It looks like the UFC’s lobbying efforts in New York may have all been for nothing. The New York State Assembly’s Tourism, Arts, and Sports Development Committee shelved the MMA bill today and a vote is not expected to take place tomorrow, as was previously expected. This doesn’t mean it’s dead for good, but it does mean that we won’t be seeing a UFC event in Madison Square Garden any time soon.
According to Sherdog, the committee plans to hold a public forum to review the bill some time between now and January 2009:
“This would give the opportunity to have a round table or a public hearing, an opportunity for all sides to weigh in and take a hard look at the issue,” said Elizabeth Nostrand, legislative and policy director for Assemblyman Steven Englebright, who authored the bill and chairs the Tourism committee. “Of course, there’s a lot of interest in the bill, but there’s a lot of confusion too as demonstrated by last week’s vote.”
If I were Dana White, I might ask those lobbyists for my money back. And when they told me that my request was not only implausible, but also extremely tasteless, I’d call them a bunch of fucking pussies. Then I’d probably feel bad the next day so I’d send them a text message to apologize. This is why I’m not Dana White.
UFC co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta, who made $113.8 million last year as president of Station Casinos is resigning from his position in the family business in order to work full-time to expand the UFC, develop the brand internationally, and secure more big-name sponsors. He and Dana White will now be “co-heads” of the company; Lorenzo’s brother Frank Fertitta III will become Station Casinos’ CEO while retaining his 45% ownership in the UFC.
White and L. Fertitta made the announcement to their employees today at Palace Station (a Station Casinos property), and the news broke via Yahoo!’s Kevin Iole, who acknowledged that Dana White’s “long-awaited announcement, which had many in the industry in a lather speculating about what it might be, may turn out to be ho-hum news to the sport’s hard-core fans.” Said Lorenzo Fertitta:
“The problem, if there is a problem, is that the business has gotten so successful, it’s requiring more time, focus and attention. Station Casinos is a business my family and I have built and now it’s a multi-billion dollar company. But the reality is, the UFC has gone through so much growth in the last eight years, my brother and I felt we’d be better in divide and conquer mode…
Think about this for a second: India has 350 million men between the ages of 18 and 34, and that’s our key demographic. The magnitude of these markets is staggering…The UFC is going to have a global footprint in the not-too-distant future. We’re already working on furthering our position in Brazil. This is getting so big that it demanded I spend more time with it.â€
Added DW:
“I think the potential for the UFC within the next five years globally is that it is going to be bigger than the NFL, bigger than Major League Baseball…The Internet may not consider this huge news, but what the people on the Internet think is huge and what I think is huge are two different things. But you know what? I think I have a pretty good track record. I think this is maybe the biggest day in UFC history. I’m so excited, I can’t begin to explain it to you. This is an historic day for me and this company.â€
Well, he was right about the announcement coming out of left field. While the most prevalent theories about Dana White’s much-hyped “big news” involved the Fertittas cashing out of their investment and selling the UFC, the real story is pretty much the exact opposite — Lorenzo is leaving a nine-figure gig to devote more of himself to the cause. Which is kind of amazing when you think about it. Sure, the fans won’t give a crap, but at least we’ll know to take Dana’s excitement with a grain of salt from now on. Dude gets jazzed up about the most random shit…
Drop whatever it is you’re pretending to do and watch this highlight reel (props: KingAtRock), which covers the year’s best knockouts from the UFC and EliteXC, starring Kala Kolohe Hose, Wilson Gouveia, Tim Boetsch, Chris Leben, Brett Rogers, Yves Edwards, and Kimbo Slice.
Also: If you need proof of Dana White’s rumored iron-pumping prowess, check out the wacky video after the jump.
Skip to 3:46 if for some reason you find The Garv unbearably annoying.
Every company should be lucky enough to have a team player like Anderson Silva in their employ. You ask him to move up in weight and fight on short notice just to help you stick it to a competitor, and he doesn’t complain about overtime pay or make up an excuse about needing to go to his kid’s piano recital — he just does what needs doing.
In fact, he seems pretty unconcerned about the whole thing. He told Si.com’s Josh Gross recently that he’s walking around at 212 pounds and is ready to pitch in and do his part for the UFC’s global domination efforts:
“If the UFC asks me to do something, and it’s within my capability to do so, I’m going to do it,” he said. “I feel like I’m part of the UFC family and the head of the family asked me to fight. I’m in condition to fight, my coaches say I can fight — I’m going to fight. I want to do whatever I can to help make UFC the No. 1 event around the world like it is.”
Keep talking like that, Anderson, and Dana White’s going to show up at your house with flowers and an engagement ring.
Silva’s manager, Ed Soares, has a realistic though mathematically hazy take on the champ’s move up in weight.
“If he loses, hey that’s part of the game,” Soares said. “Someone’s going to lose. You got a 50 percent chance of losing. We’re really not looking at it that way. We’re up for the challenge … and we’re hoping that Anderson’s going to walk out with his hand raised. I have faith that he’s capable of doing that.”
Fifty percent chance of losing? I think Soares is confusing an MMA fight for a coin flip. Something tells me that Anderson Silva’s chances against James Irvin are slightly better than that.
(’These walls are funny. First you hate ‘em, then you get used to ‘em…’)
Chris Leben’s time in jail may have cost him a big time bout with Michael Bisping, but it does seem to have forced him to reflect on the state of his life. It also gave him the opportunity to choke out a convicted felon. Which is, you know, good to have on your resume.
He tells the story to MMA Weekly, describing what happened when his attempts to train in jail drew the curiosity of fellow inmates, who asked Leben to teach them a choke.
“I told the guys it’s a blood choke, so you don’t have to squeeze hard,†he said. “So I was just kind of choking him with one arm while he’s standing up. And I told him just tap when you start to feel like you’re going to pass out. Well, he didn’t tap, and at the time I’m going wow, this guy’s pretty tough, I’m surprised he hasn’t tapped yet. He just drops to the floor in the cell.
“Now I’m standing there with 20 prisoners around and they’re freaking out. This guy’s laying there, snoring like crazy. I’m like ‘it’s all right, it’s all right,’ then I realize they have cameras in here. I’ve just choked this guy out in jail – I could get in trouble for this. I kept telling them, ‘he’s fine, he’s fine,’ and it took this guy a minute to wake up. Finally he woke up and we had a laugh, and luckily I didn’t get in any trouble for it. That was beginning and the ending of my inmate coaching career.â€
Two things here: 1) That’s awesome, and 2) The moment where Chris chokes out an inmate and then thinks it through long enough to realize that it was probably a bad idea is, I’m going to say, emblematic of the kind of approach to life that landed him there in the first place.
To his credit, Leben seems to have enough self-awareness to admit that:
“I’m more or less someone who’s got a few issues. It made me realize I should have just taken care of it. You’ve got 150 students who want to know where you’re at; you’ve got a top-level fight you’re missing. You need to be taking care of yourself. It gave me a lot of time to evaluate my life.â€
Does this mean no more ‘Chris Leben gets drunk and does something ill-advised‘ videos on the internet? Man, I hope not. Then I’d just have to wait for that prison choke out video, which, if I know the internet like I think I do, should be making the rounds any minute now.
(Do not do a Google Image Search for “Patrycja Mikula” unless you want to see this woman naked.)
When I was skimming through the coverage of Saturday’s Adrenaline MMA show — Russow submits Guida, Terry Martin gets repeatedly kicked in the nuts, yada yada — I saw a mention of Tim Sylvia being spotted with Andrei Arlovski’s ex-girlfriend. At the time I didn’t think much of it, assuming that the X-GF in question was some skank that Arlovski dated beforePatrycja Mikula (the lovely nude model who we’d previously featured here). Dude, no. Arlovski and Mikula are apparently dunzo, and the Maine-iac, in the words of Sir Mix-a-Lot, pulled up quick to retrieve it. Steve Cofield reports:
Word out of Chicago this weekend says Arlovski got the ultimate kick in the groin when arch-rival Tim Sylvia was seen hanging with the Russian’s old flame Patrycja Mikula. Sylvia was attending the Adrenaline MMA show at the Sears Centre in Arlovski’s backyard.
Is this a WWE-style ploy to build to a fourth Sylvia-Arlovski fight? The angle has ‘Chris Benoit stealing Kevin Sullivan’s wife, Woman’ written all over it.
Is Mikula actually smitten with the 6-foot-8 ‘Maine-iac’ Sylvia? Or is she using poor Tim as a pawn to get back at her old boyfriend? And is it cheesy for Sylvia to be scooping up Arlovski’s leftovers? …
Sylvia’s tryst with Mikula was confirmed by solid Miletich Camp sources, who said the Playboy model is simply a ‘wallet and belt chaser.’
I like the idea of this being Monte Cox’s retardo-crafty ploy to get people interested in Sylvia/Arlovski IV under the Adrenaline banner. If not, I just hope that for the sake of Ms. Mikula, the WAMMA belt doesn’t have any sharp edges.
