Category: mma

mma

UFC needs Georges St. Pierre, not vice versa

Posted on by Beau Dure

The absurd pressure on Georges St. Pierre to come back to the Octagon tout suite and defend his title against Johny Hendricks one more time sounds like the act of a desperate Ultimate Fighting Championship.

The overwhelming consensus is that GSP should have lost Saturday’s fight to Hendricks by every measure except two of the three judges’ scorecards. (I confess I had to skip this one, but every reporter and pundit I trust has agreed with the mob: 48-47 Hendricks.) GSP then babbled his way through postfight interviews, hinting at major trouble outside the cage.

Fight fans had every right to be saddened at the sight. St. Pierre has been one of the fight game’s classiest champions for years, combining rare athleticism with sophistication and charm. I covered a couple of his fights, and the crowd’s “G-S-P!” chants still ring in my ears. Few fighters have had such respect.

After his dubious title defense Saturday, that respect was lost. Dana White ranted that GSP “owes” everyone a rematch.

I’m sorry Luke Thomas’ #GSPOwesMe hashtag didn’t take off.

(Luke also has an eloquent summary of the cruel demands placed on GSP.)

And I’m sorrier to say the situation has deteriorated from there. TMZ quickly got into the fray with some reports on what may be causing GSP’s problems. A few others did as well.

I’m not sorry to see Johny Hendricks isn’t holding the belt. By all accounts, he fought a stupid fifth round. Dana White reminds fighters not to leave it in the hands of the judges. Hendricks did, and he left a bad final impression. A quick check of the numbers shows he should never have been so cocky.

Now his manager, Ted Ehrhardt, is making it worse. “No respectful champion would want to go out on those terms,” he says. Then this:

I would hope GSP would come back and do the right thing. If he’s going through stuff, of course you feel bad for a guy for that. But he’s made a lot of money in this sport. Like Dana said, he owes it to the sport, not just Johny and the UFC.

Remember when the UFC wasn’t riddled with former wrestlers who have no concept of the values of martial arts? I do, but those memories are starting to fade.

And that’s the bigger problem.

The UFC has already had a big changing of the guard. The pioneers — Chuck Liddell, Tito Ortiz, Randy Couture, the Shamrocks — are mostly gone. Even Forrest Griffin and Stephan Bonnar, who ushered the UFC into its peak years with their frenetic finale of the first season of The Ultimate Fighter, have moved on.

Six months ago, the UFC had three champions who were clearly among the all-time greats — St. Pierre, Anderson Silva and Jon Jones. Silva recklessly threw away his belt against Chris Weidman in July. Jones squeaked his way past Alexander Gustafsson in September, though that fight was an instant classic. Now St. Pierre is down, possibly out.

And if not for two judges’ iconoclastic view of the first round Saturday, one of the most popular and likable champions of the sport would have been replaced with someone who sounds like Matt Hughes without the jokes.

Hendricks can evolve, of course. It won’t be the end of the world if he grows up and eventually takes the belt without the attitude. But the issue here for the UFC is the prospect of GSP, one of the last true stars of the sport, to walk away and leave a messy void. Unfortunately for the UFC, GSP has every right to do that. His body has failed him in recent years, and now things look bad in other aspects of his life — Joe Rogan has become the voice of reason in suggesting that he should simply move on. No one has the right to demand that he go into the cage and suffer any more. The fact that people think otherwise is a sad commentary on the state of the sport.

There are no shortcuts in MMA training. And there are no shortcuts in MMA promotion. If the UFC has to go through a rebuilding period without its major stars, so be it. Those stars don’t need to “step up.” It’s time for other people to do it. And those people can start by acting like they’re worthy of the fame, fortune and respect that come along with crowning a champion and being one.

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mma

TUF Rousey-Tate: First impressions

Posted on by Beau Dure

This season of The Ultimate Fighter isn’t really about the coaches or the fighters. It’s about women’s MMA and the awkward collision of its past, present and future.

From its beginnings, MMA has always had awkward relations with its past. In Japan, promoters walked a fine line between fiction and reality. (“Hey, this is a real fight! Well, OK, that one wasn’t, but trust us — this one is!”) The first UFC events had to come up with something to explain why the guys in the cage were qualified to be there.

And even today, a lot of UFC fighters’ credentials are overstated. And a lot of the sport’s pioneers are discarded if they fall out of favor. (See Shamrock, Frank.)

Women’s MMA has an obscure history in the first place. Gina Carano got a couple of fights on prime time, sure. Others in the sport have been known only to the hard-core fans.

Enter Ronda Rousey.

The brash Olympic judo medalist has catapulted the sport into the limelight. She has more readily identifiable credentials than Carano — an Olympic medal speaks more loudly than a well-honed striking style. While Carano would smile and occasionally say the word “sex,” Rousey is willing to chat about anything from sex before fights to the tragic loss of her father when she was young. She is an athlete — and an exceptional one — who knows how to sell herself.

But it’s “herself.” Not so much the sport. Rousey isn’t Mia Hamm, smiling nervously amidst all the attention and deflecting the spotlight to those who came before her like Michelle Akers. Granted, MMA is an individual sport rather than a team sport. But Rousey seems to separate herself from her sport in ways that even the outlandishly self-promoting Muhammad Ali never did.

And that’s evident in The Ultimate Fighter. Rival coach Miesha Tate may have little chance of beating Rousey in their rematch at the end of this season, but she would certainly be a better fight commentator down the road. She knew the fighters, veterans and newcomers, and offered frank assessments of their strengths and weaknesses. Women’s MMA promotion Invicta FC would be wise to pick her up as the women’s MMA analogue of superb soccer commentator Kate Markgraf.

Rousey, on the other hand, had little to say. Maybe she was just busy taking notes, and perhaps she was in no mood to chat with Tate or Dana White, who had shocked her the preceding day by springing Tate into the gym in place of original coach Cat Zingano, who was injured.

Not that Rousey was departing from protocol. The Ultimate Fighter usually glosses over fighters’ pre-TUF careers. But in this case, that’s probably a mistake. Two of the sport’s biggest names, Tonya Evinger and Tara LaRosa, were beaten in their preliminary fights. That should be a bigger deal that it appeared on the show. They did at least play up Revelina Berto’s fighting family, which includes boxing star Andre Berto.

(By the way, men are also fighting this season. The preliminary fights were mostly terrible.)

Tate put things in perspective. She accurately predicted Evinger’s fade, questioning her heart and stamina. (She also made some allusion to girlfriend drama, and it’s fair to say Evinger and Tate have had a feud far beyond what we’ve seen in other women’s sports.) She paid tribute to Roxanne Modafferi as a pioneer of the sport who’s “tough as nails” despite looking and talking more like a librarian than a fighter.

It’ll be tough not to root for the veterans here. Modafferi, someone I once interviewed for a story about fighters’ day jobs (she was an English teacher in Japan), is thoughtful and funny, shouting a bunch of cliches after her win and then admitting with a laugh that what she had just said was rather lame.

Then there’s Shayna Baszler, who isn’t the least bit afraid to talk up her credentials. She says she has already beaten some fighters who are now in the UFC (true) and is higher ranked than many of them (also true — she’s only two places behind Tate). She’s carrying a big chip on her shoulder and yet is the overwhelming favorite, wisely chosen first by Rousey.

And she delivered the quote of the night to explain why the veterans may have more grit and determination than the younger crowd. “It’s easy to be hungry when the feast is at the table. I was hungry when all we were being fed were crumbs.”

The Rousey-Tate rivalry is, at its heart, all about the respect the brash newcomer should be paying to those who paved the way in this sport. Brock Lesnar stomped to the top of an undertalented heavyweight class and was still gracious to people like Randy Couture. We haven’t yet heard such things from Rousey, though perhaps she’ll get a chance when she’s in the odd situation of coaching someone like Baszler, who has a better-rounded skillset than the armbar-reliant Rousey.

Personally, I should be thrilled with Rousey’s success. I was touting her as an MMA prospect before she won an Olympic medal. I may have even mentioned to Dana White, who probably laughed about it at the time. (To be sure, he didn’t sign Rousey on my recommendation.) And there’s no question women’s MMA is in a better place now than it was before her emergence.

But Rousey, intentionally or not, gives the impression that she thinks herself bigger than the sport. She may say the occasional kind word about Liz Carmouche or Cat Zingano, but this whole MMA thing feels like a little dalliance for her, just a stepping stone between her careers in the Olympics and in Hollywood.

We can’t place all the blame on Rousey for dragging the Tate rivalry with into Dynasty territory. Tate went there, too. And Rousey is a bit like the Yankees, Manchester United or Duke basketball — her success breeds contempt. Rousey’s a tremendous athlete and a shrewd person who has probably outdrafted Tate, who opted for her young training partner over Baszler and may pay for that pick next week.

So Tate and her team may be the underdogs here. The Rockys to Rousey’s Clubber Lang. Should be fun to watch this play out.

And there’s a dude who looks like the biggest behavioral problem since Junie Browning. Plus the potential for couples to form if the fighters somehow forget the house has cameras everywhere. As soon as people figure out how to find Fox Sports 1 on their TVs (wow, people are clueless), this show might take off.

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mma

UFC: Your unofficial guide to survival as a reporter

Posted on by Beau Dure

Dana White can make things very difficult for those who cross him in any way. Rival promotions are left in the dust. Fighters are cut. And reporters, even entire news organizations, can be tossed into the cold.

The funny thing is that I still like him on a personal level, and I respect what he and the Fertitta brothers did to build MMA from a sideshow to a main event. Had the UFC folded circa 2004 when the brothers were losing a ton of money, I doubt MMA would ever have risen to anything resembling the prominence it has today. The Friends episode in which Monica’s boyfriend is beaten up might have been the peak of the sport.

I don’t blame him for playing hardball with other promotions. Most of the cuts from the UFC’s oversized roster are justifiable, and they let a fighter go off and headline a smaller show instead of taking more lumps in the Octagon.

The attitude toward reporters, though, is an issue. I’ve told Dana before that I don’t think it’s fair to keep out Loretta Hunt, Josh Gross and others who have fallen afoul of the UFC’s good graces.

So today, Deadspin got a tip — a note from Bleacher Report/Houston Chronicle MMA writer Jeremy Botter to other writers, explaining What Not To Do To Piss Off Dana.

(Disclaimer time: I’ve written for Bleacher Report. Most of you know that already. Yes, I was paid. Moving on.)

The fact that it was at Deadspin should set off some alarm bells. Writer Tim Marchman seems to be casting himself as the MMA-community equivalent of the guy who says, “Fine, I don’t want to go to your stupid party, anyway.” He notes with pride that Deadspin itself is blacklisted from the UFC. But … it’s Deadspin. Deadspin has always taken the stance that it doesn’t WANT credentials because its brilliant bloggers might meet actual athletes and come to consider them as human beings rather than fodder for their snark cannons.

But the funny thing is that Botter’s note — not really a memo — is mostly spot-on.

The exception is the mention of Loretta Hunt. She wasn’t actually banned for her reporting on UFC backstage access. At the time of the backstage access story, she was working for Sherdog, which was already banned. And her previous employer fell out with the UFC, too. The details in each case are rather arcane.

(Yes, I know the “official version” UFC drones post to impress basement-dwellers on the UG is vastly different, but that just shows how effective the unofficial UFC spin machine can be. One of the UFC drones on the UG is female, and I think a lot of people in that community are just excited to be speaking to a girl.)

In any case, Sam Caplan backed up Hunt’s story. And to this day, I think it’s a story that would’ve been forgotten if Dana hadn’t responded on video in a way that forced him to reconsider his language. The fact that Dana responded so harshly makes me think Hunt was on to something. Why else would he care?

In any case, it’s worth remembering here that Botter never intended for this to be public. If he was writing this for publication, he’d be a little more careful with the research.

With that out of the way, let’s look at just how accurate this note really is:

1. Nothing pisses Dana off more than people talking about Zuffa’s financials and getting everything wrong.

True of nearly everyone in the news. The UFC (Zuffa) is stingy with details, sure. But reporters can’t try to fill in gaps in their knowledge with flimsy information.

2. Don’t “report” things unless you have two very credible sources.

Basic journalism there.

3. Don’t be a mouthpiece for a manager who may be feeding you false information.

Hunt was used as the example here, and that’s inaccurate. But the point is correct.

4. Don’t be a mouthpiece for a fighter who may be feeding you false information.

Frankly, if Bleacher Report lives up to this, they’ll be ethically ahead of a lot of major news orgs.

5. Don’t talk about Dana’s history with his mom.

I didn’t know about this, but it never occurred to me to ask. Not sure how it’s anyone’s business unless his mom starts a rival fight promotion.

6. Don’t mix rumors with opinion.

Funny — people loved it when William Safire did it. But again, it’s good basic journalism here. You’re entitled to your opinion. Dana may tease you about it, but I don’t think he has banned anyone simply for an opinion. He doesn’t like inaccurate reporting about it. (The problem comes when the reporting is accurate, and he insists it’s not.)

7. Don’t be negative just to be edgy.

Well, no wonder Deadspin thought this was amusing. That’s their entire business model.

7a. Wait until the media scrum after an official press conference to bring up controversial topics.

People in the news often have their idiosyncrasies, and this is one. I don’t think a reporter is bending to Dana’s will by waiting for the media scrum to ask about fighter pay or something like that. If you know you’re going to get a better answer then, why not wait to ask it until then? Reporters want answers, not pointless confrontations.

8. You’re being watched. They pay attention to all media reports.

They most certainly do. Some in the sports world say they don’t read the papers or pay attention to the news. Dana doesn’t say that. He knows people would just laugh. The UFC is image-conscious to a fault.

So there’s really nothing controversial (other than the Hunt comment) in this note. I could write something similar about nearly everyone I’ve covered.

The larger issue is the UFC’s insistence on vindictive bans against Hunt, Gross, Sherdog (off and on), etc. It actually puts those of us who are “in” the UFC media circle in a tough spot. We seem compromised. I see people accuse credentialed reporters of being UFC mouthpieces all the time, and it’s usually unfair.

In that context, it probably doesn’t help that Botter’s note went public. People with an unflattering view of the UFC’s media relations may see it as a guide to genuflection toward Dana White and company. But it’s nothing more than a reasonable piece of advice for dealing with an oft-unreasonable community.

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mma

Matchups to make in wake of Rampage-Tito announcement

Posted on by Beau Dure

In a mixed martial arts landscape dominated by the UFC, Bellator has made inroads with an alternate approach — mixing just a couple of UFC alumni with some younger or lesser-known fighters in tournaments broadcast for free, now on former UFC channel Spike.

So it’s a little strange to see their big announcement yesterday of a pay-per-view event featuring two fighters waaaay past their primes.

Tito Ortiz was a star of the early UFC. Great. Now let’s check out his last 10 years:

– Convincing losses against the other two light heavyweight stars of the 2000s, Randy Couture and Chuck Liddell.

– A five-fight win streak that included two split decisions and two wins against the aging Ken Shamrock.

– Since then, he’s 1-7-1.

Then we have Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, whom you might remember from the time he “motorboated” a female interviewer. He had a good run when he moved into the UFC in 2007, beating Liddell and Dan Henderson before giving up the light heavyweight belt to Forrest Griffin. Then he knocked out Wanderlei Silva in 2008 to avenge a couple of spectacular losses in Japan.

Since then, Jackson offered little in his grudge match with Rashad Evans, got a dubious decision against Lyoto Machida, beat the faded Matt Hamill, and lost his last three.

So in honor of this matchup, let’s consider a few other pay-per-view possibilities:

– Men’s basketball: Duke-UConn 1999. The rematch. (Hey, at least 3-4 of those players are still in the NBA.)

– Golf: Lee Trevino vs. Jack Nicklaus in a long-driving contest.

– Boxing: Evander Holyfield vs. anybody.

– Tennis: Anna Kournikova vs. Jennifer Capriati.

– Men’s basketball: Duke-Kentucky 1992. The rematch.

– Cycling: Lance Armstrong vs. the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.

Now here’s the sad part: I bet Rampage vs. Tito actually does pretty well.

Sure, some of the others might draw some attention for the novelty factor. But people won’t turn away from the actual NCAA Tournament to sit in rapt attention as retired basketball players get back on the court. A thrilling finish at The Masters will still outdraw a fun afternoon with Trevino and Nicklaus, who would be more likely to entertain the crowd with a few stories and jokes — something Rampage and Tito won’t really have time to do.

But MMA fans, especially the “casual” crowd, may still react more to the old favorites than the younger, more advanced fighters who have come up behind them. The UFC’s numbers aren’t what they used to be.

The UFC has four pay-per-view events scheduled this fall. The main events:

– UFC 165: Light heavyweight champion Jon Jones vs. Alexander Gustafson.

– UFC 166: Heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez vs. former champion Junior dos Santos, the third match of a trilogy.

– UFC 167: Welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre vs. Johny Hendricks. (Yes, “Johny.” The other n is hidden in his beard.)

– UFC 168: New middleweight champion Chris Weidman vs. Anderson Silva, a rematch of Weidman’s stunning upset July 6.

St. Pierre and Silva are two of the best fighters ever, and Jones is in that conversation as well. Velasquez and dos Santos smashed aside the old guard in the heavyweight division. The UFC cards also will be far deeper than what Bellator has to offer — interim bantamweight champion Renan Barao, fast-rising heavyweight Daniel Cormier and former Strikeforce champion Nate Marquardt are among the undercard fighters already announced.

So the UFC cards should do far better than what Bellator is offering. Will they? We’ll see.

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mma

Review: Bellator’s “Fight Master”

Posted on by Beau Dure

For those who don’t know, I’ve written a book on The Ultimate Fighter. It is not yet published.

So with Bellator bringing “reality” MMA back to Spike, I simply had to check it out.

The first word that sprang to mind: Awkward.

It’s awkward in the sense that they’re trying so hard not to be The Ultimate Fighter. Bellator commentator Jimmy Smith welcomed the fighters to the cage with roughly the same speech Dana White always gives — two five-minute rounds, if we don’t have a winner, we go to sudden vic … I mean … overtime! Yeah! Overtime!

It’s awkward in the sense that the winning fighters stand in front of four coaches, sitting in chairs like the judges on The Voice, and (A) get fawned over or (B) get tepid congratulations. After these brief conversations, akin to speed-dating, the fighters pick their coaches.

It’s awkward in the sense that the coaches include the top coach in MMA (Greg Jackson), a legendary fighter who made a solid transition to coaching (Randy Couture), a legendary fighter better known for commentary than coaching (Frank Shamrock) … and Joe Warren, a former world champion wrestler who has had an erratic MMA career so far.

And it’s awkward in the sense that we’ve seen all this before. One guy was an alcoholic but has stayed sober since he turned to MMA. One guy is a self-professed geek who does this for his kid. One guy has a lot of experience, and they allude to it without saying outright that he has already fought in Bellator. One guy got in a lot of trouble in college but found God, who told him to build a gym. One guy is a brash blonde from Kentucky who’s adept at trash talk but has a wicked temper … OK, I’m kidding. Junie Browning is not on this show, as far as I know.

All that said, it’s not a bad hour of MMA programming.

The first winning fighter, Tim “Ginga Ninja” Welch, stood out. He came across as confident but amiable, proud of his Irish-Native American heritage. And he looked sharp in recording a quick knockout. All four coaches were impressed, with Shamrock trying to play up the shared Native American ties. Welch still chose the guru, Greg Jackson.

The next winner, Eric Scallon, opened on a sour note by punching when his opponent tried to touch gloves. Christopher Curtis responded with a big flurry of punches and knees, then spent the rest of the fight fending off takedown attempts.

Some coaches were open with their indifference. Jackson said Couture or Warren would be better fits. Shamrock asked the dazed Scallon if he was scared to get hit. Warren saved his lamentations for a confessional, away from Scallon’s eyes and ears. Bad move — Scallon chose Warren.

The third fight was a good one. Brendan Tierney is one of the more interesting characters introduced, a former ballet dancer who looks at fights as “active problem-solving.” He has long legs and creative submission work, along with some good knees. But Nick Barnes is a better striker, especially on the ground. He won and chose Shamrock.

The fourth winner, AJ Matthews, confesses that Shamrock fought before he was interested in MMA. Ouch. He chose Couture.

Last up was the veteran, Chris Lozano, in a fight that really should’ve been stopped. Josh Quayhagen, he who built the gym as instructed by God, was a bloody mess.

“I have a lot of positives, a lot to look at. Just not the mirror right now,” quipped Quayhagen.

Shamrock pulled an interesting gambit. In confessional, he said Lozano was his man. But face-to-face, he told Lozano to pick Jackson, with whom the veteran had already worked. Somehow, it worked — Lozano thanked Jackson for their previous time together but said he’d like to learn from “two great minds,” picking Shamrock.

Next week on The Ultimate Fighter, chaos erupts in the house … oh, no, I’m sorry — a few more fights, with winners picking their coaches.

I’m not going to be recapping each week, but it’s a show worth checking out while the MMA community awaits Ronda Rousey’s TUF exploits.

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mma

Leaving the UFC: It’s the money

Posted on by Beau Dure

John Cholish is leaving MMA, saying he lost money on his last fight.

It’s not really a function of the recently exposed fighter contract, which only accounts for a small part of the problem — Cholish had to pay out of pocket for some of his corner crew. It’s very simple: He’s not making money.

As Brent Brookhouse puts it at Bloody Elbow:

This is why some people get very hung up on the revenue distribution inequality between the UFC and the fighters. That’s not to say that the UFC should be paying out the close to 50% of revenue to fighters that we see from the NFL and NBA, but it doesn’t seem like a stretch to think that fighters that make it to the biggest stage in the sport be able to fight full time and take home an amount of money that their elite skills would seem to demand.

The Major League Soccer historian in me warns that any labor action should be taken with a degree of caution. When MLS players sued the league, the league nearly collapsed.

Then we have two other factors to consider:

1. Other organizations that have come into the MMA marketplace with big-money offers have quickly died. We can’t forget that the UFC bled money for many years before turning the corner less than 10 years ago, and now we’re seeing some troubling indicators on ratings and other measures of interest in the sport.

2. The UFC’s owners have a few negative associations with unions, with good reason.

 

 

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mma, olympic sports

Today in wrestling’s Olympic battle

Posted on by Beau Dure

Hey, Dana White! Bjorn Rebney! What do you big-time MMA promoters think wrestling should do to stay in the Olympics?

Wrestling’s leaders have indeed asked, and my former USA TODAY colleague Kelly Whiteside has the story on what they’re considering — everything from dramatic walkouts to new clothes. The story includes this great anecdote:

 “Two pieces? Dan will probably roll over in his grave,” (Mike Novogratz) said about the legend standing next to him.

“Nah. I wore a three-piece in college,” said Gable about his time at Iowa State in the late 1960s. “A shirt, tights and a pair of shorts that went over.”

Someone who wore a lot less than that on his way to nine Olympic gold medals is weighing in on wrestling’s behalf (via OlympicTalk):

As are more Olympic legends of the 70s and 80s:

(Still can’t believe Mark Spitz shaved that mustache.)

The “Rumble on the Rails” — USA, Iran and Russia in Grand Central Terminal — will be broadcast live today. USA vs. Iran at 3:30 ET on NBC Sports Network and USA vs. Russia on Universal Sports at 6 ET. Also online at TeamUSA.org

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mma

UFC contracts laid bare, marginally fair

Posted on by Beau Dure

Ever see something that used to be top-secret, then wondered why it was so secret?

That’s what happened today when Bleacher Report flexed its investigative muscle (No, I don’t mean that sarcastically — they’re making progress) and came up with a UFC fighter’s contract. Then they got comments from Dana White, Lorenzo Fertitta, UFC general counsel Lawrence Epstein, fighter agent Juanito Ibarra, Randy Couture and labor law professor Zev Eigen.

The result is well worth the read. But as with a lot of good journalism, it should start the discussion, not end it.

With that in mind, here are a few slide-by-slide thoughts:

(By suggestion, this has been edited to give more context.)

SLIDE 1 (overview): The comparison to the Yankees falls flat. How many people do the Yankees pay? How many in UFC — fighters, marketing, TV crews, Octagon crews, etc.? Lorenzo says 1,000 at any individual fight. (I’m assuming that the value of the Yankees does not include minor-league clubs, though it would include rights to some of those players.)

SLIDES 2/3: Ancillary rights (merchandising, fight reruns and so forth) are where the UFC arguments fall flat. Actors make money — not much, but a little — off reruns from their shows. Why should Zuffa be the sole profiteer on future runs of its fights?

The lawsuit to watch in terms of owning rights in perpetuity: O’Bannon v. NCAA. (That said, fighters are certainly in better shape than college athletes when it comes to video games and other ancillary rights. If O’Bannon loses, you have to wonder if fighters would have a chance.)

SLIDE 5: This includes the “champions’ clause,” in which the UFC maintains your rights as long you have the belt. All due respect to the expertise of Zev Eigen, but let’s save the “slavery” argument for unwilling workers, shall we?

SLIDE 6: As I read this, in the event a fight can’t happen, the fight still owes Zuffa a fight — and Zuffa still owes the fighter a fight. Not really surprised.

SLIDE 7: Juanito Ibarra: “Who is the genius that decided to pay an athlete less when he loses? Boxers don’t do that. No other sport, basketball or football, does that. They may have bonuses, sure, for making the All-Star team, but the foundation is built on guaranteed money.”

Is Ibarra seriously arguing that a boxer doesn’t get paid less when he loses? If I get paid $2 million to fight Manny Pacquiao and he knocks me out in the first round, am I getting $2 million for my next fight? Or is he arguing that bonuses are bonuses in the NBA, but bonuses aren’t bonuses in MMA?

SLIDE 8: This part is specific to Eddie Alvarez, and it has to do with his bonuses for each pay-per-view sale for his fights. Ibarra and Eigen are arguing here as if Eddie Alvarez is the only reason I paid $55 to watch a pay-per-view. That’s not the case in the UFC. Most cards are sold on the strength of several fights. Some fighters are exceptions who can sell cards by themselves — Eddie Alvarez isn’t one of those.

The better argument on UFC fighters’ behalf is actually farther down the card, where guys are making $6,000. There’s no argument to be made for Eddie Alvarez to receive Floyd Mayweather money.

SLIDE 9: This one shows what the UFC pays for travel for fighters and corner crew, and it’s surprising. UFC fighters generally rave about the treatment they receive when they travel to fights. I would have thought the UFC would have paid for two corner people for every fighter.

SLIDE 12: If you lose, the UFC can cut you. Harsh, perhaps. But that’s the nature of sports, as much as Eigen and Ibarra would like to claim otherwise. A lot of NFL contracts aren’t guaranteed. A lot of NBA and NHL contracts are short. And I’m covering a women’s soccer league in which a lot of players can be cut at any time.

SLIDE 13: The UFC asserts matching rights at the end of a contract. Again with the slavery argument? For a clause that says the UFC (the world’s biggest MMA promotion) can match the terms of a contract offered by someone else? Eigen isn’t helping his credibility here.

SLIDE 15: “Fighter acknowledges risks,” etc. Here, Eigen’s input is valuable. Fighters aren’t alone in signing contracts that say they understand the risks — even executives have to sign such things. Maybe journalists should sign them. “Journalist understands that Journalism is a soul-crushing activity that is hazardous to mental health and often leads to poor sleep and diet, resulting in further health issues …”

SLIDE 16: Limits on fighters referring to their UFC affiliations. This one just seems petty on the UFC’s part, and I’m surprised none of the Zuffa executives commented. Frank Mir can’t bill himself as a former UFC champion? Harsh. Maybe if it were “former UFC champion Frank Mir recommends Bill’s Underground Explosives Shop,” sure, but don’t other clauses in this contract limit such usage?

SLIDE 18: Commercial identification. This is a tricky one. Seems pretty obvious that if Bud Light has spent a zillion dollars to sponsor a fight card, a fighter might not want to walk out with a Miller Lite logo on his shorts. Beyond that, we hit a gray area.

SLIDE 19: Confidentiality. I don’t get this one at all. In most states, fighter pay IS disclosed. What is NOT disclosed is how much money they’re getting from sponsors. They may also get some locker-room bonuses, and I’m not sure it’s in the fighter’s best interests to see that money disclosed.

All of these discussions are worth having. But we’re still not much closer to the larger question: Are UFC fighters paid well enough? In other sports, athletes get maybe 40-50 percent of the revenue. The UFC, though, does much of its own TV production.

So take the total UFC revenue, then subtract the TV production costs. Do fighters get 40-50 percent of that? If yes, then a lot of the questions raised above go away. If not, then you have to wonder why Zuffa is nickel-and-diming these guys.

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mma

The Ultimate Fighter 17, Episode 12: Award time!

Posted on by Beau Dure

Wow, this is a long Harley-Davidson ad. Oh, wait, the show started. Yeah, one of the fighters gets a motorcycle. Whee.

Chael Sonnen jokes with Kelvin Gastelum that the semifinalist fighter has upgraded his diet from Krispy Kreme to brownies. Man, I miss my 20something metabolism.

Anyway, Gastelum and Josh Sannan both want to win. That’s a relief. Looks like nothing at all happened in the house after the first week or two.

Herb Dean is our ref. We start, we trade, we clinch, and Kelvin gets him down. Josh shows off his active guard, legs fluttering around Kelvin’s torso like wounded butterflies.

Kelvin’s second takedown finds him in better position, and he’s able to land some strikes. Josh scrambles but gives up his back. Kelvin grabs his neck with stunning ease. And so Josh, for all his bluster about being better than just about everyone here, taps out to a rear naked choke in the first round.

Josh is stunned. Kelvin is incoherent.

Next up: Dylan Andrews vs. Uriah Hall. Will Dylan and set up a battle of the last two draft picks? Or Uriah win and make it an all-Sonnen final?

Before the fight, we get more Sonnen hype of Uriah Hall. Uriah Hall can beat anyone in the weight class. Kids will grow up wanting to be Uriah Hall. Dana White will rewrite his will to leave his share of the UFC to Uriah Hall. North Korea will disarm just so Kim Jong-un can get floor seats to see Uriah Hall fight.

Dylan Andrews, meanwhile, is an underdog. He works hard. He wants to win.

Jon Jones builds up Andrews: “This is the finals match. We both know it.” Yeah, let’s keep overlooking Kelvin. That’s worked so well so far.

Fight time, and it’s clear Uriah isn’t overlooking Dylan. The overwhelming favorite is showing the soft-spoken Australian a lot of respect. He tries a couple of spinning kicks but seems a little tentative. Dylan lands a couple of half-decent shots. Neither guy seems the least bit interested in going to the mat, and they both seem intent on matching Rashad Evans’s unofficial record for most feints in one round. Dylan gets through Round 1, though the judges would likely give it to Uriah.

Jones isn’t happy with Dylan. “You threw like five punches that whole round. I don’t know why.”

Round 2: Hall slowly pecks away at Dylan, bloodying his face. Dylan finally decides to get aggressive, swinging with a wild combo and then taking Hall down. Hall passes the ground-game test, grabbing an armlock that looks dangerous. But it doesn’t fluster Dylan too much, and he keeps pounding away at Hall’s ribs. Sonnen keeps yelling, “You got it!” He don’t got it.

But Hall changes position and sets up guard. And he … somehow hits Dylan hard enough that Dylan gives up position and turtles. Hall pounces on Dylan’s back and pounds his ears a bit, but even Steve Mazzagatti is stopping this one.

“From the bottom? From the bottom!” yells Dana White, who says he hasn’t seen that in 13 years.

Hall is emotional. Dylan says his heart hurts more than his face. His face might beg to differ. That, or he needs to see a cardiologist tout suite.

Jones and Sonnen cap off a season of surprising sportsmanship and lead some handshakes between the teams.

Then Sonnen says the most improbable thing in show history. He says Gastelum and Hall were even in practice. OK.

The finalists face off and basically smile at each other. Dana White has to egg them into a true staredown, but they still clown around a bit.

Dana’s very happy and looks forward to seeing most of these guys in the UFC.

So that’s it, and let’s give some awards for a season that has already seen two guys fight in the UFC and will see 11 more in the finale, with Zak Cummings apparently just waiting for an injury to heal:

The Cristiano Marcello Invisibility Cloak Award: Tor Troeng. Seemed to be one of the most intriguing guys coming into the show. Can’t recall seeing him on camera any time other than his fight.

The Tom Lawlor Award for Post-Knockout Humor: Adam Cella, knocked out with such force that the rest of the house that the rest of the house treated Uriah Hall like Ron Decline from that point forward. (Yes, that’s Sen. Al Franken in that clip.) Yet Cella came back to have the funniest conversation ever recorded in a TUF bathroom, and he was a frequent confessional subject the rest of the way.

The Junie Browning House Lunatic Award: No award this season. These guys didn’t fight in the house about much of anything except occasional misunderstandings with Hall.

The Mac Danzig “What Am I Doing Here With Such Lesser Talents?” Award: Josh Samman. But unlike Danzig, he didn’t win.

The Colin Fletcher Quipmaster Award: Gilbert Smith, who got Kevin Casey to throw down in a rap battle.

The Michael Bisping Award for International Arrogance: Luke Barnatt apparently had an opinion on everything.

The Chael Sonnen Positive Coaching Award: Debut award given to its namesake, Chael Sonnen. Who would’ve guessed he’d be the John Wooden of TUF coaches, only with funnier quotes? Can he just retire from fighting and be a permanent coach?

The Danny Downes Recap Award: Also given to its namesake, @dannyboydownes.

See you Saturday for the finale. I have a bad feeling that Miesha Tate might be looking past Cat Zingano, who would be easily be the least experienced coach in TUF history if she should win. (OK, OK — Brock Lesnar, but at least he had won a UFC belt.)

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mma

The Ultimate Fighter 17, Episode 11: Bubba bounced

Posted on by Beau Dure

Last week … a couple of quarterfinals, and Ronda Rousey turned up for some grappleflirting. I was out of town, so check with Danny Downes.

This week … Uriah Hall finally fights again? That’s so exciting, I could swear Dana blinked more than usual in the opening credits.

Bubba McDaniel is worn down. Three fights and a lot of training in a short time will do that to you. Clint Hester starts getting his weight down just in case Bubba can’t go.

Also with Team Jones, Josh Samman, is pretty sure Jimmy Quinlan isn’t going to stand with him. “Jimmy’s going to shoot all the way from the other side of the cage.”

His teammates aren’t as confident, in part because Jimmy can hold people down and in part because Josh keeps getting hurt.

It’s a Frank Mir sighting! Anyone catch what he said?

Back to the ailing Bubba. “I don’t want to quit,” Bubba says. Jones says he had been waiting to hear that. “I don’t want to quit,” he says again. OK, good. “I don’t want to quit.” OK, we got it. “I lift things up and put them down.”

(Has anyone seen the techno mix of that ad? It’s not great, but it’s worth a quick peek. Here goes:)

We go to Team Sonnen briefly to hear Mr. Positive Chael tell Jimmy he’s fighting a lot better than he was a few weeks … oh, sorry, we’re back to Bubba. He goes for a blood test.

Fight day, but it’s Samman-Quinlan. So unless they reveal the blood test results between rounds, we’ll put the Bubba saga on hold briefly.

Round 1 — Jimmy does indeed virtually shoot from across the cage. Josh fights him off briefly, but Jimmy gets underneath and picks him for a slam. Josh tilts his weight, though, so Jimmy doesn’t get good control right away. Josh lands a few good elbows from the bottom, and Jimmy drips blood. Then Josh works a submission game from his guard. Then some simultaneous ear punches. It’s rare these days to see the fighter on the bottom dominating the fight, but that’s just what Josh is doing.

I see London, I see France, I see Jimmy Quinlan’s underpants. He should pull up his shorts so that he’ll at least be doing SOMETHING from top control.

Josh finally stands up and lands three big knees to the head. Jimmy crumples and turtles. Josh lands more double ear punches, this time atop Jimmy’s back. Jimmy taps to strikes, which is somewhat unusual unless Steve Mazzagatti is reffing. Which he is.

So now we’re back to Team Jones and Bubba. The blood tests are fine. Bubba may have a pulled muscle, but he’s got some adrenaline now that he knows he’s not having kidney failure or something.

Over to Team Sonnen, Chael thinks Uriah Hall is the greatest talent in the history of talent in any sport on any planet in any universe. But he sometimes lacks confidence. Chael takes Hall aside to do a Sonnen Mind Meld.

Summing up the next segment: They make weight. Uriah’s confident. Bubba isn’t. It’s about the closest you’ll ever come to seeing a guy say “I have no chance” in pre-fight hype.

Fight starts, Herb Dean is the … it’s over. Bubba’s on the mat, asking why his eye is messed up. Sonnen tells Hall he’s a contender. Replay shows a knee to the body, a straight right to Bubba’s eye, then a couple of punches on the ground before Herb Dean wisely stepped in.

Dana White on Hall’s KOs: “You don’t even wanna clap. You feel bad clapping. … This guy is the nastiest guy in Ultimate Fighter history.”

The remaining fighters: Each team’s No. 2 pick (Samman, Hall) and … each team’s last pick (Dylan Andrews, Kelvin Gastelum). So the fairest thing would be Samman-Gastelum and Hall-Andrews. Right?

The guys come in. Samman says everyone knows the final is made for him and Hall. He wants to beat Gastelum and set up the “biggest finale in TUF history.” Andrews says nothing. Hall can’t stand Josh and wants to fight him, but he knows that’s just an emotional thing. Gastelum wants Andrews because he thinks he can beat him. When the other options are Samman and Hall, that makes sense.

But the coaches want to see their top guys fight right away. Will Dana go with his coaches or his promotional instincts telling him a Samman-Hall finale could be huge?

The answer is … promotional instincts. It’s Josh vs. Kelvin. Then Uriah vs. Dylan. That’s why Dana makes the big bucks.

He explains: “My educated guess – Josh and Uriah are probably the best. Now we’re going to find out if I’m right or I’m wrong.”

Scenes from the next episode: Only four battle-tested competitors … does anything happen in the house in the last couple of weeks?

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