« AOL Fanhouse makes a deal with MMAFighting | Home | A few questions to ask about Brock Lesnar »
UFC 100 (7/11 Las Vegas)
By Zach Arnold | July 11, 2009
Reports: Sherdog | Observer | Jake Rossen | MMA Torch | MMA Weekly | MMA Junkie | Bloody Elbow
Post UFC 100 editorial note
I have to go through about 20-25 audio and video clips to analyze and transcribe comments and remarks. Hang with me and I promise I will get some new articles and material here and at MMA Memories in the next couple of days. It’s not hard work but it’s work that takes some time to get done in a meticulous fashion.
One favor needed — I wanted to play the audio from Off The Record in Canada with Dana White. However, when I went to the web site of the show and tried to play the clip, it gave me a message that it couldn’t play ‘in my region.’ I’m just looking to download or play the audio so I can transcribe anything news-worthy said in the interview. If you can help out on this front, please contact me personally. Thanks.
Personal thoughts on the show – thought it wasn’t a bad show overall. Although I will say that right after the PPV telecast ended, I did receive a few messages from people (casual, hardcore, across the spectrum) who thought the show sucked. I disagree with that notion, but then again I’ve spent the last couple of weeks writing articles on most of the fights on the card so I’ve had tunnelvision, admittedly.
As for the commentary on Brock Lesnar and his antics in the cage, look… this is a guy who used dogfighting references on the UFC 100 Countdown show on Spike TV and no one blinked an eye. (If you recall, he was talking about being taken off a leash when describing how he would go after Mir.) You know what you’re going to get with Lesnar. He’s the company’s ace right now, with St. Pierre as the second biggest ace. Everything has fallen right into place for Zuffa.
UFC’s RSS feed is broken
Which is why headlines from their web site aren’t showing on the left sidebar.
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 140 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Anyone else see that the word “superfight” is back?
In the flyby promo for Penn vs Florian, Silva vs Griffin is tagged “superfight.”
I figured that was gone forever, not a good history for the most part.
I can’t believe Bonnar lost. That’s pretty sad.
I actually expressed in private to a couple of people that I thought Coleman could and would beat Bonnar. My mouth dropped when Bonnar was -450 on books and Coleman was +300. I mean, Bonnar was a bigger favorite on the books than St. Pierre, Akiyama, or Jon Fitch. Insanity.
Was Belcher robbed? It seemed really, really close.
Sherdog doesn’t seem to think he was robbed. It seemed pretty level to me, Belcher looked tired toward the end, and was pretty well torn up too. The commentary felt slanted along the way towards Belcher though, maybe they just talked themselves into thinking he won it in clear cut fashion?
I had it 29-27 Belcher. He clearly won the third and I thought he was more effective in the first. Way too much put into the “knockdown” in the third.
What song did Belcher come out to? I think it’s a Dylan song, but I don’t know the title.
Belcher wasnt robbed. Never a 30-27 fight but not a robbery.
Is Akiyama the ‘pride of osaka’. I thought he was the Korean ‘heel’ who fans wanted to see lose.
Belcher came out to ‘Hurricane’
Oh man. Joe Rogan really called that one.
“He’s circling right into his right hand.”
BOOM
Bisping got knocked the fcuk out. I knew he would get knocked out. Cant take Hendo down and always thought Bisping would be open to the right hand. Brutal.
Wow, whatever they poured into Henderson panties worked. Every fighter is going to want a shot of that stuff from now on.
Yeah, that was odd.
“Coach, my balls…THEY’RE SO HOT.”
Bisping looked very gaunt to me. Look like he starved himself to cut weight.
Well, I think it’s safe to say that GSP is the Batman of MMA.
I’m glad to hear that GSP doesn’t intend to be stupid about going up in weight. If he can put on the kind of weight that Alves has, then he’ll be much more competitive at middleweight, and he also has to learn how to fight with that weight comfortably, ensure that his flexibility etc remains what he wants it to.
I guess the biggest question about Lesnar vs Mir at this point is what nasty event is going to occur in whose groinal region in this fight.
No one’s sack is safe at UFC 100.
Akiyama vs. Belcher – I had Belcher winning 29-28. With that said, I don’t think it was a bad decision. MMA Junkie had it for Akiyama. All 3 guys at Sherdog did too. Breen even had it 30-27 for Akiyama. Either way, neither did enough to look impressive. At that point, it’s up to the judges to sort through very small differences.
Henderson vs. Bisping – Bisping’s style has been very annoying as of late. He puts his running shoes on and barely engages. It was nice to see Henderson KO him.
GSP vs. Alves – Went how I thought it would. Alves isn’t mentally weak, but he loses a part of his aggression after really getting ground and pounded. Happened in his fights with both GSP and Fitch.
I doubt Mir/Lesnar will go 5 rounds and the Fitch/Thiago will happen afterwards.
I checked out the undercard results. Dollaway is basically a dud now. He can’t avoid a submission to save his life. Coleman beating Bonnar is a shocker. Sad for Bonnar. Sad for Coleman, as I know this means he will continue to fight and perhaps take more punishment.
Bit early for calling Dollaway a dud or dropout at this point. Elite fighter? Not now, probably never. Finished? Not yet, not with a one loss streak and a 2-2 UFC record.
Strange fight.
That was a prison r#ping. Lesnar makes a fantastic heal.
Who can beat Lesnar? Does it all come down to his size and strength?
Really crude antics after the fight.
Coors Light.
Lesnar vs White?
It’s good to see Brock not care about getting booed and being a heel. I see other fighters get booed and then try and be nice with the fans pleading for them not to boo. Could Bob Sapp have been like Brock if he was committed 100%?
“Who can beat Lesnar? Does it all come down to his size and strength?”
Usually I say no but Brock is just that much bigger than everyone else. Didnt even a prime Noguiera after the Sapp fight predict Sapp would be unstoppable. Sounds laughable now but if Nog was speaking on the assumption Sapp would be training to improve.
It doesn’t really matter if people like you or hate you, as long as they have a strong emotion about you. That is what sells tickets.
Even though he talked smack about Budweiser, I doubt they are upset. Here is a major heal who mentions their product at the end of the fight. While it’s always nice to have positive things, people might remember that more.
Brock-Fedor…please!
What are the odds y’all think Dana someday makes that happen?
FF
Are you kidding me? Brock vs Fedor with Brock walking away with that belt is Dana’s wet dream.
I am not sure how to feel about Brock Lesnar. On one hand, I was entertained by his post fight speech and he did exactly what I expected in the ring. Alternately, watching this show I feel like I’ve watched something that contributes to the downfall of society.
Unless Fedor caught him quickly on the feet, I think Brock Lesnar beats him. Fedor won’t be able to submit him, and he has shown some weakness off his back. Fedor would be cut and beat up pretty badly.
With that said, for the people who like to do the rankings: 1. Fedor 2. Lesnar…. Don’t see how it can be any other way.
Fedor always finds a way to win.
It’s so weird having a match after all of the main events. All of the energy is gone.
Everyone always finds a way to win. Until they lose.
Good for Fitch.
Quote of the night goes to the banter between GSP and Greg Jackson at the end of Round 4:
“I pulled my groin.”
“I don’t care. Hit him with your groin. See the mentality I have here?”
I realize that he’s just playing a heel pro wrestling character, but the casual fans who make up the majority of the audience wouldn’t know that. They would just think that’s how the UFC Heavyweight Champion behaves.
Also, here’s a quote from Mike Goldberg, leaving his credibility at the door in a post-event segment on ESPNews: “Lesnar is undoubtedly the best heavyweight in the world!”
He obviously wasn’t going to go on ESPNews and say, “Lesnar is still not the best heavyweight in the world!” But he could have also retained a lot more credibility if he had chosen different wording.
Once again, Ivan assuming too much. We passed the UFC having “casual” fans a long time ago. And I thought you were a “journalist”.
Deal with it…those days are over. How Brock may have acted after the fight is not all that different to how Tito use to act. When Tito did it, it was “cute” to most people. When Brock does it, he’s doing “pro wrestling promos”. Get over yourself.
I honestly don’t think he’s “playing a character”. I think he’s legitimately fucking crazy. The whole scene was just surreal. There was a shot played in slow motion where Lesnar stares at a camera through the cage wall at one point, and he yelling (in silence) while he spits out his mouth piece, and there’s just crap flying out of his mouth in cartoonish fashion. The whole thing felt completely trashy and classless. I can’t imagine a single sportswriter or new fan being converted by this show. I just can’t. It wasn’t necessarily bad, the fighters aren’t “lower class” (Did you see that clinic from GSP?), but for all the endless blather about how MMA is not a bloodsport and is so cerebral and honorable and whatnot, I felt none of that coming through. The complete opposite came through, actually. While I enjoyed it, I also admit that MMA (like boxing, kickboxing, and muay thai) are all pretty barbaric, and the sense coming from this was just that.
“The whole thing felt completely trashy and classless. I can’t imagine a single sportswriter or new fan being converted by this show. I just can’t…. for all the endless blather about how MMA is not a bloodsport and is so cerebral and honorable and whatnot, I felt none of that coming through. The complete opposite came through, actually.”
That is basically the point I was trying to get across; Alan did just a better job getting it across than I did. You don’t have to play a trashy heel pro wrestling character to be a superstar, and one doesn’t need to look any further than GSP for evidence of that.
“We passed the UFC having “casual” fans a long time ago.”
I’m referring to the people who buy a few PPVs per year, but not most PPVs. That would be UFC 100’s audience since it’s going to be the biggest PPV buyrate of the year or at least one of the biggest. Casual fans would also be fans who are new to the sport and UFC 100 may have been their first PPV event. It was such a big event that I’m sure there were plenty of first-time buyers.
I just want to make this clear before I get some half-assed response filled with strawmen too: Brock did what I expected him to do. I think this is the end of Mir as an “elite heavyweight” and we’ll see him fall just as quickly as he came up from the purgatory of nearly losing to that big guy from TUF 2. I think Lesnar is clearly the #2 heavyweight in the world, and a key draw for the UFC. He’s clearly the best possible opponent for Fedor, even though I expect that fight to never happen and would prefer Lesnar has a few more fights to prepare for it anyways.
However, and its a big however: I have no idea whatsoever how you argue that Brock Lesnar is going to inspire any new fans to watch MMA beyond the wrestling ones he brought in when he debuted last year. Like, its clear after watching him tonight that there is no way in hell that he can be the guy who legitimizes MMA as a mainstream sport in this country. Not even close. He basically epitomized every negative connotation about the sport that’s been thrown at it. He will sell lots of tickets and I expect that talking point to continue on forever, but I simply cannot imagine Lesnar reaching that sort of status.
One other thing to add to that: Being “legitimate” to the mainstream media is not going to come just from having some really big buyrates here and there. Professional wrestling had big buyrates and huge ratings and was still treated as the scum of the earth. NASCAR has an event every year that grabs over a 9.0 on network TV and sells 100,000 tickets at most of their events, and they haven’t been able to fully break through to the stick and ball sports writers. If you think Brock selling 800,000 PPVs on his next outing or whatever will be what makes this the 4th largest sport in the US or whatever your wet dream happens to be, you have probably gone mad.
I totally agree with Alan C. However I think that that is clearly the direction that Dana and Co. want to go with their product. Appeal to the douchetards and put on a spectacle. Its really to bad because they could just as easily try to showcase everything that is good and true about MMA but instead they play up the lowest common denominator and end up playing straight into all the stereotypes.
For example they should start fining for egregious late shots (Henod on Bisping, Rampage on Silva) and unsportsmanlike post fight antics (Lesnar). They could also CHANGE THE FUCKING MUSIC!! How about a national anthem or two to give it the feeling of a real sport?
I really love how out of touch some mma fans are when it comes to the UFC, these are the same people crying about how Zuffa’s business practices hurt the image of the sport.
Simply put Brock is already mega star he dominated and destroyed a former UFC HW champion in a huge grudge match that is all that fans will remember about this event.
They’ll want to see the uncontrollable monster destroy his next opponent or better yet get destroyed by his next opponent and the UFC will continue to laugh all the way to the bank.
Just like Tito made a good ammount of new fans and ridiculous ppv buyrates, Brock will do the same but will bring in more money, fans and buyrates by the time it’s all said and done.
MMA doesn’t need legitimacy from old sports writers, it has the young audience that understands the sport and have made the UFC profitable even in a reccession.
UFC 100 is only the start of big things for Brock and the UFC, they will continue to dominate and grow while bitter and angry mma elitist bitch about it on mb’s everywhere.
Get used to it people, this is the era of Lesnar and Dana and company are going to be swimming in even more money by the time it comes to an end. While Fedor will continue to be irrelevant to the majority of mma fans and continue to put mma orgs out of business while collecting a big check.
EJ, successfully marketing to the lowest common denominator is still marketing to the lowest common denominator. They will be successful and they will make a lot of money. They will also ensure that MMA will stay, in essence, a fringe sport. Just that its one they make buckets of money with in the US.
Where was this Brock in WWE? His promos were terrible back then…
Alan and Ivan have probably been waiting up all night for weeks waiting to post on the Internet smarky comments about Brock Lesnar as soon as the show was over. Tonights event was the perfect UFC event. Anyone who watched is going to watch Brocks next fight. He is on a Hulk Hogan Mike Tyson trajectory.
You guys just love to bitch. Why don’t you go find some emo band to blog about and get all pissed off that they sold out if one of their douchey songs pollutes the radio waves. You guys are elitist clowns and the peoe that share your opinions add up to maybe $20,000 per event.
The NSAC has confirmed that it did not drug-test any UFC 100 fighters prior to the event as part of its out-of-competition drug testing program. The full story is at http://www.ivansblog.com/2009/07/no-out-of-competition-drug-testing-for.html
I didn’t catch it on the live broadcast, but all of the quotes from Dan Henderson’s post-fight interview include Henderson openly saying that he knew Michael Bisping was unconscious and he hit him one more time anyway. That is just classless garbage. At least he didn’t throw two more punches at his unconscious opponent’s head after the ref was literally pulling him off (like Quinton Jackson did against Wanderlei Silva), but it’s still classless garbage.
That was a masterful performance by GSP, but why was cornerman Greg Jackson talking to him like he was five years old in between rounds? I’m not even exaggerating; that is literally how Little League coaches talk to five-year-olds.
Were the judges distracted by a piece of flying lint during the Akiyama-Belcher fight? I had it scored 30-27 for Belcher, although I could understand scoring it 29-28 for Belcher. But one judge had it 30-27 for Akiyama? As Jake Rossen said on his ESPN/Sherdog blog, “Do they test the judges for recreational drugs?”
Great, the clip of Brock Lesnar screaming in his semi-conscious opponent’s face and then slobbering all over the camera like a bad 1980s pro wrestler made it onto the overnight SportsCenter. So did the clip of Henderson punching his already-unconscious opponent’s head. Between these two things and the recent E:60 segment about Dana White, I don’t think that the average ESPN viewer has a very good impression of MMA at this point. Neither does the average potential advertiser, for that matter.
A couple of other notes that I forgot to put in my previous post:
-The new Dan Wetzel article on Yahoo Sports says that Fedor vs. Barnett is the last fight on Fedor’s Affliction contract.
Hmm… maybe it wasn’t such a good idea for Dana White to say just recently that Fedor “is at a buffet table somewhere” and to have called him a fraud and a farce for the past two years…
-The fact that Mark Coleman is still fighting at his age and in his condition is sad. The fact that Stephan Bonnar lost to him is almost as sad.
Zach…you weren’t alone. I had money on Coleman and he’s the only reason I didn’t lose money tonight lol.
Ivan is drinking gallons of haterade at this point. After this show, if all you can do is complain about it, then nothing can make you happy.
It wasn’t the greatest show ever, but it was very solid.
Ivan, you might want to reconsider even watching the sport anymore. Doesn’t seem like you are even a fan.
He is on a Hulk Hogan Mike Tyson trajectory.
Hulk Hogan/Mike Tyson trajectory? What the fuck is that? They’re career paths were nothing alike. Dude, Lesnar might be able to be a Tysonesque figure if he drubs everyone else in the division. That’s how Tyson actually became Tyson. I don’t know why beating Frank Mir in roughly the same convincing fashion Brandon Vera did would bring any individual to conclude that he’s going to easily plow through the other young heavyweights on the UFC’s roster.
Hendo dusting off the big right hand for Bisping was beautiful since I hate Bisping. I couldn’t believe he left himself wide open for it, isn’t that the first thing you train to avoid when facing Henderson? I assume he’ll be facing Wanderlei next. I doubt Wanderlei will get as lucky as Henderson did at this point in his career.
GSP’s performance was nothing short of masterful, the way he absolutely refused to let a dangerous opponent fight his style. I know of a lot of people who were totally convinced Alves was going to nail him with a bomb early like Serra did, but GSP took advantage of the fact that Alves lacks wrestling (which is suicide at 170 these days.) And if he did that with a torn groin, that’s incredible.
Nobody in the UFC is going to beat Brock. I still think Fedor would, but his toughest opponent in the UFC is who, a worn-down Nogueira? Carwin who he betters at all of his strengths? I don’t think he’s the best fighter in the world, but he’s too damn huge for anyone to get a handle on. Maybe his stamina going 5 rounds carrying all of that muscle would be his weak point (I think that’s what Fedor would bank on) but until we see that I think he continues his run and outdoes Liddell as the buyrate king. A few more wins will erase the “just that WWE guy” stigma and have everyone view him as purely a UFC fighter.
Carwin who he betters at all of his strengths?
He might be a better wrestler, but I’m not at all convinced that he’s a better striker than Carwin. Same goes for Velasquez. Cain will likely do a far better job doing things like defending takedowns, he hits pretty darn hard, and he has a submission game to boot.
I’m pretty solidly in the camp that what Lesnar did last year to Couture, Carwin and Cain would pretty easily repeat. There was always the talk that those two guys would never be matched up with Lesnar unless it was a world title situation, which tells me that the UFC is far less convinced internally that Lesnar would thump them without breaking a sweat. They’re gonna put it off as long as possible, too.