Donald Trump
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The good people at famed gentleman’s magazine Playboy have an interview with UFC prez Dana White in their September issue (which drops Friday, August 15) and one of the more interesting nuggets to come out of it are White’s remarks on what torpedoed the HBO deal:
“I pulled the plug at the 23rd hour. HBO was pi**ed off… I would have had to sell out, literally. They would have owned the UFC… I took meetings with HBO’s boxing guys. I’ll tell you, if I had to hear one more time about how many fu**ing Emmys they had won, I was going to dive out the window. I said ‘You won a bunch of Emmys, but I’m kicking your a** on pay-per-view.”
Awesome. Do I believe Dana White actually said that to HBO executives? Not really, but it’s still a good story. As much as people criticized him for not making the HBO deal happen, you have to respect his desire to maintain his autonomy, even if it means not blowing up big time with HBO’s Emmy factory.
Of course, it wouldn’t be a Dana White interview if he didn’t bash Tito Ortiz:
“That big-mouthed bit*h, that clown. Back when he had the title, he refused to fight Chuck Liddell. He sat on the sidelines for a year and a half, crying, ‘Aww, I don’t have any money!’ So I brought him back and made him a coach on The Ultimate Fighter. That year he made more than $6 million, yet he bit*hes about me. Well, I put up with Tito’s sh*t when he was a decent fighter, but now he’s not and I don’t have to… Did you see what a wall flower he was on [The Celebrity Apprentice]? The guy has no presence. He was the idiot hiding in the back. If he actually did something, people would know how stupid he is.”
There we go. Now I feel better. White also discusses Mark Cuban, Donald Trump, and a bunch of other stuff. That, plus the promise of naked women, makes it seem worthwhile to pick up a copy. Too bad it’s not the German version, which features naked women who are also Olympic athletes.
Written by admin on August 14th, 2008 with comments disabled.
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(That’s the kind of youthful exuberance Affliction needs!)
Today’s Affliction press conference managed to temporarily steal some of the media spotlight away from UFC 87, as the organization announced that they had signed former IFL lightweight Chris Horodecki, and revealed a planned bout between IFL heavyweight champ Roy “Big Country” Nelson and Paul Buentello at their next in event in Vegas on October 11. That’s right, Nelson will not face Xtreme Couture’s Jay White in a pump-up squash match, as was previously rumored. Instead he’ll get something closer to a real test when he takes on the revitalized Buentello, who is fresh off a decision victory over Gary Goodridge at Affliction: Banned.
Affliction VP Tom Atencio said he was “really excited” about signing Horodecki and added that “everything is falling into place for Las Vegas.”
What Affliction didn’t announce at the press conference was the official signing of Tito Ortiz, who was said to be close to a “ground-breaking record contract” with the organization. According to Michael Cohen, Affliction’s COO (also Special Counsel to Donald Trump, see how that works?) there’s nothing to get excited about just yet:
“Donald Trump, myself and Tito engaged in a conversation,” said Cohen about the potential deal with Ortiz. “There was nothing substantive that was discussed other than that we are interested in sitting down with him, which we are planning on doing in the very near future, to discuss with him the opportunity to join the family of Affliction fighters.”
Damn lawyers. They really know how to drain all the fun out of everything. Suddenly we’ve gone from world’s greatest contract and a guaranteed 500,000 pay-per-view buys to talking about sitting down to talk. This is what happens when people who think before they speak get to talk to the media.
Here’s what Affliction: Day of Reckoning looks like at the moment:
Andrei Arlovski vs. Josh Barnett
Vitor Belfort vs. Matt Lindland
Roy Nelson vs. Paul Buentello
Antonio Rogerio Nogueira vs. Vladimir Matyushenko
Jason High vs. Mike Pyle
Written by admin on August 6th, 2008 with comments disabled.
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(“Tim is hands-down the greatest shorts-shitter in the world.” Photo props to FiveOuncesofPain.)
From a press release distributed yesterday:
MANHATTAN, NEW YORK (June 3, 2008) — Affliction will pull out its Trump card Thursday when the company officially announces its partnership with Donald J. Trump at a press conference to be held in Trump Tower at 12:00PM. Trump will take the podium to address the press and outline his involvement with Affliction and their entry into the world of professional mixed-martial-arts (MMA) with their first event named, “Affliction Banned,” slated for July 19th 2008 at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.
“We are very excited to be partnering with the most recognized and accomplished business mogul in the world, ” said Tom Atencio, vice president of Affliction. “Trump is a true visionary who shares our belief in the future of MMA.”
“I have been a fan of professional sports since childhood, and I am particularly impressed by the athleticism, courage, and strength of these disciplined athletes.” said Donald J. Trump. “This particular sport resembles my business style of being fast paced, strategic, and aggressive…remembering to never give up. I am particularly excited to partner with Affliction and become a major player in promotion of MMA; the youngest and fastest growing sport to emerge in the last century.”
We’ll update you tomorrow; as for now, let the speculation begin. It could be as simple as Trump signing up to be the money-man for the fledgling MMA promotion. Though if he’s going to get involved with MMA, we would have thought he’d be hooked up with his Apprentice buddy Tito Ortiz, who has floated the idea of launching his own MMA organization. Stay tuned…
Written by admin on June 4th, 2008 with comments disabled.
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Here’s a press release that was just released by Affliction to announce a press conference this Thursday, June 5 in New York involving none other than Donald Trump:
WHAT: “Affliction Banned†Press Conference
WHO: DONALD J. TRUMP
Chairman and CEO of the Trump Organization
WHEN: Thursday, June 5 – 12 PM/ET
WHERE: Trump Tower, [...]
Written by admin on June 3rd, 2008 with comments disabled.
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Calvin Ayre and Mark Cuban count as two high-profile multi-millionaires/billionaires that have gotten involved with the growth-sport of MMA. There are indications that they could possibly be joined by none other than Donald Trump.
FiveOuncesOfPain.com spoke with a source last month that indicated Trump has been talking with former UFC light heavyweight champion Tito Ortiz [...]
Written by admin on May 26th, 2008 with comments disabled.
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All things must pass. And so it went with Tito Ortiz, who found himself on the business end of a “y’fiyahd” last night on Celebrity Apprentice. Coerced into leading Team Empresario by Omarosa (who knew the next losing project manager would likely get pink-slipped), Ortiz had to develop a four-page ad spread for Dove Yogurt Bodywash or some shit, with Omarosa, Trace Adkins, and Stephen Baldwin as his associates. Unfortunately, Ortiz was a bit lost on how to approach the challenge, and Baldwin stepped in as the team’s de-facto leader, organizing a photo shoot that saw Trace seducing a hot model in a desert. It turned out surprisingly well, but Ortiz was a shifty, stammering mess when he was called on to present their work to a trio of Dove executives. Here’s one line from his pitch:
“Of course we used Trace, the reason why we used Trace is the demographics that we did have were from ladies ranging from the age of 20, or excuse me, 30 to 59, which, uh, most country folk ladies that would love Trace’s, uh…y’know, kinda push the product exactly.”
And such as. He also pronounced perfect (adj.) as per-FECT, and risque as RISK-ay. In the end, the Dove execs picked Team Hydra’s advertorial, which featured Carol Alt taking a bath and getting bitten, Marv Albert-style, by a male model. Thus, Ortiz was on the chopping block. And though Omarosa was called out for dodging a challenge that fit into her area of expertise (marketing, not washing), and Baldwin was criticized for being an overbearing prick who was directly responsible for their losing concept, the buck stopped at the project manager, and Tito was dunzo.
But Trump was so impressed with Ortiz’s performance on the show that he gave the HBBB $50,000 anyway for his charity. He called Tito “really special” and “the best there is,” which is strange because Ortiz honestly didn’t do that well on the show; he never got a chance to show off his leadership skills or business acumen, and only lasted as long as he did by hiding behind the greater failures of others. It reminded me of that SNL sketch “The Sinatra Group” where Frank Sinatra (Phil Hartman) tells 2 Live Crew’s Luther Campbell (Chris Rock) “you don’t need to work blue, kid, you got talent,” and Rock is like “no, I really don’t.” I wish that video didn’t cut off in the middle so you could actually see what I’m talking about.
“Issue #4: Milli Vanilli, what is this faggot crap?” Classic.
Written by admin on February 29th, 2008 with comments disabled.
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