June 11th, 2008
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The Iceman Chuck Liddell has made several moves recently to branch out his empire, including the launching of IcemanRx and MMAJacked. IcemanRx, The Iceman’s supplement company, gained some brand notoriety recently, sponsoring BJ Penn at UFC 84. MMAJacked, a mixed-martial arts lifestyle brand owned by Liddell, also looks to boost it’s profile with the addition of Karen Diamond of Karen Diamond & Associates Inc. Diamond has 25 years experience in the licensing industry and will look to boost the profile of MMAJacked through various licensing opportunities.
As Chuck enters the twilight of his fighting career, he is taking the necessary steps to make a living after the last bell rings. Randy Couture is another athlete being very proactive in exploiting these business opportunities. The UFC doesn’t have a 401-K or a pension fund, so the younger fighters would be wise to follow the example of The Iceman and The Natural in providing for their own future.
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(We get it, Vitor. Stop looking so smug.)
The news today is that Vitor Belfort has indeed been added to the July 19 Affliction event in Anaheim, Calif., where he will face another former UFC fighter, Terry Martin. Belfort is perhaps best known for being a once-brilliant prospect in the world of MMA who has since struggled to live up to his early potential, while Martin is probably best known for being on the wrong end of a couple of brutal knockouts.
But here’s the thing that makes me curious: this bout will most likely not be shown on TV, according to reports. Not on the portion of the undercard that will be broadcast live on Fox Sports Net, nor on the pay-per-view portion.
So what’s the point? Are they betting that Belfort (a Brazilian unknown to most newer MMA fans) and Martin (a Chicago native with a mediocre record) will be a local draw? Judging by the rest of the card, it doesn’t look like they need it.
The undercard features somewhat well-known California fighters like Orange County’s Justin Levens, San Diego’s Patrick Speight, and L.A.’s Savant Young. While these names might not knock your socks off, the truth is they are something of a local draw in Southern California. Maybe not enough to convince you to buy a ticket by themselves, but if you also get to see Fedor and Tim Sylvia, yeah, why not?
But then the presence of Belfort and Martin, along with fighters like Aleks Emelianenko, Josh Barnett, Mike Whitehead, “Babalu” Sobral, and Ben Rothwell — guys who are known among hardcore fans, though not necessarily the American mainstream — makes you think that Affliction is smarter than people are giving them credit for. They’ve got local appeal on the undercard, but are also setting themselves up as a destination for not only heavyweights, but light heavyweights as well.
That’s called hedging your bets. Maybe they sell a t-shirt or two on top of this, and things just might work out.
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FiveOuncesofPain.com has two (2) pairs of tickets for the upcoming Adrenaline MMA event at the Sears Center in Chicago. These are 2nd row seats.
The main event is Mike Russow vs. Jason Guida.
To win two tickets to the Adrenaline MMA event be the FIRST person post the correct answers to the following four [...]
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Dave Meltzer has a new Yahoo! column that serves as a breakdown of controversial calls made by referees during recent events.
However, when talking about the Robbie Lawler vs. Scott Smith fight from EliteXC: Primetime several weeks ago, Meltzer writes the following:
Elite XC promoter Gary Shaw confirmed Monday that he was planning on rematching Lawler and [...]
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Amir Sadollah came into season seven of “The Ultimate Fighter” without a single professional MMA bout to his credit, and yet with the show winding down he finds himself in the semifinals and (though he can’t say in what capacity just yet) fighting on the Spike TV season finale card on June 21. Though he’s been portrayed as the lovable, self-deprecating underdog on the show, Sadollah now has his shot at a UFC career thanks to reality stardom.
In this exclusive interview, Sadollah talks to Cage Potato about being the man people want to fight, leaving his job to pursue his passion, and what he learned from his time on the show.
CagePotato.com: Thanks for taking the time to talk with me, Amir. What’s it like now to sit down and watch the show and see it all edited together? Does it seem accurate to you?
It’s kind of crazy. We were there and we lived it so on some level it’s familiar, but seeing it on TV just sort of reinforces for you that it really happened. It’s strange though, to see something you lived through on TV.
For the most part it’s pretty accurate. So much is left out just because they don’t have time to show it all, I guess. Obviously, they didn’t show anything that didn’t happen, but they definitely did show the things they wanted to in order to help them make people look a certain way. If they wanted to cast you a certain way, they made sure to show the stuff that helped them do that.
I’ve talked to some TUF contestants who said that a lot of the footage has been taken out of order. Stuff that happened in week six was shown in week one, that kind of thing. Is that true?
A lot of the stuff is out of order, and some things they purposely left out to make certain points. But I think everything they did was for a reason. At least I hope so. I don’t know, I’m not a TV editor or anything.
They’re really good at getting you to believe what they want you to believe as you’re watching it. It makes me think twice now whenever I watch another reality show. I know now that it isn’t necessarily really how things were, but how they made what happened into what they wanted it to be.
Can you give me an example of that?
Now you’re going to make me back up my statements? Aw, man. Well, okay, definitely in the confessionals is where they did a lot of the scripting of the show. Not that they told you what to say or anything, but they would ask these very leading questions, like, ‘do you think this guy is scared?’ And you don’t get to hear the questions when you watch the show, just the answers. It gives it a different feel when you think someone is just saying something, rather than answering a specific question.
Obviously, you saw previous season of the show before you went on it. What did you think about it then, and what made you decide that you wanted to be on the show?
(more…)
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UPDATE: Five Ounces exclusive - New York approval delayed. Click to read.
Dave Meltzer at the Wrestling Observer website is confirming that the UFC’s merchandising deals announced Tuesday on CNBC are in fact not the huge announcement promised by UFC President Dana White last week during an ESPN.com interview.
However, those anticipating that the announcement will be [...]
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DREAM 4 is this weekend and it’s the continuation of the DREAM Middleweight Grand Prix, featuring Kazushi Sakuraba, Jason “Mayhem” Miller, Melvin Manhoef, and Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza, among others. There’s also a special lightweight attraction with Shinya Aoki being placed on the card in a second round Lightweight Grand Prix bout against Katsuhiko Nagata. Let’s [...]
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A few weeks back
we took UFC brass to task for their ignoring possible additional revenue by not being more aggressive in their merchandising. They look to be addressing these areas in a big way, announcing a slew of deals via the
UFC website.
....fans of the Ultimate Fighting Championship will soon be able to collect Jakks Pacific UFC figures, use UFC-branded Bic lighters and Silver Buffalo watches, shop with a UFC credit card, and pick up UFC apparel at JC Penney stores.
The UFC has lost revenue by dragging their feet in this area but better late than never as they say. Similar deals to these should have and could have been struck over a year to eighteen months ago, based on the UFC's popularity. This should be the first of many announcements in this respect as Zuffa should look to stay aggressive in this area.
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Though Gary Shaw previously stated that EliteXC was tentatively looking at early Fall for their next “Saturday Night Fights” card on CBS, the impressive ratings that the May 31st show pulled in has the network wanting to bring it back in the summer. As Dave Meltzer reports:
Shaw said the date of the next CBS card is expected to be finalized this week in a joint decision with CBS. Due to the success of the first show, CBS wants to have a return date in late July to capitalize on the momentum. Shaw feels Lawler and Smith wouldn’t be ready for a July date, nor would Slice.
As disappointing as the Kimbo Slice/James Thompson fight was, Kimbo is still EliteXC’s biggest draw, and CBS may be shooting themselves in the foot a bit by scheduling the next SNF broadcast before he’s ready to return. To ensure strong ratings for their second CBS event in his absence, EliteXC would probably need to bring back Gina Carano, and stack the rest of the card with recognizable names. Unfortunately, Nick Diaz, KJ Noons, Yves Edwards, and Murilo Rua are already booked for this Saturday’s EliteXC show in Hawaii, which will be televised on Showtime. Outside of setting up a Brett Rogers/Antonio Silva bout for EiteXC’s vacant heavyweight title, there aren’t many compelling matchups that Shaw & Co. could schedule for six weeks later. Waiting until early Fall definitely seems like the best option — but good ratings tend to make people do crazy things…
(Fist bump: BloodyElbow)
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The Fight Network, the Canada-based combat sports channel,
announced Tuesday they are making their first moves to enter the American market. To this end, The Fight Network announced the appointment of TwoBlueRhino (TBR) as the company's U.S. Affiliate Sales and Marketing agent. Nory LeBrun, TBR's President/Founder, will act as The Fight Network's Executive Vice-President of U.S. Affiliate Sales and Marketing.
LeBrun's main duty will be negotiating and gaining clearances with the various cable companies and satellite providers that make up the patchwork that is the US non-network landscape. Satellite providers may be the first step, as these clearances are generally easier to negotiate vs cable providers.
The Fight Network targets reaching 40 million subscribers in the U.S. over the next three years as part of its overall objective of reaching 100 million homes worldwide by 2012.
The Fight Network's offerings include Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Boxing, Wrestling and Kickboxing and theme-related entertainment. They may need to amend their offerings for the US market, as they will have a hard time lumping in their professional wrestling programming with their other combat programming for the US audience and maintaining legitimacy.
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