M-1 Global Says Fedor’s Contract With Showtime, Zuffa Buyout Has No Effect

[Flyin Ryan]

Originally Posted by monaroCountry

The UFC can establish themselves in the richer countries but its ultimately futile if those countries only have token guys to support. The UFC will never want to take the spotlight away from its home market. This is why multiple strong orgs globally is important. The UFC really doesn’t have the brick and mortar presence in many European countries and no proper tournaments in place in those regions. All it takes is just a few Broadcasters to run with a local promotion to change the landscape.

UFC is basically in the same position as Pride now, packing stadiums etc. Things change fast in MMA though. Ultimately the profit levels for promotion is chumps change compared to viewership importance. Zuffa’s PPV structure will falter against a product that’s free and popular, if its popular then the Broadcasters will run and invest big money on it. Broadcasters are really the big bosses who puts money in pockets, not how many people attends the fight in stadiums.

Allright then. At the current point in time, for free broadcasters of American MMA we have Spike and Versus with UFC, and MTV2 with Bellator. From my vantage point as a TV watcher, there's zero difference between Zuffa's PPV structure and a structure utilizing Showtime because Showtime is $15 or whatever per month.

Honestly, we're on a boxing forum. If PPV is going to die and that's supposed to kill Zuffa, how under your argument could boxing possibly exist in the future in this country? Zuffa actually promotes shows that are on free TV, it's incredibly rare you see top fighters ever fight on free TV.

Regarding M-1, was thinking of going to their Norfolk card since it's 3 hours away, but decided against it, mostly because I have a rugby match the next day but also because I have no clue who the hell anyone fighting is and for what they were charging. I have no clue who Damkovsky or Figueroa are, I figure Damkovsky being Belarussian the match is designed for him to win, but when I look at Figueroa's record since he's American to see if I can relate to who his opponents are, he's 9-4 and has a loss on his record to Jonathan Brookins, the guy that just won The Ultimate Fighter, so he's pretty far down the list of lightweights in the UFC, and Figueroa's in the main event? I know it takes time to build up promotions and all this, but M-1 has existed for awhile, and if you're going to make the argument M-1 should be taken more seriously as a promotion, Jose Figueroa should not be in its main event.

yaca you: It will be a while before another org is in the position Strikeforce was just 1 week ago. To be a threat to the UFC is a feat other MMA orgs will not be able accomplish probably for a few years if ever.

Owners of Strikeforce really let us MMA fans down.

It's not promoters' responsibility to take care of the fans, otherwise Pacquiao-Mayweather would've occurred a long time ago. It's promoters' job to make money (which usually involves taking care of fans, but not all the time). That's all the fight game has ever been about, be it boxing from 1920, "worked fights" in pro wrestling in 1970, or MMA in 2011.

[scurlaruntings]

Originally Posted by yaca you

Owners of Strikeforce really let us MMA fans down.

Problem is the majority owners of SF were not interested in MMA. The reality is the sport isn't half as big as fans like to make out.

[Stoo]

Good post FR. But Morono is a lost cause as far as common sense goes. He'll swear blind that M1 has better fighters than Zuffa based on 'skills' but wont acknowledge that they have TUF rejects like Vinny Margheles on their roster.
Believe me Ive tried, but my arguements are idiotic apparently

[yaca you]

Originally Posted by scurlaruntings

Problem is the majority owners of SF were not interested in MMA. The reality is the sport isn't half as big as fans like to make out.

The truth.

But they really fucked us good and for 40 mill? Shieeeeeeeeeeet!!!

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUjh9Id6Id8[/ame]

[yaca you]

Originally Posted by Flyin Ryan

It's not promoters' responsibility to take care of the fans, otherwise Pacquiao-Mayweather would've occurred a long time ago. It's promoters' job to make money (which usually involves taking care of fans, but not all the time). That's all the fight game has ever been about, be it boxing from 1920, "worked fights" in pro wrestling in 1970, or MMA in 2011.

ohh I know this but they got paid and we got fucked and not in a good way either.

So it really is "business as usual" after all.

[Flyin Ryan]

Originally Posted by yaca you

But they really fucked us good and for 40 mill? Shieeeeeeeeeeet!!!

How can you say they f*cked you good? They can do whatever the hell they want because they're the ones actually paying the bills. If you had any part in paying the bills, you can say you got f*cked. Otherwise, no, outside of that they owe you absolutely nothing.

[Flyin Ryan]

Originally Posted by Stoo

Good post FR. But Morono is a lost cause as far as common sense goes. He'll swear blind that M1 has better fighters than Zuffa based on 'skills' but wont acknowledge that they have TUF rejects like Vinny Margheles on their roster.
Believe me Ive tried, but my arguements are idiotic apparently

Their contest to crown a heavyweight champion, they had Guram Gugenishvili defeat American Kenny Garner in St. Petersburg, Russia. Garner earlier last year lost on an XFC card (decent local promotion in Tampa that has cards put up on HDNet) to this guy:

[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

[Stoo]

Haha check out his top 10 heavyweight list for a giggle