Yoshida vs. Barnett booked for WVR debut show
By Zach Arnold | February 2, 2008
Remember our report a few days ago talking about the possiblity of Hidehiko Yoshida vs. Josh Barnett happening at World Victory Road’s debut show on March 5th in Yoyogi?
Mark it down on your calendar. It’s officially booked. Josh is promising a nice suplex in his match against Yoshida.
Topics: Japan, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 31 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
UFC 81 (2/2 Las Vegas)
By Zach Arnold | February 2, 2008
Event results: MMA Weekly | Sherdog | The Fight Network | MMA Junkie | Bloody Elbow | Total MMA | Observer
According to this report, Steve Austin, The Undertaker, and JBL are at the building.
Somewhere in the world, Antonio Inoki is crying about Brock Lesnar’s loss.
And now we’re going to get Nogueira vs. Werdum for the heavyweight title soon.
Post-mortems from the press:
- Los Angeles Times: Lesnar doesn’t last one round in UFC bout
- The Canadian Press: Lesnar only lasted 90 seconds in his UFC debut
- The Washington Post: Mir capitalizes on early error by Lesnar in UFC 81
- The Associated Press: Mir spoils Lesnar’s UFC debut
- Steve Cofield: Reality bites – Mir submits Lesnar at UFC 81
- Steve Sievert: Mir exposes Lesnar at UFC 81
- MMA Opinion: Lesnar’s UFC debut falls short during UFC 81
- Any Given Saturday: UFC 81 post-show audio recap with Luke Thomas & Jeff Hamlin
- Oliver Copp: UFC 81 post-fight press conference audio clips
- Dave Meltzer: Brock Lesnar shows superstar potential in loss
Plus, an update on Andrei Arlovski.
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, WWE, Zach Arnold | 77 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Pre-UFC 81 event notes
By Zach Arnold | February 2, 2008
On a side note, results from today’s mystery K-1 show at Nippon Budokan. Show recap here.
The first scheduled hearing in Zuffa LLC’s court case against Randy Couture is on March 4th at 9 AM. Zuffa LLC attorney Donald J. Campbell has filed a motion for a preliminary injunction.
Lots of audio previewing the upcoming UFC 81 event tonight in Las Vegas. If you haven’t listened to the latest edition of Fight Opinion Radio, go do so. Mike Sawyer and Oliver Copp have a report from Mandalay Bay Events Center on the latest edition of their radio show. Some notes from Mike & Oliver:
- WWE has purchased 30 ringside tickets for the show tonight.
- As of 5pm Friday, they still had tickets left (325).
- TNA guys will also be at ringside (Tenay, Borash and Kurt Angle)
Article row: Las Vegas RJ | Las Vegas Sun | Washington Post | Wilmington News Journal
The king of interviews, Steve Cofield, has several available to listen to on his site. Interviews: Alex Marvez | Kenny Florian | Keith Jardine | Joe Lauzon | Brock Lesnar
Dave Meltzer has notes (here and here) about Friday night’s UFC weigh-ins.
Topics: K-1, Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 12 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
More problems between Teddy Atlas and ESPN
By Zach Arnold | February 2, 2008
Remember all the rumors last year that there was some possible interest in business happening between UFC and ESPN?
UFC tends to like to control their matchmaking and production. This latest story is just another example as to why Dana White wants full control of what happens with the UFC product.
Topics: Boxing, Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 15 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Kevin Iole: Frank Mir has better stamina than Nogueira
By Zach Arnold | February 1, 2008
Seriously, he made his argument:
He rated Mir 9 out of 10 stars for conditioning and rated Nogueira 8 out of 10 stars for stamina.
Dave Doyle should respond to the public criticism of this.
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 15 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Fight Opinion Radio #74: Judge Jeff Thaler
By Zach Arnold | February 1, 2008
We’re 24 hours away from UFC 81 in Las Vegas, Nevada, and we have you covered with a full preview of this weekend’s event. How much interest is there really in the show? Will Brock Lesnar be able to become a major star? Not only do we have our own predictions, but Caleb from MMA Predictions stops by to talk about which way fans are going in terms of predicting the outcome of the Lesnar vs. Mir fight.
Also on the show this week is the debut of Judge Jeff Thaler. Jeff takes a look at two cases on the Fight Opinion court docket, the Zuffa LLC lawsuit against Randy Couture and Xyience filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding. We cover all the legal angles on both stories and leave no questions unasked.
Plus, we finish off the show with the world-famous grab bag, talking about the death of The Godfather and putting the history of PRIDE into context. Was PRIDE the biggest scam in the history of MMA?
The 74th edition of Fight Opinion Radio is now online and available to download. Download this week’s show here.
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: Fight Opinion Radio, Japan, Jeff Thaler, Media, MMA, podcasts, PRIDE, Pro-Wrestling, UFC, Yakuza, Zach Arnold | No Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Friday fight notes before Super Bowl ’08
By Zach Arnold | February 1, 2008
From Team Link: Alexandre ‘Vaca’ Moreno strengthens Team Link
Team Link, whose stable includes UFC star Gabriel “Napao” Gonzaga, WEC champion Paulo Filho, and Gabriel Gladiator, welcomes Alexandre ‘Vaca’ Moreno. Alexandre ‘Vaca’ is already an accomplished competitor, having won the World Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Championship as a blue belt and as a purple belt. Since moving to the USA several years ago, he has taken a number of NAGA titles and is the WFL Lightheavyweight Champion.
Here is some audio from the UFC 81 pre-fight press conference.
Onto today’s many headlines…
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: Canada, Japan, Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 15 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Quote of the Day – Dana White on Randy Couture
By Zach Arnold | February 1, 2008
With the UFC suing heavyweight champion Randy Couture over Couture’s decision to walk away from his contract, the heavyweight title remains in limbo. White challenged Couture on Thursday to end the infighting.
“Come on Captain America, step up and be a man and give these guys the opportunity to win the title,” White said.
“He’s the heavyweight champion. He signed a contract with us less than a year ago and I expect him to honour it. And I expect him to be a standup guy and give these guys the opportunities they gave him.”
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 43 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Thursday trash talk: More UFC in the UK
By Zach Arnold | January 31, 2008
- Kevin Iole: Frank Mir has seen, done it all (Dana White compares Frank Mir to BJ Penn)
- Mike Coughlin: The UFC’s ‘next big thing’
- The Newark Star-Ledger (NJ): Tim Sylvia expects to come up big at UFC 81
- The Long Beach Press-Telegram: Tim Sylvia’s style works for him, not the fans
- The Edmonton Sun: Maximum Fighting Championship signs deal with HDNet
- MMA Analyst: RioHeroes 14 ends in a win via vomiting…
- Five Ounces of Pain: Does the Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act apply to MMA contracts?
- Gazette Live (UK): UFC set to return to Newcastle in 2009
Topics: Brazil, HDNet, Media, MMA, UFC, UK, Zach Arnold | 17 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Takanori Gomi headed to WVR
By Zach Arnold | January 30, 2008
World Victory Road announced today (at a press conference) that Takanori Gomi is booked for the promotion’s debut show on 3/5 in Tokyo at Yoyogi National Stadium Gym I.
Topics: Japan, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 55 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Wednesday news & notes (1/30/2008)
By Zach Arnold | January 30, 2008
- Audio (Fight Network Radio): Zach Arnold and Mauro Ranallo talk about Hiromichi Momose’s death
- The Canadian Press: Prison guard and fighter, Marvin Eastman returns to UFC Saturday
- Business Wire (PR): Yamma Pit Fighting emerges as new force on the MMA scene
- Sherdog: Meyrowitz announces new MMA venture
- Luke Thomas: Bob Meyrowitz might actually be clueless
- Fightlinker: Bob Meyrowitz brings back pit fighting
- MMA Analyst: NSAC stops messinga round, goes after juicers
- MMA Opinion: What if the NSAC acted sooner?
- The San Luis Obispo Tribune: Chuck Liddell – not all tough guy
- The Murfreesboro Daily News Journal (TN): Local student’s first demo to debut at UFC championship event
- The Telegraph (UK): England flanker James Haskell gets to grips with UFC
Topics: Japan, Media, MMA, PRIDE, UFC, UK, Zach Arnold | 4 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
The CSAC has had enough of Carter Williams
By Zach Arnold | January 30, 2008
Press release:
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 3 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Adam Swift on Xyience/UFC relationship
By Zach Arnold | January 30, 2008
He won’t be on UFC’s Christmas card list, that’s for sure:
In fact, documents reveal that Xyience’s third largest shareholder is closely tied to Zuffa and the UFC.
Also named on the shareholder list are Zuffa Chief Financial Officer John Mulkey, who holds 50,000 shares of Xyience, and resident agent John Hertig, who holds 25,000.
Xyience has $42,342,831 in liabilities, including $27,319,517 in secured claims, compared to just $5,285,722 in assets, bankruptcy filings show. Accordingly, the Fertitta brothers could stand to become majority owners of the reorganized company.
A shareholder, who wished to remain anonymous, told Sherdog.com that Xyience’s original owners (Pike and his associates) approached him and other investors to join a lawsuit against the Fertittas.
I’m going to ask a question now that I’ve asked in the past…
UFC pushed Xyience extremely hard. They had fighters sign sponsorship deals with the company. They reportedly had Xyience inked to a $15 million USD/year sponsorship deal while Xyience was supposedly bleeding cash. Why was UFC’s biggest corporate sponsor a company with a troubled past, that couldn’t pay fighters on their sponsorship deals, and needed financing from the very same people that they signed a sponsorship deal with?
Name me a sports entity where this kind of situation currently exists.
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 9 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |