Mark Coleman Cut From UFC

On May 31, 2010, In business, By Ross Everett

Not too long ago, Mark Coleman headlined UFC 109 facing Randy Couture. Several days later, he’s apparently no longer good enough to remain in the UFC at all. On Wednesday, following a lopsided loss to Couture the UFC released Coleman from his contract and cut the veteran heavyweight. Coleman is now free to sign with any other promotion, but at 46 years of age his most likely-and most advisable-course of action is retirement. Retirement is a tough thing for any pro athlete to swallow, however, and fighters in particular have had difficulty in ending their career gracefully.

Coleman became the first UFC fighter to be cut immediately after headlining a PPV event. Others have left due to drug test failures or for other opportunities, but none have ever been cut from their contract. Sources close to the UFC suggest that it was a decision no one wanted to make, but that all felt was unavoidable due to Coleman’s age and deteriorating skills. Of course everyone knew of his age and deteriorating skills for awhile now, so the UFC’s baleful response is a tough act to buy.

While the fact that Coleman is a shell of the fighter he was at his prime, the UFC’s suggestion that they have his best interest at heart is somewhat duplicitous. He was kept around and booked into last Saturday’s fight–a fight that no one particularly had any interest in seeing in the first place–simply because he was a fighter that Randy Couture could beat. Were the UFC interested in the well being of their aging fighters there’s several others on the roster that should also be cut for the same justification as Coleman. Couture, Tito Ortiz and Chuck Liddell are all well past their prime but they’re still under contract and will all likely fight again. No one really wants to see these relics fight, but the UFC has long had a policy that what their fan base wants to see is of minimal importance.

Coleman’s age has never been a secret and his diminished skill level was evident to anyone who has watched his recent fights. If the UFC was really interested in his physical well being, the main event against Couture should have never taken place. The fight itself wasn’t exactly one that UFC fans had been clamoring for and one that met with derision from the MMA media from the time it was announced. The fact that the PPV buyrate for the event will end up as one of the lowest in recent history pretty much sums up the story.

While retirement would be in Coleman’s best interest, he may attempt to fight in a smaller US promotion or in Japan where he’s well known from his time in PRIDE. He’s already a member of the UFC Hall of Fame with a 26-10 career record and has fought the best in the world including Fedor Emelianenko, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Mirko Cro Cop.

Ross Everett is a widely published freelance sports writer and respected authority on World Cup betting. His writing has appeared on a variety of sports sites including sportsbooks and sportsbook directory sites. He lives in Las Vegas with three Jack Russell Terriers and an emu. He is currently working on an autobiography of former interior secretary James Watt.

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UFC Struggles To Sell Tickets For Their Latest Event

On February 22, 2010, In business, By Ross Everett

Portland, Oregon has long been considered a hotbed of mixed martial arts. The area is home to numerous MMA gyms, the most famous being Gresham’s Team Quest. It has produced many top notch professional fighters including Randy Couture, Matt Lindland, Ed Herman and Ryan Schultz. Regional MMA promotions like Lindland’s SportFight and amateur MMA draws good crowds, and there’s few markets in the country that have such a strong mainstream acceptance and understanding of mixed martial arts.

The UFC scheduled their Rose City debut for August 29th, headlined by a matchup between local hero Couture and tough PRIDE vet Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. They anticipated a fever pitch for Couture’s homecoming and the UFCs first ever trip to the Pacific Northwest.

What they received instead was an outpouring of apathy from the community. As of early this week, there had been as few as 8,500 tickets sold in the 21,000 seat Rose Garden Arena. Even media sources like Yahoo Sports, who invariably put a positive spin on everything the UFC, does are reporting just over 10,000 tickets sold. In the final week runup to the event the UFC has been aggressively giving away tickets, so between that and walkup business theyll likely end up with a respectable 15,000 to’,000 attendance figure. Itll look fine on the PPV, as they can curtain off unsold sections of seats and shoot the crowd to make it look larger.

Earlier in the week Zuffa announced the postponement of a WEC event scheduled for Youngstown, Ohio. The official reason given was an injury to main event fighter Ben Henderson, and while thats not been confirmed several sources have indicated that he did suffer a minor setback during training. More curiously, the WEC announced that the show would no longer be held in Youngstown despite what they insisted were strong ticket sales.

While Youngstown could have been a bad choice for a MMA event all along, the UFC will probably blame the economy for the poor showing of live ticket sales in Portland. While the high unemployment rate nationally and regionally doesnt help things, it doesnt appear to be a major factor in the UFCs struggles to sell tickets in the Rose City. A number of local media outlets including the Portland based MMA website THE SAVAGE SCIENCE have talked to area UFC fans, and the results are surprising. A mind boggling number of people who self identify as casual or serious fans of the UFC had no idea that an event was being held in Portland at all. Thats likely due to a marketing and promotion campaign locally that is somewhere between misplaced and non-existent. The local media hasnt helped either, with Portlands largest newspaper providing little print coverage of UFC 102 claiming that its not a major sport.

Even among fans who *did* know that UFC 102 was coming to Portland, theres no buzz whatsoever. Theres a variety of reasons for this”many fans have suggested that the high ticket prices werent justified by a relatively weak card. With the exception of the main event, there arent any fighters on the UFC 102 card that are exactly household names outside of hardcore MMA circles.

The UFC has a misguided notion that they can simply put their name on an arena marquee and local fans will pay top dollar for tickets regardless of who is fighting on the card or what else is going on that night. The reality has demonstrated otherwise with poor ticket sales in Portland and other markets. While the promotions PPV business is doing fine and is their real source of revenue, the weakness of the demand for their live product outside of a select number of markets should be a source of concern.

Ross Everett is a freelance sports writer and respected authority on World Cup soccer betting. His writing has appeared on a variety of sports sites including sports news and betting odds sites. He lives in Southern Nevada with three Jack Russell Terriers and a kangaroo. He is currently working on an autobiography of former interior secretary James Watt.

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Fedor Emelianenko Signs With Strikeforce

On February 21, 2010, In business, By Ross Everett

Fedor Emelianenko, widely considered the world’s best heavyweight MMA fighter, has a new promotional home. After rebuffing the UFC’s offer–citing restrictive contractual arrangements–’The Last Emperor’ has signed a multi-fight deal with Strikeforce. Terms of the arrangement were not made public, but Fedor will make his debut for Strikeforce this October.

Strikeforce agreed to give Fedor a non-exclusive contract, which allows him to compete simultaneously in Japan and elsewhere. Furthermore, they agreed to co-promote events with M-1 Global. M-1 Global is owned by Fedors manager Vadim Finkelchtein and the fighter also has an equity stake. These were the sticking points in Fedors negotiations with the UFC, and with Strikeforce not having an issue with non-exclusivity or co-promotion a deal was quickly brokered.

Fedor issued the following statement in response to the signing:

I am looking forward to going back to work and fighting at the highest level. STRIKEFORCE is a top fight promotion that houses some of the greatest fighters in the world. I am prepared to fight any of them.

Emelianenkos manager, Vadim Finkelchtein concurred:

I am very happy and excited about the upcoming collaboration with Strikeforce. We are very pleased that we found a reliable partner and I feel that Strikeforce and M-1 can support each other on many things. This will create big opportunities for both parties to test their fighters against worthy opponents.

Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker had the following comments:

We are extremely excited to have the opportunity to work with M-1 Global and Fedor. Fedor has been the reigning king of MMAs heavyweight division for quite some time now so being able to work with M-1 and Fedor will substantially increase the level of competition amongst the athletes in this weight class.

The UFC’s Dana White quickly responded with an obscenity laced statement suggesting that Fedor was choosing to fight “nobodys”for no money by signing with Strikeforce, but thats simply an attempt to put the best spin possible on it for his sycophants in the media. The reality is that with Fedor’s stake in M-1 Global the financial terms of the deal are likely as favorable with Strikeforce as with the UFC.

More significantly, Strikeforce has much better television exposure at this point than the #1 US MMA promotion. Strikeforce has a relationship with premium cable giant Showtime, as well as CBS TV. This same exposure made Kimbo Slice the biggest star in MMA, and Fedor has the talent to back up the hype. From the media exposure perspective alone, Fedor made a good call.

Whites hysterical comments about the quality of opposition simply aren’t true either. Obviously the biggest fight available in the US for Fedor right now would be with UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar, but once you get past him the talent pool in the promotion becomes iffy at best. A fight with Randy Couture would do big business, but theres no guarantee how much longer The Natural will continue his career. The UFC has a couple of talented fighters with wrestling backgrounds in Cain Velasquez and Shane Carwin, but neither man is ready for a fight against Fedor.

Strikeforce has several intriguing fights immediately available for Fedor. The Strikeforce heavyweight belt is currently held by Alistair Overeem, whom mutual opponent Mirko Cro Cop suggests is the one man in the sport capable of defeating Fedor. Fabricio Werdum is a talented veteran of the UFC and PRIDE and may figure into the mix some point as well.

Ross Everett is a freelance writer and noted authority on sports betting odds comparison. He writing has appeared on a variety of sports sites including sports news and World Cup betting sites. He lives in Las Vegas with three Jack Russell Terriers and a kangaroo. He is currently working on an autobiography of former energy secretary Donald Hodell.

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UFC 85 Flashback: Alves Defeats Hughes In Lopsided Main Event

On January 26, 2010, In business, By Ross Everett

Thiago Alves dominated the former UFC welterweight champion en route to a 2nd round TKO victory at UFC 83. The main event at UFC 85 in London was somewhat anticlimactic to the fans at the O2 Arena who considered the semifinal matchup between Manchesters Michael Bisping and Jason Day the biggest fight on the card. Bisping actually improved upon his excellent showing against Charles McCarthy at UFC 83 and pummeled Day mercilessly from the top mount position until the fight was stopped.

Hughes didnt make any excuses following his one sided loss, saying simply that hes a good fighter and he got me. The longtime king of the UFCs welterweight division also gave notice that his career as an active fighter was drawing to a close, suggesting that he had one fight left and challenging Matt Serra in what presumably would be his retirement match. Hughes had no answer for Alves from the opening horn, as he was stuffed on several takedown attempts early on. When he did finally get his opponent to the ground he was unable to do much damage. Alves, conversely, scored effectively with his striking including several damaging knee strikes. He also did considerable work on the ground, with an elbow strike opening up a large cut on Hughes forehead. Though he didnt get to his knees a la Georges St. Pierre, Alves did make a plea to Dana White for a title shot. His failure to make weight wont help his cause, however, and judging from the UFC Presidents incredulous smirk in response that opportunity wont be immediately forthcoming.

The end came early in the 2nd round as Hughes was caught coming in by a devastating knee strike. He fell to the canvas in a heap and referee Herb Dean was jumping in to stop the contest before Alves could follow up with any punches. As the ringside physician entered the ring to check on the fallen fighter, Hughes gave an indication that his knee was injured. Replays showed that his knee buckled under him in a very awkward fashion as he fell and while the extent of the damage is yet to be determined Hughes indicated in the postfight interview that it was messed up.

Michael Bisping simply overwhelmed Jason Day en route to a lopsided TKO victory. Bisping built upon the improved boxing skills he demonstrated at UFC 83 by unveiling an impressive ground and pound attack. Day never really got anything going and by the last minute of the fight was simply trying to cover up to prevent damage from Bispings elbows and hammer fists. Between his move down to the middleweight division and his improved technical striking skills, Bisping looks like a different fighter. His post UFC 83 suggestion that he wanted a fight with Anderson Silva seemed premature at the time, but following another devastating performance its starting to look much more realistic.

In other action, Mike Swick used an array of high kicks and a 7 reach advantage to coast to a unanimous decision over Marcus Davis. Davis, a former professional boxer, was unable to get inside against his lanky opponent and was never really in the fight. Like Bisping, Swick may have made an excellent career choice by moving down in weight.

A controversial point deduction for a strike to the back of the head cost Nate Marquardt his match against Thales Leites. Marquardt was solidly in charge for the entire fight, but suffered a point deduction for an illegal knee strike in round one. While that infraction was valid, replays of the 2nd round deduction for the strike to the back of the head gave the impression that he was penalized for a legal strike to the side of the head. The 2 point deduction changed the outcome of the fight, with Leites winning a split decision by the scores of 28-27, 28-27, 27-28.

In the opening PPV match, another controversial ending saw Fabrico Werdum defeat Brandon Vera by 1st round KO. The fight had been evenly contested up until the stoppage, with Werdum scoring a couple of takedown and Vera countering with some effective punching. Late in the first round, Werdum got a full mount and began to fire a series of punches. Vera was clearly defending himself and didnt appear to be hurt at all when the referee jumped in to stop the fight. Vera said that hed answered that he was OK when asked by ref Dan Miragliotta and that he was just trying to ride out the round from that position.

Ross Everett is a freelance sports writer and highly respected authority on sports betting odds comparison. He writing has appeared on a variety of sports sites including sports news and betting odds portal sites. He lives in Northern Nevada with three Jack Russell Terriers and a kangaroo. He is currently working on an autobiography of former energy secretary Donald Hodell.

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