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Monday morning quarterback (3/24/08)
By Zach Arnold | March 24, 2008
Interesting link of the day is that MMA Madness is up for sale.
- AOL Fanhouse: Bidding wars coming to MMA? EXC could use CBS deal to add UFC talent
- The Dayton Daily News (OH): CBS deal could help EXC lure new talent
- Steve Sievert: Much at stake as CBS readies first shot at MMA
- Gary Herman: Frank Shamrock Q & A
- The Chronicle Herald (Halifax, Nova Scotia): Roger Hollett eyes late summer return to battle
- The Ottawa Sun: HCF MMA card’s ‘huge’
- The Boston Herald: Joe Lauzon: BJ Penn is mightiest
- New York Newsday: Brian Stann stands for more than himself
- The Winnipeg Sun: Hands of Stone rocks
- The Community Press (Kentucky): Amelia grad Joe Ammerman fighting way to top of martial arts
- KIMA CBS 29 (Yakima, WA): Backyard brawls morph into E. Wash. blood sport
- KHNL News 8 (Honolulu): Egan Inoue returns to the ring
- The Western Star (Canada): D.J. Pike pursuing ultimate dream of becoming professional fighter
- Full Contact Fighter (Audio): Travis Lutter and Rob MacDonald
- UFC HP: Karo Parisyan’s fight tale
- Sherdog: Strikeforce maintains Kazuo Misaki is signed
- MMA HQ: Event preview for this Wednesday’s WEC event on Versus with Doug Marshall vs. Brian Stann
- MMA Analyst: MMA isn’t immune to the outside world
- Total MMA: Japan’s DREAM falls short; is it a sign?
Topics: Canada, DREAM, Media, MMA, Pro Elite, StrikeForce, UFC, WEC, Zach Arnold | 9 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Q: How many fights do you think you have left?
FS: I think I have about twenty or thirty.
Frank Shamrock has quickly become my favorite dude since all of his talk of promoting his own fights and his entertaining YouTube battles.
2-3 fights a year for the next 10 years? That sounds possible. If ol’ Randy can be a world champion at 44 I don’t see why someone like Frank Shamrock can’t complete at that age.
It’s easy to forget that Frank “Shamrock” is only 35ish when you see grandpa Ken getting his ass kicked over and over.
However, Ken’s only had about nine professional MMA fights in the last eight years (of course, he was busy getting paid in Pro Wrestling).
I thoroughly enjoyed the Frank Shamrock interview.
Okay, did anyone else notice the byline for the Karo profile on the UFC homepage was Rhett Butler? What the hell?
Here’s a good Frank Shamrock 20 questions piece:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Uv7xNwjZYw
I’m pretty excited for Egan Inoue’s comeback. He and his brother (Enson) were damn good fighters. Now if only Enson goes through with his comeback plans as well.
After 8 amazing years, puroresupower.com is closing down. 🙁
I basically became a full-blown puro fanatic thanks in large part to that website, and my love of puro transitioned to my obsession with MMA.
I have no idea how I will keep up with Noah, Dragon Gate and other promotions in Japan…Zach, I hope you give us the occasional update here on Fight Opinion.
Thank you for ‘bridging the gap between puro and mma’ better than anyone on the net. You’re the man.
In response to Dave Walsh’s TotalMMA article on DREAM. It’s hasty to claim that DREAM’s low rating is a failure when they didn’t have one mega draw on their first card. I’m not that knowledgeable about the business side of the Japanese scene but even if Mirko Cro Cop is a gaijin star, his name alone is not going to bring in a lot of viewers when he’s fighting a can. DREAM 1 was a PRIDE Bushido event so you can’t expect high ratings for it. DREAM 2, which will have Sakuraba, Funaki, Akiyama and other names will be a more accurate measure of how much demand there is for Japanese MMA.
Though it is true that the Japanese scene isn’t as strong as it used to be. The Japanese aces are mostly too old now and the gaijin aces are mostly in the UFC. There are a lot of former PRIDE lightweights in DREAM, Japanese and gaijin alike, but lightweights don’t draw in Japan for whatever reason. The main goal for DREAM would be to undergo a rebuilding phase. Find young Japanese and gaijin fighters 185 pounds on up and build them into stars. But until we see DREAM 2, I don’t think an accurate assessment of the appeal of this promotion can be made. But the Japanese scene can’t keep relying on the same old Yoshida, Ogawa, Sakuraba, Funaki, Yamamoto, etc. They need fresh blood.