The invisible Cain Velasquez, and Brock Lesnar’s ‘car wash’ tour of ESPN
By Zach Arnold | March 30, 2011
I don’t know if Wednesday’s launch of a new season of The Ultimate Fighter can match the upcoming launch of The MMA Gourmet, but Brock Lesnar gave it a go yesterday by doing a ‘car wash’ media tour of ESPN on Tuesday in Bristol, CT. The ‘car wash’ refers to doing appearances on multiple ESPN platforms and shows. On all of his appearances, Lesnar hit a proverbial home run. He was on his game. Maybe not fluid in terms of delivery, but he accomplished everything he wanted to (and more).
What was so striking was how invisible Cain Velasquez’s foot print was in the conversation. Here you have Brock Lesnar and Junior dos Santos on TUF with the main goal being the winner of the #1 contender’s match in Vancouver getting a title shot. However, Velasquez feels like the odd man out in that triangle despite being the champion. I understand that he has been going through rehab after the rotator cuff surgery (painful), but for the average UFC fan it’s as if Velasquez has fallen off the face of the earth because he hasn’t had much camera/media time.
Lesnar came across as a champion on ESPN last night. They consistently featured a graphic talking about his reign as UFC Heavyweight champion from 2008 to 2010. He specifically made sure to plug his fight against JDS regularly and did all the basics – kept mentioning his opponent’s name, didn’t put his opponent down and built him up, specified a clear goal, and when it’s happening. It was practically textbook 101.
“Well, it’s a tough match-up for me. I’m facing a guy with heavy hands. He’s got a lot of boxing skills and so that’s where I’m going to have come in and force myself to be comfortable and win this fight, get another chance at Cain Velasquez to get my title back, and that’s my mission.”
You could tell that everyone at ESPN was practically in awe of the guy.
When asked about his loss to Cain last October in Anaheim, he broke down what his feelings were about his performance in that title match.
“Well, losing’s a hard thing to do, you know. First thing’s first, you’ve just got to sit back and dust yourself off and get back on the horse again and analyze what went wrong and I think the most important thing is for me, watching the fight again, is finding the things that I did right and moving on with that, you know. In this game, it’s a matter of inches. You get two big guys swinging little mounds of leather around. Somebody’s going to get hurt.”
When asked what he needed to work on the most (taking a punch would be the correct answer), Brock said it was just a matter of experience.
“I think I just need to get more comfortable, you know. I’ve had six or seven fights as an Ultimate fighter. These other guys that I’ve faced have had a period of time, 12, you know, between 8 and 12 fights to work their way up the ladder. I’ve been thrown to the wolves. I wouldn’t have it any other way, but I came in and faced former champions and worked my way up the ladder facing very tough opponents.”
He also addressed the rumors about returning to WWE. He had been reportedly offered a big deal by Vince McMahon to be a guest referee at Wrestlemania, but the idea was shot down. He has no plans to retire from MMA at the moment.
“I haven’t (retired) yet. You know, when I can wake up and look at myself in the mirror and say, you know, if I’m feeling it in here still, you know, this is my home. In the Octagon is where I feel like this is what’s meant to be. There’s going to be all kinds of people out there saying what they want to say about me, but at the end of the day I’m happy doing what I’m doing and that’s being an Ultimate Fighter.”
Money is the one factor that would motivate him to do some return spots in WWE.
“The all-mighty (about to say dollar)… I should never say never but I mean, you know, it’s one of those things. When my stint in the UFC is over there’s a possibility, but folks, it ain’t happening very soon, that’s for sure.”
Brock was asked about Dana White claiming that he’s now underrated in the eyes of fans and media writers who rushed to bury him after the loss to Velasquez.
“I can appreciate that, given the stature of where I’ve came from in such a short amount of time. I’m continuing to learn every single day and that’s all right with me. I’m comfortable with that quote but it just says that I’m here to get better but I’m at the top, I’m sitting here talking to you, ain’t I?”
He was asked a couple of questions not related to his upcoming fight. One of the questions dealt with his thoughts on the future of Jon Jones in the UFC.
“It’s a bright future. This guy, talk about being comfortable (in the cage), this guy gets in the Octagon and he’s comfortable. He makes veterans look like they just started yesterday. So, I mean, this guy’s got a bright future. I wish him the best and, good job, good job the other night, you did a fantastic job.”
To close out one of his ESPN interviews, he was asked about getting called out by heavyweights in Strikeforce and whether or not he would fight any of them now that Zuffa has bought Scott Coker & SVSE out. Brock stayed the course and did what a good promo speaker does, which is deflect any questions that are a distraction to the message that you want the public to focus on.
“At this moment in time, I’ve got Junior dos Santos in front of me and then I’m looking at the title shot against Cain, but Junior dos Santos, look out, here I come. And, you know, after that, it’s a match made in heaven for me.”
After I watched/listened to Brock’s ESPN appearances, I was reminded about how stark the difference is between daily followers of MMA and those who are just casual fans. Lesnar appeared on Sportsnation for a segment about ‘baddest dudes’ and he was pitted against Junior dos Santos in an online poll. Brock won the match-up with 83% of the vote. It just reminded me of an old saying that you hear in politics amongst pollsters, which is that people who are ‘likely voters’ (read: activists/hardcores) are prone to give different answers/trends than those who are casual fans (‘low-information voters’) who judge more with emotion or name-recognition or factors such as “he’s really big” or “I like his hair.” Amongst hardcore MMA fans, Lesnar is an underdog to JDS. To the casual UFC fans, he’s a major favorite. It presents a very interesting dynamic heading into the June 11th fight, as UFC needs to make sure that JDS comes across as a big star on The Ultimate Fighter. We already know how big of a star Brock currently is.
The Ultimate Fighter starts tonight on Spike. And, yes, I did notice that Brock calls himself an ‘Ultimate fighter’ rather than an MMA fighter.
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 6 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Shawn Tompkins on what the rules of engagement are in 2011 for MMA training camps
By Zach Arnold | March 29, 2011
STEVE COFIELD: “The other issue to talk about is brotherhood and I also think, with that, is the size of your team. Can you over-do it by having 15 elite fighters in your camp, in the same weight classes? Greg (Jackson) has dealt with this before because he had the whole Diego (Sanchez)/GSP thing years ago.”
SHAWN TOMPKINS: “A big part of my team is the family atmosphere, you know, my guys they eat together, they go out together, they train together, you know, I like that part of it. I will never get rid of that. But it’s how you deal with the situation and I basically lay it out when they get here (the Tapout Training Center). They know, if they become part of the team, these kinds of situations are going to happen and decisions are going to have to be made. We make them as a team but ultimately I’m the coach.”
STEVE COFIELD: “Probably a bad thing to promise that guys are never going to fight. That’s where you paint yourself into a corner.”
SHAWN TOMPKINS: “That’s exactly it. You know, you can’t. You got to treat it like it is. You know, the family side of it, the brotherhood can be on within this cage, within this house. But when it goes out into the business of the UFC or any other organization, you work for them.”
STEVE COFIELD: “We mentioned Vitor Belfort, you’ve worked with him in the past. I guessing you’re not working with him moving forward, right?”
SHAWN TOMPKINS: “Never.”
STEVE COFIELD: “You said never.”
SHAWN TOMPKINS: “Never. Never again.”
STEVE COFIELD: “Why not?”
SHAWN TOMPKINS: “I’m not really interested in working with guys that aren’t solely with me and that are guys that aren’t with me from the bottom-up. My new goal and my new thought on my team and a lot has to do with Vitor is I want to train guys and bring up the new Vitor Belforts. I want to bring up the next Randy Coutures. You know, I worked with Dan Henderson for three fights, I was there and helped him train when he knocked out Wanderlei Silva. You know, I went from there, I worked with Wanderlei Silva when he knocked out Keith Jardine. I helped Randy Couture when he beat (Gabriel) Gonzaga, you know I helped Vitor Belfort get three of the most devastating knockouts of his career. Has it really done that much for me? You know? It’s brought me along in the sport in the eyes of the fans, but really where my bread-and-butter is and where my love for the sport is are the guys at the baseline, the bottom, from the bottom to the top. Look at where I am right now with Sam Stout, Mark Hominick, Chris Horodecki. Look at where I am with Mark Hominick. That’s where the love for this sport for me is.”
And now for something totally random and great
The MMA Gourmet. Note: The highlight of this clip is what Kevin Randleman has to say about the way he will be judged.
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 7 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Satoshi Ishii files for divorce after nine months of marriage
By Zach Arnold | March 29, 2011
He married a college student (age 19 at the time and now 20) and, after nine months, has divorced her. He addressed the press in Roppongi (Tokyo) and said he should have been more careful about the matter. In short, he got married last April and the divorce was filed in January, leading to where he is at today. The long-distance relationship thing did not work out for him considering that he’s been training in the States and fighting all over the world. With the divorce out of the way, he’s focusing 100% on his fight career.
Strangely, the press in Japan is still taking about him fighting Scott Lighty at the Strikeforce Challengers card in Stockton. That goes against this Sherdog report which lists the full card line-up.
Other news & notes
Yuichiro Nagashima’s pro-wrestling debut is now official for May 5th in Tokyo at Korakuen Hall for an event called “Bushiroad Pro-Wrestling.” Opponent to be announced in the near future.
Brock Lesnar will appear on ESPN2 at 4 PM EST/1 PM PST on Tuesday (Sportsnation) to promote the upcoming season of The Ultimate Fighter. He’s been doing the media rounds yesterday and today to hype up Wednesday night’s debut on Spike. Here’s an extensive article talking about some of the comments he made to the mass media on Monday.
FightHubTV.com did an interview recently with Urijah Faber talking about his thoughts coming out of the UFC 128 win over Eddie Wineland. UFC announced last Saturday that Faber and Cruz will fight for the promotion’s Bantamweight title in July in Las Vegas.
“I feel like, looking back at the fight, first off I wasn’t real happy that I didn’t get the finish. Eddie’s a really tough guy. He had a pretty good game plan. I feel like he was a little bit defensive which makes it tough especially when you’re working with another high-caliber guy, so I would have liked to have a little more action in the first round and maybe, you know, either been more successful with my takedowns in the first round or straight up just done stand-up in the first round. But looking back my head movement was incredible. I barely got hit the entire fight and I landed a lot of good punches, myself, so I was pretty happy with that. I also feel like I could have maybe opened up a little bit more on the ground and maybe let him scramble or try to look for some new positions but I felt pretty comfortable pounding him in the guard, he wasn’t doing much to get out there. So, all in all, it was a good fight but I felt like I could have done better.”
Regarding his stand-up technique and how he positions his hands:
“I’ve done a lot of sparring over the last how-ever-many years and just kind of things that have worked for me. I’ve also been a huge Roy Jones fan ever since I was a little kid so I’m sure I take some of that influence. I have a bunch of his tapes and I watch them all the time. But I feel like when I was in dangerous situations I did have my hands up and I feel like even if my hands are here they’re still kind of in my face, you know, with an inch or two. So it kind of looks like my hands are down sometimes but I’m still protecting my face. But, yeah I felt like it’s just kind of my style, head movement, foot work, and being fast.”
What surprised him or caught him off guard when he faced Eddie Wineland:
“Just kind of the clinch game, I wasn’t expecting him to want to stay in the clinch so much, you know, and it was smart on his part because I feel like I was the faster guy in there and also, you know, it was kind of unexpected for him to slow me down and so that was one thing that caught me off guard, But other than that, I felt pretty good, you know, I felt like I definitely controlled the fight. I didn’t take any damage at all and, you know, did some damage myself. So, it was a good fight.”
Whether or not he had nerves making his ‘debut’ in the UFC:
“I always feel different right when I’m coming out for a fight and I think there was a little bit of nerves in the UFC but I don’t know if it was then and there when I walked out but I think it was kind of more in the day prior, you know, with the weigh-in I’m still getting used to exactly how I refuel my body and things like that because even in college I never had 24 hours to recuperate from a (weight) cut, I would compete in an hour afterwards. So, I did feel a little bit different but I’ve been in bigger fights than that for me. I’ve been in fights with thousands of people in my home town screaming and on PPV so it was fairly similar.”
Topics: Japan, Media, MMA, StrikeForce, UFC, Zach Arnold | 2 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
UFC Fight Night 24 in Seattle at Key Arena; Big, strong, and fast winners
By Zach Arnold | March 27, 2011
Television: Spike TV
Dark matches
- Lightweights: Nik “You can’t fire me” Lentz defeated Waylon Lowe in R3 in 2’24 with a choke.
- Middleweights: Aaron Simpson defeated Mario Miranda after 3R by unanimous decision.
- Welterweights: Johny Hendricks defeated TJ Waldburger in R1 in 1’35 by TKO (punches).
- Heavyweights: Christian Morecraft defeated Sean McCorkle in R2 in 4’10 with a choke.
- Bantamweights: Michael McDonald defeated Edwin Figueroa after 3R by unanimous decision.
- Welterweights: John Hathaway defeated Kris McCray after 3R by split decision.
- Heavyweights: Mike Russow defeated Jon Madsen by TKO after the end of R2.
- Featherweights: Mackens Semerzier defeated Alex Caceres in R1 in 3’18 with a choke sleeper hold.
Main card
- Featherweights: The Korean Zombie defeated Leonard Garcia in R2 in 4’59 by submission with a Twister.
- Welterweights: Amir Sadollah defeated DaMarques Johnson in R2 in 3’27 by TKO (tap out due to blows).
- Welterweights: Anthony Johnson dominated Dan Hardy after three rounds and won by unanimous decision.
- Light Heavyweights: Phil Davis defeated Antonio Rogerio Nogueira after 3R by unanimous decision.
Over 14,000 at Key Arena. Phil Davis replaced Tito Ortiz, who canceled due to injury.
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 68 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
It begins: Strikeforce fighters reportedly now being asked to sign Zuffa contracts
By Zach Arnold | March 26, 2011
Approximately two weeks ago, Jeff Thaler & I had a conference call (the audio content is as fresh today as it was back then) talking about the ramifications of Zuffa buying out Strikeforce. One of the main points I brought up about the deal is the way the contracts for Strikeforce are structured and issues relating to jurisdiction.
According to MMA Junkie, Strikeforce fighters who are scheduled to fight at the San Diego Sports Arena event on April 9th are now reportedly getting new Zuffa contracts. This is an important news item because what it indicates is that Zuffa has learned from mistakes they made during the PRIDE asset sale deal where they had some contracts that did not transfer over (personal service contracts) and others that required them to honor the deals (ask Mark Hunt about this).
The elephant in the room, of course, is jurisdiction. By signing new Zuffa contracts, they likely want the fighters to agree to make Nevada home court for any legal battles. By doing this, Zuffa is cutting off fighters from issuing any sort of legal challenge where California (a friendlier labor state than Nevada) might possible rule against them if a fighter wanted to challenge a contract. Zuffa is virtually unstoppable in the Nevada court system.
(They’ve used the majority of top law firms in Clark County, too.)
Of course, the flip side to that is that if a Strikeforce fighter wanted to challenge Zuffa in court, it would take some serious cash and Zuffa could threaten the fighter by icing them out for the remainder of their Strikeforce contract if there is a long-term expiration date, such as two years.
So much for Paul Daley not fighting in the UFC again. A rematch with Josh Koscheck?
Again, if you haven’t had the chance to do, go listen to the conference call Jeff & I did on this very topic. It’s less than 30 minutes long and it’s well worth a listen.
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, UFC, Zach Arnold | 11 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Did SVSE want out of Strikeforce in order to focus on getting the NBA’s Sacramento Kings?
By Zach Arnold | March 24, 2011
Yesterday on Sherdog radio, Scott Coker made an appearance and did a largely paint-by-numbers interview. He was open and honest about how long Silicon Valley Sports & Entertainment wanted out of Strikeforce (around five ~ six months) and his ordeal to try to find new business partners to keep momentum going. He talked about Fedor fighting towards the end of July and that all of Fedor’s fights with SF will still be co-promoted by M-1. M-1 contends that Fedor’s contract is with Showtime and not Strikeforce, something Mr. Coker said he didn’t want to comment on. He also confirmed that there will no longer be any amateur fights on Strikeforce undercards, which is a fun blow by Zuffa towards Jeremy Lappen and his former Elite XC colleagues who are trying to control the amateur MMA scene in California. When it comes to the question of whether or not Zuffa will keep Strikeforce alive long-term, Mr. Coker said it was up to him and his team to make the league work financially unlike the WEC. “[Zuffa] gave WEC a good opportunity to try to flourish and I just think it didn’t pan out the way they wanted it to…” In regards to his recent meeting with Showtime executives about the sale of assets to Zuffa, he said that “they are very happy with Strikeforce and happy with the fights and they just want that to continue and it will.”
However, buried at the beginning of the Sherdog interview and not touched upon was a news item that I think the general sports media in America would be very interested in. As he talked about in his HDNet interview with Bas Rutten, Scott Coker talked about SVSE wanting to get out of the Strikeforce business and move back into a more traditional sports franchise business. In Wednesday’s Sherdog interview, Mr. Coker said that SVSE wanted to get out of Strikeforce in order to make a play for ‘a basketball team’ to move to HP Pavilion and he also curiously brought up the phrase ‘the 50 mile radius here.’ The talk about ‘radius’ is terminology that Bay Area sports fans in Northern California are used to hearing because of sports franchises considering relocating to San Jose (like the A’s) and how franchises in San Francisco or Oakland are not happy about such developments because they want to protect their home turf. Somehow, I don’t think a college or semi-professional basketball team is being discussed here by SVSE to bring into HP Pavilion.
Right now, there’s only one real ‘basketball team’ up for relocation and that’s the Sacramento Kings, owned by the Maloof Brothers (another Vegas power family like the Fertittas). The team has stunk on ice for many years since the glory days of Chris Webber & Vlade Divac ended and the Maloofs wanted a new arena built in Sacramento on the backs of taxpayers. That idea got rejected out of hand and there has been a big drama brewing about whether or not the Kings will stay in town. Mayor Kevin Johnson (a former basketball star in his own right) all but admitted that the Maloofs want out of Sacramento and would not sell the team to someone else if it meant keeping the franchise in Sacramento.
The one arena and business partner that has long been discussed of working with the Kings for relocation has been the Honda Center and, next week, something big is rumored to be happening there. If you believe media reports, ownership of Honda Center was willing to give the Maloofs a $100 million loan (they turned it down) and supposedly a big cable deal (with Fox Sports West) worth tens of millions of dollars was offered should the Kings relocate to Anaheim and become the Royals. If such a deal happened with FSW, it’s because of the King’s hated rivals Los Angeles Lakers moving away from FSW to create their own sports network in a similar fashion to the YES Network.
(They’ve been wearing old-school jerseys that say Royals on them lately.)
Larry Ellison of Oracle fame desperately wanted to purchase the Golden State Warriors and allegedly made the best money offer but got turned down. There are a lot of business moguls in Silicon Valley who have wanted to bring a basketball team to Bay Area South for a while now. The notion of the Warriors relocating to HP Pavilion is highly unlikely, as there has been talk of moving to San Francisco if they need to get away from the Oakland Coliseum (Oracle Arena).
If what Scott Coker is saying is true and not some excuse SVSE cooked up to make him feel better about wanting to dump Strikeforce, then my reading of his cryptic comment about SVSE is that they were interested in getting involved in the bidding battle with the Honda Center (Anaheim Pond) over who will become the next arena landlord of the Sacramento Kings. What makes this idea wholly ironic is that the Maloofs are crying foul when it comes to debt in Sacramento and want a better deal (they own Arco Arena), so they are likely relocating the team during an off-season in which there is an expected NBA lockout pending because the owners want to significantly slash the salaries that players are making.
(Michael Jordan purchased the Charlotte Bobcats franchise and took on a lot of its debt from former BET founder Robert Johnson.)
The irony of SVSE wanting to get out of a ‘high risk’ business like Strikeforce in order to go a more traditional, yet real high-stakes game of poker like working with an NBA franchise is something that I think a lot of people would be interested in learning about.
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 22 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Will UFC’s future matchmaking decentralize MMA’s team-dominated training structure?
By Zach Arnold | March 24, 2011
It took me a while to come up with the right wording for this question, but it’s the question that seems to be everyone’s mind now that the battle between Jon Jones & Rashad Evans has intensified. (Just ask our friends at Pro MMA Radio who have interview segments with Rashad every month.) On Sherdog this past Monday, Greg Savage & Jordan Breen discussed their meeting with Greg Jackson after UFC 128 where Jackson was not comfortable with the way things played out between Jones & Evans.
“I do sense it’s going to be one of those things where it’s an echo chamber effect because you’ve seen incrementally now Rashad Evans, with every day, I think it’s like when he says these things it goes back in through his ears and sort of like re-embeds itself in his head because he seems to get more and more vitriolic every single day. So, by the time this fight comes around, I’m not sure what to expect,” stated Jordan. “It is unfortunate, though, to think of Greg Jackson’s position because on Saturday night when we turned the camera off on that hotel room, I mean he was like visibly and obviously emotional, like the analogy he made was like, ‘Fans think it’s great that these teammates are going to fight each other, but for me it’s like if I asked you, hey, wouldn’t it be great if your Mom fought your Dad? Wouldn’t it be awesome to see your Dad knock out your Mom’s teeth, wouldn’t that be great?’ And the way in which he said was so intense, like it was clearly something that impacts into the very essential elements of his being.”
A great example of this is an interview Rashad did for Bloody Elbow where he unloaded on both Jon Jones & Greg Jackson. I’m praying that we don’t get the stupid race-baiting that we got in last year’s encounter with Rampage Jackson.
Breen’s comments about Greg Jackson reminds me of the remarks the trainer made to Ariel Helwani when he talked about not having a desire to see one of his brothers fight another brother. Now the big question on everyone’s mind is whether or not the camp that Greg Jackson has spent so much blood, sweat, and tears building is splintering thanks to the financial and political power of the UFC. Greg Savage thinks a team disintegration is a legitimate possibility.
“The end-game here is, does the camp even stay together, you know, in all of its different parts? You’ve got John Danaher basically running things for Georges St. Pierre now. Greg still does a lot of stuff with them and they’re all together, don’t get me wrong, but you have these guys who kind of set up their little domains in different parts of the camp and it’s not really as centralized as I think they had all hoped it would be at the beginning.
“I really wonder if they’re going to be able to keep those loose ties even together at least in some of those spots. I love Trevor Wittman as well but he’s been pretty outspoken on this and I’m curious to see the reaction to that from the rest of the camp. … There’s fracturing going on. Whether it fractures completely, we’ll have to just wait and see.”
Will team-oriented training camps like American Kickboxing Academy become a thing of the past? After all, the team-oriented structure for training has been one of MMA’s hallmarks.
“At this point in time, it almost is like when you see those like FBI and sort of police charts drawn out of different mob organizations like the Venn Diagrams of where the crossovers are,” says Mr. Breen. “Like the Italian Gomorrah and stuff like there where it’s not strongly centralized. It’s definitely like a bunch of different factions who happen to have some crossover here and there more so than one giant unified body.”
This is the kind of scenario that is playing out right now with Rashad Evans, who reportedly will be training in Florida for the Jon Jones fight by working with Marcus Aurelio. If teams do break apart and everything becomes decentralized, will fighters have enough money to be able to bring in the best trainers for their own camps? Jordan Breen says it’s coming soon.
“Is this sort of a step further in the direction of the Brock Lesnars of the world in just when I get to a point where I can make some serious money, I just put together my own camp? I mean, do we move further in the boxing direction where guys just focus on putting stuff together for their benefit?
“I don’t want to say this sort of absolutely but I do wonder if a camp like, say, Mark Munoz’s Reign isn’t the best thing for MMA, where it’s kind of more like an open door policy. If you know Mark or know a guy who knows Mark, you come to Reign, there’s high-level pros there. You have your trainers but you’re getting high-level quality instruction there. I mean, you can still have friends and form bonds there and whatnot, but it’s not the sense of ‘this guy’s my teammate, I don’t necessarily want to fight him.’ Some of the guys, maybe, but a lot of the guys just roll through there training once or twice a week and it’s a great hub for lots of high-quality training but guys don’t necessarily feel like they’re embedded in a team where ‘oh, I would never fight that guy that I train with once or twice a week.’ … Fighters seem to love it. It’s almost incalculable the amount of guys who say they love training at Reign and love the atmosphere there.”
With Zuffa as the only game in town, Mr. Savage says the winds are a changing.
“If they’re going to have to be fighting each other, yeah, I mean, it may very well go that route.
“I think that’s probably the direction the sport’s going to have to go. It’s being forced there. You can’t just set up these things where, you know, ‘oh, we got brothers, we’re brothers, we’re brothers’ when at the end of the day, that’s where the big-money fights are going to be. Dana White has pushed this thing forever, guys need to fight each other for competition’s sake, that’s why they need to fight, that’s what’s going to happen. At the end of the day, money is what talks. … You ever heard the old AKA thing, ‘maybe for a title, maybe for a million dollars‘, and it’s been a continuing narrative between many of the different camps or different groups of fighters that this question has been posed to. They generally always come up with a reason why they could do it but more than likely wouldn’t. Well, now, you have the money factor in that the UFC’s able to pay and the fact that there’s not a lot whole of other places to go, Dana White may have finally found his niche in this argument and he’s got a lever there, he’s got a wedge and he’s using it and I think you’ve seen that for the first time in Jon Jones & Rashad Evans.”
Surprisingly, Breen thinks this a good development.
“And it’s great, too, because if there is one stipulation that Dana White is going to be pretty flexible on, I mean we know the kind of autocracy he likes to run. But if you’re going to ask Dana White for any kind of condition in fighting a teammate, isn’t the one you’re going to have the most success for money? Like if you just say, ‘Yeah, I’ll fight my teammate, give me a million dollars.’ There’s an overwhelming chance that you’re going to get a discretionary bonus within 10 seconds. And how easy is that? And ultimately, I think we say that and I often get e-mails sort of like, ‘isn’t there something more to the world than money?’ And, yeah, maybe, but Rashad Evans’ (has) a wife, he’s going to have a family some day. It’d be nice to know that, even if he went out and got absolutely mauled by Jon Jones, that one day when Rashad Evans has kids and there’s Rashad Jr. and Lance III and so on, they can go ‘Dad, we have a really nice house, where did it come from?’ It wasn’t Jon Jones and Greg Jackson, although they did team up to beat me up, but hey, we got this house for it. It’s terrible, but that’s how the world works. I mean, it’s prize fighting.”
A sober answer?
Mike Winkeljohn has already chose to work with Jon Jones and he knows where his bread is buttered.
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 20 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Josh Gross: UFC proved me wrong on co-promotion as the best model to produce meaningful fights
By Zach Arnold | March 23, 2011
I didn’t get a chance to listen to this interview from last week with Josh Gross until now, but it’s well worth your time to check it out. (It is a little over 35 minutes long.) There are some interesting points made throughout the interview, including a couple that I think are debatable.
His first point is that UFC buying out Strikeforce is a bigger deal than UFC buying out the PRIDE assets.
“I think, yes, it’s a much bigger deal than the PRIDE deal. The PRIDE deal, at the time, was an important deal and it’s a very big deal, too. But this one, I think, is more important for what it portends to down the road. The Strikeforce deal suggests that there really isn’t a competitor out there where fighters can have someone to go to and legitimately negotiate a deal against, you know, so fighters are now put in a position in the most basic sense they’re negotiating against themselves and their only leverage is, essentially, their talent, their promotional visibility which is largely dictated by the person they’re trying to negotiate with and sort of how they appeal to fans, really. It’s a much more difficult situation for fighters. Some fighters will thrive. The best fighters in the world will do very well and they’ll make a lot of money and, you know what, they probably deserve it. I think what the UFC did by creating this, yeah, it’s not a monopoly, monopoly is the wrong word, people tend to use it. But they definitely have control over the industry in such a way that they’ve created a league and sort of their own sport in a way because while they run under Unified Rules and they do Mixed Martial Arts, it’s really self-contained now.”
I understand his viewpoint that by buying out Strikeforce, UFC eliminated their only threat remaining in the MMA ‘space’ as far as locking up the best talent and killing a potential PPV threat. However, the talent Strikeforce had is, outside of a few fighters, not comparable to what PRIDE presented when they sold their deal to Zuffa. Zuffa buying PRIDE essentially wiped out the most important foreign market (at the time) for MMA and they brought in a lot of talented fighters into the mix for UFC fights. PRIDE ran a PPV in Las Vegas and they were going to do some things but it all proved to be was a smokescreen for Nobuyuki Sakakibara to sell, sell, sell.
Josh’s second point is that UFC buying out Strikeforce finally creates a market scenario that UFC had been claiming they were in but now can truly say they are in.
“It’s the creation of something that they’ve said they were all along but they finally are it is the way that I see it. They always said they were the NFL of Mixed Martial Arts but they are that now, you know, Dana White is the sport, like the de facto commissioner, he’s not just the President of the UFC, you know. There’s a lot of good that come from this. I don’t think, you know, those of us like you and I who want to see the best fighters fight and know who the best fighter in the world is, this is terrific. This accomplishes that, generally, I think. I think almost in every case you’ll see the best fighters coming together in bouts and that’s terrific for fans, it’s much easier for fans to understand now. You know, there was always that brand confusion, people didn’t know what other parts of the sport were and they immediately diminished them as good so I think a lot of great fighters have been fighting under the radar for a long time and now they get that spotlight, which is really positive for them. But the negative on the fighters’ side and, you know, we’ll see where else it shakes out. The consumer, I’m sure, at some point is going to be asked to spend more on PPVs. I mean, that’s just the way this thing works. They’re spending a lot of money and they’re making a lot of money.”
Will fans be willing to spend more on PPVs? I think the price structure is already at a tipping point and can’t go much further.
Josh brings up the opinion that a Zuffa-dominant industry presents more positives than negatives for the fans, even though there is a lot of fear and loathing amongst talent right now.
“I think it’s a positive. It moves the sport to even a higher place, one that’s easier to understand that allows for the best fights to happen. None of that is bad, that’s all very good. It’s just when you start to peel the layers away, what does it actually mean in terms of the person and the company control, the power that they wield… Then you start, you know, a lot of people are scared. A lot of people are scared by this deal, so jI mean just talking to people in the industry, fighters and managers, not all of them clearly. Some of them are very excited and they see this as a great thing. But not all of them do, a lot of them are concerned about the power structure in the sport, how fighters will really sort of have any negotiating power in the way that the format is setup, the percentage of the money going to the UFC versus where the fighters are getting it, there’s lots of issues coming up and even larger ones that I’m not qualified to talk about. I don’t really know that much about anti-trust, how much do we know about anti-trust really? But these are catch-words that we’re going to start hearing more and more and whether they go anywhere, I have no idea. When Lorenzo Fertitta says, you know, they’ve been laying the groundwork for this move, he doesn’t mean just gobbling up promoters or, you know, spreading themselves out on television so they have more negotiating rights on TV, they’ve been lobbying in D.C. for years on anti-trust issues and other issues as well. So, this is what they’ve designed to do all along and then they are prepared for it, it’s going to be difficult for any kind of (lawsuit) to hold up against them, I think, but my sense is people may try.”
The tone of the interview was really interesting because Josh has been as big of a supporter of co-promotion amongst rival promoters (similar to boxing) for as long as I can remember. He has now officially changed his stance.
“As far as where people have been overreacting, I haven’t seen a lot of it so I don’t know exactly what people are saying in terms of the sky is falling. You know, if it’s the usual people who are so invested in promotions that they get caught up and there’s Strikeforce fans that are freaking out, I don’t care about them. It’s like… I mean I don’t. I never understood the attachment to a promotion, really, like it was just so silly to me. I always watch the fighters and I want to see the best guys fight. It’s why when I was and I can say that now I’m wrong, like you don’t need co-promotion to have the best fighters in the world fight, you know, you can have one organization buy everything and that’s what happened, and I’m fine with that and I said that all along. Essentially, I was just looking for a vehicle that was most realistic to seeing the best guys fight one another, it was a tried-and-true practice and, you know, it seemed to work for a long time. But we don’t need that in Mixed Martial Arts apparently and that’s fine.”
There’s a lot that needs to shake out. It will certainly change a lot of dynamics, not just amongst the talent but also amongst media writers. There is a lot of fear out there to not anger the big behemoth if you want access or if you want a payday down the road. MMA Supremacy on Twitter has been spending the last week or so talking about how the media is going to behave in this new business climate and joking about ‘business as usual.’
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, UFC, Zach Arnold | 21 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Tara LaRosa publicly labels Miesha Tate as a clenbuterol user & accuses Tate of slander
By Zach Arnold | March 22, 2011
The scenario: Tara LaRosa and Miesha Tate have been going back-and-forth on Twitter in a war of words. The Fight Show (audio here) brought the two women on to discuss the heat they have with each other. The host asks each woman to give their side of the story.
“Well, man, we have quite a background, it’s obvious our dislike for each other is, you know, very prominent. You know, it started back in the day, we used to train together, we got along great, you know, she’s kind of an inspiration to me and then I really saw her true colors when we spent more time together and we just don’t have any care in the world for each other at all. I mean, this is not fake by any means. I have a lot of dislike for me and she’s trying to pull out the ‘am I roid-raging now on Twitter’ you know what I mean, I think her freaking big ‘ol jaw would speak more loudly saying that she’s been taking steroids. I mean, I’m just like royally pissed about the whole situation, like how originally, really, you’re going to say that I’m on steroids now? She’s just pulling whatever she can out of her butt and she won’t fight me, period. I’ve agreed to come down to whatever weight, make 125, you know, and then I mean first ‘I didn’t have enough fights to fight her.’ Now that I have enough fights to fight her, ‘I couldn’t make the weight” so I said, OK, I’ll make the weight, I’ll come down to 25. Then after that it’s that ‘I don’t deserve to fight her’ for whatever, I don’t even know, ‘I don’t deserve to make a dime off of her name’ or whatever, so it’s just one thing after another. She’s dodging me and that’s that. I say let’s settle it in the cage.
“I’ve been trying to fight her for a while now.”
“I stated, pretty clearly, I said ‘you want to fight? meet me in Yakima.’ No cameras, no money, no publicity, no rounds, no time, just you and me and she won’t because she’s all about the money and attention. That’s the only reason why she’s in the sport. You know, I started training in Yakima back in probably maybe April of 2006, March-April 2006 and she would come in-and-out. She would be in there for like a day or two and then leave for three weeks. It was just an absolute pain in the ass, you know, to have somebody that was just dipping in-and-out and didn’t really care, wasn’t into the sport, she was taking up mat space, taking up our time and it was really annoying and, yeah, the girl was a lot heavier back then. She’s still heavier now. She probably walks around in the 140s, close to 150. She’s not a small chick. I’m not saying she’s FAT, I’m not taking a STAB at her that way. No. But… I’m 125, I’m a natural 125’er and I think her last two or three fights have been against much smaller chicks at 125 when, you know, she walks around in the 140s. I mean, c’mon, let’s get real here. If you want to look at her record, all of her wins have come against girls who have either kind of crappy records or they’ve been a lot smaller than her. The two losses that she has have come against girls that are her size or have winning records, so I mean her track record speaks for itself. She did come down to 135, she was fighting at 145 when she first started out, I guess, and I mean she’s trying to tell me that she’s the same size as me and she’s 125 pounds. She’s never made 125 pounds. She’s never been below 132, so I don’t understand what she’s talking about, how it’s going to be so easy for her to make that. Another seven pounds on top of what she cuts already is a really tough cut, especially for a woman.
“So, the steroid accusation came from a girl that used to train with her who told me that she was on clenbuterol, so that’s makes a whole lot of sense because you can see a change in her musculature in her pictures over recent time. Everybody, go ahead and look for yourself, go check her out her Facebook or check out, I don’t know, just pull it up, search for images on Google, whatever. I called it as soon as I saw her picture, I was like ‘holy shit, her shoulders are huge,’ you know, they’re a lot more rounded like they would be from steroids. And you know what? One of the common injuries for women on steroids are knee injuries, what happens is the muscle gets too big for the tendons and ligaments and it pulls away from the bone.”
For ten more minutes (from the eight minute time mark until the end of the audio), the two women start fighting with each other over the phone. Tara LaRosa practically goes for the jugular here and does so in a manner that is kind of uncomfortable to listen to. Tara accuses Miesha of slandering her in interviews and Miesha says she will take any random drug test to prove that she’s not on steroids if someone wants to pay for the test. The conversation takes some odd turns (not a real good flow here) including a comment by Tara about how once the Strikeforce deal with Showtime is over with that UFC will kill off women’s MMA on a major level and that it’ll be left up to Bellator and other minor promotions to book the female fights.
For those who don’t know what clenbuterol is, it’s a common horse drug used for fat burning. A lot of celebrities and athletes use it even though it’s dangerous because it can cause heart damage that is irreversible long-term. It’s different from another common horse drug used in MMA, boldenone.
I’m not sure if there is a point to all of this fighting other than it’s just fighting and while the two women say they want to fight each other, it doesn’t appear likely that it’s going to happen. So, it’s more of a curiosity to listen to all of this more than anything else since there probably won’t be a payoff.
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 17 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
UFC is now getting the soap opera they always wanted to see
By Zach Arnold | March 21, 2011
I posted a video earlier of Scott Coker’s interview with HDNet and discussed some of the interesting messages that one could take away from watching it. Well, there were two other video interviews from this past weekend at UFC 128 that are also worth your while and paint another awkward, albeit higher-profile situation and that’s the triangle between Greg Jackson, UFC Light Heavyweight champion Jon Jones, and #1 contender Rashad Evans. Jones got a title shot against Shogun after Evans injured his knee during training at Jackson’s camp in New Mexico.
There’s the set-up for this short, but intriguing interview that Evans did after watching Jones dismantle Shogun at UFC 128 in Newark, New Jersey:
(Meeting Jon Jones in the cage after he won the Light Heavyweight title.)
ARIEL HELWANI: “What was that experience like for you?”
RASHAD EVANS: “Uh, you know, I thought about it, it was going to happen before it even happened, so it’s whatever.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “Was it awkward considering your friendship with Jon?”
RASHAD EVANS: “Uh, this whole’s situation awkward, you know. It is what it is.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “You seem to be experiencing some mixed emotions right now.”
RASHAD EVANS: “Yeah, I’m happy for the dude, he went out there and he fought well, you know I’m happy for him that he looked phenomenal. But at the same time, he’s got that strap so now I got to go and get it.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “Were you pulling for Shogun so that you wouldn’t be in this situation?”
RASHAD EVANS: “No, I knew I was going to fight him, no matter if he lost tonight or not. I was going to fight him.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “What did you think of his performance?”
RASHAD EVANS: “Phenomenal, great performance.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “Did you expect him to dominate the fight that easily?”
RASHAD EVANS: “Yes I did. From the minute they called that he was going to fight him, I knew that he was going to destroy him.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “And when you’re watching that are you thinking of how you will fight him now? Or you haven’t really…”
RASHAD EVANS: “I already know how to fight him, I train with him!”
ARIEL HELWANI: “Right. What do you think you’re going to do? Will you train with Jackson’s or stay at Grudge, do you know?”
RASHAD EVANS: “I’m done with Jackson’s.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “You’re done? How come?”
RASHAD EVANS: “I’m done.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “You feel as though they betrayed you?”
RASHAD EVANS: “I’m done. I’m done with Jackson’s.”
- Ben Fowlkes: UFC Wastes No Time Pitting Jones Against Evans, With Good Reason
- Bloody Elbow: Rashad Evans a +375 underdog for the fight against Bones Jones
- Yahoo Sports: Is Jon Jones the first true UFC crossover sports superstar?
After those comments, there was this interview with Greg Jackson. He was asked about Jon Jones winning the Light Heavyweight title and the impending match between Jones and Evans.
“It’s a bittersweet moment for me because, you know, Rashad’s got to fight [Jon Jones] next and I love Rashad like a brother. I love Jon like a brother, so I’m extremely happy for Jon, you know, he showed what he can do. But, yeah, it’s bittersweet.”
He was even less thrilled when he saw Jones and Evans face off in the cage.
“I couldn’t even be in the cage, you know what I mean? I’m not going to corner anybody for that fight. The coaches will have to figure it out on their own, but I love Rashad and I love Jon and I hope after they fight we can be one big happy family again because, for me, it’s all about the love and I won’t have anything to do with the two of them fighting.”
And it got worse from there when Rashad’s comments about being finished with Jackson’s was relayed.
“Well, you know, I’m hoping that it’s just emotion talking and that won’t be the case because we love him to death and I love him to death.
“There’s a lot of things that are said that I hope aren’t meant.
“You know, again… I don’t, how can I say it? I’m a veteran of a lot of situations and so I’m not going to be like tearing my hair out or anything like that. I’m hoping that, like my heart and my optimism, every great fighter even though I’m not in there fighting you know I do put in a lot of hours, has to be an optimist at heart so I’m an optimist that it’s all going to work out.
“I mean, how would you feel if your brother was going to fight your brother, you know what I mean? If everybody was like, ‘who’s going to win that fight?!?! Your one brother or your other brother?’ You’d be like, I don’t really want to see them fight, so that’s just me, though, you know. The UFC wants what it wants and the fans want what they want and, you know, I’m happily being an unimportant person, so that’s just my opinion.
“Yeah, I can’t win that one, so I’m not going to play.
“I’ll need all the bright side that I can get.”
UFC is more than happy to pour gasoline on this fire.
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 41 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
A relieved Scott Coker discusses why he sold Strikeforce
By Zach Arnold | March 21, 2011
As close to a visual Rorschach test as you would find for an MMA interview. Scott Coker looks relieved and happy. He’s not stuttering or mumbling over words. The difference in tone in this interview versus the interviews he’s done in the past as a promoter is noticeable to a large degree.
Some notes from the 16-minute interview:
- He was asked about how the sale came about. Scott said that SVSE (Silicon Valley Sports & Entertainment) wanted to focus on bringing another sports franchise to San Jose, so he had to start looking elsewhere for business partners.
- He didn’t deny that there was company debt for Strikeforce but did not answer the question directly.
- In regards to when Showtime found out about the Strikeforce sale to Zuffa, he indicated that it was on a Friday (the day before MMAFighting.com posted the video interview between Ariel Helwani & Dana White online). A meeting between him and Showtime just happened to go over the sale. (Bet that was a fun conversation.)
- Scott thinks that Zuffa will continue the Strikeforce brand and not dissolve it like the WEC brand. “A lot of great reasons to keep it going” because “this brand is worthy of continuing forward and growing in.”
- When Mr. Coker had the meeting at Zuffa HQ in Las Vegas, UFC asked him to bring his marketing team. Scott told them he would bring his marketing person. Zuffa said they would have their team of 25 at the meeting.
- He believes that Zuffa-promoted Strikeforce PPVs will start towards the end of 2011.
- When asked about fighters and agents worried about no more leverage in the marketplace: “The fighters are getting paid more today than EVER.” He further elaborated, “if you’re a star and you move the needle, you’ll get paid.”
- He spent some healthy interview time defending his hard sell of Fedor at events, saying that he met his personal marketing criteria of four points to build events around. Mr. Coker says that “we have a contract with Fedor, he is obligated to fight multiple more fights” with Strikeforce. The timing? “Fedor’s next fight will be some time in late July or mid August.”
- Scott was asked point blank if Fedor bankrupted his promotion like many others he has fought for in the past. “Fedor definitely was an expensive item but I think he added value to Strikeforce and the brand.”
- Regarding Strikeforce sending fighters to DREAM, “You know what? Why not? That’s not my decision, that’s Dana’s and Lorenzo’s decision.”
- Fighters under contract to Strikeforce will fight for the Zuffa-promoted SF events. “Everybody’s going to stay in Strikeforce” because “they have an obligation to Showtime.” He claims that they will sign new fighters and that it will be “business as usual.”
- Regarding SF getting back on CBS, “tt’s still definitely a possibility.”
- As for how the Strikeforce sale went down with Zuffa: “I had one meeting with them and then it was a little bit of chaos and letting the staff know.” When asked if he is sad or happy about the sale, “It’s a reality that’s real.”
- With fighters uneasy about the landscape of the MMA business, Scott says that UFC & Lorenzo Fertitta “care about the fighters and they care about this league.”
- Regarding whether or not UFC will head to Japan to do business with the people involved in DREAM (Sakakibara’s henchmen): “I think that we’ll have a shot to sit down and have some conversations” and he believes this because “I think I can help bridge that gap.”
- He doesn’t know if Josh Barnett or Paul Daley will fight in UFC proper again, but they will both fight in Strikeforce. Scott would like to see Nick Diaz/GSP, Jacare/Anderson Silva, and Gilbert Melendez/Frankie Edgar interpromotional match-ups.
- When the sale went down to Zuffa, Mr. Coker admitted that he didn’t talk to M-1 before or after the sale. “Unfortunately, I haven’t had a chance to talk to them, yet.” This prompted Bas Rutten to say, “So they found out on the Internet?” There was laughter. Scott replied, “That wasn’t on purpose, it just… I felt the need to contact other people first.”
- Mr. Coker argued against there being a monopoly or monopsony in the MMA business. “It’s not hard to be a promoter. You know, just go to California, pay $100 or $500 or whatever your license is, right? So the barrier of entry is really the easy part. And then, you know, you’ve got to have some guts, you know, and invest your money.”
It was quite an interview to listen to. I would encourage you to watch it if you get a chance.
Topics: M-1, Media, MMA, StrikeForce, UFC, Zach Arnold | 12 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
UFC 128 (Newark, NJ): Faber survives UFC debut, Bones Jones violently wins LHW title
By Zach Arnold | March 19, 2011
Dark matches/Spike TV
- Featherweights: Erik Koch defeated Raphael Assuncao in R1 in 2’32 by KO.
- Middleweights: Nick Catone defeated Constantinos Philippou after 3R by unanimous decision.
- Featherweights: Joe Benavidez defeated Ian Loveland after 3R by unanimous decision.
- Lightweights: Gleison Tibau defeated Kurt Pellegrino after 3R by split decision.
- Welterweights: Mike Pyle defeated Ricardo Almeida after 3R by unanimous decision.
- Lightweights: Edson Mendes Jr. defeated Anthony Njokuani after 3R by unanimous decision.
- Light Heavyweights: Luiz Cane defeated Eliot Marshall in R1 in 2’15 by TKO.
Main card
- Heavyweights: Brendan Schaub defeated Mirko Cro Cop in R3 in 3’44 by KO.
- Middleweights: Nate Marquardt defeated Dan Miller after 3R by unanimous decision.
- Lightweights: Jim Miller defeated Kamal Shalorus in R3 in 2’15 by TKO.
- Bantamweights: Urijah Faber defeated Eddie Wineland after 3R by unanimous decision.
- UFC Light Heavyweight title match: Jon Jones defeated Mauricio Shogun in R3 in 2’37 by TKO.
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 86 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
The latest spin from everyone on UFC’s purchase of Strikeforce
By Zach Arnold | March 18, 2011
JOSH BARNETT: “I want to fight in the biggest stage that they can possibly give me and I know that Dana has done a big-time job with the UFC in terms of creating that stage and if Dana White is who I got to get in bed with to be the best fighter in the world and to be in the biggest opportunity for MMA, then I’ll do it and I’ll do it easily. At the end of the day, I’m not here to have a grudge with somebody. I’m here to fight.”
GILBERT MELENDEZ: “It’s cool, man. I’m a big fan of UFC and I love Strikeforce. Strikeforce is a great organization but it’d be cool to have the marketing machine of the UFC behind it.”
JAKE SHIELDS: “Of course there’s a few negatives, you know. Some of the guys who aren’t on the good side of Zuffa and Dana, guys like you know Paul Daley and Josh Barnett who are, you know, who are some good fighters. They’re kind of in a situation that’s a little tricky and so, obviously, on that end it’s not the best but overall for my friends in Strikeforce I think it’s going to be a better thing.”
JOSH THOMSON: “It’s different, you know, something that caught me so off-guard. I think I’m still in a little shock because I think everyone just assumed that Strikeforce was doing well, which I think it was. It just, um, you know when you have two or three different partners involved to keep the business going, you know, when the partner has the most shares in the company wants out, you got nothing to say.”
FABRICIO WERDUM: “My first goal now is to get a title from the Strikeforce Heavyweight GP. That’s one thing that I promised to Scott Coker and that’s my first goal. So after I get this belt, I will be behind the UFC champion to get the other belt and be the #1 in the world and show to everybody that I’m the #1 (fighter) in the world.”
MIKE STRAKA: “There’s a lot of theories out in the blogosphere about why you purchased it now and were the UFC the only suitors for Strikeforce. One of the theories is that Pro Elite, who brought us Elite XC, was one of the people trying to buy it and I would position it and say, well UFC probably bought it not because they were afraid of Pro Elite but they were afraid of Pro Elite bringing the sport back another 10 years. How do you respond to that?”
DANA WHITE: “I would agree with (you) 1 million percent but, uh, I didn’t know of any other company out there trying to buy it but I wasn’t on that side of the deal. Um, who knows? It could have been, it could not have been, who knows? I honestly don’t know the answer to that answer.”
MIKE STRAKA: “I know you are not going to answer this question but if you, from what I understand the purchase price, I won’t even say the purchase price, but I’ve heard. I also heard that it’s less money than you offered Fedor Emelianenko for six fights. Is that true?”
DANA WHITE: “Yeah, I saw some of the numbers floating out there and they’re all wrong, all the numbers are incorrect from what I’ve seen. Heh heh heh. It wasn’t less than what we offered for him. I’ll tell you this — Vadim has to be kicking himself in the ass.”
MIKE STRAKA: “Uh, why?”
DANA WHITE: “Because they should have been in the UFC. They should have come into the UFC when there was an opportunity for them to do it and… they should have got in. I think even for his legacy, you know. If you’re going to get beat, whether it’s getting triangle choked or your face smashed, ast least get it done by the best guys in the world so you don’t lose, you know… listen, they don’t probably don’t care as much about legacy as I do but I think legacy’s important and for the last however-many-years, Fedor hasn’t fought anybody.”
MIKE STRAKA: “If there’s anybody though, Dana, who could fix that legacy for Fedor Emelianenko, it’s Dana White. Would you be interested in giving him fights with Randy Couture and giving him fights that could fix his legacy?”
DANA WHITE: “I don’t think it’s Fedor. You know. I’ve dealt with his management and it’s 100% those guys. So, but the problem is I don’t think you’re ever going to have a situation where Fedor’s on his own, making his own decisions. So, the answer’s probably no.”
****
MMA Supremacy: “Jordan Breen: ‘Zuffa has already installed some of its own people to basically run Strikeforce. So much for “business as usual.” Jordan Breen on Coker’s Pull Now: “Basically none. He’s relied upon for his relationships & business stuff.”
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, UFC, Zach Arnold | 13 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |