Friday headlines: Japanese PR wars
By Zach Arnold | May 31, 2007
The Los Angeles Times on ticket sales for the K-1 Dynamite event at the LA Coliseum:
Kogan said FEG has sold at least 40,000 tickets ranging from $10 to $100. State athletic officials argue that in an outline of ticket distribution plans, FEG officials reported they planned to sell only 10,000 tickets, distributing 20,000 free tickets to stadium “entertainers” and another 50,000 to fans.
The true numbers will emerge Monday, when the state athletic commission releases its official gate report of tickets sold.
Kogan said despite costs that include a $500,000 bill to use the Coliseum, FEG expects to turn a profit.
Renting the Tokyo Dome is cheaper.
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: BoDog, Boxing, Canada, HERO's, IFL, Japan, K-1, Media, MMA, Pancrase, Pro Elite, UFC, WEC, Zach Arnold | 20 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
The dollar menu
By Zach Arnold | May 31, 2007
Topics: IFL, Media, Zach Arnold | 20 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
DSE rumor mill
By Zach Arnold | May 31, 2007
By Zach Arnold
First, let’s cover the court beat. Today, all the parties involved in the Fishman Companies vs. DSE Inc. lawsuit are scheduled to meet in Clark County, NV. court to resume legal proceedings. The main attorney for DSE Inc. filed a motion to dismiss the case or get a summary judgment. One of the expected issues to be raised is whether or not a contract existed between Ed Fishman and DSE Inc. Witness depositions on behalf of Fishman Companies is still expected to occur.
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: Japan, Media, MMA, PRIDE, Zach Arnold | 14 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Thursday trash talk: Dynamite dud or surprise?
By Zach Arnold | May 31, 2007
K-1 has come up with an ingenious idea to promote star power at their upcoming Dynamite show at the LA Coliseum this weekend – give a media push to Dennis Rodman. Sports Navigator reports that they would like to see Rodman compete in MMA, as early as late June in Holland. Yes, the Japanese report alluded to the fact that Rodman wrestled in WCW in 1997.
Just how bad was the IFL stock plunge on Wednesday? It’s a story in The Los Angeles Times newspaper today.
GracieFighter.com reports that the reason Gabe Ruediger will not fight on the K-1 Dynamite show is because he was declared ‘mentally unfit to fight.’ Does Ruediger have a legal leg to stand on if he wants to file a lawsuit against the commission? Sam Caplan comments and also has an update on the story.
WordPress fans: Any suggestions on spam filters that I can use that will allow normal commenters to post comments freely but also keep out spam? Spam Karma 2 catches both real and fake comments, Bad Behavior may have compatibility issues with WP 2.2, etc. So I’m looking for intermediate solutions.
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: HERO's, IFL, Japan, K-1, Media, MMA, PRIDE, Pro Elite, UFC, WEC, Zach Arnold | 22 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Test post
By Zach Arnold | May 30, 2007
If things don’t load 100% of the way, do not be alarmed. The fact that I’ve managed to spend the last several hours repairing WordPress, backing up and restoring a 2-year old database, and manually tweak the system is enough of a miracle at the moment.
I wish I had the bankroll to hire Jeremy Botter and Rob Sayers, but I don’t. If you do, hire them to work on your site!
Topics: All Topics | No Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Major plunge for IFL stock
By Zach Arnold | May 30, 2007
Why is today the day that this stock is dropping hard?
Update: Here’s the latest SEC information. The IFL S-1 filing from earlier in the month was solidified yesterday with a ‘notice of effectiveness.’ FO wannabe stock analysts – have at it and try to explain in plain English what this all means.
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: IFL, Media, Zach Arnold | 19 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Wednesday media wrath: MMA’s mainstream growing pains
By Zach Arnold | May 30, 2007
MMA California’s not-official image character, Yoda, cheerleads for Fedor
Tim Dahlberg, who is a top boxing writer for the Associated Press, rips into UFC with a new column titled UFC could have used a good fight to back up the hype. He rips into the fans who paid to watch UFC 71 as “not-so-rich-and-famous” (someone alert Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf) and said that the Rampage-Liddell fight could contribute to UFC having a ‘bad reputation’ like boxing for not delivering the goods. Also, on Tuesday’s Around the Horn program on ESPN, ‘Ultimate Fighting’ (not MMA) got ripped apart for the shortness of the UFC 71 main event (only LA Times columnist J.A. Adande defended UFC).
I bring up the AP article because it has officially hit the newswires and will be all over morning newspapers today. Expect it to be a topic of conversation.
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: Boxing, HERO's, IFL, Japan, K-1, Media, MMA, Pancrase, Pro-Wrestling, UFC, Zach Arnold | 26 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Barking up the wrong tree
By Zach Arnold | May 29, 2007
Warning: Very graphic and disturbing video about dogfighting
Pardon the pun, but I make no bones about what we are cover on tomorrow’s edition of Fight Opinion Radio. One of the hot topics we will be discussing is the mainstream media’s fascination of trying to tie in the dogfighting allegations against Michael Vick in relation to the growth and public acceptance of UFC. If you have listened to sports talk radio, both Michael Vick and dogfighting defenders have been coming out of the woodwork to try to link UFC to their cause. Despite all the various rebuttals from hosts like Colin Cowherd, it is clear that UFC is getting tarnished by a lot of people with the dogfighting brush in media coverage.
Here’s this person, who says dogfighting is no big deal (somehow managing to name-drop George W. Bush and Barack Obama).
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 15 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Tuesday afternoon notes: More UFC 71 media skepticism
By Zach Arnold | May 29, 2007
CNBC’s Darren Rovell has been critical of UFC in the past, stating that the company and its fighters are not attracting major blue-chip sponsors yet. Today, he deemed the UFC 71 event an ‘ultimate embarrassment’.
The talented Adam Morgan pointed out this Concepts Marketing post to me about UFC. Notice that all of this traffic is for UFC and not any other MMA league (IFL, KOTC, etc.)
On ESPN Radio today, Colin Cowherd says the reason MMA is popular is because it’s a sport that is easy for the fans to follow and understand.
The Fight Network has an update on the story broke by Dave Meltzer on Sunday night about whether or not Ken Shamrock was offered a fight against Royce Gracie on the K-1 Dynamite show.
Gryphon confirms that the UFC 71 show did not air in Japan.
Michael David Smith asks the question on everyone’s mind — is an ESPN and UFC partnership just a matter of time?
Sherdog writer Mike Sloan is quoted in a New York Times web site article today.
Onto this afternoon’s links.
- Deadspin: Not the best weekend for the UFC
- Five Ounces of Pain: Noah Thomas to fight Marlon Sims in sanctioned UFC bout
- Minyanville: Ultimate Fighting – a proven moneymaker with plenty of enemies
- The Redditch Advertiser (UK): No holds barred in cage fighting
- BoxingScene: MMA fighter picks Tommy Morrison over Chuck Liddell
- The Fanhouse: UFC’s concussion policy puts NFL’s to shame
- MMA on Tap: Is PRIDE officially dead?
- UFC Junkie: Roger Huerta added to the August UFC 74 card
- ESPN’s Page 2: UFC 71 gives us yet another surprise
- Crave Online: Are you serious? Liddell/Jackson
- NBC Sports: Juanito Ibarra provides the method to Rampage’s madness
- NBC Sports: Boxing sanctioning body NABC goes from the ropes to the cages
Topics: Boxing, Japan, Media, MMA, PRIDE, UFC, Zach Arnold | 22 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
A shining moment for Mike Goldberg
By Zach Arnold | May 29, 2007
Mike Goldberg has taken his fair share of criticism from hardcore MMA fans online for his announcing work. Some of it is fair and some of it is not fair. However, this video clip illustrates a big blunder by Goldberg during the ring introductions for the Quinton “Rampage” Jackson vs. Chuck Liddell fight. About two minutes into the clip, Goldberg is trying to put over Rampage’s first win against Liddell in the PRIDE ring — which happened on November 9th, 2003 at the Tokyo Dome in the PRIDE ring. In a rush to try to put over Rampage’s first win over Liddell, Goldberg says: “And in January or November of 2005, he beat Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell.”
The embarassment of this blunder was compounded by the fact that ESPN on television, since Saturday night, has been displaying graphical video packages displaying the correct information about the fight history between Rampage & Liddell.
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: Media, MMA, PRIDE, UFC, Zach Arnold | 22 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Tuesday TNT: Dynamite headlines
By Zach Arnold | May 28, 2007
If you are wondering about the TBS TV advertising in Japan for the K-1 Dynamite show, the network is still advertising Brock Lesnar vs. Choi Hong-Man and Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Royce Gracie. On the K-1-produced Sakuraba web site, the latest entry shows Sakuraba at the Chute Boxe USA academy training. Furthermore, K-1 (on their HERO’s web site) is running fan polls (created on Monday) asking who will win in the Lesnar/Hong-Man and Sakuraba/Royce fights. So far in those polls, the Japanese fans favor Hong-Man over Lesnar (54% – 46%) and Sakuraba over Royce (67% – 33%).
More casual fan reaction to UFC and UFC 71
This morning on ESPN Radio’s Mike and Mike morning show, Mike Golic absolutely raved about the UFC 71 show. He said that unlike boxing where you don’t care about the undercard, the full package of fights that UFC presented was exciting even if you didn’t know the name of the fighters. Golic said that the reason he isn’t complaining about the short time length of the Rampage-Liddell fight is because you got four other exciting fights (unlike boxing undercard fights on big PPVs). It was clear that this UFC show was the first one that Golic had watched and he thought it was a good show. His co-host, self-professed metrosexual Mike Greenberg, had no interest in UFC. Later in the show, Steve Phillips and Mike Golic got into an argument about UFC. Phillips said that he saw the Outside the Lines dogfighting segment juxtaposed with the Rampage/Liddell highlights and that he thought both activities were too violent. The audio of two of the segments will be available later today on ESPN Insider and here are the expected links to download the segments (link one and link two).
A couple of posts ago, I went through Technorati and added some links to various sports blogs discussing UFC 71. It drew some traffic, so we’re doing it again. And we’ll include a few MySpace blog entries. Have fun or frustration.
- Dirk Landers (Murda Mook): Don’t believe UFC’s propaganda machine (parts one and two)
- The Big Lead: Chuck Liddell, at this moment, remains dazed and confused
- Jung Texican: MMA or Boxing? Splat! (he says UFC 71 didn’t deliver the goods)
- Eastland’s World: UFC 71 and other stuff that may only matter to me
- Dan’s Take: UFC hardly a hit (‘The truth is boxing should be ashamed of itself for even being compared to a sport filled with guys who would be working for Vince McMahon if their acting wasn’t as embarrassing as their defense.’)
- Strange Angel Fish: Watch the UFC 71 for the clues that it was fake
- Ron Merrill: MMA Mainstream Acceptance? Not so fast
- Less For More: I wanted to watch it, but I blinked and it was over
- Dungy Had the Under: Chuck got knocked the F out
- Hagel’s Blog: What is a Chuck Liddell? (the author says he doesn’t know UFC will compete with disc golf)
- The Porch: Time to make room for another sport
Gryphon noticed the report about PRIDE talent going to UFC rather than PRIDE being recreated as a major-league player in the fight industry. The most ironic thing about his posting is the picture he used — which is the photograph of an 11-year old hunting down ‘the new Hogzilla.’
Does anyone know the direct video link for the trailer on the UFC 72 site? The embedded video isn’t loading 100% of the sound for me.
The next Tuff-N-Uff event on June 22nd in Las Vegas at South Point Hotel and Casino will feature Brad Imes vs. Vince Lucero and Frank Mir vs. Renato Babalu in a submission grappling contest.
One unlucky UFC fan got an unexpected surprise.
Onto today’s headlines.
- Radio (Eddie Goldman): Interview with John Perretti on Rampage-Liddell 2 and UFC
- UFC Junkie: Interview with Houston Alexander
- My Fox Memphis: UFC champion Rampage plans to give back to Memphis
- The Canadian Press: UFC not sweating the upsets
- The West Central Tribune (Minnesota): City Council sends ordinance banning Ultimate Fighting back to committee for clarification
- The Philadelphia Daily News: After taking a beating, Liddell wants rematch
- UFC HP: Urijah Faber calm in the eye of the hurricane
- PhilBoxing: Unity in boxing – a legitimate boxing governing body needs to be established
- Pro Wrestling Blog V2.0: The Next Big Thing in MMA?
- Quibbles and Bits: MMA Upset Trend (the author argues that MMA fighters need sports psychologists, just like other athletes already have)
- John Griffin: Rampage hits the big time
- MMA Weekly: Dana White – ‘We’re going to have them all’
- Divine Satirist: MMA vs. Boxing – it’s no contest (boxing takes a beating here)
Topics: Boxing, HERO's, Japan, K-1, Media, MMA, PRIDE, Pro Elite, UFC, WEC, Zach Arnold | 11 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Monday evening headlines: Rampage’s close-up on ESPN
By Zach Arnold | May 28, 2007
Luke Thomas over at Bloody Elbow analyzes the activity from this past week and what it means for MMA. This guy has some talent. He appeared on ESPN Radio this morning with Colin Cowherd. Listen here.
Quinton “Rampage” Jackson did an interview at 7:45 PM EST with Brian Kenny on Monday on SportsCenter (ESPN). Rampage had the UFC belt placed in front of him (he is still in Las Vegas). Rampage says he’s going to buy himself a monster truck and play video games. Rampage said that he powerbombs fighters like pro-wrestling “but it’s real.” Rampage says MMA is going to take over boxing, golf, sand dune driving, and water polo. This three-minute interview was five million stars. Get the video of this online now.
I can’t defend this post. Who knew that Houston Alexander was in PRIDE?
Onto this evening’s headlines.
- Eastside Boxing: Kimbo Slice – From the Backyard to Cage Fury
- The Las Vegas Sun (Jeff Haney): Examining patterns of surprise in the evolving betting lines of UFC showdowns
- New York Newsday: As UFC rises, is boxing down for the count?
- The Fanhouse: Report – Too much partying led to loss for Chuck Liddell
- Lay and Pray: Angry UFC fans
- The Austin American-Statesman: UFC delivered Saturday
- Yahoo Sports: The Rise of Rampage (he loves his new title belt)
- The Times Herald-Record: Hello there – meet the UFC’s new champ
- CBS Sportsline: UFC 71 wrapup: Still plenty to talk about
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 7 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Monday headlines: Casual fans react to UFC 71
By Zach Arnold | May 28, 2007
Dana White predicts 1 million PPV buys for UFC 71.
MMA On Tap is compiling a list of online radio MMA shows.
Tim Duncan talks UFC. Over at The Fanhouse, another critic lays in on Rampage/Liddell.
I’ve been keeping my eye on what I call the ‘casual bloggers’ that Technorati indexes. They are generally more or less your typical fans online with MySpace or LiveJournal accounts. So far, the reaction is negative towards the action in the Liddell/Rampage fight and split about 50/50 as to whether or not UFC 71 was a good or bad show. I am not sure on how many new fans UFC generated due to the mainstream media attention, so the most important question to ponder is how many new fans UFC was able to generate and how many new fans did they turn off. In other words, the conversion rate of PPV customers and viewers into long-term UFC fans. One thing is for certain — Liddell is taking an absolute beating from many of the casual bloggers as basically a fighter built on all hype and no substance. Rampage, on the other hand, seems to be gaining a lot of steam amongst the same bloggers. Some really fickle newbies (or bandwagon jumpers). That, and the PRIDE vs. UFC debate continues to surface on the blogs. Seriously.
Here’s some blogger reaction to the UFC 71 event:
- The Cage Effect: Drama could have taken Liddell (he calls Liddell’s loss disastrous for UFC and says UFC is a fad)
- The Shreveport Times (Blogspot) Blog: UFC’s parity something new fans will learn (they should advertise this blog more prominently in their MMA newspaper articles)
- The Somewhat Manly Nerd: Having a black champion like Rampage will bring a new audience to MMA
- Truth or Consequences: “What’s a Chuck ‘I’m doing a job’ Liddell?”
- The Postmen: Last night’s knockout was good for UFC. No, seriously (that AP picture of Rampage howling and Chuck dazed will live on forever)
- Chris Vernon (Memphis ESPN radio host): UFC First Impressions
- The O Show: Is White America ready for Rampage?
- Shut Up and Play Ball: UFC = Ultra-Frail Chuck
- Signal to Noise: See, UFC and boxing aren’t so different! (Dana White is MMA’s Don King)
- Random Thoughts and Observations: This UFC thing (a boxing fan not impressed)
It is a unusual paradox that we’re seeing in the media coverage of UFC 71. UFC is getting attacked by two media camps. The first camp is trying to associate MMA with other anti-social activities like dogfighting, and the second camp of writers is lambasting the UFC 71 show for not having enough action (i.e. the main event) to live up to the hype.
Cage Warriors ace Dan Hardy is on a roll.
Onto today’s headlines.
- Sprawl ‘n Brawl: UFC 71 not good enough for casual fans?
- The Houston Chronicle: Quinton Jackson looking to fall fight against Dan Henderson
- The Arizona Republic: Difference in boxing and UFC is money (related article at The Fanhouse)
- Maxboxing: One Last Ferocious stand
- ProphetFighting: Sports Illustrated on MMA (this is a long, but very good article that you should read)
- Mixed Martial Punditry: The surprises continue
- MMA Fever: UFC 71 – The Iceman Melts
- Lay and Pray: UFC 71 Observations
- The San Jose Mercury News: UFC delivers the goods
Topics: Boxing, Japan, Media, MMA, PRIDE, UFC, UK, Zach Arnold | 24 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |