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Fox Sports: "Zach Arnold's Fight Opinion site is one of the best spots on the Web for thought-provoking MMA pieces."

The freedom to contract means the freedom to indemnify UFC from responsibility

By Zach Arnold | September 30, 2015

Writer Jason Floyd dropped this proverbial turd in the punch bowl regarding a clause UFC fighters are being asked to sign regarding USADA drug testing:

ARTICLE 22: WAIVER AND RELEASE

As a condition of participating in or preparing for a Bout or working with an Athlete who is participating in or preparing for a Bout, Athles, Athlete Support Personnel and other Persons agree to release and hold harmless UFC, USADA and their designees from any claim, demand or cause of action, known or unknown, now or hereafter arising, including attorney’s fees, resulting from acts or omissions which occurred in good faith.

First, the key phrase here is good faith. It’s nebulous and extremely hard to combat in a protracted lawsuit should any fighter sue them over a mishap.

Second, this waiver could easily raise the issue of unconscionability. In other words, it’s such a one-sided adhesive agreement in which an entity with all the leverage in negotiating is pressuring fighters to give up even more constitutional rights in order to continue employment while under contract with UFC. You have the right to sue in America. You have the right to send a demand letter. Nevada’s anti-SLAPP law is on the books to enforce protection of these rights.

Lots of people sign contracts every day giving up constitutional rights as part of settlement agreements. However, signing such agreements as a condition of continued employment or else face a possible ice-out in labor participation as an “indepedent contractor” is arguably excessive.

Which brings us to two legal defeats in the past week for UFC in Las Vegas Federal court:

1) Their motion to dismiss the anti-trust lawsuit filed by Cung Le, Nate Quarry, and others was denied. Read Paul Gift’s remarkable article at Bloody Elbow detailing last Friday’s court hearing.

2) Discovery is beginning and the plaintiffs will get access to an assortment of business contracts. How much of this information will be kept under seal by the judge and how much will be made available to the press?

We’ve seen dribs and drabs over the years in various legal cases, such as the Eddie Alvarez/Bellator debacle, about what UFC contracts supposedly look like. Thanks to the efforts of Rob Maysey, we’re about to see a whole lot more and the fighters are going to get an opportunity to see some real details on UFC’s business model.

It is always amazing to see how hyper-aggressive UFC is legally in protecting their business model (e.g. making members at their gyms wear UFC-branded gis over other branded gis) and pro-actively preventing any future legal challenges. But once they actually do get challenged in court, they aren’t teflon. Their crack legal team in New York has now formulated a strategy of… gasp… trying to establish damages from NY’s MMA ban by booking Madison Square Garden in April and seeking an injunction. As Jonathan Snowden adroitly notes, UFC knows that MMA is illegal in New York and that booking MSG is a self-imposed injury. But the flipside here is that UFC drew the same judge for this new injunctive hearing as they did for their original lawsuit against New York state.

Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 4 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

A bowling shoe ugly UFC slobberknocker in Saitama

By Zach Arnold | September 26, 2015

Main card results from the UFC Fight Night show at Saitama Super Arena:

The Sunday afternoon Dentsu-promoted UFC card in Japan gave some momentary glimpses of the glory days of Japanese MMA in terms of emotion and fun. I miss it very much. I still believe that MMA can be a viable sport in Japan but it’s entirely dependent on professional wrestling star power and New Japan is the only major player in Japanese professional wrestling.

I’ve long been a crusader again yakuza influence in Japanese combat sports and believe it’s the right position. However, I cannot and will not deny the crippling impact that the yakuza crackdown over the last decade in Japan has had on combat sports. Once the dark money vanished, then sponsors & television networks became reticent. It’s easy to push the cash flow when there’s already another source of cash flow being piped in. Once the dark money dried up, so did national interest. Without the criminal syndicates using old-school pro-wrestling extortion tactics to buy tickets at discounts from event promoters in order to push other businesses into buying tickets from the gangs, it became a lot harder to promote events on a regular basis.

The challenge for someone like Nobuyuki Sakakibara to make a second run in Japan is enormous. Let’s assume that his new money marks are foreigners and have a lot of cash to burn. Let’s say that he is able to buy TV access on Fuji TV or other television networks. That still doesn’t address what he’s going to do about attracting Dentsu-level sponsors. It still doesn’t address what he’s going to do about building real Japanese mainstream stars. It doesn’t address the fact that Sakakibara is a marked man in Japan who has as many powerful enemies as he has as powerful friends. The scandal that brought down PRIDE was a national disgrace that played out in Shukan Gendai magazine and amongst Fuji TV stockholders. It was a scandal that involved police investigators from the country’s largest Metropolitan police force.

Color me skeptical that the return of PRIDE is coming any time soon. I would love to see a new boom period in Japan but the ingredients that made combat sports successful in Japan do not exist right now and may not exist in the future.

As for UFC’s efforts with the sold show Dentsu affair in Saitama, it was a delightfully polite & respectful audience. Takeya Mizugaki went emo. Josh Barnett’s mic performance, Rusher Kimura-style, was more pleasing than watching his five-round gutty & grizzly unanimous decision win over Roy Nelson. To Josh’s credit, I was utterly dumbfounded by two judges scoring the fight 48-47. I had it comfortably 50-45 even though Nelson absorbed some savage rib roasters in the process.

I loved the reaction from the Japanese fans on the Mousasi/Hall fight. Mousasi was viewed as a legitimate home town star. They were intensely focused on his ground game, which looked excellent. And then Hall blew up the proceedings with a picture perfect back kick and a flying knee that should have stretchered the poor guy out of the arena.

And then there was Ishihara and Hirota. They fought to a majority draw. Hirota drew laughs for talking about a crooked tooth. They went to the hospital together and were both given “six-figure UFC contracts.” If only there was a sudden victory sudden death round PRIDE-style…

Topics: Japan, Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 8 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

Blood oath: Josh Gross’ Deadspin article alleges UFC cover-up of a Vitor Belfort drug test

By Zach Arnold | September 21, 2015

UFC’s bête noire is back in action and on one of his biggest platforms yet.

“A sketchy drug test didn’t stop Vitor Belfort from fighting at UFC 152”

That’s an article highlighting the pre-USADA era of UFC drug testing. If you’ve read my countless articles on MMA’s testosterone plague, little of what Josh wrote in his new Deadspin article will shock or surprise you. The only surprise is, if his information is true, how long the information took to become public.

A quick summary of the lengthy Deadspin article:

Onto my observations or questions:

  1. If the fight in question had happened to be in Nevada and not Ontario, this would be an exponentially more explosive scandal story.
  2. The incestuousness of MMA business relations is so Southern-fried in its nature.
  3. Americans have long believed that major, too-big-to-fail sporting institutions like the NFL and UFC were head-and-shoulders above others for intelligence & competence when, in fact, they have been exposed as typical corporations.
  4. Will UFC sue Gawker Media in Nevada Federal court and take their chances that an anti-SLAPP motion won’t survive a libel suit? Or will UFC ignore the Deadspin article? Nevada’s anti-SLAPP motion recently got watered down and it’s not as strong as anti-SLAPP motions in California, Oregon, or Texas.
  5. Why would Jeff Novitzky agree to take a job as a drug test overlord for a sports company that issued their own Therapeutic Use Exemptions and now is partnering up with an entity in USADA that may have different standards for TUEs than state athletic commissions like Nevada?

Ben Fowlkes responds: Let us remark on how utterly insane MMA’s testosterone era was

Erik Magraken talks about the Deadspin story in context of assault, informed consent, fraud, and CTE should someone decide to sue UFC in the future.

Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 1 Comment » | Permalink | Trackback |

Nevada issues Nick Diaz a de facto lifetime ban over marijuana usage

By Zach Arnold | September 14, 2015

Imagine if he had been involved in a hit-and-run or proclaimed he needed medicine from Thailand.

What’s another writ of mandate lawsuit amongst friends?

Read Brett Okamoto’s pain-staking summary of Monday’s Nevada State Athletic Commission meeting. Ben Fowlkes dispenses with the Barney Fife-level quasi-police attitude that was on display with the commission board. Mike Chiappetta on the unconscionable nature of a five year ban.

Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 40 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

USADA’s no-good, very-bad week is now dragging Floyd Mayweather & UFC into the mud

By Zach Arnold | September 11, 2015

This was supposed to be a triumphant week for Floyd Mayweather in Las Vegas. His last victory lap after dethroning Manny Pacquiao.

Instead, Mayweather got sued by a woman for defamation for pre-fight comments and both Pacquiao & Arum got sued by fans for fraud due to Pacquiao’s shoulder injury.

Even worse, there is virtually no mainstream media attention for Mayweather’s victory lap fight against 35-to-1 underdog Andre Berto. Literally nobody cares. This was not how the master plan was supposed to work.

When the sharks smell blood in the water…

Thomas Hauser, firing on all cylinders. blitzed USADA & Floyd Mayweather with a devastating article at SB Nation claiming that USADA allowed Floyd Mayweather to use an IV that would have been banned under WADA standards. Hauser also claims that USADA does not allegedly disclose their drug testing results with athletic commissions. Hauser’s article raised the issue of granting “retroactive” Therapeutic Use Exemptions to certain fighters.

Nevada’s commission, once again, was backed into a corner. They denounced USADA’s granting of a TUE to Mayweather for two saline IV mixes.

Hauser’s article also hit on USADA’s lack of usage of Carbon Isotope Ratio tests for detective synthetic testosterone usage. Instead, Hauser alleges that USADA uses standard T/E ratio tests and that previous T/E ratios for Mayweather drug tests were 0.69 and 0.80, below a standard 1:1 T/E ratio for the average human being.

All of this matters because the UFC has entered into an agreement with USADA to oversee their personal drug testing program. Jeff Novitzky is the front man for UFC. Already, there is a growing fissure between Nevada’s athletic commission and USADA. On Thursday night, Lance Pugmire of The Los Angeles Times dropped this bomb:

The same Frank Mir who once got permission to use testosterone was getting permission from USADA to use Adderall. Pugmire’s LA Times article on this story details how furious Nevada is for creating confusion amongst the fighters as to what is allowed and who has jurisdiction regarding what is allowed thanks to USADA.

Throwing another monkey wrench into the proceedings is the alleged fact that parties signing contracts with USADA are bound to confidentiality clauses, at least if you believe what promoter Bob Arum has to say. Arum’s rather toned-down response this week to the Mayweather IV discovery was remarkable because of how realistic yet fatalistic the situation was. He could scream to the mountain top about USADA letting Mayweather use an IV but what good was it going to do Top Rank or his client?

If Nevada declares war on USADA, what will it mean for other state athletic commissions? At last week’s California State Athletic Commission in Los Angeles, USADA was on the meeting agenda to obtain approval as an approved drug collector for CSAC. What now?

Topics: Boxing, CSAC, Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 6 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

The wrong weight, the wrong attitude, the wrong time for Demetrious Johnson in the UFC

By Zach Arnold | September 7, 2015

As technically skilled of a champion in modern day Mixed Martial Arts, Demetrious Johnson unfortunately doesn’t fit in the current zeitgeist that is UFC.

He isn’t trademarking and barking phrases like “do nothing bitch.” He isn’t writing Internet rants about women and yoga. He isn’t a domestic batterer. He doesn’t talk about his opponents in terms of prison rape. He’s not, at least to anyone’s knowledge, a steroid abuser. He’s also under 145 pounds.

In today’s marketplace, that’s a recipe for not drawing paying customers, let alone respect amongst UFC’s heavily pro-wrestling dominated audience base. They want loud, they want crass, they want over-the-edge, and they want Lightweight-or-higher size.

Henry Cejudo is the last real test on the horizon for Demetrious Johnson. Cejudo would be UFC’s marketing dream, at least on paper. Perhaps he could pull off the impossible and make a sub-145 pound weight class a household division. Probably not, though.

In a perfect world where there was real global MMA competition, especially in Japan, Demetrious Johnson would have significant more opportunities to build his reputation up as a star. He would have been a perfect fit in PRIDE. Even though the Takanori Gomi-led Bushido series didn’t draw as well as the main PRIDE cards, the Bushido events still drew enough attention and produced some outstanding fights. With the Japanese space largely in a vacuum due to the crackdown on dark money & TV shareholders nervous to step back into the void, guys like Demetrious Johnson and Bibiano Fernandes don’t have the financial opportunities as other champion fighters do. They come into the sport with some marketing disadvantages and on a UFC-type stage, those disadvantages become magnified. Thanks to UFC’s deal with Reebok, Microsoft is paying the company and not the fighter to advertise their product.

UFC can no longer afford to put Demetrious Johnson fights in main event slots on cards. It’s a shame, too, because he can be a finisher but the fans are now conditioned to believe that the smaller, faster fighters simply go the distance. The bathroom break portion of the show.

Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 8 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

Nevermind: California re-asserts lifetime ban for Javier Capetillo after licensing snafu

By Zach Arnold | September 3, 2015

Tuesday’s California State Athletic Commission meeting in Los Angeles was a circus and the star of the show was Antonio Margarito’s former trainer, Javier Capetillo.

If you’re a veteran reader of this site, you know the story about Antonio Margarito’s illegal hand-wraps that were caught before his January 2009 Staples Center fight against Shane Mosley. Margarito’s trainer, Javier Capetillo, was suspended in 2009 after athletic inspectors Dean Lohuis and Mike Bray were alerted by Shane Mosley’s trainer Naazim Richardson that Margarito had plaster wraps. Che Guevara, working as an athletic inspector at Staples Center, missed it. When it came time to suspend Margarito and strip Capetillo of his license, Lohuis and Bray were thrown under the bus while Guevara was promoted to Lohuis’s position as Chief Athletic Inspector.

Guevara, a main player in that Margarito incident, was at Tuesday’s athletic commission to receive a posthumous award for the late Michael King, a boxing promoter who made his King World fortune syndicating Oprah Winfrey’s TV show and by acting as a mega-bundler in Pacific Palisades for President Barack Obama.

Rather than asking Guevara to stick around and testify about what Capetillo had done, he was nowhere to be found during Tuesday’s hearing regarding Capetillo appealing the Athletic Commission for reinstatement.

There was a lot of Barry Horowitz-style hand-patting at Tuesday’s meeting for both the NABF & WBC giving Andy Foster awards and acknowledgement of service performed as Executive Officer. Perhaps they haven’t been paying attention to what is going on with the Javier Capetillo licensing situation in California.

Continue reading this article here…

Topics: Boxing, CSAC, Media, Zach Arnold | 9 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

The Ronda Rousey effect: How high will the price tag be for ESPN to snatch UFC from Fox Sports?

By Zach Arnold | August 4, 2015

Nobody is better in combat sports at generating social media traffic than the UFC & Ronda Rousey. It may not always be the nicest or most pleasant of comments from a rabid 18-to-34 year old demographic, but it’s voluminous.

ESPN decided long ago that they were interested in promoting UFC as much as Fox Sports… and it’s Fox who has the $90 million a year TV contract with Zuffa.

There has been financial pressure exerted on ESPN management by Disney regarding the salaries of on-air personalities. The network has gone all-in with expenditures for live programming. Costs are exploding. The mentality of promoting the brand over the talent won in the end, as Colin Cowherd & Keith Olbermann were shown the door.

There’s a reason ESPN immediately embraced a reported pay-for-play contract with Al Haymon’s PBC. ESPN no longer needed to spend $50,000 here and $50,000 there for filler boxing programming. Haymon paying them was music to the Mouse’s ears. However, automatic loyalty to promoting boxing is not a guaranteed proposition with ESPN. The network has gone all-in with Ronda Rousey. They put up with her PR blitz against Floyd Mayweather and gave her an award over Serena Williams. In Disney-land, Rousey’s a hotter property than Serena is right now.

Combine UFC’s ability to dominate social media traffic with ESPN’s hunger to bring UFC aboard in the future and you end up with the kind of positive coverage we have witnessed on ESPN’s platforms for UFC content in 2015.

When UFC’s contract with Fox expires in a couple of years, ESPN will undoubtedly make an offer to steal UFC away from Fox Sports 1. Whether ESPN will pay $90 million a year to UFC is one question, but it’s entirely another question to ask whether or not UFC sees an opportunity to offer programming for both networks. Will Fox drive a hard bargain at the negotiating table and demand exclusive TV rights or will UFC be able to shop around different programming packages similar to what NASCAR has done in the past?

ESPN never promotes a sports property they don’t have a piece of… except for UFC. Ask the NHL. Ask NASCAR. Ask EPL.

It is clear that Disney wants a piece of the action with UFC and they most certainly want a piece of the action with Ronda Rousey. She appeals to all demographics and hits the marketing sweet spot. Plus, she’s not losing a fight any time soon given the (lack of) depth in the 135 pound division. There is some staying power here.

Listen to how Bob Ryan & Michael Wilbon, two of ESPN’s venerable sports-writing voices, described Ronda Rousey’s place in the general American sports landscape:

“WILBON: Rousey is now 12-0 but more importantly the dominant figure in combat sports today, UFC or traditional boxing. People are comparing her recent fights to those of a young Mike Tyson. I never watch MMA but I’ve paid to watch Rousey and I find her irresistible. No matter what you think of UFC, Bobby, how important in the landscape of sports right now is Ronda Rousey?

RYAN: The big question is, what took her so long? I mean, 34 seconds? She’s had three, 104 seconds, last three bouts. She has become THE touchstone figure in all of sports. She’s what’s everyone is talking about. The other jocks are talking about her. LeBron James is tweeting about her. I even referenced her at the Martha’s Vineyard book festival on Saturday. You can’t ignore her!”

It was interesting to watch the mainstream personalities on ESPN react to Saturday’s fight as opposed to some of the more hardcore reaction, such as Chael Sonnen’s disappointment in the way things turned out with the late time start and the lack of opponent depth. ESPN personalities acknowledged the horrible mistake UFC made with 7 fights on the PPV main card and the late start time, but Rousey’s quick & explosive finish all but sugarcoated the proceedings.

The question UFC has to ask itself is a challenging one: how high is the ceiling for Fox Sports 1 and is it higher than what the ceiling could be for UFC on ESPN?

Right now, UFC has the best of both worlds — they have Fox’s money and exposure with ESPN’s powerhouse marketing apparatus. At some point, ESPN is going to want more than they’re currently getting in return. Is there enough room financially on both sides of the aisle to make a new marriage work? As long as Ronda Rousey is relevant, UFC has options with ESPN. The advertisers can’t enough of her.

Ronda’s won every business battle in 2015 but still has some unfinished business with former manager Darin Harvey. A final determination regarding their arbitration proceedings in Los Angeles Superior Court is scheduled for mid-January.

Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 11 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

Trump card: In scorching critics, UFC management burns Gannett/USA Today & stokes Reebok dumpster fire

By Zach Arnold | July 24, 2015

When you’re running the Rolls Royce of MMA operations but your behavior is as goofy as the XFL, it’s easy to see why you get called too cheap and too petty when you disown the people who helped make your company what it is today.

The UFC/Reebok six year, $70 million deal was a clunker in principle and has produced predictably disastrous results in execution. In and of itself, UFC making independent contractors wear uniforms while killing off their sponsorship money was ludicrous, greedy, and unnecessary — especially during a time when the company is dealing with an anti-trust lawsuit.

In the process, Reebok has drawn unprecedented level of scorn from fight fans for decisions that UFC management has made before and after the Reebok deal. The wrath of anger has been directed towards the wrong entity. However, Reebok is the sitting duck because they’re the business partner that decided to work with UFC. After the firing of Stitch Duran over his comments about cut men losing sponsorship revenue due to the Reebok uniforms, Reebok found itself on the defensive:

The anger online has been palpable – canceling Fight Pass subscriptions, threatening to boycott lower-level UFC PPVs, and direct fire aimed right at UFC’s designated lightning rod Dana White.

When you have a raging dumpster fire burning out of control, you don’t pour more lighter fluid on the dumpster fire. However, this is the only way Dana White knows how to conduct & defend business decisions in public.

Dana’s response to the Reebok & Stitch Duran criticism has been typically childish. USA Today, a content partner with MMA Junkie, took notice of Dana’s online behavior.

Dana White spent last night humiliating every UFC fan who dared to criticize him

Furious, White trashed his own business partner and outed their relationship:

“u know its a bad news day when USA Today does a story about my Twitter. About time they covered us without being paid @USATODAY”

It’s one thing to pick a fight with a fan online. It’s another thing to pick a fight with a major corporation and leave Reebok & Gannett to fend for themselves based on anger produced by your own bad behavior. The newspaper industry may be having a rough time financially but Gannett doesn’t need the UFC. UFC needs Gannett. There are reasons UFC is supposedly paying Gannett for coverage.

Ascribing motives to the behavior of UFC management about the way they treat their business partners is a dangerous idea. I can’t say with certainty what they are thinking in Vegas. Perhaps this was a warning shot from UFC against MMA Junkie/USA Today to try to cower them into silence with an unspoken threat of less money or future scoops. Perhaps it was simply a childish message board-style troll-job hit for a cheap score.

In responding to their critics, the Ringmaster wants you to follow his attack lead and go after his targets for deflection. It would be easy to trash media entities or writers allegedly accepting payoffs for media coverage. For nearly 20 years, I’ve been giving opinions and advice to anyone in public and in private about what the combat sports media landscape really looks like and where the money is or isn’t.

By the same token, it takes two to tango on a pay-to-play scheme. What does it say about UFC that they, in their own words, need to pay off media outlets in order to get mainstream sports coverage? What does that say about the health of their industry as a mainstream sport when UFC has to grease the palms of major media outlets in exchange for coverage?

Dana White isn’t the majority owner of UFC. The Fertitta family owns the majority of UFC. Dana’s destructive behavior is nothing new but the stakes have never been higher. I would assume that if the Fertittas told Dana to shut up, he would shut up. So far, he isn’t shutting up. It’s only getting worse. Reebok has gotten torched for their relationship with UFC. UFC is now torching one of their biggest media partners in Gannett. What kind of message is this sending to potential business partners who might want to work with UFC?

Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 21 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

UFC’s pound-the-table moment scape-goating Stitch Duran over Reebok backlash

By Zach Arnold | July 22, 2015

Let this sink in for a moment. UFC signed a $70 million dollar deal with Reebok over six years in which Reebok controls what fighters & staff wear at UFC events. Which means UFC killed sponsorships for individuals classified as independent contractors. Which plays right into the current anti-trust lawsuit right now in Las Vegas Federal court.

Throw in the supposed fact that cut-men working for UFC can’t work for other MMA promoters and you may as well scream “restraint of trade!” on the mountain tops.

You might as well also scream “retaliation!” after UFC fired veteran cut-man Jacob “Stitch” Duran for recent comments he made regarding how much income he is losing because of the Reebok uniform deal with UFC. First it was Burt Watson and now it’s Stitch Duran. In a classic Vince McMahon-style move, UFC fired someone they considered on the low end of their totem pole in order to scare the daylights out of agents & fighters.

What’s amazing to watch unfold with UFC right now is how the Reebok deal has managed to not only buttress the legal arguments made in the anti-trust lawsuit but also provide Bellator with an opportunity to attract free agents by allowing fighters and staff to hire their own sponsors like an independent contractor should be able to in the first place.

What’s even more amazing is this: UFC is going to the mattresses over $11.7 million dollars a year and we don’t even know what the breakdown is regarding cash versus gear/merchandise from Reebok.

Stitch Duran wasn’t just a cut-man. He was a cog in the machine that oversaw fighter safety in the same way Burt Watson made sure the fighters were taken care of. UFC is so scared of criticism, mild or manic, about their $11.7 million dollar yearly deal with Reebok that they’re firing people who helped make the organization what it is today. They are so thin-skinned, so paranoid, and stuck in an internal bubble to understand what kind of messages they are sending to those in the business world who could be future business partners.

After the public relations hell Reebok has gone through, why would you want the headaches of being a business partner with the UFC if that coveted 18-to-34-year old demographic is ready to savage your brand on social media?

What’s going to damage UFC’s ability to grow long-term isn’t one firing or one scandal. It’s going to be a slow stunting of growth by a thousand paper cuts. A myriad of self-inflicted & impulsive wounds. This is a company that can help create mainstream stars like Ronda Rousey and Conor McGregor when they want to. They just want total control in the process. They can’t help themselves make more money because they’re too proud to give up any sort of control of the market they dominate. They’re happy to cash in but not risk any control in exchange for the possibility of greater rewards.

The smaller the concession or slight, the angrier management reacts. Small-time carny logic from a sports property with high visibility. They hate the Camel’s nose in the Vegas desert circus tent. UFC is its own worst enemy.

Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 6 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

UFC & Frank Mir have everything to gain in the 2015 Fedor sweepstakes

By Zach Arnold | July 16, 2015

You can’t trump star power in combat sports, even with ugly Reebok uniforms.

Ronda Rousey was making waves at the ESPY awards in Los Angeles with another remark about Floyd Mayweather. Her troll game is supercharged. Fedor was making names because he’s coming out of retirement. The Russians want his next fight. Nobuyuki Sakakibara and those desperate to stay relevant in Japan would be interested in Fedor’s services.

However, the real money for Fedor is in UFC. He knows it. UFC knows it. They may have struck out on Fedor/Brock Lesnar and Lesnar/Mir bouts… but Fedor vs. Frank Mir is still a real possibility and would be a fight that makes sense for all parties involved.

First, keeping Fedor away from the Japanese would be a good thing. Who’s he going to fight in Japan this time around? Satoshi Ishii’s star is dead. Kazuyuki Fujita?

Second, keep Fedor away from Viacom. Fedor vs. Kimbo Slice is the fight they would want to promote and it would sell on PPV. The casual American fight fan would want to watch it. It would give Bellator a big image boost if they could pull off signing that fight.

Third, UFC needs some exciting fights for the Heavyweight division. Todd Duffee got hammered by Frank Mir in San Diego on Wednesday night. Nobody is sure how many fights are left for Cain Velasquez. Fabricio Werdum is the Heavyweight champion. If Fedor could find a way to beat Frank Mir, you could immediately book Fedor vs. Werdum in a revenge match.

The dawn of a new era in California

While Nevada is busy holding workshops to hash out the new rules & regulations on beefing up their drug suspension policies, California is ramping up the penalties. Assembly Bill 469, which would jack up monetary penalties up to 40% purse fine for a positive drug test, is in Appropriations. It’s only a matter of time before it gets passed.

Which means that minimum suspensions of at least two years for fighters who test positive is here to stay. Physiques and fight performances for some veteran fighters will undoubtedly be altered. The question is whether or not the new drug testing policies will impact UFC the same way MLB’s clamp down attempts on steroids has impacted their sport in the last few years.

The San Diego card was B-level, at best, on paper but turned out to be a wildly violent affair. Jessica Andrade. Tony Ferguson. Frank Mir. My goodness.

A part of me felt bad watching Josh Thomson struggle in what may be his last UFC fight. He’s 1-3 in his last 4 UFC fights and has lost 5 out of his last 7. The scorecard loss to Ben Henderson in January of 2014 derailed his career. It’s cute for Dana White to yell at fighters to not leave it in the hands of the judges but you can’t control what you can’t control when you’re in a three or five round fight. One bad decision by a judge can cost a fighter millions of dollars.

Speaking of judges, referee/judge Mike Beltran had a curious night in San Diego. Holly Holm had a one-sided fight and won every round but Beltran gave a round to her opponent. In the Ferguson/Thomson fight, neither Beltran nor judge Derek Cleary gave Ferguson a 10-8 round despite Andy Foster pushing for more 10-8 rounds.

Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 25 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

Was Conor McGregor’s win at UFC 189 worth $45 million dollars?

By Zach Arnold | July 11, 2015

The Hulk Hogan effect.

Every WWE wrestler in the 80s wanted to be on the Hulk Hogan A-level cards when the promotion toured on split squads. When Hogan drew money, everyone else drew money. The same principle applies to Conor McGregor.

His win over Chad Mendes on Saturday night was a triumph in the UFC’s undying belief that McGregor will be their number one ace as a drawing attraction. With Jon Jones constantly in trouble, the company needed someone reliable who could become The Next Great White Hope.

The Reebok uniforms are part of UFC’s growing dumpster fire when it comes to labor relations. The uniforms are trash. But as long as UFC can continue to produce the Conor McGregors of the world, there will be a thousand fighters who will buy into whatever UFC management is selling for a miniscule paycheck in hopes of winning an imaginary lottery ticket.

The main card for UFC 189 turned out to be a fantastic watch, especially in contrast to the amusing garbage produced by ESPN with their Al Haymon PBC debut on the Mouse. When UFC is hot, it is hot. When it’s not, it’s an abomination.

I do not doubt the marketing talent & fighting ability of Conor McGregor. You shouldn’t either after his fight performance against a disappointing Chad Mendes. However, that doesn’t excuse the absolutely shallow & pathetic behavior on display by UFC management in regards to the way they have insulted the intelligence of the fans and slimed other fighters who have given their best to Zuffa.

On Friday, UFC threw a curve into the mix with a “confrontation” backstage between McGregor and Urijah Faber. A classic pro-wrestling tease. In the two weeks before Mendes/McGregor, UFC management spent every waking breath tarnishing and denigrating Jose Aldo as a man and as a fighter. A man who was touted as the Number One Pound-For-Pound fighter in the world found his credibility and reputation getting trashed as if he was Ariana Grande. Those ribs really weren’t hurt. He didn’t want to fight because he couldn’t make weight. He didn’t want to fight because he is scared of McGregor.

These attacks didn’t come from McGregor’s camp. Well, technically, they did come from McGregor’s camp because UFC management is his camp given the reports of the mansion treatment. UFC management doesn’t even blur the lines of impartiality any more. They have completely erased those lines. No wonder Al Haymon loves his boxers screaming “Call Al Haymon!” after every fight like Keith Thurman did on Saturday night in Tampa.

To top off the absurdity, UFC pulled a WCW-style skit where McGregor arrived to the MGM Grand Garden Arena with a police escort for his own protection… except nobody was actually around mobbing him. And then there was Sinead O’Connor.

For his efforts, Chad Mendes will forever be a UFC company man after his recent 8-fight contract deal and loss to Conor McGregor. At least until they cut him or decide that he’s a “coward” for not taking any fight they throw at him. Life is just a work and everything is professional wrestling.

UFC 189 Main card results from the MGM Grand Garden Arena

Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 34 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

Reebok is the burning tire in UFC’s growing dumpster fire

By Zach Arnold | July 1, 2015

Good news for UFC — California state Senator Leland Yee copped a plea deal with the Feds in his racketeering & extortion case, so the prospects of UFC management or Andy Foster of the California State Athletic Commission possibly having to hit the witness stand dropped. We’ll see if the wiretap evidence is kept under seal or not by the Federal judge in the case.

And that’s about it for the good news lately for UFC. Really. UFC’s reverse-Midas touch these last several months is more or less standard operating procedure.

Where to begin? UFC calling Reebok fighter uniforms “fight kits.” A $70 million deal with Reebok that has been lampooned with zeal by everyone. How much of it is product and how much is actually cash? UFC is now starting their USADA drug testing program. They’ve banned fighters from using IVs after weigh-ins due to the serious problem of weight cutting.

And they got their ass kicked again in trying to get legislation passed for MMA in New York. It’s one thing to buy off Sacramento. It’s another to buy off Albany. As soon as the clock ran out in Albany, UFC was seething with outrage on Twitter about “corruption.” Yes, the folks in Las Vegas are seething with rage about corruption.

Under normal circumstances, the Reebok deal would be the most embarrassing notch on UFC’s 2015 business campaign. As Zane Simon appropriately noted, UFC’s Reebok rollout says a lot about both companies in the global marketplace. This is what you get when you want full control and envision a sport where every fighter’s image by Corporate is scripted as a generic puppet that is largely over-tanned, ripped, and covered in tattoos. Where guys are labeled independent contractors but are restrained from obtaining sponsors due to “Fight Kits.” Where fighters can’t afford to pay for month-long training camps in locations like Mexico City. Where fighters are trashed with glee by management not just on their way out but when they’re on top.

Rampage Jackson long ago joked that Las Vegas thinks they can put a bunch of guys in a cage labeled “UFC” and that it will sell. We’re about to find out now with those dreadful “UFC fight kits” just how much having UFC uniforms sells shows and sells uniforms.

We’ll find out shortly when Chad Mendes, filling in for Jose Aldo, fights Conor McGregor on short notice. UFC set up Aldo to get trashed by McGregor on a pathetic “world tour” public relations pit stop. A guy who has been champion for years was treated as the ultimate jabroni. UFC managed to string the fans along as much as possible before pulling the plug on Aldo’s title fight because of a rib injury. And now Aldo is being portrayed as the coward, the guy who’s afraid of UFC’s mini-version of Seth Rollins. Except, as far as I know, Seth Rollins or Roman Reigns didn’t actually live at one of Vince McMahon’s properties while getting the push of a lifetime.

Right out of the UFC playbook, we have Mendes vs. McGregor for yet another UFC “interim” title. How many more interim title belts can you have? I suppose we’ll see what the value of marketing an interim title belt is if the DA in Albuquerque is able to string a court case together against Jon Jones.

If McGregor beats Mendes, he’ll do so on short-notice. If Mendes beats McGregor, the UFC’s multi-year investment will be flushed down the toilet in exchange for a rematch between Aldo & Mendes that I’m not sure the mainstream casual fan will care about.

The UFC wants you to respect them as some sort of major sports conglomerate but they want you to scrutinize them as if they were a proverbial mom & pop shop.

It’s the fight business. When it rains, it pours. The problem is that so much of the crap UFC is facing has been entirely created by their own doing. They may not pay a price right now but they will pay a price later for mismanagement. UFC is not going away any time soon. Whether or not UFC is sold in the future, that’s a different question to ponder for another time.

The real concern MMA fans should have right now is not whether the sport has “peaked” or what the growth potential looks like. The real concern is whether or not the money that currently exists is going to exist in 10 years. PRIDE was able to bring in the best talent in the world because they had a massive contract with Fuji TV. Once the Fuji TV money was pulled due to the yakuza scandal, the jig was up. UFC faces a situation where they need to figure out how to maintain their current revenue streams to a point where they keep the status quo. Growth prospects look limited in a best-case scenario.

It’s all about the future. Fighting for UFC can bring you some fame. It can bring you some money. But for most fighters, it won’t. Most fighters will continue to have to work day jobs. The money for sponsorships isn’t going to be there in the foreseeable future. Fighter pay remains anemic. The prospects of intrusive drug testing make a “UFC lifestyle” less desirable. Money is the mother’s milk of politics and the fight business. Floyd Mayweather is making $220 million a fight and has the Showtime media platform to boost his earnings prospects. Where is that platform for UFC fighters?

If the UFC wants to remain relevant, they’re going to have to be able to attract athletic talent away from other sports. No matter how UFC spins it, their economic model & management structure is their own worst enemy. Reebok discovered the hard way that associating yourself with UFC can bring tremendous public relations heartburn to your own brand.

Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 19 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

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