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« | Home | »

Thursday trash talk: North Carolina ready to regulate MMA

By Zach Arnold | August 2, 2007

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The IFL enters into $12.7 million USD financing. Update: The stock went down to $0.65 USD/share the morning after this news was released.

Here are the weigh-in results for the IFL show that will take place tonight in New Jersey. If you haven’t already done so, head on over to MMA Predictions and make your predictions for the fights on tonight’s IFL event.

Does anyone know if there is an audio or video ad for the IFL 9/20 Hard Rock show in Seminole available online?

The North Carolina state Senate has passed regulation for MMA, pending the Alcohol Law Enforcement division of DCCPP coming up with the rules for MMA regulation. The bill number is H1786 and here is a PDF of the bill (useful for writers like Jeff Hamlin to take a look at). There is a web page with all of the voting information in regards to the bill.

The trusty Mikeinformer brings up a good point today — there are news reports that former MLB closer Rod Beck was allegedly using cocaine before his death. He died at the age of 38. Mikeinformer naturally asks why the mainstream media is not touching this story the way they touched upon other drug stories in other sports.

I realize this is a wrestling-related item, but figured you might be interested in hearing how the American pro-wrestling business has responded since the Chris Benoit murder-suicide tragedy. One short phrase sums it up – business as usual. Read Bruce Mitchell to see how one company (the same one that wants to use Pacman Jones) is handling their business. These guys sure put the carny in carnival barkers, don’t they? I hope the MMA powers-that-be have better PR sense than these garbage promotions. We’ll have more on wrestling-related matters with drug issues on the next edition of Fight Opinion Radio.

Onto today’s headlines.

  1. Yahoo Sports (Kevin Iole): Carlos Condit transform from skinny kid to champion
  2. The Fight Network: Kyle Maynard interview (Maynard will fight at Wild Bill’s Fight Night 11, needs an opponent somewhere between 115 and 130 pounds, e-mail here or 404-579-9404)
  3. Fightlinker: Attention Ken Pavia – you’re bad at your job
  4. The Houston Chronicle: Paulo Filho’s coming to America
  5. The Jawa Report: Video – Tito Ortiz and Justin McCully visit the troops
  6. The Dayton Daily News (OH): Professional boxing down but not out
  7. The Red Bank Hub (NJ): Renzo Gracie under pressure
  8. The Union Democrat (CA): Tuolumne fighter goes for another cage victory
  9. The Philadelphia Inquirer: Training with the pros of MMA – a journalist and ardent IFL fan goes the distance with the Pitbulls
  10. The Sequim Gazette (WA): Jesse Marunde was a man of particularly phenomenal strength
  11. The Canadian Press: Joe Doerksen living the dream
  12. The Guam Pacific Daily News: Put martial arts back into MMA
  13. Sports Illustrated (Todd Martin): Sin City special – Filho-Doerksen, Condit-Larson headline Sunday
  14. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: Ben Rothwell is a warrior at heart – grit, determination power Wisconsin native’s ascent in fledgling IFL
  15. Yahoo Sports: Big weekend on tap for MMA & boxing
  16. MMA Weekly: Chuck Liddell – “I’ve never hand-picked an opponent
  17. UFC Mania: Goodbye Brazil – Wanderlei Silva looks forward to UFC debut in December
  18. Sherdog: ICON and Pro Elite still talking
  19. NBC Sports: Pat Miletich stays in action as trainer of champions
  20. The Nevada Appeal: ‘Young pup’ Daniel Molina earning MMA bones
  21. The Sarasota Herald-Tribune (FL): MMA comes to Sarasota (profile on J.R. Gates)
  22. icLiverpool (UK): Cage fighting – caught by cage master
  23. 24dash (UK): Julius Francis gets cage rage
  24. The Honolulu Advertiser: Fighting for a good cause (Niko Vitale vs. Steve Renaud)

Topics: Brazil, IFL, Media, MMA, Pro Elite, Pro-Wrestling, TNA, UFC, UK, WEC, WWE, Zach Arnold | 16 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

16 Responses to “Thursday trash talk: North Carolina ready to regulate MMA”

  1. 45 Huddle says:

    $11.8 Million after fees. That is not enough to help this company survive. They are going to have to have another stock selling by mid 2008 if they want to survive. Their MyNetworkTV Ratings aren’t high enough, and have to high of an age male demographic to get any real serious advertising dollars.

    Until they can turn a profit, this is just buying time for the inevitable.

  2. THE HUNTER says:

    INVESTORS need to worry here. Stock dilution.

  3. jgass says:

    Being from NC myself this news is huge! I have been hoping for this day for years. I don’t think most people realize but NC just past New Jersey to become the 10th most populous state in the country. I think we have a good chance to become a very solid MMA market. I could see the UFC selling out the downtown Charlotte arena (around 19,000) because this area is starved for big events. There are also quite a few MMA training camps in this state, but all the fighters have to go elsewhere to fight.

  4. Zach Arnold says:

    Jeff – I think there’s a good shot that Pro Elite or IFL will run in Charlotte once regulation passes. As for UFC, Charlotte isn’t exactly Vegas or LA. They like to run in areas that have a lot of social buzz or celebrities. It’s possible they could run a B-show there, although I’m not sold on it right now.

  5. Zack says:

    MMA in NC? WOOOO!

    I think its interesting that they found new investors for the IFL before they have come up with a new gameplan. Realistically, I think both IFL and Bodog have proven that no live fights = not much interest. Both leagues have had some awesome free fights, but there is definitely something missing and they aren’t going to suddenly one day spark interest without making drastic changes.

    The WEC did it right. They got on a network that allowed them live events. They cleared time on the network to show some older events to help generate interest in their stable of fighters. Really I think if IFL and Bodog plan to ever turn around, they need to scrap what they’re doing and follow that blueprint.

  6. Ivan Trembow says:

    WWE Record-Low-Ratings-Explanation-of-the-Week:

    They had to go head-to-head with “Six Degrees of Martina McBride” and its tenth-place finish on ABC.

    OR

    Carlito doesn’t know how to work.

    Also, Dixie Carter, Jeff Jarrett, and everyone else involved in that completely tasteless storyline should be ashamed of themselves.

    lol at the Newark Star-Ledger article saying within the first two paragraphs that the IFL has 12 teams and airs on Spike TV

    Ed. — You should see this item about WWE’s investor conference today.

  7. AS says:

    NC is furtile MMA ground. Charlotte and Raleigh are two of the fastest growing young professional markets in the world. Its these affluent young professionals who makeup the bulk of the UFCs paying customer base. NC also has a strong combat sport culture in the state thanks in large part to the large military installations that eastern NC home. NC regularly ranks in the top 10 in the nation in combat sport events each year.

    Interesting to note that the city of Charlotte still has a ban in place on “ultimate fighting” (at least up until last year) as part of the fall out from one of the original UFCs being staged there.

  8. Adam Morgan says:

    As for UFC, Charlotte isn’t exactly Vegas or LA. They like to run in areas that have a lot of social buzz or celebrities. It’s possible they could run a B-show there, although I’m not sold on it right now.

    Then why did they run an incredibly successful show in Columbus, OH? It’s not the most star-studded place on Earth. I would say it’s even less attractive than Charlotte, but ended up being very successful.

    I guess I don’t understand why not Charlotte, why Columbus?

  9. The Gaijin says:

    Didn’t they have HUGE PR going and hometown boy Rich Franklin fighting on the card? Let alone that this was around what I would consider to be the peak of the mma (=UFC) buzz in the US. It’s considerably less visible in the media and everywhere else the past while (post-Chuck-factKO).

  10. Zack says:

    “Newark Star-Ledger article saying within the first two paragraphs that the IFL has 12 teams and airs on Spike TV”

    Mainstream media, baby!

  11. THE HUNTER says:

    Columbus UFC has the Arnold Fest going on at the same time. Close to 75,000 fitness and martial arts fanatics already in town for the festival and with nothing to do Sat night. It was a lock the show would sell out.

    Zach,

    Those new investors in the IFL got their stock at 50 cents. Plus they got free warrants on the side they could excercise in the future. The IFL pretty much gave the house away when they did this.

  12. Ivan Trembow says:

    lol at WWE deciding that TV ratings are no longer a business category.

    I also got a kick out of the press release talking about what their profits WOULD have been if not for the “impairment charge” of The Condemned losing so many millions of dollars. You know, as if it was involuntary, as if someone forced WWE against their will to launch a WWE Films division that would end up losing money like everything else they’ve ever done outside of their core business of pro wrestling.

  13. JThue says:

    ShoX have officially announced Aug 24th as their next date – that’s indeed one day before UFC 74. Charles Bennett vs. Victor Valenzuela is the main event, moved down from the Sep 15th EXC show.

  14. Preach says:

    Seems Omigawa came in a package with Kaz Nakamura:
    http://www.ufc.com/index.cfm?fa=news.detail&gid=7053

  15. 45 Huddle says:

    Machida vs. Nakamura is actually a solid fight.

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