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Saturday house call: AMA joins BMA in angst about MMA

By Zach Arnold | September 14, 2007

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Blowback to the BMA’s call for banning MMA. You can now count the Australian Medical Association expressing concern about MMA. An AMA spokesman says he doesn’t ‘condone’ MMA, which is nice and flowery to say. 🙂

Dave Meltzer has an article at Fox Sports profiling Gina Carano. One of the things about her that writers such as Jordan Breen have been commenting on regarding Carano is her trouble making weight for fights. Well, Sherdog has a report from the Elite XC weigh-ins that sounds absurd regarding Carano having trouble making 140 pounds for her fight against Tonya Evinger.

MMA Predictions reports that Gilbert Melendez still does not have an opponent for the Strikeforce 9/29 Playboy Mansion show. We are only two weeks away from the event.

Gray Maynard and Cole Miller preview next week’s Ultimate Fight Night show.

Sam Caplan reports that Denis Kang has signed with HERO’s. For K-1, the signing makes total sense considering just how hard they are pushing into the South Korean marketplace.

Pro Elite continues their shopping spree. Jeff Thaler and I debated Pro Elite’s shopping spree on the latest edition of Fight Opinion Radio, but my main question on this topic remains unanswered — how fast is the bleed rate going to be for Pro Elite? Remember, Pro Elite has already lost (according to their latest 10Q SEC report) $16 million USD. The IFL has lost $24 million USD. With Pro Elite on their current shopping spree, they certainly are on pace to spend more money than the IFL.

The Fight Network reports that Ryo Chonan could make his UFC debut at UFC 78 in November.

Is there not an internet MMA radio show that Luke Thomas won’t appear on? Where does he find the time?

Here’s a teaser from Tokyo Sports about K-1 considering a ‘bad boy vs. bad boy’ match-up of Asashoryu vs. Yoshihiro Akiyama for their New Year’s Eve show.

Onto today’s headlines.

  1. ADCC News: Nick Lembo gives his thoughts on steroids and associated issues
  2. Yahoo Sports (Dave Doyle): Robbie Lawler’s second chance at elite status
  3. MMA Madness: Bas Rutten to resume IFL coaching duties
  4. Irish Whip Fighting: Which schools dominate the UFC?
  5. MMA on Tap: Showtime previews Nick Diaz vs. Mike Aina
  6. UFC HP: Business as usual for The Iceman
  7. CBS Sportsline: Q & A – Keith Jardine ready for battle of career against Chuck Liddell
  8. SLAM! Sports: Iceman comes under fire
  9. Sherdog: Imanari to leglock or Abe to Rock and Sock?
  10. MMA Analyst: Elite XC Uprising – the complete breakdown
  11. Doghouse Boxing: Why has Chuck Liddell versus Wanderlei Silva never taken place?
  12. The Honolulu Star-Bulletin: It’s Showtime for Robbie Lawler and EliteXC
  13. MSNBC: Aaah, paradise – ‘Ninja’ to battle ‘Ruthless’
  14. The Miami New Times (FL): Altercation on the Reservation – IFL mixes it up in Hollywood
  15. The South Alabamian: Team ‘Work Shop’ improves to 38-4 in Xtreme fighting
  16. Hot Boxing News: Combat Sports Challenge 22 – “The Reckoning” with Pat Miletich and Jens Pulver as guest commentators
  17. 15 Rounds: Interview with Josh Thomson
  18. Red Bluff Daily News (CA): Leland Gridley fights with a lion’s heart, training with Lion’s Den
  19. The LA Times: Shane Mosley – never mind the civil, give him the unrest (plus Bob Arum shows his love for Hillary Clinton)
  20. The Oregonian: MMA notebook – Busy six days to feature Portland fighters

Topics: Boxing, HERO's, IFL, Japan, K-1, Media, MMA, Pro Elite, StrikeForce, UFC, Zach Arnold | 23 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

23 Responses to “Saturday house call: AMA joins BMA in angst about MMA”

  1. 45 Huddle says:

    First Pro Elite is bad for the sport. Their card in Hawaii has two televised events at catch weights. Come on. Unity in the weight classes is there for the FANS, not the fighters. it was bad enough when the UFC did it for Gracie, but at least it made sense as a one time deal for such a legend. But to have a 175 lbs fight and 160 lbs fight on the card is just catering to the “house fighters” of EliteXC.

    As for their current shopping spree…. There are a few different angles they could be working. I have listed their possible reason for purchasing, and why it isn’t as good as it seems.

    1. They feel if they purchase profitable companies, that it could be a revenue stream.
    —-Mergers and acquisitions NEVER go as intended. If you purchase 3 companies that are each making $1 Million, it is easy to assume that you just purchased $3 Million of revenues annually. Unfortunately, there are always bumps in the road, and those 3 companies will end up making you only $1 Million combined because of extra costs of running so many businesses. Not to mention that once those companies are connected to a large public entity, it makes them a target for more lawsuits.

    2. They feel if they purchase all of these companies, then they can have the exclusive rights to these fighters from early in their careers.
    —-The fighters will still pick TUF over ShoXC 99 times out of 100. Plus, it is impossible to have that many fighters signed to contract, when the best ones will flee to the money anyways.

    3. It is a way to build up their website by featuring a lot of fighting online.
    —-Their website is losing money by the truckload. To stream more content will only be more expensive. And as soon as they charge (which I think they will at some point), very few people are going to watch it.

    4. Consolidation of talent.
    —-They haven’t really gotten any talent out of this deal. They still only have 2 Top 10 fighters (according to Sherdog). Those guys are Jake Shields & Robbie Lawler. So there isn’t much talent they are buying. It is still K-1 Hero’s & the UFC making all the big deals.

    5. Become powerful in certain markets.
    —-They purchased Cage Rage, or at least have a working relationship (I forgot which one). Yet, within a year of penetrating the market, the UFC has dominated anything Cage Rage gas done. Pro Elite has purchased both of the big Hawaii MMA Companies (ICON & ROTR). Yet, if the UFC runs a stadium show in HI, they are likely going to get 20,000+ fans due to the popularity of BJ Penn…. Who helped the TUF5 Finale get around a 20.0 rating for his fight with Pulver.

    My point is that whatever direction they are going in, it seems like one big dead end. The key question is how much support is Showtime willing to give them. If Pro Elite is losing $1 Million a year, I could see Showtime paying them a few million for the TV and being successful on the station. However, if they want big named talent, they are going to have to pay $1 to $2 Million per fight like the UFC does with their stars. And then quickly their net losses become $5 to $10 Million. And Showtime isn’t big enough to support full boxing and full MMA on a major scale. Not to mention that Showtime Boxing is already second fiddle to HBO Boxing in the eyes of most.

    I am probably hating on Pro Elite more then I should. But Gary Shaw is bad for the sport. He is bad for boxing, and he is bad for MMA.

  2. 45 Huddle says:

    Another interesting thing to watch EliteXC for is how they handle their “house fighters” losing. Will they take the boxing approach or the UFC approach. For example, Jason MacDonald comes in and beats Ed Herman. Instead of featuring Herman, the UFC puts it’s efforts to featuring MacDonald. Yes, you don’t crap on the existing stars, but an organization should still build up the winner more.

    If Gina Carano loses, are they then going to feature Tonya Evinger on their main card and put Carano on the undercard? Something tells me no, or not unless Carano losses a few in a row. And don’t even get me started on Shaw building up his “Women’s Division” on a girl that looks hot instead of an established top tier fighter like Tara LaRosa.

  3. iain says:

    I think showtime boxing beats hbo boxing on a regular basis dude.

  4. Rollo the Cat says:

    Check the Lembo interview. The interviewer states that 6ng/ml of nandrolone is normal.

  5. Body_Shots says:

    “I think showtime boxing beats hbo boxing on a regular basis dude.”

    In ratings? I don’t think so.

  6. Rollo the Cat says:

    What exactly is Showtime getting out of all these purchases? How many fighters have exclusive and transferable contracts? Most of the fighters in those orgs didn’t have exclusive contracts anyway, did they? All they are doing is putting people out if business, but I don’t see the direct benefit for them.

    And What about Icon? They were one of the oldest promotions in the nation and one of the best. I remember the early cards at the Blaisdail (I don’t think it was even called Superbrawl yet). TJ always did a great job matchmaking. Sad to see them go and replaced by the Larry Flynt of MMA.

    45 is absolutely right about the streams. No one is paying for that stuff, except the illegal stream sites, I suppose.

    “I am probably hating on Pro Elite more then I should. But Gary Shaw is bad for the sport. He is bad for boxing, and he is bad for MMA.”

    No, your hate level is actually fine. That whole operation is rotten.

  7. The Gaijin says:

    “If Gina Carano loses, are they then going to feature Tonya Evinger on their main card and put Carano on the undercard? Something tells me no, or not unless Carano losses a few in a row. And don’t even get me started on Shaw building up his “Women’s Division” on a girl that looks hot instead of an established top tier fighter like Tara LaRosa.”

    Unless she gets KO’d or subbed, I’ll be betting they pull a “Bisping” with this girl – she’s not losing unless its decisive.

  8. The Gaijin says:

    Dammit that Kang is going to HEROS and not UFC. He could have added some competitiveness to a somewhat anemic MW division. After Silva destroys Rich “Paper Boy” Franklin for the second time in a year – where do they go from there?

    I guess Hendo moves down and they unify MW belts, which would be cool. I’d love to see if they could play up a Chonan-Silva rematch, with many, many replays of that ridiculously insane flying leg scissors –> heel hook.

  9. Matt Boone says:

    We have a new interview (conducted at 3AM early this morning with help from Julio Heller) with Murilo “Ninja” Rua up at the following link:

    http://www.mmanews.com/other/MMANews.com-Exclusive:-Pre-EXC-Interview-w-Ninja-Rua.html

    RSS feed is http://www.mmanews.com/rss.xml

  10. 45 Huddle says:

    Despite Kang being Canadian, he falls into the same category as Takanori Gomi. They are top level talent, but their price tags in North America are substantially lower then in Asia. Zuffa pays Paulo Filho $50,000 per win. Denis Kang is getting $100,000 per fight in Asia. Zuffa can’t pay Kang more then Filho, and honestly, Kang isn’t worth 6 figures in North America at this point in his career.

    Gilbert Melendez: I hope these issues with his opponent helps him see the writing on the wall that Strikeforce just doesn’t have enough talent for him at this time. Melendez would be a perfect addition to the UFC. He is a legit Top 5 fighter in the world.

    As for Ryo Chonan…. He would be a nice addition to the Welterweight Division, but I can’t see him beating the top level guys. But it does give that division more depth. Plus, if they sign Sakurai, that would only make it better.

  11. Manos says:

    I love the “no whining in MMA” article.

    Good excerpt

    “No one would disagree that what Soboral did was classless, yet the keyboard warriors still found something to cry about by comparing the treatment of Sobral to that of BJ Penn and calling for more consistent and fair treatment. Critics conveniently ignored Dana White going on record and saying that Sobral was released not only for the transgression, but also adding: “I don’t like the direction he’s been going in, and he needs to straighten his life out if he wants to continue to be a professional athlete, ” which makes comparisons to Penn irrelevant. On the flipside, had the UFC done nothing, the same critics would have been up in arms about the UFC needing to take a hard-line stance against such poor behavior.”

  12. Preach says:

    I think in Kang’s case it’s not only that he gets more money in Hero’s, but that he’s thinking outside the fight game. K-1/Hero’s aggressively pursuing and catering to the korean market. Kang’s a korean-canadian. So being featured prominently on korean tv and fight cards in Korea (which he wouldn’t, signing with the UFC) would definetely increase his popularity over there tenfold. Guest spots on TV-shows, sponsoring from big korean companies, perhaps some movie roles. In the UFC he wouldn’t have any of that, not even if he were to become a champion. Sure, they (Hughes, Couture, Liddell, Tito) have made a shitload of money, and have some good sponsoring deals, but nothing major. And especially on the acting front it looks rather bleak for them. Randy was a better extra on “The Unit” and “Cradle 2 the Grave”, Chuck was in “Bachelor Party Vegas” and “Bobby Z”, and Tito in “The Crow 4” and that muslim propaganda-flick “Valley of the Wolves” (for which he’d deserve ten minutes with Fedor, CroCop, Sylvia and Arlovski). There are definteley bigger things to come for Dennis in Korea.

  13. Zack says:

    “First Pro Elite is bad for the sport. ”

    As a fan…I’m fired up for the card tonight. Showtime for $12 = sweet!

    There is a wealth of talent out there that the UFC has failed to sign. I’d rather have them end up in Elite XC than Heros because at least then I can watch them live without staying up to watch a stream from 2-7am on a Sunday morning.

  14. The Gaijin says:

    I don’t mean to rant and all due respect to guys/gals that go out there and attempt to write articles on mma, but…

    Tomas Rios needs to stop – his writing is so EFF’in horrible. I want to scrape my eyeballs out when I read this homeless man’s Dennis Miller of MMA articles.

    The obscure references, simile/metaphors need to stop – there’s fucking one every other sentence and most of them are flat out STUPID.

  15. Jordan Breen says:

    Rios rules.

  16. ch says:

    One benefit to Showtime, if they choose to make it so, it the opportunity to put a live event on television every month. Right now only the UFC is able to do that which has made them the most recognizable (US) brand in mma, bar none. Showtime can show KOTC, ICON Sport, Cage Rage and Elite XC branded events every month. The orgs they buy already have their infrastructures in place, they have athletes that fight for them, they have established titles, they have draw with the local live audience, and they each have some established brand equity. Putting these events on every month could make showtime the first direct and significant challenge to the UFC here in the US. Sure it’ll cost money, but it can be done.

  17. MMA needs more funny and less Rios 😉 Just kidding, Rios is okay. Although his predictions for Art of War 3 were hilariously wrong.

  18. SB says:

    http://excuprising.proelite.com/52537
    I think Gina will be taken care of very well by her opponent *Winks* Fuck weight limits its about no limits people!

  19. Jordan Breen says:

    Most people’s predictions for Art of War were wrong, I think.

    My thought is that really, anyone could write a preview about an MMA card. If you can do it with your own steez or flair, it’s all the better.

    I’m planning on doing a 9/22 Shooto card preview for next week, I probably won’t go too overboard on jokes because I think I’ve gotta use my words to explain and contextualize fighters that people haven’t seen before. But I think what Rios has is necessary when you’re writing, say, a UFC preview, where people KNOW the fighters and in many cases can make their own assessments of how guys’ styles clash with one another.

    Also, Rios’ preview has a Mr. Belvedere reference. Mr. fucking Belvedere.

  20. 45 Huddle says:

    I just have to laugh about this…. Sherdog.com is doing the PBP for the EliteXC Show. When discussing the Diaz fight…

    “The American picks up the pace as he jabs and throws combos with his hands down.”

    I believe Diaz is “The American”. But I find it funny that because the other fighter is from Hawaii, then he is the non-American. Man, they need some better guys doing this stuff.

  21. Rollo the Cat says:

    45,

    I lived in Hawaii. It is not the US. I don’t care what the maps, textbooks or US government says, it is not America.

  22. cyphron says:

    Rollo,

    Right, Hawaii is Russian. Got it.

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