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By Lee Casebolt  

2007 was The Year of the Upset in MMA, as evidenced by such unlikely happenings as Matt Serra, World Welterweight Champion, and Randy Couture, three time World Heavyweight Champion.  No one gave Serra a realistic chance of defeating the younger, larger, stronger, and generally better skilled Georges St. Pierre.  Similarly, the enormous Tim Sylvia was popularly thought to be too much for an aging Randy Couture who had moved to light heavyweight, after all, specifically to avoid 270+lb monsters cutting down to the 265 limit.

 This year’s upcoming title fights are, on paper, much more balanced encounters than those two contests, so if you think anyone really knows how they’re going to go down, you’re insane.  Which is not to say I (and thousands of others) will not make our predictions, based on either sound logic and keen observation or raw emotion and pure guesswork; it’s the internet, and that’s what it’s for.  For you, the fan, though, the important question at this juncture is not “Who’s going to win?” but “Why should I care?”  A belt is just a shiny piece of metal riveted to a leather strap.  In and of itself, it means nothing with regard to the quality or importance of a fight.  Today we’ll take a look at the upcoming title bouts which have been announced, and go over why they should be both good fights and significant fights. 

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By Jonathan Snowden

While promoters in MMA typically follow the pro wrestling model with a huge emphasis on promotional branding and over-the-top feuds, some of the sport’s biggest stars have quietly been studying their sister sport of boxing. In boxing, there is no brand that attracts an audience. The fighters are the stars and people pay to see Oscar De La Hoya and Felix Trinidad, not a “Don King Production.”

The role model for fighters everywhere looking to take control of their career, and their finances, is Oscar De La Hoya. De La Hoya used his own celebrity and drawing power to create his own company, Golden Boy Promotions. Now instead of a simple fight purse, Oscar gets a piece of the whole pie. He gets a cut from the PPV gross, the gate, the site fee the casino pays, the foreign broadcast rights, ringside advertising, closed circuit, everything. “You know, being a promoter now, it’s kind of like opening the door and finding out what really is inside the house, so to speak. You know, a fighter doesn’t know what’s going on when it comes to how to promote a fight and where the money comes from and now that I’ve been a promoter for four years, I’ve learned the insights of how this boxing world really works,” De La Hoya told doghouseboxing.com. “And one of the main reasons why I turned promoter is to educate the fighter and little by little, with my company, we can hopefully educate the fighters and the way they handle their careers.”

De La Hoya doesn’t have opponents, he has partners. Bernard Hopkins is now the president of Golden Boy East. Shane Mosley is president of fighter relations. These fighters are determined to take their name value and use it to make every penny possible in the waning years of their careers, while at the same time building a stable of younger World Champions to follow in their footsteps.

Frank Shamrock has been watching De La Hoya closely and is ready to make his own leap. After he completes his commitments to Strikeforce and EliteXC he will be ready to make the giant jump from fighter to promoter. The fight that he thinks is attractive enough to draw the money he needs to go it alone has been announced: Brother versus brother. Frank Shamrock versus Ken Shamrock.

“I think it’s going to be the event that opens MMA up to the mainstream world. And that’s brother versus brother. We’ve got a quarter and a year so far, when we’re going to do it and that’s first quarter of 09,” Frank said. “We’re talking to every major network and distributor and arena. We’re going to change the way that mixed martial arts is promoted and also the way that the talent are paid. Right now the companies own everything. They own the show, they own the fighters, they own the distribution, they own the product. They own everything. These guys go in as basically hired talent, so they go in and fight and walk away with whatever purse is negotiated.”
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