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Tuesday reading material (2/5/08)
By Zach Arnold | February 5, 2008
- The Las Vegas Review-Journal: UFC show excites ‘quiet jerk’ Forrest Griffin
- The Canadian Press: Ontario commissioner Ken Hayashi says MMA is illegal under Criminal Code
- The Canadian Press: UFC delivers punch at the box office in first foray into Canada
- Todd Martin: Nogueira proves his mettle again
- The St. Petersburg Times (FL): Body in pond a victim of killer – kickboxer Tim Chipley found dead
- TMZ: Shots fired – Iceman flips out (I should just add the TMZ RSS feed for MMA nightclub stories on the page)
- Eurosport: Michael Bisping – “I ain’t getting in no sauna”
- The Tampa Tribune: Cauliflower ears – a badge of honor or unsightly? (comments from Randy Couture)
- Steve Sievert: M-1 fails to follow up its promising entrance
- Jeff Haney (Las Vegas Sun): A strong start (for Lesnar), then defeated, not down
- MMA Weekly: WEC to re-match Filho & Sonnen in Las Vegas
- Gryphon: A destiny about Judo vs. Catch Wrestling from 90 years ago
- Fightlinker: Andrei Arlovski has been officially buried
- MMA Analyst: UFC buries Arlovski, sends him to the prelims
- MMA Payout: Zuffa sale rumor goes public
- Charles Jay: When is a genuine competitor going to step up to compete with UFC?
- MMA HQ: UFC 82 – full fight card
- MMA Opinion: UFC pay issues
Topics: Canada, Japan, M-1, Media, MMA, UFC, WEC, Zach Arnold | 17 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Adam Swift has a passage on his MMAPAYOUT blog (re: rumored sale of UFC) that reads:
“At that time, the rumored asking price was in the neighborhood of $220 million with the profile of the prospective buyer being described as a media company, preferably international. Including the company’s $350 million debt, that asking price would put Zuffa’s value at more than half a billion dollars.”
Maybe I’m misreading, but is he implying Zuffa has accumulated $350M in debt? That sounds absurd and improbable; could someone illuminate?
This is referring to the $325M loan they took out plus the $25M line of revolving credit.
So, according to Swift’s report, they are trying to sell UFC and also sell the debt — meaning the price tag would be half a billion dollars.
It’s laughable.
It’s not laughable if they have genuinely been grossing $200-250 million for the last few years. Growth companies sell for much higher multiples than this.
$500 million doesn’t seem so bad for the financial numbers that we know. I’m surprised they’re not asking for more.
On Arlovski, why all the uproar on being buried as a prelim? Is the UFC mandated by some moral imperative to showcase fighters that won’t be providing them future income?
Meanwhile, there are still drooling morons out there that think White’s “Long Duck Dong” comment was acceptable.
Ken Hayashi is such a goon. He’s more or less singehandedly preventing the influx of MMA (and combat sports in general) into Canada’s most populous province. I’m absolutely convinced that he doesn’t want to sanction MMA because of his ties to TMA schools, or because he doesn’t want to increase his workload. You need to look no further than him nearly cancelling (or maybe he actually cancelled it?) one of two boxing cards because they occurred within eight days of each other, and were thus deemed too much of a workload for his staff.
Nothing at all is going to change in Ontario until he leaves. He’s basically resigned in his ways at this point and no one is going to be able to convince him otherwise (although some are currently trying).
And this is in a province that handles maybe 4-5 boxing shows a year, compared to Quebec’s 50+.
On Arlovski, why all the uproar on being buried as a prelim? Is the UFC mandated by some moral imperative to showcase fighters that won’t be providing them future income?
Perhaps people are upset that a quality heavyweight bout, of which the UFC can provide shockingly few, isn’t being televised? That’s its not good for the sport? My god, do you even watch the fights, or are you solely interested in commenting about the business practice involved?
Huh.
I’m a bit mystified at all the positive press that Lesner’s received in the aftermath of his UFC debut Saturday night. While I don’t think he ought to be panned for his performance, I think the amount of praise h’s gotten for his 90 seconds in the octagon has been somewhat too generous.
Sure, he dominated the first 80 – 85 seconds of the match before Mir locked on the finisher, but really, was it all THAT impressive? Not to me, it wasn’t. I mean, we’ve all seen “PeDePano” Cruz do the same exact thing to Mir en route to a victory not all that long ago, so what Lesner was doing was hardly something new or exciting. In fact, it’s pretty much exactly what everyone thought he’d do in there.
So, why the hyperbole about how impressive he supposedly looked & how bright his future is?
He may very well turn out to be another Kevin Jackson. Someone who can dominate & G & P all night long, but whom has no defense when matched against top level submission artists.
Plus, despite looking like a man-mountain who can absorb the mightiest of blows, we actually have no idea yet whether Lesner can take punishment. For all we know, he might have a glass jaw.
I’m willing to sit back & see how he develops as a fighter, but based on his two bouts thus far in his MMA career, I believe it’s MUCH too early to be grading him as anything other than an INCOMPLETE so far.
as for poor Arlovski, the way that Dana & his boy Silva are handling this last bout on his contract, it’s just another example of White’s vindictive nature & his allowing his personal feelings to dictate his business decisions.
First he has ol’ Joe match him up with an individual bound to do everything inhis power to make Arlovski look bad during the course of the contest. Then, he makes sure said match up is relegated to the undercard. Where, if Arlovski wins, no one will see it & if he winds up losing, I’m sure they’ll show a clip of one of O’Brien’s most dominant moments just to embarrass Andre on his way out the door.
First, this is not a quality bout. They’re bringing in Jake O’Brien to take Arlovski out. I don’t need to watch that live on TV.
Secondly, the idea that not whining like a little girl about smart business practices makes you less of a fan is laughable.
The UFC always puts marketable guys coming off contracts on the undercard. Get over it.
Better yet, if this is something you feel so strongly about, start a petition, organize a boycott, or stage a protest. The least productive thing you can do is whine about it in the comments area of a blog.
First, this is not a quality bout. They’re bringing in Jake O’Brien to take Arlovski out. I don’t need to watch that live on TV.
Jake O’Brien is a total unknown right now post injury, and an undefeated fighter. Arlovski is a former champion. This is off TV while Palalei/Sanchez is on.
Secondly, the idea that not whining like a little girl about smart business practices makes you less of a fan is laughable.
I think you’re right. The fanbase shouldn’t demand anything, just silently nod. Maybe someone can call someone else a “mark”. Oooh. That would be interesting.
The UFC always puts marketable guys coming off contracts on the undercard. Get over it.
You’re right. There’s far more offensive things to discuss. I hear Dana White said “ching chong” or something. The health of the sport is directly tied to that and making pro wrestling comparisons. Those are important.
Better yet, if this is something you feel so strongly about, start a petition, organize a boycott, or stage a protest.
Ah, yes, because daring to vent frustration on what equates to a message board is just not right. This is for important talk. Demanding that someone “stage a protest” as an alternative is hilarious. I don’t have to do anything. If you believe that the people who came to the UFC with TUF will buy anything, suit yourself. The buyrates seem to tell a different story though.
Ken Hayashi does appear to be an asshole. Ontario makes up like 40% of the Canadian market and yet he actively does what he can to damage the combat sports industry in Ontario by only allowing a few boxing events a year and banning every other combat sport. I suppose that Anglophone Canada must have a weak combat sports tradition if Hayashi can get away with conducting operations like that.
What a pathetic attempt at a strawman. Palalei/Sanchez was an entirely different event. UFC 82 is a decent card that forced even Koscheck to the undercard.
Do you ever have anything substantive to say or do you just get into flame wars with people? Zuffa and Arlovski could not come to agreement for whatever reason. It’s done and there’s nothing we can do about it. That is the reality, and given the situation I understand why they’re doing it. Stop being such a baby.
First, as far as I can tell *you’re* the one who is always bringing up pro wrestling in the comments. Certainly not me. As far as Dana’s remark, I already said I don’t think it was a big deal. Offensive, but not a big deal. What is more offensive is that there are morons out there that don’t think it was racist.
So Chris Leben vs. Alessio Sakara just got put on the main card for 82. They bumped Sanchez/Bielkheden to the prelims to make room.
😐
That is my not happy face.
“Palalei/Sanchez was an entirely different event.”
Ummm…wasn’t this fight on one of the most stacked cards (UFC 79 – with Silva-Liddell, GSP-Hughes, Lyoto-Soko) the UFC ran all year??
You know CHRIS LEBEN is on the main card for UFC 82 right?
Yeah, that is a shame. But that has nothing to do with Arlovski. Just a decision to appeal to the casual fan, unfortunately.
I’d rather see Koscheck/Hazelett to see how Hazelett does against top competition.
I feel like Kos will just turn that fight into his usual l’n’p special unfortunately. So while I understand from a hardcore fan’s POV why you’d want to see this, I think you’re right in assuming that Leben is on the main card for the TUF crowd.
Quite honestly he will either go down swinging or take a fight like he did against Martin. Gotta keep the mutants happy I guess.
Grape Knee High Says:
“It’s not laughable if they have genuinely been grossing $200-250 million for the last few years. Growth companies sell for much higher multiples than this.
$500 million doesn’t seem so bad for the financial numbers that we know. I’m surprised they’re not asking for more.
On Arlovski, why all the uproar on being buried as a prelim? Is the UFC mandated by some moral imperative to showcase fighters that won’t be providing them future income?
Meanwhile, there are still drooling morons out there that think White’s “Long Duck Dong” comment was acceptable.”
All this from a guy who “guessed” that the UFC was offering gomi 35/35 and said that K-1’s offer was probably less than that. Gomi that same week signs for 190 grand a fight. So we know how well you are able to judge the worth of anything/anyone.(don’t bother with a “I never said that WVR offered him less”, face it you weren’t even close to guessing what Gomi was worth in the “free market” LOL)
http://fiveouncesofpain.com/2008/01/28/5-oz-exclusive-ufc-deal-with-takanori-gomi-falls-through/
(comment 19)
I am with Zach on this one, when I heard the orginal rumored amount I laughed. Swift puts the asking price closer to 600 million.
I don’t really care what a company grosses, I care what they profit and what their prospective growth looks like. Since the UFC expansion into Europe looks like it tanked, and the fact that their PPV numbers in the past 3 quarters of 07 was worse than 06; I would say their growth looks bleak. Also fighter salaries are on the rise and will undoubtably start to consume a larger chunk of the revenue.