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The final media heat-up for UFC 97 in Montreal
By Zach Arnold | April 17, 2009
UFC 97 will be facing some interesting challenges this weekend from both the NHL and NBA with the leagues both having playoff series games on TV. ESPN will be wall-to-wall with NBA games (along with TNT), while Versus and Comcast Sportsnet networks across the States will be carrying hockey games. The main UFC 97 storyline can be summed up by this one USA Today article: Celebrity status safe, Liddell needs win to stay elite fighter. Jason Bent has a preview of Liddell vs. Shogun and what you should be paying close attention to.
Even though UFC 97 is sold out in Montreal at the Bell Centre, Game 2 between the Boston Bruins & Montreal Canadiens airs on Saturday at 8 PM EST (Versus TV & NESN in the States, CBC & RDS in Canada). The game is happening in Boston. Imagine if the roles were reversed and the Canadiens were the higher-seeded team, then there would have been a definite scheduling conflict. Thankfully, that has been avoided here. Suffice to say, UFC will not be the main story in the French media on Sunday.
As for the NBA playoffs, you can view the TV schedules here. Luckily, the two big Eastern teams (Boston and Cleveland) have afternoon games and not evening games.
Speaking of Boston, there are two articles (here and here) about implementing MMA legislation in the state of Massachusetts.
As for Montreal, everyone in the UFC crew seems to be enjoy this week in Quebec. One person in Montreal who is especially happy is David Loiseau.
Dan Wetzel, the Yahoo pretzel, has a column on Anderson Silva’s greatness. A full-court press this weekend from the Yahoo media army for UFC in Montreal. The Canadian Press has an article covering UFC’s push to sell Thales Leites as a serious threat to Silva.
Finally, The Toronto Star has an article profiling MMA’s future on Canadian television.
Topics: Canada, Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 13 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
“In the 15-year history of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, no one has won nine consecutive fights.”
Ah, good to see Yahoo Sports pushing that line. Never mind the fact that Royce Gracie won eleven UFC fights in a row if you don’t count his non-fight against Harold Howard. And the UFC doesn’t count Gracie vs. Howard as a loss for Gracie, right? I mean, they were strongly advertising Gracie as “undefeated” before the Matt Hughes fight. Surely the status of that 1994 “whatever it was” between Gracie and Howard hasn’t somehow changed since 2006…
Good point Ivan, although I’m not so concerned about UFC fudging a stat or two to promote a fight. It’s been done before, and will surely happen again.
I find it stranger that the big attraction of Silva vs. Leites is “Watch Anderson Silva get his record-breaking 9th win!” as if Leites is just there as fodder, like one of Goldberg’s victims during his WCW winning streak.
There is virtually no reason for Thales Leites to be getting a title shot.
Demian Maia has been talking trash about Anderson Silva, and would provide a better threat on the ground (the only place he’s vulnerable) – as well as a built-in story because Maia is good buddies with Wanderlei, who is now at odds with Anderson.
And Yushin Okami is the last person to beat Anderson (albeit by DQ) but that – coupled with Okami’s winning streak – is a built-in story right there.
Thales Leites is surely no push-over, but this fight seems more like a warm-up for Anderson, leading to a more significant contest down the line.
Ivan,
If you are trying to get all technical…. During the last 15 years…. From April 17th, 1994 until Present Day…. That does not include UFC 1 & 2…. And during that stretch of UFC 3-5, Royce Gracie only had 6 wins.
Yes, I’m being semi-obnoxious with my post. But that is kind of how you skew things as well.
Either way, Anderson Silva has been ultra successful. What happened in the first few UFC’s isn’t really up for comparison to present day. It’s completely different.
To me, the bigger thing is # of consecutive title fight wins. Anderson Silva is at 5. Tito Ortiz had 6. Matt Hughes also had 6. So Silva will be tied for the record with a win here.
However, there are three big differences.
1. Silva is the first to get to 5 straight in the post-TUF era.
2. If Travis Lutter didn’t miss weight, Silva would already be at 6.
3. Hughes & Ortiz each had wins over undersized opponents. Ortiz beat Tanner & Kondo, who both were Middleweight size. Not to mention that win against Elvis Sinosic in there. Hughes beat Sherk, who really is a Lightweight now.
To me, Silva has been the most dominant champion to date in the UFC.
“There is virtually no reason for Thales Leites to be getting a title shot.”
14-1, five consecutive wins in the UFC, and a win over top five opponent are all pretty good reasons in my book. And please spare me the talk about the Marquardt win being ‘tainted’. Leites won the first round on all three judges scorecards and was doing very well until Marquardt blasted him with the illegal knee. Don’t penalize the guy for being a stud and trying to finish the fight rather than being an Okami and taking the DQ win.
Just because you would prefer to see other guys get the title shot does not mean that there is ‘virtually no reason’ for Leites to get one.
Based on the advertisements that the UFC are running on Spike TV, we’re supposed to be excited about the PPV because we’re going to see Anderson Silva break/tie a bunch of records with his win.
Leites is not the worst candidate for a title shot, but he’s hardly the best (from several perspectives).
He’s Top 10 in the world, so good enough. I have never praised this card, nor do I think Leitas is the best challenger… But sometimes styles make fights, and he probably has a better shot at beating Silva then Marquardt or Henderson in rematches.
As for Maia, he had not beaten Sonnen by the time Silva/Leitas was already in the works. Yushin Okami…. Well, that is an entirely different story… And he is getting screwed over to an extent.
Overall, this division is really looking up. A lot of good challengers coming through, which should keep Silva, or whoever is champion, busy for the next 18 months to 2 years.
Silva’s winning streak is being billed as the longest in UFC history, not as “the longest if you start UFC history with UFC 3.”
Ivan, I wish I could agree with you, but the Harold Howard loss was very real. It should read “TKO (intimidation by wifebeater/mullet combo.)”
I’m not saying that it wasn’t real, I’m just saying that the UFC promoted it as “not real” (and apparently Royce’s loss to Sakuraba as “not real”) when they were promoting Royce as undefeated in 2006.
There would’ve been little difference in booking Okami, Leites or Maia vs. Silva three odd months ago when the fight was signed.
I don’t think Maia was a legitimate consideration. Back then, his ranking was lower, he wasn’t trashing Anderson, and he would’ve been stomped anyway. There’s no sense in putting him into a title shot prematurely, the same thing set Marquardt back two years – only now has he put himself back into contention.
Between Leites and Okami, you have one fighter with an impeccable record, multiple finishes, and a win over a top opponent. Not to say that Thales was fully deserving, but Yushin may have just beaten the only UFC vet that is more ignored than he is.
That Yushin holds a DQ win over Anderson is nothing that should get a potential match past the tipping point. A point of interest, yes, but focusing on this makes the fight seem LESS competitive.
I was against this match to begin with, but there really wasn’t anything better to do, which was why Silva fought Cote in the first place.
I don’t think that the reason Okami deserves a title shot is because of his DQ win over Silva. I think that the reason Okami deserves a title shot is because he’s 7-1 in the UFC and ranked #3 in the world. And somehow I think it’s a safe bet that to the UFC, Maia is ahead of Okami in line and even the Bisping-Henderson winner is ahead of Okami in line.
“I’m not saying that it wasn’t real, I’m just saying that the UFC promoted it as “not real” (and apparently Royce’s loss to Sakuraba as “not real”) when they were promoting Royce as undefeated in 2006.”
Didn’t they make a big deal about saying he was undefeated ‘in the UFC’?
I guess they are just rewriting history to suit their needs. They can say Royce was undefeated in the Octagon, which *technically* is true…they can also say that Silva could break the record tonight with 9 wins, because the Howard bout *technically* is on Royce’s pro record.
No, they just said he was “undefeated.” As far as they were concerned, the Sakuraba fight never happened, either.