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Thursday trash talk: Will the IFL take center stage?
By Zach Arnold | September 20, 2007
Tickets are still available for UFC 76.
Three new SEC filings by Pro Elite (here, here, and here).
The Vancouver Province newspaper printed an editorial today speaking out against a possible ban of MMA in the city. Plus, the latest on attempts to ban MMA in Perth, Australia.
Alex Marvez is reporting that the IFL is aiming for live TV broadcasts, starting in 2008. MMA Analyst has a quick preview of tonight’s Hollywood event. Plus, a curious article at Sherdog talking about the financial health of the IFL. It’s curious because of how condescending and bizarre the opening part of the article is:
Speculation on the financial health of the International Fight League is rampant. Depending on the source, the first-of-its-kind mixed martial arts team-based league is either on the verge of collapse or thriving.
The problem with such speculation is that almost none of it is rooted in fact.
News and notes from Jeff Comstock
Fight Network Radio is reporting that Hardcore Championship Fighting has signed Antonio Rogerio Nogueira to a 3 fight contract.
HCF also signed “The Fight Professor” Stephan Quadros to do color commentary for their broadcasts. Mauro Ranallo is the PBP man.
ImaginAsian TV, which promotes Asian American culture to mainstream America, has announced that it will premiere a weekly mixed martial arts showcase, Pancrase Legends of Mixed Martial Arts, on 7 November, 2007.
Mixed martial arts (MMA) heavyweight and current King of Pancrase Open Weight Champion Josh Barnett will provide expert knowledge of the action inside the ring as host of the new cable series.
The series features some of the greatest MMA fighters to grace the ring since Pancrase was formed in 1993 by Funaki, Suzuki and others .
ImaginAsian Entertainment is a multi-media company based out of New York City. Its main feature is a television network, ImaginAsian TV, that premiered in 2004 and which focuses on entertainment featuring people of East Asian and South East Asian descent. There is also some South Asian content. ImaginAsian TV (iaTV) aims to be the Asian American equivalent of MTV or BET. The channel competes in certain markets with AZN Television. It is not yet available in many American television markets.
Other news and notes
Art of War 8 takes place on 9/22.
The Von Braun Center Arena in Huntsville, Alabama has MMA action this Friday night. Plus, action at the CommunityAmerica Ballpark in Kansas City this Friday.
A new version of the MMA simulator is now available.
HBO plans on a four-part mini series building up the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Ricky Hatton fight (set for December 8th in Las Vegas).
Onto today’s headlines.
- ABC News: Let loose in the ring
- CBS Sportsline: Busy fight schedule cuts both ways for IFL’s Ben Rothwell
- Fox Sports: As always, Ben Rothwell will be in a hurry
- Fox Sports: Fitch-Sanchez, Griffin-Rua top UFC 76 slate
- The Roseville Press Tribune (CA): The fight is on – area gyms offer training in variety of combat styles
- The Fightworks Podcast: Less than two weeks until the Southern Open
- The Elizabethtown News Enterprise (Kentucky): Radcliff’s Dan Barrera fighting for his chance at stardom on The Ultimate Fighter
- Sportsnet (Canada): prepare for an explosive bout with Fitch vs. Sanchez
- The South Florida Sun-Sentinel: Confessions of a fan of MMA
- The New York Daily News: Oscar De La Hoya fights drag photos, kinky affair rumors
Topics: Boxing, Canada, IFL, Media, MMA, Pro Elite, UFC, UK, Zach Arnold | 28 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
The original “old school” Pancrase was a real gem of a show. Glad to hear about the “legends showcase” Pancrase had style, fighters respect for their opponents and some of the most brutal knock outs and submissions of ANY show. Take a look at Rutten Vs Takahashi or Rutten vs someone’s liver for an example. Hume Vs K Sahmrock? those were the days…
BTW isn’t Suzuki fighting sometime soon?
Hume/Ken Shamrock was fun, but it was a work.
The IFL broadcasting shows live just seems like a guaranteed way of burning through their cash resources even faster than they are doing so now.
I could care less if they burn through that cash if it means I can watch their shows live on TV on a biweekly or better basis somewhere. Its a lot tougher to screw it up than they did when they rolled out IFL Battleground in the worst fashion imaginable.
What would’ve been really great is a comparision of the ProElite stock compared to that of the IFL’s. But it was an interesting read for sure.
I get AZN, but it doesn’t look like I can get ImaginAsian. Ah well.
“Hume/Ken Shamrock was fun, but it was a work.”
Are you saying you don’t think Hume can execute a full suplex on Ken Shamrock in legitimate competition?
Bummer about Rogerio.
The IFL piece is odd. Why all the anonymous sources? If someone is a legitamite third-party source who works in the finance industry, this should be someting that is compeletely kosher to comment on.
Why is Quadros always doing color, while Ranallo does play-by-play? Shouldn’t it be the other way around, considering their personalities? It’s probably a “presence” thing.
Quadros probably does color because that’s where he’s most suited compared to Renallo.
I have to admit, I don’t get the Quadros love. The guy stutters, searches for words, and generally makes any broadcast team he’s on feel slightly awkward. He works well with Bas, but Bas has the kind of personality that will make any broadcast team better.
Speaking of the EliteXC team, I’m actually surprised no one brought up Goldberg’s role in the “25 cm” incident. He clearly set up Renallo intentionally. “25-foot pole” isn’t even an idiomatic phrase. “10-foot pole” is, however, but 10 cm isn’t exactly much to brag about.
If the Province editorializes in favour of MMA, then it will be passed. They took a (surprisingly for them) fair stance on MMA. It’s your typical sensationalist tabloid rag. And if MMA does get the go-ahead, that means Lil’ Nog may just make his HCF debut here in Vancouver. Good for us!!
Man…..
If you all are going to be hating on Mauro, the Man With The 10 Inch Cock, you guys will definitely not dig Bobby “The Brain” Heenan.
The Sherdog article on the IFL is horrible. Not only is it poorly written… But it also is about as double as long as it has to be. And it is about 6 months too late.
Mauro & Quadros both stink. Plain & Simple. Mauro’s sexist joke was pathetic. And his Canadian Accent after being an announcer for so long is just bad. And Quadros sounds funky to say the least. Outside of some hardcore fans who just want to like something that isn’t called the UFC, they really aren’t considered very good by anybody.
As for the IFL Live events….
1. They only have an hour on MyNetworkTV right now, it that is an impossible time frame to run live fights.
2. There ratings continue to go down. This makes it even more unlikely that they will be picked up by an even respectable cable station.
3. As somebody said before, running live events is very expensive.
With all due respect 45, as a Canadian: FUCK YOU! LOL
I really don’t know get this “Canadian Accent” hang up, its far more tolerable than any Southern, Baahh-stun or New Yaawk accent. Then again as a Canadian, I probably don’t notice it.
Grape Knee: I brought up the fact that the 25CM pole joke was obviously planned: http://fightlinker.com/?p=629
Cutting edge shit. Nothing like talking about penis jokes to make one feel validated as a blogger
Hey…. I actually like most Canadians. They are liked the British… They speak our language, and make us look dumb!!
The Canadian Accent is no worse then the southern accent… Or the New York Accent…. Or the god awful Bostonian accent. It is just not acceptable in broadcasting. I don’t want to hear Mauro pronounce his vowels like a typical Canadian…. Just like I don’t want to here a guy with that horrible Boston accent pronouncing his a’s…..
“It is just not acceptable in broadcasting.”
You are being sarcastic right?
Re: IFL Live… Bless them for trying I guess. Yawn.
Name the announcers of major sporting events (besides NASCAR) that have heavy accents…. Some of the former players might, but not the main guys….
I never noticed that Mauro had an accent either…he just talks in an “I’m a tool” voice all the time, like Mike Goldberg.
Two words: Peter Jennings
Jennings never had an accent. Perhaps in private life… but not on the news.
UFC Fight Night got a 1.6
Ultimate Fight #1 got a 1.5
This according to MMAJunkie
Solid rating for both. I think the 3rd week of the Ultimate Fighter will be a good indication of how this show will do. I still think that UFC 79 (Dec) will do over 1 Million PPV Buys. The tension on this show will make people want to see the showdown.
That is the best rating for a UFN since number 8 (Evans/Salmon). The previous closest was number 4 (Bonnar/Jardine) which also did a 1.5.
Between this and UFC 75, Spike has to be liking the UFC right now.
45 Huddle:
Have you never seen hockey on ESPN? Canadian accents abound! Really, though, I think you’re just nitpicking. It’s not like Mauro goes out there speaking like the McKenzie Brothers.
What the hell is a Canadian accent? Does that have to do with Canadians living in igloos as well? *Detect the Sarcasm, win a prize.*
Nothing wrong with a Boston accent.
There are HUGE problems with the Boston accent as portrayed by New York actors though. Which is probably how most people are exposed to it.
“Nothing wrong with a Boston accent”
I tried to move to Boston. I lasted three months and I left because I couldn’t stand the accents.
Not to mention I’m sure the constant terrorist attacks from cartoon characters