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Thursday trash talk: Freak show fights
By Zach Arnold | May 24, 2007
Bodog has posted their betting lines for the UFC 71 event. Rampage is at +145 now.
Brock Lesnar vs. Tank Abbott, Ruben Villareal, Butterbean, or James Thompson as your headliner for the K-1 Dynamite LA Coliseum show? Butterbean would be, by far, the best option both as a local drawing card and for the Japanese TV viewing audience.
Here is the audio from the MMA-Madness.com roundtable that Luke Thomas & I did with Jeff Hamlin for Cover 2 (WCHL 1360) sports on Wednesday night.
Gina Carano = KO via eye candy.
Onto today’s headlines.
- Lay and Pray: Tommy Morrison to taunt Chuck Liddell at press conference
- The Fanhouse: Tony Kornheiser – ‘Ultimate fighting celebrates savagery’
- The Guam Pacific Daily News: Roman Dela Cruz does his part for positive MMA image
- PR Inside: UFC/Xyience fashion show
- The Houston Chronicle: Art of War 3 Dallas event postponed
- KTTC TV (Rochester, MN): NewsCenter Extra: MMA worth the fight
- WFRV (Green Bay, WI): FDL native Eric Schaeffer
- The Canadian Press (via CBC Sports): Veteran MMA fighter Ivan Salaverry returns to UFC for one more fight
- The Orange County Register: UFC 71 undercard bout w/ Karo Parisyan shows potential
- UFC HP: With his lessons learned, Josh Burkman readies for the elite at 170
- The Winnipeg Sun: Duke Roufus hoping to go out a winner
Topics: Boxing, Canada, HERO's, Japan, Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 37 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
In the current issue of Entertainment Weekly, there is a half page review of The Ultimate Fighter series, highlighting the show for the week. The sport (UFC in general, of course) has rarely been mentioned in the publication (I’m a long time subscriber) so this is some excellent ‘mainstream’ coverage.
Here’s the link:
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20038864,00.html
Is it naive to think that Chuck should accept the fight with Morrison?
AoW 3 on PPV eh? I was just thinking about it the other day after watching all of thirty minutes of GFC Evolution before going into terminal depression and turning it the f*ck off and realizing that AoW3 only on tape delay would be a shame with CRAP such as GFC being live on PPV. Show delayed = bad. Taking proper time to get PPV clearance = good.
And to elaborate on GFC: That was some of the worst stuff I have ever seen presentation & production-wise. Flat out embarrassing. Made early IFL, bodog & WFA(all of which had their clear glitches) look like Mayweather – de La Hoya 24/7. I honestly have never been that turned off so quickly by an MMA-broadcast/promotion ever before.
After reading the Ivan Salaverry quip from CBC Sports, I could not stop to wonder how Dana White does treat his non main event fighters. He has in the past stated that Chuck Liddell is like family to him. Had Chuck lost a few more fights, I would think that Chuck would have remained family, but more as an in-law of an in-law. Dana tends to discard any fighter who isn’t on a winning streak or one that does not tout Dana as God.
Mirko loses a fight and he is trash, Frank Shamrock does not care for the inner UFC politics so he is trash. Ivan Salaverry wanted a rematch for a tainted loss, he also is trash.
You do not have many fighters holding Dana White in high regard. Jordan Breen, could you add some insight into the inner politics?
Like any employer, I’m sure Dana most likely values loyalty in his employees and their ability to impact the bottom line, in the UFC’s case PPV buys. The rest are just cannon fodder.
http://www.cagerage.tv/nextevents.htm
– Latest CRC 22 card. Broughton out, Edson Drago in vs. Gary Turner.
http://www.tkomma.tv/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=24&Itemid=46
– Updated TKO 29 card. Crafton Wallace is out, so another late top card change for that promotion. Coté’s new opponent is Jason Day.
Out of the 4 opponents listed for Brock Lesnar to face, James Thompson and Eric ‘Butterbean’ Esch are the top two opponents in terms of quality and in terms of drawing Butterbean is the more significant draw, so I’d agree that he’s probably the best opponent they can pick (unless they want a pretty easy win over Tank Abbott besides the chance that Tank can cold cock him in the first 30 seconds – 1 minute before gassing out).
I’m not so sure that Lesnar would be matched up against any of the four aforementioned heavyweights. The CSAC is notoriously strict in terms of matching up fighters by experience levels and with this event sporting Lesnar’s first ever pro fight, K-1 is most likely going to have to feed him a lesser fighter who is just starting out…
Tank was KOd at Cage Rage recently. He may have problems as well.
Does Tommy Morrison really not know that much about fight promoting that he thinks he’s gonna crash the UFC’s press conference and then get invited to fight for them. Boxers really do must get hit in the head too much.
“Does Tommy Morrison really not know that much about fight promoting that he thinks he’s gonna crash the UFC’s press conference and then get invited to fight for them. Boxers really do must get hit in the head too much.”
It worked for Mr. T in Rocky 3. So maybe Morrison just thinks he still is filming Rocky 5.
I highly doubt that Lesnar would end up facing any of the four aforementioned possible opponents. The CSAC is notoriously strict in terms of matching up fighters by experience.
Now see thats what im talkin about. Zach Arnold knows the drawing power of Gina lol.
Loretta Hunt brings up a good point: The CSAC isn’t about to license a 0-0 Brock Lesnar against an experienced high calibre MMA fighter.
True…they’d never book Cesar Gracie vs Frank Shamrock…oh wait.
“True…they’d never book Cesar Gracie vs Frank Shamrock…oh wait.”
Good point, though Cesar has been training continuousl;y for decades in a martial art that is closely related to and forms much of the technical base of MMA. Lesnar hasn’t wrestled, for real, in a long time.
Rollo…I was just joking around. I actually believe that the CSAC knows they got duped about Cesar Gracie’s record, and now they’re so strict kind of as a reaction to that. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice…
Morrison thinks that he’ll fight Chuck Liddell in Japan and get paid $10,000,000 to do it. He also believes that he’ll KO Chuck in 3 rounds.
This guy is a absolute idiot when it comes to MMA. First off, he and chuck are like 50-60 lbs. apart, neither of them would draw much in Japan, and no one has been paid $10,000,000 to fight in MMA…and Morrison thinks that he’ll get there by fighting 0-4 nobodies?
He is in for a rude awakening.
Sherdog: UFC-PRIDE deal closed
http://www.sherdog.com/news/news.asp?n_id=7639
The holdup? Due dilligence. Congrats Zach, you nailed it. Nail those haters!
Finalized != Closed…
Also, White is refuting what Sakikibara is saying (that the deal is finalized), so I think saying that the deal is finalized/closed is pretty misleading since only one part is ‘verifying’ that while the other is denying it.
Also, White is refuting what Sakikibara is saying (that the deal is finalized), so I think saying that the deal is finalized/closed is pretty misleading since only one part is ‘verifying’ that while the other is denying it.
I’m still reserving judgement, my stance in the begining was to wait, but what White says about it is meaningless. He’s going to bullshit people until he’s ready to release info. The Crocop signing and the announcement at Roppongi Hills Arena is evidence of that.
Even so, I don’t trust Sakikibara to be 100% honest, either. Promoters in general are not to be trusted. To paraphrase Bob Arum:
“Yesterday I was lying. Today I’m telling the truth.”
“You do not have many fighters holding Dana White in high regard. Jordan Breen, could you add some insight into the inner politics?”
Dana White is fickle, but he’s all love for guys who help move him in the direction he wants to go. Salaverry isn’t really in the doghouse because he lost, or wanted a rematch, it’s because he played a huge hand in killing the hype of the UFC’s first Fight Night card by refusing to engage in any fashion in the headline fight. Body triangle from the bottom with two minutes to go? That’ll get you in the doghouse.
If you come to fight all the time, you’ll always get fights and for the most part, stay in favor with Dana White. Losing a few isn’t a killer if you’re willing to fight balls out. Dana essentially told Parisyan after the Fickett bout, “You’re going to be fighting for me until you’re dead.” Parisyan has won a few, lost a few, but always fights full throttle, and gives Dana promotional assurance that when he books him to fight, he can feel safe that the fight will produce action.
Mirko CroCop and Frank Shamrock are not quite worthy of comparison to Ivan Salaverry in this instance. Dana came off as condescending and snide when Gonzaga KO’d CroCop, all but smiling as he said that his camp wanted to ‘milk the contract’. More than likely, Dana’s chip on his shoulder due to the PRIDE vs. UFC angle isn’t quite dissolved, and seeing a guy who wasn’t on the radar of most UFC fans splatter a PRIDE hero gave him a chub.
Frank Shamrock is Frank Shamrock. Who does he hold in high regard, other than himself?
Dana’s obviously got grudges, and they’re pretty high profile ones for the most part. But non-main eventers really don’t have to live in fear of getting cut, especially with the UFC’s expansion, as long as they’re coming to fight. There’s a reason many guys, such as Renato Sobral at UFC 62 after getting plunked effortlessly by Liddell, get bonuses. They lost, but they brought it, for however momentary it was.
There’s a reason that even though he lost twice on TUF 5, Robert Emerson is gonna be filling Fight Night prelim spots into infinity.
Actually, guys, if you read more carefully, Dana White was only denying knowledge of the “dispute”, in other words, the class action lawsuit.
That said, at this point, I won’t belive anything until Zuffa actually runs a PRIDE show under the Zuffa banner.
Whoops, scratch what I said, looks like I was the one that needed to read the article more carefully. 🙂
Even so, I don’t trust Sakikibara to be 100% honest, either. Promoters in general are not to be trusted. To paraphrase Bob Arum:
“Yesterday I was lying. Today I’m telling the truth.
You’re right, but the news is only partly about what Sakakibara may have told his former employees. Another part is Sherdog.com “sources”.
Some legal genius tell me if I am possibly on to something. Could Zuffa have been encouraging this legal action behind the scenes? They might be trying to pressure DSE somehow, or maybe trying to break them completely and pick up the pieces.
Why doesn’t Zach have something up about this Pride finalization story? this is one hell of a piece of news for Sherdog to break.
http://www.sherdog.com/news/news.asp?n_id=7638
How about this then? Far more interesting than nothing new on the PRIDE-deal. ANOTHER main event goes down the drain for WEC, as has been the case for each and every card run under Zuffa so far. It’s a good thing they have a heck of an undercard.
“Why doesn’t Zach have something up about this Pride finalization story? this is one hell of a piece of news for Sherdog to break.”
Because one site has inside sources(sometimes reliable, sometimes absolutely not), the other translates and delays media coverage.
When have sherdog’s inside sources been incorrect on a story they’ve posted on the front page?
P.S. Not that he needs defending, but Zach’s done his share of original reporting on this site too.
Even assuming this PRIDE deal even goes through, with the further rumored signings of Shogun, Overeem and Filho (in addition to the attempts to sign Fedor), it’s becoming increasingly obvious that PRIDE will be simply the Japanese counterpart to the WEC. All the elite fighters will be in the UFC, with a few remaining stragglers in the WEC and PRIDE minor leagues. It’s almost irrelevant at this point whether PRIDE gets sold or not.
Summary of Dana’s conference call today:
http://www.411mania.com/MMA/columns/54928/UFC-71-Media-Conference-Call-with-Dana-White.htm
“P.S. Not that he needs defending, but Zach’s done his share of original reporting on this site too.”
Very true, Zach has broken more than few stories.
1. “P.S. Not that he needs defending, but Zach’s done his share of original reporting on this site too.â€
2. “Very true, Zach has broken more than few stories.”
– Bah, it wasn’t meant as a knock on this site or Zach. No one else out there comes even close to this site’s cross coverage of eastern and western fight-news. I was simply answering the question of why Sherdog/MMAWeekly will sometimes break news first – because they have one vital thing FO doesn’t have – and that is (reporting from)inside sources, whereas FO’s role is ‘forwarding’ and analyzing news and rumors most of us visitors wouldn’t have a clue about otherwise.
And for the record, FightOpinion has broken me off of Sherdog…I think Zach has a great site here….all I was doing was asking a question as to why something wasn’t up. I see that there is alot now.