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Fox Sports: "Zach Arnold's Fight Opinion site is one of the best spots on the Web for thought-provoking MMA pieces."

MMA trainer Shawn Tompkins on Vitor Belfort: “Vitor isn’t loyal to anybody”

By Zach Arnold | January 19, 2011

“I’m always motivated to improve and be a better fighter. I believe that people put a big focus on things like having the belt. I don’t believe that having the belt really determines the type of fighter and type of person that you are. I try to set an example for the young fighters that are coming up and leave a legacy of what I’ve been able to do in this sport.

“I’m not concerned about who my next opponent is. He’s a dangerous opponent just like the rest.

“It’s every athlete’s dream to end his career as a champion, just like it is mine. However, in this sport, it is very difficult. After the Chael (Sonnen) fight, people think I’m human again and that anything can happen. I could be knocked out. I could be submitted. For me, every time I go out there, it’s about more than just winning the fight. It’s about sending a positive message and leaving a message behind of what I was able to do in there.

I figured we’d start out with some comments from Anderson Silva. Now, onto what Shawn Tompkins said to Mauro Ranallo on The Fight Show (January 18th edition):

MAURO RANALLO: “What about Vitor Belfort? I know that you were helping him prepare for his fight against Anderson Silva. Now, he’s at Xtreme Couture, your former home base, talk of him recruiting Mike Tyson to help him prepare for Anderson Silva. What is your relationship with Belfort and why won’t you be in his corner?”

SHAWN TOMPKINS: “Well, you know, Vitor has done this before. Vitor sometimes, he gets a little clouded in his head. It’s not that he brought in Mike Tyson or anything like that. Vitor just wanders, you know, and he goes where, you know, what’s happening, what’s famous, what’s popular and he’ll go over there and Mike Tyson isn’t teaching him anything. Neither is the other eight gyms that he’s training at. Just because he’s over at Couture’s and not with me doesn’t mean he’s with Couture’s. Vitor isn’t loyal to anybody. We’ve seen it before.”

MAURO RANALLO: “I do sense some acrimony. Are you then not on good terms with Vitor right now?”

SHAWN TOMPKINS: “I hope for the best for him, but you know for a guy who told me about respect, loyalty, and God and all this stuff for so many years, he sure did prove the opposite. So, we’ll see. Best of luck to him. Best of luck to Anderson, as well.”

Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 15 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

2010 Ground and Pound MMA awards

By Zach Arnold | January 18, 2011

The vote for the sixth annual Groundandpound Awards is over. Once again we are glad to have improved readership participation from previous years, registering a total of 59,957 votes from 39 different countries on all five continents.

American Kickboxing Academy’s Cain Velasquez convinced 35% of our readers with his performances to vote for him as “Fighter of the Year”. The 28-year-old Mexican-American, who will unfortunately miss most of 2011 with a severe shoulder injury, knocked out former PRIDE superstar (Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira) and previous title-holder Brock Lesnar en route to the UFC heavyweight championship. Fellow UFC champions Georges St. Pierre (30%) and Jose Aldo (18%) came in second and third respectively.

Velasquez’s heroics were also the cornerstone that propelled his team American Kickboxing Academy to “Fight Team of the Year” honors. The San Jose based gym also had the likes of Jon Fitch, Josh Koscheck and Josh Thomson in marquee bouts this year. AKA is also one of the few gyms to have fighters in the UFC, Strikeforce and DREAM. The vote had been a close three horse race between AKA, Jackson’s MMA and American Top Team.

Speaking of the premier promotions, the UFC has won “Best Promotion” for the fourth year in a row. The Zuffa flagship also managed to stop a marginal slide in popularity. The organization had its all-time high in 2007 with 66.8% of all votes, which decreased to 64.9% in 2008 and 60.8% in 2009. This time they clocked in at 62.0%. Interestingly, it’s sister organization WEC, came in second with 22.1%. Japanese organizations DREAM, Sengoku and Shooto only received 5.6% of the votes combined.

The biggest of all margins was to be found in the “Kickboxer of the Year” category. Dutch behemoth Alistair Overeem dwarfed the competition, amassing a whopping 80.2% of all votes. K-1 MAX champion Giorgio Petrosyan came in a distant second at 8.6%.

The closest race took place between two fighters who could not be much more different: Chael Sonnen and Jason “Mayhem” Miller went neck and neck in their quest to become the “Cult Fighter of the Year” which recognizes the most entertaining/notorious personality in the fight game. In the end, professional realtor Chael Sonnen took home the award on the back of his fantastic performances hyping up his title fight against Anderson Silva. Sonnen edged Miller by 2.8%.

Complete results:

FIGHTER OF THE YEAR

FEMALE FIGHTER OF THE YEAR

FIGHT TEAM OF THE YEAR

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR

MOST IMPROVED FIGHTER

BEST YOUNG FIGHTER

CULT FIGHTER OF THE YEAR

KICKBOXER OF THE YEAR

GRAPPLER OF THE YEAR

FIGHT OF THE YEAR

KNOCKOUT OF THE YEAR

SUBMISSION OF THE YEAR

BEST PROMOTION

FIGHT EVENT OF THE YEAR

Topics: Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 3 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

Kimbo Slice vs. Wakakirin officially booked

By Zach Arnold | January 18, 2011

Oh, what a circus the IGF 8-man title tournament is going to be in Japan this year. Not only will Josh Barnett participate as the promotion’s foreign ace, but the promotion’s new native ace Wakakirin will face Kimbo Slice. The date is February 5th at Fukuoka International Center. Bob Sapp didn’t want to face Wakakirin on NYE, but Kimbo will.

On the undercard, Tatsumi Fujinami celebrates his 40th anniversary as a wrestler by facing Mil Mascaras. Also on the card is Original Tiger Mask (Sayama), The Predator, and the debut of a new wrestler called Masked Genome against Hurricane Helms.

Topics: Japan, Media, Pro-Wrestling, Zach Arnold | 12 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

Matt Lindland on public reaction to Chael Sonnen: “People want to tear down other successful people”

By Zach Arnold | January 18, 2011

RON KRUCK: “Is there anyone that has been with you from day one?”

MATT LINDLAND: “I mean, probably the guy who’s been with me the longest is Chael Sonnen. I started coaching him when he was in High School and really one day he showed up for wrestling practice and we just told him, we’re not wrestling any more, we’re fighting and ever since that day, you know, he’s been fight training rather than Greco-Roman training.”

RON KRUCK: “And it’s no secret that one of Team Quest’s members, Chael Sonnen, is going through some personal issues right now. Have you spoken to Chael and if so how’s he doing?”

MATT LINDLAND: “Chael’s doing good. Chael’s doing, you know, fine, as he can be expected. He is having some troubles. This is a difficult season for him. He’s had, you know, the whole California thing going on and then now he’s got the mortgage deal going on and this is a really good opportunity for Chael to grow from this and learn a lot of valuable lessons and come out the other side a stronger, better person, you know, hopefully a better fighter even. You know, this is going to make him really tough. This is a tough situation. If a guy can get through this and come out the other side of it, he should be able to apply those principles that he learned, you know, for toughness and coming through adversity to his fight game and, you know, I think that might be the only element that Chael’s lacking is that adversity and coming out on the other side a victor, you know, through the adversity.”

RON KRUCK: “That’s a great answer. How is Team Quest supporting their teammate during this difficult time?”

MATT LINDLAND: “Any way we can. Honestly, Team Quest and me and whatever Chael needs. If he needs to take a day off and not come in, then that’s what he needs. If, you know, he’s gone too long I’m going to go over and grab him and throw him in my truck and drag him over to practice. But, you know, I mean last night was just about me going over there and showing up and saying, hey I’m here for you if you need us and just kind of opening that and saying, you know, don’t think because when you just start wrapping your head around things, you know, you got all these crazy thoughts, everybody’s going to hate me, nobody’s going to like me, man I can’t go in there, and I don’t want that to ever be the case with Chael or any of our guys, you know.

“Everybody makes mistakes. I mean, nobody’s perfect and we’re all going to make mistakes. It’s just unfortunate that everybody gets to see your mistakes. You’re on a big stage. I mean, you’re a top contender in this sport, you ran for political office, you’re a name. People want to tear down other successful people. And when you make mistakes it’s like, ah see, I knew you weren’t perfect and they want to say those things about you and Chael’s not perfect. He never claimed to be but, you know, people put him up on a pedestal a little bit. Certainly not me, I know what a scum bag he is. And it’s okay, you know, we’re all growing, we’ll all getting better, you know, every step of the way it’s about, you know, growth and maturity and coming through adversity and I think this is a really good opportunity for him to grow.”

RON KRUCK: “If he gets through all this, returns to the Octagon, and gets another shot at Anderson Silva, does he beat him next time?”

MATT LINDLAND: “Absolutely. Absolutely. If Chael gets through this, he gets back on track, we get in the gym, we’re training, we’re preparing, and he knows how much struggle this was. Fighting’s going to be easy. Fighting’s going to be easy compared to what he’s been going through.”

Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 5 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

Has Showtime been good for MMA?

By Zach Arnold | January 17, 2011

It’s a loaded question.

(And one that a lot of people have already a pre-determined answer to.)

The proponents of Showtime’s involvement in MMA boil it down to this — if putting money into MMA means getting the best fighters in the world to fight each other, then how can it be a bad thing? Those who oppose Showtime’s involvement in the industry say that lots of money marks come and go in fighting but it’s the knowledge that you possess and the way you run your operation that matters the most.

Recently, a commenter on the site brought up the claim that Strikeforce is negatively impacting the UFC because they are keeping some fighters away from Zuffa that otherwise would already be in ‘the big show.’ Those who defend Strikeforce say that it wouldn’t matter if it was Strikeforce or not, those same fighters would be fighting elsewhere. That answer might make sense a few years ago, but today? With the other players in MMA largely out of cash, it’s hard to say that the fighters would be fighting elsewhere outside of the UFC.

I’m not here to argue whether or not the industry should be UFC-only. What I am here to ask you is whether or you think Showtime has had a positive or negative influence on the sport.

(For the record, I’m not a believer in the UFC-only concept. However, proponents have their legitimate reasons for believing in this economic model. I won’t call you a groupie or a fan boy like King Mo is these days.)

Scott Coker tends to make PR blunders — a lot. Just like he did last year with the Middleweight-tournament-that-never-happened, this year he played the expectations game for the Heavyweight tournament and got burned for some of the things he said. Whether or not he has been telling the truth to the media is one thing. It’s another thing, however, to judge how much influence Strikeforce has versus how much Showtime is really running the show now. Case in point — the whole issue about three or five-round fights and the idea of a ‘4th judge’ that athletic commissions won’t actually sanction. When UFC and/or Dana White receive negative feedback from fans on a move they make, generally they do tend to listen to the outcry and modify the situation to make it more palatable. You can’t really say the same thing about Strikeforce, largely because the promotion is not autonomous unlike the UFC. Strikeforce is simply a conduit to help bring Showtime talent, it’s not actually the whole ball of wax. Therefore, it’s hard for someone like Scott Coker to have the power to overrule someone like Ken Hershman or the Showtime Entertainment office when it comes to fights. In my opinion, I tend to think that Showtime had some say about whether or not the tournament fights ended up being three rounds. (After all, the network experienced what five round fight hell was like last April on the Nashville CBS show.)

The biggest issue Showtime faces with the public is trust. Does the public trust them not to screw things up? With more and more fly-by-night money mark promoters who have crashed and burned in the MMA field, more and more fans are not only particular about what kind of fights they want to see but also the actual process that is used and implemented. To me, this is a good thing and not a bad thing. (Others might argue this and say that in the end only the fights matter.) For Showtime, they have as much as stake with the upcoming Heavyweight tournament as Strikeforce does. If the tournament collapses and Strikeforce ends up collapsing, they will be just another promotion that died. However, if Showtime fails, it will undoubtedly be a black mark on the network. It will also send a signal to other networks (like HBO) who think that they can put money into a sport and run the show. MMA is not necessarily like boxing.

Showtime, for all of its money and bluster, has to be very careful here with the tournament. As some of our readers have aptly pointed out, not all of the tournament fights are even booked yet. Yes, on paper, there is a bracket that says, “X is fighting Y.” However, until you put pen to paper and get guys in the cage fighting, nothing is signed, sealed, and delivered. There’s a million things that could go right or a million things that could go wrong with what Showtime has booked here with Strikeforce. The Super Six on paper was a great concept and it fell apart. Now the TV network is trying to do the same thing with Strikeforce, but this time no title will be on the line during the tournament. This is why fans felt disappointed after Thursday’s Strikeforce conference call with the media.

If you think that I am rooting for Showtime to fail in the MMA world, think again. I’ve learned many lessons from other past industries in the fight world that TV networks who fail don’t come back for a second go-round. They disappear from the ‘space,’ as Gary Shaw would say. On top of that, other networks that might have considered putting money into the business shy away from doing so and get cold feet.

For the last few months, I’ve wondered whether or not Showtime would get out of the MMA industry if Strikeforce collapsed. If the Heavyweight tournament does not turn out as planned and Strikeforce was to collapse, what would you think about them going back to Gary Shaw to try one more run in MMA?

Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 64 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

Scott Coker’s feeling the sting from media criticism over bad PR this week

By Zach Arnold | January 15, 2011

What was supposed to be a banner week for Scott Coker and Strikeforce to roll out the PR for the upcoming Heavyweight tournament turned out to be a mess. Josh Barnett decided to not schedule attendance for a final meeting with the California State Athletic Commission, leading Dave Meltzer to call for Mr. Barnett to get kicked out of the tournament. That, in and of itself, was quite remarkable given that Dave is in the San Jose area and well-connected with the people in the promotion. Mr. Coker tried to pour water on that situation by claiming that he would do his own drug testing of Josh Barnett before and after fights. In response, he got blasted in media circles for commission shopping and drew comparisons to Bob Arum with Antonio Margarito.

However, the biggest criticism came on Thursday when the Strikeforce promoter rolled out the tournament rules. In the weeks leading up to the announcement, Mr. Coker himself talked about a desire for the title to be on the line during the Heavyweight tournament and for five-round fights. In other words, just like he did with the proposed Middleweight tournament that never came about last year, he told the fans one thing and set the expectations to a certain level. Which, of course, meant that when he announced the tournament fights would be three rounders and Alistair Overeem’s HW title wouldn’t be on the line, a lot of people were either disappointed or angry.

Even more troubling is the fact that Josh Gross called out Scott Coker on Strikeforce’s conference call and said that he talked to several athletic commissioners from states that Strikeforce has promoted shows at in the past and those commissioners reportedly told him that they were OK with doing five round fights.

Take that all into consideration as the background for this radio interview yesterday where Mauro Ranallo, the main PBP guy for Strikeforce on Showtime, interviewed Scott Coker about the tournament and the reaction in the media to the way things have played out. (Listen to the audio of the interview here starting at the 25-minute time mark.)

MAURO RANALLO: “Can you clarify and bring us to speed on why the belt will not be up for grabs and why the tournament (bouts) are not five five-minute rounds?”

SCOTT COKER: “Yeah. You know, Mauro, I think that’s already been hashed out, over and over yesterday and through the media call. I mean, here’s the thing… when we announced this tournament, we always announce, we always let the media know that, listen, this could be a situation where, uh… you know depending on what the commissions allow us to do, that it would be just like a, you know, tournament from Japan where there is an independent champion and not the (original) champion. That’s what’s going to unfold here.

“And, to me, I’ve seen some of the headlines today and it just seems silly. I mean, this is going to be a fantastic tournament. Even Fedor said it yesterday, this will be as good or better than any PRIDE, which I think set the bar you know 10 years ago, as good or better than any PRIDE tournament he’s ever competed in and, hey, let these guys go fight and let it be what it is. You know, we’re going to end up with a Strikeforce World Grand Prix tournament champion and I’m actually happy and then he’ll go on to fight Alistair at that point, and if it Alistair then he gets to say he’s The Baddest Man on the Planet and there’ll be somebody in the tournament he didn’t fight and we’ll let them get it on. So, you know, to me it just seems, you know, we’ve already been through and, you know, I just… I just don’t understand what the reaction in the media is.”

MAURO RANALLO: “I can empathize with you, Scott, obviously but I guess where there is some question. We had Josh Gross on earlier from ESPN.com, saying that you know in Strikeforce saying that the commissions won’t allow us to have five five-minute rounds that he’s saying that Nick Lembo of the New Jersey commission said that it was never even brought up. And I’m just wondering, is it a case of where obviously Strikeforce wants to do something innovative…”

SCOTT COKER: “Here’s the thing, right? Josh does what he does because that’s who he is, right? So I’m not going to, you know, I’m not going to justify to Josh or anybody else. Listen, Nick Lembo, of course he’s going to listen to it, he’s going to be the last guy that we have to have that conversation with. It’s really down the line and, you know, finding a guy or a commission that, you know, will allow us to do the five-minute rounds for the future tournament fights but it also has to be in a state that, you know, let’s face it, that Josh Barnett will be allowed to compete in and then, you know, so that narrows the field down but it’s still six or eight states, future fights that we have to have an agreement with all these commissions and it just didn’t happen and we’re running out of time, so we have to move forward and, to me, we move forward and, you know, if Josh doesn’t like it, that’s up to him.”

What was revealing about the radio interview is that the usually even-keeled Mr. Coker showed that he was stung by the media criticism and the way he has been challenged. Whether there has been damage done or not remains to be seen, but for the short-term clearly he thinks the media talk has not been good for him.

Later on the interview, Mr. Coker said statements like:

However, what I took away from the radio interview was that even though he was talking to someone who was in his corner and very friendly to him, Mr. Coker was most definitely on the defensive here. You can say statements that sound bold, but if you don’t have the confidence to back it up the fans can tell.

February 12th at the Izod Center in New Jersey

Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 68 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

Lorenzo Fertitta quotes on UFC’s international expansion plans in 2011

By Zach Arnold | January 14, 2011

I would encourage you to watch the video and give your support to everyone in the MMA Fighting family. Given the rough business circumstances with AOL Fanhouse, I think showing appreciation for the hard work of those over at the site is a well-deserved gesture.

That, along with the fact that Ariel’s interview with Mr. Fertitta is really, really good. (They spend the majority of it talking about plans to get MMA legalized in New York in 2011.)

ARIEL HELWANI: “Because you do deal with the worldwide expansion on the UFC, Dana (White) mentioned in the press conference that you’re opening offices in China and some other countries overseas. He mentioned Japan. We haven’t heard that before. What are your plans in Japan?”

LORENZO FERTITTA; “You know, we’ve actually been on television in Japan since we bought the company. We were distributed in literally two countries in 2001, in the United States on DirecTV and Dish and in Japan at the same time. Sense we took over the company, we’ve developed a relationship with WOWOW, which is a subscription TV network in Japan. It’s been a very successful relationship. One of the things we always wanted to do is figure out a way to go back to Japan and hold a live event. Now that we’ve hired Mark Fischer who ran the NBA in China and all over Asia for the last 10 years, very successful, he’s made a lot of progress over just the last couple of months. Now, we certainly don’t have anything in place, but the goal would be to potentially have a live event in Asia by the end of this year, so we’re working on that.”

ARIEL HELWANI: “Are there any other new markets overseas? Dana has hinted at Scotland. We have heard maybe you are going back to Abu Dhabi, that’s not official yet. Any other new markets? We get asked these questions, Ireland, all the time, that you can talk about that the UFC will be holding an event in 2011?”

LORENZO FERTITTA: “You know, really right now it’s just a matter of prioritizing things and figure out, you know, the right timing that makes sense to do these things. Scotland is a priority. You know, we have a huge fan base. We’ve wanted to go there for a number of years. The problem we’ve had so far is they don’t really have the facilities that we would like to have to go there. You know, typically we like to go in an arena like The O2 where you can get 20,000 people there. My understanding is that Scotland has a venue that is anywhere from 6-8,000 people. Certainly we could do that but it’s not necessarily maximizing the size of the event that it could potentially be. With that said, we will make Scotland a priority and we will be there. Beyond that, you know obviously we have a lot of focus right now on brazil. We announced the fight in Rio. We’d like to do something in Mexico in the near term. In addition to that, you know, obviously Asia is really the big focus. You know whether it be in China, whether it be in Macau, Hong Kong, Singapore, we’re obviously we’ve talked about Japan, potentially somewhere in Malaysia potentially so, you know, it’s a matter of just trying of prioritize things and coming to work every day trying to figure out what makes the most sense, so it’s a big puzzle, to put it that way.”

Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 8 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

Scott Coker explains reasoning for the Heavyweight GP tournament rules

By Zach Arnold | January 14, 2011

On a conference call with the media yesterday, Scott Coker made some rules announcements for the upcoming 8-man Strikeforce Heavyweight GP tournament. In the week leading up to the conference call, Mr. Coker stated that he would like to see Alistair Overeem’s Heavyweight title be defended throughout the tournament. That would mean that tournament fights would have to be five rounders, not three rounders.

On Thursday, a decision was made that the tournament fights would be three round bouts and the finals would be a five-round fight. The winner will get a GP title and be the #1 contender to Alistair’s Heavyweight title. In other words, the GP title will be used in the sense as a champion’s clause to protect the title fight that will happen once the tournament is over.

Here is Mr. Coker’s explanation about the three round format to Josh Gross yesterday:

SCOTT COKER: “Yeah, you know what, the thing is, you know, Josh (Gross), in this tournament, everybody has to climb the same mountain and we just couldn’t put that together or we had to pick one way or the other. So, you know what, to make it simple, just like they do in Japan or when I was working for K-1 it was the same way that the tournament champion will stand on his own and we will have, you know, our Heavyweight champion and then the tournament champion. So, there was some confusing in the beginning, but I said all along unless we can’t, you know, get all the commissions on the same page, it would be a difficult thing to do and we just didn’t feel that it was fair for one person to fight five rounds, one person to fight three rounds, and then you know there’s the debate about well should the final fight which is five rounds be a title round and then what if, you know, somebody like Alistair wasn’t there. It just became very confusing, so we thought this would be a great way to launch a tournament and we’re very happy with it.”

JOSH GROSS: “Based on my conversations with regulators, there didn’t seem to be any issue in terms of five-round fights. Where did you run up against problems? I mean, what states or locales said that you couldn’t do that?”

SCOTT COKER: “Yeah, you know what, I mean I obviously don’t want to point out any commissions but as you know we’re going to be not just in shopping this fight in one or two locations but in about six different locations, so at this point because the time frame of launching our next fight we would have to have all those commissions on the same page and we just couldn’t do it in time, so there will be three round fights and we’re going to have our independent title holder.”

Here is what Josh had to say after the conference call about various commissions approving or disapproving of five round non-title fights:

Coker’s position that SF couldn’t make 5R fights for the tournament because it was too difficult with different regulators is ridiculous. California, N.J., Missouri, Tennessee told me 5R fights were fine by them. All said they had not been approached by Strikeforce re: it.

Some criticism Strikeforce receives is unfair, but not always. Sometimes they make no sense and come off as a small, disorganized shop. … As it plays out it’s clear to me this tournament showcases the best and worst of Strikeforce. … Hard to digest Coker’s assertion he couldn’t get 5Rs done when Strikeforce never approached New Jersey about it.

Nightmare scenario: The guy that beats Overeem doesn’t win the tournament.

Then, there are two other wrinkles that may or may not matter in the end that are just overkill. The first wrinkle is that if a tournament fight is scored a draw, there will be a 4th judge appointed by Strikeforce to basically pick a winner. However, that 4th judge will not be sanctioned by the athletic commissions and the commission will not change the result of the fight in the record books if it is a draw. Here’s Josh to explain it:

I saved this for last because it hurts my brain so. If needed, the 4th judge will score via “decimal system.” Can’t wait for a 10-9.3 round. 10-9.9 to 10-9.5: marginal advantage. 10-9.4 to 10-9 clear advantage. 10-8.9 to 10-8.5: dominant advantage. 10-8.4 to 10-8 overwhelming add.

The second wrinkle is that if an injury takes place during the tournament and one of the 8 tournament fighters needs to be substituted for, a United Nations-style panel will determine who becomes the substitute:

Just got the names of Strikeforce’s GP Review Committee: Joining Cory Schafer: Dale “Apollo” Cook, Al Wichgers, Guy Mezger & Steve Alley.

In the grand scheme of things, a lot of these happenings are absurdly grandiose bluster that hopefully won’t come into play. However, if they do, it is going to be very hard for the general public to take this tournament seriously given how many different factors are at stake here. As I noted in response to someone asking me why I am critical about this set-up, I said that the fighters are the last thing I’m worried about when it comes to mishaps in this tournament. It’s everything else that has fans concerned.

Tomas Rios says that a lot of the volume of criticism leveled at Strikeforce in general is unfair:

Those are all theoretical concerns however and could very well be remembered as cheap shots aimed at an organization that takes an undue amount of criticism. Blasting the UFC with relentless vitriol comes with consequences, namely a loss of access that can be crippling on a day-to-day basis for any MMA media outlet. Doing the same to Strikeforce is like jaywalking, the odds of getting run over aren’t high enough to keep anyone from doing it. The end result is a brutally ironic media environment that sees the UFC benefit from their Draconian policies while Strikeforce suffers for generally respecting the media’s role.

However, read the full article to get… the rest of the story.

Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 25 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

Dave Meltzer: Scott Coker should kick out Josh Barnett of Strikeforce tournament

By Zach Arnold | January 13, 2011

There’s a lot of new layers being added to the Josh Barnett situation with Strikeforce. He’s booked in their upcoming Heavyweight tournament on the ‘easier’ side of the bracket and should he perform as expected, he’ll make it to the finals and have a legitimate shot of winning the promotion’s Heavyweight tournament and becoming champion. In other words, he is someone who Scott Coker views as a guy who he can build his company around as the face of the promotion.

During an in-person interview with Eddie Goldman in New York on Monday, Mr. Coker strongly defended Josh Barnett’s tournament participation and said that Strikeforce would handle the drug testing regarding Josh’s fights. Eddie compared the commission-shopping situation with that of one Antonio Margarito.

SCOTT COKER: “Yeah, here’s my position and the company’s position on this and, uh, this is something that we thought long and hard about with Josh and, you know, him going through the California State commission hearings and he’s got unfinished business with them, right? But that’s between Josh and the commission. My job is we are a fight company that just picked up his contract and, uh, we sent him to California to get tested six weeks ago. Tested clean, right? So, he’s tested clean. I feel good about that and he’s been out of the fight business for maybe… 18 months here in (North America).

“So what I’m saying is he’s, how much has this guy already suffered and lost out? He’s lost out on hundreds of thousands of dollars because of, you know, situations in his past. So, you know, to me we as a company are going to judge him from what he does for us. Now, in saying that, we’re going to test him before and after every fight and, you know, I believe that he’s already moved on from that part of his past.”

EDDIE GOLDMAN: “Meaning that the commissions or Strikeforce?”

SCOTT COKER: “Strikeforce. So, if Josh tests positive again and then, you know, then there’s going to be an issue, right? But I want to judge him on his future and his present with the company and not so much his past because, you know what? To tell you the truth, like the situation in Vegas, I really don’t even know what happened with that. I mean, you probably know more than me. But, that was when he wasn’t working with Strikeforce, wasn’t fighting for Strikeforce, and I’ve reached out to about six commission states that will allow him to fight in their state pending a clean test and we’re going to move forward. he’s moved forward. I think everybody else should move forward, too, and let the guy make a living.”

After these comments were made, I noted that Josh Barnett’s participation in a second tournament this year was made official. He will be one of eight men involved in the upcoming year-long IGF title tournament in Japan. Also involved in the tournament — Wakakirin. Probability of someone getting hurt while facing that guy in the ring? Decent. IGF tournament dates – 2/5 Fukuoka Int’l Center, 4/28 JCB Hall, 7/10 JCB Hall (Tokyo), and 9/3 at Aichi Prefectural Gym in Nagoya.

Continue reading this article here…

Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 11 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

Coalition to Legalize MMA in NY rally on February 8th

By Zach Arnold | January 13, 2011

Radio interview (MP3) with Justin Klein of The Fight Lawyer web site talking about the upcoming rally.

Press Release

On Tuesday, February 8, at 12 noon a rally will be held for the support of legalized and regulated mixed martial arts in New York State*. We will gather at 250 Broadway, Manhattan, New York, 10007 (Across the street from City Hall).

This rally is being organized by the Coalition to Legalize Mixed Martial Arts in New York, a non-partisan volunteer group of organizations, gyms, business owners, and individuals who support the legalization and regulation of mixed martial arts in the state of New York.

In 2010, with the support of Governor Paterson and former Governor Pataki, legislation to legalize and regulate mixed martial arts was approved by the New York State Senate, but not the Assembly. We thus have chosen to rally at 250 Broadway, which houses the district office of Sheldon Silver, the Speaker of the New York State Assembly.

We ask that you bring picket signs. Please keep your comments and images respectful. Do not bring signs made of wood, metal, or plastic. If possible, bring a pair of focus mitts. Please DO NOT bring any audio projection equipment.

“If you are a fan, fighter, gym owner, business owner, or organization official who wants to start the 2011 New York State legislative calendar by letting our government know we want legalized and regulated mixed martial arts in New York State, please come show your support! Let’s gather together to show our legislators that New York State is not respecting the wishes of its voters! Let’s remind our legislators that mixed martial arts is a professional sport and in need of regulation! Let’s remind our legislators how much business our state loses and how many jobs are lost to neighboring states where mixed martial arts is properly sanctioned! Let’s remind our legislators that we care about the safety of our athletes! Let’s remind our legislators that it is the people of New York State who vote for them, and that WE WANT LEGALIZED AND REGULATED MIXED MARTIAL ARTS IN NEW YORK STATE!”

-Stephen Koepfer of the Coalition to Legalize Mixed Martial Arts in New York.

Coalition to Legalize Mixed Martial Arts in New York: A non-partisan group of organizations, gyms, business owners, and individuals who volunteer to support the legalization and regulation of mixed martial arts in the state of New York. For information about how you can help us, contact Stephen Koepfer at 718-728-8054 or e-mail [email protected].

Topics: Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 1 Comment » | Permalink | Trackback |

Can Strikeforce offer Dan Henderson enough fights to keep him around?

By Zach Arnold | January 13, 2011

For reference, he will be fighting Feijao in the March-April time frame for the promotion’s Light Heavyweight title.

RON KRUCK: “Well, Dan, a spectacular way to end 2010 with your knockout of Renato “Babalu” Sobral. How satisfying was it to end the year with that type of win?”

DAN HENDERSON: “Uh, well, I guess it’s pretty satisfying and gratifying. It was something that obviously that I try to do every fight but you never know until it’s done and I knew I was capable of knocking him out. I knew he’d been knocked out before and you know I guess also for him to really call me out to want to fight me it made it even sweeter, I guess.”

RON KRUCK: “Nice. Let’s talk about 2011. When do you expect to fight again for Strikeforce and do you have an opponent?”

DAN HENDERSON: “This next six months I should be pretty active. I should probably have two fights before June, so my guess would be early March so we’ll see. I plan on fighting early March and training camp starting right at the first of the year and I’m not going to be too far out of shape, which is good. I’d rather have, you know, 2-3 fights back-to-back like that and stay in good shape rather than my last two fights, I’ve had 10 months in between, 9 months in between and you know it’s just a little tougher to get back in shape if you’ve not done anything for 4-5 months and I typically train when I’m at home no matter what if I’ve got something coming up, but it’s not the same. I’m usually in here (Team Quest) trying to get my guys ready, roll with them a little bit, but I’m not as intense as I am when I’m training for my fight.”

RON KRUCK: “If you do fight two more times, would that end your Strikeforce commitment and if so, would you like to re-sign with the promotion?”

DAN HENDERSON: “Uh, yeah, I have two more fights on my Strikeforce deal and yeah, I’d possibly would definitely re-sign with Strikeforce. I’ve really been happy there and uh, you know, but you never know how things work out. My goal is to make sure I win these next two fights, you know, and possibly re-sign a deal before the end of my deal, who knows? I’m not worried about it. I know that I want to fight for 2-to-3 more years, 6-7 fights, maybe more even. 10 years ago I said I was only going to fight for maybe one more year, so this is the truth and when I had that press conference in PRIDE after I was done wrestling I wanted to maybe only fight for one more year, that’s how my body felt back then. I was really worn out from wrestling and now I’ve really got a lot smarter way of training, I’m getting older but I’m smarter about it with MMA and I’m not competing really as much as I did when I wrestled.”

RON KRUCK: “Dan, you are the only guy in major Mixed Martial Arts promotions to hold titles simultaneously in two different weight classes. You’ve gone back and forth here in the past few years in fighting in two different weight classes. What should we expect in 2011, do you have a preference on where you want to fight?”

DAN HENDERSON: “Uh, not too much you know. I had a little trouble when I fought Jake Shields with my weight and injuries going into that, so I got that all straightened out and, you know, typically I don’t have too tough of a time making 185. Typically I don’t mind that weight at all, but it is nicer to eat all the way through training camp and not have to worry about it and even if I’m the smaller guy, I never feel small. Not mentally I don’t feel small. I feel my style’s always been where I’m not lifting the guy’s weight so much, I’m not picking him up with double-legs and slamming him. I’m more hanging on. I’m making them carry my weight a little more and a little more technical with things control-wise, so really I don’t notice being smaller as much. Some of these guys have the style of picking guys up or carrying their weight a lot more, it’s definitely a feeling your weight difference but I’ve never felt small in any fight against heavyweights. I don’t think about it. I’m out there to win. I got to do what it takes to win and if I don’t want to be underneath a guy because he’s bigger I won’t stay underneath him but it doesn’t mean I feel small. You got to be smart with things and still with that being said, I’ll probably stay at 205 for a little bit. My next fight will definitely be at 205.”

RON KRUCK: “Do you expect that next fight to be for the title and you challenge Feijao?”

DAN HENDERSON: “Uh, it’s a good possibility to have that fight there. I mean that’s what was talked about before my Babalu fight, the winner gets a title fight but nothing’s confirmed and you know it’s just a matter of me waiting and seeing. There’s some top guys, really tough guys at 205 now in Strikeforce so no matter what or who I’m fighting, it’s going to be definitely be one of the top guys. And that’s all I want, you know. Obviously I’d rather fight for the title and be the top guy but, you know, I think there’s some other interesting match-ups for me there as well if that’s what it is and fights that I can get excited about.”

Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 20 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

Jimmy Smith: I’m 90% sure that I won’t be back with Bellator

By Zach Arnold | January 12, 2011

Consider this a head scratching moment for MMA fans. Jimmy Smith and Sean Wheelock were really one of the better MMA commentating duos out there. Always a honest and professional job. I enjoyed their work immensely on the Bellator broadcasts. So, naturally, Jimmy is now on the sidelines and rumored to be replaced by Neil Grove, of all people.

During a Monday night interview on Tapout radio, you can sense the confusion and bewilderment from Jimmy in regards to why he hasn’t heard from the Bellator office regarding his employment with the company in 2011.

INTERVIEWER: “What’s going on with Bellator? I mean instead of us just asking questions in particular, why don’t you just tell us what you got to say about Bellator basically?”

JIMMY SMITH: “Well, it’s… it’s kind of strange, I haven’t heard anything since early December. I want to say like December 1st, maybe even the end of November. Pretty much we had a, you know, we still have a contract through 2011 but they, the deal was they wanted me to sign an extension and, you know, for various reasons I didn’t like the extension and so I haven’t heard anything in, God, coming up on two months now and, uh… so it’s, I find it highly unlikely I’ll be coming back to Bellator. They’re getting ready to start up I think next month, so looks like they’re going in another direction so far in terms of commentary but I’m still under contract, you never know how it’s going to go. They could come back and start negotiation again but like I said I haven’t heard anything in about two months so looks like they’re going in another direction commentary-wise, so… that’s the deal as far as I know it.”

INTERVIEWER: “It looks like it or it is? Like, I mean have you received confirmation from Bjorn or anybody?”

JIMMY SMITH: “Nobody. Nothing. But they don’t have to, you know, I haven’t received confirmation from anybody. But I haven’t, you know, it’s just like negotiations about the, um… extension were really short. Really short, and it was, you know, I thought the deal we already had through 2011 was better and so I said, hey, why don’t we stick with the contract we already have and that was it. That was it. I haven’t heard anything in, like I said, almost two months now. So everybody keeps telling me the same things. The reason I’m talking about it at all is because, you know, a lot of people are now calling me for interviews about Bellator and you know what’s going and you know Mauro Ranallo called me last week and goes kind of like, hey, what’s going on with Bellator, we want to do an interview with you and I said, uh… can’t help you, man. You know it’s like people assume that I’m coming back next year and I would say right now I’m 90% I’m not. So, it’s funny because you get these calls about interviews and about Bellator coming up and I’m out of it, I don’t, you know, so it’s… you know, it’s an interesting, it’s a difficult situation but I’d say 90% I’m not coming back. You know I still could back and do something but 90% I’m not, which is weird.”

INTERVIEWER: “Now does the pre-existing contract go through the season of 2011? So are you still set to be paid even though if things do fall through?”

JIMMY SMITH: “No, what happens is they have the option to basically decide whether or not I come back. It’s entirely up to them. We have an agreement but it’s entirely up to Bellator at this point as to whether or not I’ll be coming back, so… um… you know it’s up to them…”

The radio conversation took some interesting turns from there.

Continue reading this article here…

Topics: Bellator, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 12 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

Many UFC wheels in motion for Lesnar & dos Santos on The Ultimate Fighter

By Zach Arnold | January 11, 2011

There’s a lot to look at when it comes to the concept of Brock Lesnar and Junior dos Santos as coaches on the next season of The Ultimate Fighter.

The immediate reaction to this is that Lesnar will somehow be a terrible coach. The problem with that theory is that when you look at the coaching staff Brock will likely bring with him on the show, it’s going to be a great staff. Marty Morgan, Erik Paulson, and Rodrigo “Comprido” Medeiros. These are trainers who command respect and deserve it. I have no doubt that the fighters on the show, whatever level they will be coming in at (the show is all Welterweights this season), will learn plenty and get better. The same for the team of coaches Junior will bring into the mix.

I think UFC being able to deliver Brock Lesnar for The Ultimate Fighter will certainly put the pressure on Spike TV to pony up big bucks for a new deal with the UFC. After all, Lesnar and dos Santos are going to draw very high ratings. Will they match the ratings that Rampage and Rashad did with Kimbo? I don’t know, but it will be close.

What makes this situation interesting is that the fight they are building up towards will happen in June in Vancouver. Brock’s history in the UFC is that he draws enormous PPV buys but is not necessarily a strong live house attraction. Given that UFC does well in Canada, the live house portion won’t be such an issue. The more intriguing issue is how hated Lesnar will be in Canada given his very public comments about how much he hates their health care system. Believe me, this will be echoed ad nauseum leading up to the fight.

There may be some irony here as well with this fight taking place in Vancouver. Vancouver is where Chuck Liddell has his last fight and got sent into retirement by Rich Franklin. Could dos Santos do the same thing to Brock?

Dave Meltzer sees all upside and no downside to Brock & dos Santos as coaches on the next season of The Ultimate Fighter:

“He’s going and it wasn’t easy negotiations but, um, at the end of the day like we said Brock’s a businessman and I think they were able to convince that doing this…

“There’s a lot of upsides for everyone, I mean this is like a no-lose situation for all concerned. I’m amazed at any negativity towards this because it’s, you know, obviously it was the optimum decision which is the question is they could actually could pull off getting Brock to do the show, that was always the problem. But with 13 weeks of television or 12 weeks or whatever it turns out to be with Brock and Dos Santos, Dos Santos is going to end up being a very well-liked guy and a much bigger star for a fight with Brock than if they had just done the fight cold and, you know, Brock gets TV. It’s going to be airing the same time his book comes out, which we had pointed out was a perfect thing for him doing this season of Ultimate Fighter. You know, the June 11th date is a tough one and again because of the traveling as far as like the book promotion, I don’t know what the details are on that because the people involved like really just found out, so… we’ll probably more on that in a day or two.

“But, you know, as far as um, you know, he’s going to be on TV every week. The show’s going to get good ratings. It builds up a fight. The fight with Junior, with that 13 week build-up, may do a hell of a number. I could see, you know it’s hard to throw out a number right now. It ain’t going to do, I can’t imagine it doing less than 750,000 and you know I mean if there’s the right conflict and things like that because we’re talking about a season of Ultimate Fighter that’s going to be doing I would think bigger ratings than this last season and, you know, you got Brock who’s a draw going you know in a match where the winner gets the title and the other thing is that you know originally Brock was told that he would need two wins, which is another key thing, he would need two wins to get the championship match and now he only needs one and that basically was not thrown in there as a way to get him to take the fight, that is just how things, you know, people will talk about favoritism and it has nothing to do with that. It has to do with the fact that Cain Velasquez got hurt and Junior dos Santos could have sat and said, I’ll wait for my title shot. Junior did not want to do that and the only logical fight would be, I guess you could say Carwin would have been a logical fight but Brock’s more logical than Carwin since Brock beat Carwin and um… and again with Carwin coming back from the back injury, although you I don’t know how much he would have been able to coach because again the coaching starts in a couple of weeks, so Carwin couldn’t have done the show. But the point is is that like it’s, as far as the match goes, it’s the you know it’s the logical match to make for a number one contendership and whoever wins is the rightful number one contender. dos Santos is going to be either a huge, I would think that a combination of doing this show and beating Brock will lead to dos Santos and Cain being a much, much bigger fight than it would have been elsewise. If Lesnar wins, Lesnar and Cain you know coming off of this show, I can’t see it doing less than 1.2 million buys and that’s probably a low estimate.

“So, I just see the whole thing as a positive unless somebody gets hurt or something silly happens that screws it all up, but on paper it’s awesome.”

Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 25 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

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