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.
