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« | Home | »

The obligatory ‘Alistair Overeem explains how Golden Glory does business’ video

By Zach Arnold | August 15, 2011

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“The dream fight for me is to directly fight for the UFC title. That’s something that would arouse me.”

No transcript needed (watch the whole video if you want the details), but a quick summary for you:

As a bonus, here’s a video of Tito Ortiz going over-the-top in praise of himself for being such a company man for the UFC (and that he’s still hurting from the punishment Rashad Evans leveled on him in Philadelphia).

As for how well UFC 133 drew? MMA Supremacy hints that the PPV drew the same buy rate (250,000-325,000 buy rate range) as the PPVs have been drawing all Summer long for UFC. That is not a good sign.

HDNet posted this video online today (it’s from last October) where Shawn Tompkins gave the network a tour of the Tapout training facility in Las Vegas.

Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, UFC, Zach Arnold | 17 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

17 Responses to “The obligatory ‘Alistair Overeem explains how Golden Glory does business’ video”

  1. 45 Huddle says:

    1) Makes no sense to give Alistair Overeem an instant title shot. He is unknown to most of the UFC’s fanbase. And I think Overeem knows exactly why Zuffa has problems with GG and is just playing dumb. He saw what happened when he went public with Helwani a month or so ago.

    2) The PPV buys make perfect sense based on the cards that have been on PPV. It’s not a bad sign. Wait until the fall when they have 3 or 4 big PPV’s in a row…. Those PPV Buys rates have 100 times more meaning. Anderson Silva, GSP, & Cain Velasquez all have upcoming fights. And if Lesnar is healthy he might be fighting in December. And then all of a sudden people will be saying: “Oh, the UFC is going great business again.” This song has been song far too often….

    3) Did anybody actually like Shawn Thompkins? Seemed like he made enemies almost everywhere he went.

  2. edub says:

    1) He is not unknown to the UFC fanbase. In fact he is known quite well, and is well liked. He is also the #3 ranked fighter in the world, and was the favorite to win the SF HWGP until “causes” (whatever they were) prevented him from competing there.

    3) Everybody is remembered differently in death. Specifically, if they died young. But you do have a point.

    • 45 Huddle says:

      You are living inside the MMA Internet Bubble if you think the UFC fans know who he is.

      The internet fans is a different matter. And the Ubereem hype started off more as a joke on The UG. Sort of built steam because he kept on winning. And then got out of control. Then was basically deflated when he fought Fabricio Werdum and the internet fans figured out he wasn’t some improved fighter.

      He’s not getting a title shot right away and has no leverage to make it happen.

      He’s borderline Top 5. Once again people are valuing non-UFC wins far too much. How many times do we have to see guys look awesome outside of the UFC and then look average inside it before people learn?

  3. 45 Huddle says:

    And Overeem and Boon should get their stories straight.

    Bas Boon stated that in the past the deal was for Golden Glory to get paid directly. Now Overeem is going against that.

    In in earlier interview, Overeem said he wanted to fight in other organizations. And then within a week, Bas Boon said an exclusive contract was not an issue.

    Too much BS coming out of this camp….

    None of it really matters. They don’t have much talent over there worth anything. And Overeem is one beating away from being exposed as the same guy he was in Pride….

    Then we can end all of this BS….

    • Zheroen says:

      Wouldn’t it make more sense for you to hope that Overeem does well and signs with the UFC? If he’s “exposed”, who is left for the winner of JDS-Velasquez to face beyond Brock? Mitrione?

      You still view MMA as “UFC vs. Pride/EliteXC/Strikeforce”, when the UFC is the only game in town. Dana’s model of thinking seems not unlike Vince McMahon’s circa the Invasion-era, where instead of building up acquired stars from the competition to create fresh stars and programs with his existing talent, he felt the need to bury them. Just about everyone points to that as the point where the fans’ interest started to die off in wrestling (good financial performance and continued rating success notwithstanding).

  4. edub says:

    No I’m not living in any bubble. But it appears you are. Even Dan has now done multiple interviews talking about how they are going to bring him in, because he’s one of the best HWs in the world. We all know what dana says gets taken to heart by everybody. Plus he’s been the biggest draw in SF over the past year.

    The Overeem hype did start out on the UG, but he kept winning (something you fist admit, than write off). His wins in K1 mean little to MMA, but they provide hype as he can now claim the best striker in MMA (eventhough I wouldn’t agree). However, his wins over the top ten Brett Rogers, and top 3 Fabricio Werdum do matter in context in MMA. The only guys right now who have a better resume over the last two years are JDS and Cain, and anyone who disputes that is either being a hater or just not that smart.

    Most UFC wins matter more. The thing is people like Carwin and Cain have few better wins than Overeem does.

    He might get a title shot, and he might not. The problem is the UFC has very little in terms of credible challenges for the Dos Santos-Velasquez winner, and it’s not like Zuffa has some vendetta against him (or GG for that matter). The whole kicking out stuff was manufactured so they didn’t get caught holding the bag for what would have been the most sought after free agent in MMA. And it worked out great.

  5. Chris27 says:

    whats not a good sign? Everyone knew the summer cards would do in that range.

    With UFC Rio, Jones/page, GSP/Diaz, a stacked 136, JDS/Cain, Brock possibly coming back in Dec, Reem maybe coming to the UFC, SF merger possibly happening next year, a possible Rashad/Jones fight, Cain/JDS vs Reem or Brock, Sonnen/Silva rematch could happen I’d say the rest of the year and next year is looking great and should produce big ppv buys.

  6. david m says:

    A ‘Reem title shot would be easy to build. He is the Strikeforce HW champion, he fights to crush people (usually—meaning there are great highlights of him destroying dudes, both in mma and kickboxing, although we already know Dana pretends mma doesn’t exist outside of Zuffaworld), and he looks like a freakish cartoon character. Champion vs champion, both guys in their primes, would be cake. You are forgetting than Jeremy Horn main evented a UFC show without anyone knowing who he was, before the UFC had entered their business prime where they could put shit on a plate and get 200k buys. They built up Jeremy Horn as a legit challenger; Jeremy Horn looks like he should be a shift manager at McDonalds, and they made him seem like a world-beater. Imagine what they could do with Alistair.

    Further, similarly to how they are giving Diaz a title shot, the UFC would be smart to prevent Overeem from losing a non-title match and thus killing his drawing power. Overeem is a bully, a front-runner, and a quitter, so chances are if he were to fight someone like J2S who would hit him back, Overeem would fold like a tent. It would behoove Zuffa to give him a shot before he loses.

    • 45 Huddle says:

      The risk is worth the reward.

      Giving Overeem a title shot right off the bat wouldn’t give them big PPV numbers.

      Take the risk and give him one fight first…. Then it would sell much better.

      And who says they have to give him JDS. They could give him Shane Carwin….

      • Chuck says:

        Shane Carwin is a respectable and beatable fighter for Overeem. Another good fight for Overeem? Mike Russow. Again, decent fighter, definitely beatable. Roy Nelson is another one.

  7. Light23 says:

    I think people are looking a bit too much into the “poor” buyrates recently.

    For a start, 300k buys is probably very profitable. Secondly, UFC shows have always traditionally done that sort of number when they’re weak. People pay to see title fights or big stars. When they have neither they can’t be expected to draw.

    There’s so much MMA on TV that these shows are basically filler. We’ve got seven title fights in 12 weeks coming up which will do respectable business.

    Overall, the UFC will be down on last year, but they can’t be expected to break industry records forever. I bet they do ~$350mil which is great considering the one year PPV record was $260mil in 2006.

    • edub says:

      “We’ve got seven title fights in 12 weeks coming up which will do respectable business.”

      Knock on Wood!

  8. Wanderlei's New Face says:

    Assuming that Brock does indeed return sooner than later, it would behoove the UFC to consider booking him vs. ‘Reem in his return fight. Heck, go all the way and give them the Primetime treatment to boot. $$$ will be made and the winner would conceivably go on to face the Cain/JDS winner in a fight that would do well also it would seem.

  9. david m says:

    It is crazy that if Brock had been on any of these cards, they literally would have done 700k more buys, minimum. Quick, what is 700,000 x 50? I believe that is 35 million dollars. And factor in there are still some bars that only show UFC for big cards (does anyone know how much the bar licensing fee is btw?), and Brock is one valuable motherfucker. He should be getting 8 figures every time he fights.

  10. Matt says:

    I\’m not quite understanding how so many people, fans, and writers can throw around \’ppv buys\’ so easily. From what I have read, the numbers aren\’t published. The CSAC, NSAC or any other state commission doesn\’t release them. And watching the ratings of a 30 minute hype show on Spike, two days before, and dipping those numbers into tea leaves doesn\’t always give correct answers either.

    So how do some of you do it?

  11. Matt says:

    I’m not quite understanding how so many people, fans, and writers can throw around ‘ppv buys’ so easily. From what I have read, the numbers aren\’t published. The CSAC, NSAC or any other state commission doesn’t release them. And watching the ratings of a 30 minute hype show on Spike, two days before, and dipping those numbers into tea leaves doesn’t always give correct answers either.

    So how do some of you do it?

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