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« | Home | »

Saturday headlines: K-1 is still confused

By Zach Arnold | August 17, 2007

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On the K-1 web site, you can vote on two all-star fighters advancing to their 9/29 Seoul, South Korea World GP event. Guess what is option five on the voting list? Zabit Samedov, who just got busted in Nevada for failing a drug test due to taking stanozolol. Brilliant timing. Then again, it’s K-1. Do they give a damn? (Hat tip: Gryphon.)

A tame interview with Linda McMahon in Saturday’s edition of The New York Times.

An MMA show gone bad. Every promoter’s worst nightmare come true.

Wanderlei Silva signs a UFC contract. Dana White marks out. Fightlinker notes the hypocrisy on display with Dana White marking out for signing Wanderlei Silva. Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports asks which Wanderlei Silva is going to show up to fight in UFC.

Luke Thomas recently interviewed Hermes Franca (link here).

Here’s another interview with Tito Ortiz. An MMA writer pointed this out to me a couple of days ago… Do you notice that in every single Ortiz interview there is always some sort of advertisement for his clothing company? Is this by coincidence or is there a pre-condition to interviewing Tito Ortiz in which the interviewer must advertise the clothing company in exchange for access?

Kevin Iole is fielding questions for an upcoming Dana White interview. Don’t expect Mr. White to answer too many provocative questions. However, in case he feels like he is in the mood to answer some questions, here are a few questions I would like to ask:

  1. How do you feel about buying the PRIDE assets from individuals that were allegedly tied to organized crime (according to Shukan Gendai)? In an interview with The Chicago Sun-Times in 2006, you admitted that you heard about these accusations and said that they’re ‘not good guys’.
  2. Why did Zuffa LLC officials fight off deposition invitations in Ed Fishman’s lawsuit against DSE?
  3. You stated in a recent ESPN interview that we all have levels of nandrolone around 6 ng, but realistically most of us have levels around 0.1 ng. Can you elaborate further on your nandrolone claims?

I’ve had past articles from this web site translated into many different languges (Spanish, Japanese, Portugese) and now I can add Russian to the list. The translation is of an article talking about drugs in MMA.

On 9/15 (which I think is the day after the Kimbo Slice vs. Tank Abbott fight in Atlantic City), there is going to be a show called Battle Cage Xtreme II at the Boardwark Hall.

Onto today’s headlines.

  1. Yahoo Sports: Rush to judgment (article about GSP)
  2. MMA HQ: Kevin Iole talks out of his butt
  3. Prophet Fighting: Mirko Cro Cop strikes back…
  4. Fightlinker: 30 Days of Awesome
  5. The Dayton Daily News (OH): Jorge Gurgel to host MMA exhibition
  6. The Fresno Bee: Landing a big-time opponent, Kenny Ento will meet Justin Levens on 10/18
  7. Esquire magazine: How to Fight Ultimate Fighting – if boxing is ever going to be become relevant in the future, it needs to look to the past for inspiration
  8. The Appeal-Democrat (CA): Local fighters throw down – MMA event showcases Yuba-Sutter talent
  9. SLAM! Sports (Canada): Testing GSP’s mental game
  10. Gambling 911: Jesus could be one-upping MMA moguel Calvin Ayre
  11. The Pueblo Chieftain Online (CO): Convention center sees money in fights

Topics: BoDog, Boxing, Canada, Japan, K-1, Media, MMA, PRIDE, Pro-Wrestling, UFC, WWE, Zach Arnold | 30 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

30 Responses to “Saturday headlines: K-1 is still confused”

  1. Ivan Trembow says:

    The Esquire Magazine article is idiotic for two reasons: 1) It continues to perpetuate the fictional story line that boxing is “on a downslide” or “a dying sport,” and 2) It proclaims that the way to solve this fictional problem is to increase the fights to 15 rounds instead of 12.

  2. Jordan Breen says:

    15 rounds? Fuck yeah. I am dying for a 15 round title fight featuring Zahir Raheem.

  3. Lynchman says:

    Regarding Tito:
    The things I see in every interview are Tito pimping his clothing and talking about money. I know money is important, but he is the only fighter that talks about it ALL THE TIME. When was the last time you heard Couture talk about it?
    Hell, when was the last time you heard an actor or musician talk about it?

    I get tired of hearing about what seems to be his obession with money.

  4. Jeremy (not that Jeremy) says:

    So Silva is signed (apparently).

    Who should be next in UFC’s sights?

    Gomi apparently is all but officially headed to HERO’S

    Fyodor seems doomed to freebooting around Russia because no one can pay him what he is asking to fight.

    What’s left?

    Fyodor, he’s the Feydor who comes from Norvay.

  5. ukiro says:

    I’ll make a bold attempt at clarifying the pronunciation of “Fedor”. The tricky bit is that letters are pronounced in completely different ways depending on language, and sometimes even depending on dialect. Since Russian pronunciation differs radically from that of American English, translating something letter by letter will misrepresent the word. “Fedor”, I believe, is a letter-by-letter translation, while “Fyodor” sounds much closer to Russian. “Feydor” is no better than “Fedor” though, as they’re pretty much the same. In Sweden we’d spell it “Fjodor” since our j is a bit different from an English J. Hence we spell it Tjernobyl and not Chernobyl, and so forth.

    My own take at an American English spelling would be “Fyodr”, but you’d need to sharpen up the R a bit (think of groundskeeper Willie of The SImpsons and you’ll get it right). The D still isn’t right but it’s close enough.

    Regarding Wanderlei, maybe he should get a re-match with Tito? Hopefully he wins so they can throw Tito out, but if Tito gets the win he will never, ever shut up.

  6. Zach Arnold says:

    Perhaps we can try he-yol-dol like the Japanese. 🙂

  7. 45 Huddle says:

    I almost bought tickets to the Global Fighting Championship a few days ago. I’m glad i didn’t. I would be pissed if they canceled a show 1 hour before the start time.

    At least the UFC is making a big deal about the signing of Wanderlei Silva. The website article. A video of a signing with a highlight reel after it. A mass emailing announcing the signing. i have been impressed so far.

    As for what is next for the UFC in acquisitions? There are a few they could get for each division:
    1. HEAVYWEIGHT: Josh Barnett & Fedor Emelianenko
    2. LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT: Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
    3. MIDDLEWEIGHT: Matt Lindland
    4. WELTERWEIGHT: Shinya Aoki
    5. LIGHTWEIGHT: Gilbert Melendez, Joachim Hansen, & Mitsuhiro Ishida.

    The rest of the top guys are really tied down to other organizations at this point. It should be interesting to see what happens.

  8. 45 Huddle says:

    As for K-1, it should be interesting to follow that company over the next few years. We could easily see a fall of K-1 Hero’s just like we did of Pride. A few things that make the story interesting.

    1. K-1 is slowly but surely eliminating the US market as a viable option to earn money. Their actions in CA and NV with medically suspended fighters competing overseas likely won’t hurt them in the next 6 months. However, when their license comes up again, it is highly unlikely that they will be able to run events in the two largest US markets. While that isn’t the main source of their income, it is still a piece of the pie.

    2. Japan is an extremely fickle market. The Pro Wrestling industry on the large scale collapsed rather quickly. FujiTV didn’t blink an eye removing a highly rated program such as Pride. Already we are starting to see a deterioration of ratings for K-1 Hero’s. Their TV timeslots are being switched. These are not good signs.

    3. K-1 Hero’s Star power is quickly diminishing Choi, Akiyama, & Kid are the 3 main draws. Akiyama got busted in the greesing scandal. Choi’s popularity isn’t once it was not that that AWWW factor has gone away. And Yamamoto isn’t drawing the ratings he once was a few years ago. According to Dave Meltzer (as he knows more of the Japanese market then I), the even bigger problem is that there are no stars coming up that will captivate the fans interest. Plus, with MMA becoming more advanced, it is harder for a company like K-1 Hero’s to take a purely Judo guy and have him compete in their company with success.

    So over the next 18 to 24 months, the landscape of MMA will be greatly changed. K-1 Hero’s, The IFL, Strikeforce, Pro Elite, Bodog, and a few others…. It should be interesting to see which ones can actually survive…..

  9. LR says:

    In regards to the rumors about Fedor, I’m putting together a pretty lengthy in-depth analysis of Fedor Emelianenko, with video analysis of his fights, etc. I’ve got a start to the series of articles over at my blog if anyone is interested. It should be a pretty good read to average MMA fans, and a stroll down memory lane for most of us hardcore fans.

  10. ukiro says:

    I think there are several more desirable signings than diet-Nog at LHW. For example, while he’s not a veteran yet, there should be no doubt that Sokoudjou is an exciting fighter. Just look at how he did against Rogeiro…

    I agree on Ishida though – His loss to Gomi was very decisive, but he’s been totally dominating against other good fighters. Hadn’t sherk been caught juicing, him versus Ishida would have been pretty awesome, as they both have ridiculously good ground control. I imagine it would have been a very stormy back-and forth grappling mayhem.

  11. 45 Huddle says:

    I didn’t put Sokoudjou in there because he is already signed by K-1. And even if that falls through, Elite XC will sign him. The UFC refuses to spend $200,000 a fight on a guy with 5 fights. And I can understand that view point.

  12. Stu says:

    Just a note on the RSS feed for the radio show, the latest episode doesn’t seem to have an mp3-file attached to its RSS entry and therefore doesn’t show up in iTunes.

  13. Zach Arnold says:

    Thanks for pointing this out, Stu. You’re right – Feedburner isn’t recognizing the raw feed on this show for some reason. I’ll see what I can do.

    Update: It’s working now. Feedburner did not like the YouTube embed link at the top. The embed code must have confused FB.

  14. Stu says:

    Works fine now!

  15. Rollo the Cat says:

    FYO-dor would be the correct pronunciation I believe, with the stress on the first syllable. Fedor is a poor romanization. The first “e” in his name is actually an “e’ with an umlaut, which in Russian is pronounced “yo” and is always stressed.

  16. Ivan Trembow says:

    lol at the video of Wanderlei Silva being edited to remove his victory via knee strikes over Quinton Jackson

  17. Ivan Trembow says:

    Also, interesting quotes from the Yahoo Sports article by Kevin Iole that you linked to above:

    “A few weeks ago, during an informal telephone conversation with White, I asked him if he’d try to make an Emelianenko-Cro Cop match for New Year’s Eve.

    “I’d love that,” White said. “You’d love it. We’re hard cores. But the hard core fans who know who Fedor is are a minority. Believe me when I tell you that. My (UFC) fans don’t know who he is. I’d have to build him up. You can’t just say ‘Fedor’s here,’ and open the doors and expect people to come in. It doesn’t work that way.

    “I even had to build up Cro Cop. It’s taking a while for us to do that. After we introduce him to our fans, then you can do that kind of a thing.”

  18. K. Fabe says:

    Hard to argue with White there, considering Fedor’s fight with Lindland did 15,000 buys.

  19. Stu says:

    “We got him baby! He’s ours! He’s ours everybody!”

    Classy to talk about him in third person when he’s sitting right in front of you, sounded like Dana bought a valuable baseball card or something. By the way they missed some stomps against Kondo…

  20. Matt Boone says:

    “Is this by coincidence or is there a pre-condition to interviewing Tito Ortiz in which the interviewer must advertise the clothing company in exchange for access?”

    We’ve been asked the last three times in a row to carry a Punishment.com banner in the interview post, as well as mentioning the clothing company during the interview itself.

  21. Jordan Breen says:

    “4. WELTERWEIGHT: Shinya Aoki
    5. LIGHTWEIGHT: Gilbert Melendez, Joachim Hansen, & Mitsuhiro Ishida.”

    Aoki actually mentioned in a recent magazine article in Fightsport that he thinks he’d make 155 to fight in the UFC.

    Also, I love how Zuffa put up the Silva video… then took it down, and put it back up a little while longer with the Rampage ownages cut out. these dudes gotta read their memos.

    And from the article I wrote today about the Shooto card tonight in Irvine. Zach, I know this will amuse you, since you speak often of CSAC hating on Gene Labell:

    “Taro Wakabayashi, who has refereed hundreds of amateur and professional Shooto bouts over his 13-plus years as a Shooto official, was denied his license as a referee by the CSAC.

    “Yeah, his résumé looked pretty good, but he’ll need to take a refereeing course in September they said,” Manly snickered. “

  22. Jordan Breen says:

    Five minutes of watching Sportschau’s coverage of Abraham-Gevor, and already I’m sick of Markus Beyer.

  23. 45 Huddle says:

    I agree with Dana White. Nobody knows who Fedor Emelianenko is. At least Silva has some name value after they brought him to the octagon a year ago.

  24. Jordan Breen says:

    The German version of Fallout Boy are performing live to bring Abraham to ringside, and the lead singer is wearing bowling gloves. And I thought Abraham’s crown was gonna be the only ridiculous piece of performance equipment.

    Oh shit, Abraham has a new crown, and it doesn’t look like total junk. He’s also got some mean fur patches on his robe.

    They’re playing the American national anthem for the ref? Also, I’m disappointed. The cellist in the string section was not that babetastic at all. The cellist for Wlad-Brewster 2 was off the chain.

    Larry Hazzard Jr. is in Germany judging this? Nice. Too bad Abraham is going to steamroll Gevor.

    It’s scary how effortless ‘Let’s get ready to rumble!’ is for Buffer now. He doesn’t even change his facial expression or open his mouth. It’s like a DAT recording is just playing out of his ears or something. Also, why can’t The Buff speak a little bit of German? Buffer’s Spanish tickles me to no end.

  25. sonzai says:

    “Aoki actually mentioned in a recent magazine article in Fightsport that he thinks he’d make 155 to fight in the UFC.”

    On his blog recently, he wrote that he could fight at either 170 or 155. He’s walking around at 165 or so.

  26. Jordan Breen says:

    Gevor is doing much, much better than expected right now. This is a good fight.

  27. Jordan Breen says:

    “On his blog recently, he wrote that he could fight at either 170 or 155. He’s walking around at 165 or so.”

    Yeah, exactly. He must be showing retraint on the absurd fat-laden creamy bullshit coffees he normally drinks.

  28. Jordan Breen says:

    God, Gevor is eating some big ass mankilling punches.

    Holy fucking shit. KO of the year.

    In slo mo, it looks like Abraham broke Gevor’s neck. Gevor fell straight down, and collapsed on his knees. and just got stuck there. Was like Tank-Nelmark with nothing holding him up.

    And in the other bout, prospect Alexander Frenkel destroys Shane Swartz, and puts him to bed with a massive 1-2, punctuated with a titanic left hook. Swartz went down Rahman-Lewis 2 style, and was snoring.

  29. Preach says:

    The KO looked much, much more brutal live than on TV. People were going “Damn, he broke his neck!” right and left of me.

    And be thankful that Buffer didn’t speak german, Breen. He did it a few times back in the 90s, and all the “Nazis” in the Indiana Jones movies were better at it than the Buff. Hell, i’m sure even the mustached guy from “Mind of Mencia” would be better at it than him…

  30. JThue says:

    Re: No new stars for K-1 in Japan…. BEIJING 2008. One year from now the FEG/TBS cheque book will be opening wide to sign the latest olympic legends.

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