Report: Chris Leben tests positive for Stanozolol
By Zach Arnold | November 3, 2008
There’s good news and bad news. The good news is that UFC actually did drug testing for their latest UK event. The bad news? Chris Leben, who main-evented against Michael Bisping, tested positive for steroids.
Dave Meltzer: ESPN planning on an MMA reality show
The interesting angle to this story, if it’s true, is that ESPN would be paying the fighters directly. So, in essence, they would be paying for talent without having an official ‘promotion.’ The question is if ESPN would retain the rights over those fighters or if the fighters would become free agents after the show is over. If it’s the latter, then UFC obviously would have a tough decision to make. Would UFC support ESPN’s efforts at this show, in hopes that ESPN would create yet another talent factory for UFC to take advantage of, or would UFC look at ESPN’s attempt at a reality show as an assault on The Ultimate Fighter show on Spike TV?
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, UK, Zach Arnold | 21 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Let your fighters go free, Elite XC
By Zach Arnold | November 3, 2008
Update: Why in the world did Pro Elite’s stock price double today?
Does this organization think that the US Government is going to include them in a bailout package or something?
It’s sad to watch how desperate and petty things have become for Elite XC. It’s even more frustrating to watch a meathead like Seth Petruzelli, whose radio comments ended up costing fighters jobs (if you believe the multiple media reports that there was a deal on the table for CBS/Showtime to buy out Elite XC), strutting around for Halloween as Kimbo Slice. How this man has managed to not receive more bad karma yet is beyond me, but that day is coming soon enough. The Smoothie King…
Then there’s Jeremy Lappen, who unlike many of the fighters he helped sign to Elite XC, doesn’t have to worry about drawing a paycheck given his family’s financial status. How this guy, like Jerry (Gary) Millen, continues to work in the MMA business just escapes me.
Then there’s Gary Shaw, whose comments in the LA Times about seeing no ethical problem in encouraging fighters to stand-up. This man continued to receive financial payment from Elite XC as a ‘consultant’ while his son was inserted into top management. Shaw never paid a financial price. Hell, he’s living it up right now as we speak based on how well boxer Vic Darchinyan performed this weekend.
Enough is enough. You’ve heard the stories, from Scott Smith to Joey Villasenor, who will be struggling to pay the bills this Christmas while people who worked at the top level of Elite XC made good money.
As if Elite XC couldn’t possibly be a bigger stain on this business, already…
Addendum: I’m already drawing heat in the comments section, with readers accusing me of going after Seth for being a ‘whistleblower.’ Here’s the problem with this argument — Petruzelli made the comments he did during an Orlando radio interview. He then claimed that his words were being taken out of context and that he had a bad night (either wasted or didn’t get enough sleep). During the investigation involving the Florida DBPR, Petruzelli denied that anything fishy happened. So, for people to call him a ‘whistleblower’ and to put him on a moral pedastal? Not a chance.
Topics: Media, MMA, Pro Elite, Zach Arnold | 23 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Sengoku starts building up card for their 1/4 Saitama Super Arena event
By Zach Arnold | November 2, 2008
Sports Navigator: Expect Takanori Gomi vs. Satoru Kitaoka for Sengoku’s 1/4 Saitama Super Arena event
K-1: World MAX finals event (11/3) will air on a delay on Tokyo Broadcasting System from 25:00 ~ 28:00 (1-4 AM JST).
Boston Herald: UFC fighters – Nix on the fix
“Basically, we get three bonuses on fight night,” Kenny Florian said. “You get one bonus for Knockout of the Night, a bonus for Submission of the Night and a bonus for Fight of the Night. At no point whatsoever do you hear (UFC president Dana White) or any of the UFC brass tell you, ’Listen, we want you to stand up,’ or ’We want you to take him down and submit him.’ They never have any input as far as game planning at all.”
MMA Weekly: WEC planning a reality show in 2009
New York Newsday: Urijah Faber a fighter? You better believe it
Seth Petruzelli: After costing fighters jobs because of his big mouth, he celebrated Halloween by dressing up as Kimbo
Ringside Report: An interview with Michael Lynch of WAMMA
Topics: Japan, K-1, Media, MMA, Pro Elite, Sengoku, UFC, WEC, Zach Arnold | 11 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
What is the big deal about Affliction in MMA?
By Zach Arnold | November 1, 2008
I’ve long asked the following question: How has a man (Tom Atencio) been able to get so much PR by accomplishing so little in the fight business? This is a man who ‘ran’ one MMA show last July and lost money on it. Yet, this guy continues to get a lot of PR coverage — and for what? Sam Caplan points out the obvious:
Affliction is failing to learn from the cardinal sin committed by both the IFL and EliteXC, which is that you cannot underestimate the complexity of the fight promotion business and that you must let experienced MMA people captain the ship. Why Affliction thinks it can succeed where so many others have failed is unknown, but if they want to survive long term, it needs to hire a full-time MMA person to serve as both its public face as well as its operations manager.
I hear Jeremy Lappen is currently available.
Topics: Affliction, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 114 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Videos & Reports: Sengoku 11/1 Saitama Super Arena event
By Zach Arnold | November 1, 2008
For a quick recap summary, head over to AOL Fanhouse. For a live recap, head over to Japan MMA.
For a more detailed event summary, head over to Bloody Elbow.
Don’t expect the promotion to release any attendance figures for their Saitama Super Arena events — they never do, because the crowds are so small.
One other sidenote: it was interesting to see WVR promoters try to tie Gomi’s opponent so much to Fedor in terms of the way they marketed and nicknamed him. Didn’t exactly work.
Topics: Japan, Media, MMA, Sengoku, Zach Arnold | 11 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Let’s go trick-or-treating at Dana White’s house
By Zach Arnold | October 31, 2008
The Las Vegas Sun: Dana White — “Are you a f(^*^(% trick-or-treater?”
“We give out real candy bars, not the little ones from the bag,” he said.
Bloody Elbow: Yushin Okami demoted to UFC undercard status, while CB Dollaway makes the main card
Sherdog: Paul Daley heading to Sengoku for 1/4 Saitama Super Arena event
The News & Star (UK): Martin Thompson on verge of joining UFC
AOL Fanhouse: UFC fans want Chuck Liddell-Anderson Silva, but does Dana White?
Silva doesn’t have any interesting fights left at 185 pounds, and of the 205-pounders in the UFC stable, Liddell is the only one who has a high profile and who doesn’t already have another fight scheduled. And the last thing I want to see is Liddell trying to repair his image by fighting tomato cans.
MMA Opinion: Sengoku 6 – event preview and picks
Kaz Nakamura is a warrior at 185, and I expect him to tap Yuki Sasaki with his judo skills in the first. Siyar Bahadurzada and Jorge Santiago should be the fight of the night, and I expect Santiago to outlast him and finish him late in the second with strikes, but it’ll be exciting.
Topics: Japan, Media, MMA, Sengoku, UFC, Zach Arnold | 17 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Sengoku 11/1 Saitama Super Arena card
By Zach Arnold | October 30, 2008
Update: Jordan Breen has an event preview here.
- Light Heavyweights: Antonio Rogerio Nogueira vs. Moise Rimbon (just added to the fight card)
- Lightweight GP Series (Reserve Match): Jorge Masvidal vs. Bang Seung Hwan
- Lightweight GP Series semi-final #1: Satoru Kitaoka vs. Eiji Mitsuoka
- Lightweight GP Series semi-final #2: Kazunori Yokota vs. Mizuto Hirota
- Lightweight GP Series finals
- Middleweight GP Series semi-final #1: Kazuhiro Nakamura vs. Yuki Sasaki
- Middleweight GP Series semi-final #2: Jorge Santiago vs. Siyar Bahadurzada
- Middleweight GP Series finals
- Takanori Gomi vs. Sergei Golyaev
- Izuru Takeuchi vs. Joe Doerksen
- King Mo vs. Fabio Silva
Topics: All Topics, Japan, Media, MMA, Sengoku, Zach Arnold | 16 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Today’s chalkboard: HDNet buys IFL assets, Patry leaves TKO, WEC 11/5 Florida card
By Zach Arnold | October 30, 2008
Satoshi Ishii will make his formal retirement declaration from active Judo competition on November 3rd.
Yoshihiro Akiyama won an award at the Style Icon Awards in Seoul, South Korea on the 30th. (Details here in English.)
A note to various MMA blogs: Keep your eyes open to Google News and watch for any spam blogs (splogs) that lift your material wholesale. The two most common sites that I see material get lifted from for Spam Blogs are Yahoo Sports and Bloody Elbow. Here’s a perfect example.
MMA Canada: Stephane Patry, CEO of TKO Quebec resigns
“After eight years as president of the organization, I am ready to undertake new challenges. I will continue to manage the atheletes that I am currently involved with and I have received a few interesting offers which I need to follow and develop” added Stephane Patry.
IFL 8-k SEC filing: HDNet LLC buys out assets for $650,000 USD plus some IFL debts
UGO: Interview with Miguel Torres of WEC
WEC 11/5 Florida card line-up:
- 145 pounds: Urijah Faber vs. Mike Brown
- 185 pounds: Paulo Filho vs. Chael Sonnen
- 145 pounds: Jens Pulver vs. Leonard Garcia
- 185 pounds: Danillo Villefort vs. Jake Rosholt
- 155 pounds: “Razor” Rob McCullough vs. Donald Cerrone
- 145 pounds: Jose Aldo vs. Jonathan Brookins
- 170 pounds: Johny Hendricks vs. Alex Serdyukov
- 135 pounds: Rani Yahya vs. Yoshiro Maeda
- 155 pounds: Danny Castillo vs. TBD
- 205 pounds: Steve Steinbeiss vs. TBD
Topics: Canada, Japan, Media, MMA, South Korea, WEC, Zach Arnold | 8 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Dave Meltzer’s comments on UFC paying for media coverage
By Zach Arnold | October 30, 2008
From this week’s edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter:
White also did a video blog where he revealed what in other eras would be considered a payola scandal when talking about Scott Ferrall, the Sirius satellite radio talk show host on Howard Stern’s station.
Several have asked me about the ethics of this. Every aspect of life is corrupt and stuff like this has always happened dating back to the beginning of time. In Japan when business was huge, I used to see the promotions hand out token payoffs to the key reporters.
Yes, all of us who are concerned about the idea of the media being bought and paid for in the MMA industry are stuck in the past as far as what constitutes a scandal. 🙂
Here are previous posts I’ve made on this subject:
- Dana White’s admission that will likely not get much attention but really should
- Kamipro writer: UFC can’t do business their own way in other countries
- The words ‘conflict of interest’ come to mind
Topics: Japan, Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 14 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Report: Satoshi Ishii to make MMA debut at Dynamite
By Zach Arnold | October 28, 2008
Sports Nippon newspaper in Japan is reporting that 100 kg Olympic judoka Satoshi Ishii will make his ring debut in MMA on 12/31 at K-1’s Dynamite event at Saitama Super Arena. The newspaper further claims that Ishii will make the full-time MMA conversion in Spring of 2009 (after he graduates from college).
Update: Daily Sports reports that the contract between Ishii and K-1 is worth 500 million yen (with ‘escalators’ in the contract based on how well he draws for big MMA shows). He will make his “mic (microphone) performance” debut at the NYE event.
Topics: DREAM, Japan, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 22 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Steve Barry: Seth Petruzelli contract shows no knockout bonus, contradicting the claims of Jeremy Lappen
By Zach Arnold | October 27, 2008
The company is dead, but the stand-up scandal is still warm — here’s why.
I’ve contended since this scandal broke that Jeremy Lappen should not go away from this scandal unscathed, unlike Gary Shaw and other characters involved in the company.
Previous articles:
- Quote of the Day – T. Jay Thompson
- Keith Kizer of the NSAC confirms Sam Caplan’s reported source on Elite XC stand-up scandal
- Of course – Florida DBPR ‘clears’ Elite XC of stand-up scandal
- Fight Opinion Radio #92 – delivering our eulogy for Elite XC
- Media reaction to Elite XC fallout (Michael Wilbon cheers)
- TJ Thompson – “Seth [Petruzelli] was paid to stand up”
- Frank Shamrock vs. Ken Shamrock is coming soon
- US sports media weighs in on Elite XC scandal
- Video: Dana White explains the Elite XC scandal to the average person
- Jeremy Lappen says both ESPN & SI ‘misquoted’ him
- Reports: Kimbo/Petruzelli fight being ‘investigated’
- The Elite XC PR disaster continues, even with the wrong focus on the scandal
- Bad news for Elite XC — big media outlets focus on the Kimbo/Petruzelli stand-up scandal
- How about that good PR for Elite XC?
- We want real answers, not fanboy interviewing questions
- Report: Ken Shamrock was going to be ‘paid to stand with him as well’
- The PR spin on the Seth Petruzelli/Kimbo Slice situation
- Can Elite XC management be prosecuted for this?
Topics: Media, MMA, Pro Elite, Zach Arnold | 11 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
The media tries to psychoanalyze UFC Middleweight champion Anderson Silva
By Zach Arnold | October 26, 2008
- The Chicago Sun-Times: Anderson Silva apology for UFC 90 antics was appropriate
- Franklin McNeil (Newark Star-Ledger): Anderson Silva must never repeat this act
- Deadspin: Anderson Silva crumples Patrick Cote in unsatisfying manner
- ESPN: Anderson Silva wins, but fails to impress
- MMA Banter: What was wrong with Anderson Silva?
- MMA Eruption: Anderson Silva must move up to 205 pound weight class
- Total MMA: Anderson Silva — too good for MMA
- Overhand Right: Five things I learned watching Anderson Silva spar
- The Telegraph (UK): Anderson Silva vs. Chuck Liddell could be considered by Dana White
Check out this claim from Steve Cofield:
One UFC fighter in attendance at the All-State Arena told Yahoo! Sports that he thought for a second that it looked like Silva had money on the fight and had to carry it to a certain round. Thanks boxing and EliteXC, now you’ve got UFC fighters suggesting shady action during fights.
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 21 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
UFC 90 (10/25 Chicago)
By Zach Arnold | October 25, 2008
Jonathan Snowden at UGO has UFC 90 coverage right now (videos, interviews, etc.) Interestingly enough, UFC 90 is the sixth most popular entry searched right now on Yahoo, which is not a bad indicator about the popularity of Anderson Silva.
Reports: USA Today | AOL Fanhouse | Sherdog | MMA Torch | NBC Sports | Five Ounces | MMA Junkie
Dave Meltzer said that UFC lost a big opportunity to promote the UFC 91 event (Randy Couture vs. Brock Lesnar) at UFC 90 by not having any interviews with Randy Couture (there at the event) or Brock Lesnar to hype up the fight. Meltzer thinks the UFC production crew is overworked with too many shows and that their creativity is starting to wear down. He pointed out that the job UFC did two years ago building up Matt Hughes vs. Royce Gracie was fantastic, whereas Lesnar vs. Couture (a fight featuring bigger names) has had little or no heat-up promotion for what should be “a one-million buy show.” He’s wondering if the PPV will draw 750,000 buys now…
- Fightlinker: Where’s that killer instinct for Thiago Alves?
- Bloody Elbow: Patrick Cote does not deserve a re-match
- Steve Cofield: Anderson Silva re-invents himself as ‘the jerk’… Cote injured in the third round
- The Chicago Sun-Times: Success at gate, and in the arena
- Sportsnet (Canada): Silva should face Yushin Okami next
- Kevin Iole (Yahoo Sports): Anderson Silva’s actions unbefitting his stature
- The Chicago Tribune: Chicago gives warm welcome to UFC
- Josh Gross (SI): Anderson Silva’s latest title defense more showboating than substance
- Sam Caplan: Anderson Silva’s friends in high places prove to be fair-weather
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 32 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |