Holiday Letters
Holiday Letters
I should be with my family, you say? You don’t know my family, I
say.
Three recent op-eds — on New Year’s wishes, the fractured MMA climate, and a penetrating look at the money vacuum known as bodogFIGHT — prompted lots of responses, most of them non-threatening. Choice selections appear below.
Rampage
Hey, I liked your article. You had a lot of good points. Although this line here — “Matched correctly, Jackson will be the UFC's marquee attraction within 18 months" would only come true IF he's successful in said matches IMO. – Jason Stone
I don’t believe anyone has the wrestling or striking ability to contend with Jackson in the UFC’s current 205-lb. climate. His win over Liddell was no fluke: he had his way with the Iceman for nearly 15 minutes, beating him to the punch and scoring takedowns. I think he’ll have all the confidence in the world going into a second bout.
Not to mention that by the time the two rematch, Chuck will be knocking on the door of 40. If Jackson defeats him, it puts the UFC in an interesting position — 0-2 against a fighter rarely begs for a trilogy. Liddell’s flirtation with the heavyweight class could become more serious at that point. Call it a reverse-Couture.
Fedor
You wrote "Fans of Fedor Emelianenko (Pictures) are beginning to empathize with the pain Frank Shamrock (Pictures) supporters are accustomed to: with all his gifts, he doesn’t seem motivated to face any truly formidable opposition."
Why would Fedor duck anybody? He has always said — he don’t chose his opponents! After PRIDE 32 Fedor also said that he wanted to fight Barnett, but Barnett didn’t want to, Werdum didn’t want to and Cro Cop is not 100% yet! Only Hunt has not fought for a while and is brave enough to do that. Who is left there to fight in PRIDE anyway? Kharitonov, Werdum, Barnett and Cro Cop for the second time — that’s it!
The fact that Fedor signs with bodogFIGHT to fight in Russia to earn some bonus cash — do you really think that this can be considered a lack of motivation to face truly formidable opposition? It’s a one-fight deal and nothing more. – Janis Jelisejevs
Fedor’s last competitive bout was in August of 2005, against Mirko Filipovic (Pictures). True to his reputation, he performed like a world champion.
But that’s an awfully long draught for someone currently being assessed as the greatest of all time. The possibilities in PRIDE are more substantial than you suggest: why not rematch Ricardo Arona (Pictures), whose takedown abilities would be a substantial threat? Why not fight Fujita, who gave him his biggest test to date in the ring?
I’m happy he’s fighting Hunt. It makes for an interesting stand-up affair, though it seems likely that Fedor will have his way on the mat.
If Fedor and his promoters believe the best match they can construct is against Jeff Monson (Pictures), I fear for the future of his career.
Showtime
I am in total agreement with your assessment that Showtime can provide major competition to the UFC. Another point to consider is the fact that the UFC tends to sign many fighters to three fight deals. It's been reported that they do this so they have the freedom to cut fighters, or re-sign them at lower number if they lose a couple in a row. And as we have seen with some of the fighters UFC has released in the past. Being released from the UFC does not necessarily mean you are a crappy fighter.
Potentially, there are quite a few fighters presently under contract who could eventually fight for Showtime a year from now. And it would not take a lot to market these fighters, since many mainstream fans may have already seen them on Spike TV or UFC pay per-view. – Chris McKellar
The UFC’s advantage in having free television distribution is also their Achilles’ heel: if a fighter fails to renew their obligation, or they’re cut for a mediocre showing, another promotion would be able to capitalize on the fame garnered by their UFC tenure.
You may begin to see some of the bigger names get locked down to longer-term deals, especially if 2007 proves that the MMA boon of 2006 was no fluke.
PRIDE
If PRIDE fails, what happens to those big players? Like Big Nog and Barnett? – Cody Wylie
They become free agents and hit the proverbial oil well — with so many promotions angling for market share, and so many deep pockets behind those angles, the PRIDE roster would benefit tremendously.
The fans? Not so much. It seems likely PRIDE’s demise would result in their marquee athletes being scattered, putting political obstacles in front of the bigger match-ups.
Competition is good. Too much competition is not.
HD MMA
Where the f--k is the High-Definition footage ending up? Are we still in the ‘90s here? WE NEED HD MMA. I was hoping that the HDNet deal with the WEC could extend to the UFC with the purchase, but it sounds unlikely. Do you know why they shoot the events in HD and don't broadcast them live in HD? – Richard J Edwards
The UFC was once in the habit of re-broadcasting shows from its library on INHD, though I imagine their current cache as the Hot New Thing precluded the fringe channel from renewing an expensive license. If you’re that starved for higher resolution pummelings, the new XBOX 360 download service offers individual fights in the format.
The events are filmed in high-definition, but transmitting two signals (standard and HD) would result in two different price tags for airtime. There aren’t enough cable operators (and HD customers) to justify the expense — at least, that’s the UFC’s stance. Some of the bigger boxing bouts are transmitted live in HD, so the capability is clearly there.
In the meantime, Showtime’s show on Feb. 10 is scheduled to be simulcast on Showtime’s HD sister station.
Three recent op-eds — on New Year’s wishes, the fractured MMA climate, and a penetrating look at the money vacuum known as bodogFIGHT — prompted lots of responses, most of them non-threatening. Choice selections appear below.
Rampage
Hey, I liked your article. You had a lot of good points. Although this line here — “Matched correctly, Jackson will be the UFC's marquee attraction within 18 months" would only come true IF he's successful in said matches IMO. – Jason Stone
I don’t believe anyone has the wrestling or striking ability to contend with Jackson in the UFC’s current 205-lb. climate. His win over Liddell was no fluke: he had his way with the Iceman for nearly 15 minutes, beating him to the punch and scoring takedowns. I think he’ll have all the confidence in the world going into a second bout.
Not to mention that by the time the two rematch, Chuck will be knocking on the door of 40. If Jackson defeats him, it puts the UFC in an interesting position — 0-2 against a fighter rarely begs for a trilogy. Liddell’s flirtation with the heavyweight class could become more serious at that point. Call it a reverse-Couture.
Fedor
You wrote "Fans of Fedor Emelianenko (Pictures) are beginning to empathize with the pain Frank Shamrock (Pictures) supporters are accustomed to: with all his gifts, he doesn’t seem motivated to face any truly formidable opposition."
Why would Fedor duck anybody? He has always said — he don’t chose his opponents! After PRIDE 32 Fedor also said that he wanted to fight Barnett, but Barnett didn’t want to, Werdum didn’t want to and Cro Cop is not 100% yet! Only Hunt has not fought for a while and is brave enough to do that. Who is left there to fight in PRIDE anyway? Kharitonov, Werdum, Barnett and Cro Cop for the second time — that’s it!
The fact that Fedor signs with bodogFIGHT to fight in Russia to earn some bonus cash — do you really think that this can be considered a lack of motivation to face truly formidable opposition? It’s a one-fight deal and nothing more. – Janis Jelisejevs
Fedor’s last competitive bout was in August of 2005, against Mirko Filipovic (Pictures). True to his reputation, he performed like a world champion.
But that’s an awfully long draught for someone currently being assessed as the greatest of all time. The possibilities in PRIDE are more substantial than you suggest: why not rematch Ricardo Arona (Pictures), whose takedown abilities would be a substantial threat? Why not fight Fujita, who gave him his biggest test to date in the ring?
I’m happy he’s fighting Hunt. It makes for an interesting stand-up affair, though it seems likely that Fedor will have his way on the mat.
If Fedor and his promoters believe the best match they can construct is against Jeff Monson (Pictures), I fear for the future of his career.
Showtime
I am in total agreement with your assessment that Showtime can provide major competition to the UFC. Another point to consider is the fact that the UFC tends to sign many fighters to three fight deals. It's been reported that they do this so they have the freedom to cut fighters, or re-sign them at lower number if they lose a couple in a row. And as we have seen with some of the fighters UFC has released in the past. Being released from the UFC does not necessarily mean you are a crappy fighter.
Potentially, there are quite a few fighters presently under contract who could eventually fight for Showtime a year from now. And it would not take a lot to market these fighters, since many mainstream fans may have already seen them on Spike TV or UFC pay per-view. – Chris McKellar
The UFC’s advantage in having free television distribution is also their Achilles’ heel: if a fighter fails to renew their obligation, or they’re cut for a mediocre showing, another promotion would be able to capitalize on the fame garnered by their UFC tenure.
You may begin to see some of the bigger names get locked down to longer-term deals, especially if 2007 proves that the MMA boon of 2006 was no fluke.
PRIDE
If PRIDE fails, what happens to those big players? Like Big Nog and Barnett? – Cody Wylie
They become free agents and hit the proverbial oil well — with so many promotions angling for market share, and so many deep pockets behind those angles, the PRIDE roster would benefit tremendously.
The fans? Not so much. It seems likely PRIDE’s demise would result in their marquee athletes being scattered, putting political obstacles in front of the bigger match-ups.
Competition is good. Too much competition is not.
HD MMA
Where the f--k is the High-Definition footage ending up? Are we still in the ‘90s here? WE NEED HD MMA. I was hoping that the HDNet deal with the WEC could extend to the UFC with the purchase, but it sounds unlikely. Do you know why they shoot the events in HD and don't broadcast them live in HD? – Richard J Edwards
The UFC was once in the habit of re-broadcasting shows from its library on INHD, though I imagine their current cache as the Hot New Thing precluded the fringe channel from renewing an expensive license. If you’re that starved for higher resolution pummelings, the new XBOX 360 download service offers individual fights in the format.
The events are filmed in high-definition, but transmitting two signals (standard and HD) would result in two different price tags for airtime. There aren’t enough cable operators (and HD customers) to justify the expense — at least, that’s the UFC’s stance. Some of the bigger boxing bouts are transmitted live in HD, so the capability is clearly there.
In the meantime, Showtime’s show on Feb. 10 is scheduled to be simulcast on Showtime’s HD sister station.
