t you think if someone else stepped up in the form of a new wave of ownership that PRIDE would find its way back onto TV?? As early as last NYE they were garnering very high ratings (beat K-1), so it would reason to believe they could find their way onto tv should they shed this current “bad aura” from the yakuza scandal.
Gaijin, I agree, which is why the sale makes so much sense. Pride did everything under the sun to try and lock a TV deal up for NYE. Once that failed to get them back on TV they must have realized nothing short of a major shakeup would sort things out – hence the selling. Honestly I think when they got ditched they already had a good idea of which direction things were going … dispite his knack for hyperbole I do think Sakakibara’s got a shrewd business style. The expansion shows into US make more sense as marketing tools to help facilitate PRIDE as a brand to possible buyers.
But at this point there’s really nothing to do but wait and see what the result is. You guys have been giving Zach hell for over two months now … but carrying on at this point just smacks of being unwilling to admit he seems to have been right.
FL:
I’m not really arguing at all about the prospects of selling PRIDE, at this point in the game I think its clearly in the best interests of the organization if they are sold. I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing either…what I am harping at is the constant din of “PRIDE is doomed – they’re going bankrupt – up in flames – and what have you”.
Maybe I’m “tilting at windmills” here – I just feel as though he’s being incredibly biased about the organization and its future and generally revelling in its current state. NONE of this news is good for the sport and I willingly admit that I am a far bigger fan of PRIDE, not out of a blind sense of loyalty, but because they have the best fighters, a better fighting style and presentation, a great history and a flair for putting on absolutely amazing shows. To see someone who’s jostling between being a journalist or someone giving their opinions to biased-ly be overjoyed and arrogant about the possible: bankruptcy, plundering or restructuring of a company that provides a TRULY international stage for MMA is rediculous and very misguided.
IF you’re all for watching an organization thats trying to MTV the industry with reality shows to provide cheap labour and create buzz, while providing little substance and few international level talents – then dance in the streets about the news…I think it sucks…and if you want to have a market thats similar to pro wrestling where theres one powerhouse that dominates the marketplace, providing little alternative outside of some renegade territorial upstarts – then I’m really not sure if you’re an actual MMA fan or a product of Zuffa’s clearly amazing hype machine.
*ridiculous – sorry I’m writing from the library, while studying for exams on about 3 hours sleep and 8 coffees.
i hate pride fans its a shame too because pride has put on some kick-ass events but thier fans just make you root against them.i hope they dont make it past nye i want those pride fans to soak in thier misery.lets hope they stop following once pride is dead and leave us alone so we can just enjoy some fights no matter if its the ufc,ifl or wherever