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Sunday news review (4/13/08)

By Zach Arnold | April 13, 2008

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Just wanted to give my thanks to everyone for the amount of support we’ve received recently. This site is a full-time job whether we like it or not and I cannot strongly say ‘thank you’ enough to everyone for continuing to back us. It means a lot to me. I promise that I will get back to writing some essays and op-eds soon. In the meantime, if you feel like supporting us and helping us out with donations (via PayPal), send a few bucks to Dr. J at [email protected].

  1. The Albany Times-Union (NY): MMA may be on way – UFC hopes for clearance to compete in New York
  2. The Times Herald-Record (NY): Locals fight like their MMA heroes
  3. The Boston Herald: TUF enough? Woody Weatherby out to prove that he can be ‘The Ultimate Fighter’
  4. The Boston Herald: Round two – Wareham native Patrick Schultz laces up for return to ‘Ultimate Fighter’
  5. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel: MMA grabs area and nation by chokehold
  6. MMA Junkie: Jake O’Brien dropped from UFC, ready to sign with PFC
  7. The Canadian Press: Repaired, ready – Kalib Starnes back for UFC 83
  8. Charles Jay: Matt Serra – can he shock the world again?
  9. Fox News Fight Game: Extreme fighting on CBS
  10. MMA Japan: PBP of K-1 4/13 Yokohama Arena event
  11. Dave Meltzer: YAMMA was, well, the pits
  12. MMA Analyst: YAMMA video – Ricco Rodriguez vs. Travis Wiuff
  13. Total MMA: How will Eddie Goldman explain YAMMA?

Topics: Canada, Japan, K-1, Media, MMA, UFC, YAMMA, Zach Arnold | 12 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

12 Responses to “Sunday news review (4/13/08)”

  1. Kris says:

    I’m always available to help out in a pinch if you need it Zach. Feel free to send me a message if I can help out in the future. Best wishes…

  2. IceMuncher says:

    The Starnes article had me cringing for the first few paragraphs.

    “There were two layers — because it went to the bone. They stitched the meat underneath and then they stitched the skin over top of it.”

    *shudders*

  3. Dave2 says:

    I’m going to be checking out the TBS feed of the K-1 event when it hits the internet. Don’t spoil it yet guys. 😀 It should be an event to look forward to.

    Speaking of K-1, Zach, have you seen anything regarding TV ratings for the last K-1 MAX (The Elimination Round event)?

  4. ttt says:

    Dave2: good to see i’m not the only person here who comments about K-1, i’d be interested in finding out too, MAX events are eery cuz of the total silence when it’s not Masato fighting. they really need to sort out the refereeing for MAX, nobody knows what the rules are any more.

    i was going to comment on today’s K-1 fights too so i’ll hold off for a while 😛 … all the big ones are up on Dailymotion

  5. ilostmydog says:

    @Dave2: MAX pulled in a 12.4% rating.

  6. ttt says:

    is that good?

  7. Dave2 says:

    The K-1 MAX 2007 Final did a 11.8% and the K-1 MAX 2007 Round of 16 did a 12%. So by comparison, it seems that K-1 MAX’s Round of 16 brought in 0.4% more this year. BUT there are a lot of factors to consider. What’s considered a good rating or an improvement depends a lot on the time slot and what the competitors were showing at the time. What I do know though is that these numbers are far from what they used to be in the past. K-1 isn’t what they used to be.

    It’s a shame that they stay quiet during the K-1 MAX fights. A lot of MMA fans are critical of American MMA fans for being Pro-American and not being too accepting of foreign fighters. But I think Japanese fight fans are more nationalistic to be honest. PRIDE had a lot of gaijin, K-1 is mostly gaijin. But there is clear favoritism towards the Japanese, from both the fans and the organization.

    But what I don’t understand about K-1 is this: Given that K-1 wants so hard to have a Japanese ace as a champion and give them so many favours, why do they even bother keeping around gaijin fighters like Buakaw and Andy Souwer when they pose a real threat to Masato’s chances? They changed the rules to favor Masato (1 knee in the clinch only), they purposely tailor the brackets to favor Masato, they create a 100 kg belt to try to make sure that Musashi would actually be a champion (and that plan failed. Musashi is washed up, whether he fights at 100 kg or openweight), they are pushing the hell out of this Hiroya kid, etc. They shamelessly do so much to favor Japanese fighters that you wonder why they haven’t just outright decided to take Buakaw and Andy Souwer off the K-1 circuit altogether!

  8. ilostmydog says:

    ^^^Perhaps because they realize that the fans aren’t retarded? Plus, Souwer and Buakaw, while not as popular as Masato, are still more popular than any new fighters they’d bring in. And Hiroya gets pushed because they need a new Masato when Masato retires. It’s either that or bye-bye ratings. Sato and Kido don’t exactly pull in the fans.

    I’d disagree that they tailor brackets to favor Masato. He’s never really had an easy opening fight. Some shady judging (Masato/Buakaw I immediately comes to mind), but no real tailored opponents in the GPs. He’s had:

    ’08: Virgil – very game opponent
    ’07: Buakaw – not much needs to be said about that.
    ’06: Kohi – and the winner of Souwer/Virgil after that.
    ’05: Zambidis – not a fun opener. The winner of Kohi/Souwer would have been after that had he not withdrawn.
    ’04: He got a gimme here, but still had Kraus in the second round.

  9. Dave says:

    Its hard for them to just write off guys like Buakaw and Souwer as, well, they are two of the best that they have.

    I’ll admit, watching the last MAX show, the push they are giving HIROYA is hilarious. K-1 WORLD MAX YOUTH = HIROYA push. Its so blatant.

    Why aren’t more people into kickboxing, mainly K-1 MAX? Its been entertaining since the start. I can usually stomach a K-1 MAX show over the average UFC card, to be honest.

  10. ttt says:

    i think people aren’t into it because it’s difficult to find any channel that shows it. but i do wonder, because a lot of people love MMA for the striking and K-1 is all striking

    the Hiroya push is terrible, they setup that tournament for him last year and he couldn’t win. and yet they’re still pushing him.

    as for the K-1 Yokohama event, can anyone beat Schilt? the guy uses his size extremely effectively, but he doesn’t seem very marketable. Hari opened a can of whoopass on Sefo, i got into K-1 only last year so i’ve never seen Sefo do well. props to Feitosa for finishing with his trademark move. the battle of the Japanese HWs ended like i thought, seems like Sawayashiki was a fluke

  11. Chuck says:

    Isn’t Souwer a Shootboxing fighter? I believe he is, and I know that K-1 has an affiliation with Shootboxing.

    About people being more into striking; that is very true. That is why Chuck Norris started up the World Combat League, even though the WCL is a seriously flawed product. Seems more like gymnastic point sparing than real fighting. And the stupid rules (no “passivity”, no clinching, etc.) messes u(Pedro Morales, Bob Backlund, Jay Strongbow, Pat Patterson, et al)
    fights because fighters who clearly have no punching ability would start wind-mill punching and it looks retarded.

  12. Chuck says:

    Whoa. I accidentaly copy and pasted something I copied and pasted from another message board. Geez, never mind the stuff about the wrestlers I posted. How did I do that?

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