So, anyone hear anything about Rampage lately? Still waiting to see what he’s been up to.
You may remember this little writing device from such classics as my Comment Army of One and Comment Army of One: Pt. 2 articles. What? You don’t? Well, that’s why I have links for examples. Essentially I bother someone else’s site with comments on their articles/news items, and then I copy and past it onto MMAOpinion and call it a column. It’s that simple.
This week I’m switching it up, as I go with a semi review/response piece to this past week’s Fight Opinion Radio with Zach Arnold and Jeff Thaler. Zach is always looking for reaction to his audio, and often demands to know (often rightfully) why people aren’t reacting to a certain story, or why someone is getting a pass from the MMA online community. Zach takes and deserves a lot of crap at times for his harsh know-it-all ways, and I’ve definitely given him crap, but this show is timely and relevant. Everyone take a listen, because when Zach is being fair, his criticism really does carry a lot of weight. And don’t forget about Jeff Thaler. When he’s not chumming it up with Zach he’s a perfect counterweight in the conversation.
I take you to my responses via varying multimedia platforms. Their audio to my digital comments. Technology and our advancements all dressed up. I essentially ease drop on two guys having a semi-righteous conversation on a niche topic, and I semi-righteously respond back with a letter. How far we’ve all come.
They begin with a discussion of the UFC Interim Welterweight Title situation now that Matt Serra has gone down to injury. Hughes and GSP is set. Zach is critical, of course. Jeff is reasonable, at least in giving the UFC rationale for their moves. I’m happy with the switch. They don’t lose that much in advertising by switching this up. The event will make money. Most of my thoughts were posted earlier in the week. This is the right match up for right now, especially if Serra is ready in the spring.
One thing that’s important to note every day is the large percentage of UFC fans outside of our micro-managing overly analytical bubble of MMA online hysteria. My home site, MMAOpinion, adds to it by its mere existence. I add to it by writing these columns. It’s fascinating and poignant at best, and it’s our own nonsense hype and babble at worst. But your co-worker or neighbor doesn’t know about half of it, and that’s why things like Interim titles will always be good for throw away PPV promotion. We all sit around talking about Bob’s sites rankings and who’s the best pound-for-pound, and that’s all nonsense too. So let’s relax when promoters use Interim titles they know as well as we do don’t mean a thing.
We move to another big talking point, Elite XC’s financial status. While viewed as a distant second place promotion to UFC, they are at least in the conversation. Part of that has to do with the Showtime-backed company buying a lot of smaller promotions throughout North America and the world, and having them maintain operations separately.
I liked this idea at first. I figured it not only unified talent and promotions, but would lead to a minor league feeder system, much like Baseball. Unfortunately, Pro Elite bought a bunch of financially damaged companies. Pro Elite assumed the debt of the companies they bought, and I’m wondering why. What did they get? Excuse the drugged up reference, but it reminds me of a party I went to in high school with some friends. We were middle class kids at a party with very wealthy teens. Someone rich kids gave a group a big bag of free weed, but a friend of mine insisted on buying it. He literally paid $50 to a guy so everyone could smoke “his†pot. Does Gary Shaw have more in common with Nick Diaz than Dana White? It looks like only the Hawaiian promotions are making money, at least, they weren’t listed as a liability, so maybe they need to focus on building there. For better or worse Pro Elite is the only challenger the UFC has, and therefore, the strongest force in keeping fighters pay/benefits strong. I hope they can weather the storms. I don’t even remember what Zach and Jeff said, accept Wallid Ismael is still suing Pro Elite for teaching them how to run. All I could think was, “shouldn’t Pro Elite sue Ismael for showing them nothing but how to lose money?â€
Next, is the IFL transitioning into a phase of clean up and sell under new CEO Jay Larkin? That’s the question Zach and Jeff discuss as they go over IFL business. The company is still bleeding money and it looks like Larkin was brought in to plug the wholes. You remember Larkin, of Showtime Boxing and early Elite XC fame?
The most significant moves made are running only three markets consistently and eliminating “Super fights†not involving regular contracted fighters. Larkin is already cutting contracts and renegotiating like crazy. This zeppelin is going down, and as much as I rooted for them on a fighter rights level, they never stuck enough to where I was sitting at home waiting for their crappy TV show to come on. I don’t dig the ring and I couldn’t get into the teams. I do like the idea of teams that train together instead of faking city affiliations, but it’s completely too late.
The big question, as noted, is could Larkin be prettying this ugly stock up to sell the company ala Pride actually getting cash from Zuffa when they couldn’t be patient enough to pick at the bankrupt bones? I don’t think so, but stranger things have happened. If UFC or anyone else gets network TV for a few months, that may be enough to convince non-MMA business people that the time is now to buy in. the IFL did this before when offering stock. This was a company valued at over $600 million on paper at one point. Lets not underestimate Jay Larkin, sports businessman.
The continuous miscommunications of Monte Cox and the Russian heads of M-1 is discussed. The Russian faction, which manages Fedor Em., is renting out the heavyweight star to the Japanese (a bunch of former Pride-related workers. Yeah, we’ll get to that, don’t worry). I agree with Zack again. The sky might not be falling, but I don’t think he or Jeff Thaler quite painted such a dire picture. They did paint one of a Russian faction gone renegade on Monte Cox and Sibling. A broken arrow if you will. Honestly, did any of us level headed observers think any differently? At the risk of being offensive: possibly mobbed up Russian businessmen doing crooked shady dealings with possibly Yakuza’ed up Japanese businessmen and you say something’s not on the up and up? The Japanese, Russian, and all those stupid enough to get involved deserve each other. Congrats to your money losing glitzy and shiny New Years Eve spectacle, but I’ll skip it and read the trade papers a month or two later and get the summery statement on the ensuing scandals.
Did anyone else read the odd interview Vadim Finkelstein did with Sam Caplan? That sure cleared everything up. There’s M1 and then there’s M-1, see? And miscommunication is bound to happen in a big, global company like this. You know, the one that’s only global based on Russians living in Russian and the money marks living in America. That huge company of maybe 15 fulltime people.
Somewhere in there Jeff and Zach asked a great question for late ’08: Did Monte Cox get that money up front? Good question I’d bet he got a good percentage. That is to say enough to endure the headaches for a year, but not enough for two.
Finishing up, Zach and Jeff talked about ex-Pride office workers and promoters screwing over UFC by running a show on New Year’s Eve in Japan. These men, just released out of their contracts a few months back while still receiving pay (UFC pay) well into next year, are running a show that more then likely has not only Yakuza involvement, but a Mr. Sakakibara presence. Zach wants to know where the outrage is. Listening to him, and having followed Japan since 2001, I realized why I haven’t come out strongly. Largely I view it as irrelevant. Japan. The People involved. The show. The Story. Just go away.
Zach is right. People should not lust after some pie in the sky wink-wink return of Pride and the New Year’s Eve tradition, and I hope they aren’t. I haven’t commented because I think it’s a complete circus that can now safely be ignored thanks to the U.S. market boom over the last three years. Maybe I’m being naive or ignorant, but if Fedor and others want huge cash payments to fight a freak show fights, I’ll nod and pay attention only for two minute results. I don’t begrudge any of them for finding the best financial deal possible, I just don’t feel any onus on me to personally support it or give it lip service.
My perception of the Japanese fight game over the last half decade has always been one of a culture of smiling and bowing short men in black suites lying to foreigners and their own people for some bizarre pleasure while fronting organized crime. I’ve often thought of writing Dave Meltzer after reading a weekly Observer and begging him to explain this odd rift in accountability. Surely respected business men can’t use the media to make up things that will rarely happen and not be held accountable. Why would any man – No, a whole group of men – put on huge shows and pay people millions to fight only to give the idea of success, when really lots of money is being lost by bad business practices?
I’ve never been someone who thought Zach was wrong for the bulk of his Japanese MMA reporting. He claims, though I’ve never heard, that a large segment of the online community has often been negative towards his down and dirty strip the façade away take on Pride and the Yakuza. I haven’t seen this band of dissenters, but if they exist, they need to check the realities. These people are wrong. They are doing Zuffa and the public wrong by having this show and making it up as they go (as usual), and in the end, they won’t be held accountable. Japan is a dead market to me, and I’d rather people not dirty there hands trying to pretend this show means much of anything.
That’s my take on the show and the bigger stories talked about on Fight Opinion Radio this pat week. They gave out Turkeys at the end as an awarding means of trashing some people. Everyone deserved it, but I did have to smile when Dana White received one. Ya don’t say? It’s a shorter show this time around with a good focus, so there’s no reason not to try it out. It’s either the “Negative Nancy†and Thaler being reasonable, or Luke Thomas’ latest Any Given Saturday. Fightlinker and Kid Nate escalate a ridiculous betting situation. What is it now, they mushroom stamp the loser’s mother and stream it live on the winner’s site? I’m there!
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