UFC: Is Anderson Silva really interested in fighting Chael Sonnen?
By Zach Arnold | May 4, 2010
Another grab-a-cup-of-coffee article.
Do you remember what Dana White said after the debacle in Abu Dhabi featuring Anderson Silva clowning around against Demian Maia? Remember the part where he said this was the lowest point ever in his history as a promoter?
“No doubt about it, absolutely 100%. You know, this was a big event for us tonight, this was a really big moment. I was really excited, I’ve been here, I’ve been fired up, I’ve been on the road a lot and this whole last you know three weeks of my life was leading to this night here. The people in this country, including the media, have really got behind this thing with support like I’ve never, ever seen anywhere. You know, I’m really embarrassed.”
After promising that he would re-pay the fans back for that awful showing, White announced on Jim Rome is Burning on ESPN that he was booking Chael Sonnen against Anderson Silva for early August.
“Oh, I mean there’s, there’s nothing that I can really do to [Anderson] financially. You know this thing, you know, he’s contracted to get paid and he gets paid, it’s just one of those unfortunate things that happens and you know, uh, I had the talk with him. I think personally I really believe that he was embarrassed by what happened that night. Maybe he did have a mental breakdown, I don’t know what happened in the ring, but .. uh… all I can say is, I know his next opponent isn’t going to be a guy whose going to lay back and let him do stuff like that to him. Chael Sonnen’s going to take to him and hopefully we never see that again.”
Will the general public feel confident that Chael Sonnen is the guy who can deliver the punishment against Anderson Silva? Will there be strong fan demand to see that fight?
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 18 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Joe Rogan’s thoughts on UFC’s schedule in May; fight between Forrest Griffin-Antonio Rogerio Nogueira called off
By Zach Arnold | May 3, 2010
(Update 5/4): TMZ often irritates me to visit, but they sure seem plugged into the UFC world for news. They broke the news that Forrest Griffin is off the 5/29 Las Vegas show due to a shoulder injury. Wait until TMZ Sports comes out later this year…
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April 30th, 2010: As I writing up this third and final article on the interview that Joe Rogan did with Josh Gross, I turned on the television and there I saw the start of the Countdown to UFC 113 special on Spike TV. I thought to myself, what the heck? Then I realized, May 9th is around the corner and UFC has a big show in Montreal.
Here is how UFC laid out the advertising for their upcoming May events:
- 5/8 in Montreal: Kimbo, Josh Koscheck vs. Paul Daley got top billing on the Countdown show, Shogun vs. Machida was second billing.
- 5/29 in Las Vegas: Rampage vs. Evans gets majority of publicity, semi-main event being pushed is Forrest Griffin vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
In watching the Countdown show, I thought the build-up for Shogun vs. Machida II was interesting. Zuffa had each camp come into a studio and they watched the Los Angeles fight on tape and commented on it. Machida’s camp, including his brother and his father, were in uniforms. Shogun’s camp, including his trainer, were in fight shorts. The dichotomy between the two camps was very clear. Shogun’s camp was relaxed, loose, but aggressive and emotional and ready to get to work. Machida’s camp looked very reserved, disciplined, and angry about being second-guessed in regards to the judges’ decision that allowed Machida to keep the belt.
I’m not sure what my initial read is on the re-match as far as a) who will win and b) if there will be strong fan interest in Montreal. Without St. Pierre or Chuck Liddell on the Montreal card, I wonder if the show will remain a sell-out by fight time or if scalpers will be looking to unload tickets. As a fight fan and as a writer, I’m very much looking forward to this re-match. But I’m also not a casual fan, so I’m not sure how strong the demand will be for this fight.
For Shogun, the big question going into this fight is whether or not he should employ the same strategy as he did in the first fight. For Machida, will be there any second guessing? Rogan gave his take on both of those questions in his interview with Josh Gross of Sports Illustrated.
“It all depends on what sort of approach Lyoto takes. I think Shogun’s approach is going to be the same because I think it was very effective, you know, I think kick the legs. I personally believe one of the things about Lyoto is that people have a hard time dealing with his style, it’s a very unusual style. The timing is different, the distance is different, but I don’t think it’s the most effective style. I think stylistically I think as far as effective and striking, I think Muay Thai is a more effective style and I think Lyoto really hadn’t faced a guy who is as proficient in Muay Thai as he is in karate until he fought Shogun and Shogun is just as efficient in Muay Thai, if not better, and I think it’s a better style. I think the way he fights, you know the high guard, kept Lyoto from launching those fencing-like punches that he likes to do, he likes to you know run in and blast with punches and with the way Shogun was holding his hands he kept a lot of those from landing and I think Shogun just constantly attacking the legs you know took away a lot of his base, took away a lot of his ability to move. I think when they had exchanges Shogun landed the cleaner punches, you know I think that’s, you know that’s what he wants to do in the second fight. What is, you know, Lyoto going to do different? That’s going to be what’s going to be interesting about it. He might try to take him down. He might try to switch things up, I mean, I don’t know. I’m really curious as to what Lyoto does to deal with the style of Shogun, but if I was in Shogun’s corner I would say just treat this like it’s, you know, round six and just go at him exactly the same way.”
I mentioned earlier in this article that the fight that got top billing on the Countdown show was Josh Koscheck vs. Paul Daley. The promoters all but said that this was a #1 contender’s bout and that the winner would get Georges St. Pierre. The hype show put over Koscheck as some what of a UFC super star in the same leagues as Chuck Liddell, Randy Couture, and Tito Ortiz in terms of the amount of wins that he has gotten while fighting under the UFC promotional banner. Meanwhile, a lot of promo time was given to Paul Daley. Daley was constantly swearing left and right and getting bleeped out. Crass, but I’m sure he did his job in giving his fight against Koscheck the added juice to make casual fans want to see the fight. One thing that should be noted is that after all the trouble Frank Mir got in for telling Mark Madden that he wanted Brock Lesnar to be the first fighter in UFC to die due to “Octagon related injuries” that Daley said right on camera that he wanted to “kill this mother******” and was quoting from the Mike Tyson documentary movie. So Mir ends up losing his WEC gig and getting told to shut up for what he said but Daley said what he said on the TV special and Zuffa didn‘t apparently have any problems with it.
Koscheck, for the most part, was true to himself on the hype show and said that if Daley hated him, then he hated Daley as well. We all know what the story going into this fight is — if Koscheck takes Daley down, he will finish him. If Daley keeps it standing, he will spectacularly knock out Koscheck and make a big name for himself in UFC.
Joe Rogan thinks that all the talk about Koscheck wanting to have a stand-up with Paul Daley is crazy.
“Koscheck is saying he’s going to stand with him. I mean, he did stand with Anthony Johnson but you know Paul Daley is a different guy, you know he’s very good standing up. And one of the things though about Koscheck though being such a great wrestler is I don’t think we’re going to see as many kicks from Daley so if they trade punch-for-punch you know I think you know Koscheck is a very fast guy, he’s very athletic, and just threat of his takedowns might allow him to be able to get off some shots while Daley’s head is in it to throw. You know, but ultimately it’s probably not the best strategy for him to stand in front of him. If Josh Koscheck wants to take Paul Daley to the ground, you know that’s definitely his best option and it’s a very intriguing match-up, you know. I mean, Koscheck’s been stopped before, he’s been nailed before, you know, Drew Fickett got him, of course Paulo Thiago got him, you know he’s been clipped. He got dropped by Thiago Silva and Paul Daley is probably the biggest, most powerful striker that he’s ever faced, you know whether or not Paul Daley can stuff the takedown I think that’s the big question. If Koscheck takes him to the ground, Daley’s going to be in big trouble you know as we saw in the fight when he fought Jake Shields you know he can definitely be submitted. He fights it off well and he’s been working very hard on his submission defense but at the end of the day you know that’s simply not his forte. He likes to stand and bang.”
Coming up on the May 29th card in Las Vegas is the long-awaited fight between Rampage Jackson and Rashad Evans, a fight that was supposed to happen last December at the FedEx Forum in Memphis — Rampage’s old stomping grounds. Instead, Rampage went off to go film the A-Team movie and was reportedly disgruntled about money issues between him and UFC management. Rampage bailing on the FedEx Forum show drew a lot of heat because his fight versus Rashad would have drawn big business there. It forced UFC to put BJ Penn vs. Diego Sanchez there and luckily for UFC, BJ Penn drew big all the way around and saved the show from being a financial disaster. The Rampage/Evans fight should do fine business-wise in Las Vegas, but both men have a lot of issues going into this fight. For Rampage, it’s ring rust and weight. For Rashad, it’s shaking off the loss to Machida and forgetting about the last round of his fight against Thiago Silva last January. Rogan says this fight will be easy for fans to warm up after the delayed scheduling.
“I’m interested. First of all I love a good feud, you know, and these guys, this is definitely a grudge match. Both of these guys do not like each other. The amount of trash talk those guys engaged in when they were coaching was just legendary, it was epic. I don’t think we’ve ever seen it taken to that level before where they got in each other’s face and literally went forehead-to-forehead you know, ‘Treat me like a bitch! Treat me like a bitch!’ You know all that craziness where it looked like any moment in time it could break out into a fight. One of the issues is Rampage was really big when I saw him when we were in Australia, he was around like 250 pounds so he has a lot of weight to lose so I think a big amount of his camp is going to be focused on dropping that weight. Of course, you know, he also spent a lot of time not training because he was doing the A-Team movie. So, you know, it’ll be interesting to see how that effects him. Rashad had that victory over Thiago Silva, looked pretty good in that fight until he got clipped in the last round and you know Rampage has been saying that he doesn’t think Rashad can take a punch and you know the problem with that is that Rampage punches really, really hard, so I think the big question will be can Rampage avoid being taken down by Rashad, you know, is Rashad going to employ the same type of strategy that he used in the Thiago Silva, sort of the GSP strategy, you know mixing up the strikes with the takedowns more. I think after the Chuck Liddell fight I think Rashad was being a little bit too predictable, he was trying to stand with guys a little bit too much. I think he just got a little bit too happy with his power and his stand-up after knocking out Chuck and you know it certainly cost him in the Machida fight. I think I was really curious to see how the Rashad Evans-Machida fight would go because I thought it would be one of the first times that we would see Machida on his back. I thought Rashad was going to certainly take him down or at least attempt to take him down and when Rashad stood in front of him, you know it proved to be disastrous. I think Rampage is a really, big powerful 205 and I think Rashad if he wanted to could fight at 85. There’s no way Rampage can make 85. I think Rashad could make it. I think it’s a tricky fight. I think for Rashad, the most important thing is try to get Rampage to the ground, try to control him there, work some ground-and-pound, try to be really unpredictable. And for Rampage, just get in front of Rashad and blast him. I think that’s the key to him in this fight. I don’t think we’re going to see Rampage shooting for any takedowns or trying to clinch. I think he’s just going to try to blast him. I think he’s just going to try to you know get him, lure him into exchanges and try to KO him.”
The fight marketed in the semi-main slot of the card is Forrest Griffin vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira. The elephant in the room that some want to ignore is the future of Griffin’s career should be lose to Little Nogueira. It was painful to watch all the footage of Anderson Silva destroying Forrest Griffin during the non-stop hype specials that Comcast aired repeatedly to hype up the UFC 112 Abu Dhabi event.
Rogan says that win or lose, Griffin’s job security is fine but that he needs to win to get back into the title mix at Light Heavyweight.
“I think he’s one of those guys like Stephan Bonnar that will never be kicked out of the UFC as long as he wants to compete I think Dana will find fights for him. I think [Dana] feels a tremendous debt of gratitude to those guys or owes them because of their initial fight on The Ultimate Fighter in the finals was just one of the most important fights in Mixed Martial Arts history and the other thing is that Forrest has always been willing to fight anybody at any time and Dana loves that, he likes him as a person and you know Dana you know if he likes you he takes care of you. I don’t think as far as his career goes, it’s the end of him in the UFC. If he loses this fight, I think he’ll still be OK. But it’s a big fight for him as far as his career goes as far as his hopes at title contention, his hopes at staying in the mix, and a very dangerous fight. The interesting thing about this fight is that he himself has said that this is a terrible fight for him. He himself has said that he you know seen Rogerio’s style, he’s spent some time you know watching it. I believe he’s trained with Minotauro but I don’t know if he’s trained with Little Nog but you know Nogueira has big power in his left hand, he’s got a real unorthodox southpaw style, Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt, tough-as-nails, you know and we saw in the fight with Luiz Cane I mean, who expected that? Luiz Cane, a lot of people thought of him as a dark horse in contention for the 205 pound title, that you know he was going to one of the guys to look out for and man, Rogerio just ran him over, I mean really surprised by that. So, I think it’s a dangerous, dangerous fight for Forrest. Rogerio has the power, he’s got much more power than Forrest, you know Forrest has never been the guy known to knock guys out with one shot, Rogerio’s capable of doing that. Rogerio’s stand-up is a little bit better than Forrest’s. You know Rogerio, especially you know you see in the fight with Shogun, he dropped Shogun in PRIDE. His stand-up is wicked. The Luiz Cane fight just showed that even more and his Brazilian jiu-jitsu ground game, it’s outstanding. He’s a high-level black belt so it’s a real dangerous fight for Forrest. Forrest is as tough as nail and he always come to fight and if he’s got an opening he’s going to take it, it’s just in what area does he excel over Rogerio? Not really on the ground and not really in the stand-up.”
May will prove to be as busy, if not busier than April for MMA activity. UFC has two big shows (5/8 Montreal and 5/29 Las Vegas). Strikeforce has a semi-major show in St. Louis on 5/15. DREAM has a do-for-die event on 5/29 at Saitama Super Arena that could determine the future of the promotion. There are also other independent MMA shows including a fight between former Strongman Mariusz Pudzianowski and Tim Sylvia in Worcester, Massachusetts in mid-May along with the Shine Fights promotion having Din Thomas vs. Ricardo Mayorga on 5/15 in a “MMA vs. Boxer” themed contest.
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 26 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
MMA notebook: Rampage Jackson gets some good legal news
By Zach Arnold | May 3, 2010
Remember when he had his meltdown and allegedly hit a woman and she claimed he caused her a miscarriage? The civil lawsuit has been dropped. Gut feeling — a settlement was reached?
The Utica Observer-Dispatch has an article about the latest details on the fight to regulate MMA in New York.
So I saw this book review about Sam Sheridan’s book. I agree that his book is great, but I didn’t agree with this quote about MMA books in general:
The landscape is littered with quick-hit biographies and glorified message-board material masquerading as total reads on MMA.
I would highly recommend Total MMA by Jonathan Snowden. It’s good enough for Jim Ross and JR is not a mark. Don’t be a mark, either — go grab a copy of the book.
I was reading this article about MMA fighters and how they shouldn’t trust judges, which leads me to this article at MMA Junkie about Marc Ratner and his ongoing efforts to recruit new judges and referees. What’s interesting is that Mr. Ratner is encouraged by the involvement of the ABC (Association of Boxing Commissions) in recruitment. Make of that what you will.
The Boston Herald has a preview of coming attractions for UFC’s first event in Boston this Summer.
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 25 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Strikeforce promoter Scott Coker under media scrutiny over matchmaking
By Zach Arnold | May 3, 2010
This is a long article. Grab a cup of coffee and take your time. Read it in full.
This has been a rough year so far for Scott Coker in terms of matchmaking with Strikeforce. He’s taken a beating offline and online ranging from the likes of hardcore MMA fans to UFC President Dana White. Most of the heat directed at Mr. Coker has been about the CBS Nashville event on April 17th, which featured three title fights that on paper had a good chance of going the distance and they all ended up going the full five rounds each. An interpromotional feud between DREAM and Strikeforce ended up having no juice whatsoever and now DREAM finds itself in some trouble.
The spotlight and fallout from the main event featuring natural 170-pounder Jake Shields defending a Strikeforce 185-pound title against natural 205-pounder Dan Henderson fighting at 185 was the proverbial icing-on-the-cake. Going into the fight, it was well-known that Shields could possibly be on his way out of the promotion. So, naturally, he got booked in a main event slot on CBS. His opponent was Dan Henderson, the incoming hero from UFC who had taken out Michael Bisping — but that was nine months ago, a distant amount of time period in the mind of most casual fight fans. Strikeforce and Showtime invested serious money into bringing Dan Henderson into the fold. UFC President Dana White claimed in the media that he was happy that Strikeforce signed Dan Henderson because it meant that they would have to eat a big contract.
Along with eating that contract, the Strikeforce promotion ended up tasting Henderson’s defeat to Shields on CBS. The show drew a lousy rating and to top it all off, there was a melee afterwards between Mayhem Miller and the Cesar Gracie camp. The end result of that is that nobody involved in that fracas is getting booked anytime soon in Strikeforce — including Miller (for the promotion’s 6/16 Nokia Theater event in LA) and Diaz (for a late June booking in San Jose).
Instead of being grateful about being the Strikeforce champion and being booked on CBS, Shields showed up a week later sitting next to Dana White at Arco Arena in Sacramento for Zuffa’s non-branded (WEC) PPV. Shields had no respect or fear of Scott Coker at all in order to pull off that stunt while still under contract.
After getting burned on the strategy of booking the smaller Shields against the bigger Henderson, Scott Coker has doubled-down on the booking philosophy by putting another disgruntled Strikeforce fighter in a fight against a heavier opponent. Robbie Lawler, who fights for the H.I.T. Squad camp out of the St. Louis area with Matt Hughes, ends up going up in weight to fight Renato Babalu (going down in weight) at a catch-weight fight of 195 pounds for the Nokia Theater show. What is that about? Lawler had been disgruntled in the past with the way things were going with Strikeforce and Matt Hughes voiced some of those concerns publicly. The heat was supposedly squashed, but putting a sometimes-Welterweight but occasional Middleweight against a natural Light Heavyweight is not exactly the most favorable of conditions to put Robbie Lawler in. Will it backfire on Strikeforce?
Next, there’s the controversy about Brett Rogers, who lost to Fedor on CBS last October, getting a Strikeforce Heavyweight title shot against Alistair Overeem. Overeem, who is one of the aces of DREAM and one of the top stars of K-1, hasn’t fought for Strikeforce in a long time but is still the promotion’s champion. With DREAM facing trouble for their 5/29 Saitama Super Arena event, it’s not inconceivable that Overeem could get the call to that fight on that show just two weeks after fighting for Strikeforce in St. Louis against Rogers.
The debate over Rogers getting a Strikeforce title shot spilled over into a recent conference call that featured Scott Coker. From the conference call:
Press Questioner: “In the past cards it seemed like you weren’t holding back and you weren’t trying to groom anybody, that you were trying to put the toughest fighters against each other. With regards to Demoliton Man it seems like Brett Rogers there might be tougher opponents with regards to Mr. Randleman as well.”
Scott Coker: “So you’re saying that Alistair Overeem isn’t going to be a tough opponent for Brett Rogers?”
Press Questioner: “Nah, I’m saying does Brett Rogers really deserve to be in that cage with the Demolion Man?”
Scott Coker: “Yeah, absolutely. For Brett to go, how many people have lasted a round and a half with Fedor and you know I think it’s going to be a great fight. And all these fights, believe me, they all you know have been under scrutiny more inside our organization than anybody else and I think we’re going to have some amazing fights and I think you should probably make your decision after you see the fights.”
Press Questioner: “OK, sir, will do.”
Rarely do you hear Mr. Coker get testy, but he was certainly more on the defensive than I’ve ever heard him during any sort of interview.
Rogers, for his part, has been answering the tough questions from the media about why he’s getting a title shot against Alistair Overeem and why he has such natural disdain for K-1’s #2 heel (behind Badr Hari).
“I’m going to just let the fans know, this is not something that I just said, oh, all of a sudden I want to fight Alistair for the title,” exclaimed Rogers last March in an video interview for the MMA Die Hards site. “I’ve been calling him out before the Arlovski fight, OK? So, I mean, I took on Arlovski, fought Fedor you know, people kind of sleeping on that part, that little period right there. So this is nothing new, this is something has been going on for quite some time and I mean, like I said, he’s been holding the title for about a good two years, he went out East you know put on a plan over here, don’t want to come over here, I’m not understanding why… [pause] but, it is what it is, if he comes over here I’m going to knock him out.
“It’s just one of those matches that works well with me because I’m coming of a loss to Fedor Emelianenko last November but it’s one of those lesson-learned fights you know, it’s a tough fight, fun fight, but at the same time just a little disappointed in the outcome. Alistair, he’s just one of those guys that you know, kind of cocky, you know he has the title holding, the title he’s been holding for about a good two years, you know it’s about time to come out East and kind of rumble with the boys over here. I don’t know, I just I’m trying to prove the world that you know I am the Heavyweight that’s going to be there and going to maintain his status as far being one of the best.”
In comments made during an official Strikeforce interview, Rogers was a little bit softer in tone… but started dropping his hints about Overeem’s diet.
“Alistair Overeem, I give him credit, he’s been in the game for a long time, but it’s one of those situations where I’ve been trying to go after him for a while, the last year, so I hope he’s ready, I’m going to be ready. I wanted to fight him before I fought Arlovski because I know he was holding the belt, you know he’s been the belt holder for Strikeforce and he feels that he can go out of town, you know, to bulk up his pockets… and people still don’t know really of him, so I mean I’ve just been trying to get him over him so I can get that title so I can sit on top. As far as people saying I’m not ready for this, we’re just going to have to see on May 15th. It’s definitely going to be a different game.”
I give Brett Rogers some credit. He did put on a good showing against Fedor and he managed to surprise a lot of people in how long he went. That said, let’s not make him out here to be Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira when Nogueira and Fedor had some classic fights during their PRIDE days. Sure, comparing Brett Rogers to say Tim Sylvia is one thing, but not exactly Nogueira-level at the moment.
Rogers has been doing his best to trash talk Overeem and get under Overeem’s skin. Except, I don’t think dropping the Vitamin S bomb on Overeem is going to exactly do much to make him mad.
“There’s definitely some differences,” Rogers stated in an MMA Fighting interview a couple of weeks ago. “Just because he’s so, one of those cocky arrogant dudes that he feels that you know that he’s a God because of his appearance and you know if it wasn’t because of his Eastern diet I’m pretty sure his appearance wouldn’t look the same. So, it is what it is, I’m natural you know, natural-hearted, strong person and I mean we’re going to see who is going to win when it comes to May 15th.
“The key to defeating him is just out-working him, get him gassed and embarrass him and knock him out.
“I don’t understand how a Heavyweight can hold a title for you know two years and not defend it, you know, so that’s one of my frustrations with him and I’m just going to have to use that, use it against him when he comes over to the States on the 15th.”
In an amusing question, Rogers was asked the following and replied this way:
Question: “You know how MMA fans are, always looking for something to complain about, and when this fight against Alistair was first announced, they’re like, ‘Well, he just lost to Fedor, why’s he getting a title shot.’ How would you respond to that?”
Rogers: “Because I’ve been wanting this fight ever seen last May you know this is before the Arlovski fight and I’ve been calling him out, you know he’s been back and forth with words online and just never showed up, it’s always something, it was always some excuse, so you know I’m just pumped, I’m pumped now that I get the chance to take the title and hold it and prove to the world that I am the Strikeforce heavyweight champion.”
Back to the conference call that was alluded to up above… also on that conference call was one Kevin Randleman, the man who dropped Fedor right on his head only for Fedor to get back up and win the fight. Mr. Randleman came to Scott Coker’s defense when the press questioner asked Mr. Coker why Rogers should be in the ring with Overeem.
“Scott Coker has done one heck of a job at keeping his company pure. He’s stuck to his guns, he hasn’t let anyone influence into changing and he’s done his homework, he’s done his thing the whole time and that’s the beauty of fighting for a company like Strikeforce, you know, he’s letting the fighters fight each other and he’s had a lot of good 205 fighters. You got Gegard and Mo and you got Roger (Gracie), you’ve got myself (Kevin Randleman), you got Feijao, I mean I believe that the 205 weight class in Strikeforce is going to weed itself out eventually but there are a lot of great champions in there and I think that Roger Gracie can be a champion, I know I can be a champion and Feijao and Mo Lawal beat Gegard. I don’t believe that this is a conservative card. I believe from looking at it, it’s a phenomenal card with the guys that are fighting because everyone’s got a lot of talent and in the progression of our sport, everybody’s getting better and if you’re not practicing every aspect of the game it’s going to show when the cage closes.”
I don’t know if I’d say that Scott has kept the company’s matchmaking pure, especially when you can turn on the television every Thursday night on Fox Sports Net/Comcast Sportsnet and every Friday night on Telemundo to watch Bellator’s weekly tournament series where guys really are fighting each other based on who won tournament fights. Perhaps you can slight Strikeforce for booking Gina Carano against Cris Cyborg, but it’s hard to knock the promotion for doing that given that those two women are the most well-known in women’s MMA outside of die-hard MMA fans.
However, there is the case of Herschel Walker. He beat up an unknown named Greg Nagy last January in South Florida. It was a fight that had everyone buzzing for both the right and the wrong reasons. (It was also the same show that featured New York Jets football coach Rex Ryan flipping the bird to a heckler.) I guess by definitely you could say Mr. Walker is the kind of fighter you book for a “freak show” match, though I do wonder if he could beat Giant Silva. Walker is a unique case for Scott Coker, as he is an athlete in his mid-to-late 40s who is in excellent shape. However, not everyone is Randy Couture and in the case of Walker, you are one punch or one blow away from having a really bad situation on your hands with him.
In a recent interview with MMA Fighting, Walker indicated that he would come back for at least one more fight.
“I got to work a little bit even though I was still training but I you know I have a food company so I got back to doing that and I’m getting ready to get back into the gym to get serious about back into training again and get ready to see if I can do another one. Yes I will fight again, I hope to fight again. I’m doing the same thing that I did before, leaving it in Javier (Mendez) and Bob Cook and Dave Camarillo at AKA (American Kickboxing Academy) leaving it to their hands. I’m still young, I enjoy this, I’m still young so I’m still learning but I leave it to the trainers and all the fighters at the gym.”
The problem with booking Walker is that for as an amazing of a story as he is in terms of being so athletic at his age, he’s not a guy who can be a cornerstone of your heavyweight division. He’s not a guy who you can build around in the future. He’s more or less a special attraction. The problem for Strikeforce is that their “special attraction” has more star power than just about anyone else in the company.
Walker indicated in the MMA Fighting interview that he would probably fight towards the end of the year, meaning he may be good for one fight a year.
“It’s going to take place probably toward the end of the year. One thing that I want to do is I want to step up a little bit. I want to thank Greg (Nagy) for giving me an opportunity to fight. My next fight, which I want to step up a little bit more and if I’m going to do that I’m going to have to train a little bit longer. You got to take this seriously, it’s a serious sport, it’s very tough, it’s tough being a fighter and for myself I want to be able to step up so I’m going to have to train a little bit longer next time.
“One thing that I have to do is get back into the gym, I mean that’s the most important thing to get back into the gym and see if I can do it. I still say I can’t have pride thinking that I can do it. I did well my first fight by winning but I made a lot of mistakes, so the second fight I’m going to be able to get into the gym and really work hard and let them say whether I can fight again and if I can say what type of opponent I’m going to get.”
To his credit, Walker did receive a lot of positive reaction amongst general sports writers who looked at him and thought he was going to get slaughtered in the cage, even if he was put in the cage against a tomato can.
“Well, you know, I got a lot of positive things. You know you get some negative things from your true fight fans who say, ‘OH you got a longs way to go’ and that’s what I said when I first came into this sport, I got a long ways to go. This is a very serious sport and I think guys got to take it serious. My football fans, they absolutely cannot believe that I even do this and you know a lot of them want to get into it, that’s what so strange about it. They want to get into it and I said guys, if you want to do it, you have to get into a gym. I don’t care who you are, what grade of athlete you are, you got to get into the gym if you’re going to do this sport. This is a very tough sport, the guys that have been doing it have been doing it for a long time. You know they’re professionals and you know for my fellow partners that are fighters, they were happy that I did it. They said that I looked good for my first fight. They thought that I would be nervous and you know what’s strange about it, I said this is competition. I didn’t get into it as a job. I know this couldn’t be a job for me. It’s something that I wanted to compete at, you have to have fun at it, and that’s what I want to tell all the people out there, all the fighters. If you’re not having fun at this, don’t do it because it’s too serious, it’s too hard. If you’re not having fun, don’t do it. If you’re going to have fun and do it, that’s when you want to keep doing it.”
Before his fight with Greg Nagy, Herschel gave off the warning siren that he was fighting just for fun and that he had no intentions of quitting his food company. Herschel deserves everyone’s respect, but he’s not a guy that you can build your operation around. Unfortunately, Scott Coker doesn’t have the star power nor the depth to run as many cards as he is running and manage to prevent chaos from happening. In the case of Mr. Walker, he may one fight left in him or he may have five fights left in him. The problem is, nobody knows — including Herschel himself.
“Oh no there’s no doubt, fight by fight. You know as Dana (White), I’m going to go back to Dana… Dana says I’m an old man. I am an old man, but I can fight, because I haven’t seen yet Dana say ‘I want to challenge Herschel’ so that means I can fight a little bit but you know I take it fight by fight because what’s important is you know you got to keep integrity to this sport. I want to be able to compete at the highest level when I step into the cage, into the Octagon, I want to be able to compete at the highest level. I think when you get to the point where I can’t do it, I got to step away from it and you know I feel good, I think I can do it, but I still leave in my trainers at AKA’s hands that say Herschel whether you can do it or not. When I get into the gym I got Cain who I consider one of the best heavyweights in the business, if he’s not the best in the business, so he’s going to beat me up a little bit and he’ll be my measuring stick whether I can do it. You know I still got Swick and Thomson and all those guys, they’re my measuring stick so they will be the ones to tell me whether I can do it or not.”
When you look at the entirety of the booking problems that Strikeforce is facing, you have to ask yourself the following two questions:
- Do the Strikeforce title belts mean something in Mixed Martial Arts?
- Do you think Scott Coker has control over the matchmaking or do you think Showtime controls the matchmaking?
If you don’t think the title belts mean anything, then it’s hard to get worked up over a situation like the Alistair Overeem/Brett Rogers booking in St. Louis. If you think, like Dana White does, that Showtime and not Scott Coker runs the Strikeforce ship, then is it fair to criticize Coker and remark that he’s a regional promoter who can’t cut it in the big leagues? Unfortunately for Scott Coker, perception is reality and right now the perception is that Strikeforce is a promotion running too many shows in too many areas across the country and that the infrastructure isn’t there like it is in Las Vegas for the largely self-contained operations of Zuffa.
In the words of Bill Parcells, “you are what your record says you are,” and right now the record for Strikeforce indicates a struggling promotion that is trying to figure out exactly what their vision is for in competing in a marketplace dominated by UFC and Zuffa.
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 20 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Floyd Mayweather, Shane Mosley, and a mystical 4 million boxing PPV buy rate number
By Zach Arnold | April 30, 2010
Since negotiations failed between the Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao camps to set up a mega-fight on PPV, both parties have went in different directions but the question remains the same in the media as it has for over a year — “When are you two going to fight?” When the PPV buy rate numbers came in for Pacquiao vs. Josh Clottey at Cowboys Stadium in Dallas at around 700,000-750,000 PPV buys, there were people who were actually disappointed by that number. 750,000 PPV buys for essentially a mega-name versus a fighter that casual fans thought was a no-namer is a pretty good number. 750,000 PPV buys is a pretty good number if you ask UFC about the fight they booked between Georges St. Pierre and Dan Hardy last March.
If you wonder why anyone is keeping score about PPV buy rate figures between Mayweather and Pacquiao, it’s because one of the major storylines of the failed negotiations revolved around how much of a cut Mayweather wanted from the PPV revenue. Reportedly there was an agreement reached between the two parties and then there was the demand by Mayweather’s camp of Olympic-style drug testing. Pacquiao said no to that and everything fall apart.
In many ways, Floyd Mayweather is hoping and praying that his PPV buy rate on Saturday against Shane Mosley dwarfs what Pacquiao drew for his Cowboy Stadium fight. Granted, Mosley is not a no-namer like Clottey is to your average, casual PPV customer. With that said, Mosley has not exactly been setting the world on fire on the PR rounds to hype the fight. He’s the same Shane Mosley we’ve been accustomed to watching for a long time. Mayweather, on the other hand, has been a PR dynamo on HBO’s 24/7 series and has managed to stir the pot in sports media circles while maintaining a relatively calm, yet cocky front about himself.
Mayweather wants and needs the PPV buy rate for Saturday’s fight to tower over what Pacquiao drew so that he can increase his leverage at the negotiating table. Of course, if he loses to Mosley, everything is thrown out the window. However, the odds makers in Las Vegas have Mayweather as a huge favorite going into the fight (think: 80% favorite). The suggested retail price for the PPV is $65 USD. Richard Schaefer of Golden Boy Promotions is predicting 4 million PPV buys. And here I thought 2 million PPV buys was crazy.
Dan Rafael of ESPN laid out why the fight has so much buzz and interest.
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: Boxing, Media, Zach Arnold | 35 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Joe Rogan wonders if underdog fighters sway MMA judges’ score cards by “outperforming expectations”
By Zach Arnold | April 29, 2010
I wanted to highlight some of the comments Joe Rogan made in a recent interview for Sports Illustrated with Josh Gross. In the first article on the interview, Joe talked a bit about some of the issues that are plaguing Anderson Silva and wondered if Silva is suffering from stamina problems in longer fights.
For this article, we will focus on comments that Joe made about MMA judging and how there are a lot of bad judges currently being used by the various athletic commissions. There are some obvious questions raised here: Why is MMA judging so bad right now? What fixes should be made to improve the quality of judging?
However, Joe threw a third question out there that deals with the human element. Because a lot of people bet on MMA fights and UFC management is from the casino world, are MMA judges influenced a lot by the “expectations game” when you have certain fighters who come in as massive underdogs and all of a sudden hang around in a high-profile fight? In other words, shouldn’t the champion get the edge due to the axiom of “to be the man, you have to beat the man?” Has the axiom been flipped upside-down now so that judges give the benefit of the doubt to the underdog instead of to the champion?
In the interview with Josh, Joe discussed this axiom in relation to the UFC 112 Lightweight title fight between Frankie Edgar and BJ Penn.
“The problem with these fights sometime is when you see a guy like Frankie Edgar, who everyone expects to lose in spectacular fashion, I mean he’s fighting the greatest Lightweight in the history of the sport, you know BJ comes off this destruction of Diego Sanchez and I think a lot of people went into that fight thinking that Edgar was going to get creamed and when you see him doing well, just doing well I think you’re surprised that he’s doing well and people think he’s doing better than he is because they’re surprised that he’s doing well. I think they were close rounds and I think, I can kind of see an argument if you were watching it at home or if you watching it live even that maybe Edgar won some of the close rounds and it was like enough to win a 1-pt decision, but when I watched it at home and reviewed it and you know went over it a couple of times, I didn’t think so. I thought that Penn had the cleaner shots. I thought Frankie was definitely busier, Frankie moved better, you know he definitely pushed the pace, and he definitely won the last round. But all the other rounds, I think the way I looked at it I think I looked at it like 3-2 for BJ, I think three rounds to two but it could have been 4-to-1 for BJ as well, but you know a lot of them were really close, they were really close. You could see an argument for Frankie making BJ fight his fight and Frankie you know moving around a lot, slipping a lot of punches and making BJ work but I think BJ landed cleaner shots.”
Throughout his interview with Josh, Joe mentioned that when he got back home from Abu Dhabi that he re-watched all the fights from the PPV on TV and he was able to glean more information that he missed by being at ringside and not watching a monitor full-time. Of course, MMA judges don’t have monitors that they can look at and it doesn’t appear that many athletic commission are interested in giving television monitors to the judges to use.
“I think one of the really important things we need are monitors. I think that judges really need monitors, you know, there are certain positions where the judges are in where they can’t see you know what’s going on. It happens all the time with us, too, like where a cameraman will be in front of me or the referee will be in front of me and I can’t see what’s happening so I have to look at the monitors. And if I didn’t have those monitors and I had to judge the fact just based on what I saw, you know, there’s going to be some stuff I miss and I think the judges do miss things. When I brought that up to Keith Kizer, he said ‘Well, that’s why there’s three judges,’ which I thought was one of the most retarded answers I’ve ever heard in my life. Like, that’s why there’s three judges so one guy can fuck it up and the other two can get it right? That doesn’t even make any sense. Like, how about giving them some monitors, why not just give them monitors? Give them monitors just like we have monitors.”
Bringing in Marc Ratner into the Zuffa fold was a brilliant move on Zuffa’s part. Of course, Marc largely dealt with the boxing world and many of the people he dealt with from his earlier days are still around on the athletic commissions. Rogan says that having “boxing people” at MMA events is a big problem.
“We have a huge problem with the boxing people, we have a huge problem with some of these people who have no martial arts experience whatsoever or people who have no grappling experience. There’s a bunch of people who’ve never been kicked to the legs who go around saying stupid things like leg kicks don’t win fights or leg kicks don’t stop fights and these guys are actually judges for Mixed Martial Arts events and that’s a ridiculous statement and this is coming from someone who is a professional judge, you know who’s judged some huge events, you know gigantic championship fights. We definitely have a problem and the real problem is also for Mixed Martial Arts fans, there’s a lot really intelligent people that are huge Mixed Martial Arts fans that would love those jobs and would do a much better job at it, you know we have like this you know these people that are just kind of like grandfathered in that you know have been with the sport for too long, they’ve been involved in for some of have been involved in boxing and others have been involved in other you know karate and stuff like that and they have come of kind into the sport you know early on, stuck there, and it’s a real problem. It’s difficult to get rid of them.”
Except, of course, when a said judge makes an ass out of himself on the Internet and basically flips the proverbial bird to paying UFC customers.
“They’re like government jobs. It’s like trying to get fired from a Government position. It’s difficult, you got to really screw up, you’ve got to be involved in some sort of a scandal. It looks like they got rid of (Doug) Crosby, they got rid of him because of all the stuff he did on The Underground when he got on the MixedMartialArts.com (site) and start joking around about it and trolling. Thank God he’s not going to do any fights any more because of that.
“He’s a weird guy. I like Doug as a person, he’s a fun guy to talk to but he’s a very weird guy. I was really shocked by his score card because he’s usually one of the better judges. I mean, that was not indicative of a normal score card from him, usually I agree with him. He’s definitely [eccentric].”
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 20 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Better use of Bobby Lashley for Strikeforce – CBS Nashville show or E3 Expo in Los Angeles?
By Zach Arnold | April 29, 2010
We all know about what a colossal disaster the Strikeforce show on 4/17 in Nashville was. It was a show that really hurt the company’s future with CBS down the road. Dana White went as far as to say that CBS is a tarnished brand and that he would keep UFC away from the network.
One of the major questions regarding the 4/17 Nashville event was why Bobby Lashley was not booked on the card. He was coming off of a squash win over Wes Sims on the January 30th card from South Florida. (This was the infamous show that featured Rex Ryan getting in trouble for flipping the bird.)
Lashley is considered by many to be one of Strikeforce’s rare “crossover” stars who can appeal to a lot of different type of fans due to his popularity from when he was in WWE. (The guy was involved in a hair-shaving angle with Vince McMahon and Donald Trump at Wrestlemania.)
In an interview with Mike Straka of HDNet, Lashley sat down with Mike and discussed why he made the move from WWE to MMA and what the similarities and differences are between the two industries.
“I love professional wrestling, but here it kinds of bring me back to my college wrestling days in training at the Olympic training center where you have to really sacrifice, you really have to pay your dues, you really have to get up in the morning, you have to do your cardio in the morning, you have to go and train, you have to humble yourself and learn different skills. The one thing that I do think that I took from WWE is the fact that I can go in an arena … and feel comfortable whether there are 1,000 fans there or 85,000 fans, I performed in front of crowds that big, I’m OK with that, I’m comfortable there. I actually can breathe in all that energy that the crowd’s giving me and actually use it to my benefit.”
We kept hearing rumors that Lashley would fight in Nashville but everyone kept getting strung along with “we can’t find an opponent” reports until it was announced that Lashley wouldn’t be fighting on Strikeforce’s critical network TV show card. Lashley had more star than virtually anyone that appeared on the televised portion of the Nashville card on CBS. The promotion really needed him but he wasn’t booked in the end.
Lashley has been taking heat for not fighting as often as his critics think he should be.
“I don’t know what [the critics] want out of me. I’m trying to do it the right way. A lot of times critics are you pulling you into doing things that you really shouldn’t be doing and if you want to have longevity in this career, in this business, you have to take your time and what I’m trying to do, I thought they would appreciate it a little bit more instead of me just coming out and saying, ‘OK, I should have a title shot now because I’m Bobby Lashley,’ as opposed to saying ‘OK, I want to take a step back and learn every aspect of the game and really go out there and showcase my skills’ and then when the time is right, when I have the level of beating you know some of your top guys like your Fedors, your Fabricio Werdums. When I’m at that level, then let’s do that fight.”
Now, Bobby Lashley is surfacing in Strikeforce for a June 16th event at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles to help promote the new EA Sports MMA game. I fully understand that the promotion wants to use Lashley and other Strikeforce names to do some cross-over marketing at the E3 Expo in LA. So, here’s the question we’re asking — what would have benefited Strikeforce more, Lashley on the CBS Nashville event to help boost the rating or Lashley appearing in Los Angeles to help boost the company’s profile for the EA Sports video game?
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 20 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Joe Rogan: Does Anderson Silva have a stamina problem?
By Zach Arnold | April 29, 2010
Josh Gross of Sports Illustrated did an excellent interview with Joe Rogan on his weekly podcast. Because Josh & Joe touched on so many important MMA-related issues, I am going to break down what Joe said into multiple articles and address the points he raised on various topics.
Josh had asked Joe about his thoughts on the UFC 112 event in Abu Dhabi. It was an outdoor event and it was insanely hot, which created a lot of issues for the fighters on the card. Rogan noted an example of how the humidity effected the fighters on the undercard.
“Well, the event, it was really interesting. I mean doing it outside was interesting for the first part. The first fight was Mostapha Al-Turk and Jon Madsen and I’ve never seen two guys sweat more in a fight because it was outside and it was really humid. It was literally like every punch they threw they were throwing cups of water at each other. It was really pretty crazy. I think that had an effect on people’s performances as well you know, I definitely think that’s going to take something away from your ability to push the pace.”
Which leads us to the debacle in the main event with Anderson Silva, as he was facing Demian Maia and Maia, somehow, became a huge crowd favorite by the end of the fight. Joe tried to psychoanalyze what was going on in Anderson’s mind and why he behaved the way he did.
“I mean, who knows what the hell was going on in Anderson’s mind, you know. I talked to Ed Soares, who’s Anderson’s manager, and he said the one thing that really pissed Anderson off was that Demian Maia had said that I respect him as a fighter but I don’t respect him as a man. You know, I don’t know why that pissed him off so much. I don’t know what he’s insinuating by saying that or you know why that hit such a sore spot in Anderson but apparently, you know, it did, you know. I don’t know why he slowed down the last couple of rounds, either, but I suspect it’s a stamina issue. I’ve watched [the fight] a couple of times since then. He got hit with some shots by Maia, especially when Maia was on his knees and Anderson was standing over him and Maia was literally throwing punches from his knees and hitting Anderson and then chased after him and he hit him with a big left hand at one point in the fight. I think that Anderson slowed down considerably and I think that he recognized the fact that he wasn’t able to put that blinding speed on Maia that he did in the first couple of rounds, you know, he sprinted the first couple of rounds and I think he ran out of gas, I really do.”
The last three fights Silva has been involved in have been clunkers. He fought Patrick Cote in Chicago and then he had the fight against Thales Leites which was a total snoozer. It seemed less like stamina being an issue in those fights as opposed to Anderson just toying around and getting bored.
“Well, I don’t think he had the same exertion in the Patrick Cote fight or the Thales Leites fight. In the Thales Leites fight, I think it was simply a matter of him playing it safe. I think it was just an easy fight for him and I think he just you know Thales was never going to take him down, never going to submit him, and couldn’t do anything to him standing up and I just think he took it for what it is, you know. He didn’t try to make it exciting. I think the Cote fight was dangerous, you know, I watched the Cote fight over again as well and there was a few exchanges where Cote landed shots, you know, where you know he landed on Cote but Cote hit him with a right hand a couple of times and Cote’s got big power and I think Anderson was really cautious about you know getting into an exchange and getting clipped. You know, I think there’s a certain point of time when a guy is being considered the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world and he gets all these accolades and all this attention, that puts an incredible amount of pressure on him and everybody responds to that pressure in a different way and it might very well be that Anderson is concerned about you know keeping his legacy and concerned about losing. I mean, no one knows man, it’s all speculation of course, I mean but something is up.”
With UFC announcing that Anderson Silva will fight Chael Sonnen in early August, Sonnen has gone on a PR blitz. He’s all but called Anderson a phony who speaks English but kayfabes everyone about it. Will Silva dispose of Sonnen in spectacular fashion due to being pissed off about Sonnen’s comments? Rogan thinks so, but I think it’s more of a case of him hoping so.
“I suspect that in the Chael Sonnen fight we’re going to see a much more motivated Anderson because I don’t think he likes the feeling of being criticized the way he is and Dana White saying it was embarrassing and I mean literally across the board, I don’t think I’ve seen any one person who was impressed with his performance or thought it was a good fight. I mean, everybody thought he looked good in the first couple of rounds but that the end was you know really almost embarrassing.
He’s the perfect opponent for him. I mean, no one talks [trash] better than Chael Sonnen. No one on the planet. I mean, he’s hilarious. He’s a very, very bright guy and you know and he loves the attention, I mean the guy wants to be a politician. He’s really good at public speaking and I think he’s going to tie Anderson’s mind up in knots. He’s going to have Anderson furious.”
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 13 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Zuffa and UFC have a porn headache to deal with
By Zach Arnold | April 29, 2010
Marketplace confusion?
My old friend Mikeinformer, one of the greatest men ever on the Internet in terms of finding me obscure article links, sent me a link that I had to blink twice before I realized that it was a true story.
AVN, which is the porn industry’s top media outlet, announced that someone named Russ Meyers is doing a web site and DVD series called Ultimate Gay Fighter. If you look at the AVN article, it shows the logo for this… unique… film and how the styling is similar to the UFC logo that Zuffa has been using for years.
The fact that this porn producer is using Ultimate Fighter in the URL for his web site is enough for Zuffa and Spike TV to sick the lawyers on him.
With a teaser like this, what could go wrong?
By combining the kind of action frequently associated with Ultimate Fighting Championship and other mixed martial arts bouts with explicit man-on-man sex, Meyers has set a goal of providing viewers more than just another sex tape.
A post like this is truly inviting some frightening comments. Which is why I turned comments off.
Topics: Media, UFC, Zach Arnold | 2 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
DREAM’s 5/29 Saitama Super Arena card reportedly falling apart
By Zach Arnold | April 29, 2010
Let the wisdom of Josh Gross fill you in:
The DREAM light heavyweight grand prix set for May 29 has been canceled. Fighter reps were told Wednesday. Still working on the reason.
Looks like the reason for the cancellation is an issue between DREAM and its TV partner, TBS.
Everything that could go wrong has gone wrong this year for both K-1 and Real Entertainment, the parent company of DREAM filled with ex-PRIDE staffers from Dream stage Entertainment. (Get it… Real Entertainment, Dream Stage… clever, aren’t they? It’s like Nobuyuki Sakakibara having Ubon Inc. as a company because Ubon is Nobu spelled backwards.)
The last part of Josh’s comments is the most important to focus on. Tokyo Broadcasting System not ponying up the cash to pay for a Light Heavyweight GP tournament featuring Gegard Mousasi and Renato Babalu is not surprising. TBS wants Japanese stars and ratings. DREAM features neither of those qualities. To top it off, the 5/29 Saitama event is headlined by Nick Diaz vs. Hayato Sakurai in a Strikeforce vs. DREAM interpromotional feud that has zero juice to it. Any juice that could have been obtained was squashed when Gilbert Melendez destroyed Shin’ya Aoki in Nashville on April 17th.
The purpose of DREAM for K-1 was largely as a television property to keep any possible MMA competitors off of over-the-air Japanese television. Since cable and satellite television is not a viable option for a Japanese fight promotion to generate much cash flow with, OTA is the only way to survive as a major league property in that country. Without TBS cooperating, DREAM as an entity is largely dead and everyone knows it.
The goal of K-1 Godfather Kazuyoshi Ishii was to control the entire pipeline of television for the fight business in Japan. He achieved that goal once PRIDE died. He was the only ball game in town. Wanted to promote your league in Japan and be on television? You had to go through him and do business on his terms, meaning you picked up a lot of the costs for producing a live show and K-1 split some television money. The plan, in theory, is a great one unless the product you put on television has no appeal to Japanese television audiences.
So what happens if DREAM dies and K-1 struggles to keep their network television deals going? It opens the door for someone else to try to get their own OTA television deal. The problem is that there is no real competition in the fight game right now. Also, anyone with a questionable background in Japan is not going to put a lot of skin in the game given that PRIDE had their fallout from the yakuza scandal.
But let’s say that someone does try to make a play for an OTA deal given K-1’s current weakness. The most likely candidate to try to make something happen would be Takahiro Kokuho, the boss of J-ROCK (the managing company of Hidehiko Yoshida and his stablemates). Kokuho is the classic successful-agent-turned-failed-promoter businessman in the fight game. When he was top dog as an agent during the PRIDE days, he got his man Yoshida an estimated $5 million USD fight purse to fight Naoya Ogawa for a New Year’s Eve event. Like most agents in Japan, Kokuho’s power source backing him was very strong. Once PRIDE collapsed, Kokuho ended up trying a major play with Sengoku. Kokuho claimed that he would be the antithesis of DREAM booking and that he had “scientific methods” of booking fights. In the end, he was a terrible booker and committed the ultimate sin in the fight game — he was and is boring.
In many respects, Mr. Kokuho is the Japanese version of Monte Cox without the volume of fighters Monte has on smaller deals. Both men have had big track records in the fight game as agents and have delivered in big deals. (Ask Tim Sylvia about that regarding those Affliction pay days.) However, neither man is what you would call someone who would do well leading a major-league MMA promotion.
So, if Mr. Kokuho isn’t the man ready to crack open the door for an MMA play in Japan, who is? Antonio Inoki? Been there, done that. It’s possible he could get one more shot on a trial basis with a network given that he still has name value in the country. But who else is there who could make something work should DREAM entirely collapse? It’s difficult to say. Akira Maeda has his promotion with The Outsiders but it’s largely just to stay occasionally active in the business. Right now, the Japanese promoter war chest is largely empty.
However, don’t make the mistake of assuming that a UFC-type product could waltz into the Japanese marketplace and do strong business consistently. The Japanese fight fans want a Japanese product with Japanese faces all the way around. Unfortunately for DREAM, they really haven’t been able to deliver too much on that end lately, either.
Topics: DREAM, Japan, K-1, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 7 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Juanito Ibarra back in the UFC picture as a trainer of James Toney
By Zach Arnold | April 28, 2010
Recently, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson’s former manager Juanito Ibarra did an interview with Fighthub and talked about how training was going with James “Lights Out” Toney. Toney is rumored to be facing Randy Couture this August in Boston, which will be UFC’s debut in that market. (Also touted for that card is Kenny Florian vs. Gray Maynard in an eliminator bout.)
Toney pleaded for months with UFC President Dana White to give him a contract and let him fight for Zuffa. White ended up giving Toney a contract and now there has been extensive discussion as to whom Toney should face first in his MMA debut. Will it be a one-and-done situation? A proposed fight against Randy Couture could be a dangerous one, given the age of both men and the physical conditioning issues that Toney has had to deal with as his career has progressed.
Ibarra, who has taken Toney under his wings for MMA training, believes that his new protege will be able to step into the Octagon with enough training and preparation to take on whatever challenge UFC throws Toney’s way.
“Well, you know, James is a born fighter. You got to know that, so his instincts are to destroy people. We’re working on a lot of technique right now. You know, of course, it’s no… it’s no genius play that the guy’s not a wrestler or a jiu-jitsu guy, but what people don’t know is he does have martial arts behind him because his manager and my partner is a master, a grandmaster. He kicked me in the head a couple of weeks ago and I was very surprised. We’re working on flexibility. Of course conditioning and wrestling and jiu-jitsu and the MMA game, I mean, he’s in MMA now. His boxing style has to change a little bit, you can’t just throw the guy in there and expect him to box with his shoulder rolls, you can’t do that in MMA, you pay, you take knees for that. So, that’s what we’re doing. We’re working on that and I got a great team behind me and you know we’re going to keep it under the radar and come what, June or July hopefully the world will get to see it.”
The appeal of Toney in UFC is pretty simple — how will someone with actual boxing skill fare in the cage against an MMA fighter that is perceived to have a weak striking game? We’ve seen plenty of sloppy C-level kickboxing fights in North American MMA and we’ve also seen some wars (such as Leonard Garcia vs. Chan Sung Jung) that were incredibly fun to watch but horribly lacking in any sort of striking technique. The obvious question going into Toney’s UFC debut — can he defend the takedown and defend off his back against a world-class wrestler? (Ask Dan Henderson about trying to defend off his back against Jake Shields.)
Ibarra has brushed aside concerns regarding Toney’s ground defense.
“If you got thrown down on the ground, taken down, how would you feel? Well, he probably feels out of the water for a minute, but he’s getting used to it. He’s getting used to it and he’s not flopping around like a fish anymore, he’s attempting things and defending things, so… Like I said it’s not the easiest thing in the world when you take a guy that’s been fighting and the success he has at that caliber, but you know what’s great about him is he’s like a sponge and he wants to keep going and going and going. That’s what I love about him. You know, we’re going to get it done.”
Toney has called anyone and everyone out in MMA. He wants to fight Randy Couture. He wants to fight any and all big names in UFC. Some people have been amused by it, some people have ignored Toney’s act, and some people are pissed off that we’re going to see UFC spend marketing capital on pushing a boxer perceived to be past-his-prime.
“It’s all about planning and executing, you know,” Mr. Ibarra remarked in the Fighthub interview. “I know the world wants to see him. Some people like it, some people don’t, that’s what the world’s about. But we’re not going to step in that Octagon until we’re ready. There ain’t no fan, there ain’t nobody going to convince us otherwise, but we’re going to have fun.”
If UFC goes ahead and books Toney against Couture, it will largely set up Toney to be one-and-done in UFC should be lose. If Couture loses, then karma will have indeed struck on the former UFC Heavyweight champion and UFC will end up with a bizarre situation with a 1-0 Toney who would likely end up facing Kimbo Slice should he beat Couture.
Mr. Ibarra says that Toney is prepared to fight anyone at any time and at any location.
“You got to think about it, man. This guy is a promotional machine, c’mon. You know. He’ll fight anybody in the world. He’s a born fighter. Now some of the team guys got to get together, we got to think what’s best for him. Everybody says the same thing – Randy this, that, c’mon. If Randy’s in the mix, he’ll be in the mix down the road. I love Randy. Randy is one my friends. he’s one of the best fighters that ever lived. So, we”ll have to wait. Like I said, it’s not my decision, it’s only my opinion. I got to prepare him and teach him, that’s my job. You know the other politics stuff and the manager stuff, I don’t manage fighters no more. But, I do advise them and his manager is my partner and we’ll let him move forward. I wear my heart on my sleeve, I give you everything I got, end of story. So, when I feel that then I know I can teach and I know they’ll listen. It’s not about money, it’s not about you know popularity, how many fighters you got, forget it. If I ain’t got the chemistry, I’m not going to be in the gym with the guy.”
For Mr. Ibarra, his role as trainer for James Toney’s MMA debut is a comeback of sorts for him in Mixed Martial Arts. A former boxing manager, he managed to ink a deal with Quinton “Rampage” Jackson. Jackson ended up having a meltdown after losing to Forrest Griffin by decision. Jackson would soon dump Ibarra. Ibarra went after MMA web sites that published comments made by Tito Ortiz in which Ortiz claimed that Ibarra short-changed Jackson on money.
“Remember you guys, all you guys out there in the world, remember what God says, that the truth lasts forever and lies only last for a moment. Remember that, and put your heart into people and be positive. Don’t be negative.”
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 1 Comment » | Permalink | Trackback |
Frank Mir: I’m at the back of the line in the UFC Heavyweight division, but I’d be happy to fight Anderson Silva
By Zach Arnold | April 28, 2010
In a recent interview with Raw Vegas, former UFC Heavyweight champion Frank Mir discussed his thoughts on where he stands in the pecking order of the UFC Heavyweight division. When asked about who he wants to fight next, Mir said it’s largely out of his hands right now.
“Well, I mean honestly, I’m just coming off a loss. I’m just interested in fighting anybody. Realistically, I don’t see it being a Dos Santos or Cain Velasquez. Both of those guys are on win streaks. They don’t really have anything to gain by fighting me right now. I’m at the back of the bus now so I got to fight somebody else who is at the back of the bus. Those guys get to be the superstars and if one of them has a speed bump, let’s say they fight each other, I could fight the loser. Fighting them right now is probably not going to happen.”
Mir recently made waves by stating that he would be interested in fighting Anderson Silva. He’s been asked lately if he could give an exciting fight with Silva because Silva seems bored in UFC at the moment. Would Mir take the booking?
“Absolutely, Anderson Silva’s one of the best fighters in the world, pound-for-pound. He’s a phenomenal striker. I think his movement and head movement on his feet is second-to-none. Unbelievable.”
Like some of the fighters based out of the Xtreme Couture gym in Las Vegas, Frank Mir also wonders if one of the reasons that Anderson Silva was clowning around in the Demian Maia fight was due to the fact that he might have been tired.
“You know what? I think, I really don’t know what went through his head. At one point he seemed like he was very adamant about going after Demian and the first two rounds, I mean, that was like, wow, you know, well, you know, it’s Anderson. But then after that it’s like, almost like you know, I don’t know if he got tired. I just didn’t like all the antics and then all of a sudden when your opponent tries to engage, especially being such a world-class strike and then run from him. I don’t mind if you’re like Machida. Machida moves around a lot, too, but guess what? You pay prices, you know. He’ll come back in and take you out. And I feel that Anderson Silva is capable of doing that, too, so I don’t really know what happened there. As far as trying to excuse it, I think he should just own up to it and say, ‘Look, I screwed up, I have mental weaknesses like anybody else, I’m human, and I failed.’
If UFC called him tomorrow to take a fight booking against Anderson Silva, would he do it?
“Yeah, I would love to do it. I think it would be a phenomenal opportunity for me to face a legend in our sport. I mean the guy has the record for the most consecutive wins. The guy’s going down as the Michael Jordan of MMA right now. Would I love to be able to exchange punches and try to grab him and go in there? Yeah, I’d like to be able to say that I fought him and feel what it feels like. I want to go in there. Who wouldn’t want to go fight the most dangerous people in the world?”
Mir is coming off of a bad loss to Shane Carwin, who brutally pounded him at UFC 111 in New Jersey in late March. Leading up to the Carwin fight, Mir was obsessed with getting a re-match against Brock Lesnar. So much so that he got in trouble when he did a radio interview with Mark Madden in Pittsburgh and said that he wanted to have Lesnar be the first person to die due to “Octagon-related injuries.” UFC President Dana White and staff were in Australia at the time the remarks were made (for UFC 110). Mir ended up getting scolded by company management and lost his spot as WEC color commentator. So what went wrong for Mir in the Carwin fight? Was it a lack of focus?
“I mean, could it have been a lack of focus? Yeah, I could see that when I’ve watched the fight, it did seem that. I know things were leading up to the fight, things that had gone on, and you know I think really, honestly, it was just a mental mistake as far as when I was up against the cage, it’s something that I’ve been working on to defend the takedown and when I defended it the first time I think I was celebrating and going, ‘Ah, look, I’ve improved’ and I forgot about the dirty boxing aspect of the fighting and I got caught with some good uppercuts, worrying about the takedown. As I get better wrestling, I won’t consume myself with thinking about one thing. You know, once you focus, it would be like sitting there going, “Oh look I stopped the guy’s jab” and boom I got hit with the right hand. Ah man, this is fighting, I got to be focused on nothing and everything at the same time.”
A third match with Brock Lesnar seems out of the question, at least for 2010. Where does the former UFC Heavyweight champion see things progressing for his career for the rest of this year?
“You know the Brock Lesnar thing, I think that honestly, really at this point, if it works out I’d like to fight him again but I’m not as consumed about it as some people seem to think about. A lot of stuff is about marketing and trying to sell fights. Obviously that fight isn’t going to come out for a while, so truth being if I fight him I fight him, if I don’t I’d rather go ahead and just worry about who I have to fight next. Would I take the challenge to fight him? Yeah, Shane Carwin, Cain Velasquez, Dos Santos, they’re all super-dangerous guys. And so fighting any of them would be a challenge.”
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 10 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Josh Barnett’s long-term future remains in Japanese professional wrestling
By Zach Arnold | April 28, 2010
With his California licensing situation in limbo, Josh Barnett will continue to proceed his career in professional wrestling. He is scheduled to be in a ‘ranking match’ against Yoshihiro Takyama on May 9th at Osaka Prefectural Gym. Barnett is reportedly being groomed to be the top ace of the organization.
The headlining story going into the IGF (Inoki Genome Federation) event is the debut of former Sumo wrestler Shinichi Wakakirin. Wakakirin was busted last year for marijuana in Japan and was dismissed from Sumo.
The announcement of Wakakirin’s debut was made today in Tokyo at a presser featuring Wakakirin and Antonio Inoki. Inoki was on his way back to New York after the media session.
IGF 5/9 Osaka Prefectural Gym (5 PM start)
- Naoya Ogawa & Atsushi Sawada vs. Naomichi Marufuji (NOAH) & Minoru Suzuki (All Japan)
- Josh Barnett vs. Yoshihiro Takayama
- Bob Sapp vs. Necro Butcher
- Tatsumi Fujinami & Gran Hamada vs. Original Tiger Mask & Yoshiaki Fujiwara
- Taka Kunou vs. The Predator
Topics: Japan, Media, Pro-Wrestling, Zach Arnold | 4 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |