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Monday chalkboard (12/17)
By Zach Arnold | December 17, 2007
For Internet Explorer users, we’ve added a feature on the top menu called “set as your HP.” Simply put, if you would like to make our site your browser’s starting page every time it loads, you can click on the link. I can’t find code that will work in Firefox and Netscape browsers, so this will have to suffice for the time being. If you do not use IE, I still encourage you to make Fight Opinion your browser’s start-up home page.
Leland Roling takes a look at UFC’s marketing for their 12/29 Las Vegas event.
BJ Penn has more words for Sean Sherk.
There’s a new magazine out by Weekly Pro-Wrestling on the UWF. The U-System will never seemingly die as far as its influence in the Japanese MMA and pro-wrestling business.
The claimed attendance for the HDNet Fights event this past Saturday in Dallas was 6,754.
The Honolulu Advertiser recently interviewed KJ Noons.
King of the Cage sent out a MySpace bulletin on Friday night, advertising Charles “Krazy Horse” Bennett vs. Victor “Joe Boxer” Valenzuela and Thomas “Wildman” Denny vs. Joe Camacho at San Manuel Indian Bingo & Casino on January 24th.
The IFL partners up with PalTalk.
Meet Peter Rodley. Plus, meet Kirk Gibson (no, not the baseball player).
We are in the planning stages for year-end Christmas radio marathon show. Jeff Thaler and I are working to get some good guests to tell some fun Christmas stories. In other words, don’t expect a hard-news edition of the programming… although last year, we interviewed Bas Rutten as he was at the hospital because of someone getting their toe ripped off. Make sure you are subscribed to the Fight Opinion Radio feeds (RSS and iTunes) so you can automatically download the Christmas show when it goes on our site.
You can add Murilo Bustamante vs. Makoto Takimoto for the DSE 12/31 Saitama Super Arena event.
Topics: HDNet, IFL, Japan, Media, MMA, PRIDE, Pro Elite, Pro-Wrestling, UFC, Zach Arnold | 13 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
I for one think its absolutely idiotic the way they are “promoting” Liddell vs. Silva. First of all, the biggest fight of all time is getting no more PR than any other fight ever gets – and its second billed under Hughes vs. GSP!! And if that’s not enough, they’re taking a guy who used to be their biggest star who’s coming off two losses and another guy with big time star potential (who they’re yammering on about losing twice, when casual US fans wouldn’t have the slightest clue) – and CONTINUALLY saying whoever loses this fight is DONE!!
WTF?!? Why are they purposely sewering the loser of this fight…(a) you could leave that up for the fans to determine, and (b) you’re cutting the legs off of the guy that loses before the fight even starts.
I’m no marketing guru, but that to me is extremely short-sighted marketing (maybe they don’t know how to hype this and figure this is the only way to make it feel special?).
Dude, they aired Wanderlei’s fight from UFC 20 on Unleashed. What more do you want?
that “library” they purchased is showing greater and greater value!
Normally I would tell BJ and Sherk to shut up and fight… but I think they need to keep it up. This is no better hype than real animosity. The Penn/Sherk fight will sell itself.
“There are no better hype than real animosity.”
I agree with Gaijin. The UFC really screwed up the marketing for the final year UFC.
I’m with Gaijin & Leland on this, the UFC has totally blundered in their handing of this promotion. One would think that the bottom line would be important to the organization & that they’d be trying to make as much $$$ as possible off this show. I mean, business is business. And, I’m sure the Fertittas see it that way.
But, once again, I think this just might be a case of Dana allowing his personal feelings interfere with business.
It looks to me like Dana’s lost faith in “his boy” Chuck & as a result, is giving this show FAR less of a push than he’d be doing were Liddell coming off a victory or two rather than two straight losses. I don’t know if his ham fisted handling of the promotion is intentional or subconscious, but you can’t tell me that White has put a REAL effort into selling this thing.
I mean, how exactly does the long awaited Liddell – Silva match become an UNDERCARD match?!! It makes no sense. Yeah, I know. They’re billing it as a co-main event, but it certainly looks to all the world like an undercard match based on the way the PPV ads are structured. Tell me I’m lying …
The UFC is in a lose/lose situation. If they billed Silva vs Liddell as the greatest fight in years, hardcore fans will whine that the UFC is over-hyping a fight between two 0-2 fighters. Then they start whining about the UFC always hyping the posterboy Liddell, and not giving enough publicisity to the other top fighters. If you play it honestly, hardcore fans will whine about the stupid marketing scheme not hyping the casual fan enough. The hardcore fans are going to be unhappy no matter what they do.
Personally, I think the UFC should be pushing GSP and Hughes a lot harder than Chuck and Wandy. GSP and Hughes are generally acknowledged as the #1 and #2 fighters in the division. Seriously, how often does that happen? The greatest welterweight in history vs the greatest welterweight of right now. There’s nothing to hide there, it’s a spectacular match-up any way you look at it.
All I’m saying Ice, is that the promotion itself of the fight is incredibly stupid. They’re basically destroying any credibility “going forward” for the guy who loses this fight.
What if Silva loses this fight? You have a guy you just signed to a huge 6-fight deal, that a lot of the mainstream/casual fanbase doesn’t know much about – and you’ve basically told them, “one [more] loss and he’s done as an elite LHW” and they’ve said the same for Chuck.
It just seems incredibly counterproductive for them in the long run…when really this fight only needs to have them hyping how long they’ve been waiting for this fight and how much each guy wants to KTFO the other. Instead we’re getting some “loser leaves town” stipulation tacked onto it…and I for one think that’s insane, especially given the current state of the division (everyone has beat someone, but lost to a different guy).
Wand/Chuck is a fight that will give me butterflies right before it. Hughes/GSP 3…not so much.
Who cares how they’re promoting it? I’m just glad it’s finally happening.
I don’t know which reality you people are in where two aging superstars riding 2-loss streaks is capable of being in the greatest fight of all time. It’s not in mine.
BJ Penn’s comments are fantastic. He is dead on the money.
I bet the UFC marks/announcers won’t even mention the Sean Sherk steroid suspension on the BJ-Stevenson card because Dana likes to think they are in a bubble and that people are idiots and have no other way of finding out the truth. Dana believes that we are all sipping the Kool-aid and that nobody will question why yet another UFC champion has been stripped of his belt..I really hope another organization supplants the UFC, and soon.
Yeah man, the UFC should probably have a special on Spike TV explaining exactly why Sean Sherk has been stripped of the title. But they won’t, because they’re corrupt! :eyeroll: