What: Elite XC: Return of the King
When: June 14th @ 10pm ET
Where: Blaisdell Arena; Honolulu, Hawaii
Here’s the latest on the EXC: Return of the King event:
Main Card
KJ Noons vs. Yves Edwards (EXC Lightweight Title)
Nick Diaz vs. Muhsin Corbbrey
Murilo “Ninja†Rua vs. Tony Bonello
Dave “Pee Wee†Herman vs. Ron “H2O†Waterman
Rafael Feijao vs. Wayne Cole
Undercard (televised [...]
Earlier today International Fight League CEO Jay Larkin held a conference call in which he announced the IFL has canceled its planned show for its August 15th show at the IZOD Center in New Jersey due to cash flow issues.
"Our cash situation is such that doing an event in August would put the company in jeopardy," said Larkin.
Larkin said that many of the IFL's prior changes had been "done on the fly" and compared it to doing open heart surgery - trying to retool an entire organization while still running it. Skipping the August show will allow the company to retool its product and keep cash on hand.
In a release posted on the company's website, the event was canceled "in light of the company's current financial condition. If the IFL is unable to successfully leverage any of those options, the company may seek protection from its creditors through a court proceeding."
Many thought the EliteXC broadcast on CBS would dramatically change the MMA landscape, and that a strong showing in primetime would lead to media outlets lusting after sport to help attract its highly valued demographic, but according to Larkin, that has not yet happened.
"The current business climate has shown us now that the tranition will need more time, and more thought and more creativity. And our current cash position will just not support us going forward (with an August event)."
Though many investors are sitting on the sidelines in the MMA game, Larkin says there is still interest in the sport and in the IFL.
"We've had conversations with media companies, film studios, television networks, individuals, celebrities. We have turned over a forest of rocks to see where the interest is... Everytime we have one of these conversations, the interest is very high, but they're all being very cautious," said Larkin.
While the company is on hiatus, Larkin says that his fight staff, Bas Rutten and Shannon Knapp, will continue to try to place IFL fighters in fights in other promotions. The IFL will not seek any fee from other promotions that might use IFL fighters.
Looking outside of the IFL and at the sport as a whole Larkin says many other promoters are painting a picture of the glass half full, when it is really half empty.
"Every MMA company is either inflating their numbers or out and out lying about their numbers."
While many will continue to speculate that this is the end of the IFL, Larkin says that's not the case.
"If the IFL were to decide the best thing for the shareholders were to close down business, that's a very bad statement in an industry that's looking to make nothing but good statements."
(MMAPayout will have audio from the IFL conference call posted in the days to come.)
Written by admin on June 10th, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on IFL and MMA.
It's my pleasure to welcome Todd Martin as a Special Contributor to MMAPayout.com. I've been a fan of Todd's work for sometime and I'm excited to have him as a periodic contribution to the website. His first piece will run tomorrow with two more scheduled for later in the week.
Todd is a licensed attorney in the state of California. He received his BA from Vassar College and his JD from UCLA School of Law. He has followed the business of mixed martial arts since its inception and has written about the business for a variety of publications including the Los Angeles Times, SI.com and CBSSports.com. He also provides professional consulting work on the MMA industry.
MANHATTAN, NEW YORK (June 10, 2008) – Last week at a press conference in New York City, Affliction, the premier fashion label for men who love hard rock and fast living, announced its partnership with Donald J. Trump. Today, Michael D. Cohen, Executive Vice President & Special Counsel to Mr. Trump, was named Chief Operating Officer for Affliction Entertainment.
Affliction and The Trump Organization, in association with Roy Englebrecht Events, will present their entry into the world of professional mixed-martial-arts (MMA) with its first event, “Affliction Banned,†scheduled for July 19, 2008 at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.
“I’m extremely honored to serve as COO for Affliction Entertainment,†Mr. Cohen said. “MMA is the fastest growing sport in the world and I’ve been a tremendous fan for years. I can assure everyone – fans watching on pay-per-view and those in attendance from all over the world – that our upcoming pay-per-view show will be the greatest MMA night ever. I’m nearly speechless knowing Mr. Trump and Affliction have the trust in me for an event that features the greatest assembly of MMA fighters for one show in MMA history. This is like having Ali, Frazier, Tyson, Holyfield and other top heavyweights all on the same boxing card. It’s unprecedented and will revolutionize the way MMA fans view this sport.â€
The star-studded “Affliction Banned†will be headlined by the much-anticipated return of Russian heavyweight superstar and former undisputed PRIDE® champion Fedor “The Last Emperor†Emelianenko (27-1) in association with M-1, against former 2-time UFC® heavyweight title-holder Tim “The Maine-iac†Sylvia (24-4).
“Affliction Banned†will be distributed on Pay-Per-View and air live (9 PM/ET, 6 PM/PT) on cable and satellite in the USA and Canada via iN DEMAND, TVN, Shaw Communications, Viewer’s Choice Canada, DirecTV, DISH Network, Bell ExpressVue and Star Choice for a suggested retail price of $39.95.
Tickets for “Affliction Banned†range between $50.00 and $1,000.00, and are on sale at the Honda Center box office and also online at Ticketmaster.com. Official “Affliction Banned†event shirt is on sale now here.
This highlight video from TKO 34 really confirms what I’ve suspected about Wes Sims ever since he stomped Frank Mir’s face in UFC 43, and that’s that Sims has absolutely no impulse control in a fight. The guy has been disqualified twice in his forgettable career and still he seems to see the rules as a mere suggestion.
In the above instance, the referee was moving in to penalize his opponent, Steve Bosse, for holding on to the fence in order to keep his balance while he pounded Sims’ face. Sims seemed to think he was stopping the fight, so he responded by kicking the ref in the chest. This hardly needs to be said, but you can’t do that.
What’s more, Sims wasn’t even penalized for this. According to reports, Mark Coleman jumped in the cage to argue the point with the referee, everyone stood around in utter confusion for a while, and then the match resumed. Sims eventually lost by submission, and I assume that everyone went home feeling empty and dead inside.
There can be no question about this. You absolutely cannot attack the referee. I know it’s been done before, but that doesn’t excuse it. No matter how mad you get or how bad a job you think he did, you just can’t do that. We live in a society here, Wes Sims (and, to a lesser extent, James Thompson). Get a hold of yourself.
Guida steps up as injury sidelines Monson
Jason Guida has managed to cram an entire mixed martial arts career into less than five years.
Known as a hard-nosed competitor who never turned down a fight, Guida was a natural replacement when a broken hand forced Jeff Monson to withdraw from the main event of this Saturday’s Adrenaline [...]
IFL Decides Against August 15 Event in New Jersey
Organization Working On Financial Situation
NEW YORK, June 10, 2008: The International Fight League (OTC.BB: IFLI ) today announced that it has canceled its scheduled August 15 event at the Izod Center in East Rutherford, New Jersey, in light of the company’s current financial condition. IFL continues [...]
The IFL has officially canceled their August 15 event in New Jersey as of today. Jay Larkin told reporters in today’s media conference call that the next event had been called off because “to do an event in August would put the company in jeopardy. …Had we continued with the August event we would have run out of cash.”
We’ve all known for some time that things were grim at the IFL, so this isn’t exactly a surprise. But this latest announcement, coupled with the morose tone sounded by Larkin on today’s call, suggests that there is very little hope left within the IFL that things will eventually turn around.
“Despite what some say, this has not been a good day for the sport, the fighters, or the fans,” said Larkin, who went on to speculate once more about whether there was a real market for MMA outside of the UFC. “When you look at the number of companies that spring up and fold overnight, it makes you wonder about the fan base.”
Larkin also said the IFL would be downsizing its staff to cut costs. While he said they did not want to release fighters as part of that downsizing, he acknowledged their willingness to work with other promotions who were interested in their fighters, and said he would deal with that on a case-by-case basis, but he didn’t want to “hold anyone back from a good opportunity.”
Larkin also noted that there were more members of the media on this call than he could recall for any other IFL conference call, which he described as “interesting.”
Scheduled to face Mike Russow in the main event of Adrenaline MMA’s debut show in Chicago, Jeff Monson has been forced to pull out of the match due to a not-quite-healed broken hand that he sustained in his Sengoku II bout against Josh Barnett last month. Replacing Monson will be Jason Guida, a Chicago-based fighter (and brother of UFC lightweight Clay Guida) who has built a record of 17-15 in various regional organizations. It’s an odd choice considering Guida has competed mostly as a middleweight, two weight classes under Russow, but according to Adrenaline honcho Monte Cox:
“It made sense for me at this point to go with two Chicago guys fighting each other. And they come from different camps in the same city and I just thought, you know what, this will probably sell me more tickets than anyone I can get on a week’s notice.”
Jeff Monson is still officially on the Godz of War card in Charlotte, even though it takes place just one week later. Saddled with a dodgy hand, the Snowman probably knew that he wouldn’t be able to compete on consecutive weekends, and was forced to make a decision — and it looks like he went with the higher-profile opponent in Ricco Rodriguez.
The International Fight League has released a statement saying it has canceled its August event at the IZOD Center in New Jersey.
A release from the company says the evenwas canceled "in light of the company's current financial condition. If the IFL is unable to successfully leverage any of those options, the company may seek protection from its creditors through a court proceeding."
More details to follow from this afternoon's conference call.
Written by admin on June 10th, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on IFL and MMA.
