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MMA |OT3| When you lose you're a can, when you win you're unstoppable.
- Thread starter Heel
- Start date
TheKaeptain
Banned
Did you get wood?
What you say bro? You wouldn't let me or other individuals bang?, bro?
Maklershed
Member
My plea to be a mod - "let me ban, bro!"
Maklershed
Member
I bet Chael Sonnen and Jacob Volkmann are extra salty today. Speaking of dat salt, my local news was at a diner interviewing some dude that was Republican and he was saying about how we can expect 4 more years of "bad trouble" and how the voting system is a joke and we should use the popular vote to elect a president instead of an electoral college (the dude was so angry the reporter didn't feel a need to let him know that Obama would've won through popular vote too). I seriously thought the guy was gonna cry.
TheKaeptain
Banned
I do find it funny that all the people that are mad about Bams winning are uneducated white people or people I know that are racist.
Host Samurai
Member
God so many people are fucking retarded. I have never taken an economics class in my life and I know more about economics than 40 Million + people. Middle class people voting for Romney are fucking stupid...sorry its true.
Don't people realize that most businesses need to survive on that middle class? I would not have nearly as much money if there was no middle class to support my businesses. I can care less if I am taxed a little bit more. I should pay more taxes than a teacher.
Edit. Marijuana being legal is great for another business I am getting involved in as well. Good night last night
Don't people realize that most businesses need to survive on that middle class? I would not have nearly as much money if there was no middle class to support my businesses. I can care less if I am taxed a little bit more. I should pay more taxes than a teacher.
Edit. Marijuana being legal is great for another business I am getting involved in as well. Good night last night
parrotbeak
Member
I spent the day hiking and at beach, and when I got back Mitt was leading both electoral and popular. I was so disgusted. But then I had dinner with friends and by the time I got home Obama had won, so I could go to sleep peacefully.
I went 3/4 on local elections, which is kinda weird for me. But I went 1/4 on constitutional amendments.
I went 3/4 on local elections, which is kinda weird for me. But I went 1/4 on constitutional amendments.
I have two friends who voted Romney (that i know of). Both are Hawaiian and somewhere around the lower end of middle class / top end of lower class. One did it cuz he thinks a R controlled Senate means we should vote R to get more benefits. One is a gun nut and generally retarded. Also I'm a front runner for voting for winners.
These are the people I grew up with, but at least they provide good comedy
TheNatural
My Member!
In other news, anyone want to pool our money and buy THQ? Their stock is falling off worse than EliteXC's.
WCW v NWO World Tour HD remake. Lets go.
Reverse cism.
You just made that up didnt you.
TheNatural
My Member!
Fixed.
All four games were essentially the same actually, Revenge was the one I played most though.
Ninja Scooter
Member
Look at the states that Romney won handily. Do we really want to be more like them?
Maklershed
Member
Officially announced today:
Rampage vs Texeira
TJ Grant vs Wiman <-- wow
Johnson vs Dodson <-- zzzz
Rampage vs Texeira
TJ Grant vs Wiman <-- wow
Johnson vs Dodson <-- zzzz
Host Samurai
Member
Who even goes to those areas?
TheNatural
My Member!
To keep them from voting and turn the states blue, just schedule SEC football on election day.
bone_and_sinew
breaking down barriers in gratuitous nudity
No one, which is why they're flyover states.
Maklershed
Member
Wait what? An event with Cerrone and Pettis fighting in it is going to be headlined by Dodson vs Johson? That's insane.
TheKaeptain
Banned
My gay black cousin was trolling the shit out of our hard right Mexican family members. Thing of beauty.
It's because a lot of dumb people are republicans. Go look at the correlation of upper education and who votes for what.
Bro my racist cousins were super tame last night. In fact a lot them voted for Obama because Romney was mormon. The crazy shit was coming from people that I never knew thought like that.
bone_and_sinew
breaking down barriers in gratuitous nudity
At least the UFC is doing us the courtesy of closing our tabs once the Pettis-Cerrone war is over and not making us sit through a children's fight snoozer like they usually do.
TheNatural
My Member!
And wrestlers need health insurance? LOLOLOL sry guys.
polyh3dron
Banned
bone_and_sinew
breaking down barriers in gratuitous nudity
tedibiaselaugh.wavLA Times said:
Wasn't that spread over both campaigns? (still a fuckton of money)
TheNatural
My Member!
I believe so. This, combined with WWE falling on their face with this WWE Network (especially after Vince was talking shit about UFC doing the same), is hilarious.
vinceeartug.gif
Host Samurai
Member
Speaking of THQ, since they handed off the rights to make UFC games, does anybody think that we can finally get Randy Couture, Ken Shamrock, Frank Shamrock, Bas and even Fedor in the next UFC game...assuming they keep in PRIDE mode. EA still owns the rights to those fighters as well and you can be 100% certain that they will keep in PRIDE mode because EA MMA had it and doubt they would take it out.
Thinking about this gives me hope for an epic monster roster for this next game.
Thinking about this gives me hope for an epic monster roster for this next game.
TheNatural
My Member!
Maybe, but who even cares? I played the first UFC game and the following two didn't sound that different. The problem with MMA or boxing games is there is nothing in the fighter's skillset to seperate one from another, just better stats.
Host Samurai
Member
They did a good job in UFC 3. Fighters had their signature moves. The first 2 UFC games were just OK. The one thing I wan't in the games though is for example I wan't Machida to actually feel like you are controlling Machida or Edgar fighting his signature style. Thats where they have room to improve. But they at least got their moves down for this one.
I know this is out of the Blue...but as a Rampage fan, I don't know how I missed this hidden camera exchange between him and Rashad before their fight at a Night Club.....toooo funny...especially when Machida and Wand are brought up.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zL9a2RapxE&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zL9a2RapxE&feature=player_embedded
I heard that quote somewhere so im not entirely sure. But shes still a cunt.
GungHo
Single-handedly caused Exxon-Mobil to sue FOX, start World War 3
Sometimes you find yourself swirling in the toilet bowl and figure that it's more comfortable to pretend to be a turd than to try to hop out and wash yourself off.
My dumbass brother in law is a poor Republican. It's very sad.
It's fun watching someone go through cognitive disonnance brought about by warring levels of bigotry.
Maybe Dana White's wife can run for Las Vegas Dogcatcher.
Rampage telling Rashad that he won't be able to take him down. Poor Rampage, he hasn't progressed well in the later part of his career.
TheNatural
My Member!
Get ready.
One more day to reveal.
One more day to reveal.
TheKaeptain
Banned
Yakuza 5> GtA
Lmao. Good one Douglas.
Host Samurai
Member
If GTA 5 does not feature the San Francisco/Nevada areas in the game than it will still be a huge disappointment. Its pathetic that we had more ambitious versions of last generation games compared to their current generation sequels. I can't think of ONE series that was better this generation than last.
MGS
RE
DMC
Final Fantasy
Max Payne
GTA
and many other are far better last generation
Also Yakuza 2>>Yakuza 3 & 4
MGS
RE
DMC
Final Fantasy
Max Payne
GTA
and many other are far better last generation
Also Yakuza 2>>Yakuza 3 & 4
TheKaeptain
Banned
2=4>3>1
dream
Member
It was a snow day today, with about 2 feet of snow, so I stayed home and wrote essays for you all day.
Former champions Andrei Arlovski and Miguel Torres were the big names for the debut of the World Series of Fighting on 11/3 from Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas.
The debut show drew 198,000 viewers on NBC Sports. While the station and the promotion tried to call it a success, it was at best a lukewarm number, since NBC Sports boxing telecasts average 270,000 viewers, and when the station ran WEC from 2007, the shows ranged from a low of 300,000 viewers to a high of 1.45 million.
There were about 5,000 fans in attendance in the 7,000-seat arena. The belief is most were paper since its so hard to sell tickets in Las Vegas if its not a UFC PPV show.
As far as a broadcast went, it was decent. The negative is that they did almost nothing to build for a return. The only things they did was at the end of the show, Bas Rutten (who announced the show with Todd Harris, which is kind of weird since Harris is co-host of UFC Tonight) mentioned a second show in February. However, after the show, the promotion was talking about a 1/26 date in Las Vegas, but not naming the location. However, that would be the same date as a UFC show on FOX, although if this airs again at 10:30 p.m. Eastern, it theoretically could start just as the UFC show, which starts at 8 p.m., would be ending. Also, after Marlon Moraes beat Torres via split decision (I thought Moraes was the obvious winner), they brought in Tyson Nam to the ring and announced Nam vs. Moraes on the next show. There were two major problems. The first is that Nam came in the ring but was never shown on camera, nor did they have the two square off, issue challenges or anything. The second is that the announcers never said who Nam was. Its one thing if youre a super MMA fan and know that hes a guy who upset Eduardo Dantas (another name few know, but hes the Bellator bantamweight champion) in a non-title match in Brazil. But to the vast majority of viewers, they wouldnt have known.
The show opened with the debut of kickboxing star Tyrone ***** (1-0) finishing totally overmatched and out of shape Travis Bartlett in 3:15. ***** destroyed Bartlett with low kicks. After an early knockdown, ***** hurt him worse with a right, and instinctively when Bartlett went down, ***** walked away like he was going to his corner like one would do in boxing or kickboxing after a knockdown. Fortunately, Bartlett was hurt bad enough that he wasnt getting up and it was stopped, or that instinct could have cost him.
Moraes (9-4), a Muay Thai champion from Brazil, outstruck Torres (40-6) most of the way in taking a decision. This was easily the best fight of the TV card, but the live audience booed it several times. Moraes got a second round knockdown and Torres was unable to take him down. Moraes almost did him a favor scoring a third round takedown. While on the ground on his back, Torres did outstrike Moraes but didnt have enough time to set up a possible submission. The crowd booed when a split decision was announced, but only booed the announcement of the card who scored it for Torres, as I think they also felt Moraes had easily won.
Anthony Johnson (15-3), who was fired by UFC for continually missing weight in trying to fight at 170, moved up to 205 and knocked out D.J. Linderman (14-4). Linderman is a football player who fought at more than 270 in the past. It appeared Linderman accidentally poked Johnson in the eyes. Johnson acted like he couldnt see and motioned to ref Herb Dean. Instead of stopping it, Dean ordered them to continue fighting. Linderman rushed in to try and finish the blinded Johnson, but ran right into a right to the jaw for a knockout. The finish was spectacular.
The main event saw Arlovski (18-9) beat Devin Cole (20-10-1) in 2:37. This match was made for Arlovski, as Cole is primarily a wrestler. Arlovski has great takedown defense, which he showed here. His weakness is against a hard puncher who can connect, but that isnt Cole. Arlovski isnt nearly as muscular as he once was, but was 248 and not fat at that weight, and still moves well. Arlovski landed a hard right and Cole went down and it had to be stopped.
Arlovski earned $60,000 for headlining, a far cry from the $1.5 million he earned almost four years ago when he faced Fedor Emelianenko for Affliction. The other main show pay was $10,000 for Cole; $55,000 for Johnson, $10,000 for Linderman, $18,000 for Torres, $12,000 for Moraes, $27,000 for ***** and $4,000 for Bartlett. The total payroll for the entire show was $352,000. They likely didnt make much on the gate. Its possible there was a casino site fee paid, but for a show like this, it wouldnt have been much. They paid NBC Sports to get on television as the show was a time buy with the hope that showing they could run a show could open doors.
The doors would either be NBC Sports wanting MMA and offering them a deal. MMA was strong programming for them in the Versus days, at one time during the Urijah Faber heyday doing some of the biggest ratings in the stations history. But the real door when it comes to timing, would be if Showtime and Strikeforce dont make a deal, and Showtime wants to continue broadcasting MMA, Showtime may pay enough money for an organization like this to run financially viable events. But in this day and age, without a decently paying television deal, nobody is going to be able to make enough on the house to run a show with that kind of a payroll for any length of time.
Marc Ratner, after the steroid test positive of Stephan Bonnar and the reaction, told MMAjunkie.com that he expects a change in the UFC testing policies when it comes to performance enhancing drugs. Were going to have a statement about random testing and more testing very soon, he said. Were forming new policies. Id say before (the) new year, well have some more policies about drug testing. UFC has been criticized but a number of people for not doing year-round random drug testing on fighters, who, unless they are in TUF, or are signing a contract for the first time, or in rare cases are main eventers in a state like Nevada that random tests some fighters, the vast majority of guys on the roster believe they are only getting tested on the day of the fight. This enables them, if they choose to use, to have a window to use figuring when different things clear their system in enough time to have breathing room to beat the tests. There is nothing that is fool proof, because nobody tests more than the Olympics, and there are plenty of Olympic athletes beating tests with designer drugs that cant be detected, Growth Hormone, Insulin and other agents. But regular year-around testing does change the game, will either catch more people or serve as a deterrent.
The show this coming weekend has a unique schedule since it starts at 7:15 a.m. Eastern time and 4:15 a.m. Pacific time with Facebook fights. The prelims have Dave Mitchell vs. Hyun Gyu Lim, Jeff Hougland vs. Takeya Mizugaki, Tom DeBlass vs. Riki Fukuda and John Lineker vs. Yasuhiro Urushitani. The main card starts at 9 a.m. Eastern with Jon Tuck vs. Tiequan Zhang, Alex Caceres vs. Motonobu Tezuka (who replaces an injured Kyung Hu Kang), Takanori Gomi vs. Mac Danzig, Paulo Thiago vs. Dong Hyun Kim, Thiago Silva vs. Stanislav Nedkov and Rich Franklin vs. Cung Le. Les foot, which got a bad bone bruise in the Patrick Cote fight, is nowhere near 100% but he really wanted on this show. Hes said he wouldnt have fought on this date if it wasnt the debut in China. He said the foot is now 80%, but hes only had six to seven weeks of training on it. Due to the time slot, the live showing will surely be the least watched UFC show in history. There will be two additional replays of the main card. Replays of the three-hour main card are 7 p.m. and 1 a.m., so the 7 p.m. showing will almost surely be the highest rated.
UFC officials noted that all fighters on the show will be drug tested, since UFC is handling the testing themselves with no commission. They also noted that no fighter on the show has been granted a testosterone use exemption.
There will be three straight Saturday shows on 1/19, 1/26 and 2/2. I wonder where that leaves the big Strikeforce show because we were told that would be in late January. The 1/19 show will be in Brazil, location to be announced, live on FX and Fuel. The FX fights will be Vitor Belfort vs. Michael Bisping as the main event, C.B. Dollaway vs. Daniel Sarafian, Gabriel Gonzaga vs. Ben Rothwell and Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Thiago Tavares. The undercard, with six of the matches scheduled for Fuel, will be Godofredo Pepey vs. Milton Vieira, Andrew Craig vs. Ronny Markes, Nik Lentz vs. Diego Nunes, Justin Salas vs. Edson Barboza, Michael Kuiper vs. Thiago Perpetuo, George Roop vs. Yuri Alcantara, Roger Hollett vs. Wagner Prado and C.J. Keith vs. Francisco Trinaldo. Sarafian made it to the finals as a middleweight in the TUF Brazil tournament to face Cezar Mutante Ferreira, but was injured and couldnt compete in the final, so this is his first UFC fight. This is likely the first of the planned market-specific time shows for Brazil, although this has mostly Brazil vs. foreigner matches as opposed to Brazilian vs. Brazilian. If Bisping wins, and I think hell have a solid chance, certainly the longer it goes the more it favors him because hes going to have the stamina edge, it should set him up for Anderson Silva. Hes got a bigger name than Chris Weidman. If Silva does face GSP, then I could see the winner of this main event face the winner of Weidman vs. Tim Boetsch and then youll have a very deserving top contender no matter who comes out of it. A Silva vs. Belfort match at this stage of the game is a Brazilian stadium show, which is why hes in the mix. Silva vs. Bisping, if Bisping goes through that field, by that point should be a U.K. stadium show. If Weidman gets two more wins, hopefully hell have enough name value from them to be a PPV draw for the title shot.
After 12/8, the next FOX show is 1/26 from the United Center in Chicago. This one is a huge risk because the top two fights announced are Demetrious Johnson vs. John Dodson for the flyweight title, Donald Cerrone vs. Anthony Pettis and Rampage Jackson vs. Glover Teixeira. I know there is the mentality they are giving away a title match on television, but there is no general public interest in the flyweight title or Johnson or Dodson at this point. Cerrone is kind of a star as far as WEC level big star, but FOX level is a big difference. Nobody knows Teixeira, but that is in theory a great fight for television because a win over Jackson seen by a large audience can make him a name in one night. Weve already seen historically how wide the variation is when it comes to ratings on FOX based on star power. The other FOX shows in 2013 will be 4/20, 7/27 and December 14, 2013. Notable that FOX has avoided putting UFC on during sweeps, when the pressure is highest to pull ratings.
The 4/27 show headlined by Jon Jones vs. Chael Sonnen for the light heavyweight title is now official for the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ.
The 2/2 Super Bowl Saturday show in Las Vegas headlined by Jose Aldo Jr. vs. Frankie Edgar for the featherweight title will be at the Mandalay Bay Events Center. Urijah Faber is also tentatively slated to return on that show.
There is a definite company directive for 2013 to create new stars. Obviously part of it is guys are going to have to win their fights, impressively, and have some level of charisma. The company has done everything it could, between TV commercials and Dana White pushing to make Frankie Edgar a star, and he beat B.J. Penn twice, is an undersized guy who has had some of the greatest comebacks, etc. But the reality is some guys are going to be stars and no matter what, some arent. The idea is to do things like push unique characteristics with guys, whether they be ring entrances or gimmicks or just something to break guys out of the pack. An example is Rony Jason, who is over huge in Brazil wearing the Jason mask to the cage. A few months ago there was question as to whether they wanted that type of thing and I think he wasnt even allowed to do it on one show, but now that type of thing is going to be embraced.
There is also the hope, obviously, that they can do a huge year on PPV if injuries dont get in the way. Anderson Silva is going to the 11/17 show in Montreal. If GSP wins, they are going to have a call out or confrontation to set up Silva vs. GSP. Of course, GSP has to win his match. The idea or hope is to get Silva vs. GSP first, and if Silva wins, go with Silva vs. Jon Jones (provided Jones beats Chael Sonnen) later in the year. The idea is to do the major dream matches this year. If Silva doesnt beat GSP and Jones remains champion, they could move to Jones against the heavyweight champion for a major year-end fight. The idea is if things go right to get two 1 million buy shows, plus big ones when Alistair Overeem goes for the heavyweight title, GSP vs. Nick Diaz if that one works out, along with Jones vs. Sonnen with the idea of five potential 700+ shows, plus Ronda Rousey vs. Cyborg which will garner a ton of attention even if the jury is very much out on what kind of numbers it would do.
Ronda Rousey had an article on her in the current issue of Sports Illustrated. There was nothing special about the article, only that it was the first one the magazine has ever done on an MMA fighter. Amazing that after all these years, theyve only done three articles (one on Greg Jackson, one on MMA itself and this one) and never anything on Anderson Silva, GSP or Brock Lesnar. Rousey was also featured on the Sports Illustrated TV show this week .
Melvin Guillard vs. Jamie Varner has been added to the main card on the 12/15 TUF finals on FX. That makes 12 matches already on the show. That means it is likely the only fight among members of this seasons cast will be the championship final. Usually the TUF final is filled with fighters from the house facing each other in loser leaves town matches (unless its the loser of the tournament final or a loser looks impressive). Based on this card, and on information that has gotten out, very few, perhaps as few as only the winner and loser of the TUF final, will be added to the UFC roster. The roster right now is already too large for the number of shows, although UFC is now planning 31 shows next year, which means that will change. But with the added shows being a lot of market specifics like in Brazil, those type of shows will mean more fighters from those markets to be signed and not necessarily meaning more spots for TUF fighters.
On the TUF show that aired on 11/2, Dana White gave the fighters a speech about how the fights have been bad and how everyone thinks they are going to get to fight in the finals. He indicated it wasnt going to happen, so looks like that was the point he made the call.
A story by Dave Deibert in the Calgary Herald regarding the advance for the 11/17 show in Montreal, which as noted here last week, was about 14,000 tickets sold (as of one week before press time the number was 13,800 tickets sold for $2.8 million) got a lot of play from people apparently expecting the show with the return of GSP to be an automatic sellout. In actuality, the show was selling at almost an identical pace to GSPs last fight in Montreal, with Josh Koscheck, at first. The Koscheck fight had one of the best last month of sales the company had done in recent years because of all the heat between the two on Ultimate Fighter. Between Koscheck being a bigger star than Carlos Condit and the lack of that heat and build, this is about where Id expect things. The Koscheck fight with the strong late sale was 3,200 tickets ahead at the same point in time as of a week ago, and ended up selling out with an announced 23,152. But even with normal free tickets, 13,800 paid would be around 17,000 tickets out in a 21,000 seater with a few weeks to go, so the building will easily be full, unless a lot of the tickets were bought by scalpers, who cant unload them. But scalpers in Montreal have been burned in the past by UFC tickets so thats probably not the case. Tom Wright of UFC Canada, said he thought many people may wait until late to buy tickets because of fear of a late injury changing the card. Another aspect that people dont think about is Montreal is not a major MMA market. Of all the major cities in Canada, Montreal itself is probably the weakest per capita, even though they have the local hero. But GSP would be a bigger draw anywhere else in Canada. The early Montreal sellouts were because of people coming in from Ontario, and with a show on 9/1 in Toronto, you arent going to be getting anywhere near the number of Ontario fans driving over. I remember at the first Montreal show when Mike Goldberg was at weigh-ins and mentioned something about the Montreal Canadiens, who were in the Stanley Cup playoffs at the time, he was booed, and we both talked after about how this wasnt a Montreal audience but more a Toronto audience that drove over.
The 12/8 show in Seattle is officially sold out with 12,300 tickets sold for $1,418,000.
Former champions Andrei Arlovski and Miguel Torres were the big names for the debut of the World Series of Fighting on 11/3 from Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas.
The debut show drew 198,000 viewers on NBC Sports. While the station and the promotion tried to call it a success, it was at best a lukewarm number, since NBC Sports boxing telecasts average 270,000 viewers, and when the station ran WEC from 2007, the shows ranged from a low of 300,000 viewers to a high of 1.45 million.
There were about 5,000 fans in attendance in the 7,000-seat arena. The belief is most were paper since its so hard to sell tickets in Las Vegas if its not a UFC PPV show.
As far as a broadcast went, it was decent. The negative is that they did almost nothing to build for a return. The only things they did was at the end of the show, Bas Rutten (who announced the show with Todd Harris, which is kind of weird since Harris is co-host of UFC Tonight) mentioned a second show in February. However, after the show, the promotion was talking about a 1/26 date in Las Vegas, but not naming the location. However, that would be the same date as a UFC show on FOX, although if this airs again at 10:30 p.m. Eastern, it theoretically could start just as the UFC show, which starts at 8 p.m., would be ending. Also, after Marlon Moraes beat Torres via split decision (I thought Moraes was the obvious winner), they brought in Tyson Nam to the ring and announced Nam vs. Moraes on the next show. There were two major problems. The first is that Nam came in the ring but was never shown on camera, nor did they have the two square off, issue challenges or anything. The second is that the announcers never said who Nam was. Its one thing if youre a super MMA fan and know that hes a guy who upset Eduardo Dantas (another name few know, but hes the Bellator bantamweight champion) in a non-title match in Brazil. But to the vast majority of viewers, they wouldnt have known.
The show opened with the debut of kickboxing star Tyrone ***** (1-0) finishing totally overmatched and out of shape Travis Bartlett in 3:15. ***** destroyed Bartlett with low kicks. After an early knockdown, ***** hurt him worse with a right, and instinctively when Bartlett went down, ***** walked away like he was going to his corner like one would do in boxing or kickboxing after a knockdown. Fortunately, Bartlett was hurt bad enough that he wasnt getting up and it was stopped, or that instinct could have cost him.
Moraes (9-4), a Muay Thai champion from Brazil, outstruck Torres (40-6) most of the way in taking a decision. This was easily the best fight of the TV card, but the live audience booed it several times. Moraes got a second round knockdown and Torres was unable to take him down. Moraes almost did him a favor scoring a third round takedown. While on the ground on his back, Torres did outstrike Moraes but didnt have enough time to set up a possible submission. The crowd booed when a split decision was announced, but only booed the announcement of the card who scored it for Torres, as I think they also felt Moraes had easily won.
Anthony Johnson (15-3), who was fired by UFC for continually missing weight in trying to fight at 170, moved up to 205 and knocked out D.J. Linderman (14-4). Linderman is a football player who fought at more than 270 in the past. It appeared Linderman accidentally poked Johnson in the eyes. Johnson acted like he couldnt see and motioned to ref Herb Dean. Instead of stopping it, Dean ordered them to continue fighting. Linderman rushed in to try and finish the blinded Johnson, but ran right into a right to the jaw for a knockout. The finish was spectacular.
The main event saw Arlovski (18-9) beat Devin Cole (20-10-1) in 2:37. This match was made for Arlovski, as Cole is primarily a wrestler. Arlovski has great takedown defense, which he showed here. His weakness is against a hard puncher who can connect, but that isnt Cole. Arlovski isnt nearly as muscular as he once was, but was 248 and not fat at that weight, and still moves well. Arlovski landed a hard right and Cole went down and it had to be stopped.
Arlovski earned $60,000 for headlining, a far cry from the $1.5 million he earned almost four years ago when he faced Fedor Emelianenko for Affliction. The other main show pay was $10,000 for Cole; $55,000 for Johnson, $10,000 for Linderman, $18,000 for Torres, $12,000 for Moraes, $27,000 for ***** and $4,000 for Bartlett. The total payroll for the entire show was $352,000. They likely didnt make much on the gate. Its possible there was a casino site fee paid, but for a show like this, it wouldnt have been much. They paid NBC Sports to get on television as the show was a time buy with the hope that showing they could run a show could open doors.
The doors would either be NBC Sports wanting MMA and offering them a deal. MMA was strong programming for them in the Versus days, at one time during the Urijah Faber heyday doing some of the biggest ratings in the stations history. But the real door when it comes to timing, would be if Showtime and Strikeforce dont make a deal, and Showtime wants to continue broadcasting MMA, Showtime may pay enough money for an organization like this to run financially viable events. But in this day and age, without a decently paying television deal, nobody is going to be able to make enough on the house to run a show with that kind of a payroll for any length of time.
Marc Ratner, after the steroid test positive of Stephan Bonnar and the reaction, told MMAjunkie.com that he expects a change in the UFC testing policies when it comes to performance enhancing drugs. Were going to have a statement about random testing and more testing very soon, he said. Were forming new policies. Id say before (the) new year, well have some more policies about drug testing. UFC has been criticized but a number of people for not doing year-round random drug testing on fighters, who, unless they are in TUF, or are signing a contract for the first time, or in rare cases are main eventers in a state like Nevada that random tests some fighters, the vast majority of guys on the roster believe they are only getting tested on the day of the fight. This enables them, if they choose to use, to have a window to use figuring when different things clear their system in enough time to have breathing room to beat the tests. There is nothing that is fool proof, because nobody tests more than the Olympics, and there are plenty of Olympic athletes beating tests with designer drugs that cant be detected, Growth Hormone, Insulin and other agents. But regular year-around testing does change the game, will either catch more people or serve as a deterrent.
The show this coming weekend has a unique schedule since it starts at 7:15 a.m. Eastern time and 4:15 a.m. Pacific time with Facebook fights. The prelims have Dave Mitchell vs. Hyun Gyu Lim, Jeff Hougland vs. Takeya Mizugaki, Tom DeBlass vs. Riki Fukuda and John Lineker vs. Yasuhiro Urushitani. The main card starts at 9 a.m. Eastern with Jon Tuck vs. Tiequan Zhang, Alex Caceres vs. Motonobu Tezuka (who replaces an injured Kyung Hu Kang), Takanori Gomi vs. Mac Danzig, Paulo Thiago vs. Dong Hyun Kim, Thiago Silva vs. Stanislav Nedkov and Rich Franklin vs. Cung Le. Les foot, which got a bad bone bruise in the Patrick Cote fight, is nowhere near 100% but he really wanted on this show. Hes said he wouldnt have fought on this date if it wasnt the debut in China. He said the foot is now 80%, but hes only had six to seven weeks of training on it. Due to the time slot, the live showing will surely be the least watched UFC show in history. There will be two additional replays of the main card. Replays of the three-hour main card are 7 p.m. and 1 a.m., so the 7 p.m. showing will almost surely be the highest rated.
UFC officials noted that all fighters on the show will be drug tested, since UFC is handling the testing themselves with no commission. They also noted that no fighter on the show has been granted a testosterone use exemption.
There will be three straight Saturday shows on 1/19, 1/26 and 2/2. I wonder where that leaves the big Strikeforce show because we were told that would be in late January. The 1/19 show will be in Brazil, location to be announced, live on FX and Fuel. The FX fights will be Vitor Belfort vs. Michael Bisping as the main event, C.B. Dollaway vs. Daniel Sarafian, Gabriel Gonzaga vs. Ben Rothwell and Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Thiago Tavares. The undercard, with six of the matches scheduled for Fuel, will be Godofredo Pepey vs. Milton Vieira, Andrew Craig vs. Ronny Markes, Nik Lentz vs. Diego Nunes, Justin Salas vs. Edson Barboza, Michael Kuiper vs. Thiago Perpetuo, George Roop vs. Yuri Alcantara, Roger Hollett vs. Wagner Prado and C.J. Keith vs. Francisco Trinaldo. Sarafian made it to the finals as a middleweight in the TUF Brazil tournament to face Cezar Mutante Ferreira, but was injured and couldnt compete in the final, so this is his first UFC fight. This is likely the first of the planned market-specific time shows for Brazil, although this has mostly Brazil vs. foreigner matches as opposed to Brazilian vs. Brazilian. If Bisping wins, and I think hell have a solid chance, certainly the longer it goes the more it favors him because hes going to have the stamina edge, it should set him up for Anderson Silva. Hes got a bigger name than Chris Weidman. If Silva does face GSP, then I could see the winner of this main event face the winner of Weidman vs. Tim Boetsch and then youll have a very deserving top contender no matter who comes out of it. A Silva vs. Belfort match at this stage of the game is a Brazilian stadium show, which is why hes in the mix. Silva vs. Bisping, if Bisping goes through that field, by that point should be a U.K. stadium show. If Weidman gets two more wins, hopefully hell have enough name value from them to be a PPV draw for the title shot.
After 12/8, the next FOX show is 1/26 from the United Center in Chicago. This one is a huge risk because the top two fights announced are Demetrious Johnson vs. John Dodson for the flyweight title, Donald Cerrone vs. Anthony Pettis and Rampage Jackson vs. Glover Teixeira. I know there is the mentality they are giving away a title match on television, but there is no general public interest in the flyweight title or Johnson or Dodson at this point. Cerrone is kind of a star as far as WEC level big star, but FOX level is a big difference. Nobody knows Teixeira, but that is in theory a great fight for television because a win over Jackson seen by a large audience can make him a name in one night. Weve already seen historically how wide the variation is when it comes to ratings on FOX based on star power. The other FOX shows in 2013 will be 4/20, 7/27 and December 14, 2013. Notable that FOX has avoided putting UFC on during sweeps, when the pressure is highest to pull ratings.
The 4/27 show headlined by Jon Jones vs. Chael Sonnen for the light heavyweight title is now official for the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ.
The 2/2 Super Bowl Saturday show in Las Vegas headlined by Jose Aldo Jr. vs. Frankie Edgar for the featherweight title will be at the Mandalay Bay Events Center. Urijah Faber is also tentatively slated to return on that show.
There is a definite company directive for 2013 to create new stars. Obviously part of it is guys are going to have to win their fights, impressively, and have some level of charisma. The company has done everything it could, between TV commercials and Dana White pushing to make Frankie Edgar a star, and he beat B.J. Penn twice, is an undersized guy who has had some of the greatest comebacks, etc. But the reality is some guys are going to be stars and no matter what, some arent. The idea is to do things like push unique characteristics with guys, whether they be ring entrances or gimmicks or just something to break guys out of the pack. An example is Rony Jason, who is over huge in Brazil wearing the Jason mask to the cage. A few months ago there was question as to whether they wanted that type of thing and I think he wasnt even allowed to do it on one show, but now that type of thing is going to be embraced.
There is also the hope, obviously, that they can do a huge year on PPV if injuries dont get in the way. Anderson Silva is going to the 11/17 show in Montreal. If GSP wins, they are going to have a call out or confrontation to set up Silva vs. GSP. Of course, GSP has to win his match. The idea or hope is to get Silva vs. GSP first, and if Silva wins, go with Silva vs. Jon Jones (provided Jones beats Chael Sonnen) later in the year. The idea is to do the major dream matches this year. If Silva doesnt beat GSP and Jones remains champion, they could move to Jones against the heavyweight champion for a major year-end fight. The idea is if things go right to get two 1 million buy shows, plus big ones when Alistair Overeem goes for the heavyweight title, GSP vs. Nick Diaz if that one works out, along with Jones vs. Sonnen with the idea of five potential 700+ shows, plus Ronda Rousey vs. Cyborg which will garner a ton of attention even if the jury is very much out on what kind of numbers it would do.
Ronda Rousey had an article on her in the current issue of Sports Illustrated. There was nothing special about the article, only that it was the first one the magazine has ever done on an MMA fighter. Amazing that after all these years, theyve only done three articles (one on Greg Jackson, one on MMA itself and this one) and never anything on Anderson Silva, GSP or Brock Lesnar. Rousey was also featured on the Sports Illustrated TV show this week .
Melvin Guillard vs. Jamie Varner has been added to the main card on the 12/15 TUF finals on FX. That makes 12 matches already on the show. That means it is likely the only fight among members of this seasons cast will be the championship final. Usually the TUF final is filled with fighters from the house facing each other in loser leaves town matches (unless its the loser of the tournament final or a loser looks impressive). Based on this card, and on information that has gotten out, very few, perhaps as few as only the winner and loser of the TUF final, will be added to the UFC roster. The roster right now is already too large for the number of shows, although UFC is now planning 31 shows next year, which means that will change. But with the added shows being a lot of market specifics like in Brazil, those type of shows will mean more fighters from those markets to be signed and not necessarily meaning more spots for TUF fighters.
On the TUF show that aired on 11/2, Dana White gave the fighters a speech about how the fights have been bad and how everyone thinks they are going to get to fight in the finals. He indicated it wasnt going to happen, so looks like that was the point he made the call.
A story by Dave Deibert in the Calgary Herald regarding the advance for the 11/17 show in Montreal, which as noted here last week, was about 14,000 tickets sold (as of one week before press time the number was 13,800 tickets sold for $2.8 million) got a lot of play from people apparently expecting the show with the return of GSP to be an automatic sellout. In actuality, the show was selling at almost an identical pace to GSPs last fight in Montreal, with Josh Koscheck, at first. The Koscheck fight had one of the best last month of sales the company had done in recent years because of all the heat between the two on Ultimate Fighter. Between Koscheck being a bigger star than Carlos Condit and the lack of that heat and build, this is about where Id expect things. The Koscheck fight with the strong late sale was 3,200 tickets ahead at the same point in time as of a week ago, and ended up selling out with an announced 23,152. But even with normal free tickets, 13,800 paid would be around 17,000 tickets out in a 21,000 seater with a few weeks to go, so the building will easily be full, unless a lot of the tickets were bought by scalpers, who cant unload them. But scalpers in Montreal have been burned in the past by UFC tickets so thats probably not the case. Tom Wright of UFC Canada, said he thought many people may wait until late to buy tickets because of fear of a late injury changing the card. Another aspect that people dont think about is Montreal is not a major MMA market. Of all the major cities in Canada, Montreal itself is probably the weakest per capita, even though they have the local hero. But GSP would be a bigger draw anywhere else in Canada. The early Montreal sellouts were because of people coming in from Ontario, and with a show on 9/1 in Toronto, you arent going to be getting anywhere near the number of Ontario fans driving over. I remember at the first Montreal show when Mike Goldberg was at weigh-ins and mentioned something about the Montreal Canadiens, who were in the Stanley Cup playoffs at the time, he was booed, and we both talked after about how this wasnt a Montreal audience but more a Toronto audience that drove over.
The 12/8 show in Seattle is officially sold out with 12,300 tickets sold for $1,418,000.
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