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Tuesday media turnover

By Zach Arnold | January 8, 2007

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  1. Los Angeles Daily News: What a difference a year makes
  2. Eye on Gambling: BodogFight hits the strip
  3. Long Beach Press-Telegram: Eddie Sanchez takes dream to Octagon
  4. Long Beach Press-Telegram: UFC will crank it up in 2007
  5. Seconds Out: HBO to air three UFC shows in 2007, boxing people very angry
  6. Infinite MMA: Australian MMA fighter James Te Huna signed for PRIDE 2/24 Las Vegas show
  7. Komikazee: An open letter to the writer of the WSJ article comparing ‘ultimate fighting’ to Saddam Hussein’s execution
  8. Pro Fight Store: A report stating that Zelg Galesic has not signed with PRIDE and that he’s still under contract to Cage Rage
  9. The Houston Chronicle: Sean Sherk warming up to life as champion
  10. The Register-Guard: Eugene, Oregon city council decides on status of amateur MMA fights
  11. Business Wire (PR): IFL coaches to hold free self-defense classes nationwide in January
  12. The Houston Chronicle: Emelianenko Fedor still full of PRIDE
  13. Gryphon: More drama on the Sakuraba vs. Akiyama controversy (and a key video clip to the story can be seen here

Topics: All Topics, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 17 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

17 Responses to “Tuesday media turnover”

  1. The MMA Critics says:

    Some of the boxing old timers are scary guys. Their sport is dying, and they can’t let it go.

    I honestly see the UFC on HBO as a deal Zuffa was required to make. They really didn’t have a choice. If they did not get on HBO, then another boxing promoter would be on HBO in 2 years, only creating more competition for the UFC. Does the UFC honestly need HBO right now? Not at all. They are doing great without it. Just like the WEC is being used to block competition from the Versus Network, this is just another way for Zuffa to flex their muscles and keep out the competition.

    On a completely random note, did anybody else see the World Combat League (WCL) on The Versus Network? It was like a cheesy version of K-1. I checked out their website, and the concept almost feels identical to the IFL’s. It is all about the “team” instead of the individual. I guess 2006 was the year that combat sports removed the “I” and replaced it with “team”. Hopefully 2007 can reverse that trend.

  2. MMA T-Shirts says:

    There is no I in combat sports… ironically there is one in IFL 🙂 I totally agree with you about HBO and UFC going on there because they feel they should, rather than because they want/need to. Mind you, it is one public step towards domination over boxing and also towards some sort of recognition / credibility amongst even more previous doubters. The more stations they are on, the less likely they are to be the target of loons who might try and get the sport banned, for example.

    Interesting article about Zelg. I didnt understand a word of it obviously but I’ll take your word for it on the meaning 🙂 I’m sure he will be in one of the big 3 at some point this year though.

  3. Dedwyre says:

    That one quote in the boxing article made me mad. So boxing has a storied history and the UFC supposedly doesn’t. What a horrible argument. Since when is HBO the “stuff that’s been around a long time” channel? They have a lot of original shows, they’re not a rerun or soap opera network.

    And it will draw ratings, which is the name of the game in TV world.

    The “naked boxing” comment was odd, too, considering that HBO certainly isn’t above putting things like that on.

  4. Luxury Liner says:

    Does ANYONE have a link to the full article in the WSJ?? For those of you who don’t know, Dr. Verghese is a pretty high profile guy in the medical world. He is a great author, and was on the front lines of treating HIV/AIDS patients in the 80s/early 90s. I would really like to know what the rest of the article says because Dr. Verghese is a friend of mine, and he is a very open minded individual who would no doubt listen to an unbiased opinion about MMA.

  5. Zeppelin says:

    The Akiyama/Sakuraba article with the Youtube link is interesting. You can clearly hear Sakuraba yelling at the ref that Akiyama is slippery and greased down more than a few times. The ref continued to act like he didn’t hear him and finally you hear Sakuraba tell him that he is a huge moron, all while Akiyama is raining down the blows.

    My first reaction when seeing another video of Sakuraba lose was that he just doesn’t know when to quit and is just pulling a Ken Shamrock. After seeing this new video with the audio of him protesting made me think twice and its simply not a case where he’s an over the hump fighter too proud to give it up.

  6. monkeymatt says:

    Totally agree with Zeppelin.

    Saku never complained about much at all in his career, so I give him the benefit of the doubt here.

    Apparently the ref’s blog has about 50,000 comments from angry fans.

  7. Mr. Roadblock says:

    Great article by Thomas Hauser. If you haven’t read his book “The Black Lights” I highly reccommend it. Awesome read for any fight fan.

  8. Will says:

    What’s so funny about the HBO article is to realize just how much boxing relies on stars to get ratings. That should tell them the sport is in big trouble. There is no longer interest in watching boxing, only specific boxers. MMA is in a position right now where people want to see the sport first and stars of the sport second. You will never hear about an undercard matchup in boxing stealing the show. In MMA it happens frequently. When I think back on the last shockwave card, I’ll think about Kawajiri-Melendez or Barnett-Nogueira before I think about Hunt-Fedor.

  9. Jordan Breen says:

    “You will never hear about an undercard matchup in boxing stealing the show.”

    Not really true. Tomasz Adamek and Paul Briggs have done it against each other twice, for instance.

    Where boxing is moreso based around single fights and not so much the idea of a card as a whole, even when there is a card with several top notch fights, boxing enthusiasts tend not to think of a fight as an “undercard fight” so much as just a fight. A lot of people may remember Fight X as an outstanding fight, but not even remember what card it was on.

  10. DarthMolen says:

    Whether Dr. Verghese is an open-minded individual or not, comparing anything to a mass murderer’s execution just kills the deal for me.

    I didn’t mind the quote from HBO. Although I don’t agree with it, at least he didn’t compare us to a mass murderer. It was a cogent argument and you gotta respect that.

  11. GassedOut says:

    I’m curious to see what if anything the HBO deal means for the UFNs on Spike TV.

    Comparing anything to a gruesome execution is a bit over the top, I agree, open-minded or not.

  12. Zeppelin says:

    Seth Abraham is an idiot. He basically states that HBO would sully itself with something as cheap and dirty as MMA since it has no history like boxing that it tied to Joe Louis, Sugar Ray Robinson, etc. How does he think boxing got that “storied history”?! What, does he actually think boxing was considered a legitimate sport that garnered widespread public positive opinion when they first started shows? Boxing sprung from bare knuckle fighting which has more in common with MMA than modern boxing.

    What Seth fails to see with his myopic mole eyes is that MMA is in the process RIGHT NOW of creating that “storied history” that will have legends on the par with Joe Louis, Sugar Ray Robinson, Mike Tyson, etc. People will look back on this decade as the beginning and Seth as being among the dinosaurs that couldn’t predict a trend even if it was handed to them on a silver platter.

  13. Body_Shots says:

    I don’t know why Sievert thinks PRIDE’s re-signing of Fedor will effect Mirko’s decision 2-3 years from now. It didn’t have much to do with Cro Cop’s decision 1 or 2 months ago, atleast that’s my impression from his post UFC signing comments. If Mirko “badly wanted another crack at” Emelianenko he would of stayed in PRIDE for less money. Cro Cop has moved on, it’s really in PRIDE/UFC’s court to make this rematch happen down the line.

  14. Psygone says:

    The Thomas Hauser article is excellent. He turned a trite and over used subject into an interesting and informative read.

  15. Mike says:

    Will: I respectfully disagree on “stars vs. sport.” Maybe the hardcore fan is into the sport, but more people tune in to watch Tito Ortiz than anyone else, and he’s hardly the best fighter out there. Star power is what put UFC over the top in 2006.

    Body_Shots: I thought the exact same thing when I read Sievert. He comes to some weird conclusions that don’t seem too well thought out. Look at how much MMA has changed in the past two years, how do we even know what the sport will look like two years from now, never mind whether Mirko goes back to Pride.

  16. jalapeño says:

    I’m getting dead links on the latest radio show. Anyone else?

  17. The MMA Critic says:

    I’m getting a dead link as well. It isn’t loading through iTunes, and when I tried to download the file, it didn’t have anything in it.

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