Hot Stove League in MMA with lots of UFC-based activity
By Zach Arnold | January 11, 2011
Here. I gathered the headlines and put them into one post to save you some time and trouble. Plenty for you to chew on. Take your pick and comment on a story.
- Bellator has signed Joe Riggs. Will they manage to keep their announce team of Sean Wheelock and Jimmy Smith in tact, however? (I enjoy them as a commentating duo a lot.)
- Instead of staying on the sidelines to wait for the winner of Frankie Edgar/Gray Maynard III for a UFC Lightweight title shot, Anthony Pettis will reportedly fight Clay Guida. Kenny Florian is also interested in a fight with Showtime.
- Remember that suspension/’non-suspension’ that TMZ claims Dana White implemented for Chael Sonnen after the guilty plea on money laundering charges? Chael’s manager says that Chael has not been suspended and will be fighting soon.
- The UFC plans on making a big splash at a presser on Thursday at Madison Square Garden.
- So, the idea of front-loading one bracket in the Strikeforce HW tournament with Fedor, Overeem, and Werdum? If Overeem and Fedor advance, a goal to get their fight on CBS. Our friend Jamie Penick says that Overeem’s title needs to be defended in each round of the tournament.
- There will be an interesting MMA show on April 2nd at Casino Rama in the Toronto area. Read the article to find out why it’s interesting.
- Dan Hardy vs. Anthony “Rumble” Johnson for the March UFC card in Seattle at Key Arena? On that same card, discussed is Nam Phan vs. Leonard Garcia II and Dennis Hallman vs. TJ Waldburger.
- Down goes Dominick Cruz, another UFC champion on the disabled list.
- 223,000 viewers for last Friday’s Strikeforce Challengers event from Nashville. Interesting that the women on the Challengers cards drawing the biggest peak in ratings. However, that doesn’t seem to be the media’s takeaway from the event.
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, UFC, Zach Arnold | 25 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
About that Dana White/Greg Jackson ‘feud’…
By Zach Arnold | January 10, 2011
This from the most recent edition of the Inside MMA show on HDNet:
KENNY RICE: “Dana White is not, uh… a man who is known for being shy.”
BAS RUTTEN: “No, he’s not.”
KENNY RICE: “Ever. He said a few things that came actually after [Nate Marquardt’s] loss to (Yushin) Okami when he said a few things about the Jackson camp. The camp that seems to win about every award is being… one of the elite camps out there, of course. And here’s what he said about Greg Jackson’s camp. ‘…there’s a pattern there. The game plans they come up with and a lot of the corner work is very weird. You’ll see guys who are traditionally exciting fighters, but when they go to the Greg Jackson camp they become safety first fighters…’ on CSN Washington. Now that was a quote attributed to Dana White and you would say about that, Nate…”
NATE MARQUARDT: “Shoot, I disagree, you know. We have guys like Diego Sanchez who started with Greg. We got guys like Clay Guida, Jon Jones, me and Brendan (Schaub), Shane Carwin, I mean just a ton of guys that are super-exciting who finish fights. Not every single one of your fights is going to be the most exciting fight and it’s bound to happen that you’re going to have a fight here and there that’s lackluster. But, I mean, our guys put on shows.”
BAS RUTTEN: “Greg was talking about that in 22 shows they had 12 bonuses for like a knockout or submission bonus. So he said this whole thing for him was actually a moral boost he said because I started getting the facts together and then I realized I was actually doing really, really good. I would have to loved to see though how many fighters he had in those 22 fights in total, that number there also. But I think that him saying that it was a moral booster, I think it’s very close.”
KENNY RICE: “I don’t think that Dana doesn’t say a whole lot that he doesn’t know in advance how it’s all going to come back around.”
BAS RUTTEN: “What do you mean?”
KENNY RICE: “I don’t think he shoots from the hip that much. I think there was a purpose in what he said.”
With that set-up, I now turn it over to you to watch the video clip for an interesting answer given by a guest on the Inside MMA show…
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 5 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Scott Coker: It’s time for everybody to move on from focusing on Josh Barnett’s past
By Zach Arnold | January 10, 2011
Last Wednesday, Scott Coker had a very interesting radio interview with Jack Encarnacao and TJ De Santis that I wanted to focus on here briefly. Rather than rush through the interview, I wanted to listen to it and see if there were any items of note to discuss.
During the interview, Mr. Coker claimed that Strikeforce has the best heavyweights in the world and that the upcoming tournament will prove it. When it came time to talk about Brett Rogers vs. Josh Barnett, he said that ‘one punch changes everything in MMA.’ It was similar in tone to what his tone was before the Fabricio Werdum/Fedor fight, eerily enough. When asked about whether or not Alistair Overeem will put the Strikeforce heavyweight title on the line for each tournament bout he’s involved in, Mr. Coker said that there are issues right now regarding uniformity in round and rules structure for the tournament fights. In other words, title fights are five rounds under the Unified rules and most non-title fights are three rounds. Jordan Breen, a proponent of five-round non-title bouts, has noted in the past that a promoter at any time can petition a commission (such as Nevada’s) to get a five round non-title fight sanctioned. Mr. Coker said that when he presented the idea of all the tournament fights being five rounds, he received push back from various athletic commissions on the matter. The big question now is how to have Alistair Overeem in the tournament if his fights are for the title and are five rounds long while everyone else is fighting in three round fights. Mr. Coker stated that his goal is for the tournament winner to be the Strikeforce Heavyweight champion. He also noted that he would like the Josh Barnett/Brett Rogers fight on the same card alongside the Overeem/Werdum fight.
During the Sherdog radio interview on Wednesday, Mr. Coker made his case in the court of public opinion about Josh Barnett’s participation in the upcoming Heavyweight tournament:
JACK ENCARNACAO: “Scott, without venues locked down or even all the licensing in place for the Barnett and Overeem fights, why announce the tournament already if you’re not 100%? You might be 90% sure that you can get Barnett and Overeem in the cage in March or as part of this tournament, especially Barnett.”
SCOTT COKER: “Well, no, we never said that he’s fighting in March. I’m not sure where you got that, but… you know, Barnett has his issues in California, guys, we all know it. We’ve all been through that dance and he’s got to go back and deal with it some more. But, you know, to me, here’s a guy that has been, uh, out of the cage or, you know, out of the ring for, in North America, for a year and a half and, you know, I feel like he’s paid his time, he’s paid his dues, let the guy make a living. You know and his history before Strikeforce is his past and, you know, we’re going to judge him on what he does now and six weeks ago he went to (the) California (state athletic commission) in Sacramento in the offices and, you know, he tested clean for all, you know, all their battery of tests that they ran on him and he’s not on suspension, so why can’t he fight? And, you know, some commissions still feel like, you know, we want to wait until he gets through the process in California but, you know, there are commissions out there saying, ‘Look, you know, have him come in, let him take the test, and if he’s clean then we’ll let him fight.’ So, you know, we’re going to work with those commissions that are welcoming him and us but Josh, guys, Josh is going to be part of this tournament and we’re going to move on and I think Josh has moved on and I think everybody should move on as well.”
Mr. Barnett will have his hearing next month in California, just after Strikeforce’s January 29th event in San Jose at the HP Pavilion.
When asked about how long Fedor will be under the Strikeforce banner, Mr. Coker noted that he felt confident that Fedor would be fighting for them for at least the next two years. He said that TV ratings and box office numbers prove that any time Fedor fights, ‘it’s a special occasion.’
Mr. Coker addressed criticism from fans and writers who feel that the Heavyweight tournament could fall apart. “There’s a lot of fickle fans out there. But, you know, to me, hey, sit back and enjoy it. The fans don’t have to do anything. Just order Showtime, sit back, and watch some great fights.” He went on to talk about ‘the keyboard warriors’ online. He finished his statement by saying that the tournament is going to be great for the sport.
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 37 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Scott Coker: Showtime has been great for the sport
By Zach Arnold | January 7, 2011
From The Fight Show on The Score yesterday:
INTERVIEWER: “Let’s first talk about the Heavyweight tournament. It’s been announced. Some great match-ups. Can you talk to us about the process to put this together?”
SCOTT COKER: “Boy, I tell you, it was pretty challenging as you could expect. I mean, you’re dealing with eight different personalities, eight different managers, eight different wants & needs. But, BUT, the most important piece I feel was the extension to Fedor because we couldn’t have Fedor come into the tournament unless we had more fights with him. To have him through the tournament and, you know, that took a long time, was quite a process. Frustrating for them, I’m sure frustrating for us, frustrating for the fans because he hasn’t been fighting. But now that we’re through that, you know, to have Fedor actually fight in the tournament along with Alistair (Overeem) and (Fabricio) Werdum and Josh, I mean it’s just going to be an unbelievable tournament and I’m so happy this all worked out and it’s unfolding nicely and, you know, we’re in the New York region for the first time, in New Jersey at the Izod Center. It’s going to be fun to watch. That’s all I got to say.”
INTERVIEWER: “And, of course, Alistair Overeem is going to be in this tournament. He will be defending his title throughout the tournament, kind of like the Super Six World Boxing Classic but, uh, I mean there’s a lot of debate about this, should he have been defending his title, should he not have been. To me, it seems academic, I mean if he didn’t we’d be waiting for a very long time before he did defend this title. Is that your thought process as well?”
SCOTT COKER: “Well, here’s the thing, as you know in Japan there’s always, you know, the tournament champion and then there’s like the champion, the Heavyweight champion in K-1. So, to me, you know, if Alistair chose not to do it, I would have been disappointed but, you know, he wanted to fight in this tournament and that’s the beauty of it is that everybody wanted to fight in the tournament. Fedor wanted in. It wasn’t like we had to go ask them twice. It was like, hey, we’re having this tournament, we would like you to compete. It’s going to be all these guys that are just killers, and not one of them said no. Everybody said I want in, even Alistair said. Alistair went to me when I was in DREAM in Japan over the weekend, on New Year’s Eve. He said to me, ‘Scott, I want in. But I want to fight Fabricio Werdum. I want to avenge that loss and I want to knock him out.’ And I said, all right, let’s put it together. … So, there we go.”
INTERVIEWER: “And that’s exactly what’s happening. And do you think that this tournament will possibly lead to Strikeforce hosting a PPV in 2011?”
SCOTT COKER: “You know, I tell you, that’s a good question and you know my response is this — look, we’re on Showtime. They’ve been a great media partner for us, a great television partner, they’ve been, you know, they’re just great for the sport and for our brand and you know they allow us to put all these great fights together and you know the first two rounds, which are the quarter-finals are going to be on Showtime and we’ll take it from there.”
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 38 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
About that ‘mock’ Strikeforce Heavyweight 2011 tournament poster…
By Zach Arnold | January 6, 2011
A tip of the cap to MMA Supremacy. Consider this an MMA version of a Rorschach test. Couple of interesting interpretations here.
By the way, I think the media reaction to the way things played out this week with the tournament is revealing. There area growing amount of writers (such as an old compadre) who are using blanket, generalized “MMA media” labels when they have grievances or complaints about the way the “MMA media” covered the story. Which, of course, brings up the question — why are people afraid to specifically call out individuals? Second, I think amongst hardcore fans and those whose livelihood isn’t dependent on MMA, we saw some honest (and generally valid) criticism leveled for the way the tournament is being rolled out.
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 66 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Nick Lembo talks about the keys to good MMA officiating
By Zach Arnold | January 6, 2011
The Godfather of New Jersey MMA regulation speaks with Hector Castro of MMA Die Hards.
HECTOR CASTRO: “Now, you’re one of the first states, New Jersey was one of the first states to be very loyal to MMA when it first started several years ago when these states were backing out and New Jersey was very aggressive in staying active with it. Now that, you know, MMA has grown, become obviously a little more bigger of a sport, New Jersey is still very aggressive and a lot of people are arguing now, you know, especially about judging and stuff. I mean, how have you kind of helped the state of New Jersey kind of just control the judging and refereeing of the sport as this sport has progressed?”
NICK LEMBO: “Well, the UFC started in 1993. In 1997 I oversaw my first show for the athletic commission, it was a shoot-fighting event which actually Dan Miragliotta was the promoter. Matt Serra was featured on the card and New Jersey was the first state to pass the Unified Rules, the rules that everybody uses today, and Lou Neglia was the first promoter under the draft Unified Rules to have a show here at the Tropicana in February 2000. We allowed an MMA fight on a kickboxing card. So, we’re lucky to have a lot of experience in the sport and I have great officials that I’m very proud of like Jeff Blatnick, like Dan and Kevin (Mulhall), and then I think the next step in developing officials is not only the training courses but starting them off in your amateur program which we fully regulate in New Jersey and have a very active program and that’s where we’ve developed such officials like one of tonight’s referees, Keith Peterson, who’s already ref’d in the UFC, and judge Michelle Agustin who’s judging tonight. But I think a key thing is there’s only so much training you can do. I believe that you need people that have a good background in the sport. (For a) background I recommend you start in submission grappling and you have to show a pretty fair understanding of jiu-jitsu and muay thai and then we have, you know, pretty good seminars for the wrestling, stand-up, the boxing, and the other components. But you start in New Jersey as a shadow official, which means your scores don’t actually count as a referee but you’re actually scoring and it’s getting collected after each round and then you work your way up from there.”
HECTOR CASTRO: “Now do you think as far as, for a lot of people say that you know wrestling gets a huge advantage over say jiu-jitsu submission for a judge to score a fight. How do you go about that point of view as far as judging a fight? What do you tell your guys to kind of just, you know, how… does a takedown result for more points than a submission attempt?”
NICK LEMBO: “That’s a very general question. What I like to do is show films. I like to show specific fights and talk about, uh, you know, what’s going on in this specific fight. For example, like Matt Hughes and Renato Verissimo from UFC 48, I like to use that fight to show Renato’s using an active threatening guard and that you should be able to score points from the bottom. No one element should be weighted over the other. Effective striking, effective grappling, effective aggression, and Octagon control is what the judges should be looking for with an emphasis on any technique that’s causing domination and damage.”
HECTOR CASTRO: “Do you think that there are calls for other commissions to kind of do more work as far as because I know there are a lot of commissions out there that are not as detailed or as proactive as you guys are here in New Jersey?”
NICK LEMBO: “Ha ha.”
HECTOR CASTRO: “Loaded question.”
NICK LEMBO: “Yeah. We are active with the Association of Boxing Commissions and there’s other commissioners that are very experienced in MMA. Jeff Mullin in Tennessee who was a UFC official for some of the first UFCs back in New Jersey in 2000. Keith Kizer in Nevada, Bernie Profato from Ohio, and Andy Foster from Georgia and we have committees. In fact, we just set up a training course where we accepted and reviewed training courses and six individuals were selected as certified trainers for refereeing and judging training courses across America. But, you know, it’s a very fast growing sport and commissions will come up to speed, it just takes some time that they learn that this is a different sport, you can’t just insert boxing judges. We don’t even have the same doctors, we don’t have the same inspectors, we have a whole separate staff for our non-boxing events.”
Topics: Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 9 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Strikeforce Challengers 13 card at Nashville Municipal Auditorium
By Zach Arnold | January 5, 2011
- Welterweights: Nate Moore vs. Nate Coy
- Light Heavyweights: Rhadi Ferguson vs. John Richard
- Women’s MMA (145 pounds): Julia Budd vs. Amanda Nunes
- Light Heavyweights: Ovince St. Preux vs. Abongo Humphrey
- Heavyweights: Daniel Cormier vs. Devin Cole
- Welterweights: Tyron Woodley vs. Tarec Saffiedine
On a side note, here’s their 1/29 HP Pavilion (San Jose Arena) card:
- Light Heavyweights: Roger Gracie vs. Trevor Prangley
- Heavyweights: Herschel Walker vs. Scott Carson
- Middleweight title: Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza vs. Robbie Lawler
- Welterweight title: Nick Diaz vs. Evangelista Cyborg
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 67 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Reports: Chael Sonnen pleads guilty to money laundering ; TMZ says UFC ‘suspends’ him
By Zach Arnold | January 3, 2011
Here we go with this report from The West Linn Tidings. Justin Klein, The Fight Lawyer, elaborates. Here’s the golden press release from The Justice Department (thanks to MMA Nation).
This is the matter that Sonnen was referring to in his interview with Mike Straka right after he had his December 2nd appeals meeting with the California State Athletic Commission.
“Well, you know, dealing with the commission… the commission’s a pretty small entity, but a commission has a lot of power over a guy like me. Uh… I haven’t really dealt with this matter until today. I had a team of lawyers. I’ve been dealing with, uh, the Federal Government, uh, all the way dating back almost five years ago, interfered with a campaign I had for public office, so that’s where my attention has been. I’m getting real close to, uh, reaching a deal with the Federal Government on that issue, but that’s where my focus has been. The lawyers handle things and business went well today.”
In essence, the reports claim that Sonnen was dealing with charges revolving around mortgage fraud. The Columbian newspaper in Vancouver, Washington (right next to Portland) claims that Lighthouse Financial Group was involved. Read The Columbian report for the full details on the case.
This report claims that he will receive two years of probation.
Here’s a simple graphic for you to look at regarding the legal case being made.
Update: TMZ says UFC has ‘suspended’ Sonnen. Love the fact that you can ‘suspend’ an independent contractor and treat him like an employee without the benefits.
Topics: Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 33 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
A note about MMA clothing lines & Nazi images
By Zach Arnold | January 3, 2011
Last week, Jonathan Snowden wrote this article about Silver Star, Clay Guida, and a Nazi image on a recent shirt that Clay wore during a video interview with Fight! Magazine. Suffice to say, the article drew a very strong reaction. If you haven’t read the article already, I would recommend that you do so and then I would also recommend reading this: Clothing companies are responsible for their products.
I wanted to get reaction from someone inside the MMA art/fashion industry on this story, so I contacted Jeff Finley (web | Twitter) of Go Media Inc. Jeff’s company does custom art work and also has a stock art boutique Arsenal (MMA-inspired set 19). He’s also produced an e-book called The Designer’s Guide to the Apparel Industry that covers a lot of the topics discussed in the previous articles linked in this post. Here is Jeff’s response to the points brought up in the articles talking about MMA clothing lines and Nazi imagery being used:
I’m a designer who does a lot of apparel industry work. In my objective opinion, I would assume that Silver Star had no clue the resemblance to Nazi imagery. I’m sure they’re not trying to subtly convey any white supremacist or Nazi beliefs and it’s pure coincidence that that skull ended up on their shirt. I’ve seen this kind of stuff before. They’re right, it’s a very clip-art driven industry. Skulls have seen a huge resurgence in mainstream culture and are used on everything from death metal records to teenie-bopper pajamas you find at Target. The same could be said for heraldry, wings, shields, etc. These are popular design elements that have been reappropriated to ride the trends and appeal to the youth market. I know because I’ve been creating these kinds of graphics for apparel companies since 2005. I’ve been asked to Make it Look like Affliction hundreds of times.
The simple fact is the imagery “looks cool” and “looks bad-ass” which I’m sure is all the company is trying to convey here. That’s what clients say to me when they hire me to do designs. So it’s not surprising that they ended up using a skull that resembled an old Nazi icon. Designers often use Google Images to hunt for reference when creating graphics and this is one of the pitfalls of doing so. If the designer illustrates a skull based off an image they found on Google Images, they need to be careful not to copy it too closely. They need to be original and create something new with it so they’re not called out like this. It’s doubtful the designer of this graphic purposely integrated a Nazi symbol into the design. Obviously, nobody caught it until it was publicly identified.
Designers need to take responsibility for this. And brands need to be more involved and research the imagery associated with their brands. And fans need to understand these things happen often in this industry and it’s not necessarily the brand’s message or motive. I think there needs to be more evidence than just t-shirt graphics to blame Silver Star for promoting a Nazi message though. I think they did a good job of responding to the criticisms and pulling the offensive designs. That’s about as good as they can do. If they were truly trying to push a racist or Nazi agenda, I don’t think they would react this way.
Topics: Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 8 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Illustrating absurdity: Why Strikeforce should never consider a Heavyweight tournament
By Zach Arnold | January 3, 2011
This is not a new topic of discussion for us on the site. I’ve repeatedly stated that Strikeforce should absolutely steer clear of running a Grand Prix-style tournament after they failed to pull off a Middleweight tournament when Jake Shields vacated his belt and went to UFC.
Remember the proposed Middleweight tournament by Scott Coker? First, it was initially rumored to be 16. Then it came down to 8, with the idea being that it would be broken up into two brackets. Then came the issues reportedly about whether or not to pay fighters for three bouts or for two bouts if they won the tournament (based on the idea of one tournament match on one show and the semi-finals and finals on a second show). Strikeforce took a concept in which their deepest division could have produced a tournament and instead completely gave up on the idea when the logistics proved to be challenging. That, along with the fact that state athletic commissions aren’t supportive of the idea of a multi-fight one-night tournament format. So, instead of running a tournament over three shows to crown a new champion, they just decided to book a title match between Tim Kennedy and Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza. After that was announced, then came another tease that perhaps a #1 contender’s tournament would end up taking place. Naturally, it didn’t happen. Five months after his Middleweight title win in Houston, Jacare will defend the belt against Robbie Lawler on January 29th in San Jose. That’s right, Mr. Lawler will be fighting less than two months after his St. Louis fight.
Which brings us to the constant rumors about Strikeforce planning a heavyweight tournament in 2011. Stop the insanity. If you couldn’t pull off a Middleweight tournament with fighters who are largely based in the States, how do you expect to pull off a tournament with both domestic and foreign fighters who have proven to be anything but easy in contract negotiations? Quietly, a report surfaced yesterday that Fedor may not end up fighting on the January 29th show for Strikeforce after all. Huh, how about that? Between this news and the fact that Josh Barnett still isn’t licensed to fight in California and Alistair Overeem has K-1 obligations and you’re looking at a Heavyweight tournament consisting of guys like Brett Rogers and Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva. In other words, if Strikeforce tries to put together a Heavyweight tournament, it will fall apart before it even begins.
There are two major questions that need to be answered before fans even care about such a tournament. First, what does M-1 want? Does M-1 sense that they can end up being a content provider to Showtime? If so, why would they cooperate with Strikeforce? Second, why should fans care about a Strikeforce heavyweight tournament when most American MMA fans think that the best heavyweights in the world are currently fighting in the UFC?
In addition to those questions, ask yourself the following — what would the point of the tournament be? Alistair Overeem is the champion. He last fought for the promotion seven months ago. He’s largely forgotten by the casual fans and if fans know of his presence it’s more or less due to his presence in K-1. Fabricio Werdum, the man who beat the great and mystical Fedor, has almost been invisible. Most of the fans who saw him beat Fedor have either forgotten about him or haven’t though enough about him to care about seeing him since the promotion he works for barely mentions him. Remember the MMA writers who screamed at others who suggested that Werdum should fight Overeem for the title instead of rematch with Fedor again? Six months later, memories of Fedor’s loss to Werdum do not produce the same kind of emotional response from fans that it did at the time. (For a litmus test, ask MMA fans that you know about the Carwin/Lesnar fight and you’re likely to encounter the same kind of passion about the way Josh Rosenthal handled the fight now as you saw when it happened last July.)
Strikeforce didn’t capitalize on the momentum of Werdum’s upset win. So, the idea of doing a rematch between Fedor and Werdum is largely in the ‘neutral’ category today.
At this point, all I want to see from Strikeforce is competency. Forget about booking a tournament. Forget about any elaborate plans for 2011. Produce the fights that people want to see and do so in a timely manner. This is a results-oriented business. The rematch between Fedor and Werdum, if there was going to be one, should have happened before the end of 2010. It didn’t. The fact that Fedor’s camp is even negotiating with Strikeforce and showing strength after the loss to Werdum is amazing. Nobody knows when Werdum or Overeem (or Barnett) is going to fight next. Who’s left?
It was recently pointed out on Twitter than Shane Del Rosario, a man who Scott Coker loves to tout as a future ace in Strikeforce, has only fought twice in two years for the promotion. In contrast, he fought three years in one year for Gary Shaw under the Elite XC banner.
Ditch the idea of a tournament. Start booking the fights that fans want to see and book fights that are actually meaningful. Book competitive fights with no delays. No more excuses. No more tournaments until you’ve earned the public’s trust.
Update (1/3): Fedor vs. Bigfoot Silva, Werdum vs. Brett Rogers, and Barnett Kharitonov/Arlovski. No, this is not what the fans deserve. Try again.
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 103 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
The meaning of K-1 Dynamite’s fizzled rating on TBS
By Zach Arnold | January 2, 2011
Quietly, the ratings number came out for the 2010 K-1 Dynamite show on Tokyo Broadcasting System and it was a 9.8% rating. A sub-10% rating was the very last thing K-1 needed. (Though it was nice to know that they ended up giving an attendance for the show — 26,729.)
In the here-and-now, it feels inevitable that the relationship between K-1 and TBS will either significantly change or lead to a divorce. The World MAX, DREAM, and Dynamite shows are in decline on the network. Should TBS divorce itself from K-1, the big question is whether or not Fuji TV will help save the company. While ratings aren’t hot on Fuji TV for K-1 programming, they are steadier than on TBS. The relationship between Kazuyoshi Ishii and Fuji TV is also a much longer one as well.
All of this is important for K-1’s survival. The entire business plan that Mr. Ishii laid out for the business after the PRIDE collapse was to control the television pipeline in Japan. By controlling it, he could cash in on the broadcasting fees and also control what programming was on which network. If somebody wanted to promote a foreign show under his banner (think: the Holland shows) and get on Japanese TV in exchange for absorbing the live show costs and getting a % of the TV money, that sounded great. Now with the TBS relationship in serious decline, suddenly the plan becomes a lot less viable.
In a good public relations (and perhaps business) move, Mr. Ishii’s front man Sadaharu Tanigawa told the press that FEG was going to spend the next three months restructuring and getting money from both American and Chinese companies. One company named was Shanghai Media Group. I say it was a good PR move because it was a classic “turn the page before the bad news comes out” tactic. It sounds great to say that FEG will restructure and that there will be a ‘renewal’ for both K-1 and DREAM, but all the concrete facts right now say that the problems facing the company will require a lot more than just three months of restructuring.
The biggest issue facing K-1 is the financial model. The writing is likely on the wall with TBS, so I can understand why the economic realities are going to force K-1 to change. However, there’s a reason that K-1 has always been most concerned about the Japanese marketplace — because that’s where the money is (in television). Without that money, you’re asking K-1 to become a live house business model. That has never been the strength of the company. Well, you might ask, didn’t K-1 used to run a lot of foreign shows in the 90s and early part of the 2000s? Yes, but the man who was responsible for foreign business affairs for Mr. Ishii was Ken Imai. Imai turned on Ishii and ended up going to PRIDE with Nobuyuki Sakakibara right as the whole Mike Tyson fake contract & tax evasion scandal broke out. Mr. Ishii is a conceptual guy and a charmer, not a nitty-gritty numbers guy working behind a desk all the time. Unless Mr. Imai and Mr. Ishii miraculously work together again (which in the fight business is always a possibility), it’s hard to see how K-1 comes up with the right networking structure to make running foreign shows profitable on a big scale. Simon Rutz of It’s Showtime would only be part of the puzzle, not the whole puzzle itself.
Continue reading this article here…
Topics: Japan, K-1, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 26 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
UFC 125: Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard go to a draw, Stann beats Leben
By Zach Arnold | January 1, 2011
Dark matches
- Lightweights: Jacob Volkmann beat Antonio McKee after 3R by split decision.
- Welterweights: Daniel Roberts beat Greg Soto in R1 in 3’45 by submission.
- Featherweights: Diego Nunes beat Mike Brown after 3R by split decision.
- Middleweights: Brad Tavares beat Phil Baroni in R1 in 4’20 by TKO.
- Featherweights: Dustin Poirier beat Josh Grispi after 3R by unanimous decision.
- Lightweights: Jeremy Stephens beat Marcus Davis in R3 in 2’33 by KO.
Main card
- Lightweights: Clay Guida beat Takanori Gomi in R2 in 4’27 with a choke.
- Welterweights: Dong Hyun Kim beat Nate Diaz after 3R by unanimous decision.
- Light Heavyweights: Thiago Silva beat Brandon Vera after 3R by unanimous decision.
- Middleweights: Brian Stann defeated Chris Leben in R1 in 3’37 by TKO.
- UFC Lightweight title match: Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard went to a draw. (48-46 each once, 47-47.)
Big winners tonight: The fans (those who actually bought the PPV and those who stayed in the stands at the MGM and didn’t leave during the main event), Brian Stann, Clay Guida. In the not-so-much category: Josh Grispi (and that movement he was supposed to lead).
Gray Maynard will get his immediate title rematch against Frankie Edgar…
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 71 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Kazuo Misaki receives a Bazzie for Fight of the Year against Jorge Santiago
By Zach Arnold | December 31, 2010
I highly encourage you to watch this video, simply for how amusing it is to see Kazuo Misaki be 100% serious when talking about receiving the honor of a Bas Rutten bobble-head doll for his fight of the year against Jorge Santiago.
“Hello HDNet. As a fighter, receiving this award makes me extremely proud and happy. I would rather have won the fight that I am receiving this award now. But to me, fighting spirit and entertaining the fans are more important than winning or losing. I’ll keep fighting with samurai spirit. So, please continue to support me. I’d like to fight (Jorge) Santiago again and have an even better fight than last time. Thank you very much.”
So, here’s the full video of what HDNet says is MMA’s 2010 Fight of the Year:
Other HDNet 2010 award winners included Cain Velasquez for Fighter of the Year, American Kickboxing Academy for Team of the Year, and Mike Russow for KO punch of the year over Todd Duffee. “Because, Mike, you were not supposed to win that fight! You were supposed to be out of that fight long before you came back with that great knockout,” exclaimed Kenny Rice. Hell of a week there for Todd.
Topics: Japan, Media, MMA, Sengoku, Zach Arnold | No Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |