Thursday media link-o-rama
By Zach Arnold | October 12, 2006
Time to take a deep breath (hopefully the news cycle slows down). If you have any MMA news-related media links you would like to contribute to this article, post them in the comments section. We’re definitely looking for fresh links, especially from the various blogs.
You can see all of today’s links in full-post view.
- UFC HP: Kenny Florian article/interview
- Sports Navigator: DSE announces Yosuke Nishijima vs. Phil Baroni for 10/21 Las Vegas card
- Ivan Trembow: Tito Ortiz vs. Ken Shamrock shatters all UFC ratings records
- Ringside Report: The biggest money draws in boxing
- CBS Sportsline: Fast action helps UFC outpace boxing
- On the Mat: Super Challenge 10/7 Brazil event results
- Knockout Zone: Big WEC event on Thursday
- Worcester Telegram: Butterbean already scheduling fights for 2007
- Odoroku TV: Watch PRIDE 9/10 Saitama GP matches online (broadband users) from 10/13-10/26
- MMA Weekly: The Real Deal or PRIDE’s Freudian Slip?
- Ground & Pound: Gilbert Melendez interview (no discussion of K-1 legal issues)
- Swimming Eye: PRIDE will do a “public viewing” of Las Vegas event at Japanese movie theaters (closed circuit) for 5,000Y/person
Topics: All Topics, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 4 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Ken vs. Tito III draws huge ratings
By Zach Arnold | October 11, 2006
Spike TV press release says that Tuesday night’s event from Florida drew a 3.1 rating cable, and also beat the Oakland A’s vs. Detroit Tigers game that aired on FOX in the male 18-34 year old demographic. Ratings breakdown here.
“Last night was a turning point for the UFC. This will further drive the evolution of mixed martial arts into a mainstream sport,” said Dana White, President, Ultimate Fighting Championship.
Meanwhile, WWE-promoted ECW drew a 1.8 rating on Tuesday night on the Sci-Fi Channel (the show aired right after the conclusion of UFC’s show on Spike TV). The pro-wrestling writers are going to have a field day with this.
Also, Dave Doyle has a response for Rick Telander.
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: All Topics, Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 18 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Response to UFC & WWE article
By Zach Arnold | October 11, 2006
By Zach Arnold
The comments and mail in regards to Luke Nicholson’s article were voluminous. I generally agree with his position and the tone of his article.
I also view his article not as just an American wrestling fan, but as a Japanese wrestling fan. The history that has transpired in Japan does somewhat translate to what we may be seeing in America, despite the fact that the Japanese look at pro-wrestling more as a sport and American fans have been conditioned to look at wrestling as simply entertainment.
If you look at the responses to Luke’s article and you view the breakdown of boxing/MMA fans versus wrestling/MMA fans, you can see why Ken vs. Tito clicked more with the wrestling/MMA fans than the boxing fans. As Mr. Roadblock points out, Ken vs. Tito (which drew huge business this year for UFC) is very much like pro-wrestling. In fact, both men are fans of professional wrestling. Ken Shamrock was a professional wrestler before he went into UFC. Tito Ortiz worked as a guest referee for TNA a little over a year ago.
There is a crossover between MMA fighters and wrestlers, and the level of respect that they have for each other is pretty significant.
To me, UFC is a significant threat both to boxing and wrestling because Dana White has a background in boxing and also has been studying the elements of WWE closely. I give him a lot of credit (and so does Luke) when it comes to marketing.
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: All Topics, Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 12 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Tanigawa focuses on Sapp & Melendez
By Zach Arnold | October 11, 2006
By Zach Arnold
Update: Gryphon has more details.
Here’s a screen capture from Dave Meltzer’s Wednesday news update. Would K-1 use this as evidence in court of a breach of contract?
As I noted over at Puroresu Power today, K-1 matchmaker Sadaharu Tanigawa held a press conference to focus on upcoming action the company would take against Bob Sapp. Tanigawa indicated that there were several wrestling groups and a wrestling group trying to produce an MMA show for New Year’s Eve (this sounds like New Japan) that was introduced in booking Sapp.
One item that is starting to gain traction, however, is that Tanigawa also stated that another fighter (Gilbert Melendez) breached a signed K-1 contract in order to work for PRIDE. NHB News has more details (in Japanese). Melendez was promoted by K-1 initially for their Middleweight tournament. Rani Yahya ended up replacing Melendez’s spot. With Melendez fighting Shin’ya Aoki at Bushido on 11/5 at Yokohama Arena, K-1 would view this certainly as a breach of a signed contract (if Melendez did in fact sign one) and require compensation of damages.
The idea that K-1 is going after these guys in court is quite a unique signal and change of pace from the way business normally works in the fight scene over there. The big question is whether or not K-1 can tie these guys up in court and prevent them from making a living in Japan again. If that’s the case, then Sapp & Melendez are going to have a legal war on their hands. Tanigawa indicated that he wanted compensation for damages first (instead of stopping Melendez from fighting), but we’ll see how that plays out.
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: All Topics, HERO's, Japan, K-1, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 1 Comment » | Permalink | Trackback |
Similar Histories: UFC and WWE
By Luke | October 11, 2006
To some people the similarities between UFC and WWE might just be coincidence, or maybe there are small little details that separate them, and to an extent that might be true. But, the fact that these two promotions are following such a similar timeline, and given the similar personalities that run both the UFC and WWE. MMA and Pro-Wrestling have a lot in common – from historical timelines, to booking philosophy, to marketing strategy.
MMA is going through a similar growth period now, that Pro Wrestling went through in the 1980s. Dana White is on the leading edge of that growth period in MMA in 2006, as Vince McMahon was in 1985.
Vince McMahon used syndication and MTV to squeeze regional promoters, and put them out of business. Lorenzo Fertitta and Dana White used the Commission system to squeeze Bob Meyrowitz years ago into selling UFC for a bargain basement price. After that Fertitta got UFC sanctioned in the state of Nevada. But previously he had just refused to sanction UFC as a member of the NSAC, when Meyrowitz applied. Which strangely enough was only a few months before UFC was sold to Zuffa.
Both took a big risk that put them over the top. UFC chose to be part of a reality TV series on Spike TV that exposed their sport to a mass audience that hadn’t seen it previously. Vince McMahon – after a year of syndication and a few million dollars in losses – chose to work with M-TV on a special to promote a show called Wrestle Mania that would air nationally on closed-circuit TV, exposing the WWF to the masses, during an era of regional promotions, when it was faux-pas to “run†outside your home territory. Who is Forrest Griffin without The Ultimate Fighter? Or, Roddy Piper and Paul Orndorff without “The War to Settle the Scoreâ€?
Vince McMahon had a very close relationship with the New York State Athletic Commission for years that allowed him control that particular region. Dana White and UFC have something very similar in Nevada. As difficult as Vince used to make it for others to run in New York, Dana White is making it as difficult for other promotions to run in Nevada. One example is the upcoming PRIDE shows where PRIDE will be forced to use the UFC round system, and judging criteria, and follow UFC rules. These differences won’t make it easier for PRIDE to be successful in North America. The only thing PRIDE won’t have to do is use UFC’s octagon.
Dana White isn’t doing anything revolutionary. He hasn’t re-invented the wheel. The formula that’s being used by Dana White is very similar to the formula thats been used by Wrestling promotions around the world for centuries.
Even the formula for making money is similar. You take two fighters and position them as stars and put them in a ring together. Then you work to convince people to pay to see them fight. This isn’t anything that hasn’t been used in Wrestling for years and years. If you want evidence that it works, just study the buyrates that UFC has been doing this year in comparison with their TV ratings. Then do the same for WWE this year. The conversion rate of TV viewers to PPV purchasers tells the entire story.
Branding is the use of logos, symbols, or product design to promote consumer awareness of goods and services. Many Fortune 500 companies use Branding to help establish themselves in their marketplace. From WWE to Microsoft, to Apple, to the NFL, to UFC. All have taken great amounts of time and money to establish ‘their brand’ of a certain product to the public.
Most of the MMA coverage you see in the mainstream media is UFC coverage. Without the UFC, there wouldn’t be any mainstream MMA coverage. Just recently I saw that UFC has its own tab on the sports page at the Sympatico.ca website. Sympatico obviously isn’t ESPN, but it shows that without the brand “UFCâ€, would MMA be getting any mainstream attention?
John Q. Public walking the street probably wouldn’t know what MMA stood for if you asked him. If you asked him what UFC stands for, his reaction would probably be “Oh, that’s Ultimate Fightingâ€. What reaction do you want the general populous to have when they’re confronted with the sport? Would like them to say “What is that again?â€, or would you like them to instantly be able to recognize it, and know what you’re talking about.
In all three of these areas UFC has utilized something from the Pro-Wresting business to help them become successful. All the while, they haven’t undermined the sports legitimacy, and they’re skyrocketing into mainstream acceptance, and entrenchment. The key difference between the UFC and WWE boom periods is that one is a real sport with true characters, and the other is fake with cartoon characters. The chances of UFC being embraced long term by the MSM are much greater because of that. Compared with WWE, which is laughed at today by the MSM.
Topics: All Topics, Luke Nicholson, MMA, Pro-Wrestling, UFC, WWE | 25 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Wednesday MMA media round-up
By Zach Arnold | October 11, 2006
Hint: A massive amount of mainstream media coverage for UFC.
And check out the link to Rick Telander’s column in the Chicago Sun-Times. Yes, another one of the “old guard” of sports writers (from Chicago) who was a boxing supporter and isn’t supportive of UFC’s rise as a sport.
Maybe Telander is in competition with Jay Mariotti to see which guy can draw the most cheap heat at the Sun-Times.
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: All Topics, Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 2 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Is this the big Japanese arrest?
By Zach Arnold | October 10, 2006
By Zach Arnold
I am strongly encouraging our Japanese readers to help out with gathering information for this story. Please contribute if you can.
In the last several years, times have been tough for the various Japanese media outlets. As business has declined, so have profits and ultimately many publications have had to restructure their companies or lay off employees (as was the case with Weekly Fight newspaper). In one of the last issues of Weekly Fight, the newspaper made a claim that someone big in the fight industry was going to be arrested soon. This created a myriad of rumors and speculation as to which big name was going to be arrested by the police. There was all sorts of speculation (ranging from fighters to promoters). It appears that this speculation was misfocused.
Someone with a sharp eye over at NHB News has picked up on what could be a very explosive story in regards to the impact it has on the Japanese fight media. The NHB News post claims that the President of Gong (which has Weekly Gong and Gong Kakutougi magazines) had his house searched by Tokyo Metropolitan Police (specifically their organized crime task force(s)). The post links to a newspaper report in Tokyo Shimbun about the owner of a computer company called ADTX. The claim is that ADTX, which was created in 1993 and listed on the Osaka Securities Exchange (Hercules) in December of 2001, started creating false financial statements (“window dressing”) after the company started going into debt. The company was delisted from the stock exchange and the Tokyo Shimbun report lists the company’s debts (as of February of 2006) at 14.9 billion yen.
Because this story could get so complex and so detailed, I am hoping that our Japanese readers can help out with story details and/or news links to this.
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: All Topics, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 10 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
UFC: The Final Chapter
By Erin | October 10, 2006
Am I the only one who now has “The Final Countdown†running through their head cause of the title of the show? Just me? Ok, then. *Doodoodoodooooooooo*
Umm, during the opening rundown of the fights, did anyone else notice that all of Tito’s highlights were him beating on Shamrock? Is this UFC’s not-so-subtle way of saying who they are sure will win?
Matt Hamill vs. Seth Petruzelli
Woot, I’m looking forward to see how well Matt has done under the full time training of Team Punishment. Not so much on Seth’s hair. Silverback, we get it dude.
Matt immediately goes for the takedown and they end up against the fence. Seth fights back with some kicks and manages to hold him off. Seth goes for a body kick and Matt catches his leg before swinging him to the ground. Matt ends up in Seth’s guard and drops a lot pf punches before they return to their feet. Seth has a nasty cut under his eye. Matt gets another takedown and is back to dropping elbows and such. Seth starts to go for an arm but Matt backed off enough to get away before dropping back down again. Round ends.
We focus on Seth’s eye during the break and “eww†is about the best way to describe it.
Round 2. Stand up to start off, Seth got a good shot, but Matt was able to get control back and is back in Seth’s guard. Big John separates them for not working enough. Matt continually goes for a takedown and Seth does well on holding it off for a bit before Matt gets him down again. Matt keeps working on Seth’s eye until the end of the round. The bridge of Seth’s nose is now cut too. The doctor comes in to check him out and gives the go ahead.
Round 3. Seth throws a body kick and Matt grabs the leg and they hit the ground. Pretty much the same action as before. Matt is in guard dropping a lot of short fists and elbows. Big John stands them up. Matt goes for another takedown but Seth blocks it with a guillotine. Seth got a spin kick in, but didn’t capitalize and they go back to the ground. John pauses the fight to check out Seth’s eye. Matt’s not looking so pretty anymore either.
Back to action, Matt gets a big slam and does the same thing as before. Seth goes for an arm bar at the last second, but Matt stays away from it as the round ends.
Matt wins by unanimous decision. Really not surprising. Matt talking about his win and how he’s proud of his efforts just makes me go “awwwwâ€. Gah, I’m such a chick sometimes.
Ed Herman vs. Jason MacDonald
The Athlete? Not exactly the most descriptive nickname ever, but ok.
The guys end up against the fence before Ed gets a leg sweep takedown. Rogan is calling it a “wizzer†and I’m giggling. Jason flips them and goes for an arm. Jason is in half guard and starts working for side guard. Jason gets full mount for half a second before Ed flips them, but Jason grabs an arm bar and possibly one or two other things as well. Ed hangs on for a damn long time before finally tapping out. Damn, poor Ed was all tangled up like a pretzel there for a second.
I can just see MacDonald thinking: “Ha! A Triangle is not enough for me, I think I’ll go for a kimura at the same time, ‘cause I’m damn cool like that.â€
Rich Franklin interview: Mrrrrrroooooow. That is all.
Kendall Grove vs. Chris Price
Not really big on the “Exorcist†nickname. Either he’s going to throw holy water on someone or start projectile puking. Either way, not so good.
Nice aggressive stand up with some knees and even a foot stomp before Kendall gets Chris down against the cage. Kendall goes for punches while Chris works for an arm. Lots of wiggling around and changing of positions before Kendall gets full mount and drops some elbows. The ref calls the fight and Kendall does his best Tito impression after.
Gotta love how Rogan was commenting that Chris was perfectly fine right before the ref called it off.
I must say, Ken, while most likely not gonna win, he does have fun taste in music. Tito is out with his culturally confused flag. Roommate Jen declares it Bi-National, like Bi-Sexual but with less girl-on-girl action. And speaking of girl-on-girl….Hi Jenna!
Tito Ortiz vs. Ken Shamrock
Clinch to start out with both guys throwing knees, Tito backs Ken against the fence and gets a takedown. Tito is dropping short elbows. Tito switches to punches and after a handful the fight is stopped. Ken is down in the corner, and when he finally gets up he manages to stumble over and make nice with Tito. Tito, remarkably enough, makes nice back. I’m worried that I’m once again starting to like Tito, but I’m sure he’ll manage to annoy me sometime in the near future.
Wow he was actually rather nice about the whole thing. Holy Crap.
Ken announces his retirement after the match. To which I say, good for him. Though he did seem to be kinda hedging his bets on whether this was officially official or not.
Topics: Erin Bucknell, MMA, UFC | 17 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
UFC Monday Night Invasion
By Zach Arnold | October 9, 2006
By Zach Arnold
To say that the UFC hype machine was in full effect on American cable television would be an understatement. Read the article in full-post view to read how much coverage UFC got on Monday night.
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: All Topics, Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 2 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
HERO’s 10/9 Yokohama event results
By Zach Arnold | October 9, 2006
The promotion claimed 10,631 paid for the event. A night of surprises. Results can be viewed in full-post mode.
Strong ratings for HERO’s
Report of Japanese ratings revised by source report. Video Research Ltd. Co. Japan (via Sports Navigator) reports that the HERO’s 10/9 Yokohama Arena show on TBS (Tokyo Broadcasting System) drew an 14.6% average rating, with the highest peak rating being a 20.6% for the Hideo Tokoro vs. Ken Kaneko fight (the fight drawing an overall 18.3%).
These are significantly better numbers than the August 5th show that featured Kazushi Sakuraba.
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: All Topics, HERO's, Japan, MMA, Zach Arnold | 11 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Monday & Tuesday MMA media notes
By Zach Arnold | October 9, 2006
It’s going to be three chaotic days for media coverage of MMA (primarily UFC). So we’ll use this as the all-purpose thread for all mainstream media coverage of MMA these next three days.
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: All Topics, Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 3 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Meet the new Evan Tanner
By Zach Arnold | October 8, 2006
Image credit: IronLife.com
Here’s the old Evan Tanner (here and here). Now meet the new Evan Tanner (here and here). Notice Evan’s impersonation of Randy Savage in the second picture.
At least Evan isn’t causing trouble and being a hooligan like the the fine folks near Lincoln, Nebraska at an MMA show. Obviously these fans didn’t stay classy. (Hat tip: Mikeinformer.)
Mikeinformer needs his own blog. I’m willing to give you one, Mike. Just ask for it.
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: All Topics, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 6 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Fight Opinion Weekly
By Zach Arnold | October 8, 2006
By Zach Arnold
We know many of you visit this site while you are at work. Therefore, if you missed out on any site updates this past week, consider this your week-in-review (along with a news item or two). We even have been getting donations from readers to our site. You can, too. Gain a warm and fuzzy feeling in your heart. Just don’t mistake it for heartburn.
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: All Topics, Fight Opinion Radio, Fight Opinion Weekly, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 4 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |