IFL World Team Championship - Review

I was at the IFL World Team Championship live at the Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, CT. Overall, the show left a bad taste in my mouth. I won't get too much into the specifics of each fight. I'm sure you will see them on FSN on 12/31. Here are my general thoughts and observations of the event:

ATTENDENCE: The Mohegan Sun Arena typically seats around 10,000 fans. With the stage setup, the arena probably sat closer to 6,000. The arena appeared to be close to sold out. The majority of the tickets sold were $45. Personally, I had the $45 tickets (and bought them early), and I was center ring, and I was 18 rows up on the side.

START TIME: The show was scheduled to start at 7:30. They had a prelim fight start at 7:15. It looked like an amateur fight, with both fighters being younger. No complaints since it was unadvertised. However, the main fights did not start until after 8pm.

PRELIMINARY FIGHTS: They called them "Super Fights", and they were hardly as such. A casual fan I went with noticed right away how poor the quality of the fights were. If the UFC had put these fights on TV, SpikeTV would have taken them off the air. Erik Owings showed talent for a young fighter. Andre Gusmao had solid striking, with absolutely no defense and left his chin exposed on multiple occasions. Reese Andy was decent, but not at a high level of proficiency. And Mike Whitehead came in at almost 265 lbs, and basically gassed in a 12 minute fight. I had him win on my scorecard, and so did the judges. He was also hated by the fans for putting on such a poor performance.

THE STAND-UP: As is typical with MMA in a ring, if the action gets too close to the ropes on the ground, they stand the fighters up and reset them in the middle of the ring. The first time this was done, the fans had a negative response. It was not well liked at all.

WORLD TEAM COMPETITION: There were a few standouts here. Ben Rothwell, Ryan Schultz, Bart Palaszewski, & Chris Wilson. Actually, the Schultz/Palaszewski fight was the first time all night where I said: "This fight could be in the UFC". Before this, all the rest looked at least two notches below the UFC & Pride level. The Silverbacks won the Team Competition after the first 3 fights. And Bart knocked out Schultz so bad that they had to remove him in a stretcher (he raised his hands later to show he was okay). That really knocked the wind out of the arena. The combination of the long running time, along with 2 more "meaningless" fights coming up had the entire building quiet for a while.

RENZO GRACIE VS. CARLOS NEWTON: Renzo Gracie got a great ovation from the crowd. A large number of fans where wearing Renzo T-Shirts. It only got worse from there. The fight itself was boring. Actually, it was worse then boring. It was horrible. It reminded me of watching watching John McEnroe compete on the "Senior Tour" of tennis. Probably worse. At least McEnroe is still entertaining. Carlos Newton had Renzo Gracie on the ground on multiple occasions. I don't think he threw more then 5 punches the entire time it was on the floor. The crowded was very upset.

At one point in the third round, Renzo Gracie was knocked to the ground by Carlos Newton. Newton wanted the fight back on the feet, and Renzo put out his arm, and Newton helped him to his feet. YES, IT WAS THAT BAD. Renzo Gracie ended up winning a split decision. The decision was so bad that even Renzo loyalists were shaking their heads in disagreement.

Other items about the event:

• The event lasted 4 hours and 45 minutes. At least a third of the crowd left before the main event.
• Between fights, they ran commercials for Superman Returns on DVD and Sandals Resorts. There is nothing worse then watching commercials for an event you paid to see.
• Between the undercard and the team challenge, they had a "pop artist" perform 2 songs.... One on the stage, and one in the ring. Fans were visibly upset.
  
• Merchandise was not sold out. It looked like half of it was sold.

The IFL and the World Team Challenge is best summed up by a casual fan I went to the fights with. They said: "It's all bells and whistles.... No substance."

UFC 61 DVD Release Date

According to VideoETA.com, the UFC 61 DVD will be released on March 27, 2007. Finally, the fans will be able to bring home the 2 best fights of 2006:

• Tim Sylvia vs. Andrei Arlovski 3
• Frank Mir vs. Dan Cristison

Let the countdown begin.

UPDATE: According to Deep Discount DVD..... Ultimate Iceman: Chuck Liddell will be released on the same day. This DVD was scheduled to be released in early 2006, and was delayed.

The Pride Fighting Paper Champions

A Championship Belt is the symbol of the best fighter in the organization by division. For all the negativity the UFC has received, Dana White has done a wonderful job at making sure the UFC Champions are the best fighters (in the UFC) in their respective weight class. With the exception of the Matt Lindland fiasco a few years ago, every single fighter who deserves a title shot has been given one if they continue to beat their opponents. Sadly, the same thing can't be said about the Pride "Champions".

PRIDE HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE

• Pride Heavyweight Champion: Fedor Emelianenko
• Pride 2006 Absolute Grand Prix Champion: Mirko Filipovic
  

This is Pride's only legitimate champion. He is the best Heavyweight in the world. His name is Fedor Emelianenko. Sadly, he might not be in Pride in 2007. And for Fedor fans, his lack of a meaningful opponents is not good. Here is the scorecard:

• Mirko Filipovic (8/28/05) - The last meaningful opponent for Fedor.
• Zulu (12/31/05) - Scrub.
• Mark Coleman (10/21/06) - Washed Up.
  
• Mark Hunt (12/31/06) - Hunt isn't even Top 5 in Pride.
  
• Jeff Monson (3/3/07) - Taking place for Bodog Fight.
  

Fedor's next contest after the Monson fight will probably not take place until at least June '07. That will make at least a 22-Month gap between Top Level Opponents. And that is IF he actually fights a legit contender in June '07.


PRIDE MIDDLEWEIGHT TITLE

• Pride Middleweight Champion: Wanderlei Silva
• Pride Lineal Middleweight Champion: Mauricio Rua
• Pride 2005 Middleweight Grand Prix Champion: Mauricio Rua
  

The splintering of this division was created on August 28, 2005. On this night, Ricardo Arona defeated Wanderlei Silva (non-title) in the Semi-Finals of the Grand Prix Tournament. Later that night, Mauricio Rua defeated Ricardo Arona to become the 2006 Middleweight Grand Prix Champion.

In the 15 months that have passes since that night, Pride has showcased exactly one fight in an attempt to unfracture the division. This fight happened nearly one year ago at Shockwave '05 when Wanderlei Silva defeated Ricardo Arona in a Championship Fight by split decision. The year 2006 has seen no attempt to rectify the problems in the division. Wanderlei Silva was busy fighting Heavyweights. Ricardo Arona only had one fight against Alistair Overeem. And the real champion of the division, Mauricio Rua, got injured at Heavyweight and then beat two non-Top 20 "contenders".

Sadly, the issues in this division will have to wait even longer. Wanderlei Silva is not scheduled to defend his title until the next Pride USA show on February 23, 2007. No opponent has been announced yet.


PRIDE WELTERWEIGHT TITLE

• Pride Welterweight Champion: Dan Henderson
• Pride Lineal Welterweight Champion: Paulo Filho
• Pride 2006 Welterweight Grand Prix Champion: Kazuo Misaki
  

Shockwave 2005 unified the Welterweight Division and gave fans the first Pride Welterweight Champion. In 2006, we saw the unraveling of the division and a fractured title picture. Here is a quick scorecare:

• Dan Henderson vs. Kazuo Misaki 1 - Dan Henderson wins.
  
• Dan Henderson vs. Kazuo Misaki 2 - Kazuo Misaki wins in a Non-Title tournament bout.
  
• Paulo Filho vs. Kazuo Misaki - Paulo Filho dominates Kazuo Misaki.
• Paulo Filho - Cannot continue in the tournament.
  
• Kazuo Misaki vs. Denis Kang - Misaki, who lost earlier in the day, defeated a hurt (and game) Denis Kang to win the 2006 Grand Prix.
  

Now we have Dan Henderson & Kazuo Misaki with championship belts. And the #1 Pride Welterweight, Paulo Filho, without one.

Pride's ability to bring a true champion to this division is very simple. Dan Henderson fights Kazuo Misaki in the 3rd encounter for the Welterweight Championship. Paulo Filho fights Denis Kang to determine the #1 Contender. The winners of these two fights compete for the championship to determine the best in Pride at 183 lbs. With Denis Kang taking off the rest of the year due to injury, this formula would have to wait until 2007.


PRIDE LIGHTWEIGHT TITLE

• Pride Lightweight Champion: Takanori Gomi
• Pride Lineal Lightweight Champion: Mitsuhiro Ishida
  

Takanori Gomi ended 2005 as the Pride Lightweight Champion. He started off 2006 being choked out in a non-title fight against Marcus Aurelio. To make things more complicated, Aurelio lost his next fight to Mitsuhiro Ishida. Despite coming off a loss, Marcus Aurelio was given a title shot against Takanori Gomi. In a rather boring (and very close) contest, Takanori Gomi retained the Lightweight Championship.

As a fan, the equation becomes very easy. Let Gomi (Champion) fight Ishida (Lineal) for the title and everything will be good. A few days ago, Pride announced the Gomi vs. Ishida fight. Only one problem. IT ISN'T FOR THE TITLE. If Ishida wins, this will only complicate the division even more. And what about Aurelio? He deserves a rubber match with Gomi at some point as well.

FINAL THOUGHT

With the exception of Fedor Emelianenko, who hasn't defended his title for over 15 months, each Pride champion is a paper champion. The fanboys will defend Pride . However, an object fan will notice that these matchmaking practices make the sport of boxing look credible.

MMA Tidbits - 12/7/06

I have a lot of random thoughts concerning the sport. Nothing that is big enough to write an article about. So here they are:

• The UFC is smart for pursuing Mirko "Cro Cop" instead of Fedor Emelianenko. Mirko has the attributes to be a true star with US fans. Fedor would be a hard sell to the casual fan. I know Fedor is the best, however, the UFC is playing this one smart. And Mirko is still world class material. What Mirko has going for him is:
• Speaks English
• "Fighter" Body Type
• Exciting Style
• Can Beat Tim Sylvia (Major Bonus)
• Winner of Pride Grand Prix '06
  
• The IFL has received approval from the Nevada State Athletic Commission to run future shows in the state (LINK HERE). It should be interesting to see how the NSAC reacts to the IFL's unique set of rules. Mainly the 4-minute round and the 3-minute overtime rule.
  
• Cung Le was a featured guest on Sherdog's Beatdown Radio. He came off as being very well spoken and educated about the sport. He made me a fan.
• Takanori Gomi vs. Mitsuhiro Ishida should be a championship fight. No other way to say it. Ishida is the lineal Pride Lightweight Champion. He deserves to fight Gomi with the belt on the line. He shouldn't have to beat him two times to get the belt. Pride loves to protect their champions.
• Mauricio Rua vs. Kazuhiro Nakamura is a waste of time. I'd rather see Rua vs. Nogueira 2. Nakamura already has losses to Nogueira (2X) and Silva. A loss to Rua will make him the official gate keeper to the Pride Middleweight Division.
  
• I will not be upset if Wanderlei Silva vs. Ricardo Arona 3 does not take place at Shockwave, as long as they fight for the title on the next Pride USA card. If they do not compete on either show, all MMA fans will have a right to be angry.
• Keep track of Keita "K-Taro" Nakamura. He is fighting on the undercard of Sanchez/Riggs. He is 13-0-2 and could be a force in the already stacked division.

I will have a full UFC Fight Night 8 Preview Report posted on here by the end of this weekend. I am very excited for the upcoming card, which will be a telecast of all Welterweights.

The UFC Rematch - By The Numbers

On December 30, 2006, the UFC presents Chuck Liddell vs. Tito Ortiz 2. It got me thinking about past rematches in the UFC. Are there any type of trends? Is there a better way to predict the outcome? The answers I found were interesting. I only used UFC rematches for research. Which means more then one fight between fighters must take place in the UFC for it to count. For the purposes of this study, I did not include the Couture/Belfort 2 fight due to the weird nature of the ending and the lack of proof it really showed with a legit outcome. All other rematches were recorded. Here are some interesting statistics:

OVERALL

• 31 Total Rematches
• 64.5% of the rematches ended like the previous fight.
  
• 35.5% ended differently then the previous fight. One of those fights is the Shamrock/Gracie 2 fight which ended in a Draw.
  

Now, this is just simple math. However, I wanted to go a step further and see if the length of time between rematches affected the outcome of the fights. And it did.

REMATCH: LESS THAN ONE YEAR

• 13 Total Rematches
• Only 2 created different outcomes (15.4%). The two fights were Lindland/Vitali 2 and Shamrock/Severn 2. The first Lindland fight was considered a fluke by many fans anyways. And the Shamrock fight was the worst in UFC history.

REMATCH: GREATER THAN ONE YEAR

• 18 Total Rematches
  
• 9 Different Outcomes (50%)

This is a MAJOR difference. Basically, if the rematch occurs quickly after the first fight, there is almost no chance for a different outcome. Now let's apply these numbers to the Liddell/Ortiz rematch.... And the possible GSP/Hughes 3 fight:

• This gives Tito Ortiz a 50% chance of beating Chuck Liddell. However, Chuck Liddell is 4-0 in rematches in his MMA career. This gives the statistical edge to Chuck.
  
• This brings new light to a possible Georges St Pierre vs. Matt Hughes rematch in 2007. Does Matt Hughes really want a quick rematch with such small odds of winning?

No matter how you think the upcoming rematches will pan out..... One thing is for certain..... Immediate Rematches in the UFC are not as warrented as they might appear to be.

Here is the overall list of UFC rematches:

• Ken Shamrock vs. Royce Gracie 2
  
• Ken Shamrock vs. Kimo Leopaldo 2
  
• Ken Shamrock vs. Dan Severn 2
  
• Ken Shamrock vs. Tito Ortiz 2
  
• Ken Shamrock vs. Tito Ortiz 3
• Dan Severn vs. Oleg Taktarov 2
• Oleg Taktarov vs. Dave Beneteau 2
• Pedro Rizzo vs. Tra Telligman 2
• Randy Couture vs. Pedro Rizzo 2
• Randy Couture vs. Vitor Belfort 3
• Fabiano Iha vs. LaVerne Clarke 2
• Don Frye vs. Mark Hall 2
• Don Frye vs. Gary Goodridge 2
• Guy Mezger vs. Tito Ortiz 2
• Chuck Liddell vs. Jeremy Horn 2
• Chuck Liddell vs. Randy Couture 2
• Chuck Liddell vs. Randy Couture 3
• Chuck Liddell vs. Renato Sobral 2
  
• Shonie Carter vs. Matt Serra 2
  
• Matt Lindland vs. Phil Baroni 2
  
• Matt Lindland vs. Falaniko Vitale 2
  
• Evan Tanner vs. Phil Baroni 2
  
• Matt Hughes vs. Carlos Newton 2
  
• Matt Hughes vs. Frank Trigg 2
  
• Matt Hughes vs. BJ Penn 2
  
• Matt Hughes vs. Georges St Pierre 2
• Andrei Arlovski vs. Tim Sylvia 2
• Andrei Arlovski vs. Tim Sylvia 3
• Forrest Griffin vs. Stephan Bonnar 2
  
• Rich Franklin vs. Evan Tanner 2
• Frank Mir vs. Wes Sims 2
  

MMA on DVD

Here is a list of upcoming releases:

• UFC 58: Franklin vs. Loiseau - 12/12/06
  
• UFC: Ultimate Knockouts 4 - 12/12/06
• Wanderlei Silva's Greatest Hits - 12/12/06
  
• Pride Bushido 7: Gomi vs. Azeredo - 01/16/07
• Pride Shockwave '05: Silva vs. Arona 2 - 01/16/07
  
• UFC 59: Arlovski vs. Sylvia 2 - 01/30/07
  
• UFC 60: Gracie vs. Hughes - 01/30/07
• UFC 7: Shamrock vs. Taktarov - 01/30/07
• UFC 8: Shamrock vs. Kimo - 01/30/07
• UFC 51 & UFC 52 Combo Pack - 02/06/07

UFC 57 is still only available through UFC.com. The Ultimate Ulimate '95 has been skipped over, as it took place between UFC 7 & 8. Hopefully they release the event at some point. The are no upcoming release dates for the last 3 "Ultimate Fighter" Series.

UFC on SpikeTV - 01/01/07

According to the UFC website, a UFC Fight Night Marathon is scheduled for January 1, 2007 from 9am to 7pm. Here is a breakdown (in order) of the events being shown:

• UFN 3 (01/16/06): Tim Sylvia vs. Assuerio Silva
• UFN 2 (10/3/05): Evan TPublishanner vs. David Loiseau
• UFN 6 (08/17/06): Diego Sanchez vs. Karo Parisyan
• UFN 5 (06/28/06): Anderson Silva vs. Chris Leben
• UFN 4 (04/06/06): Stephan Bonnar vs. Keith Jarinde

And on January 17, UFN 7 will be replayed at 9pm on SpikeTV, feature Tito Ortiz vs. Ken Shamrock 3.

Where is the love for the Marquardt Salaverry classic from UFN 1? Either way, this will give some fans a chance to catch up the majority of the SpikeTV fights.

MMA: The Splintering of a Sport

In the year 2000, the Ultimate Fighting Championship was sold to Zuffa, owned by Lorenzo & Frank Fertitta III. The brothers had a long history in the sport of boxing, with Lorenzo serving as the commissioner of the Nevada State Athletic Commission from November 1996 to July 2000. At the time, the small and loyal fan base cheered the change of ownership. As a fan of the sport, I feared that the "boxing men" would turn my beloved sport into another version of boxing. I guess it is only ironic that I now feel that Zuffa is our greatest hope in bringing organization and structure to Mixed Martial Arts. Let me explain....

When Zuffa purchased the UFC in 2000, MMA was a sport on the brink of extinction. In the United States, it was impossible to even purchase a UFC PPV unless you owned a dish. In Japan, Pride Fighting Championship was just becoming a popular entity with the famous 2000 Grand Prix taking place and the memorable 90-Minute legendary fight between Kazushi Sakuraba and Royce Gracie. Over the next few years, Pride continued to gain poplarity and the UFC struggled to attraction a mainstream audience.

In 2005, the sport completely changed. The debut of The Ultimate Fighter Reality Series brought in a legion of casual fans, and gave the UFC mainstream access through the cable station SpikeTV. It was a great time for fans of the sport. Over the next 18-Months, the landscape of the MMA scene has changed internationally. The two major companies are now going in completely opposite directions. The Ultimate Fighting Championship is pulling in 500,000+ PPV buys and is trying to break into the international markets in countries like Brazil & United Kingdom. Pride FC's future is in doubt after being removed from free TV in Japan. At the same time, we are starting to see a SPLINTERING OF THE SPORT like has never been seen before. These new organizations are typically being created by non-MMA people who have a lot of money and see an opportunity to cash in on a now popular entity. Here is the list of the bigger MMA organizations that have attempted to break into the sport recently:

• Bodog Fight: Started by Calvin Arye, the billionaire who earned his riches through an online gambling site. It has been reported that Bodog Fight has signed Fedor Emelianenko, the #1 Heavyweight in MMA.
  
• International Fight League: The first MMA "Team Fight League" featured on FSN.
  
• World Fighting Alliance: PPV oriented company, featuring Quinton Jackson, Matt Lindland, Heath Herring, and Ryoto Machida. Rectently postponed the December 9th PPV event.
  
• Strikeforce: California based MMA promotion featuring Paul Buentello, Frank Shamrock, Cung Le, & Josh Thomson.
  
• Showtime TV: Coming in February 2007, fans will now have 4 to 6 fight cards a year on this station.
  

How can this be bad for the sport? It's very simple. These newer organizations are splintering the sport. More than ever, we have Top 10 Level fighters competing with exclusive contracts to a variety of organizations. Based on past history, the majority of these companies end up going out of business over time. Look at the World Fighting Alliance as proof for this. The WFA signed "big fight deals" to fighters like Quinton Jackson, Ryoto Machida, Matt Lindland, and others. At first, this seems like a great thing. Fighters earning more money. How can that be a bad thing? Well, it is. The WFA put on one event, and has now postponed their second event. So now we have fighters signed exclusively to a fight organization that isn't even putting on fights. The UFC doesn't even have a chance of signing these fighters. So instead of seeing attractive match-ups like Quinton Jackson vs. Chuck Liddell 2, we get Quinton Jackson not fighting for over 6 months. How is this good for the sport? And don't blame the UFC for this. It has been reported that Rampage's agent might not have been getting all of the offers to his client (including Zuffa's).

A the end of the day, I find myself rooting for these new organizations to fail. I want to unify the sport. Not splinter it like a cheap boxing knockoff. It is for this reason that I find myself rooting for the Fertitta Brothers and the UFC. I hope they dominate the majority of the competition. I hope these want-a-be MMA organizations lose their money and stop splintering the sport I love. I want to be able to say that we have one World Champion for each weight class. That shouldn't be too much to ask for as a fan of Mixed Martial Arts.

Interesting Pride FC Article

An interesting article from the Wrestling Observer talking about the future of Pride. A great read:

Wrestling Observer Pride Article

PRIDE FC's New Format

According to MMAWeekly.com:

1. The Pride Bushido series is being cancelled.
2. The regular Pride FC events will now feature all 4 weight classes.
3. The Pride Grand Prix will only be featured once a year, with each weight class being used every 4 years. The Middleweight (205) or Lightweight (160) weight classes will be used next year.
   
4. Pride Champions will defend their titles on a more regular basis, with at least 1 title fight per card.
   

Here are my thoughts:

1. Pride Bushido: Typically was my favorite MMA show. I am sad to see it go. Hopefully the Welterweight & Lightweight weight classes are still showcased on the big shows.
2. Weight Divisions: With Pride putting on events in America, how are they going to work out the weight class differences? The Welterweight Division is 183 lbs. The Lightweight Division is 160 lbs. If they defend their titles in America, they will have to do so at 185 & 155 pounds respectively. Something needs to change.
   
3. Grand Prix: I like the format change. I firmly believe the 2006 Welterweight Grand Prix suffered from a Grand Prix the previous year.
   
4. Increase Title Fights: FINALLY!! A much needed format change. Champions should defend their belt 3 to 4 times a year. And no more Gomi/Aurelio/Ishida fiascos.
   

Overall, this is a step in the right direction for Pride. Now they just need a major Japanese television station and an 800% increase in viewership in America. NO PROBLEM!!!