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Mixed Martial Arts--- UFC President Discusses Plans for Pride, Plus Fedor, Shogun, Wanderlei, and More
Originally Published on MMAWeekly

Ultimate Fighting Championship president Dana White spoke in great detail during a pre-UFC 70 teleconference about his plans for the Pride Fighting Championships organization, which was recently purchased by UFC principal owners Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta.

The most striking aspect of White's answers to reporters' questions was the way in which he spoke of Pride as a company essentially owned-and-operated by the UFC. Any pretense from the initial buy-out announcement that White would not have anything to do with Pride (or would not be running Pride) was long gone, as was any pretense that Pride and the new company Pride FC Worldwide would not be controlled by Zuffa.

White set the tone for this early on in the conference call when he talked about how busy he is: "I'm working on that [the first round of the Pride Lightweight Grand Prix]. There's only so much I can do at once. We own the UFC, Pride, and WEC, so it's a lot of work."

White also said, "I'm working on a major TV deal for Pride in the U.S. and in Japan." When asked about the Pride USA office, he said that all of the Pride employees will be keeping their jobs but added, "I'm going to be the one going out and signing deals for Pride."

White's comments about Pride stand in stark contrast to the statements made by DSE executives when the announcement was made that UFC co-owners Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta were buying Pride. At the time, DSE president Nobuyuki Sakakibara said, "Lorenzo believes that Pride should maintain its luster, and he will make sure that Pride. is here to stay. I trust and believe in Lorenzo... but please don't misunderstand the situation. This is not a speech about the UFC purchasing Pride. The UFC will forever stay as a competitor to Pride, because the UFC is operated by Zuffa Entertainment and Mr. Dana White."

White also contradicted statements made just in the past week by DSE executives about Pride's upcoming Lightweight Grand Prix. When asked if it's true that there will be one or more UFC fighters in the Pride Lightweight Grand Prix, White said that it is absolutely not true.

At the press conference last week in Japan where it was announced that the first round of Pride's Lightweight Grand Prix would not be taking place on May 20th as originally scheduled, DSE president Sakakibara said, “I’m sure that the UFC will send us one of the very best lightweight fighters of the UFC. That’s what Lorenzo promised me. I’m sure that Lorenzo will prove his commitment.”

Also, while DSE announced in Japan this week that the first round of the Grand Prix would take place on July 16th in Nagoya, Japan, White said, "We don't have a date for the Lightweight Grand Prix yet." White said that it's still being determined when they'll be ready to run their first Pride event.

When a reporter asked if it's true that Mauricio "Shogun" Rua will be fighting in the UFC just as Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira will be, White said that Shogun will stay in Pride and added, "All of the guys who are in Pride will stay in Pride." White said that there will be no Pride fighters in the UFC before the big UFC vs. Pride "Super Bowl" event, which he said will be taking place this year.

When asked about the recent statements from Shogun's camp that Shogun has a contract for two fights in Pride and two fights in the UFC, White said, "I don't know where that's coming from, but it's not true."

When a reporter asked about Wanderlei Silva's status as a free agent, White said that Silva is not a free agent and that he has four fights remaining on his Pride contract.

When asked about the status of Pride Heavyweight Champion Fedor Emelianenko, who recently stated that he is not under contract to Pride, White said that Fedor is indeed under contract to Pride, but added, "It's a non-exclusive contract, and I don't do non-exclusive contracts."

White said that he is trying to sign Fedor to an exclusive contract and that if Fedor were to sign a similar non-exclusive contract with any other MMA promotion in the meantime, "We would absolutely slap an injunction on that." An "injunction" in this case would be a temporary restraining order seeking to legally prohibit Fedor from fighting in any other MMA promotion.

White was asked about the problem of so many Pride fighters, such as Fedor, being under non-exclusive contracts. White responded, "Yeah, it's a problem. I'm working on it. It's a big problem, but believe me, I'll fix it."

Several of the reporters did not seem to be aware of White's previous statements that the UFC and Pride would have the same rules. When asked about the differences between the UFC's rules and Pride's rules in the future, White said, "It'll all be the same."

One of the reporters on the teleconference said that he feels the color commentary on the April 8th Pride event was "horrendous" due to the "constant shilling for Pride" and asked if White will be making changes to ensure that the Pride broadcasts will be "more professional" in the future. White responded, "Absolutely," and said that he "agrees 100 percent" with what the reporter said. When asked specifically if color commentator Frank Trigg will continue to be part of the Pride announcing team, White said, "No, he won't. We're looking for some new announcers."

Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Pride Fighting Championships News, UFC News, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC)

posted by Ivan Trembow at 12:06 AM

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Mixed Martial Arts--- More on Fertittas' Pride Buy-Out, Plus Two More Fights Announced
Originally Published on MMAWeekly

Two more fights have been announced for Pride 34: Kamikaze, which will take place on April 8th and will be the final Pride event held by Dream Stage Entertainment before the company's operations are turned over to a company owned by UFC majority owners Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta.

Veteran heavyweight Kazuyuki Fujita will face former UFC fighter Jeff Monson, and MMA legend Don Frye will face 185-pound Pride veteran Ikuhisa Minowa.

Don Frye, who exploded onto the MMA scene by winning the UFC 8 tournament in 1996, has had health problems with his neck and spine in recent years, but has continued to fight nonetheless and amassed an MMA record of 3-0-1 in 2006. The 41-year-old Frye is no longer under contract to fight for K-1 Hero's, thus enabling him to fight for Pride.

It's possible that Frye's contract to fight in Pride will only be a one-time deal since it's the last Pride show promoted by DSE. Frye is the coach of the Tucson Scorpions in the fledgling International Fight League (IFL), and Zuffa has made it clear in the past that it's not going to use any fighters who are coaches in the IFL.

This has been Zuffa's unofficial policy for the UFC itself, and UFC co-owners Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta may or may not have the same unofficial policy when their newly formed company, Pride FC Worldwide, assumes control of Pride's day-to-day operations after the April 8th event.

Leaving the IFL altogether would seemingly not be an option for Frye, as all of the coaches in the IFL have ownership stakes in the company that cannot be sold for a certain number of years.

Frye's opponent will be 31-year-old Ikuhisa Minowa, who has a career MMA record of 35-25-8. Minowa's MMA record in 2006 was 5-2, but several of his wins came in "freak show fights" where he was vastly outweighed by his lesser skilled opponent, including wins over Eric "Butterbean" Esch, Paulo "Giant" Silva, and Mike Plotcheck (aka, Bart Gunn in WWE).

While Frye is not a super-heavyweight like the aforementioned fighters, he is still going to outweigh Minowa by 30 to 50 pounds, which is the kind of size mismatch that will presumably not be allowed once Pride is run by the same people who own the UFC.

Since returning from K-1 Hero's to Pride in 2006, Fujita has gone 2-1, with a loss to Wanderlei Silva and victories over James Thompson and Eldari Kurtanidze.

Monson is a former UFC fighter who asked to be released from his UFC contract after his one-sided decision loss to Tim Sylvia last November, so that he could pursue opportunities in the BodogFight promotion. Monson was originally scheduled to face Fedor Emelianenko on BodogFight's April 14th pay-per-view event in St. Petersburg, Russia, and was later scheduled to face Fedor's brother, Aleksander Emelianenko, and then Roman Zentsov. Instead, Monson will be facing Fujita at Pride 34.

In addition to Frye vs. Minowa and Fujita vs. Monson, it was also reaffirmed today that Ricardo Arona will be fighting Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou on the April 8th card, and Shinya Aoki will be fighting Brian Lo-A-Njoe.

Wanderlei Silva is also tentatively scheduled to compete on the April 8th card (his opponent has not been announced), pending the approval of the Nevada State Athletic Commission. Silva is medically suspended by the NSAC until April 11th as a result of his knockout loss to Dan Henderson at Pride 33.

When previously reached for comment on this issue by MMAWeekly, Nevada State Athletic Commission executive director Keith Kizer said, "If Mr. Silva is cleared by a doctor there [in Japan], our doctor will look at the medical records and determine whether to lift the suspension three days early." If he is unable to get this clearance, Silva will not be fighting on the April 8th card.

After the April 8th card in Japan, the next planned show with the Pride brand name is scheduled to take place in Japan on May 20th, as the first round of a 16-man Lightweight Grand Prix is scheduled to take place on that date.

This had been scheduled to be a 160-pound tournament, but Pride is no longer scheduled to have a 160-pound weight class under the ownership of the Fertittas. With White saying in the Las Vegas Review Journal that Pride will have the same weight classes at the UFC, this means that Pride's 2006 Grand Prix would have to be changed to a 170-pound Grand Prix or a 155-pound Grand Prix.

The Fertitta-owned Pride also plans to run a few shows per year in the United States, possibly as soon as June, but these plans are complicated by former Pride USA president Ed Fishman's lawsuit against Dream Stage. With Fishman being the exclusive U.S. promoter of Pride events, the Fertitta-owned Pride may or may not be legally able to run shows in the United States until Fishman's lawsuit has worked its way through the court system, or until a financial settlement with Fishman can be reached.

Labels: International Fight League (IFL) News, Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Pride Fighting Championships News, UFC News, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)

posted by Ivan Trembow at 12:08 AM

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Mixed Martial Arts--- It is now official that the owners of the UFC have purchased Pride Fighting Championships. For complete details on this huge, industry-changing deal, check out the full report from MMAWeekly's Scott Petersen on MMAWeekly.com

Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Pride Fighting Championships News, UFC News, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)

posted by Ivan Trembow at 12:14 PM

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Mixed Martial Arts--- Pride USA President Ed Fishman Files Lawsuit Against Pride Parent Company Dream Stage
by Ken Pishna and Ivan Trembow
Originally Published on MMAWeekly

As Pride FC is mired in rumors of a potential sale, Pride USA President Ed Fishman filed a lawsuit on Monday against Dream Stage Entertainment (DSE), the parent company of Pride FC, in Clark County, Nevada. According to the complaint, DSE has failed to pay monies owed to Fishman Companies, breaching a contract between the two parties.

The complaint states that "on or about April 7, 2006" Fishman Companies was contracted "to promote and market PRIDE events… for three years," and that the agreement "provides Fishman Companies with the option of renewing it for an additional two years."

As compensation, the complaint states that DSE was "to pay $200,000.00 to Fishman Companies annually for the term of the Agreement for consulting on PRIDE events world-wide," not solely in the United States. The complaint continued, "In addition, Fishman Companies is entitled to 10% of tickets sales for all PRIDE events occurring in the United States."

At this point, Fishman alleges that DSE has not compensated him for either of Pride’s two U.S. shows, which took place on October 21, 2006 and February 24, 2007, both at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Pride: The Real Deal, which took place on October 21, 2006 in Las Vegas, generated $2,056,444.00 in ticket sales, according to the Nevada State Athletic Commission. With Fishman claiming to be entitled to 10% of that revenue, he would be owed $205,644.40.

Pride: The Second Coming, which took place on February 24, 2007 in Las Vegas, generated $2,033,098.00 in ticket sales, according to the NSAC. Fishman's 10% cut of that revenue would be $203,309.80.

The combined ticket sales for the two events was $4,089,542. If Fishman’s allegations are accurate, the amount that DSE has failed to pay him in ticket revenue is $408,954.20.

Fishman did state in the complaint that Fishman Companies was paid the initial $200,000 owed for the first year of consulting services shortly after he signed with Dream Stage, but official correspondence with DSE for either payment or an assurance of future payment for consulting services has gone unanswered.

The lawsuit states that on February 27, 2007, which was three days after Pride: The Second Coming took place in Las Vegas, Fishman's representatives sent a letter to Dream Stage that served as a "formal written demand" for Fishman's cut of the revenue from the Pride event that had taken place on February 24, 2007, though the lawsuit mistakenly lists the event as having taken place on February 24, 2006.

This correspondence from Fishman's representatives to Dream Stage demanded that Fishman receive his 10% cut of the revenue for the February 24th event no later than March 7, 2007. Also on or before that same date, Fishman wanted a written and formal assurance from Dream Stage that he would be receiving his second annual consultant's payment of $200,000 as scheduled on or before April 7, 2007.

According to the lawsuit, Fishman still hasn't received a reply to his February 27, 2007 correspondence. He has allegedly not received any of the ticket revenue from either of Pride's two U.S. events, nor has he heard anything from DSE about the $200,000 annual payment that is due on or before April 7, 2007.

Fishman Companies is seeking a judgment for damages in an amount in excess of $10,000, an award of reasonable costs and attorneys’ fees, pre and post judgment interest, and any additional relief the Court deems just and proper on the evidence presented at trial.

Though the complaint does not specify the exact amount of relief that Fishman is seeking, sources close to Fishman have made it known that in addition to seeking the amount of money that Fishman would be owed for consulting services over the remaining four-year life of the contract ($800,000), and in addition to seeking his share of the ticket sales for Pride’s two U.S. shows ($408,954.20), Fishman Companies is also seeking revenue for future shows that, as allegedly presented to Fishman by DSE, would have netted Fishman Companies at least $9 million over the five-year term of the contract. Dream Stage would have had to generate $90 million in ticket sales over a five-year period in order for Fishman's 10% cut to reach $9 million.

So, in total, Fishman is seeking somewhere in the neighborhood of $10 million, which sources say is based on a business plan and the lower-end of projections used by DSE officials in their attempts to recruit Fishman and to use his already established marketing acumen in the entertainment and gaming industries to help establish Pride in the U.S. market.

It is interesting to note that in addition to DSE, Fishman’s suit also indicates a number of Doe Defendants, or defendants whose identities are not currently known. The lawsuit states, "The true names and capacities of those individuals and entities, corporate or otherwise, are unknown to Fishman Companies at this time." Fishman's lawsuit says that these defendants will be named at a later date, once their "true names and capacities have been ascertained."

These unknown individuals and entities are alleged by Fishman to have "conspired in some manner with Defendants [ie, Dream Stage] and/or each other." The lawsuit also states that these unknown parties are "responsible in some manner for the events and occurrences alleged in the pleading" and that Fishman's financial damages were "proximately caused by their conduct."

The lawsuit makes no mention of the fact that a third Pride USA show had been scheduled for April 28, 2007 and was cancelled after the February 24th event. The lawsuit also makes no mention of Fishman's publicly stated hope to purchase Pride from Dream Stage, including his comments such as "once I fully acquire Pride FC" in the days before the February 24th Pride event.

At this point, no court dates have been set, but we will continue to keep you updated on this story as events unfold.

Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Pride Fighting Championships News

posted by Ivan Trembow at 6:42 PM

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Mixed Martial Arts--- UFC Fighters Pass Drug Tests; Plus the Recent History of MMA Drug Testing
by Ivan Trembow
Originally Published on MMAWeekly

The drug test results have come back from UFC 68, and all of the fighters who were tested at the event tested negative for banned substances.

The Ohio Athletic Commission tested for steroids and recreational drugs at the event in Columbus, Ohio on March 3rd, although only four of the eighteen fighters on the card were tested.

The four fighters who were drug tested were Randy Couture, Tim Sylvia, Jon Fitch, and Luigi Fioravanti. All of those fighters' urine samples came back negative for all banned substances. The remaining fourteen fighters on the card were not drug tested.

This marks the second consecutive UFC event on which none of the fighters failed their drug tests. At UFC 67, which took place in Las Vegas on February 3rd, eight of the eighteen fighters on the card were drug tested and all of them passed their tests. Those eight fighters were Anderson Silva, Travis Lutter, Mirko Cro Cop, Eddie Sanchez, Quinton Jackson, Marvin Eastman, Ryoto Machida, and Sam Hoger.

At UFC 66, which took place in Las Vegas on December 30th, six of the eighteen fighters on the card were drug tested. Five of those fighters passed their drug tests: Chuck Liddell, Tito Ortiz, Keith Jardine, Forrest Griffin, and Tony DeSouza. However, the banned diuretic Spironolactone was detected in the urine sample of the sixth fighter who was tested, Thiago Alves, and Alves was suspended for eight months by the Nevada State Athletic Commission.

Prior to Alves' failed drug test, the last time that a UFC fighter had tested positive for banned substances was when Stephan Bonnar tested positive for the anabolic steroid Boldenone at UFC 62 on August 26, 2006. Bonnar was suspended for nine months by the NSAC.

Drug testing is the responsibility of the state athletic commissions, not the responsibility of the UFC, Pride, or any other specific MMA promotion. However, in the cases of big promotions like Zuffa or Dream Stage Entertainment, they could easily afford to pay for every fighter to be drug tested on every card with the revenue generated from less than 100 tickets sold.

At Pride's first event in the United States, which took place in Las Vegas on October 21st of last year, ten of the sixteen fighters on the card were drug tested. The fighters who were drug tested and passed their tests were Fedor Emelianenko, Mark Coleman, Mauricio "Shogun" Rua, Josh Barnett, Dan Henderson, Phil Baroni, and Yosuke Nishijima. However, three fighters on the card failed their drug tests: Vitor Belfort, Pawel Nastula, and Kevin Randleman.

Belfort tested positive for the anabolic steroid 4-hydroxytestosterone and was suspended for nine months by the NSAC. Nastula tested positive for the anabolic steroid nandrolone and also for the banned stimulants phenylpropanolamine, pseudoephedrine, and ephedrine; Nastula was suspended by the NSAC for nine months.

Randleman admitted to submitting a fake urine sample due to the large amount of painkillers and antibiotics that he was taking at the time, as well as the fact that he had a potentially life-threatening lung infection. At a discplinary hearing last month, the NSAC revoked Randleman's license as a fighter. In addition to passing a drug test, Randleman will have to personally appear in front of the NSAC and provide medical evidence that he is completely healthy before he can fight again, and he is not eligible to do so until at least October 2007.

At Pride's second event in the United States, which took place in Las Vegas on February 24th, ten of the eighteen fighters on the card were drug tested. The fighters who were drug tested and passed their tests were Wanderlei Silva, Dan Henderson, Takanori Gomi, Mauricio "Shogun" Rua, Alistair Overeem, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou, Joachim Hansen, and Jason Ireland. However, Nick Diaz tested positive for marijuana. Diaz has not yet had his Nevada State Athletic Commission disciplinary hearing.

At the first Zuffa-owned WEC event in Las Vegas on January 20th, six of the eighteen fighters on the card were drug tested: Urijah Faber, Joe Pearson, Rob McCullough, Kit Cope, Rich Crunkilton, and Mike Joy. Faber, McCullough, Crunkilton, and Joy passed all of their drug tests. However, Cope tested positive for the illegal anabolic steroid Boldenone, and Pearson tested positive for the active ingredient in marijuana. Cope and Pearson have not yet had their NSAC disciplinary hearings.

Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Pride Fighting Championships News, UFC News, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC)

posted by Ivan Trembow at 12:02 AM

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Mixed Martial Arts--- Nick Diaz Fails Drug Test at Pride 33: The Second Coming
by Ivan Trembow
Originally Published on MMAWeekly

Nick Diaz has failed the drug test that he took shortly before his win over Takanori Gomi at Pride 33: The Second Coming. Diaz tested positive for marijuana, according to the Nevada State Athletic Commission.

Diaz will have an opportunity to defend himself at a Nevada State Athletic Commission hearing in the future.

The typical punishment for MMA fighters or boxers who test positive for marijuana in the state of Nevada has been a six-month suspension, with the most recent example being professional boxer Mikhail Lyubarsky, who was suspended for six months at his NSAC disciplinary hearing just this morning.

Diaz defeated Takanori Gomi by submission at Pride 33: The Second Coming in a huge upset.

In addition to being under contract to Pride, Diaz was also under contract with the Showtime-backed EliteXC to fight on a future EliteXC card. It is not yet known how or if Diaz' positive test will affect his status with Pride or EliteXC.

Diaz Was Hesitant to Take Drug Test
MMAWeekly spoke with NSAC Executive Director Keith Kizer about Diaz's failed drug test, and Kizer noted that Diaz was initially hesitant when he was asked to give a urine sample.

Kizer said, "It was interesting because when the inspectors went to take the urine sample before his fight, Mr. Diaz said no at first. He wanted to give the sample in a stall. The sample has to be given in front of an inspector, and he wouldn't do it. Well, we've played that game with Mr. Randleman, so we weren't going to have that, but he refused to do it. So I said, 'That's fine, no problem, but you're not going to be fighting, of course. If you're not going to take the drug test, that's fine, but you're not fighting tonight.'"

Kizer continued, "So I talked to Turi [Altavilla] at Pride and then he apparently talked to Nick, and then he was more than happy to give us a sample. The fight would have been called off otherwise. I don't know if his hesitance to take a drug test has anything to do with his positive drug test and whether there's any correlation there, but it's definitely a factor that I will be bringing up with the commissioners. Mr. Diaz was the only fighter [on the Pride 33 card] who showed any hesitance in taking a drug test."

Fight Result May or May Not Be Changed to "No Contest"
The official policy of the NSAC used to be that the result of a fight would stay the same, no matter what banned substances were found in the winning fighter's system, but that policy has changed in recent years.

Now, if a fighter wins a bout and tests positive for steroids, stimulants, or other performance-enhancing drugs, the official result is changed to a no-contest.

Whether or not that will apply to marijuana as well remains to be seen. When asked specifically about the official result of the Diaz-Gomi fight, Kizer told MMAWeekly that the issue will have to be decided by the commissioners. He added that all of the factors will be considered before it's decided whether the official result of the fight should be changed to "no contest" or whether it should stay the same (Diaz wins by submission).

Regarding the subject of marijuana use among mixed martial artists in general, Kizer said to MMAWeekly last month, "The main issue with marijuana is it slows the reflexes, putting the fighter at much greater risk. We would not let a fighter compete who is coming off arm surgery and has not fully recovered his reflexes, or who is under the influence of alcohol because of the same issue. Additionally, it may also deaden some pain. That could hurt the fighter... he may not tap out when he should and he suffers broken bones or torn ligaments as a result... or that could unfairly help him if he can trade punches more easily with his opponent."

Potential Disciplinary Suspension a Moot Point?
Due to the fact that Diaz suffered a broken orbital bone during the fight against Gomi and had already been medically suspended by the NSAC for six months, any potential disciplinary suspension for marijuana could end up being a moot point, depending on the length of the disciplinary suspension.

If Diaz were to be given a six-month disciplinary suspension that coincided with his six-month medical suspension, the disciplinary suspension would essentially be a moot point because he wasn't going to be fighting for six months anyway. The fighter in that case has actually lost zero days when they "could have fought" but weren't allowed to fight because they were being punished.

In other states such as New Jersey, if a fighter is medically suspended and also fails a drug test, the fighter's disciplinary suspension begins on the day that his or her medical suspension ends.

This is not currently the case in Nevada. When asked if the NSAC plans to change its policy on this matter in the future, Kizer said that it's up to the commissioners, but he added, "Any drug violation occurs before any injury, so I am not sure if you should punish a fighter more because of his injuries."

Nine Other Pride Fighters Pass Drug Tests
All of the other fighters who were drug tested at Pride 33: The Second Coming tested negative for all banned substances, including steroids, stimulants, and recreational drugs.

The ten fighters that the Nevada State Athletic Commission chose to test following their respective fights at Pride 33 on February 24th were Nick Diaz, Takanori Gomi, Wanderlei Silva, Dan Henderson, Mauricio "Shogun" Rua, Alistair Overeem, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou, Joachim Hansen, and Jason Ireland. The remaining eight fighters on the card were not drug tested.

At Pride's first event in the United States last October, three of the ten fighters who were drug tested failed their tests (Vitor Belfort, Kevin Randleman, and Pawel Nastula).

According to the Nevada State Athletic Commission, the total cost of drug testing one fighter for performance-enhancing drugs, stimulants, recreational drugs, and all other banned substances is $278.40.

The NSAC spent a total of $2,784 on drug testing for Pride 33: The Second Coming, while the total cost of drug testing every single fighter on the card would have been $4,454. The event drew $2,033,098 in ticket sales.

Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Pride Fighting Championships News

posted by Ivan Trembow at 12:20 AM

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Mixed Martial Arts--- Pride 33 and UFC 67 Attendance Breakdown
by Ivan Trembow
Originally Published on MMAWeekly

Pride 33: The Second Coming was a moderate success from a live box office standpoint, with numbers that were almost identical to those of Pride: The Real Deal.

Pride 33 drew a paid attendance of 8,334, which was up slightly from The Real Deal's mark of 8,079 in paid attendance. Both events took place at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.

However, with ticket prices down slightly, the live gate was down from $2,056,044 for The Real Deal to $2,033,098 for The Second Coming. As it currently stands, The Real Deal drew the eighth largest live gate of any MMA event in Nevada to date, and The Second Coming drew the ninth largest live gate of any MMA event in Nevada to date. The UFC holds the top seven spots in Nevada's record books.

The number of people in attendance who had free "comp" tickets went up from 4,042 at The Real Deal to 4,577 at The Second Coming.

The total number of fans in attendance increased from 12,121 at The Real Deal to 12,911 for The Second Coming.

As is usually the case, there are the attendance numbers that the promotion claims publicly during or after the event, and then there are the actual, legitimate attendance numbers.

In the case of Pride 33: The Second Coming, Pride announced that the total attendance was 13,180, which is slightly higher than the legitimate total attendance figure of 12,911.

While The Second Coming performed slightly better at the live box office than The Real Deal, both events paled in comparison to the live event business that the UFC consistently generates in Las Vegas.

Just three weeks prior to Pride's Second Coming, UFC 67 took place in Las Vegas. While the UFC lamented the fact that the event did not fill the 11,000-seat Mandalay Bay Events Center at the post-fight press conference, the event still handily out-drew Pride: The Second Coming.

While Pride: The Second Coming generated $2,033,098 in ticket sales, UFC 67 generated $2,767,130 in ticket sales.

The UFC's higher live gate figure was caused not only by higher ticket prices, but also by the fact that UFC 67 had a slightly higher paid attendance figure, with 8,700 fans paying to attend UFC 67 (compared to 8,334 for The Second Coming).

UFC 67 also had 1,527 fans in attendance who had free "comp" tickets, making the total attendance 10,227, which is slightly lower than the UFC's publicly announced figure of 10,787.

The UFC has held eleven live PPV events since the beginning of 2006, and eight of those events were able to exceed Pride: The Second Coming's live gate of $2,033,098.

The only UFC PPV events from the past year that Pride: The Second Coming out-drew at the live box office were UFC 58 (which took place in Las Vegas and drew a live gate of $1,758,450); UFC 63 (which took place in Anaheim and drew a live gate of $1,582,370); and UFC 64 (which took place in Las Vegas and drew a live gate of $1,790,490).

Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Pride Fighting Championships News, UFC News, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)

posted by Ivan Trembow at 11:56 PM

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Mixed Martial Arts--- Pride Fighter Salaries for The Second Coming
by Ivan Trembow
Originally Published on MMAWeekly

MMAWeekly has obtained the fighter salary information for Pride 33: The Second Coming, which took place on Saturday, February 24th in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The following figures are from the fighter salary information that Dream Stage Entertainment was required by law to submit to the Nevada State Athletic Commission. Although MMA fighters are not unionized, the fighters' salaries are still public record in the United States, just as with every other major sport in the US.

The question of, "How much do Pride's fighters make when they fight in Japan?" still remains unanswered, but the fighter salaries for this event do provide a great deal of insight into this question.

Given that Pride's Japan-based shows often fill the 35,000-seat Saitama Super Arena, it's likely that the salaries for the USA event were smaller than the salaries for a show in Japan, but it's unlikely that the two sets of numbers would be drastically different from one another.

Just as with UFC fighter salaries, any undisclosed bonuses that Pride also pays its fighters, but does not disclose to the athletic commissions, are not reflected in the figures below.

As with UFC salaries, we're listing "Main Event Fighters," "Main Card Fighters," and "Preliminary Fighters." All non-main-event fighter for this card are listed below as "Main Card Fighters" because there were no preliminary bouts on this card. None of the fights were taped before the show went on the air, so there were no "Preliminary Fighters."

Though our listings still note which fighters won their fights and which fighters lost, there were no winners' bonuses on this card. In addition, next to each fighter's name is the number of fights that he has had in Pride.

Main Event Fighters
-Wanderlei Silva: $150,000 (28th fight in Pride; lost to Dan Henderson in main event)
-Dan Henderson: $50,000 (18th fight in Pride; defeated Wanderlei Silva in main event)

Main Card Fighters
-Mauricio "Shogun" Rua: $50,000 (13th fight in Pride; defeated Alistair Overeem)
-Takanori Gomi: $20,000 (15th fight in Pride; lost to Nick Diaz)
-Antonio Rogerio Nogueira: $20,000 (10th fight in Pride; lost to Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou)
-Nick Diaz: $15,000 (1st fight in Pride; defeated Takanori Gomi)
-Joachim Hansen: $15,000 (6th fight in Pride; defeated Jason Ireland)
-Hayato Sakurai: $10,000 (11th fight in Pride; defeated Mac Danzig)
-Frank Trigg: $10,000 (2nd fight in Pride; defeated Kazuo Misaki)
-Kazuo Misaki: $10,000 (8th fight in Pride; lost to Frank Trigg)
-Sergei Kharitonov: $10,000 (11th fight in Pride; defeated Mike Russow)
-Alistair Overeem: $10,000 (14th fight in Pride; lost to Mauricio "Shogun" Rua)
-Travis Wiuff: $10,000 (1st fight in Pride; lost to James Lee)
-Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou: $10,000 (1st fight in Pride; defeated Antonio Rogerio Nogueira)
-Mac Danzig: $10,000 (1st fight in Pride; lost to Hayato Sakurai)
-Jason Ireland: $10,000 (1st fight in Pride; lost to Joachim Hansen)
-Mike Russow: $10,000 (1st fight in Pride; lost to Sergei Kharitonov)
-James Lee: $10,000 (1st fight in Pride; defeated Travis Wiuff)
Disclosed Fighter Payroll: $430,000

Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Pride Fighting Championships News

posted by Ivan Trembow at 4:42 PM

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Mixed Martial Arts--- In-Depth Coverage: NSAC Hearings for Randleman, Yvel, Alves, Toughill, and Carvalho
by Ivan Trembow
Originally Published on MMAWeekly

Mixed martial arts fighters Kevin Randleman, Thiago Alves, and Aaron Carvalho have each been suspended by the Nevada State Athletic Commission as a result of their positive tests for banned substances following their recent MMA bouts in the state of Nevada; while Gilbert Yvel has been denied a fighters' license and Erin Toughill has been granted a conditional fighters' license in Nevada.

Randleman's license as a fighter has been outright revoked for providing fake urine during a drug test; Alves has been suspended for eight months due to a positive test for a banned diuretic; and Carvalho has been suspended for six months due to a positive test for the active ingredient in marijuana.

Randleman and Toughill appeared before the NSAC in person, while Alves, Yvel, and Carvalho participated via teleconference.

In Randleman's case, it's not clear when or if he will be allowed to fight again. The absolute earliest that he will be able to apply to get his license back will be one year from the date of his last fight, so that would be October 21, 2007. Even after that date, Randleman will have to personally appear in front of the NSAC and provide medical evidence that he is completely healthy before he can fight again. On top of the aforementioned suspensions, Randleman has been fined $5,000 and Alves has been fined $5,500.

Also today, Gilbert Yvel was denied a fighters' license in Nevada due to his previous actions in MMA bouts, which include punching and kicking a referee during a 2004 fight in Europe and also getting disqualified in two previous fights. While Yvel was calm throughout the hearing, there were several heated moments stemming from the fact that Yvel seemed to be oblivious to the fact that the NSAC did not understand his justifications for his actions. The NSAC appeared to become increasingly frustrated with Yvel's explanations during the proceedings, and Yvel was eventually denied his request for a license to fight on Pride's February 24th card.

In addition, Erin Toughill was granted her request for a fighters' license. Toughill's request required a special hearing because she previously fought while under an NSAC medical suspension. In 2006, Toughill was TKO'ed during a boxing match in Nevada, and she fought on an MMA card in California while under NSAC medical suspension. The NSAC agreed to grant her a license on the condition that it would only be for one fight, and then the NSAC will re-evaluate her case on medical grounds.

In another matter that was before the NSAC today, Kit Cope and Joe Pearson were temporarily suspended, pending disciplinary hearings at a later date. Following their fights on the first Zuffa-owned WEC event in January, Cope tested positive for the anabolic steroid Boldenone and Pearson tested positive for the active ingredient in marijuana.

Drug testing at mixed martial arts events in the United States is handled by state athletic commissions, not by the MMA promotions such as Pride or the UFC. As with all NSAC drug-related suspensions, the suspended fighters must submit a urine sample after the suspension has expired and the sample has to come back negative for all banned substances before the fighter can fight again.

For as long as a particular fighter is suspended in the state of Nevada, companies that are licensed to promote events in the state of Nevada are strongly discouraged from using that fighter anywhere in the world, which includes Pride and K-1 events in Japan. On this subject, Nevada State Athletic Commission Executive Director Keith Kizer previously said to MMAWeekly, "I would expect a licensed promoter to respect any and all NSAC suspensions."

Kevin Randleman's Hearing
Kevin Randleman fought on the Pride card on October 21st of last year, losing to Mauricio "Shogun" Rua by submission, and his post-fight urine sample did not contain any human hormones. As a result, the NSAC alleged that Randleman provided a fake urine sample, which is regarded as being just as much of a violation as actually failing a drug test, if not more of a violation.

After an emotional disciplinary hearing, during which Randleman and his representatives admitted that Randleman provided fake urine, his fighters' license was revoked. It's not clear when or if he will be able to fight again, and the absolute earliest that he will be able to apply to get his license back will be one year from the date of his last fight (which took place on October 21, 2006). The NSAC ruled that even after that date, Randleman will have to appear in front of the commission and provide medical evidence that he is completely healthy if he to be granted a fighters' license ever again.

Randleman's hearing started as his representative, Jim Gallo, discussed the recurring lung infection that has plagued Randleman for the past 16 months. The lung infection has required eleven surgeries and increasingly strong antibiotic treatments. The NSAC was provided with photos from the surgery that Randleman had just two months before his October 21st fight in an effort to rid his body of the infection. Gallo said that due to the recurring infection, Randleman was on prescription painkillers and antibiotics at the time of the Pride event, and that Randleman was subsequently hospitalized for seven days in January due to "his body shutting down" from complications stemming from the same infection.

Gallo said, "Mr. Randleman was a fighter in poor health who misled this commission so that he could fight and make money for himself and his family. He takes responsibility for his actions." Gallo also asked that the NSAC change its procedures so that fighters are provided with a list of banned substances six to eight weeks before an event takes place, as Randleman was only given a banned substances list one day before the event and "that's when he panicked" upon seeing some of his medications on the list.

Gallo concluded his statements by saying that he was aware of the talk that Randleman's license should be revoked, but Gallo felt that a suspension of 10 to 12 months would be more appropriate.

Randleman then spoke in front of the members of the Nevada State Athletic Commission. Randleman said, "I'm extremely sorry for the deception... I had eleven surgeries in 16 months, and it was very rough on me. My intention was not to deceive." At that point, NSAC Commissioner John Bailey interrupted and said, "Your intention was to deceive. Instead of disclosing everything to us, you said, 'I'm going to deceive these people so that they will let me fight.' Is that correct?"

Randleman responded: "That is correct, sir... I was wrong. I was very wrong. I should have come to you and said, 'Ladies, gentlemen, I have a problem here... but all I wanted to do was fight."

The commission was upset not only with the fake urine test, but also with the fact that Randleman did not fully disclose his medical condition prior to the fight. On this subject, Bailey said during the hearing, "When we had Joe Mesi [a boxer who has suffered bleeding in the brain] in front of us, our mindset was that sometimes we have to protect fighters from themselves... You were not healthy in this case. You were not healthy, and you did not make the right judgment. You cannot really provide us any assurance that if there were a fight next week, just hypothetically if there were a fight next week, that you would not try to fight next week, irrespective of the fact that your health is bad. We have to protect you when you can't protect yourself. You have demonstrated that you can't protect yourself and that you will deceive us instead of protecting yourself. You could have gotten killed in that ring."

Randleman said, "I'm not going to run and fight in Russia or Brazil or anywhere else. I'm going to sit at home and take the responsibility of whatever the punishment is for all those people who came before me and all those who will come after me."

Commission chairman Dr. Tony Alamo expressed concern that with Randleman having a serious lung infection going into the fight, he could have theoretically passed the infection along to his opponent, Mauricio "Shogun" Rua, if both of them had sustained open cuts during the fight. Fortunately, neither fighter was cut during the fight.

Alamo also said, "I am moved by what you have said. We understand that you did not lie to us so that you could... I'm just one person, but what I believe here is that you did not lie to us so that you could take a performance-enhancing drug that could hurt someone else. But we need to protect you from yourself. Your deception was not just with the urine, but also with the pre-fight medicals. If you had told the doctors about your medical condition, you would not have been cleared to fight."

Randleman said that he has been drug tested in the past when he fought for the UFC and always passed his tests. When he was asked whether he used a product called the Whizzinator to fake his urine test, Randleman said he did not. When asked what he did use, Randleman said that he bought a bottle of fake urine from a company called Diversity.

Alamo said the only case that the NSAC has for a basis of comparison is that of Sean McCully, who provided fake urine for a drug test in 2004. In McCully's case, the NSAC revoked his license. Alamo said that even though he believes Randleman regrets his actions, the NSAC also has to set the precedent that Randleman's actions were unacceptable.

At that point, an emotional Randleman said, "You're right, sir. You guys have to set an example for anyone who comes after me who tries to do the same thing... I had 16 months of pure hell. Whatever your ruling is, I am going to honor it and not go and run and fight someone else... I was just thinking [before the fight], 'I can't let everybody down. I can't let my organization down.'"

The commission ultimately decided to revoke Randleman's license and fine him $5,000. Randleman will have to personally appear in front of the NSAC and provide medical evidence that he is completely healthy before he can fight again.

In recent months, the NSAC has changed its procedures to require that all drug-tested fighters must submit their urine sample in front of the inspectors. Dr. Tony Alamo said that in order to prevent something like this from happening again, "The inspectors now have to visually see the urine leaving the genitalia and going into the cup."

Thiago Alves' Hearing
Thiago Alves tested positive for the banned diuretic Spironolactone after he defeated Tony DeSouza at UFC 66 on December 30th. Diuretics are banned not only because they can be used to help fighters cut dangerous amounts of weight in short periods of time (which many fighters routinely do even without the use of diuretics), but also because they can be used to flush other banned substances out of a fighter's body before a drug test.

Alves' manager, Dan Lambert, said to the Nevada State Athletic Commission, "We acknowledge that Thiago took the diuretic." Lambert claimed, "Thiago did not knowingly break the rules of the commission" because he did not know that the use of diuretics is banned. "We're not trying to play games with anybody here, but we have over 40 fighters on our team, and none of them knew about the ban on diuretics. If you read the Internet forums, it seems as though a lot of people, fighters and fans alike, were not aware of the ban on diuretics," Lambert said.

Alves said, "I didn't know. I'm really, really sorry. I knew about steroids [being banned], I didn't know about the diuretics [being banned]... This is my life. This is all I do. I need to fight to survive, not just for me but for my family in Brazil." Alves said that he took the diuretic on the Thursday before the event, which would have been about 48 hours before the fight.

The commissioners did not seem to believe that Alves and Lambert were unaware of the fact that diuretics are banned. They mentioned that it has been well documented in lots of sports that diuretics are banned, and specifically that diuretics are banned by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA). It was very interesting to hear the NSAC mention USADA due to the fact that the NSAC and other state athletic commissions have yet to implement USADA's standard punishment for any athlete who tests positive for a banned substance (which is a two-year suspension for a first-time offender and a lifetime ban for a second offense).

The commissioners brought up the question on the pre-fight paperwork that asked if Alves had taken any medications prior to the fight, which had been marked "no." Alves was asked, "Would you agree that it was misleading for you to have checked the 'no' box?" Alves said, "Yes."

The NSAC said that past offenders of the diuretics policy have been suspended for approximately eight months, at which point the commissioners agreed to suspend Alves for eight months from the date of the fight and also fine him $5,000.

Since Alves had a banned substance in his system when he won his fight against Tony DeSouza, many fans have asked if the official result of the fight will be changed.

The official policy used to be that the result of the fight would stay the same, no matter what banned substances were found in the winning fighter's system.

That rule has been changed in the past two years. Now, if a fighter wins a fight and tests positive for steroids, stimulants, or other performance-enhancing drugs in their post-fight drug test, the official result is changed to a no-contest. However, this has not been applied to diuretics, and MMAWeekly has confirmed with the NSAC that the official result of the Alves-DeSouza fight will not be changed.

Aaron Carvalho's Hearing
Aaron Carvalho tested positive for marijuana after his December 29th loss to Gilbert Sims on the Tuff-N-Uff fight card in Las Vegas. Carvalho was very forthright and straightforward in his testimony, as he said, "I admit to it. I was hanging out with some people about a week before the fight and we were smoking." Carvalho said that he hasn't used marijuana since then and that doesn't smoke marijuana regularly, but he did use it about a week before his December 29th fight.

In deciding Carvalho's punishment, the commissioners brought up the NSAC's most recent marijuana-related suspension, noting that K-1 fighter Carter Williams was suspended for six months after he tested positive for marijuana following the K-1 USA event in August 2006 The commissioners decided that Carvalho would also be suspended for six months from the date of the fight.

In addition to the fact that it's illegal, fighters are also tested for marijuana for competitive and safety reasons. On the subject of marijuana, NSAC Executive Director Keith Kizer tells MMAWeekly, "The main issue with marijuana is it slows the reflexes, putting the fighter at much greater risk. We would not let a fighter compete who is coming off arm surgery and has not fully recovered his reflexes, or who is under the influence of alcohol because of the same issue. Additionally, it may also deaden some pain. That could hurt the fighter... he may not tap out when he should and he suffers broken bones or torn ligaments as a result... or that could unfairly help him if he can trade punches more easily with his opponent."

Other state athletic commissions have more lenient policies when it comes to marijuana or drugs in general. One recent example would be the state of California and Ricco Rodriguez. The Wrestling Observer cites the California State Athletic Commission in reporting that Rodriguez tested positive for both marijuana and cocaine after his November 17th victory over Imani Lee on an MMA show in Bakersfield, California, but he was only given a six-month suspension for the two offenses.

Gilbert Yvel's Hearing
Pride Fighting Championships previously submitted the match-up of Sergei Kharitonov vs. Gilbert Yvel to the Nevada State Athletic Commission for approval as part of the February 24th line-up, but the NSAC would not approve the fight without a special hearing due to the fact that Yvel has been disqualified on three separate occasions in his MMA career, most recently when he brutally attacked the referee during a 2004 fight in Europe.

Yvel was asked to explain his actions in each of his three disqualifications. Yvel remained calm and polite throughout the hearing, but he also seemed to be oblivious to the fact that the NSAC did not understand his justifications for his actions.

In regards to his first DQ loss, which took place in 1998 when Yvel bit his opponent, Yvel said that he was "really young and had a really bad temper" at that time. Yvel said, "My opponent, he gave me a headbutt, and I told the referee, but the referee was like, 'Nothing is happening.' And then he did it again with the headbutt, and that was what caused my reaction, to bite him."

Yvel's second disqualification loss was in a 2001 fight against Don Frye, during which Yvel repeatedly eye-gouged Frye. Regarding this incident, Yvel explained, "Don Frye is a very, very strong man, and he was pushing all his body strength against me. I just put my fingers against his nose to push him away from me, and I wasn't really paying attention to what place my fingers were, and my finger slipped on to his eye. It was in the heat of the moment and I can tell you it was not my intention to put my finger in his eye."

The most infamous incident was in 2004 when Yvel got into an argument with the referee during a fight in Europe and proceeded to punch the referee in the face and then kick him. The commissioners were familiar with the incident and seemed disgusted by it: "This commission has all seen the video of the punching and kicking of the referee... I've never in my life seen somebody do what you did. What was going through your mind?"

Yvel gave a very long response, which was interrupted several times as the commissioners tried to get him to talk about the pivotal moment where he decided to attack the referee. The following are just excerpts from the full response: "In that fight, I fought almost for free... the referee was the trainer of my opponent, the promoter of the event, and he kept us waiting for four hours to pick us up at the airport [before the event], and then at the gym he kept us waiting for three more hours. We were just waiting and waiting..."

This was one of the several occasions when the commissioners seemed to be very frustrated, as they interrupted Yvel and said, "I want you to tell me what went through your mind when the referee broke up the fighters and you felt the need to hit the referee in the face and then return back and kick him. What were you thinking?"

Yvel said "sorry" and was polite at all times during the hearing, but he seemed to be oblivious to the commissioners' frustration. Yvel continued, "In the bout, I punched my opponent really hard and he didn't want to fight anymore. He didn't want to fight anymore and we almost fell out of the ring! He was ready to walk away from the fight, he wanted out of the fight, but the referee was trying to pull him back into the fight, and he said, 'Stop, don't move.' And when the referee says, 'Stop, don't move,' then you're supposed to go to the center of the ring in the same position. But he didn't do that, he put us in the center of the ring standing up. He put us standing up instead of on the ground, and that's not right. The referee put me in a bad position and my opponent in a good position by doing that, and the referee was screaming at me, and he was pulling at me. He was screaming and pulling, screaming and pulling, and at that moment, I am there to fight..."

At this point, the commissioners interrupted again, sounding fed up and saying, "Mr. Yvel, Mr. Yvel, you've got 30 seconds. The floor is yours for 30 more seconds." At that point, Yvel finished up by saying, "And at that moment, I got mad and I hit the referee and I kicked him. Yeah."

With Yvel having explained all of his problems with the referee, the commissioners unanimously agreed to deny his application for a fighters' license. This is not like a suspension where the fighter can't fight anywhere in the world for a certain period of time; Yvel simply can't fight in Nevada because he is not being given a license to fight in Nevada.

This leaves Yvel's original opponent for Pride's February 24th card, Sergei Kharitonov, without an opponent. Pride had previously proposed a fight between Kazuyuki Fujita and Wes Sims for the February 24th card, but the NSAC rejected it for competitive reasons (Sims vs. Mark Hunt was also rejected for competitive reasons). With Kharitonov's fight not being approved and Fujita's fight not being approved, it would seem to be logical that Kharitonov would fight Fujita, but that is not the case.

The NSAC has confirmed to MMAWeekly that Fujita will not be fighting Kharitonov or anyone else on the card, as the deadline has passed and Pride has still not sent all of Fujita's medical information to the NSAC.

It is not known whom Kharitonov will be fighting (if anyone), but it won't be Fujita. As a safety measure, the medical information of all fighters who are at least 35 years old (Fujita is 36) must be submitted at least a week before a show. Pride has missed this deadline for Fujita, so he will be ineligible to compete on the card. The NSAC just got Dan Henderson's medical information from Pride today (Henderson is 35 years old).

Erin Toughill's Hearing
Female mixed martial arts competitor Erin Toughill, who was recently featured on the MSNBC show Warrior Nation, appeared before the Nevada State Athletic Commission to request a fighters' license. Toughill's application required a special hearing instead of getting a standard approval because last year Toughill fought while she was under an NSAC medical suspension.

Toughill was TKO'ed in a boxing match in the state of Nevada on August 31, 2006. Due to punishment sustained in the fight, the NSAC medically suspended Toughill for 30 days. However, Toughill fought two weeks later on an MMA show in California while she was still under medical suspension.

Toughill said that all she can say in her own defense is that the MMA fight in California was on an Indian Reservation and she thought it was not under commission regulations. An emotional Toughill also said that her father passed away shortly before the MMA bout in California, and that the MMA bout was the best way for her to cope with her loss at the time.

The commissioners said that sometimes they have to protect fighters from themselves and that she should not have been fighting anywhere, in any sport (boxing or MMA), while under medical suspension. The commissioners voted to grant Toughill a conditional, one-fight license to fight in the state of Nevada. After that one fight in Nevada, then the NSAC will re-evaluate her case on medical grounds. Toughill is able to fight anywhere else in the meantime; her application for a fighters' license today was specifically for the state of Nevada.

Drug Testing Costs; Other Recent Drug Testing Results
According to the Nevada State Athletic Commission, the total cost of drug testing one fighter for performance-enhancing drugs, stimulants, recreational drugs, and all other banned substances is $278.40.

The seven Pride fighters who were drug tested and passed their tests at the Pride USA event last October were Fedor Emelianenko, Mark Coleman, Mauricio "Shogun" Rua, Josh Barnett, Dan Henderson, Phil Baroni, and Yosuke Nishijima. Vitor Belfort and Pawel Nastula failed their drug tests, and in December they were both suspended for nine months from the date of the event. The other six fighters on the Pride card were not drug tested.

The NSAC spent a total of $2,784 on drug testing for Pride: The Real Deal, while the total cost of drug testing every single fighter on the card would have been $4,454. The event drew $2,056,444 in ticket sales.

At UFC 66, there were six fighters who were drug tested: Chuck Liddell, Tito Ortiz, Keith Jardine, Forrest Griffin, Tony DeSouza, and Thiago Alves. All of those fighters passed their drug tests, with the exception of Alves. The other twelve fighters on the card were not drug tested. The NSAC spent a total of $1,670 on drug testing for UFC 66, while the total cost of drug testing every single fighter on the card would have been $5,011. The event drew $5,397,300 in ticket sales.

At UFC 67, there were eight fighters who were drug tested: Anderson Silva, Travis Lutter, Mirko Cro Cop, Eddie Sanchez, Quinton Jackson, Marvin Eastman, Ryoto Machida, and Sam Hoger. All eight of those fighters passed their drug tests. The other ten fighters on the card were not drug tested. The NSAC spent a total of $2,227 on drug testing for UFC 66, while the total cost of drug testing every single fighter on the card would have been $5,011. The event drew $2,767,130 in ticket sales.

Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Pride Fighting Championships News, UFC News, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)

posted by Ivan Trembow at 12:03 AM

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Mixed Martial Arts--- Pride Event from Japan to Air on U.S. Pay-Per-View Live for First Time
by Scott Petersen and Ivan Trembow
Originally Published on MMAWeekly

Multiple sources have confirmed to MMAWeekly that Pride is planning to make its next pay-per-view event from Japan available in the United States on live pay-per-view for the first time in the promotion's history.

In the past, Pride's events in Japan have always aired on a tape-delayed basis on United States pay-per-view outlets. While this tape delay has been as short as 18 hours in many cases, it has also been a full week in other cases, or even a full month in the case of a few Bushido events.

Even when the tape delay was only 18 hours, many MMA fans wished that they could watch the events live and couldn't resist the temptation to read the results online before the U.S. pay-per-view debut.

Now, starting with the event that will be held in Japan on April 8th, Pride is planning on making its events available for live viewing on U.S. pay-per-view outlets. The events will still have numerous replays for fans who don't want to stay up late to watch the events live.

This is not unlike what HBO does with major boxing events that take place in Europe. For example, HBO will air the upcoming Wladimir Klitshcko boxing match from Germany live in the United States at 5:00 PM Eastern Time (which is 2:00 PM Pacific Time) and will then replay the fight in the U.S. in primetime with a 10:00 PM Eastern and Pacific start time.

Part of Pride's motivation for doing this stems from the fact that they lose money every time a fan watches an illegal Pride video online instead of buying the PPV.

However, the primary motivation for doing this is that Pride wants to cater to the U.S. market as much as possible, and offering its Japanese events on live U.S. pay-per-view is a big step in that direction.

Sunday, April 8th in Japanese time is actually in the latenight hours of Saturday, April 7th in U.S. time. Regardless of what the PPV timeslot ends up being, Pride is planning to make the start time of the live event in Japan coincide with the PPV timeslot that it gets in the United States so that the event can air live on U.S. pay-per-view.

Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Pride Fighting Championships News

posted by Ivan Trembow at 7:23 PM

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Mixed Martial Arts--- Nick Diaz Signs with Pride In Addition to Showtime-Backed Elite XC
by Ivan Trembow and Ken Pishna
Originally Published on MMAWeekly

Nick Diaz has signed a two-fight contract with Pride and will make his Pride debut on the promotion's February 24th event in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Diaz will be cutting to lightweight for his fight at Pride 33 on February 24th, and he expects to face a top-level opponent. Pride previously announced the participation of two lightweights on the Pride 33 card: Takanori Gomi and Hayato "Mach" Sakurai, who are the #1 and #2 Lightweights in the MMAWeekly Rankings.

Though it's not known who Diaz will be fighting, Gomi and Sakurai are two of the many possibilities. If Diaz does fight Gomi, it will not be for Gomi's Pride Lightweight Title, as Pride previously announced that Gomi's fight at Pride 33 will be a non-title fight.

Earlier this week, it was announced that Diaz signed with the Showtime-backed Elite Xtreme Combat, for which he is expected to make his debut in May. Diaz' contracts with Pride and EXC do not conflict with each other, as EXC has no problem with non-exclusive contracts, and Pride entered its negotiations with Diaz knowing that he was already under contract with EXC.

Regardless of who Diaz fights at Pride 33, he will be fighting at Pride's lightweight limit of 160 pounds. The lightweight limit for MMA in the United States is usually 155 pounds, but promotions like Pride also have the option of holding fights at "catch weights" such as 160 pounds.

The 23-year-old Diaz normally fights at 170 pounds and is currently the #9-ranked 170-pound fighter in the MMAWeekly Rankings.

Diaz is a UFC veteran who won the last two fights on his UFC contract at UFC 62 and UFC 65, respectively. Diaz had been scheduled to face Thomas "Wildman" Denny on the Gracie Fighting Championships event on January 20th, but the event was postponed.

Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Pride Fighting Championships News

posted by Ivan Trembow at 11:50 PM

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Mixed Martial Arts--- UFC, Pride, and IFL Dates Revealed
by Ivan Trembow
Originally Published on MMAWeekly

MMAWeekly has learned the scheduled dates of several upcoming mixed martial arts events that have not yet been publicly announced.

As previously announced, Pride's next show in the United States will take place on February 24th, but Pride has also requested the venue of the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas for a third U.S. show on April 28th.

Meanwhile, Spike TV has confirmed that the live season finale of The Ultimate Fighter 5 (featuring BJ Penn vs. Jens Pulver) will take place on June 23rd.

Also, while not confirmed by Spike TV, MMAWeekly has learned that the next UFC Fight Night broadcast after the January 25th event is scheduled to take place on March 13th, and the next one after that will take place on April 5th as the lead-in to the season premiere of The Ultimate Fighter 5.

In addition, the previously open date in June on the IFL's previously announced 2007 season schedule now appears to have been filled, as the IFL has formally requested the date of June 17th for an event at the Reno Events Center in Reno, Nevada.

Finally, though it was reported on MMAWeekly several months ago, it has now been officially confirmed that UFC 68 will be taking place on March 3rd at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio. The show is actually being referred to as "UFC 68: Ohio 1." There will already be a lot of visitors in the Columbus area on that weekend due to the Arnold Classic bodybuilding event, and many of those visitors may also purchase tickets to the UFC event.

You can always find the latest information on scheduled dates and rumored line-ups for upcoming MMA events in MMAWeekly's Rumors section, and you can find the specific TV or PPV listings for any particular event in our MMA Television Guide.

Labels: International Fight League (IFL) News, Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Pride Fighting Championships News, UFC News, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)

posted by Ivan Trembow at 12:06 AM

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Mixed Martial Arts--- UFC Confirms Signing of Mirko Cro Cop; A Look at the Heavyweight & Light Heavyweight Title Pictures
by Ivan Trembow
Originally Published on MMAWeekly

As previously reported by MMAWeekly.com's Ken Pishna, Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic has signed with the UFC, and this news was officially confirmed at the UFC 66 event on Saturday night.

Cro Cop will make his UFC debut against Eddie Sanchez at UFC 67 on February 3rd. Cro Cop is the #2 Heavyweight in the MMAWeekly Rankings, behind only Fedor Emelianenko.

A commercial for UFC 67 aired several times during the UFC 66 pay-per-view broadcast and also on the big screens at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Cro Cop's name got somewhat of a lukewarm reaction from the live crowd in Las Vegas, indicating that many of the UFC fans in attendance do not know who he is.

The expectation of this kind of response from casual MMA fans is primary reason for not giving Cro Cop an immediate title shot in the UFC. If Cro Cop has one fight in the UFC and beats Sanchez, far more UFC fans will be familiar with and interested in Cro Cop headed into a potential UFC Heavyweight Title match.

Brandon Vera had been scheduled to get the next shot at UFC Heavyweight Champion Tim Sylvia, but that fight will only happen if Vera signs a multi-fight contract extension with the UFC (Vera currently has one fight left on his UFC contract).

Vera recently made an appearance at the introductory press conference of the Showtime-backed Elite XC promotion, where he told the Los Angeles Times that he wants his next contract to be with "whoever wants to take care of me the best."

The commercial for UFC 67 also prominently featured Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, the #8 Light Heavyweight in the MMAWeekly Rankings. Jackson will be making his UFC debut at UFC 67 against Marvin Eastman.

The next shot at the UFC Light Heavyweight Title had been tentatively slated to go to Forrest Griffin if he defeated Keith Jardine at UFC 66, but Griffin's loss to Jardine throws a monkey wrench into those plans.

With Jardine defeating Griffin by TKO, the next shot at Chuck Liddell's UFC Light Heavyweight Title would seem to be most likely to belong to Jackson if he is able to beat Eastman on February 3rd, but it could also conceivably go to Jardine.

After his second TKO loss to Liddell, Tito Ortiz would not appear to be in the UFC Light Heavyweight Title picture for now. However, a rematch between Ortiz and Griffin would still be highly marketable, and Ortiz has already laid the marketing groundwork in recent days and weeks for a potential fight against Renato "Babalu" Sobral, whom Ortiz has repeatedly referred to as a "B-level fighter."

The UFC has also confirmed previous MMAWeekly.com reports that Heath Herring has signed with the UFC and will be fighting Jake O'Brien at UFC Fight Night on January 25th in a battle of heavyweight contenders.

Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Pride Fighting Championships News, UFC News, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)

posted by Ivan Trembow at 12:48 AM

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Mixed Martial Arts--- In-Depth Coverage: Vitor Belfort & Pawel Nastula Suspended after Steroid Hearings
by Ivan Trembow
Originally Published on MMAWeekly

Breaking News on MMAWeekly: Vitor Belfort and Pawel Nastula have each been suspended for nine months by the Nevada State Athletic Commission as a result of their positive tests for banned substances following their respective fights at Pride: The Real Deal on October 21st.

In addition to the nine-month suspensions, each fighter was fined approximately one-third of their purses, which worked out to a $10,000 fine for Belfort and $6,500 for Nastula.

Drug testing at mixed martial arts events in the United States is handled by state athletic commissions, not by the MMA promotions such as Pride or the UFC.

The commissioners of the NSAC mentioned Stephan Bonnar when determining the length of the suspensions. Bonnar was suspended for nine months after he tested positive for the anabolic steroid boldenone following his fight against Forrest Griffin at UFC 62. The commissioners concluded that Belfort and Nastula should receive similar suspensions, and they unanimously agreed on the length of the suspensions for Belfort and Nastula.

Kevin Randleman's disciplinary hearing is tentatively scheduled to take place in January. The NSAC has alleged that Randleman provided a fake urine sample during his drug test at the same Pride event on October 21st. Providing fake urine or otherwise trying to defraud the drug testing system is regarded as being just as much of a violation as actually failing a drug test, if not more of a violation.

Nastula tested positive for the anabolic steroid nandrolone and the banned stimulants phenylpropanolamine, pseudoephedrine, and ephedrine. Belfort tested positive for 4-hydroxytestosterone, which is also legally defined as an anabolic steroid and banned in Major League Baseball and other sports.

Belfort, a former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion, lost to Dan Henderson by unanimous decision on the Pride card. Nastula, who won a gold medal in Judo at the 1996 Olympic Games, lost by submission to Josh Barnett on the card.

As with all NSAC drug-related suspensions, Belfort and Nastula will not be automatically reinstated in July 2007 when their suspension terms expires. After the terms expire, Belfort and Nastula will become eligible to re-apply for fighters' licenses in Nevada. This step requires a urine sample to be provided and for the sample to come back negative for all banned substances before the fighter can be re-licensed.

For as long as a particular fighter is suspended in the state of Nevada, companies that are licensed to promote events in the state of Nevada are strongly discouraged from using that fighter anywhere in the world, which includes Pride's events in Japan. On this subject, Nevada State Athletic Commission Executive Director Keith Kizer told MMAWeekly, "I would expect a licensed promoter to respect any and all NSAC suspensions."

Vitor Belfort's Hearing
While Pawel Nastula was represented by an attorney and an agent/interpreter, Vitor Belfort represented himself and passionately pleaded his case to the commissioners. As for how he could have unknowingly ingested 4-hydroxytestosterone, Belfort said that it could have been in the rehabilitative injections that he was given by endocrinologist Dr. Rodrigo M. Greco following surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his knee over the summer; or it could have been from a nutritional supplement called Max Tribustak.

That particular supplement does indeed contain 4-hydroxytestosterone and is touted as helping to maximize the user's testosterone output. The commission seemed to believe that the Max Tribustak was much more likely than the post-surgical injections to have been the cause of Belfort's positive drug test.

Belfort was emphatic in saying that he is not a cheater. Belfort added that many fighters in MMA are cheaters and steroid users, but he is not one of them. Belfort said that he was very surprised by the positive test result, adding that he has lost a lot of sponsorships and has had his name, reputation, and career tarnished as a result of this.

The commissioners stated that even if Belfort was given injections by a doctor who did not inform Belfort that the injections contained anabolic steroids, it would still be a violation of the banned substances policy and "it would be malpractice for a doctor to do that here in the United States, to be giving someone anabolic steroids" during recovery from surgery.

The NSAC received a written statement from Dr. Greco in which he said that he gave Belfort post-surgical injections containing testosterone, which the NSAC said would be a violation of the NSAC's drug policy in and of itself.

The conclusion was ultimately reached that Belfort's story is fairly consistent, but that it's still a violation of the drug policy to have a banned substance in your body at the time of a fight. Regardless of when or how he took the banned substance, he should not have been fighting with 4-hydroxytestosterone in his system, and it is the fighters' responsibility to make sure that they're clear of all banned substances going into a fight.

Pawel Nastula's Hearing
Pawel Nastula's primary defense, as laid out by attorney Howard Jacobs, was that Nastula's positive test for the anabolic steroid nandrolone was a result of supplement contamination, not deliberate use. Jacobs presented several studies on the subject of supplement contamination to the NSAC, but none of them were specific to Nastula's case.

After Jacobs spoke extensively about the subject of supplement contamination in general, one of the commissioners said, "We have [detected] certain prohibited substances in his urine. We don't know how they got there, and he's responsible for that."

The commissioners further stated that in many cases where supplement contamination is alleged as the reason for a fighter's positive test, the defense chooses to have sample pills from the same manufacturing batch tested to determine if the supplement was, in fact, contaminated. Jacobs responded that it would take four to six months to run cross-contamination tests, and with Nastula being unable to fight during that timeframe, it would be a de facto suspension for that four to six month period.

The commission responded by telling Jacobs that if he chooses not to have the samples tested and if Nastula is suspended today, he could potentially be suspended for longer than four to six months. Jacobs then asked if NSAC policy would allow Nastula to temporarily be able to fight until the disciplinary matter is resolved.

Keith Kizer, the Executive Director of the NSAC, said that would not be allowed. Kizer said that an athlete who is taking performance-enhancing drugs in track and field would run faster or throw the javelin farther, but in MMA you're hitting another human being harder, so they can't allow MMA fighters to compete while they have pending disciplinary matters stemming from positive drug tests.

Jacobs also argued on Nastula's behalf that the relatively low levels of nandrolone found in Nastula's system were consistent with unintentional ingestion and not deliberate use. The commissioners responded by saying that low levels of a banned substance can sometimes indicate unintentional ingestion, but low levels can also sometimes indicate that a fighter was trying to cycle off of the banned substances and simply didn't stop taking them soon enough.

The commissioners said that they have no way of conclusively knowing which one of those scenarios holds true in this case, but they do conclusively know that Nastula had more than the maximum allowed amount of nandrolone in his system, and that was grounds to suspend him.

Pride "Allows Usage of Doping"?
Nastula's original written response to the NSAC stated that his promotional contract with Pride "allows the usage of doping." The commissioners asked for clarification on what exactly that means, and Nastula's agent/interpreter Michal Szymanski responded by saying that Nastula's Pride contract does not specifically allow doping, but it does say that fighters will not be tested for performance-enhancing substances at any of Pride's events in Japan. (It's a completely different scenario in the United States, where it's up to the athletic commissions and not the MMA promotions to handle the drug testing.)

The NSAC's Kizer further clarified to the commissioners that from what he has been told by Pride, they test for marijuana and other recreational drugs at their shows in Japan, but they do not test for steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs. The commissioners agreed that they need to look into Pride's drug testing policies more in the future, although no specific plans to that effect were laid out.

According to the NSAC, the exact passage in Nastula's contract with Pride in Japan is as follows: "Fighter agrees to be tested immediately preceding and following the fight in each event, to confirm negative results of the use of marijuana, cocaine, barbiturates, and other illegal substances. Should any test be positive, fighter shall forfeit all amounts payable under this agreement granted for such event. Performance-enhancing stimulants of the steroid-based family are specifically excluded from the scope of the tests and the prohibition in this section."

At that point during the hearing, Kizer said that when Nastula's representatives were informed of his positive test result back in November, the first question that agent Michal Szymanski asked him was whether or not the NSAC had legally ratified the drug policy that Pride has in Japan. Kizer added that attorney Howard Jacobs' first question to him was also whether the NSAC had legally ratified the drug policy in Japan.

Kizer asked rhetorically why either of them would have asked that question right off the bat if the fighter had not intentionally taken steroids. Jacobs responded by saying that it was just a formality to make sure that the NSAC's policy allowed for the testing of fighters for performance-enhancing drugs.

Nastula Plans to Retire, Would Have Fought on Pride Shockwave if Cleared
When asked if Nastula or his agent had anything else to add, Szymanski said, "We have a contract with Pride to have Nastula's last fight on December 31st... and they told us that if Nastula is cleared and there is no suspension, Nastula can be used on the 31st of December... Nastula is 36 years old and this is his last chance... he would like to finish his career on the 31st."

Szymanski also inferred that Nastula is a top-level athlete and an Olympic Gold Medalist who would have no need to use performance-enhancing drugs. Kizer responded by saying that Nastula is indeed a tremendous athlete and an Olympic Gold Medalist, but he could have still potentially had motivation to use performance-enhancing drugs because his MMA record going into the fight against Josh Barnett was 1-2, while Barnett is ranked as one of the top five heavyweights in the entire world.

NSAC Commissioners "Putting the Hammer Down on the Steroids Issue"
After the Belfort and Nastula hearings were finished and everything else on the NSAC's meeting agenda was completed, commissioner T.J. Day said, "We're putting the hammer down on the steroid issue. This is real, this is important, and the tougher we are on it, the lesser the chance that we're going to be asked in the future why we didn't do anything about it."

It remains to be seen how accurate those words will turn out to be, given that the majority of fighters on any given fight card are still not drug tested.

Other Agenda Items
A few of the NSAC commissioners also said that with the popularity of MMA growing so much, they feel that all of the commissioners should fully understand the judging criteria and the referee procedures related to fight stoppages in MMA. The commissioners proposed that at some point in the future, there should be a seminar for the benefit of the NSAC, during which top MMA referees and judges would explain these matters in great detail to the commissioners.

The vast majority of the rest of the NSAC's agenda on this particular day related to upcoming boxing matches in the state of Nevada involving Jose Luis Castillo and Ricky Hatton, which will be relevant to MMA in the future if any main event fighters fail to make weight and subsequently face the kind of disciplinary action that Castillo has faced.

Castillo once again failed to make weight (or even come close to making weight) for a big-money boxing match against Diego Corrales earlier this year, which cost Showtime, the NSAC, and the event's promoters millions of dollars in lost revenue. Castillo was suspended until the end of 2006 and fined $250,000 for his repeated offenses, but that fine has yet to be paid.

At the meeting on Thursday, the NSAC insisted that the full fine of $250,000 must be paid before Castillo can fight in a proposed title elimination bout on January 20th, and that Castillo could be fined again if he fails to make weight for that bout.

Castillo’s promoter, Top Rank, presented plans to have Castillo and Hatton face different opponents at an event in Las Vegas on January 20th, and then if they are both victorious, Castillo and Hatton would fight each other in Las Vegas on June 2, 2007.

The NSAC was willing to approve those plans if and only if the $250,000 fine was paid before January 20th, or if Castillo pays at least $150,000 before the January 19, 2007 weigh-in and Top Rank puts into writing a formal agreement that they will be fully responsible and legally liable for the fine if Castillo does not pay it in full by June 1, 2007.

Top Rank was expected to compose such documents and return to the athletic commission at a later date in order to get formal approval for the June 2nd showdown between Hatton and Castillo.

Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Pride Fighting Championships News

posted by Ivan Trembow at 10:17 PM

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Mixed Martial Arts--- Josh Barnett & Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira Set for Pride Rematch
by Ivan Trembow
Originally Published on MMAWeekly

Josh Barnett and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira will face off at Pride Shockwave 2006 on December 31st in a rematch of their hotly contested fight from earlier this year.

The Barnett-Nogueira rematch was first reported by Tatame, and since then Nogueira has written the following in his latest column in the Brazilian newspaper Jornal dos Sports (roughly translated from Portuguese to English):

"My adversary for the next Pride event, on the 31st of December, will be the American Josh Barnett, and revenge will be mine in my last fight of the year. Shortly after [Nogueira's first fight with Barnett], I made it clear to Pride management that although I respect the judges decision, I would like a revenge match, since I didn't feel the decision being given to Barnett by 2 to 1 was just. I am motivated and focused for this fight and am certain I will put in a good performance. Barnett is a great fighter and has shown how he is dangerous on the ground. In a fight at this level, anything can happen, but I am quite confident I can beat him."

Barnett and Nogueira previously fought in the quarter-finals of the Pride Open Weight Grand Prix on September 10th. After a Fight of the Year candidate with world-class submission grappling that you're rarely going to see in the heavyweight division or any other weight class, the extremely close fight went to the judges for a decision.

One of the judges gave the fight to Nogueira, while the other two judges gave it to Barnett, thus making Barnett the winner by split decision. Later that night in the Finals of the Pride Open Weight Grand Prix, Mirko Cro Cop defeated Barnett by submission to become the 2006 Pride Open Weight Grand Prix Champion.

Barnett is currently the #3 Heavyweight in the MMAWeekly Rankings, behind only Fedor Emelianenko and Cro Cop, while Nogueira is the #4 Heavyweight.

This highly anticipated rematch is set to take place at the Pride Shockwave show on December 31st. The show premieres on United States pay-per-view outlets on December 31st at 9:00 PM Eastern Time (6:00 PM Pacific Time).

The other confirmed fights on the card are Fedor Emelianenko vs. Mark Hunt, Takanori Gomi vs. Mitsuhiro Ishida, Mauricio "Shogun" Rua vs. Kazuhiro Nakamura, Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Gilbert Melendez, Joachim Hansen vs. Shinya Aoki, Akihiro Gono vs. Yuki Kondo, and Ikuhisa "The Punk" Minowa vs. Kiyoshi Tamura.

Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Pride Fighting Championships News

posted by Ivan Trembow at 12:40 AM

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Mixed Martial Arts--- Mirko Cro Cop Talks about Offers from UFC & Pride
by Al Yu and Ivan Trembow
Originally Published on MMAWeekly

MMAWeekly brought you the news earlier this week when Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic told a Croatian newspaper that the UFC has shown interest in signing him, and now Cro Cop has elaborated on the offers that he has received from the UFC and Pride.

In a subsequent interview with a different Croatian newspaper, Cro Cop said, "Like everybody else, I'm also available on the market. The offer from the UFC is slightly better than Pride's offer, but I haven't decided if I will change jerseys." Cro Cop went on to say that he has also received an offer from another US-based organization, which he did not name.

Cro Cop, who won Pride's 2006 Open Weight Grand Prix, also said in the same Croatian newspaper interview that money will not be the only factor that determines where he fights in the future, alluding to the fact that his decision will likely be swayed by his desire to secure a rematch with Fedor Emelianenko, who defeated Cro Cop last year at Pride's Final Conflict 2005. Cro Cop is currently the #2 Heavyweight in the MMAWeekly Rankings, while Fedor is the #1 Heavyweight.

As previously reported by MMAWeekly, Fedor is currently taking his fight bookings as a succession of one-fight contracts, with the next one being his December 31st fight against Mark Hunt in Pride, followed by his March fight with BodogFights. After that, numerous MMA organizations will surely be seeking Fedor's services, whether it's in the form of a one-fight contract or an exclusive long-term deal.

In addition to the aforementioned Croatian newspaper interviews, the following statement was also posted on Mirko Cro Crop's official web site:

"With MMA becoming a worldwide mainstream, more than a few promotions are trying to sign some of the best fighters in the world for their shows. Mirko's office is jammed with various offers from the world's top MMA promotions, and Cro Cop is considering everything before making his final decision. We've received tons of emails lately from Mirko's fans, with questions about Mirko's future MMA plans, so we decided to share some with you.

As we all know, Mirko's primary goal has always been winning the PRIDE Heavyweight title. After a successful Grand Prix, Cro Cop was promoted to #1 contender and promised a fight with Fedor by the end of the year or in early 2007. However, it's highly unlikely that we are going to see the rematch anytime soon. It was PRIDE's call to set up one of the most anticipated rematches in MMA history, but the Japanese organization has been unable to do it so far. Maybe it's not entirely their fault, as Fedor announced several times that he's going to fight in some other MMA organizations too, such as BodogFights.

But the bottom line is that Cro Cop likely won't have his chance to fight Fedor for the title in the next few months. With that said, it's perfectly reasonable for Mirko to consider other offers.

Of course, the most interesting offers are coming from the US, where we have a number of new and promising MMA promotions. However, the leader in the US MMA market is still the UFC and they are joining the battle for top level MMA fighters with full confidence after a few recent successful events. Over the last few days we have read about the UFC's offer to Mirko that allegedly leaked out due to someone's eagle eye from the airplane backseat. Millions of dollars were about to appear on Cro Cop's account if he agreed to fight in the UFC, according to the rumors. Well, that was nothing but the rumors, the offer from the UFC is actually in Cro Cop's hands, but the numbers are entirely different.

Is Cro Cop seriously considering making his UFC appearance? Let's say that Mirko is always open to new challenges and he is looking forward to his US debut, which will happen very soon. The question remains - under which roof?

The bottom line of the whole story is - Mirko is still hoping to fight Fedor for the title in the first half of 2007. If the rematch will never happen under PRIDE's roof, again, then Cro Cop will consider some other options. There are some other interesting challenges waiting for him in MMA, it's not all about PRIDE's Heavyweight belt."

Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Pride Fighting Championships News, UFC News, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)

posted by Ivan Trembow at 4:03 PM

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Mixed Martial Arts--- Will DSE Really Sell Pride to the UFC or WWE?
by Ivan Trembow
Originally Published on MMAWeekly

Dream Stage Entertainment is taking part in ongoing negotiations with several different companies based in several different countries to sell Pride, according to a report in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

Among the companies with which DSE has had talks are the Ultimate Fighting Championship, World Wrestling Entertainment, and multiple companies in both the United States and South Korea that were not named in the article, which further stated that the majority of the interest that has been shown in purchasing Pride has come from outside of Japan.

The crux of the Observer article is that it is necessary for DSE to eventually sell the company because while the company can continue to put on mega-shows like the December 31st show in the short term, Pride at its current level is simply not a sustainable business model over the long run without the all-important Japanese TV deal.

Fuji TV cancelled its contract and removed Pride from its network earlier this year due to company scandals, even though Pride's 2005 New Year's Eve show won the head-to-head ratings battle with the K-1 New Year's Eve show for the first time.

Fuji TV was much more than just a TV outlet for Pride, as Fuji also paid the company millions of dollars and provided it with valuable promotional exposure. Pride has been unable to secure a new TV deal with any other major network in Japan.

The DSE-owned Pride will continue to aggressively expand into the U.S. marketplace, add big-name fighters to its roster if given the opportunity, and continue to run shows in Japan. While it remains possible that a huge explosion in popularity or a Japanese TV deal could change the situation, neither of those two things are particularly likely to occur, and this would likely make it necessary for DSE to sell the company to new ownership if things don't turn around in the next year or so.

If Pride were to be purchased by World Wrestling Entertainment, it is not a stretch to say that it would be unlikely to succeed. Putting aside any fears that WWE would be tempted to fix fights, there's also the well-documented fact that WWE Chairman Vince McMahon has never displayed competence in any business outside of his core business of pro wrestling, with unsuccessful business ventures in nutritional supplements (IcoPro), a bodybuilding league (WBF), the movie industry (WWE Films), reality television production (Manhunt, Tough Enough, WWE Diva Search), a professional football league (XFL), the book industry (WWE's self-published novels in which McMahon solves crimes), and yes, even promoting legitimate shoot-fights on national television (Brawl for All).

The Observer article noted that Zuffa is faced with a strategic choice. If the UFC bought Pride and inherited what the Observer referred to as Pride's "very high contracts," Zuffa would acquire lots of world-class MMA fighters, but the move would raise the UFC's salary structure and "up the ante greatly" in terms of the amount of money that the company spends on fighter contracts.

If, on the other hand, Zuffa were to sit back and take a different kind of risk by letting the situation play itself out, the ideal scenario for Zuffa would be that Pride would eventually go out of business (or whoever buys Pride would fail with it and go under), thus making all of Pride's fighters free agents.

This would enable Zuffa to pay a lot less for the fighters than they would otherwise have to, because at that point there would be a very large amount of free agent fighters and only two stable, big-money options available for those fighters (UFC and K-1), although upstarts like BodogFight have managed to lure Fedor Emelianenko away, at least for one fight.

As the Observer reported, in the latter scenario Zuffa would be able to "work at signing only the people they want with the ability to negotiate more favorable terms [for Zuffa] due to the only other option [for the fighters] being K-1, which generally doesn't pay at Pride's level." In this scenario, with Pride's entire roster as free agents, the top-level fighters would likely end up split primarily between the UFC and K-1.

In the face of all the speculation, Pride broadcaster Frank Trigg appeared on MMAWeekly Radio's SoundOff and denied outright that Pride was for sale. Trigg said, "Two major organizations offered to buy Pride and both answers were no. They were both very substantial offers." Trigg was adamant as he said, "[DSE President] Sakakibara does not want to sell Pride. Pride is not up for sale. I spoke with him earlier today. Are we trying to do cross-promotions with other people? Absolutely... [but] Pride is not up for sale."

The Observer reported in its initial article that DSE's senior management will continue to act like "everything is status quo" and will continue to tell company employees that the company is not going to be sold.

Regardless of how the situation with Pride plays out, the Observer reports that Zuffa is planning on getting "very aggressive" when it comes to signing top talent.

The only thing for certain is that in the ever-changing landscape of MMA, only time will tell.

Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Pride Fighting Championships News, UFC News, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE)

posted by Ivan Trembow at 6:09 AM

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Mixed Martial Arts--- Vitor Belfort Responds to Steroid Charges
by Ivan Trembow
Originally Published on MMAWeekly

Pride and UFC veteran Vitor Belfort has responded to the Nevada State Athletic Commission's charges that he had anabolic steroids in his system when he fought on Pride's October 21st card in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Belfort, who lost by unanimous decision to Dan Henderson on the card, tested positive for 4-hydroxytestosterone, which is legally defined as an anabolic steroid and is also banned in Major League Baseball and other sports.

Belfort's case is still pending in front of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, and at some point there will be a disciplinary hearing at which Belfort could be fined or suspended.

Here is a transcript of the letter that Belfort sent to the NSAC:

"In regard of the disciplinary complaint against myself about having violated section 467.850 of the Commission Regulations, all I have to say is that I bought a supplement called 'Max Tribostak' at Max Muscle in La Habra, California, which contains 4-Hydroxytestosterone. I had no idea that a supplement bought over the counter at a vitamin store would contain a substance that is illegal in the state of Nevada. This lack of knowledge is costing me a great deal, hurting my image throughout every newspaper in Brazil, which caused me to lose some of my sponsors, and most of all the risk of being suspended by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. I hope you consider my letter before taking any formal disciplinary actions.

Sincerely,
Vitor Belfort"

The product in question ("Max Tribustak," which Belfort misspelled in his latter) is listed on Max Muscle's web site as "male hormone support" and an "anabolic optimizer" that will help maximize the user's testosterone output. As Belfort acknowledges in his letter, it contains 4-hydroxytestosterone, the substance that caused Belfort to fail his drug test.

Belfort was one of ten fighters who were drug tested at the Pride event on October 21st, and he is one of three fighters on the card who failed to pass their drug tests. The other two are Kevin Randleman and Pawel Nastula.

Randleman has been charged by the Nevada State Athletic Commission with providing fake urine for his drug test, while Nastula tested positive for the anabolic steroid nandrolone and the banned stimulants phenylpropanolamine, pseudoephedrine, and ephedrine.

The seven Pride fighters who were drug tested on October 21st and passed their tests are Fedor Emelianenko, Mark Coleman, Mauricio "Shogun" Rua, Josh Barnett, Dan Henderson, Phil Baroni, and Yosuke Nishijima. The other six fighters on the card were not drug tested.

Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Pride Fighting Championships News

posted by Ivan Trembow at 12:27 AM

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Mixed Martial Arts--- Kevin Randleman Charged with Faking Urine Test after Pride USA Event
by Ivan Trembow
Originally Published on MMAWeekly

MMAWeekly has learned that Kevin Randleman has been charged by the Nevada State Athletic Commission with providing a fake urine sample for the drug test that he took after his fight on the Pride card in Las Vegas on October 21st.

If he is found to be guilty of these charges, Randleman could face severe disciplinary measures from the athletic commission, which could include a significant fine, a lengthy suspension, or perhaps even permanent revocation of his fighters' license.

All NSAC-sanctioned organizations, including Pride, are required to honor NSAC suspensions for all of their shows throughout the world if they want to continue to be licensed to run events in Nevada.

In the recent history of unarmed combat drug testing in Nevada, one fighter was previously alleged to have provided a fake urine sample, and that fighter's license was flat-out revoked (as opposed to suspended). That fighter was Sean McCully, who tested positive for marijuana and the anabolic steroid nandrolone in September 2004, and then allegedly provided a fake urine sample when he was re-tested in September 2005.

Keith Kizer, the Executive Director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, tells MMAWeekly, "I just spoke with Dr. Hyatt, who said [Randleman's urine] specimen 'flat-lined' for hormones. This allegedly means that the urine was fake, similar to Sean McCully’s case from several months ago."

If it does indeed turn out that the urine sample provided by Randleman did not contain any human hormones, that would mean that it was urine from a dead human or urine from a non-human.

Randleman, who lost to Mauricio "Shogun" Rua by submission on the Pride card in question, will have 20 days to respond to the NSAC's complaint, and then at some point there will be a disciplinary hearing at which Randleman's status will be determined.

Providing fake urine or otherwise trying to defraud the drug testing system is regarded as being just as much of a violation as actually failing a drug test, if not more of a violation.

Randleman now becomes the fourth MMA fighter to fail to pass a drug test in a period of less than two months in the state of Nevada.

Stephan Bonnar tested positive for Boldenone, an anabolic steroid used to rehabilitate injured horses, after his fight at UFC 62. At Bonnar's disciplinary hearing last Friday, he admitted that he knowingly took a banned substance, and he was suspended for nine months.

Competing on the same Pride card as Randleman on October 21st, Vitor Belfort and Pawel Nastula also failed their respective drug tests. Belfort tested positive for the anabolic steroid 4-hydroxytestosterone, while Nastula tested positive for the anabolic steroid nandrolone and the banned stimulants phenylpropanolamine, pseudoephedrine, and ephedrine (ironically, the same exact combination of banned substances for which Kimo Leopoldo tested positive after a UFC fight in 2004). The cases of Belfort and Nastula are still pending before the NSAC.

All four of the offending fighters lost the fights in question, as Randleman lost to Mauricio "Shogun" Rua by submission, Belfort lost to Dan Henderson by unanimous decision, Nastula lost to Josh Barnett by submission, and Bonnar lost to Forrest Griffin by unanimous decision.

Randleman, Belfort, and Nastula were three of the ten fighters who were drug tested on Pride's October 21st card. Four other fighters on the card were not drug tested. In Bonnar's case, he was one of just four fighters who were drug tested at UFC 62, as there were fourteen fighters on the card who were not drug tested.

According to the Nevada State Athletic Commission, the total cost of drug testing one fighter for all banned steroids, stimulants, and recreational drugs is $278.40.

With ticket sales for these events in the millions and with more and more fighters failing to pass their drug tests, a growing number of MMA fans have begun to question the fact that there isn't mandatory drug testing for every single fighter on every single card.

Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Pride Fighting Championships News

posted by Ivan Trembow at 12:04 AM

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Mixed Martial Arts--- Pawel Nastula Tests Positive for Banned Stimulants in Addition to Steroids
by Ivan Trembow
Originally Published on MMAWeekly

In addition to testing positive for the anabolic steroid nandrolone after his October 21st Pride fight in Las Vegas, Pawel Nastula also tested positive for three banned stimulants.

Last week, both Nastula and Vitor Belfort tested positive for anabolic steroids, and with the stimulant test results coming in on Monday, Nastula has also tested positive for the banned stimluants phenylpropanolamine, pseudoephedrine, and ephedrine.

All of the other tested fighters passed their tests for banned stimulants, including Belfort.

Nastula, who won a gold medal in Judo at the 1996 Olympic Games and started his MMA career in 2005, lost to Josh Barnett by submission on the Pride card. Prior to his drug test results coming back, Nastula had already been medically suspended indefinitely by the Nevada State Athletic Commission until MRIs and a doctor clear possible injuries to his right ankle and knee.

Ephedrine is a commonly used dietary supplement/weight loss aid, but it was made illegal as a dietary supplement in the United States in 2004 due to a number of ephedrine-related cardiovascular health problems and deaths. Among many other things, ephedrine is often used as a stimulant, and it is among the banned stimulants for which the Nevada State Athletic Commission tests.

Pseudoephedrine is in the same family as ephedrine from a chemical standpoint, but pseudoephedrine is far more commonly used due to its prevalence in over-the-counter cold remedies, allergy medications, and nasal decongestants.

Pseudoephedrine has been the subject of much controversy in recent years due to the fact that it is one of the key ingredients in the making of methamphetamine, and easy access to pseudoephedrine at any drug store has fueled the rapidly rising methamphetamine problem in the United States. While Nastula was not taking methamphetamine (he would have tested positive for it if he had been taking it), the benign form of pseudoephedrine found in cold and allergy medicines is, in and of itself, a banned stimulant under the Nevada State Athletic Commission's regulations.

Phenylpropanolamine (PPA) is also chemically related to ephedrine and is commonly used as a decongestant, and like ephedrine, it has been linked to numerous health issues. While ephedrine's health risks are primarily cardiovascular, PPA has been linked to strokes, and the Food & Drug Administration is in the process of making PPA illegal in the United States. Like ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, PPA is a banned stimulant under the regulations of the Nevada State Athletic Commission.

The nine fighters who tested negative for any banned stimulants after Pride's October 21st event were Vitor Belfort, Fedor Emelianenko, Mark Coleman, Mauricio "Shogun" Rua, Kevin Randleman, Josh Barnett, Dan Henderson, Phil Baroni, and Yosuke Nishijima.

Taking into account all unarmed combat sports (MMA, boxing, and kickboxing), Nastula and Belfort were the 21st and 22nd fighters to test positive for banned substances since 2000 in the state of Nevada. Ironically, when Kimo Leopoldo failed a drug test following his UFC fight against Ken Shamrock in 2004, he tested positive for the same four substances as Nastula: nandrolone, phenylpropanolamine, pseudoephedrine, and ephedrine.

As with Vitor Belfort, who tested positive for the anabolic steroid 4-hydroxytestosterone, Pawel Nastula will have a disciplinary hearing in front of the Nevada State Athletic Commission at a date to be determined and will be subject to a possible fine and/or suspension. Suspensions from the NSAC are honored worldwide by any organization that has NSAC sanctioning, including Pride.

Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Pride Fighting Championships News

posted by Ivan Trembow at 12:55 AM

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Mixed Martial Arts--- Pride USA Fighter Salaries
by Ivan Trembow
Originally Published on MMAWeekly

MMAWeekly has obtained the fighter salary information for Pride: The Real Deal, which took place on Saturday, October 21st at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The following figures are from the fighter salary information that Dream Stage Entertainment was required by law to submit to the Nevada State Athletic Commission. Although MMA fighters are not unionized, the fighters' salaries are still public record in the United States, just as with every other major sport in the US.

While the question, "How much do Pride's fighters make when they fight in Japan?" still remains unanswered, the fighter salaries for the USA event provide a great deal of insight into this question.

Given that Pride's Japan-based shows regularly fill the 35,000-seat Saitama Super Arena, it's likely that the salaries for the USA event were smaller than the salaries for a show in Japan, but it's unlikely that the two sets of numbers would be drastically different from one another.

Though our listings still note which fighters won their fights and which fighters lost, there were no winners' bonuses on this card.

As with UFC salaries, we're listing "Main Event Fighters," "Main Card Fighters," and "Preliminary Fighters." All non-main-event fighter for this card are listed below as "Main Card Fighters" because there were no preliminary bouts on this card. None of the fights were taped before the show went on the air, so there were no "Preliminary Fighters."

Without further ado, here are the fighter salaries for Pride: The Real Deal.

Main Event Fighters
-Fedor Emelianenko: $100,000 (defeated Mark Coleman)
-Mark Coleman: $70,000 (lost to Fedor Emelianenko)

Main Card Fighters
-Josh Barnett: $60,000 (defeated Pawel Nastula)
-Dan Henderson: $50,000 (defeated Vitor Belfort)
-Kevin Randleman: $40,000 (lost to Mauricio "Shogun" Rua)
-Vitor Belfort: $30,000 (lost to Dan Henderson)
-Eric "Butterbean" Esch: $30,000 (defeated Sean O'Haire)
-Mauricio "Shogun" Rua: $25,000 (defeated Kevin Randleman)
-Pawel Nastula: $20,000 (lost to Josh Barnett)
-Phil Baroni: $15,000 (defeated Yosuke Nishijima)
-Yosuke Nishijima: $15,000 (lost to Phil Baroni)
-Sean O'Haire: $15,000 (lost to Eric "Butterbean" Esch)
-Kazuhiro Nakamura: $10,000 (defeated Travis Galbraith)
-Robbie Lawler: $10,000 (defeated Joey Villasenor)
-Joey Villasenor: $3,000 (lost to Robbie Lawler)
-Travis Galbraith: $2,000 (lost to Kazuhiro Nakamura)
Disclosed Fighter Payroll: $495,000

Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Pride Fighting Championships News

posted by Ivan Trembow at 9:02 PM

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Mixed Martial Arts--- Vitor Belfort & Pawel Nastula Test Positive for Steroids after Pride Event
by Ivan Trembow
Originally Published on MMAWeekly

Breaking News: MMAWeekly has learned that Vitor Belfort and Pawel Nastula tested positive for banned substances after their respective fights on Pride's "Real Deal" card this past Saturday night in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The Nevada State Athletic Commission has confirmed that Nastula tested positive for the anabolic steroid nandrolone, while Belfort tested positive for 4-hydroxytestosterone, which is also legally defined as an anabolic steroid and banned in Major League Baseball and other sports.

Belfort, a former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion, lost to Dan Henderson by unanimous decision on the Pride card. Nastula, who won a gold medal in Judo at the 1996 Olympic Games, lost by submission to Josh Barnett on the card.

All of the other fighters who were drug-tested on the Pride card passed their drug tests.

As with all cases of a fighter testing positive for banned substances, Belfort and Nastula are entitled to have a disciplinary hearing in front of the athletic commission at some point in the coming months, where they can be represented by counsel and argue their cases if they so choose.

Both fighters face possible suspensions and/or fines, but the athletic commissions do not have any mandatory minimum suspensions for steroid violations, so it's also possible for a fighter to fail a drug test and not be suspended at all.

For as long as a particular fighter is suspended in the state of Nevada, companies that are licensed to promote events in the state of Nevada are strongly discouraged from using that fighter anywhere in the world, which includes Pride's events in Japan. On this subject, Nevada State Athletic Commission Executive Director Keith Kizer told MMAWeekly, "I would expect a expect a licensed promoter to respect any and all NSAC suspensions."

These positive drug tests come in the wake of the Nevada State Athletic Commission increasing the amount of fighters that it drug tests after any given MMA event, while still falling short of drug testing all fighters. The drug testing is the responsibility of the athletic commission, not the responsibility of Pride, the UFC, or any other specific MMA promotion.

The normal pattern in recent years has been for two-to-six fighters to be drug tested after an MMA event in Nevada. However, ten fighters were drug tested on a random basis after their fights at Pride: The Real Deal, which is largest amount at any Nevada-based MMA event in the past several years. One week earlier at UFC 64, seven fighters were drug tested (four fighters in title fights, and three fighters on a random basis).

The eight Pride fighters who were drug tested and passed their tests are Fedor Emelianenko, Mark Coleman, Mauricio "Shogun" Rua, Kevin Randleman, Josh Barnett, Dan Henderson, Phil Baroni, and Yosuke Nishijima. The other six fighters on the Pride card were not drug tested.

All seven of the fighters who were drug tested at UFC 64 passed their tests. Those fighters are Anderson Silva, Rich Franklin, Sean Sherk, Kenny Florian, Clay Guida, Justin James, and Junior Assuncao. The other nine fighters on the UFC 64 card were not drug tested.

According to the Nevada State Athletic Commission, the steroid test for any given fighter costs $154.50, the drug screen (which also tests for recreational drugs) costs $78.90, and the stimulant test costs $45.00, so the total cost of drug testing one fighter is $278.40.

The NSAC spent a total of $2,784 on drug testing for Pride: The Real Deal. The total cost of drug testing every single fighter on the card would have been $4,454.40.

The NSAC spent a total of $1,948.80 on drug testing for UFC 64, and as with the Pride event, the total cost of drug testing all sixteen fighters on the card would have been $4,454.40.

Belfort and Nastula are the third and fourth fighters to fail a drug test before or after a major MMA event so far this year. Earlier this year, Kimo Leopoldo tested positive for the anabolic steroid stanozolol prior to a WFA event in California, and Ultimate Fighter runner-up Stephan Bonnar tested positive for the anabolic steroid boldenone after a UFC event in August.

Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Pride Fighting Championships News

posted by Ivan Trembow at 9:08 PM

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Mixed Martial Arts--- Pride, UFC, and Strikeforce Attendance Breakdown
by Ivan Trembow
Originally Published on MMAWeekly

MMAWeekly has obtained the live gate information for recent MMA events held by Pride, the UFC, and Strikeforce.

When most organizations run an MMA event, there are two sets of attendance numbers. There are the attendance numbers that the promotion claims publicly during or after the event, and then there are the actual, legitimate attendance numbers.

This article will help you separate fact from fiction by providing you with all of the legitimate numbers, which have been verified by the California State Athletic Commission and Nevada State Athletic Commission.

Pride USA
For the Pride: Real Deal event that took place on October 21st at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada and was headlined by Fedor Emelianenko vs. Mark Coleman, the claim was made after the event that the number of paid tickets was 10,527.

In fact, the paid attendance for the event was 8,079. There were also 4,042 fans in attendance who had been given free comp tickets, so the total attendance in the building was 12,121. Approximately 33 percent of those in attendance got in for free, which is a higher percentage than any UFC event so far this year.

The Thomas & Mack Center can hold approximately 18,000 fans for certain events. While Pride's elaborate set-up did block off several thousand seats, the venue could have still held up to 14,000 fans with Pride's set-up.

With fairly high ticket prices, the live gate receipts for Pride: The Real Deal totaled $2,056,044. While that is a higher amount than both UFC 63 and UFC 64, it still falls short of seven UFC events, specifically UFC 52 (Chuck Liddell vs. Randy Couture II), UFC 54 (Liddell vs. Jeremy Horn), UFC 57 (Liddell vs. Couture III), UFC 59 (Tim Sylvia vs. Andrei Arlovski II, plus Tito Ortiz vs. Forrest Griffin), UFC 60 (Matt Hughes vs. Royce Gracie), UFC 61 (Sylvia vs. Arlovski II, plus Ortiz vs. Ken Shamrock II), and UFC 62 (Liddell vs. Renato "Babalu" Sobral).

In Japan, Pride regularly sells out the Saitama Super Arena, which holds approximately 35,000 fans, despite the company's claims of selling 45,000+ tickets. If Pride's pre-event claims that the Pride USA event would have a $30 million budget are even close to accurate, then the company lost a massive amount of money on this event. It may be a necessary first step to gain a foothold in the US marketplace, but it's still a massive financial loss.

Given the fact that the attendance for Pride's second event in America is likely to be lower than the attendance for the first event (a company only gets the "first time ever" attendance boost one time in any given market), it is puzzling that Pride is planning to run its second American event at the Thomas & Mack Center instead of a comparatively smaller venue like the Mandalay Bay Events Center or even the MGM Grand.

UFC 63
During the UFC 63 pay-per-view event, which took place on September 23rd at the Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim, California and was headlined by Matt Hughes vs. BJ Penn, the claim was made on multiple occasions that the event was "sold out" and that there were "over 18,000 fans in attendance."

In fact, the paid attendance for UFC 63 was 9,343 and the number of free comp tickets was 3,261, so the total number of people in attendance was 12,604.

Approximately 26 percent of those in attendance got in for free, which is the second-highest percentage for any UFC event this year. The highest percentage so far this year was UFC 60, at which 30 percent of the fans in attendance got in for free, but that's still slightly lower than the Pride event's mark of 33 percent.

The live gate receipts for UFC 63 totaled $1,582,370. While that is the tenth-largest total in UFC history, it's also the lowest so far this year for any UFC pay-per-view event in 2006.

UFC 64
After the UFC 64 event concluded on October 14th at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada (headlined by Rich Franklin vs. Anderson Silva), the media was told by the UFC that the paid attendance for the event was 10,863.

In fact, the paid attendance was 8,913. There were also 1,260 fans in attendance who had been given free comp tickets, so the total number of people in attendance was 10,173.

Only 12 percent of those in attendance at UFC 64 got in for free, which is the third-lowest percentage for a UFC PPV event so far this year (only UFC 57 and UFC 61 had lower comp percentages).

As for the live gate receipts, the UFC claimed after the event that the gross ticket sales for the event totaled $2,314,000, which would have been the fifth-largest live gate total for any UFC PPV event thus far in 2006.

In fact, the live gate receipts for UFC 64 totaled $1,790,490, which is the third-lowest live gate total for any UFC PPV event thus far in 2006.

Through October, the UFC's live gate receipts for 2006 have totaled $20,915,287. Pay-per-view revenue is another matter altogether, and one that we have covered in-depth on MMAWeekly in recent months.

Strikeforce
As previously reported, the Strikeforce promotion set the all-time North American MMA attendance record in March of this year when an event headlined by Frank Shamrock vs. Cesar Gracie drew over 17,000 paid fans in San Jose, California. That mark has not yet been approached by any other promotion in North America, including the UFC.

However, unlike the UFC, Strikeforce has not been able to maintain its momentum, as evidenced by the attendance figures for the company's most recent event. That event was held on October 7th at the Save Mart Center in Fresno, California, and it was headlined by Paul Buentello vs. Tank Abbott.

The paid attendance for the October 7th Strikeforce event was just 3,755. Combined with the 682 fans in attendance who had been given free comp tickets, the total attendance was just 4,437. The live gate receipts for the event totaled $307,820.

Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Pride Fighting Championships News, UFC News, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)

posted by Ivan Trembow at 8:58 PM

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Mixed Martial Arts--- Josh Barnett Passes Drug Test; Mark Hunt Still Off Pride Card; Gardner Not on Pride Card
by Ivan Trembow
Originally Published on MMAWeekly

Josh Barnett has passed a drug test and has been cleared to fight on Saturday night's Pride card in Las Vegas.

Barnett, who is currently the #3 Heavyweight in the MMAWeekly Rankings, had previously taken drug tests on September 27th and October 7th.

The results of those tests had still not been received as of Thursday morning, and if the results still weren't in by Friday morning, Barnett would not have been cleared to fight as scheduled on Saturday night's Pride show. Fortunately, the negative test results came in on Thursday evening and Barnett is now cleared to fight.

The reason that Barnett had to pass a drug test before he could be licensed to fight in Nevada is that the last time Barnett fought in the United States, back in 2002, his post-fight drug test showed up positive for three kinds of anabolic steroids: Boldenone, Nandrolone, Fluoxymesterone.

Barnett has now tested negative for all banned substances, so he has been cleared to fight as scheduled against Olympic Gold Medalist Pawel Nastula on Saturday night.

Additionally, MMAWeekly has learned that Mark Hunt is definitely off of the Pride USA card due to his ongoing visa issues, and despite reports earlier today, Olympic Gold Medalist Rulon Gardner will also not be fighting on the card.

Pride officials were still hopeful as recently as Thursday evening that Mark Hunt would be able to get his visa issues resolved in time to fight Eric "Butterbean" Esch in a boxing match on Saturday night's show in Las Vegas.

Former pro wrestler and K-1 kickboxer Sean O'Haire had already been secured as a replacement, but Esch vs. Hunt is the match that Pride was still trying hard to put together.

Unfortunately, Hunt's visa issues could not be worked out. Keith Kizer, the Executive Director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, tells MMAWeekly, "Pride informed me that Hunt could not get clearance to enter the U.S. because he failed to resolve a legal matter resulting from an alleged altercation in a bar the last time Hunt was in California."

As for the reports that Olympic Gold Medalist Rulon Gardner was going to be Hunt's replacement, Kizer said that Gardner was only scheduled to be on the card if a very specific scenario played out.

If Josh Barnett's drug test results had not come back in time for Barnett to be cleared to fight Pawel Nastula as scheduled, Sean O'Haire would have been the fighter to step into the ring with Nastula instead, and Gardner would have been the fighter to step into the ring with Esch.

As it turns out, because Josh Barnett's drug test results did come back on Thursday and he tested negative, Gardner's services as a last-minute replacement will not be needed.

Instead of fighting Mark Hunt or Rulon Gardner, Esch will be fighting Sean O'Haire on Saturday night in a fight that will be contested under MMA rules.

Pride actually spent several months earlier this year trying to come to an agreement with Gardner to fight Fedor Emelianenko in the main event of the Pride USA show, with the belief that the fight would be a big draw in the United States, Japan, and Russia. When negotiations with Gardner didn't progress after several months, Pride started to look for other possible opponents to face Emelianenko in the main event, and eventually Mark Coleman was signed as Emelianenko's opponent.

Even though Gardner is not fighting on this particular card, just the fact that Pride appeared to have come to financial terms with Gardner is a likely indicator that we'll be seeing Gardner compete in at least one more Pride fight in the future. With that in mind, it's a safe bet that at some point Pride will begin to push hard once again to put together a match-up between Gardner and Fedor Emelianenko.

Gardner has one MMA fight under his belt, a decision victory over Hidehiko Yoshida on December 31st, 2004 in a Pride fight in which Yoshida suffered a broken foot.

Gardner showed no interest in having anymore MMA fights after that, partially because he said he didn't feel comfortable in MMA and partially because he given two yellow cards during the Yoshida fight, which took away 20 percent of his pay.

Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Pride Fighting Championships News

posted by Ivan Trembow at 4:04 PM

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Mixed Martial Arts--- Pride's First Show in United States To Air as Four-Hour PPV
by Ivan Trembow
Originally Published on MMAWeekly

The first Pride show to take place in the United States will air on pay-per-view as a four-hour live broadcast instead of the usual three hours.

Airing live on American PPV outlets on Saturday, October 21st starting at 9:00 PM, Pride's "Real Deal" event will be four hours long and will carry a suggested retail price of $39.95.

Normally, Pride's PPV events are three hours long in the United States and carry a suggested retail price of $34.95 (or $29.95 for Bushido events). The UFC's PPV events are three hours long and carry a suggested retail price of $39.95.

In addition, the Pride Bushido Grand Prix Finals, featuring the semi-finals and finals of Pride's 183-pound Grand Prix, will debut on American pay-per-view outlets on Sunday, November 12th. The event will take place in Japan on November 5th at the Yokohama Arena.

Instead of airing on highlight form on Fox Sports Net, as was the case with the previous round of Bushido GP in August, the entire event will be available on pay-per-view starting on November 12th.

While the FSN broadcast of the previous round of the Bushido GP exposed many new viewers to the Pride product, many hardcore fans of the sport were upset that they were not given a choice between watching the entire event on pay-per-view or watching highlights of selected fights on Fox Sports Net.

The Bushido GP Finals may or may not air on Fox Sports Net in some form (negotiations are still ongoing), but it will definitely be airing on pay-per-view for those who want to see every fight.

The four semi-finalists in Pride Bushido's 183-pound Grand Prix are Paulo Filho, Kazuo Misaki, Denis Kang, and Akihiro Gono.

Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Pride Fighting Championships News

posted by Ivan Trembow at 9:37 PM

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Mixed Martial Arts--- UFC Backs Off Chuck Liddell vs. Wanderlei Silva Claims
One month after announcing that Wanderlei Silva had been signed to fight in the UFC and would likely face Chuck Liddell in November, the UFC has backed off of those claims in a Canadian media interview. Pride has not yet commented on the UFC's statements.

Here is the full article, courtesy of the CP, which is the Canadian equivalent of the Associated Press.

Liddell Silva fight could be off, according to UFC president
by Neil Davidson, Canadian Press (CP)

It appears the much anticipated mixed martial arts bout between rival champions Chuck Liddell and Wanderlei Silva scheduled for November might be off.

"I don't even know if Silva's going to happen," Dana White, president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, told The Canadian Press in an interview.

White cited problems in dealing with the Japan-based Pride Fighting Championships that is home to Silva.

White said UFC 65 will instead probably feature Liddell against Tito Ortiz in a rematch of UFC 47 in 2004 when Liddell battered and bloodied the Huntington Beach Bad Boy.

The Liddell-Silva bout was considered a blockbuster matchup, finally bringing the rival UFC and Pride organizations together

Liddell (18-3-0) is the current UFC light-heavyweight champion at 205 pounds. While the Iceman has been out of commission recently with a toe injury, he remains the face of mixed martial arts in North America for many.

Known as the Axe Murderer, Silva (24-3-1) is a fighting machine who holds the Pride title. He has appeared in the UFC before, losing to Ortiz at UFC 25 in 2000 in his last outing in the Octagon.

The UFC, now looking to expand to Europe, has had the U.S. market largely to itself. Pride dominates Japan, using pay-per-view shows and Fox Sports TV to spread the word.

Complicating matters is the recent announcement that Pride is staging its first ever show in North America, The Real Deal!, in UFC's backyard of Las Vegas on Oct. 21.

"Obviously there are a lot of things going on," White said of the Pride situation. "I'll [tell] you this, the Japanese are very hard to do business with and you never know what's going to happen."

The UFC surprised viewers at UFC 61 last month in Las Vegas when Silva and Liddell met in the ring for a stare down as White announced their bout.

The Liddell-Silva fight was contingent on Liddell defeating Brazil's Renato (Babalu) Sobral at UFC 62 on Aug. 26 and Silva surviving Pride's Final Conflict Absolute card Sept. 10 in Saitama, Japan.

Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Pride Fighting Championships News, UFC News, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)

posted by Ivan Trembow at 7:19 PM

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Mixed Martial Arts--- Wanderlei Silva vs. Mirko Cro Cop and Other Grand Prix Match-Ups Announced
by Ivan Trembow
Originally Published on MMAWeekly

Dream Stage Entertainment has announced the match-ups for the next rounds of the two Pride Grand Prix tournaments that the company is currently running. The next round of the 183-pound Grand Prix will take place on August 26th, while the final two rounds of the Open Weight Grand Prix will take place on September 10th.

In two bouts that are sure to be highly-anticipated on the September 10th card, Wanderlei Silva will face Mirko Cro Cop, and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira will face Josh Barnett. The winners of these two semi-final fights will meet in the finals of the Open Weight Grand Prix later that same night, with the winner of that fight being crowned the winner of the Pride Open Weight Grand Prix.

Though both of these matches should be highly competitive, it's likely that Barnett will be the underdog against Nogueira, and Silva will be the underdog against Cro Cop.

Silva and Cro Cop actually fought once before in the Pride ring back in 2002, but the bout was not fought under MMA rules. Instead, there were special rules that required the fighters to be stood up if the fight remained on the ground for 30 seconds, or if the fighter on the bottom was able to reach the ropes. This was done to accomadate Cro Cop, given his kickboxing background. There will be no such special rules this time around.

Cro Cop got to the semi-finals of the Open Weight Grand Prix by winning his first two fights in completely one-sided fashion against Ikuhisa Minowa and Hidehiko Yoshida, whose leg was injured by Cro Cop's vicious leg kicks.

Silva, the only fighter left in the tournament who does not normally fight at heavyweight, defeated Kazuyuki Fujita by TKO in the quarter-finals. Silva was not in the first round of the tournament and was added to the second round of the tournament when Pride Heavyweight Champion Fedor Emelianenko had to withdraw due to hand surgery.

Prior to fighting Fujita, Silva split two fights with Ricardo Arona in 2005. In the semi-finals of Pride's 205-pound Grand Prix last August, Silva lost to Ricardo Arona by unanimous decision in a fairly one-sided fight, and Silva's teammate Mauricio "Shogun" Rua went on to win the tournament. In the rematch between Silva and Arona on December 31, 2005, Silva won a very controversial split decision.

If Silva can make it through his fight (or fights) on September 10th without injury, he will be fighting Chuck Liddell in the UFC in November, provided that Liddell defeats Renato "Babalu" Sobral on August 26th and is able to do so without suffering any injuries.

The other semi-final bout in the Pride Open Weight Grand Prix will be a battle of two top-level heavyweights, as Josh Barnett takes on Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. Barnett is coming off of two very impressive submission victories over Aleksander Emelianenko and Mark Hunt in the first two rounds of the tournament. Prior to those two fights, Barnett's Pride career consisted of two losses to Mirko Cro Cop and a victory over Kazuhiro Nakamura.

Nogueira was inexplicably matched up against Zulu, Jr. in the first round of the tournament because DSE president Nobuyuki Sakakibara felt that Zulu, Jr. is "like the Brazilian Bob Sapp." After easily winning in the first round of the Grand Prix, Nogueira defeated fellow Brazilian Fabricio Werdum by unanimous decision in the tournament quarter-finals on July 1st. Nogueira's last loss came at the hands of Fedor Emelianenko on December 31st, 2004.

The semi-finals and finals of the Pride Open Weight Grand will take place on September 10th, along with a full line-up of non-tournament bouts that have not yet been announced.

As with the previous round of the tournament, this event will have no television clearance in Japan other than the satellite-based pay-per-view channel SkyPerfecTV, due to the fact that Fuji TV terminated its contract with DSE. The event is scheduled to debut on North American pay-per-view on Sunday night, September 10th.

Pride Bushido Grand Prix Match-Ups
In an event that will air on Fox Sports instead of pay-per-view in the United States, Dream Stage is also gearing up for the next round of the 183-pound Pride Bushido Grand Prix. The quarter-final match-ups have been announced for the event, which will take place on August 26th. In the round of eight, Dan Henderson will take on Kazuo Misaki, Paulo Filho will face Ryo Chonan, Denis Kang will go up against Amar Suloev, and Akihiro Gono will face Gegard Mousasi.

Dan Henderson won the eight-man Pride Grand Prix for 183-pound fighters in 2005, as he defeated Ryo Chonan and Akihiro Gono in the first two rounds of the tournament before winning an extremely close split decision over Murilo Bustamante in the finals. In Henderson's most recent fight, a non-tournament bout in April of this year, he defeated Kazuo Misaki by unanimous decision, but Misaki looked much better in the fight than most expected. Henderson received a bye in the first round of this tournament due to injury, thus advancing to the final eight of this year's tournament.

After losing to Henderson in April, Kazuo Misaki was the biggest underdog in the entire tournament when he faced Phil Baroni in the first round of the Bushido Grand Prix in June. However, Misaki defied the odds and won a fairly one-sided fight against Baroni by unanimous decision. Misaki will now get the opportunity to avenge his prior loss to Henderson.

Paulo Filho is one of the favorites to win the tournament, and he is still undefeated in his MMA career with a record of 12-0. Filho holds submission wins over Amar Suloev, Ryuta Sakurai, and Akira Shoji, as well as decision wins over Yuki Kondo and Ikuhisa Minowa. Most recently, Filho defeated Murilo "Ninja" Rua by unanimous decision in April of this year, and followed that up with an extremely one-sided decision victory over Gregory Bouchelaghem in the first round of this year's Bushido Grand Prix in June.

Filho's opponent will be Ryo Chonan, who was not expected to be able to compete in the next round of the tournament. Chonan defeated Joey Villasenor by decision in the first round of the tournament, but Chonan suffered a broken orbital bone in the process. Chonan defeated Anderson Silva by submission in December 2004, and he has gone 2-0 since his knockout loss at the hands of Dan Henderson in last year's tournament.

In a battle of two fighters who were underdogs in the first round of the tournament, Denis Kang will face Amar Suloev. Kang has not lost in his last 18 fights and has looked extremely impressive in his last two Pride fights, as he defeated Mark Weir by submission and subsequently knocked out Murilo "Ninja" Rua in just 15 seconds.

Kang's opponent, Amar Suloev, pulled off a big upset when he defeated 2005 Grand Prix finalist Murilo Bustamante in a clear-cut unanimous decision in the first round of this year's Bushido Grand Prix. Suloev is now 2-1 in his Pride career, with victories over Bustamante and Dean Lister, and a submission loss to Paulo Filho.

The final quarter-final match-up will pit Akihiro Gono up against Gegard Mousasi. Gono scored a big upset in last year's 183-pound Grand Prix when he defeated highly regarded Daniel Acacio by unanimous decision, but then he got knocked out by Dan Henderson in the next round of the tournament. In the first round of this year's 183-pound Grand Prix, Gono was effective in turning the tables on explosive Cuban fighter Hector Lombard, who looked amazing in the first minute or so of the fight, but couldn't keep up with Gono for the entire bout duration.

After defeating Lombard by unanimous decision, Gono will now face another explosive fighter in Gegard Mousasi, who entered this year's Grand Prix with an MMA record of 12-1-1, but very little name recognition. Mousasi looked impressive in his Pride debut against Olympic Gold Medalist Makoto Takimoto in June, but will be facing a much tougher test against Gono.

In non-tournament bouts on the August 26th Bushido card, Tatsuya Kawajiri, who is widely regarded as one of the top five lightweight fighters in the world, will take on UFC and Pride veteran Chris Brennan. The undefeated Strikeforce Lightweight Champion, Gilbert Melendez, will make his Pride debut against Nobuhiro Obiya; while Shooto standout Shinya Aoki will face the Pat Miletich-trained Jason Black; and Hatsu Hioki will take on Jeff Curran.

The quarter-finals of Pride Bushido's 183-pound Grand Prix will take place in Japan on Saturday, August 26th, which is the same date as UFC 62. Dream Stage Entertainment recently announced that instead of airing on pay-per-view, the August 26th Bushido event will air on Fox Sports Net on Sunday, August 27th.

It would be impossible for DSE to air all of those fights in a narrow time window for TV, and it has not been announced which fights (if any) will air on FSN other than the four tournament match-ups.

Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Pride Fighting Championships News

posted by Ivan Trembow at 12:37 AM

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Mixed Martial Arts--- Pride's U.S. Drug Testing
by Ivan Trembow
Originally Published on MMAWeekly

When Pride runs its first show in the United States on October 21st at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, the drug testing will be different than it normally is in Pride. For starters, there will actually be drug testing. Pride's fighters are not tested for steroids in Japan at any time, but that will obviously not be the case in the United States.

Keith Kizer, the Nevada State Athletic Commission's Executive Director, told MMAWeekly, "Testing for Pride would be the same as for other promoters." Kizer was previously the Chief Deputy Attorney General for the state of Nevada. Kizer is now the Executive Director of the NSAC after previous Executive Director Marc Ratner was hired by Zuffa to work for the UFC.

What this means for Pride is that any fighters who participate in championship fights will be drug tested. The NSAC also has the option of randomly drug test other fighters, but has not used this option with MMA events more than a handful times in recent years.

If there are no title fights on any given MMA card, including Pride's October show, the NSAC could choose to drug test the two main event fighters, or two fighters who are randomly selected out of all the fighters competing on the event.

The NSAC's drug policy is such that when Wanderlei Silva challenges for the UFC Light Heavyweight Title, which could happen in November, there is a 100 percent chance that he will be drug tested, as is the case with all fighters in title bouts.

The same will apply for any other Pride fighters who compete in the United States, whether they're competing on a UFC show or a Pride USA show. If it's a title fight, the fighters are definitely going to be drug tested. If it's not a title fight, the fighters are very unlikely to be drug tested.

The NSAC's drug tests screen for steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs, as well as a number of illegal recreational drugs. They do not currently test for abuse of Human Growth Hormone (HGH), nor does any other major sanctioning body, due to the fact that a reliable test for HGH abuse has not yet been developed. However, the World Anti-Doping Agency claims to be close to developing a reliable test for HGH abuse.

One specific fighter who you might think would be competing on Pride's U.S. debut show is Josh Barnett, but he will not be allowed to fight on the show unless he takes and passes a drug test.

After Barnett won the UFC Heavyweight Title in March 2002, he failed his NSAC post-fight drug test when banned anabolic steroids were found in his system.

The normal procedure for such a situation is that the fighter gets suspended for a certain number months, then they have to take a drug test and pass it, and then their license to fight in Nevada is reinstated when they prove that they're clean. That's the process that Tim Sylvia and Nathan Marquardt went through after they failed drug tests in 2003 and 2005, respectively.

However, that's not what happened in Josh Barnett's case. In Barnett's case, he failed a drug test, got suspended, went to Japan, and never fought in the United States again. He has never been re-issued a license by the NSAC because he has never taken a follow-up NSAC drug test.

When asked whether Barnett would have to pass a drug test before he could be licensed to fight by the NSAC, the NSAC's Keith Kizer told MMAWeekly, "Josh Barnett would have to provide a clean urine test before licensure, as did others in the same situation."

In addition to passing a drug test sometime before the event takes place, Barnett would also be overwhelmingly likely to have to take another drug test immediately after his fight as well.

In general, when a fighter has failed an NSAC drug test in the past, that fighter is subjected to more drug testing than any fighter who has never failed an NSAC drug test. In the specific cases of Sylvia and Marquardt, even after they served their suspensions and passed drug tests in order to get their licenses back, they were also drug tested immediately after their first fights back from suspension.

In the case of Kimo Leopoldo, he failed a drug test in Nevada back in 2004 (after his UFC 48 fight against Ken Shamrock) and then couldn't be licensed to fight in California in 2006 until he passed a drug test. Unlike Sylvia and Marquardt, Kimo failed this pre-sanctioning drug test, and he now faces another possible suspension as a result.

Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Pride Fighting Championships News

posted by Ivan Trembow at 7:34 PM

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Mixed Martial Arts--- Chuck Liddell vs. Wanderlei Silva Announced
by Ivan Trembow
Originally Published on MMAWeekly

The UFC has announced that Chuck Liddell and Wanderlei Silva will finally be fighting each other at a UFC event in November, provided that Liddell is able to successfully defend his UFC Light Heavyweight Title against Renato "Babalu" Sobral on August 26th at UFC 62.

Though the rankings vary, Liddell and Silva are widely regarded as two of the top three 205-pound fighters in any MMA organization in the world, along with Silva's teammate and fellow Pride star Mauricio "Shogun" Rua, who won a 16-man Grand Prix tournament of 205-pound fighters in Pride last year.

When asked during the post-UFC 61 press conference whether the Liddell-Silva fight will be a title fight, UFC president Dana White reportedly said, "It will be for the title." When asked by another reporter whether Silva is signed for a certain number of fights in the UFC, White reportedly said, "Yeah, three [fights]. We're probably going to have him for three." When asked by another reporter whether there will be more Pride stars fighting on future UFC cards, White reportedly said, "Possibly. Every year, we try to take it to another level."

Though it wasn't specifically mentioned by the UFC, a few other things will also have to happen (or not happen) in order for Silva vs. Liddell to take place in November. Liddell will need to not only beat Sobral on August 26th, but he will also have to beat Sobral without sustaining any injuries in the process if he is going to fight Silva in November. Liddell has been out of action since February due to foot surgery.

In addition, Wanderlei Silva will have to escape unscathed from his fight (or fights) on the "Pride Final Conflict Absolute" card on September 10th in Japan, which is just two months before his scheduled fight against Liddell in November. Silva will be fighting on the Pride card in the final four of Pride's 16-man Open Weight Grand Prix, in which the other three semi-finalists are highly ranked heavyweights Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Mirko Cro Cop, and Josh Barnett.

The semi-finals and finals of Pride's Open Weight Grand Prix will both take place on September 10th, so Silva will be fighting twice in one night if he wins in the semi-finals. While Silva's fight against Liddell in the UFC would not be dependent on whether Silva wins or loses in the Pride Grand Prix, Silva would certainly have to emerge from the event injury-free, win or lose, in order to be able to fight Liddell in the UFC two months later.

It has not been announced whether Liddell will also be fighting Silva in a Pride ring (under Pride rules) in Japan at any time in the future.

Another factor that has not been addressed by the UFC or Pride is how the Silva-Liddell match-up will affect each fighter's potential title defenses against fighters from their own companies. Prior to the Silva-Liddell announcement, Tito Ortiz was believed to be #1 contender for the UFC Light Heavyweight Title (after the Liddell vs. Sobral fight in August), while the top contenders for Silva's 205-pound title in Pride are believed to be Ricardo Arona and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira.

One also has to wonder what exactly is going to happen if Silva manages to beat Liddell for the UFC Light Heavyweight Title. One would certainly think that the UFC would not sign a Silva-Liddell fight without having a contractual guarantee that Liddell gets a rematch if he loses to Silva, but that is pure conjecture and is just one of the many questions that MMA fans are pondering right now.

In the big picture, though, it all boils down to the fact that it looks like Chuck Liddell is going to be fighting Wanderlei Silva in the near future, and that's something that hardcore MMA fans have been waiting to hear for years.

Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Pride Fighting Championships News, UFC News, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)

posted by Ivan Trembow at 6:51 PM

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Mixed Martial Arts--- Wanderlei Silva Replaces Fedor Emelianenko in Pride Grand Prix
by Ivan Trembow
Originally Published on MMAWeekly

Dream Stage Entertainment has announced on its Japanese web site that Fedor Emelianenko has been forced to withdraw from the Pride Open Weight Grand Prix, and his replacement will be none other than Wanderlei Silva.

Dream Stage had hoped that Fedor would be ready to fight in time for the second round of the Grand Prix when it takes place on July 1st, but the surgery to repair Fedor's severely damaged hand has a very long recovery process. Fedor's doctor stated that the metal plate in Fedor's hand would not be ready to be surgically removed until June at the earliest, which would make it impossible for Fedor to fight on July 1st.

Pride Middleweight Champion Wanderlei Silva will now get the first-round bye that was originally given to Fedor as the Heavyweight Champion, and will complete what is arguably the best "final eight" in any tournament in the history of MMA. The eight quarter-finalists are Wanderlei Silva, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Mirko Cro Cop, Mark Hunt, Hidehiko Yoshida, Josh Barnett, Kazuyuki Fujita, and Fabricio Werdum. The quarter-final match-ups will be announced in the coming weeks.

The announcement that Silva will be competing in the Pride Open Weight Grand Prix brings to an end, at least temporarily, a contract dispute between Silva and DSE that had lasted for several months. Silva's contract with DSE expired after his split decision victory over Ricardo Arona on New Year's Eve, and he had been working out the terms of a new contract with DSE ever since. There was also considerable interest in Wanderlei Silva as a free agent from the rest of the MMA community at large, but it's not known if the UFC in particular ever seriously pursued Silva with the kind of money that it would take to sign him.

The Wrestling Observer reported a few weeks before the first round of the Pride Open Weight Grand Prix that DSE wanted to make the match-up of Wanderlei Silva vs. Mark Coleman for the first round, and that Silva and Coleman agreed to fight each other, provided that they could each come to financial terms on their respective Pride contracts.

Silva didn't reach a financial agreement with DSE on his contract, so the fight never happened. As for Coleman, DSE President Nobuyuki Sakakibara inexplicably said at a press conference that he could have chosen Mark Coleman or Zulu, Jr. to fight Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira in the first round of the tournament, and he said that he made the decision to go with Zulu, Jr. instead of Coleman because, "Zulu, Jr. is like the Brazilian Bob Sapp."

While the fact that Silva is participating in the Pride Open Weight Grand Prix means that he is no longer a free agent at this moment, that may or may not be the case a few months from now. The specific terms of Silva's contract, such as how many fights are on his new Pride contract, were not disclosed by DSE.

If Silva's new contract is a long-term deal, then he'll be staying with Pride for the forseeable future. If it's just a contract for Silva to participate in the Open Weight Grand Prix and nothing more, then he could be right back to being a highly sought free agent a few months from now.

Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Pride Fighting Championships News

posted by Ivan Trembow at 1:33 PM

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Mixed Martial Arts--- UFC and Pride Both Raise Pay-Per-View Prices
by Ivan Trembow
Originally Published on MMAWeekly

Zuffa and Dream Stage Entertainment have both raised the suggested retail prices of their pay-per-view events in North America.

Pay-per-view events from the UFC, which were previously $34.95, will now cost $39.95 for the forseeable future. Pay-per-view events from Pride, which were previously $29.95, will now cost $34.95 for the forseeable future. Additionally, Pride Bushido pay-per-view events, which previously ranged from $19.95 to $24.95, will now cost $29.95.

Zuffa Raises the Bar to $39.95
Cable and satellite providers almost always use the suggested retail price provided by the event promoter, and for years that price had been $29.95 for both UFC and Pride events. Zuffa raised the price of UFC PPVs to $34.95 in April 2005, just in time for the record-breaking "Couture vs. Liddell II" event.

Zuffa decided to raise the price again, this time to $39.95, for the "Couture vs. Liddell III" event in February 2006. At the time, a Zuffa PR rep compared it to the boxing PPV model on the Underground Forum and said that the higher price point would probably not be a permanent thing and might only be used "once or twice per year." Indeed, the price of the next PPV event, UFC 58 in March, was back down to the previous $34.95 price point.

However, with $39.95 as the price point for UFC 59 earlier this month, and for UFC 60 in May, and for UFC 61 in July, and for UFC 62 after that (tentatively planned to be headlined by Liddell vs. Renato Sobral), and for UFC 63 after that (tentatively planned to be headlined by Matt Hughes vs. Georges St. Pierre), it now appears that $39.95 will be the suggested retail price for every UFC PPV in the forseeable future.

If Zuffa is confident that it can sell just as many PPVs at the $39.95 price point as it could at the $34.95 price point, then this price increase makes sense from a business standpoint.

It's also a very significant move within the pay-per-view industry because the "normal" price for a UFC PPV ($39.95) is now actually higher than the "normal" price for a World Wrestling Entertainment PPV ($34.95). This gives cable and satellite companies incentive to provide UFC PPVs with more replay timeslots throughout the month, and to promote UFC PPVs more than WWE PPVs, especially since the North American sales of WWE PPVs have fallen off significantly over the past five years.

Why Pride Had Little Choice But to Follow Suit with its Own Price Increase
Given the higher price of UFC PPVs, it could have potentially made Pride look bad in the PPV industry if the company had continued to charge $29.95 for its PPV events at the same time that its biggest competitor was charging $10 more for events of the same length. This is purely about perception. If you're charging $29.95 for three-hour PPV events and your biggest competitor is charging $39.95 for three-hour PPV events, it makes your competitor look like the "premium product" by comparison.

Pride doesn't have to match the UFC's PPV price, but it does have to come close for perception purposes. There really wasn't much of a choice for Pride other than to go up to $34.95, given that Zuffa had gone up to $39.95.

It's very similar in the pro wrestling industry, where the #2 pro wrestling company in terms of North American PPV sales (TNA) has to charge $29.95 for its pay-per-view events, in order to come close to the $34.95 price point of the #1 pro wrestling company in terms of North American PPV sales (WWE). If TNA charged $24.95 or $19.95, it would make TNA look second-rate by comparison.

For many of the same reasons, Pride has also raised the price of its "Bushido" line of pay-per-views. While the "regular" Pride events will now cost $34.95, the Pride Bushido events from this point forward will cost $29.95. Previously, the suggested retail price was only $19.95 for the three-hour Pride Bushido events, although it was raised on one occasion to $24.95 for the four-hour-long "Bushido: The Tournament" event.

King of the Cage and K-1 PPV Prices
If you have ever wondered why King of the Cage charges so much ($29.95) for its three-hour PPV events in North America, it's the same reason--- perception. Obviously, King of the Cage would have a lot more PPV buys in the United States if it charged $14.95 or $19.95 for its three-hour PPV events, but as a promoter you don't want a potential customer to be looking at the prices of PPV events and saying, "Hmm, Promotion A is so much cheaper than Promotion B... so I guess Promotion A must be a second-rate promotion." Even if you actually are promoting a second-rate product in terms of the number of PPV buys, you still don't want to feed into that perception.

The King of the Cage events that only cost $9.95 are viewed completely differently because they are only one-hour-long broadcasts. Even with the price increases from the UFC and Pride, I would not expect to see King of the Cage charge more than $29.95 for its three-hour PPV events anytime soon, given that it's already so much a stretch for them to be charging $29.95 in the first place. That is not intended to be a disrespectful statement towards King of the Cage; it's just that KOTC events are smaller-scale events that cost almost as much as the larger-scale events.

K-1 only charged $24.95 for the recent North American PPV debut of its "K-1 Dynamite 2005" event, but that was primarily because it was only a two-and-a-half-hour event instead of a three-hour event. The next K-1 PPV event that will be made available in North America will be a three-hour-long broadcast of "Mayhem at the Mirage II," which took place last week in Las Vegas.

That event is expected to carry a suggested retail price of $29.95, and unfortunately it will not debut on North American PPV until Friday, June 16th at 10:00 PM Eastern Time. K-1 parted ways with ESPN PPV last summer and is now distributed on North American PPV by Integrated Sports. This change in PPV distributor is the reason for the delayed PPVs, and is also the reason that the final two events in the K-1 World Grand Prix were simply never offered to North American PPV consumers last fall.

Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Pride Fighting Championships News, UFC News, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)

posted by Ivan Trembow at 4:55 PM

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Mixed Martial Arts--- Yakuza Scandal Not Likely to Affect Pride's U.S. Plans for October
The incoming Executive Director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission has commented on newspaper reports about Pride's plans to expand into the U.S. market this fall, and has also commented on what affect, if any, the ongoing Yakuza scandal in Japan might have on Pride's efforts to run a show in Nevada.

Keith Kizer, who is set to replace Marc Ratner as the new Executive Director of the NSAC when Ratner leaves to work for the UFC, was asked by MMAWeekly's Ivan Trembow about a recent report in the Las Vegas Sun. The report said that Pride was looking into running a show in Nevada on either October 7th or October 20th. Kizer told MMAWeekly that Pride "plans to hold an event at the Thomas & Mack Center [in Las Vegas] in October 2006, but we have not received a date request yet."

When asked whether the Yakuza scandal that is currently engulfing the MMA industry in Japan would have any negative affect on Pride's efforts to run a show in Nevada, Kizer said, "Pride is a promoter in good standing, and I have no concern about its suitability."

Currently the Chief Deputy Attorney General of the state of Nevada, Kizer is set to become the new head of the Nevada State Athletic Commission when Marc Ratner starts his new job as a UFC executive in mid-May. Ratner has been the Executive Director of the NSAC since August 1993.

In other news regarding Pride's plans to run shows in the United States market, the Wrestling Observer has reported that Pride is tentatively planning to focus its marketing efforts for its first U.S. show on Fedor Emelianenko, Dan Henderson, and Quinton Jackson. That would seem to be logical given that Henderson and Jackson are each highly marketable American fighters, while Emelianenko is widely regarded as the most dominant fighter in the sport.

Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Pride Fighting Championships News

posted by Ivan Trembow at 3:51 PM

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Mixed Martial Arts--- Here's an interesting news item about the always classy Phil Baroni, from the latest issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter...

"After the UFC show on 11/19, many of the fighters went to Pure, a night club in Caesar's Palace. Phil Baroni was there, and apparently way out of control. He saw Chris Leben, who UFC was attempting to match him up with, but it fell through, largely because Baroni was under contract to Pride. Baroni, pissed off and angry, approached Leben. Leben, seeing the state Baroni was in, stayed very calm. Baroni asked Leben if he wanted to fight him, and Leben said, 'No, you would probably kill me,' smartly diffusing the situation.

However, Baroni then saw an MMA web site reporter who apparently had made a lot of cracks about Baroni and steroids, and punched the guy in the face. The reporter was sitting with BJ Penn, who stepped in and told Baroni to cool it. Baroni, who was holding a drink, put his drink down and then challenged Penn to go at it. Unlike Leben, Penn was ready [to fight], but it was broken up by security because a punch had been thrown [at the reporter] and Baroni was out of there."

Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Pride Fighting Championships News

posted by Ivan Trembow at 11:10 PM

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Mixed Martial Arts--- The Latest on Ken Shamrock vs. Kazushi Sakuraba, and Phil Baroni vs. Pro Bodybuilder
The potential fight between Ken Shamrock and Kazushi Sakuraba cannot be officially signed or announced until at least October 13th (as first reported by MMAWeekly's Ryan Bennett and later picked up by the Wrestling Observer). The reason for this is that a no-compete clause in Shamrock's UFC contract expires on October 12th, meaning that the earliest he could sign with Pride would be October 13th.

Shamrock vs. Sakuraba is one of the fights that Pride would like to put on its October 23rd card, although the fight may or may not end up happening. Even after the expiration of Shamrock's no-compete clause, the UFC will still have the contractual right to match any offer that Pride makes to Shamrock, but this is considered unlikely given the amount of money involved and given the fact that Shamrock has the right to turn down specific UFC fights if he chooses to do so.

In other news, the Wrestling Observer recently featured the following brief news item on a potential fight between Phil Baroni and professional bodybuilder Craig Titus, which could take place in either Pride or King of the Cage:

"Believe it or not, Phil Baroni is pushing Pride to book him in a freak-show fight on December 31st against high-level bodybuilder Craig Titus. The two have had a war of words for years. New Year's Eve is a freak show night [in Pride]. Also, King of the Cage, which does pay-per-view shows that nobody buys, has offered Baroni $10,000 to fight Titus in King of the Cage."

Obviously, even if Baroni vs. Titus does take place in Pride at some point, the date of the fight would not necessarily be December 31st. It's far from a certainty that Baroni vs. Titus will ever take place, as the Observer report simply stated that Baroni wants Pride to book the fight, and even if Pride agrees to do so, there's no telling if Craig Titus would be willing to take the fight.

UPDATE: The finals of the Pride Bushido tournaments are actually scheduled to take place in November (not on December 31st), so it's entirely possible that Baroni could fight in the finals of the 183-pound tournament in November and still be able to fight Craig Titus on December 31st. Thanks to Zach Arnold of PuroresuPower.com for the clarification.

Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Pride Fighting Championships News

posted by Ivan Trembow at 11:44 PM

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Mixed Martial Arts--- Fox Sports Net is Very Concerned about Violence in Pride's Fights
Although the announcement at the recent "Pride: Final Conflict 2005" event made it seem like Pride has a relationship with Fox Sports Net that is similar to the UFC's relationship with Spike TV, that could not be further from the truth.

While the UFC is being paid a "rights fee" by Spike TV for every single episode of The Ultimate Fighter, UFC Unleashed, and UFC Ultimate Fight Night that is produced, the business nature of Pride's relationship with FSN is the opposite. Pride's agreement with FSN is simply that FSN is allowing Pride to buy one hour of programming space per month, in much the same way that an infomercial would have its air-time purchased. While the monthly Pride show will air on FSN in primetime (Sundays at 9:00 PM), it's still the equivalent of an infomercial from a business standpoint.

Far more troubling to Pride executives, and to MMA fans in general, is the fact that Fox Sports Net continues to be very concerned about what it perceives as "excessive violence" in MMA fights. As was the case when FSN was airing old UFC fights, FSN has made it very clear that it is not interested in airing any significant amount of footage that involves a fighter being pounded on the ground, or anything else that FSN deems to be "excessively violent."

Fox Sports Net's policy has already reared its ugly head, as the first Pride broadcast that aired on FSN was significantly changed due to the network's concerns about violence. Pride had planned to show Fedor Emelianenko's fight with Gary Goodridge, in which Emelianenko immediately overwhelmed Goodridge in the stand-up and then pounded him on the ground, until the fight was stopped approximately 70 seconds after it began.

However, FSN deemed the Emelianenko vs. Goodridge fight to be "too violent" to air on its network, due to the brutal ground-and-pound. Pride had to replace that fight with a different Emelianenko fight, and they chose Emelianenko vs. Kazuyuki Fujita, which was apparently not deemed "too violent" by FSN.

Having to change which Fedor Emelianenko fight they included in their broadcast did not significantly alter the broadcast, but something else did. Pride wanted to establish that Vanderlei Silva is several levels above Chuck Liddell on the 205-pound food chain, and they wanted to do this by showing Quinton Jackson vs. Chuck Liddell (which Jackson dominated), followed by an airing of Vanderlei Silva's first fight with Quinton Jackson (which Silva dominated).

While FSN had no problems with the content of the Jackson-Liddell fight, FSN deemed the first Silva-Jackson fight to be "too violent," even though it didn't have much ground-and-pound in it. FSN also deemed the second Silva-Jackson fight to be "too violent." It's not an easy task to find a Vanderlei Silva fight that isn't a very violent fight, and Pride eventually had to settle for Vanderlei Silva's 2003 fight with Kazushi Sakuraba, which FSN agreed to air because it was a stand-up fight that ended from one big punch, as opposed to a continuous flurry of knees and punches or anything else that may be deemed "excessively violent."

It's not yet known which fights Pride would like to air on its next monthly FSN broadcast, but the network continues to be very concerned about what it views as excessive violence in MMA fights. Unfortunately for all MMA fans, this is something that is not going to change unless FSN's executives have a huge change in attitude.

Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Pride Fighting Championships News

posted by Ivan Trembow at 11:48 PM

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Mixed Martial Arts--- It's Saturday and there are no boxing or MMA events scheduled to be televised tonight, which is the first time that has happened in a long time. And no, I'm not counting the $40 boxing pay-per-view with Julio Cesar Chavez in the main event, which I would imagine is only going to be purchased by approximately six people other than die-hard Chavez fans. With no big boxing or MMA events this weekend, it's the perfect time for an MMA News Round-Up...

Two More Fights Added to Pride Line-Up
Pride has announced two more fights that will take place at "Pride: Critical Countdown 2005" on June 26th. The #2 heavyweight fighter in the world, Brazil's Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, will face Poland's Pawel Natsula, who is an Olympic Gold Medalist in judo. Also, the young heavyweight star from Russia, Sergei Kharitonov, will face UFC veteran Pedro Rizzo, who is making his Pride debut.

These two heavyweight fights are in addition to the four quarter-final match-ups in the 205-pound Pride Grand Prix. Those match-ups will be Vanderlei Silva vs. Kazuhiro Nakamura, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira vs. Mauricio "Shogun" Rua, Ricardo Arona vs. Kazushi Sakuraba, and Igor Vovchanchyn vs. Alistair Overeem.

The much-anticipated Pride Heavyweight Title fight between Emelianenko Fedor and Mirko Cro Cop will not be taking place at the June 26th due to a broken bone in Fedor's hand. Also, Pride made the mistake once again of scheduling one of its events on the same day as a WWE pay-per-view, so the Critical Countdown show will not be broadcast in the United States on Sunday, June 26th. Instead, it will be broadcast on a five-day tape delay on Friday, July 1st.

K-1 Las Vegas Attendance Better Than Usual
The K-1 USA event that was recently held at the Bellagio Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas drew a higher attendance than K-1 normally draws in the United States. The total attendance was 4,879, with a total of 3,119 paid tickets and 1,760 free "comp" tickets. The total live gate was $256,250.

This is a drastic difference from K-1's previous Las Vegas events, which have normally had 70 to 80 percent of their tickets given away as free comp tickets in order to fill the building and make it look good on TV. In the case of this particular event, it still had 35 percent of its tickets given away as comps, but that's much better than 70 or 80 percent.

For the purposes of comparison, UFC 52 in Las Vegas had 12,643 paid tickets and 1,631 comp tickets, for a total attendance of 14,274 and a total live gate of $2,575,450. (Click here for more details on the UFC 52 business figures.)

At the same time, it's all a matter of perspective. K-1 is far more successful in its home country of Japan than the UFC is in the United States, mainly because MMA and kickboxing are accepted mainstream sports in Japan. It was considered a huge success in the American cable television industry for the UFC to draw a 1.9 overall rating for its April 9th live event on Spike TV, while in Japan it's not uncommon for MMA events to draw ratings of 20.0 or even 30.0. Nothing on American television reaches that level of viewership other than the Super Bowl. Mixed martial arts still has a long way to go before it's as accepted and mainstream in the United States as it is in Japan.

Plans for The Ultimate Fighter's Middleweight Finalists
It's expected that before he fights again, Diego Sanchez will undergo the hip surgery that he has needed for quite some time, which was briefly talked about in one of The Ultimate Fighter's season one episodes. In addition, Sanchez flat-out said after winning The Ultimate Fighter's middleweight competition that he was dropping down to welterweight for his future UFC fights.

As for the other TUF middleweight finalist, Kenny Florian said in a post on the Underground Forum that he does have a contract to fight again in the UFC, but it's not the three-year, $350,000 contract that the winners got. Florian also said that his future fights in the UFC would be in the welterweight division, which is closer to his natural weight.

Final UFC 53 Line-Up
Here's the full line-up for UFC 53, which will be taking place next Saturday, June 4th. The co-main events will feature UFC Interim Heavyweight Champion Andrei Arlovski facing off with Justin Eilers, while UFC Middleweight Champion Evan Tanner defends his title against Rich Franklin. It's expected that Matt Lindland will be the #1 contender who eventually faces the winner of the Tanner-Franklin bout.

As for the heavyweight title picture, the rumored return date for UFC Heavyweight Champion Frank Mir is October. Mir is still recovering from a broken leg suffered in a motorcycle accident last year. It's expected that Mir will face whoever the Interim Heavyweight Champion is at the time of his return, which would be the winner of the Arlovski-Eilers fight.

Also on the UFC 53 card:

-The Ultimate Fighter's light-heavyweight winner Forrest Griffin will be going against Canadian heavy hitter Bill Mahood

-Another TUF contestant, middleweight Nate Quarry, will be facing the returning UFC veteran Shonie Carter

-Rising heavyweight star Paul Buentello will try to continue his winning ways against Kevin Jordan, who has a 10-3 MMA record and is making his UFC debut

-Young welterweight star Karo Parisyan will face off with Matt Serra, who is moving up from lightweight

-Another young welterweight star, Nick Diaz, will face Koji Oishi, who is being sent from Japan as a representative of the Pancrase MMA organization

-David Loiseau, fresh off a UFC victory in February, will face the debuting Charles McCarthy, who has an 8-2 MMA record and could be a future star at middleweight

Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Pride Fighting Championships News, UFC News, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)

posted by Ivan Trembow at 2:42 PM

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Mixed Martial Arts--- In a previous article, I wrote that due to his 3-5 record in the UFC, Phil Baroni did not deserve to be signed to a new contract in Pride without proving himself on smaller shows like anyone else would be required to do. I also wrote that it showed a lack of class for Baroni to refer to an Asian fighter as "Pork Fried Rice" while doing color commentary on a recent Pride event. In response to my article, the always full-of-class Baroni made a post on the Underground Forum (a popular MMA message board) that simply said, "Yo Ivan Trembow--- You're a [expletive]."

Numerous members of the message board responded to Baroni's post before I saw it, most of them saying that I didn't write anything about Baroni that wasn't true. A few people disagreed with my point that Baroni didn't deserve his new Pride contract, and InsideFighting editor Michael DiSanto disagreed with my assertion that it was wrong for Baroni to refer to an Asian fighter as "Pork Fried Rice." I responded to all of the posts on the topic with the following message:

"I stand by every word I wrote about Phil Baroni. I didn't say anything outlandish or outrageous in the article, and I'm not going to get into a name-calling session. The fact of the matter is that Phil Baroni has lost his last four UFC fights, and his UFC record is 3-5, which I think is a worse win percentage than Tank Abbott. Based on that, even with his promo-cutting ability, I didn't believe and still don't believe all of that warrants a new contract in Pride. I have nothing against him personally, but I certainly don't believe Pride should be in the business of signing up fighters with losing UFC records. If Baroni beats Minowa and that ends up being the beginning of when Baroni got his MMA career back on track, then hey, more power to him.

Also, I respect Michael DiSanto as a journalist but I disagree with him in this particular case. Michael wrote, 'Pride is a Japanese organization and Yoon Dong Sik is Korean, not Japanese. They're not the same nationality, and it wasn't on the Japanese broadcast. It's like Lee Murray (England) insulting a guy from Ireland and claiming all Europeans would be offended. You can't group them together as European. Americans may group all Asians together, but I'm quite sure all countries in Asia don't see themselves as one group.'

In response to what Michael wrote: Some Americans may group all Asians together... really, you think? Do you think that might be how an American fighter on a Japanese fighting event would end up using the name of a Chinese food dish to refer to a Korean fighter? I think you just made my point for me. Everyone is going to have a different reaction to someone making a comment like that, as far as whether they're offended or not. I don't think Baroni is racist and he seemed to legitimately be having trouble pronouncing Yoon Dong Sik's name and just ad-libbed. Nonetheless, the fact remains that it was the complete opposite of showing class, which is what I wrote in the article. Again, I stand by everything I wrote."

After I made that post, one of a vocal and ignorant minority of MMA message board visitors asked the question they always ask, which was, "Would you stand by your article to Phil Baroni's face?" In response to that all-too-common question, I made my final post on the subject with the following message:

"First of all, the answer is yes, and second of all, that is a ridiculous question and I always find it funny when I see people saying things like that on MMA message boards. As a journalist, it's my job to ask the tough questions and to criticize people where I feel criticism is due. If I didn't do that, I wouldn't be doing my job.

It makes MMA look so bad when you've got all these other professions with their own specialized press and nobody ever asks, 'I wonder if he'd say that to the Yahoo CEO's face, or if he would be afraid that he'd get punched out!' and yet people constantly say, 'I wonder if he'd say that to the MMA fighter's face, or if he would be afraid that he'd get punched out!' Sure, mixed martial artists fight for a living, but I think MMA fighters are professional enough that they're not savages who start swinging if you ask a question they don't like.

Some people on message boards need to get past the elementary-school logic of, 'Person A could beat up Person B, therefore Person B's opinions are invalid.' I think it's insulting to the sport of MMA for people to have that attitude."

Moving on from the Phil Baroni topic, tonight is the HBO replay of Winky Wright vs. Felix Trinidad, otherwise known as, "Wright Imposes His Will and Dominates for Twelve Rounds." Also on tonight's broadcast will be a live fight between Andrew Golota and Lamon Brewster. Hopefully Golota and Brewster will deliver an exciting fight, which the heavyweight division desperately needs after recent events. The most boring fighter in the world, John Ruiz, finally lost his WBA Heavyweight Title and decided to retire... but then the fighter who beat him, James Toney, tested positive for steroids, prompting Ruiz to decide to come out of retirement and re-claim his belt.

Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Pride Fighting Championships News

posted by Ivan Trembow at 7:38 PM

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Mixed Martial Arts--- Pride's Announcers Have a Bad Night, and Phil Baroni Gets Yet Another Chance

by Ivan Trembow for MMAWeekly.com

Was I the only one scratching my head at the thought that Pride saw fit to sign Phil Baroni to a contract? Even if it's just to fight on the smaller Pride Bushido shows, the fact is that Baroni's MMA record is not much better than Tank Abbott's. And while Tank Abbott was once a PPV draw, Baroni has never shown himself to be a PPV draw. The UFC's pay-per-view buy-rates have always been comparatively weak on the East Coast of the United States, and the UFC's attempts to change that trend using Baroni and his New York roots were never successful.

Of all the former UFC fighters who are no longer in the UFC, this is who Pride decides to sign? Baroni's record in the UFC was three wins and five losses. The man hasn't won a fight in the UFC in almost three years. Looking at Baroni's last four UFC fights, he lost a one-sided decision to Matt Lindland. Then he got grounded-and-pounded into oblivion by Evan Tanner, and decided immediately afterwards that it would be a good idea to start throwing punches at the referee. Then he lost another one-sided fight to Evan Tanner. To cap it all off, Baroni was ultimately choked out by a kid named Pete Sell who has fought a grand total of one fighter with a winning record in his short MMA career. Yup, that seems like someone I'd want to sign if I were in Pride's shoes.

To top it all off, after inexplicably being given a second chance to make it on the big stage, Baroni showed his deep appreciation for and understanding of Asian culture by referring to an Asian fighter as "Pork Fried Rice" during color commentary on the latest Pride broadcast. So not only is he a winning fighter, but he's all class...

Pride's Announcers Have a Bad Night
Pride announcers Mauro Ranallo and Bas Rutten were very critical of many fights during the recent Total Elimination 2005 event, and they have since been surrounded by a firestorm of criticism. I agree with the basic statement of the people who have been saying that Ranallo and Rutten were way too hard on the fighters during the event, but as is often the case, the criticism has gone way overboard.

First off, I should state for the record that I believe Mauro Ranallo and Bas Rutten are normally very good at what they do, and I wouldn't say that they "ruined the event" by any means. But in general, they were way too critical of fights being "boring" and fighters "not bringing it." In some cases, the comments were warranted, like when Kevin Randleman spent the vast majority of his fight gasping for air and doing nothing after he gassed out. In other cases, their comments were downright ridiculous, such as criticizing Igor Vovchanchyn as he was putting on a grappling clinic, dominating Yuki Kondo, and showing the world that he is a now a versatile fighter with a good ground game and not just a one-dimensional stand-up fighter.

In general, I think many of the things that the announcers said were boring were not, in fact, boring. It just seemed like if a fight was going to a judge's decision, that automatically meant it was "a boring fight" to the announcers. I would expect that kind of thinking from a casual MMA fan who doesn't understand the sport, not from two seasoned MMA announcers like Ranallo and Rutten.

There were two comments in particular that I thought were particularly egregious. The first was when Mauro Ranallo said at the end of the Arona-Lister fight, "Let's go to the footage... I won't call them highlights." That is just plain disrespectful to the fighters, and is something that I would expect someone to say if they've never seen an MMA fight before. The fact is that Arona and Lister put on a grappling showcase that was far from the best fight in recent Pride history, but also far from the worst. The fight did indeed have plenty of highlights, it just had its fair share of inactivity as well. It's your job as announcer to draw the viewers' attention away from the inactivity and towards the highlights.

The other comment that I found particularly glaring was Bas Rutten's statement that he's sure Igor Vovchanchyn is going to look at the tape of his fight with Yuki Kondo and be disappointed with his performance. Really? If your criteria is just, "Win by KO or it's disappointing," then I suppose Vovchanchyn would be disappointed, but that's not how MMA works. I'm pretty sure I saw Vovchanchyn dominate the fight, dictate his will on a great ground fighter, show the world how good he is on the ground, and land a good amount of hard ground-and-pound. Despite Rutten saying during the fight that Igor's punches had no power, many of them landed with an audible thud and caused Kondo's head to bounce off the mat. I thought Rutten was way too critical of a fighter who was actually putting on his most impressive performance in a while Again, the fact that the fight went to decision doesn't automatically make it an "un-impressive" victory.

It's very challenging to be an announcer for a sport where a significant percentage of the audience is watching it for the first time and has not yet determined if they like the sport. As an announcer, one has to strike a delicate balance. One side of that balance is saying things like, "The mandate here in Pride is action" in order to point out to new viewers that the fights are normally much more exciting than what they are watching at that moment. The other side of that balance is that if you go too far in criticizing the efforts of the fighters, you're simply undermining the product and making it come off worse to viewers than it otherwise would. Mike Goldberg and Joe Rogan always seem to do an excellent job of finding this delicate balance, and normally Ranallo and Rutten do as well.

Regardless of what was or wasn't "boring," the fact of the matter is that Ranallo and Rutten were not doing their jobs. The job of an announcer is to "sell" the action that is taking place. That doesn't mean being a shameless shill and referring to a lackluster match as an all-time classic, as I would be criticizing that just as much.

The announcers in any sport are supposed to make everything come off better to the viewers than it otherwise would. Announcers can make decent fights come off like good fights, good fights come off like great fights, and great fights come off like all-time classics. They can make a bad fight more bearable and can point out the things in the fight that are good, or try to talk to newer viewers about the technical aspects of what they're seeing. The last thing an announcer should EVER do is make a good fight come off like a bad fight, or disrespect a decent fight as if it's a waste of everyone's time. On this night, Ranallo and Rutten simply failed to do their jobs as they spent far too much time complaining about the fights and not enough time actually calling the fights.

However, as much as I was disappointed in the performances of Ranallo and Rutten at Total Elimination 2005, the criticism of their performances has been taken to an extreme on MMA message boards. Ranallo and Rutten normally do a very good job, and people shouldn't over-react to one bad night. The MMA community has never been accused of running short on hyperbole or overstatement. If someone has one bad night, it seems that a large segment of the MMA population is ready and eager to jump on them and treat them as though they're worthless.

According to this atmosphere of hyperbole, when Chuck Liddell had a very bad night against Randy Couture at UFC 43, Liddell suddenly became a one-dimensional fighter who was "exposed" and was certainly not among the elite fighters in the sport. When Couture had a very bad night against Liddell at UFC 52, suddenly Couture was "done" and had "been exposed." When Matt Lindland had a very bad night against David Terrell, suddenly Lindland was a loser who we shouldn't see in the UFC anymore. When Terrell had a very bad night against Evan Tanner, suddenly Terrell was a loser who we shouldn't see in the UFC anymore.

The list could go on and on for pages. If you make a career out of having bad nights, like Tank Abbott or Phil Baroni, then there's a legitimate problem. But the fact of the matter is that one bad night in MMA is just that--- one bad night, no matter how many people over-react to it.

It's no different for Mauro Ranallo and Bas Rutten at Total Elimination 2005. I feel strongly that they had a very bad night, but having one very bad night does not mean that you should be fired or that you're incompetent. Just as Ranallo and Rutten should have cut the fighters more slack during Total Elimination 2005, the MMA community should cut Ranallo and Rutten more slack.

Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Pride Fighting Championships News

posted by Ivan Trembow at 11:32 AM

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Mixed Martial Arts--- Bracketology and The Pride Grand Prix

by Ivan Trembow for MMAWeekly.com

With the first round of the 2005 Pride Grand Prix in the books, it's now time for a little "bracketology," and in this case I'm not referring to college basketball. Pride doesn't have pre-set brackets going into a 16-man tournament of this nature; specifically, so that they can mix and match the remaining fighters as they see fit. Since Pride is going to make the quarterfinal match-ups primarily from a marketing perspective in the Japanese marketplace, that's how we have to think of it when speculating on possible quarterfinal match-ups.

At this point, the remaining fighters in the tournament are Wanderlei Silva, Mauricio "Shogun" Rua, Kazushi Sakuraba, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, Alistair Overeem, Igor Vovchanchyn, Ricardo Arona, and Kazuhiro Nakamura. That's four Brazilian fighters, two Japanese fighters, one Dutch fighter, and one Ukrainian fighter. The American fighters went 0 for 4 in the first round, so there are no Americans left in the tournament.

There are three "absolute truths" that you have to consider when thinking about the possible quarterfinal match-ups:

Truth #1--- Pride does NOT want to put themselves in a position to potentially have four Brazilian fighters in the final four, so that means we have to have at least one Brazilian vs. Brazilian match-up in the quarter-finals.

Truth #2--- Pride definitely wants to have at least one Japanese fighter in the final four so that they can sell more tickets in Japan for the final event with the semi-finals and finals (this isn't necessarily a good thing or a bad thing, it's just the way it is from a business standpoint).

Truth #3--- You can't put Nogueira against Arona in the second round because they're teammates on the Brazilian Top Team, and you can't put Silva against Shogun in the second round because they're teammates at the Chute Boxe Academy. If there is going to be a teammate vs. teammate battle in this tournament, it won't be until the finals.

With those parameters in mind, the quarterfinal brackets could breakdown in a different way depending on whether or not Wanderlei Silva and Kazushi Sakuraba meet up in the second round.

Scenario #1--- Silva and Sakuraba Have to Meet in the Quarterfinals
If Sakuraba wants this fight, it's very likely that Pride will give it to him. Despite the fact that Silva obliterated Sakuraba in their three previous meetings, a fourth Silva vs. Sakuraba fight would still be a big money draw in Japan. Being matched up against Silva would also give Sakuraba the "out" that he could be eliminated from the tournament (possibly even knocked out again), and there's no shame in losing to the top 205-pound fighter in the world. So, assuming for the purposes of this scenario that Silva vs. Sakuraba does happen in the second round, how would the other six fighters be matched up?

The most obvious thing is that they would want to give the other remaining Japanese fighter, Kazuhiro Nakamura, the best chance possible to advance to the final four. Looking at the list of possible second-round opponents, there are no "easy fights," but I don't think many people would dispute that Alistair Overeem is the least difficult match-up of the remaining fighters in this scenario. Overeem is no easy opponent (as Vitor Belfort quickly found out), but he's also probably not on the level of Nogueira, Arona, Shogun, and Vovchanchyn. So, if you're Pride and you want to get a Japanese fighter into the final four, you make the match-up of Overeem vs. Nakamura and cross your fingers that Nakamura pulls out the victory (which he very well could). I think it would be similar to the Nogueira-Overeem fight that took place in February, and it's just a matter of whether Nakamura would be able to hang on and get the decision victory like Nogueira did.

So, at that point the four remaining fighters would be Nogueira, Arona, Shogun, and Vovchanchyn, and you can't put Nogueira against Arona because they're teammates. If you think about who is the biggest marquee name out of those four fighters that Pride would want to "protect" if they could, it would have to be Nogueira. Then if you're thinking about Nogueira going up against either Shogun or Vovchanchyn, both of those fights are extremely hard match-ups for any fighter, but I think it's safe to say that there are a lot more people picking Vovchanchyn to win the whole entire tournament than there are people picking Shogun to win the whole tournament. Shogun is still so young and inexperienced, and despite his one-sided destruction of Quinton Jackson, most people would consider Shogun to be a slightly less difficult match-up than Igor Vovchanchyn. So, if Pride wants to protect Nogueira as much as they can in an attempt to get the most marketable final four they possibly can, they would match up Nogueira against Shogun. That would be an explosive fight and has "Fight of the Year" candidate written all over it.

That would leave the final two fighters as Igor Vovchanchyn and Ricardo Arona, both of whom are on a lot of people's lists as their pick to win the entire tournament. Pride would probably root for Vovchanchyn to win here because he has a more exciting style than Arona, and he's a bigger name than Arona in Japan. I think Vovchanchyn could beat Arona if he accepted the fact that he's not going to out-grapple Arona and instead decided to keep the fight in the stand-up. Whether Igor would succeed at his goal of keeping the fight in the stand-up against Arona is a different matter entirely.

Scenario #2--- Pride Plays it Smart and Avoids Silva vs. Sakuraba in the Quarterfinals
But what if Silva vs. Sakuraba doesn't happen in the second round? From the perspective of needing to have a Japanese fighter in the final four if you want to sell out an arena in Japan, it really doesn't make sense to match Sakuraba against Silva. Sakuraba would be extremely likely to lose for a fourth time, and then you would be dependent on Nakamura beating Overeem in order to have a Japanese fighter in the final four. Sure, a fourth Silva vs. Sakuraba match would draw money in Japan, but does that benefit really out-weigh the risk of having a final four without a single Japanese fighter in it? I don't think so.

If Pride plays it smart and avoids the temptation of matching up Silva and Sakuraba in the second round, the obvious match-up would be Sakuraba vs. Nakamura. No matter who wins that fight, it ensures that a Japanese fighter makes it into the final four. It's also a marketable match-up in its own right with the small rivalry that exists between Sakuraba's camp and Yoshida's camp (which Nakamura is a part of). If Nakamura wins, it could make him a huge star in Japan. Even though Sakuraba is a physically broken-down version of his former self (and he would be the first to tell you that), his name value in Japan is still so huge that it would make an instant star out of Nakamura if he were to beat Sakuraba.

So, if Pride decides to match up Sakuraba and Nakamura in the first round, what do you do with the remaining six fighters? The fighter with the most marquee value out of the remaining six is easily Wanderlei Silva, and as discussed above, Alistair Overeem is the least difficult match-up out of the remaining fighters. He's not an easy match-up by any means, but he's an easier match-up than any of the other remaining fighters, so Silva vs. Overeem would be the smart match to make and could also be an exciting slugfest in its own right.

At that point, you would have the same four remaining fighters as in the previous scenario: Nogueira, Arona, Shogun, and Vovchanchyn. And for the same reasons discussed in the previous scenario, the two match-ups that make the most sense in this group of four are Nogueira vs. Shogun, and Arona vs. Vovchanchyn.

Scenario #3--- Pride Insists on Having Two Brazilian vs. Brazilian Matches in the Quarterfinals
The two scenarios above are the two most likely scenarios that could play out, with the "Silva vs. Sakuraba scenario" being the most likely. However, there is another scenario that is less likely but still a legitimate possibility. With Pride president Nobuyuki Sakakibara reportedly saying after the first round that it was time to match the Brazilians against each other, there is a possibility that not only does Pride not want to put themselves in the position of possibly having four Brazilians in the final four, but that they also don't even want to have the possibility of three Brazilians in the final four. If that's really the case, that would require two different Brazilian vs. Brazilian match-ups in the quarterfinals.

If you're going to have two Brazilian vs. Brazilian match-ups, you first have to remind yourself that team affiliations prevent you from being able to put Nogueira against Arona, or from being able to put Silva against Shogun. Then you have to ask yourself, "Who are the two biggest marquee names among the Brazilians that Pride would ideally like to still have on the marquee for the final event?" The answer to that question is easy--- Silva and Nogueira. If you want to give yourself a chance to have both Silva and Nogueira in the final four, you can't match them up against each other in the quarterfinals. That would mean the two Brazilian vs. Brazilian match-ups would have to be Wanderlei Silva vs. Ricardo Arona, and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira vs. Mauricio "Shogun" Rua, both of which are extremely intriguing match-ups.

With four non-Brazilian fighters remaining in this scenario, it still makes the most sense to ensure that you move a Japanese fighter into the final four, and that means putting Sakuraba against Nakamura. The only two fighters remaining at that point would be Igor Vovchanchyn and Alistair Overeem. Overeem would have a huge height advantage in that fight, but Vovchanchyn would have a very good chance to be able to out-grapple Overeem and win by ground-and-pound.

There are other possible scenarios, such as Yoshida's student Nakamura going against the man who beat Yoshida in the first round (Silva), but none of those scenarios really make sense from a business standpoint because Pride needs to give itself the best possible chance of getting a Japanese fighter into the final four. Many of the mainstream newspapers in Japan that normally cover MMA didn't even acknowledge the results of the first-round match-ups that didn't have Japanese fighters in them. So, as I stated earlier, it's not necessarily a good thing or a bad thing that Pride wants to have at least one Japanese fighter in the final four, it's just the way it is.

To summarize, here are the three quarter-final scenarios that make the most sense from a business standpoint.

Ideal Quarter-Finals If Silva vs. Sakuraba Has to Happen in the Quarter-Finals:
-Vanderlei Silva vs. Kazushi Sakuraba
-Alistair Overeem vs. Kazuhiro Nakamura
-Antonio Rogerio Nogueira vs. Mauricio "Shogun" Rua
-Ricardo Arona vs. Igor Vovchanchyn

Ideal Quarter-Finals If Pride Plays it Smart and Avoids Silva vs. Sakuraba in the Quarter-Finals:
-Vanderlei Silva vs. Alistair Overeem
-Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Kazuhiro Nakamura
-Antonio Rogerio Nogueira vs. Mauricio "Shogun" Rua
-Ricardo Arona vs. Igor Vovchanchyn

Ideal Quarter-Finals If Pride Insists on Having Two Brazilian vs. Brazilian Matches in the Quarter-Finals:
-Vanderlei Silva vs. Ricardo Arona
-Antonio Rogerio Nogueira vs. Mauricio "Shogun" Rua
-Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Kazuhiro Nakamura
-Igor Vovchanchyn vs. Alistair Overeem

Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Pride Fighting Championships News

posted by Ivan Trembow at 3:33 PM

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Mixed Martial Arts--- I went eight for eight with my picks for the opening round of the Pride Grand Prix, which is by far the deepest collection of talent in a single tournament in MMA history. I only got two of the eight "methods of victory" correct, but I'll still take 8-for-8 in picking winners. I thought that Kevin Randleman would predictably gas out, be unable to do anything, and get submitted by Kazuhiro Nakamura. Instead, Randleman gassed out, was unable to do anything, and lost a lopsided decision to Nakamura. Randleman has now lost five of his last six fights, although that one win sure was a doozy. Ricardo Arona vs. Dean Lister is a fight that I thought Arona would win by decision because he has been unable to finish people in the past whose submission defense is nowhere near the level of Lister's. Arona by decision ended up being exactly what happened, and was just one of two picks that I got exactly right.

Igor Vovchanchyn vs. Yuki Kondo is a fight that I thought Igor would win by KO. It seemed at various times like Igor could win by KO if he kept the fight standing, but instead he chose to show off "Igor Vovchanchyn the grappler," who dominated Kondo from bell to bell and won a unanimous decision. I thought Alistair Overeem would knock out Vitor Belfort after Belfort gassed out, and never in my craziest dreams would I have picked the actual outcome of Overeem winning by submission. I thought Antonio Rogerio Nogueira would beat Dan Henderson, but I didn't think Nogueira would be able to finish a fighter of Henderson's caliber. I was wrong as Nogueira out-fought Henderson in the stand-up, out-fought Henderson on the ground, and ultimately got the armbar submission.

Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Yoon Dong Sik is a fight that I had Sakuraba winning by submission, and instead Sakuraba won by quick knockout. I did pick Mauricio "Shogun" Rua to beat Quinton Jackson by knockout because Jackson simply hasn't been the same fighter since he met up with Vanderlei Silva. Shogun did knock out Jackson as I expected, but there's no way I thought it would be as quick and one-sided as it was. Finally, I thought Vanderlei Silva would beat Hidehiko Yoshida by knockout, and Yoshida surpassed my expectations just as he did in the first fight with Vanderlei. While Silva did pick up the win by decision, it was a good fight in which Yoshida showed a ton of heart.

Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Pride Fighting Championships News

posted by Ivan Trembow at 3:22 PM

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Mixed Martial Arts--- Pride 26 takes place this weekend in Japan, and next week it will become the first Pride event to be available on InDemand pay-per-view in the United States. It looks to be a strong card with three very compelling fights at the top of the line-up, and four fights that appear to be mismatches making up the rest of the show. Pride needs this event to come through in a big way in order to build a customer base of American PPV buyers, and this card has all the potential in the world to do so.

These previews were originally written for and published on one of the top mixed martial arts web site on the planet, MMAWeekly. I am now a writer for MMAWeekly and will be writing MMA-related content for them in addition to Ivan's Blog. You can check out MMAWeekly for yourself at www.mmaweekly.com

Emelianenko Fedor vs. Kazuyuki Fujita (non-title fight)
I don't think there is anyone in MMA right now who is hotter than Emelianenko Fedor. That's a perception that tends to naturally spring up when you dominate Heath Herring and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira in back-to-back fights and become the Pride Heavyweight Champion. Fedor beat Heath Herring at his own game, grounding and pounding him into a bloody mess. In the fight with Nogueira, Fedor showed incredible submission defense and landed some of the hardest strikes on the ground that I have ever seen. With Fedor running through Herring and Nogueira as he did, I don't think Kazuyuki Fujita has much of a chance to do any better.

Fujita is a very tough fighter with an iron chin and a great ground-and-pound game, but it's difficult to picture him controlling the fight on the ground with Fedor. If Mirko Cro Cop can counter Fujita's ground game and control the fight en route to a unanimous decision victory, there's no reason to think that Fedor won't be able to do the same. I also don't see Fujita getting the best of Fedor with stand-up striker, and if he does, Fedor will take him down at will just like he took Herring and Nogueira down at will. This fight is going to be more competitive than some people might think, but the outcome is inevitable in my opinion. While I don't expect to see Fedor completely obliterate Fujita and win in less than five minutes, I do expect to see Fedor win by TKO or decision.

A TKO victory is more likely for two reasons, the first of which is that Fujita hasn't been particularly active recently, and he can't possibly be in the kind of shape that Fedor is in. Over the past two years, Fujita has competed in four MMA fights. Two of them were losses, and two of them were wins over fighters with a combined career record of 2-4. I do think that Fujita is going to show up in good shape and ready to go; I just think Fedor is going to be in better shape. I also believe that a TKO victory is more likely than a decision victory for Fedor because he always tries very hard to finish his fights. Minotauro Nogueira was semi-conscious during the last 5-10 minutes of their fight, and Fedor chose to keep pounding away. He could have just stalled on top of Nogueira and avoided the risk of being caught in one of Nogueira's many submission attempts, but he chose to go for the finish anyway. Fujita is one of the best heavyweight fighters to ever come out of Japan, but I don't think he has much of a chance to score the upset victory over Fedor. My Prediction: Fedor by TKO.

Mirko Cro Cop vs. Heath Herring
Herring vs. Cro Cop is an MMA dream match that stands a good chance of being the most competitive and exciting fight on this card. Herring is a world-class grappler with very good stand-up skills, and Cro Cop is a world-class kickboxer with a rapidly developing ground game. Herring is coming off a demoralizing loss to Emelianenko Fedor, while Cro Cop appears to have all of the momentum in the world on his side. In his last two fights with MMA rules, Cro Cop completely dominated Kazushi Sakuraba and then scored an impressive unanimous decision victory over Kazuyuki Fujita, whose style is comparable to Herring's. Cro Cop also dominated Bob Sapp in K-1 while handing Sapp his first ever loss in kickboxing.

There can be no doubt that Mirko Cro Cop is one of the most dangerous fighters in kickboxing and MMA, but I get the feeling that Herring is going to turn the tide of momentum and pick up a win in this fight. The first question that will be answered during this fight is whether or not Herring will try to stand up and trade strikes with Cro Cop. A lot of people are predicting that Herring will try to stand up with Cro Cop and get knocked out as a result, but I think Herring is smarter than that. I don't doubt for a minute that Cro Cop would knock out Herring if the fight remained in the stand-up position indefinitely, but it's overwhelmingly likely that Herring will try to take Cro Cop down and will succeed at that task.

The difference of the fight is going to be what happens when it inevitably goes to the ground. Cro Cop's ground game is improving at a fast pace, and it's a pretty safe bet that he punches very, very hard regardless of what position he's in. Herring is still going to have a huge advantage on the ground for at least two reasons: Herring is a lot stronger than Cro Cop, and Herring is part of that rare breed of fighter who is an expert at both submissions and ground-and-pound. Barring an out-of-nowhere knockout in the stand-up, which can't be discounted as a possibility, I'm picking Herring to control this fight on the ground and pull out the victory.

If Herring is able to finish off Cro Cop, it's just as likely to come by submission as it is by TKO. It's easy to forget that eleven of Herring's 20 career wins have been submission victories, and that doesn't even count fights in which his opponents submitted due to strikes. While a submission or TKO victory for Herring is a significant possibility, I believe that Cro Cop's ground defense is good enough, and his chin is strong enough, that he will be able to go the distance and last the full 20 minutes. Both of these fighters have bright futures in MMA, but I think this is going to be Herring's night. My Prediction: Herring by decision.

Mark Coleman vs. Don Frye
This is a dream match not only for fans of the early day UFC events, but also for fans of MMA in general. On the night of Mark Coleman's MMA debut, these two fighters met in an epic battle in which Frye took an insane amount of punishment and kept going until the referee stopped the fight. After that memorable night, Frye would later win the UFC's all-star "Ultimate Ultimate" tournament and then take almost five years off from the sport before returning in 2001. Meanwhile, Coleman has been to the top of the sport as the dominant UFC Heavyweight Champion, then to the bottom with a three-fight losing streak, and then back to the top as the winner of the first Pride Grand Prix. Coleman was the #1 heavyweight in the world going into his most recent MMA fight, which was a loss to Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira in late 2001. This rematch was originally scheduled to take place in June of last year, but it had to be postponed when Coleman suffered a career-threatening neck injury during training.

In addition to being MMA legends, Coleman and Frye have plenty of other things in common. They are almost identical in height and weight. They are close to each other in age, with Coleman being 38 and Frye being 37. They are both fulfilling the final fight on their current Pride contracts with this fight, and both of them could very well finish their careers back in the UFC. Coleman hasn't fought since he lost his status as the #1 heavyweight in the world to Nogueira in late 2001, but Coleman has a history of being able to come back strong after being out for 9-12 months. It remains to be seen if there's a difference between 9-12 months and 18 months in terms of how prepared Coleman is for this fight, but he's not going to suddenly stop being the great fighter that he has always been.

In Frye's case, he has been on somewhat of a downward slide over the past year, with his last shining accomplishment being his victory over Ken Shamrock in early 2002. Frye defeated Yoshihiro Takayama in a memorable fight about a year ago, but he seemed to "gas out" in a way that we normally don't see Don Frye gas out. After the Takayama fight, Frye made the poor decision to face Jerome LeBanner in a kickboxing match, where Frye was embarrassed and knocked out for the first time in his career. Finally, in November of last year Frye shamefully lost to Hidehiko Yoshida in a fight that may or may not have been worked (and sure as hell looked worked). If the fight was legitimate, Frye should be ashamed for losing to someone who was making his MMA debut. If the fight was worked, Frye should be ashamed of himself for agreeing to take a dive.

Leading up to this fight with Mark Coleman, all of the talk from Don Frye's camp has been that he has learned all kinds of new submission and takedown techniques while training with Frank Shamrock for the past couple of months. I believe that this will prove to be futile for Don Frye in this fight. When you've got 50 new techniques or strategies in your mind that you've never used before in an actual MMA fight, it's going to take a while for any fighter to properly adjust, especially someone like Don Frye who will be the first to tell you that he has been fighting the same kind of fight throughout his entire career. When you're going through this kind of drastic adjustment period, it's probably best to not have your first opponent be someone on the level of Mark Coleman. Frye has never been known as a submission specialist, and that's not going to change with a couple months of training. Coleman has only been submitted twice in his MMA career; once by Nogueira (who has submitted just about everyone) and once by Nobuhiko Takada in a worked fight (Coleman should also be ashamed to have taken a dive).

While Don Frye is trying to redefine himself as a fighter, Mark Coleman isn't, largely because he doesn't really need to. As the father of ground-and-pound offense in the UFC, I think it's fair to say that Coleman's fighting style has worked out pretty well for him. Coleman's ground-and-pound prowess makes it all the more puzzling to hear Don Frye say in an interview with our friends at MaxFighting that he plans to put Coleman on his back with a double-leg takedown, and that Coleman is susceptible to takedowns. Maybe I missed something, but since when is Coleman susceptible to takedowns? And since when is Frye's ground-and-pound game on the level of Coleman's? The ground-and-pound game is not what Frye should be trying to target in this fight, it's what he should be trying to avoid. I'm hoping for Frye's sake that he's just trying to throw Coleman off with this ground-and-pound talk.

Frye is clearly better at stand-up striking than Coleman, but the same can be said about Igor Vovchanchyn, Gary Goodridge, and plenty of other fighters that Coleman still managed to defeat. Also, the biggest weakness in Coleman's stand-up game is his vulnerability to kicks, and Frye has always been a fighter who is good at punching, but not really good at kicking. It's going to be a struggle, but I believe Coleman will be able to ground and pound his way to a victory like he has done so many times in the past. The X-factor in this fight is endurance. Frye gassed out in his fight against Takayama last year, but it's Coleman who has a long history of gassing out, even in many of his wins. With an 18-month lay-off from the sport, Coleman's endurance is all the more questionable. If Coleman runs out of gas and Frye doesn't, I have no doubt that Frye will be able to pick up a TKO victory, or possibly submit Coleman with one of his new submission techniques, or at the very least pound his way to a decision victory.

Unless Coleman gasses out, I see him winning this fight by decision. I'm predicting Coleman to win by decision rather than TKO simply because Don Frye is extremely hard to finish off. The first Coleman-Frye fight stands as proof of that, and so does Frye's refusal to tap out in his fight with Ken Shamrock despite suffering a torn meniscus and a broken ankle. My Prediction: Coleman by decision.

Quinton Jackson vs. Mikhail Illioukhine
This fight is more of a mismatch than most people think. Yes, Jackson thought his next fight wasn't going to be until August and he took this fight on a few weeks notice, but most of Jackson's fights in Pride have come on a few weeks notice (including his victory over Igor Vovchanchyn). Yes, Mikhail is a tough hombre who holds submission victories over Randy Couture and Igor Vovchanchyn, but the win over Igor was due to the ole' chin-in-the-eye-socket trick (which is illegal in Pride), and the win over Couture came in the Rings organization, where all kinds of restrictions are placed on striking. Most of Mikhail's success has come in Rings, and while that does count for something, he is nonetheless in for a rude awakening when he gets in the ring with Quinton "Rampage" Jackson in a full-contact fight.

If Mikhail is going to win this fight, he's going to have to catch Quinton in a submission. There is certainly a chance of that happening, but Mikhail's submission attempts will more than likely be nullified by Jackson's devastating striking on the ground, which could prove to be overwhelming even for a veteran like Mikhail. Rampage will probably win this fight by TKO, although Mikhail is sure to put up a good fight for as long as he can. Rampage could also win by knockout due to the fact that Mikhail is only 5-foot-9 and faces a big reach disadvantage, not to mention the fact that we all saw how dangerous Jackson's stand-up striking can be in his fight with Kevin Randleman. Besides the fact that most of his career has been spent in Rings with limited striking, Mikhail will also be hurt by the fact that he is 37 years old and is several years removed from his last big win. Mikhail has one win in the past two years (against a fighter with a 6-9 career record), and he hasn't fought at all since May of 2002. My Prediction: Jackson by TKO.

Anderson Silva vs. Daiju Takase
This match-up serves as an example that Pride still has plenty of room for improvement in their goal of appealing to the international audience with fewer mismatches. Anderson Silva will probably be held out of the Pride Middleweight Grand Prix in favor of his teammate Murilo "Ninja" Rua, so he could have been matched up with just about any light-heavyweight or middleweight on this show. Out of all these possibilities, the best Pride could come up with Daiju Takase. Takase made a name for himself by beating an out-of-shape Sumo wrestling in the early days of Pride, and since then, his one and only notable win came in 2001 against LaVerne Clark on a Pancrase show. Takase has a career record of 4-7, and he has no business being on the grand stage of Pride fighting someone on the level of Anderson Silva. On the bright side, at least Pride resisted the temptation to put on more fights like Alexander Otsuka vs. Kenichi Yamamoto.

Mismatches like this one only serve to make Pride resemble a circus. On top of that, these gross mismatches are far more dangerous than the average MMA bout. Pride should adopt a UFC-like policy with fighters like Takase where it's a case of, "Okay, your career record is 4-7. Go prove yourself on smaller shows, and if you do extremely well, then we might give you another opportunity on the big show." Opportunities to fight in an organization like Pride should not be passed out on a random basis, or just because someone is Japanese. Takase might be able to last a while with Silva through the use of defensive grappling, but that's only if the fight goes to the ground. Eventually, Silva's combination of punches, kicks, and knees will render Takase unconscious, and it's not going to be pretty. If Anderson Silva was able to brutally knock out a world-class fighter like Carlos Newton in a split second with a knee that came out of nowhere, what do you think he's going to do to Daiju Takase. This is going to be a mauling, and when someone eventually gets seriously injured in one of these gross mismatches, the executives at Pride will have no one to blame but themselves. My Prediction: Silva by KO.

Alistair Overeem vs. Mike Bencic
This fight appears to be another gross mismatch, but in this case Pride is not entirely to blame. Overeem was originally scheduled to fight Ricardo Arona, who pulled out of the fight with a severe case of the flu. With only two weeks to find a replacement and with Murilo Bustamante temporarily stuck in Brazil due to visa problems, there were still plenty of potential candidates to replace Arona (including Jeremy Horn). The fighter that Pride finally settled on was Mike Bencic, who has never been in an MMA fight and is best known as Mirko Cro Cop's Jiu-Jitsu instructor. Bencic could very well be a good fighter, but it's rumored that Pride only chose him because he was already planning to fly in with Mirko Cro Cop. It doesn't sound unlike Pride to do that, and if this rumor is indeed true, it's ridiculous. Pride can throw around six-figure paychecks like they're going out of style, but they can't spring for one more plane ticket to bring in a more qualified opponent?

Regardless of his lack of MMA experience, Bencic must be a pretty good submission grappler to be training Mirko Cro Cop in that field, and apparently he also has a background in boxing and kickboxing. He could probably beat a lot of fighters with comparable levels of MMA experience, but he's going to be in there fighting Alistair Overeem. Alistair is the younger and seemingly more talented brother of Valentijn Overeem. Alistair Overeem started off his career with a record of 4-3 when he was just 19 and 20 years old. Since then, Overeem has won eleven fights in a row and has looked more and more impressive with each passing fight. Overeem most recently knocked out the very tough (and previously undefeated) Volk Atajev at Pride 24, and then submitted Aaron Brink with ease at an event in Holland. Overeem has shown the ability to finish fights with the method of his choice (KO, TKO, or submission), with not one of his 15 career wins being a decision victory. Overeem is still just 23 years old and is constantly improving. Mike Bencic is 37 years old, he's making his MMA debut, and he's going to have a big reach disadvantage against the 6-foot-4 Overeem. Put two and two together, and it seems extremely likely that Overeem will extend his winning streak to 12. My Prediction: Overeem by TKO.

Antonio "Elvis" Schembri vs. Kazuhiro Hamanaka
This match-up has a very good chance of resembling Pride 25's fight between Rogerio Nogueira and Kazuhiro Nakamura. Nakamura was making his MMA debut and was thoroughly dominated by Nogueira before losing by submission in the second round. Now we've got Hamanaka making his MMA debut against Antonio "Elvis" Schembri, who brutally knocked out Kazushi Sakuraba at Pride 25. Schembri was sort of thrown to the wolves at Pride 25 with the expectation that the struggling Sakuraba would pick up an easy win. It looked like that was going to be the case, with Schembri having some pretty clumsy striking, and seemingly just waiting for an opportunity that didn't look like it was coming. Sure enough, about midway through the first round, such an opportunity did present itself. Sakuraba went for one of his signature Mongolian Chops, and in the process got caught with a vicious knee to the face.

People who say that Schembri's knockout was completely based on luck need to go back and watch the end of the fight. Even if one assumes that the first knee was just a lucky strike, the beautiful striking combination that followed certainly wasn't, nor was Schembri's instinct to pound on Sakuraba and make sure he was going to stay down. No one would argue that Schembri is a dangerous striker in most of his fights, but just having the ability to be that explosive is probably giving Hamanaka nightmares. There's no real choice here other than to predict that Schembri will win. We know that Schembri is an accomplished Jiu-Jitsu competitor who has looked impressive in his first three MMA fights, all of which have been victories. On the other hand, what do we know as fans about Kazuhiro Hamanaka? Well, we know that he's making his MMA debut, and we know that he's a member of the Takada Dojo. We also know that with the exception of Kazushi Sakuraba, everyone to come out of the Takada Dojo has been a horrible failure in MMA, most notably Takada himself. You can never be 100% sure about the outcome of any MMA fight, but I think it's a pretty safe bet that Schembri will be picking up another victory against Hamanaka. My Prediction: Schembri by submission.

Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Pride Fighting Championships News

posted by Ivan Trembow at 6:00 PM

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Mixed Martial Arts--- This Sunday's Pride 25 event from Japan boasts a main event that could very well be the Fight of the Year for 2003. Antonio "Minotauro" Nogueira, who is undefeated in mixed martial arts, will put his Pride Heavyweight Championship on the line against Emelianenko Fedor, who is coming off a jaw-droppingly impressive performance against heavyweight powerhouse Heath Herring.

I don't think most MMA fans have fully appreciated the significance of the Nogueira-Fedor fight in recent weeks. In every MMA media poll, Minotauro is always ranked as the #1 heavyweight in the world (with good reason), while Ricco Rodriguez is #2 and Fedor is #3. Now that Ricco is going to be out for a while after knee surgery, that means we're going to see the top two active heavyweights in the sport face off. It has been years since that has happened in any MMA organization, and it will likely be years before it happens again. Anyone who doubts the fact that Fedor is the real deal should watch his fight with Heath Herring, in which the previously indestructible Herring was systematically dismantled by Fedor's brutal ground-and-pound attacks from bell to bell.

At the same time, all you have to do is look at the year Minotauro had in 2002 to see why he is such a powerful force. He beat Enson Inoue via submission due to a triangle choke, he knocked out Sanae Kikuta with a straight right hand, he submitted the 6-foot-11 Semmy Schilt with a triangle choke, and he scored an armbar submission victory over Dan Henderson in an epic battle at the end of the year. Oh yeah, and he also forced the seemingly unstoppable Bob Sapp to tap out to an armbar, despite having an injured back and despite Sapp's almost God-like strength and size, in a fight where Nogueira showed more heart and guts than I have ever seen any fighter display in any fight.

Fedor doesn't have the size or strength of Bob Sapp (nor does anyone else), but his punches on the ground are going to be more measured than Sapp's, his endurance is less likely to fail him, and he has much more experience fighting top-level mixed martial artists. If Fedor is going to win this fight, it's going to be via ground and pound. Nogueira took an amazing amount of punishment from Bob Sapp and kept going, but no one is invincible, and anyone can get knocked out on the ground or battered into a TKO via referee's stoppage.

As Joe Hall recently pointed out in an excellent piece on MaxFighting, Minotauro is unlike submission masters that have come before him, in the sense that he doesn't sit back and wait for an opening to appear, and then take advantage of that opening to attempt a submission. He can do that with the best of them if he wants to, but he prefers a non-stop barrage of submission attacks, transitioning beautifully from one submission to the next and always leaving his opponent guessing. You can't defend against one particular submission against Nogueira without leaving another part of you vulnerable to attack. You have to fight with the knowledge that at any second, he could secure a submission hold on your legs, ankles, arms, or neck. There's no time to mount much of an offense of your own when you're trying to fight off a dizzying array of submission attempts from the best submission artist in the world.

Trying to stand up and trade strikes with Minotauro is generally not a good idea, since he is a better kickboxer than most MMA fighters (as evidenced in several of his fights during 2002). Even if you are a better stand-up fighter than Nogueira and can afford to trade strikes with him, there's no way to get out of the fact that Nogueira is going to take you down to the mat if he chooses so. You might be able to escape a few takedown attempts if you're lucky, but that's just delaying the inevitable. If Nogueira can take down Bob Sapp (who has 360 pounds of muscle on his side), he can take down anyone.

Ultimately, Fedor is not as good at submissions as Minotauro, he's not as good at stand-up fighting as Minotauro, and he's not as good at takedowns as Minotauro. Nonetheless, the Fedor-Herring fight showed that Fedor can hang with the best heavyweight fighters in the world, and he could very well have the best chance of any MMA fighter at dethroning Nogueira. It's entirely conceivable that Fedor could win by TKO, but I believe that if Fedor were to win, it would be more likely to come by decision. All he has to do is ground and pound Nogueira, dish out a lot of punishment throughout the fight, and last 20 minutes without getting caught in a submission. Sounds easy enough, but it's the most difficult task that any mixed martial artist could face. The history of MMA dictates that Nogueira is going to have to lose sometime, to somebody, but I'm picking him to prolong his historic winning streak and defeat Fedor by submission.

Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Pride Fighting Championships News

posted by Ivan Trembow at 11:15 PM

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Mixed Martial Arts--- Pride 25 takes place this Sunday in Yokohama, Japan, and with it comes good news to MMA fans worldwide. Apparently, the rumors of Pride's death have been greatly exaggerated. While Pride is going to be changing its focus, it's not in the way that many people thought. Dream Stage Entertainment is not selling Pride, or shutting it down, or starting from scratch with a new name, or releasing half of its roster, or cutting everyone's pay in half, etc. What they ARE doing is catering more to the American MMA audience while still doing enough to remain popular in Japan. This means more big-name fighters will be appearing in Pride rather than less, this means that we can say goodbye to the days of Japanese pro wrestlers with no MMA qualifications taking up half the card, and best of all, it means that you will no longer need a satellite dish in order to see Pride on American pay-per-view.

That's right, Dream Stage has signed a deal with InDemand, and starting this summer all Pride PPVs will be available to every home that has cable television. This means that Pride PPV events will be available for purchase in just as many households as UFC events. The UFC having added competition in the US marketplace can only be a good thing for Pride, the UFC, and MMA as a whole. In addition, after the incredible success of the first Pride Grand Prix tournament back in 2000, this year will see not one, but two more Grand Prix tournaments. One of them will be an eight-man heavyweight tournament, and one of them will be an eight-man middleweight tournament (in Pride's case, a middleweight is anyone under 205 pounds). Some of the biggest names in the sport are going to be competing in these tournaments, which will have their first rounds on a show in August and their remaining rounds on a separate show in October or November.

In the meantime, we are barely 24 hours away from the most loaded Pride event that has taken place in a very long time. Two of the best light-heavyweights in the world (Kevin Randleman and Quinton Jackson) will square off with a shot at Vanderlei Silva's title on the line. Two of the top three welterweight fighters in the world (Anderson Silva and Carlos Newton) will fight in what promises to be a fascinating contrast of styles. Best of all, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira will attempt to defend his Pride Heavyweight Championship against the Russian freight train Emelianenko Fedor. My thoughts on the Nogueira-Fedor fight are included in a separate update that is directly above this one.

The fight that is second from the top on this show matches up two fighters whose styles are mirror images of each other. Quinton "Rampage" Jackson and Kevin Randleman are two extremely effective ground-and-pound stylists with top-notch amateur wrestling backgrounds. Randleman has won his first three fights in Pride, while Jackson has steamrolled through the competition, most impressively in a lopsided victory over Pride legend Igor Vovchanchyn. I was very surprised to see that the Las Vegas odds on this fight heavily favor Randleman. Jackson, seemingly, does everything that Randleman does, only better. His style is dangerous for his opponents in much the same way as Bob Sapp's, only with more speed, technique, endurance, etc.

Both Jackson and Randleman were surprisingly dominant in recent fights against big-name opponents (with Jackson defeating Vovchanchyn and Randleman defeating Murilo "Ninja" Rua). However, I would say that Jackson was much more dominant in his victory over Vovchanchyn than Randleman was in his victory over Ninja. Also, you have to consider Randleman's history of inconsistency throughout his career. He beat Maurice Smith, and then laid on the ground motionless for ten minutes in a loss to Bas Rutten. He scored decision victories over second-tier fighters in Pete Williams and Pedro Rizzo, only to then get shut down by Randy Couture and knocked out by Chuck Liddell. Yes, Randleman's trainer and mentor Mark Coleman had a losing streak and then made it back to the top of the sport, but Kevin Randleman is no Mark Coleman by any stretch of the imagination.

Also, he looked less than impressive in his first two Pride fights, both of which were against Japanese fighters with horrible records and little to no MMA qualifications. While he did manage to win the second of those two fights via TKO, the first fight where he won by decision was downright disgraceful. Watch a tape of that fight, or the first 15 minutes of his second Pride fight, and it will only reinforce Randleman's well-deserved reputation for getting "gassed out" easily and spending large amounts of time during his fights literally doing nothing. Quinton Jackson is the complete opposite, with an aggressive style and an arsenal of takedowns that are so powerful and dangerous, they can end fights in and of themselves. His ground and pound attack is unrelenting, making it clear to see that he has spend a considerable amount of time training with Tito Ortiz and Ricco Rodriguez. Jackson's stand-up fighting skills should not be underestimated and are arguably better than Randleman's. Randleman could surprise me just like he did in his fight against Murilo Ninja, but I believe the more likely scenario is Quinton Jackson going in there and beating Kevin Randleman at his own game. Even if the punishment dished out on the ground is equal among both fighters, Randleman is still likely to lose, if for no other reason because of sheer exhaustion. I'm picking Jackson by TKO.

In another potential Fight of the Year candidate, Carlos Newton faces off with Anderson Silva. This is a dream fight where anything can, and probably will, happen. It also presents the most interesting clash of styles that I can ever remembering seeing in MMA. Anderson Silva is one of the most dangerous stand-up fighters in MMA, while Newton was an iron chin that has never more evident than in his last Pride fight, where he absorbed the mother of all knees to the face from Jose "Pele" Landi and won by submission two minutes later. Newton is a submission master who usually makes winning by tap-out look easy, while Silva has very good submission skills of his own to go along with his excellent submission defense. Both fighters are fairly susceptible to ground and pound, but there's no doubt in this case that Newton is the bigger and stronger fighter. This fight is going to have me on the edge of my seat in anticipation of who's going to win and how they're going to do it. Anderson Silva could very well win this fight by knockout or even submission, but I'm going to pick Newton to win by submission, or possibly by decision if Silva's submission defense is too good. As dangerous as Anderson Silva is, Newton is simply too well-versed in the art of submissions for me to pick against him.

Pride 25 will also see one of the best MMA fighters of all time start his path back to glory, or greatly accelerate his ride down the mountain, as Kazushi Sakuraba squares off with Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu sensation Antonio "Nino" Schembri. Pride's matchmakers wanted to put Sakuraba up against someone who is not a world-class fighter on this show, but apparently someone forgot to tell them about Schembri's impressive string of submission victories in Brazil. But regardless of how good or bad of a fighter Schembri is, I'm still picking him to win, and I was downright shocked to see how heavily the Vegas odds (and MMA journalist predictions) are stacked in Sakuraba's favor.

No one was better than Sakuraba at his peak, but he has sadly become a shell of his former self. I can overlook the fact that Sakuraba lost to Vanderlei Silva twice, since Vanderlei is one of the top fighters in the sport. But what has Sakuraba done since then? He has gotten horribly out of shape, he has continued to pick at and worsen his injuries rather than allowing them to heal for once, he has admitted in several interviews to being an alcoholic, and he has put in two extremely unimpressive performances in a row. Yes, his loss to Mirko Cro Cop was due to an eye injury, but he was getting completely dominated by Cro Cop from the beginning of the fight, before the eye injury was ever suffered. I can remember watching dumbfounded as Sakuraba, who is a submission master, was controlled and dominated on the ground by Mirko Cro Cop, who is a kickboxer who had previously displayed little or no skill at ground fighting.

Even worse than Sakuraba's loss to Cro Cop was his victory over Gilles Arsene, who was brought in by Pride's matchmakers specifically to give Sakuraba a tomato can to beat up on. What started as merely a mind-numbingly boring fight quickly became a full-fledged disgrace as Sakuraba spent a large percentage of the fight doing nothing. Arsene spent the vast majority of the fight motionless in the fetal position, and Sakuraba spent most of the fight on top of him, NOT mounting any kind of attack except for the occasional slap. Sakuraba should be ashamed of himself and embarrassed to have put in that kind of performance. There's no way to tell for sure, but it appears that the innovative submission expert Sakuraba no longer exists. In his place is a shell of the Sakuraba that we all knew and loved, a fighter who would be likely to lose to any competent fighter, much less a Jiu-Jitsu expert from Brazil. I'm hoping that Sakuraba proves me wrong and makes Pride 25 the beginning of his ride back to the top of the sport, but I just don't see it happening. Until he drinks less, trains more, gets back into shape, and gives his injuries time to heal, I don't see Sakuraba beating any decent fighter, and I'm picking him to lose to Schembri by submission or decision.

The four fights at the bottom of this card pale in comparison to the four fights at the top of the card, but most of them are still interesting in their own ways. In a fight that is one step away from Minotauro vs. Yoshida (which is going to happen eventually and is going to be a one-sided mauling when it does), Minotauro's brother Rogerio faces off with Yoshida's top student, Kazuhiro Nakamura. Nakamura has never accomplished anything in MMA, while Rogerio is a lot more than just "Minotauro's brother." Any doubt that Rogerio can hang with top-level fighters was erased in his recent one-sided victory over Guy Mezger. It was no surprise to see Rogerio out-grapple Mezger and control the submission game, but to see him dominate in stand-up fighting against a kickboxer on the high level of Mezger was a huge surprise. Rogerio appears to be even better at stand-up fighting than his twin brother. I'm picking Rogerio Nogueira to win this fight by submission. Also, if Rogerio can keep the fight standing, and if he chooses to keep the fight standing, he could very well win by knockout.

In another fight that will pose a nice contrast of styles, Alex Steibling will face Akira Shoji. Steibling was thought to be one of the rising stars of MMA until being dismantled in his last two fights, against Anderson Silva and Marvin Eastman. Shoji has displayed an all-around good fighting arsenal, and gone the distance with many of MMA's finest, while still losing to most of them. If Steibling has gone back to training hard with Bas Rutten instead of worrying about cultivating his "Brazilian Killa" persona and worrying about his image, then I think he could still be a force to be reckoned with in MMA. Anything less than that level of commitment will result in a sure loss to a crafty veteran like Shoji, but I'm going to pick Steibling to put his losing streak behind him and win by decision.

Dan Henderson is one of the best and most well-rounded fighters in MMA. Shungo Oyama has had six fights in his career, he has lost four of those six fights, and he looked like a sub-par fighter even in his biggest victory. Somehow the matchmakers at Pride decided that it would be a good idea to match these two up against each other, and it's this kind of policy that has caused Henderson to seriously consider jumping to the UFC when his Pride contract expires (which just happens to be after this fight). Anything can happen in mixed martial arts, but in this case I think we'll see exactly what most people expect. Henderson is going to dominate the fight and win in whatever manner he chooses, whether it's by knockout, submission, or a ground-and-pound strategy leading to a TKO.

In the least anticipated fight on the card by far, Alexander Otsuka faces off with Kenichi Yamamoto. With fighters like Mario Sperry wanting to be on this show and getting turned down by Pride's management, does Pride really believe that anyone wants to see someone with a 3-4 career record in MMA fight someone with a 2-12 record? This fight is unlikely to be shown on the American pay-per-view broadcast, but I'm going to pick a winner anyway. I'll pick Otsuka to win if for no other reason because he has shown some level of toughness during his career, as wildly unsuccessful as it's been. Neither fighter can say, "Look at all the fighters I've beaten" if they are trying to convince someone that they're going to win this or any other fight, but at least Otsuka can say, "Look at all the fighters I've lasted a long time against." Otsuka has lasted more than 15 minutes with Igor Vovchanchyn, Vanderlei Silva, and Anderson Silva, and it takes some amount of toughness to do that. I'm picking Otsuka to win this fight on that basis alone.

Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Pride Fighting Championships News

posted by Ivan Trembow at 11:11 PM

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Mixed Martial Arts--- It's quite the historic weekend for mixed martial arts, with UFC 40 on Friday and Pride on Sunday. The Pride card from the Tokyo Dome in Japan looks impressive, but also has its fair share of the mismatches that have become Pride's signature. I understand that a lot of the scheduled fighters went down with injuries during training, including Mario Sperry, Mirko Cro-Cop, and Kazuyuki Fujita. But what about the other talent that was apparently lined up and ready to go? Where are Dan Henderson, Rogerio Nogueira, and Anderson Silva? Why are they not on the card, while several MMA punching bags with little-to-no MMA experience are on the card?

Regardless, I would still say that I am looking forward to several of the matches scheduled for this event. First and foremost on my mind is the highly-anticipated showdown between Ricardo Arona and Murilo "Ninja" Rua. Outside of Tito Ortiz vs. Ken Shamrock, Arona vs. Ninja is the fight that I am looking forward to the most this weekend. These are two young, talented fighters in the prime of their careers, in great shape and just coming off impressive wins over big-name stars. Arona scored a victory over perennial top five light-heavyweight Dan Henderson, while Ninja beat jiu-jitsu legend Mario Sperry in one of the most exciting MMA fights that any of us will ever see. A win in this fight could push either fighter into an immediate title shot.

Arona vs. Ninja is an evenly-matched fight that could go in a lot of different directions. I don't think the fight will end in a submission because both fighters are so good at countering them, as evidenced by Ninja getting out of an endless barrage of submission attempts from submission master Mario Sperry. I believe that it's ultimately going to come down to two things: Stand-up ability, and stamina. In both of those categories, I would have to give the edge to Ninja. Arona is no slouch as a kickboxer, but Ninja can stand up and trade punches with the best of them, and is far more dangerous on his feet than Arona.

If Arona is going to win before the time limit expires, it would probably be with the ground-and-pound strategy, but that strategy generally works best when you have more conditioning and lasting power than your opponent. Endurance in later rounds is actually something that pushed Arona over the top in victories against Guy Mezger and Dan Henderson, but no one in Pride and maybe even all of MMA can match Ninja in that area. You wouldn't know it from looking at him, but Ninja has proven time and time again that he has more stamina and heart than just about anyone. The only thing that's certain in this one is that it's going to be one hell of a fight. I'm picking Murilo "Ninja" Rua to win, and I think it is most likely to be a decision victory since these two are so evenly matched.

Elsewhere on the card, Pride's Heavyweight Champion, Antonio Rodrigo "Minotauro" Nogueira, faces the 6-foot-11 Dutch kickboxer Semmy Shilt in a non-title fight. Shilt is a damn good kickboxer thanks largely to his long reach, but he hasn't had much success in mixed martial arts due to his lack of ground-fighting skills. Most fighters who are even moderately proficient at ground-and-pound or submissions have had no problem taking Shilt down and defeating him. So, it stands to reason that the #1 submission artist in the world and the #1 fighter in the world, period, shouldn't have much of a problem in this fight. I'm picking Minotauro by submission. By the way, it's going to be a tough couple of weeks for Semmy Shilt, because not only does he face Minotauro on Sunday in a mixed martial arts bout, but in early December he is scheduled for a K-1 kickboxing bout against the 6-foot-8, 380-pounds-of-muscle Bob Sapp.

In the only title fight on the card, Light-Heavyweight Champion Vanderlei Silva goes up against Hiromitsu Kanehara. While Kanehara does have a TKO victory over Dave Menne on his resume, that's just about the only victory against an accomplished fighter that he's ever had. He's more qualified than some of the scrubs that Pride puts in the ring, but with a 10-7 mixed martial arts record, he has no business being in the ring with Vanderlei Silva fighting for the Light-Heavyweight Title at one of Pride's biggest shows of the year. Kanehara is a veteran of the Rings fighting organization in Japan, where the rules severely restrict strikes to the head. He's not used to getting punched in the head by a mid-level fighter, much less one of the quickest and most dangerous strikers in all of MMA. This is a typical Pride mismatch that Vanderlei is going to easily win by knockout.

With a title shot against Minotauro Nogueira going to the winner, the stakes are high for the heavyweight fight between Heath Herring and Emelianenko Fedor. Fedor is a tough guy that can take a lot of punishment, but Heath Herring is one of the most underrated heavyweight fighters in the world. If he went to the UFC right now, he could immediately fight for the Heavyweight Title and have a decent chance of winning it. In much the same way that Tito Ortiz has his own signature style of ground-and-pound that employs the use of devastating elbows to the head, Herring has his own style of ground-and-pound that focuses on equally devastating knees to the head. Herring is a big guy with excellent conditioning, and I fully expect to see him ground and pound his way to a victory over Fedor. If Heath Herring does win and goes on to face Minotauro, I still think that Herring has less than a 50 percent chance of winning, but he would probably have a higher chance of winning than just about any other fighter in MMA. Minotauro and Herring faced off in late 2001 in a classic, back-and-forth struggle that Minotauro ended up winning by unanimous decision, and I'm frothing at the mouth right now at the thought of a Minotauro-Herring rematch.

It's going to be fun to watch in a sadistic sort of way when MMA legend Don Frye goes up against Hidehiko Yoshida. Yoshida is the kind of guy that a lot of people (including me) love to hate. This is due to the fact that Yoshida still claims he choked out Royce Gracie at the Pride Shockwave event this past summer, even though the instant replay clearly shows that he didn't even have pressure applied to Gracie's neck, much less choke him out. Yoshida is an Olympic gold medalist in judo, which doesn't mean much in mixed martial arts, other than maybe taking your opponent to the ground and then not knowing what to do offensively when you get there. Yoshida's fight with Gracie was a submission grappling match with no striking allowed, and this is his MMA debut. Making your MMA debut against Don Frye would be the equivalent of someome making his boxing debut against Oscar de la Hoya. Yoshida is going to lose by knockout in embarrassing fashion, and it couldn't happen to a more appropriate guy.

In the fight that will be the most nerve-wracking to watch, Kazushi Sakuraba returns to face off against some guy named Gilles Arsene who almost no one in the MMA community has ever even heard of. You would think Sakuraba would have no problem disposing of his unknown opponent, except for one little fact: He's fighting with a broken eye socket. Sakuraba's eye socket bone was broken in a TKO loss to Mirko Cro-Cop less than two months ago. In addition to his chronic shoulder and knee problems, Sakuraba's eye socket has barely begun to heal, and he is still having vision problems. And yet here he is, fighting nonetheless because his friend and mentor Nobuhiko Takada is having his retirement match on the same show. It's commendable to want to honor your mentor by fighting on his retirement show, but to risk long-term vision loss and facial damage with this kind of injury is just plain stupid. I'm picking Sakuraba to beat his no-name opponent by submission like he has done to so many other fighters over the years. I just hope that no permanent damage is done to Sakuraba's eyesight or face in the process.

Kevin Randleman burst onto the MMA scene a few years back with an impressive victory over former UFC Champion Maurice Smith, but his career has been on a downward spiral for a while now. Randleman made his Pride debut in September against a Japanese man named Michiyoshi Ohara who has almost MMA experience or discernable skill. Despite his opponent's apparent lack of knowledge about anything related to fighting, Randleman was unable to finish off his opponent within the 20-minute time limit. Instead, Randleman quickly got winded and started sucking air like he was on the 25th mile of a 26-mile marathon, despite the fact that he hadn't really done much of anything. For the majority of the painful-to-watch fight, Randleman just stood there, horribly out of shape, occasionally landing a strike on his ridiculously unqualified opponent. Randleman is going to win again on Sunday, but only because Pride has put him up against another unknown with little-to-no MMA experience, Kenichi Yamamoto. Randleman better be thankful for the easy opponents he's been given so far in Pride, because at this point absolutely anyone who is a mid-level or higher mixed martial artist would probably tear Randleman apart.

I have saved this fight for last since it's more of a joke than a fight, and one that perhaps one or two dozen people outside of Japan care about. Nobuhiko Takada, the perennial embarrassment to both his country and mixed martial arts in general, is having his so-called "retirement match" against Kiyoshi Tamura. Takada gained his reputation in Japan in the UWFI, a "strong-style" pro wrestling organization where the fights might have appeared to be real at first glance, but in fact the outcomes were just as pre-determined as those in any other pro wrestling company. In general, pro wrestling matches with pre-determined outcomes are often incredibly entertaining to watch, but it's dishonest for a company like the UWFI to have based its entire promotion on the concept of the fake fights supposedly being real.

In Pride, Takada lost quickly on two separate occasions to Rickson Gracie, only because Gracie turned down several huge-money offers to throw the fight and let Takada win. The only wins that Takada has ever had in any MMA organization were against Mark Coleman, Kyle Sturgeon, and Alexander Otsuka. It is now common knowledge in the MMA community that his win over Coleman was fixed, and came at a low point in Coleman's career when he desperately needed a big payday. Most suspect that Takada's wins over Sturgeon and Otsuka were pre-determined as well. In any fight that Takada has ever fought that was legitimate and without a pre-determined outcome, he has lost decisively and embarrassingly. Some of those losses were just plain disgraceful, like his loss to Royce Gracie where Takada just hung on to Gracie and literally attempted one offensive move (a punch) in the entire 20+ minute bout.

If Takada vs. Tamura is a legitimate fight, then of course Tamura is going to win. Tamura was able to last for a while and actually land a few shots on Vanderlei Silva, and there's no way in hell that Takada would be able to do that. The more likely scenario is that it's not going to be a legitimate a fight, and Takada will win. He'll end his fraudulent career with a fraudulent win in a fraudulent fight. Congratulations, man, way to go out on top...

Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Pride Fighting Championships News

posted by Ivan Trembow at 6:55 PM

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Mixed Martial Arts--- Say what you will about the unbalanced match-making in the recent "Pride: Shockwave" mixed martial arts event, but one thing remains clear: People are going to be talking about and remembering Shockwave for many years to come. The atmosphere of the event with 91,000 screaming fans in an outdoor stadium in Japan has never been matched by any other MMA event, but it was the in-ring action that was most impressive. The classic Minotauro vs. Bob Sapp match wasn't the only thing that was memorable.

The most controversial fight on the card was Judo gold medalist Hidehiko Yoshida making his MMA debut by appearing to choke out MMA legend Royce Gracie, who was appearing in his first fight since losing to Kazushi Sakuraba over two years ago. As Yoshida got his hand raised and the crowd went nuts, there was just one little problem with this scenario. The instant replay clearly showed that Gracie hadn't been choked out at all.

He sprung up to protest the ref's stoppage of the fight immediately after Yoshida released the hold, which is pretty hard to do when you're unconscious. Furthermore, not only did the reverse-angle instant replay show that Gracie was moving and was most definitely conscious right before the ref stopped the fight, but Yoshida didn't even have his forearm on Gracie's throat. Choking a man out by applying pressure to his mouth and chin rather than his throat is a neat trick; I ought to try that sometime. The only fair solution to this mess is to sign an immediate rematch and this time make sure that no one stops the fight until one of the fighters is choked out or tapped out.

Shockwave's hardest fight to watch as a long-time fan of Don Frye was his fight under K-1 kickboxing rules against champion kickboxer Jerome LeBanner. First of all, just accepting a match with kickboxing rules against a champion kickboxer shows that Don Frye has balls the sizes of church bells (as Frye himself once said about an opponent). Unfortunately, the inevitable happened and Frye got brutally knocked out. The image of Frye slumped over, unconscious in the corner of the ring as the ref frantically stopped the fight, is something that's going to stay with American MMA fans for a very long time.

So what's next for Frye? Well, for starters, how about no more K-1 matches against K-1 champions? Frye has gone on record in the past few months saying that the only two MMA fights he really wants at this point are a shot at the champion Antonio "Minotauro" Nogueira and a rematch against Mark Coleman, the only man to ever beat Frye in mixed martial arts competition. I would love to see the Coleman fight and the winner would really be a toss-up, but I think Minotauro would probably beat Frye by submission (as he would against most anyone else in the world).

As for Jerome LeBanner, he has now joined the Brazilian Chute Boxe Team full-time, which means that he is training for full-fledged MMA competition with some of the very best in the world, such as Vanderlei Silva, Anderson Silva, Murilo "Ninja" Rua, and Jose "Pele" Landi. If the Chute Boxe guys can teach LeBanner how to fight on the ground and LeBanner can help the Chute Boxe guys increase their already incredible stand-up fighting skills, the rest of the MMA community better hang on to their wigs and keys, because the Chute Boxe guys are going to be even more of a force to be reckoned with than they already are.

I was very surprised that accomplished kickboxer Mirko Cro-Cop agreed to fight MMA legend Kazushi Sakuraba under normal mixed martial arts rules, and I was even more surprised to see Cro-Cop dominate the entire fight until it had to be stopped in the second round due to Saku's broken orbital (eye socket) bone. It was Saku's first match back since losing to Vanderlei Silva and suffering an injured shoulder last year, and I figured he would be back with a vengeance. However, I didn't count on just how far Mirko Cro-Cop has progressed as an MMA fighter, and apparently Sakuraba didn't either. Unfortunately, due to his ongoing knee and shoulder problems as well as his newly-broken orbital bone, Sakuraba is going to be out of action for at least 8-10 months.

As for the rest of the Shockwave line-up, it was ridiculous for the judges to call the Ernesto Hoost vs. Semmy Shilt kickboxing match a draw given that Semmy controlled the entire fight. Vanderlei Silva made quick and brutal work of Tatsuya Iwasaki, but one has to wonder just what in the hell Iwasaki was doing in the ring with a machine like Silva in the first place given that Iwasaki has never done anything in MMA. As for Gary Goodridge's thorough domination of Lloyd Van Dam, that's normally what happens when you put a mixed martial artist in the ring against a boxer or kickboxer with no-holds-barred rules. The boxer gets taken to the ground and gets the crap beaten out of him. Anyone who thinks that, say, Lennox Lewis could touch Tito Ortiz in a no-holds-barred fight should watch the Goodridge vs. Van Dam fight, or countless other fights, for evidence to the contrary.

Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Pride Fighting Championships News

posted by Ivan Trembow at 1:14 PM

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Mixed Martial Arts--- The fight at the recent "Pride Shockwave" event in Japan between 200-pound Heavyweight Champion Antonio "Minotauro" Nogueira and the 6-foot-8, 380-pounds-of-muscle Bob Sapp was in some ways the best mixed martial arts match I have ever seen, and certainly the most amazing to watch. Sapp looked virtually unbeatable in his previous fights against lesser opponents, and he received the test of a lifetime against the #1 submission artist in the world. Going into the fight, I honestly expected Minotauro to dispose of Sapp quickly via submission like he has done to so many other opponents. However, it quickly became clear that Sapp wasn't kidding when he said that he had been doing extensive submission-counter training with Josh Barnett and Maurice Smith, who are no slouches in their own right.

The sight of the Brazilian tirelessly going for takedown after takedown until he finally took the big man to the mat is something that I will never forget. Equally memorable was the sight of Bob Sapp showing off his submission-countering skills and simply overpowering Minotauro at every opportunity. After the first few minutes of the fight, as I watched Sapp pound on a bloody Minotauro and counter every submission attempt with raw strength, I thought that there was no way in hell Minotauro could possibly win the fight. Minotauro kept going for triangle choke after triangle choke, at which point Sapp would simply lift him up and slam him down violently-- and any one of those slams could have rendered Minotauro unconscious (see Hughes vs. Newton #1 for an example).

Going into the second round, I was amazed simply by the fact that Minotauro was still conscious and still fighting. I certainly didn't expect to see what I saw near the end of round two, nor could I believe my eyes as the events unfolded. Here's Minotauro, working for and finally getting the full-mount position on top of Sapp, raining down blows as Sapp doesn't know what to do and looks almost helpless for the first time in his career. I see one of Sapp's arms... extended, out of position a little bit to the left, and it causes me to immediately blurt out to the person I was watching the show with: "Oh my god... he's got an armbar."

Sure enough, in a matter of moments, Minotauro seizes the arm of Sapp in one swift motion that seems to happen in fractions of a second, and certainly happens quickly enough that Sapp doesn't have enough time to react. By the time Sapp moves to defend his arm, it's too late. Minotauro already has his body wrapped around the arm, and he's ready to sink in the armbar. An armbar pits the strength of one man's torso, arms, and legs against the strength of another man's one arm, and that's not a fight that any one arm is prepared to win. Try as he may to overpower Minotauro yet again, Sapp is only able to do so for about ten heart-wrenching seconds. The arm bends back, the elbow is hyper-extended, and Bob Sapp taps out honorably before any serious damage is done to his arm.

Minotauro gets up, battered and bloodied, with a back that was injured by one of Sapp's slams, but he's now even more of a hero than he already was to millions of his countrymen in Brazil, as well as MMA fans around the world. At this point, I discover all over again why I came to love mixed martial arts so much in the first place. It was the most dramatic finish to any MMA fight that I have ever seen, which is fitting given that the fight itself was about as emotional and gut-wrenching as it gets. I remain inspired and amazed that Antonio "Minotauro" Nogueira never went unconscious, never asked for a doctor's stoppage, and never gave up. He persevered and accomplished what seemed impossible just a few minutes earlier.

Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Pride Fighting Championships News

posted by Ivan Trembow at 5:56 PM

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