Friend of our site


MMA Headlines


UFC HP


Bleacher Report


MMA Fighting


MMA Torch


MMA Weekly


Sherdog (News)


Sherdog (Articles)


Liver Kick


MMA Junkie


MMA Mania


MMA Ratings


Rating Fights


Yahoo MMA Blog


MMA Betting


Search this site



Latest Articles


News Corner


MMA Rising


Audio Corner


Oddscast


Sherdog Radio


Video Corner


Fight Hub


Special thanks to...

Link Rolodex

Site Index


To access our list of posting topics and archives, click here.

Friend of our site


Buy and sell MMA photos at MMA Prints

Site feedback


Fox Sports: "Zach Arnold's Fight Opinion site is one of the best spots on the Web for thought-provoking MMA pieces."

« | Home | »

The attempted heat-up for UFC’s big Wednesday night on Spike TV

By Zach Arnold | March 31, 2009

Print Friendly and PDF

The Canadian Press sums up this season of The Ultimate Fighter and, well, practically every other season:

Co-executive producer Andrea Richter serves as the show’s behind-the-scenes ringmaster. A veteran from Day 1, Richter marshalls the small army on hand to document every moment of the fighters’ lives.

“There’s no place in their world they can escape us,” Richter explained during a visit to the house during shooting of Season 9.

There are surveillance cameras located throughout the house and training centre to alert producers what’s happening 24-7. Producers call camera crews into action when something promising is developing – or just have them roam around the fighters.

Inside the training centre, there’s even a surveillance camera in the washroom.

The fighters are even filmed in transit. Cameramen accompany them in the vans used to take them from the house to the gym and back. “We get some of the best conversations in the van ride,” according to Richter.

The Las Vegas Sun has an article on Junie Browning and his ‘bad boy’ image:

“I acted like a fool on TV, so of course I have more to prove,” Browning said. “I think a lot of people think that I made it up when I said that I was out of shape on the show, but I really was.

“I think when they see these next few fights and the conditioning I have now they’ll realize that it was just a show for me.”

Browning will fight on this Wednesday’s UFC event in Nashville at the Sommet Center, where a crowd of 9,000+ is expected in attendance to watch Carlos Condit vs. Martin Kampmann fight in the main event. Condit says that he’s just another fighter in UFC instead of having the pressure of being a headliner in WEC:

“I’m not the guy with the target on my back anymore. I’m a guy who’s just trying to make a name for himself again.”

Ricardo Almeida, who is fighting on the Nashville undercard, recently was involved in a Q & A session with New York’s Newsday publication.

On an additional UFC sidenote, UFC 101 will take place this August in Philadelphia… at the big Wachovia Center. Zuffa will have to make sure to give these kids front-row passes.

Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 14 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

14 Responses to “The attempted heat-up for UFC’s big Wednesday night on Spike TV”

  1. Kris says:

    Ironically, those kids are from my hometown (about 30 minutes from where I live now). Good stuff…

  2. Brandt says:

    Perfect timing to sanction MMA in PA!

    I’m hoping to get credentialed for UFC 101 as a photographer, but I’m not banking on it.

  3. David says:

    Attempted Heat-Up… well put Zach… Still watching it regardless 🙂

  4. Zack says:

    Honestly I didn’t even know there was a card until it was posted on this site.

  5. 45 Huddle says:

    I’m very excited for Condit vs. Kampmann. The rest of the television card really just feels like fights to build of specific guys.

  6. robthom says:

    I’m totally happy that the sport is jumping and the guys are getting paid for their efforts.
    But there’s so many guys these days, I’m finding it increasingly hard to get excited for all the names that I just dont recognize?!.

  7. Ivan Trembow says:

    Front row passes? Based on recent casting, once those kids are 21, those kids would be ideal candidates to be on The Ultimate Fighter if they have alcohol issues and anger management problems.

  8. William Holmes says:

    I’m ready to sell my car in order to go to the Philly show.

    I only hope that the Philly crowd proves to be as knowledgable as the Ohio crowd was during the Randy Couture/Tim Sylvia fight.

    When fans actually cheer a guard pass, you know the sport is here to stay.

  9. spacedog says:

    Ivan, I have a question for you. You have mentioned in the past that” Junie broke four different rues” and that heshould have been kicked off for that. You also mention general behavior on the show as proof htat certain people are just boors and as such have no place in the UFC or at least no place being hyped to the degree they are.
    So my question is this: Don’t you realize there is only ONE rule on the UF? it is this: MAKE GOOD TELEVISION. with a sub section: Please Dana.
    All the “rules” are just guidelines posted by the producers. Its not like these are statutes enacted by Congress or some such.
    As for the way these fighters are presented, you do know that the show is edited, right? If we have learned anything it is that editing can spin a show anyway that the producers want. So… maybe in context the actions of certain past contestants were not as bad as they seem when edited for broadcast.
    At the end of it all, its about fighting, the UT is just vehicle to get into the UFC, once there a fighter has to win or he will be dropped. Junie is 1-0, he belongs in the UFC.
    Stop worrying about the ‘rule violations” and focus on what matters: his ability or lack there of.

    ps I don’t watch the show and have never seen the dude fight, I just can’t stand your sanctamonius clucking about his ‘lack of character” and “rule violations.” give it a rest, the dude broke no real laws, apparently pleased the powers that be and , at least in their estimation, has a future as a headliner.

  10. jt says:

    Where’s the UFC/WEC title unification bout?

  11. 45 Huddle says:

    Stephens vs. Tibau is now at 158. I hate when guys don’t make weight. Very unprofessional!!

  12. Ivan Trembow says:

    When I mention the rules being broken, of course I’m not talking about actual laws (Quinton Jackson and Josh Neer have broken enough of those in the past year for the lot of them). I’m talking about the rules of what gets you kicked off the show and what doesn’t get you kicked off the show, and Browning did at least four different things that would warrant being kicked off the show based on their own standards. People have been kicked off the show for jumping the fence to talk to a life guard for a little while. People have been kicked off the show and out of the UFC forever for failing to make weight. The double standard for Browning and his Trash TV antics is just ridiculous.

    As I wrote at the time and as others wrote at the time, one of the reasons for not punishing Browning’s behavior, and also one of the reasons for actually rewarding Browning’s behavior by giving him the one and only non-finalist slot on the TUF 8 finale’s main card, was not just for the 0.1 or 0.2 increase in ratings that Browning provided, but also to encourage that kind of behavior on future seasons of the show… because they think that Trash TV = Good TV and that an increase of 0.1 or 0.2 in the ratings is worth making MMA come across as gutter trash to anyone who watches the show. So, the message is clear to the contestants of TUF 9, 10, 11, and 12: Be (or act like) a drunkard with emotional and anger issues, and if you’re simply a C-level fighter, we will not only not punish you, we’ll go out of our way to reward you for your behavior.

    Tomorrow night’s event is yet another example of that, as Browning is on the main card while fighters like Brock Larson and Ricardo Almeida (fighters with far more talent and accomplishments, but who are not unstable drunkards) are relegated to the prelims. Heck, prior to Efrain Escudero’s fight being scratched from the card, even Tyson Griffin’s fight was going to be a prelim fight while Browning’s fight was on the main card.

    Even after the Nevada State Athletic Commission scolded the UFC at that meeting in December and Lorenzo Fertitta said that nothing of the sort would be happening on TUF in the future, they were still saying just a few weeks later via one of their PR outlets that nothing would be changing on the show and that there would still be unlimited amounts of hard liquor available to the contestants in the house.

  13. spacedog says:

    I agree with you on one thing: presenting TUF and its trash TV antics as the face of MMA is damaging to the sport in the long term and I wish the UFC would not do it.

    As far as Junie breaking any rules, I disagree. He did not break any rules because there are really no rules to be broken besides one and that is the one rule he did not break.

    As for Rampage, what did he actually end up being convicted for? (not a rhetorical question, I actually don’t know)

    ps TUF is trash, stop watching.

  14. Ivan Trembow says:

    Jackson pleaded guilty to lesser charges (as in far less than what he actually did), and that is sadly something that happens every day in this country, even for people who commit far worse crimes (even murder and rape). Michael Vick ran a dogfighting ring, killed dogs with his bare hands, and put family pets up against fighting pitbulls for his own personal amusement? Let’s plea-bargain that! Berdie Madoff swindled over $60 billion from people? Let’s plea-bargain that! Everything gets plea-bargained in this country.

    As for Neer, he is a multi-time drunk driving offender who most recently led police on a high-speed chase that reached speeds of over 100 miles per hour while he was drunk. He should be in a jail cell right now, not fighting on national TV.

Comments

*
To prove you're a person (not a spam script), type the security word shown in the picture.
Anti-spam image