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Thursday media highlights
By Zach Arnold | January 11, 2007
- Jordan Breen: Sakuraba vs. Akiyama from the 12/31 Osaka Dome show ruled a no-contest (Burning Spirit has more details in Japanese, which leaves an unfortunate impression that Akiyama is going to get roasted by the Japanese fans for using skin cream and another excuse to make racist remarks about him being part Korean. This scandal will never die in 2007.)
- The Calgary Sun: APEX calls off MMA show
- MMA California: Frank Shamrock’s team tryouts
- UFC Junkie: An interview with Sean Salmon
- Radio: The latest Komikazee show (with more Ben Rothwell interview clips)
- Pictures: Tommy Lee & Nobuyuki Sakakibara PRIDE press conference pictures
Topics: All Topics, Japan, K-1, Media, MMA, PRIDE, Zach Arnold | 34 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
So the big question is did FEG cave to all the pressure or did they do what they believed to be the right thing or the third option – an business decision, a rematch would be a huge thing with lots of interest now.
Just goes to show that the Japanese as a mono-racial country are profoundly racist when something like this happens. News sources all over the world have repeatedly reported on the prejudice that Koreans and other ethnic groups have to deal with on a daily basis. Very very sad that this is so blown out of proportion. Sakuraba lost, can they get over it and just look forward to a rematch instead of the racist b*tching that is going on?
don’t be so overdramatic. OH THE POOR KOREANS. it’s not like they’re treated like blacks were in America in the 1960s. if we listen to you, you’d have us thinking Riki Choshu is hanging from a tree somewhere right now.
how can you convenietly seem to forget some of the great Japanese heroes are Korean? ever hear of Rikidozan?
that comment was directed at Zeppelin, btw.
Stu – it wouldn’t shock me in the least if Tanigawa thinks that Sakuraba vs. Akiyama would make a lot of money in the re-match.
Of course, what K-1 isn’t bothering to care about is that Akiyama had the potential to be an enormous babyface draw for them and instead this whole story will do nothing but make him the classic pro-wrestling chickens*** heel (something that seems evident that Akiyama doesn’t want to do at all). So this is clearly not a case of K-1 protecting Akiyama at all, and if anything Akiyama’s management team has to be furious at K-1 now.
Don’t play the Oppression Olympics, sprewell. Just because one people suffered doesn’t mean noone else did.
If you want some background on the issue, I suggest looking at Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_issues_in_Japan) or this news article from the BBC, “Japan racism ‘deep and profound'”: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4671687.stm
yeah but you clowns are acting like every Korean walking down the street has rocks thrown at them and called horrible names when there’s plenty of Koreans who are actually quite popular (Riki Choshu is one of the biggest faces of puroresu, Rikidozan is a legendary hero). it’s not that serious. there’s massive racism in every country; it’s a part of life. people have to deal with it.
Sprewell, you’re a riot. You think I’m being overdramatic for citing what many news sources worldwide have confirmed and reported on? Its not like I wrote those articles, and I’m certainly not in the group of people making racist remarks about Koreans just because their favorite fighter lost. So who is being dramatic here?
The issue of race (in relation to Korean heritage) is a hot-button issue now in Japan because of North Korea (and the yakuza). That’s why the issue of race is rearing it’s ugly head here, and the unfortunate picture here is that the Japanese fight business had a chance to make a brand new legitimate star in Yoshihiro Akiyama. Instead, he’s now permanently tarnished and accused of using skin cream (or an oil-based substance) to cheat in a fight against a beloved Japanese hero. Race is and always will be a major factor in doing business in Japan, for better or for worse. Akiyama’s push getting derailed is the depressing story.
Sprewell, no one is acting like anything. I merely said its a sad thing that something so trivial is being blown out of proportion and cited sources that confirm the anti-Korean sentiment that was present prior to the Akiyama/Saku incident. No one said Koreans are hanging from trees nor being lynched, so stop putting words in our mouths.
As for you refuting the seriousness of racism by saying hey, there are ethnic celebs that enjoy popularity. Are you that naive to think that just because there are many black Hollywood movie stars and that Jordan is a household name, that racism in the US is NOT still prevalent and NOT a big deal? I hope you are not that naive, seriously. Just because racism is everywhere doesn’t mean that it is any less wrong, bud.
Anyways, I’m done on the whole racism thing. Let’s get back to MMA talk.
Zach, I don’t see why you see this as some form of disrespect or wrong-doing by K-1. They clearly made Akiyama their poster boy and supported him as a main eventer. This is life. Sh*t happens and you roll with it. Like when Couture beat Liddell for the interim title, UFC was shocked, but they went with it and Couture became the stuff of legend and MMA’s greatest ambassador. You take lemons and you make lemonade. From what I see, K-1 seems to be trying to “do-the-right-thing” and Akiyama is right there with them.
They had a chance to resolve this matter quickly. They didn’t. It has dragged on. And the longer it has dragged on, the more negative impact it has created for Akiyama. It’s given his critics more fuel to add to the growing PR fire.
It was to K-1’s benefit to get this matter resolved quickly and to make sure that the fans could trust that they were booking fights without guys who cheat. This hurts their image, too, because if Akiyama (their top #1 prospect) is looked at a cheater, what about their other top stars?
Just a mess.
I don’t blame the guy for using skin cream, with how often he tans he’d look like Ashy Larry if he wasn’t using it daily. All this is doing is hurting the rep of a potential big star, and setting us all up to watch Sakuraba (who I love) get his head pounded in again.
At least he didn’t use astro-glide.
Maybe I’ve been a pro-wrestling fan for too many years, but I see these developments as FEG’s intepretation of the Ken Shamrock – Tito Ortiz feud, hoping Akiyama and Sakuraba II will elevate K-1 much like Shamrock – Ortiz III did to the UFC, and after a decisive Akiyama victory, Sakuraba will bow out and finally pass the torch. The only snag is, I can’t see Sakuraba bowing out.
Rumor going around that Zuffa has purchased Pride.
IFL news:
http://ifl.tv/News.aspx?i=234
– Full rosters for Houston event on Feb 2nd. Silverbacks’ golden lineup untouched. Horodecki vs. Palaszewski. John Marsh and Vladimir Matyushenko among the Sabres newcomers.
http://ifl.tv/News.aspx?i=233
– Robbie Lawler vs. Eduardo Pamplona superfight confirmed for Feb. 23rd event in Atlanta.
Isn’t Robbie Lawler scheduled for the Icon show on 2/9 in Hawaii? Talk about cutting it close…
UFC bought Pride….
I reported this on 1/4/07 on sherdog under zulu screen name and within 10 minutes, the moderator banned me and today, it is coming out in the forums.
Well, time will tell if this is true. If it is, then this is very much like the WWE buying up all the competition in the mid-90’s. Turning Pro Wrestling from a regional entity to a national/worldwide one.
If this is true, then we will really have one true world champion in MMA. Perhaps unified rules, and unified weight classes. I actually see a lot of positive things coming out of that.
Once again, we will have to wait and see if it is true.
I will also say…. If this ends up not being true, then this is proof of how horribly a bad rumor can spread on the internet with a few trolls and the will of people wanting to believe it to be true.
What’s your basis zulu?
It’s so stupid to bring race into it.
Akiyama has lost face big time on this. His number one celebrity supporter, Mino Monta (TV legend in Japan) gave him a serious dressing down on his show this morning, mumbling very fast, shaking his head, and generally saying bad things. He said it’s fair if they fight again and Sakuraba knocks him out. Ha.
All I will say about racism is, to call a country or a nation “racist”, is a racist remark. Lumping everyone in together.
We are all individuals!
(Except North Koreans. Crazy bastards.)
i don’t know what you mean “what’s your basis zulu?” I have never posted anything in any forums before and I got no angle to gain except the great news I got on 1/4 from such a reliable source (that I don’t want to get into) that they bought Pride. I was shocked to hear that too myself. For the amount of money that Zuffa bought Pride at is so cheap in comparing with the market cap of ifl, that was my first thought. All I can say is that we do business with UFC and they will not joke about this kind of news. Just be patient and the truth will be out sooner than you can imagine.
Here is another note to think about.
If you go to http://67.ufc.com/, in the trailer, you see footage of Crocop’s Pride fight. Why would they show it and not getting sued by Pride? Think about it. You think Pride will give the videos to UFC?
I have been seeing a lot of talk about Pride being bought as well, and not from trolls etc. Not enough for me to say yeah on it, but at this point I’m willing to beleive it could be happening. It makes sense on a lot of levels.
The Pride clips on the UFC website does bring up a legit argument. The UFC does not have access to those video clips unless Pride gave them permission. The only clips they had of Rampage for a while was from his WFA fight, which they purchased the video rights to.
The plot thickens.
K-1 & Pride are or at least were bigger rivals than Pride & the UFC and they would exchange footage. It’s not a stretch that there was some agreement for footage usage.
I finally found my original post in sherdog.
http://www.sherdog.net/forums/showthread.php?t=489042
And here is the last reply on this post by mose:
Wow, this might have to be revisited, and some people may owe Zulu an apology(although, very understandable to highly doubt a non-sourced post by a whitey)….
If the UFC gave PRIDE $50 million USD, I will laugh hard. So would the Japanese. PRIDE, at this point, has a small market value. And it’s diminishing every single day.
If you’re in UFC’s shoes, why would you bother buying PRIDE? There are no assets other than a video tape collection, which so far has proven to be rather limited in value based on the ratings of the Fox Sports Net shows. So why bother?
If UFC did buy out PRIDE, it would make zero business sense and reveal an unfortunate side to UFC management. My gut feeling is that they are not stupid to do this.
And my gut feeling is validated by this laughable interview with Nobuyuki Sakakibara, who talks exactly like a Japanese pro-wrestling promoter. One minute he’s saying Vince McMahon is his hero, the next minute he’s trying to spin fighter defections from PRIDE as a positive.
Yeah, it was pretty funny how Sakakibara twice stated that fighters leave Pride only because they have the world’s toughest fighters. You gotta love it when company execs sound more like automated robots than rational beings.
Would Zuffa/UFC not be interested in an easier way into the Asian market that would most definately come along with a purchase of PRIDE? Would new, stable ownership not make PRIDE’s way back to JP TV easier? Would purchasing PRIDE not give Zuffa a perfect opportunity to put pressure on K-1’s MMA ventures? Would purchasing PRIDE not open up more roads for Zuffa into mainland Europe?
I’m not believing anything here, just speculating about potential motives for why Zuffa could indeed look at PRIDE as very valuable.
Re: Cro Cop Pride footage used @ 67.ufc.com
Since the footage seems to be his fisrt fight against Wanderlei at K1 vs Pride, isn’t it entirely possible that they got permission from K1 to use video rather than Pride?
zach, what do you think is PRIDE worth if it is not worth 50 million dollar? i am sure you are much more educated both academic and business way, so how would you value this promotion?
even if public financial statement (of course there are none), it is difficult to value this kind of the company. cannot do multiple comparison because not enough competitors in the exchange. discounted cash flow would not work for all kind of the obvious reasons, no place to start for assumptions. etc. must be only balance sheet study, but do you think this kind of the company has any debt? even if the debt is exist then somebody can argue the net should be part of the enterprise value, right?
asset at least value of outstanding contracts if novation or the cost to replacement if breach, how much do you figure?
the first Cro Cop/Silva fight took place on a PRIDE card.