« Inside the UFC | Home | Saturday media splash »
Friday fight notes
By Zach Arnold | January 12, 2007
Let me know if the RSS feeds are working or if you are having problems with them working for you.
- Sherdog: Nobuyuki Sakakibara says that Vince McMahon is his hero (and also spins fighter defections as a positive for PRIDE)
- Long Beach Press-Telegram: PRIDE is proud to announce big fight (Sakakibara claims that American MMA fans are smarter and more enthusiastic than Japanese fans)
- Fox Sports: Top 10 MMA pound-for-pound fighters
- Yahoo Sports: Why NASCAR & MMA are popular in America, while soccer isn’t
- Canadian Press (via CBC Sports): MMA Hall of Famer Randy Couture to return to the ring
- Ivan Trembow: The story of 2006 – UFC vs. boxing vs. WWE
- UFC Mania: Randy Couture has made a living out of proving people wrong (I miss Tom’s articles on Fight Opinion)
- Sports Navigator (Japanese): Mitsuhiro Ishida vacates the Shooto Welterweight title (he’s vacating because he got KO’d by Gomi on 12/31 and cannot fight 60 days after a KO, therefore he won’t be able to fight on Shooto’s 2/17 Yokohama Pacifico event)
- Gryphon: The end of Japan’s largest gossip bulletin board system, 2chan? (background information here)
- Finance: Station Casinos Expands Red Rock Casino, Resort and Spa (doubling its room capacity)
- UFC Junkie: Luke Cummo vs. Josh Haynes booked to fight each other
Now, onto some interesting notes from ProFightStore.com:
http://www.vecernji-list.hr/newsroom/sports/more/715360/index.do
Mirko:
“In my first fight in the UFC I want to be on the level I was when I captured the Pride GP belt.”
“I am not preparing anything special for my first opponent, just my standard repertoire.”
Zelg Galesic is training with Mirko, here are his comments:
“The thing I like about Mirko is his great timing. That’s why he is able to deliever that fantastic kick. I belive that Mirko will soon win another belt and open the eyes of Croatian audience that there other attractive fight organizations besides PRIDE. Mirko will attract a few more fans/viewers while fighting for the UFC.”
Mirko’s manager Zvonimir Lucic and sparring partner Igor Pokrajac also think that Mirko will donimate in UFC, but, they say, he needs to adjust his game to Octagon.
Article also says that on Jan 16th from Russia comes a new sparring partner and that he is “very big and very strong.”
Topics: All Topics, Japan, Media, MMA, PRIDE, UFC, Zach Arnold | 33 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
LoL, Zach you should be part of the national inquierer, you spin negative pride speculation like crazy and even make misleading quotes, pride is on its last legs, yes I know your celebrating, but sakakikabara said vince is my hero as a BUSINESS MAN, if you were one of the richest men in the u.s. I think you would say the same thing. He also didnt spin it as a positive for pride but said anything an owner would say about fighters defecting that they want to test themselves elsewhere, what do you expect him to say? DO you think dana would ever say well we just cant pay the fighters, when/if vera leaves you think dana’s gonna say we lost vera cause we wouldnt pay him enough, give me a break, dont be so biased and blind, which I know your not, so why make such stupid headlines?
Rss feeds are working in my Google Reader…
“Sakakibara claims that American MMA fans are smarter and more enthusiastic than Japanese fans.”
I’m pretty sure that comment is about the fans that attended the last PRIDE show in Vegas, and he’s correct because those were very hardcore fans.
RSS feed is working for me.
As has altready been touched upon, those quotes about fighters leaving are no different than what we’d hear from Dana White or any other high profile MMA-company. Saying anything else on a freaking press conference in a new market would be beyond stupid.
I don’t see how people can take anything that Sakakibara says seriously. I remember a while ago someone in here said that if Sakakibara said that Fedor vs CroCop was happening on Mars, people would be debating the effect of the gravity and space suits on the performance of the fighters. Dodgers stadium? Please.
“I remember a while ago someone in here said that if Sakakibara said that Fedor vs CroCop was happening on Mars, people would be debating the effect of the gravity and space suits on the performance of the fighters.”
Right over here.
Also, lawlz at Shooto promoters making Hiroyuki Abe fight Lion Takeshi. When does Lion start fighting real fighters? He DOES have to defend his title this year. I can’t imagine him fighting anything more challenging than a rubber match with Carvalho.
“As has altready been touched upon, those quotes about fighters leaving are no different than what we’d hear from Dana White or any other high profile MMA-company. Saying anything else on a freaking press conference in a new market would be beyond stupid.”
But its the EVIL Sakakibara and PRIDE…so Zach would be remissed to not jump on this opportunity to FLAME the org. Don’t act like you expected something else!!!
From the Sherdog interview re: Mirko:
So much can be said about this statement. 🙂
Since when can the UFC pay more than PRIDE. I thought it was always the other way with PRIDE having the deep pockets.
Zach: What was he supposed to say?
“Hi American website, yes we lost a fighter who had just beaten everyone in our company and was our MVP of the year. We are in such financial distress that we can not compete with the UFC, so they signed him away from us, and our roster will continue to get hit as we lose more of our best fighters. BUT ANYWAY, HERE WE ARE AND WE ARE HERE TO STAY IN AMERICA, YEAH!”
Sheesh, you follow the business close enough to where you should be able to see that his statements in America are exactly what he should say in America, and how and why those statements made in America are different from how he portrays things in interviews in Japan. It’s hardly rocket science, and again, this is how the business works. As for McMahon, at least he just idolizes his business sense and admits it rather than trying to BE him and distance himself from WWE at the same time…
Sakakibara has said many a strange thing over the years, but I am genuinely impressed with how he has handled the US expansion so far, both in arrangements and public image.
http://wec.tv/fighters.html
Scroll down to see the updated WEC card for Jan 20th. John Alessio has been added to their roster; fights Gassaway.
Art of War news:
http://artofwarlive.com/events.html
– Full card for first event. Awful looking stuff. And can someone figure out if the promotion is named Art of War, GUFC or IFA? :S
http://artofwarlive.com/schedule.html
– Interesting. Not all TX.
That AOW shit is hilarious. Pedro Rizzo, former UFC champ? Alex Andrade is a “UFC light heavyweight title contender”, when he fought there once years ago and got DQ’d? Yuki Inoue is a “Japanese prodigy”, despite the fact all he can do is wrestle and can’t figure out how to win two rounds of a fight? And who is this 50-0 Russian Rickson? I watch more ghetto ass European MMA than anyone, and I don’t even think I’ve heard of the guy.
Rss feed working fine in Firefox w/Sage.
I’ve read Gryphon’s article. I didn’t realize that 4chan was THAT simular to 2chan with the racial stuff and errr “dirty” stuff. But I’m having a hard time trying to understand the article in a way. Is he saying 2chan is in trouble with the police and courts in Japan?
How can no one have not heard of some guy that’s 50-0?
I’m suddenly reminded of Rocky IV.
Art of War is like a flashback to the UFC in 1994.
So, why hasn’t Mezger booked Thomas Ramirez? I can only assume he’s added to his muscular record since his mishap against Frye.
Who wants to take bets on Art of War being toast by July?
Anyone else notice on the UFC page they took down the advertisement of Marquardt/Lister and put up Hermes/Fisher instead? I wonder whats up with that? DO they know somethimg we dont?
Pizza Chef,
2Chan is in no trouble at all. It’s the OWNER of 2Chan that is in trouble.
2Chan is a free-for-all, where people can anything they want anonymously, without regard to truth. The owner has been sued for libel many, many times but he refuses to even show up for court, much less *pay* any of the judgements against him. He has moved his assets overseas, so he has nothing else except the popular 2Chan domain name and that is what this particular creditor has asked the court to seize. Seizing the 2Chan domain name doesn’t necessarilly mean that it will stop operating but I doubt the new “owner” would want the legal liability, and guaranteed lawsuits, that follow along with owning that particular website.
I didn’t think much of the Lister/Marquardt fight have the “May Not Be Broadcast”. I thought it was an error a few days ago. However, with the graphic change, it means it was intentional. Right now, only 3 fights are scheduled for TV. And Marquardt/Lister should be on the big show.
UNLESS….. The UFC doesn’t want to give Marquardt anymore exposure…. And they either plan to get rid of him (unlikely), or perhaps put him in the WEC.
It should be interesting to see how this pans out.
Yea I didnt think about puttingMarquardt down to WEC but that is an intresting thought… I wnder if thats going to be like a demotion OR maybe they want to give him free reign over the WEC middleweight division? BUT 3 fights for a UFN show? More and more Im thinkign Dana is getting stingy with the free shows.
“Anyone else notice on the UFC page they took down the advertisement of Marquardt/Lister and put up Hermes/Fisher instead? I wonder whats up with that? DO they know somethimg we dont?”
– I was asking this myself here a couple of days ago when Lister -Marquardt was rebranded to dark fight on UFC.com, but no one took it seriously. Yes, I had to bring this back up 😀 Anyway:
– One of them could be in doubt
– UFC might fear a boring fight
– UFC might want to have it on tape(it being likely to go 15) and only air it if they KNOW there’s time. The last FN was rushed because of four long fights, remember.
Another factor is that this was basically originally set to be a contender-fight, but with MacDonald vs. Franklin basically having taken over that spot, this fight now means less and doesn’t have to be on tv.
The Franklin/MacDonald fight is an interesting one. If MacDonald wins, I would say he is one of the next in line for a title shot. If Franklin wins, they probably still want to give him a title shot.
As mentioned above, maybe they will take the best prelim and put it on the show. That way, the show has a better chance of being exciting.
I’m not sure if Marquardt going to the WEC would be such a bad thing. I have been a big fan of his throughout his career (since 2000). And I think he is getting lost in the shuffle of the UFC. Going to the WEC would actually be better for his career.
It may not be the worst idea to run those three fights live, and leave Marquardt/Lister off.
First of all, Herring vs. O’Brien may degenerate into an inept sloppy wrestlefest and go to a lackluster JD. Secondly, Sean Salmon ain’t much, but he’s a very good wrestler, and while Evans positively blew Lambert’s brains out, there’s no telling what may set him off to revert into just positional wrestling. So that’s another decision they’re looking at.
Given Marquardt’s laissez faire approach to generating offense in an MMA fight as well as his solid ground skills, as well as Lister’s lack of a discernable stand up arsenal, this could be an ugly 15 minute affair also.
Having three live fights, plus Marquardt/Lister off air, could allow them to slip Marquardt/Lister into the broadcast edited, i.e. without intros, without waiting for a judges decision, and things of that nature. Could save them some valuable time in the telecast, while still getting the fight in there.
Is this actually Zuffa’s plan? Who fucking knows. But that fight has potential to get real ugly, so having some way to plan around it would be a good idea.
I meant to say above that if Franklin wins, they probably want to have him fight at least one more time before getting a title shot.
Sorry for another post, but I just read that the Gracie Fighting Championships event is being rescheduled. Another UFC competitor not being able to handle the tough MMA market.
Yikes, GFC postponed seven days out? That’s not good at all. Was actually looking forward to that one. WEC isn’t on TV either, so from being packed a few weeks ago, next weekend now has zero televised MMA, although WEC are running and IFL have a taping. Grrrrrr.
Argh as well, I was looking forward to the GFC as it was a stacked card! Oh well, Im just praying that UFC doesnt do the stupid thing and try to cram 2+ hrs worth of fuckin commercials and promos EVEN with the ability to tape delay and edit the show. Ugh I sometimes loath the free shows.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB116822054840969789.html?mod=opinion_main_commentaries
Adress for WSJ article (FULL).