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Sunday snark: A new Zuffa Myth for 2007
By Zach Arnold | May 19, 2007
By Zach Arnold
Last year (and still ongoing), American newspapers push(ed) the dreaded original Zuffa Myth (more here). We need to make a wikipedia entry for the various myths soon. This year, the new Zuffa Myth appears to be that the PRIDE asset sale between UFC & DSE has already happened — except that it hasn’t. Point out the errors you can find in the following paragraph alone. From today’s Boston Herald:
Is there anything else to talk about in the world of mixed martial arts but Saturday night’s light heavyweight title bout? The rematch between Chuck Liddell and Quinton “Rampage†Jackson is the type of blockbuster fight the UFC can now produce, thanks to the purchase of rival organizations such as the World Fighting Alliance and Pride.
There’s no contact information listed for the Herald article. The only contact information I could find on their site was this post and [email protected].
Hidehiko Yoshida says that he is open to fighting in the UFC.
I don’t know what to say about this Belfast Telegraph article on the UFC event coming up in Ireland.
Paul Lazenby claims Kimbo Slice wanted to train with Bas Rutten.
Bernie Miklasz in The St. Louis Post-Dispatch jumps aboard the “boxing is losing fans to UFC” bandwagon after the Jermain Taylor/Cory Spinks fight in Memphis on Saturday night:
That means an average of only 15.5 punches per round were landed by the two fighters. And we wonder why boxing is losing the audience to the UFC (Unlimited Fighting Championship) circuit?
I like Spinks. I root for the guy and his fiery trainer, Kevin Cunningham. The Spinks Jinx has been great for St. Louis boxing. And I understand that Spinks must use this jab-and-run style to have success in the ring. But I can’t blame Floyd Mayweather or Oscar De La Hoya or Shane Mosley for avoiding Spinks. What’s in it for them? What’s in it for the cable networks? A fight with Spinks won’t be a big money maker, and it won’t promote their careers or a struggling industry. If anything, this kind of boredom causes boxing to lose fans.
Boxing just doesn’t provide much bang for the buck these days, which certainly explains the booing at FedEx. This one didn’t deliver.
Onto today’s headlines.
- Fight Report: Gracie FC Evolution event results
- Yahoo Sports: Jermain Taylor wins a split decision over Cory Spinks in Memphis
- Boxing Scene: Taylor Decisions Spinks in a Memphis Stinker
- Yahoo Sports: Pulling no punches – Jermain Taylor
- ESPN: Spinks’ style frustrates crowd as Taylor wins by split decision
- Fightlinker: How to fix The Ultimate Fighter
- The Winnipeg Sun: Going for lucky No. 7 – Cardio key as Joe Doerksen opens eyes on MMA scene
- The Charlotte Observer: Hermes Franca training with Jeff Jimmo
- The Baltimore Sun: A look back at D.C.’s first sanctioned professional MMA event
- MMA on Tap: IFL Chicago event results
- The Fightworks Podcast: Show #68 – Breakdown of IFL event in Chicago, Fabio Santos Open in San Diego
- Mike Coughlin: Aged Marco Ruas loses in sad performance
- UFC Junkie: Full-Time Fighter column — Sean Salmon one week away from UFC 71
- MMA Weekly: Dr. Peter Goldman, healer of the MMA stars
Topics: Boxing, Canada, IFL, Japan, Media, MMA, PRIDE, UFC, UK, Zach Arnold | 40 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
A question:
Why wasn’t this much energy spent talking about the various Pride myths? When Pride hit the U.S., there were numerous mainstream articles talking about the usual 60,000 fans that attended Japanese Pride shows…except that is nonsense.
We also have the legendary Pride show that drew over 90,000….except no such show ever took place.
They talked about Fedor making millions per fight…except that he did not.
Zach, what are the odds of this deal never happening?
My viewpoint… if it doesn’t get done by next week, I don’t see it happening at all. May 30th is when attorneys for Fishman Companies start witness depositions — and based on previous reporting on this site, we know that FC wants to question people in Zuffa. That’s not a comforting thought.
Lynchman, back when Pride was up and running Zach and everyone else spent a ton of time bashing and mocking PRIDE for it’s dishonest tactics. Specifically I remember Zach often pointed out the dishonesty in the numbers … remember for The Real Deal when they counted all the staff for the show to bolster attendance figures?
Why would you want to box with boxer? If anything Kimbo should learn some wrestling and take Mercer down.
It’s also funny that Yoshida is open to fighting in the UFC considering Zuffa would never pay him anything close what he’s used to getting. Once he finds that out he might be a little more reluctant to do it.
According to Meltzer’s latest newsletter, much more is being made about the delay then should be.
As for this new myth, what myth? as a side note, the first Jackson/Liddell fight will be shown on the countdown show. At least that is what the commercial said.
The Taylor/Spinks fight was horrible. It really was. Another sparring match. The fight before it between Pavlik & Miranda was fantastic. That is the way boxing should be.
I know Zuffa runs a fine line between demanding entertaining fights and finding the best in each division. The reason they have to walk that line is a fear of the sport becoming a point contest like boxing.
The notion that the DSE/UFC PRIDE asset sale situation is being overblown is funny. It will be now 8 weeks since the handshake agreement between Lorenzo and Sakakibara at Roppongi Hills Arena. The idea that no due diligence had occurred before that handshake was not something most people believed online. Now it’s exactly 8 weeks since the handshake and there isn’t any public movement coming any time soon.
UFC has a show to promote this week, so the PRIDE deal goes on the backburner. After UFC 71, Fishman Companies is lined up to start depositions. Do you really think people in Zuffa want to sit in a law office for many hours and be asked question after question?
The process has already gone on long enough to indicate, in my opinion, that the PRIDE asset deal is on shaky ground. If it goes on longer without a resolution to the matter, I can’t see how it gets done. If it gets done, my take is that it would be on much different terms than first agreed upon.
Another sidebar to note is that the longer no deal happens, the worse UFC’s credibility gets in Japan. Not making a deal for PRIDE after flying to Japan to grandstand publicly about it would be a loss of face. It would play right into the fears of doing business with ‘greedy gaijin’, which is a bad stereotype to have in play.
Zach Arnold Says:
May 20th, 2007 at 5:23 am
My viewpoint… if it doesn’t get done by next week, I don’t see it happening at all. May 30th is when attorneys for Fishman Companies start witness depositions — and based on previous reporting on this site, we know that FC wants to question people in Zuffa. That’s not a comforting thought.
With that said , when will K1 heros start to push PPV in North America? If the MMA in whole does not have strong competition between companies, the fans will continue to see weaker cards from top to bottom and that in turn will push the casual fan away. The next few UFC cards have top flight main events, but atleast 4 advertised fights on each card would be considered mid card fights in King of the Cage.
I don’t see how too much of is being made out of the delay. Like Zach said its nearly 2 months since the public announcement and since then nothing. Why? Why did the American sent to Japan return home?
Zach, can you answer these two questions for me then.
I heard rumors that PRIDE was being sought by several investors, Gary Shaw being one. Is is true then that PRIDE has several takers? Secondly, if PRIDE has these several takers, did they allow any of them the proposed buyers to take a look at the books before buying the company, or was PRIDE’s stance “You make the offer first, then you can look at the books later”? If the stance that PRIDE took in its business negotiations was similar to the one I mentioned in my question, then I will not get upset with ZUFFA for what has transpired.
The Fertitta brothers have one thing that is worth 10 times more then the UFC, a Nevada Gambling License. Ed Fishman had a statement in the interview that you did with him (a very good one by the way, although I did bash your show recently that interview was awesome) where he talked about the Nevada Games Commision (if that is what they are called?). He said something along the lines that if the Nevada Commission has the slightest inkling of you being involved with organized crime (aka PRIDE’s dealing with Yakuza), you can pretty much kiss your casino license goodbye. So why would the Ferttita’s want to rush into buying PRIDE if it jeopardize’s their major, multi-billion dollar investment in casino’s? If this deal falls through, should all of the blame be put on the UFC and ZUFFA, should not PRIDE have some of the blame put on their shoulder for how they handled their business and their possible role in this transaction? To me at least, you see this business deal as having black and white sides, where I see it as hodge-pog of colors.
As a fan, I just see it as ‘Deal Goes Through = Good, Deal Falls Through = Bad’
Do you people know nothing about corporate mergers and acquisitions? Multiple month delays are extremely common with these type of deals.
“Why did the American sent to Japan return home?”
Meltzer actually talked about this. And he specifically stated this was made to be a bigger story then it actually was. Basically, this guy can’t do his job until the acquisition is complete. Not a big deal.
Who gave the date May 1st for completion? Was it Zuffa?
Yes and Zach & I were saying that due diligence was likely not done from the get-go, mainly because legal and accounting work is done after most contracts are signed (there are back out clauses in M&A contracts to allow them to say ‘No thanks’). Yet, everyone crapped on the prospect that it wasn’t complete because “Zuffa is too smart to announce and sign a contract before they did their research”, even though researching after the announcement and contract signing happen is par for course.
The Nevada Gaming Commission would only strip Station Casinos of their license if they can prove that the Fertitta’s knowingly worked with the Yakuza in some form or another (or at least accepted their presence once they were advised of their influence). An accusation (even one with the huge consequences of the Shukan Gendai story) is still one unless substantial proof appears on the table, so, as long as the Fertitta’s were not shown that there was in fact a Yakuza presence in DSE, they can’t be held accountable for purchasing a company with such an accusation that devalued it.
On a different note…
GFC has come and gone. They reportedly sold about 500 tickets and had a crowd of 1000 or so in a 20,000 seat arena. They say there is a connection between BJJ culture and marijuana culture and it shows. Just like after effects of marijuana, their eyes were bigger than their stomach.
IFL drew about 5,000 people for their big Chicago show at the presumedly expensive Sears center. No further words are needed, just listen to the sound of the ticking time clock.
How can NEW contracts be negotiatied withoue due dilligence being over and done with? Because NEW RENEGOTIATED contracts is what keeps being brought up as being the ongoing drag-out process. It is qyite possible the hold up is simply this: All PRIDE fighters are under Zuffa ‘ownership’ as we speak, but Zuffa won’t start planning shows until all fighters have been either signed to new (exclusive) deals or been dropped because they refuse to do so. As in, they could theoretically have set up a show eons ago, but Dana White is stubborn and won’t promote a single figher if there’s the smallest chance said fighter will be on an EXC show later this year. This is a scenario that is at least every bit as likely as the whole “the takeover isn’t even half way done”-theory.
What I want to know is.. Instead of counting the days since the hand- shake, how about someone find out if PRIDE WORLDWIDE is registered (in Japan?) as 1. being up and running and 2. The owners of PRIDE F.C….?
Who gave the date May 1st for completion? Was it Zuffa?
Sak said in an interview that DSE would be running the company the rest of April and that the new owners would take over in May.
The only statement that has been released on Lorenzo/Zuffa’s side was about the GP being canceled.
“Sears Centre 11 000 all-seater”
– Configuring it for 5.000 and apparently filling that configuration is hardly one of the worst IFL skid marks, is it…? Of course it all depends on how many paid, but to me the test with a capital T is if there’s any sort of increase in interest for the playoffs and(if they even last that long) the GP-shows.
Once you sign the contract in an merger or acquisition, you are free to renegotiate the old contracts since the old contracts are (generally) considered unenforceable and need to be renegotiated. Due diligence can still be happening while negotiations on individual contracts are going on. The only problem is, if you back out, you can face potential lawsuits for tortious interference, misrepresentation, etc. by the firm that was to be acquired (if the funds to launch such a battle) since you would basically try to cherry pick the talent and leave the husk behind without paying to get that initial re-negotiation right.
PRIDE WORLDWIDE is registered (in Japan?) as 1. being up and running and 2. The owners of PRIDE F.C….?
It’s rumored to be registered.
While the Taylor-Spinks fight was pretty awful (and Taylor deserves a good deal of the blame for not charging down Spinks trying to instigate a real fight since he’s a big Middleweight and Spinks is a bloated Welterweight), the Pavlik-Miranda fight delivered so all is not lost in Boxing as Pavlik could potentially be the new World Middleweight Champion soon (though Taylor said he’d only fight whoever gave him the most money and not the top opponents at MW, hinting at a Joe Calzaghe SMW title fight). Boxing isn’t going to die tomorrow, but it does not a noteworthy drawing card that succeeds Oscar as being a personality, exciting fighter or some combination thereof. Taylor won’t be the successor given his pretty gunshy mindset and seeming lack of a killer instinct. It also doesn’t help that his only ‘good’ performance as MW champion thus far has been the Kassim Ouma fight. Everyone else made him look horrible and Hopkins and Wright arguably both beat him.
Just watched the Taylor fight. Taylor was disappointing because Spinks did not have the power to hurt him yet Taylor would not let his hands go. Emmanuel Steward was so angry with him as he knew Spinks couldnt hurt Taylor yet Taylor refused to listen. Reminded me of when Emmanuel had a go at Lennox in the tyson fight and told him to ‘take him out’ which Lennox did!!!
The Due Diligiance in the Pride show seems to be of done after March 27th. Now at the time of that handshake a few people including Zach said Diligiance could not have been done yet those people got serious heat as ‘there was no way Zuffa could of announced a deal without going over the books’.
Do people now accept that diligiance may not have occured before March 27th?
Steward may has said “Shit” and “Fuck” more times in the last 5 rounds of the fight than Dana White does in an average press conference. I have a feeling Steward will refuse to train Taylor again after his performance as he should have murdered Spinks by all accounts given the size and power advantage, yet threw about 10 punches a round, maybe and pretty much all of the rounds were close enough that you could argue Spinks won the fight by a slim margin. Not exactly Mr. Impressive…
“by all accounts given the size and power advantage, yet threw about 10 punches a round, maybe and pretty much all of the rounds were close enough that you could argue Spinks won the fight by a slim margin.”
That was one scenario, the other scenario was that Corey would do he usually does, which is be elusive, use the jab and draw it out to an ugly, boring decision.
There’s no way Spinks won that fight.
Yeah Manny Steward may walk away from Taylor now. When he trained Naseem Hamed he was fuming as Nas would ignore his instructions not to mention Naseem also had another trainer in his corner.
I wouldnt of minded seeing Taylor lose the decision as that would of taught him a lesson. Taylor has never been a guy who finishes guys with destructive combinations however when fighting a smaller guy whos stepping up weight divisions there is no excuse not to try and use the weight and power advantages.
I thought Spinks landed the more effective shots that he threw (typically), was controlling a lot of the fight (ring generalship) by making Taylor chase him (though Taylor preferred to posture on the outside) and countering and was more effective defensively than Taylor. Taylor barely did anything and I think my end card was 115-113 (7-5) Taylor, mainly because I was being lenient on what I saw was two guys doing next to nothing and having to rank the virtual nothingness to one another.
It was a horrible fight to score because so little was done by either guy. It wasn’t a clear win by Taylor because he didn’t do anything in any round to leave an exclamation mark that he won.
What effective shots did he land? Was he ‘controlling the fight by making Taylor chase him’ or running away?
You’re not going to win any fight running and using one punch, especially when that one punch isn’t effective and it isn’t landing. Jermaine could of won the fight just by coming foward alone, you combine that with the fact that harder punches connected in the bout were by all Taylor and it’s even easier fight to score.
I clearly remember seeing Spinks crack flush with at least 4-5 flush shots that cleared phased Taylor. Which is another think I was thinking as I saw the fight: what is Taylor’s chin quality given his insistence on fighting bloated 147 & 154 fighters?
The former. Taylor would go in after him, he’d counter him as he went in and Taylor would whiff his shots (for the most part).
I disagree 100%. Whiffing 90% of your serious shots and get shots that don’t phase your opponent while get countered silly is not being ‘effectively aggressive’, under any Boxing standard. Taylor won a few rounds when Spinks basically played the defensive game and didn’t fire at all (mainly at the end, even though Steward himself was cursing out Taylor for not trying), but you don’t win fights simply by going forward.
Effective countering > bulling in that’s mainly ineffective.
To further support this point, I’m going to quote the Association of Boxing Commissions official Judges scoring guide:
1. Spinks never phased Taylor with any punch. But I do recall Taylor’s hard right hands being the only memorable punches.
2. If blocked jabs is ‘effective countering’ to you then yes, Corey countered Taylor all night.
3. Taylor landed more punches, more power shots and had a higher connection percentage.
Like I said there’s no way Corey won that fight.
To further support this point, I’m going to quote the Association of Boxing Commissions official Judges scoring guide:
LOL, It wasn’t Whitaker vs. Chavez, it was Spinks on his bicycle trying to jab his way to a title, period. He will not get any decision in major bout fighting like that.
I remember Spinks landing a right onto Taylor that made stagger back a half inch and promptly try to trip Spinks to make it look like he landed the shot on Spinks instead of vice versa.
They were only blocked if you listened to Lampley & Co. I saw Cory clearly land on Taylor’s jaw a good number of times in the fight. Just because he stinks up the joint doesn’t mean he wasn’t more effective throughout the fight.
See point two. And CompuBox is a piece of crap ‘system’, anyway, since it relies on a guy pushing a button when a punch is thrown, if it lands and the type (jab or ‘power’) of punch. It’s as subjective as you or I as a judge.
It seems like we are going to have to agree to disagree on this matter.
Zach,
I think this is nonsense. There is a LOT of work that goes into a merger like this. And please, the UFC is NOT acquiring PrideFC’s assets. A new company called PrideFC Worldwide purchased the assets.
And as for Fishman Companies deposing Zuffa employees, this would not likely happen. At the most, Frank and Lorenzo would be desposed.
Let’s not forget – the Fishman Company’s suit is about a breach of contract – Ed Fishman’s consulting contract, and NOTHING to do with the sales of DSE. Fishman wants to be paid what his contract guaranteed, and that is what the suit is about. It’s not about the old DSE boss’s suicide, or the Yakuza, or anything else. This isn’t going to be some grand fishing expedition to dig up dirt in DSE past, as much as you would like it to be.
Zach – put your money where your mouth is. If the deal doesn’t go through, will you close this site and never blog again? If your so sure, it shouldn’t be an issue, right?
Uh, why would the wager be on the deal not going through? Isn’t that what he’s purporting will end up happening?
Actually, PRIDE FC Worldwide Holding is a holding company, not the purchasing entity.
Zach, I love your site, but god, dude, when you swing and miss, do you miss. Why should we harass the editor of the Boston Herald, which has been one of the best papers for UFC coverage, and covered it before most of the others got on the band wagon? This is a deal worth tens of millions of dollars involving two very different cultures. This takes time. This is not a “new Zuffa myth.”
Re: “New Zuffa Myth”
I very much doubt this is more intentional mythmaking on the part of Zuffa. If Zuffa really did think the deal might fall through, they’d be trying to downplay the fact that PRIDE ever existed and the press conference even took place.
I think this is more a case of the newspaper not having enough information and/or misinterpreting the press conference that happened in Japan.
My comment was not so much directed as Zach, as it is towards most internet reporters.
There have been several myths about Pride (attendance in Japan being 60+ k, pa) that have repeatedly been reported in the mainstream press without some folk commenting on it.
These same folk spent a considerable amount of time ranting and raving about “the Zuffa Myth.”
To everyone who cares about the Pride/Zuffa deal, I have a word of advice that I think that you should hear.
Wait and see.
That is all that anyone can do at this point, and in the end, it is the only thing that is worth doing. Speculation upon speculation is pointless.
And Sakikabara told me that Pride once had 250k at the Inoki Bom Ba Ye show. 250,000 people.
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