(Alessio finishes Spratt with a broken arm. Photo courtesy of MMA Weekly.)
Giving tickets away for free might not be the best long-term business strategy, but it had the desired effect for Las Vegas’ Thomas & Mack Center on Friday night. “A Night of Combat” drew almost nine thousand spectators with its promise of free tickets and a fight card divided between boxing and MMA.
To hear the Las Vegas Sun tell it, the show accomplished its modest goals through partnerships and an “outside the box” approach to fight promoting:
In this case, by giving tickets away, Libonati created a nice crowd, which met the needs of promoter Artie Pelullo, ESPN, Channel 13 News, Lotus Broadcasting and his other partners. Each received 1,000 free tickets of their own, to be distributed among the people with whom they do business. In return, Libonati got some free publicity.
To help underwrite the show, Libonati brought on a fledgling company called MLSE — Major League Sports Entertainment — which wants to introduce its brand to Las Vegas. On Friday night, MLSE shook hands with about 9,000 spectators, so it can be assumed its needs were met.
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In the end, Libonati said the T&M will break even on the boxing-MMA card, probably even make a little money. He’ll make a lot more in the long run through business relationships that were made or maintained.
“Our model is you’ve got to create more than a receipt,” he said. “This type of special event thinking is what has made us unique in our industry. By creating special events, we are able to generate revenues that are shared by the entire campus.”
This, of course, was the same event that saw Kim Couture enter with high hopes and leave with some facial reconstruction. Also that night, John Alessio won by choking out Pete Spratt with a broken arm. He broke his forearm blocking a kick earlier in the fight, then grimly soldiered on toward the victory. You hear that, Kalib Starnes?
(Dustin Hazelett earning his bonus money. Photo courtesy of UFC.com.)
The list of official salaries from the Ultimate Fighter 7 Finale has been released by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. The numbers are below; each winning fighter’s payout represents a doubling of his base salary.
Diego Sanchez: $70,000 Dustin Hazelett: $64,000 (includes $20,000 Submission of the Night bonus and $20,000 Fight of the Night bonus) Drew McFedries: $46,000 (includes $20,000 Knockout of the Night bonus) Spencer Fisher: $36,000 Kendall Grove: $32,000 Josh Burkman: $30,000 (includes $20,000 Fight of the Night bonus) Dean Lister: $28,000 Jeremy Horn: $25,000 Evan Tanner: $25,000 Amir Sadollah: $16,000 Matthew Riddle: $16,000 Jeremy Stephens: $16,000 Matt Brown: $16,000 Luigi Fioravanti: $10,000 Marvin Eastman: $9,000 C.B. Dollaway: $8,000 Dante Rivera: $8,000 Matt Arroyo: $8,000 Tim Credeur: $8,000* Cale Yarbrough: $8,000* Rob Kimmons: $6,000 Rob Yundt: $5,000
* Credeur and Yarbrough both reportedly received their to-show salaries, even though their match was canceled the night of the fight due to Credeur testing positive for Adderall.
(“All day! All night! You feel! My heat! Feel, feel, feel, feel my heat!”)
Big news for people who care what weight class Phil Baroni fights at: MMA Weekly reports that in light of his three consecutive losses — to Frank Shamrock, Kala Kolohe Hose, and Joey Villasenor — the New York Badass is dropping from middleweight to welterweight, and will make his 170-pound debut on July 12th at Cage Rage 27, against a British fighter to be named later. Baroni explained his decision in a post on Sherdog.net:
Im making the move because I want to be a World Champion. I dont fight for pay day’s or fame, to be on tv or chick’s. I got into MMA because I wanted to be the best fighter in the world.
This is what I feel at this point in my career I need to do. Im feel Im a better fighter than Ive shown in the ring esp as of late.
As far as the move to Welter Weight goes I feel great. Im more athletic. Im in much better condition, my hand speed is back, an I would go as far as to say Im alot quicker than I was at my previous best.
Im not going to make any predictions or promises. Ive been very humbled as of late. Ive been handed a real wake up call.
Im going to give it my all 100% and do my best. Its Do or Die for me. Im All In! I love to fight. Im a real fighter, an like I said the day I dont think I can be a World Champion is the day Ill retire.
Im not done yet, I have alot of fight left inside me. I have alot to prove to myself an alot of people to prove wrong.
The cut will not be a hard one. Its alot harder eating six huge protien meals a day, trying to bulk up so that when I cut Im a legit 185. Atleast by how much muscle I carry, an how much I weigh an have to cut from. At one seventy, Ill only eat less, an do more roadwork. Its just a slight tweak. Im walking around right now 185…I just want to show everyone what I got. My best. An in doing that my body has responded by changing to a welterweight…Im not making the move fo easy fights. Im making the move to become a better fighter. My goals are the same as before. Just a little humbler in my approach.
I’ve long been a fan of Baroni’s showmanship, so I wish him all the best. But let’s face reality — size was never Phil’s problem. What’s kept him from being a successful fighter as of late is his woeful lack of conditioning and his “we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it” approach to ground-fighting. Shedding 15 pounds of muscle won’t address either issue, but at least it creates a little bit of interest in Baroni’s next match. Still, if the NYBA can’t beat the 170-pound crumpet that Cage Rage throws at him, it’s probably time to leave the game for good.
From the TUF 7 finale preliminary card: “Gumby” eats his third-straight submission loss, while “The Boogeyman” puts himself back in the UFC’s middleweight picture.
Amir Sadollah kicks some ass at Combat Sports Challenge 20 (4/28/07) — rocking his trademark hipster haircut even then. Props to MMATKO.
The most breathtaking video you’ll see all day is after the jump.
C.B. Dollaway tapped out in his fight with Amir Sadollah. That seemed clear to everyone but Dollaway following the bout. His vague protest of the stoppage seemed to be rooted in the belief that just tapping once wasn’t really a tap. That’s basically the MMA equivalent of trying to tell your girlfriend that it wasn’t cheating because it was with a prostitute. In other words, it’s an argument that’s doomed from the start.
In an interview with MMA Weekly, Dollaway kind of owns up to it:
“With the tap, I didn’t fully commit to the tap, but I did hit him once. I guess they ruled that a tap. I thought you had to go on and start tapping out. I did hit him once. Right as I did that, I felt my arm get into a position where I could get out. At that point Herb (Dean) ruled it as a tap out.”
Maybe the reason he felt his arm get into a better position after the initial tap was because Herb Dean stepped in and Amir began to let him go? You know, since by tapping his leg Dollaway indicated that he wanted to stop fighting. That’s usually how it works.
Whether he fully committed to the tap or not, tapping once is the same as tapping a dozen times. It’s a signal that you want to quit, which is why you probably shouldn’t tap at all if you don’t want to quit.
Good for him for sort of owning up to it in a very oblique way though. That’s kind of dignified almost.
I think we could accurately describe this video as a solid idea that needed a little more planning. As much as I like the concept of the MMA community shaming Gary Shaw into putting Kimbo Slice up against quality opponents, just pointing out the obvious about Kimbo and then tearing a copy of ESPN the Magazine in half isn’t really going to get it done. I also have my doubts about whether or not Gary Shaw can be shamed. It’s going to take a real team effort from the entire MMA world to do it.
So rather than simply criticize, I think we should offer Jeff Monson some notes to make his second effort a little stronger. Let’s try and keep it constructive. I’ll go first.
- Jeff, I like that you opted not to wear a shirt in order to show off your tattoos and that you used those UFC posters as a backdrop, but I just feel like there’s something missing right now.
Maybe you could hold the magazine up to your face and mock Kimbo’s voice a little before ripping the thing in half. Or you could come up with a stupid nickname for him and then you could keep referring to him that way throughout the video. I think that would really amp up the emotional resonance.
According to GracieFighter.com, Nick Diaz will no longer be fighting Hayato “Mach” Sakurai at DREAM.5 (July 21st; Osaka, Japan) for the league’s vacant welterweight title, due to contractual obligations with EliteXC: “Apparently EliteXC has other plans for Diaz and the July date might conflict with their plans.” You could probably figure out what those plans are, but for the record, sources have informed FiveOuncesofPain that a rematch between Diaz and K.J. Noons for EliteXC’s 160-pound title will be added to the next “Saturday Night Fights” broadcast on July 26th.
Though the event was initially rumored to be held in St. Louis, it looks like that idea is being scrapped, as several major sporting events (including a monster truck rally; go figure) are already scheduled to take place in the Gateway City around that time. Now, the buzz is that the Diaz/Noons bout will take place somewhere in Stockton, California, the city that spawned those rotten Diaz brothers. Obviously, it’s a wise move from a marketing standpoint — just as EliteXC’s “Street Certified” event featuring Kimbo Slice was a hit in Kimbo’s hometown of Miami, and “Shamrock vs. Le” did bang-up business in San Jose, Nick Diaz’s rabid civic pride could translate into a wild sellout crowd in Stockton, which would be a perfect backdrop to a live television event (providing that there are no riots in the arena, of course).
At this point, EliteXC: Unfinished Business (working title) will still be headlined by the middleweight championship rematch between Robbie Lawler and Scott Smith, as well as Jake Shields vs. TBA for the vacant welterweight belt.
