Talking Heads: Should Cecil Peoples be allowed to judge MMA main events?
By Zach Arnold | June 29, 2010
Our transcript starts at the 4 minute mark…
Continue reading this article here…
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Report: MMA legislation gets knocked out in New York
By Zach Arnold | June 29, 2010
Ultimate fighting in New York looks like longshot after Assembly move
In short, New York’s state senate approved for legislation in their budget bill. In the state Assembly, the Democrats there stripped the provision out of their budget bill. Meaning, when a final bill is voted on, it appears very unlikely any sort of legislation for Mixed Martial Arts will be voted upon.
Zuffa spent a lot of money on lobbying to get this passed and now it appears they are frozen out.
I tried to find the provision stripped from the bill on the New York State Assembly web site but couldn’t.
It also should be noted that the track record that the Fertittas have against unions is not helpful to their cause at all in New York politics. They have had issues with unions on a local and national level.
Las Vegas Review-Journal: Union adding to complaint against Station Casinos
That article details how the Culinary union filed a complaint right after the National Labor Relations Board charged Station Casinos with 127 counts of unfair labor practices. The reported date of the NLRB meeting is August 16th. The Culinary Workers Union and Bartenders Union is claiming that Station Casinos is targeting Latino workers with ‘illegal activities.’
The Associated Press: Union backing Station Casinos organization push
I don’t think their anti-union stance was that key this time around. UFC relied on some fancy p.r. firm that did nothing, while Strikeforce and Bellator ignored the issue. There is still a lot of anti-mma sentiment in NY, mostly based on ignorance, prejudice, and stupidity, but the behavior of White and shows like TUF only hurt. When word gets around about the SC death yesterday, expect even more trouble here. That said, there will be a new governor in January, so it will start again. The MMA World Expo in November at the Javits Center is being co-promoted by Madison Square Garden.
Jonathan Snowden: Fertitta Owned Casino’s Federal Indictment may quell thoughts of UFC union
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Defending Strikeforce’s matchmaking in booking a rematch between Cung Le and Scott Smith; Update: Ratings for Fedor fight
By Zach Arnold | June 29, 2010
MMA Junkie: Fedor vs. Werdum Strikeforce event drew around 500,000 viewers
A passage from a late night Monday Observer radio show that I’m sure will garner some reaction. There were many MMA-related topics discussed on the show but I chose this one because it best reflects the mood of a lot of the online MMA fans about Strikeforce.
A reader e-mailed in and asked why Strikeforce books a lot of rematches and has trouble making stars by having an undercurrent where if a big name loses to a lower level name that there is a propensity to immediately want to have the big name get their win back right away. Read the passage and then I’ll give my response at the end of it.
Also discussed on the Observer show was Dave’s idea of booking Anderson Silva vs. Mauricio Shogun instead of Anderson Silva vs. GSP because he feels it would be a fairer fight due to weight issues. He also believes Anderson/Shogun could draw 900,000 PPV buys. He also believes that Josh Koscheck has a better shot of beating GSP than Chael Sonnen does of beating Anderson Silva in Oakland this August.
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 32 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Nagoya Sumo tournament to go on as scheduled but damage has been done
By Zach Arnold | June 29, 2010
The Wall Street Journal lays out how the event is proceeding but at a big price tag of two expulsions and many suspensions of stablemasters and wrestlers. Take note that ticket sales for this year’s event are poor.
NPR talks about the long-time yakuza influence on the Sumo business. The reason the yakuza angle is gaining such traction here is because of match-fixing.
- Mainichi Daily News: Third-party panel set up by JSA to continue gambling scandal investigation
- Daily Yomiuri: Otake racks up 25 million yen debt from gambling
- Mainichi Daily News: Sumo stablemaster Otake had reputation as avid gambler
- Daily Yomiuri: Wrestlers gloomy, fans distressed heading into Nagoya Sumo tournament
- Mainichi Daily News: Late-blooming Ozeki Kotomitsuki faces dishonorable exit from Sumo
- Associated Press: Up to 1/3rd of participants in Nagoya Sumo tournament could be out
- Mainichi Daily News: Ex-sumo wrestler told police he was bookie in illegal gambling and had contact with yakuza groups
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Chuck Liddell remains adamant about continuing his fighting career in the UFC
By Zach Arnold | June 29, 2010
“I’m going to have a talk with Dana coming up in a week or two and see where I’m at, see where he’s at with everything and see what my options are and lay it all out…”
I didn’t do a full transcript of this interview because it was very hard to understand some of the words he was saying. So, I would encourage you to watch the interview to get a feel for his demeanor.
Simply put, he’s not going to stop until he gets seriously maimed or injured. Even for Dana White, I don’t think there’s a price tag he can put on “one more fight” regarding Chuck Liddell.
It should be noted that Chuck is not too high on spending any more time thinking about Tito Ortiz. The irony there, of course, is that Ortiz would be the only guy that I think Dana White would ever consider allowing Liddell to fight in his career.
Liddell also stated that he will not fight outside of the UFC and that he will always stick around in the fight game in one capacity or another after retiring from active competition.
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 22 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
30-year old Michael Kirkham dies in South Carolina MMA fight
By Zach Arnold | June 28, 2010
Michael Kirkham had six amateur fights under his belt before making his pro debut in South Carolina, a state that only recently approved legislation to regulate MMA events.
Beau Dure (USA Today): Second mand dies in U.S. from injuries sustained in a MMA fight
Boxing writer Jay Heater in the Idaho State Journal says that athletic commissions need to improve regulation standards for amateur MMA fights. His article is not a bash-MMA piece but rather a legitimate look at what is going on with the various athletic commissions across the country.
Video of Michael Kirkham fighting in the past
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Frank Shamrock: I tried to put a lot of money in my brother’s pocket but it didn’t get done
By Zach Arnold | June 28, 2010
- Josh Gross: Frank Shamrock’s legacy stretches beyond the cage
- Dave Meltzer: Early years of training damaged Frank Shamrock’s body
INTERVIEWER: “Emotional night for you as you just mentioning. Like how hard was it for you to kind of come to this decision?”
FRANK SHAMROCK: “It really hard. I mean… This is my sport. This is what I do. This is what I love. This is who I am, so… You know, hanging it up is sort of changing a little of bit of who I am but you know it’s time. Change is good. It’s time for change and I’m not a young man any more.”
INTERVIEWER: “Was there any particular fight, though, that was still out there that kind of gave you hesitation about kind of hanging it up and wanting to see one more through?”
FRANK SHAMROCK: “Well, I’d love to you know get some of my losses back and get victories over them but you know years ago I realized that it wasn’t about that for me. It was about this whole journey and this art and this experience and I’ve been looking for some guy to kick my ass. I mean, that’s what I’ve been waiting for, so, you know now that they’re here, it’s like, well maybe it is a good time for me to rest.”
INTERVIEWER: “On that note, everybody knows about the feud between you and your brother and what your brother has been saying. Like, is that something that you know you’ve thought about seriously doing at some point?”
FRANK SHAMROCK: “Well, he’s my brother. Yeah. In the past? Absolutely, I mean it was my whole idea, the whole blood brothers. It just… Ken is way past his day and Ken should hang it up and you know I was hoping to do a very good thing for him by putting a lot of money into his pocket and helping him out but he wasn’t, couldn’t get it done.”
INTERVIEWER: “Did he know about your decision?”
FRANK SHAMROCK: “No. No. You know, just my son and my wife and my immediate family and everybody else, you know, we really wanted to save it for a television audience and the crowd and let them experience it with us.”
INTERVIEWER: “Was there any particular ailment that you were going through you know injury or anything that kind of hastened your decision or was this a long term? You are able to keep your, keep it together and not break down like some guys when you retire. Was it a long time coming or did you have a particular ailment?”
FRANK SHAMROCK: “… My L-3 and L-4 are missing the arms on them, which technically should make me a very disabled man. When I was 16 they told me that I had a broken spine and I had scoliosis and needed immediate surgery and never play sports. My problem was that I had this whole dream of becoming a world champion and all this stuff. I’ve been doing chiropractic ever since. So, it’s something that’s manageable for me. The injuries are not so much what is really taking me out of the game but you know the injuries are stopping me from training at a high-level so even if I could train I just can’t train at that level any more because my body just can’t withstand it.”
It should be noted that there was discussion of Frank Shamrock having one last match against Cung Le, but that his back problems became much more serious as of late and that idea got nixed.
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Jerry Millen says that in his mind, Fedor is still the best fighter in MMA
By Zach Arnold | June 28, 2010
INTERVIEWER: “What was said after the fight and was there a moment in backstage?”
JERRY MILLEN: “You know, it was just pretty quiet because it’s obviously something we haven’t dealt with before. A lot of credit to Werdum. Fedor got caught and you know, you can’t always win. We always have to think that this could happen. Unfortunately, it did. In my mind, he’s still the best fighter. You know, he got caught. Everybody loses. You know, he took a shower and it was pretty quiet in there, you know.”
INTERVIEWER: “Is it something that you guys, it’s inevitably, you know it’s coming at some point, he’s going to lose at some point, that you guys you know you’re all prepared for it or does it come as a shock like it did to a lot of the crowd tonight?”
JERRY MILLEN: “Yeah, obviously it’s going to be a shock and you know you always think no matter when Fedor fights every time he fights you know I would always get a feeling in my stomach like… you know, because it is a fight and I’ve seen, I bet you I’ve seen 1,000 fights now from PRIDE to M-1 to you know whatever and anything can happen. So, of course, it comes as a complete surprise. But, you know, Fedor handled it very well. I’m more worried about how Fedor would handle it because you know until your put yourself in that athlete’s position you don’t know what’s going through their mind. And you know, you can say you know I’ll be strong when it happens, but you never really know until you’re tested and the first thing out of his mouth was you know to stand back up a man has to fall and he has a lot of faith and Fedor’s a very calm person. And I’m sure it hurts a little, I mean it has to you know because it’s something you don’t experience but he’s very strong in his faith and the priest’s father Andre are very strong with him. You know they pray all the time and he really believes in his faith so Fedor will be fine. I know that, you know, I’d probably took it harder than he did because I care about him as a person. He’s a great person. People don’t know the fighter. I’ve been to Stary Oskol five times now with him and his family. So, personally, it hurts for me to see your friend lose. But, he’s going to be OK, and he’ll be back. He’ll be back.”
INTERVIEWER: “Do you anticipate him coming back stronger from this?”
JERRY MILLEN: “You know, I don’t think he was weak [Saturday night]. I think you know I’ve seen him get out of you know those situations before especially with Nogueira, you know, he got caught. It happens in a fight, you know, he hit Werdum and he got him down and he got him with that choke and he couldn’t get out, you know, I’m just glad he got out of it without any major damage.”
INTERVIEWER: “From your perspective, it looked like he was just kind of going in trying to finish him quickly.”
JERRY MILLEN: “It’s that Fedor ground ‘n pound, you’ve seen it on all the guys especially that’s you know he’s famous for that especially against Nogueira and when that arm got caught, I was like oh man, but Fedor’s strong I thought he could pull out of it and you know credit to Werdum, he got him.
“Believe me, Fedor will be back, you know. He loses and it will make him a better fighter.”
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Dueling talk show opinions on whether or not Fedor/Werdum II should be booked
By Zach Arnold | June 28, 2010
In the red corner, a passage from late Saturday night’s Observer show coming out in support of a re-match and of Dave Meltzer also stating that he expressed this opinion to Scott Coker:
DAVE MELTZER: “[Fedor] can still draw, you know I mean you know anyone who thinks that like this guy’s done because of one loss, you know even this kind of loss, is crazy because I mean I’m not you know like the one thing we’ve learned is that MMA fighters can lose and they’ll retain their drawing power as long as they don’t you know just…”
BRYAN ALVAREZ: “Lose a lot of them in a devastating fashion.”
DAVE MELTZER: “Yeah, lose a lot in a devastating fashion and just like appear to be shot and you know anyone can lose. The Fedor/Werdum fight will be a real big fight and you know he may very well win that re-match and maybe he won’t. If he loses the re-match, it will you know I think that he’ll be, you know as far as being a big-time draw, it’ll be tough. You know the other thing that was interesting you know as it turned out when it was all said and done, Fedor did not outdraw Gina Carano here. You know it was 12,698 people. Which is you know, good, but it wasn’t great. The crowd, I mean, the crowd was very into him. I mean he was definitely the star of the show when he came out. Crowd loved the show live, you know I mean, even before the Fedor fight you could really tell with the Cung Le fight that when itw as over that people were just really buzzing, that they just thought that they had seen so far a really great show. The Josh Thompson/Pat Healy fight was really good. Really good live. You know all the TV fights were.”
BRYAN ALVAREZ: “The Fedor fight… when it was over they interviewed both guys and Werdum, they asked him about Alistair Overeem and Werdum in the post-match promo basically said that Fedor was his favorite fighter, Fedor was still the best fighter in the world and he wanted to give Fedor a re-match and I know that Fedor during the press conference said that he would love to have a re-match as well and realistically the Fedor/Werdum re-match is so much bigger match than Werdum and Alistair Overeem, at least in my opinion.”
DAVE MELTZER: “I completely agree and I expressed that opinion to them tonight because it was like the original thought of Scott Coker was Werdum against Overeem since that was you know the whole idea of this fight was the winner fights Overeem but when you sit down and think about it, you know and you weigh the options, the fact is that of the three the money guy is still Fedor. You know, I mean, even though he lost. And if you have Werdum beating Fedor a second time and then fighting Overeem, OK, that’s fine. But if you go with Werdum and Overeem next, if Werdum wins you probably can do Werdum and Fedor but you’d almost to put Fedor against somebody like Kharitonov to win to get a championship fight you know shot. Maybe not. But if Overeem were to beat Werdum you’d have Overeem and Fedor in a sense but you know everybody would complain unless Fedor got a win so you’re, it’s just to me it’s better business to go with you know I mean let’s face it, more people of all the fights the fight that people want to see is Werdum/Fedor re-match so that’s where I would go and the winner of that against Overeem or maybe put Overeem against you know somebody if you want to put him against you know Kharitonov or I don’t know who, there’s really no competition for him and you know but that’s certainly how you know if you want to do the CBS thing, you know with if CBS comes back and this show helped greatly in that regard, I mean it’s not like it’s a done deal or anything like that but this show was certainly a positive for Strikeforce getting back on CBS, that if you could get you know a show with you know Fedor against Werdum, Overeem against someone, just so Overeem gets on the show, and you know two other fights perhaps you know I mean perhaps a Herschel Walker in there or a Bobby Lashley or something, you know, I mean Bobby Lashley/Dave Batista you know which is certainly been heavily talked about. You put that, that’s actually a pretty damn good ratings show right there, pretty damn good. It would be record-breaking.”
In the blue corner, a passage from Sherdog radio on late Saturday night in which the idea of Fedor/Werdum II gets completely destroyed.
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 52 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Jordan Breen: Referee Kim Winslow did not act irresponsibly during the Cris Cyborg/Jan Finney fight
By Zach Arnold | June 27, 2010
From Sherdog radio last night, this right here is the passage that will probably send a lot of people crazy one way or the other.
The start of the passage deals with why people are finding it easier to make fun of Strikeforce. Then it transitions into whether or not round one of Cris Cyborg vs. Jan Finney should have been scored 9-8, 9-7, or even a 9-6 round.
Here’s the start:
JORDAN BREEN: “Strikeforce events, for whatever reason now, I think Strikeforce for a lot of people has used up the goodwill of fans so people are really willing to be smarmy and snarky about it and it seems like everyone from fans to media to other fighters, they turn into real comedians when Strikeforce cards are on in a really gregarious and amusing way.”
TJ DE SANTIS: “Not that hard, though, I mean the material’s very easy.”
JORDAN BREEN: “Oh, the material’s easy but it’s still homerun, it’s stuff that you can slam out of the park 600 feet. The hardest I’ve laughed during an MMA event in quite some time and largely because of the Tweeting therein though I will say I found the most annoying Tweets people who acted as though Kim Winslow’s some kind of sadist and acted as though she was irresponsible in acting this way.”
TJ DE SANTIS: “Well, I don’t think…”
JORDAN BREEN: “Part of it’s a build because of the James McSweeney incident last weekend but here you know I don’t know what people want. Fighters are supposed to fight until they can no longer fight. Jan Finney… she was still going for take downs, feebly so, but still going for takedowns and in the second round she came out after being completely destroyed for the first five minutes and landed the best punch of the fight for her, so clearly she still had a little something left up until Cris Cyborg’s knee collided with her torso.”
And now, for the rest of the story…
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 27 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Report: Tapout deal with Fedor was worth $360,000
By Zach Arnold | June 27, 2010
From Observer radio on Saturday night:
DAVE MELTZER: “What happened was Tapout had inked a deal to market Fedor Emelianenko Tapout shirts and they were going to pay him, I think the downside of $360,000 a year plus you know a cut of the shirts and somebody told them that if they did this and they did not cancel the deal that they would be banned from sponsoring at UFC and since that’s where your best exposure is with UFC, they canceled their deal with Fedor.”
BRYAN ALVAREZ: “Does that shock anyone, though?”
DAVE MELTZER: “See, here’s the thing. It absolutely, you know, tonight when that word was getting around, I mean and it kind of got around earlier even before the show, but you know I mean I have a different experience than a lot of these reporters here at MMA going through you know all those years with Vince (McMahon) and you know when I see like things like that it’s like, well, I mean, it is what it is and it’s like would Vince do the same thing? Well, he did, over and over and over again, you know, so it’s like it’s not that big of a deal to me. But, if you look at it and you didn’t go through the thing with Vince and if you look at it in a different way, it appears you know really bad that they’re screwing with guys and stuff like that but that’s… you know, I mean that’s the deal. And in this case, you know they did the same thing with, the t-shirt that Fedor had a couple of months ago, they did the exact same thing, I mean the exact same scenario happened so there’s a precedent for it. Tapout thought that they were so big that… you know and in so good with UFC, I mean UFC and Tapout are very very close, that they would be able to do this without any repercussions, that UFC wouldn’t come down on them but they were wrong.”
BRYAN ALVAREZ: “That’s not how things work.”
DAVE MELTZER: “That’s how things work. I mean, I don’t particularly like it, but that’s Dana and you know I mean that’s what it is. He’s going to do that, I mean the same reason that UFC 113 was on television tonight on Spike. You know, I mean, it’s… that’s how he fights and he’s a tough guy to go fight and until he you know walks into quicksand or something it’s going to be like this and even after it’s going to be like this, this is the way you know he’s going to do it unless he’s, there’s something so bad that gets him you know out of that position. And you know again, it could happen. Absolute power creates a feeling of invincibility and the invincibility, when you believe you’re invincible, that is when you are going to be slapped around by someone, somehow because you’re going to do something stupid and I mean I’ve seen it over and over again and Dana needs to be careful because I hope he doesn’t walk into it. I mean, that Loretta Hunt thing you know could have been worse and it wasn’t good but… I mean, you know, I give him credit. Since then he has toned down, he hasn’t done anything anywhere that silly.”
BRYAN ALVAREZ: “Unlike TNA he has learned lessons from his failures.”
DAVE MELTZER: “Yeah. I mean, he learned lessons period. He learned about drawing money. It’s like…”
BRYAN ALVAREZ: “He learned from his successes. That’s correct. Yes.”
DAVE MELTZER: “He’s learned from his successes and his failures.”
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 36 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Dave Meltzer: If Strikforce signs Dave Batista at a decent price, it shows how smart Scott Coker is
By Zach Arnold | June 27, 2010
I have so much audio to transcribe over the next two days, but suffice to say I can tell you with complete confidence what to expect…
I was wondering if the talk radio transcripts I have been doing were being read by the media types. Without question, the answer is most definitely yes. In this radio passage from a late Saturday night Observer show, this message from Dave Meltzer is clearly directed at the Sherdog radio personalities — Jordan Breen, Jack Encarnacao, and Lutfi Sariahmed.
Jordan said that if Strikeforce and Showtime sign Batista that they just don’t get it. Jack and Lutfi talked about how much of a pro-wrestling influence there is over the MMA media writers in regards to their backgrounds and how it’s swaying coverage of negotiations between Dave Batista and Sherdog.
There’s your set-up for what was, in many ways in my eyes, a strange rant by Dave on this subject. Of note, the topic of Batista was the thing that got him the most energized and fired up on that Observer show late Saturday night.
By the way, take note that I have lots of audio from the Observer and Sherdog camps and you could not find two completely different viewpoints on one MMA show than what you heard from these sides and I will extravagantly highlight those passages today and tomorrow. Wait until you read the text on Kim Winslow, the referee who officiated the Cris Cyborg/Jan Finney fight. One side thought that Kim was allowing a murder to take place and the other side thought that Kim did a hell of a job in the fight.
As far as Dave’s rant about Batista signing with Strikeforce, I’ll address some of his points after you read the passage.
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: Media, MMA, Pro-Wrestling, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 6 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
ESPN barely covers Fedor losing to Fabricio Werdum
By Zach Arnold | June 27, 2010
It was pretty painful to see just how the network covered Fedor’s first loss in a decade or so. They showed a basic 15-second highlight of Werdum beating Fedor and had it tabbed as “MMA upset” and that was about it. It was treated the same way the Miguel Cotto-Yuri Foreman fight was treated by the network, which was not seriously at all.
If you’re a fight fan with any sort of passion, watching ESPN give 20 seconds of air time to a fight that you know means something to the business is just one of those things where you wonder whether you are clueless or if they are the clueless ones.
As far as general mainstream media coverage of the loss, there really wasn’t a whole lot of it. The attendance for the Strikeforce show was a shade under 13,000 at HP Pavilion in San Jose.
About the media coverage of the event — I had actually offered to write articles, for free mind you, to talk about Fedor’s fight in Strikeforce and basically the message I got told from editors of two major sports web sites is that higher-ups on their platforms didn’t want to see MMA coverage on their site, no matter if it was free or paid material. They wanted nothing to do with MMA. I was told to check back to see if there would be any interest in coverage of the upcoming Lesnar fight…
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 7 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |