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The oxygen has been completely sucked away from Carano vs. Cyborg
By Zach Arnold | August 6, 2009
That’s by far the most telling thing to come out of the last two weeks of Fedor negotiations with Strikeforce. I remember two months ago when people were swearing up and down to me that Carano vs. Cyborg would change women’s MMA forever and make women a big deal in the sport. Instead, Coker and crew have basically gone for broke by signing Fedor and sucking whatever oxygen there was for the 8/15 Showtime promotion show.
Then again, Showtime hasn’t exactly helped out matters. On previous Strikeforce events on the channel, instead of promoting the Carano/Cyborg fight the network was promoting the Affliction 3 show… which, of course, never happened.
You can do a conference call for the media to hype up Gina’s fight, but realistically there is little-to-no buzz for what was supposed to be a ‘money fight’ and a fight that most people agreed earlier in the year would have done well on a stronger television platform. Now, the fight desperately needs oxygen and the event promoter is wrapped up instead building the focus of his operation around one fighter from Russia who has fought in six promotions that have gone bankrupt.
But, hey, we’ll get to see Fedor in HD. That’s all that matters, right?
Dana White is now taking the gloves off on Scott Coker. And a message for M-1 if they think nobody knew who Brock Lesnar was before he came to UFC.
Topics: M-1, Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 29 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
The oxygen has been sucked out of everything that isn’t Fedor related on blogs. It was one thing last week when this was breaking. Now? UFC 101’s weigh-ins are in like 24 hours. Does anyone even know that Miguel Torres is fighting this weekend? Seriously.
I didn’t care about Carano/Cyborg from the beginning, I just can’t get into womens MMA. I feel like adding a womens match to a card just means we get one less match featuring men that are more powerful, athletic, explosive, and technical. I hope Dana never brings a womens division to to UFC, I’d rather he bring the smaller fighters from WEC in.
UFC 101 won’t suffer because it is the casual fans who make the events a success or not.
WEC & Carano/Cyborg are the big losers here. I agree, the oxygen has been sucked right out of them.
Expect UFC 100 replay with that nobody known as Brock Lesnar to go directly up against Fedor’s debut on Showtime.
Vadim comes across as corrupt. No other way to put it. And Coker comes across too nice. He needs to fight back a little bit.
Did you know that UFC 101 and WEC was on this weekend? I didn’t even realize that, and I am still unsure as I write this post.
BTW, hows Loretta Hunts prediction that Carano/Cyborg would garner more media attention than UFC 100 looking? And people like to talk about pro UFC reports like Iole when theres just as many anti UFC reporters like Hunt out there.
Anyway, Carano/Cyborg was bound to be overshadowed being sandwiched between UFC 101 and 102.
“BTW, hows Loretta Hunts prediction that Carano/Cyborg would garner more media attention than UFC 100 looking?”
I’m going to go out on a limb and say that she may be a tad bit off the mark on that one.
I knew UFC 101. I’d forgotten about WEC, which makes me guess its gonna bomb, hard.
Of course, Zuffa can afford the occasional bomb, especially with WEC. Strikeforce NEEDS to make Carano/Cyborg a big deal.
The WEC is gonna bomb no matter what. Without Urijah Faber fighting for a title against someone who’s viewed as a threat, no one watches. It won’t help if hardcore fans are forgetting that its on, since they’re the only ones watching.
The last 2 to 3 weeks have been off the charts for hardcore fans in terms of news and movement within the sport.
As a fan, it feels like without Fedor Emelianenko fighting on August 15th Strikeforce show, it automatically feels like a huge letdown. Don’t get me wrong, I know it is impossible to sign him and put an event on that long. I’m not even saying they should have put him on the August 15th card.
What I am saying is that with the expectation of Fedor fighting last week… And now Strikeforce signing him…. Any show they have until Fedor fights will feel like a letdown. It’s more of the “let’s get to Fedor already” type of attitude.
And Michaelthebox is correct. If Carano/Cyborg fails, it really hurts Strikeforce. If the WEC fails, the UFC can handle it, especially when UFC 101 will likely easily get over 500,000 PPV Buys. Overall, that’s still a good weekend. Two World Championship Fights…. lots of money made, etc, etc…
Oh hey, everyone’s over here. If anyone is still interested in that Strikeforce (Strikefarce?) call from earlier, it’s here in all it’s painful glory:
http://falcomadol.dyndns.org:4280/calls/2009.08.06.mp3
A few quotes from Dana White concerning Strikeforce… I pulled these off of BE….
“They have no money, no fighters. They’re a small-town show.” “Cung Le hasn’t defended the title since like 1997. Josh Thomson hasn’t defended the belt in like two years. Who’s their other champion? Alistair Overeem? He hasn’t defended the belt in like two years. It’s Strike-Farce. It’s a little regional show with no one in it.”
“Fedor will put them out of business.” “They have no money and no distribution. You know how many people watch their fights? Their last fight [on Showtime cable], 245,000 people watched that fight. That’s nothing.”
“Strikeforce should have stayed the way they were.” … “If they want to fight me, we’re gonna fight. We know how that goes, and we know how it ends.”
Shouldn’t have pissed Dana off.
Dana via KO
Speaking of the WEC & Strikeforce…
mmalogic is now saying:
“Right now Zuffa is in discussions with EA for the WEC and using Zuffa’s distribution channel for their MMA game.
If this deal gets done EA will be out of the entire equation… divide and conquer.”
If this is true, Zuffa could even low ball any deal possible. Big companies do this all the time to their competition just to hurt them. Even if WEC runs at a slight loss, it’s no big deal.
It is stuff like this where Strikeforce is at a huge disadvantage. Zuffa has more vested into the sport. It’s hard to compete with that.
lol at this quote (which was first transcribed by AOL Fanhouse):
“Asked about rumors that the UFC had sent a cease-and-desist letter to Strikeforce to stop the scheduled Gegard Mousasi-Renato “Babalu” Sobral matchup, White had no answer.
“I honestly don’t know,” he said, intimating that his legal team might have acted without his knowledge. “Maybe we did. You know me. I’d tell you if I knew we did.””
It’s way too early to say Carano-Cyborg is being swallowed. Doesn’t this happen every time? 10 days out from a fight people scream “where’s the hype” and then 3-4 days before it really picks up? The last 3-4 days is all that matters.
“It’s way too early to say Carano-Cyborg is being swallowed. Doesn’t this happen every time? 10 days out from a fight people scream “where’s the hype” and then 3-4 days before it really picks up? The last 3-4 days is all that matters.”
But Rome, weren’t you the one saying Strikeforce dropped the ball on promoting Carano-Cyborg?
Rome, I think thats only the case with PPV shows and established fanbases that already know how to consume the product.
They have dropped the ball bigtime in the way they’re promoting it, in terms of the story they are trying to sell the general public. Most youtube videos put together by fans are better than the Carano/Cyborg hype video that’s out.
However, a number of mainstream press organs are doing stories on Gina next week, and by the time fight night comes there will be a lot of hype for the fight even though Strikeforce has missed the boat.
I would care about Carano and Cyborg if they could actually make weight
The fact that it’s on Showtime and not CBS means they already missed the ball.
I think it’s nearly impossible to build up a large fanbase being on Showtime.
I actually agree with that. The audience for women’s MMA may be shallow but wide. Perfect for network television, not so perfect for PPV or package TV.
I’m likely going to the Q&A session tomorrow with Dana White & Lorenzo Fertitta….
If I get to ask a question… Can anybody have a good one to ask?
Ask Dana how he views people’s views of his personality. Maybe work in the implication that it’s a put on for purposes of ginning up PPV buys and see if you get a pop.
“Ask Dana how he views people’s views of his personality.”
Watch the video where he rips Loretta Hunt a new one. There’s your answer.
If the answer is anything other than “They’re a bunch of fucking faggots” then I will be shocked.
If we agree that Fedor fights for promotions with shaky backgrounds financially, then why did Dana White take Scott Coker signing Fedor as an act of war? In other words, if Fedor doesn’t fight for operations that handle their business seriously, then why did he take Strikeforce’s signing personally on a business level?
Simple Fedor pissed off the UFC and spit in their face even after getting a sweetheart deal. Now he goes to another promotion and there’s talk of putting him on CBS and moving SF to ppv which wuold put them in direct competition with the UFC. Dana was fine tolerating SF when they didn’t step into their yard now that they have it’s time to bury them next to the rest of the mma org’s that tried to do the same.
I don’t think it is Fedor or Strikeforce droppng the ball promotionally. I just don’t think anyone cares about womens MMA. The only people that care about Gina are a bunch of Internet nerds with no girlfriend.
There is way too much made about her being a draw. She fought late on the Kimbo James Thompson card. Everyone knew kimbo would fight last. So the ratings rose throughout the show. She had an agent who got her on American Gladiators. Nobody saw that piece of trash.
Gina like Fedor has a small hardcore fanbase. But she has less fans. They are vocal on the Internet. But they don’t bring real numbers.
I don’t think realistically Strikeforce expected Carano-Cyborg to be an off-the-charts success. It’s the media who have talked it up as being an iconic event and that claim it could break Kimbo-Tank‘s ratings record, not Strikeforce.
Obviously they’ve promoted it as a big fight, but it’s the women’s MMA boosters like Hunt that have given it far too much hype. I am a huge fan of women’s MMA, but you cannot over-hype something that is still uncharted like women’s MMA. You make the doubters view it with an extra-discerning eye where there’s no way they’re not going to say it sucked unless it’s 10 times better than any previous Carano fight. I think it’s going to be a great fight and do a ton to further women’s MMA, but even if the Fedor deal never happened it wasn’t going to be as successful as Kimbo-Tank. That got a bunch of coverage in the media that even before Fedor stole headlines this wasn’t getting. Gina’s biggest press coverage came from a blip in the latest Rolling Stone magazine about the breakout stars in sports. Kimbo and Tank got a great little segment on Jimmy Kimmel Live that was entertaining enough to get interest.
It’s pretty sad that Kimbo-Tank got the highest ever MMA rating on Showtime. Women’s MMA may not be as great quality-wise (in terms of athleticism, skill, etc.) as Men’s MMA but Carano-Cyborg is a more athletic and skilled contest than Kimbo-Tank by a long shot. I’m looking forward to all this MMA in August. Tonight (UFC 101), then a week from now (Strikeforce) and then three weeks from now (UFC 102). There is even a WEC event that I wasn’t even aware of! lol. September is also a good month. I’m even looking forward to Kimbo Slice’s debut just to see if he gets knocked out again.