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Monday night news review (1/7/08)
By Zach Arnold | January 7, 2008
The newest edition of Men’s Fitness magazine has a profile article on “The UFC workout.” Also interviewed in the magazine is Roy Jones Jr. Money quote from the interview:
MF: Yes, and the UFC now challenges boxing for pay-per-view buys, revenue, and fans. How do you feel about the mixed martial arts movement?
Jones Jr.: I think it’s wonderful. I’m a big fan. I watch a lot of it. I never really thought about getting in the cage, but I do love it. I love anybody that fights. That’s just what I am. I’m a fighter and I love anybody that has the heart to go in there and face somebody one on one and fight. You got to love that, you know?
I didn’t know there was a UFC star named Eric Swiger, but apparently he likes tasers.
Meet Matt Hughes’ personal dietician, Ashley Borden.
Interesting gossip item of the day comes to us by way of Tough Talk Radio, with co-hosts Mike Sawyer and Oliver Copp addressing the rumor that The Fight Network may have gotten their UFC media credentials pulled.
Shu Hirata has a new article talking about PRIDE’s ‘old staff’ producing the World Victory Road 3/5 Tokyo, Yoyogi National Stadium Gym I event. This should come as no surprise, as J-ROCK (Hidehiko Yoshida’s management) had a lot of power in the old PRIDE days. In the larger scheme of things, the big question right now in Japanese MMA is whether or not K-1 will be able to control the entire scene through their ‘large coalition’ plan or if there will be a lot of rival groups competing with each other while ‘cooperating’ at the same time.
Marcelo Garcia has joined the American Top Team in Florida.
Here is a good article on Sherdog talking about the politics of MMA in Australia.
Fight Metric has a new quiz to test your MMA knowledge.
Don’t look now, but Pro Elite’s stock price is down to $7.50 USD/share.
Dave Meltzer has a useful article on the business of MMA in 2008, including buyrate numbers for boxing, wrestling, and UFC from 2007.
Topics: Boxing, Japan, Media, MMA, PRIDE, Pro Elite, UFC, Zach Arnold | 11 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Got a 9/10 on the Fight Metric quiz. Huzzah! 😉
I’d imagine that they are going to model World Victory Road exactly in the same way as PRIDE just as Yarennoka! did? I’m hoping that WVR fills the void left by PRIDE. Of course I like that Cuban is in MMA in America but I’m nostalgic about PRIDE. You know, the larger than life spectacle, intro movies, Takada and his drums, Lenne Hardt, the ring, and rules. I’ve heard rumors that Takanori Gomi would sign for them. Would be nice to see. It’s a damn shame that the Yakuza has so much influence in Japan though. They have their tentacle grip on just about all industries in Japan.
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Ah the article says it’ll be very close to Yarennoka! I just assumed the article was in Japanese and it didn’t occur to me to click on it to see if it was in English. That’s good that the Yarennoka! thing wasn’t a one time thing then.
Heh, I got 7/10.
I’m pleasantly surprised at how few fights go to a decision, and how many end by submission (slightly more than KO/TKO).
Re: Tough Talk Radio
In discussing Machida vs Sokoudjou (11:10-11:30) they touch on Machida’s postfight comments.
I think Machida said: “Sokoudjou says he practices Jungle Kung-Fu. [A reference to promo rhetoric used by Sokoudjou.] Tell him he should practice Jungle Karate!” In other words, “respect the karate”!
From the Sherdog article on Australian MMA:
“New Zealand, which is Australia’s most significant neighbor…”
I guess the author has never heard of the world’s fourth most populous country, Indonesia…
I only got 6/10…I am but a lowly gatekeeper.
Eric Swiger = UFC Star…..lol
http://www.sherdog.com/fightfinder/fightfinder.asp?FighterID=14708
9/10 on the quiz, missed the ko/tko vs submission question.
klown, I think you may be right. Whatever he said got some groans from the Vegas crowd, as it may have come across as cocky in translation. After that ownage,I guess he can say whatever he wants…lol
7/10
I wasn’t expecting a statistical quiz here. I’m pleased to have done that well.
“From the Sherdog article on Australian MMA:
“New Zealand, which is Australia’s most significant neighbor…”
I guess the author has never heard of the world’s fourth most populous country, Indonesia…”
Population does not make a country significant. Cananda is America’s most significant neighbor, despite the fact that Mexico has 3x’s as many people.
Indonesia GDP per capita: $4,356 (114th)
New Zealand GDP per captia: $25,874 (28th)
Lots of people with little to no money is not significant, especially for businesses.
IceMuncher,
Considering that Indonesia is MORE THAN 50 TIMES LARGER THAN NEW ZEALAND in terms of population and the 15th largest economy in the world in terms of GDP (vs. New Zealand – 60th), your analogy makes no sense.
Of course, “most significant” needs some sort of context (culturally? economically? politically?) which the author of the article fails to provide but I see few ways in which anyone could argue that New Zealand was more “significant” neighbour to Australia than Indonesia.
It was a poor article anyway. I have no idea on what grounds the author claims that Austrlia is “creating a blueprint neighbouring states can follow” or that New Zealand “will at some point look to follow suit”.