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Bloody Elbow: Expect Ken Shamrock vs. Bobby Lashley
By Zach Arnold | March 2, 2009
On paper, it sounds like a great fight to market.
But consider the following — WWE had a hard time generating fan interest for Lashley until they put him in the Donald Trump angle against Vince McMahon at Wrestlemania a couple of years ago. What you are essentially banking on with putting Lashley in a high-profile fight like this is that he will be able to show more charisma than he ever did in WWE (think what happened to Brock Lesnar in UFC).
The big question going into this fight is what size Lashley will be when he faces Shamrock. Ken’s fighting at around 205 or 210, so if Lashley is 250 or more this could be big trouble for Ken. Then again, he could pull a Frank Mir and submit the big guy while taking a beating in the process.
It is an interesting fight on paper to market.
Topics: Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 19 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Lashley has negative charisma. Because of this, I’m banking on Lashley becoming one of the big heels of MMA.
I would love to see this booked as: two spectacularly arrogant heels collide. It’s all or nothing! Winner takes all! Only one man can leave with his mountainous pride! Hope for a double knockout, fans!
I hope Lashley calls Shamrock a “Bathterd”. The man has quite the lisp, and makes Mike Tyson sound like he has a deep voice in comparison.
On top of what you said, Zach, there’s also the fact that this fight is now less than three weeks away and even if Lashley has bathed in the fountain of charisma, I’m not sure how many people are going to see him exhibit it prior to the fight.
Besides the gimmick of this card (MMA and boxing matches) this is actually a pretty solid fight card. Roy Nelson vs. Jeff Monson is a pretty good match-up on paper. This card won’t set the world on fire, but it’s not half bad on paper. I do wonder who BJ Flores (boxer) will fight. It will probably be a local yokel scrub with a losing record. I hope not.
I agree, Nelson/Monson is good. Seth/Rhino, and Lashley/Shamrock are not.
I’m actually really curious to see the outcome of Nelson/Monson. This really could be a make it or break it fight for Nelson. He really doesn’t have a big win in his career. He has losses to Rothwell & Arlovski. If he loses this fight, he really knocks himself out of the discussion.
Speaking of potentially pointless PPV’s…. There is talk about putting Faber/Brown 2 on PPV in June. I don’t mind that, as long as UFC 99 is free on SpikeTV. If Zuffa tries to put two PPV’s on in the same month, that is garbage.
(At least with UFC 93/94, there was no February PPV, so 94 was really the defacto February pay card.
Now thats entertainment!
Is there anyone [else] in the WEC that’s a “ppv draw” [other than possibly Faber]?
Faber vs. Pulver drew some good ratings for WEC, but I wonder if it will translate to PPV buys…
The people most likely to buy a WEC PPV are also the ones most likely to watch it on Justin.tv instead. Just food for thought.
No question this fight is intriguing, yet how do they tend to draw without television?
“There is talk about putting Faber/Brown 2 on PPV in June.”
Yikes. I’m no media expert, but they probably ought to think long and hard before booking that fight as a main event on a PPV.
Heh…. long and hard.
“Yikes. I’m no media expert, but they probably ought to think long and hard before booking that fight as a main event on a PPV.
Heh…. long and hard.”
I agree. At this point I don’t see WEC drawing on ppv, they don’t have the exposure the UFC as with Spike. That being said, why not dissolve the WEC entirely and just have UFC, but with 145, 135, and 125. Looking at this weekend’s card, they should could use some WEC talent.
I was against the UFC becoming all 8 weight divisions…. But as time passes, I think it is a better and better idea.
However, I do think for them to do such a thing, they would need another channel to broadcast fights on.
The UFC as it is right now doesn’t have enough top talent for the number of shows they are running. If they introduced 3 new weight divisions, they would almost be too stacked, and some solid up & coming fighters wouldn’t have the chances to get exposure and progress properly.
In order to fix this, they would need a HBO or Network TV deal that ran an additional 6 cards per year. I think if they can obtain that, then the WEC needs to be put combined into the UFC.
Naw. Keep WEC. It’s a nice pseudo-farm league for UFC, and it has it’s own unique identity with its lower weight classes. If WEC gets completely fused with UFC then the bantamweights and the like will get lost in the shuffle. Long live WEC!
IMHO, this whole WEC deal has been mishandled from the start.
Dana & the boys should have decided exactly how they wanted to operate the organization & stuck with it. And they had two choices.
1 – Operate it as a second tier, minor league, “feeder” organization with all the weight classes & the WEC title considered as more or less a “regional” belt that makes the champion eligle for use on UFC cards.
or
2 – A league for the smaller weight classes, like it’s become. But, after a poor, confusing ( to the average fan ) attempt by Zuffa to try to do BOTH.
Which has still left it with the awkward reduntancy of having 155lb titles in both the UFC & the WEC.
Some that really makes no sense at all.
I mean, think about it.
Zuffa’s really half assing it this way.
If they were REALLY that sure of the WEC & it’s future as it’s own ( eventual PPV ) entity then why would’nt they “give” it their lightweight division & push it with the same gusto they do the UFC?
Or, if it’s the lower weight classes that they’re THAT sold on, then they should just dissolve the WEC & make the featherweight, bantamweight & flyweight titles a part of the UFC.
I mean, go ask Brown, Faber or Torres whether they’d rather be contending for WEC belts or UFC belts. And I’ll bet they all say the UFC belt. And if one of them says “it doesn’t matter”, they’re a liar.
I don’t get it what it is about the WEC that drives people to wonder so much about it. Zuffa runs the promotion as a secondary, complementary, thoroughly minor league “organization” to keep other people off Versus. There are no other deals out there for them, and in general the promotion loses money. If they can’t make money off PPV, they’ll probably end their relationship with Versus sometime not long after assuming that no one will be able to use that channel to make money with MMA and abandon the promotion while integrating the champions and decent fighters.
It is very much worthy of a DEEP/SHOOTO:PRIDE::WEC:UFC type comparison. Doesn’t make the fights or fighters bad, just means that they don’t matter too much.
UFC should be for the contenders and, Champions, whilst WEC should be for the up and, commers and, down and outers, both of all weight classes.
UFC can have stacked shows on PPV and, the WEC should be on free TV always.
Chuck Liddell and, Jens Pulver should have their matches (unless they are contending, or champions) on the free TV WEC. That would make the WEC more popular.
“And if one of them says “it doesn’t matter”, they’re a liar.”
As long as they are getting paid the same whether they fight in UFC or WEC then it probably doesn’t matter. I imagine they would get paid more to fight on UFC ppvs than WEC telecasts, but still.
Chuck, we may have to agree to disagree on this one.
ven with all things being equal with regards to their purses, their endorcements etc., I believe that if given the choice between their weight classes remaining under the WEC banner or them being absorbed into the UFC, Brown, Faber, Torres etc. would all choose to go with the UFC.
Let’s face it, being a UFC FIGHTER has a recognition & a prestige to it that is second to none. And I’m sure the smaller guys would love to have that opportunity.
Peace.
“1 – Operate it as a second tier, minor league, “feeder” organization with all the weight classes & the WEC title considered as more or less a “regional” belt that makes the champion eligle for use on UFC cards.”
They didn’t have this option because Versus didn’t want to have their org viewed that way. Thats why you didn’t see dudes washing out of UFC to the WEC, and WEC was given leniency to bill Faber/Pulver 1 as the “biggest cagefight of all time.”
“Chuck Liddell and, Jens Pulver should have their matches (unless they are contending, or champions) on the free TV WEC.”
LOL @ giving away free Liddell fights on a weak network like Versus. Sorry bro, but worst idea ever.