Dana White on Chael Sonnen trashing Lance Armstrong: “Seriously, what am I going to do?”
By Zach Arnold | August 5, 2010
You can read the transcript in full-page mode. I didn’t transcribe his comments about Roy Nelson, Matt Hughes, and the lawsuit against Ken Pavia. I’ll let you watch Dana’s face when he starts talking about Pavia as a bad guy. Whenever he talks about a legal enemy, he gets that ‘serious tone’ going — I’ve seen it before when he talks about people who have sued him or people he’s sued. Ariel gets a great question in about whether or not the fighters Pavia represents are in bad standing with the UFC.
As for the major portion that I transcribed, Dana’s asked repeatedly about whether or not he will control Chael Sonnen’s comments and why he won’t do it. You can see Dana try to hedge his bets here by touting that the whole card is great and every time he mentions how it’s The Chael Sonnen show, you get a feeling that he’s praying that the main event doesn’t suck and that people remember that the card actually does have some great fights on it.
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 9 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Thiago Alves, Jon Fitch, and a #1 UFC Welterweight ranking slot at stake
By Zach Arnold | August 5, 2010
If you haven’t heard yet, the winner of Saturday night’s between Jon Fitch and Thiago Alves will fight the winner of the Georges St. Pierre/Josh Koscheck fight. So, what will happen if both Fitch and Koscheck win?
ARIEL HELWANI: “Jon, you were supposed to fight Thiago Alves in December, then March, and it seems as though he’s sort of making you sweat it out here because word is he’s not coming to the workout because he’s having some trouble making weight. have you heard about this?”
JON FITCH: “Yeah, I just found out a little bit ago that he’s struggling with some weight right now.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “How’s that make you feel?”
JON FITCH: “It’s laughable. I mean… he’s still got plenty of time so I’m not worried but I mean with all of everything that has happened with this fight, I mean… I can’t get any more stressed out about it. It’s… it is what it is and you know I have faith that he’s going to make weight.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “I heard you say recently that you’re going to wrap yourself up in bubble wrap and you hope that he does the same so that no one gets injured leading up to this point. Now, is this something else that you have to think about?”
JON FITCH: “No, I mean, we knew this was always a possible situation. He’s had issues in the past with making weight and he’s had a long layoff. So, all those factors together, we knew that there was a possibility that he was going to be overweight for this fight, but still he’s got time to make the weight and I’m sure he’s going to make the weight.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “We saw this past weekend, someone like DaMarques Johnson, he comes in at 172, has to give up 20% of his purse, but he ended up fighting Matthew Riddle. If Thiago Alves comes in at 172 or 173, will you take the fight?”
JON FITCH: “Uh, you know, that’s… pretty close, but I mean, I’m not looking for a scenario where you had like Matt Hughes and then 8 pounds. That’s pretty ridiculous. A pound, you know, it’s fairly forgivable, but if I don’t know, if he can’t make the weight at weigh-ins at Friday, I mean, I would still like him to make the weight before the fight sometime. So, if he doesn’t make at 4 o’clock on Friday, make it at 7 or 8 or 9 or Midnight, whenever, just make the weight.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “Do you think he should be still fighting at Welterweight?”
JON FITCH: “Uh, I mean, if you have this many issues of not making weight, I don’t know. They need to figure something out more than the 20% penalty because it doesn’t seem like that’s motivation enough for people because it seems like it keeps happening and it’s one thing that you know we’re a professional sport, you know, have a job to do and that’s part of the job, making weight.”
(snip)
ARIEL HELWANI: “Have you been surprised at perhaps that this fight has not received as much buzz as it warrants, considering the fact that it’s #2 versus #3? Do you think it has gotten enough of a promotional push?”
JON FITCH: “You know what? I think a lot of the fans have been giving this fight a lot of attention. I think a lot of people are talking about it. I think just the media tends to go towards the more vocal guys, which you know obviously Chael has been very vocal in this fight, so a lot of the media swarms on Chael but I mean from my understanding, from my Twitter, my Facebook, all my sites and everything, this is a huge fight and a lot of people are talking about this fight.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “Does that bother you, though, that the guys who talk more get more of the attention?”
JON FITCH: “No, I mean it is what it is and it’s where we’re at with the sport right now. Who knows what it’ll be in the future, but you know it is what it is. You can’t really get upset about it.”
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 6 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Chael Sonnen’s con game has made everyone delusional, himself included
By Zach Arnold | August 5, 2010
Chael Sonnen says stupid things for his own enjoyment and amusement. He does it because he knows the media will react to whatever he says now. He takes pride in the ‘shock value’ of the impact of what he says on unknowing chattering heads (like Josh Elliott on yesterday’s 8 AM SportsCenter broadcast).
However, like all good con men, Chael Sonnen does the following:
- He starts one con, gets people focused on that, and by the time the media is done focusing on the first con he’s already on the second con, and the cycle repeats.
- He starts to believe his own con and attempts to con his own con. (“Con the Con” sounds as catchy as Suzy Quatro’s “Can the Can” song.)
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again about Chael Sonnen — he’s treating his job right now the same way veteran pro-wrestlers look at their life. Everything is a work. Everyone is a mark. Enjoy the reactions to what people have to say to what you say. Start believing your own work to make it more realistic. The more out of control, the more the media will pay attention to you.
When Sonnen went after Anderson Silva on Twitter, The Huffington Post promptly went after Sonnen’s comments. Sonnen would later drop out of his political race (state seat in Oregon) and deny that he had a Twitter account… the same Twitter account that UFC used to promote DVD giveaways a couple of weeks later if fans sent Chael a note. Chael now says that ‘he can’t talk about politics’ whenever the subject comes up. (He later claimed it had something to do with past real estate issues.)
Like all good con men, Sonnen knows that he has to stay ‘relevant’ in order for people to listen, which is exactly what he did when he trashed Lance Armstrong. Armstrong has been in the news lately because the US Federal Government is going after him for doping.
So, naturally, Sonnen went after Armstrong but he didn’t just blurt out his name — he went after him in the same context for ‘not taking responsibility’ as he did when he went after Rampage Jackson.
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: All Topics, Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 18 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Yet another interesting lawsuit involving UFC
By Zach Arnold | August 4, 2010
Roy Jones Jr’s Square Ring, Inc. sues Zuffa, Roy Nelson
Zuffa responds to RJJ lawsuit, seek indemnification against Big Country
To summarize Robert Joyner’s excellent articles:
Square Ring, Inc. claims that they signed Roy Nelson to a promotional contract. RJJ claims the contract gave Square Ring, Inc. first negotiation rights and matching offer ability to any deal Nelson got from other promoters. Then, while under contract, Nelson allegedly appeared at a Nevada event and talked with Marc Ratner of the UFC. Later on, RJJ claims that Nelson signed an ‘exclusive’ contract with Zuffa and that this violated the SRI contract.
The second article discusses how Zuffa is seeking to separate itself from Nelson legally-speaking so that if Nelson loses in court that he will be the one liable for monetary damages.
Thought: Now that James Toney is in the UFC, I’d be curious to see if Roy Jones would ever get a shot. An option? RJJ drops the suit in exchange for Jones getting a fight against Anderson Silva in the UFC.
Of course, that would bank on the thought of Anderson Silva teaching Chael Sonnen a lesson this Saturday night in Oakland.
Topics: Boxing, Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 23 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Kevin Iole on Anderson Silva as “The Jerk”
By Zach Arnold | August 4, 2010
I laughed when I saw the title of this video initially on Youtube as “IOLESilvadick,” because that’s about as short of a summary as you could create to describe the sentiments being relayed in this video conversation with the Cagewriter/Yahoo Sports team.
Transcript of the conversation available in full-page mode.
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 14 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Versus UFC show from San Diego draws awful ratings
By Zach Arnold | August 3, 2010
UFC on Versus 2 draws 0.86 cable rating
The Sunday shows are not big draws. Plus it’s on Versus, which is a channel that is still on many ‘premium tiers’ on cable companies across the States. Combined with a lack of star power and this is the recipe mixture you end up with.
The good news is that the show was fun to watch, the production values were slick (including the split-screen commercial breaks), and there was some meaningful results to come out of the show.
The other bad PR news story of the day for UFC is this article: Joe Stevenson heads to Mexico
It’s a good article about Joe Stevenson, who has no health insurance (and would need to pay at least $500 a month for it), heading to Mexico for a medical tourism trip to get an MRI done in Tijuana. The issue of medical tourism is nothing new — you hear both the good (cheaper prescription drug prices and MRI testing) and the bad (the horror stories about fly-by-night nightmare cosmetic surgery procedures).
The public outcry for UFC not paying for insurance will be legitimate. At the same time, if they start paying for insurance for all the fighters they have under contract, you’re talking about 150-200 fighters and the costs for insurance would be staggering given the profession they are involved in. Economically, it would be difficult to do. (Which is why I would like to hear how Rob Maysay’s MMAFA, fighter’s association, would tackle this issue given that insurance premiums will continue to skyrocket in cost for the foreseeable future.)
Plus, there’s the whole issue about whether or not UFC paying for full-time insurance would take their independent contractors and essentially convert them into the status of ’employees’ in the eyes of the IRS. Given the debate recently over taxation on higher-end insurance plans, that could put a bullseye right on Zuffa if they had to pay out extremely high premiums for fighters.
(Kid Nate at Bloody Elbow has more discussion on this topic.)
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 37 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
King Mo is not happy with fans who are discounting his win over Gegard Mousasi
By Zach Arnold | August 3, 2010
KENNY RICE: “Let’s take a look here coming up, you’re fighting Rafael Cavalcante, known by everybody else I think as Feijao and we remember seeing him back in the day when he was first coming up.”
BAS RUTTEN: “Same here. Rising star, man. He’s very good on the ground but he has got a lot of knockouts, only one submission. So, yeah, this is a fight for Mo that you know, I think undefeated both guys are going to be the same, about the same. On the ground, he has the more skill, but the technical skill with the submission but you’re training with Dean Lister, it’s going to be a big problem for Feijao with a guy like him on top.”
KING MO: “Man, you know, even on our feet like I might not be as technical but I know from my style he has to worry about takedowns and a lot of the other things and not open my strikes and you know I got Dan Perez and Melchor Manor and I’ve been working with Trevor Wittman out in Denver at the Grudge Training Center, so I’ve been adding new techniques to my stand-up. So I’m looking to unveil them for this next fight.”
KENNY RICE: “Yeah, and you’re quickly defending your title.”
KING MO: “I like fighting a lot.”
KENNY RICE: “You didn’t get much breathing room there from the time you put on the belt.”
KING MO: “I’m always in shape. I’m always training, I’m always in shape, you know after my fights I usually I keep on training the week after and then take a few days after the week has papssed because I like to stay in the gym. That’s like another home for me.”
BAS RUTTEN: “Is your belt as big as Sarah’s, by the way?”
KING MO: “It’s the same size. It’s probably just as heavy.”
JUDO GENE LEBELL: “Yeah, but Sarah’s is real gold!”
BAS RUTTEN: “In the Pancrase days, I wanted a title fight because now you can’t fight a normal fight, every fight is a title fight, right? You see in Pancrase it wasn’t. I was the champion but then you have like two fights in the middle that are just fights and then you fight for the title again. They do it, it’s the weirdest thing ever. I wish it would have been all title fights, I would have had a whole stack of belt. That would have been great.”
KENNY RICE: “MMA Junkie poll, where would you rank King Mo right now? He is certainly in our Top 10 Light Heavyweights. I don’t see how he could not be. 47% said yeah, he’s Top 10. 6% put you in the Top 5. I would question everybody in that 47% that wouldn’t rank you in the Top 10 right now. I think there needs to be a little more love for the Strikeforce champion.”
KING MO: “You know how it is. Everyone, Mousasi’s a good fighter, everyone had Mousasi in the Top 10 pound-for-pound, everyone said Mousasi’s this, Mousasi’s that. Everybody said Mousasi would kill King Mo, King Mo has no chance. First round knockout for Mousasi but after I won, they just discounted, they discredited Mousasi’s abilities because I was taking him down and controlling him. Well, people, I wrestled at the world level, you know, I’ve taken down people considered some of the best in the world. Mousasi’s not a wrestler and he never stop my takedowns. And they just don’t understand that and I’ve worked with great jiu-jitsu guys like Dean Lister and Fabricio Werdum and they’re teaching me high-level techniques, plus Nogueira and you know I’m holding my own with them and Mousasi’s not at level as far as jiu-jitsu.”
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 7 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Sarah Kaufman reflects on her big slam on Roxy Modafferi
By Zach Arnold | August 3, 2010
KENNY RICE: “Sarah, congratulations. The championship. Kind of interesting to see you get the Knockout slam, much like Gerald Harris just a few weeks ago. We were talking earlier, to see these coming in such a short period of time, I bet a lot of people are going to be studying the video tapes of both those knockouts.”
SARAH KAUFMAN: “I was actually watching the Harris fight and when he did that (slam), I was like ‘that would actually be the best thing to knock someone out with,’ just really exciting and I figured I would never do that and you know the opportunity was there and you know I work in the gym with the strength trainer Tyler Goodale, we do a lot of cleans, medicine slams, yeah, all that kind of stuff. And then my coach Adam Zugec and my team at Zuma, they all get me prepared for kind of all situations like that and training with a lot of the guys at my team is, you know, I’m lifting a lot of them up so she felt really light and it just worked out really well.”
KENNY RICE: “You were talking about being on the Challenger card and maybe some day being on the Strikeforce main card. Does this kind of victory get you on the main card? I mean, Strikeforce is the only organization, one of the few, certainly the biggest organization out there that has opened things up for the women’s division. Now, does this deserve a main card fight for you to defend your title next time?”
SARAH KAUFMAN: “I mean, I think Strikeforce is really happy with the win. You know, it made it to ESPN as well, so you know they’re getting a lot of recognition for it as well and I think that’s really going to help open up this 135-pound division. You know, Showtime’s also helping out pushing these females so it’ll be exciting. They’re saying that I’m fighting Marloes Coenen next and I’m sure that that’s going to be on one of their main events and then they have their Challengers card tournament coming up in just a couple of weeks, so there’s a lot of really good things that Strikeforce and Showtime are doing with the 135 division right now.”
BAS RUTTEN: “It’s great stuff from Scott (Coker) to put the women in there and he’s got some great women, too, great fighters.”
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | No Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Thoughts on UFC 8/1 San Diego Sports Arena on Versus show
By Zach Arnold | August 1, 2010
Dark matches
- Middleweights: Rob Kimmons vs. Steve Steinbeiss
- Lightweights: Darren Elkins vs. Charles Oliveira
- Lightweights: Thiago Tavares vs. Willamy Freire
- Middleweights: Brian Stann vs. Mike Massenzio
- Light Heavyweights: James Irvin vs. Igor Pokrajac
- Welterweights: DaMarques Johnson vs. Matt Riddle
- Lightweights: Paul Kelly vs. Jacob Volkmann
Main card
- Lightweights: Tyson Griffin vs. Takanori Gomi
- Welterweights: John Howard vs. Jake Ellenberger
- Middleweights: Mark Munoz vs. Yushin Okami
- Light Heavyweights: Jon Jones vs. Vladimir Matyushenko
—
If you’re wondering who the judge that scored the Yushin Okami/Mark Munoz fight 29-28 in favor of Munoz, it was Cecil Peoples. Even more appalling is this guy’s attitude to everyone. I can’t believe that Frank Mir is trying to defend Peoples on Versus now.
Was that about 8 elbows in 3 seconds by Jon Jones to the head to Vladimir Matyushenko? I concur with Alan Conceicao that a fight against Thiago Silva would be excellent.
I completely am a huge fan of the split-screen commercial format that Versus played around with on tonight’s telecast. Excellent format.
People will rip into Yushin Okami for his ‘boring’ performance, but he fought exactly the right kind of fight. I’m glad that Mark Munoz won’t have to face his buddy Anderson Silva, aren’t you?
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 37 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Will tonight’s UFC fight be Takanori Gomi’s swan song? NOPE…
By Zach Arnold | August 1, 2010
Josh Gross touched upon this a little bit this week in his preview of Sunday’s Versus card for UFC. Griffin is replacing Joe Stevenson, who got hurt. Griffin is coming off of a loss to Evan Dunham from the Vancouver show last June.
“I think this is do-or-die for Gomi in the UFC essentially. He had his one fight, came in and fought Kenny Florian. He put in some effort in there that made him look like he could hang but at a certain point in the fight it was clear that he could not. How has he improved since then? His mental state? Those are things we don’t know. I would say that at least through the experience of being in the UFC, fighting in the cage like he did, realizing the level of competition that he’s about to face, he’s improved only because of the knowledge that he has now. He gets no break against (Tyson) Griffin. This guy has fought everybody, has fought everybody tough, has never been out of a fight. Never really been hurt in a fight. Yeah, he’s been threatened with some submission in there, but he’s fought everybody tooth-and-nail and I think he does that against Gomi. I just can’t see Gomi having a lot of success. One, he’s not going to, the submission of Griffin is not going to happen. Griffin can submit Gomi but I don’t see that, either. Gomi’s not going to out-wrestle Griffin and the question is can he out strike him? I think Griffin could strike with Gomi if he wanted to. Now that would be the riskiest game plan for him. The smartest way would probably be strike for a clinch, take Gomi down, muscle him, use his superior size, superior wrestling to really beat him up, but I think that’s probably what’s going to happen. Through that, Griffin may find a choke, may find a way to finish the fight earlier, but this one to me has decision written all over it.
“I think a pretty fun, competitive fight especially if Griffin decides to indulge Gomi on the feet. That’s really the difference here. What he’s going to that end, Griffin has worked so much on his boxing, I think he may do that a little. Remember, Gomi at his height, I mean he was known for standing and banging with people. This is someone who changed multiple times throughout his career. He started as a slow grappler, decisioning a lot of people but somewhere along the way he fell in love with striking, really found his power and was knocking people out but I just don’t see that against Griffin, who’s hung in there with some of the top fighters in that Lightweight division.”
I really don’t see the fighting ending any other way than decision. Griffin should finish him, but I doubt he will.
For what it’s worth, UFC is selling this San Diego event as a 4-hour PPV block in Japan for 3,150Y.
—
Update (9 PM EST): Tyson Griffin did the one thing that allowed Gomi to have a shot in the fight and that was play the boxing game… and he paid for it badly. Congratulations to Mr. Gomi.
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 50 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Survey for all MMA fans — important project
By Zach Arnold | August 1, 2010
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/DKQDWKZ
“You are cordially invited to participate in a research study being conducted by Evan Frederick, a researcher at Indiana University. Through this survey, we hope to learn about the MMA blogging community by asking questions related to demographics and media usage. You are under no obligation to participate in this survey. If you would like to participate, please click on the link below.”
It doesn’t take long to fill out and the person conducting it is definitely looking for as many people as possible to participate. Thanks.
Topics: Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | No Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Mark Munoz says “I don’t want to fight Anderson (Silva) and Anderson doesn’t want to fight me”
By Zach Arnold | August 1, 2010
I saw some of his TV media interviews from earlier in the week, including his one on Comcast Sportsnet Bay Area, and he is so relaxed whenever he speaks.
The biggest newsworthy part of the interview is when he talks about training with Anderson Silva and Lyoto Machida. He made it pretty clear that, should he get offered a title shot against Anderson Silva, that he will hedge his bets on it and Anderson would do the same. But first, he’s got to beat Yushin Okami on Sunday in San Diego.
Transcript in full-page view…
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 4 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Is Chael Sonnen relevant?
By Zach Arnold | August 1, 2010
That’s the question raised and answered here by Jordan Breen on his radio show earlier in the week. He was asked by a caller about Sonnen’s trash talking (which I’m completely numb to) and how there seems to be great fan interest in the upcoming PPV on August 7th.
“This is Chael Sonnen we’re talking about. His trash talking has made people believe that not only does he have a chance but that this is like a serious event and, I mean, to be fair, it’s a good fight. Best fighter in the world is taking on a deserving challenger who’s really cleaned up at Middleweight recently. But, uh… Chael Sonnen’s probably going to get beat up, probably going to get beat up quite badly, but yet he’s convinced people that the odds are not as lopsided as one would believe and his trash talk has really I think kind of raised the bar for the level of outrageous things that people say in Mixed Martial Arts. It’s something else. I’ll say this much… Chael Sonnen, even if he can’t put a dent in Anderson Silva when they fight on August 7th in Oakland, I think that he is definitely changed something in MMA in terms of what’s possible, what’s acceptable, and what people are willing to tolerate as far as trash talk goes and again reaffirming the fact that the right amount of build-up, even if it’s one-sided, people will believe. If one guy does just enough, people will talk themselves into just about anything.
“We want to believe that MMA is an awesome sport, that every fight we’re going to see something real cool and that every fight’s going to be something real major. We saw this with the Dan Hardy/GSP fight. Dan Hardy had no realistic shot against Georges St. Pierre. People talked themselves into believing that Dan Hardy was this big, one-hitter-quitter with one-punch knockout power, all he needed was one strike, and that’s not the kind of guy that he is, that’s not the fighter that he is or was, and it wasn’t going to play out that way. But people bought into it because Dan Hardy provided just enough hype and people wanted to believe. It’s the same thing here. People want to believe whether they’re rooting for or against Chael Sonnen, the amount of attention that he has gotten the fight strictly through the ridiculous things that he’s willing to say is truly amazing and even if it doesn’t have any kind of effect on Anderson Silva or the ultimate outcome of the fight, it has definitely gotten people interested. I know people who are casual Mixed Martial Arts fans that I would have never expected to have… I would have never expected to have them even say the name Chael Sonnen and yet I’ve been asked about him and quizzed on this guy, who is this guy talking to Anderson Silva? Is this guy crazy? People are definitely far more interested and I think Chael Sonnen is definitely established a new degree of carnival barking and hard-selling for a fight and kudos to him for that, because… you know, I would have never imagined that this would be where Chael Sonnen’s career would end up.
“Even if it all goes downhill from here, he had that one shining moment of a year or so where he became one of the most relevant Middleweights in the world and talked his way to the big time and no one can ever take that away from him.”
This led into a larger discussion, one that has been happening on this site and others the last few days about MMA writers, personalities, and columnists not challenging Dana White. Mr. Breen brings up a plausible scenario where Dana White may find himself open to mainstream media attack…
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 15 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |