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Friday fight notes: The return of Akebono
By Zach Arnold | May 17, 2007
Stock ticker: IFL | Art of War | Pro Elite
More talk on the Kermit Cintron/Dana White PR battle.
Words cannot describe how great this article is.
Yomiuri Hochi reports that Akebono will return to HERO’s in July at the promotion’s Yokohama Arena event. He would have supposedly fought on the June 2nd LA Coliseum show, but allegedly couldn’t fight due to the CSAC standards/regulation.
- Fox Sports: Rampage, Iceman meet the press
- The Idaho Mountain Express: Lee Anderson pumped up and no one to fight
- The Columbus Other Paper: Bye-Bye Boxing
- The Coshocton Tribune: Rob Wince ready for ultimate fighting PPV
- Yahoo Sports: Battling begins (Taylor/Spinks fight)
- Yahoo Sports: Kelly Pavlik right on target
- Businesswire (PR): ProElite.com takes on Tapout Magazine and MMA Worldwide as MMA print partners
- Mad Squabbles: Photos from the Washington D.C. MMA event last weekend
- The Sweet Science: IFL 5/19 Sears Centre in Chicago event preview
- Jordan Breen: Shooto’s Best 143-pounders on display
- The Memphis Commercial Appeal: Boxing’s popularity goes in cycles
- MMA Weekly (Lee Whitehead): London calling – rules of engagement
- Sprawl ‘n Brawl: Marijuana culture in MMA
- The Jackson Clarion Ledger (MS): MMA to debut in Vicksburgh at the Convention Center
- The Chicago Tribune: Fighting for piece of spotlight (IFL 5/19 Chicago event talk)
- The Guam Pacific Daily News: Stephen Roberto and Mike Fowler headed for BJJ national championships
- The Oregonian: MMA notebook – ESPN/Sherdog partnership another sign of growth
- The Scotsman (UK): James Mair is the uncivil servant!
- The Newark Advocate (Ohio): Newark fighter Chris Myers could get landmark win against unbeaten opponent Nissen Osterneck
- The Springfield Journal-Register (Illinois): Law may sanction MMA in Illinois
- The Fresno Bee: 4 to fight for MMA ranking at Gladiator Challenge
- The Washington Post: Chuck Liddell chat transcript
- UFC Junkie: “The Irish Hand Grenade” forced to change nickname
- The Guam Pacific Daily News: Team Guam rakes in medals at Pan Asian BJJ and submission grappling tournament
- The Boston Herald (Joe Lauzon): TUF Week 7 – Here’s the real story
Topics: Boxing, HERO's, IFL, Japan, Media, MMA, UFC, UK, Zach Arnold | 32 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
I would just like to congratulate Sherdog on signing this deal with ESPN. As a big sports fan (Love the Da Bears, Oilers, Steve Nash and Tony Stewart), this is great news to see the first steps of mma being accepted by mainstream media.
And over time Zach, I believe ESPN will cover stories like the yakuza scandal more closely then you think. It may be years away (I give it 4-5), but stories like this will start popping up on ESPN pages. You wait and see (I said Aliki Smith would be great, and you know how money that was right?!?!?! so just please believe me on this one for now)
And since you follow this Yakuza story well, can you tell me the concrete evidence that these Japanese newspapers have on PRIDE being involved with shading characters. As far as I know it, it seems like that something along the lines of US Weekly went out and publish these articles without any real concrete proof, and everyone took them for literal word. I know absolutely minimal about this story, so could someone tell me what these newspapers said and what evidence they had to support their claims?
Sorry if my paragraphs seem weird, but I am drunk as a skunk right now, so I am trying my best.
Regarding the Yakuza scandal I think the proof was in the pudding. DSE/Pride did nothing to counter this claims. No court action against the magazine making the accusations.
So… a few days ago Nogueira vs. Herring was not listed on UFC’s 73-card, and now Heath is listed vs. TBD (http://www.ufc.com/index.cfm?fa=eventDetail.FightCard&eid=677). What’s up with Minotauro?
I have no clue what UFC is doing with the PRIDE guys, and I am wondering if they even know how to book them. Herring prime example A.
I believe that if Jordan Breen was with Sherdog at the time of the scandal, the amount of coverage on the PRIDE implosion story on Sherdog would have been significantly improved. But he wasn’t around – and I think they paid dearly in terms of credibility for it. Maybe not with the casual fans, but with people inside the industry.
As far as the Shukan Gendai stories… they took the risk knowing that they would generate major heat for carrying the articles, and the fact that DSE never got anywhere with a criminal complaint (as opposed to the civil suit strategy used by the Japan Sumo Association for Gendai’s allegations of fixed Sumo matches) speaks volumes. Silence and symbolism generally mean more than talk when it comes to Japanese business. Case in point – the total silence about the PRIDE asset sale has everyone (in Japan and in America) completely scratching their heads.
They do that stuff all the time. The fight is still happening….
The fight was first listed in full on the card-site, then removed and now 50% TBD’d. I’m fully aware of their policy to hold back on announcing fights that are 100% set, but this has not followed the usual pattern of first nothing, then X vs. TBD, then X vs. Z. Herring is listed as fighting on the main card though, so it could of course be that they’re setting up a Nogueira-hype package and will be reannouncng the fight with more emphasis than the first time. Likewise, it could be that Nogueira is out.
I talked with Ed Fishman about the UFC / PRIDE merger and here is a transcript of what he had to say:
http://mma.komikazee.com/news/comments/ed_fishman_at_art_of_war_2/
Just an FYI.
As a side note and a Kudo’s to Zach. The reason I was bold enough to ask Ed the questions I did when I saw him was because of Zach’s example in covering the hard stuff. I have the audio of the interview but it isn’t postable quality (We were surrounded by people in an arena). I am trying to send Zach so that he can confirm the veracity of the conversation.
Regardless, Ed Fishman was an honest and open guy and answered all my professional questions with aplomb and without a hint of defensiveness.
Perhaps they are adding Nog to the Ireland event. Perhaps they are now realizing it’s going to be difficult getting Nog medically cleared. Perhaps perhaps perhaps.
Fight Critic: Why MMA versus boxing is good for both sports
Darthmolen props 4 that. If thats true about the due diligience not being started to April 15th then thats crazy. Zuffa announce a deal before going over the books, thats insane!!
With regards to Heath Herring’s booking in the UFC, I actually agreed with their booking structure:
Fight #1: Jake O’Brien – A middle of the road Heavyweight who, while undefeated and wasn’t a total ‘enhancement talent’ like a Shannon Ritch, was expected to go down eventually from Heath’s standup or would get subbed or ground and pounded on the ground by Heath since he was the much more experienced fighter. Instead, Heath ended up being sluggish, getting taken down at will and did nothing on his back to try and sweep or submit O’Brien, losing an obvious decision. This pretty much derailed the Herring train that was being built up.
Fight #2: Brad Imes – A Heavyweight who, while he looked OK on the TUF 2 show, had looked pretty horrible from the TUF 2 finale (against Rashad Evans) onward and was pretty much consider a ‘gimme’ win for Herring to bounce back from his bad loss to O’Brien in spectacular fashion. Instead, Herring appeared to be sluggish once more against Imes and probably killed any interest by Dana White and the rest of the management to want him around anymore as he probably appears to be shot as a fighter, in their eyes.
Fight #3 (which is now in the air): Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira – Given that the UFC was probably disgusted at Herring’s sluggish back to back performances and that they wanted to get rid of him while building up Nogueira, this was the perfect fight to set up (in theory) as Nogueira was 2-0 against Herring with a PRIDE 17 dominant decision win for the new PRIDE Heavyweight Championship and a PRIDE Critical Countdown 2004 Heavyweight Grand Prix Quarter Final win via Anaconda choke. While it is indicative of the rubber matches that the UFC has been criticized in the past for, it made sense in killing two birds with one stone (elevating Nogueira with a pretty much guaranteed third win over Herring and wrapping up Herring’s contract with the UFC) and was probably the smartest matchup that could be made.
Don’t read anything into what appears on the UFC.com website. Fighters appear and disappear all the time for no reason.
Not sure what everyone is confused about, Asking why they test for it is really a dumb question when you think about the fact that marijuana is illegal. Plain and simple. People who smoke it are breaking the laws. That is why they test for it. If I am a promoter, I do not want fighters fighting on my card who have a habit of breaking the law. Call it principle.
and the excuse that everyone else in Brazil is doing it is absolutely no excuse. A horrible one at that.
And Akebono returning is LESS exciting then watching paint dry. I think he is going to die in the ring.
And props to DarthMolen for the interview.
Three days ago I put a call into the Pancrase front offices in Japan and asked about the status of Windy Tomomi. I was told by a front office worker who spoke English (not sure of his name) that she is still in the hospital and that her injury was very serious. I did not want to delve into what “very serious” meant, but I find it likely that she will be back to 100% by the time she is supposed to fight in September.
Herring isn’t really worth pushing, he’s just a good solid guy to have in the mix with strengthens the division. It’s been a long time since he was a top guy (2001?), or even fought other top guys (2004?) He went to K-1 MMA purgatory for a while and had some problems with injuries.
Herring is relatively solid, but will suffer from the no knees to the head on the ground rule. He will never be ranked in the top 5.
I think the real roadblock to pushing Herring at this point isn’t injuries or the knees to the head rule, it’s: (i) Herring showing virtually no sweeping/escape/submssion skills from the bottom and (ii) Herring failing to give a good effort (semi-exciting to exciting fight even in losing) in his UFC tenure. Losing a boring decision by being held down by O’Brien for 3 rounds and beating Brad Imes by boring decision doesn’t exactly make Herring the most marketable HW around and as they seemed to have overpaid him for being unimpressive, I assume that they want some sort of ‘compensation’, such as using him as a stepping stone for a (potentially) more marketable fighter like Nogueira.
WWE should hire Ms. Woo to be Ric Flair’s valet.
It could add another five years to his career.
Or give him a heart attack.
I can see it now.
Wooooo!
Wooooo!
Won’t you marry me now!
Wooooo!
I think Herring’s biggest enemy is his own mental picture. I think that he thinks that if he fights excitedly that he will become famous…win or lose. Problem is, he is not even doing that and losing.
I actually didn’t think the Herring/Imes fight was boring. Sloppy, yes. Boring, no.
Even if you didn’t think it was a boring fight (I don’t even remember how it was, personally), the fact Herring was given a potential brutal sub/TKO victim in Imes and ended up going the distance in a sloppy performance does not help his case. He pretty much was given a ‘gimme’ and was unable to capitalize.
Tomer, you are right on in your analysis of UFC’s Herring matchups. They did everything their power to make him look good and he was unable to shine.
Of course, there is always the consideration that Herring probably wasn’t all that great to begin with. His only good offensive weapons were knees to the head. He has terrible footwork, bad striking, bad takedown defense, mediocre grappling. He was lucky to escape with a win against Gary Goodridge in HERO’s; he was getting beaten up and down the ring until the ref gave him a very generous stoppage. I can’t even remember the last time he actually even looked like an elite HW. 2002, maybe?
Herring has never been a sub guy really (are you referring to the Erickson fight?) and Imes has never been KO’d or walked over if I remember correctly. Rashad dropped him twice but he didn’t get stopped.
from the Oregonian: In a move that could do more for mixed martial arts than any blockbuster UFC fight or Zuffa purchase, ESPN and Sherdog.com reached an agreement to share web content.
Think the author gets carried away much? To access Sherdog on ESPN, you first have to click on the More Sports button, then scroll underneath fishing, cricket, lacross, and the Little League World Series, just to get to the link to the site. That’s going to revolutionize the sport?
If I remember correctly, Herring had a number of submissions (primarily by armlocks and RNC) earlier on in his career. And Imes was never really ‘walked over’, although he was forced to submit against Dan Christison when he got armbarred. Still, he was dropped and hurt by Evans, a comparatively much smaller guy and seemed pretty lathargic, which could have potentially set up a G&P stoppage by Herring or a submission ending (like Christison did).
I find it funny when people tried to use Herring as a Pride HW getting owned in the UFC. Herring was finished years ago and hasnt been anywhere near the top in Japan for a long time!!
I was actually impressed with Heath’s performance against Brad. In his later days of Pride, he struggled with the likes of Yamamoto and Takahashi. And while in Hero’s he was being controlled by Gary Goodridge. If Heath didn’t land that Hail Mary punch, Gary would have won by decision.
The one thing Heath appears to have improved is his standup. Not that it’s great, but he’s no longer throwing puches while staring at the ground and he looks like he no longer throws those god awful kicks. His kicks are some of the worst in MMA.
“Rollo the Cat Says:
May 18th, 2007 at 7:35 am
Don’t read anything into what appears on the UFC.com website. Fighters appear and disappear all the time for no reason.”
– There’s a pattern to the madness – for instance when a fighter pulls out, he’ll usually be removed from the card page long before the news break elsewhere on the UFC site or on indepentent sites. And they never remove a fighter from the card if he’s not off. The peculiar thing about Heath vs. Nog is it has only really been mentioned once by UFC when they first announced 73 two weeks ago. Either they’re pretending they never said it would happen(it’s not like they’d have to make an announcement of the fight being off considering the minimal hype so far) or they’re setting up a big hype – of Nogueira in particular. Regardless, a Minotauro CSAC-clearance could be part of the reasoning, one way or the other.
If they’re smart they’ll do something impressive with Nog to bolster the UFC72 card. They’ve got all the depth in the HW division to do it. If this was Pride you know they’d stick Nog vs CroCop onto the card 😉
JTHue,
Wasn’t Griffin removed and then put back on?
The likely scenario for Nogueira not being on the UFC website yet, is that they haven’t created a profile for him yet. They announced Nogueira vs. Herring in a press release for UFC 73 and haven’t said anything to the contrary. I’d chalk it up to the UFC website being wacky at times. As Rollo said, they removed Forrest Griffin and then put him back up later.
Rowles! Dude, your site rocks. Keep up the good work
That Fresno Bee newspaper article is pretty much BULL****.
The author is confusing the Palace Fighting Championship (in Lemoore) and the Gladitor Challenge event (in Porterville). The big name stars will be at the Palace event in Lemoore, and the 4-man lightweight tournament is in Porterville (with no big names whatsoever).
I don’t know if it’s a case of someone feeding him some false B.S. information to confuse the public by drawing more fans to the Porterville event as if the “source” was like some pro wrestling carny, or if it’s just an example of another lazy, ignorant journalist who fails to get the facts straight with disregards to the truth.
Or maybe by combining the characteristics of both shows makes a better “story” for his little article.
lol at the Irish Hand Grenade thing. If I become a MMA fighter, and I have a fight in Virginia, I’ll CONSIDER using the nickname Richard McBeef or Mr. Brownstone to piss people off, LOLOL. I’ll be the next mega heel like Tito Ortiz, lol.