Update on Xyience vs. Bergeron lawsuit (3/8)
By Zach Arnold | March 8, 2008
Even though Xyience’s legal team (the third different team appointed since the company filed suit against Rich Bergeron) got their time extension granted (making the next hearing in the case on 4/3 — two days after Xyience heads to bankruptcy auction for sale), Clark County court records show that Mr. Bergeron filed several motions this past Monday (3/3).
Amongst the filings that Mr. Bergeron filed in court: A motion to strike Adam Frank’s affidavit as perjured testimony and a motion to strike an order on Xyience’s ex-parte motion for an extension. The first filing is 15 pages long and the second filing is 13 pages long.
Meanwhile, some interesting Zuffa-related court news. On Monday at 9 AM, there will be a hearing regarding a lawsuit filed by Steven M. Spector against Zuffa LLC. Zuffa is trying to get the case dismissed against them. In addition, there is a second court case involving Zuffa LLC that is going to a jury trial on June 30th at 9:30 AM (pre-trial hearing is set for 6/26 at 10:30 AM). This is a lawsuit filed by an individual named Jed Leist and Matt Hughes is named as a primary defendant. The case number is 07-A-538523. The attorney for Hughes in the case is Mark Gentile.
update: Rich Bergeron has posted an update on his web site.
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 1 Comment » | Permalink | Trackback |
Friday reading material (3/7/08)
By Zach Arnold | March 7, 2008
- The Sun (UK): Chuck Liddell demands re-match with Keith Jardine
- The Arizona Republic: Melvin Guillard vs. Eric Regan set for Rage in the Cage 105 tonight
- The College Times (AZ): Get ready for a Rage in the Cage rumble
- The Washington Post: A new grip on talent – popularity of MMA is benefitting amateur wrestling, as well
- Dave Meltzer: A look at The Ultimate Fighter 7
- MMA Analyst: Fedor vs. Couture – the epic saga continues
- Steve Sievert: Fedor free agency raises host of questions
- Josh Gross: Fedor’s free-agency fallout
- AOL Fanhouse: Oscar De La Hoya – the best businessman in American sports
- Rutgers University: Spotlight on Frankie Edgar
- Sixshot: Ludacris and Nelly face off in ‘Iron Ring’
- The Dallas Business Journal: Mark Cuban eyes martial arts match
- WEC HP: Full card line-up for 3/26 Las Vegas event
- Fightlinker: Mark Coleman and his daughter’s four-pack abs
Topics: HDNet, M-1, Media, MMA, UFC, UK, WEC, Zach Arnold | 26 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Updated DREAM 3/15 Saitama card line-up
By Zach Arnold | March 6, 2008
As it stands right now:
Lightweight GP tournament matches:
Katsuhiko Nagata vs. Artur Umakhanov
Andre Dida vs. Eddie Alvarez
Mitsuhiro Ishida vs. Jung Bu-Kyung
Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Black Mamba
Kazuyuki Miyata vs. Luiz Buscape
Kotetsu Boku vs. Joachim Hansen
Shin’ya Aoki vs. JZ Calvan
Welterweights: Hayato “Mach” Sakurai vs. Hidetaka Monma
Plus: Mirko Cro Cop & Minowaman in action
Speaking of dark humor — Takumi Yano opens his mouth about the yakuza and Yoshihiro Nakao. K-1 must be thrilled.
Topics: DREAM, Japan, K-1, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 19 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Update on PFCWW vs. Sakakibara lawsuit
By Zach Arnold | March 6, 2008
On February 19th, PRIDE FC Worldwide Holdings LLC issued a summons to DSE Inc. to respond to the lawsuit filed in Clark County court. On Monday (3/3), PFCWW LLC counsel filed a motion to demand a jury trial in the company’s case against Nobuyuki Sakakibara.
Sakakibara and company have not responded yet to the lawsuit and no attorney has been named yet to represent them in court.
Topics: Media, MMA, PRIDE, UFC, Zach Arnold | 1 Comment » | Permalink | Trackback |
A DREAM of returning to glory
By Zach Arnold | March 5, 2008
When K-1 mouthpiece Sadaharu Tanigawa announced that K-1 and DSE officials would work together in ‘a large coalition’ to produce a modified version of PRIDE, you could see the old PRIDE marks suddenly appear on Sherdog and MMA Fighting message boards. When Nobuyuki Sakakibara sold the PRIDE assets to Lorenzo Fertitta, it was as if Sakakibara also sold Fertitta the rights to the PRIDE online trolls as well. PRIDE was dead and the trolls had suddenly vanished.
Unfortunately, the trolls are back and with a vengeance based on the news regarding the new DREAM promotion. Check out the message boards now — the old PRIDE vs. UFC flame wars are suddenly back in full force.
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: DREAM, HERO's, Japan, K-1, Media, MMA, PRIDE, Zach Arnold | 35 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Thursday trash talk: Reading material (3/6/08)
By Zach Arnold | March 5, 2008
The latest Pro Elite SEC filing.
- Fightlinker: Ohio Athletic Commission sues over fake Cummo suspension
- Sherdog: Rashad Evans vs. Chuck Liddell set for London UFC event (should be interesting to see if the UK fans boo or cheer Evans)
- The Loudoun Connection (VA): Royce Gracie and family celebrate Capital Jiu-Jitsu grand opening
- Todd Martin (CBS Sports): Addressing the EXC-CBS partnership
- Lee Casebolt: CBS, EXC, and you
- Larry Vollmer Jr.: Joe Rogan taking some flack from MMA fans
- The Palm Beach Post: UFC champion Nogueira from West Palm had a painful path before entering the ring
- Joe Fernandez (NY Newsday): Boxing is fine, but MMA goes the distance
- Robert Cassidy (NY Newsday): MMA is a sport for the M-TV generation
- Steve Cofield: “Bloated Truck Driver” Roy Nelson wants Fedor
- ADCC News: M-1 Global debuts in St. Petersburg, Russia in early April
- The Sioux City Journal: Cage fighting – another side
- Pro Fight Store: Josh Barnett comments after fight with Hidehiko Yoshida
Topics: Boxing, IFL, Japan, M-1, Media, MMA, Pro Elite, UFC, UK, Zach Arnold | 6 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
WVR 3/5 Tokyo (Sengoku) event
By Zach Arnold | March 5, 2008
Gryphon has running PBP of the event.
The claimed paid attendance for the show was 15,523. If it’s a legitimate number, then the show was a financial success. (Update: A good point here — I remember when WWE ran a show at the facility a couple of years ago and got 12,000 max into the building for a sellout.)
The next two shows for WVR will take place on 5/18 in Tokyo at Ariake Colosseum and 6/8 at Saitama Super Arena.
Main results:
Josh Barnett defeated Hidehiko Yoshida in R3 in 3’23 with a heel hold.
Takanori Gomi defeated Duane “Bang” Ludwig in R1 in 2’28 with a straight left for the TKO.
Kazuo Misaki defeated Siyar Bahadurzada in R2 in 2’02 with a front choke hold.
Kazuyuki Fujita defeated Peter Graham in R1 in 1’23 with a spinning choke hold.
Evangelista Cyborg defeated Makoto Takimoto in R1 in 4’51 with an achilles hold.
Ryo Kawamura defeated Antonio Braga Neto by a 3-0 judges’ decision after 3R.
Nick Thompson defeated Fabricio “Pitbull” Monteiro by a 3-0 judges’ decision after 3R.
The promotion uses a 3R, 5 minutes per-round system.
Videos of the fights here. MMA Opinion comments about the debut event.
Topics: Japan, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 24 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Reports: Shogun vs. Liddell fight canceled
By Zach Arnold | March 4, 2008
This is what you call very bad karma. Sherdog and MMA Weekly have reports on the story.
Think Dana White wishes he had booked Brock Lesnar for the London event after all?
Topics: Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 8 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Tuesday news review (3/4/08)
By Zach Arnold | March 4, 2008
Yesterday in Clark County court, judge Elizabeth Halverson granted Xyience attorneys a month-long extension in time to respond to Rich Bergeron’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit against him. The next scheduled court hearing is on 4/3 at 8:30 AM. What makes that date interesting is that the cut-off date for Xyience in bankruptcy court is reportedly on April 1st. In other words, there’s a chance that this lawsuit by Xyience against Bergeron could be sold or treated as an asset in any sort of bankruptcy sale (based on my interpretation of sage-like wisdom given to me by Jeff Thaler).
Onto today’s headlines.
- Black Athlete: Interview with Bas Rutten
- The Daily Evergreen (Washington): Is violence rising at Washington State University? (one person blames the rising of ‘ultimate fighting’)
- Sam Caplan (CBS Sports): Plenty of options ahead for Anderson Silva, but few that make sense
- The Baltimore Sun: MMA sanctioning efforts in Maryland moving forward
- The Sun (UK): UFC’s Joe Rogan in HDNet gaffe
- Total MMA: Lesnar vs. Coleman – Coleman comes full circle
- MMA Payout: New Era? UFC debuts on Yahoo PPV (Ed. — until the issue of content portability is addressed through means other than DRM, I don’t know how strong the demand will be for online PPV products)
- Jarry Park (audio): Patrycja Mikula plays a game of “True or False”
- ADCC News: Roger Gracie on the cusp of signing with World Victory Road
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 8 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Trying to create some heat for Sengoku
By Zach Arnold | March 4, 2008
The last-minute push for the World Victory Road debut show in Tokyo tomorrow at Yoyogi National Stadium Gym I seems to be mild, at best. The main event of Yoshida vs. Barnett should be interesting to watch, but not necessarily a hot box-office attraction. There has been little or no mention about Takanori Gomi vs. Duane “Bang” Ludwig as the semi-main event. Instead, the heat has virtually been on the Kazuyuki Fujita vs. Peter Graham fight and they did a pull-apart angle today.
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: Japan, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 11 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
WWE has no clue about MMA
By Zach Arnold | March 3, 2008
It was obvious before, and it became even more obvious after watching tonight on RAW.
The Big Show, who is facing Floyd Mayweather Jr. at WrestleMania in Orlando, faced a boxer named Brandon “The Thrill” Hill in a “Mixed Martial Arts exhibition” match. This was supposed to be a parody of the upcoming wrestling match with Mayweather and it was Vince McMahon-style comedy. The rules of the match were as follows: you can win by pinfall, submission, or knockout. (How is this any different than any other pro-wrestling match?)
Big Show ended up tossing around Hill like a rag doll in a glorified wrestling squash match. By the way, Mayweather has been absolutely terrible in the angle with Big Show. Show, meanwhile, has done his damndest to save the storyline. There’s nothing he can do to make up for the complete lack of timing and babyface charisma that WWE thought Mayweather would bring to the table.
Topics: Boxing, Media, MMA, WWE, Zach Arnold | 8 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Illustrating absurdity: Fightlinker
By Zach Arnold | March 3, 2008
In an attempt at humor, Fightlinker posted this item about Luke Cummo on Monday. In response, MMA media outlets took this post seriously and the reaction is unbelievable. Keep in mind that the Fightlinker post about Cummo was posted on a day where other FL site headlines included such items as “How big is Chuck’s dick?”
The fact that elected officials and media outlets allegedly took the Fightlinker post seriously is a hell of a story in and of itself. It also doesn’t say very good things about the overall credibility of the online MMA media outlets when a web site dedicated to making fun of anything and everyone is looked upon as seriously as some of the hardcore news sites. It’s the equivalent of people looking at Scrappleface and putting as much credibility in those parodies as they would for a story on CNN Politics.
In order for a good parody to work, people have to believe that there’s a shred of truth to it. The idea that people actually bought into this fake Dana White quote, in my view, says a hell of a lot about how people view White in general if they actually believed it:
When asked for his comment on the latest suspension, UFC president Dana White said “He put what up his where? Are you fucking serious???”
In my opinion, I expect White to use this incident to further bludgeon the credibility of the true ‘hard news’ MMA media sites online.
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 20 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Monday news & notes (3/3/08)
By Zach Arnold | March 3, 2008
I will have an article talking about the new DREAM promotion in a few days on the site. In short, the viability of the Japanese MMA scene on a large scale is completely dependent on whether or not the DSE-flavored project succeeds. The upcoming article will give you a road map of issues to pay close attention to and what the major players behind-the-scenes need to do to make the project successful long-term.
Onto today’s headlines.
- Sam Caplan: Fact-checking Dana White
- The Boston Channel: MMA a knockout in New England – Dover native Kenny Florian one of sport’s rising stars
- The Dayton Daily News (OH): Having dominated all in UFC, what’s left for Anderson Silva?
- The Newark Advocate (OH): Ohio has taken to UFC
- The Canadian Press: Anderson Silva solidifies status as best pound-for-pound MMA fighter
- AOL Fanhouse: Next for Anderson Silva – 1. Beat Yushin Okami; 2. Gain 20 pounds
- The Dayton Daily News (OH): Jon Fitch’s record performance nets UFC welterweight title shot
- The South Florida Sun-Sentinel: After 13 years, MMA fighter Randy Couture still kicking around
- Jake Rossen: ‘Elite’ competition for UFC
- The Timmins Daily Press (Ontaro, California): Rise of MMA didn’t happen overnight
- MMA Mania: Interview with The Diaz Brothers
- Sam Caplan: Monte Cox looking to get Tim Sylvia re-signed to a deal with the UFC
- The Fightworks Podcast: Interview with Flavio Almeida and Gracie Barra
- MMA California: Fight Quest – Kajukenbo?
- Michael Rome: A barren landscape
- Steve Sievert: Dana White’s doublespeak lands Mark Coleman under the bus
- MMA Payout: UFC 82 payouts
- MMA Opinion: World Victory Road’s Sengoku Preview (Part 1)
Topics: Brazil, Japan, Media, MMA, Pro Elite, UFC, Zach Arnold | 8 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |