Lambda Pie
Banned
i recognize 1 screen, the one with the blonde wizard kid my niece watches.
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MMA-GAF |OT4| BangBros
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i recognize 1 screen, the one with the blonde wizard kid my niece watches.
TheKaeptain
Banned
Lambda Pie
Banned
He-Man does not give a fuck about shading.
that's some omega weeabo level stuff, even for you, jerry.
that's some omega weeabo level stuff, even for you, jerry.
Maklershed
Member
Oh man Rampage getting ready to coast in Bellator already - talking about being a heavyweight. He'll be doing more than double fisting the funnel cake this year.
I've noticed people with anime avatars tend to hate the 360 but love the PS3 and Nintendo .. with a slighter emphasis on the Nintendo.
I've noticed people with anime avatars tend to hate the 360 but love the PS3 and Nintendo .. with a slighter emphasis on the Nintendo.
TheKaeptain
Banned
OG He-Man is horrible. The best version was the 2002 series. Anyways, those pictures I linked are ultimately about the way modern Anime uses little to no shadows and it takes away from the detail.
Lambda Pie
Banned
Lambda Pie
Banned
lol, my favourite part was giving drm woman noises, Punk-style.
folks, i need an opinion. if you were planning on streaming a MMA e-fed, would you stream it to:
- OT, using real gaffers
or
- Gaming Side, using videogame characters
i'm really torn about this.
folks, i need an opinion. if you were planning on streaming a MMA e-fed, would you stream it to:
- OT, using real gaffers
or
- Gaming Side, using videogame characters
i'm really torn about this.
dream
Member
In a deal that UFC co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta called one of the three biggest in the companys history, UFC last week announced a multiple-tiered deal with Mexican media giant Televisa, which will include the creation of a separate 24 hour subscription channel in Spanish.
UFC and Televisa are partners in the new channel, which will air nearly every UFC fight live during the course of the year, as well as carry weigh-ins, news shows, and air archival footage of old events from UFC, Pride, WEC and Strikeforce.
The channel is expected to be available in about 20 Latin American countries. The more early emphasis will be on Mexico and Argentina, which, based on web site traffic, are in the top ten countries worldwide when it comes to interest in the promotion.
UFC had toyed with the idea of a 24 hour channel in 2011, plans similar to that of WWE at the time, for the United States. The idea at the time was not to be a subscription channel, but to purchase G-4. It fell apart when the FOX deal came to fruition and FOX wanted to turn Fuel into something approximating a UFC channel as part of a long-term goal of building an audience for the station, before it would eventually turn into Fox Sports 2.
Lorenzo said today (Friday), it was one of the three major deals in company history, the FOX deal here, the Globo deal (in Brazil), and now this Televisa deal said Jamie Pollack, Senior Vice President and General Manager of UFC Latin America. This is a massive media deal within sports, entertainment, media. Weve got other leagues, the NFL, Major League Baseball, they cant break into this Latin American market the way were breaking into it.
Javier Balseca Gonzalez, Televisas publicity and promotion coordinator told Variety that the channel would launch around September.
The basic battle plan is to use the power of Televisa, easily the most powerful media entity in the market, to promote the UFC stars and fights in Mexico, on talk shows, news shows, and in other forms of media. Several of Televisas major talk show personalities are UFC fans and expressed interest in getting stars as guests. Televisa also has strong programming connections throughout Latin America.
They would also promote shows with Countdown specials airing on various Televisa channels. This would include regular coverage on the Televisa Deportes Network, which aired the Cain Velasquez vs. Antonio Bigfoot Silva fight live on May 25. Another vehicle that will be used to promote UFC is Telehits, Mexicos version of MTV, although it is far stronger in its marketplace than MTV is in the U.S. marketplace. The station is also popular throughout Latin America.
One of the biggest aspects of the deal is that four UFC shows per year would be airing on Canal 5. The station, which concentrates on youth-oriented programming is one of the networks big four channels available in virtually every television household in Mexico.
The shows will air the top two fights on selected major events, a deal similar to what UFC has with Globo in Brazil. In Brazil, the shows usually feature shows where a Brazilian star like Anderson Silva, Junior Dos Santos or Jose Aldo is headlining. In Mexico, one would expect Velasquez fights to air live, as well as other major events featuring the biggest names.
On those shows, the UFC Channel would air the entire show up until the last two fights.
Velasquez, whose father was born in Mexico, has given that country a natural hero as the current heavyweight champion.
Its a great thing to have, but the brand itself stands on its own, said Pollack. Anderson Silva, Jon Jones, Chuck Liddell, all of those guys, are huge stars in Mexico. There is huge awareness.
Cains been a tremendous help. The people there understand the attributes and respect the discipline of fighting in the UFC. Theres a real understanding of that in Mexico. In some ways, the media has actually been covering us on a more consistent basis--the Mexican mainstream media and newspapers.
For exposure of the product, the Canal 5 deal gives the company far more than it has ever had previously.
Similarly, The Golden Channel, affiliated with Televisa, will be carrying similar programming throughout Central and South America.
The question becomes whether the product is strong enough to go to a pay channel format. Such a format will greatly service its existing fan base, giving them access to everything they would want. But there wont be the weekly free television big events, like Mexicos leading sport, soccer, has, or boxing and pro wrestling have.
There is an argument that a pay-TV format would lead to more consistent revenues. Pay-per-view of single major events sees numbers range greatly, based on the stars and the match-ups. For people used to watching a station regularly, getting them to continue all year as viewers is easier than bringing them back each month and always having to sell a new pay-per-view show that the fan base may or may not buy. But thats really more of an issue when it comes to WWEs business decisions given the pay-TV channel is being geared for markets where UFC has no existing PPV.
Televisa has a lot of experience with the Pay-TV market, with more than 40 entertainment channels, but this will be its first venture into a pay sports channel.
Televisa is 100 percent committed to this, said Pollack. Theyre making a big investment on their own. Lorenzo is very bullish on this channel. This is a long-term thing, a strategic business decision.
He also noted this is a test market of sorts. If this is successful, the idea of expanding a 24-hour channel to other parts of the world would be a natural.
We believe its a business worth investing into now. We could get on television and get a license fee. That would be no risk. This shows the level of commitment that we have in Latin America, with Televisa, and the commitment they have with us.
Youve got the strength of the brand in international markets, and how that can be translated. It can be a very turn key business once youve established a UFC network. This will be a good indicator. The success of Brazil and the success were going to have in Latin America is going to help drive the rest of the business outside the U.S. Its a benchmark.
Due to existing television deals, such a move isnt likely soon for the U.S., Canada or Brazil. Its not going to happen, at least in that form, in the U.S. until the FOX contract exists, which means December 31, 2018. Any predictions of what the landscape will look like then made today are likely to be way off. In addition, UFCs biggest revenue stream remains its pay-per-view business in North America, which is what keeps everything else afloat.
Its a big deal, said Pollack. A deal with Brazil with TV Globo and this, you want to be with the best in these markets. The Latin American media market has a lot of concentration. They (Televisa) own radio stations, newspapers and online portals. This is not just about television. There are whole different platforms you get.
Besides airing all live events from the start of the card, including what are the Facebook prelim fights in the U.S., all the shoulder programming around the 35 live events per year, news shows, and the various Ultimate Fighter shows.
An affiliation with Televisa will also open up doors as far as presenting live events, although UFC has traditionally insisted on complete control of its live presentation.
The exposure should also lead to fighters coming from all over Latin America to the UFC, where they could be flagship stars in their home country, like Velasquez is in Mexico, Michael Bisping and Dan Hardy were in the U.K., and George Sotiropolous was at first in Australia.
UFC has recruited promising Mexican fighters and sent them to train with Greg Jackson, most notably Erik Goyito Perez, a bantamweight from Monterrey.
They are also looking at an Ultimate Fighter for Latin America, with fighters coming from the entire region.
There are already gyms all over Mexico, Costa Rica, Peru and Argentina, said Pollack.
Pollack noted the first major live show is likely for next year, in Mexico City.
A state-of-the-art building, Arena Ciudad, which holds 22,000 fans, opened last year in Mexico City.
Mexico has had a long cultural history with both boxing and pro wrestling, which is why Dana White had always earmarked the country as a potential major market dating back to his beginnings with the company in 2001.
In 1993, boxer Julio Cesar Chavez fought Greg Haugen at outdoor Estadio Azteca which drew 132,274 fans. Even as recently as five years ago, there were a number of pro wrestling events in the city every night, and the major Friday night show consistently did between 10,000 and 18,000 fans.
The intent is to go down with a show in Mexico next year, and eventually intend to go to Buenos Aries, Argentina and Santiago, Chile, said Pollack.
The company is working on similar television deals in places like Nicaragua, Peru and Colombia, with help from Televisa. The idea is similar in those markets, the idea of airing four major events each year on free television to build interest in the network.
The price of the network has not been determined. Pollack said it will vary by the country.
There are natural comparisons with this and the WWEs attempt to do the same thing. The difference was WWE was finding it difficult to negotiate carriage deals, while being in partnership with Televisa opens doors for UFC throughout Latin America. UFC is going with more of a low-cost option, and are only running it in markets they dont have PPV deals in, so they arent cannibalizing a major revenue stream.
On the flip side, WWE is both far more established and more popular in the U.S. and Canada than UFC is in any Latin American country except Brazil. WWE is also a naturally stronger television product due to its ability to use its biggest characters weekly and create soap opera storylines. For all the help Televisa can give and doors it can open, UFCs popularity is very much untested in Mexico and Latin America to the extent of being able to make a go with a subscription television station.
Both network ideas are complete uncharted water. With WWE, at least there is a guaranteed base, because close to 300,000 people in the U.S. purchased the Royal Rumble at $44.95 or $54.95 and 600,000 purchased WrestleMania at $59.95 and $69.95 (the 650,000 figure includes Canada and Puerto Rico). So its a lock to me that a lot more than 300,000 will buy the network at $14.95 or less per month. WWE will have a harder time with clearance issues since Televisa already has the structure in place with its 40 pay channels that are already in the target markets, and the idea that pay channels for entertainment are viable in the market. But with the UFC Channel, there is no benchmark at all for how many people in those countries are fans willing to pay monthly for content on television.
Spike TV announced its second joint signing for pro wrestling and MMA in former UFC light heavyweight champion Quinton Jackson, whose UFC contract expired after his 1/26 decision loss to Glover Teixeira in Chicago.
The network announced Jackson having signed a multi-year deal with Spike, Bellator and TNA. It would be the second such deal of its type, the first being last years deal with King Mo Lawal.
Jackson, 35, will immediately become the top star of the Bellator promotion. Plans are to debut him on Spike with his own reality TV show, that would lead to his first fight, likely in the fall season.
A Spike press release also talked about using Jackson in other entertainment initiatives. It was not clear at press time how he would fit into TNA. Carter had been talking on Twitter about a huge free agent signing the company was about to announce.
Jacksons first appearance on the new deal will be on the 6/6 Impact TV tapings in Duluth, GA, and hes scheduled to appear on the first show that will be taped two hours before air time.
The signing is interesting because the big question becomes, how many viable opponents does Bellator have for him? Normal Bellator protocol would have him enter a tournament, but, with all the physical wear-and-tear on him, the idea of Jackson fighting every four weeks would be tough. They could put him in a four-man tournament, since that would only require two fights, with hope it can build to a title fight. Once that happens the scheduled would be okay, given Bellators champions seem to end up fighting on a similar schedule as UFCs champions.
The pro wrestling aspect is interesting, if only because, after all the hype, King Mo one year later is still a beginner in developmental, only having had a handful of matches in the Louisville area. His only TNA real exposure was to build up an appearance as a referee at Bound for Glory, in a role designed more to stay out of the way.
Jackson is more of an established star, but were long past the day that an MMA star going on a pro wrestling television show is going to make a big difference. Like Mo, Jackson was a wrestling fan growing up in Memphis, and his act with barking, howling and wearing a chain around his neck as he came to the ring was taken directly from one of his childhood favorites, The Junkyard Dog. Like Mo, both will mention Jerry Lawler as one of their heroes growing up. Jackson got into amateur wrestling to become a pro wrestler, but wound up in MMA instead. He did one episode of Raw, on June 7, 2010, when helping to promote The A-Team movie, where he played B.A., the role made famous by Mr. T in the original TV show.
During the show, Jackson went as B.A. Baracus, although acknowledged as Jackson. The Bella Twins saw him and noted they recognized him as MMA fighter Rampage Jackson and said theyd seen his fights. The idea was not to insult the audience and ignore hes an MMA fighter, but from that point on, it was just B.A. Baracus on the show. He was in a show-long storyline of The A-Team being brought in to investigate who stole Lawlers crown. The backstage segments were all kinds of awful, as in the level of the worst of WCW.
Jackson does have the kind of personality that in theory would work in pro wrestling. Hes got more charisma than most fighters, and is a great promo. But the Mo experiment showed the difficulty, and perhaps, the impossibility, according to Kurt Angle, of doing both at the same time, especially when starting out from scratch. In the case of Jackson, at his age, and still continuing as a fighter, its really hard to figure out how to make him work within the TNA structure. TNA, after much hype, was able to do little with Bobby Lashley and Mo with the same two-sport superstar type gimmick. Probably the only person who could have done both was Josh Barnett, because he has years of experience and is a good pro wrestler already.
Bellators current light heavyweight champion is Attila Vegh, who defeated Christian MPumbu for the title on 2/28 in Rio Rancho, NM, a fact that only the most ardent Bellator fan would know off the top of their head. Vegh is scheduled next to defend his title against Emanuel Newton, who won a tournament that was clearly designed for Lawal, who Newton knocked out in one of the bigger upsets in MMA history. They have two name fighters in the division, Renato Babalu Sobral, and Lawal, who are both in a four-man tournament which starts on 6/19, with the tournament winner getting a shot at the Vegh vs. Newton winner. Aside from them, the closest thing to a name fighter on the light heavyweight roster is 42-year-old former UFC fighter Vladimir Matyushenko.
There is an issue with Jackson, in regard to the difficulty in keeping him happy. This was evident in UFC. Jackson was one of the best paid fighters in the company, earning in the $12 million or more range during his six years. But he was constantly unhappy over pay, and heavily blasted management and talked of wanting to get out. Those close to Jackson said he was very happy with the money offer he got from Spike.
Spike scheduled a press conference with Jackson, Spike President Kevin Kay, Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney and TNA President Dixie Carter for 6/5.
Unlike Mo, a former Strikeforce champion but who had never been in the UFC spotlight, Jackson was one of the biggest stars in company history.
Still hoping to be a pro wrestler, Jacksons high school wrestling success at Raleigh-Egypt High in Memphis led to him wrestling in college, and then discovering MMA in 1999. He debuted, beating current UFC fighter Mike Pyle in Memphis, and migrated to Southern California. He fought on the small-time scene, going 10-1, when he was brought to Japan on July 29, 2001, with the idea he was an unskilled but physically impressive fighter who would be a victim for Prides biggest star, Kazushi Sakuraba.
Jackson and Mo had a well-known beef at the time Mo was in Strikeforce and Jackson was in UFC, but they settled it a long time ago. In comparing the two, Jackson is obviously the far bigger star and better known name, and was a proven drawing card which Mo never was. Jackson, from a personality standpoint, has more natural charisma and is more suited to pro wrestling. But I strongly believing that Mo wanted to be a pro wrestler a lot more, and is fine with learning from the ground up in OVW. With Jackson, between his age and what hes used to earning, I wonder if hell be willing to go through what Mo has gone through to start like a first-day student.
Jackson was billed in Japan as a homeless man who was an unskilled street fighter, as part of the fantasy world that Japanese MMA was at the time. Jackson ended up using his power to slam Sakuraba all over the place, injuring him, but he couldnt finish him. Eventually he got tired and Sakuraba won via choke in 5:41, but with his JYD gimmick, his fake back story and the exciting fight, he got over big. Still, Pride had only brought him in to be the big muscled street fighter for Sakuraba to lose to. Stephen Quadros, who was announcing for the promotion, pushed to Pride that Jackson had the potential to be a big star. His next fight in Japan was actually for the Battlarts pro wrestling promotion, where he won via doctor stoppage of Alexander Otsuka. This led to a match three weeks later on a Pride show, against Battlarts top star, Yuki Ishikawa, which he won via impressive knockout in just 1:52.
From that point, he became one of the top stars on the Pride roster, with wins over big names at the time, like Igor Vovchanchyn, Kevin Randleman, Mikhail Ilioukhine, Murilo Bustamante and even beating UFC star Chuck Liddell who was sent over as part of a tournament.
He had two of the best fights or the era in Pride, both losses to Wanderlei Silva. Silva won the first fight with knees in 6:28 on November 9, 2003, in one of the real wars of the era. The rematch, where Silva retained Prides middleweight (205 pound) title, also via knees, on October 31, 2004, was that years match of the year.
Jackson had left Pride to sign with the WFA, an organization that ran one PPV, and then went belly-up. UFC purchased the assets of the WFA largely to get Jacksons contract.
Jackson debuted in UFC with a win over Marvin Eastman, and followed by beating Liddell a second time on May 26, 2007, to win the light heavyweight title with a knockout in just 1:53. At the time, the show did the third biggest PPV number in UFC history, with approximately 650,000 buys. He followed with a decision win on September 8, 2007, in London, in the UFC vs. Pride title unification match, beating Dan Henderson. The first-ever title unification match, and at the time a rarity, a title match on free TV. The match itself was seen by 5,811,000 viewers, still the third largest total for a fight on cable television, behind only a 2006 Ken Shamrock vs. Tito Ortiz fight and a 2010 taped Kimbo Slice vs. Roy Nelson fight.
But Jackson lost his title to Forrest Griffin on July 5, 2008, via close decision. Ten days later, he went on a crazy afternoon drive, with a police chase, hitting several cars while driving on the wrong side of the road, as well as sending pedestrians fleeing as he drove on the sidewalk. UFC went to bat for him, with Dana White flying out to help him immediately. Jackson was charged with two felonies and four misdemeanors. He plea bargained down to one felony of evading police and driving in the opposite direction of traffic, and one misdemeanor, with the rest of the charges dismissed. He served no time, and completed 200 hours of community service. He was later sued by Holly Griggs, alleging that her stomach hitting her steering wheel when Jackson hit her vehicle caused a miscarriage. However, her medical records and physician determined that the miscarriage was not related to the accident and her case was thrown out.
After a season as coaches seemingly at war with each other, and some of the best build up programming in UFC history, a May 29, 2010, fight with Jackson against Rashad Evans did in the range of 1 million buys, one of the most successful UFC PPV shows in history and easily its most successful for a fight where no title was at stake. The fight didnt live up to expectations, with Evans speed and wrestling giving him a decision win. After a lucky win over Lyoto Machida in a fight that he himself admitted he lost, but Machidas lack of aggression and the ten point must system gave him a split decision, he followed with a win over Matt Hamill and got his final UFC title shot.
He drew well in a title challenge, losing via fourth round choke to Jon Jones on September 24, 2011, in Denver, but lost his next two fights, to Ryan Bader and Teixeira, via decision. In the Bader fight, he was outwrestled. He came in with a knee injury, missed weight by several pounds, and admitted using and being cleared for use of testosterone replacement therapy. He took the fight on February 26, 2012, because it was at the Saitama Super Arena in Japan, and he badly wanted to return to the arena and country he had his career making battles in.
A funny aspect of this story is Jackson must have been in talks with One FC in Asia. When Jackson on 6/3 on Twitter said that he was going to be fighting soon, Victor Cui, the CEO of One FC, then responded saying that he would be seeing him soon. Once it got out that it was Bellator, and not One FC he was signing with, the tweet was deleted by Cui.
While Bellator passed on trying to sign Jon Fitch, they are currently in talks with Cheick Kongo.
UFC and Televisa are partners in the new channel, which will air nearly every UFC fight live during the course of the year, as well as carry weigh-ins, news shows, and air archival footage of old events from UFC, Pride, WEC and Strikeforce.
The channel is expected to be available in about 20 Latin American countries. The more early emphasis will be on Mexico and Argentina, which, based on web site traffic, are in the top ten countries worldwide when it comes to interest in the promotion.
UFC had toyed with the idea of a 24 hour channel in 2011, plans similar to that of WWE at the time, for the United States. The idea at the time was not to be a subscription channel, but to purchase G-4. It fell apart when the FOX deal came to fruition and FOX wanted to turn Fuel into something approximating a UFC channel as part of a long-term goal of building an audience for the station, before it would eventually turn into Fox Sports 2.
Lorenzo said today (Friday), it was one of the three major deals in company history, the FOX deal here, the Globo deal (in Brazil), and now this Televisa deal said Jamie Pollack, Senior Vice President and General Manager of UFC Latin America. This is a massive media deal within sports, entertainment, media. Weve got other leagues, the NFL, Major League Baseball, they cant break into this Latin American market the way were breaking into it.
Javier Balseca Gonzalez, Televisas publicity and promotion coordinator told Variety that the channel would launch around September.
The basic battle plan is to use the power of Televisa, easily the most powerful media entity in the market, to promote the UFC stars and fights in Mexico, on talk shows, news shows, and in other forms of media. Several of Televisas major talk show personalities are UFC fans and expressed interest in getting stars as guests. Televisa also has strong programming connections throughout Latin America.
They would also promote shows with Countdown specials airing on various Televisa channels. This would include regular coverage on the Televisa Deportes Network, which aired the Cain Velasquez vs. Antonio Bigfoot Silva fight live on May 25. Another vehicle that will be used to promote UFC is Telehits, Mexicos version of MTV, although it is far stronger in its marketplace than MTV is in the U.S. marketplace. The station is also popular throughout Latin America.
One of the biggest aspects of the deal is that four UFC shows per year would be airing on Canal 5. The station, which concentrates on youth-oriented programming is one of the networks big four channels available in virtually every television household in Mexico.
The shows will air the top two fights on selected major events, a deal similar to what UFC has with Globo in Brazil. In Brazil, the shows usually feature shows where a Brazilian star like Anderson Silva, Junior Dos Santos or Jose Aldo is headlining. In Mexico, one would expect Velasquez fights to air live, as well as other major events featuring the biggest names.
On those shows, the UFC Channel would air the entire show up until the last two fights.
Velasquez, whose father was born in Mexico, has given that country a natural hero as the current heavyweight champion.
Its a great thing to have, but the brand itself stands on its own, said Pollack. Anderson Silva, Jon Jones, Chuck Liddell, all of those guys, are huge stars in Mexico. There is huge awareness.
Cains been a tremendous help. The people there understand the attributes and respect the discipline of fighting in the UFC. Theres a real understanding of that in Mexico. In some ways, the media has actually been covering us on a more consistent basis--the Mexican mainstream media and newspapers.
For exposure of the product, the Canal 5 deal gives the company far more than it has ever had previously.
Similarly, The Golden Channel, affiliated with Televisa, will be carrying similar programming throughout Central and South America.
The question becomes whether the product is strong enough to go to a pay channel format. Such a format will greatly service its existing fan base, giving them access to everything they would want. But there wont be the weekly free television big events, like Mexicos leading sport, soccer, has, or boxing and pro wrestling have.
There is an argument that a pay-TV format would lead to more consistent revenues. Pay-per-view of single major events sees numbers range greatly, based on the stars and the match-ups. For people used to watching a station regularly, getting them to continue all year as viewers is easier than bringing them back each month and always having to sell a new pay-per-view show that the fan base may or may not buy. But thats really more of an issue when it comes to WWEs business decisions given the pay-TV channel is being geared for markets where UFC has no existing PPV.
Televisa has a lot of experience with the Pay-TV market, with more than 40 entertainment channels, but this will be its first venture into a pay sports channel.
Televisa is 100 percent committed to this, said Pollack. Theyre making a big investment on their own. Lorenzo is very bullish on this channel. This is a long-term thing, a strategic business decision.
He also noted this is a test market of sorts. If this is successful, the idea of expanding a 24-hour channel to other parts of the world would be a natural.
We believe its a business worth investing into now. We could get on television and get a license fee. That would be no risk. This shows the level of commitment that we have in Latin America, with Televisa, and the commitment they have with us.
Youve got the strength of the brand in international markets, and how that can be translated. It can be a very turn key business once youve established a UFC network. This will be a good indicator. The success of Brazil and the success were going to have in Latin America is going to help drive the rest of the business outside the U.S. Its a benchmark.
Due to existing television deals, such a move isnt likely soon for the U.S., Canada or Brazil. Its not going to happen, at least in that form, in the U.S. until the FOX contract exists, which means December 31, 2018. Any predictions of what the landscape will look like then made today are likely to be way off. In addition, UFCs biggest revenue stream remains its pay-per-view business in North America, which is what keeps everything else afloat.
Its a big deal, said Pollack. A deal with Brazil with TV Globo and this, you want to be with the best in these markets. The Latin American media market has a lot of concentration. They (Televisa) own radio stations, newspapers and online portals. This is not just about television. There are whole different platforms you get.
Besides airing all live events from the start of the card, including what are the Facebook prelim fights in the U.S., all the shoulder programming around the 35 live events per year, news shows, and the various Ultimate Fighter shows.
An affiliation with Televisa will also open up doors as far as presenting live events, although UFC has traditionally insisted on complete control of its live presentation.
The exposure should also lead to fighters coming from all over Latin America to the UFC, where they could be flagship stars in their home country, like Velasquez is in Mexico, Michael Bisping and Dan Hardy were in the U.K., and George Sotiropolous was at first in Australia.
UFC has recruited promising Mexican fighters and sent them to train with Greg Jackson, most notably Erik Goyito Perez, a bantamweight from Monterrey.
They are also looking at an Ultimate Fighter for Latin America, with fighters coming from the entire region.
There are already gyms all over Mexico, Costa Rica, Peru and Argentina, said Pollack.
Pollack noted the first major live show is likely for next year, in Mexico City.
A state-of-the-art building, Arena Ciudad, which holds 22,000 fans, opened last year in Mexico City.
Mexico has had a long cultural history with both boxing and pro wrestling, which is why Dana White had always earmarked the country as a potential major market dating back to his beginnings with the company in 2001.
In 1993, boxer Julio Cesar Chavez fought Greg Haugen at outdoor Estadio Azteca which drew 132,274 fans. Even as recently as five years ago, there were a number of pro wrestling events in the city every night, and the major Friday night show consistently did between 10,000 and 18,000 fans.
The intent is to go down with a show in Mexico next year, and eventually intend to go to Buenos Aries, Argentina and Santiago, Chile, said Pollack.
The company is working on similar television deals in places like Nicaragua, Peru and Colombia, with help from Televisa. The idea is similar in those markets, the idea of airing four major events each year on free television to build interest in the network.
The price of the network has not been determined. Pollack said it will vary by the country.
There are natural comparisons with this and the WWEs attempt to do the same thing. The difference was WWE was finding it difficult to negotiate carriage deals, while being in partnership with Televisa opens doors for UFC throughout Latin America. UFC is going with more of a low-cost option, and are only running it in markets they dont have PPV deals in, so they arent cannibalizing a major revenue stream.
On the flip side, WWE is both far more established and more popular in the U.S. and Canada than UFC is in any Latin American country except Brazil. WWE is also a naturally stronger television product due to its ability to use its biggest characters weekly and create soap opera storylines. For all the help Televisa can give and doors it can open, UFCs popularity is very much untested in Mexico and Latin America to the extent of being able to make a go with a subscription television station.
Both network ideas are complete uncharted water. With WWE, at least there is a guaranteed base, because close to 300,000 people in the U.S. purchased the Royal Rumble at $44.95 or $54.95 and 600,000 purchased WrestleMania at $59.95 and $69.95 (the 650,000 figure includes Canada and Puerto Rico). So its a lock to me that a lot more than 300,000 will buy the network at $14.95 or less per month. WWE will have a harder time with clearance issues since Televisa already has the structure in place with its 40 pay channels that are already in the target markets, and the idea that pay channels for entertainment are viable in the market. But with the UFC Channel, there is no benchmark at all for how many people in those countries are fans willing to pay monthly for content on television.
Spike TV announced its second joint signing for pro wrestling and MMA in former UFC light heavyweight champion Quinton Jackson, whose UFC contract expired after his 1/26 decision loss to Glover Teixeira in Chicago.
The network announced Jackson having signed a multi-year deal with Spike, Bellator and TNA. It would be the second such deal of its type, the first being last years deal with King Mo Lawal.
Jackson, 35, will immediately become the top star of the Bellator promotion. Plans are to debut him on Spike with his own reality TV show, that would lead to his first fight, likely in the fall season.
A Spike press release also talked about using Jackson in other entertainment initiatives. It was not clear at press time how he would fit into TNA. Carter had been talking on Twitter about a huge free agent signing the company was about to announce.
Jacksons first appearance on the new deal will be on the 6/6 Impact TV tapings in Duluth, GA, and hes scheduled to appear on the first show that will be taped two hours before air time.
The signing is interesting because the big question becomes, how many viable opponents does Bellator have for him? Normal Bellator protocol would have him enter a tournament, but, with all the physical wear-and-tear on him, the idea of Jackson fighting every four weeks would be tough. They could put him in a four-man tournament, since that would only require two fights, with hope it can build to a title fight. Once that happens the scheduled would be okay, given Bellators champions seem to end up fighting on a similar schedule as UFCs champions.
The pro wrestling aspect is interesting, if only because, after all the hype, King Mo one year later is still a beginner in developmental, only having had a handful of matches in the Louisville area. His only TNA real exposure was to build up an appearance as a referee at Bound for Glory, in a role designed more to stay out of the way.
Jackson is more of an established star, but were long past the day that an MMA star going on a pro wrestling television show is going to make a big difference. Like Mo, Jackson was a wrestling fan growing up in Memphis, and his act with barking, howling and wearing a chain around his neck as he came to the ring was taken directly from one of his childhood favorites, The Junkyard Dog. Like Mo, both will mention Jerry Lawler as one of their heroes growing up. Jackson got into amateur wrestling to become a pro wrestler, but wound up in MMA instead. He did one episode of Raw, on June 7, 2010, when helping to promote The A-Team movie, where he played B.A., the role made famous by Mr. T in the original TV show.
During the show, Jackson went as B.A. Baracus, although acknowledged as Jackson. The Bella Twins saw him and noted they recognized him as MMA fighter Rampage Jackson and said theyd seen his fights. The idea was not to insult the audience and ignore hes an MMA fighter, but from that point on, it was just B.A. Baracus on the show. He was in a show-long storyline of The A-Team being brought in to investigate who stole Lawlers crown. The backstage segments were all kinds of awful, as in the level of the worst of WCW.
Jackson does have the kind of personality that in theory would work in pro wrestling. Hes got more charisma than most fighters, and is a great promo. But the Mo experiment showed the difficulty, and perhaps, the impossibility, according to Kurt Angle, of doing both at the same time, especially when starting out from scratch. In the case of Jackson, at his age, and still continuing as a fighter, its really hard to figure out how to make him work within the TNA structure. TNA, after much hype, was able to do little with Bobby Lashley and Mo with the same two-sport superstar type gimmick. Probably the only person who could have done both was Josh Barnett, because he has years of experience and is a good pro wrestler already.
Bellators current light heavyweight champion is Attila Vegh, who defeated Christian MPumbu for the title on 2/28 in Rio Rancho, NM, a fact that only the most ardent Bellator fan would know off the top of their head. Vegh is scheduled next to defend his title against Emanuel Newton, who won a tournament that was clearly designed for Lawal, who Newton knocked out in one of the bigger upsets in MMA history. They have two name fighters in the division, Renato Babalu Sobral, and Lawal, who are both in a four-man tournament which starts on 6/19, with the tournament winner getting a shot at the Vegh vs. Newton winner. Aside from them, the closest thing to a name fighter on the light heavyweight roster is 42-year-old former UFC fighter Vladimir Matyushenko.
There is an issue with Jackson, in regard to the difficulty in keeping him happy. This was evident in UFC. Jackson was one of the best paid fighters in the company, earning in the $12 million or more range during his six years. But he was constantly unhappy over pay, and heavily blasted management and talked of wanting to get out. Those close to Jackson said he was very happy with the money offer he got from Spike.
Spike scheduled a press conference with Jackson, Spike President Kevin Kay, Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney and TNA President Dixie Carter for 6/5.
Unlike Mo, a former Strikeforce champion but who had never been in the UFC spotlight, Jackson was one of the biggest stars in company history.
Still hoping to be a pro wrestler, Jacksons high school wrestling success at Raleigh-Egypt High in Memphis led to him wrestling in college, and then discovering MMA in 1999. He debuted, beating current UFC fighter Mike Pyle in Memphis, and migrated to Southern California. He fought on the small-time scene, going 10-1, when he was brought to Japan on July 29, 2001, with the idea he was an unskilled but physically impressive fighter who would be a victim for Prides biggest star, Kazushi Sakuraba.
Jackson and Mo had a well-known beef at the time Mo was in Strikeforce and Jackson was in UFC, but they settled it a long time ago. In comparing the two, Jackson is obviously the far bigger star and better known name, and was a proven drawing card which Mo never was. Jackson, from a personality standpoint, has more natural charisma and is more suited to pro wrestling. But I strongly believing that Mo wanted to be a pro wrestler a lot more, and is fine with learning from the ground up in OVW. With Jackson, between his age and what hes used to earning, I wonder if hell be willing to go through what Mo has gone through to start like a first-day student.
Jackson was billed in Japan as a homeless man who was an unskilled street fighter, as part of the fantasy world that Japanese MMA was at the time. Jackson ended up using his power to slam Sakuraba all over the place, injuring him, but he couldnt finish him. Eventually he got tired and Sakuraba won via choke in 5:41, but with his JYD gimmick, his fake back story and the exciting fight, he got over big. Still, Pride had only brought him in to be the big muscled street fighter for Sakuraba to lose to. Stephen Quadros, who was announcing for the promotion, pushed to Pride that Jackson had the potential to be a big star. His next fight in Japan was actually for the Battlarts pro wrestling promotion, where he won via doctor stoppage of Alexander Otsuka. This led to a match three weeks later on a Pride show, against Battlarts top star, Yuki Ishikawa, which he won via impressive knockout in just 1:52.
From that point, he became one of the top stars on the Pride roster, with wins over big names at the time, like Igor Vovchanchyn, Kevin Randleman, Mikhail Ilioukhine, Murilo Bustamante and even beating UFC star Chuck Liddell who was sent over as part of a tournament.
He had two of the best fights or the era in Pride, both losses to Wanderlei Silva. Silva won the first fight with knees in 6:28 on November 9, 2003, in one of the real wars of the era. The rematch, where Silva retained Prides middleweight (205 pound) title, also via knees, on October 31, 2004, was that years match of the year.
Jackson had left Pride to sign with the WFA, an organization that ran one PPV, and then went belly-up. UFC purchased the assets of the WFA largely to get Jacksons contract.
Jackson debuted in UFC with a win over Marvin Eastman, and followed by beating Liddell a second time on May 26, 2007, to win the light heavyweight title with a knockout in just 1:53. At the time, the show did the third biggest PPV number in UFC history, with approximately 650,000 buys. He followed with a decision win on September 8, 2007, in London, in the UFC vs. Pride title unification match, beating Dan Henderson. The first-ever title unification match, and at the time a rarity, a title match on free TV. The match itself was seen by 5,811,000 viewers, still the third largest total for a fight on cable television, behind only a 2006 Ken Shamrock vs. Tito Ortiz fight and a 2010 taped Kimbo Slice vs. Roy Nelson fight.
But Jackson lost his title to Forrest Griffin on July 5, 2008, via close decision. Ten days later, he went on a crazy afternoon drive, with a police chase, hitting several cars while driving on the wrong side of the road, as well as sending pedestrians fleeing as he drove on the sidewalk. UFC went to bat for him, with Dana White flying out to help him immediately. Jackson was charged with two felonies and four misdemeanors. He plea bargained down to one felony of evading police and driving in the opposite direction of traffic, and one misdemeanor, with the rest of the charges dismissed. He served no time, and completed 200 hours of community service. He was later sued by Holly Griggs, alleging that her stomach hitting her steering wheel when Jackson hit her vehicle caused a miscarriage. However, her medical records and physician determined that the miscarriage was not related to the accident and her case was thrown out.
After a season as coaches seemingly at war with each other, and some of the best build up programming in UFC history, a May 29, 2010, fight with Jackson against Rashad Evans did in the range of 1 million buys, one of the most successful UFC PPV shows in history and easily its most successful for a fight where no title was at stake. The fight didnt live up to expectations, with Evans speed and wrestling giving him a decision win. After a lucky win over Lyoto Machida in a fight that he himself admitted he lost, but Machidas lack of aggression and the ten point must system gave him a split decision, he followed with a win over Matt Hamill and got his final UFC title shot.
He drew well in a title challenge, losing via fourth round choke to Jon Jones on September 24, 2011, in Denver, but lost his next two fights, to Ryan Bader and Teixeira, via decision. In the Bader fight, he was outwrestled. He came in with a knee injury, missed weight by several pounds, and admitted using and being cleared for use of testosterone replacement therapy. He took the fight on February 26, 2012, because it was at the Saitama Super Arena in Japan, and he badly wanted to return to the arena and country he had his career making battles in.
A funny aspect of this story is Jackson must have been in talks with One FC in Asia. When Jackson on 6/3 on Twitter said that he was going to be fighting soon, Victor Cui, the CEO of One FC, then responded saying that he would be seeing him soon. Once it got out that it was Bellator, and not One FC he was signing with, the tweet was deleted by Cui.
While Bellator passed on trying to sign Jon Fitch, they are currently in talks with Cheick Kongo.
dream
Member
Antonio Rogerio Nogueira has pulled out of the 6/15 show in Winnipeg due to a back injury, and because they couldnt put together a replacement fight with two weeks notice, Mauricio Shogun Rua, his opponent, was pulled from the show. Chael Sonnen had gone on Twitter immediately after the injury became public stating hed take the fight. The fight was definitely being talked about and at one point the belief was it would happen on that show, although those in the company only said it was only being talked about and was not a done deal when it was being reported like it was happening. The way it was explained to me is when Sonnen talked with UFC management, he asked for the fight for 8/17 in Boston, since he wanted to be part of the Fox Sports 1 debut. UFC thought he was asking to fill in for this coming show. At the end of the day, he indicated he would do it if they wanted, but would rather be on the FS 1 debut show. Obviously, from his perspective, that made the most sense, getting the fight with a training camp as opposed to cold. They went to Rua, and Rua wasnt really that hot on fighting Sonnen, even though untrained, on such short notice, essentially the exact same position Jon Jones was in when he turned it down. Rua must have accepted it at first, because he claimed he was studying Sonnen fights when he got the word he was being moved off the card. It also could be with no guarantee of Jon Jones fighting on the Boston show, they felt Boston needed a main event. The fight was also at one point offered to Wanderlei Silva, but hes not interested in fighting until the end of the year. Silva is not going to fight on 8/17 in Boston either. He said this past week that he took a beating in his March fight with Brian Stann, and is targeting the end of the year for his return. He said hes like to face Sonnen then. On UFC Tonight on 6/4, Sonnen said the fight was a go for Boston. He also had words for Silva, saying that the reason he asked to fight Silva was because he was looking for the guy with the worst record in the company. According to one report, Luke Rockhold was also being talked about for Sonnen before this came up. Regarding reports on visa issues related to Sonnen, with his felony, there would have been an issue. One UFC source said that it was not the reason the fight was moved to Boston. The source said there would have been a procedure theyd have to go through, and being so late in the game made it more stressful, but they believe if they were able to sign the fight that theyd have been able to get it on the show and that wasnt the reason the fight was in Boston. It hurts Winnipeg, because of the top six fighters originally advertised on the show when tickets went on sale and sold out in a day or two to the tune of $3 million (Renan Barao vs. Eddie Wineland, Dan Henderson vs. Rashad Evans and Rua vs. Nogueira), only two remain on the show. The five-fight PPV show is Henderson vs. Evans, Roy Nelson vs. Stipe Miocic, Alexis Davis vs. Rosi Sexton, Pat Barry vs. Shawn Jordan and Ryan Jimmo vs. Igor Pokrajac. The show was never going to do much in numbers. Honestly I think whatever baseline numbers the show was going to do, itll still do. Evans and Henderson are far bigger stars to the public than the other four and the other four wasnt the kind of name depth that was going to move it from baseline.
As far as what is next for Wineland, with the decision made a few days earlier to pull him from the show rather than get him a new opponent, it depends on Baraos injury and Dominick Cruz. If Barao can fight shortly, theyd book him against Wineland. If Barao is out for a while and Cruz is able to return at close enough to the time Barao is ready, then theyll go with Barao vs. Cruz, and Wineland, through no fault of his own, would likely have to face a top level contender, perhaps even Urijah Faber again, to set up the winner being in line for a title shot.
We didnt have full details last week, but the prelims to UFC 160 on FX did a 0.86 rating and 1.31 million viewers. The average for prelims on FX is 0.88 and 1.27 million viewers so essentially they were right at normal levels. The show did a 1.16 in Males 18-34 and 1.26 in Males 35-49. FX was No. 2 on cable in all the key adult male demos during the 8-10 p.m. Saturday time slot.
There was a story in the Las Vegas Review-Journal saying that Las Vegas Speedway owner Chris Powell had approached Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta on 5/31 at a banquet where White and Powell were both inducted into the Southern Nevada Sports Hall of Fame, about running a show there in September. White said, I like it. I would be cool as hell, and we have a few fights coming up that could pull it off. Powell talked about setting up a bowl set-up and not trying to use the speedways 132,000 seats. Given they have PPV dates already on 8/31 in Milwaukee and 9/21 in Toronto, the September date doesnt make sense on the surface. Plus, as far as a superfight, with Anderson Silva fighting 7/6, a September date is pushing things. Anyway, from other sources, lets just say the chance of this happening is very slim, particularly at the time mentioned. But White and Powell did discuss the idea at the banquet.
Daniel Cormier laid out his plans, which are to do one last fight at heavyweight and then his following fight would be his 205 pound debut, probably at the end of the year. Cormier originally wanted the winner of the Nogueira vs. Werdum fight. However, on 6/4, at a press call, Nelson said that Cormier turned down a fight with him. Cormier was mad about that, saying that he was asked about facing Nelson when they moved Nelson to that show, but Cormier was too banged up after his Frank Mir fight on 4/20 to do another fight eight weeks later. So he said, win or lose, he wants Nelson next, to shut him up- and do a favor for Dana White, who Nelson constantly drives crazy.
Nevada also talked about making changes including going from 6-to-1 to 4-to-1 as far as what would be considered a positive when it comes to urine testing for testosterone. Many states have it 4-to-1, as do most international governing bodies. They also talked of having a provision to test both blood and urine (right now they only test urine) when it comes to out of competition testing. They are also considering testing for HCG (Human Chorionic Gonadotropin), which is used by steroid users after a cycle to get their testosterone production back to normal, and also used by people on TRT (this would theoretically help catch people using testosterone without it being approved ahead of time, although if people know its being tested for, they would probably just not use it).
This is one strange miscommunication. Anderson Silva finally signed his 10-fight contract not all that long ago. Silva said that he only wanted a four-fight contract. However, when UFC was offering an eight-fight deal, UFC claimed Silva came back and asked for ten. Silva said that he did say ten, but it was just a figure of speech. It really doesnt matter, since Silva is 38, and hell fight in UFC until he retires most likely.
The reason Ronda Rousey stormed out of the building during the first day of filming Ultimate Fighter is she was set up. Things were told to her to lead her to believe that they were going to do a Miesha Tate vs. Cat Zingano season with all the things said back-and-forth regarding Tate and her boyfriend, Bryan Caraway, and Zingano and her husband, fighter and Jiu Jitsu expert Mauricio Zingano. Then, when she saw Tate, it set her off. Rousey said she got punkd to MMAjunkie.com and said she cant say anything more until the show airs but said it does make for good TV the way it happened. Still, Rouseys mom, Anna Marie DeMars, the first American ever to win a world championship in judo, was not happy. She said her first reaction was, Thats a pretty dick move. She was mad they blind sided her daughter on the air. If youre going to have an athletic competition, then it should be fair. Among other things, that means you dont give one competitor information that the other doesnt have. You dont let one player know something weeks in advance of the other player. So it is pretty clear that whoever is making the decisions here has decided this is not an athletic competition, its a reality show. Thats what a lot of people have been saying all along, its just a sideshow and not a serious athletic event. I cant make a case for her argument on this. They arent fighting until December. If they were fighting next month the situation would be very different. The fact Tate knew she was coaching a week earlier than Rousey for something in late May should have no effect on a fight on 12/28.
Caraway will be part of the show as one of Tates assistant coaches, which should add to the drama since Rousey and Caraway actually have considerably more heat than Rousey and Tate. Rousey actually liked the idea of Tate coaching against her, thinking it would be the more marketable pairing and make for the best television. Miesha by herself isnt that bad. Miesha in combination with her pet boyfriend, Mr. Tate, is frickin something else. Shes different when hes around. I cant stand him. I really feel like if she wasnt with him, she would fight better and she would be a better person. Hes always glued to her hip, because if hes not next to her, no one ever notices him.
Tate already had a blow up when she found out Kim Winslow was the referee. Tate didnt like that fact Winslow stopped her match, where she was ahead on the scorecards, against Cat Zingano. I think she sucks as a referee, Tate said.
Benson Henderson vs. T.J. Grant for the lightweight title will headline the 8/31 PPV show in Milwaukee. Frank Mir vs. Josh Barnett will be the No. 2 fight. Henderson vs. Grant had been talked about to main event the Fox Sports 1 debut in Boston. This will be an immediate test of what level Barnett really is at. If Mir wins, Barnett is not likely to be a factor in the heavyweight division. If Barnett wins, with the division thinning out at the top with the move of Cormier to light heavyweight, departure of Cheick Kongo, demotion of Bigfoot Silva, its really Alistair Overeem, Barnett, Fabricio Werdum and possibly Travis Browne at the guys underneath Cain Velasquez and Junior Dos Santos.
Henderson vs. Grant would figure to be more of a 250,000 range show unless Hendersons two FOX appearances have greatly enhanced his value, and Henderson doesnt have the opponent to help him. Realistically, its more of a good TV main event than a strong PPV headliner, but they have a date on 8/31 on PPV and those are the only two titles where the timing works out, which are Henderson or Jon Jones and Jones was iffy since hes not cleared and they wanted to announce a main event this week so it was the only title match available on that date. Grant, while coming off a great win over Gray Maynard in the first round, isnt a guy who is going to mean more than baseline as a PPV main eventer. Mir vs. Barnett is a decent semi, and given that both can talk, if they get the right exposure the last week, they could help. To me, Mir vs. Barnett would be the real main event on that show, even though not pushed as such, unless Jones is defending.
B.J. Penn hasnt decided on when he is going to fight again, or if he is, but if he does, he has said hes moving back to lightweight, which would be the only thing that makes sense since hes just too small for the modern welterweight division, and his mentality of wanting to fight guys who are naturally 20 pounds heavier than he is just isnt going to work at his size in 2013;.
As far as what is next for Wineland, with the decision made a few days earlier to pull him from the show rather than get him a new opponent, it depends on Baraos injury and Dominick Cruz. If Barao can fight shortly, theyd book him against Wineland. If Barao is out for a while and Cruz is able to return at close enough to the time Barao is ready, then theyll go with Barao vs. Cruz, and Wineland, through no fault of his own, would likely have to face a top level contender, perhaps even Urijah Faber again, to set up the winner being in line for a title shot.
We didnt have full details last week, but the prelims to UFC 160 on FX did a 0.86 rating and 1.31 million viewers. The average for prelims on FX is 0.88 and 1.27 million viewers so essentially they were right at normal levels. The show did a 1.16 in Males 18-34 and 1.26 in Males 35-49. FX was No. 2 on cable in all the key adult male demos during the 8-10 p.m. Saturday time slot.
There was a story in the Las Vegas Review-Journal saying that Las Vegas Speedway owner Chris Powell had approached Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta on 5/31 at a banquet where White and Powell were both inducted into the Southern Nevada Sports Hall of Fame, about running a show there in September. White said, I like it. I would be cool as hell, and we have a few fights coming up that could pull it off. Powell talked about setting up a bowl set-up and not trying to use the speedways 132,000 seats. Given they have PPV dates already on 8/31 in Milwaukee and 9/21 in Toronto, the September date doesnt make sense on the surface. Plus, as far as a superfight, with Anderson Silva fighting 7/6, a September date is pushing things. Anyway, from other sources, lets just say the chance of this happening is very slim, particularly at the time mentioned. But White and Powell did discuss the idea at the banquet.
Daniel Cormier laid out his plans, which are to do one last fight at heavyweight and then his following fight would be his 205 pound debut, probably at the end of the year. Cormier originally wanted the winner of the Nogueira vs. Werdum fight. However, on 6/4, at a press call, Nelson said that Cormier turned down a fight with him. Cormier was mad about that, saying that he was asked about facing Nelson when they moved Nelson to that show, but Cormier was too banged up after his Frank Mir fight on 4/20 to do another fight eight weeks later. So he said, win or lose, he wants Nelson next, to shut him up- and do a favor for Dana White, who Nelson constantly drives crazy.
Nevada also talked about making changes including going from 6-to-1 to 4-to-1 as far as what would be considered a positive when it comes to urine testing for testosterone. Many states have it 4-to-1, as do most international governing bodies. They also talked of having a provision to test both blood and urine (right now they only test urine) when it comes to out of competition testing. They are also considering testing for HCG (Human Chorionic Gonadotropin), which is used by steroid users after a cycle to get their testosterone production back to normal, and also used by people on TRT (this would theoretically help catch people using testosterone without it being approved ahead of time, although if people know its being tested for, they would probably just not use it).
This is one strange miscommunication. Anderson Silva finally signed his 10-fight contract not all that long ago. Silva said that he only wanted a four-fight contract. However, when UFC was offering an eight-fight deal, UFC claimed Silva came back and asked for ten. Silva said that he did say ten, but it was just a figure of speech. It really doesnt matter, since Silva is 38, and hell fight in UFC until he retires most likely.
The reason Ronda Rousey stormed out of the building during the first day of filming Ultimate Fighter is she was set up. Things were told to her to lead her to believe that they were going to do a Miesha Tate vs. Cat Zingano season with all the things said back-and-forth regarding Tate and her boyfriend, Bryan Caraway, and Zingano and her husband, fighter and Jiu Jitsu expert Mauricio Zingano. Then, when she saw Tate, it set her off. Rousey said she got punkd to MMAjunkie.com and said she cant say anything more until the show airs but said it does make for good TV the way it happened. Still, Rouseys mom, Anna Marie DeMars, the first American ever to win a world championship in judo, was not happy. She said her first reaction was, Thats a pretty dick move. She was mad they blind sided her daughter on the air. If youre going to have an athletic competition, then it should be fair. Among other things, that means you dont give one competitor information that the other doesnt have. You dont let one player know something weeks in advance of the other player. So it is pretty clear that whoever is making the decisions here has decided this is not an athletic competition, its a reality show. Thats what a lot of people have been saying all along, its just a sideshow and not a serious athletic event. I cant make a case for her argument on this. They arent fighting until December. If they were fighting next month the situation would be very different. The fact Tate knew she was coaching a week earlier than Rousey for something in late May should have no effect on a fight on 12/28.
Caraway will be part of the show as one of Tates assistant coaches, which should add to the drama since Rousey and Caraway actually have considerably more heat than Rousey and Tate. Rousey actually liked the idea of Tate coaching against her, thinking it would be the more marketable pairing and make for the best television. Miesha by herself isnt that bad. Miesha in combination with her pet boyfriend, Mr. Tate, is frickin something else. Shes different when hes around. I cant stand him. I really feel like if she wasnt with him, she would fight better and she would be a better person. Hes always glued to her hip, because if hes not next to her, no one ever notices him.
Tate already had a blow up when she found out Kim Winslow was the referee. Tate didnt like that fact Winslow stopped her match, where she was ahead on the scorecards, against Cat Zingano. I think she sucks as a referee, Tate said.
Benson Henderson vs. T.J. Grant for the lightweight title will headline the 8/31 PPV show in Milwaukee. Frank Mir vs. Josh Barnett will be the No. 2 fight. Henderson vs. Grant had been talked about to main event the Fox Sports 1 debut in Boston. This will be an immediate test of what level Barnett really is at. If Mir wins, Barnett is not likely to be a factor in the heavyweight division. If Barnett wins, with the division thinning out at the top with the move of Cormier to light heavyweight, departure of Cheick Kongo, demotion of Bigfoot Silva, its really Alistair Overeem, Barnett, Fabricio Werdum and possibly Travis Browne at the guys underneath Cain Velasquez and Junior Dos Santos.
Henderson vs. Grant would figure to be more of a 250,000 range show unless Hendersons two FOX appearances have greatly enhanced his value, and Henderson doesnt have the opponent to help him. Realistically, its more of a good TV main event than a strong PPV headliner, but they have a date on 8/31 on PPV and those are the only two titles where the timing works out, which are Henderson or Jon Jones and Jones was iffy since hes not cleared and they wanted to announce a main event this week so it was the only title match available on that date. Grant, while coming off a great win over Gray Maynard in the first round, isnt a guy who is going to mean more than baseline as a PPV main eventer. Mir vs. Barnett is a decent semi, and given that both can talk, if they get the right exposure the last week, they could help. To me, Mir vs. Barnett would be the real main event on that show, even though not pushed as such, unless Jones is defending.
B.J. Penn hasnt decided on when he is going to fight again, or if he is, but if he does, he has said hes moving back to lightweight, which would be the only thing that makes sense since hes just too small for the modern welterweight division, and his mentality of wanting to fight guys who are naturally 20 pounds heavier than he is just isnt going to work at his size in 2013;.
TheKaeptain
Banned
I laughed my ass off when I saw that tweet.
D
Deleted member 47027
Unconfirmed Member
MMA-GAF is set to debut in GWF 2.0. The entrance is rendering.
Brother Heel, Lambda Piscium as the swarthy Frye-a-like, and Can as the pretty boy.
It's rendering, will be up here - opinions needed. I'm pretty proud of it. You all will take the GWF by storm.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiC_6iRse4U&feature=youtu.be
Brother Heel, Lambda Piscium as the swarthy Frye-a-like, and Can as the pretty boy.
It's rendering, will be up here - opinions needed. I'm pretty proud of it. You all will take the GWF by storm.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiC_6iRse4U&feature=youtu.be
DBZ is the only acceptable anime, that's a known fact. Acceptable is really selling it short considering how pivotal it was in shaping me into the most deadly individual in my area code.
TheKaeptain
Banned
Come on. That shit was boring as fuck. 22 episodes of guys saying they are stronger than the other one. Now Cowboy Bebop, Macross, JoJo's, and shit like that is good. Stuff with an actual story and character growth.
Strength & destructive fighting ability is all that matters in life and once those nukes go off, I'll be prepared.
On a lighter note:
industrian
will gently cradle you as time slowly ticks away.
I was going to joke about the potential of this when the announcement about Rampage going to Bellator was made, but yeah - Rampage is wanting to fight at heavyweight in Bellator.
http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2013/6/5...on-heavyweights-tna-tag-team-king-mo-mma-news
http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2013/6/5...on-heavyweights-tna-tag-team-king-mo-mma-news
TheKaeptain
Banned
Can Rampage make 265?
Lambda Pie
Banned
we gonna run a train on them Wrasslin fools.
Maklershed
Member
industrian
will gently cradle you as time slowly ticks away.
I love his "I think Id be faster than them" line.
Unless he weighs in at 220-230lbs then guys like Volkov will just fuck him up. He'll be Brett Rogers 2.0.
Unless he weighs in at 220-230lbs then guys like Volkov will just fuck him up. He'll be Brett Rogers 2.0.
industrian
will gently cradle you as time slowly ticks away.
And while I'm on the subject of Volkov, Bellator's lack of booking for champions is totally fucking up his development as a fighter.
From 2009 to 2012 he fought at least five times every year. And as he's 25 years old he should be fighting at the same intensity in order to keep that development going.
But oh no, he was unfortunate enough to become a champion! And as such he'll be lucky if he fights just once this year (if they run this proposed HW 4-man tournament in the summer series.)
And herein lies the biggest problem with Bellator: their half-and-half approach with trying to accommodate both tournaments and belts. IMO they should just get rid of the belts and run constant tournaments and seed the previous winners into the second round. Failing that, they should get rid of their talentless HW and LHW divisions and allow guys like Volkov to move to places where their talents are rewarded.
From 2009 to 2012 he fought at least five times every year. And as he's 25 years old he should be fighting at the same intensity in order to keep that development going.
But oh no, he was unfortunate enough to become a champion! And as such he'll be lucky if he fights just once this year (if they run this proposed HW 4-man tournament in the summer series.)
And herein lies the biggest problem with Bellator: their half-and-half approach with trying to accommodate both tournaments and belts. IMO they should just get rid of the belts and run constant tournaments and seed the previous winners into the second round. Failing that, they should get rid of their talentless HW and LHW divisions and allow guys like Volkov to move to places where their talents are rewarded.
That's my shit right there. Television programming becomes much better when you decide how long a show will run before it starts. One season, tight and focused and free of any pretense grown out of stringing the viewer along every episode (we'll keep making new ones as long as we make money!). That leads to a crap narrative nearly every time.
If you are going to run a retirement circuit you best do so in comfort.
Lambda Pie
Banned
Rampage is a big boy, i wouldn't be surprised to see him at 240.
industrian
will gently cradle you as time slowly ticks away.
Burger-eating contests or MMA?
Have you ever seen Rumble with a burger? I haven't. Rampage by UD.
Agreed. Perhaps they realized that their tourney format is considerably better than anything the UFC is offering and are getting complacent. >:
I've been pulling for Rampage to move up for a long time, his iron chin, retard strength, lack of motivation and willingness to bang is perfect for heavyweight, especially on the BadMMA circuit.
industrian
will gently cradle you as time slowly ticks away.
Special 6-round fight: 1 round of MMA followed by 1 round of burger eating.
Bob Sapp can be the Special Guest Enforcer.
I resent Jerry's opinion that I may be capable of enjoying anime. Nerd I won't argue. Anyone else getting hyped for Snyder's Superman?
And of the burgers will be from the Heart Attack Grill:
I'm not all that hyped but I think it's gonna be good.
JLB's guard is the best piece of unintentional comedy in that whole fiasco.
industrian
will gently cradle you as time slowly ticks away.
I love the tournament model. It allows viewers to get familiar with fighters, and allows for rivalries to breed naturally.
But adding belts to the mix is like adding chocolate to a pizza.
Pretty much.
Lambda Pie
Banned
JLB with one month of TDD training would dominate the Ultimate.
industrian
will gently cradle you as time slowly ticks away.
And of the burgers will be from the Heart Attack Grill:
I want to visit Chandler, Arizona solely to have a Quadruple Bypass Burger.
We should have a MMA GAF meetup there.
And of the burgers will be from the Heart Attack Grill:
They serve Milk Shakes and Fries with those Tits?
I mean burgers.
industrian
will gently cradle you as time slowly ticks away.
From what I've heard, the nurses spank you if you can't finish your burger.
And they have a fries bar instead of a salad bar.
And they have a fries bar instead of a salad bar.
The trailers make it look like they are going to focus on Superman trying to fit in with the rest of humanity. If that's the case it's good because that's the only way you make a nearly invincible superhero interesting.
That could work, they could double as the ring girls in between rounds of burger-eating decadence.And of the burgers will be from the Heart Attack Grill:
Host Samurai
Member
Strength & destructive fighting ability is all that matters in life and once those nukes go off, I'll be prepared.
On a lighter note:
Has shitty aesthetics
Yeah, it had some good moments, though mostly due to the animation.Legend of Korra was such a let down for me
Lambda Pie
Banned
Only for the MGS trailer.
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