Text of FTC letter suspending/closing investigation into Zuffa #ufc
By Zach Arnold | January 31, 2012
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20580
Office of the Secretary
January 25, 2012
Stephen Axinn, Esq.
Axinn Veltrop, and Harkrider LLP
1330 Connecticut Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20036
Re: Acquisition of Explosion Entertainment, LLC (Strikeforce) by Zuffa, LLC (UFC)
FTC File No. 111 0136
Dear Mr. Axinn:
The Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Competition has been conducting a nonpublic investigation to determine whether Zuffa, LLC’s acquisition of Explosion Entertainment, LLC may violate Section 7 of the Clayton Act or Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act.
Upon further review of this matter, it now appears that no further action is warranted by the Commission at this time. Accordingly, the investigation has been closed. This action is not to be construed as a determination that a violation may not have occurred, just as the pendency of an investigation should not be construed as a determination that a violation has occurred. The Commission reserves the right to take such further action as the public interest may require.
By direction of the Commission.
Donald S. Clark
Secretary
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 18 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
The playbook: Looking at upcoming attractions in Japan & UFC
By Zach Arnold | January 31, 2012
Just wanted to give everyone thanks for the support I received for yesterday’s article about the state of affairs in Japan. It’s an article that left a bitter taste in my mouth because of the way things are going in the country, but what can you do? As an update to what I touched upon yesterday, this happened:
- George Sotiropoulos and Leonard Garcia have been scratched from the UFC Japan 2012 card. Eiji Mitsuoka is replacing Sotiropoulos against Gomi and a replacement is being booked now for Garcia. Visa issues no doubt make things tricky in Japan.
- New Japan, the one tepidly solid wrestling organization in Japan, was transferred from parent owner Yukes (video game maker) to Bushiroad (card game maker). Bushiroad was the main sponsor of the G-1 tournament last year and it’s boss is a big wrestling supporter. There had been rumblings in the last month or so that things weren’t too hot on the balance sheet for New Japan in the post-tsunami time frame. Yuji Nagata and other wrestlers said that they were not told about the sale until it was finalized and that it came as a surprise to the roster. That’s corporate wrestling ownership for you.
On a side note, it is interesting that of the many items that I discussed yesterday about Japan, the NOAH ‘black money’ scandal is the one that, by far, I got the most reaction to both from MMA & wrestling fans. If you’re wondering what kind of image effect it could have on NOAH, take a look at what’s happened to the New York Mets image-wise in the post-Bernie Madoff time frame. Challenges ahead.
Here’s Forrest Griffin talking about fighting Tito Ortiz soon and how both men view each other as an easy fight. I’ve noticed for match previews on HDNet that Bas Rutten is giving his own individual rankings for particulars in fighter skill sets. It’s based on a 1-to-5 scale. I notice Bas is generous in giving 4’s to both Forrest and Tito in many categories, with Tito getting a 5 for wrestling and Forrest getting a 5 for strength but 4’s across the board. I don’t think it’s that close of a fight at this point but, hey, that Ryan Bader win still seems fresh in people’s minds.
Here’s the inimitable Greg Jackson being interviewed about the upcoming Nick Diaz/Carlos Condit and Rashad Evans/Jon Jones fights. Take note of Bas’ rankings of Nick and Carlos — he has Carlos as a 4 in striking, wrestling, grappling, speed, strength, and endurance. He has Nick as a 4 in all categories except grappling & endurance, where he has a 5 for each. I think BJ Penn might dispute that 4 rating for striking.
As for how well Nick Diaz/Carlos Condit is doing at the gate in Las Vegas for an advance… our friend Brian says that there are plenty of seats available. The Las Vegas market is still really soft right now and they had a show on December 30th with Alistair Overeem & Brock Lesnar, which is quite the gap in star power from the upcoming show.
As for Bones/Rashad, the initial odds have Jon Jones as a 6-to-1 favorite (85%) with Rashad as a 4-to-1 underdog (+400). For most fans, they don’t see a path to victory for Rashad in this fight so I suspect it will be 24/7 over-crank on the soap opera ‘former teammates’ aspect to promote this fight and get a solid PPV buy rate figure.
On an additional side note, if you’re wondering where Fox got those UFC Middleweight & Light Heavyweight Top 10 rankings lists this past weekend to air on TV, they are lists Ariel Helwani compiled Ariel Helwani says they’re not his rankings. People took notice of this because of Dana’s stance of UFC not producing Top 10 rankings for various reasons (including my opinion that he doesn’t want to give agents/fighters any sort of peek into his mindset as far as who he thinks is more valuable).
If you’re looking for better odds on upcoming fights, here’s the latest edition of MMA Oddsbreakers. A sampling of some upcoming odds that might pique your curiosity:
- UFC on FX 2 (3/3 Sydney, Australia) — UFC Flyweight Tournament Semi-Finals, Ian McCall +215 vs. Demetrious Johnson -285 and Yasuhiro Urushitani +400 vs. Joe Benavidez -600
- UFC on Fuel 2 (4/14 Stockholm, Sweden) — Antonio Rogerio Nogueira +205 vs. Alexander Gustafsson -265
- Bellator 60 (3/9 Hammond, Indiana) — Featherweight Title, Joe Warren +195 vs. Pat Curran -255
The two odds that stick out to me are Little Nog at +205 and Curran at -255 as really solid potential plays.
** Odds are published here for entertainment & discussion purposes only.
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 18 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
The Japanese scene is facing increasingly dangerous waters
By Zach Arnold | January 30, 2012
When Fedor Emelianenko rocked Satoshi Ishii and sent him to the hospital, the initial worry was about a broken nose. In the post-fight chatter, the blood was discussed as a factor in changing Ishii’s psychology during the fight. For some fighters, seeing their own blood can spook them. What Satoshi Ishii didn’t know when he got rattled by Fedor is that it may have very well been his last fight ever.
Putting the cherry on top of the proverbial sundae, Japanese weekly publication Cyzo (which has been on a very good run this month for fight business stories) reports that doctors have told Ishii that he suffered a cerebral edema from the NYE beating. As a result, he was warned that any further blows to the head would cause some serious damage. As Cyzo put it, Ishii is facing a retirement crisis. There had been some discussion that he would face Ricardo Arona in late March in Brazil but that fight didn’t look to be in the cards. After this latest development, the MMA prospects for Ishii look to be bleak as well.
After the retirement of Hidehiko Yoshida, Satoshi Ishii was supposed to be the golden boy to become the new face, the new Japanese icon of an MMA scene that desparately needed a new hero from the Olympic judo world. Ishii, still a young man, had the advantage of being backed by K-Dash, the entertainment powerhouse company associated with Antonio Inoki and operated by Tatsuo Kawamura, a well-known entertainment player who just happened to go to school with the late Hiromichi Momose, the original Godfather of PRIDE.
Even with this management advantage, Ishii managed to screw his golden ticket to make serious cash in the fight game. He was never comfortable with the climate that was created for his presence in Japan. He showed up at press conferences and demonstrated goofy behavior. Rather than fans liking his quirky nature, he got booed and booed without mercy. He quickly became a pariah. Instead of being cheered as the next big thing, he was treated by the fans like a sworn and hated enemy. He fought a few squash matches and then managed to see his career implode on NYE 2010 against Jerome Le Banner. The fans cheered hard for Le Banner and booed Ishii without mercy for going to a decision.
Ishii promptly left Japan and sent many mixed signals. It was leaked in newspapers that he was going to become an American citizenship and that he had relocated to Los Angeles. He ended up getting married to a young Japanese girl and, nine months after marriage, promptly got divorced. He was supposed to fight on a Strikeforce card in Stockton but had visa troubles. He focused on training at Reign MMA (Mark Munoz’s gym) and Black House in Southern California with Ed Buckley. Then, out of nowhere, reports surfaced that Ishii was going to be at the Olympic judo tryouts in Orlando, Florida in hopes of representing the United States one day. Like everything else, that didn’t pan out. So, Ishii fought Paulo Filho soon in Brazil. That set up a fight offer against Fedor on NYE, taken at the very last minute. Predictably, Tokyo Broadcasting System said ‘no’ to covering the Inoki-themed NYE event, thus defeating the purpose of having Ishii on the card given that he was never a strong live-house gate attraction. Fedor pummeled Ishii in Saitama and may have short-circuited an MMA career that is full of would-have-been and could-have-been scenarios.
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: DREAM, Japan, Media, MMA, Pro-Wrestling, UFC, Zach Arnold | 22 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Dana White: Yeah, Michael Bisping won that fight against Chael Sonnen
By Zach Arnold | January 29, 2012
Interesting to note that Dana’s comments in the video were echoed to me by a well-known MMA judge and they basically expressed the same sentiments. Michael Bisping certainly thought the same thing. So did Neil Grove and many other fighters.
Dana trying to say 30-27 for Sonnen was robbery. R1 and 3 were obvious for Chael. R2 close. 30-27 card not controversial in the least.
By the time the Sonnen/Silva fight rolls around this Summer in Sao Paulo, everybody will have forgotten about how average Sonnen looked against Bisping… except the oddsmakers, of course, who probably will overcompensate when they make the line and make Silva a bigger favorite.
At the tail end of the Dana interview, he gave props to Chris Weidman for taking the fight against Demian Maia on 10 days notice and having to cut 32 pounds. There’s just something that doesn’t sound right about praising the concept of cutting over 30 pounds of weight in 10 days. It brings me back to what Dr. Johnny Benjamin said about the topic a couple of weeks ago… There was talk about Chael Sonnen vomiting during the week and having trouble with his weight cut. If you have to cut so much weight that you’re making yourself sick, making your blood thicker, and draining water out of your system which leaves you more vulnerable to head trauma due to those four ounce gloves… that doesn’t sound like a good recipe for safety to me.
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 30 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
#UFC on Fox: Man with one testicle didn’t look like 9-to-2 favorite over Michael Bisping
By Zach Arnold | January 28, 2012
Mr. Bisping’s words about Chael Sonnen having one testicle, not mine…
Date/Location: Saturday, January 28th, 2012 in Chicago, Illinois at the United Center
TV: UFC on Fox (network/broadcast over-the-air)
Dark matches
- Welterweights: Chris Camozzi defeated Dustin Jacoby in R3 in 1’08 by choke.
- Heavyweights: Lavar Johnson defeated Joey Beltran in R1 in 4’24 by KO.
- Lightweights: Charles Oliveira defeated Eric Wisely in R2 in 1’43 by submission.
- Featherweights: Cub Swanson defeated George Roop in R2 in 2’22 by TKO.
- Heavyweights: Mike Russow defeated J.O. Einemo after 3R by unanimous decision.
- Lightweights: Michael Johnson defeated Shane Roller after 3R by unanimous decision.
- Lightweights: Evan Dunham (-350, 7 to 2 favorite) defeated Nik Lentz after 2R by TKO (doctor stoppage).
Main card
- Welterweights: Chris Weidman (-150, 3 to 2 favorite) defeated Demian Maia after 3R by unanimous decision.
- Middleweights: Chael Sonnen (-450, 9 to 2 favorite) defeated Michael Bisping after 3R by unanimous decision.
- Light Heavyweights (eliminator): Rashad Evans (-170) defeated Phil Davis after 5R by unanimous decision.
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: Brazil, Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 124 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Dana White uses 9/11 analogy for Anonymous UFC site hack, says they’ll get “Bin Laden’d”
By Zach Arnold | January 27, 2012
In an explosive 13-minute interview with Mauro Ranallo and The Score, UFC President Dana White doubled-down his attacks on the group Anonymous. The way in which Dana calls out Anonymous is breathtaking in its stupidity. As UFC found out last night, challenging Anonymous is a bad, bad idea.
(It should be noted, for the record, that the initial hackers last weekend claimed they weren’t affiliated with Anonymous but sympathized with them.)
The interview starts off with a preview of Saturday’s UFC on Fox fight card. Mauro then transitions into asking why the upcoming Montreal event, scheduled for March, got postponed. Dana started to get riled up here, wondering how that information was pushed hard as a public story. After he explained why the show got postponed, the topic moved onto the future of Strikeforce. Dana says he has a battle plan to make Strikeforce high quality (as good as WEC was)… if he can sit down with the powers-that-be at Showtime and get what he wants done.
Mauro then asked him about the UFC web site getting hacked last weekend. For about three minutes, White goes into combat mode saying that he’s not afraid of the Internet unlike the MMA media because the media lives and breathes the Internet but he doesn’t. Dana strongly claims that no customer information was put at risk in the hacks, only that the URL got manipulated. He starts to amp up the testosterone quotient as he gets worked up about not ‘messing with the Government.’
Bizarrely, Dana feels the need to say: “Has the government (FTC) ever come out and said that we’re investigating the UFC?” and “Have you ever seen a press release come out?” He then concludes, “No. Exactly. You don’t mess with the Government.”
MMA Fighting: Dana White thinks revealing fighters’ actual salaries would be harmful… for the fighters
He manages to lump in the fact/fiction about an FTC investigation with the topic of ESPN doing a story about fighter pay in the UFC, basically discrediting everything that’s put out online and in the media. At around the 10 minute mark, Dana starts drawing a line in the sand (or digging his own proverbial grave, your viewpoint may vary here).
DANA WHITE: “My point is… you know, like I said, you don’t mess with the Government. You start messing with the Government and what these Internet guys done now is in a situation where, um, you know it’s almost like New York (9/11), you know, in New York when the Towers got hit. People didn’t run away in fear. Did people run in fear? People mourned and then this country got together, you know, and went out and kicked some ass. That’s what happened. And now you guys on the Internet, doing this goofy stuff playing your little nerd games, you’ve pissed some people off.”
MAURO RANALLO: “Including you.”
DANA WHITE: “Including me, and you don’t scare me.”
MAURO RANALLO: “What are you guys going to do about it?”
DANA WHITE: “Sit back and see what happens over the next several months, you know, and just like any other war, any other fight, that’s what this is going to be, you know? But let me tell you what — you want to get out there and they always talk about me and bullying people or whatever, I’m not a bully, man. If you want a fight with me, let’s fight. We’re going to fight then!”
MAURO RANALLO: “We’re not going to see a change? Even now with Fox and we’ve talked about this before, too, I mean you go on the Internet and you tell people off when they have something bad to say for you. For Dana White, this is what we’re always going to get. No one, Fox won’t change you, no one will change you?”
DANA WHITE: “No. What’s [to] change?! I mean, these guys are hacking my web site. What do you want me to do? Go, ‘stop hacking my web site!’ No, I’m going to kick your ass. Go ahead, you want to keep playing these games? Play ’em. You’re going to lose. You’re going to lose, you can’t stop the Internet… you cowards all hide on the Internet, you don’t scare us. We’re going to find you. Believe me… this is bigger than me. This is bigger than me! This is bigger than the UFC. You go out there and start acting like a terrorist? You’re going to get Osama Bin Laden’d.”
**
As always, you can watch the video and listen to the audio of the interview here to check for quote accuracy. Needless to say, I think everyone will be talking about these comments today.
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 47 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Anonymous launches #opUFC full-scale attack against Zuffa
By Zach Arnold | January 27, 2012
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 18 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Why the sports media are turning their fire on UFC
By Zach Arnold | January 26, 2012
It is no secret in the MMA online community that the viewpoint of UFC towards MMA writers is extremely hostile. Hell, we have been debating this forever and a day. Everyone already has picked a side on this issue as to whether or not MMA writers, mostly from web sites, should get credentialed to go to UFC events. The attitude on behalf of Zuffa has been the following: hey, we’re doing you a favor, shut up and play by our rules. Rather than play the politics & optics right on this issue, most MMA writers have demonstrated a high level of sycophantic behavior that has only buttressed the arguments that Zuffa officials have made in regards to why they have the media policy as currently implemented.
It’s not just management that is often hostile to MMA media writers, either. There are plenty of fighters who have the attitude that writers should be grateful that said fighters are even giving them a limited amount of time to talk for interviews or to get comments for various stories. Instead of demonstrating integrity and independence, most MMA writers cower down and ‘play the game.’ No fighter has been more shallow & demonstrative on this front than Chael Sonnen. He attacks the media because he knows most media members are weak & will eat a crap sandwich if it means they get web page traffic. Chael’s bombastic blustering towards the media would make Newt Gingrich blush.
On Wednesday afternoon, Sonnen gave us a perfect example of this when he went on the attack against Kenny Rice & HDNet, repeatedly calling Rice a liar.
The issue of UFC and its fighters beating up on the media is an old & tired issue… which is why I found it extremely curious that CBS Sports columnist & flame thrower Gregg Doyel decided to bring up the issue yesterday in his column online. Doyel basically admits that he is a UFC fanboy but that he’s all of a sudden had a change in heart to speak truth to power in only a way he possibly can. The timing of this attack raised my eyebrows.
Why? Because a sports writer protesting about treatment of MMA writers by Zuffa is as curious as ESPN going on the attack against UFC on the issue of fighter pay. Again, just like execrable UFC/media relations is old hat, the issue of UFC/fighter pay is an issue that has been debated for many years online. So why are these topics being brought up all of a sudden by the general sports media? Doyel claims that he’s protesting the way UFC treats MMA writers because, hey, someone has to stand up to those bullies. ESPN said that the FTC investigation is the reason that they started their report about how much fighters under the Zuffa umbrella make.
To me, the FTC investigation as the impetus for why the sports media are speaking out against UFC makes little to no logical sense. If I didn’t know any better, I would suspect that there’s a sports media mailing list ala Journolist style where UFC has suddenly become a hot talking point or easy target point to coordinate against to generate manufactured article content. If you want to argue ‘better letter than never,’ fine, but that’s not the road I’m going down here in this article. Our friend Larry Brown advises that CBS/Viacom owning Bellator should be taken into consideration here for motive.
With no apparent logical reason on the surface as to why UFC is getting incoming fire from the general sports media, one has to make an educated guess as to why these attacks are starting to appear. The only semi-logical answer I can come up with is the following:
UFC’s boorish PR response to ESPN’s report about UFC fighter pay now has the general sports media, which largely has been skeptical of the rise of MMA and has largely detested the behavior of Dana White, smelling blood in the water. You have to admit, if you are a UFC fan you, too, probably came away with a ‘what is UFC hiding?’ vibe to the ham-handed PR campaign UFC launched against Outside the Lines. The OTL story was a rather benign story as far as having any sort of impact on UFC’s core business model and, yet, given the way Zuffa overreacted and gave ESPN some oxygen & free PR for it… there’s probably reason to think that this overreaction now has sport media types that were afraid to comment on UFC in the past a path now to launch some attacks.
Dana White is giving the sports media all the ammunition they could possibly want to go after him. We all know about his infamous Youtube video rant against Loretta Hunt. Now that topic is being brought up by Gregg Doyel in his CBS column.
The sport media, in general, is beginning to launch a series of attacks on Dana White on big platforms and is ready to launch a public case against him in similar fashion to a prosecutor laying out a criminal case. First, bring up all the old ‘evidence’ that has been discussed on MMA web sites in the past but not on major sports sites. Once you build up a foundation for a narrative in this manner, then you can bring up recent examples (like Dana White constantly attacking fans on Twitter) and start fusing a media narrative by waiting for Dana to say some more stupid things. Once you start building up that media narrative, it snowballs quickly and becomes very easy to use in a broad & generalized attack.
Dana White is not helping his own cause. I stated last November that his stance on backing SOPA & ProtectIP would become a demerit used against him. Then the UFC web site got hacked and Dana’s response to that was boorish in nature, especially given that people have ordered PPVs through the UFC web site and have given their personal financial information for said transactions. Dana’s response to this situation today? He’s taunting the hackers to go after him again and he isn’t too worried about the feelings of those who ordered PPVs through the web site.
And, right on cue, the hackers went after Dana White this time around. Dana’s response to the hack attacks tonight? Get into Twitter flame wars with the hackers, which is prompting the hackers to claim that they will do more document dumps. Dana here is tone deaf and clueless, which feeds right into the narrative that ESPN & CBS is starting to cultivate against him in a negative campaign.
I know a thing or two about the effects of elongated negative media campaigns against an MMA entity. (See: Shukan Gendai taking down PRIDE.)
As much fault as I give to Dana White & UFC in the way they have handled these affairs, I also find great irony in Gregg Doyel’s attack against UFC. In his zeal to speak truth to power against Zuffa, he’s all but admitting that he loved sucking up to Zuffa in order to get credentialed to go to shows. His admission that only now he cares about the plight of MMA writers basically implicates him (like many in other fields of the sports media) as cowardly and not willing to stand up for what’s right unless there’s a self-promotional benefit at stake. Only now is our brave warrior interested in speaking out about a topic that has been discussed ad nauseam in MMA circles for years?
As you often see with flame-throwing writers like Gregg Doyel, the most damaging & incriminating quotes are the ones the flame-throwers often write themselves.
To give you a real-life, real-time contrasting example of Gregg Doyel’s truth to power spiel versus a more genuine truth to power response, I present to you Mike Florio and his 100% correct defense of now-former Cleveland Browns sports writer Tony Grossi who lost his newspaper beat position job after The Cleveland Plain Dealer decided to give Grossi the demotion for an ‘insulting’ tweet about Browns owner Randy Lerner. Unlike our brave warrior Mr. Doyel, Mike Florio made an immediate and full-throated defense of an obvious case of blowback & intimidation. It won’t save Tony Grossi’s job, but it was the right thing for Mike to say. He didn’t sit on the sidelines and say nothing about the story only to speak truth to power years later after receiving benefits for being a professional suck-up.
A pox on all the houses of those who are hypocritical on this matter.
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 19 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
MMA Link Club: A connection between weight cutting & PED usage
By Zach Arnold | January 24, 2012
King Mo and his manager, Mike Kogan, did the media rounds everywhere yesterday to basically go on the offensive in terms of public relations. If you’re looking for a summary of what their stance is on the failed Nevada drug test for masteron (drostanolone), you can read an in-depth summary here.
Masteron is known for being used to help recovery time and/or keep lean muscle for those who do weight cutting. In other words, it’s a ‘good’ drug for MMA fighters who are looking to use something for performance enhancing benefits. One of the connections that no one has made yet is the fact that in many PED cases where guys got busted on drug tests, the drugs in question are less about bulk and more about maintaining strength while minimizing weight gain.
Both steroid usage & weight cutting can damage the body’s endocrine system. If you’re a steroid user, you use drugs, damage your endocrine system, and end up using synthetic testosterone to get your endocrine system back to ‘normal’ because you damaged your body with steroids. It’s double-dipping. With weight cutting, you damage your body and you end up using testosterone (steroids) because your body can’t naturally produce what is needed.
I bring this up because I wanted to recall a recent interview that Dr. Johnny Benjamin did with Mauro Ranallo about Anthony Johnson’s massive weight cutting problems. I hate the concept of weight cutting in MMA that involves dropping down more than one weight class from your normal weight… but I suppose I’m in the minority. The idea of guys cutting 30, 40, even 50 pounds to make a weight limit is completely unhealthy and sickening to think about given the damage you are doing to your body.
Dr. Benjamin’s message about Anthony Johnson: don’t hate the player, hate the game.
“All the blame is getting placed on Anthony Johnson but, unfortunately, we reward guys for being able to cut weight to fight at a weight class that is not their own. So, everybody’s throwing Anthony Johnson under the bus and, yes, he missed and he’s missed it before (but) he can get rewarded for that because when he come in for fight night 20 or 30 pounds larger than his competitor and maybe 40 or 50 pounds greater than the limit for the weight class, that’s really in his best interest if he wants to proceed up the ladder in the UFC.”
Dr. Benjamin says that it’s time for UFC to implement a regulated weight-cutting policy for its fighters. Why the onus on UFC? Because what UFC wants, UFC gets and they can set the tone.
“(There are) some very serious health concerns (with weight cutting). I mean, the one that everybody thinks about is kidney damage or kidney failure. It happens. Everybody says, ‘oh, it’s not that big deal.’ The hell it’s not! Go spend an hour at a dialysis center and watch someone take every drop of blood taken from their bodies and put through a machine and ask them how big of a deal it is to have to do that three times a week just to live. I mean, your kidneys are at risk. The other thing that people don’t consider is your brain is at risk because water makes up 97% of the CSF, the Cerebral Spinal Fluid, that’s the fluid that is around the brain that protects and cushion the brains from blows. So, any time you lose massive amounts of water you shrink the amount of cushioning and protection that there is around the brain. Now you’re going to ask Vitor Belfort to punch you in the face, it’s a bad combination.
“People always say, ‘hey, what’s the solution? There is no solution, this is a time-honored tradition.’ There’s a lot of things that we’ve done for a long time that didn’t make sense and people always say, ‘well, these guys have been doing it since High School, most of them are wrestlers, they know how to do it.’ Just because you’ve done something for a long time doesn’t make it safe. My uncle, you know, drives with no seat belt and he’s done it forever. It doesn’t make it safe. Rides a motorcycle with no helmet, doesn’t make it safe just because you’ve done it forever. It makes you particularly lucky.
“The thing that I would say is simple — find out what the person’s normal weight is … it’s really simple. All you do is show up and weigh the guy when he’s not training, when he knows he doesn’t have a fight coming up. And let’s think how simple that’d really be — when you go to a normal UFC fight in Las Vegas, how many other fighters who are not on the card are there on that night? Dozen? 20 or more? There’s a lot of fighters around. Hey, throw a scale down, make them get on it. Three or four times a year, check the fighters, put them on the scale, and get an average of what their walking-around weight is. And guess what, if a guy normally walks around at 200 pounds, you say you know what? The new rule’s going to be you can’t fight at a weight class less than 90% of your normal weight. So, if a guy normally walks around from the three or four times you caught them for random weigh-ins throughout the year, if his average weight comes out to be 200 pounds you say, you know what, 90% of 200 is 180 pounds. That means the least you can fight at is at Middleweight. I don’t care what you can cut your body down to, we want you fighting at a fair weight. You’ve been given 10% that you can cut your body weight and that’s it.
“There were plenty of media reports that said that 7-to-10 days before the fight, [Anthony Johnson] was walking around at 215 (pounds). Well, wait a minute… 7 to 10 days he’s 215 but he has to fight at 185? So, this guy’s got another 30 pounds to lose in 10 days? That’s ridiculous. I mean, he should be no more than 5% above that body weight the week to go out.”
As for his thoughts on the King Mo suspension: King Mo acknowledges taking an OTC testosterone (T) supplement. Everyone knows that altering T levels is banned. Doesn’t really make sense. Officially no difference where the testosterone comes from. All sources are banned. He appears to be saying that he took an OTC supplement T booster with a precursor in it that breaks down to T.
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This week’s MMA Link Club featured stories
Five Ounces of Pain: Ronda Rousey says female fighters appreciate her self-promotion
“I’ve had so many girl fighters come up to me and tell me they appreciate me and thank me. The only girls that seem to have a problem with me are either current champions or are former champions,” Rousey continued. “I just think they have this sense of entitlement that everyone should kiss their ass and respect them all the time…they’re not used to dealing with any kind of confrontation.”
MMA Fighting: The frustrating search for the real Chael Sonnen
That was a different Chael Sonnen. This was before he talked his way into the headlines, before he turned himself into a larger-than-life, pro wrestling-style character known for saying things he couldn’t possibly believe. Now, that’s what people expect from him. They practically demand it in every interview and public appearance. It makes you wonder if some part of Sonnen is sorry he ever put that hat on to begin with, since it would seem that he can’t easily take it off these days.
“Not too much, no,” Sonnen told me when I spoke to him on the phone last week, one day before Mark Munoz dropped out of their UFC on FX 2 bout and was replaced with Michael Bisping. “It’s par for the course and it needs to be done. There’s only one me. I see a lot of people try to come out and copy me, duplicate me, and give it the old college try, but at the end of the day, there’s only one Chael Sonnen.”
Interesting to note that CM Punk will not be walking with him to the cage on Saturday and that his name was not mentioned by Joe Buck during the promo reads on Fox for the NY Giant/49ers game.
Fightline: 0.9 cable rating on FX for Jim Miller/Melvin Guillard-headlined debut show
Cage Potato: ‘Haywire’ fizzles at box office, nets only $9 million in opening weekend
The press/Hollywood PR spinsters were pushing this movie hard as great and a breakthrough for Gina. Then came time for people to vote with their pocketbooks. Those who saw the movie generally had a mild negative to mostly negative reaction to it.
On one hand, no one should blame Gina for trying her hand at movies if she can make more money doing it than by fighting in MMA. Plus, if her heart isn’t 100% committed to MMA and she sees the writing on the wall with Dana White in large control of the business, may as well take a stab at Hollywood. That said, lots of people were hoping that the movie would succeed and somehow validate MMA’s crossover appeal.
MMA Mania: Exclusive interview with Phil Davis
Brian Hemminger (MMAmania.com): Mike Easton, a guy who trains with you guys, when he made his UFC debut last year, he kind of tried to fight like your teammate Dominick Cruz in the first round before coming into his own in the second. Does training alongside Cruz, does that kind of affect you guys by osmosis at all with your striking style or are you still trying to fight with a style that’s all your own?
Phil Davis: I think I’m learning more about my own self and which style works best for me until I get it down, or at least learning to get it down. I’ll never forget who I am, at least who I am now. (laughs)
Brian Hemminger (MMAmania.com): And can you share a little bit about who you are in your striking?
Phil Davis: Nope, nope. Can’t do it. I shouldn’t even be talking about that. Cheese and rice, dude. You’ll see.
Rashad Evans opened up at about a -140 favorite and he’s only climbed up to the -170 range, meaning there is some respect from the betting public for Phil Davis to pull off the win here.
5th Round: Jon Jones thinks Phil Davis can beat Rashad Evans by KO because Evans has no chin
Bleacher Report: Fans are underestimating Michael Bisping’s chances against Chael Sonnen
Michael Bisping has had a relatively solid UFC career. He has a 12-3 record inside the Octagon and has beaten decent competition in two separate weight classes. The problem is that when he takes that step up in competition and starts fighting guys near title contention, he historically has struggled. Bisping’s three MMA losses have come against tough veterans and top contenders Rashad Evans, Dan Henderson and (to a lesser extent as a contender) Wanderlei Silva.
Will the real Chael Sonnen please stand up? Inside the contender’s training camp
“Bisping breaks easily. I think he’s mentally weak. Watch how he fought Dan Henderson. I think he was totally intimidated. And I think he’s going to be intimidated by Chael too…Chael is such a hard worker and he has such a fast pace. Bisping is much more lackadaisical. He likes to throw a jab, throw a kick, keep his distance. He’s not going to be able to keep up the pace Chael forces. Whether on the ground or standing.”
Middle Easy: UFC Undisputed 3 & THQ say Rashad Evans has 28% chance of knocking out Phil Davis
Low Kick: Bas Rutten says JDS will expose Alistair Overeem’s glass jaw
His attitude on Alistair has changed a bit since the split from Golden Glory.
The Fight Nerd: Letter-writing campaign for MMA in New York begins
With a new legislative session just kicking off in New York, the battle to sanction mixed martial arts in the Empire State is joined once again. The Coalition to Legalize Mixed Martial Arts in New York, the organization that hosted last year’s rally for the sport in front of Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s office, is beginning a letter-writing campaign and needs the New York MMA supporter’s help.
The link takes you to several form letters to choose from if you’re interested in being active on this front.
MMA Convert: The dreaded ‘tainted supplement’ defense for King Mo & Mike Kogan
The tainted supplement defense, excuse or whatever you want to call it has been used for years. It’s almost a running joke that whenever a fighter tests positive, everyone expects they’re going to blame it on a bad supplement. Maybe everything they’re saying is true, but at this point that’s not good enough. How can I have sympathy for someone when this red flag was raised a long time ago? It’s been clear for quite some time that it’s the fighters’ responsibility to know exactly what they put in their bodies. If they don’t know what it’s in the random muscle building powder the guy at the local GNC sells them, then they need to either find out, don’t use it or risk putting themselves in the crosshairs. That’s life. No one ever said it would be fair.
MMA Payout: Pro-SOPA editorial may have led to hacking of UFC.com
While the UFC will be concerned from an online security perspective, it should also look at it from a PR perspective. For the UFC, this may not be as easy as it seems. The UFC has been aggressive in its stance against illegal streaming and distribution of its fights. In supporting SOPA and PIPA, it sees legislation that can assist in its fight against online piracy. But, opposition to the laws, which include many young, internet savvy individuals – the same people that likely follow Dana White and many other UFC fighters on twitter, utilize social media and embrace the online community oppose the restrictions that would come with the proposed laws.
I’ve been asking (since last night) if any MMA media members will post polls on their web sites to see if any of their readers will protect UFC’s support of SOPA by not spending any money on Zuffa content.
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, UFC, Zach Arnold | 13 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
UFC’s staunch support of SOPA & ProtectIP causes heartburn & backlash
By Zach Arnold | January 23, 2012
As I was looking to post information for UFC’s February fight cards, I noticed UFC’s web site went crashing down about an hour ago. Now we know why…
Screen capture of hacking here
UFC.com was back up shortly after it was taken down, and UFC President Dana White responded to several Tweets about the hack with little concern, saying – among other things – “I’m in the fight biz not the website biz. Who gives a s***!?”
In addition to the web site going down, UFC Twitter accounts also got hacked (this according to Luca Fury and MMA Supremacy).
The group responsible for the hacks against UFC’s properties claims that it’s not Anonymous but has sympathies for the hacking group, the same group that has gone after US Government web sites, the RIAA, and other major backers of the hideous SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) & Protect IP pieces of legislation. Also, the US Government going after the web site MegaUpload and international authorities arresting the man the British tabloids label as ‘Dr Evil’ has set off a chain of hacks against those supporting heavy-handed anti-piracy legislation & tactics.
Dana White’s cavalier reaction to UFC fans about the web sites & Twitter accounts getting hacked has raised some eyebrows:
UFC attorney Larry Epstein fanned the flames on Sunday by coming out with a pro-SOPA op-ed in the Las Vegas Review-Journal. We won’t blockquote any text from the article since the LVRJ & Stephens Media are in co-hoots with infamous copyright lawsuit troll firm Righthaven. No wonder the LVRJ published UFC’s pro-SOPA piece.
For Zuffa to not see the consequences coming for their boorish stance against Internet users is unfortunately not surprising given the ham-handedness of the company’s current Public Relations strategy. We first wrote about UFC’s love/hate relationship with the First Amendment on November 29th. Between this and overplaying their hand against ESPN on the fighter pay issue, it’s time for Zuffa HQ to rethink their current PR strategy. They are at risk of disconnecting their relationships with some of their biggest fans & supporters. It’s one thing for ESPN to argue about fighter pay because most fans aren’t that interested in the matter (yet). However, we’ve seen a serious & genuine backlash by Internet-savvy customers who are punishing any company that is backing SOPA & Protect IP. Just ask GoDaddy how that’s been working out for them.
For UFC, supporting SOPA & ProtectIP presents a genuine opportunity for them to feel a real financial backlash from fans who had been spending good money to buy PPVs. Now those individuals may channel their inner Anonymous and just find an online stream to watch instead.
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 13 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
ESPN’s John Barr on UFC pay report blowback: “It’s not our charge to do your public relations”
By Zach Arnold | January 20, 2012
If you’re looking for an MMA audio interview-of-the-year candidate, look no further than this very lengthy interview with John Barr of ESPN’s Outside the Lines. If you have a long commute or some down time, it’s well worth taking 90 minutes out of your schedule to listen to the whole thing.
I obviously won’t transcribe the entire interview here, but I will give you some key summary points from it.
Mr. Barr said that the issue of fighter pay in the UFC was initially raised internally by ESPN producers after Zuffa bought out Strikeforce. He says that, at that moment, everything you read in the dot-com piece started being researched. The reaction to the piece, according to the reporter, has been very different than the kind of feedback they get when covering other sports & controversial topics. The value of the lengthy audio interview Mr. Barr did is more about his tone & surprise more than his actual comments. He emphasized how surprised ESPN was by UFC’s aggressive PR push back to the piece and that ESPN management advised him not to get into tit-for-tat warfare with online fans/radio shows. The most interesting characterization he had about MMA fans is one I always talk about whenever I write anything neutral or negative about Zuffa or MMA in general — I call it the ‘beehive mentality.’ According to him, the reaction they got from UFC supporters attacking the story was angry that the promotion was being criticized. As far as things escalating & deteriorating between ESPN & MMA fans and ESPN & UFC, Mr. Barr made this revealing comment.
“I would hope that it would not come to that and I would hope that things would quiet down and that we’d all just move on with our lives. Will we continue to cover the sport of Mixed Martial Arts? Uh, yeah, I don’t think there’s any question that we’re going to.”
As for what John Barr said during the interview, he left it all on the table in regards to his dealings with UFC and some of the statements they’ve made about him since the Outside the Lines piece aired on Sunday morning.
The first 30 minutes of the interview are about what % figure ESPN was able to estimate for how much UFC paid out to fighters. Mr. Barr said the low end estimate was 4% and that the number most bandied about was 10%.
Claim: Both Matt Serra & Chuck Liddell refused to go on camera for ESPN story
“I’m glad you mentioned Matt Serra because anybody who’s been following the hubbub, if you will… I’m not sure if Dana said it during a press conference, I’m not sure what the context was but at some point he said that we actually went to interview Matt Serra, put him on camera, and that when we didn’t like what he was saying that we decided to pull the plug on the whole thing. I’m going to give Dana White the benefit of the doubt and just say that he was misinformed. That’s the best case scenario. The worst case scenario is that he’s lying because I can tell you flat out we never put Matt Serra on camera.
“I’ll tell you what happened. We had contact with his agent, his agent set up a meeting. I’ve never actually met Matt Serra. A producer that I work with closely on the television story that aired on Outside the Lines, Greg Amante, went to meet Matt outside of his gym on Long Island. We had no idea what we thought about this subject, we didn’t know if he was a guy who was thrilled with his pay, a guy who was upset, we had no idea. We just wanted to hear from the guy. And, you know, Greg had a pretty, well, first of all Matt was about a hour of late. But when he did show up, Greg had a good shot with him but he said it was bizarre. He said he was really guarded, every time he mentioned the issue of pay Matt got sort of evasive, you know, he said it was almost like somebody had spoken to him before we showed up.
“Well, look, it’s one of those things that, you know, I don’t, again, I don’t know Matt. I’ve never spoken with Matt but that’s what I’m hearing from a guy who I worked with who I trust, that was his read on the situation. Matt didn’t want to go on camera, OK? He didn’t have any interest in it, that was made abundantly clear to Greg. So, this suggestion that we put Matt on camera and then pulled the plug because we didn’t like what he was saying… it just didn’t happen, you know, and the suggestion that we did that with other fighters? Believe me, heh, I would have LOVED to have heard from more fighters on camera. As I said to Lorenzo (Fertitta) in person, if you have fighters who are thrilled about their pay, what… show me where to go, you know, I’ll be there tomorrow with the camera. But I got to tell you, people just didn’t want to touch this…
“There were fighters who we spoke with who are current champions and former champions who… you know, told us that, you know, if they were to speak out about this kind of stuff it would be the end of their careers. You know, there was one former champion who I can tell you is beloved within the sport who told us that if he were to speak about it it would have a negative impact on his current business and I don’t want to tell you what his current business because that would kind of narrow down the, you know, the focus a little more on just who this guy was or is, rather. But, there’s just this concern that, you know, if you’re in it…
Claim: Why fighters are afraid to speak out about UFC pay levels and the ‘culture of fear’
“Fighters basically broke down into three groups. There’s the guys who are in it and, you know, none of the current guys would attach their name to any quotes. There’s the guys who aren’t in it who want to get in it. Those guys won’t talk, either. And then there’s the guy who have been in the UFC but are no longer in the UFC and they want to get back into the UFC and those guys won’t speak, either, and then there’s I guess a completely another group, a fourth group of guys who have a business that is somewhat dependent on their continued good relationship with the UFC establishment and those guys are difficult to approach as well.
“So, there’s all sorts of challenges and on some level the UFC’s in a good spot because you wind up getting guys who, you know, in their minds and in their characterizations often have baggage. Does Ken Shamrock? Absolutely, he has baggage. Did we report that eh had been engaged, that he was involved in a lawsuit with Zuffa? We did. Did we do it within the context of the story? No. Bob Ley mentioned it after the story but we got the information in there. We actually received a letter from UFC’s attorneys not after the piece ran but after a short tease of the story ran and there was one little comment from Ken Shamrock in that piece and I’m not sure who saw that and who decided to pick up the phone and call the lawyers but as soon as somebody saw Shamrock they had their attorneys send us a letter and… look, to be fair, yeah, we should be mentioning that Ken Shamrock was involved in a lawsuit with the UFC and he lost and he owes them legal fees. Does that make what he was saying wrong? You know, I’ll leave that up to others to decide. I know what I heard from over two dozen fighters not named Ken Shamrock, so… I felt pretty comfortable with airing what we did as far as what Ken’s comments were.
“Look, there’s definitely a culture of fear that exists and I don’t know that people do fully appreciate that. Dana White is a, look, he’s a passionate guy. He’s obviously incredibly driven and, you know, he’s a large reason why that company is where it is today. The people who are really close to the situation give Lorenzo Fertitta more credit as far as his business acumen but there’s no question if the sport needed a bulldog to go out and just be relentless in his pursuit of growing the sport they found the perfect guy in Dana White.
“But, yeah, to your point about intimidation tactics… you know, look, we interviewed Monte Cox who has been around the sport forever, who has staged hundreds of his own smaller promotions, who has several former champions and 16 guys in it now, he’s got like 70 fighters I guess in his stable now… he’s been cursed out by Dana White over the phone. It’s almost like I don’t think you can be an agent or a manager with a fighter in the UFC and push the envelope and not meet some level of heated resistance at some point. You know, (there are) any number of managers who have stories about heated profanity-laced exchanges with Dana White.”
Theme: UFC management and MMA fans need to grow a set and be able to take some heat, Zuffa/MMA writers & getting credentials
“It’s clear to me that if the UFC really wants to mature as a sports entity, it’s going to have to be able to shoulder and weather the criticism. I live in Philadelphia, OK? You know, probably outside of New York, maybe Boston, I can’t think of a more passionate fan base in terms of, you know, columnists who are critical of the local sports teams, sports radio hosts who bring it every day with no holds barred, pardon the expression, critiques when you know the leaders of their local sports teams don’t call those shots the right way. Heck, there were people calling for Andy Reid’s head after the third week of the season. But those columnists go to press conferences every week, multiple times a week, they go into the locker rooms and talk to players, they’re not banned. You know, they’re big boys, they can take the slings & arrows. You know, if you want to really prove that you’ve arrived then put up with it, you know? That’s my take.
“If every story that comes out that’s mildly critical or takes a critical view of what you do if every story is to be responded to by somebody coming out with a series of half-truths and, you know, what was rather telling when UFC put two videos out. One of them was a 10 minute video that included interviews with Chuck Liddell, who by the way wouldn’t talk to us for our story, Matt Serra who by the way wouldn’t talk to us for our story, and Forrest Griffin who we never contacted. But it also included several clips from the interview that I did with Lorenzo… I didn’t tall them up but I think he may have made 10 to 15 salient points during the course of that UFC-produced video and easily 7 of them were either in the TV piece that we did or the dot-com piece that we did.
“Look, we’re not, it’s not our charge to do your public relations. You hire people for that. I had a news director years ago who told me, ‘PR people distort the truth, you report the truth.’ You know, that sounds like, you know, I’m trying to say I fight for truth, justice, and the American way but at the end of the day that’s all we want, that’s what we try to get at — the TRUTH. I know people are out there just convinced that we have this agenda and there are some people that are the conspiracy theorists who think (UFC) signed a deal with FOX so ESPN’s out to get them! And that’s convenient and it fits into somebody’s paradigm but it’s just not the way we work, you know?
“I can tell you, I can reel off the last dozen stories I’ve done, there have been stories that have been critical of the NFL. We did a piece recently that was critical of the quality of NBA officiating. We put hundreds of millions of dollars in the NBA’s pocket every year, you know. This is not about that. It’s about journalism, it’s what we do, and this is a story that we thought was important to do. Heck, we don’t cover Mixed Martial Arts enough, you know, and the few times we do it we get blasted for not doing it in a way that essentially would have us be nothing more than shills of the UFC. That’s not the kind of reporter I want to be.”
Addressing claims that ESPN selectively edited interview video to make UFC look bad & Dana White’s grudge against ESPN
“People can see it on Youtube if they want to watch the whole bloody 47 minute thing but I shook Lorenzo Fertitta’s hand and this was after he told me why Dana White won’t do any more interviews with ESPN and I said, ‘look, I hope this isn’t your last interview with ESPN, we really appreciate you making the time,’ and I do and I know… you know, I do think it’s important for us to have access to these guys if we want to cover them and cover them in a meaningful way. And, as I said earlier, I think it will go a long way in helping that company define itself as far as the maturation process is if they can demonstrate that they are not impervious to criticism. They need to… you know… I think it would go a long way in adding to the credibility of their product if they were able to withstand a critical analysis from the outside from time to time.
“Look, [Dana] wasn’t a big fan of ESPN to begin with. He’s still hacked off about a profile that our friends at E:60 did about him some months ago. You know, a very fine reporter Tom Farrey who I work with who I respect a lot did that story. He’s still upset about that and that was the reason cited for Dana not agreeing to not do an interview with us, it’s just the lingering… I guess ill-will he feels towards ESPN because of that feature. I actually thought that the piece was pretty fair, you know… I thought it was a pretty accurate reflection of a guy who… is, you know, at times profane, at times always passionate… and just… you know, one could argue an extremely aggressive and one might even argue ruthless businessman. But, what are going to do?
“Yeah, I’ve never received (feedback) like this, but it is what it is. It’s not going to change how I do what I do. At the end of the day, if you wake up and feel good about what you’ve done and if you feel like you’re true to your moral code, that’s all that really matters, you know. There could be 3,000 people on ESPN.com ripping me for being a lousy reporter, it doesn’t mean that I’m going to buy any of it. You’re never as good as they tell you are and you’re never as lousy as they tell you that you are. Like I said before, you throw out the Russian and the American judge and you settle for what’s left.”
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 40 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Zuffa’s IQ test
By Zach Arnold | January 17, 2012
“Today, kids, let’s learn a new word in class, OK? The password is… Drostanolone.”
Perhaps we’re starting to find out why UFC has been so aggressive against ESPN for their report on fighter pay and other issues relating to treatment of fighters in Zuffa. The pressure cooker has been boiling lately for the company and now we know why —
- King Mo failed a Nevada steroid test. Not a WADA test, not a VADA test, not even a California test… a Nevada test. Within the time span of a couple of weeks, King Mo and Cris Cyborg, two of the most identifiable names for Strikeforce, got busted on steroid tests. These two suspensions come right after UFC and Showtime recently signed a new deal for Strikeforce programming. Bet the executives at Showtime are thrilled. In response to more fighters failing drug tests, UFC announced that any fighter who signs a UFC, Strikeforce, or Ultimate Fighter contract will have to pass a drug test in order to get the deal. Standard operating procedure at many companies, so I don’t know how much of a PR boost this really will be other than weeding out the stupidest of fighters.
- A postponement of UFC’s upcoming Montreal event in March. We’ve been screaming that they’re running too many shows and that the talent is stretched too thin. With today’s event postponement, finally we may start to see some scheduling sanity. Or maybe not.
- Chael Sonnen vs. Michael Bisping for Fox broadcast means a lot more than Sonnen/Munoz and Maia/Bisping, two fights that I was interested in seeing but probably not fights that were going to pull in casual fans. The IQ test for booking got passed here at the last minute. Good.
Jamie Penick: Looking at Lorenzo Fertitta’s full ESPN interview on fighter pay, perceived UFC monopoly, Bellator, and more
As I noted here yesterday, UFC’s ham-handed, overaggressive PR response to ESPN seemed over-the-top and really insecure. After all, why should they give any sort of oxygen to a network program with only a couple of hundred thousand viewers? Instead, Zuffa got too clever by half. They went on the offensive before the segment aired, giving people a reason to actually watch the segment instead of ignoring it. Then, once the segment aired, they went and gave ESPN more oxygen. Dana White getting into a Twitter battle with ESPN boxing Dan Rafael was just plain goofy.
It would be one thing if the ESPN report was damaging… but it wasn’t. Yes, the network wanted to create the impression to sports fans that fighters are as afraid to speak out against Zuffa management as political dissidents are in North Korea. However, most sports fans would simply shrug their shoulders at that and tell those athletes, ‘if you want better pay, find another profession.’ All of the PR huffing and puffing by Zuffa here on this little report has to be concerning. Why? The topics discussed on the ESPN piece have been discussed for years online, back and forth, non-stop. From a Zuffa perspective, none of the issues raised is exactly new. So why make it into a bigger deal?
What if a real scandal hits? Take a look at recent history to see what kinds of scandals we’ve had: a fighter dying in the ring/cage, organized crime scandal (PRIDE), blood testing scandal (as alleged against a trainer in Georgia), so on and so forth. Now, these are real scandals that can take down a company. If UFC is that paranoid about a Sunday morning ESPN report on fighter pay, how will they control their emotions in public when something grave eventually happens?
Here’s Georges St. Pierre stating that he expects to return to MMA action in November of this year. That’s really pushing the timetable of recovery from a torn ACL, given how most athletes take a couple of years to fully recover both physically & mentally from that kind of injury. That said, UFC can use all the good news they can get now with Brock Lesnar retired.
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, UFC, Zach Arnold | 52 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Mixed bag of thoughts about ESPN’s segment on UFC pay
By Zach Arnold | January 15, 2012
Photo credit: Zuffa LLC (from interview Lorenzo did with Joe Rogan)
If you don’t have time to watch the full show video, you can read a relatively detailed summary right here.
After watching this morning’s Outside the Lines video piece on the issue of how much Zuffa pays their fighters, I came away conflicted in terms of how damaging or not-damaging the segment was.
Let’s state the obvious — after watching the lengthy segment, there’s nothing new that you and I learned from it. All the issues that have been discussed over the years on this site, on message boards, on Sherdog, and other media outlets were covered in the ESPN piece. The dreaded champion’s clause in contracts, no Muhammad Ali act for MMA, arguments over how much UFC is paying out as a % of business income to fighters, the use of shower/off-the-book bonuses, the FTC investigation into Zuffa buying Strikeforce, so on and so forth. If you’re a hardcore MMA fan, you already know these issues and have an opinion about where things stand.
However, if you’re not a hardcore online MMA fan and you don’t pay attention to the business side of the industry, it was quite a jolt to see ESPN talking about topics like the ‘sponsor tax’ openly. Whatever the size of the audience may be for the show (100,000? 200,000?), Outside the Lines is the same program that made waves a couple of months ago with the tapes of now-fired Syracuse coach Bernie Fine’s wife talking about issues relating to Bobby Davis, a former ball boy for Syracuse’s basketball team. I think this, more than anything else, is why UFC has been trying to prepare its fan base online the last few days for what was coming.
There were parts both good and bad about the segment. UFC says that they taped the video interview between Lorenzo Fertitta and John Barr so that they would have evidence to put online to show that, somehow, ESPN unfairly edited what was shown on TV. This tactic by UFC is one used by smarter politicians who have aides taping interviews so that if the media takes statements out of context that the campaigns can release the footage unedited to counter the media narrative. With that said, I really didn’t see much editing from ESPN on the segment that warrants the freak-out reaction that the company has demonstrated in the press. If anything, I think the company’s strong reaction online before the interview aired only drove more people to want to see what the fuss was all about. As for Lorenzo’s interview performance, he did about as good of a job as you could expect someone in his position to do.
However… if there was one ‘wedge’ moment created by ESPN during the interview, it would have to do with the number (%) that UFC pays its fighters. Rob Maysey, our old friend, says the number is around 5-10%. Monte Cox, the one agent who would go on camera for ESPN, also spoke out about UFC fighter pay. John Barr asked Lorenzo if UFC paid its fighters on the a similar level to what the NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB pay their athletes (the estimate being pushed was 50%). Lorenzo stated that UFC pays their fighters on a similar level. This huge gap between what Rob and Lorenzo claim is paid out is probably the big takeaway if you’re in sports media and you watched the segment.
As for who actually went on camera to speak out against Zuffa? Ken Shamrock spoke for a couple of minutes and, while I understand what he was trying to say about how much power UFC has in MMA, he didn’t articulate his points well enough to the casual sports fans who tuned in to see what the gripe is about. Ken said that if you’re a fighter right now, you don’t have anywhere else to go to make a good living if you anger Zuffa. For most sports fans, they hear a remark like that and their immediate takeaway is, ‘well, if you don’t like what the pay is, go find another job.’ So, in that sense, I didn’t think Ken’s testimony here was all that effective.
The guest panel with Bob Ley during the segment was Ricco Rodriguez (sporting a sweater vest), Josh Gross, and Rob Maysey. If you’re a Zuffa defender, you obviously don’t think this is a fair panel at all. But that’s kind of the point that ESPN, without screaming, was trying to hammer home. John Barr made it very clear that fighters and agents did not want to go on camera to talk about Zuffa because of fear of losing their jobs. As you watched the segment and you realized that the only guys speaking out are those on the outside (Ken, Ricco), the immediate impression conveyed by ESPN (in my opinion) is that UFC’s ‘independent contractors’ are so scared to speak out that it’s like watching political dissidents in a country run by a totalitarian regime. That, I think, more than anything else is why UFC got so hot and bothered by this segment.
The main question to ask is this — is this OTL segment going to stop the Zuffa machine from continuing to run its business as they are currently running it? No. Did ESPN raise the stakes by basically taking topics that the online MMA audience has been talking about for years now to a television platform? Yes. The only way people will end up caring about this OTL segment down the road is if what Lorenzo says in his financial claims are so off base that there becomes a major credibility issue.
Will major MMA web sites address the topics ESPN broached in a serious manner or will this quickly turn into a ‘defend UFC at all costs?’ bee hive mentality? I expect the latter but wish the former would happen. Michael David Smith:
But the fact that ESPN couldn’t get any active fighters to speak — and especially to reveal specific dollar amounts — was the biggest flaw in the report. The report did make a strong case that highly paid UFC fighters make far more than low-level fighters make. In that respect the UFC follows a pay model similar to that of Hollywood studios, where a handful of stars make the bulk of the money, and the bit players are left with much less.
It’s not a bug if it’s viewed as a feature by the reporters.
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 89 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |