Boston Herald strikes out on Tito Ortiz coverage
By Zach Arnold | April 27, 2010
So I saw that on Google and groaned, but I figured that the Herald would soon change the headline to something more palatable. Well…
My feeling on the media angle of this story is that when I first read about this, I dreaded what would come for all of the MMA sites in terms of the comments section. A lot of people have said a lot of stupid things and unfortunately none of it is very surprising. This includes our site, which has had some comments that I consider out-of-bounds and reckless. I know the editors at other major MMA web sites have had to deal with the same thing.
I’ve received a lot of e-mail from readers who are disgusted with the tone and tenor of the comments. I agree with their sentiments and I take full responsibility for not censoring or not moderating more of the comments that were made.
I’ve had disgruntled site readers beg of me to moderate all comments or to get a comments moderator. That’s easier said than done. Much like putting up inquiries to hire new writers, a lot of people show initial interest but once it gets down to brass tacks, people largely don’t want to get involved in the process because it’s too time-consuming and there’s not much of a reward.
So, it leaves me with two options. Either a) turn off all comments permanently or b) make all comments go in a moderation queue and have me individually go through each one, which could delay back-and-forth conversations from happening.
If you are a disgruntled site reader and would like to give me your honest, unabashed feedback on this topic, I would be happy to listen and make any recommended changes.
The story about Tito Ortiz and Jenna Jameson is not a story that I have much motivation in writing about. However, it’s sucked the oxygen out of the room and everything else has become secondary. I spent a couple of hours transcribing a Urijah Faber interview and discussing what his future may be. It didn’t mean a lot to readers because people have been consumed by the Tito-Jenna story. That’s life, but I’d much rather be talking about the successful Zuffa event from this past weekend than get into any reckless speculation about whether or not domestic abuse occurred in a celebrity relationship.
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, WEC, Zach Arnold | 29 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
UFC finds itself in a no-win situation over Tito Ortiz-Jenna Jameson dispute
By Zach Arnold | April 26, 2010
It’s been a tumultuous time for UFC President Dana White since the launch of this season’s Ultimate Fighter reality show featuring Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz as coaches. He had a successful event in Charlotte with Kenny Florian & Roy Nelson winning. He found himself dealing with the fallout from Anderson Silva embarrassing himself in Abu Dhabi. After this past weekend at Arco Arena in Sacramento, Zuffa made big coin on their non-branded PPV event featuring Urijah Faber and Jose Aldo as the headliners. All things considered, business is not so bad in a down economy.
However, tonight is one of those nights where Dana White wishes that he had NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s phone number to call and have a long chat about how to deal with talent involved in sticky situations.
Roger Goodell, king of all American sports as the head of the National Football League, has laid the hammer down on troubled athletes with his controversial Personal Conduct Policy. Goodell raised the stakes for all commissioners in major American sports when he suspended Pittsburgh Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger for six games despite the fact that Roethlisberger was never charged or arrested with any sort of crime in relation to accusations of rape in a Georgia bar bathroom with a college-age girl. Roethlisberger accepted the six-game conditional suspension (which can be reduced down to four games) and the NFLPA was relatively quiet on the matter.
Will Dana White find himself adopting his own sort of Personal Conduct Policy against talent that is contracted with Zuffa?
White finds himself in the ultimate catch 22. Last year, Dana White and Tito Ortiz mended fences and Ortiz signed a big contract with Zuffa. Ortiz was bluffing about signing with Strikeforce and appearing on CBS. Signing with UFC killed that from ever happening. Ortiz claimed he was in good shape physically, but once he fought Forrest Griffin (a man with a broken foot), he looked sluggish and slow in the cage. The unofficial proclamation from many fight fans was that Ortiz was officially washed up for good.
Enter The Ultimate Fighter and a chance for UFC management to keep the careers of both Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz going. Liddell wants to continue to fight and so does Ortiz, but neither man really is someone you want to see against any of UFC’s current champions. So, pairing the two men up against each other for another fight is relatively harmless. Besides, people are entertained by the dichotomy of these two individuals and it makes for good television. The ratings so far for this season’s edition of The Ultimate Fighter have been pretty respectable.
However, there has been trouble regarding the show since the first day it started. Rumors swirled that Tito Ortiz would end up getting replaced by Rich Franklin. Ortiz and Liddell was set to happen in Vancouver. Then there was the political turmoil as to whether or not Vancouver would allow UFC to run a show in the first place. Combined with that stress was the fact that UFC needed to announce a main event for the Vancouver show once everything was made official in early April. Dana White said online that the reports of Tito Ortiz being replaced by Rich Franklin were false. Then, UFC announced Liddell vs. Franklin for Vancouver when tickets went on sale. White found himself on the defensive for being called a liar and not a straight-shooter. White basically said “tough s***” on Jim Rome’s ESPN show in response. Yet, if you take a look online and on social networking sites, most viewers of The Ultimate Fighter don’t know that Ortiz is gone from the show by the end of the taping series.
Which leads us to what happened on Monday with Tito Ortiz being arrested by Huntington Beach PD on charges of physically abusing Jenna Jameson. Dana White’s first reaction was to say that if Ortiz was guilty that the organization would cut him. However, the UFC President left plenty of wiggle room to allow the judicial process to happen over time and for all the facts to come out in the case. I agree with this stance and think that a lot of the armchair commentary so far on this matter has been reckless and a waste of time by those who have done so.
The problem is that the legal system is not the court of public opinion. They are two very different things. As JA Adande noted on ESPN yesterday, the approach of two different major sports commissioners (Roger Goodell in the NFL and David Stern in the NBA) reflects two very different viewpoints on how to handled troubled athletes. Goodell has laid down the hammer on troublemakers while Stern has been more flexible on allowing athletes in trouble with the law to go through the legal process and then punish only if the courts find the athletes guilty.
What makes Dana White’s predicament very tricky is that UFC is growing as a sport. They want to be viewed as a legitimate sport. It’s roughly 1/15th as big as say the NBA currently is in America, but it’s still respectable in terms of the business they draw in the States. White’s relationship with Ortiz involves a taped reality series in which everyone involved signed NDAs (non-disclosure agreements) with Spike TV. There’s a lot of money on the line for all parties involved. Since Ortiz is not scheduled to fight in the UFC any time soon, how do you handle the current situation if you are UFC management? Do you panic and rush to the editing room to try to take out Ortiz as much as possible from the footage you have left or do you play it straight and keep everything status quo and let it runs its course?
The likely answer is that UFC will take a wait-and-see approach and continue to air the show in the format it has been edited in already. In fact, they may benefit in the short-term ratings-wise due to all the publicity Ortiz is currently receiving. Unless Ortiz is convicted in a court of law sometime soon, he’s free to participate in business activities with UFC.
I more or less think that White will take the David Stern route and allow everything to play out over time rather than drop the hammer like Roger Goodell would.
However, what would happen if White took the Goodell route and cut Ortiz? White would take a hit from the many Ortiz fans that are currently out there but he would also generate some credibility amongst the general public for a zero-tolerance policy. Could it help the credibility of UFC if they cut Ortiz? Perhaps. Plus, UFC would not have a lot to lose if they did it. Tito Ortiz is not going to be fighting Chuck Liddell in Vancouver. Ortiz isn’t scheduled to fight any time this year and his days of being a championship-caliber athlete are likely finished. If UFC cut Ortiz from their roster, there wouldn’t be a heavy financial penalty.
Whatever choice Dana White & Lorenzo Fertitta make, I don’t envy their position. They will receive heat if they go the Roger Goodell way and be portrayed as reactionary and not loyal to their fighters. Conversely, they will receive heat if they go the David Stern way and don’t cut Ortiz right away. It would open up the floodgates from critics of Mixed Martial Arts and UFC to portray White as just another “sleazy promoter” who cares more about making a buck than about protecting the integrity of the sport he represents.
Choose wisely, UFC.
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 7 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Urijah Faber: Jose Aldo is a great champion, respectable guy, and #3 on pound-for-pound best MMA fighter list
By Zach Arnold | April 26, 2010
A day after losing to Jose Aldo in a WEC Featherweight title match at Arco Arena in Sacramento, Urijah Faber sat down with CBS13 in Sacramento for a 12-minute interview to discuss his future in Mixed Martial Arts. We have transcribed that interview for everyone here.
ANDREW LURIA (CBS13.COM): “Tell me what’s going with the leg right now.”
URIJAH FABER: “Well I just, basically was, a ton of repeated blows so it’s just a giant hematoma, you know, from like right here to my hip all the way down to my knee and so it’s about three times the size of my other leg, so you can’t really bend it or walk very well.”
ANDREW LURIA (CBS13.COM): “Have you ever experienced something like that before?”
URIJAH FABER: “Not to this degree. I mean, of course training for this fight I trained a lot of defense, leg kicks but I was usually using, you know, the guys had shin pads and if you got caught with a heavy kick, you know, you let it ease up and you know not repeatedly hit it. So, this is the first time I’ve had it something this severe to where it really stopped me from having motion.”
ANDREW LURIA (CBS13.COM): “So you went to the hospital after the fight and what did they say?”
URIJAH FABER: “They were checking for, what do you call it, some sort of composite, like a blood composite, which can be something that permanently damages your foot so there were just doing a lot of tests for that, making sure there’s no break in the leg and stuff like that and they just came to the conclusion that it’s a serious contusion and a deep you know bruise that’s going to be a couple of weeks here.”
ANDREW LURIA (CBS13.COM): “Do you have to wait until the swelling goes down to check out if there’s anything else going on?”
URIJAH FABER: “No, they took a ton of photos of with the CT scan and stuff like that and all different angles to make sure that there was nothing permanent damage in there. It’s just, you know, it’s going to be a painful couple of days at least and we’ll see what happens. I mean, it should be, I can hobble pretty well around on crutches at this point but… yeah, it was frustrating.”
ANDREW LURIA (CBS13.COM): “Any fear that this is like a long term, something like that will effect you long term?”
URIJAH FABER: “No, I don’t think so, not at all. I mean… I had more fear with my hands than that because there’s bone involved but just is this, if anything maybe make it less likely to happen next time.”
ANDREW LURIA (CBS13.COM): “Anything else? You got hit a lot in the fourth round, your face is everything and good?”
URIJAH FABER: “Yeah, I was deflecting some of those and I was bringing up my head into them so there was less space… and I just, you know, I don’t want to quit in there, I wanted to you know finish it out. I was having trouble in the third round with this leg, it was really bothering me and you know, it was a lot of pain. When I did the after-the-fight interview, I felt like I was going to pass out and I don’t know what that was from. I’ve never really felt that way before I was having trouble like, you know, concentrating and when I was talking I really like I was going to pass out. I think probably because of the pain in the leg, maybe, it was extremely painful.”
ANDREW LURIA (CBS13.COM): “Tell me about, you know, the one thing you know I admire about you but a lot of people admire you is the fact that you grit it out, man, I mean because that fourth round was tough and your leg was I think from the first round on and you know you look back to the Brown fight where you busted both of your hands and you still worked through it I think it was for five rounds. Last night you busted through it for five rounds. I mean, tell me about how that defines you and getting through it because you really have the grit to suck it up even when you know after three rounds your guy took you off, he almost carried you off.”
URIJAH FABER: “You know it basically comes down to that grit has won a lot of fights for me, you know I’ve had 27 fights now and I’m 23-4, so you know having that grit is something that’s important about you know in our sport, it’s something that’s important to be a champion and unfortunately when you’re facing some adversity against another guy who has the same kind of grit, you know, sometimes you don’t come out on top and Jose Aldo’s very tough. He’s a you know considered one of the best in the world, probably #3 pound-for-pound and you know he has my respect, so I felt I like was doing well in there. I was executing my game plan pretty well in the first round. I wanted to make sure that he respected my stand-up so that he knew that you know he just couldn’t dictate all the time on the feet and then try to push the takedowns in the second but midway through the second he already started to disable my mobility, took out my leg, and just really changed the whole fight from that point on, so… the guy’s very good, very technical, he had a good game plan, he slowed me down and that’s what won him the fight.”
ANDREW LURIA (CBS13.COM): “One word you used a couple of minutes ago is frustration. Tell me about that.”
URIJAH FABER: “Yeah, it was very frustrating, you know I mean… you know, this is such a cool sport and there’s so many different ways to win and you know the little things count and being able to dictate the pace is one thing and he was the one who was able to do that by disabling my leg he was able to slow the fight down and to really make sure that it was a stand-up war for him so a lot of the takedowns that I worked on for that fight were explosive takedowns that involved trips and things like that but with the bum leg it was just, it wasn’t happening for me so… again, it was a rough fight. That’s what happens when you fight championship fights, you know, these are the best guys in the world. This isn’t like boxing where you got guys padding their records. I’m fighting the best guys all the time and that’s why I’m in this sport, so… It was a frustrating fight, but you know much respect to Aldo and I’m glad that I could finish it out.”
ANDREW LURIA (CBS13.COM): “What’s the last few weeks been like? It has been a whirlwind doing all these interviews and hearing you on Jim Rome and you know of course locally doing all sorts of stuff and now you know all the support that you’ve gotten from people around Sacramento. Tell me what was like that and now where you are here in the almost 24 hours after the fight.”
URIJAH FABER: “You know, it was a whirlwind. This whole last three plus years has been a whirlwind for me and it’s been a ton of hard work, not just in the gym but you know through you know my businesses and through the PR side of things and just being focused and just I’ve kind of had the blinders on and just been in my own little world and I mean I really appreciate the support. It’s something that means a lot to me and I loved to have gotten that win for everyone but again we’re fighting, these are the best guys in the world. You know, go all the way around the world to Japan, Europe, you know Brazil, you know anywhere in the world and you’re looking at the top guys and I’m fighting them so to get out there and do that is a really cool experience for me and to be the guy who’s been on top and the guy who’s right there at the top is awesome and I’ll obviously look back and have fought some of the best guys and have a camaraderie with them so it’s neat, man, it’s a good life and I’m really appreciative.”
ANDREW LURIA (CBS13.COM): “There’s so much support and so many people talking about this fight, building you up and what do you think is a word that kind of describes last night? Is it disappointment? Is it just another you know fight on your record because like you said you have fought so many great fighters?”
URIJAH FABER: “It was a disappointment, I mean that was the first time that anyone’s gone five rounds with Jose Aldo and you know been able to push the pace and I really was just hanging in there the last couple of rounds and he wasn’t you know coming after me for the kill I think he was a little fatigued probably, not used to having someone go you know the same pace that he can, so it was a little disheartening. I would have liked it to have been a little more exciting of a fight but like I said I can only do so much with my leg and I’m always looking to win but you know I didn’t get the win last night so it’s definitely disappointing, a little frustrating, but it is what it is man, I’m fighting and I’m fighting to the end and that’s the way it is, you know… I’m barely walking today but everything else is fine, so, I got to say that I’m pretty positive.”
ANDREW LURIA (CBS13.COM): “You come into the arena, you get into the cage…. probably the loudest thing I’ve ever heard, you know, I mean it was unbelievable how much everybody’s behind you and tell me what that’s like just to have Sacramento. I was talking to Tyreke Evans last night and I talked to Mayor Johnson like, you three have to be the top three sports stars in Sacramento you know. But you know what’s that like? You get into the cage and everybody in this town that you grew up with is all behind you in the biggest night of your career.”
URIJAH FABER: “It meant a lot, you know, and it’s really cool you know it’s good to have a community and it’s good to have people that get behind you. I think it brings everyone together, win lose or draw you know having people together cheering and putting you know differences aside and getting behind one thing is an awesome spectacle and to see it last night was great, you know. Sacramento is a unique town, there’s a ton of great fans. California is I think the best place in the planet and I’m lucky to be a US citizen and you know it was all coming to a head right there and understanding why when I walked out in that arena and you know fighting is what I love to do but being out there and feeling the crowd was pretty awesome.”
ANDREW LURIA (CBS13.COM): “As high as that moment was, talk to me real quick about how different it felt at the end of the fight. You know, it was quiet, people, you know all of your fans obviously disappointed but you know upset that you got injured and that it went the way that it did. You had to go out to leave and to have you know what happened to your leg and so on and so forth, in that case, what was the feeling on the other end?”
URIJAH FABER: “Well, truly the feeling was exhaustion. I felt like I said when I doing my you know talking to the microphone at the end of the fight, I really felt like I was going to pass out. I’ve never felt like that before and I think it had something to do with the pain in the leg, I’m not real sure, but I was completely exhausted and I could feel that you know the fans are disappointed, you know, and probably just sad in general, so that was unfortunate but it was a great night of fights. Jose Aldo is a very great champion, he’s a respectable guy, you know not only in his skill level but the way he presents himself, you know, it’s great to have a guy like that as our champion instead of some of these meatheads that are out there so…”
ANDREW LURIA (CBS13.COM): “I saw a few of those guys last night.”
URIJAH FABER: “On a bright note, you know, at least the title is with someone that you know we can all cheer for and you know I’ll be back from the road to get my stuff straight and get back out there.”
ANDREW LURIA (CBS13.COM): “What’s next for you. You’re 30, how long can you go? How long do you plan to go? Is a championship a couple of fights away again or what’s next for you? I know you got a few months you’re obviously to try to get your leg back.”
URIJAH FABER: “You know, I haven’t really thought about it. I mean I’ve said it time and time again, I’m a terrible planner. I just kind of follow my heart so at this time I feel like laying down and resting my leg but you know I’ve got fights in me still for sure. I can go down to 135 pounds (bantamweight), I can work my way back up to a title. There’s a lot of exciting fights out there for me but for right now I’m just going to enjoy my friends and my family and heal up and then go from there. It’s Summertime so I love Summertime especially in Sacramento, probably take some trips and cruise around a little bit and enjoy life.”
Topics: Media, MMA, WEC, Zach Arnold | 5 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
The future of WEC and Urijah Faber remains very uncertain
By Zach Arnold | April 26, 2010
Here’s what we do know coming out of this weekend’s event at Arco Arena in Sacramento:
- Dana White would be interested in seeing Jose Aldo fight at Bantamweight, Featherweight, and Lightweight. He even indicated that he would like to see Aldo fight at 155 in UFC. Read the linked article to also get quotes from the UFC President about the future of WEC’s Lightweight division.
- People are starting to turn on Urijah Faber, including The Sacramento Bee which advises Faber to retire. Smarter advice — drop down to Bantamweight and fight at 135 pounds. A fight against Miguel Torres would be great. Both men are coming off of losses and it would be a fight people would pay to see. Mr. Faber is in no mood to retire. In watching his interview with CBS13 in Sacramento, it was painful to see him walking around in crutches. One listen to the CBS interview and you can see why Faber is not going to lose any fans any time soon. (I’ll see if I can transcribe his full interview later tonight or early tomorrow.)
Looking ahead to what UFC is up to next…
- MMA’s legitimacy could be placed in Randy Couture’s hands. That’s the headline of an ESPN UK article talking about all the rumors swirling regarding a bout between James Toney and Randy Couture being discussed for UFC’s first Boston event.
Nick Diaz claims that UFC wants to bring him in again. Shields, Diaz, perhaps Melendez… that CBS brawl really hurt their stock… - Jon Jones says he wants a highly risky fight for his next bout. I understand he dismantled Brandon Vera, but he should relax and take a slower build instead of letting the UFC matchmaking machine grind him up and spit him out.
- Phil Davis returned back to Penn State country over the weekend for an MMA seminar and reflected upon his career so far in the UFC.
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, WEC, Zach Arnold | 110 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
ASTRA 4/25 Nippon Budokan (J-ROCK)
By Zach Arnold | April 25, 2010
Hidehiko Yoshida retirement show.
- Hidehiko Yoshida vs. Kazuhiro Nakamura
- Welterweights; Ryo Chonan vs. Cha Jeong-Hwan
- Lightweights: Naoyuki Kotani vs. Jorge Masvidal
- Lightweights: Daisuke Nakamura vs. Ganjo Tentsuku
- Featherweights: Michihiro Omigawa vs. Micah Miller
- Featherweights: Akihiro Mori vs. Tatsunao Nagakura
- Welterweights: Che Mills vs. Yuya Shirai
- Light Heavyweights: Enson Inoue vs. Antz Nansen
Makoto Takimoto retires
His sudden departure from MMA was announced today. He’s off the show and out of the business.
Hidehiko Yoshida retires from the MMA scene quietly
Today was his retirement show at Nippon Budokan in Tokyo. (Announced attendance was 12,093.) Fedor made an appearance at the event (photo here). For Yoshida’s retirement ceremony, the follow personalities appeared: Kazuyuki Fujita, Kazushi Sakuraba, Kiyoshi Tamura, Minowaman, Eiji Mitsuoka. (Photo here.)
- Akihiro Mori defeated Tatsunao Nagakura in R1 in 1’04 by TKO.
- Yuya Shirai defeated Che Mills in R1 in 3’59 by arm-bar.
- Daisuke Nakamura defeated Ganjo Tentsuku after 3R by a 3-0 JD.
- Jorge Masvidal defeated Naoyuki Kotani after 3R by a 2-1 JD.
- Cha Jeong-Hwan defeated Ryo Chonan in R2 in 1’26 by TKO.
- Enson Inoue defeated Antz Nansen in R1 in 2’10 by arm-bar.
- Michihiro Omigawa defeated Micah Miller after 3R by a 3-0 JD.
- Kazuhiro Nakamura defeated Hidehiko Yoshida after 3R by a 3-0 JD.
Topics: Japan, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 11 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Dana White: UFC won’t do a business deal with CBS because CBS is tarnished now
By Zach Arnold | April 25, 2010
From last night’s press session with the media at Arco Arena in Sacramento:
A reporter asks if Zuffa would like a deal with NBC, ABC, or any of the major broadcast networks in America:
“You know, I don’t dislike any of them or have any problems. Obviously, you know you guys have heard me talk about Showtime. Showtime blew that whole deal between us and CBS. But I wouldn’t do a deal with CBS, I wouldn’t. I just think they’re tarnished now and I wouldn’t want to be associated with that. “
A reporter asks if Zuffa is actively pursuing any broadcast network deals or is interested at all…
“Not really. If something comes, yeah, but dude, we’re doing just fine where we’re at. We are… you know, we have a game plan. We’re happy with the plan that we have right now. I think it’s great and I think we’re going to do big things over the next couple of years, so you know I’m not actively pursuing any networks. We’re always talking to people about different things and if it happens if it happens but it would have to be the right deal. Like I said, Strikeforce is on CBS because they had to take that deal. They had to do that deal with Showtime. I don’t. I don’t have to do those kind of deals, you know. IFL had to do that deal. They’re bad deals. (Reporter says, “Money wise?”) In every way shape and form they’re bad deals, you know, I was this close, I mean we were so close to this HBO deal and right before it was there I said, ‘You know what man? I don’t like this. I don’t like it. It doesn’t make sense.’ There were a lot of things that I didn’t like about it. You know when you think in your head at the time ‘you know, this will probably be good for the brand, it will take us…’ and it’s not. You have to… we’ve gone this far without making the wrong move. It’s not good to start making the wrong moves now.”
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 11 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Takeaways from the first Zuffa non-branded PPV event in company history
By Zach Arnold | April 24, 2010
1. The UFC/WEC merger has happened, but nobody bothered to announce it.
I wasn’t the only one who noticed that the WEC brand was destroyed tonight, but what amazed me was just how many casual MMA fans thought this was a UFC show. I’m dead serious.
Don’t get me wrong — we knew that Zuffa was going to run this show going in, but not to the extent that happened tonight. But give the company credit — they masterfully took away the WEC brand and threw it out the door. Because of it, I think the buy rate for this PPV is going to be significantly more respectable than I had predicted. I had predicted 25,000 buys, simply because the WEC brand was weak going in. Zuffa was simply a step ahead of my logic and they stripped the original WEC premise away from the event. If they do end up with 75,000 buys or more, it will be the most remarkable testament to branding power I have ever seen in my life in the fight business. PRIDE had a huge following of 20 million viewers on Fuji TV, but that was over-the-air broadcasting. This is pay television, a far different ball game.
Even in the NFL where players wear helmets and often aren’t recognizable to casual fans, there is still a loyalty to certain superstars. With Zuffa, they have managed to change the formula and turn it upside down. As big of superstars as Brock Lesnar and Georges St. Pierre are, it is Zuffa’s branding power that gives the company a remarkable floor on PPV buys. This event tonight in Sacramento was exhibit A in the company’s history of basically formalizing an MMA event to equal UFC. Forget Strikeforce and WEC, every MMA event in the eyes of most American fans is a UFC event.
BTW, when footage of Faber/Aldo aired on Comcast Sportsnet Bay Area, it was tagged as “UFC.”
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, WEC, Zach Arnold | 25 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
A WEC PPV without the WEC name
By Zach Arnold | April 24, 2010
Search UFC on Twitter. People have no idea what they are watching is any different.
Talk about branding power.
You won’t find the WEC name mentioned or seen at tonight’s hot Arco Arena event in Sacramento promoted by Zuffa. (Picture here.) Josh Gross notes that DirecTV is selling this as a UFC PPV event, which matches how bars in areas across the country are marketing tonight’s event.
BTW, Nelson Hamilton getting heat as a judge for scoring the Takeya Mizugaki/Rani Yahya fight 30-27 in favor of Mizugaki.
Speaking of judges, does anyone know if the infamous Doug Crosby is working tonight’s Zuffa show or future shows for the promotion?
When Mike Goldberg did the teaser on Spike TV for Ben Henderson vs. Donald Cerrone for the WEC Lightweight title match, he said: “The Lightweight title is on the line.” He also said that “the Featherweight title is on the line” for Urijah Faber vs. Jose Aldo. On the microphone logo boxes for Goldberg & Rogan, it’s “Aldo vs. Faber.” No UFC logo, no WEC logo.
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, WEC, Zach Arnold | 28 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
WEC 4/24 Arco Arena in Sacramento (PPV)
By Zach Arnold | April 24, 2010
TV portion: Spike TV (preliminary fights from 9:00 PM to 10:00 PM EST)
PPV portion: 10 PM EST – 1 AM EST
Dark matches
- Featherweights: Brandon Visher vs. Tyler Toner
- Bantamweights: Takeya Mizugaki vs. Rani Yahya
- Featherweights: Chad Mendes vs. Anthony Morrison
- Bantamweights: Brad Pickett vs. Demetrious Johnson
- Lightweights: Alex Karalexis vs. Anthony Pettis
- Featherweights: Leonard Garcia vs. Chan Sung Jung
Main card
- Bantamweights: Antonio Banuelos vs. Scott Jorgensen
- Lightweights: Anthony Njokuani vs. Shane Roller
- Featherweights: Mike Brown vs. Manny Gamburyan
- WEC Lightweight title match: Ben Henderson vs. Donald Cerrone
- WEC Featherweight title match: Jose Aldo vs. Urijah Faber
Top stories heading into and out of the show
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: Media, MMA, WEC, Zach Arnold | 25 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Dana White interview with Greg Papa on Comcast Sportsnet Bay Area
By Zach Arnold | April 23, 2010
It was a four-minute spot on Chronicle Live basically to hype up how Comcast customers could order the WEC PPV on Saturday night.
Except, WEC is nowhere to be found. The WEC logo, the name WEC, it’s not being mentioned or pushed at all. On the interview spot, there were Bud Light logos on the background along with white block lettering for Aldo vs. Faber. If there was any indication of just how low UFC views the WEC name, this was it. In many ways, they view the WEC name the same way WWE viewed the ECW name.
The push by Dana White for this fight is that this is the biggest fight in Featherweight history and that both fighters (Jose Aldo & Urijah Faber) are “wild men.”
White was asked about last week’s Strikeforce show in Nashville and the brawl between Mayhem Miller and Cesar Gracie’s camp. White said that you shouldn’t allow too many guys in the cage after a fight and that Scott Coker sent Mayhem Miller into the cage after the fight to try to set up a re-match with Jake Shields because they didn’t count on Dan Henderson losing.
Commenting on Strikeforce and Showtime, White said: “They’re a bush league promotion, they don’t belong on CBS and even they know that.”
Regarding Shields coming to UFC:
“Jake Shields definitely wants to fight in the UFC.”
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 7 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Women – Independent World MMA Rankings (April 23, 2010)
By Zach Arnold | April 23, 2010
From the office of the Independent World MMA Rankings
April 23, 2010: The April 2010 Women’s Independent World MMA Rankings have been released. These rankings are independent of any single MMA media outlet or sanctioning body, and are published on multiple MMA web sites, as well as www.IndependentWorldMMARankings.com.
Much like the Men’s Independent World MMA Rankings, which were launched in June 2009, the Women’s Independent World MMA Rankings are based purely on the votes of the members of the voting panel, with nobody’s vote counting more than anybody else’s vote, and no computerized voting.
In the time since last month’s rankings were published, the heads of two of the largest athletic commissions have clarified via e-mail that they use the same names for the weight classes in both men’s MMA and women’s MMA. For example, 145 pounds is featherweight, whether it’s in men’s MMA or women’s MMA.
The members of the voting panel for the Women’s Independent World MMA Rankings are, in alphabetical order: Nicholas Bailey (MMA Ratings); Jim Genia (Full Contact Fighter and MMA Journalist Blog); Yael Grauer (MMA HQ); Jesse Holland (MMA Mania); Robert Joyner (Freelance); Zac Robinson (Sports by the Numbers MMA); Leland Roling (Bloody Elbow); Michael David Smith (AOL Fanhouse); Joshua Stein (MMA Opinion); and Ivan Trembow (Freelance).
April 2010 Women’s Independent World MMA Rankings
Ballots collected on April 20, 2010
Featherweight Rankings (136 to 145 lbs.)
1. Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos (9-1)
2. Erin Toughill (10-2-1)
3. Marloes Coenen (17-4)
4. Gina Carano (7-1)
5. Yuko “Hiroko” Yamanaka (8-1-1)
6. Cindy Dandois (3-0)
7. Shana Olsen (3-0)
8. Amanda Nunes (5-1)
9. Jamie Seaton (2-1)
10. Emily Thompson (3-2)
Bantamweight Rankings (126 to 135 lbs.)
1. Sarah Kaufman (11-0)
2. Tara LaRosa (18-1)
3. Roxanne Modafferi (14-5)
4. Hitomi Akano (15-7)
5. Takayo Hashi (12-2)
6. Shayna Baszler (11-6)
7. Miesha Tate (9-2)
8. Vanessa Porto (10-4)
9. Jennifer Tate (6-1)
10. Adrienna “AJ” Jenkins (17-3)
Flyweight Rankings (116 to 125 lbs.)
1. Rosi Sexton (10-1)
2. Tara LaRosa (18-1)
3. Aisling Daly (9-0)
4. Sally Krumdiack (7-3)
5. Rin Nakai (6-0)
6. Lena Ovchynnikova (6-0)
7. Monica Lovato (4-1)
8. Mutsumi Kasai (4-1)
9. Jeri Sitzes (3-1)
10. Anita Rodriguez (3-1)
Junior Flyweight Rankings (106 to 115 lbs.)
1. Megumi Fujii (19-0)
2. Yuka Tsuji (22-2)
3. Lisa Ward (12-5)
4. Mei “V Hajime” Yamaguchi (6-2)
5. Jessica Pene (7-0)
6. Kyoko Takabayashi (11-4)
7. Jessica Aguilar (7-3)
8. Angela Magana (8-4)
9. Saori Ishioka (8-4)
10. Elena Reid (4-1)
The Women’s Independent World MMA Rankings are tabulated and published on a monthly basis, with fighters receiving ten points for a first-place vote, nine points for a second-place vote, and so on.
The voters are instructed to vote primarily based on fighters’ actual accomplishments in the cage/ring (the quality of opposition that they’ve actually beaten), not based on a broad, subjective perception of which fighters would theoretically win hypothetical match-ups.
Inactivity: Fighters who have not fought in the past 12 months are not eligible to be ranked, and will regain their eligibility the next time they fight.
Disciplinary Suspensions: Fighters who are currently serving disciplinary suspensions, or who have been denied a license for drug test or disciplinary reasons, are not eligible to be ranked.
Changing Weight Classes: When a fighter announces that she is leaving one weight class in order to fight in another weight class, the fighter is not eligible to be ranked in the new weight class until her first fight in the new weight class has taken place.
Catch Weight Fights: When fights are contested at weights that are in between the limits of the various weight classes, they are considered to be in the higher weight class. The weight limits for each weight class are listed at the top of the rankings for each weight class.
Special thanks to Eric Kamander, Joshua Stein, and Yael Grauer for their invaluable help with this project, and special thanks to Garrett Bailey for designing our logo.
Topics: Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 4 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
WEC PPV media notebook
By Zach Arnold | April 22, 2010
Before we get into the WEC notebook, check out this long article at Open Secrets about the money UFC has poured into political lobbying efforts in Washington D.C. Interesting of note is some of the reasoning for the political lobbying, including boxing legislation and where MMA falls into it. The article, unfortunately, has the Zuffa Myth (that the Fertittas “cleaned up” MMA and brought in new rules instead of Quebec/New Jersey athletic commissions). You can’t win them all, I suppose.
Onto the notebook on the eve of this Saturday’s WEC PPV in Sacramento…
- The Cleveland Plain Dealer (Chuck Yarborough): Urijah Faber thinks his grappling game can neutralize Jose Aldo’s offensive attack
- Steve Cofield: Is Urijah Faber telling the truth about his feelings on fighting Jose Aldo?
- Gareth Davies (London Telegraph): Urijah Faber says that he still believes that he’s invincible in the cage
- The Sacramento Bee: Trainer Thonglor Armatsena bolsters Urijah Faber’s striking skills in the ring
- News10 ABC (Sacramento): Arco Arena in Sacramento expected to be sold out for Saturday’s WEC event
- Marcos Breton (Sacramento Bee): Urijah Faber continues a Sacramento tradition
- The Sacramento Bee: Urijah Faber says he’s durable and has never been unconscious (that might change on Saturday night)
- Mike Chiappetta: Ben Henderson & Donald Cerrone promise thriller in WEC 48 re-match
- Dave Meltzer: Can Henderson and Cerrone reprise classic?
- The Las Vegas Sun (Brett Okamoto): Dana White has plans in store for UFC & WEC, says all television “is going Internet”
- The Fresno Bee: Despite Dana White in control, Reed Harris enjoys the rise of WEC on TV & PPV
- Ray Hui (MMA Fighting): Dana White says WEC 48 will look just like a UFC PPV
- The Miami Herald (Armando Alvarez): Mike Brown thinks that he can get a Featherweight title shot if he beats Manny Gamburyan on Saturday night
- MMA Mania: Mike Brown says going on PPV is where the money can be made and is best move for WEC’s future growth
- Leland Roling: There are some problems Mike Brown could have in his fight against Manny Gamburyan
- TSN (Canada): Scott Jorgensen looking to take care of unfinished business on Saturday night
- Josh Gross (Sports Illustrated): Zuffa to learn if fans’ wallets will open for WEC on PPV
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, WEC, Zach Arnold | 16 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
The amount of advertising leading into Saturday night’s WEC PPV in Sacramento
By Zach Arnold | April 21, 2010
I watched the Countdown special produced by Zuffa that aired on Spike TV Wednesday night for the WEC PPV coming up this weekend. It was interesting to see the promotional spin coming out of the hype special. The template has been set: “The Legendary” Urijah Faber and “the people’s champ of Sac-town” vs. the next pound-for-pound best fighter in the world. Will people buy into it?
The hype show was about as effective as you could get in terms of portraying Faber as the ultimate gritty, gutty babyface who the women love and the boys like because he’s the hardest worker in the world who understands the importance of having an extended family atmosphere with the people he trains with.
On the Comcast networks this week, there have been a few barker ads for ordering the PPV on Comcast systems. However, the amount of coverage for the WEC PPV so far has been minimal at best in terms of Comcast advertising. There have been some national ad spots during The Ultimate Fighter on Spike.
The beat writers are predicting somewhere in the 80,000 PPV buy range. I thought perhaps 25,000 given how poor the ratings have been for the WEC on Versus. That and I figured lower expectations would mean that a low buy rate wouldn’t be the death knell for WEC. Dana White was predicting 150,000 PPV buys.
The push by Comcast for UFC 112 (Abu Dhabi) was about 20 times as large as the push has been for this upcoming WEC PPV. The 112 Countdown show aired almost every night on CSN Bay Area leading up to the PPV event. The Countdown show that aired on Spike TV Wednesday night has not aired on CSN Bay Area or CSN California this week. With Bellator airing every Thursday night, some potential time has been taken away from airing the Countdown shows. With the addition of Lou DiBella’s “Broadway Boxing” series last week, there’s also less talk for filler programming in that regard. Ultimately, however, the calculation made by Comcast so far in terms of hyping up UFC vs. WEC is that UFC is the dominant brand and it was well worth the network making the hard sell to everyone for the Abu Dhabi event as opposed to the Sacramento event this weekend.
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, WEC, Zach Arnold | 53 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |