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Thursday trash talk: Everybody has a price
By Zach Arnold | December 27, 2007
Reminder: Listen to our Christmas 2007 radio show.
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Sports Navigator (Yahoo Japan) is reporting that Shin’ya Aoki will fight judoka Bu-Kyung Jung at the 12/31 Saitama Super Arena event. Jung competed at the Sydney 2000 Olympics and won the silver medal in the extra lightweight (60 kg) weight class.
The most prominent North American media headline of the day is this Los Angeles Times article describing the recent problems UFC has had with its talent in regards to money. The article doesn’t contain new information, but it certainly packages the developments of the last few months into one article.
The Canadian Press continues to crank out the most consistent mainstream media coverage of MMA on a weekly basis, and this week is no exception to the rule. First, here’s an article about musician Robin Black who is now an MMA fighter. Second, here’s an article about Georges St. Pierre and the lead-up to his fight with Matt Hughes this Saturday night. Here is Eurosport’s UFC 79 preview.
The IFL’s stock continues to get hammered in the press. If anyone is interested in doing a write-up previewing the upcoming Mohegan Sun Arena card this Saturday, send me a note.
Jason MacDonald talks about the hype regarding whether or not Floyd Mayweather Jr. will fight for Mark Cuban and HDNet Fights.
Building on a theme we’ve talked about for the last couple of weeks, here is an article talking about the rise of MMA’s popularity with the US Marines.
My third cousin removed, Jordan Breen, reflects on what happened in the Japanese MMA scene in 2007.
Here’s an MSNBC article talking about Elena “Baby Doll” Reid getting into MMA and what her prospects look like (they look good considering that she is affiliated with Xtreme Couture). It’s a companion piece to a larger article at The Sweet Science.
How the popularity of UFC is forcing police officers to learn new martial arts skills.
Topics: Canada, IFL, Japan, Media, MMA, PRIDE, UFC, Zach Arnold | 11 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Well there are a couple new things or restatements of old things.
A: DW once again refered to his fighters as bitches in a beauty salon. I thought maybe it was a slip of the tongue and he didn’t really mean it last time but I guess he did if he’s repeating it now again.
B: DW said that there are no more signing bonuses in the UFC because it makes things to complicated, I never heard that before
C: DW said “”These guys wouldn’t be putting their lives on the line if I hadn’t busted my [rear] to build this infrastructure, and Randy Couture wouldn’t be a millionaire now.”
It might be true or might not be true that randy wouldn’t be a millionaire depending on what happened to the history of mma from 2001 to 2007 if the fertita brothers didn’t buy UFC.
But to say that these guys wouldn’t be putting their lives on the line (in other words, would not even be fighting) if not for DW is just a arrogant and stupid statement. I think most of them would still be fighting somewhere, DW. I’m pretty sure you didn’t make the fighters fall in love with fighting as a sport.
Also did you see where Joe Rogan refered to Matt Hughes as a dick on the UFC hype show? At first he just said that Hughes has a reputation for maybe not being a very nice guy but then he also said that if you just watched a guy get knocked out who you fought before like Hughes watching St-Pierre get knocked out, then you laugh if you’re a dick. I do agree with Joe but I was surprised that he said it.
Hughes is a dick. He picked St. Pierre because he thought it would be an easy win, but since he caught George on the tail end of training camp things will not be going as planned; Im hoping to see a repeat performance of their last dust up. George has his number, Hughes’ game will not be that much different and even if he has improved his stand up George will be lording over him with his reach advantage.
Just got done watching the UFC 79 Preview show. I was kind of surprised that they did not even discuss the Machida/Sokoudjou fight. I know it won’t sell any tickets, but it is a fantastic fight.
There is a very interesting Sokoudjou interview at Sherdog.com right now. He discusses the reasoning behind going to the UFC. In short, it is the level of competition in the LHW Division that attracted him there. This is in stark contrast to a guy like Jake Shields, who knows all the best Welterweights are in the UFC, but just signed a long term contract with EliteXC.
As for Matt Hughes, he has always been an arrogant pr*ck.
Great article by the LA Times.
Couture is doing the right thing by shifting attention towards the wellbeing of other fighters and once again, explicitly talking about fighters uniting.
White sounds like a typical arrogant exploitative boss.
klown: Saying Couture is doing the right thing completely misses the point, because he has no choice. This dispute already has destroyed much of his popularity because so many people perceive the dispute as being Randy being greedy. He has to reframe it as being about the wellbeing of fighters as a whole to avoid his popularity falling even more. Its damage control.
“There is a very interesting Sokoudjou interview at Sherdog.com right now. He discusses the reasoning behind going to the UFC. In short, it is the level of competition in the LHW Division that attracted him there. This is in stark contrast to a guy like Jake Shields, who knows all the best Welterweights are in the UFC, but just signed a long term contract with EliteXC.”
45:
While I certainly agree with you on your first point (re: Soku vs. Lyoto – fantastic fight), I’m not sure how much I agree on your second point.
Soku probably went with the best/safest bet in terms of fight contracts he could get. He also has team members in the UFC (Hendo), so I’m sure there’s tonnes of other factors involved in his going to the UFC – not merely b/c he wants to face the best.
In the same vein, I really, really don’t think Sheilds is trying to duck top competition. In fairness to him he’s the top dog and gets paid like the top dog in EXC – where would he be in the UFC? They probably aren’t interested in or very high on him, b/c they think he’s got a “boring fight style” (common past criticism). So his potential to get caught in the mix, fight some dark matches/undercard fights and get dropped with ZERO publicity is likely a real concern for him.
He’s a great fighter and I’m sure he’d love to prove it against the best, but he’s got to put food on the table the best way he can too.
*Just to be clear:
I’m in no way criticizing Soku for going to the UFC or saying that one of the reasons he went is “to fight the best”.
But to distill it all down to “the level of competition brought him there” – he’s a real fighter and in stark contrast Shields is a p*ssy b/c he’s avoiding them – is absolutely ridiculous and insulting.
I agree with Michaelthebox. This is damage control. Nothing else. If it was really about other fighters from the start, his message would have been loud and clear.
One more point I forgot to add about the UFC 79 preview show. I was nicely surprised to hear Zuffa acknowledge Silva’s wins over Quinton Jackson.
I wouldn’t say Shields is ducking competition either. But I will say he wants to making a living at MMA without putting his career in jeopardy by fighting the best. At least that is the impression I get. And that is a very different type of fighter then a Sokoudjou, or Matt Hughes, or Dan Henderson…. Who just want to fight the best for the competition of it.
45-Huddle is a funny man
Watching GSP dismantle Hughes again will be fantastic. I have no idea what will happen in Chuck-Silva, but my gut is telling me that Chuck’s chin ain’t iron anymore, and Wanderlei is way faster and will probably knock out the Iceman.