Your MMA News, My Views 6.08.07
Posted by Larry Csonka on 06.08.2007
K1 sets new records in worked attendance, Brock is a killer, more people headed to UFC, WEC, K1 and more!
INTRODUCTION~!
Welcome once again to another edition of Your MMA News, My Views! What a crazy week. We had fights announced and pulled from UFC, K1 has there big show with Brock looking like a killer, a huge worked attendance, WEC had their live Verses debut, Dennis Rodman is headed to MMA…WHAT'S GOING ON HERE? Yeah, it is a wild time to be a fan, so with all of that said, let's hit the news and discuss all of these topics!
Talking Points~!
Brock's MMA Debut: Bottom line, he looked great. He looked like a monster. But, it was only 70-seconds or so. There is no way to predict how good he REALLY is. He faced a last minute replacement, sure he was a great Judo guy, but had a poor 2-5 MMA record. He also tapped really quick I thought, but hey, I wasn't the one getting hit. The thing is this. Brook looked great, he fulfilled his one fight contract and now can shop himself around. It will be interesting to see where his career goes, but for that night, he looked awesome.
Appreciate dancing Brock people.
Gracie vs. Sakuraba: I think that a lot of people were hoping for way too much heading into this match. With their legendary first encounter being all anyone could think of, how could they not. Also, and this may sound odd, but I think letting them go 5-rounds would have been better. I think that they would have had a better bout, more methodical and in the end a better fight. But what we got is what we got, sort of a sad end to the legendary feud. But that happens with age.
ZUFFA (UFC/WEC/PRIDE) stories, scuttlebutt and rumors:
Your News: Following Jens Pulver's fight with BJ Penn later this month Pulver will compete for the WEC. Additionally, Pulver will drop weight classes to featherweight (145 pounds). Urijah Faber is the current WEC Featherweight Champion.
My Views: I like this move. UFC is very stocked with talent, especially with the PRIDE acquisition. They also own WEC, and want to develop that as a place for feather and lightweights. Sending Jens there to battle Faber, WEC's biggest name will be a god fight and draw more attention to WEC. This will be a big title fight for them, something that could headline their next live card. I am all for this.
Your News: Roger Huerta confirmed involvement on the 6/23 event today via his web page. Said Huerta...
"My next fight has been changed!! I'm going to be fighting on June 23rd. I was just notified last night. It will be live on Spike TV so check it out. God bless."
It was originally believed he would be fighting on the UFC 74 card. Fans will likely remember Huerta for his tremendous battle with Leonard Garcia at UFC 69 and his recent stint on a Sports Illustrated cover. His opponent for the TUF Finale has yet to be named.
My Views: Huerta vs. Garcia at UFC 69 was an off the hook battle, one I personally loved. They battled and battled and never slowed the entire fight. Huerta is also a HUGE star in the Hispanic community, and anytime you can promote a star that is big there, you have a chance to increase rating, PPV buys and revenue. Adding him to the card is a great idea, and hopefully he is what he seems, a great lightweight that could make some major noise in the division.
Your News: Contrary to an official Spike TV press release, Noah Thomas and Marlon Sims won't be given a second chance to reenact their controversial street fight from a recent episode of the UFC reality series. Steve Sievert of the Houston Chronicle and Brawl Sports discussed the issue with UFC president Dana White. White responded:
"They're not fighting on the finale," said UFC President Dana White. "Not only are they not fighting in the finale, they'll never fight in the UFC. Spike wanted that fight. It ain't gonna happen. No (expletive) way is that fight going to happen. Those guys will never fight in the UFC - ever."
My Views: GOOD. ONE THOUSAND TIMES GOOD. I was very against this match being added to the card, so to hear that it is off is very good news in my opinion. It would have looked bad for UFC to have that on the show. One could argue that having them promote and show the street fight was also a very bad idea. Thankfully these thugs won't be on the show or back in the UFC.
Your News: -WEC Wreckage on Sunday night at 8:00 PM did a 0.19 rating and a total of 189,000 viewers. They scored a 0.22 in males 18-49 and a 0.34 in males 18-34.
-The Live WEC show on Versus Sunday night drew a 0.39 rating, with a 0.43 in males 18-49 and a 0.64 in males 18-34 with a total of 416,000 viewers.
My Views: These are not spectacular numbers by any means, I won't try to paint them as such, but this was their first show and for something largely unadvertised from what I saw, it is a start. WEC is a Zuffa owned product
UFC 75: Unacceptable: Greatest Build Ever~!:
Other MMA News…
Your News: Following his mixed martial arts debut Saturday in Los Angeles, former NFL football player Johnny Morton was indefinitely suspended by the California State Athletic Commission after the 35-year-old from Torrance, Calif. refused to take his post-fight anti-doping test, CSAC Executive Officer Armando Garcia told Sherdog.com.
Morton will not be paid the $100,000 purse he was slated to receive after fighting the Ivory Coast's Bernard Ackah. The former USC Trojan wide receiver fell to Ackah in just 38 seconds when an overhand right dropped him cold to the canvas.
My Views: First of all, Morton did take a test before the match. But that is the funny thing, if he already took a test, why wouldn't he take another? Either he is hiding something, or he was knocked so silly after he debut that he didn't know what as going on. Either way a very odd situation. Secondly, $100,000 K1? Really? $100,000? Wow, they say the Japanese companies are ran poorly, but wow. That's ridiculous.
Your News: Brazilian jiu-jitsu phenomenon and multi-time Abu Dhabi champion Marcelo Garcia has been announced as the newest acquisition of promoters Fight Entertainment Group. A longtime crowd favorite on the grappling circuit Garcia will make his mixed martial arts on September 17 in Japan. No opponent has been named for Garcia yet, while the Brazilian, who grapples at 170 pounds, has not decided if he will fight down at 161 pounds or up at 183 pounds per K-1's currently utilized weight divisions.
My Views: While Garcia is a jiu-jitsu master, this will be his MMA debut when he does indeed have a fight. While jiu-jitsu is a big part of MMA, many people from jiu-jitsu and Judo and other disciplines have tried the transition and not done as well as people thought. It should be interesting to see what weight he decides on and how he does when he debuts.
Your News: Dynamite USA partners, FEG and Pro Elite, held a press conference earlier today in lieu of their upcoming event Saturday night. Not only were the event's fighters introduced, but none other than former NBA personality Dennis Rodman made an appearance.
He of tremendous rebounding ability and multicolored hair is in town to help promote the June 2nd show, but there is apparently more to the story than merely his interest in doing public relations' work. K-1 officials have announced that not only is Rodman looking to possibly invest in, or purchase, K-1 Hero's USA, he is also looking to possibly FIGHT on an upcoming card (as early as this Fall).
My Views: Dennis Rodman. Really K1? Dennis Rodman? And people thought Morton was a disaster!
Your News: Tonight's IFL show on FSN will be built around pushing Jay Hieron, Chris Horodecki, Vladimir Matyushenko and Ben Rothwell as the big stars of the company, focusing on building their personalities and showing their highlight matches. Regular dual meet coverage returns to FSN on 6/15 with the Southern California Condors vs. San Jose Razorclaws.
My Views: This sounds like a good move for the promotion. While they have no fresh fights to offer, promotional pieces and personality profiles can help people connect to fighters and thus give them a reason to watch and care. I am interested and plan to catch the show.
Your News: Pat Miletich, Don Frye and Dan Henderson will be going on a USO sponsored tour to the Persian Gulf in a few weeks. They will be teaching unarmed combat to the troops
My Views: Whether you support war or not, you have to respect the people that do USO work to entertain the troops. Having them teach unarmed combat will be a useful tool and probably a lot of fun for all involved. The best news is that Don Frye will be sharing the best romantic advice you can find! ASK DON~!
Your News: The Brock Lesnar vs. Kim Min-soo, Royce Gracie vs. Kazushi Sakuraba, Yoon Dong Sik vs. Melvin Mahoef and Johnnie Morton vs. Bernard Ackah matches from the K-1 Dynamite show this past Saturday will air on Showtime this Saturday at 9PM ET as the lead-in for the live Antonio Tarver match.
My Views: Well, on one hand for the fans that didn't get to purchase the PPV this is a great thing as you'll be able to see these fights, basically free (providing that you have Showtime) and that's good stuff. The bad news is that this is a poor business move as they are totally negating any additional PPV buys. Brock's debut and Gracie vs. Sakuraba were the buying points for a lot of people. So good for us, but bad for business.
Your News: According to the CSAC (California State Athletic Commission), the June 2nd Dynamite USA show featuring Sakuraba vs. Gracie II and the debut of Brock Lesnar set a North American attendance record with approximately 43,000 people in the stands. However, only around 3,700 of those admissions were from paid tickets while around 39,000 tickets were handed out by the promoter, FEG (Fight Entertainment Group).
As a result, Dynamite USA has replaced UFC 68 (Couture vs. Sylvia) as being the highest attended MMA event in North America.
My Views: I don't know any other way to put this, but this is bullshit. I am sorry, I feel that attendance records get more and more meaningless over the years with people working the number, and this is horrible. Attendance records should be based on paid attendance, not how many free tickets you can give out. Couture vs. Sylvia legit sold a ton of tickets, UFC didn't give out 10,000 tickets. I do not like this at all.
OTHER STUFF~!
I should have a report on the WEC show this weekend. Unfortunately it got lost in the shuffle last weekend, but I have it recorded and will get it done ASAP.
If all goes well, the MMA zone will be debuting a podcast soon. It is in the planning stages and we were going to try and debut last week, but lots of stuff happened. Stay tuned for that, it should be a blast!
I totally agree that Simms and Thomas should not be getting a fight, though after letting Jeremy Jackson on last year's finale, not too surprised. I wonder if this is the end of eliminated fighters staying in the house.
Three guys booted, and Wang getting kicked off team Penn has made for an out
of the ring train wreck (albeit good TV), especially since only one person had to be brought back in.
-If Rudiger was really not certified to fight due to what someone saw on TV
- it is total crap.
1. It was months ago.
2. It may or may not have been edited to reflect even more poorly on him
than it should have.
3. Anyone who has cut weight knows that you go on an emotional roller
coaster during the process. The best thing is to get back in, and make the
weight. Back in college wrestling, I once missed weight and it messed me up
for a few days, the next week's match was really needed to get myself back
on track. Bottom line, it is a setback, not unlike a tough loss that can be
overcome by getting back in there, not by dragging things out.
Now if they saw the show and THEN had him brought in for a Psych evaluation,
which he failed, it is a different story.
-The Serra team sounds good, I've heard good stuff about Longo, Pete Sell is
a solid well-rounded fighter. I wonder if having coaches who were on a past
cast will benefit the fighters on that team.
The Renzo comments make me optimistic that he will at least pop in for a
guest appearance. I have really enjoyed seeing the big name guest coaches
this season. While they did that on TUF 4, this time seems more genuine as
it is really showing the connections guys have to each other in training
camps. On that note, how cool would it be if Hughes brought in Militech as
a guest coach?
The good news is that it is off now, I would have hated to have that fight on the show.
As for Rudiger, it is a bit sketchy. I am not sure if he had further evaluation or not, but again, this is a commission that is coming under fire for odd decisions, ala the Morton being allowed to fight one. I am hoping more comes from this, as we have tried to reach him for further comment.
I love the sound of the Serra team, and think that he will be a good coach. I remember him cornering Shonie in the first fight of that season and thought so since then. Militech appearing would be cool, we'll just have to wait and see. Thanks for the email!
For more interesting information on wrestling and MMA, check out Bryan Alvarez and Figure Four Weekly Online!
