All Purpose UFC/MMA/That Kind Of Thing Thread

fishwrapper · Jan 12, 2007

Re: "60 Minutes" piece on UFC/MMA

Mr7134 said:

Um, that's not true.
Lance Pugmire advances and covers the events. A quick Nexis search tells you that.
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Dave Meltzer isn't covering the events for the LA Times. He has though been hired to write a general column on MMA for them. I think he's done three already.

A link to his latest column...

http://www.latimes.com/sports/boxing/la-spw-mmacol8jan08,1,5760477.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

Also, a link to a piece he did for the the "LA Times" previewing the big MMA weekend that featured the UFC, Pride and K-1 shows.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-spw-mmacol29dec29,1,5486573.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

You have to log in to view the stories. Registration is free though.
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Those are web-only reports.

Inky_Wretch · Jan 12, 2007

Re: "60 Minutes" piece on UFC/MMA

JayFarrar said:

Not to get all crazy and defend MMA, but the PPV numbers are impressive because it means that it is reaching the higher-end demographics. Dropping $50 may not sound like much but it does mean that the fans are willing to pay and media companies will flock to the high income bracket people.
Those people are the ones who have the disposable income to buy some of the worthless junk out there.
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So rasslin' fans, who also buy PPVs on a regular basis, fall in the higher-end demographic category?

It's a great accomplishment for UFC to get 1M-plus PPV buys. But it doesn't change the fact that it is still just a niche sport.

Dave_Doyle · Jan 12, 2007

Re: "60 Minutes" piece on UFC/MMA

A few more thoughts from someone who has been covering this:

1. On the West Coast, the whole "is this a sport/should we cover this" debate is pretty much over. UFC was sanctioned in California, has put on shows in Anaheim, LA, and Sacramento, and it didn't serve as a herald to the end of civilization as we know it. Now most of the major papers out West at least cover the big shows, and a few of them go quite a bit further. If you're in a city without much of an MMA scene there's no point devoting limited resources to the sport, but in places where MMA is big, most sports editors of consequence have already answered "is this a sport?" and "should we cover this?" with "yes" and "yes."

2. The Canadian Press has been covering major UFC events for awhile now. Excuse my ignorance here, but considering AP sometimes uses CP for hockey gamers, is it possible to move a CP piece on the UFC on AP if an editor requests it?

3. More fans are switching allegiances from boxing to MMA than some would care to admit. Part of this is simply anectodal, as I've gotten a ton of email from middle-aged men who say they used to be boxing fans but spend their money on UFC now. That's not a demographic given to following fads. If MMA was only drawing wrestling fans and not boxing, I don't think Showtime and HBO would be getting into MMA, which they are.

(Edited for a spelling error)

Einar Fridgeirs · Jan 16, 2007

Re: "60 Minutes" piece on UFC/MMA

The Houston Chronicle just opened a section online devoted solely to MMA. To the best of my knowledge they are the first newspaper to do so.

http://www.chron.com/sports/mixedmartialarts/

Mr7134 · Jan 22, 2007

Re: "60 Minutes" piece on UFC/MMA

NPR piece on MMA.

http://www.onlyagame.org/shows/2007/01/20070120.asp

Mr7134 · Jan 30, 2007

Re: "60 Minutes" piece on UFC/MMA

From...

http://sports.bostonherald.com/ufc/view.bg?articleid=179549&format=&page=1

UFC might be in ESPN’s picture

By Herald staff

Sunday, January 28, 2007

Picture this: You’re watching your nightly dose of â€œSportsCenterâ€ and the Top 10 plays are ticking down:

No. 3: Another dunk that looks slightly better than the dunk that logged in at No. 5.

No. 2: Another home run that looked a lot like the one that left the park at No. 6.

No. 1: Chuck Liddell pounding unmercifully on some poor guy’s face before the ref finally pulls him off.

Huh?

That’s right. ESPN may soon hop on the UFC bandwagon.

â€œAll the top meetings over there are about the UFC,â€ said UFC president Dana White, who is flying to New York soon for meetings with the network. â€œWhen they start talking about this stuff on â€˜SportsCenter,’ that’s really going to help us. That’s going to help us get to the next level.â€

The next level, of course, is the mainstream sports world. For all the ratings, recognition, coverage and popularity the UFC has enjoyed the last couple of years, that mainstream sports world is still a ways away, according to White.

â€œThat’s the beauty of the business,â€ White said. â€œWe’re the biggest thing on pay per view. We’re bigger than boxing. We’re bigger than WWE. But we’re so (expletive) far from mainstream. Mainstream is Shaquille O’Neal. If Shaq is walking down the street, everyone knows who he is.

â€œThe weird thing about this is Chuck Liddell is one of the biggest superstars in other places. We went to Ibiza, Spain, and he’s getting mobbed there. We couldn’t go anywhere. He goes to New York and people are all over him. I mean, it’s tough to miss a guy with a Mohawk and Chinese writing on his head. They might recognize him, but they don’t immediately know the UFC.â€

Then again, not many knew the UFC just a mere few years ago. Now, fights like the Dec. 30 Liddell-Tito Ortiz card is drawing attention everywhere, and making giants like HBO and ESPN stand up and notice.

â€œThat fight was a huge moment for us,â€ White said. â€œIt was a big turning point in the pay-per-view industry. But the funny thing is I say that every time we have a fight. We just keep getting bigger and bigger and bigger.â€

New blood

White thinks the UFC will soon be able to consistently stage upward of three fight cards per month. With HBO soon to be in the picture -- televising live fights as Spike TV already does -- and with the huge pay-per-view interest, there will be a lot of demand for fights. With that many fights, you need fighters. To that end, White and his crew have been working to bulk up on the talent. The UFC already has a talent relations department, and that’s only going to grow.

â€œGoing out and acquiring guys is huge,â€ White said. â€œI’ve got guys in here making more money than NBA players. The talented, athletic people out there are going to start coming out and doing this.â€

UFC 67, set for Feb. 3 in Vegas, will feature two such talented, athletic fighters. Quinton â€œRampageâ€ Jackson and Croatian Mirko Cro Cop will each make their UFC debut be on the undercard of the Travis Lutter-Anderson Silva match.

Rampage’s reputation precedes him. He is an exciting, charismatic, popular figure. You’ll probably see him fight twice and then take on light heavyweight champ Liddell for the title in June. Cro Cop, meanwhile, was the 2006 Open Weight Grand Prix champ while fighting for the Pride organization. He takes on Eddie Sanchez Saturday and then will probably find himself head-to-head with heavyweight champ Tim Sylvia right after that.

â€œWait till you see Cro Cop, he’s a straight killer,â€ White said of the 6-foot-2, 220-pound 32-year-old. â€œNever in your life will you go to a fight live and see or hear what it sounds like when he kicks people. When he kicks to an opponent’s body, it immediately turns black and blue. It’s like getting hit with a baseball bat.

â€œHe fought this guy in Japan (while with Pride), and every time he kicked him, you just heard this crack, like when you’re at a baseball game and there’s a real, nice home run. That’s what it sounds like when he kicks a guy. They instantly turn black and blue.â€

Place to be

Rampage’s contract was acquired when the UFC bought a smaller organization, the WFA. Cro Cop’s contract with Pride expired and the UFC was where he wanted to be next.

â€œI talked to his manager. It was simple. He wanted to be with us,â€ White said. â€œPride is our big competition and I’m out there trying to lock up their big talent as soon as their contracts with them are over. I want them in the UFC.â€

With the media attention and exposure on the rise, and with the biggest names gravitating toward the sport, it can only get better for mixed martial arts fans.

â€œOver the next couple of months, you’re going to see us starting to grab up everybody,â€ White said. â€œWe’re aggressive anyway. But as this thing becomes more successful, we want the power and leverage to take over different parts of the world.â€
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zeke12 · Jan 30, 2007

Re: "60 Minutes" piece on UFC/MMA

All the top meetings over there are about UFC, eh?

Okey dokey.

Mr7134 · Feb 3, 2007

Re: "60 Minutes" piece on UFC/MMA

First off for those who care, and I realise that is a limited number...

Chuck Liddell Vs Quinton â€œRampageâ€ Jackson (PRIDE-Final Conflict 2003, 11th November 2003. Dana White joins the Pride commentary team for the bout and has put $250,000 on Chuck. The fight took place in front of 67,450 fans at the Tokyo Dome)

http://www.dailymotion.com/visited/search/Liddell/video/x7zfn_quinton-jackson-vs-chuck-liddell

Also, a nice, short, piece on Jackson, who makes his UFC debut tonight.

From the LA Times.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-ufc3feb3,1,6456831.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

A UFC debut for 'Rampage' Jackson

By Lance Pugmire, Times Staff Writer
12:31 PM PST, February 2, 2007

The most devoted mixed-martial arts fans know what's coming Saturday night when Irvine's Quinton "Rampage" Jackson makes his Ultimate Fighting Championship debut.

"He's aggressive, powerful, and nobody slams like 'Rampage,' " UFC President Dana White said.

What Jackson, 28, also made clear over breakfast in downtown Los Angeles recently is that few fighters are capable of matching his humorous candor, either.

Describing his life as a black man in an upscale Irvine neighborhood, Jackson said: "I know some of my neighbors are racist. They've called the cops on me for having dogs. Another time, I was gone on a long trip, and came home to see my grass was dying. I started walking around my front yard, looking at the sprinklers. Minutes later, a cop was at my door and said a neighbor reported a suspicious man was looking into people's windows. That was me ... "

The policemen knew the 6-foot-1, 205-pound Jackson.

So did UFC officials. Late last year, UFC purchased the circuit known as World Fighting Alliance, which Jackson had joined in May 2006.

A new MMA circuit televised by Showtime "was trying to buy me too, said they were going to blow me up like Mike Tyson, the way I should be promoted," Jackson said. "They know I'm full of excitement."

UFC retained Jackson, a light-heavyweight, and is positioning him for a rematch later this year with Chuck Liddell, the UFC champion who hasn't lost a bout since 2003.

Jackson, 28, boasts a 2003 second-round technical knockout victory over Liddell in a grand prix event staged by PRIDE Fighting Championships.

Saturday night, in the pay-per-view event UFC 67 at Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Jackson (25-6) has another rematch to concern himself with, against Marvin Eastman (13-6-1). Eastman defeated Jackson by decision in 2000.

"I've evolved," Jackson said. "This is my show, my debut, my time to shine. I can't see myself losing. I can beat him standing up, or on the ground."

The card also includes the UFC debut of former PRIDE fighter and heavyweight Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic (21-4-2) in a bout against Eddie Sanchez (8-0), and the main event of middleweight champion Anderson Silva (17-4) defending his belt against Travis Lutter (12-3).

Jackson has this fight and one more in his UFC contract.

"We're going to pump the [heck] out of him," White said of his marketing plans for Jackson. "He's popular among the hard-cores, but not our newer fans. Hopefully, he'll win twice and fight Chuck toward the end of the year. I'll probably sign him to a multi-fight deal before then."

Jackson said he and Liddell will be paid "beaucoup bucks for this. I'll be asking Dana to put six zeros behind a 10 on his check. It's a $10-million fight. Each.

"It'll be an interesting fight. As I've shown, Chuck could be on the receiving end of a [butt] whipping. A new champion is going to emerge."

With that ahead, Jackson will be raising his children in Irvine. He said he moved there because he promised the parents of his wife, Yuki, that he would take her to "a safe place" in Southern California, "not Los Angeles."

Yuki separated from "Rampage" last year, he said, soon after an April blood test confirmed he had fathered a 6-year-old son with a woman in Kentucky.

The 6-year-old boy, Raja, is one of the four children Jackson cares for in his Irvine home. He has given his three boys, Diangelo, 8, Raja, and Elijah, 1, the middle name of Rampage. His infant daughter is Naname Nakia 'Page Jackson.

Jackson said he took his "Rampage" nickname as a youth by displaying a terrible temper. He said that temper has returned only once in the ring, when Ricardo Arona punched Jackson in his dislocated jaw in a 2004 fight.

Jackson responded by lifting Arona over his shoulders and slamming him to the canvas, ending the bout in the first round.

lance.pugmire@latimes.com
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RokSki · Feb 3, 2007

Re: "60 Minutes" piece on UFC/MMA

Can't wait for Cro Cop and Jackson to make their debuts tonight.

Mr7134 · Feb 15, 2007

Re: "60 Minutes" piece on UFC/MMA

Yes, I realise that a lot of people don't care about this.

Anyway, interestingly, one of the top MMA prospects in the world is, believe it or not, former WWE champion Brock Lesnar.

Last Summer Brock spent some time training with Miletich Fighting Systems, one of the top MMA fight teams, and Pat Miletich said about him last July...

One year from now there won't be anybody alive who can beat him.
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Anyway, Brock only spent a brief about of time at MFS. He does most of his training up in Minnesota with Sean Sherk (the UFC's 155lb champion) and Nick Thompson.

Thompson had this to say about Brock.

1. Brock is fighting in the April K-1 event.

2. He has a 1 fight contract with them.

3. He is fighting a giant Asian guy whose name I forget.

4. Brock is a beast. He is a d-1 national champ, a fast and eager learner. He is obviously very strong but he has good technique and is very, very fast. And when I say that, I don't even add the for a big guy part. He is fast for anyone.

5. I think Brock would beat Tim Sylvia, Jeff Monson and numerous other top heavyweights today. He is not ready for Mirko, Fedor and maybe Pe De Pano and Arlovski. This is not a knock on any other heavyweights, that is just how good I think Brock is and I think he is only getting better.

6. The tattoo on his chest looks like a penis but if anyone tells him I wrote that, I will deny it and run away because I am scared of him.

7. Brock is training under Greg Nelson at the Minnesota Martial Arts Academy with me, Sherk, Brock Larson, Nat McIntyre, et. al.
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The Asian guy Brock is scheduled to face is Choi-Hong-man. Choi-Hong-man is huge. He is 7â€2 and weighs 359lbs.

Dave Meltzer said this about the fight in a recent edition of his newsletter.

Yeah, I know the grammar is bad. However, Dave Meltzer is writing 25,000-35,000 words a week on slow weeks. That figure is just his newsletter as well and doesn't count his daily website updates and the articles that he, sometimes, writes for other publications such the LA Times. There have been some busy weeks, in the past, where Meltzer has pumped over 70,000 words. Given that fact he's entitled to some slack with regards to grammar and typos.

Anyway, Meltzer on the proposed Lesar/ Choi-Hong-man fight...

K-1/HERO'S: This is a long way from being announced, but the plan is for Hero's to run a PPV show in the U.S. with a tentative date of 5/19, looking at Las Vegas, with a main event of Brock Lesnar vs.Choi-Hong-man.

Lesnar has told training partners that Hong-man will be his opponent and two independent sources with full knowledge of the situation confirmed the match, tentative date and plans. It is being put together with the idea of Lesnar slaying a giant, but he had better get the fight to the ground because he'll get hammered by punches and a sick knee to the head because of the reach, height and stand-up experience.

We've never seen Hong-man on his back, and he has no background in fighting from his back, so the idea is that Lesnar takes him down and he's inexperienced there. The wild card is that Hong-man's original training is in the sport of Ssirum, which is a sport about avoiding being taken down. He was one of the best at it, although the level of competition in Ssirum in South Korea wouldn't be close to that of Division I U.S. wrestling, where Lesnar was a dominant star in 1999 and 2000. Again, we're talking a seven year competition layoff, and that's significant, as well as Lesnar being a first-timer in a new sport. Hong-man has done well in kickboxing, but only has one MMA fight, a 16 second win on New Year's Eve over comedian Bobby Ologun.
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Mr7134 · Feb 15, 2007

Re: "60 Minutes" piece on UFC/MMA

Adding Brock Lesner will only make people believe this stuff is fixed.

First thing it made me wonder.
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Lesnar was a division one national champion in freestyle wrestling. He was the runner up in 1999 and won the NCAAs in 2000. He was also a NJCAA champion in 1998. Histrionically people with wrestling backgrounds as strong as Lesnar's do very well in MMA. He is very much the real deal and, by all accounts, an uber prospect. He's probably good enough to shake off whatever stigma his professional wrestling stint carries.

Also, it's not like professional wrestlers haven't transitioned into MMA before. Ken Shamrock had two stints as a pro wrestler. Once before MMA and then his, more famous, late 90's WWE stint.

friend of the friendless · Feb 15, 2007

Re: "60 Minutes" piece on UFC/MMA

Mr 7134,

"Histrionically" looks incorrect but isn't.

YHS, etc

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