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Monday news highlights
By Zach Arnold | March 5, 2007
Well, the Fight Opinion Weekly article I wrote late Sunday night seems to be garnering some discussion. Although I don’t think arguing about the article’s truthfulness is necessarily the right avenue for criticism…
One person who does apparently deserve criticism is Nick Diaz for reportedly failing a drug test after fighting on the PRIDE 33 card. The interesting twist on this story is that if Diaz had been caught with marijuana in Japan, the police would have tried to put him in jail for several years (since pot is a big no-no there).
A new poll on the right side of the page.
Results from our last poll question: Which fighter suffered the most career-damaging loss at PRIDE 33?
- Wanderlei Silva – 51%
- Takanori Gomi – 19%
- Antonio Rogerio Nogueira – 18%
- Travis Wiuff – 7%
- Kazuo Misaki – 5%
Usually after the big MMA events, I check Technorati to see what the casual online MMA fan is (through blogs, MySpace accounts, etc.) The PRIDE 33 reaction was sparse, but very enthusiastic. The reaction to Randy Couture and UFC 68 was off the charts, however. A ton of entries about Couture’s win, in particular. The word ‘hero’ is being most commonly used. Here is a very interesting response on a MySpace blog about UFC.
Now I’m very intrigued to see what the PPV buyrate for this event is. Before the event, I would have predicted 500,000 based on the overall lack of hype by UFC. I’m still sticking with this prediction. However, I won’t be completely surprised if it draws 600,000. If it draws any more buys than that, then we’ll know that UFC cannot be stopped right now.
Onto today’s headlines.
- Gambling 911: Randy Couture victory another big win for Ultimate Fighting
- CBS Sportsline: Feel the love – UFC just added another huge fan
- The Depaulia: Interview with Chuck Liddell
- Seconds Out: Floyd Mayweather Jr. calls MMA a “street fight”
- The Korea Times: Choi Hong-Man loses to Mighty Mo at K-1 World GP
- NHB News (Japanese): K-1 3/4 Yokohama Arena show reportedly draws 13.8% rating on Fuji TV (and Yahoo Japan confirms it)
- MMA California: Looking for writers
- Mainichi Daily News: Musashi punched really, really hard
- The Houston Chronicle: Randy Couture’s big victory has him ready for more
- The Star Press (Muncie, Indiana): Jason Gilliam’s first UFC experience a sour one
- Business Wire (PR): IFL signs distribution deal with Alfred Haber Inc.
Topics: All Topics, IFL, Media, MMA, PRIDE, UFC, Zach Arnold | 50 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
why do you write editorials and lock all comments? i cant even leave a comment on the editorial you posted earlier
I can’t monitor all the comments during the day, so I choose precaution over having out-of-control flame wars happening on the site. I do the best I can to allow as many comments (negative and positive) on the site, but I am not around the computer all the time to monitor what is said. So I err on the side of caution.
I know that but I mean why dont you enable comments when you are on? it seems like the big editorials always hav ecomments permanently disabled
Could a factor in disallowing comments be that Zach is tired of being criticized for his reporting on Pride? If so, I would still encourage him to leave comments on. The latest piece was very well written, and a perfectly timed re-cap on the whole story. It’s filled with facts (and links to some sources of said facts, too) and thus cannot really be accused of bias in the same way we’ve seen in the past. I think the intelligent, high-brow climate on this site would benefit from a totally open dialogue between the writers and us readers. I would never bother posting on Sherdog, but here it feels worthwhile, because I know that if I manage to say something intelligent, it will not be drowned in mindless nonsense, and if I ask a question, it will be met with thoughtful explanations and not with ridicule and bizarre opinions. But the intellectual debate here needs to be constantly nurtured, and depriving it of such excellent food like the Pride editorial is unfortunate.
I agree with you except intellectual debate is not alive, it does not eat. Pride editorials also do not eat. People eat, animals eat, I suppose plants eat when they’re not reproducing with themselves, but that’s it.
I agree to a point Ukiro. Intellectual debate is important… but 90% of the PRIDE fanatics that come to this site and comment don’t see it that way.
They attack without provocation and literally tear “Intellectual debate” limb for limb.
I see it kind of like “Soccer Thugs” that you see over in Europe. No matter how good the match is, ppl just come to fight.
That gets tiring after awhile especially when you are the proprietor of the site and the only one doing the monitoring. Your bandwidth get taken in babysitting rather than writing actual content.
I am sure that Zach is tired of the attacks and just doesn’t have the time to babysit appropriately.
Gryphon has an interesting Pride update today.
Zuffa would be better off just signing PRIDE’s fighters as their contracts expire. In a year, PRIDE will only be name. In acquiring all of DSE’s infrastructure, Zuffa would be buying a lot of red ink and as Zach mentioned, some skeletons. If Zuffa has any business sense, it’ll just let DSE collapse and sign their talent.
If the Fertittas and Dana want to run a business in Asia, they might as well just promote fight shows from Macao, either as the UFC or as a different promotion. K-1 has Japan covered.
Whatever Zach is doing, it’s working to keep this place as one of the only good discussion groups left.
I have one question Zach:
In your FOW you talk about how PRIDE should be grateful to Fishman for the success of the events and how they are in the top 10 all time gates…however for all I can remember, you’ve been nothing but critical about the turnouts and success of the US PPV’s. Change of heart?
Perhaps there is a reason why Zach encounters so much criticism. I’m sure that Zach’s biased perspective, exhibited in much of his reporting plays a huge role.
The Ed Fishman/Sherdog piece was the most ridiculous thing I have ever read. A person who joined the Sherdog message board four days ago and has a total of five posts, is probably not the “hardest of hardcore” PRIDE fan.
Ever think that users create new accounts when they want to talk about the yakuza murdering jews? I’ll agree i notice a bias in Zach’s reporting in that he isn’t impressed with how PRIDE has been handling business lately, but the truth is that he’s right. PRIDE’s actions over the past year hit near clownshoe proportions, and at this point the company is on the verge of collapse. Their last ace is their fighter contracts and the UFC will be snapping up every fighter they can get their hands on as these contracts expire.
Hi Zach, referencing the post above me, here’s Gryphon’s update today:
http://d.hatena.ne.jp/gryphonjapan/20070305
______________________________________________________
SAKAKIRBARA “PRIDE is my daughter,So i am looking for good her husband”
“KAMIPRO spring special”will be on sale soon………
in magazine announce,SAKAKIBARA inteview copy.
“SAKAKIRBARA “PRIDE is my daughter,So i am looking for good her husband””
SAKAIBARA said”PRIDE is my child” in USA press conference.
We thought It means he deny to sell PRIDE.
but this “child”means daughter,it is natural that Daughter become someone’s wife!! haha,SAKAKIBARA is clever
_____________________________________________________
Any thoughts on this reading?
In the CBS Sportsline article you linked above (which is by one of that site’s most prominent journalists, btw) he mentions that UFC 68 got more than 1 million buys, for what it’s worth. I have no idea if he got that number from Dana White or if he just made it up, but it is worth noting either way.
Is it even possible for the PPV numbers to be known at this point? Although honestly I do think it’s gonna do very well … the UFC wasn’t hammering it like they were hammering Tito/Chuck, but Couture coming back to fight Sylvia is a *huge* matchup, and it’s definately gonna translate. Anyone who thinks Ohio sold out just because it’s Ohio is mistaken. Anyone who thinks it’s going to do ‘standard’ ppvs … I guess we’ll see. But my bet is it’s gonna do very well.
Amen.
Zach…your last article was great as usual.
Zack … just accept that PRIDE geeks are going to flame you no matter what, and let it go in one ear and out the other. If you wrote “PRIDE is the second-most powerful force in the universe behind God,” they would criticize you for not placing PRIDE ahead of God. Everyone else sees them for the collection of geeks they are, you should do the same.
Well amazingly none of the PRIDE fighters tested for steroids….
http://www.sherdog.com/news/articles.asp?n_id=6900
I like coming to this site because, as someone else mentioned, it is the only MMA site that I know of that doesn’t seem to have slobbering morons among its readership. (Or maybe they are there and Zach rejects their comments).
I think Zach runs a great site, has awesome contributors and generally has intelligent analysis of news and events in MMA.
That said, I do think he tends towards focusing on negative news, especially with regards to PRIDE, and some times puts his blinders on when doing his analysis. (See: His pre-show analysis of PRIDE 33 on boxingscene.com. He actually seemed to think that PRIDE *really* thought that Diaz and Trigg would be big draws. I think it was obvious they knew what the situation was, they were just signing any American fighter with any name value at all that wasn’t already signed to another org. Let’s face it, presenting semi-known American fighters is way better than unknown non-American fighters in Vegas.)
The piece regarding Sherdog posters and Fishman was right on, anyone saying it was “one guy with five posts” is ridiculous, there are actually more threads over there with a ton more posts just like the ones you pointed out. It was very widespread as it was happening, the moderators there remove a lot of garbage, that’s for sure.
Pride fans are some strange people, they make getting into the online MMA scene a headache with their strange online habits. Seems that the same sort of unprofessional nature of Pride management carries over to their fanbase. I ordered Pride 33, which was a first time for me… then went online and could not believe just how annoying Pride fans are. If that’s what being a Pride fan is, no thanks.
Ooh, dueling Mikes ( . I’ll change my posting name to something else a bit more distinctive from here on out.
I don’t know Zachs problem with Pride.Maybe it’s because MMA has taken over Wrestling in Japan.
Uh that was a while ago…and that’s starting to slowly change…ever so slowly
Last week, I was compared to a stereotypical NASCAR fan for not wanting to see a Japanese product succeed in America. I left that on the site. I’ve been blasted many ways before, and that doesn’t bother me. The only comments that bother me are hate speech (threats of violence, anti-Semitism, etc.) and I have no problem cooperating with authorities if people start posting that here.
I believe MMA in the US can make as much, if not more money outside of the casino world. I don’t know what contract PRIDE signed with Ed Fishman, but it was clear that they wanted in the gaming world. Which meant pachinko and other various revenue streams that only someone like Fishman could provide.
So on that level, Fishman did his job. He did his job as far as tying PRIDE into the Las Vegas world. I believe that MMA is not a pure play in the casino world, as it can make just as much money as UFC is drawing in different markets across the country.
When you talk about PRIDE, you have to separate what happens in the ring versus what happens outside of the ring. Talking about what happens with PRIDE outside the ring is mostly a negative proposition. That’s just how it is. I don’t enjoy seeing fighters losing a payday, which is likely what could happen soon. They’re not the ones in management running the ship.
Re: Sakakibara calling PRIDE his child… he says a lot of goofy statements. What’s next, a child custody analogy in the press once Fishman ties PRIDE up in court?
Maybe the American side didn’t think Diaz and Trigg were big draws, but this was a situation where the Japanese wanted to use ex-UFC guys in media storylines to prove a point that their PRIDE fighters could beat them and therefore be ‘superior’ in image. It backfired. That’s why it’s a shoot and not a work.
Again – I’m not criticizing PRIDE 33 for bad fights. On paper, it was not desirable. The outcome, however, turned out differently.
I was critical of New Japan Pro-Wrestling for its bad mismanagement under Antonio Inoki. It cuts both ways. Bad management has a negative effect on the product presented in the ring. As in, bad management may prevent a good product from being presented again.
“Pride fans are some strange people, they make getting into the online MMA scene a headache with their strange online habits. Seems that the same sort of unprofessional nature of Pride management carries over to their fanbase. I ordered Pride 33, which was a first time for me… then went online and could not believe just how annoying Pride fans are. If that’s what being a Pride fan is, no thanks.”
Xavier, I couldn’t agree more. It seems like a strange cultish atmosphere on some of the boards when the Pride fans get going. I sometimes find myself wishing Pride would go under just to shut them up.
“Maybe the American side didn’t think Diaz and Trigg were big draws, but this was a situation where the Japanese wanted to use ex-UFC guys in media storylines to prove a point that their PRIDE fighters could beat them and therefore be ’superior’ in image. It backfired.”
Of course, looking at the card as an MMA fan (before the event happened), I agreed with you. PRIDE 33 looked like it was going to be a lackluster card.
But I don’t get how you can’t see that PRIDE was in a bit of a marketing bind. They needed to market American fighters, but 99% of the good ones are already signed to the UFC. They made do with what they could to provide interesting matchups for the casual US fan. The only other alternative would be to not try at all to break into the US market.
How can you really fault them for doing Silva/Henderson? A Silva/Arona or Silva/Little Nog matchup would have met with a resounding “Who?!?” from the casual fan that they were trying to attract. Gomi/Diaz, same thing. They wanted to showcase Gomi, but against who exactly?
As far as the matchups backfiring. Well, shit happens. Not sure why you need to consistently express the extreme level of schadenfreude for PRIDE that you don’t for the UFC. Silva beat Franklin. Sylvia beat Arlovski. Couture beat Liddell and then Tito. Old stars get beaten and new stars get created (or old ones are revived).
I’m a bit late to chime back in on the “intellectual debate” thing I started earlier, since I’ve worked for 12 hours…. but I’ll give it a go, in case someone else drops in late:
I think any writer who pursues truth and logic will benefit from an exchange of opinions and thoughts with his readers in the long run, as long as one can swallow a bit of pride and not feed the inevitable trolls. I believe criticism in the comment threads is making Zach a better writer since he’s paying attention and replying. It forces him to think about the topic from a different angle, and to put his ideas to the test of argumentation. Practice makes perfect, not only in sports but also in terms of intellect.
It may be because the Pride debacle has worsened, but I percieve Zach as being more objective and sensible in his Pride reporting than when I started reading this site. I would like to thing that this development is attributable to the quality of debate here. A sound argument will sharpen your mind, and I come here to sharpen mine when it comes to MMA. Perhaps that’s what’s happened though, and Zach’s been right all along? =)
As for the risk of being run over by manic Pride fans and other vermin (I actually still perceive Pride fans to be slightly less annoying than the average Sherdog forum member, which says a thing or two about the IQ there), I think a high enough standard of writing here will be an efficient deterrent. The real MMA morons (who can’t tell the difference between “their”, “there” and “they’re”) have the attention span of a concussed 3-year old on acid, and thus won’t know what anyone says here because they can’t read two sentences in a row. Not that they can’t post without reading, but I still think this site lacks any real appeal to them. It’s not all black and redneck-cool looking…
This all came out sounding a bit intellectually elitist perhaps, but I hope you get my point, and I usually try to be humble…
I love Pride’s product. Seeing a 50,000 seat stadium and a whole rack of international superstars fighting feels big-time. Fedor, Mirko, Sakuraba, Silva, Nog, Henderson, Arona, etc are/were all cream of the crop fighters, and Pride was an amazing spectacle. However, while Pride puts on great, high tech shows with great fights, UFC also puts on great shows with great fights. I see lots of people on message boards who rip the fuck out of UFC simply because it has American fighters as champions, as if that were a bad thing.
As it stands right now, Pride’s hw champion is fighting in Russia, nobody really knows what will happen with his Pride contract, their 205 pound champion just got ktfo by their 183 pound champion in a fight that made absolutely no sense on paper and even less sense considering the result. The organization is clearly up for sale despite the constant denials by Sakakiraba, the head of Pride USA is suing Pride, their 160 pound Japanese golden boy just got destroyed by a UFC washout, and they buried a 183 pound Japanese star against an unknown 170 pound American wrestler. Bringing these things up doesn’t make one a Pride-hater; it is the fucking truth. Pride seems to be destined for unmitigated failure at this point, which is terrible from a fan’s perspective (because having a legitimate UFC challenger in America would be great), and Zach would be completely irresponsible as a journalist if he didn’t call Pride on their preposterous booking and generally terrible decision-making.
David: You’re 100% correct. I think some Pride fans, including me in the past, felt that Pride was given a hard time on here. But I no longer feel that way… I do however feel that the UFC should be scrutinized just as hard, which it really hasn’t been. But yeah it’s tough to look for holes in the facade of a slick profit machine when you have a gargantuan trainwreck piling up next to it.
I just started posting here (I’m been reading the site for a while), and I think Zach’s right to forbid comments on certain pieces. It’s far more likely that particular editorials are going to attract intellectually worthless comments from the wrong element than it is that forbidding comments on same is going to undermine intelligent discourse. I support anything Zach has to do to prevent this from turning into the ridiculous Sherdog forums.
FF
UFC clearly cannot be criticized from a business standpoint, which I think is the crux of most of Zach’s negative slant towards PRIDE.
UFC could easily be criticized for their equally “questionable” matchmaking (in a different way than PRIDE) or their reliance on their reality show stars as “big names”. I think they’re showing a necessary attitude towards bringing in elite talent to bolster some of their thin talented weight classes.
But lets be honest…they brought in Rampage, Cro Cop and Herring and trumpeted them as big names – if they had have all lost their matches I HIGHLY doubt they would have garnered as much negative “press” as they have on here. And if Liddell had have lost his rematch to the clearly overmatched and blown up Jeremy Horn – would they have gotten so roundly criticized?
http://www.mmaweekly.com/absolutenm/templates/dailynews.asp?articleid=3536&zoneid=2
Pride cancels April 28th show!!
LOL at Sakakibara calling “PRIDE” his daughter.
total scumbag that he is, he can say this without irony. He had nothing to do with the “creation” of PRIDE. Morishita, with whose death Sakakibara (and his boss Ishizaka) and the other PRIDE founding father, Momose had some shady involvement.
I would like to hear from Sakakibara about how he (and Ishizaka) became the majority shareholders in DSE over Morishita’s widow
to be accurate, instead of calling PRIDE his son or daughter, the closer analogy is to describe it as his whore which is happy to sell to anybody who wants to buy her – although finding a buyer for a whore who is carring some horrible diseases, may not be easy
I’m not really sure Dan Henderson was the American representative of the PRIDE FC product you wanted if you were expecting semi-serious casual crossover drawing considering that he only appeared on one UFC PPV (UFC 17, beating Allan Goes and Carlos Newton to win the UFC 17 Middleweight tournament) and that was in the ‘dark ages’ where the PPV exposure of the product was severely reduced. While he wasn’t the worst opponent to put in as a potential drawing card against Silva, I certainly don’t think too many of the UFC casual fans (such as the ones you would see at sports bars or even a good portion of the live crowd) would say another other than ‘Who?’ to Henderson’s name. He may have a bit more recognition now that Dana White referred to him in the interview, but I doubt that since most casual fans such watch the free TV and PPV events and not the interviews/vignettes by the promoters/fighters/etc. after the cards.
Tomer is right. The people who are making the UFC a lot of money right now are the people in bars who yell stupid shit and the ones at the events who boo the fighters. 1% of them might know who Dan Henderson is.
What PRIDE needed, more than anything else, was Wanderlei vs. Chuck. That fight, regardless of the outcome, would have given the organization some of the exposure it so desperately needs.
http://www.pridefc.com/
Nifty.
I am sure that everyone has, by now, heard that Diaz tested positve for pot.
So he just messed up the biggest break of his career.
How long did Pearson get for a suspension for weed?
Pride fighters testing positive for any substance is not a good one. While I don’t agree that Weed should be tested, it still is, and a fighter that tests positive for a banned substance just isn’t too smart.
“I’m not really sure Dan Henderson was the American representative of the PRIDE FC product you wanted if you were expecting semi-serious casual crossover drawing considering that he only appeared on one UFC PPV.”
I didn’t say the American had to be popular or well known :).
Again, compare Henderson to the alternatives. At least he speaks English and could appear in ads and promos as “The American Challenger”. Again, the alternatives of Arona or Nog were even worse than Henderson from a marketing standpoint. The UFC might have been able to pull it off because of their market saturation; PRIDE could not.
Maybe I’m just being forgetful, but is there a better American — or at least English-speaking — challenger signed with PRIDE or available to sign with PRIDE that can weigh in above the 186 lbs floor for the 205 division? I’d love to know.
Pearson has not had his hearing yet. It will likely occur later this month.
My guess is both he and Nick get six months.
Diaz has a suspension for the orbital bone break. Could a second suspension run consecutive or would it run concurrent?
I wonder if the NSAC will reverse the win to a ‘No Contest’.
I lost a lot of respect for Mayweather after reading his ignorant comments about MMA.
Rollo the Cat Says:
March 5th, 2007 at 6:32 pm
Diaz has a suspension for the orbital bone break. Could a second suspension run consecutive or would it run concurrent?
——————————————-
In other states, it would be consecutive. At this time, that is not the case in Vegas. I suppose they could change it if they are feeling especially cranky.
Zach or anyone who knows,
Somewhat off topic, but you mentioned the drug laws in Japan. I know you are supposed to be barred from entering Japan if you had a drug conviction or a felony that landed you in prison for a year or more. I also noticed that Alex Emelianeko did 5 years in prison, yet still fought in Japan. Are they just not strict about enforcing this, or is there bribery and corruption involved?
Being smart about “weed” is a relative term.
#1 weed is a known nuero protective (meaning it protects brain cells), this has been proven in repeated scientific studies here and abroad to PREVENT BRAIN DAMAGE in stroke victims and victims of blunt trauma to the head.
(japan conducted this study as well)
Look it up,
#2 its also the best anti seizure medication available, people have terrible side effects from the minimally effective perscription anti seizure meds available.
If i were fighting pro i’d be more concerned with the possible brain damage or seizure i may incur after a brutal KO, than being suspended for a while.
Knowledge is power, the people in the know in governments keep this knowledge to themselves.
Medical companies would be out major income if these facts were well known.
Weed is illeagle in many states and so is hemp for the same reasons, dupont and other synthetic material makers would take a “hit” to their bottom line.
Weed is however legal as medicine in many states, and is very effective in treating more than just the 2 previously stated problems.
Thats a smart fighter in Diaz who is flexible physically and mentally to be able to pull off that gogoplota.
grafdog, your points are well made but honestly do you think Diaz is smoking weed for those reasons or because he’s a stoner? Anyways there’s a whole laundry list of items on the banned substance list which are a bit dumb to have zero tolerance policies for … in my opinion the sanctioning body’s job is to make sure no one is taking drug enhancements to cheat, not to enforce the country’s illegal substance policies.
Hey Ninja – your buddy Gotanda has an interesting message about PRIDE on Sherdog.
Get a hold of me if you get a chance soon.
Weed doesn’t make you faster or stronger, but does help recovery from injury.It has known medical benefits, so its like banning ibuprofin or vicodin etc.
Diaz may or may not be informed on these facts, but why do many animals eat it? They can’t read newspapers or surf the web, they do it instinctively, as it’s a genetic memory. Animals know which plants are poisonous and which are not. Perhaps Diaz is the same?
An animal who’s ancestors ate or smoked for the benefits.
Who knows…
But i wouldn’t call him a stoner.
Maybe a guy who got caught doing something that comes naturally to him. As long as its not hurting others, the “others” shouldn’t have a problem with it.