Safe to issue K-1 their Last Rites?
By Zach Arnold | October 16, 2011
If you have been following the Twitter accounts of Dan Herbertson, Mike Hackler, and Dave Walsh, then you may have heard the news tonight that K-1’s October 29th World GP event in mainland China is about to be canceled.
The idea of K-1 running a show outside of Japan without Japanese television support sounded absurd on its face. The fact that people bought into it as a grand plan were the same ones who thought that PRIDE running shows in Las Vegas was all about going global. (For Ed Fishman, his efforts into making PRIDE a serious deal were legitimate. As we later found with Nobuyuki Sakakibara, he was looking to get rid of PRIDE to Zuffa.) Without Japanese television money, the K-1 business model is largely non-existent. This is why DREAM has been a money loser.
Consider the following — K-1 wanted to run an event in mainland China that wasn’t Beijing or Shanghai. It ended up being… Nanjing. Yes, the same area that was home to the Rape of Nanking. Given Kazuyoshi Ishii’s nationalistic pride and connections, I found remarkable symbolism with this decision. The event was supposed to take place at the Nanjing Olympic Gymnasium with broadcaster JSBC (Jiangsu) involved as the television partner. Take note that the venue is a 13,000 seat venue and that the show announcement was made five weeks before the show was set to take place. To classify this as a rush job would be an understatement.
Since the show announcement was made, there’s been a flurry of foreign media reports about event problems involving talent booked for the show. (Largely from It’s Showtime.) Then came the news of Badr Hari leaving K-1 to go to boxing and others following suit to go elsewhere. Those fighters wouldn’t be leaving if the money was still to be had. In fact, one person claimed that K-1 supposedly wanted fighters on the World GP show to agree to a 50% reduction in past money owed to said fighters. That’s an old-school Japanese promoter trick, so to hear about it being proclaimed by foreigners is a real embarrassment and loss of face. Then again, K-1 didn’t have much face left to lose at this point.
Dave Walsh says that Simon Rutz will issue a statement on the matter today. If, by hook or by crook, the show still does take place… you can watch it in the States on a BUD (big ugly dish) on C-band.
When the promotion booked Dynamite last year at Saitama Super Arena without major television support, I said it was a Pyrrhic victory and the final end for the promotion. You can’t run show after show and bleed cash heavily. The same thing happened to PRIDE after Fuji TV cut financial ties with the promotion. They continued to run Saitama Super Arena, draw respectable crowds, but hemorrhage cash and covertly look to sell the deal to someone else.
PRIDE’s death, of course, was thanks to the negative campaign by Shukan Gendai about the yakuza scandal. The key & integral figure in that scandal was a yakuza fixer, Seiya Kawamata, who was aligned with Kazuyoshi Ishii. Kawamata worked the biggest fight shows of the last decade in Japan when K-1 & PRIDE were cooperating. Once the two factions stopped cooperating, Kawamata hedged his bets and ran his own deal with Inoki. Of course, Kawamata was always friendly to Kazuyoshi Ishii and yet it was PRIDE that got hammered when Kawamata went after them for the fallout from the Inoki show. For K-1, the death of PRIDE was supposed to set the stage for their golden opportunity to become Japan’s only major fight player and to be UFC’s global rival.
So, what happened? PRIDE’s fans left and didn’t come back, much in the same way that WCW’s fans left and never went to WWE after WCW was killed off. MMA was never K-1’s bread and butter play, so K-1’s MMA product left a lot to be desired. Despite having Akira Maeda as the face of HERO’s, HERO’s was largely a useful tool to lure in Kazushi Sakuraba and kill off PRIDE. HERO’s feel to the wayside and we got DREAM, which was the company made up of former DSE employees that left when Jamie Pollack and Zuffa tried to run a PRIDE revival and instead got the hell out of town when trouble started brewing. DREAM never felt like PRIDE in terms of having the mega superstar draws and it grinded along without making a huge imprint on the MMA landscape. The whole idea of DREAM for K-1 was that the promotion would get TV help from K-1 in exchange for K-1 not having to pay the heavy costs of getting involved in the MMA scene. Now we’ve seen how that turned out.
This isn’t the way things were supposed to go down if you were in the K-1 camp. They got rid of their chief rival but ended up getting exposed as the Emperor with no clothes. Whether remnants of the company attempt future spinoffs, that’s anyone’s guess. At this point, it doesn’t matter.
Topics: DREAM, K-1, Media, MMA, PRIDE, Zach Arnold | 18 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
MMA Link Club: The future of MMAFighting.com
By Zach Arnold | October 14, 2011
The big story
The turmoil within both Yahoo and AOL over the last year has been plentiful. Key opinion makers & business leaders have left the operations. Financial cuts have been made everywhere. There are talks of private equity brokers buying Yahoo and taking the company private.
When AOL decided to outsource its sports content to The Sporting News, everyone wondered what the future of MMAFighting.com would be. MMA Fighting managed to avoid the axe. AOL then made the decision to pump a ton of cash/stock to Arianna Huffington to buy out The Huffington Post and give her control to Patch.com as well. Months after the deal took place, AOL continued to have financial troubles.
Now, those troubles are of real reported significance. Reuters reported that AOL is looking to Yahoo to buy them out. The chances of that happening are speculative, at best. What it does mean, however, is that outfits like MMA Fighting that aren’t huge money-generators face likely extinction if they are not sold to a new financial backer.
Given the high-profile status of MMA Fighting and the fact that UFC benefits from this from a friendly outlet for them, it’s hard to see how someone won’t buy the operation. But who exactly would be a candidate to buy out MMA Fighting and what would it mean for the MMA media landscape as a whole?
- The first scenario is MMA Fighting doesn’t find any buyers and the staff is left alone to try to run the operation as they currently are. Financially, I don’t see how this is possible. MMA Fighting is just like the majority of MMA media outlets that struggle to financially make the numbers work. Sherdog is often the exception to the rule. I do not see MMA Fighting surviving as it is currently constituted if there is no heavy financial backing.
- The second scenario is that UFC buys them out. If Zuffa was to buy out MMA Fighting, it probably would be a wise investment. After all, it’s not like we don’t know the current politics of the MMA media landscape. Those who play by Zuffa’s rules get the access and those who are independent don’t. UFC has been playing the media game for a while of a ‘hands off’ approach publicly. Well, there’s nobody left to challenge them, so why should they worry about media impropriety at this point? UFC buying out MMA Fighting would essentially be buying a turnkey operation and everything running smoothly as usual.
- The third scenario is that an independent money mark buys out MMA Fighting. Candidates would include Crave (Sherdog), Break Media (Cage Potato), or SBNation (Bloody Elbow). Each buyer would bring some strengths to the table as the new owner of the site. With that said, never underestimate the fragile egos at play with MMA media writers, especially when the money decreases in this already-cutthroat business. This third option would be the best one for MMA Fighting, but it would lead to some expected cuts and I would expect some political infighting behind the scenes. It certainly wouldn’t be boring now, would it?
Whatever happens to MMA Fighting, the bottom line regarding the health of MMA media in 2011 is not great. Yahoo has reportedly pulled back some in terms of $$$ expenditures for MMA reporting but is still a big player. MMA Fighting needs stable backing to remain a player. However, the trend in MMA media circles is that the money supply for backing is dwindling, not growing. Zuffa is running more shows, which means more travel for writers who simply don’t have enough $$ to travel all over the place. The MMA sites aren’t generating enough cash to keep up with the breakneck speed of activity. Much like UFC fans are currently having to do with PPVs, the sites are having to cherry pick which shows they can cover and what they can afford. Times are turbulent right now. I’m not bullish or bearish about the current state of affairs.
The wildcard in all of this is FoxSports.com and how much money Fox Sports is willing to pony up to recruit top writers. That and the politics of what the writers could or couldn’t say on that platform.
Member sites of the MMA Link Club
- Five Ounces of Pain – RSS feed | Twitter | Facebook
- MMA Fighting – RSS feed | Twitter | Facebook
- NBC Sports – RSS feed
- Cage Potato – RSS feed | Twitter | Facebook
- MMA Mania – RSS feed | Twitter | Facebook
- 5thRound – RSS feed | Twitter | Facebook
- Bleacher Report – RSS feed
- MiddleEasy – RSS feed | Twitter | Facebook
- LowKick – RSS feed | Twitter | Facebook
- The Fight Nerd – RSS feed | Twitter | Facebook
- MMA Convert – RSS feed | Twitter | Facebook
- Fight Opinion – RSS feed | Twitter | Facebook
- MMA Payout – RSS feed | Twitter
This week’s MMA Link Club featured stories
Five Ounces of Pain: Five years after becoming UFC Middleweight champion, Anderson Silva’s retirement is closer than fans may think
MMA Fighting: Ken Hershman leaves Showtime for HBO
If there was any doubt that we will not see UFC on HBO, those doubts should be removed. And the poaching of Tim Kennedy & Gilbert Melendez to UFC means the end of Strikeforce on Showtime. Josh Gross thinks Ken Hershman may take a stab at MMA using the boxing economic model. I don’t see it happening because MMA fans are heavily conditioned on the promotional model over the TV model and factors such as how ‘strong’ or ‘weak’ a promotion is viewed business-wise does impact the way hardcore fans view a product. It’s not right or wrong, it’s just how it is.
NBC Sports: Is Chael Sonnen Vegas bound?
He can apply for a license on December 1st. As our friend Beau Dure noted at Sports Myriad, virtually no one talked about Sonnen & testosterone usage leading into his fight against Brian Stann and few are talking about it after his win. It just proves once again that when it comes to the issue of PED usage in sports, fans only care when the athlete in question is someone that they hate and are looking to use something, anything as a sledge hammer to ‘punish’ them. The people who really do care about a clean sport largely are paying lip service to the topic and nothing more.
Cage Potato: The argument for banning weight cutting in MMA
Not only is the process a dangerous one that has led to the death of several high school and college wrestlers, its side effects are non-reversible and can cause major health problems for fighters later in life. It’s no coincidence that many of the sport’s participants who used to wrestle and cut weight in their youth are now on hormone replacement therapy. Starvation and extreme dehydration — two of the facets of the weight cutting procedure — put stress on the body’s endocrine system and inhibit the production of key chemicals such as testosterone, adrenaline and insulin.
MMA Mania: Scott Coker says Zuffa is committed to continuing Strikeforce
I’ve noticed since he’s no longer ‘the man’ that he’s a lot more comfortable during his interviews, which means he’s a lot smoother at stating half-truths.
Just as David Hill of Fox Sports says, The Ultimate Fighter has done wonders to promote the fact that fighters are not neanderthals.
Bleacher Report: Does the Shogun/Dan Henderson winner deserve a Light Heavyweight title shot?
No, but the gap between Shogun & Henderson versus Phil Davis is quite large right now.
Middle Easy: Vinny Magalhaes says he’ll train Fedor but M-1 needs to pay up
Didn’t Gary “Jerry” Millen threaten to sell the M-1 video collection on eBay?
Low Kick: Interview with Alexander Shlemenko where he says his goal is to knockout Hector Lombard
How about trying to submit him? That or hire Josh Barnett to go into the cage for you and bloody him up.
The Fight Nerd: Book review of Tom Gerbasi’s “UFC encyclopedia”
Overall, this is a great coffee table book full of vivid photos and plenty of information about anything you want to know about the UFC. Gerbasi left no stone unturned while writing this book and paints a great picture of the UFC and their legacy of fighters and events thus far. While there are some spots in it that were basically rewritten by the UFC, I can ignore it for the rest of the content and appearance of the book.
MMA Convert: Joe Lauzon and Kenny Florian left off of UFC Undisputed 3 video game roster?
MMA Payout: Looking at Brock Lesnar’s new deal with WWE
When this hit TMZ, people went nuts on the MMA message boards. Give me a prediction (% wise) as far as Lesnar making a return appearance in WWE.
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 63 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Unite HERE letter to Anheuser Busch about UFC & gay slurs
By Zach Arnold | October 12, 2011
Luiz Fernando Edmond
Zone President North America
Anheuser-Busch Companies Inc.
1 Busch Place
Saint Louis, MO 63118-1849
RE: Anti-gay behavior in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)
Dear Mr. Edmond,
We are writing you to raise our concerns about Anheuser-Busch’s sponsorship of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). People associated with this professional sports organization have a history of tolerating homophobic conduct that is hostile to millions of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people all over the world who struggle every day against bigotry and discrimination.
The following are recent examples of anti-gay behavior by people associated with the UFC:
- In recent videos, UFC light heavyweight Quinton “Rampage” Jackson repeatedly urged Japanese fans to repeat an anti-gay slur.’ The fans, who do not appear to understand English, repeated the anti-gay slur at Jackson’s urging. In one video, Jackson instructed a Japanese man to say, “Goodbye, I want you to piss on my face.”
- In an expletive-filled video rant posted on YouTube.com, UFC president Dana White used an anti-gay slur, saying, “Whoever gave you that quote is a [expletive] and a [expletive] faggot and a [expletive] liar and everything else. He also uttered the “F” word a total of 34 times, the “S” word 4 times, and referred to a female sports journalist as a “[expletive] dumb bitch.”
- According to the Los Angeles Times, “Rampage” Jackson shouted “every conceivable gay slur” at a movie crew member of “The A-Team” who had called him a homophobic epithet. He was also quoted in the article saying, “Acting is kind of gay. It makes you soft.”
- In a recent UFC promotional video, Michael Bisping, a UFC middleweight fighter and coach on the reality television show “The Ultimate Fighter,” screamed an anti-gay slur at his opponent. In a media conference call, Bisping tried to. smear an opposing-coach. on “The Ultimate Fighter” by saying that his opponent had a “gay chiropractor” on his staff.”
- Joe Rogan, who does commentary for televised UFC events, recently used a homophobic slur while referring to a MMA blogger.’ Rogan also to referred to an MMA blogger as a part of the female anatomy. According to sportswriter Kevin Iole of Yahoo! Sports, Rogan then wrote on a blog, “Never did I imagine that so many people would get their panties in a bunch about the use of the word [expletive] to describe a female blogger.”
- In August, UFC heavyweight Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira was quoted saying that he would not train with gay students. He was quoted in USA Today saying, “What if the gay person has that malice of having physical contact with me, of staying there grappling? I would have no problems having a gay student in my academy, but I would rather not train with him.”
You can find videos and news articles related to this anti-gay behavior at the following website:
Remarkably, we have yet to find evidence that any of the UFC athletes identified in this letter have been disciplined by the UFC or its owners for this contemptible behavior. By contrast, other professional sports organizations have taken a hard stance against anti-gay conduct and have held athletes accountable through suspensions and/or fines when athletes have used homophobic epithets.
Bud Light has been a major sponsor of recent gay pride celebrations in Houston, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco, among other cities, as well as last year’s Gay Days celebration in Orlando, Fla. However, we believe it is hypocritical of Anheuser-Busch to advertise Bud Light during gay pride events that celebrate diversity and tolerance, while sponsoring a professional sports organization that tolerates hateful language and anti-gay bigotry.
We request that you stop advertising Bud Light during UFC events until the UFC’s owners make it evident to the public that it no longer tolerates homophobic behavior, and adopts and enforces a code of ethical conduct that ensures that participants in the UFC act in accordance with commonly accepted standards of decency.
We also ask you to contact us within ten (10) days of receiving this letter to discuss this further. For more information, please call Chris Serres at (702)-386-5231 or send an e-mail to [email protected].
Respectfully,
Cleve Jones
Community and Political Coordinator
Unite HERE
Derek Washington
Chairman
Stonewall Democratic Club of Southern Nevada
Geoconda Arguello-Kline
President
Culinary Workers Union, Local 226
Howard Watts III
Co-Chair
Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network of Southern Nevada
Laura Martin
Organizer
Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 42 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Back to basics: takeaways from UFC shifting PPV start times back to 10 PM EST
By Zach Arnold | October 12, 2011
1. Old habits die hard
There seems to be mass panic right now about the low rating the UFC 136 prelims on Spike drew for ratings last weekend, given the two fights on the card that hardcores were interested in. It’s just proof that what excites the hardcores and the announcing team isn’t always what draws. (Ask Bellator all about that phenomena.) Sometimes, guys like Leonard Garcia move the needle by bringing in 200,000 extra fans. Other times, a fight like Anthony Pettis vs. Jeremy Stephens isn’t sexy enough of a battle for casuals to care about.
The move to get prelims going on TV at 9 PM EST and PPV start backs time to 10 PM EST is probably the right move, although I would say that upping the start time still does not address the fact that MMA will always be a niche sport, especially during the Fall & Winter when you are competing against college football & other live sporting events on television. For the hardcore MMA fans who come from the pro-wrestling world, other sports are not going to influence their decision to watch UFC shows. However, casual sporting fans who may buy a Brock Lesnar PPV are not going to be terribly moved to buy a UFC PPV headlined by Frankie Edgar vs. Gray Maynard if ABC is airing Nebraska vs. Ohio State. You don’t often hear people discuss the impact of CBS airing SEC Saturday evening games or ABC airing Big 12 games on Saturday nights, but if you got big schools like Alabama vs. Florida playing a game at the same time as your PPV product, you’re going to lose some buys.
(In the case of college football on Saturday nights, you’re dealing with live games on Fox Sports Net/Comcast Sportsnet, occasionally Notre Dame on NBC, occasionally SEC on CBS, the ABC evening game, plus games on ESPN, ESPN2, and the various ABC-owned pay TV affiliates like Big East Network, SEC Network, so on and so forth).
2. UFC’s admission of being a “West Coast sport” differentiates it from other US-based TV-backed sports
As we’ve seen demonstrated with the other sports (especially baseball playoffs), you can be dealing with media empires like Fox Sports who are based in Los Angeles but know that what TV executives care about the most is the East Coast television audience. Going back to the college football TV situation in point one, there’s a reason those games start at 5 PM PST — because it’s 8 PM EST. Imagine them starting games at 11 PM EST and you’d end up with an audience the size of Fresno State/Hawaii games (not very big).
Outside of big Las Vegas-based boxing PPVs, UFC is the one major sport that embraces the West Coast over the East Coast. The fact that UFC is willing to make such an admission when it comes to their core PPV business says that the company still has a significant amount of work to do in terms of winning over a bigger market share back East. It’s tough to do that when your operations are in Las Vegas and you built the core audience on the left coast first.
I wouldn’t say being a left coast product is damaging in any way, but it is certainly a unique trait of the fight business — a sector of sports that will always stay in the ‘niche’ category.
3. Despite signing a deal with Fox Sports, PPV remains at the core of the UFC business model
November 12th in Anaheim has been advertised during NFL games on Fox. Dana White says that he’s paying Cain Velasquez & Junior dos Santos “PPV money” to fight on the show. The indication from those comments is that UFC is not making PPV-level money for being on network television. Barter set-up? Fox Sports says that ad slots sold out rapidly for the debut show and it should serve as a good lead-in for the Manny Pacquiao fight on PPV later that night.
(I don’t know if the UFC fight will air live on all coasts, though. If it airs delayed on the West Coast, that will be quite the irony.)
There’s no question that UFC made the right call in having Ari Emanuel broker the network deal to help increase the company’s exposure and actually attract some traditional sports fans. Will it help UFC down the road in terms of building new stars and converting them into PPV customers? That’s the calculation here by Zuffa and it’s a wise one.
What isn’t wise is the idea of making the UFC Japan show a Fox broadcast. That Japan show itself is a dumb idea, but it’s not my money and I don’t have an ego to stroke on that deal.
4. The start time is not the main problem facing UFC with declining PPV buys
When you announce that you’re going to be running 34 shows a year starting in 2012, that’s too many damn shows. People respond by cherry-picking the shows they only care about. Ask WWE how well that non-stop schedule has worked out for declining PPV buys.
Even for news junkies like us, 34 shows is simply too much to digest and you forget a lot of things very quickly. Listen to Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg mix up facts & figures sometimes now on television. If they are having trouble keeping up with previous fights, then you can’t expect fans to use the mental energy to try to keep up as well.
If you run too many damn shows you’re going to wear out your production teams and mistakes will be made. You’ll lose track of previous fights. Booking could very well suffer because of the sheer amount of workload placed on Joe Silva and Sean Shelby. Injuries will impact which fights to book on which cards and whether or not stars like Jon Jones should be rushed to fight, thus potentially placing young stars in positions where their careers could get short-circuited because they end up fighting veterans they aren’t simply ready to fight at that time.
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 14 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Butt patches & Malki Kawa: “I’m the very best at what I do when it comes to the sponsor game.”
By Zach Arnold | October 11, 2011
MIKE STRAKA: “The thing about the business of MMA, you hear guys like boxers making $30 million USD a fight and the fighters are slowly creeping up to numbers, not $30 million dollars, but they’re creeping up some numbers and particularly you got some guys that are really high up there on the pay scale. How do you see the next generation of fighters making a living in the industry?”
MALKI KAWA: “Well, you know, it’s the same thing like any industry. In the 70s, football players made this much. In the 80s, it went to there. In the 90s, it blew up. In the 2000s, you know, you hear about mega-million contracts and I think with fighting it’s the same thing. I mean, you know, hey, the sport is 20 years old. By the time this sport is 30 years old, 40 years old, you’re going to be hearing about some mega-numbers and getting fighters getting paid what you hear football players and basketball players getting.”
MIKE STRAKA: “Now, a lot of these guys, fans, will read about their favorite fighters and a lot of blogs have it wrong, let’s say… these fighters make more money in sponsorship dollars than they do for their fight purses. Is that true?”
MALKI KAWA: “You know, in some cases it’s true. In other cases, it’s not. It just all really depends on the fighters. The problem is that it’s like a puzzle, people won’t get it. Where’s he fighting on the card? Who’s the fight? Who’s his opponent? What’s the style of the match-up? You know what I mean? Because, you know, the most expensive spot on the shorts is either the crotch or the butt, right? So, if you got a fighter who’s a stand-up guy fighting a wrestling, his crotch and butt almost doesn’t mean anything because chances are he ends up on his back. So, that gets factored in some times. There’s a lot of little things here and there.”
MIKE STRAKA: “So, what you’re saying, so let’s say… Josh Koscheck is fighting Georges St. Pierre, I want the butt patch?”
MALKI KAWA: “Absolutely. As a sponsor, you want the butt patch. And as a manager you need to explain and show the sponsor why they’re going to pay more for the butt patch. Besides the fact that it’s going to do a million PPVs and that’s where all the exposure is, this is why you want to put this much money on Georges or Koscheck because somewhere, somehow it looks like it’s going to end up, you know, on the floor.”
MIKE STRAKA: “Although in that fight, in that instance, they stayed up. But, still, the butt patch is valuable if they’re both standing up the whole time, too, right?”
MALKI KAWA: “Absolutely, that’s the whole thing. So, that’s why when people ask, OK, is it true this and that, yeah, you know, some fighters make more money on sponsorships because, um… and the truth is you really don’t know because a lot of guys will have, you know, a certain… purse set up and another one but the UFC always takes care of these guys. They come up with extra checks and stuff and sometimes that does end up making up. It’s just we don’t really get that information until it’s your fight, so I know in my case with my fighters a lot of them are making more money in their purses, some of them are right there, and some sponsorships is much more. But it’s a gradual curve that’s going up all the time.”
MIKE STRAKA: “Let’s talk about some of your clients and particularly Jon Jones. A kid that’s 23 years old. When he won the belt, the day he won the belt, he tackled a burglar and he got national exposure, put on Jay Leno, I mean how do you coach a kid who goes from relative obscurity to mainstream attention?”
MALKI KAWA: “Well, you know, the thing is with him is he, before I even met him, his biggest thing was to be humble, was to always be down-to-earth and to never, ever come across as one of those guys that’s too good for someone else. He’s done a phenomenal job of that. You know, with anyone with success and fame, things can start to change for you but it’s not him that’s changing, it’s the things around him. People are coming at him left and right. I mean, we just took him to the bathroom, I had to walk him down to the bathroom. I got guys in the stall trying to take pictures of him while he’s using the bathroom. So, if he turns around an tells the guys, hey, stop that, ‘oh, Jon’s a jerk!” And that’s the problem where people don’t get it. Being a famous celebrity athlete, some of them are good people and some of them are bad people. That’s just before the fight. He’s a great person and it doesn’t take a lot of coaching because he’s very self-aware and very self-conscious of how he comes across and what the perception of him is and that’s something he’s constantly working on.”
MIKE STRAKA: “Now, in your case you’re at home and you’re wondering why this guy sounds so familiar and if you’re on Twitter you’re going to know that Malki Kawa’s very active on Twitter, but if you go back to one of the Ultimate Fight nights where a big heavyweight fighter named Matt Mitrione fired you on national television and by doing that he actually made your career. But I want to find out what exactly happened?”
MALKI KAWA: “He didn’t make my career.”
MIKE STRAKA: “What exactly happened?”
MALKI KAWA: “Um, you know what, it’s just a lot of miscommunication. He had a lot of people in his life that were working with him on some stuff and I’m the very best at what I do when it comes to the sponsor game. You’ve experienced it with me, you know very well how good I am at what I do and, um… you know… a lot of external factors, things that were out of my control, things that he had in place already before I got there and, you know… Matt’s Matt and he decided to handle it the way he handled it. I had three weeks notice and basically it’s what it is. So, not to take any excuses, it just didn’t work out. But as you see from that point forward, I’ve pretty much picked up so many popular fighters, marketable fighters, name fighters, Top 10 contenders, #1 contenders, things of that nature. So, I’m not going to say Matt made me because at the end of the day, you know, if one guy had something bad to say I’m sure there would be another 30-40, but it’s one guy. A lot of the guys I represent are very happy, they recommend me to other fighters, that’s how I get a lot of fighters. They just keep saying, “Go with Malki.” So, that being said, you know… it’s just things that happened. Listen, you get hired, you get fired. It’s the way the business goes.”
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 4 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Dana White: How can you not rank Frankie Edgar higher than GSP on P4P list?
By Zach Arnold | October 9, 2011
Click on me to find out why I hate comparisons of UFC to WWE (MMAFighting.com)
ARIEL HELWANI: “So, at the press conference, you said Frankie Edgar is now the #2 pound-for-pound fighter in the world. You have Canada up in arms now, they’re very upset because you just dropped GSP down. Why do you think…”
DANA WHITE: “How do you know Canada’s upset?”
ARIEL HELWANI: “Twitter. It’s a beautiful thing.”
DANA WHITE: “They’re going crazy? I can’t wait to get on Twitter.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “They are very upset.”
DANA WHITE: “Listen… all you Canadians, I know you guys love you some GSP and so do I, I love GSP, you know, I say it all the time… I actually get mad when I’m up in Canada, I’m like how is this guy not sponsored by every blue chip company in Canada? He’s a great champion, he’s a great ambassador for our sport, he’s a great ambassador for his country, but if you really look at what the pound-for-pound means, how do you not put Frankie Edgar in the #2 position? The guy weighs 145 pounds, he’s fighting at 155 pounds, he’s beat EVERYBODY and just knocked out Gray Maynard. He is the #2 pound-for-pound fighter in the world. No disrespect to Canada or Georges St. Pierre. It is what it is.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “What do you think you’ll do with Frankie next?”
DANA WHITE: “I don’t know. That’s up to Frankie, that’s not really up to me. If I was running shit over at Frankie’s place, he’d be fighting at 145 pounds.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “Even thought he’s been doing so good?”
DANA WHITE: “That’s why it’s so hard to really sit there and say, Frankie, you should really do this. He beat BJ Penn twice, he beat Gray Maynard and knocked him out when everybody thought he had his number, and he’s beat everybody else in the 155 pound division. When you watch this guy fight at 155 pounds, look how much bigger Gray Maynard was than him. He gets hurt, he overcomes almost getting knocked out to knock out Gray Maynard and I don’t know, I’d just love to see the guy fight at 145 pounds.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “In terms of 155, though, who do you thing is next for him?”
DANA WHITE: “No clue. I’m not even thinking about that.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “What are the chances (Gilbert) Melendez is next for him?”
DANA WHITE: “I don’t know. I don’t even want to talk about Strikeforce, I don’t even want to talk about it. That whole thing’s still going on… and it’ll be sorted out soon.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “So, no point asking you about the phone call that you were talking about on Wednesday?”
DANA WHITE: “Yeah, well, we had the phone call and, you know, we’re, we’re, we’re pushed back another week.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “Who pushed it back?”
DANA WHITE: “I don’t want to even talk about it any more. I’m done.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “Did you meet with Melendez this weekend?”
DANA WHITE: “I met with him (Saturday).”
ARIEL HELWANI: “How did it go?”
DANA WHITE: “Good! I mean, listen, this kid’s one of those guys that he’s a great kid, he’s a great fighter, he’s either going to come to the UFC or he’s going to fight in Strike force (this) December. We’ll see what happens, though. He’s… he’s a good kid, he knows what’s up, and we’ll get this thing figured out.”
Topics: Canada, Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 28 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Media, fans fawn all over Keith Kizer’s favorite UFC high-profile testosterone user
By Zach Arnold | October 9, 2011
The face of Hypogonadism. Click on my biceps, brother, to see the most over-the-top interview ever at MMAFighting.com with Ariel Helwani
ARIEL HELWANI: “Chael, it’s been a long road. It’s been a long time between wins and a long time between fights. How does it feel to finally get back on track, as you do your Jesse the Body (Ventura) here?”
CHAEL SONNEN: “To be back on track, listen… I did the best I can. These guys are tough guys. Brian Stann is no different. He hit me hard in the body. Man, it hurt. I can still feel it. You know, all these guys are tough. There’s really nothing I can say. You know, you go do these matches, you do the best you can — but I am not here to be one of the guys. I got plenty of money and plenty of fame. I’m after 12 pounds of gold and that’s it.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “Did you expect to finish him? Is that how you envisioned the fight to go down?”
CHAEL SONNEN: “No, I did not.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “So, what did you think of the way he fought you? Because a lot of people throughout the week it seemed as so the tide was turning in his favor. People were now saying, ‘You know what? Brian Stann’s ready for Chael Sonnen and he might finish him.’ And then obviously you did so well out there and you finished him. What did you think of his performance?”
CHAEL SONNEN: “Well, you know, look, I think he does a fine job. I can’t tell you a lot about those matches. I’m one of those guys that has to go back and re-watch it. I don’t fully know what happens, I got to go re-watch it. But I found the submission and, you know, it worked out well. But I don’t know about those matches and these guys, as much as I respect them and appreciate them, I got one guy in my sights. I can’t stand him. He keeps me up at night and I’m going to take care of him Super Bowl weekend.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “Just curious about ring rust. Did you feel a little out of it in the early stages of the fight?”
CHAEL SONNEN: “You know, the preparation was a little bit weird. I remember getting in there and there’s a feel to the Octagon and I forgot it. I forgot the feel, I forgot the smell, I forgot what it’s like to have those lights in your eyes and not have all of your senses around you. So, you got to learn on the go a little bit.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “Perhaps one of the greatest post-fight interviews in UFC history right there. Not just a great performance but what you said to Joe Rogan after the fact was memorable stuff. You put it out there. You told Anderson that you want to fight him and not only do you want to fight him, but if you do lose to him you will walk away from the UFC. If he loses, you want him to leave the division. Why the division? Why not leave the UFC? Why didn’t you want to get rid of the guy?”
CHAEL SONNEN: “Because he’s a coward and I don’t think he’d accept and you got to play by a coward’s rules sometimes. I’m trying to lure him into a fight, so I got to stick that carrot out there, something that I think he’ll do.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “Do you think he’ll take the carrot?”
CHAEL SONNEN: “He ducked me for six years, I don’t see why things will change now. If Joe Rogan hadn’t taken the microphone out of my mouth, I would have told him, ‘Anderson Silva, I want your answer right now. If you accept, I will wait until Super Bowl weekend but if you reject, I will walk over there and whip your ass right here, right now in Houston, Texas.'”
ARIEL HELWANI: “Is a part of you a little concerned? Dan Henderson said that (Anderson) ducked him. Is a part of you concerned that he won’t take the fight?”
CHAEL SONNEN: “Yeah, I don’t expect him to take the fight. He’s a coward. I truly don’t expect him to take the fight. This guy walks around, ‘I want the biggest fight.’ Well, there’s no bigger fight than our re-match, stupid. ‘Well, I want the toughest guys.’ Well, God never made a tougher man than me and my name hasn’t come out of your mouth once.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “The Loser Leaves Town match is a classic one. Why are you so confident putting your career on the line?”
CHAEL SONNEN: “I don’t ever have confidence, buddy. I’m a gambler, I let it ride. I don’t have confidence. That’s what bullies do. Anderson’s a bully. He’s the one with the confidence and picks on people he knows he can beat. I don’t know if I can beat any of these guys and that’s why I walk out there.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “Did you see that video of him dancing and sing with Justin Bieber?”
CHAEL SONNEN: “No, I didn’t, did he really?” I have seen Anderson dance and, I will tell you, he’s got some pretty good moves.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “You’re impressed?”
CHAEL SONNEN: “He’s a pretty good dancer, I will give him that. I caught him at a club one time dancing and was like, you’re a good pretty good dancer.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “You were at a club with Anderson Silva at the same time?”
CHAEL SONNEN: “Well, he came to Portland, Oregon, my home town, yeah. He can move a little bit.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “I remember you saying that if he ever came to your home town that he’d get kicked out, that he’d get beat up.”
CHAEL SONNEN: “Well, he had to drop his pink t-shirts, crooked hats & earrings off at the front desk like a club house, that’s the only way I an assure his safe passage.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “Now, you talk about Super Bowl weekend. Why that date? Has the UFC told you that’s the date?”
CHAEL SONNEN: “I have my reasons.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “How about Brazil? Wouldn’t that be something? I think they could do a 100,000-seat stadium (show), you vs. Anderson in Brazil. Does that even interest you?”
CHAEL SONNEN: “No, that does, that really does. If they sell 100,000 tix, I hope they collect them all. I hope they put them in a nice ball, turn them sideways, and shove them straight up their ass. That’s what they can do with the Brazilian crowd. We’re going to Las Vegas, Nevada, Super Bowl weekend, the biggest re-match in the history of this damn business. Chael Sonnen, true champion, versus Anderson Silva, the guy that wears 12 pounds of tin.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “And have they told you 100% that you are now the #1 contender?”
CHAEL SONNEN: “We’ll see.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “And by the way, what was it like dealing with the Texas commission considering some of the issues in the past? Were they fair and kind to you?”
CHAEL SONNEN: “Well, you know, look, they don’t have to be kind to me. They’ve got a job to do, they’re professionals. They make the rules and I follow ’em, the same as any commission out there. I believe in commissions, I believe in rules, and I believe they should be followed.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “Has the Chael Sonnen era begun or is this just the continuation of what you started in August of last year?”
CHAEL SONNEN: “Undefeated and undisputed. I’d say we’ve been at this a while.”
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 25 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
#UFC 136 results: Chael Sonnen cuts ‘loser leaves town’ promo & Frankie Edgar finishes the job
By Zach Arnold | October 8, 2011
Location: 10/1 Washington, D.C. at the Verizon Center
TV: Versus
Dark matches
- Bantamweights: Walel Watson defeatedJoseph Sandoval in R1 in 1’17 by TKO.
- Welterweights: Josh Neer defeated Keith Wisniewski after 2R by doctor stoppage.
- Lightweights: TJ Grant defeated Shane Roller in R3 in 2’12 by submission (armbar).
- Bantamweights: Mike Easton vs. Byron Bloodworth in R2 in 4’52 by TKO.
- Lightweights: Paul Sass defeated Michael Johnson in R1 in 3 minutes by submission (heel hook).
- Lightweights: Yves Edwards defeated Rafaello Oliveira in R2 in 2’44 by TKO from punches.
Main card
- Lightweights: Matt Wiman defeated Mac Danzig after 3R by unanimous decision.
- Welterweights: Anthony Johnson defeated Charlie Brenneman in R1 in 2’49 by TKO from a head kick.
- Heavyweights: Stefan Struve defeated Pat Barry in R2 in 3’22 by submission with a triangle choke.
- UFC Bantamweight title match: Dominick Cruz defeated Demetrious Johnson after 5R by unanimous decision.
Location: 10/8 in Houston, Texas at the Toyota Center
TV: PPV
Dark matches
- Middleweights: Mike Massenzio defeated Steve Cantwell after 3R by unanimous decision.
- Middleweights: Aaron Simpson defeated Eric Schafer after 3R by unanimous decision.
- Featherweights: Darren Elkins defeated Tiequan Zhang after 3R by unanimous decision.
- Heavyweights: Stipe Miocic defeated Joey Beltran after 3R by unanimous decision.
- Lightweights: Anthony Pettis defeated Jeremy Stephens after 3R by split decision.
- Middleweights: Demian Maia defeated Jorge Santiago after 3R by unanimous decision.
Main card
- Lightweights: Joe Lauzon defeated Melvin Guillard in R1 in 47 seconds with a choke sleeper.
- Featherweights: Nam Phan defeated Leonard Garcia after 3R by unanimous decision.
- Middleweights: Chael Sonnen defeated Brian Stann in R2 in 3’51 by submission (choke).
- UFC Featherweight title match: Jose Aldo defeated Kenny Florian after 5R by unanimous decision.
- UFC Lightweight title match: Frankie Edgar defeated Gray Maynard in R4 in 3’54 by TKO (punches).
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 11 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Tasty gambling odds/lines for upcoming big #UFC fights @FightOdds
By Zach Arnold | October 8, 2011
Our friend Nick Kalikas continues to work hard at setting some good lines for upcoming UFC fights. In the video embedded here, check out the line he put on the Rick Story/Martin Kampmann fight (Story -140, Kampmann +110) & the Brian Bowles/Urijah Faber fight (Faber at -200). There’s lots of intriguing lines on upcoming fights, including some biggies that we’ll take a look at here right now.
For informational & entertainment purposes only.
UFC 136 in Houston
Frankie Edgar (-130, 13 to 10 favorite) vs. Gray Maynard (+110, 11 to 10 underdog)
The line sounds right and, yet, I’m compelled to think that Maynard should be considered here simply because of the damage he did early on to Frankie in R1 of their last fight. It took a mad comeback just to even things up after a five round battle.
The line has stayed relatively stable, although money has been coming in for Maynard.
Chael Sonnen (-260, 13 to 5 favorite) vs. Brian Stann (+220, 2 to 1 underdog)
The line has stayed the same since it was first made. I thought more money would come in on Stann given the long layoff Sonnen has had (even if he’ll be back to using TRT, right?).
The line has remained steady throughout.
Jose Aldo (-350, 7 to 2 favorite) vs. Kenny Florian (+300, 3 to 1 underdog)
Aldo being a 3-to-1 favorite sounds about right. Don’t tell Luke Thomas that, who absolutely loves Florian in this spot and thinks Kenny is a big step up for Aldo in competition. That’s probably accurate but look at Kenny’s history in title fights. He’s simply not the same fighter in title bouts as he is in non-title fights.
Since the initial line was set, virtually all the money has gone on Aldo here. The line on him went from -280 to -350. Florian’s line jumped nearly +100.
Melvin Guillard (-400, 4 to 1 favorite) vs. Joe Lauzon (+350, 7 to 2 underdog)
Melvin’s win over Evan Dunham has done his wonders in terms of gaining respect amongst the fans and bettors. He’s certainly more athletic than Joe and has great coaching, but 3 to 1 sounds rather large here.
The line here has dramatically risen on both sides. Guillard is the heavy favor amongst bettors. Lauzon’s line jumped nearly +100 like Florian.
Anthony Pettis (-300, 3 to 1 favorite) vs. Jeremy Stephens (+240, 12 to 5 underdog)
Even though styles make fights, I’m surprised that bettors have not had their confidence shaken in Mr. Pettis. He had a lousy showing against Clay Guida last June (you’ll remember that show as the one where Dana White was too busy fighting Bloodstain Lane on Twitter to watch the fights unfolding in front of him).
The one thing Stephens has going for him is that he’s fought some very tough, respectable competition in the UFC and as we’re seeing with guys being introduced into the Zuffa family from other promotions, there is no substitute for having a long track record against fighting real competition.
The money has sharply gone on Pettis.
UFC 137 in Las Vegas
Georges St. Pierre (-400, 4 to 1 favorite) vs. Carlos Condit (+350, 7 to 2 underdog)
In other words, the same standard line we always see with St. Pierre for his title fights. If you’re looking for a ray of sunshine as to why Condit stands a chance, read what Jordan Breen said here.
BJ Penn (-130, 13 to 10 favorite) vs. Nick Diaz (EVEN)
I am perplexed and befuddled by this line. BJ is only a -130 favorite? Are people sleeping on this line or are there so many hardcore Nick Diaz fans out there willing to put money on ‘their guy’ (ala Fedor) that you end up with crazy lines like this? I would not be shocked to see Penn up as a -200 favorite by fight time. If not, then that means there’s a lot of fish out there ready to get reeled in and you should love, love, love that -130 line on a lot of levels.
Someone please explain to me what Nick Diaz does better than BJ Penn and just exactly the course in which he wins this fight. By decision? How? Penn on top position is a win for BJ since US judges are hesistant to award points to guys on their back (rightly or wrongly). Striking-wise, Penn would love to drill Diaz with a few power shots. In terms of experience and quality of opponents faced, Penn blows Diaz out the water.
Matt Mitrione (-130, 13 to 10 favorite) vs. Cheick Kongo (EVEN)
This, right here, is a wild line. Do you put Mitrione in the same category as Pat Barry in terms of offensive striking? I get it, Kongo showed horrible defense against Barry in their Pittsburgh fight. Plus, Mitrione has won a string of fights recently in highlight fashion. However, he’s facing a guy that can easily knock him out fast and do so in very devastating fashion. I’m shocked that Kongo is not the favorite here and by a substantial margin, say, by a 3 to 2 margin.
Mark Munoz (-220, 11 to 5 favorite) vs. Chris Leben (+180, 9 to 5 underdog)
It sounds about right?
Cain Velasquez (-140, 7 to 5 favorite) vs. Junior dos Santos (+120, 6 to 5 underdog)
Wow, there’s a lot of people not buying into Velasquez as the man, yet. I think a lot of the concern here is about whether or not he has full healed from the rotator cuff surgery. I can definitely see some value here for Cain if you’re a big believer in him as being the dominant ‘ace’ of the UFC HW division for some time to come.
Mauricio Shogun (-160, 8 to 5 favorite) vs. Dan Henderson (+130, 13 to 10 underdog)
A dream fight for both hardcore and casual fans. A lot of people are already excited to pick Henderson to win here and feel that the money will come in on Shogun because of the ‘Forrest Griffin effect’ as our buddy Luca Fury likes to say.
Alistair Overeem (-140, 7 to 5 favorite) vs. Brock Lesnar (+120, 6 to 5 underdog)
That’s a much tighter line than I expected. I thought the initial line would be heavier in favor of Overeem.
Michael Bisping (-200, 2 to 1 favorite) vs. Mayhem Miller (+160, 8 to 5 underdog)
Like the Overeem line, I’m surprised that Bisping isn’t a higher favorite here.
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 20 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
After giving career & life advice on PBS’s Roadtrip Nation, Joe Rogan issues funny weed video
By Zach Arnold | October 8, 2011
Over 80,000 hits on Youtube and I fully admit that I’ve watched this more than once. I love “Renato Laranja, 27 time world BJJ champion.” It starts off, appropriate enough, with Rogan coming out of the shower to show off. Within a few seconds, we get the great ‘debate’ on ‘heefer’ and ‘super heefer.’
When it comes to weed discussion, Rogan is unmatched. “Weed’s awesome for you.” When pressed on why he’s encouraging the youth of America to smoke pot, he deadpans the following:
“I don’t tell the children, I tell the adults.”
Renato brings up the argument that cars are legal but we don’t tell kids to drive before age 16.
“When I say cars are awesome, am I encouraging 10 years to go speed on the fucking highway? No.”
The issue of marijuana for medicinal purposes surfaces. “It’s a psychoactive compound, much like caffeine… nicotine… there’s a lot of legal things that are psychoactive.” The response from Renato is classic.
“You don’t hear what you say from your mouth. … They make you act like a psycho. How are you going to argue with that?”
After a deviation into California’s laws vs. the Feds law on marijuana dispensaries, Joe argues that the higher THC levels in today’s pot means you smoke less of it.
Unfortunately for Joe, news from The Emerald Triangle indicates that The War on Drugs is back in full effect in California.
Renato then talks about ‘friends’ he’s talked with on MySpace and Friendster. That people believe this is real is what makes the troll video so great. He claims that pot usage is leading to societal chaos.
“You smoke so much weed, you have glaucoma.”
To which Rogan replies, “Where’s the bodies? Where’s the disaster?”
Things devolve into a discussion about the merits of James Brown and his greatness.
“That’s ridiculous, that’s disrespectful. In my fucking country, don’t you ever shit on James Brown. I don’t go to Brazil and fuck with Pele and start shitting on Minotauro (Nogueira) or Helio Gracie. You don’t come to America and talk shit about James Brown, son.”
That’s why there’s Chael Sonnen, Joe.
In a great throwaway line that sadly has a bit of irony to it… “You want Nick Diaz and all those guys who smoke reefer and you want those guys in the UFC. You’re afraid to have a clean athlete.”
Rogan says he loves GSP but says it in the kind of way that a white person says they have black friends after cracking racist jokes. This gives Renato his opportunity to rant on GSP as being a greaser because BJ Penn said so. This is the perfect parody of a MMA message boarder.
Rogan finishes up his spiel by talking about Ronald Reagan ‘smoking mad weed,’ hanging out with a chimp and doing Bedtime for Bonzo while getting high and thinking about UFOs. Rogan leaves for his car and drives away. While following Rogan to his car, Renato goes into preacher mode.
“It’s a controlled substance. There’s statistics it can hurt your brain. I know that’s the same thing that makes you not believe the Bible. You don’t believe anything like that. … You’re going to have a lot of blood on your hands.”
It is a great 12 minutes, worthy of your time on a lazy Saturday to watch.
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 6 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
MMA Link Club: Attitude adjustments for UFC 136
By Zach Arnold | October 7, 2011
Member sites of the MMA Link Club
- Five Ounces of Pain – RSS feed | Twitter | Facebook
- MMA Fighting – RSS feed | Twitter | Facebook
- NBC Sports – RSS feed
- Cage Potato – RSS feed | Twitter | Facebook
- MMA Mania – RSS feed | Twitter | Facebook
- 5thRound – RSS feed | Twitter | Facebook
- Bleacher Report – RSS feed
- MiddleEasy – RSS feed | Twitter | Facebook
- LowKick – RSS feed | Twitter | Facebook
- The Fight Nerd – RSS feed | Twitter | Facebook
- MMA Convert – RSS feed | Twitter | Facebook
- Fight Opinion – RSS feed | Twitter | Facebook
- MMA Payout – RSS feed | Twitter
This week’s MMA Link Club featured stories
Five Ounces of Pain: Breaking down Kenny Florian vs. Jose Aldo — can Florian win a title?
During his tenure under Mark Dellagrotte, Florian was heavily reliant on his muay Thai, and the foundation of his striking was based on his kicks. The move to the Tristar gym in Montreal saw a transformation in Florian’s striking, as he became more confident with his hands and started using his jab to dictate fights. For this bout, he needs to mix the two approaches together.
MMA Fighting: Jon JOnes explains why he is fighting Lyoto Machida at UFC 140 in Toronto
To [Rashad’s] surprise, I took the fight, and after I took the fight, he decides that his hand isn’t ready, and he’s going to need more time. So, with me already agreeing with Dana that I would take a fight at UFC 140, Dana called me back and said, ‘Hey, listen, Rashad decided that he can’t compete at UFC 140, what would think about fighting Lyoto Machida?’ And I said ‘absolutely’.
NBC Sports (Mike Chiappetta): UFC 136 event primer
Cage Potato: The seven most insanely dangerous combat sports ever invented
MMA Mania: Two part interview with Brian Stann (part one & part two)
Nobody can mess with my mind. I’m stronger than any fighter in the UFC mentally. I think that having spoken with Chael, literally two weeks before we were matched up to face each other, I think his feelings are genuine and I think when he does dislike a guy, he’s genuine about it. He’s simply the kind of guy who says things that are on his mind. he doesn’t hold back.
I don’t think there’s anything deeper to these words than exactly what he’s saying and I don’t think that’s gonna stop him from trying to take me down and pound me out for three straight rounds come October 8th. I don’t think any of that will and I don’t think it’s any kind of mind game. He knows what he has to go do and I know what I have to go do. We’re professional fighters, it’s what we do for a living. You don’t have to hate the guy to go out there and do these things.
5th Round: Rashad Evans issues statement on getting replaced by Lyoto Machida
Our friend Jonathan Snowden was not happy about the way Rashad played this out yesterday, especially the comments about not caring about giving up a title shot.
Bleacher Report: In Canada, MFC scores big with TSN television deal
Middle Easy: Sexyama has a new music video out and you should probably watch it
Now this will sell tickets for that 9 AM show at Saitama Super Arena next year.
Low Kick: Stipe Miocic video highlight ahead of his UFC 136 debut
Our friend Luca Fury was hoping that the ‘books would have Miocic as an underdog against Joey Beltran so he could make some coin. Instead, the oddsmakers listed Miocic as a -230 favorite. A buzzkill when the ‘books are as smart as you.
The Fight Nerd: Culinary worker’s union creates anti-UFC web site
Maintained by the Culinary Workers Union, Local 226, the website uses the acronym of UFC to stand for “Unfit For Children” instead of the “Ultimate Fighting Championship.” Dana White’s many rants are listed in detail on this page across a series of sub-categories, including “Obscenities”, “Slurs” which features many of the comments DFW directed at Loretta Hunt among others, “Cheap Shots” which focuses on remarks about random people involved in entertainment and sports, and “Other $#@%!!!” which documents rude comments that UFC fighters have said about others, including Chael Sonnen’s negative thoughts on Brazil.
MMA Convert: Ultimate Fighter 14 recap — lame insult exchange(s)
Back at the TUF House, the Swede does his best “Jackass” imitation by donning a cup and letting people nail him in the man-berries with a pool ball. Okay, that’s kind of weird. But he takes it a little further with an onslaught of pranks that include filling his housemates’ gear with seeds and , in the case of Dustin Nice, making reference to Nice’s third testicle (um…) with a pool ball and a note in his glove. Can you smell what’s brewing here?
Yeah, I smell the ratings tanking on a show that’s ‘reality concept’ is deader than dead. That and you notice the trash talking on the show always features fighters rebutting as quickly as possible rather than actually winning the verbal debates?
MMA Payout: UFC.com traffic on the decline?
So here we have three different independent analytic services that are all in one way or another indicating a decline in visitor traffic for the UFC.com website. It’s really no surprise though as these results are indicative of the kind of 2011 the UFC has had with PPV buyrate averages falling and television ratings on a bit of a decline. We can now see some decrease in the promotions Internet based audience.
It’s not just the UFC web site, either. It’s the MMA web sites that rely heavily on drawing traffic for live show coverage that are finding their numbers hit-or-miss. On the nights that ‘miss’ (like last Saturday with Dominick Cruz vs. Demetrious Johnson), the level of activity is at the same rate as if no show was taking place. When you set your calendar to have 34 events in a single year, that kind of occurrence happens frequently.
Topics: Canada, Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 4 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Ed Soares: Machida wanted to fight Dan Henderson, Anderson/Henderson 2 almost happened
By Zach Arnold | October 7, 2011
Click on “Easy” Ed Soares’ mug to listen to him explain why he’s the king
ARIEL HELWANI: “How did this (fight with Jon Jones) come about (for Machida)?”
ED SOARES: “Actually, (Wednesday) night, Dana called said and said, ‘hey, Ed, don’t say anything, but is Lyoto (Machida) willing to take a fight December 10th against Jon Jones for the title? And I said, you know, yes, let me check with him, but I’m going to tell you yes. I called Lyoto, he was at his friend’s birthday party and I called his phone, it didn’t pick up. And I called his wife’s phone and told her and then she tell, ‘tell Lyoto! tell Lyoto!’ and I told Lyoto and he said yes. Then, I called Dana back, told him, ‘hey, he accepted,’ he goes, “OK, I’m going to send you the bout agreement.’ I said, ‘send it right now.’ HE sent it last night. I e-mailed it to Lyoto’s wife and this morning when I woke up the signed bout agreement was in my e-mail, I forwarded it to the UFC, and it was a done deal.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “Was it your understanding that the first choice was to Jon fight Rashad Evans and because Rashad wasn’t healthy they then chose Lyoto?”
ED SOARES: “I didn’t really know all the details that was going on but I knew that they were trying to get Lyoto a fight by the end of the year, you know… at first, you know, we were really hoping to get that fight against (Dan) Henderson on November 19th and then it ended up going to Shogun. But, you know, once again that’s proof that everything happens for a reason and we were really bummed about that and then this opportunity came up. So, you know, it always seems to work out in the end.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “And did they talk to Lyoto about potentially fighting Phil Davis on that date and then Phil couldn’t fight?”
ED SOARES: “They never talked to us about that. As a matter of fact, I found out about it when Dana announced it and I was like, ‘really? they never mentioned it…’ But I texted Dana right away and said, ‘hey, even though you guys didn’t ask us, we accept.’ So, it was all good.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “A lot of people are wondering what Lyoto’s relationship was with Dana after the whole story that he didn’t choose to fight on August 6th. “The Anderson Silva money.” Did the relationship get strained a little bit because of that?”
ED SOARES: “No, I don’t think it got strained. I think, you know, we have a good working relationship with Dana and it wasn’t exactly said in the way it was put out in the media that he wanted “Anderson Silva money,” but you know sometimes it gets twisted around and it kind of appears that way. Or things are put out… not the way that they were said. There were reasons why he didn’t take the fight. But, no, I think at the beginning, you know, Dana was probably a little bit frustrated. But after I spoke with Dana, I spoke with Dana right after it happened, I was in Vegas and had a meeting with him and told him. I don’t think it affected anything, you know, Dana… Lyoto is part of the UFC and we have a great relationship with Dana, Dana has a good relationship with Lyoto, and it’s all good.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “Dana said (Wednesday) at the press conference that Anderson Silva is suffering from bursitis in his shoulder. How’s he feeling and how long do you expect him to be out for?”
ED SOARES: “I think we’ll see Anderson fight in the beginning of next year.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “Did they offer him the Dan Henderson fight? Dan Henderson said at the press conference…”
ED SOARES: “They offered us that fight right after he fought (Yushin) Okami, they offered him the fight. His shoulder was already hurt before the Okami fight and we said, ‘hey, let us go check it out before we accept.’ And then we went, in Brazil, we went to a doctor there in Sao Paulo and the doctor said he’s going to need 4-to-6 weeks of rehab, thank God he didn’t need surgery, but he had… he had a torn tendon, I forgot he had one torn ligament or two torn ligaments and one tendon or something like that, not torn but just stretched or something and they said that he’s not going to have surgery and that he’s going to need 4-to-6 weeks of rehab before he starts of training again. So, that was good news but unfortunately it was bad news that he wasn’t able to fight Henderson on the 19th.”
(later on)
ARIEL HELWANI: “There are some who think that if Chael wins on Saturday that a fight against Anderson in Brazil would sell out a 50,000 or 100,000 seat stadium. I’m wondering… do you think it would be smart from a security standpoint to have Chael really come to Brazil to fight Anderson?”
ED SOARES: “I don’t think the UFC or Chael would do that, but who am I? I… the Brazilian people don’t care for Chael too much, if you know what I mean. We’ll see what happens. I’m sure if that was to happen, I’m sure they’ll have increased security around Chael.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “Do you think we’ve seen maybe the last of Jose Aldo’s days of fighting at 145 are numbered because he had so much trouble cutting weight and because there are some big fights for him at 155 and if he gets by (Kenny) Florian there aren’t as many big fights left for him at 145, do you think we’ll eventually see him move up?”
ED SOARES: “I think eventually we’ll see that but I think, you know, Jose’s still, you know, this time to me it seemed like he was making weight much easier than he has that I’ve seen even against Urijah Faber. I don’t know. It just depends. But I definitely think in the future we’re going to see him at 155.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “Why did Big Nog fight in Toronto? Because he wanted to fight in Japan. He said he was only still 80% when we spoke to him in August after his win over Brendan Schaub. Why did he decide to come back so quickly?”
ED SOARES: “Well, because it was an opportunity to fight Frank Mir and he was going to fight with his brother on the card and it was just, you know… Nog never turns down an opportunity to fight, never turns down a challenge. So, I think he just wants to avenge that loss and the sooner he can avenge that loss, in his mind the better, probably.”
Topics: Brazil, Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 3 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Is the state of MMA’s heavyweight division lacking in quality?
By Zach Arnold | October 6, 2011
I’ve been going through various pre-UFC 136 interviews, looking for something entertaining or informative (regarding fight strategy and technique). The well is dry, sad to say. You can’t expect much discussion of MMA technical fight analysis from participants until after their fight is over with…
So, we’re left with a few topics surfacing outside of this weekend’s show. I could have ripped into Dana White about UFC Japan 2012 but that’s like shooting fish in a barrel. Let’s move onto a more interesting topic – the heavyweight picture in the UFC. November & December features two of the most high-profile heavyweight fights in the history of the sport with Cain Velasquez vs. Junior dos Santos and Alistair Overeem vs. Brock Lesnar. Outside of those individuals (alongside with Josh Barnett & Daniel Cormier), the current heavyweight picture is lackluster in comparison to other weight classes.
On his Tuesday radio show, Jordan Breen was asked about whether or not we would be stuck with a Velasquez/JDS trilogy feud due to them being head-and-shoulders above the rest of the heavyweights in MMA.
“Well, first of all, I think the major part is it’s not just other sports competing for athletes it’s that the athletes that other sports compete for are heavyweights. Football teams aren’t looking for dudes Jose Aldo’s size. Basketball teams aren’t looking for Ian McCall, you know? There’s no reason for them. So, it’s heavyweights by-and-large being taken by the other major sports, so that’s part of it.
“But I also think one maybe… I think in some ways, let’s not mince words, heavyweight’s a horrible division especially compared to MMA’s great divisions but I actually think in some ways it’s not as bad as people think. And the reason I say that is, take the Brett Rogers/Eddie Sanchez fight as an example… I think what ends up happening is a vicious cycle where most divisions guys are being released from the UFC are falling from grace and promotions go, hey, we can get this guy on the come back track, we can use him for two or three fights, people will buy tickets, whatever. We see tons and tons of this on the regional circuit and the ability to do it well tends to be one of the things that sets good regional promotions from fly-by-nights or failures. Unfortunately, one thing that happens is heavyweights also get released but heavyweights are at a premium. So, if the heavyweight’s released from the UFC, something’s up. Either that guy’s no good or he has serious issues, like a Todd Duffee. If there’s just a guy who’s like a talented heavyweight and maybe lost one or two fights, the UFC’s not cutting that guy. He’s sticking around. (Pat Barry.)
“So, I think what ends up happening is the guys who get jettisoned from the UFC or Strikeforce or whatever prominent position they’re in, there’s this assumed parity that, ‘oh yeah, you know, having Eddie Sanchez and Brett Rogers fight is the same thing, it comes from the same place as having Matt Horwich & Jake Rosholt.’ And maybe it comes from the same place, but we’re talking about different qualifies and caliber of athletes. So, I think one thing that ends up happening is that these heavyweights who have a bit of a name or have some exposure, they get cut because they’re no good and then unlike other divisions where if you’re picking up UFC castoff Lightweights, hell, maybe you can put together a Fight of the Year over 25 minutes and have it on HDNet, maybe that’s a thing you can do. You will never do it with heavyweights, not in a million years. Not using guys like Sanchez and Rogers than have been cut from the UFC.
“So, I think that’s a thing that also happens. I think the heavyweight division ends up looking worse because a lot of the guys that get recycled are guys that we just know aren’t good.”
Given that Showtime is about to make a decision regarding Strikeforce and where the network stands regarding their future in the MMA business, it seems pretty clear that we will get an infusion of heavyweight talent in 2012.
“The one thing I would say is that it only ever takes one of two guys. It only takes one other Cain (Velasquez) or one other JDS to put on a new spin. If we’re saying, oh, there’s only two great heavyweights in MMA right now and they’re JDS and Cain Velasquez, I think that is a fine stance to take but what if another Cain Velasquez comes along? Then we’re talking about three guys, one more and we’re talking about four guys and then you start to have a bit more of a division. So, one thing that I think gets underrated in MMA is how quickly one or two guys can really offer a new breath of life to a division.
“And on top of that, I mean there’s talented guys that we’ve seen before that aren’t necessarily focused on MMA. Like Justin Wren is a good up-and-coming heavyweight who eventually will be in the UFC and win fights but for now he’s doing a mission for God and focusing on those things, so that’s not his priority and focus. So I do think it’s going to get better, I don’t think we’ll be stuck in a holding pattern where it’s Velasquez and Cigano fighting one another over and over. But… it’s not… the idea of heavyweight being the punching bag division is never going to change because of MMA’s real successes is being able to take athletes that are great athletes but don’t necessarily fit into other sports. That’s why you get great fighters at 155, at 170. These guys don’t have a lot of athletic opportunities in too many other places, so they gravitate towards MMA. So, I mean, those divisions always are going to be the real heart of MMA and heavyweight’s always going to kind to suck but I think the way we think about the MMA division probably could be changed if like regional promoters weren’t so willing to just put on trash guys who happen to have a bit of a name.
“I mean, Andrei Arlovski’s a good example… At one point in time it would have made sense to use Andrei Arlovski when he wanted to stand and knock guys out. He doesn’t want to do that any more. I mean, that fight with Ray Lopez was disgraceful and the Travis Fulton fight is going to be a joke and it’s going to be depressing to watch… and yet those are the kinds that fights that we’re treated to over and over again.”
Outside of the four guys mentioned earlier for upcoming big UFC fights, how would rank the heavyweight division 5-10?
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 21 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |