Former IFL welterweight champ Jay Hieron has reportedly verbally agreed to face Drew Fickett at the next Affliction event in Las Vegas on October 11. The real question is, will Fickett find some clever new way to screw it up? Fickett’s manager, Alexander Oxendine, seems open to that possibility:
“We’re in discussion with a few organizations and Affliction is one of them,” said Oxendine. “They are at the top of our list. As far as Drew is concerned, he’s made a great turnaround with his life and training. He is ready to move forward.”
If you don’t know, Fickett is the same guy who managed to get himself fired from MFC and booted off a Strikeforce card in one glorious weekend when he tried to breach his contract in the apparent hopes that no one would figure it out. They did, chaos ensued, and Fickett went on to lose via questionable stoppage in a Rage in the Cage event.
So now one of MMA’s favorite troublemakers is being offered a spot in Affliction against one of the tougher welterweights outside of the UFC, and he’s not sure if he wants to take it? Affliction should not only be at the top of his list, it should be the entire list. He should run down there and sign the contract in his own blood before they have a chance to change their minds. Let’s hope this is just a negotiating ploy by his agent. If Fickett ends up turning this down to fight in some small show at a fairground somewhere, we’ll know it’s time for new management. No, not Mark Dion, either.
(’Who has the nachos? Don’t act like I don’t know nachos when I smell ‘em!’)
After reports that Zuffa was buying the video library and at least some of the IFL’s fighter contracts, we kept expecting the flood of stories about all the ex-IFL’ers making the jump to either the UFC or WEC. So far news has been relatively light on that front, but it looks like Affliction has swooped in to pick off a couple of top prospects for themselves.
MMANews.com reports that Roy Nelson will face Xtreme Couture’s Jay White at Affliction: DoR (the abbreviations have already begun, deal with it) in October. Nelson was the IFL’s only official heavyweight champ, and White is…2-5. Wonder which of these guys is being groomed for a big future in the stacked Affliction heavyweight division?
Meanwhile, Sherdog is passing along info that a rematch with Antonio Rogerio Nogueira has been offered to IFL light heavyweight champ Vladimir Matyushenko. Vladdy beat Little Nog via decision in 2002, and he never faced much of a test during his unbeaten run in the IFL. Matyushenko would make an excellent addition to the growing 205-pound ranks in Affliction, which should soon include Tito Ortiz, who Matyushenko lost a decision to in 2001.
In other news…
- Fightlinker has enlisted the services of Matthew Polly — author of this hilarious and highly recommended book — to review several of the MMA “memoirs” that have hit the shelves in recent months. Polly does to their sense of narrative and craft (and their ghostwriters’ sense of exactly how much work they’d have to do to get paid) what these same fighters would likely do to the face of anyone who uses words like narrative and craft. Fun times. Check out his review of “Iceman: My Fighting Life” and you’ll see what we mean.
- Ever wondered how rich Dana White really is? Well, rich. But Wall Street Fighter tries to nail down a solid figure. It’s actually harder than it sounds, although their photoshop of the UFC Prez is just adorable.
You know what the best part of this video is? It isn’t hearing IFL welterweight champ Jay Hieron do his best not to bash the IFL even though they canceled his next fight and yet aren’t allowing him to take another, though that is uncomfortable watch.
No, the best part is at the 1:54 mark when MMA Rated’s Ariel Helwani informs him of Jay Larkin’s comments comparing ground fighting to “gay foreplay”. The look on Hieron’s face at that moment, it’s priceless. He also goes on to say that he’s never met Larkin, which seems odd.
Hieron seems to be taking the whole IFL cancellation in stride, though I have to say I might be slightly more pissed off if my employer was keeping me from making a living. They aren’t giving him a fight in August, and also aren’t allowing him to look for other fights until after August. So basically they’re telling him to take the summer off, and if he doesn’t want to, then they’re forcing him to take the summer off. Nice.
Nothing like hanging out in fighter purgatory to make you wonder what happened to that organization that was supposed to be taking great care of their fighters.
When the IFL announced it was canceling its August show during a conference call last Tuesday, it really did come as a surprise. Sure, there have been rumblings that the league was in having financial troubles. But little more than a month ago, the struggling promotion held a conference call in which they announced their new fighting surface, “The Hex,†and that they were not only planning the August show in New Jersey, but were looking even further into the future and planned to do a show in Miami.
With the Jersey show dead on arrival, a show in sunny Miami seems to be implausible. So what happened in the course of that month, that the IFL could go from big announcements to big cancelations? It’s more a matter of what did not happen: The flood gates did not open.
Some well-informed speculation is that, financially, nothing changed for the IFL. Instead, IFL CEO Jay Larkin was hedging his bets that after EliteXC’s CBS debut all the competing networks would act on the “monkey-see, monkey-do†nature of network programming, and be compelled to add the IFL’s brand of mixed martial arts to its programming. But that didn’t happen.
According to Larkin, "We've had conversations with media companies, film studios, television networks, individuals, celebrities. Every time we have one of these conversations, the interest is very high, but they're all being very cautious," said Larkin.
As usual, the networks are playing it safe. They are waiting to see if the ratings from the EliteXC CBS show were a one-time fluke, with fans tuning in from morbid curiosity, or if the curious watchers became legit, car d-carrying MMA fans. On the bright side, negative reaction and backlash to the event seemed to be minimal. Of course, Billy O’Reilly and his minions had something to say about it. But even O’Reilly admitted he “didn’t hear any complaints from anybody about the show.â€
But in order for the sport to grow the next live network show needs to be on the up-and-up:
1. MMA information is all over the net. All those new fans from the CBS EliteXC show who logged into read the MMA media’s account of the CBS broadcast now feel a little slighted by an overblown main event. Kimbo Slice has been thoroughly debunked by fans and writers across the web. Fans, both new and old, are going to be looking for a legit main event from EliteXC’s next network show, or they may go elsewhere.
2. Or, the UFC could land a network deal. Given the UFC’s deep roster of talent, a quality card is not an issue.
But the bottom line, is that for the sport to grow, for the IFL to stay alive and for fans to have affordable access on a regular basis, the floodgates need to open.
On its best nights, the recipe for great MMA was real simple: equal parts pro-wrestling and boxing. The pageantry of the former, combined with the legitimacy and unscripted nature of the latter were thought to make for an intoxicating night of fights.
However, Tuesday's dichotic announcements are an indication that since its assumed all MMA promotions are based in legitimate, unscripted competition, the pageantry associated with pro-wrestling is more important for attracting fans and drawing revenue.
But the bottom-line is that the UFC is the only promotion that has found the balance between too much and too little pomp in the circumstance of MMA.
After all, when EliteXC's CBS telecast juxtaposed MMA with grand entrances, brash hip-hop artists and MMA's version of the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders, it was not only rejected by fans, but by the MMA media as well.
Smaller promotions, like many that appear on HDNet, leave their production in the hands of the network, which does an adequate job, but does not devote the resources on a level equivalent to the UFC, or its cable television partner SpikeTV.
In fact, the UFC owes the majority of its financial success to SpikeTV. Outside of turning the promotion around after launching the Ultimate Fighter reality series, SpikeTV's pay per view previews give the UFC something no other promotion has: A platform on which to sell, not just the sport, but the lifestyle of mixed martial arts.
Early indicators from Afflication's pre-show production and promos are that it will be on par, and possibly exceed the UFC's presentation.
If they find a content partner that allows them to sell their brand and its fighters as a lifestyle, it will quickly become a force to be reckoned with, despite the fact that the initial pay per view is doomed to be a profitless endeavor.
The addition of Donald Trump as one of the organizations backers not only gives Affliction deep pockets, but connections to NBC and the king of reality TV producers, Mark Burnett, who cooked up Trump’s reality show, “The Apprentice.â€
Given Affliction's dual role as an MMA promotion and clothing company, it already has created a context for a lifestyle. Finding that “lifestyle content†partner would drive consumers to its MMA product and clothing line at the same time.
Listen carefully... What's that you hear in the hallowed halls of mixed martial arts?
The sound of silence, since "Announcement Thursday" has come and gone with nothing from Dana White.
With the "big announcement" pushed to this coming Tuesday, many have overlooked the significance of this past Tuesday, which had the UFC and IFL making announcements that could not be more opposite.
While the UFC was announcing a deal with Jakks Pacific that will put UFC fighter action figures in the hands of children of all ages, the IFL announced it was canceling its August 15th show in NJ because of a cash shortage.
While the IFL's website contends it's "not dead yet," the road to recovery will be hard for the league that as recently as a month ago, planned to go into New Jersey guns blazing and unveiling a new six-sided ring dubbed "The Hex."
On the face of it the scenario is pretty simple: The UFC has a lotta money... And the IFL doesn't.
But the undertones of these announcements made on the same day are pretty profound.
Leading up to "Big Announcement Tuesday," MMAPayout's Andrew Falzon will write a series of posted entitled "Undertones of MMA."
Each article will be a brief commentary on one of the conclusions that can be drawn from announcements made last Tuesday.
The topics will include:
Saturday - MMA Sport or Lifestyle? (posting later today at 3 PM)
Sunday - The Flood Gates Are Not Opened
Monday - UFC By KO in Round 1
Tuesday - If Dana White doesn't again disappoint fans by having to reschedule an announcement that was supposedly a "done deal" we'll be focusing on his overtones, and not the The Undertones of MMA.
IFL CEO Jay Larkin is no stranger to making crybaby speeches when things aren’t going so well. But with the IFL canceling events until further notice, and with its publicly traded stock currently hovering at two fucking pennies (down from $17 per share in January 2007), it’s not going to get much worse than this, business-wise. Larkin knows it, which gives him the freedom to say whatever pops into his head, no matter how gross it makes him look.
Business magazine Portfolio just published a profile on IFL’s current tailspin, in which it revealed that the company is now on the auction block for a cool million. Here’s the third paragraph, which follows a description of a recent IFL fight, written in wildly purple prose:
Jay Larkin surveys the inaction with a weary, seen-it-all expression. “This isn’t my idea of fighting,” he says of the world’s fastest-growing spectator sport. “To me, two guys rolling around on the floor is tedious, like watching gay foreplay.”
Wow. And this guy runs an MMA league? He sounds like your average message-board troll. Later, presumably after a few more whisky-sodas, Larkin drops another gem:
“Our so-called friends in the M.M.A. [mixed martial arts] world are telling people that the I.F.L. is going out of business,” says Larkin. “I like to tell people you can’t spell fuck without U.F.C.”
Glug, glug. Luckily, it’s over for this man. Maybe he could go back to boxing, where things are simpler, and less similar to gay foreplay. I guess the demise of the IFL should be lamentable, but it’s hard to work up even a shred of sympathy for such a deluded dickhead. Anyway, read the article, which also contains the following highlights:
— Even IFL co-founder Gareb Shamus calls MMA “Ultimate Fighting.”
— By the end of October 2007, the IFL’s MyNetwork TV broadcasts were pulling in about 362,000 viewers (barely registering on the Nielsen scale), and their average age (49) was almost twice that of the typical UFC fan.
— Despite spending far more money than they’re taking in, Larkin still says the IFL is “debt-free.”
Conde Nast Portfolio does a quick synopsis of the IFL's recent announcement that it was going into suspended animation while trying to partner up. There were some interesting tidbits contained within the article. The IFL has been on the block but this article is the first to actually throw out a figure being asked for the company, $1 million. It would be a steal at that price if not for all the assumed liabilities the company has on it's financials. The article does let us now that the IFL has about $2 million in cash on hand, which will mainly be used to tide over the executive level through the third quarter as they still actively look to sell or merge with another company.
The article elaborates on how Larkin has slashed costs since he has been brought aboard. He has been able to reduce production costs significantly, going from about $1 million per show to about $125,000. While Larkin's comment at the press conference that the IFL was no longer operating at a loss seemed dubious, if costs have been cut to that degree then kudos to Jay.
Here are some random thoughts regarding the IFL and their announcement yesterday that they’ve canceled their card that had been scheduled for August 15:
– The IFL has not filed for bankruptcy. I’m sure people will say the IFL is done, but it’s technically still alive. That being said, I do not believe we will [...]
Written by admin on June 11th, 2008 with comments disabled.
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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.
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