Official MMA News/Discussion Thread

[fallen]

lol that Rampage show was great. I really hope he takes out Chuck that would be huge imo.

 

[onebigeric]

I would normally pull for the underdog with a long-reigning champ, but I'm still just sold on Liddell. He's such a humble, quiet, and appreciative champion; it's like Dana said, in that Chuck has always had a lot more to complain about than others, but he never has. I wouldn't be bummed to see Rampage win, but I'd be sad to see Chuck lose.

 

[fallen]

I would normally pull for the underdog with a long-reigning champ, but I'm still just sold on Liddell. He's such a humble, quiet, and appreciative champion; it's like Dana said, in that Chuck has always had a lot more to complain about than others, but he never has. I wouldn't be bummed to see Rampage win, but I'd be sad to see Chuck lose.

understandable but Rampage is an old fav of mine so i'm really pulling for him

 

[CaptainCharisma]

i like Chuck and Rampage, i could honestly go either way...but i got money on Rampage, so go Rampage

 

[CaptainCharisma]

Rampage words for Chuck

only Rampage can trash talk like that all for fun, honestly im really hyped for this fight, i havnt felt this excited for a fight since Hughes/St. Pierre II

 

[CaptainCharisma]

"What's your perspective of the Fertittas' acquisition of Pride? Do you think it's good or bad for the sport? Would you have any interest in having a rematch with Wanderlei Silva?

Ortiz: I'm very happy that the Fertittas bought Pride. You know, the Fertittas have done an awesome job with the UFC. Lorenzo and Frank are great people, they're awesome people, I have nothing but thanks for them. And for me to compete against Wanderlei in Pride, I would love that. I would crush him like I crushed him last time. I would love that. You thought Dan Henderson knocked him out bad? Let me fight him again. I guarantee I'll knock him out a lot worse."

Part 1: http://www.sportsline.com/mmaboxing/story/10161164

Part 2: http://www.sportsline.com/mmaboxing/story/10161180

lol if i remember the Tito/Wanderlei fight correctly, Tito won a BS decision during a fight which i clearly remember him turning around and literaly running from Wanderlei...and as for KOing him worse than Hendorson, all i can say to that is

 

[CaptainCharisma]

Floyd Fairy'weather was in an internet chat on ESPN.com today, and apparently only lasted about 11 minutes before he left (maybe it had something to do with TONS of people asking him if he would ever man up to his words and actually fight an MMA guy) this is the closest response to that question he gave:

Burns (Charleston, SC): What's up Floyd? I'm a huge fan and I've loved you on HBO 24/7. Once you are finsihed proving yourself in the boxing ring is there any chance you would ever consider taking on somebody in UFC? I know I'd be rooting for you buddy!

Floyd Mayweather: (4:04 PM ET ) No. For what?

Floyd Mayweather: (4:05 PM ET ) I'm the best fighter in the world. The UFC is what it is. Everyone knows how I feel about that.

Once again more proof that Fairy'weather is nothing more than a gigantic pussy. Furthermore i remember reading something Dana White said a while ago (im paraphrasing from memory) "I'll give Mayweather 2 million of my own money if he fights anyone besides Oscar in boxing and more than 10 people show up to watch"

Here's to De La Hoya kicking the shit out of his arrogant ass on the 5th

 

[fallen]

lol @ Rampage "whole lotta crapola" and as far as mayweather goes he is going to have a cinco de mayo that Oscar will make sure he never remembers

 

[CaptainCharisma]

Lance Storm's take on the differences between UFC/WWE/TNA (good read)

Anyhow, it seems like many people here don't understand why the WWE gets more viewers every week yet less people buying their monthly PPV's. Here's a very good and articulate commentary by Lance Storm (former Pro Wrestler) about PPV buys and buy rates and why they differ between the WWE and the UFC. And please, don't hijack the thread with all the pro wrestling hate. We already know it's cool to say that so you can save it.



-I watched UFC 70, with a buddy of mine, this past weekend and we started discussing the popularity of UFC and the difference in UFC and pro-wrestling buy rates. The most interesting thing is that UFC television programming pulls ratings just slightly better that TNA yet is pulling buy rates on PPV greater than even WWE.

Television ratings, for the most part reflect your total fan base, the people who know about your product and enjoy it enough to follow it regularly on TV for free. Based on TV ratings TNA has a fan base of just under 1.25 million people (I’m ball parking here), UFC about 1.75 million, and WWE maybe 4.5 million. WWE is still by far king of the hill in total fan base with over double the regular viewers as UFC and nearly quadruple that of TNA.

Buy rates on the other hand tell a slightly different story, and again I’m ball parking and averaging as best I can so don’t quote me or try to correct my numbers. TNA is pulling about 25,000 PPV buys per PPV event, WWE closer to 150,000 (I’m only counting domestic buys, internationally those numbers increase quite a bit), and UFC pulling as high as 750,000. So when you look at the most loyal die-hard fans, those willing to actually pay for the product and consider it to be must see, UFC is doing about 5 times what WWE is doing and approximately 30 times the buys rates of TNA.

This is where things get interesting because conventional wisdom says that the PPV events are sold off the TV programming, and that the primary purpose of the TV shows is to convince fans to order PPV. So the effectiveness of the respective television programming should be reflected by the company’s, PPV buys per TV viewers, ratio. When you look at this ratio we have UFC dominating the field with upwards of a 43% purchase rate, with WWE in second with about 3.5%, and TNA in dead last with a 2% purchase percentage. Granted we are comparing apples to oranges here somewhat with Pro-Wrestling and MMA, but they are both still fruit and for the sake of discussion it’s fun to compare.

UFC programming is about 20 times more effective at selling PPV buys than TNA and 12 times as effecting as WWE. This brings up the obvious question, WHY? My buddy and I threw this idea around for a while and came up with a few possible answers. The first most obvious one was the fact that UFC is real and thus the results to these events are more significant and people who like to gamble can bet on the outcome. If you put money on Matt Serra beating Georges St-Pierre at UFC 69, not only did you make a shit load of money, you were probably more apt to order the show to see if your bet paid off.

I don’t think the real or fake issue is the total answer and if it is there isn’t much pro-wrestling can do about it at this point. WrestleMania still pulls a huge buy rate, so real or fake, there are still a ton of people willing to purchase wrestling PPVs, just not as many on a regular basis. Where I think the problem lies is in over exposure of big matches on TV and general booking trends in wrestling today. I don’t think enough emphasis is put on the outcome of matches anymore. Matches quite often are treated as if they are just there to advance the “storylines”. I would hazard to guess many people “writing” wrestling today think that is exactly what a match is for, which in my opinion is completely backwards.

The “Storyline” is there to create interest in the match up, and the result of that match up is what is important. The match up is the steak and the “Storyline” is just the sizzle. I’ll pay for steak; I will not pay for sizzle. I think the best illustration of this was the Ultimate Fighter Season 3 build up for the Tito Ortiz – Ken Shamrock fight. The Shamrock – Ortiz feud was built up all season and then produced 775,000 buys on PPV. The winner of that match was all that mattered, and when the fight was finish so was the “Storyline”. To see the conclusion of that feud you had to order the PPV, which three quarters of a million people were willing to do.

Now I realize they had several months of build up to sell that one PPV, and if WWE did that with say Batista and The Undertaker there would be several PPVs in the interim that would be without a main event, but perhaps with the new PPV structure in WWE that problem could be over come.

In WWE now there are three distinct brands, each with their respective World Champion. RAW and SD also have the US, and IC titles, not to mention 2 Tag Team titles, the Women’s title and the Cruiserweight title. With 9 titles to be defended would it be possible to slow the entire booking process down and alternate which titles are being defended on each PPV?

If they took extra time to rebuild Batista, keeping him completely away from Taker, and have him dominate his way back to the top over 3 or 4 months, how much more effective would that rematch be at selling PPV buys than the immediate rematch at Backlash? You would have to completely restructure the creative process and how TV and PPV were built, alternating which title matches headline each PPV, but I think it’s interesting to look at the possibilities this creates.

One thing you would have to do, is eliminate World Title matches from free TV completely. If you never get to see the Title defended on TV, Title matches on PPV become more special. If you want to see Randy Couture fight, which I do, you have to order it on PPV, which I will, where on the other hand I’ve gotten to see Bobby Lashley defend the ECW World Title 3 or 4 times this year for free, and I haven’t even watched ECW TV.

There are a lot of problems this concept creates also, including possible reduction in over all viewer ship, due to the reduction of big matches offered on regular television. This potential drop in viewer ship may also have an adverse affect on live events as well as over all merchandise revenue, so I am in no way offering it as a solution. I’m just throwing ideas out there for the sake of discussion. I do however firmly believe that more emphasis on matches and match outcome, will increase interest in the over all product and have a positive effect on buy rates.

Lance Storm

This is why i will always love wrestlers with the old school mentality like Storm, RESPECT.

 

[JS316]

^^Great read

couldn't agree more with him...

 

[onebigeric]

Gayweather is such a posing clown

That Rampage video was incredibly hilarious

And Tito did anything but 'destroy' Wandy. It was a questionable decision for sure. Tito did score takedowns all the way through round five, but so did the Axe Murderer. Tito dropped Wandy to all fours with a shot, but he then immediately turned it into a double-leg takedown. Tito running away and doing a jumping-spin to 'avoid' Silva's strikes was hilarious to say the least.

Wandy was:
-Fighting in a cage
-On Ortiz's home turf(fan wise anyway)
-Using a foreign ruleset(which he wasn't informed about until 36 hours before the fight)

Bottom line; let Tito go to Pride, he'll get killed over there.

 

[CaptainCharisma]

if anyone wants to put money on this fight (with Jackson) it would be best to do it now, the line is insane -290 on Jackson, but i would guess it would go down soon, so it would be best to put it on Jackson now if you wanted

 

[CaptainCharisma]

Fedor interview

Q. Tell us about the armbar vs. Lindland, he said it was one of the coolest armbars he ever saw. He said he didn't think he was even in trouble until it was too late. Was it sambo? bjj? something new?
A. It was a regular armbar from me. I isolated the arm with my legs by squeezing it very hard.


(Sherdoggers questions that he addressed)
Q. Have you seen Gonzaga-Cop yet? What did you think of both fighters?
A. I saw it by now. Gonzaga, it looked like, studied the Cop in great detail and worked by a very well prepaired game plan, very very smart decision, Gonzaga did some things new also that others have not done, while Cop wasn't able to put his mind to this fight even thou he is a higher "level" fighter.


Q. In your last 2 fights you won with subs from the top. Why was there no GnP?
A. I didn't feel that it's needed. I felt that I can win by a sub.


Q. Dana White recently said that UFC fighters are better and that Pride fighters are worse and THAT is why they lose in UFC now. What do YOU think of UFC fighters, especially Arlovski and Couture?
A. I think Pride fighters are stronger than UFC. As far as Couture -he is worthy of admiration, I repect him as person and fighter, I like him very much and Arlovski too. I like to watch his fights, he is avery high level fighter, thou he doesn't always use his best attributes.


Q. Do you have elbows experience? Will you adopt to UFC rules easilly IF you fight in it?
A. I work with elbows no problem and perfect them. There will be no problem with ANY rules for me.


Q. Is it possible to train with you?
A. Red Devil has a gym in St. Petersburg. But I coach people mostly in Stary Oskol thou.


(other questions from around the world)
Q. Will you go into politics after retirement?
A. No.


Q. I'd LOVE to train with you, what do i do?
A. Come to St. Petersburg to Red Devil Club, we'll take it from there little by little.


Q. How long will you keep fighting and do you think about a defeat?
A. I have a contract for 2 more years now, so for now I'm not retiring. And I don't think about losses.


Q. Why do Russian fighters look so relaxed before fights? Any specific preperation?
A. It's not a special preperation, but rather a different culture/character.


Q. What's more important to YOU, money or being the best in the world?
A. Both are very important to me, but being the best HW in the world is MOST important to me.

Q. Who do you WANT to fight most?
A. Rulan Gardner, Olympic Champion that defeated Karelin


Q. Do you see dreams at night? Nightmaires, like Mike Tyson talked about?
A. Sometimes I see night dreams and I fight in them too.


Q. Dana White (zuffa) talked about taking away your belt and suing you etc.
A. Initially yes, they did, but not anymore, we found some common ground recently. My belts are in Stary Oskol behin glass in the training hall, so that young fighters can see it during training for insperation.


Q. When will you fight next and where?
A. Mix Fight in Russia, Moscow in fall.


Q. How is your brother Ivan and your student Kirill Sidelnikov?
A. Ivan will not fight anymore. Kirill is recovered from his injury and began training.


Q. Tell us about the alledged rule breaking on your part in the Lindland fight.
A. I didn't grab the ropes, I was leaning against them and Matt, it happend naturally, I don't believe that I broke the rules there.


Q. Will you have another child?
A. Ofcourse.


Q. You took it easy on your Rings opponents and on Hunt, but you armbarred Lindland very hard.
A. I didn't want Matt to escape the hold which he could have done if I went easy on that one. I didn't WANT to do it so hard. I respect Lindalnd as lot, he reminds me of Couture very much.


Q. You don't hit the liver so ofte, like against Goodridge, why not?
A. I attack where I see an opening at that moment, it all happens automatically.


Q. Do you like Randleplex kind of throws? Ever had the oportunity to spike people that way?
A. I had the opportunity but didn't have the desire to do such moves.


Q. Do you have fears? Fobia?
A. No


Q. Will you fight ANYONE ANYWHERE?
A. Yes, as long as the contract is worthy.


Q. You consider yourself to be the best in the world?
A. Never thought of it that way.


Q. You have idols? Who?
A. Urii Vlasov, a powerlifter HW.


Q. Will one of your brothers take your spot at the top one day?
A. I'd like that, but looks like it's not going to happend.


Q. What is your favorite food?
A. I eat everything, there are so many great foods.


Q. What do you eat?
A. I try to avoid sweets and try to eat less fat, but I eat everything otherwise.


Q. Do you think you reached your prime?
A. My coach says that I have reached now 50% of my potential.


Q. Do you have specific game plans?
A. Not very specific, I have ideas.


Q. Why did Lindland get you with the very first punch?
A. I saw it, but I misdjudged the distance a little bit.


Q. Do you think that future opponents will try the same gameplan now against you? (punch, clinch, takedown all very quickly)
A. I'll take that mistake into account next time.


Q. Tell us about your leg locks.
A. I'm working on them right now, and hope to perfect them.


Q. Lindland said he want's a rematch.
A. I'd want to fight him again too, he is very interesting fighter.


Q. Who is the most threatening HW to you in the world?
A. (laughs) here my coach just walked in, he is the scariest person on the planet, he can make me not eat dinner or supper

Q. Any offers from k1 recently?
A. No.







Questions to Voronov (head coach)

Q. Why is there such a gap between Fedor and other Russian fighters from Red Devil?
A. Because when Fedor came to MMA he was a world class Judoka and Samboist, most our guys are very young and green.


Q. What is the best age to start training for MMA?
A. 16-17 and with some Martial Arts experience already.

Fedor says he's only at 50%...i cant imagine him at 100%

 

[CaptainCharisma]

Floyd Mayweather

"I apologize to the UFC, sometimes we say things that we shouldn't have said and I'm man enough to admit that. I apologize to the Fertittas, Lorenzo and Dana White (UFC owners). I respect MMA fighters and what they do in the UFC. I have no plans of fighting in mixed martial arts."

http://www.fightnews.com/boxing/bc/perea100.htm

looks like he smartened up...or realised that MMA guys weren't gonna take his BS without calling him out

 

[CaptainCharisma]

Cro Cop bought a cage:

http://www.jutarnji.hr/clanak/art-2007,5,5,,73120.jl



Finally he's taking shit seriously.

 

[fallen]

lol @ Gayweather and yeah Cro Cop needs to wake up and see that he still has to take this serious or he could really get hurt

 

[onebigeric]

Good for Mirko; hopefully he'll be able to get his head in the game now.

 

[JS316]

sak vs royce 2...June 2nd..

pretty cool, even though i'd prefere Rickson vs Sak..

also Brock Lesner vs Hong man choi on the same card..

 

[fallen]

sak vs royce 2...June 2nd..

pretty cool, even though i'd prefere Rickson vs Sak..

also Brock Lesner vs Hong man choi on the same card..

cool what a great fight to have on my birthday i know i'll be drunk watching it lol

 

[CaptainCharisma]

Randy Couture is gonna be on the cover of Sports Illustrated

http://www.nbcsports.com/ufc/1482439/detail.html

all hail the king of mma