Online reaction to Kimbo/Nelson fight: Look at the Twitter traffic!
By Zach Arnold | September 30, 2009
It’s such a bizarre reaction online to see many MMA fans somehow trying to justify what they just watched by: a) praising UFC for conning them over and doing a good job of it, b) Kimbo has somehow ‘improved’, and c) look how much traffic these guys are getting on Twitter!
After one fan ripped into Nelson’s showing tonight, Josh Gross says that Nelson is Top 25 material when “he’s in shape.” Top 25? Nelson was a Top 10 Heavyweight in the last couple of years. Now he’s on TUF and is “Top 25 potential”? What?
However, according to agent Matt Walker’s favorite mouthpiece, tonight’s Kimbo/Nelson fight was fun. Why, Kimbo Slice looked like a real fighter for the first time who could win a fight in the UFC or perhaps K-1. You can’t make this up.
Michael David Smith at AOL Fanhouse:
But even though Nelson beat Kimbo decisively, I came away from their fight more convinced than I was before that Kimbo is worthy of fighting in the UFC. I also came away more convinced than I was before that Nelson is the favorite to win this season’s Ultimate Fighter tournament.
Slice’s impressive Wednesday night loss on Spike TV’s “The Ultimate Fighter” to Roy “Big Country” Nelson might not have been his final fighting appearance on the show.
An industry source who declined to be identified because of the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s sacred protection of the show’s previously filmed results said Kimbo’s strong performance on Wednesday’s “TUF” broadcast left him strongly positioned him to be a replacement for another fighter who couldn’t proceed in the tournament.
From the beginning, Kimbo looked bad. He was extremely slow, moved gingerly, and left his chin wide open. He put his whole body into every jab, and frankly fought scared. Once he went down, he showed virtually no improvement from the last time we saw him on his back against James Thompson.
Credit Dana White for not going overboard in talking up what a great fight that was. In fact, he probably earned some points with viewers for mocking Nelson’s celebration and punching style.
Kimbo was protected, and you can tell they want to milk more ratings out of his name and ideally a PPV or Spike TV live card fight in the future. Kimbo came across as a compelling enough person that you’d want to root for that there will be interest in seeing him develop as a fighter.
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 35 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Dana White interview: I have plenty of PPV headliners
By Zach Arnold | September 30, 2009
Here’s a clip of an interview the UFC President did with Sherdog. Full transcript is available here, but here’s a quote from the interview:
“It’s a business, it’s just a business. You’re going to have the one thing that we’re lucky is that as many shows as we do that we have so many people that can headline fights. And, no, it’s just, it’s part of running a business.”
“Absolutely, you know how many fucking fights that we put on a year? But that’s the business, it’s been like that since day one, it was like that when I was putting on five fights a year, you know? It’s always going to be a problem, You’re going to have guys that are injured, you know, it’s always an issue.”
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 21 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
The heat-up for Kimbo Slice vs. Roy Nelson tonight
By Zach Arnold | September 30, 2009
By far the most media coverage for The Ultimate Fighter, tonight’s fight between the former Elite XC ace and the former IFL champion will no doubt draw a rating in the 2’s like the first two shows have. The question is — just how big could the rating get? A secondary question is whether or not the fight could draw a higher rating than RAW did on Monday. If that happens, you will never hear the end of it on message boards and blogs. I have to give credit to Neil Davidson of The Canadian Press who does a great job writing about MMA.
Kimbo made the ‘car wash’ of media rounds on Monday and Tuesday. He’s gotten ink in the Philadelphia Daily News, ESPN, The Boston Herald, The South Florida Sun-Sentinel, and The Las Vegas Sun. I had to laugh at this headline: Black Israelites Herald the Rise of Kimbo Slice.
Here’s Rashad Evans doing the hard sell for tonight’s fight. He’s continuing to push the “Roy Nelson needs discipline” train of thought here.
Over at heavy.com, Jonathan Snowden takes a look at Kimbo’s life story. Worth reading.
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 26 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Press Release: Gabriel Gonzaga to fight live on internet PPV
By Zach Arnold | September 29, 2009
Fight-Stream.com to present Warriors in Combat inaugural show as a live internet pay-per-view on www.fight-stream.com.
Warriors in Combat (Americas premier submission grappling organization) is proud to announce an action packed night of fights consisting of 10 amateur MMA bouts and an 8 man submission grappling tournament featuring some of the east coasts best grapplers. Warriors in Combat is highlighted by a BJJ Super Fight double feature featuring Jorge Patino “Macao” vs. Mat Santos and Gabriel “Napao” Gonzaga (Team Link) vs. Roberto “Tussa” Alencar (Gracie Barra). This show will be available to the world Saturday October 3rd at 7:30pm EST 4:30pm PST on www.fight-stream.com for low the price of $7.99.
Fight-Stream.com is a provider of fully produced, high quality, live on-demand pay-per-view broadcasts.
Topics: Media, Zach Arnold | No Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
DREAM 12 to feature a hexagon cage
By Zach Arnold | September 29, 2009
It will debut on 10/25 at Osaka Castle Hall. The idea is that DREAM will do the cage format once a year as a special attraction. They claim that the decision on using a hexagon was made based on advice from Strikeforce and based on the kind of structure that would be the most fan-friendly in terms of viewing fights in.
Eddie Alvarez vs. Katsunori Kikuno has been booked for the Osaka event.
Interesting that the Youtube video up above has 60,000 views in a couple of days.
Topics: DREAM, Japan, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 25 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Finding an opponent for Georges St. Pierre…
By Zach Arnold | September 28, 2009
… apparently is a lot tougher than it sounds. The winner of Mike Swick vs. Dan Hardy is expected to face St. Pierre in 2010. The Swick/Hardy fight happens on 11/14 in Manchester. The UK fans seem excited.
Swick is ranked #7 in the latest Independent World MMA rankings and Hardy is in the top 20.
In other UFC matchmaking news, expect Rashad Evans vs. Thiago Silva for the 1/2 Las Vegas show. Dave Meltzer reported on Sunday night that Evans turned out a fight against Randy Couture and mocked Evans for saying that he wanted to fight Silva because “he’s higher ranked.” There is a natural angle to the fight, given that Silva beat Keith Jardine (Rashad’s teammate). A loss by Evans to Silva would hurt the momentum for a fight against Quinton Jackson, but Evans needs to fight and recover from the May loss to Machida.
“I’m going into a camp where I probably actually get to train for maybe about six or seven weeks, and then I’m fighting in Manchester, England. And then I’m fighting Randy Couture and I don’t have anything really to gain out of the situation,” Evans continued.
The answer, of course, is a) money and b) a win.
There are rumors of the 1/2 card having a ‘triple main event’ featuring Anderson Silva vs. Vitor Belfort, Dan Henderson vs. Nathan Marquardt, and Rashad Evans vs. Thiago Silva. That will not set the world on fire.
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, UK, Zach Arnold | 59 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
K-1 9/26 Seoul, South Korea
By Zach Arnold | September 26, 2009
Event reports: K-1 Legend | Bloody Elbow | AOL Fanhouse
9/26 Seoul, Olympic Stadium Gym #1 (3:30 PM start)
The official match order on the card:
- Taisei Ko vs. Hyun Man Myung
- Min Ho Song vs. Nae Chul Kim
- Ladies: Lim Su Jeong vs. Chen Qing
- Tahir Menxhiqi vs. Chi Bin Lim
- Kin Tai Ei vs. Catalin Morosanu
- Remy Bonjasky vs. Melvin Manhoef
- Errol Zimmerman vs. Glaube Feitosa
- Ruslan Karaev vs. Kyotaro
- Ewerton Teixeira vs. Singh Jaideep
- Semmy Schilt vs. Daniel Ghita
- Jerome Le Banner vs. Musashi
- Peter Aerts vs. Alistair Overeem
- Badr Hari vs. Zabit Samedov
Topics: K-1, Media, South Korea, Zach Arnold | 41 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Why are so many people in boxing unhappy after last weekend’s Mayweather PPV?
By Zach Arnold | September 24, 2009
Interesting question to ask, considering the various media leaks Richard Schaefer (through Kevin Iole and Golden Boy-owned Ring Magazine) has made regarding how super stupendous the PPV buyrate will be for last weekend’s bout between Floyd Mayweather & Juan Manuel Marquez.
The first interesting sign is that the live gate was below par for the show. Remember, Dana White last week in Dallas during media rounds said he had been told that the advance for the show was not very good. Then came the whole weight issue with Mayweather and how he missed a cutoff of 144 pounds and paid Marquez $600,000 USD for being two pounds over. Third, there was the confrontation between Max Kellerman and Mayweather in the ring, where Shane Mosley made his presence felt.
So, as I asked in the title of this post, why are so many people in boxing so unhappy in the aftermath of Mayweather essentially setting up a match next year against Manny Pacquiao?
Topics: Boxing, Media, Zach Arnold | 96 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Independent World MMA Rankings – September 25, 2009
By Zach Arnold | September 24, 2009
From the office of the Independent World MMA Rankings
September 25, 2009: The August 2009 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 web sites.
Some of the best and most knowledgeable MMA writers from across the MMA media landscape have come together to form one independent voting panel.
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 25 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Law professor needs your research help
By Zach Arnold | September 24, 2009
This message was left on our site:
My name is Brendan Maher, and I’m a law professor at Oklahoma City University.
I’m currently writing an academic piece (for publication in fairly dry legal journals) about the history, legitimacy and regulation of MMA. One aim of the piece is to address certain misperceptions about MMA that continue to exist in academia.
During the course of my research, I have been unable to locate online the releases of the NSAC concerning fighter payouts. Can anyone here — I know this site is visited by most if not all of the leading MMA journalists — tell me if such NSAC paperwork is online? I know many MMA sites report the info, but it would be nice to see the primary source.
Thanks,
Brendan Maher
Topics: Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 5 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Tim Kennedy does the media rounds
By Zach Arnold | September 24, 2009
He’s fighting tomorrow in Oklahoma for Strikeforce on Showtime. Heavy.com has a really good interview with him. Kennedy, who is in the military, has a very busy schedule outside of fighting:
Strikeforce was very accommodating with the fact that I’m still going to be part of the military, being able to continue to wear the uniform. My fight’s on the 25th. The 26thand 27th I’m coming home, packing my bags, grabbing my uniform and flying to the Soldier of the Year competition to help the troops there. These are things that they’re very understanding of. They’re very flexible with recognizing that I still have responsibilities as a soldier to take care of those things.
It’s difficult. Imagine you being a promotion owner and you wanting me to fight for you. You would have a difficult time saying “Well, I actually don’t own you, I can’t tell you where to go because the military still owns you.” Certain promotion owners don’t want to give that away. As it is right now, Scott (Coker) is just being a very accommodating boss, very flexible, and very understanding of my obligations which are all over the place.
Also on Friday’s card is Tyron Woodley, who will be facing Zach Light. Light is on a three-fight losing streak and is being served up on a platter here for Woodley.
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 3 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Hideous heavyweights on The Ultimate Fighter
By Zach Arnold | September 23, 2009
That fight between James McSweeney and Wes Shivers was simply atrocious to watch. When I made a proclamation last week that the heavyweight fights on this season of The Ultimate Fighter would be bad, I didn’t imagine they could be this bad. At least last week’s fight had someone juicing red big time.
Shivers smothered McSweeney and did nothing with him on the mat. He should have finished that guy in two minutes. McSweeney, other than leg kicks and a few goofy striking spots, did nothing of note against Shivers and should have finished his opponent off in 2 minutes (when Shivers already started gassing out).
I’ll give credit to Spike for heating up a “Rashad vs. Roy Nelson” angle, given that they pulled the trigger already on Nelson vs. Kimbo Slice for next week’s show. I agree with Michael David Smith that next week’s show will be the biggest fighter ever in the history of TUF, but after that fight where Nelson will likely win — then what?
We should all be praying that the fights get better on this show because the first two weeks have not given fans a lot of hope.
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 39 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Playing a dangerous game with the planning of Fedor vs. Brett Rogers
By Zach Arnold | September 23, 2009
Update (9/23): The 11/7 show will take place at the Sears Centre at Hoffman Estates (near Chicago). This will be interesting to see how CBS handles the Gus Johnson booking. Johnson was able to work the Kimbo Slice/Seth Petruzelli fight last year because it was near Miami and the next morning he was able to make the game. This time around, the Bears host Arizona (a FOX game) and the only game nearby Chicago would be Indianapolis (hosting Houston) in Week 9. The normal protocol for the announcers and production crews for NFL games is to get into town two days before the game, talk to the players, do prep, and then be ready to make everything happen by Saturday. Would Johnson skip a week of NFL commentating simply for this MMA show?
—
Original article – September 15th, 2009
What is it that we’ve heard rumored the last few weeks? That Fedor vs. Rogers would happen, on Showtime, on October 10th, and that it could happen in New Jersey. The other venue mentioned was Minneapolis (Target Center) or St. Paul (Xcel Energy Center) as options that would give Rogers a perceived hometown crowd advantage.
After contacting sources who would have information on the ground about what’s happening, there’s a simple answer — nobody is really sure. One source told me that if an event is happening in New Jersey, no one has heard a word about it. Unless something is decided shortly, then New Jersey may be out of the running here. Which leads us back to the Minneapolis/St. Paul area and the various issues that Strikeforce/Showtime would have in running in the area in the Fall/Winter season. The Xcel Center is home base for the Minnesota Wild NHL hockey team and the Target Center is the home base for the Minnesota Timberwolves NBA basketball team. The 10/10 date is open at both Xcel and Target, but Target has NBA on 10/9 and it would take a fast changeover to give Showtime crews time to prep the building for production.
Open schedule in list form:
- 10/10 – open at both Xcel and Target Center
- 10/31 – open at both Xcel and Target Center
- 11/14 – open at Xcel Center
- 11/21 – open at both Xcel and Target Center
- 11/28 – open at both Xcel and Target Center
- 12/05 – open at Xcel Center
- 12/12 – open at Target Center
- 12/19 – open at both Xcel and Target Center
In other words, unless Strikeforce plans on moving the fight to late November, then I don’t see it happening in Minneapolis/St. Paul. So, if it’s not happening in New Jersey or Minneapolis, then where does Strikeforce run the fight? San Jose Arena (HP Pavilion) would be the obvious answer given the ownership group that Strikeforce is made of.
If there really is an event set for October 10th, then it’s incredibly late to even start promoting the fight on Showtime let alone try to generate any sort of house show audience without giving away massive amount of free tickets, which is why I don’t believe the fight will happen on 10/10. There’s no way, even in San Jose, that Strikeforce could get more than a couple thousand paid for Fedor/Rogers if they try running on 10/10 (no matter how many mailing lists they have).
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 38 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |