so, now that both Alistair & Fedor and the rest of Golden Glory got kicked out of Strikeforce…
what was the point of buying strikeforce in the first place then? Nick Diaz?
I wonder if monoploy law apply to this type of business, and if there is any way to enforce them. NBA, NFL, etc aren’t global like UFC, and they have the PA looking out for the players. There’s no protection for fighters, surely something can be done. If other pro sports can strike and still have the same cult following they did before, I doubt fighters finally standing up for themselves is going to piss fans off enough for any unaccountable backlash.
I don’t know if any other mma journalists are ripping into Zuffa for this or not, but if they are they’re doing it quietly. So bloodyelbow is the only one with the balls to call bullshit? The mma community truly is pathetic.
It’s beginning to look like it might be due to Golden Glory making some sort of move to promote shows in the US.
Which would explain the conflicting reasons Scott Coker (“we’ve only got so many slots and they aren’t for losers”) and Dana White (“we don’t do it that way, no wait the athletic commission won’t let us”) give for the cuts: no one wants to come out and say “we have a very strict policy of stifling any competition.”
I’ve thought for a while now that M-1 and GG should get together and make something happen. For the sake of mma, the UFC needs to be brought down a peg.
OneFC’s lookng to be pretty badass although we’ll see come september. maybe they’ll go international after awhile?
(Pride rules make me happy:-D)
http://www.bullshido.net/forums/showthread.php?t=107872
The GG thing still seems odd to me. Would love to hear their side, but i dont think the payment issue is the only thing. if that was it, GG would have stepped back on it because the fighters being paid and then paying the managers is better than nobody being paid.
hes right on the money about fedor though, tbh. he was a monster in pride. now hes the next cro cop.
[QUOTE=CNagy;2585545]It’s beginning to look like it might be due to Golden Glory making some sort of move to promote shows in the US.
http://mma.sbnation.com/2011/8/3/2342051/zuffa-golden-glory-cuts-marloes-coenen-alistair-overeem-loretta-hunt[/QUOTE]
Yeah, it’s pretty obvious this is a bullymove (on the fighters) to show GG what Zuffa thinks of their shows.
[QUOTE=CNagy;2585545]Which would explain the conflicting reasons Scott Coker (“we’ve only got so many slots and they aren’t for losers”) and Dana White (“we don’t do it that way, no wait the athletic commission won’t let us”) give for the cuts: no one wants to come out and say “we have a very strict policy of stifling any competition.”[/QUOTE]
Coker saving his skin with empty answers. Jeez Scott, Coenen was wearing a belt just a week ago. And now she can’t get a timeslot? Why you stuttering, Scotty? Something on your mind?
And Dana, full of shit as usual. Trying to spin it like GG is the bad guy here: GG has too much control over their fighters (their purses) we tried to reason with them… Oi vei
[QUOTE=risingphoenix73;2585559]OneFC’s lookng to be pretty badass although we’ll see come september. maybe they’ll go international after awhile?[/QUOTE]
Fuuuck yeaaah
[QUOTE=bobyclumsyninja;2585410]Stupid, because they’re fucking up the credibility of the sport. It’s not like they’ve managed to make the big fights happen lately. This whole thing makes me a little sick.[/QUOTE]
I’ve been saying this for the past year, and now it’s taking an incident like this to highlight the problem.
Dana White’s been stifling all criticism of his product by saying, “We make sure the big fights happen.” Then he does his regular song and dance about how UFC is better than boxing.
However, the big fights haven’t been happening. Now with GG out of the picture, they won’t happen. Let’s look at this lucidly:
- Zuffa publicly insults their fighters for "not performing"
- Zuffa buys high profile competitors, then shuts them down
- Zuffa cuts fighters associated with specific training camps or management teams
How is this situation great for the sport, or for its long term health? If I’m a young athlete, why would I involve myself in a sport that compensates me little and cuts me for arbitrary reasons?
Sounds stupid, but there needs to be a boycott of UFC events. Problems: would hurt the fighters (some fighters get paid based on pay-per-view sales), and: Most people who watch UFC are drunk people who just want to see people get knocked out and don’t really care much about advancement of the sport, or the fighters themselves (for example some fans boo when the fight hits the ground. They just wanna see highlight reel knockouts). It’s funny tho…Zuffa helped take the sport out of the dark ages and make it more mainstream, and are now going on to single-handedly ruin it…
You’re right … that does sound stupid.
Some part of drunk me suspects there was, at some point a phone exchange approximated in the following text.
“You’ll fight when we tell you, you Dutch fuck”
“I’m injured and need time for my camp to perform properly”
“You’re not a champion of shit, Strikforce is Strikegone, and I’ll axe you and drop the blacklist bomb on your whole fucking gym if you fuck with me on this”
How’s the boxercizes going, pindicked cueball Yankee???
ZOMG I’ll show you embarrassed by tiny pecker
I think one of the main reasons behind the release of many European fighters could be simply this: The UFC has essentially failed to sell in Europe (apart from the UK), in terms of television deals, etc. YES YES everybody in Europe has seen many, many fights, but where do people get them? On the UFC PPV-stream?!
Youtube making Dana cry.
On the long run, there are to be stronger European promotions (like in boxing), that have better relationships to the broadcasting industry, and have fighters that can be promoted better in Europe. (No language gap, for example.)
Now, as it happens, two of the biggest European promotions are also our most stellar fight clubs: M-1 Global and Golden Glory.
Why should the UFC, whose only real expansive effort to Japan was reportedly a failure, strengthen the competition, by making stars out of their fighters?
In any case, the timing is idiotic, as the fans pay the dues.
The Strikeforce HW GP would have been one of the sport’s all-time highlights, and Zuffa took it from us by crippling the line-up to the point where the whole matter becomes a joke.
Didn’t think Alistair could actually win the GP, or did you, Dana?
I don’t see how the people at Zuffa can possibly think they’re making all the right choices here. No doubt all the SF fighters left know they need to start sending out their resumes, but what about others in the UFC? With everyone affraid to get cut, every fight is going to be GSP vs Shields. Zuffa is ruining mma from every possible angle.
So, at this point, can Overeem parade around with the Stikeforce belt like MMA’s version of CM Punk and say that he’s the real Strikeforce champ because no one beat him for the title? 'Cause if he did I’d buy any PPV he’s on 'till the end of time.
[QUOTE=Super8astard;2585693] With everyone affraid to get cut, every fight is going to be GSP vs Shields. Zuffa is ruining mma from every possible angle.[/QUOTE]
This is possibly my biggest fear concerning mma’s future.
Fear of being cut will result in more and more boring fights. Why risk a career impacting loss by taking any chances…when you can lay n’ pray/lean n’ pray/dance n’ pray etc your way to the points W?
The sad truth is Zuffa would rather run a constricted mma market, than take a generous-but-not-silly slice of a larger, thriving sport. Lip service to the fans aside.
And WTF? Some of these PPV’s are a joke. Tito’s back!!! Ignore that Jones didn’t go against Evans, or that Brock/JDS Saint happening, or any number of dead-end-hype-trails…please shell out $50 for some shit that should be free on TV.
Ego and greed is running the show. They brag on things they don’t end up putting together, and say only what the moment demands, while veering wildly around, striking out at other promotions like a pissed off 5 year old.
They threatened to drop a whole company, for daring to do a walkout T for Fedor w/ another promo. That’s not monopolistic practices? What we hear about is bad enough, but like any corporate shitheap, the real shit is under the radar.
I wonder what the %'s look like, regarding Zuffa LLC vs. the Major boxing promotions, as far as how many of the big fights end up happening relative to those booked.
[QUOTE=bobyclumsyninja;2585773]They threatened to drop a whole company, for daring to do a walkout T for Fedor w/ another promo. That’s not monopolistic practices? What we hear about is bad enough, but like any corporate shitheap, the real shit is under the radar.[/QUOTE]
Dana’s campaign’s to slander fighters and other promotions are just one of many things unredeemable about him. It’s one thing to build up your own people, but to actually run smear campaigns is unacceptable. Where’s the integrity in that? How does this clown think he’s doing the sport a service? The guys’s a fuckin vulture trying to make himself bigger than the fighters. Unfortunatly, you can either watch the UFC and deal with him or not watch mma. It’s sad that so many better promotions either go unnoticed or fail all together. I honestly hope the UFC gets washed out ala WCW only to see another promotion dominate. As long as they are the kingpin, mma is going to be a moral stain in the sports world. Considering how much corruption there is in every other sport, that just shows how low the UFC really is.
I think the zuffa brass count on memories being short, and old diehard fans being replaced by malleable drones who’ll follow the company line on who’s good, and who’s a scrub. The diehard fanatics of the old school will be supplanted by wrasslin fans, and TufNo0bs.
The promotion is supposed to rule, and the fighters become merely a vehicle, for the company’s awesomeness to be delivered to the waiting masses. Never in the UFC?? you’re a scrub. Cut from the UFC or dare to leave for greener pastures??? You suck now…unless you’re brought back in (Vitor Belfort, Tito???), in which case you’re an instant legend…until you lose the company’s favor…then it’s back to being called a scrub.
Who would want to work for bosses like that, given a choice? Now they’re doing the healthcare thing, I imagine the axe will fall more quickly, as they have a direct continuous monetary reason to thin the ranks. It’s no longer simply wanting to lowball contracts. Being on contract at all now costs them, as time goes by. Also how much security is there in healthcare coverage, when you can be cut at any time?
I’ve seen too many shit cards to risk $50 for almost any UFC PPV. Evans/Ortiz? Yeah, thanks, I’ll google it the next day. Even with all their clout, and authoritarian impulses, they haven’t put many of the big fights together…and some of the ones they did stunk.
Even James Toney was touted as a beast for his UFC fight. I wonder what would have been said during the pre-fight hype marketing if Fedor had signed with the UFC. Would they have hyped him up as a bad-ass for the same fights they dismissed his opponents in like they did for Belfort? What he were to beat Kongo, would they admit Kongo is a journeymeny beneath the guys Fedor has already beaten or would they say “HOLY SHIT HE BEAT KONGO! He’s the real deal”? What would they have done if he went on like a 5 fight win streak and then got trashed by Cain? Back to Fedor is an over-rated scrub and cut him I would assume…
Speaking of Belfort, what was the most recent fight they used in his highlight reel, and didn’t the Zuffa zombies criticize him for those very fights? What will they say about him if Akiyama KO’s him?
The mma community is garbage, but it’s all Zuffa’s fault. This kind of crap didn’t happen in Pride or SF, or even Belator or Dream. Fighters got their due respect and only criticized when they deserved it, even then they were never cut or called bums. When we talk the BS in mma it’s always Zuffa. Elite did questionable things, but I don’t consider bribing fighters to make a fight more exciting instead of going for decision wins on near the same level. I really don’t get how these guys think they’re helping mma move forward. I won’t be suprised when every fighter has to have to have a full time job and fight on the side.
really is there any doubt he’s been roiding it up. look at the man in pride and look at him now.
sure people fill out as they age but I mean come on he’s twice the man he used to be.
on a side note. whats the status of the openweight finale now?