mma

The case for Mayhem Miller

Posted on by Beau Dure

Jason “Mayhem” Miller won the coaching battle with Michael Bisping, hands down. And his attitude during the show compared with Bisping’s made it easy for fans to pick sides going into last night’s fight.

But Miller really didn’t have much of a chance. He hadn’t fought in 16 months, and his last fight was a largely ceremonial dispatching of aging legend Sakuraba. He had only one prior fight in the UFC, in 2005 against Georges St. Pierre. Dana White says he didn’t look too good in that one, but who looks good against GSP? White and some of the media sang Dan Hardy’s praises for the mere act of not being submitted in a five-round whitewash. (Hardy lost his next three fights.)

Miller’s much better on the ground than he is on his feet. Last night, he was fighting a kickboxing monster in Bisping who’s also a bit bigger — Bisping’s a former light heavyweight, Miller sometimes fights at welterweight.

So Miller, rather predictably, came out and had a strong first round (FightMetric stats clearly favor him) but used up all his energy in doing so. Bisping pounded him for another round and a half before the fight was stopped.

White didn’t seem bullish on Miller’s future after last night’s loss. He Tweeted that the fight was one of the most lopsided in UFC history, though it clearly wasn’t the most lopsided of the night. (That would be Johnny Bedford’s gruesome beatdown of Louis Gaudinot in another substantial size mismatch.) Even after getting called out on Twitter by people pointing to Miller’s first-round performance and countless lopsided fights in UFC history (Quarry-Starnes, Silva-Griffin), he stuck by it in his postfight interview with Ariel Helwani. He was even less enthusiastic about Miller in his interview with Heavy MMA.

Four reasons to keep Mayhem in the Octagon:

1. He deserves a shot to be something other than the big underdog. His two UFC fights are against the greatest welterweight of all time and a top contender who’s a bad matchup for him even if he hasn’t been inactive for 16 months. If Hardy gets to stick around after dropping four straight, why cut Miller?

2. Grappling doesn’t suck. Variety is a good thing on a UFC card. The organization has plenty of “stand-and-bang” guys who stick around forever even though they’ll never crack the top 20. How about keeping a guy who can bring it on the ground?

3. He’s a good personality. He could easily join Stephan Bonnar and Amir Sadollah in the rotation of analyst/panelist/interviewers. (And let him do a real entrance next time.)

4. Promotional credibility. Fans tend to notice if you hype somebody up and then dump on them after one mistake.

Mayhem brought a lot to this season of The Ultimate Fighter, and that’s nothing to take lightly. We need to quit pretending that the best fighters are necessarily the best or most compelling TUF coaches. (See Lesnar, Brock. Or Hughes, Matt.) Maybe he has a long way back before he can coach there again, but people would probably tune in.

If Strikeforce continues as the flashy, techno-infused sibling to the rock-and-rap UFC, maybe Mayhem would be a better fit there in the long run. But surely he deserves at least one more shot in the UFC first. He did the UFC a great service by helping them reinvigorate The Ultimate Fighter before it moves to a new network. Seems like he should get some capital out of that valuable service.

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The WPS vigil: Dec. 2 update

Posted on by Beau Dure

http://storify.com/duresport/the-wps-vigil-dec-2-update.js?border=false&header=false&sharing=false&more=false

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soccer

Brainstorming as WPS deadline approaches

Posted on by Beau Dure

Update: Jeff Kassouf says on Twitter that the Monday deadline may be extended so that WPS can make a presentation to U.S. Soccer, which may not happen until Tuesday. I’m not sure that WPS had a representative in the room when U.S. Soccer’s board initially voted. I know Jennifer O’Sullivan (death in the family) wasn’t there.

Also an interesting interview with Christine Sinclair, who envisions a lot of players going overseas if WPS isn’t sanctions. The European calendar (see a colorful version) actually suits players pretty well, with the Champions League wrapping two months before the Olympics. I see German league games listed for May 28, still nearly two weeks before the Games kick off. Whether U.S. Soccer would let players venture overseas is an interesting question. (Sinclair’s Canadian.)

Original post: The U.S. Soccer board met Nov. 20 and gave WPS a 15-day extension (or ultimatum, though WPS CEO Jennifer O’Sullivan isn’t reading it that way) to come up with a sixth team to get Division I sanctioning for 2012. It’s Day 12. Deadline Day is Monday.

But since then, I’ve spoken with a few people who think Division II wouldn’t be the end of the world. By the letter of the law, that makes no sense — the same “eight teams or waiver” restriction for Division I also applies to Division II or Division III, unless there’s a bylaw amendment I don’t know. (That’s certainly possible.) Yet these people think Division II may be a better description of the league next season, and it would reduce some pressure to rev up spending in a year in which the league needs to retrench.

What would be lost? Some talent, surely. International stars would be less likely to sign, as would the top U.S. national team players. But those losses might be unavoidable, anyway. The Olympic schedule leaves little time for a full season with London-bound players, especially with the league’s current state of limbo making it unreasonable to kick off the 2012 season early in the year.

Another issue that has been kicked around — were U.S. players overtrained in 2011 between their clubs and the national team? Perhaps. And surely that’s something they can solve. MLS players operate on more compressed international windows than WPS players, and we didn’t hear rumblings that they were being stretched too thinly. Most of the rumblings I’ve heard pin the blame on WPS teams, but perhaps the WNT can scale back a bit as well?

But the communication lines to solve that problem well be better-established in 2015 than in 2012. For next season, the most reasonable course might be to let the national team players spend most of their time in residency with just one coaching staff monitoring their fitness.

Notice that I said “most.” Here’s an idea to keep national team players involved without overstressing their bodies or putting their medal bonuses/sponsorships in undue jeopardy.

In 2004, the WUSA played a few exhibitions, cobbling together makeshift versions of the Washington Freedom, San Diego Spirit and company to play a couple of games to keep the WUSA concept afloat. It didn’t work, of course — these were the last gasps of a dying league.

But now we’re in another Olympic year with a few teams ready to proceed with a league. The infrastructure is in place.

So how about playing a few exhibitions in which some national team players join existing teams as guest players?

Even in a best-case scenario, most national team players will be around only for a few games next season. So why not separate those games from the league schedule and sell them as special events? And if they’re called exhibitions, perhaps the risk of injury will be lessened — players shouldn’t be at any more risk in an exhibition game than they would be in a U.S. practice.

Here’s how it would work for all the people involved:

USWNT core players: They can spend most of their 2012 in residency but still get a few competitive games with club teams.

Other players: They keep playing. Salaries shouldn’t change too much. Without paying the WNT players for most of a season, teams should have enough money to pay everyone else what they were making in 2011 for non-Borislow teams.

Hard-core fans: They get a full WPS season with decent players and a few chances to see the top players in action as well.

The Abby-autograph cult: Think Sahlen might sell a few tickets if Abby Wambach made an appearance in a Flash uniform? Probably. Think the fans will be too distraught over the fact that the game doesn’t count in the league standings? Probably not.

WPS and its owners: One more season of continuity without breaking the bank, giving them time to line up the expansion teams and sponsors they seem confident of getting down the road.

The long-term goal is to have a fully functioning league in 2013. USWNT players should be less reticent to play in the league that year because there’s nothing significant on the international calendar, and they’ll need competitive club games to stay sharp.

So perhaps the “guest players” for those exhibitions aren’t really guests. Maybe they sign two- or three-year deals with their clubs now with the agreement that they won’t play league games in 2012. So when, say, Heather O’Reilly appears for Sky Blue in a 2012 exhibition, it’s a reminder of what’s to come in 2013.

I have to stress — I have no reporting to suggest that this modified 2012 schedule is one of the options WPS and U.S. Soccer are discussing. The idea came to me while I was making breakfast for my kids.

What I can say from reporting is that it’s going to take something creative to make this work for 2012. Everybody (well, almost everybody) wants a league. In 2013, that league should have at least 7-8 teams, with whatever salaries the market will bear. In 2012, it’s going to take a clever compromise.

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mma

The Ultimate Fighter: Season 14, Episode 10: A punchy farewell to Spike

Posted on by Beau Dure

And we bid a fond farewell to The Ultimate Fighter on Spike. This is the final episode (not counting the finale, which is basically a “Fight Night” card) that will air before the UFC takes its programming over to the Fox networks. Spike and the UFC have had seven years of remarkable brand-building together.

This one probably won’t have a lot of the shenanigans we’ve seen through TUF history. We have two fights, and the Bisping-Mayhem feud has fizzled.

We still have a feud between John Dodson and Johnny Bedford. Or at least a one-way hatred between Bedford, who has decided to judge lest he be judged. Or something like that. I’m not sure what they covered in their Bible study.

Continue reading →

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soccer

The WPS vigil: Nov. 30 update

Posted on by Beau Dure

The WPS saga is starting to creep out beyond the women’s soccer media into some other outlets:

  • The Soccer America headline “History isn’t on WPS’s side” doesn’t quite tell you what’s in Paul Kennedy’s analysis. History isn’t on WPS’s side in the sense that World Cup booms typically don’t last. (Not mentioned here: That’s also true in men’s soccer. Or any Olympic sport, frankly.) Kennedy states two points well worth remembering. First, WPS doesn’t have its Anschutz or its Hunt, someone with extraordinarily deep pockets who has demonstrated that he’ll stick it out no matter what. (Little wonder the Twittersphere reaches out to Ellen DeGeneres, Oprah Winfrey or, more curiously, Rachel Maddow. Being on TV doesn’t make you a megamillionaire, folks.) Second, if WPS fails, it’s likely to be a long time before we see another Division I league. We’ll get back to this point.
  • The head of women’s soccer for FIFA, Tatjana Haenni, hopes WPS survives. That’s not the most interesting part of this AP story. Check out Eniola Aluko, saying she was fortunate to play for a big salary in the league’s first year and that it should’ve been more conservative from the get-go.
  • Venerable soccer writer Frank Dell’Apa summarizes the story for Boston.com. The suggestion that WPS terminated magicJack “mistakenly having been assured a replacement had been lined up in Connecticut” is interesting. I’d like to find out more about that. Surely the league would deny it, and in any case, they seem to have reached their breaking point with Dan Borislow no matter how many teams they had.
  • Player signings! Anita Asante and Carolyn Blank will stick with Sky Blue.
  • Fox Sports Southwest pounces on Megan Rapinoe’s Tweet to Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, imploring him to buy a team. Cuban’s HDNet once broadcast MLS. But the reality check here is that it would be awfully difficult to start from scratch and start a team.
Back in our cozy women’s soccer world, Lauren Barker adds some levity (and insight) in a post at All White Kit.
The big argument for WPS overnight: Anthony DiCicco (not the former WUSA commissioner or Breakers coach) offers a long, eloquent open letter offering unsolicited advice for everyone involved — the league, U.S. Soccer and fans.
  • To the fans: Twitter isn’t going to help. (This is where I disagree — Twitter is a useful rallying point. If it’s the end result, maybe that’s a bad thing. But it’s a convenient place to start.)
  • To the league: Put forth a compelling, sustainable vision.
  • To U.S. Soccer: Yeah, we know the league is flawed, but come on! Do you really expect to have a competitive national team without a top-level league?
He actually sounds a lot like Kate Markgraf, though Markgraf might be more of a Twitter fan than he is. (And again, apologies — Markgraf certainly wasn’t “ranting” in any pejorative sense. She made a good strong case, particularly given the limitations of Twitter.)
Back to the other front of WPS’s current battles — I asked Dan Borislow if he had a court date for his lawsuit yet, and his response was, “Wed for venue.” WPS has argued that Florida lacks jurisdiction over this suit, and that Borislow should’ve filed in Delaware’s Court of Chancery. Borislow has said he’ll pursue justice wherever he needs to go — I was joking when I said “Mars,” but I take him to be quite serious. I’m not sure moving the case helps either party. A delay would surely irritate Borislow. And it might leave the league in limbo a little bit longer while it tries to line up sponsors and perhaps another team, all while the clock is ticking.
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soccer

All the Borislow-WPS legal documents (so far)

Posted on by Beau Dure

Plenty of people have been asking to see the exhibits. Careful what you wish for. See the whole thing at Scribd. Some language NSFW.

Links to the individual documents follow (since I can’t get the Scribd widget to embed here) …

Previously linked here:

Borislow’s exhibits

  • Exhibit A: WPS LLC agreement
  • Exhibit B: WPS agreement with teams
  • Exhibit C: Sun-Sentinel feature on Wambach
  • Exhibit D: Letter from WPS attorney Pamela Fulmer on summer dispute
  • Exhibit E: Follow-up letter from Fulmer
  • Exhibit F: espnW story on new CEO Jennifer O’Sullivan
  • Exhibit G: One page of an invoice. WPS disputes that it sought $2.5 million from Borislow. There’s no context in this invoice, so it’s very difficult to tell what’s being sought.
  • Exhibit H: Letter from Borislow attorney Louis Ederer on “purported termination”
  • Exhibit I: Response from Fulmer to Ederer
  • Exhibit J: Palm Beach Post story on termination
  • Exhibit K: Palm Beach Post story from summer

WPS exhibits

  • Exhibits 1-15: BoingBoing story on Borislow’s suit against their site, email exchanges over sponsor signage, email from Briana Scurry, and a couple of insulting emails.
  • Exhibits 16-28: League notice of several violations from first magicJack home games and from public comments.
  • Exhibits 29-40: Atlanta Beat protest, email exchange over whether Borislow contacted bench during suspension, union grievance.
  • Exhibits 41-62: All about the termination.

And that’s all for now.

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The WPS vigil: Nov. 29 update

Posted on by Beau Dure

http://storify.com/duresport/the-wps-vigil-nov-29-update.js?border=false&header=false&sharing=false&more=false

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WPS rips Borislow in legal documents

Posted on by Beau Dure

Update: My story on the situation has been posted at espnW.

For those just joining us: Dan Borislow, who turned the Washington Freedom into a star-studded South Florida team called magicJack last year, is suing WPS over his termination from the league. See the legal documents on his lawsuit, the espnW story on the suit, Borislow’s statement on the suit, and Borislow’s second statement after WPS was not immediately granted Division I status with five teams for the 2012 season.

Today, I’ll have another story at espnW on the league’s response to the lawsuit and U.S. Soccer’s decision to delay Division I sanctioning for next season. In the meantime, I have the league’s legal response to the suit (“opposition to motion”) and its motion to dismiss the suit. They’re PDF files, of course:

Opposition to Motion

Motion to Dismiss

WPS is seeking dismissal of the suit plus legal fees for this suit and the August lawsuit.

 

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The war on nonrevenue sports

Posted on by Beau Dure

http://storify.com/duresport/the-war-on-nonrevenue-sports.js?border=false&header=false&sharing=false&more=false

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soccer

Borislow: Reasons WPS is dead, how to save it

Posted on by Beau Dure

Update: From Philadelphia – “The accusation that the franchise offered $6,000 to a WNT member for the year is completely false.  The Independence has been in talks with WNT members and none of them have been offered the amount put forward by Dan Borislow’s statement.”

Original post: The dispute between magicJack owner Dan Borislow and Women’s Professional Soccer could have an impact beyond the courtroom. Over the weekend, U.S. Soccer decided not to sanction WPS as a Division I league next season — for now. U.S. Soccer says it’ll give WPS 15 days to expand from its current five teams to six.

Two ways to read that decision:

1. USSF will sanction WPS but wants to give it a little more time to nail down a deal for an expansion team. No point in sanctioning five right now if there’s a significant chance of having six instead.

2. USSF has given WPS an ultimatum — get a sixth team, or you’re not Division I.

The latter would be a major problem. If WPS isn’t a sanctioned Division I league, there’s no way U.S. national team players would participate. (They’re already hesitating to sign up for next year, multiple sources have said.)

A sanctioned Division II league really wouldn’t make a lot of sense. Why have only five pro teams in a league when they could just as easily join one of the existing pro-am leagues (WPSL or W-League)?

Another option: Just take a year off, given the fact that the Olympics will pose a major conflict in the first place (assuming the USA qualifies, which is not a safe assumption). Perhaps teams could play a brief exhibition season, which would provide a nice change of pace from residency and friendlies — which also cost U.S. Soccer a considerable sum of money.

No one has raised that option in public, though Borislow suggests a one-year hiatus below. But WPS and USSF aren’t saying anything in public right now. They’ve made it clear that they prefer to keep their discussions private.

That’s not the Dan Borislow way. The following statement includes a few substantive disagreements over the direction of the league — how much to pay players, how much emphasis to put on U.S. national team players and so forth. It also includes a few petty insults of a few of the league’s officials.

I feel compelled to point out that some of the things stipulated here are not verified. The accusations that the league “extorted” and “stole” from magicJack without due process will be argued in court, unless the parties settle before that date. We don’t know CEO Jennifer O’Sullivan’s compensation or Philadelphia’s contract offers.

Several league officials have been contacted for comment. They may choose not to comment because litigation is pending, and if they choose not to speak, their silence should not interpreted as acceptance that the following statement is accurate.

With all those disclaimers out of the way, here is Dan Borislow’s statement.

The 10 reasons the WPS is Dead and the only possible life support

1. The Governors thought they were bigger than the rest of organized soccer. They never follow rules including the USSF rules. The Governors and their coaches oversize egos thought they could have a successful league without the best US National team players. They have no idea it’s all about these players.

2. They hire “yes” CEO’s who cannot control their constant misbehavior and bad decisions, therefore there is no checks and balances.

3. Mike Stoller and the Boston Breakers are a solid pair, but they will never close their investors to keep the team alive after the league stole the magicJack team without due process. Who could ever give somebody money knowing the other side has a history of stealing it after extorting the investor for even more money?

4. After the owners find out what the teams want to pay Women, they will bail on the team and the league. I believe the owners of NJ haven’t a clue of what their Governor is doing. I do not believe a person who owns Bed, Bath and Beyond can support a league who wants to pay Women close to what the average income is in the poverty line. These Women would be better of on welfare in many cases. Recently Philadelphia offered a US WNT player $6,000.00 for the year.

5. The proposed pay schedule would have an inexperienced CEO of the league get paid more than what the whole starting team of the US Womens National team get paid. The CEO will make almost as much as what Atlanta wants to pay all their players combined.

6. The league hasn’t an idea of what the product should be. To me ,it is so obvious when we saw Abby’s name being chanted so loud at AWAY games. These games are like rock concerts, where they are just looking for the best performance from World Wide stars. Most teams believe the league can prosper without these type of players. They believe a competitive game is the key. The fans can care less. They want to see Abby, Hope, Christie, Meg and Shannon.

7. The league grossly miscalculated almost every important decision. They first extorted and stole money from magicJack and then when that didn’t work, they seized the team without due process, never thinking they needed a sixth team to be certified a Division 1 team when they are supposed to have 8 teams. They actually think our best WNT players will degrade themselves and play in a Division 2 league without pay. The best players look to endorsements to make a fair living. Who wants a Division 2 player endorsing their product? Injure themselves for what?

8.The league will lose it’s litigation with magicJack and the only chance it had was to listen to us about what the product should be and how to build it. It takes an investment to build something good. They want to pay a worse than worthless CEO and most of the other league leaders, but they dont want to pay the players. What kind of professional sports league is this? It reminds me of the NBA who pays their leader $20 Million a year? are you kidding me and where are they now? Part of the whole problem of the NBA is what this one person makes. But at least he does not get paid more than a whole team does. They will lose the litigation because they are wrong and think they are above the law, the USSF and the players.

9. The league never realized they were in a crisis situation. They thought once they had magicJack save the league, that they would use us as a place holder until they found another sucker who would bow to their demands. I begged and pleaded with the Governors to act like they were in a crisis situation, but like most Bankruptcy situations, the owners don’t know they are dead even after they are sitting in Bankruptcy court. It’s will be a remake of the “Night of the Living Dead”

10. The league is represented by one of the the dumbest lawyer’s, Pam Fulmer who is actually involved in the conspiracy to attempt to destroy magicJack. The league has three Governors who couldn’t run a lemonade stand. They have coaches who couldn’t train Lassie to bark. I genuinely feel sorry for Boston and New York who wanted to put on a great show and willing to make the investment to do so.

magicJack believes to save the league, the WPS needs a whole new management team, lawyers, business plan which includes wanting to pay the real Pros real money. All the players would have to become free agents again. The league should ask for a one year hiatus from the USSF and get its act together during that time, including getting owners who can afford to make the proper investment. With the Olympics and all the current controversy, it can never be a successful year for the league. Philadelphia and Atlanta must be replaced for they will never understand what will make this league succesful. New Jersey needs to replace it’s Governor. A reporter said that the players should potentially play this season for the betterment of women’s soccer. This notion is ridiculous, for all of the Women in the world, they should seek some form of equality when they are the most successful soccer team in the US and one of the most succesful -Men or Women-in the World. This league is not good as it stands,it needs a major overhaul. Just because the great majority thinks something is right,doesn’t make it right. Some of the greatest tragedies in the World were premised on that line of thinking. It takes a lot more courage to do something different than the rest of the crowd, but it doesn’t take any courage if it is the ethical thing to do.

Albert Einstein quote:

A question that sometimes drives me hazy: am I or are the others crazy?

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