UFC in Canada?
By Luke | May 29, 2006
There was an interesting story by Neil Davidson of the CP, talking about UFC coming to Canada. Obviously, as a Canadian, this is very exciting. With the high Canadian dollar, and with MMA’s growing popularity in the Great White North, it only would make sense for UFC to expand beyond their borders, to give UFC fans across North America a chance to experience UFC live.
UFC running shows in Montreal or Quebec City makes tremendous sense. One of UFC’s fastest rising stars – George St. Pierre – is French Canadian, and his star is rising just as fast at home, as it is with UFC fans across North America. It would be tremendous to see Hughes vs. St. Pierre happen in either of those cities. And, if St. Pierre were to win his match, and the UFC Welterweight Title, it would make for a tremendous story.
UFC doesn’t need to necessarily run major PPVs in Canada. Just start taking the TUF Finales and Ultimate Fight Night events outside of Vegas. Those would be perfect events to hold in smaller markets like Edmonton, Calgary, Saskatoon, etc. Cities the size of said markets would be more likely to have a venue thats more reasonably sized for a TV taping, where you don’t need 20K seats, but you want more than 1500, so you don’t come off as an indy promotion.
I’m not sure how well KOTC draws in Edmonton, but I think UFC could do well in that market also. I think it would take more work than Montreal or Quebec City, but I think its do-able. The major advantage UFC has, is that MMA is so hot right now, that they could run just about any accessible territory, and draw very well, if they price their tickets reasonably (*cough*UFC 60*cough*).
Some of the hurdles that exist in the U.S., also exist in Canada. Not every province sanctions MMA in Canada. Alberta and Quebec certainly do, given the presence of KOTC and TKO in those regions respectively. But, the provinces which house two of Canada’s three biggest cities, Ontario and British Columbia do not. Dana White and the Fertittas are big city, big party guys. They like to run the major markets because it makes for a grander show, and a bigger after-party with larger celebrities. Dana White made it clear in the Canadian Press story that he would love to run Toronto. He probably would like to run Vancouver just as much. The problem with both those markets is that MMA is not sanctioned in those cities, and the sanctioning bodies in both regions, seem to turn their nose up at the idea of mixed martial arts doing a cartwheel guard pass of their respective borders.
The attractive part of running major territories like Vancouver, and Toronto is those territories are Canada’s largest media markets. UFC having access to those regions would be a great platform to possibly getting a Canadian television deal, or just greater, more positive media coverage. The Canadian media has always given Pro Wrestling more respectful coverage than it gets in the United States, and the same would probably hold true for MMA in Canada.
When Chuck Liddell appeared at the Fight Network kickoff in Toronto a while back, he did so amongst numerous Canadian Celebrities – one being Bret Hart. Reports from people who were at the event said Chuck Liddell was easily the biggest star there. Given Bret Hart’s legendary name in Canada, thats a testament to the popularity of Chuck Liddell and MMA in general, that he would come off as a bigger star than Bret Hart at a media event in Canada.
Hopefully, with some diligent work by Marc Ratner, UFC will eventually be sanctioned in all 48 contigious states, and all of Canada. With their popularity at an all-time high, this is the opportunity to take your product to new regions, and not rely on Las Vegas for every show.
Topics: All Topics, Canada, Luke Nicholson, MMA, UFC | No Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Mach Sakurai makes national headlines
By Zach Arnold | May 29, 2006
Mach Sakurai story makes front page of Yahoo Japan HP
By Zach Arnold
Unfortunately for 30-year Hayato “Mach” Sakurai, he didn’t make national headlines in Japanese news circles because of his great fighting career. Instead, he made the news because police arrested 33-year old construction worker Kenichi Sakayori on suspicion of assault (causing an injury). According to police, an incident occurred at 1 AM on April 9th when Sakayori was driving his car slowly on a street in Ibaraki and Sakurai’s right knee touched the car. Sakurai was with three other people at the time. Sakayori didn’t like what happened and ended up giving Sakurai a broken left orbital (cheek) bone, which caused a one-month recovery time period. Sakayori told the police that he didn’t know that Sakurai was a martial artist.
Topics: All Topics, Japan, MMA, PRIDE, Zach Arnold | No Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
The price of being mainstream
By Zach Arnold | May 29, 2006
By Zach Arnold
TV Week has an extraordinary article, talking about various American cable networks jumping on the MMA bandwagon. And, as you would expect with some network executives, their view of what MMA is produces some wacky, but unfortunate results.
BET, MTV2, Oxygen and Fox Sports are betting the popularity of ultimate fighting will grow, providing plenty of viewers for everyone. The phenomena, which first entered the American media landscape as VCR tapes and DVDs passed around by devotees, is gaining steam.
MTV2 is set to announce a July premiere date for its fighting series “The Final Fu,” which will be a more stylized take on the format, said David Cohn, general manager for MTV2.
Oxygen President of Programming Debby Beece described the two-hour “Fight Girls” special as an experiment. “I think it’s a fantasy for women to be able to defend themselves and fight,” she told TelevisionWeek last December. “For younger viewers, it will be interesting, though I’m not sure the older viewers will necessarily watch.”
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: All Topics, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 2 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Online ticket auction
By Zach Arnold | May 28, 2006
We got a note from correspondent Michael Blechman about an auction taking place to help benefit Brian Olsen, the fighter who got stuck with an ambulance bill after Mike Kyle kicked him in the face in their WEC fight.
For the auction, two cage side seats (Section C, Row 1, seats 1 & 2) for the Extreme Wars X2 event on June 3rd in Oakland, California are being offered on E-Bay. The retail value of the tickets are $400 each. The auction ends in 5 days. The promoters for the Extreme Wars X2 event receive no money from this auction.
Topics: All Topics, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 2 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Gendai: Fuji TV not to renew PRIDE TV deal?
By Zach Arnold | May 28, 2006
By Zach Arnold
As noted yesterday on the message board, Shukan Gendai came out with a page article in this week’s magazine, proclaiming that their campaign against DSE for being an alleged yakuza group is showing some effects. They claim that the TV deal between DSE/PRIDE & Fuji TV is up in September, and that it is providing Fuji TV with a chance to back out of the situation.
Addendum: Whaledog’s reaction. The Morishita angle to the story is one that many Japanese smart marks have paid close attention to. I’m having flashbacks.
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: All Topics, Japan, Media, MMA, PRIDE, Yakuza, Zach Arnold | 6 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
IFL 5/28 TV report
By Zach Arnold | May 28, 2006
By Zach Arnold
Flashback: IFL debut TV show on Fox Sports Net
The TV intro package is the same as last week. We see a review of the Silverbacks’ domination of the Anacondas, with tonight featuring Renzo Gracie’s Pitbulls vs. Maurice Smith’s Tiger Sharks.
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: All Topics, IFL, MMA, Zach Arnold | 1 Comment » | Permalink | Trackback |
UFC mania in Japan
By Zach Arnold | May 28, 2006
Photo credit: Sankei Sports
By Zach Arnold
Sankei Sports has two articles today (here and here). The first one talks about the photo-op that Kazushi Sakuraba, K-1 matchmaker Sadaharu Tanigawa, and UFC President Dana White had. The hope is that Sakuraba will work in UFC soon. The second article talks about Ryo Chonan training with Randy Couture in preparation for his upcoming Bushido fight against Joey Villasenor.
Topics: All Topics, Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | No Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Goldberg in MMA?
By Zach Arnold | May 27, 2006
By Zach Arnold
Matt Boone reports that MMA Hawaii’s X-2 show in Oakland, California on June 3rd may have a surprise. Boone claims that X-2 is in preliminary negotiations to book Bill Goldberg vs. Tank Abbott.
Topics: All Topics, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 3 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
UFC 60 – Aftermath
By Rob Sayers | May 27, 2006
By Rob Sayers
Perhaps it was the fact that I wasn’t expecting a great show, but I left the UFC PPV very satisfied and slightly surprised at the high level of entertainment we saw tonight. Coming into the event, only a few of the undercard bouts interested me, and the main event I feared would be uncompetitive and boring, which is bad for a fight with no effect on rankings in any weight class.
Fortunately we didn’t see one boring fight, and the Hughes/Gracie showdown will be remembered as an important one in MMA history.
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: All Topics, MMA, Rob Sayers, UFC | 5 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
UFC 60 Results
By Zach Arnold | May 27, 2006
By Zach Arnold
Results links: W. Observer | Sherdog | MMA Weekly | Fox Sports | CP | MMA Snark | Long Beach Press-Telegram | FightReport.net
Post your show thoughts here, or in the comments section of this post.
Topics: All Topics, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 1 Comment » | Permalink | Trackback |
Sakuraba to attend UFC show?
By Zach Arnold | May 26, 2006
By Zach Arnold
Sankei Sports reports that Kazushi Sakuraba may be in attendance for the UFC 60 show on Saturday night (Matt Hughes vs. Royce Gracie). The article speculates that Sakuraba may end up participating in UFC (given the current business relationship between UFC & K-1 with BJ Penn & Royce Gracie).
Topics: All Topics, K-1, Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 1 Comment » | Permalink | Trackback |
Baroni placed in Bushido main event
By Zach Arnold | May 26, 2006
By Zach Arnold
DSE announced the match order of the 6/4 Saitama Super Arena card line-up. It is as follows:
- Jason Black vs. Eoh Won Jin
- Welterweight Tournament: Murilo Bustamante vs. Amar Suloev
- Welterweight Tournament: Paulo Filho vs. Yoon Dong Sik
- Welterweight Tournament: Ryo Chonan vs. Joey Villasenor
- Welterweight Tournament: Makoto Takimoto vs. Gegard Mousasi
- Mitsuhiro Ishida vs. Marcus Aurelio
- Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Charles “Krazy Horse” Bennett
- Hayato “Mach” Sakurai vs. Olaf Alfonso
- Welterweight Tournament: Akihiro Gono vs. Hector Lombard
- Welterweight Tournament: Denis Kang vs. Murilo Ninja Rua
- Welterweight Tournament: Kazuo Misaki vs. Phil Baroni
Topics: All Topics, Japan, MMA, PRIDE, Zach Arnold | No Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
UFC’s expansion plans
By Zach Arnold | May 25, 2006
By Zach Arnold
There is a great Whaledog editorial about Dana White’s comments to The Long Beach Press-Telegram about expanding the UFC into Europe, Canada, and other markets. One comment that struck me in particular was Mr. White stating that the NFL has had trouble exporting their product overseas, but that UFC could export their product to foreign markets more successfully because “everyone understands fighting.”
The failed logic in Mr. White’s claim about expanding UFC into foreign markets is that because MMA is a more global industry, more and more countries will develop their own leagues — which therefore diminishes the value of UFC because of supply and demand. Japan has PRIDE & K-1. Holland has Simon Rutz and his It’s Showtime events. The UK has Cage Rage. This is not to say that UFC shouldn’t be considering exporting their product to foreign markets, because it’s a good idea. However, the idea that UFC could be the dominant brand for MMA in foreign countries (like WWE is with professional wrestling) is an ill-conceived notion.
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: All Topics, Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 6 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |