Antonio Inoki is thinking about creating a new star in Japan…
By Zach Arnold | August 26, 2008
… and I’ll give you one guess as far as who he is thinking about. The only surprise is that Inoki thought of this first instead of (Kazuyoshi) Ishii.
Topics: Japan, Media, MMA, Pro-Wrestling, Zach Arnold | 3 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
TMZ: Rampage Jackson facing two felony charges
By Zach Arnold | August 25, 2008
Report here. AP report here.
Felony charges:
1) Evading while driving recklessly
2) Evading a peace officer
Misdemeanors charges:
1) Three counts of hit & run
2) One count of reckless driving
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 9 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Kimbo Slice vs. Ken Shamrock signed for October 4th
By Zach Arnold | August 25, 2008
1) Will it attract a lot of interest from casual, mainstream MMA fans in North America?
2) Will it be a competitive fight?
It should be noted that Jeremy Lappen, who is running the show at Elite XC, used to represent Shamrock.
Topics: Media, MMA, Pro Elite, Zach Arnold | 15 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Quote of the week – Big John McCarthy
By Zach Arnold | August 25, 2008
From a new column on Fox Sports:
Here’s the question: Kimbo Slice or Brock Lesnar? Which one is going to be the better mixed martial artist?
I love how everyone is so quick to jump on or off either fighter’s bandwagon. Why is it that some MMA fans want to bring these guys down? They are both great for the sport. They absolutely come from different backgrounds with varying credentials, but most certainly they both do one of the most important things any fighter out there today needs to be able to do. They put peoples butts in seats! People want to see them fight.
Topics: Media, MMA, Pro Elite, UFC, Zach Arnold | 6 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Michigan MMA legislation
By Zach Arnold | August 24, 2008
I received a message from a reader asking for more information about House Bill 4869, which is the name of the bill that the Michigan State House passed to legalize MMA in 2007. The reader wanted to know about the first amateur MMA fight held in Michigan and what types of procedures were followed (or if some of the rules followed were modified). If anyone has information on this front, please post a comment. Thanks.
Topics: Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 1 Comment » | Permalink | Trackback |
Sengoku 4 (8/24) at Saitama Super Arena
By Zach Arnold | August 24, 2008
The curse of the IFL continues, as Ryan Schultz lost to Mizuto Hirota by KO today. Eiji Mitsuoka pulled off a big win over Rodrigo Damm, and Satoru Kitaoka made Clay French submit. Full event results here and here.
Keep your eye on this post for videos from today’s event.
Update: For a second straight SSA show, Sengoku refused to release an attendance figure. Ouch. The main comment from Takanori Gomi that is getting press headlines in Japan after his fight is a simple one word comment: “Gomen.”
Topics: Japan, Media, MMA, Sengoku, Zach Arnold | 5 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Sales pitch for Know Your MMA
By Zach Arnold | August 23, 2008
As you know by know, Know Your MMA has an ad on our site. I liked the concept of the new project, so naturally I was glad to help promote it. If you have not signed up for an account on Know Your MMA, you should check into it.
Here is a message from the founder of Know Your MMA, Brandt DeLorenzo:
Know Your MMA was created to provide a gathering place for MMA professionals and fans. While there are other social networks, they are typically promotional sites for fighters (Liddell), organizations (ProElite), or just overloaded and difficult to use. KYM will allow fighters, promoters, agents, photographers, business owners, writers, and fans to network with one another through a familiar and clean layout. In the future we will provide interactive chat sessions with fighters, random prize giveaways, and weekly drawings for a week of free advertising for all businesses. It costs nothing to sign up and the process takes only a couple minutes.
One aspect of KYM that I do like is that the layout is clean and not cluttered. There are some ugly social networking sites with templates that look like they were designed by a first grader.
Topics: Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | No Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Attrocious boxing scoring on display in Beijing
By Zach Arnold | August 23, 2008
I give the folks at Total MMA a lot of credit for liveblogging and covering the multitude of amateur boxing fights at the Beijing Olympics this year. They deserve praise from everyone for doing this.
Unfortunately, I have no idea how to even start writing about the ‘amateur boxing’ has been put on display at these Olympic games. As ESPN boxing Joe Tessitore called it yesterday on television, “It’s not boxing. It’s slapfighting.”
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: Boxing, Media, Zach Arnold | 13 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Angel Matos has a special message for Olympic officials
By Zach Arnold | August 23, 2008
We’ve seen awful scoring during these Beijing Olympics in boxing (if you want to call it ‘boxing’ that you are watching there) and we’ve seen some controversial officiating in other combat-related sports during the games.
Well, a competitor finally lost his mind and decided that he had enough. Meet Angel Matos.
Matos is a Cuban taekwondo competitor who has been banned for life after attacking a referee who disqualified him for taking up too much injury time in his bronze-medal match.
Topics: Boxing, Media, Zach Arnold | 20 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Report: UFC wants to run shows in Japan… again
By Zach Arnold | August 22, 2008
That’s only the first wave of planned expansion. Fertitta leaving his post as the highest-paid casino executive in Las Vegas to work full-time for UFC was with the goal of trying to duplicate the company’s U.S. success on a worldwide basis. There are even serious talks of running a regular schedule of events in Japan, now that the company has a television deal, although that is more on the long-term radar.
If UFC thinks that getting back on WOWOW means anything in the Japanese marketplace, then they are totally clueless. They would be fortunate to sell out a building like Yokohama Bunka Gym (5,000 seats) and be lucky to get 70% capacity at a place like Ryogoku Kokugikan (11,000 seats) if they tried to run in the Kanto area.
A WOWOW television deal didn’t mean much for SWS in the early 1990s, it didn’t help RINGS survive in the mid-to-late 1990s, and it likely isn’t going to give UFC much exposure at all in 2008-2009. Why even bother trying to go back to Japan when the MMA scene has fallen off a cliff? Even the native players can’t muster up any juice whatsoever in the marketplace.
Some advice to UFC: Give Japan a two or three year break so you can wait and see what Kazuyoshi Ishii does. If Ishii reinvents DREAM or creates a new MMA project to test the waters, then maybe consider co-promoting shows with K-1. Otherwise, don’t bother.
Topics: Japan, Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 28 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
A scandal brewing in Kentucky
By Zach Arnold | August 22, 2008
Read all the details on the scandal here. Allegations of false blood work…
Topics: Boxing, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | No Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
PR: Pro Elite Postpones September 20 Event in New Mexico
By Zach Arnold | August 22, 2008
Company cites need to effectively focus resources and promotion on remaining year-end events
LOS ANGELES–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Citing a desire to efficiently focus its promotional resources and ensure top talent for a series of televised yea-rend events, ProElite, Inc. (OTB:PELE.PK) today officially postponed the September 20 staging of its planned EliteXC mixed martial arts (MMA) event in Albuquerque, NM. The Albuquerque fight card was to have featured New Mexico native Joey Villasenor.
“We are in the next steps of the evolution of our company,” said Jeremy Lappen, head of ProElite’s fight operations, “and we need to be smart about how we use our resources to produce the best possible events for our fans and our broadcast partners. This move lets us direct our energies toward building momentum for our ShoXC and EliteXC fights on Showtime and CBS in the Fall.”
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: Media, MMA, Pro Elite, Zach Arnold | 2 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Eddie Bravo is toughening up Dan Hardy
By Zach Arnold | August 22, 2008
The fight coming up between Dan Hardy and Akihiro Gono at UFC 89 in October is going to be excellent to watch.
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, UK, Zach Arnold | 1 Comment » | Permalink | Trackback |