Total MMA Daily for 17 July 2008
Posted by Jonathan Snowden on June 17th, 2008
The Big Announcement
Is there anyone left still curious about Dana White’s big announcement? It’s been rumored to be everything from signing Floyd Mayweather Jr. to announcing the first legal MMA show in New York since the SEG days. At this point, the announcement will be hard pressed to live up to the hype. For breaking news on the subject, check out Dave Meltzer’s Wrestling Observer website. Dave will be talking to Dana himself today and the information there will be straight from the horse’s mouth.
What the hell is the AFL?
For a promotion that has only run regionally to this point, the AFL sure knows how to capture headlines. First they announced a major coup, the signing of WWE superstar Bobby Lashley for a future MMA fight. Lashley has a significant amateur background and is hoping to ride the wave of all the interest generated by the Brock Lesnar MMA debut.
The AFL is also close to signing the hottest free agent name in the industry: Couture. Of course the Couture in question is Kim Couture. But signing the wife of one of the sport’s hottest fighters is good business. The Couture name will bring media attention with it and the relationship may pay future dividends. After all, someone will have to promote Couture-Fedor. Why not the AFL? Kim Couture makes her pro debut this Friday on the undercard of an ESPN Friday Night Fights boxing card at the Thomas and Mack in Vegas.
Going DEEP
Everyone’s favorite Japanese Indy has announced it’s biggest show in years for August 16th in Okayama. Former Pancrase standout Minowman will take on the gravelly voiced advice columnist Don Frye in a battle between two pro wrestling stars. I’m not sure how wise it is for Frye to face of with another Pancrase veteran after Ken Shamrock almost crippled him with leglocks at PRIDE 19. I’d expect there is a tacit agreement for Minowa to make the fight interesting as a standup war, rather than look to hurt the older legend.
If you’ve never seen DEEP it’s worth going out of your way to find DEEP 6th Impact. Besides having the most porno sounding name of any MMA promotion, this show had two great technical wars with Kiyoshi Tamura battling Minowa and Antonio Rogerio Noguiera and Tsuyoshi Kohsaka having the best ground battle in MMA history.
June 17th, 2008 at 7:25 pm
Apparently the announcement is scheduled now for noon tommorrow out on the west coast.
June 17th, 2008 at 7:29 pm
That is correct. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.
June 17th, 2008 at 7:29 pm
I hope the announcement is that they stole Kimbo Slice and he will fight Brock Lesnar on UFC’s FOX debut.
June 17th, 2008 at 8:57 pm
You know its probably going to be something totally self aggrandizing. Like, “Hey guys, we’re fucking so awesome. We just signed a deal to sponsor a stock car. Its gonna be big. The guy is nowhere near the points chase but there’s gonna be holograms and shit on the car and people won’t be able to take their eyes off of it as long as it qualifies. There’s more too. Check out this watch. You know how much a watch like this costs? More than that dude in the corner (points to Kevin Iole) is worth. I can say whatever I want about Kevin. I had him wax my car this week. I told him its in his contract with us to get press credentials and we’d pull ‘em in a heartbeat if I saw any swirlmarks….”
June 18th, 2008 at 6:39 pm
I need to work the above into a comic strip.