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Monday media highlights

By Zach Arnold | January 29, 2007

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By Zach Arnold

A new poll has been placed on the right side of the page. Should produce some interesting results.

I wanted to take some time and point out a link to the Tomer Chen articles archive, which I strongly encourage you to check out if you have not read all of Tomer’s past articles on the site. He really is a fabulous writer and it’s a shame that a major media outlet hasn’t hired him, yet. I hear from people inside the fight industry who read Tomer’s work and are big supporters of his articles. You should do the same.

Onto today’s headlines.

Results from our site’s last poll question:

Whose career suffered the most damage on the UFN 8 show?

  1. Heath Herring – 78%
  2. Dean Lister – 13%
  3. Chris Price – 6%
  4. Spencer Fisher – 3%

Here are today’s headlines.

  1. Canadian Press (via Metronews Toronto): Travis Lutter gets his UFC moment in the spotlight Saturday against Anderson Silva
  2. UFC Mania: UFC pursues European fighters
  3. The Fightworks Podcast: Transcript of Cesar Gracie interview
  4. The Fight Network: Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira booked for PRIDE’s 2/24 Las Vegas event
  5. Gracie Mag: PRIDE President Nobuyuki Sakakibara to show up at UFC 67
  6. The Honolulu Advertiser: Robbie Lawler returns to take on Trevor Garrett in ‘All In’ main event of ICON’s 2/9 Blaisdell Center Arena show
  7. The Asbury Park Press: Monday’s letters to the Press (Nick Lembo sets the record straight)
  8. MMA Insider: Baltimore Sun newspaper establishes full-fledged MMA section (e-mail me if you need a list of writers who I think you should recruit for it)
  9. MMA California: 2007 California Pankration Championships
  10. The Houston Chronicle: IFL ticket sales for 2/2 Houston event are bad
  11. UFC Mania: Locations to watch the UFC 67 PPV at
  12. UFC HP: Mirko Cro Cop – Here comes the hammer
  13. KTIV (Iowa): Ultimate fighting comes to Sioux City
  14. Canadian Press (via CBC Sports): Georges St. Pierre signs six-fight deal with UFC
  15. The Southeast Missourian: Saturday night’s all right for fighting
  16. Yahoo! Entertainment: Mike Tyson busted after escape from rehab
  17. The Post Chronicle: Mike Tyson’s daughter challenges mom on TV
  18. The Houston Chronicle: Ft. Worth native Travis Lutter facing Anderson Silva for middleweight title

Topics: All Topics, IFL, Media, MMA, PRIDE, Zach Arnold | 18 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

18 Responses to “Monday media highlights”

  1. CapnHulk says:

    I live in Houston, and I’ve seen the IFL commercial maybe 3 times in total. The commercial isn’t exactly compelling either and the casual fan most likely has no idea who Matt Lindland, Carlos Newton or Bas Rutten is. I wish they did, but they don’t. That isn’t to say that Houston isn’t an MMA town, quite the contrary. Saul Soliz’s RENEGADES Extreme Fighting has had 5 or 6 shows at some pretty big venues and they’ve sold out every time.

    I don’t know how the IFL can fix this.

  2. The MMA Critic says:

    I randomly checked ticketmaster a few days ago and noticed how many tickets were left for the event. This is the second event in a row that has sold poorly for the IFL. From most rumors, the Oakland show was heavily papered. While the IFL has big dreams for the middle of 2007, this is lost revenues big time. And Houston is a gigantic market with tons of people. Not a good sign. I haven’t exactly been Mr. Positive about the IFL, but it isn’t nice to see them falling flat on their faces at this point in the company’s history.

    So far, everything has shown us that only the UFC has really gotten big in the US. MMA really hasn’t blown up too much. And ticket sales for Showtime MMA haven’t been good either.

  3. Mr. Roadblock says:

    IFl isn’t on TV yet. Wait until they debut on Network TV to see if they can draw an audience. It’s still just hardcore fans that know about them. From what Capn Hulk says it doesn’t sound like their marketing campaign is effective right now. All it takes to change that is money.

  4. Luxury Liner says:

    Simply put, the IFL needs stars. It doesn’t help that their coaches are more well known than their fighters. In order to create stars, the IFL must do what the UFC did with TUF, providing their TV deal is a success. The IFL can either a) wait years to build up marquee fighters and (try) to educate the casual masses that they are a separate entity from the UFC in the sport of MMA (not “ultimate fighting”) b) fork over serious cash to sign big names and throw out the dice (similar to the WFA), or c) realized they are resigned to a role similar to KOTC, focusing on $$ at the gate and DVD sales to support a company that is a farm to the UFC and Pride.

    I think they are doing great things, and have a good vision for what MMA should be, but without big name attractions they will fail unfortunately.

  5. I’m just surprised that so many promotions overestimate the number of people they’re going to get. Trying to sell more than 5000 seats in a market you haven’t worked before is just foolish for any promotion other than the UFC.

  6. Zack says:

    You think 5000 is crazy…I can’t believe they’re going to try to run the Forum in LA. The WFA show had a packed lineup and only sold a few thousand tickets. I bought cheap seats and moved down to the 8th row. I had a great time…more fun than Ive had at a UFC since UFC 51 (when Evan Tanner & Pete Sells victories paid for my trip), but there wasn’t much crowd there, and the promotion went under. I’m not even considering making the trek out for the IFL show.

    Maybe once they finally start getting some live specials going, they’ll fork out for some real superfights, but for now I’m just happy watching it on TV. I enjoy the product but its not worth plunking down money for tickets, gas, parking, food, beer, etc….yet.

  7. JOSH says:

    I think they will do well in the LA market (even if they do have to paper). I know people talk positive about Florida and Tx but hionestly I dont see them as MAJOR MMA markets (except for the UFC). Up and coming MMA feds should really stick to markets like LA and Vegas who in my opinion dont need much advertising to see a MMA fight (we are so fad consicous we will jump on anything popular even Bingo). Im gojgnto be at the Forum show and Im hoping for a good time.

  8. JThue says:

    Yikes, so no Lawler vs. Pamplona in IFL on 2/23 then? What happened?!?

  9. Zack says:

    LA is a terrible market to run…especially in Inglewood at the Forum. That’s a part of town where most people who have the income to spend on multiple sporting events a year don’t go. OC would’ve been a better market to run, or possibly even San Diego, which has had some success with the Total Combat events. However, even San Diego tanked when Icon tried to run that Lindland vs Van Arsedale card down here with ambitious ticket prices.

  10. The MMA Critic says:

    The struggles of the IFL really showcase how hard it is to break into the sport of MMA. I sure as heck wouldn’t want to do it.

    If you don’t have enough stars, you can keep the payroll down. However, it will be more difficult to get fans to the events. If you have enough stars, the payroll will be significantly up. However, you run the risk of still having small crowds, or taking a huge loss trying to build up your company. This is why the UFC lost $40 Million before they started to turn things around. And all of it was attributed to the success of a realty show.

    The current MMA boom reminds me of a niche version of the Tech Stock Bubble forming in the late 1990’s. In MMA, you have all of these companies going for the big pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. They are losing millions doing so, and the hardcore fans are “buying into” the concepts. With the exception of Zuffa, nobody is doing anything at all that would get the attention of the casual fan on a regular basis.

  11. JOSH says:

    Oh I would sooo beg to differ on that. The forum isnt in that terrible of a neighborhood, the only thing I can see overshadowing the Forum is just the beauty of the Staples Center (IMo its the same thing that pretty much killed the Sports Arena). BUT believe me u can run literally ANYTHING fromLA (hell even the arena football team does well at Staples center). I would agree that SD is probably just as profitable an area (if not more so) but I dont think OC would have been very good.

  12. AJAX says:

    I’m a fan of Pride because of the ring and the rules, but after reading the CroCop article above, I can’t wait for the U.S. public to see this guy. I think Herrings game suffered a bit because of the “no knees” rule, but Mirko’s won’t. It’s going to be explosive!

  13. The MMA Critic says:

    The knees have to come back. I could live without the stomps to the head. In a perfect world, we would have that too, but it isn’t a must have. The knees change the fight completely. The only thing they need to watch out for is when a fighter is on the ground and his head is up against the cage. That might be the one time when knees on the ground is a bad idea. Of course, the more rules the worse, but I could see a definite reason for having that specific rule implemented. It would still allow for knees to be back, but not get fighters a no way out against the cage.

  14. Zack says:

    What’s MMA’s track record in running Los Angeles? UFC 60? UFC didn’t come close to selling it out. WFA? The show tanked so hard the company went under. Trust me, I was at both of them. IFL and their barely lukewarm product will tank. The Forum is a huge arena…if they’re hellbent on running LA, they should consider the Olympic Auditorium. It’s smaller and only a few blocks from Staples. I went there to see the only West Coast ECW show years ago.

  15. JOSH says:

    Do u know how much the Olympic Aud is to run? Belive me its expensive (had friends in XPW and it made them bankrupt running from there). Also I was at the ECW show too..ah the memoreies. Both UFC shows, though didnt sell out, did extrememly well. As for the LA shows not doing well lets look at the gates released by UFC

    UFC 57- Liddell/Couture III: 3.3 million
    UFC 58- Louisea Vs Franklin 1.7 million
    UFC 59- Tito/ Forrest (in Anaheim) 2.1 million
    UFC 60- Hughes/ Gracie (Staples) 2.9 million
    UFC 61- Tito/Shamrock 3.3 million
    UFC 62- Liddell/ babalu 3 million
    UFC 63- Hughes/ Penn (Anaheim) 1.5 million
    UFC 64- Silva Vs Franklin 1.7 million
    UFC 65- Hughes Vs GSP 2.1 million
    UFC 66- Liddell/ Tito II 5.3 million (biggest gate in UFC history)

    So in actuality the Staples show was pretty damn succesfull coming behind some of the biggest cards in UFC history. And the first Anaheim show did pretty well (second not so much). So IMO the LA market is still pretty primed for MMA. Its up to the IFL to start advertising mucho mucho advertising for the show.

  16. Zack says:

    Are you really going to compare UFC 60 to the IFL though? My only point was that even the white hot UFC had to paper 1/3 of Staples, which holds a similar capacity to the Forum, and is more desirable to go to. The IFL will have to paper 90% of the crowd and there will still be less than 4000 people in an arena that holds 18,000.

  17. JOSH says:

    Im just saying that the LA area is good for MMA. I do belivee the IFL will paper but to what extent I doubt it will bethat extreme.

  18. […] Baltimore Sun Launches Dedicated MMA Section Posted by ufcjunkie on January 29, 2007 at 8:56 am ET I heard about this bit of news from Zach at FightOpinion.com and felt it was worth mentioning here: the Baltimore Sun has launched a full-fledged MMA section at baltimoresun.com. […]

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