Joe Rogan crashes UStream with his 4:20 online celebration
By Zach Arnold | April 21, 2010
Thanks for tuning in, my friends. The ustream crashed from the weight of your awesomeness. 2,000 high people + internet = chaos
Video can be seen in full-page mode…
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 5 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Miserable crowds at Rogers Centre for Toronto Blue Jay games gives UFC unique chance to make their case
By Zach Arnold | April 20, 2010
Proclamation: A UFC event will easily outdraw a Toronto Blue Jays game on their best day at the Sky Dome (Rogers Centre).
I said it. You read it. I stand by it.
We’ve seen plenty of politicians in Ontario, especially Toronto, fight amongst themselves about whether or not UFC and Mixed Martial Arts should be legalized in the province. The main reasons brought up by proponents of MMA legislation in the area revolve mostly around money and fan support. Toronto and many major Canadian markets are strong for UFC in PPV business.
I’m willing to take the argument one step further and it’s an argument that will anger baseball fans everywhere, but it’s the truth.
- There’s as strong, if not a stronger demand to see a major Mixed Martial Arts event in Toronto than there is to watch a sports franchise like the Toronto Blue Jays.
- A major UFC PPV event could and would significantly outdraw the Blue Jays at the Sky Dome.
This kind of talk might be blasphemous in some sports writing circles, but let’s look at the numbers. The Blue Jays have had four home games with crowds under 11,000 so far in this early baseball season. (Look at this picture.) Like a lot of MLB teams, there’s a lot of empty seats at baseball games so far this season. However, Toronto has always been a major market with passionate sports fans that have unfortunately been tormented by their sports teams. The Raptors have been one giant tease in basketball. The Maple Leafs are, well, the Maple Leafs. And the Blue Jays are stuck in MLB’s toughest division. They’ve lost a lot of games in past seasons and nobody is showing up to watch them.
If Rogers Sportsnet wasn’t in charge of the Blue Jays, that team would be destined for relocation or contraction given the current business climate.
There has been a lot of chattering about how “bad” it would be for UFC to go to a big stadium like Cowboys Stadium in Dallas and have a lot of empty seats. (The Manny Pacquiao-Josh Clottey fight drew 50,000 there in March.) The knock against UFC is that they can’t sell out a major stadium and that they simply are an arena attraction. I say it’s time for UFC fans and supporters to challenge the critics on that claim.
The UFC can outdraw the Blue Jays and other franchises at the Sky Dome and deep down, a lot of people know it. Forget the Air Canada Centre — I think UFC could do very, very well at the Dome. Imagine a mostly-filled Sky Dome event with UFC Welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre and UFC Heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar as the headliners. It would draw and the politicians know it. The over/under line — start with 30,000 paid. That’s right. They could do realistically draw that many people at Rogers Centre. As an added bonus, the building would get to see a Canadian hero who is a winner as opposed to occasionally watching an NFL franchise that is a yearly cellar-dweller in their division. Poor Buffalo…
Which is why UFC’s lobbying firm should be rubbing their hands gleefully at publicizing pictures of all those empty seats at every Blue Jays game to highlight the exclamation point on UFC having more support in Ontario than the Jays currently do. Rogers Sportsnet has, as noted by UFC proponents in the province, been supportive of bringing in UFC to Toronto. The big roadblock has been Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, who has been bugged by the media and by citizens in Ontario to allow UFC to come into the market. The more the Blue Jays tank business-wise at the Sky Dome, the more pressure there will be on the politicians by businesses (like Rogers) to allow UFC to come into the market. Rogers, like Comcast in America, would have a vested interest in backing UFC in a big way. They would make money on UFC PPVs and in the case of the Sky Dome, be able to bring in a sports promotion that would actually fill the seats up.
The worse things get business-wise for the major sports franchises in Toronto, the better politically it becomes for UFC to make the charge to come to Toronto. Everyone knows it, too. Now is not the time for UFC and their lobbyists to be in “sssshhhh” mode. The May 8th event in Montreal could serve as a nice media platform.
Topics: Canada, Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 38 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Hard to put a positive spin on Strikeforce and CBS relationship
By Zach Arnold | April 20, 2010
I figured I would quote Dave Meltzer here from his radio show today since he tries to give a fair take on what is happening right now and what the company mindset is within Strikeforce.
“Strikeforce, it was a 1.8 rating… and… it’s… you know, I mean… it wasn’t, you know, after talking to a lot of people today including people there (at the show), it was certainly disappointing. It was not disastrous. They have done worse, you know when they did the show from Stockton and it did come back from that… Will they do it? You know… CBS is going to have to make the call. I mean there’s, it’s not a sure thing either way. It’s not like, ‘Oh my God, they’re dead for sure!’ They haven’t informed, certainly no one in Strikeforce knows that they’re dead. And they haven’t been, I mean just based on talking to people and everything like that today, they’re not acting like it’s a dead thing. There are signs that are positive that they’ll probably do another show in the fall. You know one of the things that you know was brought up to me was that you know realistically in another day or two, no one’s going to talk about that brawl again and certainly by Saturday you know it’ll be a dead subject.
Now the rating, you know, again, the rating was more important thing than the brawl and the rating wasn’t good, but it’s also the learning thing in the sense that we know that with the right match, we can do a good demo play with MMA. We also now know for sure that with you know that Dan Henderson is not the right and Jake Shields was not the right match and that unless we have the right match, you really don’t want to do this show. You can’t just do the show and go like, ‘We got this card with all these guys that are like ranked and this and that or this match is you look on paper and go on paper we got a good show so we’ll have exciting fights and people will tune in.’ It’s not that. There’s no, all you got is star power and the problem of course with Strikeforce is there’s not a lot of that star power there. I mean, maybe Herschel Walker? And that’s not a lock. Gina Carano? Probably, probably… Fedor for sure, but God knows what you know… Fedor and Strikeforce do not have a deal for another fight right now and it’s you know the situation is what the situation is, it’s um… it’s impossible to do deals with those guys you know and so you’re kind of being held under a barrel by that thing. Stealing someone from UFC is probably not going to happen, I don’t see anyone from UFC at this point in time going, “Yeah, I want to jump on CBS, I want to jump on bandwagon.” If anything, people right now would be scared to make that move. Arlovski’s not the guy, you know, no matter, you know, he’s just not that guy. So, um, I suppose they could do a Cyborg/Carano re-match? And that actually would work but the problem is there then, you know, you’re going to have the same massacre more likely than not.”
1. The truth is that Herschel Walker is their biggest drawing card. Say of it what you will, but it’s reality. He got the biggest pop of anyone in Nashville. His fight against tomato can Greg Nagy drew more attention in the sports world than anything on the Strikeforce show in Nashville did.
2. It seems almost inevitable that Fedor will end up fighting in Japan again, likely against Barnett on New Year’s Eve. As for fighting in UFC… I say 50/50. Which makes Strikeforce pushing Fedor vs. Brett Rogers on CBS last Fall dumb. Fedor’s not a cornerstone guy of any promotion. Note the emphasis.
3. Can the light switch be turned on and off for Gina Carano’s star power?
4. How is Strikeforce going to make new stars?
5. Should Strikeforce ditch some weight classes (like Heavyweight) and adopt some smaller weight classes (Featherweight) in order to try to gain a competitive advantage?
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 22 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Dana White explains why UFC’s production team will run the WEC PPV in Sacramento
By Zach Arnold | April 19, 2010
From our friends at USA Today:
“The way I look at it is, it’s a Zuffa promotion, and this is the team for pay-per-view. Obviously when the WEC is on Versus, they have their team and everything else, but this is the pay-per-view team.”
The USA Today interview is a fascinating one in regards to how the UFC President views UFC’s non-stop schedule. He doesn’t believe the amount of PPVs the company is doing is too many. In this Yahoo Sports article, Mr. White has some interesting comments about Gus Johnson. Steve Cofield says that a “real” sports league like the NFL or the NBA would have fined Nate Diaz for his role in the post-match Strikeforce melee last Saturday night.
The Salt Lake Tribune is reporting that UFC has booked EnergySolutions Arena on 8/1 for a Versus show. UFC 117 will reportedly happen in Northern California. That’s the PPV event with Anderson Silva vs. Chael Sonnen. Oracle Arena in Oakland is a good venue candidate for the show. Regarding the Utah event, DaMarques Johnson wants to fight on that show.
Anderson Silva a week after the Abu Dhabi debacle? “I think I fought well.”
George Sotiropoulos was underestimated going into his Australia fight against Joe Stevenson. I expect the same reaction when he fights Kurt Pellegrino at UFC 116. Don’t count out George here. I like both guys a lot, so it will tough to root against either man.
Other media notes
- The Minneapolis Star-Tribune: Scott LeDoux retires from Minneasota combative commission
- MMA Junkie: Where in the world is Josh Barnett?
- The Los Angeles Times: Movie theaters turn to live event screenings (like UFC) to fill seats
- Star Local News (Plano, TX): King Mo joins the list of champions from East Plano to dominate sports
- The Colorado Springs Gazette: The road that Cowboy Cerrone has taken from Colorado Springs to WEC PPV semi-main eventer
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, WEC, Zach Arnold | 26 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Strikeforce turns into a ____fest on CBS; Bad ratings numbers arrive
By Zach Arnold | April 17, 2010
Update (4/18): Dave Meltzer reports — “The overnight ratings for last night’s Strikeforce saw the 9-11 regular airing of Strikeforce do a 1.0 rating in adults 18-49 and 2.63 million viewers. Completely bombed.” Bloody Elbow compares past MMA ratings on CBS.
—
When I previewed this event earlier in the week, I listed several key points that would indicate whether this would be a make-or-break show. After watching tonight’s show on CBS, one thing is clear — the promotion absolutely is screwed as far as future live telecasts on CBS is concerned.
There was no reason whatsoever to book three “title fights” in a 2-hour time block. First of all, the title belts mean very little to the fans watching the show. Second, it guarantees that each fight could go five rounds. And they did. 75 minutes of largely boring action, combined with commercials, ring introductions, and what you have are some unbelievably pissed off network affiliates across America screaming that their 11 PM news casts got postponed because of a low-rated MMA event that draws a bunch of people who likely aren’t going to watch network news telecasts. This was exactly why I indicated that if Strikeforce didn’t have everything go its way that it would force the promotion to consider a tape-delayed broadcast in the future in order to save the CBS deal. (See: Bellator’s shows on FSN versus their tightly-edited show on Telemundo HD the next day.)
As for the fights shown on CBS, these were not the kind of fights that hardcore fight fans were anticipating watching. Why? The hardcore fans are tired out. They’ve watched so much MMA this calendar year that once the action started to get boring, changing the channel became a lot less painless to do. I’m sure this happened across the country. There is such a thing as MMA fatigue right now. All the Strikeforce fights going to a decision did not endear the promotion to anyone.
It was hard for the casual fans who tuned in to really care about the match-ups in general. As we saw with Aoki, nobody knew what DREAM was. Nobody knew there was an “interpromotional feud” going on. If anything, what we saw with the lack of promotion by Strikeforce and Showtime on this front was a microcosm of the way Showtime has promoted the company since Scott Coker signed a business deal with them.
Winners
Jake Shields – He not only beat a name who is a big deal in the eyes of casual MMA fans, he did it with relative ease in the finishing rounds. And, to top it off, Shields openly said before the fight that Dan Henderson had no idea how to defend off his back and that he would exploit it.
Shields fought as well as he could have. He can’t punch and he will get punished for it when (I said when) he heads to UFC. A fight against Josh Koscheck right now would be fascinating to watch. Koscheck would bring the leather and would also give Shields a real good test defensively. As a #1 contender’s match for St. Pierre’s Welterweight belt, I would definitely dig that (should Koscheck beat Daley in Montreal). If Paul Daley beats Koscheck, then Shields would have to fight St. Pierre right away.
Shields fought a guy much bigger than him and won with skill. Good for him.
Dana White – Everything that could have gone wrong for Strikeforce and Showtime did. And everything that needed to go right for the UFC President went exactly right.
Shields gets his big win over Dan Henderson. Now it’s going to cost a ton for Strikeforce to keep Shields or they will have to let him go to the big show. Henderson losing in the fashion he did and for how much he got paid to fight also validates White’s strategy of letting Strikeforce financially sink itself with such a heavy contract. Third, while Strikeforce had a good crowd on television for presentation, this organization is struggling to find an identity and is struggling to figure out what it wants to do and how it wants to go about doing it. Right now, they just put on some shows and that’s about it.
UFC – As far as rankings lists go, you can practically count on more non-UFC guys getting shedded off of lists and more UFC talent filling in those new slots.
Losers
Dan Henderson – Financially, I still think he would have made more as a PPV headliner in UFC than what’s he getting with Strikeforce. Physically, he’s looks in great shape but MMA is a very unforgiving business as far as fighting Father Time is concerned. I only consider Henderson a minor loser tonight because I don’t think a lot of people watched this CBS event and I expect that the fans that did watch will largely forget about this loss or not care all that much.
As for Henderson’s reaction from the crowd on Saturday night, I’m going to use a dreaded pro-wrestling analogy (but hang with me if you follow wrestling. Otherwise, skip this part.) Dan Henderson in Strikeforce is like Jeff Hardy in TNA. In WWE, Jeff Hardy was one of the most passionately-cared about wrestlers in 2009. When he went to TNA, the WWE fans in large part don’t pay attention or don’t know. It doesn’t mean that they forgot who Jeff Hardy is, but they’re not watching him in TNA. Hell, a bunch of WWE fans probably think he’s on vacation. Same with Henderson — he’s fighting in a smaller promotion and while the show is on CBS, I don’t think tonight’s loss will be as damaging to his career as it would have been in the UFC cage.
Scott Coker – The matchmaking right now sucks. There’s no promotional rhythm. Any goodwill the promotion has right is gone. Signing away a lot of the control to Showtime is proving to be a negative in terms of creative control. The promotional champions mean nothing. Nothing the promotion has done lately has been a positive impact on the business.
DREAM – Both Gegard Mousasi and Shin’ya Aoki put in worthless performances. I can’t reveal where I had both men ranked on my personal MMA rankings list, but I can say that I looked at Mousasi definitely as a top 10 Lightweight and I had Aoki in the Top 10 of Lightweights (albeit not as high as others). I will say that I had Crusher Kawajiri ranked significantly higher than him and I’m glad that I did. Would a Kawajiri/Melendez re-match turn out the same way that the first one did?
Is it safe to say that the shiny pants are to Aoki what brass knuckles used to be to an old-school pro-wrestling heel?
Other thoughts
Gilbert Melendez needs to head to UFC as soon as he possibly can.
King Mo now the 205-pound promotional champion. Do you feel that he is one of the Top 5 Lightweights in the world?
Gus Johnson is great as a basketball commentator. Even though his call of Seth Petruzelli knocking out Kimbo Slice is incredibly memorable, Gus is not a natural fit for MMA PBP. It showed on Saturday night.
I don’t want to hear anyone in Strikeforce talk about “cool match-ups” being their motivation to bring some Japanese influence to their promotion. Like everyone else who isn’t UFC, it seems that all the MMA promotions follow what happens in Japan religiously but take none of the elements that made Japanese MMA so special and apply it to their own product. The biggest element missing? Japanese-style production on the broadcast side. Yes, I know Fuji TV and TBS are producing K-1 events, but look how many years ahead of the curve they are compared to who is producing the MMA events Stateside.
A note on Mayhem Miller — If Strikeforce is WCW to UFC’s WWE, then Mayhem decided to pull a Tito Kevin Nash Ortiz bit and get some self-promotion. We know he’s a self-promoter and he’s good at it. It’s his best skill. He’s no dummy. If anything, Miller just got attention for himself. People who are screaming that this was a travesty are caught up in the moment. Like Strikeforce itself, most fans will completely forget that this happened in a month or so.
Unless, of course, he finds himself in legal/criminal trouble after tonight.
I didn’t think the post fight brawl at Strikeforce marred anything. It was entertaining. It’s cage fighting. How much decorum you want?
The post fight fight was enhanced by Gus Johnson yelling “Gentlemen, we’re on national television!” Gentlemen? High comedy.
The post fight brawl had more action than 2 of the 3 actual fights.
I can’t be offended by a fight at a cage fight.
Did Gus think “national television” would get some gentlemen to say, “oh, damn, I forgot. I better stop kicking this dude in the head then.”
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, UFC, Zach Arnold | 91 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Strikeforce 4/17 in Nashville: A make-or-break event for the company on CBS
By Zach Arnold | April 17, 2010
Venue: Bridgestone Arena (Nashville, Tennessee)
TV: CBS (all network affiliates)
Dark matches
- Tom Campbell vs. Cody Floyd
- Chris Hawk vs. Ovince St. Preux
- Dustin Ortiz vs. Justin Pennington
- Andy Uhrich vs. Dustin West
- Josh Schockman vs. Cale Yarbrough
- Zach Underwood vs. Hunter Worsham
- Jason “Mayhem” Miller vs. Tim Stout
Main card
- DREAM vs. Strikeforce (SF Lightweight Title match): Gilbert Melendez vs. Shin’ya Aoki
- Strikeforce Light Heavyweight Title match: Gegard Mousasi vs. King Mo
- Strikeforce Middleweight Title match: Jake Shields vs. Dan Henderson
Top stories heading into and out of the show
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 91 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
[Bellator] No comparison between the FSN/CSN and Telemundo HD broadcasts
By Zach Arnold | April 16, 2010
The American fight fans are watching an inferior product in terms of production on Thursday nights.
I’m watching the Telemundo HD version of Bellator’s Thursday night event from Chicago and the tightly-edited production on the Telemundo program made the show much more enjoyable to watch. Plus, you get to see the fighters do interviews in Spanish (including Toby Amada).
The commentatory by lead announcer “George X” is very good. The dual English/Spanish language translations and graphics work smoothly. There’s no time wasted on the Telemundo broadcast. You get a lot more unique features on the Telemundo show.
In contrast, the FSN/CSN events drag on television. The production doesn’t feel all that tight. It feels like a long two-hour broadcast. Plus, the FSN/CSN show is pre-empted in several markets weekly because it’s baseball and hockey season. No such problems with the Telemundo broadcast.
If you aren’t a fan of the US broadcasts of the Bellator events live, go out of your way to watch the Telemundo HD version (also available on Mun2).
Topics: Bellator, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 7 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Odds for Strikeforce & WEC April events
By Zach Arnold | April 16, 2010
Dan Henderson (-420) vs. Jake Shields (+320)
Gegard Mousasi (-245) vs. King Mo (+195)
Gilbert Melendez (-185) vs. Shin’ya Aoki (+145)
Jose Aldo (-325) vs. Urijah Faber (+265)
Ben Henderson (-120) vs. Donald Cerrone (-110)
Mike Brown (-700) vs. Manny Gamburyan (+500)
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, WEC, Zach Arnold | 1 Comment » | Permalink | Trackback |
Report: Dana White angry at BJ Penn and co-author of new Penn book
By Zach Arnold | April 15, 2010
The topic de jour yesterday was Dana White’s interview on Jim Rome defending his actions in regards to his handling of the Chuck Liddell/Tito Ortiz situation. What hasn’t gone completely noticed was an article by Josh Gross of Sports Illustrated that came out the same day.
The article claims that Dana white approached BJ Penn and Penn’s attorney regarding a book titled Why I Fight: The Belt is Just an Accessory, which Penn worked with author David Weintraub on. White was reportedly furious about what was said in the book.
White told SI.com that after he became aware of the book, he approached Penn and Penn family lawyer, Gary Levitt, with a question: “Why would you put out a book that is 90 percent not true?”
“I asked him why he would write lies in there and he swore to me that he didn’t write it or read it,” White said. “So did Gary. If today they are saying they didn’t say that, then I feel sorry for them.”
The SI article goes on to claim that Weintraub ended up losing employment with UFC (through a production company called Exit 9 Films) after his participation in the book with Penn.
“I never thought for a second that the book would be received by the UFC in a way they wouldn’t want to promote it or help B.J. I never thought it would be like that,” said Weintraub, who worked with the UFC on video projects and penned articles for UFC magazine before he said he was was let go two weeks ago based upon his participation with the book. “I thought it would be something they read, reflected upon, and looked at how they owned this company. B.J. started at the same time they bought this company.”
Is the UFC President upset at the fact that UFC is not in charge of producing the book and not getting a cut of it? HarperCollins is a pretty big publisher for Penn to score a deal with.
It’s the latest controversy for the UFC boss, who seemingly is always involved in starting or putting out a fire one way or another. The more of these stories we hear, the more a media narrative will be created about White & UFC management.
Update: As my brother from another mother points out in the comments section, David Weintraub responds…
Penn’s book is more than honest, which is what led to my demise, and has stoked the fire of White. When pressed by Josh Gross about the parts of the book which are dishonest White balked, choosing to say there won’t be a lawsuit. Oddly enough, just a day earlier, he did threaten Gary Levitt, Penn’s attorney, with a lawsuit. He also said, “I’m going to write a book, and my book is going to sell a lot more than your book.”
He also denied knowing whether someone else in the company let me go. Had no knowledge of this either. Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep — You know what that is? It’s the bullshit truck backing up to Dana’s desk.
Addendum: More controversy? This time, chatter regarding a “UFC takeover” of the WEC PPV event on 4/24. No Reed Harris, no Joe Martinez as ring announcer. No Todd Harris or Frank Mir on commentary.
Cageside Seats: Dana White only lies to those he doesn’t trust
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 15 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Headlines: Marlon Sandro will continue fighting in Japan
By Zach Arnold | April 15, 2010
Sengoku announced that their next big event will happen on 6/20 in Tokyo at Ryogoku Kokugikan. Announced for the show is a Featherweight title bout between Masanori Kanehara and Marlon Sandro. Also booked on the card is Hiroshi Izumi and Maximo Blanco.
Today’s media notebook
- Compustrike: Statistical preview for upcoming Strikeforce event in Nashville
- Ult MMA: Army of one – US soldier Hunter Worsham preps for Strikeforce debut
- Dave Meltzer (Yahoo Sports): Dan Henderson in the biggest fight of his professional career on Saturday night
- MMA For Real: Expect Dan Henderson to beat Jake Shields by TKO in R3 on Saturday night
- Sports Illustrated (audio): Josh Gross interviews the excitable Gus Johnson
- Damon Martin (MMA Weekly): Gilbert Melendez version 2.0 ready for Shin’ya Aoki
- PETA press release: Jake Shields ask fans to do themselves a favor and kick the meat habit
- The Tennessean: Dan Henderson hopes his fight on CBS will create new MMA fans
- Brett Okamoto (LV Sun): Jake Shields focused on Saturday night, uncertain what his future holds (and he’s sick talking about it)
- Sherdog: Strikeforce CBS advertising sold out
- Heavy: Joe Rogan & Mike Goldberg to work WEC PPV
- The Billings Gazette: MMA promoter finds out the hard way what happens when you stiff fighters on their paychecks
- The Hilton Head Island Packet: US troops in Iraq stage MMA bouts
Topics: Japan, Media, MMA, Sengoku, StrikeForce, WEC, Zach Arnold | 1 Comment » | Permalink | Trackback |
Full transcript of Dana White interview on ESPN with Jim Rome: Anderson Silva, Chuck Liddell & Tito Ortiz discussion
By Zach Arnold | April 14, 2010
START OF TRANSCRIPT
JIM ROME: Welcome back. My guest is the UFC President, UFC 112 went down in the UAE this past weekend. Dana White joins me once again. Dana, nice to have you back. How are you?
DANA WHITE: I’m great, thanks Jim.
JIM ROME: Good, Dana. You were furious after that fight with Anderson Silva for his performance against Demian Maia. You called it the most horrible thing you’ve ever seen. Specifically, what did he do that made you so mad?
DANA WHITE: Well, you know, nobody’s supported him more than I have, calling him the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world and he didn’t act like it the other night. Not only did he not act like the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world, he didn’t like a champion and, a uh, UFC fighter. Taunting, not fighting, and then… from the third round on, running, and not actually engaging, uh, it was a very embarrassing moment for me. I actually literally have never seen anything that bad, not even in boxing in all my years of boxing I’ve never seen anything as bad as what happened on Saturday night.
JIM ROME: So when you confronted him with that afterwards, what was his response?
DANA WHITE: Uh, you know, we had a good talk for about 45 minutes after the fight and after the press conference and, you know… you never know. We’ll found out in his next fight if I got through to him or not. The thing that really, uh, really upset me after the fight and then the press conference was where he said he felt like he didn’t owe anybody an apology.
JIM ROME: Huh. Dana, why did he do that? What was going through his mind and what did he tell you when you asked him?
DANA WHITE: I wish I could explain to you and to the fans and the people that bought that fight why he did it or you know what was going on. Even if you look at the early rounds in the fight, the first and second round, the guy shows sign of absolute, you know, brilliance. I mean, the guy is so talented and I don’t know what it was. It was like a mental breakdown in there or something. I don’t know why, but I can tell you this — like I said, I’ve never been more embarrassed. I got up during the fourth round, took the belt, and gave it to his corner and said, “You put it on him because I’m not going to do it,” and I left the arena. I’ve never done that in 10 years.
JIM ROME: All right, so the guy’s great and he’s got skill, you made that clear, but that’s not the first time he’s done that. How do you sell him going forward?
DANA WHITE: Yeah… you know.. he’s got a real tough fight coming up. His next fight’s going to be against Chael Sonnen and Chael Sonnen’s one of these guys who’s, you know, you know not going to lay back, not going to do what these other guys… when [Anderson’s] been in these positions when these type of fights have happened, they’ve been against real good jiu-jitsu guys, guys that want to get the fight to the ground. Well, Chael Sonnen’s going to want to take this fight this ground but he’s going to double-leg him and bring him down. You look at a guy like Anderson Silva, absolutely demolished Rich Franklin twice. Destroyed Dan Henderson. Destroyed Nate Marquardt. Went up to 205 pounds and destroyed the guy’s he fought there. Then you see him in fights like this and it just, it’s uh… it’s unexplainable.
JIM ROME: All right, so you’re not in a good place. You didn’t like it, he disrespected you and the sport and the fans. Is there some sort of punitive, is there a punishment that you’ve going to drop on him? Is this going to cost him for instance a shot against GSP?
DANA WHITE: Oh, I mean there’s, there’s nothing that I can really do to him 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.
- What if Sonnen-Silva plays out like Sonnen-Filho?
- A week after UFC 112, nobody can stop talking about Anderson Silva
- Column: Silva’s ride is too easy
JIM ROME: Yeah, I would have thought…
DANA WHITE: I’m telling you right now. If he ever acts like that again in the ring, I will cut him. I don’t care if he’s the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world. I don’t care if he’s the Middleweight champion.
JIM ROME: You’ll fire him?
DANA WHITE: I will cut him, absolutely.
JIM ROME: You think after a night like that the big thing we’d be talking about is Edgar’s win over BJ Penn.
DANA WHITE: Exactly.
JIM ROME: Frankie Edgar, I mean… in all your years in the UFC, have you ever seen a bigger upset than that one?
DANA WHITE: No, that was probably the biggest upset in UFC history. Especially, the kid was a 7-to-1 underdog. He’s small for that weight class, but let me tell you what… the reason I put Frankie, you know, everybody was talking about me making the decision, uh, to put him in that position for the title instead of Gray Maynard. Uh, after Gray Maynard’s last fight with Nate Diaz, I didn’t think he looked ready. I thought Frankie Edgar was ready for a fight, uh, with BJ Penn and he proved it that night.
JIM ROME: Dana, what happened to Tito Ortiz and Chuck Liddell? They were supposed to wrap up The Ultimate Fighter season and fight. It’s not happening. What happened?
DANA WHITE: Well, obviously, you know, something happened during the filming of the show and it’s one of those things that we can’t talk about so people are just going to have to tune in, watch The Ultimate Fighter, and see what happened, uh, between Tito and Chuck.
JIM ROME: Fans are upset, though, Dana, you know that. Were they in any way misled? Were they sold something, a bill of goods? Did you know it was going to happen and mislead them?
DANA WHITE: Um, did I… no. Were they sold a bill of goods? No. Before we made the fight up in Vancouver, you know, that it’s going to be Rich Franklin vs. Chuck Liddell… um… first day ticket sales, we released it and let them know what the fight was going to be. But as far as the reality show goes, I can’t tell you what happens on the reality show. And what happened was when people went in there to start tearing down the lighting equipment, one of the workers took a picture on the wall of Rich Franklin on the wall and then released it to the media, so the media starts asking questions. IT’S A REALITY SHOW! Guess what? We’re probably the most open, honest company in sports. You know we let the fans and media know everything. When we have a reality show where everything’s a secret, you’re going to have to watch it… guess what? You can’t know! And it’s not your privilege to know. And if people are upset with that, too bad.
JIM ROME: So there’s no way they’re going to find out exactly what happened until the show?
DANA WHITE: Exactly.
JIM ROME: In a way, Dana, it’s kind of out of character. I get that you have a show to do, but it’s not like you not to shoot straight and answer that question.
DANA WHITE: True, but I can’t! It’s a reality show. This… first of all, Spike paid for this show. The show costs a lot of money to produce and for me to go out, you know, as open and as honest as I am, for me to go out and release this information, it’s insane. You can’t do it. It would be like finding out what happens on Survivor after they film it. It ruins, I guarantee you — there’s a lot of people out there that don’t want to know, you know, and the people who feel like they’ve been lied to, too bad. Get over it. It’s a reality show and uh… oh well.
JIM ROME: All right, Dana, what about Fedor? You and I have spoken about him in the past. Not only have you not been discouraged by not signing him, it’s become something of an obsession. Where does that stand?
DANA WHITE: Yeah, you know, listen… I, I… everybody that thinks that this guy is as good as he is, I want to find out too. I’m as big or a bigger fight fan than anybody that watches Mixed Martial Arts. So if somebody believes that this guy is possibly the best, which I personally do not think that he is one of the pound-for-pound best in the world, yes, he’s one of the best top heavyweights in the world. I want to find out how good he really is, but it takes two to make a deal. Not just one guy, not “Dana, you got to get this done!” Trust me, this has become an obsession. I’ve done everything in my power to try to make this deal happen.”
JIM ROME: Dana White. Dana, good to have you back. Thank you very much.
DANA WHITE: Thank you.
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 27 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Report: UFC 112 Abu Dhabi judge Doug Crosby in hot water
By Zach Arnold | April 13, 2010
Yesterday, I said that if Doug Crosby was a smart man, he would be privately and publicly apologizing to UFC regulatory boss Marc Ratner for his behavior since the UFC 112 event ended.
Now comes word that Crosby has been read the riot act by several powerful people in Mixed Martial Arts. This comes via Dave Meltzer on his radio show early this morning:
“Doug Crosby’s in a lot of trouble right now because apparently Doug Crosby went on the Internet and was trolling people on the Internet, you know, and making fun of them and all this, you know as far as they’re ripping on him and he’s making fun of them and that is conduct unbecoming a judge and I know several of the commissions called him and then UFC called him as well and they told him to, you know, do not be, you know… GET OFF THE INTERNET and there’s a lot of commissions right now very upset about judges on the Internet. I think that they were very mad at Cecil Peoples when he made that stupid leg kick thing after the Shogun Rua fight with Machida and you know so I think that there’s going to be, you know, one of the new rules judging unofficial rule is like you can’t do 10-10s even though you’re allowed to but everyone knows you really can’t and is that you cannot go out there and troll people on the Internet after you know things, I mean… I don’t see anything wrong with a judge going out there and explaining, unless he’s a fricking moron and explain like well, leg kicks don’t count, well that’s… then he probably shouldn’t be judging, honestly, but I don’t see anything wrong with a judge explaining but a judge should absolutely not be out there making fun of people.
Then again, you know, I don’t know… (laughs) The Internet’s a funny thing, I mean, should Dana be on Twitter telling everyone fuck you? And he’s doing that and he’s fricking, he’s the most powerful guy in the whole business! I mean, so, he’s setting quite the example here.”
Mr. Crosby should re-read my advice from yesterday. It would serve him well if he wants to continue having a career as a judge in Mixed Martial Arts.
Jordan Breen of Sherdog:
Based on the volume of email I’ve got about it, I wonder if people are ready to let Doug Crosby usurp Cecil Peoples as the go-to hated judge.
(The) Real hope here is that fans and media get mad enough that when the UFC need out-of-state judges, Crosby never comes up for fear of backlash.
Josh Gross of Sports Illustrated:
Just got off the phone with Doug Crosby, who speaks the way he posts on forums. He declined to address his scoring of Penn-Edgar.
I tried several times to get him to speak, pointing out that he’s already gone public on the Underground. “No means no,” Crosby said.
Strangest 2 min. convo ever. He asked me how my family was and then said he confused me with another Josh Gross from Calif.
He asked how I got the number, then said it was his assistant’s. He was doing her a favor by answering. Also asked about the weather in L.A.
If I’m a mixed martial artist in position to dictate such things, Doug Crosby never judges my fight.
Media Report: Mike Whitehead allegedly in hot water with Las Vegas police
Let Adam Hill of the Las Vegas Review-Journal tell you what’s up:
KLAS TV 8 in Las Vegas says Mike Whitehead is wanted for sexual assault and drug charges.
according to story, police came to his LV home because of suspected sexual assault and discovered a marijuana growing operation.
KLAS is the CBS affiliate in Vegas.
Today’s media notebook
- Chuck Liddell vs. Rich Franklin set for 6/12 in Vancouver at UFC 115 (didn’t Dana White publicly deny it a week or two ago?)
- BJ Penn’s trainer says his fighter had a sinus infection going into UFC 112 bout against Frankie Edgar
- Frankie Edgar gets a hero’s welcome back in Toms River, New Jersey
- Kenny Florian ends up with a horrible staph infection in his knee while on vacation
- Kenny Florian says Frankie Edgar’s title win proves the Lightweight division is the most difficult in UFC
- Zuffa’s big plan in the future to run shows in Alberta province (Canada)
- Rickson Gracie black belt Henry Akins talks about his new school
Brock Lesnar compares Vince McMahon and Dana White:
If I had to say one thing about Vince it would be ruthless. If I had to say something about Dana it would be diligent and somewhat brilliant. Two different approaches to business. I had a great run with WWE. WWE gave me great visibility, I met my wife there, and I got paid a lot of money, it was just my time to go. I sensed it. I was smart enough to leave. That’s the bottom line.
Quote of the Day (about Liddell/Ortiz being changed to Liddell/Franklin)
Bryan Alvarez: “See that’s why it was confusing. I mean, to me, Dana has a track record of largely being a straight shooter.”
Dave Meltzer: “Except when he doesn’t want to be. Or when he loses his temper.”
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 21 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
How big of a deal is this for UFC & Anderson Silva?
By Zach Arnold | April 12, 2010
I noted in my article about UFC 112 judge Doug Crosby needing to apologize to UFC management that his actions would create a negative reflection upon the people who hired him and the boss he worked for (Marc Ratner).
The event already has drawn enough media controversy. So, what do we say about the fact that Anderson Silva didn’t have his gloves taped for the main event fight against Demian Maia?
Bloody Elbow: Anderson Silva’s gloves weren’t taped
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 12 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |