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Sunday news review: Sakakibara hanging around
By Zach Arnold | July 1, 2007
Antonio Inoki rap song from the IGF show
The Feds went after Al Capone on taxes. The Nevada State Athletic Commission reportedly wants their tax money from DSE, this according to The Fight Network. The commission is threatening license revocation. That’s it?
Speaking of DSE, Nobuyuki Sakakibara is apparently getting into the sports management business. He wants to broker an agency for fighters. Sakakibara has placed a help-wanted ad to recruit people to work for the new company.
We’ve never had a dead-even race in a site poll ever, but it’s tied up in our site between Frank Shamrock and BJ Penn on the main page. You have one day left to vote.
A wacky card coming up on July 21st with Emelianenko Alexander vs. Gilbert Yvel.
Onto today’s headlines.
- Fight Report: Evander Holyfield drops Lou Savarese twice en route to UD win
- The Orange County Register: UFC 73 event preview
- The Beaver County Times (PA): MMA fights through misconceptions
- The Terra Haute Tribune-Star (IN): Two fighters from Wabash Valley notch wins inside octagon at Zorah Shrine
- The Terra Haute Tribune-Star: It’s all the rage in the cage
- The Bristol Herald-Courier (TN): Ricky Bouck ‘mounts, grounds and pounds’ (plus Ed Herman at the event)
- The Arkansas City Traveler Online (KS): Tyler Stinson to fight in Las Vegas
- The Lodi News-Sentinel (CA): A Rosebud in her prime – Jennifer Tate blossoms in the ring
- MMA California: Chaos in Citrus Heights smoker
- Whaledog: Tito’s reaction to Dana’s text message
- The Elizabeth News-Enterprise (KY): MMA – ‘mental strength’ is vital when one gets into the ring
Updates on the Benoit story
If you aren’t a subscriber to the Observer, go subscribe. The story told by Dave Meltzer on the Chris Benoit murder-suicide is even more detailed and chilling than you can possibly imagine. The simple ‘roid rage’ storyline played up on American cable TV is not helping out the accurate reporting and speculation on the murder-suicide story.
The story is the ultimate example of the sacrifices one makes to be a professional wrestler and what those consequences are. Tie that in with all of the reported grizzly factors (prescription drugs, paranoia, how 7-year old Daniel Benoit was murdered) and you cannot possibly fathom what took place.
- The Birmingham News: Performance drugs endanger athletes, sports
- The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Wrestling can leave lives on the ropes (a fascinating article about Lex Luger)
- Florida Today: Wrestling’s reality hits hard – Marc Mero says Benoit’s death should be a wakeup call to all
- ESPN: Benoit lived where fact meets fiction (a really good article)
- The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Family – memorial for slain wrestler’s wife, son postponed
- The Orlando Sentinel: Jack Brisco made that ‘sport’ has lost its class
- The Charleston Post & Courier (Mike Mooneyham): Finish goes against script in real-life Benoit tragedy
- The New York Daily News: Benoit took ‘date-rape drug’, source claims wrestler mixed GHB & steroids
Topics: Boxing, Japan, Media, MMA, PRIDE, Pro-Wrestling, UFC, WWE, Zach Arnold | 13 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Is Sherdog.com a cheerleader for the IFL now?
http://www.sherdog.com/news/articles.asp?n_id=8139
Not only is the article horribly written, but it glosses over almost all the actual issues facing the IFL.
The author talks about them breaking attendance records, but never did any research to see how many of those tickets are papered. If Nevada & CA are any indications, those records are pure fluff.
They also write the article as if the IFL is some major player in the sport on the verge of breaking through. It could be more the opposite. The attendance is consistently down. There are no revenues coming in from TV. Their TV show has leveled off at a really low level for Network TV. Yet the article makes everything seem like the IFL is doing good.
It is shining examples such as this when I can at least see why Dana White has a grudge with Sherdog.com. He also talked about Josh Gross leaking the results to TUF4, which I complete agree with White on. It was totally unprofessional. And the way Sherdog covers lower level events and gives them the amount of talk and article time as the UFC. It would be like ESPN SportsCenter talking about the Japanese Baseball Leagues as much as they do MLB. Sure, there is a lot of talent in those leagues, but it isn’t the premiere league, so they barely cover it.
You do know that Japanese baseball draw anywhere from 8-12% for ratings on free-to-air Japanese TV networks, right? Oh yeah, there’s that Daisuke guy who came over to Boston as well this year. 🙂
According to Josh Gross, MMA Fans at some point will be “asking the question” of who Fedor is. Of where Quinton Jackson came from. And from this, they will have a broader view of MMA as a whole.
It is a laughable theory. How many American fans go out and demand to watch Japanese Baseball games because Dice-K, Matsui, or Ichiro came from there? Even the real hardcore fans, I can’t even think of one person who demands this. People like their UFC as their MMA Company. All this coverage for the minor leagues (IFL) which literally has not even one Top 10 fighter, and probably only 2 or 3 Top 20 fighters…. I just couldn’t imagine a legit news outlet putting so much emphasis on the lesser athletes of a sport.
While I doubt any MMA fans are going to ask where PRIDE Fighter X “came from”, a healthy contingent of fans will unearth Fedor over time. In the post-youtube world, Fedor will enjoy enough viral love to stimulate a buzz among casual fans if in fact Zuffa choose not to sign him right now. Whether that buzz is enough to become the stimulus for something larger is something different entirely.
The Japanese baseball analogy is apt really in so far as the fact that fans now can find footage of guys easier. However, MLB still exists in a vacuum of sorts, and with major sportswriters not covering Japanese baseball and as you say, no hardcore fans calling for more imports, there is no trickle down effect to casuals. We well know that hardcores and writers will call for Fedor, which is a message which will eventually reach part of the masses.
As for coverage, while I’ve been a long vocal champion of the fact that the IFL won pseudo-big boy status with a bombardment of self-aggrandizing press foolishness, Sherdog.com covers more MMA internationally than any other site, which as a contributer, is perhaps what endears me most to the site. It is similar to how FightNews offers boxing coverage (albeit Sherdog is obviously more in depth in most cases), in that when you cover MMA internationally in that respect, the sport takes on a cohesive, organic type feel, which I think serves the sport well, and I think it’s good for engaging readers from all sides of the fence.
Aren’t Yomiuri Giants games aired on the YES Network?
I have the YES Network (live in NYC market), and I have never seen a Yomiuri Giants game. Perhaps during the off season, but even when I channel surf, I never see anything.
Jordan,
I don’t think it is just MLB that lives in a vacuum. So does every other major sport in America. Compared to the rest of the world, we as a country look at it very simply: “If it ain’t happening in America, then we don’t care.” This happens with baseball, racing, and every other major sport. Yes, we will watch Wimdeldon for 2 weeks a year… but do we really care about the European Sports market? Not really.
I guess the biggest frustrating with Sherdog.com (and this is not directed towards you)….
They don’t distinguish between Top Tier fighters and all the rest. The way they cover the sport, a casual fan viewing their website would have absolutely no way of knowing which fighters are important. The IFL is covered with the same depth as a UFC. A K-1 show with not one Top 20 fighter gets more coverage then a UFC PPV which has top level fighters spread across the card.
With Zuffa now having control of over 75% of the top fighters, in all honesty, they should be getting 75% of the coverage.
I completely agree with you about the IFL. If you actually look at their cards, most of them aren’t very good. I am excited about the Grand Prix, but I even keep that in perspective because the highest ranked fighter they will have is Ben Rothwell, and he is really unproven.
I’m not asking them not to cover Japan or not to cover an IFL show. However, it is the balance of coverage that really irks me. Josh Gross loves to talk about how belts don’t mean anything (which is a whole different issue I have with him) and that it is all about top fighters. Yet the coverage of his site doesn’t reflect this.
Combat sports do in fact work a little bit differently. If you look at boxing in the past, there was huge hype for fighters to make their stateside debuts when they were fighting elsewhere, and that was when youtube didn’t make guys like this accessible. Prince Naseem, the Klitschkos, whoever.
While I don’t think casual fans are gonna get real intrepid and start acting like “Hey, why isn’t Denis Kang in the UFC?”, Fedor’s word-of-mouth buzz is already incredible. Seriously, go out and talk to some casual fans; a huge chunk of them know who Fedor is and know he’s buckass wild despite probably never actually having seen him fight. His mythic status bolsters his ability to become viral.
“With Zuffa now having control of over 75% of the top fighters, in all honesty, they should be getting 75% of the coverage.”
While I agree to an extent, fight coverage doesn’t exactly work like slicing a pie or something. It would seriously be impossible in a practical to make every third article about a UFC/WEC fighter. As for the illustration of fighter value, I think it’s implicit, but I don’t necessarily think that’s a problem. While I think MMA outlets should be able to expose fans of all enthusiasm to as much MMA as possible, the task of assessing what fighters matter is the responsibility of the conscious fan.
Plus, the site is introducing rankings anyway, so if people can’t figure it out, they can just look at a list, though I dunno to what extent that alleviates your gripe.
Japanese music never ceases to amuse me with its pure amount of saccharine.
Anyone know the results of the IGF show?
I am absolutely amazed that people feel that Sherdog.com is not giving enough coverage to the UFC. Seriously, what are you guys smoking… “With Zuffa now having control of over 75% of the top fighters, in all honesty, they should be getting 75% of the coverage”…this is one of the most ludicrous things that I have heard on this site in a long time. There are a ton of MMA organizations out there, and some are really really good (DEEP for example). To think Sherdog should just cover the UFC and stop covering other organizations…I just don’t get it. Sherdog isn’t suppose to the be the PR center for Zuffa. They are, by their own admission, a website dedicated to mixed martial arts, and sadly, I think that means “ultimate fighting” to alot of you guys, and I for one, find it pathetic.
How is covering the IFL, K-1, or any other show hurting anyone…please, someone let me in on the big secret.
And can we please stop covering the Chris Benoit story. When you use words like “ultimate example of the sacrifices one makes to be a professional wrestler”…it makes it sound like to me, that you are endearing Benoit and making excuses for his totally shitty actions because he was a “pro wrestler.” I know that you are a big pro wrestling fan-boy, but I think enough is enough.
And I know that you’re going to say that that is not what you meant and I mistook it, but I am telling you how I see things.
There are some horrible comparisons being made here. Japanese Baseball is not to MLB as PRIDE is to the UFC. PRIDE was for a good chunk of its existence the superior location, the place to be paid far more money, and where the best fighters in the world ended up. Japanese Baseball prototypically falls around the same level as Northern League/AA level baseball. Guys like Kang and Fedor are known quantities and media outlets such as ESPN will inevitably cover him just as they mention obscure boxers in lower weight classes on their webpages, as they already have. Fedor is not a giant name, but the idea that he’ll be lost to history is nonsense.
Sherdog covers fighting. What is there to cover about the UFC that they aren’t doing? Whether or not they have many of the fighters is meaningless because they average about 1.5 cards a month. There’s only so far you cna go before delving into: “CHUCK LIDDELL: LIKES PASTRAMI” territory.