With Kurt Angle’s new legal troubles, is MMA his only career option left?
By Zach Arnold | August 15, 2009
We all remember Kurt Angle’s tenacity last year in stating that he would fight in MMA, only for everyone to laugh it off justifiably.
Unfortunately, Angle faces a very bad legal situation and his pro-wrestling doors (mainly WWE and TNA) are closing on him if he ends up in prison. Japan is always an option, but more than likely Kurt Angle will be looking to do something quick for money. The only option left for him to make quick and significant money is an MMA fight.
Angle’s troubles, highlighted on Saturday in various media reports, are really bad. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette notes that Angle was arrested for violating a protection from abuse order, along with harassment charges and possession of Human Growth Hormone. Angle is currently out on bail.
Topics: Media, MMA, Pro-Wrestling, Zach Arnold | 12 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Strikeforce 8/15 San Jose Arena
By Zach Arnold | August 15, 2009
- Jay Hieron defeated Jesse Taylor by unanimous decision (30-27 across the board)
- Fabricio Werdum defeated Mike Kyle in R1 (1’24) by submission
- Lightweight Title match: Gilbert Melendez defeated Mitsuhiro Ishida in R3 (3’56) by referee stoppage (TKO)
- Light Heavyweight Title match: Gegard Mousasi defeated Renato Babalu in R1 (1’00) by KO.
- Women’s Featherweight Title match: Cris Cyborg defeated Gina Carano in R1 (4’59) by referee stoppage (TKO).
In Twitter world, lots of expected comments from casual fans — I still love Gina, Cyborg is all testerone and a he-male, when do we get a re-match, etc.
- LA Times: Brazil’s Cyborg too much for Gina Carano
- Nate Wilcox: The new face of women’s MMA is intensity
Yahoo put Steve Cofield’s post on their very front page, which is why there are over 700 comments. Big push.
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 38 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
The irony of the Roy Jones PPV
By Zach Arnold | August 15, 2009
Last week, he said he was in Philadelphia to watch how UFC produced a show of their size.
He might want to keep watching… and watching…
10:51… Jeff Lacy is having his hands wrapped at the moment, unless the clip we’re seeing is from earlier in the evening. I’d guess with all the fights ending early so far, the main event might be some ways off from starting.
11:00… I’ll post an update as soon as I find out when the fighters might be making their way in. Right now Tompkins and Edouard are chatting away, while a replay of Jones/Sheika plays.
11:05… According to Barry Tompkins, there’s a delay in the locker room of Jeff Lacy. The state commission is there. Tompkins doesn’t believe it will effect the fight, but it would be nice to know what the situation is.
11:13… Looks like things are moving again as it’s time for the national anthem.
11:17… The issue appears to be glove related. The Mississippi state commission requires both fighters to wear the same kind of gloves. Jeff Lacy is not agreeing to that.
11:19… Barry Tompkins has just suggested that he and Daniel Edouard do a little tap dance to entertain the spectators during the delay. No, I’m not making that up.
11:22… We’re getting a look inside Lacy’s room. Lacy is bouncing up and down a little trying to stay warm. No gloves in sight at the moment. Roy is pacing around his room. He’s got his gloves on.
11:26… Back to Lacy’s room. Here’s Lacy… “The commission want me to wear gloves that I can’t even put my hand in… They want me to wear a glove that I’ve never wore in my life. Nothing against Grant, but I’ve never worn that in my life.”
11:27… Supposedly there were no issues yesterday at the weigh-in, and Lacy was under the impression he’d be wearing Everlast gloves.
11:28… Over to Roy’s room. Roy… “A glove is a glove, it’s time to fight.”
11:31… The gloves are coming on. Lacy bangs them together. Looks like we’re finally going to get a fight.
Roy Jones ended up destroying Jeff Lacy in a completely one-sided bout. Lacy’s corner threw in the towel after the end of Round 10, but it should have been stopped sooner.
Topics: Boxing, Media, UFC, Zach Arnold | 10 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Final media heat-up for Gina Carano vs. Cris Cyborg
By Zach Arnold | August 15, 2009
Just wondering… you notice how for a big fight the two women actually make weight and yet against ‘lesser opponents’ they either didn’t really care or had an excuse? Then again, nobody cares…
- ESPN: Get in tune with Gina Carano
- The Las Vegas Sun: Gina Carano ready to write one for the history books
- Steve Cofield: Scott Coker interview — we weighed Carano and Cyborg daily
- TMZ: Gina Carano’s agent, Matt Walker, told Playboy she wouldn’t take any offers
- Press Release: Cash4Gold will sponsor Cyborg tonight (does that mean MC Hammer and a picture of the late Ed McMahon will be in her corner?)
- Sports by the Numbers MMA: Weight, wins, and women
- Dave Meltzer (Yahoo Sports): Women’s MMA takes center stage
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 26 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
The Ultimate Fighter reality show to air on WOWOW in Japan
By Zach Arnold | August 14, 2009
It starts this October, airing every Tuesday at Midnight.
As far as the platform is concerned, WOWOW is not a strong television network to be on. WOWOW is the network that Akira Maeda put RINGS on during the 90s and when Maeda had the chance to have his retirement match against Aleksandr Karelin on a big TV station, he stayed with WOWOW and the end result was that RINGS died shortly after Maeda’s retirement because the pay-TV platform simply didn’t give the promotion enough money to make it work.
Topics: Japan, Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 11 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Columnist: Gina Carano could look like a domestic abuse victim Saturday night
By Zach Arnold | August 13, 2009
I’m not sure if it’s a case of having the balls to publish this or if it’s a complete lack of taste or what it is:
People want to have sex with Gina Carano. I know this isn’t a big secret, but that’s the key to her success. She has that All-American, Girl-Next-Door charm about her and it draws people in. She looks at the camera, sheepishly bites her lip, gives a little wink, and “obliviously” plays along.
Thus far, people have enjoyed the beautiful Gina Carano beating people up. She doesn’t get hit back – not really – and when it’s all said and done she gets to give that smile and wink to the camera, letting everyone know she’s physically OK. It’s a fantasy played out in real life: pretty girl fights, pretty girl wins, pretty girl stays pretty. But what happens if Gina gets beaten up? How do viewers react if they see the girl next door look like a domestic abuse victim?
- San Francisco Chronicle: Gina Carano’s a knockout inside the ring first
- Las Vegas Sun: Gina vs. Cyborg set to make history
- ABC7 (Bay Area): Larry Beil interviews Gina Carano
- ESPN: A Q & A with MMA star Gina Carano (if she wasn’t fighting, she would be a drummer)
- Ben Fowlkes (SI): Good looks have never won a fight
- USA Today: Glamorous fighter Gina Carano gets spotlight in MMA main event
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 44 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
The argument against airing UFC 100 on Spike TV to counter Strikeforce programming
By Zach Arnold | August 13, 2009
Jason Bent at MMA Torch signals that Dana White’s attempt to air UFC 100 on Spike TV a month after the show aired live on PPV is Vince McMahon-style paranoia in order to combat Strikeforce because they signed Fedor.
Look, this show did 1.71 million PPV buys and was covered on ESPN and yes, everyone has seen the aforementioned main card bouts. However, it is a true disservice to your fans when you told them how important it was to PAY for this show, when they could have watched it for FREE a month later and this time you will actually get to see Jon Jones vs. Jake O’Brien and Stephan Bonnar vs. Mark Coleman, which were two fights most of us actually wanted to see.
So, Dana White comes out the bigger bitch on a night which will be topped off by two women fighting inside of a cage. If Strikeforce does not matter, why then, is he countering their programming with Brock Lesnar, who is the UFC’s biggest star at this moment? Why not go ahead and show Rashad Evans vs. Lyoto Machida from UFC 98 and use that to set up some talk about Evans on ‘The Ultimate Fighter’? Using Brock means he is going for the jugular and most fans who paid to see Brock do it to Mir once will gladly flip over and watch the replay of it for free. It was an awesome performance. Getting to see some undercard fights along with it, makes it amazing.
Other headlines
- The London Telegraph (Gareth A Davies): UFC 101 – British fans angry with ESPN coverage, want questions answered
- The Canadian Press: RCMP no more worried about MMA event drawing gang members than other sports
- The Globe and Mail (op-ed by Fight Network): MMA a sport? Actually, it’s several
- The Las Vegas Sun: Reed Harris has big plans for the future on UFC’s sister organization (Mexico & flyweights)
- The Kitsap Sun: Suspect provokes fight ‘in UFC training effort’ (you stay classy, newspaper headline writers)
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, UFC, Zach Arnold | 62 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Audio: Kenny Florian talks about his loss to BJ Penn and fight strategy
By Zach Arnold | August 12, 2009
Steve Cofield put audio online (here) of an 8-minute interview that ProMMA radio did with Kenny Florian. Kenny talked about his loss to BJ Penn, how he sees Penn vs. Diego Sanchez turning out as a fight, and thoughts on Anderson Silva’s masterful performance at UFC 101.
TRANSCRIPT
Q: “How much did that time out of the cage play into it for you? Did you have any ring rust coming into this one?”
Kenny Florian: “You know, I didn’t think it would be a factor just because I stayed busy throughout, I was training hard um throughout you know since November and you know besides a little layoff for the surgery I had for my tonsils, other than that I was great and I didn’t think it would be a factor and of course, you always have to be a positive and not think it’s going to be factor but um it definitely was you know… You know being almost 9 months away from the cage you know it hurt me, I felt like my timing with my striking it’s always an issue you know for me being away it’s always kind of caused me some problems, uh, kind of being away with the striking aspect you know it’s hard, I just found that I couldn’t get my range and my timing going during the fight and felt I wasn’t effective there. Um, and uh, you know, that was the main thing, I just felt uncomfortable with my striking, I just felt I wasn’t I didn’t get my normal range um and timing that I wanted.”
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 14 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Where is Gina Carano?
By Zach Arnold | August 11, 2009
Good question, considering that outside of the New York event she did with Cyborg to promote the fight for Showtime she has been very quiet (outside of doing an interview with Raw Vegas — transcript here). Sure, there was a ‘media day‘ being touted, but that’s it. That’s all the PR we’ve seen from either fighter in this encounter.
Part of being an ace fighter is doing all of the responsibilities that come with being a champion. Miguel Torres talked about this after his loss to Brian Bowles on Sunday. He also talked about this after the fight with Takeya Mizugaki last April. When you’re the best at what you do, you have a responsibility to do all the media rounds, to be available at any time, to do any advertising that is needed, and to be prepared to do activities outside of the cage. In the case of Miguel Torres, he lived up to everything that a champion is asked to do.
Gina Carano is in a unique situation here. If she beats Cris Cyborg on Saturday night, she becomes the women’s champion for the second biggest MMA promotion in the States. She’s already be the face of women’s MMA and once you are the champion, if you want to be taken seriously you have to be ready and prepared for all the responsibilities that come with being the champion. Unlike Torres and Lesnar and other aces in UFC/WEC, there will (most likely) always be a UFC whether or not those men fight in or out of the organization. With Carano, what is women’s MMA right now? Not much.
The whole lead-up to Cyborg/Gina has been lukewarm, at best. Inexcusable on all fronts and all parties should be blamed for it – Strikeforce, Showtime, Carano, and Cyborg’s camp. Once we have a champion crowned on Saturday, we’re going to find out if the champion understands what their responsibilities are or if they are going to continue to act as if women’s MMA is a secondary aspect to the whole industry.
As noted in the Raw Vegas interview, Gina continues to be shy and awkward during interviews and she kept saying that many other women could be in her position. Wrong. I’m not buying it and neither is anyone else. It’s one thing to be humble but it’s another thing to be avoiding the responsibilities that come with not only being a champion but also building a new sector in the fight industry from scratch. Nobody said that being a pioneer was easy. In the RV interview, Gina talked about wanting to open doors for women to get into MMA, both on the amateur & professional levels (and in gyms). Is she prepared to do everything it takes to make it happen?
Will women’s MMA go the way of women’s boxing?
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 36 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
The fallout from Nick Diaz not taking his California drug test
By Zach Arnold | August 11, 2009
Bryan Alvarez relays a damning account as to how everything fell apart over the weekend in regards to Nick Diaz failing to take a California State Athletic Commission drug test. Alvarez’s reporting also makes Strikeforce boss Scott Coker look either unorganized, incompetent, or a victim of bad luck. I have no idea which label it is or if the reporting is fair given what the LA Times recently had to say about the CSAC allegedly allowing a fighter who had a record of Hepatitis C to fight on a Pure Combat show.
Go become a subscriber to Bryan’s site just to read his full report on the Diaz situation. Here’s a snippet from it:
Strikeforce had a press conference at 11 a.m. Pacific on Monday and Coker was immediately asked about Diaz. He said they had been in contact with the CSAC and that Diaz was on his way to take the test, and that they expected the results by Thursday. Douglas, moments after hearing that, said he had heard nothing about this. Loretta Hunt, who had also been following the story all weekend, relayed this information to Coker. Coker said he had been in contact with Segovia. Segovia noted that he had been in contact with Coker but had heard nothing from Diaz or Gracie all weekend despite sending four e-mails with all of his contact information including cell phone numbers. Douglas noted how interesting it was that Gracie had apparently been in discussions about the story with Hunt all weekend but had not made contact with the CSAC even a single time.
Dave Meltzer’s conjecture is that Cesar Gracie & Nick Diaz swerved Scott Coker when Coker said he would buy them plane tickets and went through with it.
On the court docket
Ken Shamrock’s lawsuit against Zuffa LLC, the parent company of UFC, is proceeding towards a non-jury trial. Shamrock filed the lawsuit due to claims of a breach of contract. Dana White and Kirk Hendrick both were put under deposition last month (July 17th). The bench trial is expected to take place on October 5th.
Regarding the PRIDE FC Worldwide Holdings LLC lawsuit versus Nobuyuki Sakakibara (DSE, Ubon, etc.), I’ve never seen so many motions and challenges filed in such a short amount of time. The list of minute developments is overwhelming. In addition, there are several third party defendants named in the case (Frank Fertitta III, Lorenzo Fertitta, Spectrum Gaming, Zuffa) and it’s messy. This case was supposed to go to trial around February or March of 2010, but those dates have been canceled. The lawsuit was originally filed in February of 2008.
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 43 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
K-1 8/11 Tokyo, Yoyogi National Stadium Gym II
By Zach Arnold | August 11, 2009
Event results here. Stipulations for Nishijima/Aerts match here.
K-1 WORLD GP 2009 IN TOKYO – FINAL 16 QUALIFYING GP
- World GP: Melvin Manhoef vs. Ramazan Ramazanov (Russia)
- World GP: Daniel Ghita (Lithuania) vs. Alex Roberts
- World GP: Sergei Lascenko (Ukraine) vs. Sebastian Ciobau (Lithuania)
- World GP: Rico Verhoeven (Holland) vs. Brice Guidon (France)
- Superfight: Peter Aerts vs. Yosuke Nishijima
- Superfight: Keijiro Maeda vs. Jan Soukup (Czech Republic)
Topics: Japan, K-1, Media, Zach Arnold | 15 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Report: Dana White puts a halt to video blogs on UFC’s YouTube channel
By Zach Arnold | August 11, 2009
His rant on Loretta Hunt couldn’t stop him from continuing the video blogs, but apparently a rumored behind-the-scenes type show with HBO can.
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 10 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Mike Tyson & James Toback about the DVD release of ‘Tyson’
By Zach Arnold | August 11, 2009
This is a transcript of an interview Mike Tyson & director James Toback did on ESPN News with anchor David Lloyd to promote the upcoming DVD release of ‘Tyson’, which will be released on August 18th. In this interview, Tyson talks about the making of the DVD, his life, and thoughts on his post-boxing career and the current state of boxing.
TRANSCRIPT
David Lloyd: “The film is called simply, ‘Tyson’, and it comes out on DVD August 18th. The subject of that movie joins us now, Mike Tyson, along with the writer & director of the film, James Toback. Mike, you sit down, you watch your film about your life, what was the experience like watching ‘Tyson’?”
Mike Tyson: “Well, it wasn’t something that I expected. I didn’t expect to feel so vulnerable there, you know, and it was pretty interesting.”
David Lloyd: “Vulnerable in what way?”
Mike Tyson: “Just exposing myself.”
David Lloyd: “Now James, obviously there’s some challenges in doing a documentary about a figure as polarizing as Mike Tyson. What was the biggest challenge in this project for you?”
James Toback: “To find a style in the editing room. We shot for a week and I edited for a year and it was to take the massive amount of fascinating, exciting, original footage and find a style cinematically to make it not just a talking head movie but a really dramatic film.”
David Lloyd: “Now Mike, you had to open up your life basically to do this film. Were there any disagreements about what went into the project and what did not?”
Mike Tyson: “Well, whatever he asked me I answered the question.”
David Lloyd: “And why did you decide to do that?”
Mike Tyson: “Um, I felt very um safe with Jim and I said, let’s go do it.”
David Lloyd: “I mean it’s an unflinching look at your life, the good times and the bad times, how will people feel about you after watching this film, Mike?”
Mike Tyson: “I have no idea, I just hope pretty positive and enjoy what I have to say.”
David Lloyd: “And there’s some crazy times, some bad times for you, you were always in the news often for negative stories. When you reflect back, what was it like living your life at 100 miles an hour like that?”
Mike Tyson: “Well, I say to myself, what was that all about? What was that all about? You know, what was what was I thinking that allowed me to just tick off like that? What that important? Why does it drive me so much?”
David Lloyd: “Now James, you decided to have Mike do the narration for this entire film. What went into that decision?”
James Toback: “The idea was to do a kind of dramatically uh present-itself portrait, not to do a survey of what everybody thought but to take the complicated extreme and fascinating mind of Mike Tyson and let it in its own way be exposed, be revealed.”
David Lloyd: “Mike, what was that like? You go into, I’m sure an audio booth somewhere, and you start pouring it out. What was that like for you?”
Mike Tyson: “I don’t know, um, it was um it was pretty stimulating feeling.”
David Lloyd: “How so?”
Mike Tyson: “Um because you go through a lot of emotional roller coaster rides and you remember the good times, the bad, none of those people are alive and just and you see some of it, it’s just an interesting life you know.”
David Lloyd: “What was the high point of the ride for you Mike as you look back on those years?”
Mike Tyson: “Ah, man, I don’t know, I had many high points, just like I had many low points.”
David Lloyd: “What was the lowest point for you?”
Mike Tyson: “Man, just um just not caring any more.”
David Lloyd: “And when did that happen?”
Mike Tyson: “Just to have that feeling um over and over you where you just don’t absolutely care anymore, that was um that was a pretty bad low point in my life.”
David Lloyd: “And at what point in your career was that going on?”
Mike Tyson: “Probably the end of my career, my boxing career, but that’s just what it came to.”
David Lloyd: “So, you didn’t care, you basically you took the paydays, you knew you had to keep making money and generating income…”
Mike Tyson: “Well not necessarily that, but just in life in general I didn’t care about anything.”
David Lloyd: “All right.”
James Toback: “One of the things that Mike says in the movie is that he’s the man of extremes and you see in the film visually and dramatically the radical extremes that he was that his life covered from parades in Moscow and a kind of adulation around the world to being in solitary confinement in prison, from great championships to sitting on a stool and humilitation, there have been very few figures in sport or anywhere else who’ve covered the spectrum, the extremes as dramatically as Mike’s life has and it’s all there really in the film.”
David Lloyd: “A fascinating life it has been. James, what did you learn about Mike Tyson? What’s the one thing that you learned about Mike Tyson in doing this project?”
James Toback: “Um, that he overcame fear, that there was always fear at the core of his being and that he was an asthmatic kid, a kid who had trouble breathing, who was bullied and who became this huge domineering figure through an act of ferocious will, dedication, and discipline despite a lot of furies in his soul.”
David Lloyd: “Mike, does he have that just about right?”
Mike Tyson: “Absolutely.”
David Lloyd: “Now, have you been keeping a low profile over the last couple of years? It seems like there aren’t quite as much Mike Tyson stories as there were a few years back.”
Mike Tyson: “Well you know my life has pretty much changed, I’m married, I put a great deal effort more with my kids and I have a different agenda now than when I was younger.”
David Lloyd: “I know you are acting a little bit, saw you in the movie The Hangover this year. What kind of reviews did you get for that role?”
Mike Tyson: “I got five-stars, everything was beautiful, it was positive.”
David Lloyd: “It was a good movie! I liked what I saw out of you Mike! Frankly, you showed great range there.”
Mike Tyson: “Thank you very much.”
David Lloyd: “Absolutely. And I know you are doing some other you are on the TV show The Brothers coming up.”
Mike Tyson: “Yes.”
David Lloyd: “Look at me, I’m promo’ng all your, this is the stuff you’re going to get out, Mike, I’m doing all your work for you here on the promos.”
Mike Tyson: “You’re doing a good job.”
David Lloyd: “Thank you very much.”
Mike Tyson: “Thank you.”
David Lloyd: “What are your thoughts on the heavyweight division in boxing right now? You follow it?”
Mike Tyson: “Yeah, not much, but I can see there’s nothing happening in the heavyweight division. If there was something happening I would know who the champion was.”
David Lloyd: “It seems kind of muddled these days, that’s for sure. Is there one fighter that you would pay to watch these days in any weight class?”
Mike Tyson: “I don’t know, Mayweather, Pacquiao, like those guys.”
David Lloyd: “Hopefully a fight between those two will be coming up.”
Mike Tyson: “That would be a good one.”
David Lloyd: “The DVD coming out is ‘Tyson’, it comes out on August 18th, Mike Tyson the subject, the writer & director is James Toback, gentlemen we do appreciating you joining us on ESPN News. Thank you for your time.”
END
Topics: Boxing, Media, Zach Arnold | 4 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |