DREAM coverage in Japan
By Zach Arnold | July 21, 2008
The top headline in the major newspapers is the fact that the fans at the show heavily booed Yoshihiro Akiyama.
The claimed attendance was 11,986. There is discussion of Kiyoshi Tamura working the DREAM 6 show on 9/23 at Saitama Super Arena.
The ‘golden time’ telecast reportedly drew a 10.0 rating overall, with the highest quarter-hour mark being the Yoshihiro Akiyama vs. Katsuyori Shibata fight at 13.7.
Topics: DREAM, Japan, K-1, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 12 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Video: Fedor vs. Sylvia
By Zach Arnold | July 21, 2008
Plus, a bonus video… the return of Jerry Millen.
Topics: Affliction, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 18 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Today’s chalkboard (7/21/08)
By Zach Arnold | July 21, 2008
If you aren’t a friend on our MySpace page, go ahead and add us. We’re going to try to make more of an effort to add content over there when possible.
- Sherdog (Jake Rossen): UFC Fight Night & Affliction minute by minute
- The Alexandria Town Talk (LA): A shot at the top for Kalvin “Hot Boy” Hackney
- The Oklahoman: Will MMA hurt Olympic wrestling?
- The New York Post (George Willis): MMA’d to Megadeth
- The Baltimore Sun: Eating crow on the Fedor pick
- USA Today: After big win, Emelianenko has target on his back
- Sports Illustrated (Josh Gross): Fedor’s aura-building win gives credibility to new WAMMA belt
- Yahoo Sports (Dave Meltzer): Affliction could become MMA heavyweight
- Fightlinker: Sketchy ending ruins DREAM GP
- MMA Payout: Affliction PPV expectations & bar sales
Topics: Affliction, DREAM, Japan, Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 3 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Joachim Hansen wins DREAM Lightweight GP tournament
By Zach Arnold | July 21, 2008
He beat Shin’ya Aoki in the finals. Hansen won his reserve fight over Black Mamba, and Hansen stepped in for Eddie Alvarez (who beat Kawajiri but couldn’t continue due to an eye injury).
If I recall correctly, on BetUS you could have bet on ‘the field’ as the winner of the GP tournament and gotten at least 5:1 odds, if not better. Alvarez was 7/2, if memory serves me right.
Topics: DREAM, Japan, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 8 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
How the media covered Affliction: Banned
By Zach Arnold | July 20, 2008
- The Los Angeles Times: There was nothing artificial about Affliction’s first fight card
- Sherdog: Fedor reigns supreme
- USA Today: Fedor rings Sylvia’s bell just 36 seconds into Affliction bout
- Fox Sports (Mark Kriegel): The secret’s out – Fedor’s the best MMA has
- The Oregonian: Oregon House nominee Matt Lindland wins MMA fight
- The Orange County Register: Tim Sylvia never knew what hit him
- The Long Beach Press-Telegram: What will Fedor’s next move be?
- The Press-Enterprise (CA): ‘That is the baddest man on the planet’
- The Quad City Times: Fedor didn’t waste any time
- The Canadian Press: Fedor humbles Tim Sylvia in 36 seconds
Topics: Affliction, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 36 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
How the media covered UFC Fight Night: Silva vs. Irvin
By Zach Arnold | July 20, 2008
- The Las Vegas Review-Journal: Anderson Silva quells concern, wins
- The Sacramento Bee: Jame Irvin’s big chance ends in a minute
- Setanta Sports (UK): World-class Anderson Silva smashes James Irvin
- The Associated Press: Silva earns first round UFC KO win over Irvin
- The Long Beach Press-Telegram: Anderson Silva still powerful at higher weight
- The Billings Gazette (MT): Reese Andy falls in UFC debut
Other headlines
- The Columbus County News-Times (GA): Forrest Griffin kept focus on fight despite his stepfather dying
- The Las Vegas Sun: Marc Ratner recalls his brief fighting career
- New York Newsday: Jay Hieron stuck as welterweight champion in failing IFL
- The Daily Pilot (CA): Recovery for Quinton Jackson
Topics: IFL, Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 2 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Affliction post-fight press conference statements
By Zach Arnold | July 19, 2008
Fedor Emelianenko: “I was very pleased with my performance. Everything I wanted to do I was able to do.”
“Yeah I was hoping I would end the fight then (first time he took Sylvia to the mat). I was prepared to fight standing up, but I knew I had a better chance to end it on the ground.”
“You never know how short or long the fight will be, but I just wanted to end it as quickly as possible. I just wanted to show the fans my skills.”
“I was very pleasantly impressed by how many people came out and I hope to come back soon.”
“I would be very honored to fight Randy Couture.”
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: Affliction, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 4 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
New school openings
By Zach Arnold | July 19, 2008
Nam Phan has started a new MMA academy, and the school had its grand opening yesterday. The school’s address is:
Nam Phan MMA Academy
12122 Brookhurst Street
Garden Grove, CA. 92840-2817
Jason Scully has a new BJJ & No-Gi submission wrestling school opening at the Power Center in the Galleria in Red Bank, New Jersey. The school will be affiliated with BJJ United and Team Lloyd Irvin. Address is:
The Grapplers Guide Academy
2 Bridge Avenue
Red Bank, NJ. 07701-1106
Topics: Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | No Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
ESPN gives Sherdog the Ring Magazine treatment
By Zach Arnold | July 19, 2008
For many media-types and fans in the sport of boxing, the weight class rankings in Ring Magazine are considered more legitimate than the rankings from various sanctioning bodies in the sport. Whenever you see ESPN cover a boxing event, they will talk about who the Ring Magazine champion is as opposed to who is a champion representing a certain sanctioning body.
As of tonight (July 19th), ESPN has officially added an MMA category to their ‘bottom line’ channel news ticker. The news ticket tonight featured basic news lines stating that Anderson Silva defeated James Irvin at 205 pounds, and in a separate item noted that Fedor defeated Tim Sylvia to become the first WAMMA champion.
However, the bigger development in terms of ESPN’s slant on MMA coverage involves the Sherdog ranking labels. ESPN went out of its way to list both pound-for-pound and heavyweight rankings when discussing Silva, Fedor, and Sylvia. The ticker note that Fedor was ranked 1st and Sylvia ranked 4th on Sherdog’s best heavyweight rankings list.
The significance of this media angle is clear — ESPN is now giving Sherdog’s rankings list the same kind of credibility that it has given to Ring Magazine. This is a big step up for Sherdog’s overall public profile.
Strangely enough, however, ESPN did not air actual clips from either MMA event on their SportsCenter program. Considering how slow the news cycle usually is in the States during July for sports, there’s no legitimate excuse to not cover either MMA event on television. AOL Fanhouse, in contrast, got it done right.
Topics: Affliction, Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 1 Comment » | Permalink | Trackback |
UFC Fight Night: Silva vs. Irvin (7/19 Las Vegas)
By Zach Arnold | July 19, 2008
Reports: Observer | Sherdog | MMA Junkie | MMA Mania | Bloody Elbow | Five Ounces | Kevin Iole (Yahoo Sports)
Post all thoughts, results, reports, links here.
If you’re watching the TV broadcast, you will notice right away that Spike TV has upgraded the graphics and labels used on-screen. You will also notice that the UFC acknowledged the IFL and used IFL video footage to build up Reese Andy.
Personal highlight so far: Mike Goldberg sounding as if he said “Juan Carneiro” when talking about Kevin Burns defeating Roan Carneiro during a video package to hype up Burns/Anthony Johnson. One thing we learned about Kevin Burns — that man has a mean eye-poke.
Cain Velasquez absolutely smothered and destroyed Jake O’Brien with about 100 shots to the face from side position. The irony of seeing someone labeled ‘the human blanket’ getting smothered was quite obvious.
Although the fight didn’t turn out as good as I had hoped, we should all give both Frankie Edgar and Hermes Franca credit for their effort tonight. Amazing how Franca was dominated throughout the fight and almost pulled it off at the end. BTW, not a single steroid mention about Franca and the fans at the show didn’t boo him.
On a side note, all this talk about how ‘all the media’ and ‘all the MMA fighting stars’ being at the Affliction show… how is this supposedly damaging to UFC? It means nothing in the grand scheme of things. I find it silly. Quinton Jackson is at the Affliction show only days after Dana White reportedly bailed him out of jail?
The UFC has done a better job of promoting Reese Andy within the time span of two hours than all of the months he spent in the IFL. Maybe a total of three combined minutes of air time has been devoted to talking and putting over Reese Andy and UFC has managed to make him seem more important than the IFL ever did. So, of course, Brandon Vera dominated Andy in a very boring fight.
That was a devastating and lightning-fast knockout by Anderson Silva on James Irvin.
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 28 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Affliction: Banned 7/19 Honda Center
By Zach Arnold | July 19, 2008
Reports: Observer | Sherdog | USA Today | MMA Junkie | MMA Mania | Bloody Elbow | Five Ounces | Pro MMA | MMA Frenzy | MMA on Tap | Fightlinker | Total MMA
Post all thoughts, results, reports, links here.
Topics: Affliction, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 51 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Shukan Gendai story on Kid Yamamoto
By Zach Arnold | July 18, 2008
They went after PRIDE and caused massive headaches for the company’s backers. Now they’re aiming their sights on Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto.
In the newest edition of Shukan Gendai, the publication has a six-page article (p. 16 ~ 22) with allegations that Yamamoto is involved in “marijuana parties” with a famous actor. The article claims that an undercover policewoman, followed by 10 officers, got a search warrant and checked out a fashion building in Harajuku.
The magazine claims that the room had a sweet herbal smell and that neighbors had supposedly complained about cars in the driveway playing reggae music, and that tattooed guys were regularly hanging out at the place until the early hours of the morning. The article further claims that neighbors had complained to the police about Yamamoto hanging around the area.
Despite a two-hour search, no marijuana was found in the room. However, Gendai claims that several people have stated that they smoked with Kid in the office room.
Further allegations in the article include the following:
A number of joints were flushed down the toilet when police came to the party. The parties allegedly have 5-8 people at a time. The magazine claims that Yamamoto smokes in front of family members (kids?), but that he stops smoking a couple of weeks before fighting.
Yamamoto was quoted as saying that someone who is jealous of him made claims to the police and that the police never found anything incriminating.
In Japan, the stigma of being associated with marijuana is very bad PR and can be very damaging to one’s career. It’s clear that some entity or some person is after Yamamoto and that he has a big red target on his back right now.
Topics: DREAM, Japan, K-1, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 4 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Curses! Aleksander, Yamamoto pulled off MMA cards
By Zach Arnold | July 18, 2008
Two of the most entertaining bouts scheduled this weekend (Aleksandr Emelianenko vs. Paul Buentello and Kid Yamamoto vs. Joseph Benavidez) have been canceled.
Gary Goodridge will now replace Aleksander in the Buentello fight.
Topics: Affliction, DREAM, Japan, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 14 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |