Women – Independent World MMA Rankings (September 24, 2010)
By Zach Arnold | September 23, 2010
From the office of the Independent World MMA Rankings
The September 2010 Women’s Independent World MMA Rankings have been released. These rankings are independent of any single MMA media outlet or sanctioning body, and are published on multiple MMA web sites, as well as www.IndependentWorldMMARankings.com.
The members of the voting panel for the Women’s Independent World MMA Rankings are, in alphabetical order: Nicholas Bailey (MMA Ratings); Jim Genia (Full Contact Fighter and MMA Journalist Blog); Yael Grauer (MMA HQ); Jesse Holland (MMA Mania); Robert Joyner (Freelance); Zac Robinson (Sports by the Numbers MMA); Michael David Smith (AOL Fanhouse); and Joshua Stein (MMA Opinion).
Note: Jamie Seaton is temporarily ineligible to be ranked, due to the fact that she has not fought in over 12 full months.
September 2010 Women’s Independent World MMA Rankings
Ballots collected on September 21, 2010
Featherweight Rankings (136 to 145 lbs.)
1. Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos (10-1)
2. Marloes Coenen (17-4)
3. Yuko “Hiroko” Yamanaka (10-1-1)
4. Cindy Dandois (4-0)
5. Shana Olsen (4-0)
6. Amanda Nunes (5-1)
7. Hitomi Akano (16-8)
8. Ediane Gomes (5-1)
9. Yoko Takahashi (14-11-3)
10. Kaitlin Young (4-4)
Bantamweight Rankings (126 to 135 lbs.)
1. Sarah Kaufman (12-0)
2. Roxanne Modafferi (15-6)
3. Tara LaRosa (18-2)
4. Miesha Tate (11-2)
5. Hitomi Akano (16-8)
6. Shayna Baszler (12-6)
7. Takayo Hashi (12-2)
8. Jennifer Tate (6-1)
9. Julie Kedzie (14-8)
10. Vanessa Porto (10-4)
Flyweight Rankings (116 to 125 lbs.)
1. Tara LaRosa (18-2)
2. Rosi Sexton (10-2)
3. Aisling Daly (9-1)
4. Zoila Frausto (8-1)
5. Rin Nakai (7-0)
6. Sally Krumdiack (8-3)
7. Megumi Fujii (21-0)
8. Jeri Sitzes (3-1)
9. Monica Lovato (5-2)
10. Carina Damm (15-4)
Junior Flyweight Rankings (106 to 115 lbs.)
1. Megumi Fujii (21-0)
2. Lisa Ward (14-5)
3. Yuka Tsuji (22-2)
4. Mei “V Hajime” Yamaguchi (6-2)
5. Jessica Aguilar (9-3)
6. Zoila Frausto (8-1)
7. Kyoko Takabayashi (11-4)
8. Jessica Pene (7-1)
9. Angela Magana (8-4)
10. Emi Fujino (8-4)
The Women’s Independent World MMA Rankings are tabulated and published on a monthly basis, with fighters receiving ten points for a first-place vote, nine points for a second-place vote, and so on.
The rankings are based purely on the votes of the members of the voting panel, with nobody’s vote counting more than anybody else’s vote, and no computerized voting.
The voters are instructed to vote primarily based on fighters’ actual accomplishments in the cage/ring (the quality of opposition that they’ve actually beaten), not based on a broad, subjective perception of which fighters would theoretically win hypothetical match-ups.
Inactivity: Fighters who have not fought in the past 12 months are not eligible to be ranked, and will regain their eligibility the next time they fight.
Disciplinary Suspensions: Fighters who are currently serving disciplinary suspensions, or who have been denied a license for drug test or disciplinary reasons, are not eligible to be ranked.
Changing Weight Classes: When a fighter announces that she is leaving one weight class in order to fight in another weight class, the fighter is not eligible to be ranked in the new weight class until her first fight in the new weight class has taken place.
Catch Weight Fights: When fights are contested at weights that are in between the limits of the various weight classes, they are considered to be in the higher weight class. The weight limits for each weight class are listed at the top of the rankings for each weight class.
Special thanks to Eric Kamander, Joshua Stein, and Yael Grauer for their invaluable help with this project, and special thanks to Garrett Bailey for designing our logo.
Topics: Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 5 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
On heels of upcoming big fights, Bellator faces scrutiny
By Zach Arnold | September 23, 2010
With Neil Grove vs. Cole Konrad and the semi-finals of the women’s 115-pound tournament coming up, you would think Bellator would be in good position to garner some positive attention. Throw in next month’s fight between Roger Huerta (of TMZ fame now) and Eddie Alvarez and life’s not so bad.
Unfortunately, MMA Payout has a report claiming that the FBI is investigating the alleged main financial backer of Bellator. Read the report.
Take that information, put it into context as far as how Bellator is doing business-wise, and read the comments that both Roger Huerta and Eddie Alvarez have made about their upcoming fight in Philadelphia. Will long-term financial problems put an end to some of the unique matches that Bellator is making that Strikeforce simply hasn’t done?
EDDIE ALVAREZ: “I’m wearing my Philadelphia Eagles jersey today because the fight’s going to be in my home town. My first fight in Philadelphia. I couldn’t be more happier with Bellator. They’re giving me the match-up I want, in the place I want, and I’ve been doing well by them so I think I earned it and I’m excited. There’s no one more than I want to fight in Bellator than Roger, so…”
KENNY RICE: “And that is, why? You want to fight Roger…”
EDDIE ALVAREZ: “I believe that he’s… one of the last match-ups left for me to fight as far as good guys, guys who have names as well as I just want to challenge myself and I just, I think the match-up is amazing. It’s what people want to see. It’s been on the Internet for the past two or three years, how do you think Eddie Alvarez would do against Roger Huerta, how do they think they match up, and everyone seems like they are very opinionated about it. The Roger fans think he’ll win, my fans of course think I’ll win so we’ll see on October 21st.”
KENNY RICE: “Roger, what about fighting and not just fighting Eddie but fighting him in Philadelphia? This guy has never lost in the U.S. and now he’s going to be fighting on home turf, to boot.”
ROGER HUERTA: “Um… We’ll see. Everybody’s different. You know I took it differently when I fought in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I fought Kenny Florian there and it was overwhelming for me but Eddie’s Eddie. I mean he’s definitely going to come in fully ready, I believe, and I’m preparing for the best Eddie Alvarez ever. I respect this man next to my left here and, you know, he’s going to bring the best out of me, for sure, that night and we’ll see what happens.”
BAS RUTTEN: “Two technical guys, one brawler and the other one more compact. It’s going to be fun for us to watch.”
KENNY RICE: “That’s going to be a really great match-up for Bellator. We asked you in our Inside MMA Junkie poll this week, who is going to win it and how they are going to win it? There you see and here’s what you said… you said Alvarez wins by decision, Alvarez wins by way of knockout, Huerta wins by way of knockout, so nobody else is giving you guys any credit to either one of you that you’re going to win it by submission. If you look only 13% total say it’s going to end by submission one way or the other. What do you think about that poll, Roger? Eddie?”
EDDIE ALVAREZ: “I can’t believe that the Underground that it’s going for a decision, that the majority of the people would say it’s going to a decision. I’ve got over 90%, I believe 90% finish ratio. Why they think I would ever take a fight to a decision against any one is beyond me and Roger, Roger’s been known to bring it, too. You have a lot of decisions?”
ROGER HUERTA: “The last couple ones I guess they went to decisions but… it doesn’t really go to my favorites so I’m not prone to that.”
BAS RUTTEN: “Yeah, you’re going against top, top guys also.”
EDDIE ALVAREZ: “I think that the style match-up that Roger has is real resilient. He doesn’t give up, he’s always sticking in there against really good guys. I match-up really well against guys like that. Every guy I fought who’s known to be stick-around-and-not-go-away-and-have-a-big-heart, I’ve did my best against guys like that. So I really love this match-up and I want to challenge Roger to make it Fight of the Year, let’s go after it and make another Fight of the Year. 2008 I had one. I’d love to have one again in 2010.”
KENNY RICE: “I think you’re up to that challenge. … Were you really in a street brawl? I don’t think anything upsets you. Nothing upsets you, does it? That’s good.”
At the end of the video, Bas Rutten compares Roger Huerta’s relaxed nature on the show to that of Prince on Oprah Winfrey… and he does a Prince singing impersonation that you have to watch to believe.
Topics: Bellator, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 6 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Frank Mir says… something… about drug-related MMA suspensions
By Zach Arnold | September 23, 2010
Audio cut clipped by Steve Cofield for Yahoo Sports
CHAD DUKES: “I got to ask you, of course, about the elephant in the room with MMA right now with what happened with Shane Carwin, with what Chael Sonnen’s going through right now and about performance-enhancing drugs, it’s in all sports. And you got a guy, I love Chael Sonnen’s smack talk going into the Anderson Silva fight but he was doing all of that while, you know, it looks like taking a steroid. You’re a guy that’s very good with words, you’re a guy that can go out there and promote his own fight and sell himself. What do you make of all of that, you know, bluster and now we know this about him with the positive test, what do you think the ramifications should be for a guy in your sport that tests positive for a PED?”
FRANK MIR: “Well, I think, honestly, I mean, I think it’s going to depend on what it was.”
CHAD DUKES: “Right.”
FRANK MIR: “As far as what I’m hearing right now, it’s just… you know, it’s a performance-enhancing drug, a PED. Well, does that mean he took an aspirin? I mean, that, you know… you can take certain supplements, you know, they’re very strict with our drug testing so I’m aware that, you know, if you were to take an over-the-counter cough medicine could be a problem if we don’t tell the doctor we’re taking it.”
CHAD DUKES: “Right.”
FRANK MIR: “Does it fall under that qualification? So, that’s why like I’m kind of waiting before I pass any kind of judgment. I just want the full story and so far I’ve heard the PEDs are such a broad spectrum of substances, I mean he could have took a mushroom plant that’s, you know, from China that, you know, had too much caffeine in it. Well, that’s you know, PEDs, like whoa. That’s not kind of what first comes to my mind when someone talks about, you know, a performance-enhancing drug. I tend to think like everybody else, well I’m going to think it that it’s steroids or some sort. But so far I think if it had been that, again I’m not up to date completely this week just from what’s going on in my career you know I’m fighting this weekend, so if you guys know any thing differently, so far I’m just hearing a little broad, you know, what’s really going.”
CHAD DUKES: “Well, I mean the latest I heard that it was at first it was thought to be a natural steroid and now they’re saying is an unnatural steroid. He has not addressed it yet but, I mean Jordan (it’s Josh, Chad…) Gross said that there should be a zero tolerance policy with the UFC and steroids. I mean if it comes out like if they got proof that he pops positive for a steroid, would you be in favor of something that drastic?”
FRANK MIR: “Um, as far as … what do you mean?”
CHAD DUKES: “Like a zero tolerance, like if you pop positive for a steroid, you’re not going to fight in the UFC any more?”
FRANK MIR: “Um… you know, I don’t know, I think it has to be a case-by-case situation just like… that’s why I mean we have laws on the books even in our civilian life, they’re not completely cut-and-dry, you know. … It kind of depends on the circumstances. I’m a very liberal person, so I have to see the situation like if he’s like, yeah, you know, I had an injury and I went to the doctor and, you know, it was a situation of not fighting, not fighting and my competitive nature got a hold of me, you know, I don’t know if that really would justify it to me ending someone’s career. If it was purely … and some guy comes on and says, yeah I took this so that way I could smash holes and I’m nuts, you know I’m like, well OK, that guy we need to go ahead and… He’s in a different category than a guy who’s wanting to hurt or you know otherwise had to pull out and I just, I couldn’t handle that mentally, it was my title shot, I get to fight the best fighter in the world, you know what I mean? Those are two different versions, so it’s like I don’t know where he falls on that spectrum.”
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Josh Gross: UFC should cut fighters who fail drug tests to help clean up the sport
By Zach Arnold | September 22, 2010
Josh Gross wrote a column on SI expanding on this idea. (Anthony Pace has a rebuttal here. Larry Pepe has a defense of Chael Sonnen that you should read.) He then appeared on Jim Rome’s radio show to talk about it. Here’s a transcript of today’s appearance by Josh Gross on Jim Rome’s radio show:
JIM ROME: “Josh Gross joining us, he’s an MMA reporter for SI.com. Hey Josh, where you come out on this — for instance, when this first came up in terms of baseball, people would call up and say, great, so maybe they add some help, but it’s not going to make you a Major Leaguer and I would always argue that no, certainly not, you can’t pull a guy out of a Gold’s Gym and then load ’em up full of roids and expect him to play Major League Baseball, but it could take a good player and make him a great, a great player and make him a Hall of Famer, a Hall of Famer and make him the best ever. What about MMA? I mean, this guy was a largely anonymous fighter not long ago, did they make him a great fighter?”
JOSH GROSS: “Uh, look, I mean you have to question his performance against Silva. He got so much credit for the way that he handled Anderson Silva in that fight. He dominated for 23 minutes. This was… nobody’s done that to Anderson Silva. Anderson Silva’s great and I think you have to really wonder if it played a part and I don’t think there’s any doubt, I mean it’s performance-enhancing for a reason. And, you know, I think people like to compare sports and talk about baseball, I got so many people e-mailing me and my Twitter feed, it’s like, who cares if these guys do that? This is not baseball. This is not a game. They’re punching each other in the face. This sport is inherently dangerous. To add testosterone and guys that are brimming with this stuff, it’s just a mix that you cannot have. So, you know, it’s a pretty big issue.”
JIM ROME: “Now, let’s finish that thought, it’s a great point. I mean, in baseball, if you’re bigger, stronger, and faster, you’re going to kill the ball. Here, if you’re bigger, stronger, and faster, somebody might really get killed.”
JOSH GROSS: “Certainly, and you know people talk about steroids, oh it’s a health & safety issue, I couldn’t care less if these guys put their health & safety on the line if they’re going to do this. Quite honestly, stepping into the Octagon and stepping into the cage they’re doing that. It’s the danger to the opponent and that’s really what the state athletic commission, that’s what their job is to regulate and to make sure the healthy & safety issues are not compromised in any kind of way and that’s why you need to eradicate this stuff.”
JIM ROME: “All right, so when we talk about how this compares to other sports, talk about the UFC. How committed is the UFC to addressing this problem as compared to other sport leagues?”
JOSH GROSS: “Well, I think, I mean, you can’t really compare them to other sports leagues. I mean, the thing about the UFC and people like to frame it this way that they’re a league, they’re not a league. They’re a fight promoter. They frame themselves in a certain way and they couch themselves as a league but they don’t have any collective bargaining agreements with the athletes. There’s no policy in terms of PED usage. This is not the NFL. There’s no clear-cut way for these guys to do it. Now, the UFC has done some really good things in terms of policing themselves when they go out to jurisdiction, when they go out of the country to the UK or Abu Dhabi, they’re treating their guys. Two guys have tested positive from UFC testing so I mean there is something legitimate to that. But I think they need to go much further. Much further. And I wrote this week that there should be zero tolerance, you know, it’s one thing… the UFC does not have to promote steroid users. They don’t have to do it, it’s pretty simple. But they choose to do it. Not only have they done that, 2003 Tim Sylvia tested positive, gets a title shot in his next fight. Sean Sherk ’07 tests positive, ’08 gets a title shot in his next fight. So, it’s not like you know they’ve done some stuff but they really haven’t gone as far as I think they should.”
JIM ROME: “Now, for instance, if they have a zero tolerance policy and this is something you’ve already addressed but I’ll ask you the question here… if Dana White were to cut or fire anybody that tested positive and enable them to go across the street to a rival promoter, what would that do to Dana White’s business?”
JOSH GROSS: “I don’t think it effects his business in any way. UFC’s operated under the idea that it’s the UFC brand that’s selling in particular. Yes, certain fighters, Brock Lesnar, GSP, guys that sort of transcend the brand, but they’re few and far between. For the most part, the UFC has operated as you know the three letters mean more than anything else and I don’t think it makes a difference. Quite honestly, I think they come out looking good if all of a sudden they’re doing everything they can to make sure that their league, their organization, their promotion, however you want to frame it is steroid-free, performance-enhance-drug-free, at least the best to their ability that you’re doing everything you can. I don’t see how that’s a negative for them.”
JIM ROME: “No, I think that’s good PR, that’s good PR, that’s good business. Josh, where do you come out on this — I mean, for instance, anything short of zero tolerance, you know how these guys operate. You know what they’re thinking. They’re always going to believe that the risk is going to far outweigh or the reward is going to far outweigh the risk. How in the world can you ever get in front of this and address it when guys just don’t care, they’re going to keep doing it because they know what the reward is if they succeed?”
JOSH GROSS: “Well, that’s why I think there needs to be a zero tolerance policy. if the UFC says today that Dana White comes out and says today, anybody who tests positive for steroids or PEDs moving forward will not be in the UFC, you don’t think that’s the loudest, I think it’s the least invasive, the least expensive, the biggest message that they can send to anybody and not only to fighters in their organization right now but the young kids coming up who see Chael Sonnen, Sean Sherk, Hermes Franca testing positive on a fairly regular basis in the biggest Mixed Martial Arts show in the world, they’re going to say I have to do this stuff or otherwise I won’t be able to compete. If the UFC lays down the gauntlet and says you cannot compete here if you test positive, I don’t see how that doesn’t help in changing the culture, at least the drug culture in MMA.”
JIM ROME: “How prevalent do you think the use is in the UFC and MMA or drugs?”
JOSH GROSS: “You know, I’ve heard estimates anywhere from 30% to 70%. Talking to people in gyms this week, you know, in the wake of the Chael Sonnen thing, I think it’s certainly prevalent and it’s not the way that it was in the early 2000s even 2002 when state regulatory commissions started testing this stuff but they do it by jurisdiction and the way they test in California is not how they test in Nevada or how they test in Texas, so it’s sort of you’re going from one place to another. Guys can get by it. it’s not that difficult. I grew up with a buddy who ran high-level track internationally and he says, you know, if you want to do it you hire an endocrinologist and you can do this stuff and it’s not an issue to get around and until and unless they adopt WADA-quality testing, Olympic-style testing on a wide scale, I don’t think anything is going to change which is why I think the UFC has to take a stand.”
JIM ROME: “I mean it’s always going to be that way. I mean, to your friend’s point, the guys who are using are always going to be one step ahead of the guys trying to run them down for the reasons you and I talked about, the rewards are so great. I don’t see that ever changing.”
JOSH GROSS: “No, certainly not. Guys are going to take the risk because the rewards are great. But if you make it so that the consequences are so dire, you cannot compete in the UFC which is clearly the preeminent organization in Mixed Martial Arts, I think some guys are going to take a second look at this. I think that would do more than anything that’s been done at this point to really change the mindset amongst Mixed Martial Artists who are thinking about using this stuff.”
JIM ROME: “Do you think an athlete would take one look at this and change their mind? I mean, short of a guy dropping dead or sort of a guy having his career ripped from him, will guys really take a second look?”
JOSH GROSS: “Yeah, see, I don’t think a guy dropping dead or a guy, you know, coming down with cancer affects these guys in any way, they’re all untouchable in their own minds, right?”
JIM ROME: “Right.”
JOSH GROSS: “I mean these guys are athletes first and foremost and then fighters. So, nothing is going to hurt them. I just think it has to come down from the people calling the shots and people calling the shots largely in MMA are the UFC and to this point, I would like to see them at least adopt a drug standard, some performance-enhancing policy that, you know, is pretty clear-cut. A guy tests positives for steroids, something is going to happen internally in the UFC, to just rely on the government bodies, the regulatory bodies… you know, it hasn’t worked so far. So I think something needs to change.”
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 51 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Josh Koscheck says he’s happy that Paul Daley’s back fighting, thinks GSP manipulates the media
By Zach Arnold | September 22, 2010
A terrifically amusing interview with Josh Koscheck on last week’s Ultimate Fighter podcast that I am just getting around to transcribing. You have to listen to it in full to get his comments on wrestling in MMA and other topics.
For starters, his opinion on Paul Daley’s comeback in MMA and the 30-day suspension by the Quebec commission:
MIKE CHIAPPETTA: “What are your thoughts on the 30-day suspension? You think that was OK?”
JOSH KOSCHECK: “Yeah, to me. I don’t give two [expletive], man. *laughs* Guess what? I won the fight. I’m fighting for the title. I got paid, you know, I don’t care, man. It’s just, it is what it is. It’s entertainment and, you know, at the end of the day we’re in here to create drama, we’re in here to make money and provide for our families and provide for our self so, you know, good for Paul Daley. I’m glad that he has a new contract now and he’s fighting again and I’m happy for him.”
MIKE CHIAPPETTA: “So you don’t hold resentment to him?”
JOSH KOSCHECK: “No. God, no. Heh heh heh heh. Never.”
MIKE CHIAPPETTA: “All right, Josh. It’s been a few months now. You’ve mentioned in the past that you said something to him in the last seconds of the fight that may have caused him to kind of overreact. It’s been a few months, tell us what you said. C’mon.”
JOSH KOSCHECK: “Um, yeah, it was just like in his ear I was like, [expletive], I was like, you can’t even get off the bottom because I fought a conservative fight just because of circumstances of, you know, the pressure I had coming in there and I was just like, GET UP, so he started eye-gouging and I was like, you [expletive]. I was like, get up you [expletive]. He’s like, let me up! I was like, he goes, let me up, I’ll knock you out! And I go, you ain’t knocking [expletive] out, this is MMA, this ain’t [expletive] boxing, I was like get off your ass and get up and he kept eye-gouging so I leapt up to the ref and then he stood up I was like, this guy’s [expletive] nuts, he’s going to do something crazy and I had my right hand up, you know, and you could see him throw a left hook because I know he throws a left hook, that’s his knockout punch, and he kind of caught my glove, caught my head. *laughs* And so I want to thank Paul Daley for getting me on ESPN highlights and all the good stuff, so it was a good PR stunt.”
MIKE CHIAPPETTA: “See, that’s what I was going to say, you’re always spinning this stuff into good for you, this is a good thing.”
JOSH KOSCHECK: “Yeah, it’s a great thing.”
He just got started. From there, he defended himself as to why he got a title shot against Georges St. Pierre and why he thinks St. Pierre is such a phony.
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: Canada, Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 9 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
The obligatory transcript of Jim Rome sounding off on Chael Sonnen and steroids in UFC
By Zach Arnold | September 22, 2010
(Audio clip from Steve Cofield and company at Yahoo Sport’s MMA sub-site.)
“What about Chael Sonnen? Chael Sonnen, of course, made a lot of noise, made a lot of waves, caught some attention to himself. The guy went from being an anonymous MMA’er to a guy that everybody was talking about and part of that was for all the junk that he was talking and part of that was for saying that Lance Armstrong gave himself cancer and part of that was for him coming on this show and denying that it was him who said it. Part of that was for the way he showed up and was beating Anderson Silva down for four-and-a-half rounds before losing. So, there was all that going on and he was a major topic on this show for several weeks. Then comes word that he reportedly was popped for roids. Sherdog.com reported that he flunked a post-fight urinalysis after that loss to Silva in the main event of UFC 117. So we have to wait and see what’s true and what’s not. If in fact that’s true, this guy’s got major problems. That’s a bad deal for him. Bad for him, bad for the sport, but mostly bad for him. If he did test positive, then he’s probably looking at a lengthy suspension. A suspension that could run 9 months to a year and that’s at the worst possible time. Never good to be suspended for a year, but this guy couldn’t be any more prominent, couldn’t be any hotter, couldn’t be any more prevalent, this is his time to strike, to get paid, to continue to make a name for himself, to get a belt. And he could get shut down for 9 months to a year. That would mean no rematch with Silva and the guy’s going to be fined and lose money that he would have made during his suspension. Not to mention, he’s going to lose that rematch with Silva if it’s true.
“And Dana White said, look, how much is too much? I mean, do you expect me to come down on top of what’s going to happen and hammer the guy again? That remains to be seen. The problem is, and this has come up, I’ll take ire with what who’s always into me about this is boxing writer Chris Mannix. Mannix tweets and hits me with, yeah, what about the drug problem? What about the drug problem? Every sport has one and I’m not going to say that MMA and the UFC doesn’t have issues. Now I will say this — they don’t have their head in the sand. Dana White has spent some money and they’re doing their best to eradicate it but it’s nearly impossible, it’s nearly impossible to do. Testing is very expensive. Educating the fighters is very expensive and especially if they don’t care and they’re not listening and they don’t want to hear it. Unless they police themselves, it’s probably not going to happen because you really can’t police these guys. Say for instance Chael Sonnen did it. I don’t know if he did, I don’t know if he didn’t. I don’t know if he tested positive or not, that’s the report. Say he did do it. Does that look or sound like a guy that you’re going to reason with? Does that look or sound like a guy that you’re going to pull aside and say, hey Chael, I’m just using him as an example. You can take any number of guys who are using. Does that look and sound like somebody that could pull aside and say, hey listen, you don’t want to do that. You don’t know what those things are doing to your body. You don’t know what you could do to somebody else who’s not on those things. You could seriously injure them. Do you really think those guys want to hear that? You can bring in experts from all over the world at an unbelievable cost, do you think that’s what they want to hear or that’s what they’re going to listen to? I’m guessing they already had a conversation with them self and I’m guessing the conversation went something like, ‘All right, I can use this stuff and get bigger and stronger and faster and more dominant and win and get paid and I’m not going to get caught. And maybe there is a chance to get caught, but the reward is so much greater than the risk. Bring it on.’
“You know, a number of you have e-mailed me and saying, look at him Rome. I’ve always been careful not to visually indict guys. I’ve always been careful not to look at the picture of the guy and say, UFC 92, then the picture of the guy in UFC 106, then the picture of the guy in UFC 118. I get those e-mails a lot. ‘LOOK ROME, WAKE UP. Look how ripped he is. Look at his backne! What do you think is going on?’ My thing is, I don’t visually indict guys but I’ll look at that and I think you can consider that but to me at the end of the day, MMA, UFC, they’re facing the same issue that every single sport faces. Guys are looking for an edge. Guys are looking to get over and as long as they think that the reward outweighs the risk, they’re going to do it! And I think in almost every single case guys will convince themselves that the reward outweighs the risk. I don’t know if Sonnen did it or not but he was a rather anonymous figure not long ago. I think part of this is the way he ran his mouth. The guy talked himself into being a household name. The guy talked himself into popularity. But it wouldn’t have meant anything if he didn’t back it up and the guy was fighting lights out. He was not highly-regarded and then all of a sudden he started to fight lights out. Fought a great fight, got a title shot. Made the most of the title shot, had that fight won before getting into trouble late and losing. So I’m not sure.
“And by the way, the guy’s still talking. Still talking. You heard him last week. You heard those sound bites that I played where he was going on and on about ‘I’m Brock Lesnar!’
(sound clip plays of ‘I’m Brock Lesnar! I got this $5 haircut and a knife tattoo on my chest! Well I’ll shove up through your face if you get in Chael Sonnen’s way.’)
“I’m Brock Lesnar!
(sound clip plays of ‘I’m Brock Lesnar! I got this $5 hair cut and a knife tattoo on my chest! Well I’ll shove up through your face if you get in Chael Sonnen’s way.’)
“I’ve got a $5 hair cut and a knife tattoo but I’ll shove it up into your face if you get in Chael Sonnen’s way? Did you hear what he just said?
(sound clip plays of ‘I’m Brock Lesnar! I got this $5 haircut and a knife tattoo on my chest! Well I’ll shove up through your face if you get in Chael Sonnen’s way.’)
“This guy’s nuts! And may have tested positive for roids. So, if that’s the case, he’s on the clock and his 15 minutes are moving fast. But we have to wait and see if in fact that’s the case. But if he did, he’s not the only guy doing it. And there’s no easy solution for the reasons I mentioned. The reward to use is always going to outweigh the risk to these guys. I’m not saying you stop trying. if I’m Dana White or I’m any sport, I’m not saying you stop trying. You’ve got to educate these guys. You’ve got to let them know. You’ve got to penalize these guys. There’s got to be a deterrent. But they’re going to do it. The stakes are way too high. The rewards are way too great. Guys will always cheat. Guys are not going to stop cheating.”
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 4 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Satoshi Ishii vs. Minowaman booked for Saturday’s Nagoya DREAM 16 event
By Zach Arnold | September 22, 2010
A completely bizarre and fitting way for this promotion’s card to be topped off on Saturday, as DREAM announced 100 kg Beijing Olympic judo champion Satoshi Ishii vs. Minowaman in an open-weight fight. Ishii had been tied to Sengoku, so curious to see what kind of deal was reached there with the parties involved.
The fight reeks of “we need a big walk-up” and “save our TV deal” desperation mode. This is the kind of fight that you would think could draw well when promoted long-term, but who knows? Ishii’s been off doing… whatever the hell he’s been doing… and you could not find a situation of a more highly-touted draw having horrible career management.
So, we’ll see if the fans are buying or selling this booking. Trying to pop a TV rating. We’ll see.
I guess it’s better than Minowaman vs. James Thompson.
Topics: DREAM, Japan, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 6 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Inside MMA’s recent gym feature series with Greg Jackson
By Zach Arnold | September 21, 2010
Inside MMA has recently been doing a series of features on various MMA gyms across the country. This segment was taped before Keith Jardine’s fight with Trevor Prangley at Shark Fights 13. It’s a very interesting interview.
(Transcript can be seen in full-page mode.)
On a side note, the web site Sathint currently indicates that you can view HDNet and HDNet Movies on a satellite using a FTA (free-to-air) set-up if you point your dish to AMC 16 at 85W. I don’t know if it’s both video and audio or audio only, but the unencrypted signal is Ku and not C-band so it’s easy to pick up (if you are into that kind of thing).
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 4 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
MMA notebook – Dan Hardy says he has brought in a mystery training partner
By Zach Arnold | September 21, 2010
A very entertaining column today by Dan Hardy for this is Nottingham where he talks about Carlos Condit and how Greg Jackson’s game-planning will supposedly take away from Condit’s strengths.
John Hathaway jumps into the “wrestlers are boring” debate and also talks about the job judges have right now in MMA.
Adam Watson says that UFC President Dana White hates cheaters and that it’s bad news for Chael Sonnen. No it’s not. Yes, Mr. White is angry that he lost a lucrative rematch. On the other hand, look at the amount of fighters who have failed drug tests who are still on the UFC active roster. Just look at the UFC Middleweight division itself (Marquardt, Belfort, Sonnen, Leben).
Scott Coker of Strikeforce talks about women’s MMA in this San Bernadino Sun article. I think it’s ironic that he’s talking about the integrity of the women’s weight classes when the promotion’s booking on the men’s side has done anything but keep integrity to such classes.
Frank Shamrock is quoted in this KTVU (Bay Area) article about an attempted sexual assault incident in Santa Clara County. Frank has gained attention in the media for his self-defense DVD course for women to protect themselves in these kinds of situations.
The Glendale News Press in California has an article on the upcoming Manny Gamburyan/Jose Aldo fight. My first takeaway from the article was, “There are WEC conference calls?”
On our various media platforms, it was interesting to see how voluminous the reaction was to the news that Efrain Escudero got cut by the UFC. A lot of it was negative against Escudero getting cut.
The news about Urijah Faber vs. Takeya Mizugaki happening in November was not unexpected. What was unexpected is the fact that the fight will now be happening in Las Vegas instead of Sacramento at Arco Arena. I understand that there may be extenuating circumstances (the Maloofs own the building and the Sacramento Kings play NBA ball there, plus some business players in Las Vegas may be asking for a big fight in town, along with Zuffa giving their production team a travel break), but the truth is that even if WEC ran the 3,700-seat Memorial Auditorium in Sacramento it would be a hotter, livelier, bigger crowd than what they’re going to draw in Las Vegas for this fight.
Matt Hughes says he’s happy to fight BJ Penn in November in Detroit because coming off of his win over Ricardo Almeida last August in Oakland, he’s still “kinda in shape.” Nate Wilcox talks about why the fight is a good idea for both men.
Marcus Aurelio is ready to fight Shin’ya Aoki this weekend on the DREAM 16 card in Nagoya. Yes, it’s this weekend.
Want to get attention from your local media outlet for committing a crime? Label yourself as a ‘beginning Mixed Martial Arts fighter’.
Topics: DREAM, Japan, Media, MMA, StrikeForce, UFC, UK, WEC, Zach Arnold | 2 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Will UFC be pressured into doing their own supplemental drug testing program?
By Zach Arnold | September 20, 2010
On the back-drop of two (recent) major UFC main-eventers on PPV being in the public eye regarding the issue of alleged drug usage (Shane Carwin & Chael Sonnen), Dave Meltzer says it’s time for UFC to step up and do what the athletic commissions can’t financially do and that’s fund an aggressive drug testing program to try to help clean up Mixed Martial Arts:
“But I mean the whole thing is that the drug testing system that we have in place right now is a complete joke. I mean, that’s a big part of this story is that when you know the date of your test and because of funding issues, you know you’ve got, one of the big issues right here to me is that for this sport UFC should be doing the testing and they should be testing similar to, you know, what a regular sport would do. I mean, like, you know they’re sitting there doing, well we’ll do what boxing does which is leave it to the commissions. But, number one, the number of drug test failures in MMA is significantly bigger than boxing, so it’s a bigger problem. The other issue is that it’s an organizational thing and the organization should be stepping up and not leaving it to these commissions that are financially strapped because California does allow out-of-competition testing, Nevada does allow out-of-competition testing, but given the budget restraints (it) ain’t going to happen for these commissions. They’re going to do (the least), you know, they don’t have the funding to do I’m sure they would like to do. It’s just not happening right now and I think that for this business, UFC should do more than just day-of-event testing because, again, you’ve got guys, a lot of guys, who are doing it cycling, cycling off, getting the benefits of increased training, they may also be getting the detriments of getting off at the wrong time and going into fights kind of lulling which sometimes gives you bad fights because guys didn’t get their cycle properly and they may be at a down point of their actual testosterone kicking in and the drugs that they’re taking to do that, you know, you can’t take too many of them because they may show up on a test. It’s a really weird deal here.”
Regarding what a failed drug test means for Sonnen and for UFC…
“You know, I mean, to me one of the things that UFC needs to do and UFC has the money to do it, the commissions don’t and UFC needs to have a thing where they can test guys at any time they say that, they do it, they have an outside agency doing it, and again, you know, I don’t expect that to happen. You know I mean it’s been talked about with Dana White and his thing is that it’s the commission’s job is to do this but the reality is, again like we’ve said, if you want a clean sport the commissions do not have the funding to keep this a clean sport so what we’re going to do is we’re going to have really unlucky guys or stupid guys fail and, again, it’s just a kind of a weird thing. I mean it’s not a defense of the guy for doing it and again, reputation-wise, you know it’s a real killer for him in the sense that you know he was onto something if he had won the championship in his next match, he would have gotten tremendous endorsements because of how much he could talk. I mean, he could have been really one of the biggest stars and as far as that kind of endorsements, this does effect you. I mean this is why like everyone’s you know, GSP gets so much more money in endorsements than anyone else because he’s got that squeaky-clean character and people are very confident that if they have GSP that they’re going to have a guy who’s not going to make headlines the wrong way and embarrass the company, that’s why other fighters, you know, people are a little bit more leery of as far as like giving them that kind of level of endorsements.”
We know why Dana White leaves it up to “the government” when it comes to drug testing and that’s the issue of liability. If drug testing sucks in Nevada, the heat goes on Keith Kizer and not on Dana White. For the European events, UFC does their own drug testing but you rarely hear much discussed about it in the media. (Except for when Chris Leben tested positive after facing Michael Bisping.)
Lance Pugmire of The LA Times says that the commissioner told him that Sonnen tested positive for a steroid in a pre-fight drug test.
Jordan Breen introduces a second layer to the story…
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 33 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
K-1 makes official announcement on Andrei Arlovski
By Zach Arnold | September 19, 2010
Both Remy Bonjasky and Badr Hari are off of the card that takes place on 10/2 in Seoul, South Korea at the Olympic Gym. So, here is the World GP 2010 Final 16 card line-up:
- Alistair Overeem (Holland) vs. Ben Edwards (Australia)
- Jerome Le Banner (France) vs. Kyotaro (Japan)
- Semmy Schilt (Holland) vs. Hesdy Gerges (Egypt)
- Ewerton Teixeira (Brazil) vs. Peter Aerts (Holland)
- Errol Zimmerman (Curacao) vs. Daniel Ghita (Romania)
- Gohkan Saki (Turkey) vs. Freddy Kemayo (France)
- Andrei Arlovski (Belarus) vs. Raul Catinas (Romania)
- Ruslan Karaev (Russia) vs. Tyrone Spong (Suriname)
Plus these others fights:
- Chalid “Die Faust” Arrab (Germany) vs. Dzevas Poturak (Bosnia-Herzegovina)
- Sergey Kharitonov (Russia) vs. Takumi Sano (Japan)
- Min Ho Song (South Korea) vs. Hyun Man Myung (South Korea)
Topics: K-1, Media, South Korea, Zach Arnold | 18 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Golden Boy/HBO builds on a strategy for PPV promotion
By Zach Arnold | September 18, 2010
If you have had an opportunity to watch Fox Sports Net/Comcast Sportsnet in your area, you may have seen a paid infomercial running to promote the Sergio Mora/Shane Mosley PPV fight. It’s done in a similar style to the April/May UFC Countdown shows that Zuffa (reportedly/allegedly) paid to have run on CSN and Versus.
The 30-minute infomercial is produced by HBO & Golden Boy Promotions. Interestingly, a few newspaper writers were shown praising the PPV during the show. There was focus on Mora/Mosley but there was a clear focus on trying to push Victor Ortiz/Vivian Harris and the undercard for the fight, pushing the theme of ‘the young bucks’ coming up to eventually replace the bigger names in boxing.
I don’t know if enough people saw the infomercial to make a difference in PPV buys, but it was certainly interesting to see Golden Boy and HBO up their promotional game to try to sell tonight’s fight. Interestingly enough, Google News is absolutely littered with web links touting “free live streams” of the show online.
Boxing Scene has undercard coverage right here of tonight’s event at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
On a side note, as of yesterday CSN is still airing PPV barker ads for next week’s UFC Indianapolis show and the barker is largely promoting Frank Mir vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (a fight that isn’t happening). Then again, after all the reports about Mirko Cro Cop getting poked in the eye during training, who knows if he will be healthy enough (despite what Dana White says) to fight Mir in seven days.
Topics: Boxing, Media, Zach Arnold | 11 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
MMA Notebook – the ghosts of Elite XC & PRIDE continue to resurface
By Zach Arnold | September 17, 2010
Check out the cast of characters involved in CAMO (the new group attempting to run California’s amateur MMA system). Turi Altavilla from the PRIDE days is involved, and of course Jeremy Lappen is behind all of this. Yes, Jeremy Lappen of WFA and Elite XC fame.
Gareth A Davies has the scoop on who will be at the big UFC Fan Expo in London for the UFC 120 event.
ABC7 in Denver has a bizarre story about a distressed man at a Aspen hotel who claimed he was “a UFC fighter” and ended up getting tased by police. But there’s more to the story and you have to read it…
Urijah Faber will appear at the Sacramento UFL game on Saturday (9/25).
The match-ups for Bellator’s 115-pound women’s tournament are… Megumi Fujii vs. Lisa Ward and Zoila Frausto vs. Jessica Aguilar. I know there are some detractors of women’s MMA on this site, but even those critics can agree that none of the women’s fights are as bad as watching a Cole Konrad MMA fight these days.
Here are the four video clips on ESPN’s site for this week’s MMA Live show: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4
A recalibration is needed for UFC on cable television
The Nate Marquardt/Rousimar Palhares show drew a 0.9 cable rating, which is exactly in line with what it should have drawn given the lack of star power on the card. The August 1st event with Jon Jones and Vladimir Matyushenko drew a 0.8 rating on Versus. WEC ratings on Versus are tanking. Urijah Faber is the only drawing card for WEC at this point.
The truth is that UFC is having some rough patches right now in terms of making new stars and they better figure out a new, detailed, creative way of reutilizing their current television properties to create new stars by giving fighters more exposure on the right platforms. It sounds simple, but it’s not. It’s clear that UFC’s brand strength gives them about a 1.0 on cable (and TUF is around a 1.2-1.3 rating for a floor). The company needs to change its vision on how they make new stars and, more importantly, not only how many shows they run but the type of production values (both live and on television) that they use. If you watch a UFC show in 2010, it’s the same on TV as it was several years ago. (WWE is even worse – it looks like they have been stuck on autopilot for the last decade.) Change is needed on many fronts and in order to implement change, the production crew that works for Zuffa needs some time to breathe in order to come up with a new game plan. When you run as many shows as UFC is running, nobody really has any time to recalibrate their operations — it’s just one show after another while struggling to catch your breathe. The oversaturation of product, both on PPV and on cable television, is playing a role in all of this. Not a dramatic one (yet), but certainly it is playing a role.
Topics: Bellator, Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 25 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |