MMA Paper Trail: Bold Moves
News and Notes
• The cancellation of a second consecutive Strikeforce event led to yet more predictions that the promotion is not long for the MMA world. After canceling a September 29 event due to an injury to lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez, Showtime pulled the plug on a Nov. 3 event after middleweight champion Luke Rockhold fell off due to injury. Rockhold’s withdrawal came after Frank Mir pulled out the original featured fight of the show against Daniel Cormier, for whom Zuffa struggled to find a replacement opponent. Showtime sought to shift attention from the cancelations and the questions they raise by promising a jam-packed card in January. No fights have been announced, nor has a venue or specific date. It is widely believed there are six months left on the Showtime/Strikeforce contract, at which point Showtime has an option to renew. Many read Dana White’s proclamations that women’s MMA will definitely be coming to the UFC, anchored by Strikeforce superstar and champion Ronda Rousey, as evidence that Showtime isn’t interested in renewing. Both sides renewed their deal last year before a fall out between White and Showtime Sport head Stephen Espinoza over production control. Espinoza has said Showtime is interested in not only staying in MMA, which has grown subscribers and drawn very good ratings for Showtime since was added in 2007, but wants to add a second MMA promotion. Showtime is still looking to enforce its rights to Strikeforce fighters, as evidenced by the network pulling contracted middleweight Derek Brunson from participating in “The Ultimate Fighter.” However, Showtime did allow welterweight prospect Jordan Mein to take a fight on his former stomping grounds, The Score Fighting Series in Canada, while under Strikeforce contract.
• After winning the final fight on his contract Oct. 12, top lightweight Eddie Alvarez entered a negotiation period with longtime employer Bellator Fighting Championships. Bellator has made an offer, and has the right to match any competing offer Alvarez receives. It is likely he will receive a lucrative UFC offer, as Dana White has publicly expressed his interest in the past and sent Alvarez a congratulatory tweet after his win. Alvarez won’t be the first Bellator mainstay for whom the UFC will make a serious play. Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney told MMAFighting.com that the UFC offered its former middleweight champion Hector Lombard a $400,000 signing bonus with $300,000 guaranteed per fight and a certain percentage of each pay-per-view order for events on which he’s featured. Rebney said the deal was far too lucrative for Bellator to match. Alvarez is not featured in ads produced to promote Bellator’s move to Spike in January.
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• Forbes Magazine’s annual list of the 400 wealthiest men in the United States saw Lorenzo and Frank Ferttita’s net worth drop from $1.2 billion to $900 million in the past year. In addition to owning a combined 81 percent of the UFC -- Dana White and Flash Entertainment own the remainder -- the brothers also have equal stakes in the casino company Station Casinos.
• The annual ESPN Sports Poll, long a way for
sports and television executives to gauge interest in pro sports,
showed MMA losing some ground this year to boxing in some
popularity metrics. For the second consecutive year, the poll
showed more people claiming to be “avid fans” of boxing than MMA.
From 2006 to 2010, more people claimed to avidly follow MMA.
Lorenzo Ferttita responded to the poll in an ESPN story, saying the
UFC is working to re-establish the familiarity of where to find the
UFC on television with the move from Spike to Fox/FX, and that
injuries took many bankable stars off the table.
• The UFC has added new clauses in its contracts that bans talent from engaging in risky extracurricular activities, clauses common but often ignored in other professional sports. The terms only apply to new contracts. The idea stemmed from featherweight champion Jose Also suffering an injury while riding a motorcycle and having to pull out of a pay-per-view main event, among other clauses. Aldo has since said he will no longer ride motorcycles.
• An article in the Las Vegas Review Journal shed some light on why the UFC no longer stages events at the city’s Palms Casino Resort. The story said Dana White, a big-spending gambler and tipper at restaurants, was angered by the casino cutting his credit line by 50 percent. White declined to comment for the article, which said valets would fight over the chance to serve White because of his reputation for giving massive tips. The Wrestling Observer reported that the split may also be related to a change in business arrangements between the UFC and the casino. The fight company reached a deal to stage events at the Palms under prior ownership, the Maloofs, who lost it during the recession. That arrangement, the Observer reported, saw the Palms agree to buy tickets directly from the UFC to distribute to casino goers, but new management ended that arrangement. The UFC, which staged numerous UFC Fight Night and WEC events at the Palms, has not run at there since June, instead returning to the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino.
• The Ranik Ultimate Fighting Federation (RUFF), which claims to be the only company to be sanctioned by the Chinese government to promote MMA in mainland China, reported a television audience of nearly 1.3 million viewers for its Sept. 8 event, which it called the first MMA card to ever air live on Chinese television. The card, featuring mostly Chinese wushu fighters, airs on the Jiangsu Sports Channel and the Guangzhou Sports Channel. RUFF is backed by Joel Resnik, a Shanghai resident from Canada who is a principal in a company called The Ranik Group that helps companies integrate into China.
• The Resurrection Fighting Alliance, helmed by MMA agent Ed Soares, purchased the Kansas-based Titan Fighting Championships promotion and took over its television deal with AXS TV, formerly HDNet. The Las Vegas-based promotion premiered on the network Nov. 2.
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