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Monday media notes: Setting the agenda
By Zach Arnold | October 28, 2007
Yahoo has officially separated it’s boxing and MMA pages. You can access their MMA home page here.
Sam Caplan means business.
BBC Sports is reporting that Joe Calzaghe will be retiring within the next 12 months.
Taking a look at upcoming fights and challenges in UFC for 2008.
Fightlinker needs your help with WordPress issues. I love WP, but it is definitely a flawed program with a lot of quirks and bugs.
An interesting note about the K-1 HERO’s show from South Korea (featuring Yoshihiro Akiyama vs. Denis Kang) — the show aired on Tokyo Broadcasting System from 12:30 AM-2 AM. That’s a very late timeslot for K-1 programming. One of the challenges K-1 is facing right now is finding big enough corporate sponsorship of the HEROs events.
The K-1 HERO’s event in South Korea was a tough card to make predictions for. MMA Analyst says that you could have made a lot of money. For those of you who saw the Japanese TV version of Yoshihiro Akiyama vs. Denis Kang, here’s the translation of what it says in the upper left part of the screen (paraphrasing): Yoshihiro Akiyama returns after 10 months versus PRIDE’s #2 world ranked Denis Kang.
The IFL had an open-call session in Chicago on Saturday. The Des Moines Register has an article profiling an IFL ring girl.
An interview with Paul Buentello.
How do you book a fighter for a show when he isn’t supposedly told about the booking?
Debating whether or not people are fans of UFC or MMA in America.
The Fightworks Podcast has an interview with Armando Garcia. Speaking of the CSAC, this is going to be a big week for Sean Sherk.
Even more changes for the upcoming IFL GP. This is getting out of hand. At least Jay Hieron is still on track to fight.
There was a large MMA show in New Mexico over the weekend.
The big MMA show in Springfield, Mass. over the weekend drew 2,500 paid at the MassMutual Center.
Matt Lindland is looking for work.
Dana White reflects on booking Wanderlei Silva vs. Chuck Liddell. Jake Rossen thinks that Liddell should be fighting at Heavyweight.
Topics: BoDog, Boxing, HERO's, IFL, K-1, Media, MMA, StrikeForce, WEC, Zach Arnold | 58 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
What was the URL of that article from a few weeks ago that was about Zuffa’s $20 million hiring of a PR/marketing company in an attempt to brand the entire sport of MMA as “Ultimate Fighting” instead of “mixed martial arts”? I remember reading that but I don’t remember when exactly, and it’s relevant in light of the question being posed in that Bleacher Report article.
Ed. — Here’s the link.
Ivan, don’t you think that the UFC is trying to monopolize the sport by branding “ultimate fighting” opposed to MMA as their ‘sport name’?
I think ultimate fighting is a shady way of doing business.
I saw that Bleacher Report article earlier, found it contemptible. The anti UFC bias is ugly, and complaining about the attitude of the people watching UFC is absolutely disgusting. I agree that “mma” hasn’t grown at nearly the level the UFC has grown at, but in a way that is complaining about how independent baseball leagues haven’t grown in the way MLB grew.
You can call it whatever you want, the UFC IS MMA, the dominant MMA organization in the world. Just because people don’t want to watch the minor leagues doesn’t make them not fans of the sport. And in truth there is still plenty of major league talent in other promotions. But given time, the UFC will be the major leagues in both perception and in truth. For all the issues about fighter pay, having one dominant well-run league will only help the sport in the long run.
Also, I think rebranding the entire sport as Ultimate Fighting would also be beneficial to the growth of the sport. There is nothing special about the term MMA that makes it any better than what people actually call the sport.
Lindland looking for work doesn’t surprise me. The guy is not a draw at all. The two PPV’s he headlined were the WFA and Bodog… Both did horrible in PPV Buyrates. The guy was reportedly getting 6 figures per fight which is too much for a guy like him.
Did anyone watch Shark last night? The plot was around mma and steroid.
It was VERY bad.
MMA fans who aren’t long-time pro-wrestling fans will probably mistake the show attacking MMA, when in reality it was probably something different. Let me copy Dave Meltzer’s explanation here:
–The TV show “Shark” last night did a show that had an MMA storyline but was clearly based on an evil promoter forcing steroids on his fighters and an organization where people were regularly dying of drug deaths that was meant to be someone else. The champion of the UFL (Ultimate Fight League) was found dead in his home after a match. At first it looks like a suicide. They had a backstage doctor patterned after Dr. George Zahorian (the backstage doctor at WWF events in the late 70s and 80s) who gave fighters steroids and an evil CEO who forced fighters to take them. The fighter also loaded up on antidepressants (taken from the Benoit case). Then they changed it to a murder, and that the CEO killed him because he was planning on retiring and going public about all his health issues from all the steroids forced on him and he had told people he was going to vow to clean up the business. (thanks to Dave Musgrave)
Zach, from what I remember the first HERO’S in Korea from two years ago was in a similar position. The Korean K-1 MAX event on the same day was even aired a couple of weeks later. The sponorship thing is obvious though, it was basically the same make up style (“John F. Kennedy…”) commercial over and over again.
I’ve seen it a few weeks ago (as a screener), which is why i pointed out the episode yesterday. Like i said, filled with clichés. The hints at the Benoit-case were very obvious (the fighter even had a wife reminescent of Nancy Sullivan and a son). The kidney-problems due to steroid abuse were most probably inspired by those of Konnan (Charles Ashenoff), who earlier this year had to get a kidney-transplant.
Check this out
http://www.sherdog.net/forums/showthread.php?t=669089
Tired of hearing complaints about “booing” like the one in the Bleacher Report. To my knowledge, in the last several years, I’ve never heard fans boo an exciting ground battle that consisted of active/close sub attempts and reversals. I use to think booing was reprehensible a long time ago, but I give credit to North American fans whose comprehensive of MMA have grown leaps and bounds over the years (but of course this isn’t universal across the country).
Knick fans are also widely considered some of the smartest and classiest fans in basketball and they are also the quickest to boo if they don’t like what they see on the court.
The name of the sport doesn’t have anything to do with its growth. Either people like watching it or they don’t.
Glad to hear that Yahoo took the leap and separated their MMA & Boxing pages. This is one more step in the right direction for our sport.
Gamecritics
I agree that North American fans are more informed now than say 3 years ago, but they are still light years behind the average Japanese fan.
As far as “booing” goes well I am not a fan of it, but I understand that some fans watch mma just to see someone get “KTFO”. You say you have never heard fans boo during an exciting ground battle(of course “exciting ground battle” is very subjective, what might be exciting to a fan of abu dhabi grappling is not to a fan of boxing), well I have. I think most fans in the US still only like stand up and I think the UFC’s mentality only helps to advance this (pro elite is also guilty of this, remember when they were toying with the 15 second rule). Thats why you have guys like joe stevenson apologizing to fans after submitting someone.
As far as your statement about Knicks fans well I have never heard that before. You might be getting wealth and class mixed up. New York is known for having some of the most fickle and demanding fans in all of pro sports.
Aaron Crossen: I guess you missed the Strikeforce show where the playboy bunny kept asking if the sport was like the UFC.
If they’re already watching and know that MMA and UFC are the same thing, well and good. But if they are a UFC fan and don’t know jack about MMA, they’re more likely to watch a minor league show if the minor league show is advertised as ultimate fighting, rather than as MMA.
“For all the issues about fighter pay, having one dominant well-run league will only help the sport in the long run.
Also, I think rebranding the entire sport as Ultimate Fighting would also be beneficial to the growth of the sport. ”
I disagree. The pro wrestling model of MMA has been the main reason why we haven’t gotten many of the most anticipated fights.
Zack: I’m not following how the pro wrestling model is why we haven’t gotten the most anticipated fights. Isn’t a pro-wrestling model simply to throw together the fights people want to see, regardless of where the fighters stand on the totem pole?
Moreover, the reason we haven’t gotten the most anticipated fights is that there hasn’t been one dominant organization. The UFC gave the Pride fighters warm-up fights because the audience didn’t know them that well. With one dominant organization, that would never be the case.
“Lindland looking for work doesn’t surprise me. The guy is not a draw at all. The two PPV’s he headlined were the WFA and Bodog… Both did horrible in PPV Buyrates. The guy was reportedly getting 6 figures per fight which is too much for a guy like him.”
Yeah, he’s one of the top middleweight fighters in the world, but screw him, right? He’s not exciting enough.
Also, that episode of “Shark” was about the fact that Vince McMahon condoned, participated in, and bought drugs from the steroid distribution ring of Dr. Zahorian, who operated right out in the open in WWE locker rooms for years.
In all seriousness, if you want to watch something where an athlete’s worth is determined by how exciting he is, go watch pro wrestling. If you want to watch somewhere an athlete’s worth is determined by how good he is at his chosen field, then watch a real sport.
My point is that MMA is a real sport and should be treated as such. Now allow me to congratulate myself for making it through two sentences without accidentally clicking the “Submit Comment” button.
Ivan Trembow: Exactly, screw him. I know you want organizations to act like sports rather than entertainment. But any organization that does so will get crushed by competition that acts purely like entertainment.
Thats why I support the UFC so much, because I think they have the best shot at dominating the market to the point that they will be able to act like a sport without losing the market. To a degree they already act like a sport more than any of their major competitors; they tend to be very good about putting together top fighters and giving deserving fighters title shots. None of that Frank Shamrock/Phil Baroni nonsense or Fedor/Zulu.
” I think they have the best shot at dominating the market to the point that they will be able to act like a sport without losing the market. To a degree they already act like a sport more than any of their major competitors; they tend to be very good about putting together top fighters and giving deserving fighters title shots.”
Really? You mean fighters don’t get released, buried on prelims for too long, frozen out, lose publicly promised title shots, or not even get offered UFC contracts in the first place because they had the nerve to have “boring fights”? That would be news to Matt Lindland, Jon Fitch, Mike Swick, Josh Koscheck, Andrei Arlovski, Yushin Okami, Ricardo Arona, or Paulo Filho (no way he would be in the WEC instead of the UFC if Zuffa didn’t think he was “boring”).
And what makes you think that once they achieve an acceptable level of market domination that they’ll decide, “Okay, now we can book it like a real sport instead of like pro wrestling promoters”?
First off, I’m not at all sure you’re accurate in regards to those situations. Koscheck was never offered a shot, nor did he particularly deserve one. Jon Fitch is moving up in the ranks now and looks very close to a title shot. Andrei was promised a shot as a gift; he didn’t deserve the shot. Until we know what the UFC does with Okami, he shouldn’t even be mentioned. Arona has supposedly been negotiating with the UFC; he’s more a case of being a fighter in a division that is already too stacked with new fighters. They brought in Nakamura, it isn’t just about being exciting or not.
Sure, they do plenty of “pro wrestling” things. They’re still more sports-like than other organizations. Can you say Gina Carano?
And you’re right, I don’t know for sure that they’ll start booking like a real sport once they get big enough. But I already see the signals that indicate that they are moving in that direction, slowly but surely. They are doing their best to load up on the best fighters, which is totally unnecessary for a pro-wrestling organization. They put together top draws and real threats, such as CroCop against Gonzaga and Franklin against Okami. Koscheck is boring as hell, but he’d be getting a title shot if he’d beaten GSP.
Its hard to see because the influx of real talent and development of the TUF talent has only happened over the past year. But the UFC has shown some real positive trends since January. We’ll never again see a fight like Hughes against Royce; I doubt we’ll ever again even see Couture against Sylvia.
How many World series has A-Rod won?
Why make excuses for boring fighters anyway? If fighters want to adopt a boring style, they should stop fighting and go play golf.
Ivan,
It’s not entirely true that in “real sports” the best competitors are always represented at the highest levels of competition. It’s a well known fact in open wheel racing that in order to get to the pinnacle of Formula 1, you need to be independently wealthy or you need to be marketable and have well-paying sponsors. Very, very few drivers make it to the big leagues on just their own driving skill.
That said, you do see a similar situation in other sports in an inclusive sense rather than an exclusive sense. The most popular, highly paid players will always be the ones that are the most marketable and exciting, though not necessarily “the best”. Pre-dogfight Michael Vick was a *terrible* quarterback, simply put. But that didn’t stop the huge contract or the numerous sponsorships. If it were all up to skill, he would have been a 2nd stringer somewhere.
I’m not saying you’re necessarily wrong, but I think there’s a shade of grey here that you’re not really addressing in your “real sport” argument.
“How many World series has A-Rod won?”
A more appropriate question would be:
“How many MVP’s has A-Rod won?” (approaching his 3rd and 2nd in 3 years), since that is something that might more accurately measure an individual athletes accomplishments in a sport (or maybe looking at their stats).
What an idiotic analogy – how do you use an TEAM accomplishment which requires the collective action of a TEAM of 25 players as a gauge to measure how “good” or accomplished one player is in his sport? The fact that he’s about to get $30+ million in the open market might have some bearing as well (certainly there is some marketability built into that price, but that’s mainly due to the fact that he’s the best player in the game).
“Zack: I’m not following how the pro wrestling model is why we haven’t gotten the most anticipated fights. Isn’t a pro-wrestling model simply to throw together the fights people want to see, regardless of where the fighters stand on the totem pole?”
Pro Wrestling model as in you’re contracted to an organization and only compete against other guys in that org.
The Gaijin: While you’re right that team accomplishments aren’t an appropriate gauge as to accomplishment of players, neither is pay scale in a team sport. Teams make money almost directly as a result of how much they win, so there is a strong incentive to compete for the services of the best players. Pay scale in individual sports is a more accurate comparison, and as Grape Knee says, reaching the top in Formula 1 is not highly correlated with skill.
Zack: according to that analogy, every single one of the major sports is a pro-wrestling model. It ends up not mattering as long as one organization is sufficiently dominant, because they’ll have all the top competitors anyway.
^ I agree. As I said – look at his MVP awards and his stats. I was just providing a subsequent point of reference being how much money teams are willing to offer a player of his stature. It was more of a secondary point as guys like JD Drew, Dice-K or most guys on the Toronto Maple Leafs also show you how some people just spend money at a moronic level.
As for F1, I don’t have more than a superficial level of knowledge on the sport so I really can’t comment on that point.
Ah, I gotcha.
Regardless, I just don’t think the skill level and payment scale of competitors in other sports is a particularly relevant argument–the UFC just doesn’t have that level of dominance yet. Expecting them to act as though they do is foolish, and projecting how they will act when they do is speculative and doesn’t mean anything.
According to MMAJunkie, the UFC is setting up a press conference to discuss Randy Couture. However, the press conference will include both Dana White AND Lorenzo Fertitta.
The fact that Fertitta will be on the call is very interesting. This guy is an extremely successful businessman. If he starts saying Couture is full of shit, that carries more weight then Dana White & Randy Couture combined….. At least in my opinion it does.
The website is also reporting that Dan Henderson MIGHT fight at UFC 79 and it might be at Middleweight. I would be very happy to see this. If Henderson wins, he would obviously fight Anderson Silva…..
“First off, I’m not at all sure you’re accurate in regards to those situations. Koscheck was never offered a shot, nor did he particularly deserve one.”
The UFC publicly said several times before the Koscheck-Sanchez fight that the winner would be in line for a title shot, although not necessarily the very next title shot. That went out the window after the boring fight.
“Jon Fitch is moving up in the ranks now and looks very close to a title shot.”
Jon Fitch was put in prelim fights in four of his first five UFC fights even though he won all of them and he is (and was even then) one of the top welterweight fighters in the entire world. And if by “very close” to a title shot you mean mid-to-late 2008 in a best-case scenario, then yes, he’s “very close.”
“Andrei was promised a shot as a gift; he didn’t deserve the shot.”
The UFC said numerous times in public interviews that Arlovski was in line for a title shot if he beat Werdum. Then Arlovski and Werdum were discourteous enough to have a boring fight, and neither has been seen or heard from since.
“Arona has supposedly been negotiating with the UFC”
The Wrestling Observer reported that Zuffa has no interest whatsoever in signing Arona to a contract because of his “fight style.”
Kevin Randleman has the worst case of staph infection you’ll ever see (pic included)
http://www.mmanews.com/other/Pics–Quotes:-Randleman-Suffering-From-Awful-Staph-Infection.html
And the war of Canadian MMA promoters heats up – original letter from HCF CEO:
http://www.mmanews.com/other/HCF-Writes-Letter-In-Hopes-Of-Getting-Mismatch-Canceled.html
Heated response to that letter from MFC rep:
http://www.mmanews.com/other/MFC-Representative-Responds-To-HCF-Open-Letter-Post.html
Ivan, I can’t recall the UFC ever saying that the winner of Koscheck/Sanchez would get a title shot. The closest I can think of is Rogan saying they were both in the ‘title picture’ or something to that effect. I don’t believe they publicly stated anything to do with a title shot and those two guys.
Also, LOL @ the MFC. Those guys tend to put on some quality shows, but they really need a good PR rep, that release sounded atrociously unprofessional. And a good LOL @ saying they didn’t comment on the HCF show before it happened. Their owner went on the UG and said things along the lines of ‘it ain’t gonna happen’ or ‘Aleks is fighting just like Ricco was (referring to Ricco Rodriguez having to pull out of the main event of the first HCF show).’ All those associated with the MFC tend to come off as nitwits when it comes time to type up anything, it seems. The best PR move they’ve made in their entire time as an organization was to get owner Mark Pavelich and his son Dave to stop posting on the Canadian UG forum, where they often and consistently made royal fools out of themselves.
That being said, I tend to agree with some of the points they made. Crawford isn’t exactly being honest when he says that he’s spent 10 years and millions of dollars promoting MMA.
ivan says:
“If you want to watch somewhere an athlete’s worth is determined by how good he is at his chosen field, then watch a real sport.”
All I see in the responses to this comment is a bunch of sidestepping posts and strange comparisons with little validity.
Formula 1 comparison, well I guess we have a difference in what we call real sports. I view anything that requires an automated machine to be less of a sport than say football or basketball or anything that requires actual athleticism.
Grape Knee High:
“That said, you do see a similar situation in other sports in an inclusive sense rather than an exclusive sense. The most popular, highly paid players will always be the ones that are the most marketable and exciting, though not necessarily “the best”. Pre-dogfight Michael Vick was a *terrible* quarterback, simply put. But that didn’t stop the huge contract or the numerous sponsorships. If it were all up to skill, he would have been a 2nd stringer somewhere.”
Pre dogfight vick was a terrible quarterback? Yeah he has been abysmal the past 2 seasons due to being constantly injured, but he was resigned in 2004. And in 2002 he finished second in the MVP voting and was a pro bowler (at the age of 22 mind you, he also made the pro bowl team in 2004 and 2005) and in 2003 he was injured for a good deal of the season but led the falcons to a playoff victory. In 04 he was 11-4 as the starting quarterback. My point is that the falcons probably wouldn’t have signed him if they had a time machine and could look to the future, but at the time he signed the contract he had a 2 and a half seasons that made him look like the next big thing. So that analogy of yours is just garbage.
I think that skill and performance is directly correlated to compensation in just about every sport, more so than their “popularity”. ( I am talking compensation from the Sports team or org, not sponserships, thats a completely different thing as it is based more on marketability(popularity) and less on performance). There are always a few examples that might not fit this hypothesis, but they are in the margins.
*past 1 season, not 2
Vick does suck as a quarterback. Whether he’s made three pro bowls or eight, anyone who watches football can tell you that he’s not a very good QB. There are a dozen guys I’d rather have as my QB than Vick.
One very interesting thing that Dave Meltzer said in the Wrestling Observer…. He said that Kevin Iole’s source is very legit. Of course Meltzer has said Couture made around $1.5 Million for his fight with Sylvia….
on TBS/K1 telecast time/sponsor point-
– TBS is coming off the Kameda scandal – so you wouldnt want to have been the Dentsu/TBS sales team going to big sponsors on a fight event, featuring scandalous Akiyama as the main event
– k1 would have been paid bugger all for this event. i suspect k1 was looking to build things in korea (judging from the mainly korean matchmaking)
– i suspect the TBS/K1 took the hit on this event using it to bring back akiyama for NYE
fascinated to see ratings for the show and k1 has the k1GP in seoul coming up as well
nervous times over in k1’s office for the next 2 months
“The UFC said numerous times in public interviews that Arlovski was in line for a title shot if he beat Werdum. Then Arlovski and Werdum were discourteous enough to have a boring fight, and neither has been seen or heard from since.”
I never said he wasn’t promised a shot. I said the shot was offered as a gift. Arlovski didn’t deserve a shot, he was offered it to protect a potential CroCop/Arlovski matchup. Once CroCop lost and Arlovski destroyed his marketability, there was no more reason for giving him a shot. You should be more upset about the fact that he was offered the shot in the first place, not that it was taken away. The fact that you’ve focused on him not getting the shot, rather than him not deserving a shot in the first place, makes me question your interests.
And my guess is that Fitch and Parisyan will have a number 1 contender matchup in March. One win away from a title shot counts as close. Moreover, you can’t hold the fact he was on undercards for so long against the UFC; their status and priorities as an organization have shifted vastly in only the two years Fitch has been a member of the company.
“The Wrestling Observer reported that Zuffa has no interest whatsoever in signing Arona to a contract because of his “fight style.””
I was going to defend the UFC here, but why should I? They aren’t out of the woods. They have to defend the brand more than they have to satisfy cranky, arrogant, demanding fans such as yourself. I understand where you’re coming from; you need to understand that your opinions are low on their radar, and rightfully so. I don’t know if they will change in the future; I do know that doing everything you would have them do would cripple the entire sport.
# ilostmydog Says:
October 29th, 2007 at 5:25 pm
“Vick does suck as a quarterback. Whether he’s made three pro bowls or eight, anyone who watches football can tell you that he’s not a very good QB. There are a dozen guys I’d rather have as my QB than Vick.”
my statement:”Yeah he has been abysmal the past 2 seasons due to being constantly injured, but he was resigned in 2004.”
Were you just reiterating what I was saying or were you trying to say that he has always sucked? We all know he hasn’t been that good recently, we are talking about how good he was when he signed his new contract and what his potential was.
When the Fertitta’s first bought the company, they tried to cater to us. Dana White posted on the UG on a few occasions to get people’s opinions. Look at where that got them. $40 Million + in debt….. It is useless for them to care what we think.
dice, in his prime was Vick highlight reel amazing at times? Yeah, of course. Was he a good QB? No. His best QB rating was 81.6. Or just plain mediocre. And that was his *best* season.
And as to your comment that “I think that skill and performance is directly correlated to compensation in just about every sport” is just plain laughable. Do you not watch sports?
Athletes get paid on what economic return the employers think they can get in return in many cases. Sometimes it is just for pure potential (outside of real performance or skill). In other cases, they get are slotted into ranges (like rookie NBA and NFL contracts).
Ryan Leaf just about busts your argument single-handedly.
@ dice:
He’s never been a very good QB. Even in 2004. Dude has never surpassed 3000 yds passing in a season, has an atrocious TD: INT ratio, and has a passing % of barely over 50. He can run, boy can he run, but he can’t pass worth a lick.
Ivan – “In all seriousness, if you want to watch something where an athlete’s worth is determined by how exciting he is, go watch pro wrestling. If you want to watch somewhere an athlete’s worth is determined by how good he is at his chosen field, then watch a real sport.”
I hope you know that even “real sports” pay exciting players that can bring in new fans and sell stadium seats more than they should be paid if it was based purely on their skill level.
A-Rod signed a contract that at the time was 2x as large as the largest sports contract up to that point (and 2nd place wasn’t even an MLB player, it was an NBA player). He’s not good enough compared to all the other players in the league to justify getting paid such an outrageous sum, especially when you consider that baseball is a team game. He’s a lifetime .306 hitter, not a .456 hitter. His contract is worth much more than next closest guy’s, but his stats simply aren’t that much better.
Is his worth based purely on skill and how much he helps the team then? No. So, baseball =/= real sport, huh?
You could also find a thousand instances where a better player, stat-wise or skill-wise, is getting paid less than a more popular player (Beckham > Ronaldinho), but I don’t follow that stuff and it’s hard to research, so I’m not going to give a long list of examples.
So he finished 2nd in the MVP voting and has led his team to an 11-4 record as a starter but he has always sucked?
Yeah I know he can’t pass, he has never been a passing quarterback. Trust me, I don’t like the guy and I think he has been overhyped, but to say that he sucks is a bit dramatic. You think he sucks that bad? Just look at how good the Falcons were a couple years before he came and this year after. Also take a look at the season where he missed 11 games in 03(also take a look at how well they did when he came back later that season). Its obvious that there are a host of QB’s out there that are worse.
“Zack: according to that analogy, every single one of the major sports is a pro-wrestling model. It ends up not mattering as long as one organization is sufficiently dominant, because they’ll have all the top competitors anyway.”
But there are also unions to look out for the well being of the fighters. It’s a myth that you don’t get to see the big fights in boxing. If MMA went that route, we’d be seeing Couture vs Fedor within the next 4 months. We would’ve seen Wandy vs Chuck while they were still in their prime. etc etc
Icemuncher
You have some great points, except you distort the facts to the point where they make no sense. Why throw his lifetime average in there, where you are talking about how much money he makes under a contract signed in 2000. You might has well leave out any stats before the signing of his contract. Take a look at his stats from 2000 and on, and then compare him to other players and their salaries. I am sure he will still be overpaid, but thats because guys like him and vick sign contracts that are based a lot on potential.
That fact is that he is the best player in baseball and the highest paid. Your argument does nothing but strengthen Ivans argument. Just because its not an exact science; dollars are not going to directly correlate with stats doesn’t mean that skill has a lot of correlation with pay.
Icemuncher:”I hope you know that even “real sports” pay exciting players that can bring in new fans and sell stadium seats more than they should be paid if it was based purely on their skill level.”
Are you saying that A rod is being paid a lot more than other players because he puts asses in the seats? He is one of the most unpopular players New York has ever seen. They hate him.
Next time you make a hypothesis use an example that supports it instead of undermines it.
45 Huddle wrote: “One very interesting thing that Dave Meltzer said in the Wrestling Observer…. He said that Kevin Iole’s source is very legit.”
lol, that is not what Meltzer said. He said that he knows who Iole’s source is, and that the source is someone who would have knowledge of the contract… which plays into what a lot of people suspect, which is that it’s someone like Dana White. The exact quote, right after Meltzer reminds his readers that he now works for the same organization as Iole, was: “I can tell you I know Iole’s sourcing and it is someone who absolutely would have knowledge of the contract.”
At no point has Meltzer or anyone else reported that Couture was making the amount of money per fight that was reported by Kevin Iole, or even half of that amount. All Meltzer said is that Iole’s source would have knowledge of the contract, which is very different than saying that a source has knowledge of the contract AND isn’t lying to members of the press to get their agenda out there.