February 28th, 2008
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(Alvarez vs. Derrick Noble in ‘06.)
Although Eddie Alvarez signed a multi-fight deal with the EliteXC last month, he has also agreed to fight in DREAM’s Lightweight Grand Prix. 5oz. of Pain confirmed the deal this afternoon. The tournament will be in Japan on March 15th. Alvarez will fight Andre “Dida” Amade in the first round.
“The fight is 100 percent,” began Alvarez. “I just got a call from my manager, Monte Cox, everything is underway. Everything is approved and I will be heading over there (Japan) on the 10th to fight in the lightweight Grand Prix. I’m excited.”
“Monte (Cox) talked it over with EliteXC and EliteXC was happy to work with DREAM,” Alvarez responded when asked if special permission was needed to compete in a tournament that could require Alvarez to fight on three separate DREAM shows. “I’m sure they want to do business with them in the future so I’m sure they are more than happy to lend me over and let me do the fight.”
Alvarez also said he might be fighting in May for an EliteXC Atlantic City event, but nothing is set in stone. He will certainly be busy getting down to lightweight for the fight and mentioned he is doing three-a-days to make weight. The fighter is 12-1 overall and last fought on January 25th when he defeated Ross Ebanez via TKO in the second round of their battle at The ShoXC Elite Challenger Series. He’s an exciting fighter to watch and has only lost to Nick “The Goat” Thompson (April, 2007).
Andre “Dida” Amade is 6-2-1, losing his very first pro fight and his latest - a submission loss to Gesias Calvancante last September at K-1 HERO’s - Tournament Final. He has been with K-1 his last four fights. Amade is with Chute Box; Alvarez from Philly’s Fight Factory.
Gotta’ hand it to the guys at DREAM for putting together a solid card so far. More than I can say for another organization set to debut soon.
Written by admin on February 28th, 2008 with comments disabled.
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(The future centerpieces of the UFC.)
I don’t make a habit of reading askmen.com unless I’m researching how to properly organize my closet or how taking a cooking class can make me a better lover - my closet has never looked better by the way - but MMA News is directing attention to their article, 5 Things You Didn’t Know: The UFC. The article digs up some absurd stuff we knew and some we didn’t about the organization. Case in point:
1- It was supposed to involve alligators
If nothing else, you can’t successfully accuse the original promoters of the UFC of failing to think big. Specifically, in addition to such outrageous ideas as putting electric fences around the ring, one of their many schemes was to include live alligators thrashing around in moats. Fortunately, UFC doctors were a bit more practical in their thinking, advising against such plans because of the potential harm these could do to the fighters.
Was Bob Meyrowitz behind the curtain on this one? It doesn’t give an exact date as to when the gators were to make their appearance, but I’m guessing YAMMA’s showman had crocs and gators as an idea for a new “surface”.
Point number two details John McCain’s flip-flop on his stance concerning MMA, specifically the UFC. That we’re well aware of. As we are of point number five, which is that Dana White kept Tito in the UFC in 2006 by offering to go three rounds with him - a ploy that likely won’t work this time around.
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Apparently I’m a subscriber to the UFC.com newsletter — which means I can totally buy tickets before the rest of you commoners, right? — and this poster came into my inbox today. Maybe this is nit-picky, especially in light of the three amazing headlining fights on this card, but can we talk about the “ill will” font? The name wasn’t blowing me away to begin with, and that’s the weakest, most limp-dicked presentation I’ve ever seen. White crayon, all lowercase? If that’s that creative direction they were going with, why not call the event “nap time” or “i’m sad”? Whatever happened to overcompensation? If I was designing this thing, I’d put “ill will” in all caps, in a tread plate-inspired font that shot fucking fireballs. No, don’t thank me, my wisdom is a gift to the world.
Written by admin on February 28th, 2008 with comments disabled.
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(Pour one out…)
It’s kind of sad that it’s taken this long for the UFC to get a non-malt-liquor beer sponsor. But after years spent presenting Rock Paper Scissors tournaments, the Phoenix Suns’ official blog, the New Jersey State Barbecue Championship, and countless games of Beirut, Bud Light has decided that the UFC is finally respectable enough to bear its name. From today’s press release on UFC.com:
COLUMBUS, Ohio (Feb. 28, 2008) – This spring, millions of Ultimate Fighting Championship® fans will see a new heavyweight take the center of the Octagon™. Today Anheuser-Busch and UFC® announced that Bud Light, the world’s best-selling beer, will become the new exclusive beer sponsor for the UFC.
Bud Light’s three-year deal with Zuffa, LLC, owner of the UFC brand, makes the American-style light lager with superior drinkability the exclusive beer sponsor of the UFC – the world’s premier mixed martial arts organization…
“Landing Anheuser-Busch and Bud Light is huge for us, our fighters and especially our fans,” said Dana White, UFC president. “We’ve got the number one selling beer in the world and one of the top marketers in all of sports as our sponsor. If our TV ratings, pay-per-view buys and venue sell-outs weren’t enough, this definitely cements UFC as a major player in sports business.”
So, starting with UFC 84 in May, the Bud Light logo will be in the center of the Octagon and on the vertical bumpers, and will be featured during press conferences and weigh-ins. It will also be the presenting sponsor for two UFC pay-per-view events per year. And beginning June 1, Bud Light will also be the official beer sponsor of World Extreme Cagefighting events on VERSUS.
Update: An source who wishes to remain anonymous has revealed to CagePotato that EliteXC has just locked down Coca-Cola to sponsor its live events on CBS, and that an enraged Dana White has killed two people in his office. We’ll keep you posted on this shocking turn of events…
Written by admin on February 28th, 2008 with comments disabled.
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(Melendez - and his hair - in need of an opponent.)
— Strikeforce lightweight title-holder Gilbert “El Niño” Melendez was supposed to fight Jorge Masvidal at the Strikeforce/EliteXC March 29th event - but the fight has been cancelled due to a shin injury Masvidal received during “Strikeforce at the Dome” in Washington. The injury came in a fight against Ryan Healy, which Masvidal won by decision. A replacement could be named soon to battle Melendez since he is one of the top fighters on the card. Middleweight champ Frank Shamrock will put his title on the line against Cung Le in the highly-anticipated main event.
Melendez is 13-1, snapping a 13-fight win streak and picking up his first loss at “Yarennoka!” on New Year’s Eve. He lost via decision to PRIDE vet Mitsuhiro Ishida. The lightweight has seen success almost everywhere he’s fought, including Strikeforce, PRIDE, WEC, and ROTR. El Niño’s ex-opponent, Masvidal, has seen recent success in Strikeforce and BodogFIGHT and boasts wins over dudes like Joe Lauzon and Yves Edwards.
— We reported the surprising retirement of welterweight star Paul “Semtex” Daley earlier this week. The out-of-nowhere announcement was posted on Cage Warriors’ message board. While speculation to Daley’s retirement at age 25 ranged from him being bored with the sport to a ploy to pull in a huge payday from the highest bidder, it’s still unclear to why he would do this or if it was just a hoax. Sherdog was able to reach FX-3 promoter Paul James, who confirmed Daley would be giving up his EliteXC position after he fulfills his contract on March 29th. And in a text message exchange with Daley, they say the fighter refused to talk about the decision because he didn’t want to make a big deal of it. Well, it is a big deal to us when a star athlete who could dominate their division decides to drop it all.
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Bye-bye, Mickey.
Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) today announced during the UFC 82: “Pride of a Champion” pre-fight press conference that Bud Light will become the exclusive beer sponsor of the promotion, beginning with UFC 84: “Ill Will” on Saturday, May 24.
It’s a three-year deal that will also include the Zuffa-owned World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) promotion.
Here’s a snip from UFC President Dana White:
“Landing Anheuser-Busch and Bud Light is huge for us, our fighters and especially our fans. We’ve got the number one selling beer in the world and one of the top marketers in all of sports as our sponsor. If our TV ratings, pay-per-view buys and venue sell-outs weren’t enough, this definitely cements UFC as a major player in sports business.”
Bud Light signage will soon appear on the Octagon center mat, as well as on its vertical bumpers. It was prime real estate that the most recent large sponsor, Harley Davidson, recently had locked up.
There was no reference in the release about how the two sponsors will co-exist; however, it’s safe to say that the motorcycle brand will take sidecar position alongside such a blue chip backer like Bud Light.
In addition, this latest news more or less means — even though it wasn’t uttered — that Mickey’s Fine Malt Liquor will cease be the official beer of the UFC.
Under terms of the agreement, the release indicates that Bud Light signage inside the Octagon will be present for each of the UFC’s 10 or more annual pay-per-view (PPV) events. In addition, the sponsor will be featured prominently during UFC press conferences and weigh-in events.
Lastly, according to the report, Bud Light will be the presenting sponsor of two UFC PPV events each year during the agreement and serve as the official beer sponsor of the four or more UFC Fight Night SpikeTV special events.
To read the official announcement head over to UFC.com.
Written by admin on February 28th, 2008 with comments disabled.
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MMA Betting Blog has the odds for Saturday’s UFC 82, and breaks down a few of the match-ups here. Their current numbers for the main card (favorites followed by underdogs) are:
Anderson Silva (-150) vs. Dan Henderson (+120)
Cheick Kongo (-175) vs. Heath Herring (+145)
Chris Leben (-165) vs. Alessio Sakara (+135)
Yushin Okami (-220) vs. Evan Tanner (+170)
Jon Fitch (-550) vs. Chris Wilson (+350)
I’ve flip-flopped on my prediction for the main event, which is one of the most evenly matched and toughest-to-call in UFC history. At first, I bought into the oft-repeated line of “Silva’s never faced as good of a wrestler as Henderson.” Which is absolutely true, but now I don’t think that will be the deciding factor in the fight. For me, it comes down to this: Which will each man’s strategy be, and how likely is the success of that strategy?
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(Saturday Night Live: Slice and Shaw)
From the press release that just landed, growling and steaming, in our inbox:
CBS AND PROELITE JOIN FORCES TO BRING MIXED MARTIAL ARTS TO PRIMETIME BROADCAST TELEVISION
One of the Fastest-Growing Spectator Sports Comes to CBS With Four Live, Two-Hour Events Per Year
LOS ANGELES, Feb. 28 — The CBS Television Network and ProElite, Inc., a Los Angeles-based leading entertainment and media company that produces world class mixed martial arts (MMA) events, today jointly announced a multi-year agreement that will bring one of the fastest growing spectator sports to a major broadcast television network for the first time.
CBS will broadcast four MMA events per year, produced by ProElite’s EliteXC fight division, as two-hour live primetime specials targeted for Saturday nights.
The agreement augments an existing relationship between CBS Corporation (NYSE: CBS and CBS.A) and ProElite (PELE.PK), which began broadcasting its EliteXC live MMA events on CBS’s SHOWTIME premium cable network in 2007. EliteXC events will continue to air on SHOWTIME.
Still no word on when the first EliteXC/CBS event might take place, but Kevin Iole guesses that it’ll be in April, in either Atlantic City or Newark, with Kimbo Slice headlining.
Dana White is surely icing his balls right now. Adam Swift of MMAPayout jogs our memory:
This is the second door opened by the UFC that EXC has walked through. MMAPayout.com was the first to report that negotiations between the UFC and CBS had stalled in December over creative control issues. EXC landed its spot on Showtime after the UFC attempted to use the network for leverage in its failed negotiations with HBO.
But hey, the UFC doesn’t need CBS anyway. As Swift writes:
Multiple sources have told MMAPayout.com that FOX is believed to have interest in MMA with rumors suggesting that the network even went so far as to make a bid on the entire company during recent negotiations with the UFC.
You know, a UFC/FOX deal would actually be pretty cool, and I look forward to the day when Ultimate Fighter hopefuls have to audition for the show in front of Randy, Paula, and Simon.
“That arm-triangle was absolutely dreadful.”
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All the talk in the past 24 hours about CBS — a major television network — beaming EliteXC mixed martial arts bouts into tens of millions of homes nationwide in a primetime slot have today been confirmed.
ProElite — the parent company of EliteXC — issued a press release that reveals a multi-year deal has been struck with CBS to broadcast four LIVE two-hour EliteXC events annually on Saturday nights.
EliteXC already stages live shows on the premium cable channel Showtime, which is owned by the CBS Television Network.
Here’s a snip from Douglas DeLuca, Chief Executive Officer of ProElite, on the landmark agreement:
“This is a pivotal moment for the sport of mixed martial arts now that a major television network plans to broadcast live MMA events during primetime hours. We are delighted to enhance our partnership with CBS to bring American audiences the very best in MMA competition through our EliteXC brand.”
In addition, CBS and ProElite.com will collaborate on generating interactive content for both companies’ platforms, including online offerings that could include streaming of events and clips syndicated across the CBS Audience Network, according to the release.
ProElite.com often streams the non-televised portions of its fight cards free over the Internet. Perhaps these will also now be featured on CBSSports.com in addition to other “enhanced content.”
Naturally, EliteXC Events Live President shared his thoughts on the new partnership.
Here’s a snip:
“Broadcasting our events on CBS will instantly engage a new fan base, as well as provide an opportunity for EliteXC to further establish itself as the world’s premier MMA organization.”
No official word or timetable was given for the debut event. However, sources such as Yahoo!Sports.com indicate that it could be as soon as April and feature “Internet street-fighting sensation” Kimbo Slice in an event that will take place in either Atlantic City, N.J. or the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J.
This is enormous news for EliteXC, as well as the sport of mixed martial arts. It’s no secret that the UFC — certainly the most popular mixed martial arts brand in the United States — was gunning for a similar deal with CBS.
However, disagreements over the creative control of the production of the events reportedly sunk the deal, as well as a potential deal with HBO.
Once again EliteXC has beat UFC to the punch. It remains to be seen whether or not UFC President Dana White has an ace up his sleeve and can somehow trump this news with a looming announcement that his promotion has reached a similar deal with a major network such as ABC or FOX.
For now, however, it’s EliteXC’s turn in the spotlight. Hopefully, the promotion understands the importance this deal has on the growth and perception of the sport and can elevate it to a whole new level.
It’s a massive responsibility.
Written by admin on February 28th, 2008 with comments disabled.
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