Matches added to K-1 Dynamite! show
By Zach Arnold | December 18, 2008
Musashi vs. Gegard Mousasi and Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Kozo Takeda… under K-1 rules. Yes, two MMA fighters will be fighting professional kickboxers… under K-1 rules.
Of course, there’s discussion of having a modified rules match for Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Kiyoshi Tamura. At least (I think) know the rules for Joachim Hansen vs. JZ Calvan.
Update (12/11): Add Shin’ya Aoki vs. Eddie Alvarez and Mark Hunt vs. Jerome Le Banner in an MMA fight to the card.
Updated (12/15): You can add the following fights — Semmy Schilt vs. Mighty Mo in MMA rules, Hideo Tokoro vs. Daisuke Nakamura under MMA rules, Yoshihiro Sato vs. Artur Kyshenko under K-1 rules.
Update (12/18): Mirko Cro Cop vs. Choi Hong-Man is now official (under MMA rules). The fight makes sense — a) it’s a freak-show match-up, b) (Kazuyoshi) Ishii has nothing really left as far as resources invested in either fighter (it’s not as if he needs to protect either one), and c) it will likely produce an interest finish. Mirko wins, he gets a heat-up push for Alistair Overeem. If Hong-Man wins, then you can continue pushing him in South Korea. The problem for Mirko is that his past injuries are catching up with him, while the removal of the tumor clearly has taken a physical toll on Hong-Man.
Topics: Japan, K-1, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 34 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Daily Sports: Nippon TV will discontinue NOAH TV show in March
By Zach Arnold | December 17, 2008
The newspaper reports the horrible news for Japan’s top pro-wrestling company. The article discusses how Yomiuri TV, which is N-TV’s Kansai-based branch (Osaka/Kobe), discontinued NOAH programming at the end of September. The paper claims that wrestlers and NOAH employees are being told about N-TV possibly pulling the plug on the company’s TV deal, which would all but sabotage the company’s current structure.
It’s a big blow to the wrestling industry in Japan which has been struggling to get out of MMA’s shadow. It’s not a good sign for non-boxing fight programming in general in the country. Wrestling is significantly cheaper to produce than MMA or boxing, and if the networks aren’t going to support wrestling…
Topics: Japan, Media, Pro-Wrestling, Zach Arnold | No Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
K-1 gives punishment to Badr Hari
By Zach Arnold | December 17, 2008
K-1 front man Sadaharu Taniagawa and rule director Nobuaki Kakuda announced that Badr Hari, after his actions in the World GP finals match against Remy Bonjasky at Yokohama Arena on the 6th, would receive punishment from the company. The punishment includes: no fight money (all of it taken away), loss of K-1 Heavyweight title, and loss of stature as 2nd place finisher in this year’s World GP tournament. Regarding a possible suspension of Hari, K-1 management indicated that a new rule may be implemented next year for possible suspension of fighters for DQ fouls in fights.
Topics: Japan, K-1, Media, Zach Arnold | 33 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Minneapolis Star-Tribune columnist loses job
By Zach Arnold | December 16, 2008
Lest I remind you that I am not the grinch, this report claims that Star-Tribune columnist Katherine Kersten has lost her column in the newspaper.
Why do I bring this story up? Because of these items (here and here).
Merry Christmas.
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Quote of the Day – Tim Leidecker on UFC’s handling of brutal knockouts
By Zach Arnold | December 15, 2008
Sports or sports entertainment?:
The way the UFC handled the situation after the “Fight for the Troops” main event between Koscheck and Yoshida brought a lot of critics to the scene. Koscheck knocked out Yoshida with two crushing blows that left the 34-year-old Japanese veteran motionless on the canvas for minutes. During the remainder of the broadcast, the announcing team did not provide any updates on the condition of the fallen judoka.
This approach may only be explained by Zuffa’s desire to portray its athletes as indestructible supermen whom fans and viewers need not worry about under any circumstance. However, since MMA is not professional wrestling, and if it wants to be taken seriously as a sport, live spectators and television audiences deserve to learn every important facet that concerns a downed fighter, even unpleasant facts about a competitor being taken to the hospital for further examination.
The UFC had already failed to inform its viewers about the condition of Sean Salmon after he was knocked out by a brutal Rashad Evans’ head kick at UFC Fight Night 8 in January 2007. It’s understandable that UFC President Dana White & Co. want to portray the sport as safe and family friendly. With that said, it would be a welcome change to see them focus not only on entertaining the masses but keeping their fans informed as well.
Don’t forget about Chad Reiner, Jordan Radev, Tra Telligman, and Terry Martin. It’s time for the company to start changing its policy on this matter.
Speaking of brutality, it’s time that someone stops Gary Goodridge from fighting again. Gary is/was one of my all-time favorites in the business, but he has taken so many blows to the head that I am concerned about his long-term health. Is it already five years since Gary’s “retirement” in the PRIDE ring against Don Frye?
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 38 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Couple of things I noticed about last night’s TUF Finale show on Spike TV…
By Zach Arnold | December 14, 2008
- It’s not a factor right now, but UFC is going to have to upgrade their production values over the next 1-2 years. The danger? They’ll end up like WWE and keep using the same production values for the past decade like that company has. Given how UFC has modeled itself after some WWE-style elements, they would wise to give their production staff a break and come up with some new, fresh ideas on how to change things up. Improvements are needed on many levels — including creative ideas (get rid of the Gladiator entrance, the now-generic “one guy talks, other guy responds” black/white promos, same format and layout of fights, etc.)
- Part of the production that desperately needs to change is the announcing. I understand that Mike Goldberg is a favorite of UFC management, and yes, he has hung out with Dana White before at after-show VIP parties. With that stated, his persona and schtick is older than dirt. It’s beyond parody at this point. There’s being a ‘carny’ and then there’s the level of carniferousness that Goldberg unleashed last night on viewers at home. Even judging his work on a sliding-scale, the most jawdropping carny of all carny-ish statements Goldberg made on the telecast involved Junie Browning and Chris Leben. Goldberg actually made the claim, without laughing on air, about how Chris Leben became a ‘reformed’ man after ‘graduating’ from the ‘TUF house.’ I’m serious. Chris Leben, a man who went to jail, a man who just failed a steroids test coming off of his last fight against Michael Bisping, and now we’re supposed to believe in the re-writing of history about who he is and what he’s done during his UFC career?
- Even though Todd Harris works with ABC Sports and college football for most of his professional schedule on Saturday nights, I would much rather see the less-experienced WEC announcer pick up more UFC duties when football season is in recess. The fans at home need a change of pace. Harris and Rogan could be a good combination. It would, in my opinion, create a more professional feel to UFC events.
- As far as I could tell (based on what I watched of the TUF Finale), there was no update on Yoshiyuki Yoshida at all. I bring this up because Mike Goldberg thanked the fans at the beginning of the telecast for the Fight for the Troops special, mentioned about the charity that money raised went to (brain trauma victims), and left it at that. I first thought about Yoshida when Goldberg did this intro, and was quickly reminded of it when Anthony Johnson managed to knock out Kevin Burns with a left high-kick. Thankfully for Burns, he was able to recover and stand back up for the winner’s announcement by Bruce Buffer. If Burns would have had to been stretchered out of the cage, would UFC have shown it? Not that I guess it matters, since practically no other MMA web sites even touched upon the way UFC/Spike TV covered the aftermath of Yoshida’s knockout at the hands of Josh Koscheck.
- I agree with site comments about the pacing of the TUF Finale being better than the Fight for the Troops show, but that to me is not saying a whole lot. What is saying a whole lot is the carnage on both shows in regards to some of the vicious knockouts and submissions. It’s been a pretty good week overall for matchmaker Joe Silva. Plus, they got a 1.4 cable rating on Spike TV for the FFTT special.
- For all the talk by certain MMA writers about Junie Browning and what a ‘great heel’ he was coming out of the TUF show, I thought it was perfect karma that Browning got such a tepid and lukewarm response from the Vegas audience when he came to the cage and during his fight. Compared to the reaction that Ryan Bader got from the same fans… An old lesson from pro-wrestling matchmaking — you can push and push a certain person as hard as you can and maybe the fans will eventually come around to accepting that person as a star, but most of the time those same fans can see right through the push and will, in the end, reject it.
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 39 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
UFC The Ultimate Fighter Finale (12/13/08) in Las Vegas
By Zach Arnold | December 13, 2008
Originally posted on December 4th
Undercard
- Lightweights: Rolando Delgado vs. John Polakowski
- Lightweights: Shane Nelson vs. George Roop
- Light Heavyweights: Kyle Kingsbury vs. Tom Lawlor
- Light Heavyweights: Eliot Marshall vs. Jules Bruchez
- Light Heavyweights: Krzysztof Soszynski vs. Shane Primm
Main card
- Lightweights: Junie Browning vs. Dave Kaplan
- Welterweights: Kevin Burns vs. Anthony Johnson
- Middleweights: Jason MacDonald vs. Wilson Gouveia
- Light Heavyweight: Ryan Bader vs. Vinicius Magalhaes
- Lightweights: Phillipe Nover vs. Efrain Escudero
Commentary
Ivan Trembow on Sleazeball Promoters and Trash TV: What The Ultimate Fighter has become:
White also presented the ridiculous argument on the show that Browning would have been able to tell people in his hometown that he was kicked off of TUF for being so much of a bad-ass, as if that factor is equal in its importance to the show’s remaining credibility being destroyed.
Keeping Junie Browning in the UFC after five separate actions that would have individually warranted kicking him off the show and out of the UFC is not “justice being served,” as White said. It’s White acting like a sleazeball promoter. That’s what it is.
One must also keep in mind the message that this sends to future TUF contestants. When the UFC actually does want to send a message about something to other fighters, they do that by making examples out of people. (Ask Jon Fitch about that for verification.)
In Browning’s case, instead of sending a message of that kind of behavior not being tolerated, the exact opposite message has been sent.
“Act like an idiot, do things that could and should get you kicked off the show, and we’ll build an entire season around you and keep you in the UFC instead of kicking you out of TUF and outside of the UFC.”
As a criminologist, even one with extremely liberal tendencies who thinks America’s “get tough on crime” movement does far more harm than good, I felt tonight’s episode of TUF (episode 12) portrayed some of the most hideous dimensions that can emerge from MMA when manipulated by gluttonous intentions and/or poor judgment.
In the past few months, we’ve seen mixed martial arts make major strides. The extensive mainstream media coverage of Randy Couture vs. Brock Lesnar and UFC 91as a whole was not characterized by questions about MMA’s legitimacy, nor did it insinuate that MMA was comprised of street fighting thugs. MMA was constructed in the media as an exciting sport with talented, hard working, articulate athletes. What we saw on episode 12 of TUF was quite the opposite. Junie Browning’s exit from TUF as a result of losing to Efrain Escudero was not justice; it was convenient. MMA was turned into an institution used to settle non-sporting violence. That sends a horrible message to viewers, reinvigorates the connection between MMA and street violence, and is neither sport, nor justice.
Dave Meltzer & Bryan Alvarez had a slightly different take. Some quotes include:
“I was just in awe of Dana White in the second episode.” — Meltzer
“What a worker!” — Alvarez
“He was awesome!” – Meltzer
Dave went on to say that Junie Browning should have been kicked off two months ago, but that Dana White handled the situation like a skillful old-time pro-wrestling promoter. (Partially paraphrasing here, but listen to the audio yourself if you can for validation of this notation.)
Update: Junie Browning compares himself to Muhammad Ali in an interview with AOL Fanhouse:
“I think The Ultimate Fighter made me look a little nicer than I was,” Browning said. “I was pretty happy about that. I did other stuff like that that they didn’t show — the usual, me acting like a prick.”
“They’ll probably boo me and probably throw rocks at me,” Browning said. “They’ll probably try to fight me coming out to the cage. But that’s OK. Some of the best fighters in the world, everyone hated them starting off. I think people will grow to like me once they see I can fight. Muhammad Ali, people hated him.
(12/13) — According to three different TUF 8 contestants quoted by the Canadian Press’ Neil Davidson, Junie Browning admitted to those contestants at various times that he planned his antics on TUF 8 ahead of time in order to make a big name for himself. — Ivan Trembow
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 60 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Donating money to our web site
By Zach Arnold | December 11, 2008
Coming up this Christmas, it will be the third anniversary of Fight Opinion. (It’s felt more like 30 years than 3 years, but I digress.) If you’ve noticed, we haven’t had any server problems since switching over to a new company that has taken care of us very well. Of course, that costs us money.
If you have a few dollars or some spare money that you would like to donate to our site to help pay for our server costs, please click this link to donate using PayPal. All of the site donations go directly to paying site-related bills.
I just wanted to thank everyone for visiting the site. Over the last month, there has been a huge and noticeable spike in site activity (since UFC 91).
Topics: Media, Zach Arnold | No Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
UFC 12/10 North Carolina event results
By Zach Arnold | December 10, 2008
Update: I assumed that Spike was airing this on a delay on the West Coast per usual, but much to my surprise they aired this live on the West Coast with no delay.
Speaking of the main event… where did Yoshida go after the KO? Did he get stretchered out? The cameras didn’t show…
Addendum: After the Koscheck interview, Spike TV went to a commercial. Coming back from the commercial, Mike Goldberg is doing a wrap-up and a set-up for showing a dark match. While panning the cage, on camera you can clearly see several doctors and attendants over Yoshida on the cage mat. I can’t tell if they were stretchering him out or what kind of medical assistance they were giving to him. I’m not down with UFC and Spike TV not updating their fans on what happened to Yoshida.
With 5 minutes left to go on the Spike TV telecast, Mike Goldberg and Joe Rogan are talking about Fightforthetroops.com. They talked about Mike Swick’s dominating win over Jonathan Goulet and they even showed the knockout of Yoshida a few times. Koscheck was shown signing autographs. You guessed it — there was no update on the medical condition of Yoshida. Nope. Nothing about the health and safety of the ‘random Japanese guy’ who main-evented the show. Goldberg went on-and-on about how what UFC presented tonight was ‘sports, it’s not real life.’
Ivan Trembow wrote two articles in 2007 (here and here) about UFC’s handling of fighters knocked out on television/PPV.
There was a horrible irony about the way UFC handled the Yoshida situation on television. They dedicated the entire show to the Intrepid Fallen Heroes fund, which is a charity to help out soldiers who have suffered from brain trauma. Yet, Yoshida suffers what was no doubt a concussion (he was on the ground for at least seven minutes after the KO happened — Koscheck’s knockout was a traumatic blow to the head), and UFC acted as if he didn’t exist — no updates on his medical condition, no cameras to check on his situation, nothing. UFC wants to be treated like a real sport by the sports media, and yet they have shown over the course of several years that when a fighter gets brutally knocked out to not show what happened to the fighter afterwards or give updates on the fighter’s health status (unlike all pro-leagues like the NFL, NBA, etc.). When the Yoshida knockout happened on the Spike TV telecast, there was over 20+ minutes left of TV time to fill. UFC chose to air a dark match (Steve Bruno vs. Johnny Rees). When Goldberg and Rogan did their final wrap-up, they had over five minutes of TV time left. There was no mention of Yoshida whatsoever, other than the brutal knockout by Koscheck being shown over and over again.
I would be interested in seeing other MMA writers comment on this situation (either in favor or against UFC’s policy of the way they cover fighters brutally knocked out on TV/PPV).
There will be critics who will whine about me bringing up this issue, claiming that I’m manufacturing a ‘controversy.’ Nothing could be further from the truth. My thoughts here in this post was real-time commentary on a show that I was watching. If the best ‘defense’ someone online can come up to this situation is ‘you’re just looking to criticize UFC while they’re doing a charity show,’ then that’s a pretty weak defense.
Update: This UFC.com story says that Yoshida was stretchered out, and later added that he was released from the hospital. CBS Sports is reporting that Corey Hill is out for 12-18 months with a broken tibia. His fight is the first fight available for viewing at ufc.com.
For those of you claiming that I am ‘whining’ here, read this response.
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 75 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Beat up Oscar De La Hoya and you, too, can get your own parade
By Zach Arnold | December 9, 2008
If your name is Manny Pacquiao, that is:
President Arroyo will designate Pacquiao the country’s new Ambassador of Peace when she receives him in Malacañang this morning, in appreciation of the honor and inspiration he has brought anew to the Filipino people.
Pacquiao will be fetched by Secretary Lito Atienza of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) at the Centennial Terminal of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) when he arrives at 4:30 a.m. on Philippine Airlines flight PR 103.
Pacquiao attributed his success to a higher power:
In a short speech before the crowd, Pacquiao recalled how some people told him that he had a “big problem” with De la Hoya.
But Pacquiao said that while he had a big problem, he assured them that there was a “bigger God who was much better.”
Speaking in Filipino, Pacquiao said, “Sabi nila malaki ang problema ko, pero sabi ko malaki nga ang problema ko, pero may Panginoon naman na napakagaling.”
But Pacquiao said he had this to say to those who didn’t believe him, “Don’t tell God I have a big problem, but face your problem because we have a big God.”
Pacquiao says he is thinking about things in life outside of boxing. Unfortunately, not everyone is happy about last Saturday’s fight. My favorite headline: MILF laughs off idea of Pacquiao as peace envoy.
Meanwhile, Oscar De La Hoya is going to take some time off and go back home to Puerto Rico. Steroid offender James Toney says De La Hoya can’t retire.
Topics: Boxing, Media, Zach Arnold | 14 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
PR: ‘FIGHTER’ featuring Randy Couture Available 24/7 on Comcast VOD
By Zach Arnold | December 9, 2008
MMAClassics, your source for premiere MMA content, is pleased to announce that we have reached an agreement with HavocTV to become the exclusive distributer of our multiple award winning film, ‘FIGHTER, a documentary’, featuring Randy Couture. Havoc is the world’s leading multi platform digital network focused on the best indie music and action sport, dedicated to bringing viewers what they want, when they want, where they want.
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | No Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
K-1 12/6 Yokohama Arena card
By Zach Arnold | December 8, 2008
- World GP Reserve fight: Choi Hong-Man vs. Ray Sefo
- World GP Reserve fight: Paul Slowinski vs. Melvin Manhoef
- World GP Tournament: Peter Aerts vs. Badr Hari
- World GP Tournament: Errol Zimmerman vs. Ewerton Teixeira
- World GP Tournament Semi-Finals: Winner of Aerts/Hari vs. Winner of Zimmerman/Teixeira
- World GP Tournament: Gokhan Saki vs. Ruslam Karaev
- World GP Tournament: Remy Bonjasky vs. Jerome Le Banner
- World GP Tournament Semi-Finals: Winner of Saki/Karaev vs. Winner of Bonjasky/Le Banner
- World GP Tournament finals
Update: Result spoilers here. Fightlinker has some comments on the show. Recap and event PBP can be read here.
K-1 claimed 17,823 for the Yokohama Arena show. Strangely, I noticed that most Japanese outlets did not float an attendance number when covering the show…
MMA Analyst has videos of the fights.
Update: According to a report on Sports Navigator (Yahoo Japan), the K-1 World GP event drew a 16.1% overall rating with a peak rating of 19.6%. Those are good numbers. This is a positive news development.
Topics: Japan, K-1, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 48 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Quote of the Day – Marcus Davis
By Zach Arnold | December 8, 2008
My online brother Zack pointed out this gem… From a Eurosport interview:
“I don’t know whether anything like this has ever been done before. The thing that makes this fight different is that both of us, as athletes, really want to do it; we have got together and decided to go out and put everything on the line – for the fans, and because we both love the UFC, who we work for.
“I don’t even care whether I win or lose this fight. It is about more than that. We want to put on a fight that promotes the best of MMA, and the best way for us to do that is for two guys with absolute respect for each other to go into the Octagon and let it all hang out for three rounds.
“I know, and Chris is the same, that no matter whether I win or lose, if we go out there and bang at each other and put on a fight that people remember for a long time, then Dana White isn’t going to fire us from the UFC. If we went out and lay on each other for three rounds, that’s why you get fired.
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, UK, Zach Arnold | 20 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |