My goodness. For what its worth Drew Chatman, the guy front flipping off his unconscious opponent, was DQ’d with the guy napping on the canvas getting the much deserved W. Either way I would NOT want to be Chatman in any type of rematch. Or maybe a morality seeking enforcer goes looking for Chatman to teach him a lesson about respecting the game.
Reminds me of my slightly less “disrespecting the dead” and more “catching em all” type of rubbing it in celebration:
As expected by most, Bellator NYC/Bellator 180/whatever what have you did not do great PPV numbers, to say the least. For all the bluster and bravado that came from the fighters and Scott Coker himself it seems that this premium outing will do similar numbers to their initial attempt in 2014, with estimates in the 90,000 – 125,000 range. For reference, UFC 213, which lost two headlining fights (one the day of) and a top-10 Welterweight war, Is expected to come in around the top end of those numbers, AT LEAST. No bueno. To make matters a little worse, there was not a ton else going on that weekend. I myself was having a quiet Saturday and decided against purchasing it. Notably, the UFC did not offer up any competition, which in hindsight seems regrettable as they perhaps could have BURIED the Bellator PPV, albeit at the expense of their own event. Bellator’s parent company Viacom is putting on a public smile, saying they’re happy with the number, the “record gate” etc. however I doubt that’s all true.
Getting into the “why” and “what”, in terms of Bellator needs to do in order to improve upon this attempt, is actually pretty simple. Their 2014 PPV was just the best of their b-level talent plus the name brand of Quintin “Rampage” Jackson. That was never going to work. This time they relied upon their new strategy of having a good portion of the draw of their cards be either veteran and/or purely intriguing names, from Matt Mitrione and Fedor Emelianenko to the billed “best MMA prospect ever” wrestling maven Aaron Pico who was soundly defeated in his MMA debut. This strategy, although a solid one for garnering Spike TV numbers, is not going to work as a growth enabler or PPV seller. Intrigue only goes so far. I’ll change the channel to watch intrigue, not drop 50 bucks. What Bellator needs to do is what they finally have been doing: signing top-tier fighters. The only way to compete with UFC is to do just that – truly, straight up, compete. However I don’t expect they will ever go with that strategy alone and that’s why I don’t ever see them winning the battle.
What was supposed to be a relatively slow weekend in MMA ended up being the weekend they shoot off all the fireworks left over from the 4th of July. While I am going to spend the most time, obviously, breaking down the highlights of the UFC’s trip to Glasgow, there are a couple of things from Bellator to address as well.
Bellator
-Gegard Mousasi, a unanimous top-ten Middleweight the UFC barely made an attempt to resign, had his first Bellator bout announced during the #2 organizations Friday broadcast. His opponent will be former champion Alexander Shlemenko. Ignoring Shlemenko’s positive steroid test that secured him a 2 year suspension (he fought twice abroad during that time), the undersized Russian is one of the most prolific top-tier Middleweights out there, having 66 fights under his belt to this point. He is primarily a striker, and a powerful, accurate one at that, registering 31 knockouts in his career. Considering one of Mousasi’s problems has always been getting hyped for fights that don’t mean a whole lot to him, this could be a a trap bout for the favorite.
-Girtz Vs. Campos Friday night was a WAR. Both guys left it all in the cage for two rounds until the gigantic gash in Girtz’s forehead, cause by a Campos knee, forced the cage-side doctor to call the fight before the 3rd. Legit looked like a Greyjoy had tried to start flaying Brandon Girtz’s head just before the fight. Good stuff from these guys.
UFC Fight 113 aka UFC Glasgow Aka UFC Fight Night: Nelson vs. Pozninibbio
-First and foremost, on my pre-event blog I missed discussing Paul Felder’s motivations going into this fight, so my sincerest apologies. “The Irish Dragon” actually lost his father to pancreatic cancer just before he began training camp for his battle with Stevie Ray, and dedicated his performance to his late Dad. Well, he did not disappoint. The Muay Thai practitioner crushed Ray in the clinch with a knee to the dome and then finished him on the ground with some of the most hellacious elbows you’ll ever see. Huge win for Felder and good to see him succeed at such an emotional time
-On the other hand it sucks to see Steve Ray lose so emphatically going into contract negotiations. He has significantly less leverage than if he had won and it would seem his two options are to accept what they offer and try and get his payday with his performances next time around or take his 4 oz gloves elsewhere. Here’s to hoping he sticks around.
-In maybe the oddest thing I’ve ever seen happen in the Octagon, Charlie Ward got thrown on his face into unconsciousness. Really all I have to say on that. YouTube it.
-As I said in my preview blog, sometimes Joanne Calderwood just isn’t fervid enough to get over the hump and that likely cost her the fight against Cynthia Calvillo. That isn’t to take anything away from Calvillo, but it looked like the front kicks and combinations JoJo was trying to work would have if she threw them with just a little more conviction. Here’s to greener pastures at 125 for the Scotswoman.
– So this Ponizinibbio guy is pretty good huh? My prediction was that “Gente Boa” would throw bombs at Nelson, move forward a little too much and get taken down and submitted. So I was right really except instead of being taken down Ponzinibbio took Nelson’s head off with an overhand right, then used a stiff left jab of all things to put an end to Nelson’s night.
-Shout out Podrick Payne sitting cage-side.
Before #GameOfThrones tonight, take in a little #UFCGlasgow … right @Daniel_Portman?! pic.twitter.com/PJxwEmSkgR
— UFC (@ufc) July 16, 2017
With all that said, here are a couple of fights I think make sense to put together with some of our Glasgow combatants.
Matches to make
Santiago Ponzinibbio vs. Neil Magny
-Who knows if Magny will ever make the jump to true contender, but a win over him will give Ponzinibbio a push in the direction of the belt he now publicly craves.
Cynthia Calvillo vs. Michelle Waterson
-It is already time to give Calvillo a top ten 115er, and who better to welcome her to the dance than the ever popular “Karate Hottie”.
Paul Felder vs Rashid Magomedov
-Magomedov is an ultra-talented striker who is unfortunately known for the tepid way he fights. I’m thinking a whirling dervish like Felder will bring out the best in him.
Editor’s Note: Introducing Danny Coughlin, who will be our resident MMA guy covering everything from the UFC to the upcoming mega-fight between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor.
So, a year in it doesn’t take a genius to see things in the largest, and yes, most talent laden MMA organization are just different. It’s a straight up Wizard of Oz situation in terms of exactly why or who is causing it to be this way. Maybe it was like this during the Zuffa era (The Fertittas as owners, Dana White ostensibly had more direct power/say) but I feel like we got to know that regime enough to kind of be able to deduce why they made certain decisions. Not the case with the new owners.
At a high level, or maybe more accurately at a fundamentally business level, there are two separate strategies that are most likely to be causing these changes. One would be if WME-IMG were looking at their new property as a straight up M&A situation. Here they would cut costs by making such moves as reducing non-essential staff (they have) while trying to jack up revenue, which nets out a ballooned profit, which would allow them to flip the company for a higher price than they bought it for. This would also explain letting some non-headliner/PPV buy-driving but subjectively expensive fighters walk to places like Bellator without a fight while putting on more, but (probably, I aint into research) cheaper (or “watered down” as some bitter fans like to call them) shows. Again, less costs, more revenue.
The other business strategy is just to put together a long term earner of a business, which I think would seemingly be (see below) the more plausible scenario here. Let’s face it – it would take God-fucking-knows-what to make the UFC that much more valuable than $4 billion dollars in order to flip it for a profit when you take into consideration things like interest. On the flip side, putting on a larger amount of cheap, entertaining-enough-to-make-a-solid-nut shows to keep the cash flowing in? Throwing a few top-heavy/pomp-heavy Conor/Jon Jones/Diaz ragers every year to churn some serious cheddah? Could work….
RECORD SCRATCH. What throws a wrench into strategy/idea two is the fact that if WME-IMG just wanted a profitable ATM of a business then why the fuck would they change what they inherited – A business and entertainment model/example that grew in value from $2 million to $4 BILLION in a fairly short amount of time – in the first place?
The answer to that question is most likely the answer to the overall question of “what the fuck in general is going on?” And the answer is our old friend ego. The same ego that made Bernie Madoff think he could endlessly swindle people out of 31231 kajillion dollars. The same ego that made good ol’ Eldrick Woods think he could piss on every hooker whose named ended in “i” within a 100 mile radius of Jupiter, FL. The same ego that made Det. The Rock and Samuel L think they could survive a quick 20 story leap off a building to expedite chasing down a perp. WME-IMG brass might not have the public swagger of Dana and Lorenzo, (and Frank, Joe Silva, etc.) but remember figurehead Ari Emanuel is the guy they based ARI FUCKING GOLD on. This is more than dollars and sense to him too, just like the Zuffa boys. But different men mean different egos. And WME-IMG want to succeed in their own way.
The best, and most entertaining IMNSHO, way to explain it would be to compare the egos of Moe Green and Michael Corleone. Moe Green wanted to prove to everyone he had the biggest dick and the most cash. He was flamboyant (Mayweather-McGregor), he was stubborn (Letting multiple top-10 guys walk). He cared less about his reputation (fighterpayfighterpayfighterpay) among his peers and the public than he did his bottom line. He rubbed the list of those bottom line accomplishments in everyone’s faces. WME-IMG and Ari might be plotting to do just that.
Michael Corleone was serious, surly even. He was a bit petty, sure (Dana), but in the end he not only wanted to be rich, which he sure as fuck did, but he wanted to be seen as legit (Zuffa) and build the biggest and baddest organization of it’s kind the world had seen. Kind of like how Zuffa stared across the pacific at Pride, tugged on it’s balls and put the UFC on it’s back. Pride fell. Strikeforce fell a few years later. The UFC were the undisputed kings of the realm.
In the end, only time will tell what WME-IMG’s end game really is. This is all just blogger speculation. It’s worth noting that should it happen, it wouldn’t be the first time the Fertitta’s had sold a business only to buy it back once the buyer realized they couldn’t run it as well. The question is by the time WME-IMG sets its strategy in place, will the UFC, or Bellator, or someone new, be the family in charge?
The 300s 