Archive for June, 2008

In case you were in a cave today, Dana White decided to both debase the “MMA media” and concurrently announce that the big world shattering announcement was that some guy who part owns the UFC is now going to work in the office full time. It was quite the press release that Kevin Iole made up for the event and submitted as actual journalism, and I’m sure the glorified bloggers that imagine themselves to be reporters are spending hours trying to determine how to compare it to the night Andre The Giant stole the WWF title.

What was of particular interest was the discussion by the Two Musketeers of Ultimate Fighting of a plan to take the sport globally whilst demanding an “NBA style contract” for the airing of the programming. In fact, the plan makes the UFC the biggest sports league (and by virtue of that, MMA the biggest sport) in the entire world. Meditate on that for a second, because I have. And boy, is it hilarious. In fact, let me go forth to talk about that. Read the rest of this entry »

So, the big announcement today was that Lorenzo Fertitta is moving from the casino side to work on the UFC full time. Can you feel the earth shake?

Your roundtable:
DW: Dave Walsh
AC: Alan Conceicao
IL: Iain Liddle
JS: Jonathan Snowden

MMA Wars: UFC versus Affliction

DW: This is desperation. We all know Affliction isn’t going to be able to directly to compete with UFC, at least not for a while. They’d need to establish themselves, put out an incredibly aggressive advertising campaign and run a bunch of shows to show they are for real, and not just a flash-in-the-pan ran by a money mark who wants to book his favorite fighters for his own enjoyment. Basically, they need to prove they aren’t BoDog.

JS: This is such an incredibly horrible idea. Why does the UFC feel the need to run competition for an event that will likely lose millions of dollars all by itself? I’m not sure of the rationale behind further diluting a brand that already produces more shows than people want to watch. Not only is it not necessary, but putting marque fights on free TV is a dangerous ploy. How soon until people just don’t want to pay $50 to see Hughes v. Alves? They’ll just wait for Anderson Silva on TV.

IL: It’s Dana White putting two fingers up to Affliction and, in effect, to anyone that would like to see the existing monopoly challenged. They are attempting to punish a company whoseideology includes paying fighters decent sums of money without the need to dress it up as a “bonus” and deliver it in a brown paper bag.

AC: I’ve said all along that the more promoters, the more money, the merrier. First, let’s dispell a myth. The UFC is never going to be alone as the sole promoting power in MMA in the US or anywhere else. Its never been that way (real heads remember Battlecade, the WEF, the first version of WFA, etc), it never will be that way, etc etc etc. Views contrary to that are utterly delusional.

DW: Dana White needs to get the fuck over himself and his UFC brand name. This is complete insecurity on their part, just like running that Chuck mockumentary and playing Chuck vs Wandy on the night of the EliteXC show. Even Kevin Iole just taped the Chuck thing to watch Kimbo live. That is saying a lot.

JS: Much has been made of comparisons between Dana White and Vince McMahon. This is classic Vince McMahon decision making. Dana is settling scores with Fedor’s people and Tim Sylvia, and Arlovski, and Lindland, and everyone else he is personally angry with. Ultimately, the UFC is a privately owned business. He isn’t responsible to anyone or anything but his own self destructive urges.

IL: Zuffa is ultra-competitive and hates the idea of competition. That is obvious. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that they would attempt to kill maybe the most legitimate potential rival before they have had a chance to make any impact. However that doesn’t mean we have to like it or put up with it.

AC: In any case, the card looks like it was thrown together at the last minute because it was thrown together at the first minute. The UFC shouldn’t go worrying that they need to bury everyone else. They will succeed or fail on their own merits and there’s nothing they can do about it. I know Jon and many others compared it to the Clash of the Champions and whatnot, but there is a huge difference. Jim Crockett Promotions could pick winners. Dana White can’t.

Anderson Silva: 205?

JS: Anderson Silva’s move to 205 has been long rumored. That’s no real surprise. The choice of opponent is. Why take the chance of having one of your hottest fighters at 185 lose to a mid-level fighter like James Irvin? What is the benefit to Silva? If he wins, so what? If he loses, his aura is finished. Losing to Chuck Liddell at 205 is one thing. But why risk a fluke loss to Irvin? What the hell was going on at Zuffa INC yesterday? Margaritas and Mexican for lunch?

IL: The idea is a good one. Take your most exciting champion and put him on free TV against a PPV headlined by someone with a reputation for dull fights. For the reasons mentioned above, I still want them to somehow find a way to fail though. In fact, if it was pretty much anyone else but Silva then I’d love to see the whole experiment implode in front of their eyes.

AC: Enormously foolish. Who wants to see this? Who was asking for it? “Man, I really want to see the guy with the No Fear tattoo fight a middleweight.” Vera being matched up tough against an IFL vet who has a far less than entertaining style who may very well beat him by laying on top for 15 minutes doesn’t help either.

DW: Anderson Silva vs. James Irvin is, to paraphrase Dana “Fucking” White, “fucking retarded.” This is a lose-lose situation. The only possible, positive outcome would be if Silva scores a very easy win, so he can have another highlight reel KO and can add “dominant in 2 weight classes” to his little 3-point UFC pre-fight bio.

IL: The risk/reward ratio simply does not make sense in this situation. James Irvin may not be very good but he does possess the cliched “punchers chance”, especially against someone from a lower weight class. If Silva wins then it’s expected, but if he loses then you’ve managed to at least partially castrate a strong champion and take help kill the buzz for potential Liddell or Jackson matches further down the line - all on free tv! I would view it as the perfect irony if it were to happen on a show that is only occurring for destructive purposes.

TUF Finale:

IL: I haven’t been paying enough attention to know people’s names but it would shock me if anyone managed to out-stupid the guy who proudly stands around and pisses himself for laughs.

AC: If its CB, its lol-material because Elite XC will probably sign him immediately. Also, CB was the only reason to watch. This will go down as the season with the guy who could piss himself and had no good fighters.

DW: I haven’t watched TUF in a long time. It is on at a time when I really don’t want to watch TV,
the fights usually aren’t that great and it is just over saturating the market with sub-par fighting. If I want to see sub-par fighting I can go out and grab some KOTC DVDs for 2 bucks a pop.

JS: In a perfect world, there would only be a couple of tremendous assholes or social rejects in the house. That would help limit the possibilities. This season, everyone is a suspect.

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.

The issue of champion vs. champion “Superfights” has been a major talking point as of late in MMA circles. Matchups like BJ Penn vs. Georges St. Pierre, St. Pierre vs. Anderson Silva, and Silva vs. Chuck Liddell have been talked about by pundits and fighters alike. But the thing is, at all three weight classes in question: 155, 170 and 185, there is no shortage of excellent match-ups. Rushing in to inter-division “Superfights” now is an ill-advised move, and would be a major slight to all the title contenders in those weight classes

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According to Dave Meltzer at the new Wrestling Observer website, the UFC is vehemently denying that they intend to run a show against Affliction’s PPV debut this July. Perhaps they floated the idea to see how the internet would respond. And boy did the internet respond.

Via the new Wrestling Observer website. Check it out.

Mr. White’s is a Familiar Act

When people say comparisons between pro wrestling and MMA don’t make any sense, keep things like this in mind: according to Sherdog, Dana White and the UFC will run a show on SPIKE TV on July 19th. This is the same day that Affliction debuts with a star studded card on PPV, featuring Tim Sylvia vs. Fedor Emelienko in the main event.

To long time wrestling fans, this will seem all too familiar. In 1987 Jim Crockett Promotions was excited to air their first PPV, Starcade 1987. They were less thrilled when Vince McMahon’s WWF offered a competing PPV on the same day. They were nearly in tears when McMahon informed cable companies they could either carry his show (a brand that had a track record of success) or Crockett’s untested show. You can imagine what happened.

The next January, McMahon upped the ante. When Crockett announced his second PPV, Bunkhouse Stampede, McMahon countered with a free special called the Royal Rumble on the USA Network. Crockett would get revenge by broadcasting the inaugural Clash of the Champions for free on TBS in competition with Wrestlemania IV. And so it went, until WCW was finally laid to rest.

Dana White has a history of vigorously attacking the competition in the courts. Now he’s bringing his bag of dirty tricks to the television industry. And because the UFC is the only brand with regular access to a significant TV audience, it’s not exactly a fair fight. Still, this is dangerous ground to walk for White and the UFC. Boxing promoters are pretty careful about putting on shows in competition to each other. There are enough weekends in the calender year for everyone.

A broadside like this may do irreparable harm to Affliction’s chances, but does White really want to open the Pandora’s box that could lead to the next Kimbo Slice fight being programmed for free on CBS opposite Chuck Liddell’s next pay per view fight? I think White would have been better served letting the market decide whether Affliction could survive the choppy waters of modern MMA promotion. He might have been pleased with the answer.
Read the rest of this entry »

The Greatest Man Who Ever Lived

Nick Diaz is the greatest man who’s ever lived. He once beat up Joe Riggs in the hospital after a tough fight. He got high and still beat the shit out of PRIDE pretty boy Takanori Gomi. He stormed out of the ring after the doctor stopped his fight with KJ Noons. He’s just angry and a little crazy. So what happened after KJ Noons stopped Yves Edwards via hate crime should have been no surprise.

Diaz hit the cage in pure heel mode. Noons was fresh off the best win of his career and in front of his home fans. When he flashed the double finger salute to Noons, things got a little out of hand. Even KJ’s old man got into the action. “I’m kind of disappointed that those antics overshadowed a great athlete like Yves Edwards,” Noons said after the fight. “You train so hard for a title fight and then you’ve got this low class person coming in and talking trash.”

When the dust settled, Elite XC had just hyped a new main event match. Diaz is the kind of fighter that draws a natural reaction, with a painted on sneer and a bad attitude. Noons is like the prototypical 70’s wrestling babyface. He’s probably got a great dropkick to go along with that pretty right hand. It’s the perfect matchup.

So, of course, the MMA media hated it. Diaz interrupted one of those shows of mutual respect hardcore fans find so loveable and regular fans turn the channel on. It just kind of underscores an ever pertinent point: if MMA writers ran MMA companies, MMA companies would be run out of business. Heated feuds draw money. Scary and seemingly invincible champions draw money. It looks like Gary Shaw is serious about drawing money.

DREAM 4

Shinya Aoki is called “Tobikan Judan,” meaning “tenth degree black belt in jumping locks.” He’s the best fighter in the world in his weight class and he showed it against former Olympic Silver Medalist Katsuhiko Nagata. Aoki dominated Nagata, even bodylocking him and tossing the Greco-Roman wrestler to the mat. He got the submission with a gogoplata from the top which was so wacky that even Blue Panther shook his head and called bullshit. Aoki has beaten JZ, Joachim Hansen, and Akira Kikuchi. He’ll get his chance against a true legend when he fights Caol Uno in the semifinals of DREAM’s Lightweight Grand Prix. The other matchup is equally good as Eddie Alvarez will face Tatsuya Kawajiri.

While one Japanese saw his star rising, another was approaching the end of a storied career. Fearsome striker Melvin Manhoef absolutely blitzed Kazushi Sakuraba in the main event. SAKU was knocked down by a high kick and took so much punishment on the ground that I had to do a double take to see if DREAM had brought in Steve Mazzagatti to ref the fight. If Sakuraba isn’t going to retire, he needs to stay in the legends division where he can grapple around with other washed up stars of yesteryear like Kiyoshi Tamura. A young and quick striker is beyond his ability these days.

I won’t go into detail about all the fights here. There was a liveblog last night at Total MMA.

Must See Fights From Last Night:

1. Jason Miller v. Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza: Strong performance by both men. Jacare is living up to the hype and Miller continues to look unsubmittable.
2. Hideo Tokoro v. Darren Uyenoyama: Great first round.
3. KJ Noons v. Yves Edwards: Noons looks for real. If they want to promote him as one of their top stars, just make sure to keep him away from wrestlers.
4. Gegard Mousasi v. Yoon Dong-Sik: Another great first round.
5. Rafael Feijao’s v.Wayne Cole: Cole, more than ever, wants to make sure you don’t mistake him with Devin Cole.

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