How UFC and MMA has dominated boxing in viral and grass-roots marketing

By Zach Arnold

In the era of YouTube, viral marketing is becoming a key advertising component for fight promoters. It’s free, it’s accessible on your computer, and it appeals to a tech-savvy younger audience that may have some non-gambling related disposable income at hand.

If I asked you which sport, boxing or MMA, is doing a better job of viral and grass-roots marketing in 2008, which sport would you pick?

95 out of 100 of you would pick MMA. And you would be right.

It seems the only steady marketing boxing can get these days on cable (outside of pay-TV like HBO or Showtime) is re-runs of old 1980s fights on ESPN Classic or Top Rank remix shows on Versus. Rubbing salt into the wound, Zuffa’s second-tier promotion WEC does better ratings than the live club boxing shows featuring Nick Charles & Wally Matthews.

You would think that given boxing’s aging demographics and a need to get more exposure for their product that promoters in the sport would head online and try to capture some of the magic that we’ve seen MMA catch. However, it simply hasn’t happened.

The route in which MMA became grass-roots and viral marketing-oriented came into fruition after the sport was driven off of PPV in the States. The lifeblood of MMA during the ‘dark ages’ came in the name of internet news & file sharing web sites. When no newspaper in their right mind would touch the topic of MMA without calling it ‘human cockfighting’, it was the Internet that was the place to be to get your news and information on the MMA scene.

It should be duly noted that only a year or two did newspapers actually want to start covering UFC and MMA events. Think about how far and how fast media coverage for MMA has come… and then think about how fast media coverage for boxing has fallen.

Today, most MMA promoters (including UFC, Elite XC, and IFL) have their own YouTube channels. A preview video for Rampage Jackson vs. Forrest Griffin (UFC 86) drew nearly 230,000 views in four days. Tell me the last time you saw a boxing promoter or TV entity use viral marketing like MMA has so effectively in this decade.

The answer: you can’t.

There’s no question that MMA is attracting a younger audience than boxing, while boxing continues to attract high-rollers and events that casinos will pay site fees for. However, boxing has fallen into its own trap in America – marketing to an older audience that is strictly casino-based. You can see that there’s plenty of life left in boxing when you watch promoters like Frank Warren (Joe Calzaghe) work their magic with stadium shows. However, that marketing sense has not translated well at all in the States and the sport of boxing is paying a price for it.

Think about how and why viral marketing works with MMA’s audience. It’s primarily an audience younger than 50 and one that is receptive to technology. Watching video on a computer screen or transferring that video via a hook-up to a TV is not looked down upon.

Let’s put the YouTube model into comparison here for a second. Both HBO (boxing) and UFC (MMA) have their own YouTube channels. Both were created in 2006. HBO’s YouTube channel has 5,964 subscribers and 195,588 channel views. UFC’s YouTube channel has 13,233 subscribers and around a million channel views. In other words, UFC’s YouTube channel has more than double the subscribers and nearly five times the channel views. That’s not to say that HBO Boxing YouTube videos don’t attract viewers, because a Miguel Cotto video package drew over a million views. However, it’s clear that YouTube users themselves are not searching out HBO’s YouTube channel to look for clips. UFC, meanwhile, is making a concerted and aggressive effort on this front to market their product and grab eyeballs of younger fight fans. It’s working.

Look at the booming online scene for MMA web sites. It’s reminiscent of what happened with the hot American pro-wrestling scene in the 1990s, where you had an explosion of web sites. The difference with the MMA boom in the States is that the Internet has seen technological advances and there is more money at stake. There’s podcasting, vlogging, blogging, video sharing sites, and social networking services like Facebook. While boxing promoters in North America continue to be content doing business the old way, a lot of promoters in MMA are pushing the envelope and are challenging the way business is normally done.

Simply put, boxing has failed to make an outreach to a younger audience and part of that outreach involves the use of viral marketing. It involves learning and understanding grass-roots marketing. Bob Arum calls this ‘applying elbow grease,’ but that’s not an accurate description of what this kind of marketing entails.

While Arum complains about shows not drawing for various excuses he comes up, his audience continues to skew older. Variety magazine recently reported that the average age for a viewer of broadcast network TV in America is 50. You wonder why CBS was desperate in making a deal with Elite XC to attract MMA’s younger audience?

Boxing as a sport is not dying and will not die – but its current audience is aging fast and certainly dying off. Part of the regeneration process involves reinventing yourself and how you market your product. So far, we haven’t seen many players in the boxing game step up to the plate and accept the challenge at hand. There is a blueprint for boxing promoters to study, but they have to first come to terms with their counterparts in the MMA world and stop bashing them at every turn.

By Zach Arnold

With Forrest Griffin’s unanimous decision win over Quinton “Rampage” Jackson at UFC 86 for the Light Heavyweight title, the final chapters on the UFC/PRIDE in-ring feud are being written.

And history is not being very kind to the PRIDE brand, either.

Sure, maybe five people on an internet message board may still care about the PRIDE brand, but for historical purposes we should focus on what has become the systematic destruction of not just PRIDE’s brand but the company’s credibility and history, too.

Go back five years and think about the landscape of the business. PRIDE was on top of the mountain, running the Tokyo Dome with Quinton Jackson beating Chuck Liddell. PRIDE had all of the major Middleweight stars including Dan Henderson and Wanderlei Silva. UFC was slowly but surely building up their divisions, but it was not until the death of PRIDE that we saw UFC take over the history of the MMA business — and re-write it in the process, as well.

After the death of PRIDE, there were lots of allegations to sift through regarding charges of ties to organized crime, illegal drug usage by fighters, and possible worked fights. Rampage Jackson then signed with UFC and he wasn’t even the top fighter in PRIDE’s Middleweight division. However, on paper he looked to be extremely marketable and charismatic. He may not have been on the same level as Wanderlei Silva, but he was certainly a fighter who made his bones in the PRIDE ring. After he took care of Marvin Eastman, Jackson ended up taking care of UFC poster Chuck Liddell and suddenly Jackson was looked upon as a UFC champion. He was no longer simply a PRIDE fighter.

However, Jackson was the most high-profile PRIDE transfer to hit UFC and not lose… until UFC 86, when Forrest Griffin gave him all that he could handle. Griffin, the champion from the first season of The Ultimate Fighter, has now found himself in a very unique position in MMA history. UFC President Dana White likes to talk about how Griffin vs. Stephan Bonnar in the TUF 1 finals is one of the most important matches in MMA history. It may be hyperbole but a lot of people believe it and when you are re-writing the history book, that’s all that matters.

Griffin is an icon and one of, if not, the major face(s) of UFC to mainstream MMA fans and his ascendancy in the world of MMA coincides with UFC’s growing dominance. He’s not Hulk Hogan, but he’s certainly a superstar and a very marketable personality.

Forrest Griffin has also found himself in the unique position of being a PRIDE-slayer.

Always the professional underdog, Griffin was set to face Mauricio Shogun (PRIDE’s #2 top Middleweight behind Dan Henderson and/or Wanderlei Silva) in Anaheim, CA. in 2007. Shockingly, Griffin took the fight right to Shogun and submitted him. For hardcore PRIDE fans, this was an emotionally jarring win for Griffin. UFC officials were thrilled that a PRIDE icon had been slayed.

But who knew that Griffin would slay one more PRIDE icon, someone of substantial name value thanks to UFC’s marketing?

Griffin’s impressive showing against Jackson at UFC 86 leaves only Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira as the lone PRIDE fighter in UFC who has not lost in the Octagon. Nogueira is set to make his reality TV debut as a coach on next season’s Ultimate Fighter show in order to try to heat-up a match against Frank Mir. Let’s just say that the world has not been set on fire by Nogueira’s reign in UFC as opposed to some of his epic battles in the PRIDE ring.

Even with UFC’s Heavyweight division as bad as it is, there will come a day when Nogueira loses in the Octagon. When that day happens, it will be the end of the UFC-PRIDE in-ring feud. UFC will have completely written in the history books and nobody will shrug their shoulders, either.

What’s that? Fedor? Did we forget about him?

Paraphasing the infamous words of former Boston Celtics coach Rick Pitino, “Fedor Emelianenko isn’t walking through that door. Josh Barnett isn’t walking through that door.”

Fedor and Barnett will have to settle for being a part of UFC’s out-of-the-ring feud with a PRIDE-style Affliction card on July 19th.

By Scoop Malinowski

Last weekend something historic happened in the boxing-MMA rivalry for sports entertainment dollars. In Great Britain this past weekend, there were two major sporting events to be televised by Setanta network - The WBO Junior Welterweight clash from Las Vegas between Kendall Holt and Ricardo Torres - and the UFC Light Heavyweight showdown between Rampage Jackson and Forrest Griffin, also in Las Vegas.

Setanta had a decision to make: Televise which event on Setanta Sports 1 which has the wider audience and is available on free view? And relegate which one - UFC or championship boxing - to Setanta 2 which gets fewer viewers?

In what could be construed as possibly a landmark decision in MMA history, Setanta 1 actually chose to show the UFC 86 show live.

It was the first time Setanta has shown a UFC event live from the United States and thus was given priority over Torres-Holt.

Source: Boxing News magazine of Great Britain.

By Scoop Malinowski

Paul Buentello: “King of the Cage, Wet ‘n Wild. It was raining there all day long. Just imagine - the venue was outside. The cage was full of puddles. But they had the fights go on. Guys were going for headkicks and slipping. People were bustin’ their asses left and right. You gotta see the video.”

Frankie Edgar: “Kevin Roddy at Cage Fury, as he ran out of the dressing room (to the cage to fight) he was throwing dollar bills to the crowd.”

Jose Rodriguez: “Bas Rutten was refereeing my fight when I fought John Cole at Bayside Academy. He did a seminar and that same weekend he refereed our fight. I remember he was actually coaching me, lecturing me as we were fighting. ‘We just went over this, you should know this.’”

Chris Ligouri: “Pete Sell - Drago - when I fought him in Ring of Combat the first time we were talking a lot as we were fighting. We were talking and laughing with each other while we were fighting and beating the shit out of each other.”

Shonie Carter: “I did a semi-strip tease in a fight during the round. I was wearing two pairs of shorts and the guy I was fighting was no more than three feet away from me. And I actually pulled my top trunks off and I kicked them over to my cornerman. And I started dancing in the middle of the ring while I’m fighting the guy. Just to be having fun, to do something unexpected.”

Kevin Randleman: “I saw Mark Coleman get beat up by an old woman in Brazil, an old, Wrinkly woman. She caught a pop on Mark and said, ‘Fuck you!’ I was fighting Sokata from Brazil, Ebeneezer Braga and Carlao Barreto in an hour and a half. Oh my God, I was in overtime in my first fight against Braga. I’m sitting on the ring rope waiting and I look over at Mark and this woman all of a sudden pours a cup of Coca Cola on him. He turns around to look at her and she goes, ‘I did it. Fuck you.’ Then I turn around and there’s Braga ready to punch me in the head! They started the overtime without telling me!”

Travis Lutter: “I was getting ready for Abu Dhabi 2001 and during the qualifier in Indiana they had the little angle irons sitting up under the curtains. And I shake my legs when I’m ready to go out. And I’m ready to go out. Two seconds before I go out, I frickin’ stub my toe, take my toenail off, completely and totally. I have my toenail not right and I’m bleeding all over the place - and they’re calling my name to go down the ramp!”

Travis Wiuff: “The first time I fought in Brazil, the day before the event, I was sitting out, lounging by the pool. I was sipping on a can of pop. And I was going to be fighting Carlao Barreto. And Carlao was like doing wind sprints in the pool, he was throwing punches in the pool. He was training like a madman in the pool! And I almost crapped in my pants. Man, there I was lounging, relaxing in the sun and there’s Carlao Barreto training in the pool the day before the fight. (How did you do in the fight?) I ended up winning the fight, it went good. But I look back on it now and I think, man, I was going crazy being in Brazil the first time.”

Dan Severn: “King of the Cage, he had his guard around me, pushing and pushing towards my feet. Basically, my trunks came all the way down and I was basically mooning the crowd.”

Dave Menne: “A story I heard, do I have to name names? I heard a story about someone running out of the ring, saying they shit their self.”

Trevor Prangley: “I was reffing and amateur show in Idaho. I guy got in the ring and a cigarette lighter fell out of his pocket when he was fighting.”

Matt Horwich: “When I fought Travis Wiuff, we were talking during the fight. He took me down during the fight and he goes, Are you tired, Matt? I said, Yeah dude. And he said, Me too!

By Scoop Malinowski

Brutality. Violence. Dedication. Sacrifice…these are some of the words often associated with mixed martial arts, the most serious of sports, where one lapse of concentration can be the difference between the agony and the ecstasy. But amid all the technical warfare and machismo, MMA has offered many instances of humor and comedy. Here is a collection of some offbeat moments in the world of MMA…

Tim Sylvia, Former UFC Heavyweight champ: “Rich Franklin and I were at Mandalay Bay, taking pictures with fans. And this fan was so excited that he actually pushed me into the water fountain [smiles]. I stopped myself with my hands. But I still got my shirt all wet. Yeah, and it happened in front of about four, five-hundred people. And I think the fan was more scared. Because he thought I was gonna kill him. But we all had a good laugh about it. I ran upstairs and changed my shirt and we went out.”

Mike Whitehead, Heavyweight fighter: “Heath Herring just rented this house in Vegas and it’s crazy. The house is like weird - you walk in and it honesty looks like Willie Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. The house is like MTV Cribs meets Willie Wonka & The Chocolate Factory. You walk in and you’re like, You can’t imagine this happens in real life. Just so many colors and it’s like every room has a theme. It’s just weird.”

Jim Miller, Ring of Combat Lightweight champ: “During my brother’s fight with Mike Massenzio, my brother accidentally kneed him in the chin when he was pulling back his knee. And he said, Oh, sorry about that. Mike said, Oh, it’s okay. And then he punched my brother in the head - right after he apologized for accidentally kneeing him.”

Mikey Burnett, Ultimate Fighter 4: “Any time with Bas Rutten is a good time. Bas is a wild man. I remember one time, I think it was in Birmingham, Alabama, Bas got me in a strip club. Ken Shamrock and Maurice Smith were there too. We were in a strip club and I got up on a stage and was strippin’ with the strippers. I don’t know how he talked me into that one. I don’t think the bouncers were too happy. But they didn’t have too much to say about it.”

Monte Cox, manager/promoter: “My first no-holds barred show I knew nothing about the sport and had a hard time getting guys to fight. This is in 1996. I got this local kid Pat Miletich and he’s claiming he’s going to make something out of himself, you know, become a champion, marry a French chick and move to the good side of the trailer park. By the time the show comes around, everybody has heard of Pat Miletich, so we wait till the fighters get there, then do a blind draw to see who fights who in the tournament. This guy - Rick Klev from New York gets Miletich. We do a parade of athletes and when Rick’s name is called, nobody comes out. I go in the back and all his stuff is gone and he had run out the back door of the building [smiles]. And at that same show Pat’s former girlfriend sings the national anthem. She’s really good but has never been in front of 8,000 people. She messes up, stops and then argues with the crowd about being rude. Pat’s with all the other fighters standing in the ring and he wants to kill himself. Anyway, the crowd finally stops the catcalls and she starts again. From the BEGINNING!!! I ran back into the locker room to hide!”

Carlos Newton, former UFC Welterweight champ: “Me and Matt Hughes had some fun times. I remember one time for a pre-fight photo shoot we were supposed to walk up to do a pose-down. And I looked up and said, Okay, Matt, it’s a walk off (from the movie Zoolander). And we both just died laughing.”

Mark Coleman, UFC Hall of Famer: “I was cornering Gary ‘Big Daddy’ Goodridge in Brazil. Back then groin strikes were legal. So I’m in Goodridge’s corner for his brawl with Pedro Otavio. Back and forth the whole time. Pedro has been messing with Big Daddy’s cup all night. Goodridge had enough of it. Though I didn’t see it exactly, rumor has it Goodridge reached down into Pedro’s shorts and gave him a real hard squeeze. Pedro lets out a big scream and Big Daddy hits him with a right and Pedro falls to his ass. Fight was over.”

Phil Baroni, The New York Bad Ass: “At a UFC after-party. A fight between two guys broke out. I went behind the Fertitta brothers and yelled, BARONI’S IN A FIGHT! BARONI’S IN A FIGHT!! Everyone’s running over to the fight. They go, Tito, get over there! They’re looking for Tito to break it up. They’re all running over. Tito’s limpin’ over. They all thought it was me [laughs].”

Don Frye: “I had a fight in 1995, they asked me if I was interested to go to Atlanta for like a black-tie event, supposed to be entertainment for the rich people. With caviar and champagne. When I got to the airport, they said, We can’t pay you, do you still want to fight? I’m like, Ohh, okay. What the heck, might as well, I’m here anyway. They took me to a warehouse. One of them real warehouse fights. Potato chips and beer…that was the caviar and champagne. I fought a former Navy Seal. (Frye won “in a couple a minutes, by arm-bar keylock.”)

Stay tuned to this web site for Part 2 of this article coming soon.

By Charles Jay

UFC ON FORBES IS A BIG DEAL - BUT HOW BIG A DEAL IS THE UFC?

Mixed martial arts is featured in the May 5 issue of Forbes.

On the cover.

The headline is “Ultimate Cash Machine,” and it is superimposed over a photograph of the Fertitta brothers - Lorenzo and Frank - with sort of menacing, half-shaven looks. Underneath it - “How two casino moguls turned a violent fight club into a billion-dollar sports empire.”

We can debate another time, I guess, about whether one can truly be a “mogul” when one has essentially inherited their situation, but suffice it to say that what these gentlemen have managed to accomplish is indeed Forbes-worthy. I know a lot of you don’t read Forbes, but take my word for it - it’s a big deal.

In terms of revelation, the cover story itself was something of a disappointment, although for those readers unfamiliar with either the UFC or MMA, it might have been quite shocking to find out, for example, that a UFC event on pay-per-view can do as well with the key 18-49 demographic as, say, last year’s Ohio State-Michigan football game.

The story also has some background on how Station Casino Inc. was started by the father, Frank Fertitta Sr., and how the sons transformed the company, taking it public and taking it private again, and in general how there could have been $44 million available to pump into the UFC enterprise.

If they got most of the guts of the story from Lorenzo (i.e., if they didn’t do a lot of research on the internet or speaking with MMA “insiders” who were outside the bounds of the UFC), it is understandable that details are a bit sketchy as to how the UFC was somehow unsanctionable under the ownership of Bob Meyrowitz but perfectly acceptable under the control of Zuffa, the Fertittas’ holding company.

Naturally, there is the implication that Zuffa and the “new” UFC pioneered standard rules that made the sport more palatable to the so-called establishment, something that has come to be called the “Zuffa Myth.”

And then there’s the tale - well-worn by now - about how desperate the Fertittas were to sell after presumably blowing the aforementioned $44 million. I know it adds color to the success story we see now, but I wonder how much of it was embroidery.

One of the themes centers around how much the UFC might be worth. The brothers claim that they have received offers that are in excess of $1 billion. Maybe that’s true, but it got me wondering as to what the buyer would be getting in such a transaction.

This wouldn’t be like selling a company lie Coca-Cola or General Motors - ongoing concerns for years that are “corporate” in every sense of the word, distancing themselves from the cult of personality, seemingly giving the impression that they run on auto-pilot, with nameless, faceless power behind them.

I would think that a tremendous portion of the value in a company like the UFC, outside of the brand itself, would not necessarily be that which is intrinsic in the company, but instead what is contained in the creative imagination and vision of the Fertittas and Dana White. In other words, the management is largely responsible for the value, and without these guys in the picture that value would seem to get considerably lower. And I do believe that this is the case with the UFC to a much greater extent than it is with the vast majority of companies that would carry a billion-dollar price tag. I mean, if Vince Lombardi had owned the Green Bay Packers and wanted to sell out, what good would it do you to have paid top dollar for the team if he wasn’t going to be around to coach it? He takes a lot of the value you paid for with him.

And this doesn’t even address the fact that ongoing operations might continue to dip; to use the figure that is represented in the Forbes article, IFC controls 90% of the MMA industry. Well, that figure should be trending a bit downward if it isn’t already, simply by virtue of new entrants into the marketplace. Under ownership that was NOT part of the group that built the 90% position in the first place, one could expect that the figure would diminish just a little bit.

So maybe these guys are in a bit of a quandary - to an extent, they may have gotten too successful for their own good, because from a discriminating buyer, they may never really get what they think it’s worth.

Of course, that’s a quandary I wouldn’t mind having.

Charles Jay

I don’t know about the ratings or how long a run it’s going to have, but from what I’ve seen so far, I’d say “Strikeforce on NBC” is off to a pretty decent start. This past weekend they featured a lightweight fight that was pretty entertaining; albeit one that was held a couple of years ago, between  their champion at the time, Clay Guida, and Gilbert Melendez, who won the title from him.

The production was clean, the graphics were sharp, and although there were several commercial plugs for Strikeforce’s web site, it didn’t look like a too horrible an overall shill job - certainly not on the order of what they do over on Showtime.

I don’t know how much time he’s spent doing commentary, but I would say that one of the pleasant surprises was the job done by Ken Shamrock, who went in the studio and did a voice-over with partner Lon McEachern.

I’m starting to get into this thing a little more now, but from the standpoint of getting to know the fighters and analyzing them, I’m still a relative novice.

What I found with Shamrock is that as things were happening in the cage, he was explaining things in a way in which I could get something basic and fundamental out of many of the things he said, as if he was tailoring the commentary for guys like me.

I think this is important because it is the right tone for the audience.  When you watch the UFC pay-per-views, you will hear Joe Rogan, who does a very good job, speak in a rather technical pattern, using terminology you might have no idea about if you were tuning in to an MMA fight for the first time. Of course, that might be expected because if a fan is paying money to watch it, chances are he (or she) is an aficionado.

But I think the purpose for - and the benefit of - showing the Strikeforce fights on NBC is to reach that wider audience. By definition, that means getting to the newer or more casual fans with the hope of turning them subsequently into more avid fans. The design is obviously to help the sport grow in popularity, and so naturally a more explanatory approach is going to work better. That’s what Shamrock delivers.

It would seem ironic, but maybe it makes all the sense in the world, that Rogan, who has not been an MMA fighter, would feel compelled to be a lot more esoteric, as if for purposes of validation, while Shamrock, who has had vast experience and great success as an MMA competitor, is secure enough that he doesn’t really need that kind of validation.

That’s a little more useful for someone like me and I’ll be looking forward to the next fight if he’s on the mike.

If I can stay up that late.

By MMAMemories.com:
 
First, the academia:
 
Karma (Sanskrit:  kárma (help·info), kárman- “act, action, performance”[1]; Pali: kamma) is the concept of “action” or “deed” in Indian religions understood as that which causes the entire cycle of cause and effect (i.e., the cycle called samsara) described in Hindu, Jain, Sikh and Buddhist philosophies.
 
Law of Karma: All living creatures are responsible for their karma — their actions and the effects of their actions — and for their release from samsara. The concept can be traced back to the early Upanishads.

Now, the academia as reality:
 
A couple of weeks ago a guy named Frank Juarez, better known to mixed martial arts fans as “Frank Shamrock,” leveled some very serious and heretofore unsubstantiated accusations toward his stepbrother, the legendary Ken Shamrock concerning the use of steroids. Such talk naturally prompted knee-jerk reactions throughout the industry, as well as the MMA underground. And those kinds of insinuations can have the effect of doing unnecessary damage, in this particular instance to a man who has had a tremendous effect on building a fan base for MMA both in the United States and around the world.
 
Last Saturday Juarez was himself leveled, this time by the hand (and feet, as it were) of opponent Cung Le in a match for Juarez’s MMA “title” (as it was recognized by one organization anyway) in a performance that may have been entertaining, but lacked any substance from a technical standpoint. Juarez not only lost his ersatz belt but also wound up in the hospital with a possible broken arm, though a buttoned lip may have been more appropriate. 
 
Karma?
 
We debated in these offices as to how to cover Juarez, in light of the attempted defamation of his half-sibling, who has ascended to a place of true relevance to which Juarez may aspire, but will never attain.
 
Would we force-feed our opinion to the reader? We didn’t have to.
 
In the final analysis, the force of karma - and Juarez’s poor performance, which manifest itself in him planted firmly on his ass - took care of things all by themselves.
 
As Juarez was lying prone, we’re almost certain there was a voice, presumably from the heavens, that on some level drowned out the shills who serve as Showtime’s broadcast team; a voice that bellowed out:
 
“YOU REAP WHAT YOU SOW”
 
Indeed, a powerful phrase, because everything that happens to a person is a result of one’s own actions. And when one trashes those who have held out a hand to help him, one will invariably go OUT with the trash.
 
Here we may have seen an instance where some things were better left unsaid, not for the purpose of protecting one party or another, but because it represented the wrong thing to say or do.
 
In this case, a guy who thought he was promoting a potential fight ended up blowing it.
 
It sure is a bitch, isn’t it?

By MMAMemories.com

The fledgling M1 Global turned Adrenaline MMA promotion signed a couple of behemoths in the past week in an attempt to gain a foothold in the heavyweight division, which is a potential area of “growth” (if you pardon the pun) in the mixed martial arts industry. What it amounted to was 530 pounds of striking and grappling muscle with which to compete with the big boys of the UFC and other organizations.

Tim Sylvia, who has twice won the UFC’s heavyweight crown, is the prize catch. Sylvia holds wins over many of the best heavyweights the world has to offer, including Andre Arlovski, Ricco Rodriguez, Brandon Vera, Wes Sims, Ausserio Silva, Wesley Correira and Jeff Monson. he was last seen in February, losing by a choke submission to Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira in a hard-fought bout for the UFC’s interim heavyweight title.

The 6′8″, 265-pounder has won 24 of his 28 pro fights, scoring 16 knockouts and two submissions. He originally won the UFC title in 2003 with a KO over Rodriguez, and lost it 16 months later when Frank Mir broke his arm in the first round. he completed a successful comeback from that injury in April of 2006 when he stopped Arlovski at UFC 59. he then lost it in March of last year to Randy Couture.

Adrenaline’s other signing was ben Rothwell, almost as big as Sylvia at 6′5″ and 265 pounds, who has been on an impressive winning streak of late. Rothwell, who sports a 31-5 career mark, has been competing in the International Fight League for the Quad Cities Silverbacks, and has won all nine of his fight sin that organization, most recently in September of last year against the aforementioned Ricco Rodriguez. His overall winning skein stands at thirteen.

The contracts are multi-fight deals and are reportedly non-exclusive, which would allow the fights to compete for other promotions if the situation arose.

The two have actually fought each other; back in August of 2001, Sylvia scored a decision win at Extreme Challenge 42. A rematch might be unlikely anytime soon, however, as both men are members of Pat Miletich’s training stable in Bettendorf, Iowa.

By MMAMemories.com

It looks like Strikeforce’s new NBC show will premier on the network on April 12. It’ll be a half-hour program and the time slot is kind of a tough one - from 2-2:30 AM ET on Saturdays.

The show will not only follow NBC’s popular “Saturday Night Live,” but also another NBC show, “Poker After Dark,’ which runs from 1-2 AM. Officials from the network say that the demographic from the poker show lines up pretty well with the audience mixed martial arts usually generates.

Jerry Petry, the executive vice-president of NBC Universal Television, was beaming about the addition of the brand-new program, to the point of possible hyperbole.

“As a leader in this arena, Strikeforce will be able to deliver some of the finest and most intense action ever seen on broadcast TV,” he said.

With this announcement, it is now official that NBC will beat CBS to the punch with mixed martial arts. CBS will debut its own series, in conjunction with Elite XC, on May 31.

The show, entitled, most appropriately, “Strikeforce on NBC,” will be one of highlights, along with fighter features. One of the fighters who is profiled in the kickoff episode is Cung Le, and that’s obviously good timing, since he just won the middleweight title win over Frank Juarez last weekend.

The show will run every week, and it offers a great exposure opportunity for MMA in general and Strikeforce in particular. Unlike Elite XC, which was created specifically to leverage the associations of former boxing promoter Gary Shaw with Showtime, Strikeforce really seems to have a grip on grassroots promotions, with a sellout of over 18,000 in San Jose’s HP Pavilion in what was California’s first sanctioned MMA event a couple of years ago. But there has been no word on whether any live fighting would be offered in the future as part of the NBC package.

The Strikeforce/NBC marriage was the latest step in the explosion of mixed martial arts to broadcast network television (which is different than cable television, kids). And the trend may be far from complete. Internet reports say that ESPN is currently in talks with the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), which could ultimately lead to live events on ABC (both ESPN and ABC are controlled by Disney).

That would make the movement truly “rapid fire” in nature, with CBS, NBC, and then ABC getting into the fray. Fox would no doubt be closely behind, inasmuch as it already carries MMA product on its FoxSportsNet cable property.

Let the over-saturation begin.