MMA in NY - ‘Steam’ Should Be Enough
By Charles Jay Commentary on MMA history….as it’s happening “STEAM” SHOULD BE ENOUGH FOR MMA PASSAGE IN N.Y. I do admire the efforts of the UFC in gathering support for the sport of mixed martial arts to be legalized in the state of New York. It has been an incredible display of organization. The lobbying effort is gathering […] (Read More)

CBS To KO Elite XC Before Opening Bell?
By Charles Jay The new mixed martial arts series on CBS seems to have gotten off to a rocky start. The ending may be unceremonious indeed. Can you say, “Four strikes…or less, and you’re out?” And to think these guys haven’t even seen any ratings points yet. Sumner Redstone, the executive chairman of CBS Corporation, has basically dressed […] (Read More)

UFC on Forbes Cover, How Big is UFC?
The headline is “Ultimate Cash Machine,” and it is superimposed over a photograph of the Fertitta brothers - Lorenzo and Frank - with sort (Read More)

Shamrock a Bright Spot on NBC Telecast
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 […] (Read More)

Karma - ‘Frankly’ It’s a Bitch
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 […] (Read More)

Upstart Adrenaline Strikes a “Heavy” Deal
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 […] (Read More)

Strikeforce Gets Late, Late Night Slot on NBC
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 […] (Read More)

Iron Ring MMA Now Airing on BET Network
By MMAMemories.com Black Entertainment Television (BET), which is aimed at the African-American audience, has jumped into the mixed martial arts fray. Its initial show, “Iron Ring,” is airing on Tuesday nights at 11 PM ET. The show is certainly tailored for the demographic, with a hip-hop cultural feel and an assortment of celebrity owners and participants. […] (Read More)

NBC Makes Deal With Strikeforce
By MMAMemories.com Mixed martial arts is making further inroads into network television. NBC has given a time slot to Strikeforce, which will put MMA programming on the network starting in April. This comes on the heels of Elite XC’s deal with CBS, which is slated to start in April. That means Strikeforce’s first date on NBC […] (Read More)

White Hot: Ultimate Fighting Finds a New “Bud”
By MMAMemories.com In what promises to become a landmark deal, Anheuser-Busch Corporation has announced that one of its brands, Bud Light, is going to become the exclusive beer sponsor for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). The agreement is to be in effect for a minimum of three years. “UFC has developed a huge following in recent years […] (Read More)

UFC Owners are Certified Billionaires
By MMAMemories.com FERTITTAS ARE CERTIFIED BILLIONAIRES The Fertitta brothers are billionaires - Forbes magazine says so. Lorenzo Fertitta and Frank Fertitta III, co-founders of Zuffa LLC and owners of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, have each achieved a listing of #897 among “The World’s Billionaires” as it is compiled in Forbes magazine. Their reported net worth is placed at […] (Read More)

Elite XC Hits Prime Time on Network TV
By MMAMemories.com The last frontier in television is being conquered, it would seem, in the world of mixed martial arts. Elite XC has inked a deal with CBS that will call for it to produce four two-hour shows starting in April. And Kimbo Slice, the street fighter-turned-mixed martial arts who has appeared twice on Elite XC’s […] (Read More)

Mark Coleman To Be Inducted into UFC H.O.F.
One of the all-time greats in mixed martial arts, Mark Coleman has been a no-nonsense, no-gimmick competitor, and one of the first who made the conversion from a traditional amateur wrestling background to the wild world of MMA, thus helping to blaze a trail for grapplers for years to come. Coleman, a native of Fremont, Ohio, […] (Read More)

In Japan, These Guys Have The “Dream”
IN JAPAN, THESE GUYS HAVE A “DREAM” By MMAMemories.com It was a big moment in Tokyo; perhaps an historic one when all is said and done. Fight Entertainment Group and Dream Stage Entertainment have joined forces to form “DREAM,” which looks like it may be equipped to battle on even terms with the rest of the MMA […] (Read More)

Paul Heyman: Could Have Made a Contest of It
Charles Jay: Paul Heyman revealed to the British newspaper The Sun this past week that he was indeed close to heading up a group to buy the California-based Strike Force MMA organization, with the intention of retaining Scott Coker, the Strike Force founder, in a leadership position. In the short piece, Heyman indicated that though he did […] (Read More)

Kimbo No “Slice” of Heaven for MMA
Charles Jay: KIMBO NO “SLICE” OF HEAVEN FOR MMA Kimbo Slice, the backyard brawler-turned-MMA wannabe star, was on the Jimmy Kimmel Show on ABC this past Thursday night. And I can’t help but think such an appearance would have made Dana White squirm, if Slice had been a UFC charge. Kimbo is not even a creation of the […] (Read More)

Fedor and The Giant - A New Years Not to Believe
By MMAMemories.com Fedor Emilianenko has had a long and storied career as one of the all-time great mixed martial artists. But he’s likely never had a more bizarre experience than he encountered on New Year’s Eve of 2007, when the Russian, not a small man at 235 pounds, found himself in the ring with the 7′2″ […] (Read More)

Brock Lesnar - The Outsider, Now What?
Charles Jay THE OUTSIDER NOW WHAT’S IN STORE FOR LESNAR? I did not think Brock Lesnar was going to beat Frank Mir on Saturday night. And I think the forces behind the UFC were hoping he wouldn’t. It just would not have looked good for someone who is just coming out of a world that is athletic, yet […] (Read More)

Can You Say “Yamma”? New Group, Old Pro
CAN YOU SAY “YAMMA”? Here comes a new MMA group - with an old pro at the helm By MMAMemories.com The pioneer of MMA - as we know it in America - is back in action. Bob Meyrowitz, who along with Rorion Gracie and Art Davie founded the UFC back in 1993, has a new organization to vie for […] (Read More)

TapouT Taps Into This Weekends WCF
By MMAMemories.com The folks with the TapouT Crew have been one of the great MMA success stories.. They started out selling T-shirts and grew to the point where they have become one of the most recognizable clothing lines in combat sports. TapouT is a big UFC sponsor and is also the subject of a reality shows […] (Read More)

UFC 81 Preview: BROCK LESNAR - To Face Mir
BROCK LESNAR He’s conquered wrestling; can he do the same in MMA? By MMAMemories.com Brock Lesnar’s athletic background dictates that he doesn’t think there’s anything he can’t do. A former pro wrestling star, he’s now cast his lot in MMA, and has the opportunity to make a big impact on Saturday when he faces off against former UFC […] (Read More)

UFC 81 Preview: FRANK MIR, To Face Lesnar
MMA veteran gears for showdown against wrestler Lesnar By MMAMemories.com You might think that Frank Mir was almost born to be an MMA star. He started in mixed martial arts at an early age, studying Kenpo Karate because his father ran a school for it in the city of Las Vegas. It is fair to say that […] (Read More)

How Would Gracie Stand Up to Today’s Fighters
By Charles Jay The other day I was having a conversation with the estimable publisher of MMA Memories, Larry Goldberg, and I made the suggestion that perhaps we should post some poll question to the readers about hypothetical “fantasy” fights. After all, coming largely from the world of boxing, I am used to all the discussion […] (Read More)

Looking Back: Liddell vs Couture Part 1
Chuck Liddell, one of the living legends of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, took a rather circuitous route to his first championship opportunity, and there is no doubt that he earned it.The accounting major from Cal Poly had beaten some of the best in the business, including Jeff Monson, Kevin Randleman, Murilo Bustamante, Guy Mezger and […] (Read More)

What If Vince McMahon Owned The UFC?
By Charles Jay One of the things that was interesting about the CNBC documentary, From Bloodsport to Big Time, was that at one time, Lorenzo Fertitta had been eager to sell the UFC to the McMahons and WWE, with one of the purposes in mind to enable it to get a cable deal with Spike (which […] (Read More)

“Sport of the Future” Has Interesting Past
By MMAMemories.com In the early 21st century, the Ultimate Fighting Championship grew into perhaps the most popular form of fighting in the United States, and indeed was pegged by many as the “sport of the future.” In point of fact, however, the concept of “mixed martial arts” matches was hardly a brand new idea. It had […] (Read More)

The “Challenge” Turns Into an Event
By the time Helio Gracie had finished with competitive fighting, the next generation of the Gracie family was ready to pick up the ball and run with it. Helio’s last conqueror - Waldemar Santana - was later bested four out of six times by Carlson Gracie, Carlos’ son and Helio’s nephew. Helio’s son, Rorion, also […] (Read More)

A Man Named Milius, and His Imprint on The UFC
 It would be very difficult to chronicle the early history of the Ultimate Fighting Championship without mentioning the considerable part played in it by a man named John Milius. Not many fans of the UFC’s second “incarnation” are aware of it, nor the fact that Milius is in fact the famous “name” that helped create […] (Read More)

“Outlaw” Sport Went To “Outlaw” States
 The Ultimate Fighting Championship was not the type of event that was going to meet very well with the subtleties of regulation. As originally mapped out, it was a wild, freelance affair; no one really knew what was going to happen when, for instance, grapplers fought karate practitioners, sumo wrestlers fought judo players, ju-jitsu experts […] (Read More)

Fighters Not Easy to Find for UFC “Uno”
 The first Ultimate Fighting Championship was set for November 12, 1993. And now that they had a date, they needed competitors for the event. One might think that with $50,000 going to the winner, especially for an activity that was not normally associated with big prize money, that would have been an easy task. Such […] (Read More)

The UFC’s “Original Eight”
 Although it was not easy, applicants for the Ultimate Fighting Championship began to trickle in. They were pioneers, for sure, and brave to an extent, since no one really knew what was going to happen once all these martial arts disciplines collided. One of the slots was going to be filled by a member of the […] (Read More)

UFC Works “On The Fly”
 Everything about the Ultimate Fighting Championship was so new at the outset that they could hardly be blamed for making a few rules up on the fly. For example, the original idea had been for the UFC to be a 16-man tournament, with $100,000 going to the winner. But the desire to lower the risk […] (Read More)

Superfoot put Foot in Mouth
The presence of writer-director John Milius provided some “star power” for the Ultimate Fighting Championship with investors and within some elements of the entertainment industry, but Milius was not a name that was going to add much in the way of cachet with the general public or the martial arts community. When it came to […] (Read More)

UFC Starts With “Kick Heard ’round The World”
The Ultimate Fighting Championship got kicked off, literally, on November 12, 1993, at the 18,000-seat McNichols Arena in Denver. Without a boxing commission or other regulatory body other than Art Davie’s rather self-contained International Fighting Council, the action promised to be wild and woolly. And it was. The first fight pitted Dutchman Gerard Gordeau, the savate champion, […] (Read More)

Ken Shamrock – The “Babe Ruth of MMA”?
He may have never won a UFC event when it was in its tournament format, and it can not be said that he was the dominant figure Royce Gracie was in the sport. But there has probably never been a more popular or enduring performer in the history of mixed martial arts than Ken Shamrock, […] (Read More)

Ken Shamrock and Royce Gracie
Shamrock was bigger and stronger than Gracie, who came in at 176 pounds. He got Gracie to the mat early on, but then he got caught in Gracie’s guard, where Gracie was on his own back, and kicking Shamrock on the back with his heels. This gave Shamrock a cue. He reached back and grabbed […] (Read More)

Extreme Fighting - Extreme Headaches
Donald Zuckerman was one of the few mixed martial arts promoters who was able to, at least for a moment, position himself alongside the Ultimate Fighting Championships in terms of exposure. Zuckerman was an entertainment entrepreneur, who had been involved in the music business, managing such acts as Patty Smyth and Scandal, owned nightclubs like […] (Read More)

“Ultimate” Defeat in New York
A month prior to the fateful appearance of Senator John McCain on Larry King Live, politicians were taking action in New York to ensure that the “evil” that was mixed martial arts would never take place within their boundaries. In November of 1995, as Donald Zuckerman and his Extreme Fighting organization made its plans for […] (Read More)

Tank Abbott - Triumph & Trouble
Someday - and it won’t matter if it’s a hundred years into the future - when the list of the most distinctive personalities in UFC history is discussed, one of the names at the very top is going to be David “Tank” Abbott, who, considering some of the chiseled physiques that have occupied the octagon […] (Read More)

The Trouble With Tank
In the Ultimate Ultimate promotion in 1995, Tank Abbott took a huge beating from Dan Severn but showed a lot of heart by never quitting. He went the entire twenty minutes though he lost a decision. That endeared him even more to the UFC fan base. So did his penchant for getting into trouble, within […] (Read More)

Unified Rules Brought a Sense of Order
It may be the mistaken impression on the part of some people that the UFC invented the rules that are in place for mixed martial arts competition today, and therefore supplied the missing ingredient that brought about much more mainstream acceptance of MMA. Such is not completely the case, although it could be said that […] (Read More)

Bridging One Era to another
Monte Cox bridges one era to another in mixed martial arts. He is a significant figure because he had a hand in getting the sport more recognition among the mainstream crowd, and in that way and others he is really an unsung hero of MMA. Cox’s background in sports was mostly in boxing, which believe it […] (Read More)

John McCain - Enter The Opportunist & Sports Biggest Enemy
From the beginning, there was going to be some establishment resistance to mixed martial arts. The sport, with its absence of structured rules, did not fit into the regulations that were laid out by the athletic commissions across the country. In fact, most of the regulatory people didn’t understand it, and therefore had no idea […] (Read More)

The Residue of McCain, His Pound of Flesh
It is difficult to measure with any real degree of exactitude how much influence John McCain’s crusade against the sport of mixed martial arts had. It was obviously his desire that governors across the U.S. would unite to ban the competition from taking place, but that’s not how it unfolded. Some of the states came out […] (Read More)

The Rise and Fall of PRIDE FC Emelianenko
If there ever was a serious contender that competed with the UFC for the attention of MMA fans, it was the PRIDE Fighting Championships. Located in Japan, the organization, owned by Dream Stage Entertainment, was conceived out an idea to combine some of the aspects of martial arts and pro wrestling, not unlike shoot fighting. […] (Read More)

UFC: Reforming Their Own Game, Coming Out Party
In describing boxing for a May 2007 Sports Illustrated cover story, Dana White said, “Blame Don King and Bob Arum. Those two sucked the life out of boxing, put it in their pockets and did nothing to secure the future of (the sport).” Boxing reform, of course, was not White’s task at hand. What he had […] (Read More)

UFC: Turning the Corner, Speeding Up The Game
It is important to note a few of the critical factors in the growth of the UFC. One of them was the utilization of channels open to it through the internet. The online experience fit in very well with their target demographic, which tended to be younger, more techno-savvy, more aggressive and more brand-loyal, which […] (Read More)

UFC Plays The Cable Card, The Phenomenon of “The ULTIMATE FIGHTER”
The UFC has always used pay-per-view as the center of its revenue streams. But not long after Zuffa has purchased the UFC, it became apparent that in order to accomplish the greater objective, it was going to be necessary to get some exposure on basic cable, a familiar destination for sports fans. Fox Sports Net […] (Read More)

The UFC is “White Hot”
Dana White is far from your traditional company president. Unlike many of the major promoters in boxing, White is a figure that can readily identify with the competitors under his wing, because he’s much closer to them in age. White took the reins at the UFC at the age of 32. And to say he brings […] (Read More)

UFC: Turning the Image Around, Stabilty For the Long Haul
The objective of the Zuffa-led UFC ownership in 2001 was to transform the organization and the sport in engaged in from an “outlaw” activity into something that could reasonably be considered part of mainstream sports and culture. That was not going to be an easy task, but the UFC had a sizable core of followers, […] (Read More)

UFC 40: “Vendetta”
One of the landmark events in UFC history took place when Tito Ortiz and Ken Shamrock stepped into the octagon to do battle. It also began perhaps the sport’s most memorable trilogy, even though it proved to be one-sided. Ortiz and Shamrock had taken different paths to their fight, developing their own separate reputations in the […] (Read More)

Randy Couture - Rise & Fall & Rise again
One of the more incredible competitors in the history of mixed martial arts has been Randy Couture, who could perhaps be considered one of the two or three best practitioners of MMA in the past decade. A native of Lynwood, Washington, Couture spent five years in the Army, then starred as an amateur wrestler at Oklahoma […] (Read More)

Tito Ortiz - A Place in History
Ortiz as taught the art of wrestling by one of Tank Abbott’s associates, Paul Herrera, who would become a UFC competitor himself. He was an outstanding high school wrestler and later competed at Golden West College (a junior college) and at Cal State-Bakersfield. The fighter who would later be referred to as the “Huntington Beach […] (Read More)

Fly-By-Nights That Flew Low
When it appeared that the UFC was going to be successful and that a market indeed existed for mixed martial arts, there was really no shortage of opportunists who heard the call of the almighty dollar and took the plunge into the promotional waters. Many of them did not last very long. Among these groups was the […] (Read More)

The IFC Saga
Originally, the organization that bears the name “International Fighting Championships” ran under the monicker “Ultimate Warriors.” The first show took place on March 30, 1996 in the unlikely venue of Kiev, Russia. It was a bizarre beginning, as the outfit, obviously looking to capitalize on the popularity of the UFC and having some UFC expatriates […] (Read More)