Vladimir Matyushenko, on eve of UFC fight with Jon Jones, lays out how he sees the fight going
By Zach Arnold | July 31, 2010
He’s in the main event against Jon Jones at the San Diego Sports Arena. How much of a test will he prove to be for Jones?
ARIEL HELWANI: “We saw you work out and I think it’s interesting to get a chance to see you work out here because you’re working with guys, Antoni Hardonk, amazing striker. Stefan Struve, amazing reach. You’ve got guys like Fabricio Werdum in your camp. I mean, you’ve really picked some really great guys and I want you to talk about just how those guys have sort of helped get you ready for Jon Jones, a guy that many think is one of the most lethal strikers in all facets of the game, even on the ground, too.”
VLADIMIR MATYUSHENKO: “Yeah, definitely. My sparring partners are very, very good and you didn’t mention Jared Hamman, he’s got balls of, you know, anybody has and so he kept coming, he kept coming and Fabricio he’s a good submission guy, he just proved himself against Fedor Emelianenko and Antoni Hardonk, definitely you know, great coach and not just a great striker but also he’s got a great talent of being coach. Yeah, I mean, and all those guys as you can see is 6’4″, so that’s you know, height-wise it’s good for me for training for Jones.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “Is it safe to say that if you can sort of deal with his reach and his lethal striking, as we talked about, that you feel as though if you can keep this fight close enough that it can go in your favor? Because you’re so tough and durable that if you can avoid that then maybe it can go your way.”
VLADIMIR MATYUSHENKO: “Yeah, definitely, it should go in my way. Yeah. The deal on the reach, I either stay out of the reach or come closer and be in clinch or take him down, that’s the plan.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “Are you the kind of guy who likes to watch a lot of tape on your opponent?”
VLADIMIR MATYUSHENKO: “Yes and no, and again, in this particular case it’s really hard to watch the tape. It doesn’t matter how many times you watch it he still does things unpredictable, he switches his stance so and it’s a hard for opponent to read something like that.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “You’ve fought so many big names in this sport. Despite his young age, would you say he’s one of the more dangerous fighters you’ve ever faced?”
VLADIMIR MATYUSHENKO: “Well, every fighter is a tough fight but I treat every fighter as the most dangerous, most hard fight in my life and right now it’s against Jon Jones.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “And how does it feel to be in the main event, getting all of this attention? Your first two UFC fights were on the untelevised portion of the card. Now, here you are fighting in the main event for the first time since 2001 in a UFC event. How does it feel to be back?”
VLADIMIR MATYUSHENKO: “It feels great and eventually it’s my goal and it’s not just bringing popularity to myself but bringing popularity to my team, my gym, and MMA in general. I think it’s great.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “When you put you head on your pillow at night and you start thinking about this fight and how it’s going to play out, how do you envision the fight ending?”
VLADIMIR MATYUSHENKO: “Ending is hard. Start, I know pretty much what it’s going to start like. Ending, you guys turn on Versus on Sunday and you see for yourself.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “All right, give us a preview. How’s it going to start?”
VLADIMIR MATYUSHENKO: “I think Jon’s going to bring everything he’s got. He’s going to throw as many strikes and try to finish the fight fast and I know that if I just wait out, not wait out but I have to stand out the first wave, you know, I’ll be fine. I have to just scramble with him and just keep bringing back the fight to him.”
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Luke Thomas’ words of wisdom on MMA personalities and radio
By Zach Arnold | July 30, 2010
Reminder of how wimpy everyone is in MMA: just left Capitol Hill meeting where journalists, advocates slammed fed govt reps to their face.
Try that in MMA and someone’s feelings get hurt. Unreal.
@sonochamp Members of fed govt I’m talking about aren’t elected. And the issue isn’t mechanism. It’s a willingness to accept criticism.
@clean_dean I don’t do bullshit Internet podcasts. My show is on terrestrial radio. Those are the consumers whose needs I need to meet.
@clean_dean You talk Japanese MMA over the air on terrestrial radio and before too long, you’ll be doing Internet podcasts. Makes 0 sense.
Press release in my inbox: KING MO SAYS HE’LL MAKE “REFRIED BEANS” OUT OF RAFAEL “FEIJAO” CAVALCANTE – TONIGHT ON HDNET’S “INSIDE MMA”
Props to King Mo for naming a food that is actually Mexican in origin when trying to get after a Brazilian. Real bright.
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Some odd news & notes including MC Hammer in the MMA agency business
By Zach Arnold | July 30, 2010
Some light article reading for your perusal as we head into the first of three UFC events in August. Sunday night on Versus from the San Diego Sports Arena.
Cain Velasquez training the house down for his ultimate heavyweight challenge
That’s an article from the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper in Australia. They interviewed him about his upcoming fight with Brock Lesnar and his engagement to girlfriend Michelle Borquez.
Phil Baroni pours his heart out about recent injury, survival in UFC
A tough article to read, especially considering his wife is working two jobs. Quite a contradiction compared to the financial path Cain is on right now.
Ben Rothwell undergoes ACL surgery, estimates nine-month recovery
He claims he tore the ACL when going for a takedown on Gilbert Yvel during their UFC 115 fight in Vancouver. Nine months is a very optimistic time frame. Maybe physically you can recover in nine months, but it takes a couple of years before you mentally get back the full confidence to use the knee full strength.
In move from Sacramento, James Irvin officially puts drug addiction behind him
Kind of an interesting story. Having to relocate to get away from the ‘enablers’ who helped fuel a drug problem is certainly a big deal for him personally.
Yushin Okami’s eyes remain on the Middleweight UFC prize
Injury leads Mission Viejo’s Mark Munoz to MMA stardom
I’m completely amazed at just how many people are picking Mark Munoz to beat him on Sunday night in their San Diego fight. That one loss to Chael Sonnen really lowered his stock big time in the eyes of a lot of people.
Jon Jones: Can the self-taught man survive the rigidity of Team Jackson?
He’s going into his fight against Vladimir Matyushenko as a -600 favorite.
Alchemist Management to Transform MMA management
MC Hammer as the front man for an MMA agency? I’ve said it all, especially with the awesome name of LEX MCMAHON. This agency represents Nate Marquardt, Tim Kennedy, Vladimir Matyushenko, and Jorge Rivera.
Amateur MMA fighter chokes Manila traffic enforcer
Road rage on a whole new level.
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Kevin Iole thinks that the Manny Pacquiao/Antonio Margarito fight will happen at Cowboys Stadium in Dallas
By Zach Arnold | July 30, 2010
When you read the transcript of this chat between Yahoo Sports writers Kevin Iole & Steve Cofield about why the fight won’t happen in Las Vegas, it’s interesting that one of the few times we see Keith Kizer and the commission take a bold stand on an issue is when it comes to Antonio Margarito. So, with Las Vegas likely out of the running, you’re looking at Dallas (Cowboys Stadium), Monterrey (where Erik Morales fought last March), Atlantic City, or Abu Dhabi. (An update on Abu Dhabi potentially hosting the fight can be read here.)
Onto the transcript…
Continue reading this article here…
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Kevin Iole’s Yahoo story about UFC suing Bellator & Ken Pavia is all about Zuffa sending messages
By Zach Arnold | July 29, 2010
When I read Kevin Iole’s Yahoo Sports article titled Zuffa sues for alleged theft of trade secrets, I initially laughed when I saw that the names in the lawsuit were Ken Pavia and Bjorn Rebney (Bellator). Bellator is fresh coming off a legal controversy over what to do with fighter Dave Herman, who claims that the promotion breached his contract with them and is now taking a booking for the upcoming Shark Fights card in Texas. The story on Sherdog, in my opinion, made Bellator look awful. Now you throw this suit by the UFC — filed in Las Vegas — and Bellator is going to have to be spending resources defending several legal fronts. None of this is good for a promotion that is trying to keep as many resources as possible in order to stay in business.
Alan Conceicao, a frequent commenter on our site, has long asked when MMA writers would take the rose-colored glasses off when covering Bellator and start to ask questions like, say, where the money is coming from to fund the promotion (given Bjorn Rebney’s past history in the boxing industry). The media tide seems to be turning against Bellator here on a few fronts.
The lawsuit being filed by Zuffa in Las Vegas is key — they don’t lose on their home turf in court. Just ask Ken Shamrock, who ended up paying $175,000 in fees to UFC after the company got a pretty favorable hometown judges’ decision in their case against Shamrock (who sued the promotion for breach of contract).
Bellator is the defendant that will get a lot of attention, but Ken Pavia is the real target here. As we’ve seen with the Jason Genet case (where he paid a settlement to the SEC), there is going to be much more scrutiny on agents in MMA who portray themselves as powerful. One thing we know about UFC and Dana White, in particular, is that they don’t like dealing with many of the agents in the business. By going after Pavia, they are laying down a marker to all agents who do business with them. By having that message come out through Kevin Iole and Yahoo, it becomes a crystal clear public message — don’t screw with us.
At the end of the day, anyone who is in the MMA business has to realize that UFC will look at them as competition — whether they are a minor-league independent regional promotion or if they are a national player. It’s the same way WWE views the competition in pro-wrestling. You squash anyone who is sloppy or who is trying to use your name to take advantage for a better business deal. In this case regarding Zuffa’s lawsuit against Ken Pavia and Bellator, UFC is trying to portray Pavia and Bellator as being sloppy in the way they handle their business. When you are dealing with a company as ruthlessly efficient as UFC in the MMA marketplace, one moment of carelessness could cost you very big.
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The cannibalization of challengers in the UFC Welterweight division
By Zach Arnold | July 29, 2010
Initially when I was listening to this week’s edition of Pro MMA radio, a top argument being discussed on the show was whether or not Jake Shields vs. Martin Kampmann should be the co-main event of the October UFC event in Anaheim (that is headlined by Brock Lesnar vs. Cain Velasquez for the UFC Heavyweight title). The conventional wisdom right now is that Tito Ortiz vs. Matt Hamill will be the semi-main event fight because of Tito’s name power and the fact that he’s fighting in home territory.
LARRY PEPE: “What’s the co-main event?”
JESSE HOLLAND: “Boy, that’s a tough one. I think you have to make, if you have plans of putting Jake Shields against Georges St. Pierre and this is their route you’re going to take, you have to have Kampmann/Shields as your co-main event. And I understand the draw of Tito Ortiz but at this stage in his career, it’s time to make way for some of the young guns and I think, you know, Jake Shields has got to be co-main event if you want to make him your next superstar.”
LARRY PEPE: “Yeah, I’m with you 100% and I had this argument with a friend of mine. He immediately said Tito/Hamill. He’s like, you know, the drawing power and this and that and the other and my argument is two-fold: one is, Tito’s drawing power on this card is irrelevant in my opinion because you have Brock Lesnar at the top of the card and if you have Brock Lesnar in the main event, you’re going to do your million-plus anyway. I don’t know how many more people you’re going to get because of Tito when you already have Lesnar. So, I don’t think you need Tito to sell the card, especially with the depth of this one but you certainly don’t him to sell it. The second issue, Jesse, not only is there, you know, the intention to put Shields against GSP, but if Kampmann beats Shields, he goes to 5-1 in the Welterweight division, he’s got to be the next contender. So… and neither one of these guys is that well-known to your broad-base, mainstream fan base. I’d argue Shields more than Kampmann because of all the cards he did on CBS and Showtime and either way, you know, when you’re promoting this event and you’re doing your Countdown show, I assume it’s going to be a Countdown and not a Primetime, but whichever you’re doing you need to put some promotional backing to Shields and Kampmann. What better way to do it than to make them co-main, to make them a part of the Countdown show, whatever promotional thing you’re doing, so you can further introduce them to your audience and to draw everybody in with Lesnar and Velasquez to highlight these guys? I think to make anybody else the co-main, to make Tito/Hamill the co-main, would be a huge mistake.”
Personally, I’m fine with the promotion picking either fight for the semi-main event slot.
However, this initial discussion on the placement of the Shields/Kampmann fight led to a much more boisterous discussion about the way the UFC has booked and built up/destroyed challengers for Georges St. Pierre in their Welterweight division. I think that the Pro MMA radio team makes some valid points as far as the corner UFC has trapped themselves into right now with guys like Jon Fitch and Thiago Alves.
Continue reading this article here…
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Shane Carwin’s MMA manager, Jason Genet, pays up to the SEC
By Zach Arnold | July 28, 2010
Justin Klein has the news about Jason Genet, who manages several MMA fighters, having to pay up to the SEC due to the regulatory agency claiming he was involved in a “pump and dump” stock scheme.
MMA manager Jason Genet consents to entry of final judgment in SEC action
ADDENDUM: It should be fully noted that in the settlement, Mr. Genet did not admit to any guilt.
If you go to full-page view, I copied the text from the initial SEC Complaint filed against Mr. Genet.
Continue reading this article here…
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Will we see an interim title created for the UFC Light Heavyweight division?
By Zach Arnold | July 28, 2010
KENNY RICE: “We’re talking about the interim belt. Do you fans want to see this? I mean, after all, you’re not quite the champion. The champ is either sidelined because of an injury or a contract dispute or something along those lines. And it’s going right now in the UFC. There is the Light Heavyweight title to talk about. Shogun Rua is sidelined probably until February of next year. Now, does that mean Rashad Evans should wait as he says he wants to after he beat Rampage Jackson and get the fight with the champion? Forget that interim belt, he wants to take it away from Shogun. OR… as Lyoto Machids’as agent is saying right now, there should be an interim fight, and actually he wants his man Machida to fight Rampage or fight the guy that beat Rampage, Rashad Evans. It gets a little confusing. What do you think about it? Here’s a great viewer submission to get it started. It comes from Tampa, Florida, from Devin Rodriguez.
‘What’s the deal with interim titles? Why create a fake belt? Do you think it’s fair to the number 1 contender? I know if I was in their situation, I wouldn’t want to take the chance of giving up my shot at the title.’
“What do you think about this ‘I’m in the middle of things, I’m sort of the champ but I’m not really not with the belt?’ ”
BAS RUTTEN: “Interim fight? Awesome. Totally understandable. Preparing yourself for a five-round fight, got it. Interim belt? You know, imagine you’re the interim champion and then you fight for the real belt and then you don’t win it. You know? What are you going to say to people? Yeah, I used to be the interim champion belt holder. I mean, c’mon. Now, I really don’t see that. Maybe only you’re allowed to say that if you then later on go on and win the world title. That’s the only thing. I’m with the viewer submission there.”
KENNY RICE: “I agree. You know, the one thing, too, if this should and we don’t know who exactly it’s going to shake out, but while Rua is sitting out nursing injury, trying to get healthy again to fight in February, I like Rashad Evans wanting to fight him. And if Machida does get a fight with Rampage, who lost to Evans, it would be the same as when we were talking about on here why Fedor didn’t fight Alistair Overeem in Strikeforce. It would be the same with the UFC. What’s the purpose of having that if Evans doesn’t want to participate in an interim championship, why even have one at that stage? Jamie, let me start with you because you’ve been involved in this. You fought the guy, Ben Henderson, who unified the belt basically while you were on the sideline and he was the WEC interim champ. Is it a good thing? Does it matter?”
JAMIE VARNER: “No, I think interim belts are just fake belts. I like, you know, what Bas said. Yeah, you know having going through that five-round war is definitely good because you’re not used to it. I mean, my very first time going five rounds was Cerrone was, it’s tough, I mean it’s definitely a life-changing experience to go five rounds and be caught up in a battle like that. But I think it’s kind of disrespectful to the champion, you know? I worked really hard for that fight with Rob McCullough and you know, I mean that fight was everything. So to have it disrespected, to have these two guys, yeah they were top contenders, but I got injured in the line of work. It would have been one thing had I gotten injured like outside riding my motorcycle or something like that, but no I got injured with my fight with Cerrone, you know, doing my job, and you know I was sidelined for about a year. So the fact that, you know, I felt like it was just a little bit disrespectful, but you know what? Ben did come back, he beat me, so now he is the Lightweight champion. So, I mean, you can see it from both ends. But I just think it’s kind of disrespectful to the champion at the time.”
BAS RUTTEN: “And it’s funny that you say that because I had that feeling, too, with Frank (Mir) was also, he was the interim champion. I was going like, why would they create a belt suddenly and then give it? I thought it was disrespectful at the time.”
KENNY RICE: “Shane (Del Rosario), on the other side of the coin there, if you’re coming up as you are now, you’re still undefeated. If Strikeforce came to you and let’s say there’s a vacated Heavyweight title, OK, in a hypothetical world and they said we want you to step in and fight for the interim title while Alistair’s resting or whatever. You almost have to take it if your organization is saying you got to do this, don’t you?”
SHANE DEL ROSARIO: “Yeah, I mean I guess it would be smart from that perspective financially, but I mean still the champ is the champ and you can’t really call yourself one until you beat them and you know I could see how maybe it prevents from stagnancy in the weight classes, you know, if a champ’s out for a long time, but you know a matter of six months, you know, I don’t think it’s that long to where you need to create another belt and you know you just can’t feel good about being a belt holder if you’re not beating the guy that’s #1.”
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Jamie Varner on Kamal Shalorus kicking him in the nuts three times and facing Donald Cerrone in his next fight
By Zach Arnold | July 28, 2010
KENNY RICE: “It ends in a very controversial draw.”
JAMIE VARNER: “Yeah, that was tough. It was a tough pill to swallow but honestly, and I’m trying to be as positive about the whole situation as possible, you know… Did I see some flaws in the reffing and maybe some of the judging? Yeah. But you know I’m not going to take away from Kamal (Shalorus), he’s a tough dude. He’s by far the toughest guy I’ve ever fought. I mean he’s a world-class wrestler, so I mean there were a lot of moral victories in that fight you know, being able to get the low blows, take three of them, and still keep on fighting was huge. To stop half of his takedown attempts, I mean he shot on me twice, only took me down once, I mean this is a world-class wrestler. This guy was an Olympic ultimate Iranian national champion and to be able to stay in the pocket and throw bombs and fight through some of the adversity and the injuries.”
BAS RUTTEN: “The low kicks, also, man he attacked your legs pretty hard.”
JAMIE VARNER: “Yeah, I mean, I was lucky, man. He was throwing those kicks and I thought he was going to try to just throw punches and take me down. So the kicks caught me off-guard, but I made him pay for a couple of those kicks so he’s a little bit more scared to come in. If those would have been shin, I would have been done after five, six kicks. But they were all foot so I was lucky enough that I was able to just keep him off. I’d rather take the foot than the shin. I mean anybody that’s ever fought, ever taken a kick, you’d much rather take the foot than the shin.”
KENNY RICE: “Let’s look at the smack track numbers here. This is some smack tracking here. Shalorus 53 leg strikes attempted, 32 lands. And then Jamie, as you mentioned, you got 1 out of 2 of his takedown attempts. Only one point for those multiple strikes to the groin.”
BAS RUTTEN: “Three hits.”
KENNY RICE: “Do you wonder, should it have been stopped after the third time? Should have been the end of it”
BAS RUTTEN: “Yep.”
JAMIE VARNER: “Uh, I don’t know. See I don’t want to look at it like that.”
KENNY RICE: “When you a kick a guy three times in the crotch, you know, forget it.”
(snip)
JAMIE VARNER: “Well, that was his style for that fight. His whole game plan was to slow me down. I’m quick on my feet, I like to throw punches, I’m in-and-out, I was constantly moving. That’s the way you got to fight a guy who’s either trying to take your head off with punches or take your down. You got to be a moving target and that was my game plan going into it and his game plan was to slow me down. But I personally feel that… had those groin shots had not happened, could the fight have turned out a little bit differently? I want to say yes, but the judges that were reffing that fight, I mean… where are those guys coming from? I don’t… they saw the fight. I felt like I got the better of him. Any damaging blow that was thrown was one that I threw. You know, he didn’t land anything that hurt me. I think I got hit with like four or five punches total. His leg kicks were the most devastating weapon that he had and they weren’t doing anything to me. It would have been one been like the Urijah Faber/Jose Aldo where I was limping and just falling to my back, you know, I couldn’t stand up, couldn’t fight, but I was I mean I was moving, I was able to still tag him with some punches. But I don’t think it was malicious intent, but he definitely after the second time probably should have stopped.”
KENNY RICE: “(Cowboy) Cerrone coming up next for you. How’s this coming? You’re training now. You’re back in. You’re rested up. What’s this going to be like?”
JAMIE VARNER: “I’m excited, man. Everybody in their life has those question marks whether it be school, a girl, whatever. There’s always those question marks. What if you would have done something (different)? What if something would have ended up differently? Well, this is my opportunity to go back in time and change that question mark. And I’m looking forward to this fight. I don’t personally feel that Donald really deserves to fight me. I think this is one of those ‘business opportunities’ here. It’s a marquee match-up. It’s a you know a lot of people are going to want to see this and… I don’t know if it’s moving me in the right direction towards that world title, but knocking Cerrone out will feel really, really good. It’ll be awesome to beat him up… AGAIN. And then, you know, I don’t think they can really deny that I deserve a title shot after knocking out Cerrone.”
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Greg Jackson talks about coaching Jon Jones and his expectations of Jake Shields in the UFC
By Zach Arnold | July 28, 2010
Greg Jackson, coaching master to the stars, had a terrific interview on Sherdog radio this past Monday for about a half hour. Greg is one of my favorite people to listen to in MMA-related radio interviews. He’s very media savvy and also honest (as much as he can be).
I didn’t transcribe the entire 30-minute interview, but I did transcribe about 15 minutes of it and here are some of the interview highlights. (Including his thoughts on Shane Carwin’s loss to Brock Lesnar.)
Tell me about the first time you saw Jon Jones in your gym, you training him at 23 years old. This guy’s a phenomenal athlete. What is it like to coach Jon Jones?
“Well, you know, it’s a lot of fun and it’s a real challenge because you want him to have strong basics but you can’t give him the basics in the normal way because you don’t want him to lose his creativity and his flair and his explosiveness and all of these things that make him great. So the real challenge for me is to keep him excited while allowing him to progress, you know, on the ground and his wrestling, kickboxing, and stuff. So, it’s a lot of fun to be in that challenge, to be able to keep a guy creative and flowing with kind of the other side of that making sure that his basics are really strong as well, so if we get in trouble we can get out. And so that makes it a really, really fun and like I said, exciting process for me.”
Continue reading this article here…
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Discussion about the future of K-1 and Japanese MMA
By Zach Arnold | July 27, 2010
KENNY RICE: “In recent days, PUJI Capital of China has put in $230 million dollars in the expansion of FEG, it’s the parent of DREAM and K-1. Mike Kogan, the director of FEG USA, spoke to Inside MMA about what this deal means.”
MIKE KOGAN: “You know, the reaction is obviously a lot of excitement because we have a lot of plans and a lot of goals that we’re now able to realize and put into work. In case of K-1, you know we’re looking at expanding it to create almost like a soccer league where the K-1 World GP events are held once every four years instead every year and thus raise the value of the belt and then hold more regional tournaments and the European tournaments and the US tournaments and then crown you know individual champions there. And then with DREAM, not so long ago Japan was a dominant force in the MMA, it was actually the #1 country for MMA and now that the focus has shifted on the US with the UFC and you know DREAM is starting to try to get some of that back to Japan and get the fire going sort of speak in Japan so there’s a lot of plans with that. And PUJI kind of bought into that whole theory and you know has allocated a substantial amount of capital which will go to you know realize these goals.”
KENNY RICE: “And this from Andrew Simon, who is the CEO of HDNet Fights: ‘As the exclusive North American broadcaster for DREAM, K-1 and K-1 MAX, we are excited that great events will only get better for HDNet fight fans. HDNet is committed to bringing the best combat sports from around the world and this is a big step as FEG plans to do great events around the globe. It looks like the funds will be used to expand and potentially a long-term goal of building towards a “World Cup” type tournament of K-1. All great reasons for US fight fans to make sure they get HDNet!’ That’s from our boss, Andrew Simon.
“And as of we actually want you to watch HDNet but I think one of the things that Andrew points out in there and Mike Kogan also went on in that interview to tell Inside MMA that you know there’s a few stipulations in there. All the money doesn’t come in at once. It comes in as the process goes along to expand things. I think it’s quite interesting about the K-1 possibilities of global expansion. That’s still an area in MMA I think that fans enjoy watching and you know, Bas, you’ve been there, you know, you got great strikers and people like that action.”
BAS RUTTEN: “Yeah, no, they do, but it’s… *sigh* … I don’t know. First of all, they’re going to bring in a cage right? From what I hear with DREAM also? For the fighters?”
KENNY RICE: “Yeah. I think.”
BAS RUTTEN: “In the past, in Tokyo or in Japan, it’s been known that they don’t like the cage, for some reason they don’t like the cage and they need, I always say, they need a new Sakuraba. They need a guy who really sparks an interest. They don’t have a guy like that right now so I don’t know if that money’s going to do any good. They need a guy who can beat the big guys who come from overseas and like I said, four family members of the famous MMA family and you beat that guy, four Gracie members you know, a guy like Sakuraba if they can find a guy like that who starts beating like Alistair Overeem or something, then I say OK, now it’s going to be interesting. Because let’s face it, in America if you don’t have any American champions. Look at the K-1. It’s not big in America, there’s no American champion. Who are you going to root for? And that’s what I think, that’s the big problem now in Japan. They don’t have a Japanese superstar who can beat the big dogs.”
Topics: DREAM, Japan, K-1, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 14 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
The ridiculous media criticism Sarah Kaufman is facing is largely manufactured outrage
By Zach Arnold | July 27, 2010
Jake Rossen summarizes what’s going on as far as Sarah’s complaints about the way Strikeforce has been promoting her. (Jonathan Snowden got the ball rolling on this topic with this article and from there I’ve dealt with Bleacher Report-types pushing the angle further.) She had a fight in San Jose that was placed in a main event slot. It was late, fans weren’t interested in watching the fight, and so the audience started leaving. Stinkers happen occasionally. It’s MMA.
So, when she was kept by the promotion via the dreaded champion’s clause (because she’s their 135-pound champion), they ended up booking her against Roxy Modafferi in the semi-main event slot of a Strikeforce Challengers show that reportedly struggled to draw 2,500 in Everett, Washington. (And by the way, anyone who puts heat on the fighters for not drawing on the Challenger’s shows should take a good look at what kind of business promotion there is for these events.)
What Strikeforce did was obvious. They were afraid that the Everett crowd would bail on her fight. Boring = fans leaving. Women = not everyone’s a fan. So, they put two and two together and decided to make the title fight the semi-main event.
Kaufman, understandably, was pissed. Why should a title fight not be the main event? In many ways, her argument was completely valid and showed the difficulties Strikeforce has in dealing with their titles. The titles are largely meaningless to the public and the value of the titles is more or less, at this point, about the champion’s clause to keep talent from leaving.
Sarah ended up winning her fight with a spectacular finish. It made the highlights on ESPN. She is starting to get her name out there. She stated her demand to fight on Strikeforce main cards. Who came blame her? The fans didn’t.
Apparently the media, however, in large part is not happy with her attitude. Memo to those criticizing her with largely manufactured outrage — who else is going to promote her if the promotion she works for isn’t doing a good enough job promoting her or themselves?
Let’s call it for what it is — Sarah did something that other fighters in the promotion have done (promoted themselves) and yet she gets heat for it while everyone else who goes into business for themselves in Strikeforce gets a shrug of the shoulders from beat writers. She doesn’t have a contract like Dan Henderson and making a living at a business that requires 100% devotion means you have to scratch and claw to get every dollar you can make. Whether that’s through sponsorships, commercials, fight salary, or whatever the revenue vehicle may be, she’s got to make a living.
So why the heat against Sarah by writers, which is a completely different reaction to the supportive response from fans? It’s a melting pot of reasons. First, it’s a dry news cycle. Writers are looking for material. Second, she’s a woman and there’s plenty of vocal fans who are not on the female MMA bandwagon. Third, her predicament with Strikeforce highlights a lot of the problems the promotion is currently struggling to find answers to. Put this all together and you end up with shrieking online posts saying she should know her place and shut up.
Which is why Sarah’s fight with Roxy drawing the highest ratings of any fight on the show (a reported 254,000 viewers) is the perfect comeback to the largely manufactured outrage being penned at this point. Sarah’s made the most of her opportunity and now she’s going to push forward. Good for her.
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 31 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
One of the best interviews of all-time with BJJ instructor extraordinaire Lloyd Irvin
By Zach Arnold | July 26, 2010
For the hardcore fans who know the name Lloyd Irvin, one of two reactions generally occurs — he’s either the best at what he does (Brandon Vera, Luke Thomas) or he’s a complete phony (popular message boards, some media writers). The truth, as with everything in life, is somewhere in the middle. In Lloyd’s case, the facts stronger are on his side of being as legitimate as he is.
Lloyd Irvin radio interview with Caleb of The Fightworks Podcast
Which is why when I listened to his lengthy interview with my old radio mate Caleb a couple of weeks ago I was excited. When I finally listened to the interview, I was so entertained by it that I knew that I would give it my highest recommendation for all of you to download and go listen to it. There’s a lot of aspects to the interview that I would love to highlight (I’ll highlight some), but I thought his story about the first time he met Mario Yamasaki and his initial adventure in learning jiu-jitsu was quite the deal. One thing Lloyd does not lack is self-confidence.
If you don’t know who Lloyd is, you may have heard his name in media reports about him being a victim of a home invasion robbery and how he thwarted off the would-be attackers. A lot of people in the media gave him a hard time because they didn’t believe his story. If you click on that link in the first sentence of this paragraph, you’ll read that in fact his story checked out and that one of the men who tried to rob him is allegedly a serial killer.
During his interview with Caleb, he talked about his fast progression in learning BJJ and that if he had the learning tools at his disposal as opposed to what he had back when he was starting out, he would have been a bigger force than he currently is.
“Yeah, I went through the belts pretty quickly, but I think I could have done it even quicker if I had an instructor over the top on me correcting my mistakes because like I said from after six months of training, I never had an instructor over the top of me with me every day ever so I basically went through this path by myself. I’ve never had a student, throughout my journey, I never had a student or a training partner that could beat me. So I’m always like the hammer, I’m always the guy like I said like these guys now they have the ability where they’re in the room and everyone’s tough and everyone’s getting tapped and no matter who… everyone’s getting tapped in the room and these guys have it so good that I’m kind of jealous because they have an environment that I wish I could have been in.”
I would strongly recommend that you click on the Fightworks link and download the interview to listen to it. If you can’t, however, I’ve transcribed about 15 minutes of it. Topics included in discussion are: the proper way to promote a student and give them the right belt, whether jiu-jitsu as a sport can grow in popularity, his philosophy on what his students display and work on for submissions during tournaments, and why he markets himself and his products the way he does and dismisses his critics.
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 22 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |