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Friday fight news: IFL GP is tomorrow
By Zach Arnold | November 2, 2007
Jens Pulver and Frankie Edgar will be participating in a charity event in Trenton (New Jersey) on 11/7.
Rashad Evens garnering headlines in The Sun.
Tomorrow is the IFL’s live television event (MyNetworkTV). American viewers will see one hour live, while Canadian viewers will get to watch two hours of live programming. More details here. Fightlinker comments. Dave Meltzer says tomorrow’s show is critical for the IFL’s future success.
Sam Caplan asks if Randy Couture would benefit from Chuck Liddell losing to Wanderlei Silva on 12/29 in Las Vegas.
A medical update on Martin Kampmann.
MMA Analyst takes on the thankless task of trying to figure out the structure and behavior of the California State Athletic Commission. In defense of California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, not all of the members of the CSAC appeals board were appointed by him. Here’s an article I wrote on this topic a few months ago.
Couture was paid the highest at more than $1.19 million according to White. They must have some awful high production and advertising costs.
If you look at boxing a fighter like Fernando Vargas who draws about 300,000 to 400,000 pay-per-view buys gets close to $3 million each fight. And he fought for HBO where they take a bigger cut.
Kevin Iole has a profile article on Houston Alexander.
Standing up for Andrei Arlovski.
Gary Shaw wants to modify weight classes and so do the promoters of DEEP and Pancrase.
ADCC News is reporting that there will be a ShoXC event in New Jersey on 12/7.
The application process is underway for season 7 of The Ultimate Fighter.
Aside from the field trips, there’s a certain spirit brought out in just about everything they do. For a recent sales presentation, management replicated the Octagon used for the Ultimate Fighting Championship and had salespeople deliver presentations in the ring. “They were in a fighting mentality,” says Stille.
Topics: Canada, IFL, Japan, Media, MMA, Pro Elite, UFC, UK, Zach Arnold | 14 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Ahh, I missed that one.
Rose and Ramirez weren’t appointed by the “Governator”, correction noted.
Zack, don’t know if you have posted this webiste in the past, but Jordan Breen talked about it on his radio show yesterday, and I too find its breakdown of a fight second to none.
http://www.fightmetric.com . Absolutely amazing stuff.
That fightmetric is pretty good, but it would be impossible to calculate that type of decision without watching tape for hours. What it does to that’s very reasonable is offer a few basic criteria that should be incorporated into the existing 10-point must system.
What do you do with Chuck if he loses this fight?
Does anyone really want to see a three time loser washed up former champion? At the same time, how do you just toss that name brand overboard?
They tried lining him up with a “can” fighter, and he got his ass kicked.
Would he fare any better against Hamill or Bisping? I have my doubts. LHW is stacked now. It really is.
Boy the IFL GP is pathetic… haven’t watched the IFL for a while because i know i’d have to plug in and adjust the antenna, i don’t need that hassle.
Did Canada win second prize? I kid. I kid. I’ll be here all week, try the veal.
“Would he fare any better against Hamill or Bisping? I have my doubts. LHW is stacked now. It really is.”
I don’t think that Hammill or Bisping have the physical presence or skill to exploit Liddell’s weaknesses. Jardine did. He took the blueprint from Rampage and added leg kicks to it. Wanderlei would do well to try and emulate it, but I don’t think he has the reach or patience to execute that kind of strategy.
I also don’t know if “stacked” is the right way to put it. I think it’s just that as the sport matures, “talent” will mean less than “gameplan and execution”. The same way that the Pats won 3 Super Bowls with what people still think was not the most talented team; however, they have the best coach and they execute as a team.
“Wanderlei would do well to try and emulate it, but I don’t think he has the reach or patience to execute that kind of strategy.”
While he definitely doesn’t possess the reach of the other two, one would think that he will have a pretty solid gameplan coming into this one seeing as he’s been training at Xtreme Couture for ~4+ months heading into the fight.
He also seems to be one of the few PRIDE guys that is taking the transition very seriously and also has taken time off to make adjustments and heal up, as well as acknowledged that he needs to take a new focus on training and prepping for fights. He might have an “advantage” in that he’s seen how a lot of the PRIDE guys have come in flat…I guess we’ll see how it all plays out Dec. 29th and if the size difference really is too much.
If you look at boxing a fighter like Fernando Vargas who draws about 300,000 to 400,000 pay-per-view buys gets close to $3 million each fight. And he fought for HBO where they take a bigger cut.
Except in MMA, people don’t pay for one mega fight, they expect at least two and often time three matches with top ten fighters. Who here would pay $40 just to watch Couture and 9 matches of up and comers?
But yeah… they do need to pay the undercard more…
I think it’s fairly arguable that MMA could sell a PPV based on 1 big mega fight, at least in terms of appealing to casual fans. I think they’ve done it in the past (Hughes vs. Gracie; Ortiz vs. Liddell I), but to your point they usually have a sufficient semi-main event to help carry the card.
I think lately they haven’t really been able to produce a “mega-fight”, for one reason or another (or with the expanded roster have the ability to have a few higher profile fights), so they’ve been trying to hype up several fights per card. I think that also helps to alleviate any “damage” should the big fight fall on its face (i.e. upset, boring decision, screwy stoppage).
On a side note, I’m really interested to see how UFC 78 will sell. Right now the “headline” fights are Bisping-Evans and T. Silva-Alexander…I’m not sure if those are guys the casual fans will buy as headliners at this point or not. I think hardcores will want to watch for some potentially awesome undercard (Edgar-Fisher anyone?) and to have an idea where those 4 previous mentioned fighters stand. Is anyone buying the party line that “the winner of Evans-Bisping is automatically top 5 in 205?”
“Is anyone buying the party line that “the winner of Evans-Bisping is automatically top 5 in 205?”
God, I hope not. Both those guys should be fighting at 185 anyway.
I thought HBOs practice of catering to contracted stars was an example of what not to do.
Sucks that we only get an hour of IFL. From what TV Guide says, Matt Horwich’s fight won’t be aired (in the US). Thus, I don’t really care about the show. But I made plans to watch it with a friend, so I guess I will. At least Vladimir’s still on there.
Grape Knee High: I think there is a good chance Rashad gets one of the next two 185 shots, especially if Hendo doesn’t drop. He’s just another guy at 205, but he would probably fit in just behind Franklin at 185.