« Bad boys, bad boys… | Home | Saturday media review »
Friday free media
By Zach Arnold | January 5, 2007
A message from our friend Tim Leidecker:
Ground & Pound Awards 2006
It is about time to give away the Ground & Pound Awards for the year 2006. It is you, the fans, fighters, managers, promoters and trainers, who make the decision!
To smack down your vote, go here.
Pick your favorites and hit “Wählen” to submit. You can view the results up to this point by clicking on the “Ergebnis”- button.
- Canadian Press (via CBC Sports): Canadian middleweight Jason MacDonald to fight Rich Franklin on 3/3
- MMA HQ: Matt Hughes vs. Chris Lytle at UFC 68
- Fox Sports: Man of the ‘House – Chuck Liddell
- Tatame: Antonio Rogerio Nogueira vs. Vanderlei Silva a possibility for PRIDE 2/24 Las Vegas card
- The San Antonio Express: UFC hires two local firms to work on promoting their product to the Hispanic market
- The Helena Independent Record: John Renken teaches Montana soldiers hand-to-hand combat skills
- North Jersey Media Group: Are IFL’s stock shares a winner? (one stock analyst says WWE buying out IFL would be the best future situation)
- Sherdog: The Jerry Maguire of MMA (this is a puff-piece on “The Pav” Ken Pavia, who I have been talking about on the radio show over the last few weeks — notice how Sherdog has been running many of his press releases lately?)
Topics: All Topics, Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 19 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
The “puff piece” is news but not alves testing positive for a banned substance?
It’s in a separate post…
Wow, that was a complete puff piece on Pavia. In the magazine business, we call that an advertorial… it’s an advertisement, dressed up to look like an article. And it was written by Mike Sloan, possibly the most irritating of the Sherdog columnists.
Zach, why don’t you refer to Silva by his actual name? just wondering.
Why are they trying to kill McDonald? I mean I love the guy but geez they are litterally throwing him under the bus fighting Franklin.
My bad!
I’m looking forward to MacDonald fighting Franklin. I think this will be the first REAL test of Jason’s abilities. While Leben might kick MY ass, he’s no champ in the UFC any time soon.
And can you imagine what the middleweight division looks like if he wins? Personally, I think I would have rather seen him fight Swick, however.
It is rumored that it will be Swick vs. Okami at UFC 68, which I feel is a big time fight. The winner or Okami/Swick or Marquardt/Lister could both be in line next for a title shot. The division is stacked.
Franklin vs. MacDonald is a good contest. No easy comeback fights for Franklin. Hughes is kind of getting an easier fight, but the guy deserves it.
I agree with u critic, if Swick is fighting Okami then definitly it will be for a number 1 contender spot (im suprised he isnt getting the shot already). And iof u want to believe Hughes, he originally wanted to fight Sanchez but UFC said no because they are planning of giving Sanchez a title shot.
Right now, Lister/Marquardt is pretty much the de facto #1 contender match.
How can u say that when Lister has only had 2 fights in UFC while Swick is 5-0?
For better or worse, Lister is more highly regarded then Swick is due to his grappling background.
I hope Marquardt puts on an exciting fight on SpikeTV, so it makes it easy when the UFC gives him a title shot. The guy is a great fighter.
Ill give Marquardt SOME credit but Lister has the talent yet he has a very spotty record (I was suprised he has done well in UFC so far) but u cant deny Swick a shot. He has literaly ran over everyone the UFC has thrown at him.
I know Zuffa has other reasons for giving title shots, but if you do it purely on “who deserves it more”, then it is Nathan Marquardt. If he wins, he will be 4-0 in the UFC, and has career wis over Ivan Salaverry, Kazuo Misaki, Shonie Carter (When Shonie was still good). That is far superior to the wins Swick has on his resume.
Uh the only win that Marquardt got in the UFC was against Ivan Salavary (i would give him credit for taking out Doerksen as well) but the other wins were not in the UFC and technically should not count as anything towards deserving a title shot. Swick took out Louiseau and Riggs (in the UFC) which I think gives him just as much as a title shot as Marquardt…if anything maybe the two of them should duke it out for the title shot. (of course if they win their respective matches).
On those fight awards linked, largely a good list, but how in the world do you not even include MFS as a finalist for best team?
Agreed, if it wasn’t for the Silva/Lutter match i’d say Swick should get a title shot right now. The only reason they’re not putting him against Rich is so Swick can win vs okami and take a title shot later in 2007. As for Lister/Marquand … meh.
Swick is a terrible matchup for Silva. I think that’s why UFC is holding him back here. Swick and Franklin both have a following with the fans. Franklin is a better fighter than Swick and got completely abused by Silva. There is a danger that Rich comes back in March and is skittish and MacDonald beats him. If that happens then Quick Mike Swick is the only fan favorite at 185. Zuffa must be afraid that they won’t be able to build anyone else up at that weight and if Silva pummels Swick they’ll be stuck with an unbeatable champ who doesn’t speak English in a division with no marketable challengers. That scenario could end up playing out like the Tim Sylvia situation. There you have a champion who cannot headline a card because he is unmarketable. So you end up using your HW Championship fights as undercard fights every time it is defended.
I personally think Silva will get over huge with the bloodthirsty, knock out craving American fans. And by feeding Silva Swick and anyone else the TUF fans recognize and letting him hurt them that Silva will become a Mike Tyson like star. Tyson fought a string of nobodies in the 80’s that were built up by HBO to be worthy opponents and he blasted all of them much to the fans’ delight. I bet you could have the same thing with Silva.
I thought it was a pretty good piece…