Cardio Freak MMA News Report 7.20.09: All About Promotion

Posted by Jeremy Lambert on 07.20.2009

Cardio Freak is back with a special look at how to run your own MMA company. Nine simple rules that you need to follow in order to keep your company afloat in the world of MMA. Plus thoughts on Tito Ortiz' potential UFC return, Kit Cope making his yearly comments, and fun with Affliction's press release. It's healthier than GSP's groin, it's Cardio Freak on 411.



Welcome back to Cardio Freak everyone. I am your trainer Jeremy ‘Just Killin Time In Between Fights' Lambert.

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How To Run a MMA Company by Someone Who Never Has/Will Run a MMA Company

Let me get this out of the way: I'll never own/run a MMA company unless one of two things happen. The first is that I win the lottery. I never play the lottery so chances of this happening are highly unlikely. Plus if I did win the lottery I'd probably spend the money on hookers and blow instead of a MMA company. High class hookers and Columbia blow of course. The only other way would be is if some floundering MMA company, desperate for attention, hired a MMA writer because they figure, "why not?" While this is also highly unlikely, I do expect an email from Affliction on August 2nd. So despite the fact that I never have owned/ran a MMA company and I likely never will own/run a MMA company, I feel perfectly qualified to tell other people how to run their MMA company. Think of this as one of those "For Dummies" books that I think are still all the rage.

1. Never Mention the Competition in a Negative Light aka "The Affliction Rule": This is a very important rule because mentioning the competition makes you look second rate and even though you might be lucky to a forth rate promotion, you still want to come off as the best promotion in the world. Even if you're a local promotion in North Carolina, don't mention a local promotion in Florida and claim something stupid like "this is the place to be" because if it was truly the place to be, everyone would be there. Don't say all the best fighters are in your company because everyone knows that's not true. It's only smart to mention promotions ranked higher than you when you're touting someone as a "former ______ fighter/champion/contender." If you happen to achieve your ultimate goal of being the number one MMA promotion, don't even bothering burying the competition unless they're run by idiots (which should never happen again after this article) because it just makes you look bitter and caring.

2. Pay Based on Drawing, Not on Skill aka "The Kimbo Rule": I don't care if Jake Shields is a better fighter than Bobby Lashley. 500 people will pay to see Lashley fight and only five are paying to see Shields. Thus, Lashley should get paid more. Take care of your highly ranked fighters, especially if they're considered the best in their division but remember that you make money based on attendance, merchandise and viewership so whichever fighter brings you the most money should be paid the most money. Even if your biggest draw is a horrible fighter, still pay him the most. It's been proven time and time again that a couple of losses doesn't harm the drawing power to established stars as long as you book and promote smartly.

3. Don't Hitch Your Wagon to One Fighter aka "The EliteXC Rule": Don't promote the hell out of one fighter and never give his opponent a mention. Promote the hell out of the guy you want to win but also state a case as to why his opponent can win. When you put one fighter above your entire company and he loses, your company is all but done.



4. If You Can't Book It, Don't Promote It aka "The Fedor Rule": Affliction likes to promote fights such as Fedor vs. Randy Couture and Fedor vs. Brock Lesnar. Problem is, they can't book these fights. If you can't book a fight, don't even bother mentioning it. It's fine to try and build fights for the future as long as you know you can make the fight happen if you want but if you can't make a fight, don't get the fans excited for it. This ties in to rule #3 as Affliction has neglected Fedor vs. Josh Barnett (did you know that fight is less than two weeks away?) in order to promote mainly Fedor but also Fedor vs. Lesnar.

5. Book Fights When You Have Them aka "The Liddell vs. Silva Rule": Don't try to get fancy with your booking. If you have a big fight that you want to book, book it. Don't try to build up a fighter by giving them a win before the fight because that "easy win" could easily turn into a loss. When you have a fight that the fans want to see, they don't if they're coming off a win, multiple wins, or a loss. If it's truly a big fight, just book it.

6. Have Your Titles Mean Something aka "The Strikeforce Rule": If you have titles (something every company should have) then make them important. What this means is: always make the title fight the main event, never stack a show with more than two title fights, and have your titles defended at least once every eight to ten months.



7. Don't Try to Be Dana White aka "The Gary Shaw/Jeremy Lappen/Gerry Millen/Tom Atencio Rule": There's only one Dana White. Only one man can get away with using the word "fuck" five times in a sentence and only one man can get away with arguably being a bigger star than 80% of the roster. Be the anti-Dana White. Just blend in with the rest of the promotion officials and fly under the radar.

8. Don't Listen to the Media/Read Message Boards aka "The Dana White Rule": This ties in to rule #7. Lets face it, almost everyone associated with MMA media is an idiot (except for the fine writers here at 411Mania and select others) and pretty much anyone who posts on a MMA message board is a moron (except for the fine posters here on the 411Mania Fan Forums) so there's no point in listening to them or responding to them. You only get yourself in trouble when you do that.

9. Make Sure You Have Something to Promote aka "The Every Company Not Named UFC Rule": Don't run an event and then not have your next event lined up. You're basically giving up before starting. Always have a next event scheduled so you can promote it on the event you're currently running. You always want the fans clamoring for the next event and you want them to know when it is.

Nine simple rules for running your own MMA company. I bet Tom Atencio wishes he had a time machine right about now.

Playing to Your Strengths



According to a series of twitter posts, Dana White and Tito Ortiz are now on good terms. Rumor has it that Ortiz could return to the UFC at UFC 103 against Rich Franklin

As usual, take any Tito Ortiz news with a grain of salt. Last week he was all but signed to Strikeforce and ready to face Renato Sobral and then Fedor Emelianenko. Now he's all but signed to UFC and ready to face Rich Franklin. Next week he'll be signing with Japan to face Jose Canseco.

I've been saying all along that I thought Ortiz would end up back in the UFC and the fact that he and Dana White have seemingly made up make that all the more possible. Dana seems to be in a "kiss and make up" mood as of late with reports saying that he would sign Josh Barnett should he defeated Fedor, now making up with Ortiz, and reportedly about to make up with Pat Miletich. Could Frank Shamrock be next? Probably not.

If Ortiz vs. Rich Franklin does happen, UFC 103 gets the main event that it's currently lacking and has a hell of an undercard to go with it. Maybe this was a sign of desperation by Dana White. UFC 103 is scheduled to go head to head with the boxing return of Floyd Mayweather Jr. who is one of boxing's last remaining draws. Despite the fact that UFC is a much bigger brand name than boxing right now, Mayweather's return likely would have outdrawn a UFC show headlined by Rich Franklin vs. Luiz Cane or any other fight currently scheduled on the card. Now with Tito Ortiz returning, it's bound to do a huge buyrate as long as we're not overestimating just how much name value Ortiz has in 2009.

As far as the fight goes, it's a smart fight to book. Rich Franklin is right in the thick of things at 205 and could be two fights away (including his UFC 103 fight) from a title shot. Ortiz is already one of the biggest names in MMA, which always helps in earning a title shot and is considered a threat at 205 because he arguably beat Rashad Evans before Lyoto Machida did and he's come the closest to defeating Machida. So despite the fact that he's 0-2-1 in his last three fights and his last win over someone not named Ken Shamrock was three years ago, he's still a threat. A win over Franklin just gives him the big win that he needs to go along with his name value.



Georges St. Pierre's groin injury is not as bad as first thought. He will be back in training in two weeks

No other mans groin would be news but this is GSP we're talking about and it's a slow news week.

The main news point is that Georges St. Pierre won't miss any significant time, which means the Mike Swick vs. Martin Kampmann winner will still be receiving a title shot with a victory. In all honesty, I was hoping GSP would be out just long enough to where UFC could get a true contender for him, which will likely take two wins by Swick, Kampmann, Koscheck, Trigg, and Fitch with Matt Hughes having a very outside chance. Instead it looks like Swick or Kampmann will face GSP between December and February and no one will really care.

The other news point is that this a chink in the GSP armor and arguably the only chink in the GSP armor. He's injury prone. He had to delay his title shot against Matt Hughes due to an injury, he delayed his title fight against Matt Serra with an injury, and now he's hurt again. He's a machine but sooner or later those injuries catch up to you and play a part in your training and fighting. It seems clear that no current Welterweight fighter has the tools to defeat St. Pierre but maybe, just maybe, a Welterweight fighter can catch St. Pierre coming off an injury and have a chance at taking his title.

I just talked myself into caring about St. Pierre vs. Swick/Kampmann. I realize that if they fought ten times, GSP would win at least seven but they're only fighting one time and St. Pierre will be coming off this groin injury even if it's not that serious. When St. Pierre faces his "toughest challenge to date", he makes it look easy. But the one time he was given what most considered a "gimme fight" against Matt Serra, we saw what happened. Instead of hoping for someone to challenge St. Pierre and pointing out where the opponent has an advantage, we need to hope for a long shot underdog to shock the world again.

Anthony Johnson will take on Yoshiyuki Yoshida at UFC 104

I don't like this fight. I do think that Yoshida is a tougher test for Johnson than Matt Brown would have been but perception counts for a lot and the perception is Brown is a killer thanks to his victory over Pete Sell while Yoshida isn't very good due to the right hand of Josh Koscheck. I think Johnson would have defeated Brown and I think he's going to beat Yoshida but a win over Brown would have counted for more in the eyes of most fans.

I'm not really sure why Yoshida was given this fight over Brown considering Brown backed out of the first fight because Johnson was injured and he wanted time off, not because he was injured. Maybe UFC didn't like that Brown pulled out of the event instead of taking on a replacement opponent but I still maintain that that was a smart decision on Brown's part. I guess we'll know if UFC truly is upset with Brown when he has his next fight scheduled. He should have a decent opponent on the main card of an event but don't be shocked if he's stuck in the preliminaries.

Sparring Session

In a recent interview, Kit Cope made the following comments:

*Xtreme Couture is a fashionable place to train and they don't create their own stars.
*Shawn Tompkins has no Muay-Thai skills.
*Gina Carano will lose to "Cyborg" Santos if she keeps training at Xtreme Couture.

He also stated that he has a sex tape with Gina Carano but later said it was a joke

I wonder if Kit and Gina always had to have sex standing up since Kit has no ground game.

I thought the whole sex tape was an obvious joke from the start simply because no one cares about Kit Cope in 2009 (or any previous year) so he needed to get his name out there and the easiest way to do that was to remind people that he dated Gina Carano. That's really the only reason we know Kit Cope exists because he sure as hell isn't and never was a relevant fighter. So he made the sex tape comment, then preceded to bash Xtreme Couture and Shawn Tompkins so everyone would link the two together and get to talking about Kit Cope again. Bravo Kit, bravo.

I don't know who has been training with Xtreme Couture from the very start but I will say that they've pretty much created Forrest Griffin and Gray Maynard. Maybe guys like Wanderlei Silva and Tyson Griffin were already great fighters before they went to Xtreme Couture but so what? They could have gone to any camp they wanted to and they chose those camps. Every camp has fighters that were always great and that they built. Greg Jackson may have built Rashad Evans into a former UFC Light Heavyweight champion but Georges St. Pierre was already great before he joined Greg Jackson. I fail to see Cope's point on Xtreme Couture being a fashionable place to train. It might be true and maybe some fighters go there just to say they train at Xtreme Couture but so what? It's obviously a good camp that is home to a number of great fighters. If the camp sucked, people wouldn't train there. It's that simple.

Gina Carano has been training at Xtreme Couture for what seems like years now and she's yet to lose. The fact that she's training at the same time as Forrest Griffin and Randy Couture is a huge benefit to her because you know they're going hard everyday so it should make her want to go hard everyday. Maybe Gina isn't getting the muay-thai training Kit feels she should but I guarantee she's getting the MMA training that she should. And I'm pretty sure Carano vs. Santos is a MMA fight, not a muay-thai fight.

I don't know how good of a trainer Tompkins is but it seems like every time a Xtreme Couture fighter wins, they make sure to thank Tompkins and he's usually right on top of the list. So he must be doing something right. Again, if he was a bad trainer, even if Xtreme Couture was a great place to train, people wouldn't train with him. No one is going to train with bad trainers even if they have a more recognizable name.

In conclusion, Kit Cope is still a shitty MMA fighter who is only known due to his relationship to Gina Carano. He will now go back in his hole until she has another big fight on the horizon and then of course he'll emerge with more stupid comments to get people talking. See you then Kit.



Underwater Ice Bath

Affliction Press Release. My comments are in italic.

FEDOR Steals Glory

from Latest Heavyweight Villain

TYPE IN ALL CAPS TO MAKE SURE PEOPLE KNOW WHO YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT. Please name the previous Heavyweight villains.

SEAL BEACH, California (July 15, 2009) — Even in promotions he doesn't fight for, Fedor is the star. In the wake of Brock Lesnar's current heavyweight win, Fedor Emelianenko is the talk of the town. Leave it to Fedor to steal another man's fire without ever uttering a word. Lesnar's bad behavior at his recent victory has his name appearing in all kinds of sports and mainstream media venues. But much of the attention gets instantly shifted away from his WWE-style antics to a potential match-up between him and the wildly acknowledged heavyweight champion of the world—Fedor "The Last Emperor" Emelianenko.

I've watched/listened to plenty of sports talk shows over the past week and I've heard Fedor's name maybe once. PTI, Around The Horn, Jim Rome, Colin Cowheard, Dan Patrick, Dan LeBatard, ect… have never said the name Fedor. Affliction needs to stop considering Sherdog as "the mainstream media."

It seems that Lesnar is being cast as the MMA villain du jour. And since every villain needs a hero, media and fans alike seem to prefer Fedor as the man for the job. Instead of celebrating Lesnar's victory or simply descrying his after-fight performance, many are looking for vengeance. And the one to provide his medicine, they have decided is the world's ultimate heavyweight champ—Fedor. Disgruntled fans angry at his unsportsmanlike behavior think Fedor would teach Lesnar a painful lesson. Fedor's name has appeared in every article written about the recent match, and in editorials and chatrooms around the world. If this should be a time for Lesnar to bask in his notoriety, it seems that all the attention is going to The Last Emperor. It's as if Lesnar handed his victory over to the WAMMA Heavyweight Champion on a platter. Everyone, everywhere is talking about Fedor.

In any article that mentions Fedor, the only mention Fedor. There's no mention of Affliction or the fact that he's the WAMMA Heavyweight Champion. He's just Fedor Emelianenko, some guy who is considered the best Heavyweight in the world but isn't signed to the UFC.

Comparisons abound between the two fighters, there's even a poll asking who would win a bout between Fedor and the bulky Lesnar, with Fedor in the lead. Fedor's technical superiority is measured against Lesnar's heft. And the Russian fighter's cool, collected, and always respectful demeanor stand in contrast to the outburst by Lesnar after his last bout.

Where was this poll? I don't doubt that a poll on any major MMA website would have Fedor winning because every hardcore MMA fan loves Fedor and hates Lesnar. But if that poll gets run on ESPN, Lesnar wins. I don't think people voted because Fedor is a nice guy and Lesnar is an asshole either.

Ironically, at one time, the competition rejected claims of Fedor's dominance in the ring. But now even they have abandoned their claims and openly recognized Fedor's insurmountable skills. In fact, the competition is being judged by its potential to upset the WAMMA Champ who now fights for Affliction M-1 Global. They couldn't ignore the facts or the fans any longer. Before Lesnar's match, an Internet campaign was started to get fans to chant Fedor Emelianenko's name during the fight. The chanting never materialized. But the enthusiasm for Fedor is impossible to disregard.

Dana White has always wanted Fedor and never said he wasn't one of the best Heavyweights. He just said Fedor hadn't fought top competition and to be the best you have to fight the best. He was more bashing MMA fans who hyped Fedor as the best fighter ever than Fedor himself, which he obviously had to do to protect his product. And whatever happened to that Fedor chant at UFC 100? Had it come to fruition then maybe Affliction would have a point but never was the name Fedor chanted at Mandalay Bay on July 11th. That just goes to show you that Fedor is an internet darling and not a mainstream darling. The internet fans knew about the chant and no one chanted. Had the general public known about the chant, maybe we would have heard something. The fans had the perfect time to chant "Fedor" during Lesnar's post fight celebration but instead they vilified Lesnar by booing rather than glorifying Fedor by chanting.

And the excitement is swelling as all prepare for Fedor's August 1st battle against "The Babyfaced Assassin," Josh Barnett, at Affliction M-1 Global's "Trilogy." All eyes—including a mass of newly anointed Fedor fans—will be on the ring when the number one and two ranked heavyweight fighters of the world meet to establish who is the best in the world. And whoever wins that match will rein supreme, as the legitimate world heavyweight champion and the most exciting heavyweight in MMA.

Oh yeah, don't forget Fedor is fighting on August 1st against Josh Barnett. By the content of this press release, you would think Fedor vs. Lesnar is the big upcoming fight. Nope. I wonder how Josh Barnett feels about all this. His own company is promoting a fight that isn't going to happen while he's two weeks away from fighting the man they're hyping as the best Heavyweight in the world. At least they claimed that Barnett was the #2 Heavyweight in the world. You know, they only spent that whole time building Lesnar vs. Fedor like it was the #1 vs. #2 fighters in the world but in actuality they have the #1 and #2 Heavyweights so why not build that instead? "Hey, we have the #1 and #2 fighters but lets try to build a fight against the #1 vs. #3 fighters. That makes sense." This is a classic case of Fedor losing kills the company because they've essentially hitched their entire wagon to him and Fedor winning does nothing because he's the greatest fighter all time all my life so he should win. Plus he didn't beat Brock Lesnar and that's the fight everyone wants to see.

So what did we learn from this press release? When Affliction goes under on August 2nd, we all know why.

AND IT'S ALL OVER~!

That does it for me folks. I'll be back next week with a preview of Affliction: Trilogy. Take care everyone.

And remember you can follow me on Twitter.

Cardio Freak Sources: Dave Meltzer and the Wrestling Observer, Bryan Alvarez and Figure Four Weekly, MMAWeekly, and MMAMania