Official MMA Thread!

[Horhay]

Yes, I think it's about time I start this! Place all info relating to MMA in this thread!

 

[Horhay]

It won't be long until he tries to comeback...again!

 

[Horhay]

Time to get this baby refreshed!

Shocking news, UFC buys Strikeforce! I did not see that coming really. Although the whole CBS thing with Strikeforce did hurt them financially and the often awkward match making only saw them hurt when their stars failed to win *cough*Fedor*cough*.

The landscape of MMA has once again changed forever. Just like the UFC’s purchase of Pride, the UFC has enveloped another key competitor and solidified their stronghold on the MMA marketplace beyond what was previously thought possible. In his exclusive twenty-one minute interview with star reporter Ariel Helwani , Dana White sticks to the mantra “business as usual”, insisting that Strikeforce will continue to operate as its own entity. Sound familiar? Fortunately, running Strikeforce won’t entail dealing with the Yakuza. In fact, Dana casually likens the deal to purchasing a house. A house full of dudes that beat the **** out of each other for a living on national television.

Excerpts and notes from the interview are after the jump, but do yourself a favor and watch the whole thing.

On what led to the purchase:

“Well, as we continue to grow and expand into all these other countries one of the things that I keep telling you every time we talk is that we need more fights. We need more fights, more fights, and Let’s face the facts. Strikeforce is a brand that fans have come to like. They do have a following. People enjoy the fights that they’re putting on And it made sense to us.

White was reluctant to disclose details of the purchase, including how long the deal took to negotiate and what those negotiations entailed.

On merging the two organizations into one:

“Strikeforce is going to continue to run business as usual. There’s contracts in place. These guys are on Showtime. Strikeforce pulls good ratings for Showtime. I think Showtime is happy with them. And all of those contracts will be honored. These guys are going to remain Strikeforce fighters. Could guys from the UFC leave and end up over in Strikeforce? Yeah, absolutely.”

On his rocky relationship with Showtime and Ken Hershman:

“The beauty in a business like this is that there’s three partners in the UFC. It’s me, Frank, Lorenzo, and actually Abu Dhabi. So these guys, Lorenzo can go deal with Showtime. I think the last thing Showtime wants to see is me show up at the door and start having conversations. And that’s no big deal. Lorenzo can go deal with Showtime.”

Regarding a Super Bowl style event, pitting fighters from the two organizations against one another:

“There won’t be any super fights. When I say business as usual, we don’t co-promote. We don’t co-promote, period.”

Scott Coker will continue to run Strikeforce autonomously. Dana says repeatedly that he will honor all contracts, including those with M1, Fedor, and UFC lepers Josh Barnett and Paul Daley. On whether that means he’ll be renewing those contracts, that’s a different story.

Here's some speculation of the folks that may end up getting cut once their contracts are up.

There are a lot of things we’ve come to know about Dana White over the years. He loves his Pink Berry. He relieves stress by pulling mediocre pranks on his subordinates. He’s an astute, cut throat businessman. And he holds a grudge like a mother ******. It’s these last two traits that we’ll be examining at this time. With the UFC’s latest acquisition, Dana is in the position of working directly with many of the folks he’s either banned from the UFC or burned bridges with when attempts to work with them didn’t pan out. Aside from the recent legal quandary surrounding Roy Nelson’s employment, Zuffa has proven through aggressive litigation and hard ball negotiation that they know their way around a contract. This makes it very likely that Dana will do just as he says in honoring all current Strikeforce related contracts.

But virtually all contracts come to an end at some point, and when Strikeforce’s agreements reach their expiration date it’s a whole new ballgame. Some Strikeforce staples, such as open, non-exclusive contracts and event co-promotion are sure to disappear. The same is certain for many of the organization’s familiar faces, both in front of the camera and in the cage. Despite Dana’s vindictive nature, he didn’t get where he is today by letting hard feelings get in the way of good business. Let’s take a closer look at who’s on the chopping block when the legal obligations dissolve and Dana is wielding the axe.

ALL BUT A BAD DREAM:

Frank Shamrock: When egos collide, take cover. It’s hard to say where this relationship started to go south. At one time Shamrock was the UFC’s most dominant champion, now he’s all but stricken from their record books. Hateful words and disses are commonplace on Twitter, Facebook, and in interviews, but it takes a special kind of hate to launch a non-profit organization. Look for Shamrock to be gone the moment his contract expires, if not sooner. It’s a shame, too, as those braces were just about to come off.

Josh Barnett: White’s relationship with Barnett is as vile as any. Barnett physically threatening a bitter rival? That’s to be expected. Dana mocking Barnett for his numerous failed drug tests? Par for the course. But this rivalry recently took a trip to bizzaro world when Barnett accused Dana of steroid abuse. The most interesting scenario would be if Barnett takes the Grand Prix title and goes on to win the belt from Overeem. Could a championship clause keep him in the mix? If not, would Dana cut a champion? He’s threatened to do so before. The war of words between this fighter and promoter would put anything the WWE has come up with to shame.

Matt Lindland: Lindland was cast out from the UFC under the pretense of having violated their sponsorship policies by wearing a banned t-shirt bearing the logo of an online casino at event weigh-ins. Yeah, that makes sense because Zuffa co-owners, the Fertitas, own Station Casinos in Vegas. What we also know is that Lindland seems like an insufferable SOB and that Dana was probably eager to have the more photogenic and all-around-pleasant Rich Franklin wearing the belt. Either way, time has not healed these wounds, and even if Lindland can get his hand raised in his next few bouts, there’s little chance he’d be invited back once his contract is up. At least he’ll be able to relieve the stress of being unemployed.

M-1 Global: We can expect this Cold War to start heating up. While the rest of the players in the Strikeforce saga likely have pretty standard contracts, M-1 Global seems firmly entrenched. It’s tough to say how far Strikeforce has bent over in an attempt to secure the services of Fedor Emelianenko. We kind of, sort of know what M-1 has demanded in the past, and we saw how all of that played out. M-1 definitely has some co-promotion rights, and we know they’ve struck a separate deal with Showtime. Considering how often they like to renegotiate their business dealings, perhaps their contract is not as iron-clad as they would hope.

LIKELY, BUT NOT CERTAIN:

Paul Daley: Daley was canned after his post-fight cheap shot on Koscheck. The glancing blow, while certainly in poor taste, was not the most egregious sin perpetrated inside or outside of the Octagon, but fresh off the heels of the Strikeforce brawl it proved a perfect opportunity to make an example of someone. That, in a nutshell, is it. Now Dana has a chance to stand by the exile and still keep “Semtex” on his roster if that’s what both guys want. Surprisingly, Daley’s already rocking the boat and risking his chance to make a living in one of the few major organizations around. We’ve seen Dana extend the olive branch before, let’s see if Daley is foolish enough to push it away if he does so again.

Nick Diaz: There’s no beef here between Dana and Diaz, it just comes down to business. There are a few things that the UFC expects from their fighters: they want them to help promote fights, appreciate their paycheck, pass their drug tests, and keep out of trouble when the cameras are rolling. None of those things are really Diaz’s strong suit. Dana has repeatedly stated that he’d love to have Diaz back in his stable of fighters, but that Diaz needs to learn to ‘play the game’. That, unfortunately, is not likely to happen.

Gus Johnson: Dana was not a big fan of his infamous post-brawl commentary, but is that enough to cut him from the roster? Probably not. For now Showtime will continue to run events with their production crew and talent, but this has historically been a sticking point for Zuffa, who prefers to steer their own ship. It’s not hard to imagine a small struggle for control of who we see in the announcer’s booth down the road.

 

[MacDaddyOJack]

Man I hate Nick Diaz, and that tool always seemed to end up on the free card for spike, which is the one that I usually got to watch. I'm glad to hear that he won't be around much more.

I think its kinda lame too that there isnt going to be any kind of cross-promotion or pitting top fighters in an inter-divisionary match. It seems to me like UFC purely bought Strikeforce for revenue, not to further their own organization. Hopefully that will change in a year or so after some of these current contracts expire with Strikeforce.

 

[Off_contstantly]

I wondered how long this would take. I figured Strikeforce would go out of business before this happened. It could be good though.

 

[Horhay]

Man I hate Nick Diaz, and that tool always seemed to end up on the free card for spike, which is the one that I usually got to watch. I'm glad to hear that he won't be around much more.

I think its kinda lame too that there isnt going to be any kind of cross-promotion or pitting top fighters in an inter-divisionary match. It seems to me like UFC purely bought Strikeforce for revenue, not to further their own organization. Hopefully that will change in a year or so after some of these current contracts expire with Strikeforce.

I completely dislike Nick Diaz, the guy is a good fighter , but everything about him off the ring is everything MMA should stay away from. He is a clown!

Dana always refuted any sort of cross-promotion cards simply because of revenue. There's just too much crap involved with Strikeforce to even consider a cross-promotion. I think Zuffa will wait a year or two until all the contracts are up before considering dismantling Strikeforce and begin to beef their roster. Anyone looking for the "The Reem" on UFC?!

Although I am not looking forward to bringing back Werdum...I'd like to see King-Mo, Brett Rogers, and Gegard Mousasi added to the UFC roster. Maybe a second opportunity for Paul Daley "Semtex", a moment of stupidity shouldn't mark his entire career IMO.

 

[max041104]

Anyone looking for the "The Reem" on UFC?!

hellyeah

 

[Horhay]

hellyeah

I watched a few K-1 matches of his and the man is a freaking machine! I still wonder why some fighters take on the fight, the reem just rips them apart!

 

[ftwjedi]

Alistair Overeem vs. Brock Lesnar!!!

BJ Penn vs. Nick Diaz!!!

Just some of the upcoming UFC fights that im EXCITED for!

 

[s7v7n]

Watched the fight last night. Here's my take:

Both Penn & CroCop say they're done, (both been "done" for awhile now if you ask me) but we'll see if they stay retired. Wanderlei still fighting on his past accomplishments after all.

Diaz - Can't deny his talents or toughness, but his stamina has always been what separates him from his opponents. Still a prick though & shows how classless he is by calling GSP scared after the fight. I know it's all about promotion, but all he had to do was show up to the press conferences & Dana would have not pulled him off the GSP bout. That's a fight that will happen in the future though & Diaz is dangerous for sure, but I think GSP would dominate if he doesn't get caught in a submission.

"Cowboy" Cerrone - The sky is the limit? That guy continues to impress.

Vera - Tons of talent but lacks a killer instinct.

Congo - Looks imposing but sooo predictable. Just another poser in the extremely WEAK heavyweight division.

 

[Pavel696]

Anyone watching this weekend? I can't see how Rashad will beat Jones unless he can just hold him on his back the entire fight

 

[s7v7n]

Yeah, but Evans is very unorthodox & somehow seems to squeak things out even if all his fights are very boring to watch. There's no doubt that he'll be trying to keep this down on the mat & not wanting to stand & bang with Jones.

I still think Jones' reach will be too much for Evans to overcome & predict he'll finish Evans off with a TKO. Next up for Jones should be Gustafsson & that will be something to watch.

 

[Horhay]

It's going to be a good match, Evans is quick and he won't stand up with Jones. Evans game and reach is at a disadvantage. I expect Evans to take it to the ground or at least try.

 

[Chandler_90]

What does everyone think about Jones turning down all options to keep 151 alive.
Shocking decision for his image!

 

[Horhay]

151 was already dead, they should just scrape it off and start planning on it again. There were too many injuries and the subs weren't great. So just cancel and plan it better.

 

[KruericT]

hmm...this thread is dead as 151. Anyone watch 157 today?

 

[Wreck]

I was gonna order but missed start time ....

who won main event?

 

[hiratafabio]

I was gonna order but missed start time ....

who won main event?

Rousey finished Carmouche with an armbar at the end of the first round.

The fight started very fiercely from both sides, Carmouche even managed to mount on Rousey's back and tried to choke her, but Rousey escaped successfully.

 

[Chandler_90]

It was a superb fight.. How Ronda escaped that neck crank is beyond me..

Also her movement to secure the armbar was top draw..

I've not been so hyped to see MMA fights since the early days of Fedor..

 

[Chandler_90]

Also... A super fight between Anderson Silva and GSP/Jon Jones has all but been confirmed by Dana...

I'm saving for a trip to the states already...

 

[hiratafabio]

Incredible indeed! I thought Carmouche was going to nail it when she choked Rousey like that!