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Shapecharge wrote:Andy, T2 is a little shy and often quite high on something so he personally asked me to tell you he's sorry and it's all cool now. He was just playin' anyways. Stop the hate Andy, we needs this informations!!

Between a press conference and a Nevada State Athletic Commission hearing on 4/24, all of UFC’s question marks over the past few weeks were cleared up.

Dana White on 4/20 officially made public that Alistair Overeem was being pulled from his scheduled UFC heavyweight title fight with Junior Dos Santos, and Frank Mir was getting the shot.

The next night, White reiterated how mad he was that he didn’t want to talk about Overeem, past the point that he did not expect him to be licensed by Nevada after his failed steroid test. With PPV advertising deadlines looming, he felt he needed to officially take Overeem out rather than wait for the hearing, which was four days later.

At the 4/24 hearing, the Nevada commission denied Overeem a license. The usual protocol is that if a fighter requests a license but is turned down by the commission, they can’t apply for a license for another year from the date of the hearing, which would be April 24, 2013. However, the commission, surprising to many because of the track record of Overeem the last few months, instead voted 4-0 to go against their own usual guidelines, telling Overeem he could apply for a license on December 26, 2012, nine months after the date of the failed test. In reality, since he wasn’t fighting until 5/26, it is really a seven month period on ice if he does fight on the final show of the year.

That sentence came with stipulations, the key one being that Overeem can not apply for a license in any other state during the time frame, and he had to agree not to fight anywhere in the world until the time is up and he first goes before the Nevada commission and gets licensed. Overeem agreed to those terms. Dana White on 4/21 had stated that the company would not book Overeem for a fight anywhere until he was licensed in Nevada.

Pat Lundvall suggested the modification of the usual protocol by stating that as a general rule, Nevada has been suspending those who test positive for nine months (although some suspensions have been for one year) from the day of the infraction. While it is not a technical suspension, since Overeem did not have a license at the time he failed the test, she felt he should be treated as if he was a licensed fighter. It was noted that normally, Nevada would also fine a fighter for failing a test, but they didn’t have the power because he wasn’t licensed.

Commissioner Bill Brady noted that since Overeem would not be facing Dos Santos on 5/26, instead of being fined, say 20% or 30% of his purse for testing positive in the fight, he’s losing 100% of his purse by not fighting and he didn’t even test positive for any fight itself. For a championship fight with Dos Santos, based on his contract, that could be more than $1 million. The argument is that with nine months out, he’s actually losing two major fights including a title opportunity. One of the commissioners even argued cutting the time frame down to seven or eight months, but the other three all said nine months was giving him the least amount of time they would accept.

Under normal circumstances for a first time offender testing positive on a surprise test that wasn’t licensed, I can see the argument of a consistent punishment with a test failure of someone who was licensed. But this situation was far from typical. Overeem was only granted a conditional license to face Brock Lesnar due to his delay in taking a random drug test, ordered on 11/17 to be taken by the end of business the next day, and due to assorted delays that he explained to the commission, the first steroid test he provided the commission results from was taken on 12/14, some four weeks later.

If anything, he had failed the terms of the conditional license he was given last year in two ways. First, the 12/7 test that he was supposed to have to pass saw the results never passed on to the athletic commission. Second, Overeem was confirmed as failing the 3/27 test. Because he failed those terms, I can see a valid argument for at least a discussion regarding overturning the Lesnar result and making it a no contest. I’m not opposed to leniency, but this was his second time before the commission. I can’t, since it’s totally unfair to judge a decision with the benefit of hindsight, say they erred in allowing Overeem to face Lesnar. But with the benefit of hindsight because he didn’t live up to his stipulations for the license, his actions meant they did err. I recognize Overeem took a huge hit here in real life. His last five years of his career in many people’s eyes is almost thrown out as far as relevance. He lost a title shot, and a million dollars or more. But their own bylaws state if you apply for a license and don’t get it, you can’t apply again for one year. While I would accept there are times that being fair means you can bend the regulations to suit the situation. But in no way can I see this situation, from start-to-finish, and saying this is that situation of a one-time bad decision by a remorseful athlete. At best, he should have gotten the standard by-the-book terms.

At the hearing, Nevada commission Executive Director Keith Kizer noted that on 3/27, when the six fighters at a UFC press conference were all told they were being tested, five after the press conference went with commissioners to do their tests. Overeem, on the other hand, went in the other direction, according to Kizer, sped out and jumped into a car and left the building without taking a test. Two other members of the commission corroborated the story because they were there. Overeem gave two different excuses that day. The first was that he was late for a meeting with his lawyer, David Chesnoff, a partner in one of the country’s top criminal law firms. The second was that he left the press conference because he was expected to be served legal papers at the press conference by Golden Glory, his former management team. But he was told that if he didn’t come back immediately and take the test, it would be considered a positive and he would not be licensed to face Dos Santos.

Before the commission, he told the second story, and also claimed that he had never been told he was going to be tested. A UFC official present claimed all the fighters were told to stay and be tested after the press conference, but stated that he told Overeem’s management to make sure and let him know, and nobody could confirm Overeem was directly told.

So he came back and took the test, which came back at 14-1 in his Testosterone/Epitestosterone ratio, more than double the 6-1 Nevada commission limit. During the hearing, a commissioner noted that many sports, WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) and other commissions only allow a 4-1 ratio and the impression given was that changing the limit is a subject that will be discussed soon by the commission.

Overeem insisted he was not a cheater and had not used steroids knowingly.

The story Overeem told was not of TRT (testosterone replacement therapy) or a male enhancement drug that caused his ratio to go off, both of which UFC officials had been told over the last week talked about believing he would use. The problem with the first defense, that opted not to be used, is Nevada bylaws state you can’t use a therapeutic use exemption after a positive test, that it can only be applied for and granted beforehand. In addition, the combination of Overeem’s blood test and urine tests from November and December would contradict his need for testosterone replacement therapy unless there was a serious medical condition that had taken place since the Lesnar fight. The other story would be difficult because there are tens of thousands of athletes who are drug tested, many of whom likely used male performance enhancement drugs like Viagara, yet none are known of have failed the T/E test due to it. And athletes have injuries all the time and any drug tested athlete, and Overeem in particular, would have to be cautious regarding what he injects for obvious reasons. The idea that a doctor would put testosterone in a mix, let alone do so without telling the athlete in a drug tested sport, is mind boggling. Keep in mind that mixing testosterone with anti-inflammatories isn’t standard treatment for healing rib injuries even in non-drug tested non-athletes. Given the damage, the suspension, the loss of seven figures in income, and the severe damage to his reputation, why is Overeem not suing this doctor? Instead, Overeem said he wasn’t mad at his doctor because there was “no evil intent.”

White made the call to pull him. Overeem himself claimed at the hearing and in a press release his camp put out, that he had voluntarily taken himself out of the title fight for the good of the sport.

“I gave up the title fight because I think my position (wasn’t) credible,” Overeem said at the hearing. “Believe me when I tell you the title fight is my dream. This was going to be the crowning of my career. I’m giving it up to take a couple steps back and prove that I’m a clean fighter.”

Instead, Overeem said that on 1/12, he went to Dr. Hector Molina of Colleyville, TX, a doctor recommended to him by former UFC fighter Tra Telligman. Overeem said he met Molina first at a Strikeforce show in Dallas in June where he defeated Fabricio Werdum, and came into the fight with a broken toe and a painful rib injury.

In January, he said he was looking for medication to speed up healing of a rib cartilage injury he had been bothered by for months and had aggravated in his win over Brock Lesnar. He said Molina injected him with medication that, unbeknownst to him at the time, contained a small amount of water-based testosterone along with anti-inflammatory drugs. The claim from Chesnoff was that the small amount of testosterone was used for healing, not performance enhancement. He continually made the argument the shot flared up the T/E ratio so greatly because of a synergistic effect of several other drugs the vial contained. The problem with this argument is you can take small amounts of testosterone and you would still easily fall within the 6-1 allowable limit, and those small amounts are enough to enhance performance. Taking essentially double that amount you simply can’t reasonably argue was only for healing and not enough for performance enhancement. Chesnoff also said that Overeem’s rib injury came because he was entertaining spectators through his performances as a fighter.

Molina gave Overeem a vial for two additional doses he could inject himself. Overeem claimed he had not injected himself for some time, but had shortly before getting tested called the doctor because his ribs still hadn’t healed and was instructed to take a second shot, that he administered to himself on 3/23, four days before he was tested. However, since he was unaware the vial contained testosterone, he never reported it to anyone before taking the test, which you would have to do under Nevada regulations as coming up with supplements or medications that you used causing a test after it came out positive is not supposed to be allowed as a viable excuse.

Molina, a plastic surgeon, ringside physician, staff member of a performance enhancement clinic (sexual performance not sports performance although usage of testosterone replacement therapy is part of their game) and general practitioner by trade, has quite the track record of his own. He was fined $25,000 and was given a three year restriction on what types of medicine he could practice, because he was prescribing controlled substances to patients over the Internet without establishing a proper doctor-patient relationship in 2003. Among the drugs he was prescribing were morphine, anabolic steroids, codeine, methadone and Vicodin. He also had a 2010 arrest for assault causing bodily injury in a domestic violence case and a 1998 felony theft charge.

Molina was grilled by the commissioners, as he never directly answered whether he ever told Overeem that testosterone was in the vial, when the commission questioned his work for administering a shot that contained testosterone to an athlete without telling him. He at one point said he thought when listing the ingredients did mention water based testosterone but had used a clinical name for the drug. Molina claimed that the testosterone, when mixed with the other drugs, would speed up Overeem’s healing process. Overeem, however, denied he was ever told testosterone was one of the substances. Molina claimed the amount of testosterone in the mix was so small it would not have given him a performance edge. So we’re supposed to believe it was large enough to aid in healing a nagging injury but not large enough to aid his training.

While not impossible at all, it is still suspicious that an athlete who was living in Holland and training in Las Vegas and Boca Raton, FL, would go to a Texas doctor for fast healing for a rib injury. While the two met when Molina served as an athletic commission doctor for his fight with Fabricio Werdum in Dallas last year. The Texas commission having someone with that background including prescribing steroids to people over the Internet as one of their doctors speaks volumes. It’s also suspicious that any athlete would mistakenly inject something that contained steroids without their knowledge.

Raymond “Skip” Avensino, the chairman of the commission, said that he has “no reason to think (Overeem) juices himself with steroids,” but said that he is still responsible for what goes into his body and they have to hold up the results of their test. That statement is almost appalling in and of itself. I understand the legal issues here, but I really believe you couldn’t find any reasonable person following this story who wouldn’t roll their eyes at a post by a random 15-year-old hero worshiper on the Internet that would make a statement like that, let alone the chairman of the country’s leading athletic commission. Avensino said the argument as far as not giving him a license wasn’t whether the motive was healing an injury or not, or whether he knew what he was using or not, but that there was an illegal substance in his body.

Chesnoff argued that Overeem should get a conditional license, and that he would agree to take steroid tests at his own expense every few weeks, and to not fight until after 8/31 (essentially nine months between fights) if he was given a license.

Earlier, he had asked for a continuance of the case to another hearing in 45-to-60 days so he could gather more evidence. The commission voted against that, stating that they wanted to get the case over with due to all the spotlight on it, and that he should present his case. Lundvall said it would be in his best interest not to delay the case. She said if they delayed it until June, and he wasn’t licensed at that hearing, it wouldn’t be until June 2013 that he could reapply.

Between the doctor’s poor performance and Overeem’s string of behavior that could be described as suspicious at best surrounding the testing procedure, and his already only being granted a conditional license for Lesnar, one has to question granting him any leniency.

The decision was heavily criticized in the media across the board, particularly by those who actually watched the proceedings.

Kevin Iole of Yahoo! Sports wrote that Governor Brian Sandoval should fire the members of the commission who voted to allow Overeem to apply for a license early, saying that would send a message that at least at the state level, Nevada officials are serious about sending a message regarding performance enhancing drugs and fighter safety. An Observer poll saw 37% believe not only should Overeem not have been licensed, but due to everything that has gone down, he should not have been granted a license if he applied for it next year at this time. Another 36% felt the normal one year before having the opportunity to apply for a license was sufficient. 24% felt the ruling was fair and 3% agreed with Chesnoff, that Overeem should have been granted a license with the provisions that he wouldn’t fight again until the fall.

Iole said the only reason the commission would break its own rules to allow him to apply early is money, since the commission gets a percentage of the gate and Overeem is a drawing card, and the deadline would in theory open the door for him to fight on the 12/29 show in Las Vegas.

While usually UFC stands behind fighters, or at worst, stays neutral, about these proceedings, Dana White, who had bitten his tongue in public but made it clear he was furious about the whole situation, spoke to Dave Doyle when he got back from Brazil.

“I’ll tell you what, if he didn’t like being tested before, wait until he sees what his life is like now,” said White. “He’s going to be tested all the time.”

On Saturday, White seemed more open than any time in the past about increased drug testing of his fighters. In the past, White, who still praised the commission testing, said that while UFC would never test fighters, the idea of them giving a contract to a group like WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency, which does the testing of U.S. Olympic team athletes) to test his fighters the way Olympic athletes are was not out of the question, bringing up going with WADA himself.

Overeem had told White last year that he was not taking anything, and when he got popped, White made that public saying he believed Overeem had lied to his face.

“If you are taking anything, at all, you tell the commission. If you are taking too many aspirin a day, tell the commission I’m taking nine aspirin a day because my neck hurts. I’m on TRT. Whatever.”

“You don’t say it after you got tested for elevated testosterone levels. Period.”

“We’ll wait and see what happens. I’m just pissed off that he lied to us. I am not an Alistair Overeem fan at all.”

Toward the end of the hearing, there was actually talk by the commissioners about looking forward to possibly seeing him fight on that show, since he would be able to apply for a license a few days before that by commissioner Francisco Aguilar.

That would be a touch-and-go situation because UFC would have to advertise him for a good two months before he could even apply for a license, which he couldn’t get until the last minute. Kizer, when asked, said that it wasn’t impossible they could hold a special meeting, but conceded it would be difficult. Overeem would have to pass a drug test to be licensed, but since he would know well in advance the date of his hearing, that shouldn’t be much of an issue. UFC may opt to avoid controversy and hold him off until the Super Bowl weekend show.

“Nine months is pretty severe,” said Kizer regarding media criticism the sentence was too lenient. “Talking about the fight (at the end of the year) was just a way to cushion the blow. If the guy wants to fight, so be it, it was basically softening the blow, you’re out until then, bye, see you on the 30th (actually 29th).”

With Overeem off the card, this created a domino effect on the main card of UFC 146, an all-heavyweight main show on 5/26 in Las Vegas.

As expected, Frank Mir was given the championship shot at Dos Santos. When it came to public interest, it appeared that Mir and Cain Velasquez had the most support for the shot, although there was an Internet cult following for Mark Hunt. But even though the general feeling is Velasquez would have the better chance at winning, Mir’s three wins in a row trumps Velasquez coming off the first round knockout loss to Dos Santos. Realistically, Mir was the only choice. A case could be made for Fabricio Werdum. Werdum lost to Overeem two fights back, but submitted Fedor Emelianenko in one minute and destroyed Roy Nelson in a stronger fashion than Mir’s win over Nelson. However, of all the viable candidates for the shot, Werdum would have had the least general public interest. In addition, Werdum was scheduled for the Brazil show that they are still trying to save and with Brazil losing its main event, they didn’t want to also pull him from that show.

Dos Santos goes into the fight as a heavy favorite. Mir, like any heavyweight with power, has a punchers chance, and if he gets the fight to the ground and can keep it there, he has a very good chance. But Dos Santos has strong takedown defense, and Mir’s takedowns are not that special. Dos Santos figures to have far more speed standing and better conditioning.

There is a back story, starting with Mir having two wins, as well as tearing out the shoulder of Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, who is Dos Santos’ mentor. There was also an incident at a presentation of the video game by THQ where Dos Santos and Mir were supposed to stand side-by-side and play each other, as themselves, in the game, and Dos Santos didn’t want to be on the same stage as Mir due to what Mir did to Nogueira, which Mir took as a lack of respect.

Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva, who was to face Nelson, was moved up to face Velasquez. Silva is coming off a loss to Daniel Cormier. The hope from the Velasquez camp is that he could face someone, Mir being the perfect opponent, that if he won, would be a strong enough win to get the next title shot. I’m not sure if Silva fits that bill. It’s trying to make the best of a bad situation, because if Silva should win, I don’t see that he could get a title shot right away. So you can make a top contender but only with the right person winning, while Mir vs. Velasquez was that perfect booker fight where everything comes up roses no matter who wins unless they stink out the joint.

Gabriel Gonzaga, who was to face Shane Del Rosario, was moved up to face Nelson. Del Rosario (11–0) now faces Stipe Miocic (8-0) in a battle of men with spotless records. Del Rosario is a good kickboxer with submissions, but won’t have fought in 15 months since what was at one point feared to have been a career ending injury due to being rear-ended by a drunk driver in June, which resulted in a herniated disc in the lower back. Miocic is a good wrestler with a boxing background.

The final heavyweight showdown is the visually interesting Hunt, at 5-10 and usually around 260 pounds, facing 6-11 Stefan Struve. However, even with the reach difference, Struve’s best bet is a submission on the ground. Trading with Hunt standing is dangerous for any fighter because Hunt has knockout power and a strong chin, while Struve does crumble when he takes a big shot.

Removing Overeem from the show makes it weaker. Overeem added an intrigue factor to the main event, which promised to be a likely first or second round knockout by strikes that was anybody’s game. With Mir, while he stands a chance, it’s not a very good one. Plus, Mir, with his ability to promote a fight, in a semifinal with Velasquez with a title shot at stake is far more marketable than Velasquez vs. Silva. It is not believed they will advertise this match with the winner getting a title shot because of Silva. However, company officials are hopeful of doing close to the numbers of UFC 145, because of the gimmick of an all-heavyweight night, plus while this show’s main event isn’t as strong as 145, the overall depth to casual fans of the main card is far more intriguing.

The Culinary Workers Union Local 228, which has distributed anti-UFC material to reporters and sponsors of its programming, and in the past has picketed its company offices, has led to UFC’s leading sponsor, Anheuser-Busch, to send a warning to the company on 4/25.

“We’ve communicated to the UFC our displeasure with certain remarks made my some of its fighters and they have promised to address this. If the incidents continue, we will act,” said Anheuser-Busch in a public statement. In the statement, Anheuser-Busch said that if “embraces diversity and does not condone insensitivity and derogatory comments opted in ethnicity, race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability.”

UFC responded by stating, “With over 425 athletes on our roster, there have unfortunately been instances where a couple of athletes have made insensitive or inappropriate comments. We don’t condone this behavior, and in no way is it reflective of the company or its values.”

In addition, UFC is going to mandate its fighters attending sensitivity training classes as well as in the near future bring all fighters together for a seminar on the proper usage of social media. Well, the latter was something, like expanded drug testing, that was inevitable because the screw-ups were going to mess up so bad there was going to be a reaction on both issues that would embarrass the company and lead to issues with sponsors, and anyone with any foresight could have seen both issues coming like bright headlights.

The Culinary Workers Union Local 228 is generally considered the major reason that the bill to legalize MMA in the state of New York has never gotten out of the assembly. The union’s problems with UFC really stem from the Fertitta Brothers Station Casinos being non-union, and as part of a longstanding feud with the family, have been aggressive in trying to get sponsors to pull out of the UFC, keeping it out of New York, and attempting to get the FOX network to pull out of its seven-year-contract.

Among the remarks in question that UFC has been warned about was the rape joke Forrest Griffin made on Twitter; Rampage Jackson’s talking about motor boating announcer Karyn Bryant; Jackson urging a Japanese speaking to fan to say in English, “I’m a fag;” Michael Bisping’s inadvertent usage of that word during a post-fight press conference; Joe Rogan using the C word in an Internet tirade against female reporter Maggie Hendricks (spurred on by Hendricks writing a negative column about Jackson’s behavior toward Bryant); Dana White’s tirade against reporter Loretta Hunt calling her a “fucking dumb bitch” and calling an unnamed source in an article she wrote “a pussy and a fucking faggot;” and the Rashad Evans quote regarding former Penn State wrestler Phil Davis, saying , “I’m going to put those hands on you worse than that dude did to them kids at Penn State.”

Griffin quickly apologized for his joke. White also quickly apologized for usage of the word “faggot” but made it clear he would not apologize to Hunt. Rogan did not apologize directly to Hendricks although the UFC did very quickly and Rogan was spoken to about it. Evans also quickly apologized.

UFC noted that it encourages its athletes to embrace social media and with that, it can lead to problems.

They told Advertising Age, which covered the story of Anheuser-Busch’s warning to UFC by saying, “It (encouraging fighters to go on Twitter) is part of our company culture, and whenever you are at the forefront of a trend or initiative, it comes with its own pitfalls. We will continue to embrace social medai while looking for better ways to stay in front of the issues.”

This recent situation also led to the pressure group Alcohol Justice to go after Anheuser-Busch for a Facebook and YouTube commercial showing UFC ring card girl Arianny Celeste laying on her back in a bed of balls like children would play in, with the balls covering her breasts and vaginal area. The group also pressured Anheuser-Busch on its affiliation with UFC, saying that as sponsors, the company was responsible for “delivering harmful content to millions of underage youth. And at the center of the stage is the ever present Bud Light logo.”

Busch said that it only sponsors television shows where at last 71.6% of the audience is over the age of 21. UFC television shows have fairly small viewership under the age of 18, with most coming between the ages of 21 and 40.

Marcus “Buff” Bagwell, 42, was at last report in intensive care and being kept heavily sedated at WellStar Kennestone Hospital with two broken bones in his neck, and there is at least the possible fear of paralysis after a car wreck according to various reports with not a lot of detail. The accident took place on 4/23 in Cherokee County, GA, where Bagwell’s jeep flipped eight or nine times after he crossed over a meridian in the road. Bagwell had to be transported to the hospital. The police report noted that shortly before the accident, Bagwell had called his wife on the phone and told her that he was about to have a seizure. Besides the serious neck injury, Bagwell was left with broken bones in his face and a broken jaw. It was said that he is going to need his jaw wired shut for at least six months. Bagwell had suffered a severe neck injury, spinal shock syndrome, on a live match on Thunder in 1998 which nearly ended his career and caused him to have pain killer issues for years. The injury came on a botched bulldog off the top rope by Rick Steiner, and it damaged his neck vertebrae.

The U.S. Olympic team trials took place over the weekend in Iowa City, and the 2012 team will feature a generally inexperienced crew without a lot of big names. The three biggest names talked about going into the trials, Rulon Gardner, Kurt Angle and Cael Sanderson, all didn’t compete. Sanderson never said he would, but officially pulled out a week before. Angle did his deal. Gardner, who reports were was training his ass off but having major weight problems, still being around 320 pounds not that long ago and having to get to 264, cut down and his body gave out at what he claimed was 269 pounds and he couldn’t make weight. It was an attendance mark as the four sessions drew 54,766 fans, with 13,712 at the finals, destroying all previous records. The only major MMA name who competed was Joe Warren at 132 pounds in Greco-Roman. Warren won his first match but lost handily to top seed Joe Betterman (3-0, 7-0) . Betterman lost to Ellis Coleman in the finals. No way Warren could have been anywhere close to 100% after the beating he took five weeks ago when he lost his Bellator featherweight title to Pat Curran in a match where the official stopped it ridiculously late, causing Warren to take far more of a beating than he ever should have. There was a “Yes, yes, yes” chant that broke out during the finals. Only two men off the 2008 team, both Greco wrestlers (121 pound Spenser Mango and 264 pound Dremiel Byers) are back. Henry Cejudo, who at the age of 21 in 2008, was a surprise gold medalist at 121 pounds in freestyle, lost to Nick Simmons in the semifinals and announced his retirement. Cejudo may try MMA since a few years back he was in negotiations to fight Kid Yamamoto on a Japanese New Year’s Eve show but it fell through since Yamamoto didn’t recover in time from an injury. The star U.S. wrestler this summer could be Jordan Burroughs at 163 pounds, who won two NCAA titles at Nebraska.

Nick Diaz ended up not having his hearing on 4/24. Nevada Deputy Attorney General Christopher Eccles noting to Diaz’s lawyer, Ross Goodman, that Goodman had claimed Diaz had a medical marijuana card in California. However, Goodman was supposed to produce the card before the hearing and that Eccles said he’s been waiting a month and still hasn’t seen the card. He’s now issued a direct request for producing the care and other information. Goodman has somewhat changed the story, now saying he will produce a letter from Dr. Robert Sullivan saying he recommended use. Diaz had claimed a card dating back years when the California commission wouldn’t let him fight because he listed marijuana on a pre-fight questionnaire about drugs he was using at the time marijuana was on the banned list for fighters in California. Diaz’s defense was that the had a card, but the CSAC ruled that there are a list of drugs banned for fighters and that having a prescription for those drugs may mean you can use them legally, but not if you are going to be approved to fight. Goodman is now backtracking on the card issue, saying that California regulations clearly say an ID card for marijuana is only voluntary and said it’s outrageous that the hearing has been delayed since they have a letter from a doctor.

Bellator middleweight champion Hector Lombard announced on 4/24 that he had signed with UFC. This had been expected ever since Bjorn Rebney a few weeks ago outright talked about what Bellator would do to create a new champion if Lombard left. One person noted to us that they were able to find a bio for Lombard was hidden on the UFC web site to where it couldn’t be accessed by the public yet, which meant either he was signed or they had a good feeling he would be. Rebney had already openly talked about the idea that Alexander Shlemenko could face the winner of the current tournament for the vacant title if Lombard signed. Lombard, and none of the Bellator champions, have a champions clause in their contract like UFC has. But there is a clause where they have the right to match existing offers. Lombard, 34, is a Cuban who was a member of the 2000 Olympic team in judo. He started fighting a few years later and is known for aggressively coming out and overwhelming opponents with his knockout power, and has his base from judo where he’s hard to take down. He’s 31-2-1, and hasn’t lost since a decision to Gegard Mousasi in 2006, going 24-0-1 since that fight. He was scheduled to start in UFC in 2007, but had visa issues that caused the deal to fall apart. He went to Bellator where he’s been dominant, going 8-0 with seven knockouts, four in the first round. He won the middleweight title in 2009 and kept it ever since. If there is a weakness, when he comes out so strong, he does seem to get tired in longer fights and UFC has a better crop of fighters who more likely survive the fast onslaught, so I can see him having a lot more trouble. In Bellator, as far as where he stood, he had gone as far as he could since almost all the top middleweights are in UFC and he hasn’t been tested by top level competition in years. Rebney said not matching the UFC offer was a business decision based on looking at the data. Bellator could have held him longer based on the contract, but Rebney said when they saw the UFC offer, they decided not to match it and let him go immediately.

Aaron Riley pulled out of the 5/15 show in Fairfax, VA, for reasons not disclosed. Riley’s scheduled opponent, Cody McKenzie, will face the debuting Marcus LeVesseur, 29, who was something of a wrestling legend in his high school days in the Minneapolis area. LeVesseur won his last 141 matches in high school, winning four state titles from 1998-2001 and even beat Ben Askren when both were high schoolers. He was listed as the No. 2 recruit in all weight classes coming out of high school that year. He went to the University of Minnesota where he went 10-0 as a freshman, but because they had seniors who were top wrestlers at 157 and 165, he was not going to wrestle varsity as a true freshman. He transferred to Augsburg College, a Division III powerhouse and went 145-0 in four years, winning national titles in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2007. He’s now 21-5 in MMA with ten knockout and seven submissions.

Fedor Emelianenko’s opponent on 6/21 in St. Petersburg, Russia will be Pedro Rizzo, who was one of UFC’s top stars when the Fertittas purchased the promotion from SEG in 2001. In fact, the company believed Rizzo was going to be its heavyweight champion and he was signed to the highest paid contract in the promotion. Rizzo, who turns 38 in two weeks, hasn’t fought in almost two years, since beating Ken Shamrock. The last time he fought a top level opponent, Josh Barnett, who beat him, was in 2008. With Mirko Cro Cop now on the outside, it wouldn’t surprise me to see them make a rematch of one of the biggest fights in MMA history when those two battled for the Pride heavyweight title in 2005, although if Fedor should lose that fight it would kill his stock.

We got a ton of feedback on the death of Junior Seau, the former superstar with the San Diego Chargers who committed suicide on 5/2 at the age of 43. There was a lot of early speculation regarding concussions. Seau on the day before he killed himself played a round of golf with Bill Goldberg.

Scott Hall made news again this past week when the person who loaned him $75,000 so he could buy his home sued him for defaulting on the loan. The loan came with a balloon payment due in December. Hall missed the payment, has refused to pay it, and has moved out so the home is vacant. He’s being sued so that they can foreclose on the house and sell it. Hall is also being sued for whatever difference there would be between the price it was purchased for and the price it ends up being sold for.

At the Invicta Fighting Championships, an all-womens’ promotion based in Kansas City that debuted on 4/28, Marloes Coenen, after winning her main event, issued a challenge to Ronda Rousey. However, just the fact Coenen has signed a long-term deal with Invicta means that fight has no chance of happening. Miesha Tate was at the show doing an interview and admitted her injuries in the Rousey fight were severe. Tate, who failed to tap to an early armbar, and then tapped way late a second time, said, “I basically tore everything. I tore the inner and outer sides of my ligaments attached to the muscles and bone. They actually pulled the bone off with the ligament and then I tore all the muscles around that. So, it was pretty bad, bu you know for me it wasn’t really that bad. I think that I have the motto that as long as you get up one more time than you fall down, then, you are doing something right. So I’ll be back stronger than ever.” Moral of the story is if you’re in an armbar and it starts hurting, tap immediately and don’t be a hero, because torn ligaments and torn muscles can be a nuisance for the rest of your life and it’s not worth it.

Chandler Jones, the younger brother of Jon, a 6-foot-5, 265 pound defensive end from Syracuse, was the 21st pick in last week’s NFL draft, by the New England Patriots. When he was picked, ESPN went to his home where brothers Jon and Arthur (who has played two seasons as a defensive end with the Baltimore Ravens) were there. On the NFL draft show, they pointed out Jones was the brother of Arthur, but not so much Jon. During the draft, commissioner Roger Goodell, whenever he would pause, would be met with loud “What” chants which made the audience come off really obnoxious. Don’t be surprised to see Arthur (the older brother) and Chandler marketed with Jon as this trio of super athlete brothers, with the idea of pushing them as the male version of the Williams sisters type of thing. The idea of marketing them together is Arthur and Chandler in football can get a name with the idea of the unique role of Jon, and Jon can in return get coverage in the football media because the brothers will be training with him or in his corner if the schedules work out.

Gerald Brisco has been heavily scouting amateur wrestlers. He was at the Olympic trials in Iowa City last week. Right now he’s got two heavyweights he’s really high on. There is a Greco-Roman heavyweight from Turkey who is 6-5, 285 pounds who wants to be in WWE, but the hold-up is that he doesn’t know any English. So they are trying to get him to learn it. He was described as, from the neck down, looking like a prime Bruiser Brody physically. There was also a small school heavyweight in the U.S. they think has a great look.

The story of UFC’s third show on FOX is not that the company finally had a top-notch show, but that they had a genuine XFL caliber ratings disaster.

The 5/5 show did a 1.5 rating and 2,418,000 viewers, peaking at 2.9 million viewers for the Jim Miller vs. Nate Diaz main event. Viewership was down 48% from the 1/28 show, which did a 2.6 rating and 4.7 million viewers. The show did 34% below what COPS was doing this season in the time slot.

Males 18-34 declined from a 3.2 to a 1.6. These are not the kind of numbers that can keep you in prime time. The prelim fights on Fuel did 88,000 viewers, which is barely more than The Miz vs. Santino Marella did the week before on Facebook (although the WWE number was worldwide and Fuel is only a U.S. number in limited homes). The fuel prelims on 1/28 did 144,000 viewers.

Even with the weak card, the UFC brand name alone should have meant something. It was the lowest rating for a network TV MMA show in history, beating the bottom mark set by Elite XC in 2008 for a CBS show headlined by Robbie Lawler vs. Scott Smith that did a 1.75.

There are plenty of excuses to go around, from the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Miguel Cotto fight, to the opening of “The Avengers,” (which did $69.6 million on that night, which is well over 6 million people, a strong percentage in the age group that UFC is going after and ended up doing the biggest opening weekend of all-time), to NHL and NBA playoffs and baseball. And they are all valid to a degree. The one about Cinco de Mayo and people partying is not valid because Cinco de Mayo has historically been a great night for boxing, and in some parts of the country (the ones where it’s a holiday), historically for pro wrestling. And the show was not well marketed. FOX didn’t advertise it as hard as the previous shows. A lot of their advertising on baseball consisted of listing the date and saying “four fights,” not only not mentioning names of the fighters and the matches, but not mentioning UFC or even that it’s MMA, as you could easily have watched it and assumed it was four boxing matches. In addition, with the Mayweather fight, Kentucky Derby and all the other sports news, they got very little mainstream. I did know of fans who told me after that they weren’t even aware there was a show. UFC promoted the hell out of it through social media, and on its various Fuel properties, and it was just the latest example of how little in the big picture both mean today as far as garnering results.

The question becomes was this a one-time fluke, with all this competition, or was it due to simply presenting a lineup people weren’t interested in? Or is it something worse, a question that can’t be answered until 8/4, and that is whether MMA on network TV is a novelty with a short shelf life, just like Celebrity Boxing, which did huge ratings the first time out, but only lasted a few shows with ratings declining each time out.

The boxing is not an excuse, only because Manny Pacquiao fought Juan Manuel Marquez and did 1.41 million buys on PPV the same night as Cain Velasquez vs. Junior Dos Santos became, by far, the most-watched MMA fight ever in U.S. television, with the fight itself doing 9.5 million viewers between FOX and Fox Deportes.

Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer was saying after the Mayweather vs. Cotto fight that he believed the show would be about 2 million buys (keep in mind boxing promoters, like MMA promoters, say a lot of things, but the numbers are expected to be the biggest for any PPV since 2007 because of Mayweather, the date, and the ethnic mix of Cotto for Puerto Ricans and Canelo Alvarez for Mexicans). He said advanced orders for the show were the biggest for any Golden Boy fight in history except Mayweather vs. Oscar De La Hoya in 2007, and in some markets the advance orders were right there with it. Even if the real number is a little less, the 11/12 example would indicate that could be a positive. Dana White was promoting the idea of getting together with your buddies, watch free fights on FOX and then buy the PPV. While the PPV started at 9 p.m., the FOX show had an hour to itself. Plus there are DVRs, and the FOX fights ended well before the Alvarez vs. Shane Mosley fight, the other money fight on the boxing show, even started. I could easily see Fuel being down since there’s only so much fighting you can watch in one day, and believe me, I felt that first-hand.

If it was just an unfortunate series of circumstances, it’s no big deal. One rating isn’t going to break a seven-year contract that is still in its infancy. But the contact has had a lot of growing pains for both sides. No matter what is said publicly, FOX didn’t pay the money it did for the ratings it’s getting. And UFC can’t be happy that less people are watching the product than on Spike. The idea was being on FOX would create hundreds of thousands of new PPV purchasers for big events, rather than struggling to keep the fan base they already had.

If this is part of a pattern, it is a big deal. As it is, this was the single most significant television ratings for any pro wrestling or MMA event since Shamrock vs. Ortiz changed the way the television industry viewed UFC.

If the issue is that UFC has burned out its audience with too much product, and this is just an example of this, along with the TUF ratings, then it’s disastrous. The reason is, overexposure is a killer that it takes a long time to recover from, if you can. More so, overexposure, ie, burning out the audience, by the time you’ve figured out you’ve done it, the damage was done months or even years earlier. In network television, a show that goes from 3.1 to 2.6 to 1.5 in the ratings in three episodes has already had its future decided in the form of a guillotine choke. The only question is if it puts you out of your misery right away, or you are stuck there for a while before suffering the same ending fate. UFC is still being called on to build Fuel TV, but we’ve already seen the WWE version of Saturday night wrestling that doesn’t draw ratings and where that goes.

If that’s part of this issue, and it is at least part of it, this dates back to 2010 when the base television ratings of UFC on Spike started falling.

MMA has been around in Brazil since the 1930s, and gone through three booms, and it had a boom in Japan, and the end result is that in all cases, it never sustained. Now, there was never a UFC caliber organization and MMA is established at a certain level where it’s probably going to be around in some form for a long time. But Japanese MMA was viewed by far more people on television than ever viewed UFC or ever will, with some fights drawing upwards of 30 million viewers. And it still died a few years later. And while you can point to the Yakuza issues and they were the ones that killed it, the fact was, the audience was dwindling rapidly, and that is not what killed K-1, which is also dead in Japan.

It’s likely to wind up similar to boxing, where rank-and-file shows don’t mean anything, but big shows with the two or three major superstars can set records on PPV. But boxing has certain edges, including an appeal to those over 40 who didn’t grow up with MMA. It’s got a history, and the fact to people in the media a big boxing star is a sports superstar and a big boxing event is important. UFC is still considered a novelty to a lot of decision makers, although UFC fights are inherently more entertaining. But the entertainment value of a sport means nothing. It’s the importance people perceive it as having that means everything.

It’s been successful for long enough that it’s not a fad, but boxing isn’t a fad either and if you put a secondary show on FOX on Saturday night, it’s not going to last, That’s why boxing hasn’t been on network TV in prime time in eons.

To me, the 8/4 show at the Staples Center in Los Angeles becomes the single most important event in UFC history. Another rating like that and it will give UFC the reputation that it’s fine as a cable property, but it’s simply not mainstream and can’t survive in the expensive real estate section of network prime.

At this point, it appears the four fights will be Brian Stann vs. Hector Lombard in a five-round main event, likely with the winner promised a shot at the middleweight title; Lyoto Machida vs. Ryan Bader; Ben Rothwell vs. Travis Browne and perhaps Terry Etim vs. Joe Lauzon (that is on the card but not a definite for the FOX show).

In comparing, while Machida was a big deal for a short period of time, so was Josh Koscheck, who was on the 5/5 show. Stann is very popular, more so than Nate Diaz. Nobody knows Hector Lombard, the Bellator champion, but he’s still more marketable than Jim Miller. They are counting on Stann’s back story of being a war hero, and the fact he is such a great talker, one of the best in UFC, that he can get booked on mainstream talk shows, that Diaz and Miller couldn’t get on. But it’s not that much better of a lineup. And while Stann is popular among UFC fans, he’s not seen as a top tier superstar and has been around for years, and never on his own, whether it be in WEC or UFC, proven to be a draw. And UFC isn’t loaded with big-time marketable match-ups to add that will make a difference that are available in August.

UFC has gone from a heavily promoted Velasquez vs. Dos Santos fight, which would have been closer to a 4 rating had the main event not gone one minute; to Rashad Evans, Chael Sonnen and Michael Bisping doing an acceptable number and really the perfect card from a booking standpoint as you had two fights where the winners were given exposure to set them up to do big buy rates later in the year. However it was also a risk and both big fights could have been destroyed which would have financially cost the company nearly $20 million. Act III was great action matches that people didn’t watch. That is a terrible pattern. The 8/4 show will tell whether it’s just they put a series of matches people didn’t want to see on television, or it’s a pattern. The latter means the dilution of the value of the UFC name brand has already been done.

We did a poll, asking people who saw the previous shows and skipped this one as to why. There were a lot of different reasons, none overwhelming. Having no singular reason is bad, because that means there is no easy fix.

23% said they have lost interest in UFC because there are too many shows to keep up with. That’s people who were watching it just a few months ago and that is a very bad stat when that many make that call in a short period of time. 15% went to see “The Avengers.” 11% had friends of family activities that kept them from watching or they would have considered it. 9% skipped it because of what was on the card, a lower number than one would have expected. If anything, if I’m UFC, I want that number 90%, because that tells me I can get them back with a better card. Another 9% said they pick and choose UFC shows now and this didn’t make the cut, even though it was free. 8% said they lost interest in UFC due to the retirement of Brock Lesnar. 8% said they skipped it to watch the Mayweather fight. 7% said they would now only watch big fights, 5% said they were watching sports other than boxing that night. 3% blamed the weather. Only 2% said that they watched preview shows for the card and they didn’t get interested. Virtually nobody (0.2%) said they skipped the show because none of their friends wanted to see it.

With all this negativity, it was actually a very good show, and it looked to be that on paper. It’s well known that people pay to see stars fight, not see great fights. But it’s always better to have a good show than a bad one.

The main story of the show is that Miller, who had never been finished in his career, had no answer for Diaz. Diaz was able to avoid Miller’s takedowns, the key to the fight, and overwhelmed him with his fast hands and reach. Diaz finished Miller in the second round with a guillotine choke as Miller got desperate on a takedown attempt to earn himself a lightweight title fight.

At this point, Diaz is scheduled to face the winner of a Benson Henderson vs. Frankie Edgar title match, which Dana White announced officially this week would be taking place on 8/11 in Denver. Edgar had wanted to get his nose, which had been broken frequently, fixed, which would have forced the fight to be moved to September. Either way, that would mean Diaz, who said he wants to take a break and doesn’t want to fight until his title shot, being on the sidelines probably until December at the earliest. Anthony Pettis was originally going to face Henderson until Edgar outworked him in getting the title shot (there is an interesting back story as Pettis was first going to get the shot, but Edgar made a public plea saying he gave people rematches of close fights so he deserved a rematch that people bought; Pettis was warned that he needed to stand up for himself and go on the offensive, but instead went on a vacation and didn’t publicly campaign for the shot and thus lost it). Pettis is now trying to goad Diaz into a No. 1 contenders match with him.

Johny Hendricks also earned a welterweight title shot with a close win over Koscheck via split decision. The fight saw Hendricks win the second round and Koscheck the third, so it all came down to a razor-thin first round, that could have gone either way. Koscheck in losing looked far sharper than he did in beating Mike Pierce via close decision in his last outing. However, as close as I thought it was, the reaction was 61% for Hendricks, 28% for Koscheck and 11% had it even.

With Georges St. Pierre scheduled for November, most likely against Carlos Condit, Hendricks talked about taking time off because he wants to spend more time with his family. In other words, he wants to take a break and wait out his title shot as opposed to fighting again and risking it. If GSP beats Condit, I doubt he’d want to fight again until May of next year, so that’s a long wait. Plus, Hendricks in sitting out risks the big money potential of GSP vs. Nick Diaz, doesn’t trump him. And if Diaz’s suspension ends soon and he comes back and wins a fight, it is very likely Diaz will get the shot because UFC is in business of giving people the fights they want to see. GSP vs. Diaz is near the top of that list, and GSP vs. Hendricks is not. So Hendricks may have to wait until the end of 2013 for that shot.

The show drew 10,788 (about 9,000 paid) paying $1.1 million at the Izod Center in East Rutherford, NJ. It was far from a sellout, but this was the New York market and the New York market isn’t selling out for anything less than a top level card.

Bonuses for the night, which were $65,000, went to Diaz for best submission, Lavar Johnson for best knockout in his win over Pat Barry and for Louis Gaudinot vs. John Lineker for best fight. That was a tough call as Diaz vs. Miller, Roland Delorme vs. Nick Denis, Johnson vs. Barry and Alan Belcher vs. Rousimar Palhares all had to be contenders.

One thing that also needs to be mentioned is Joe Rogan was awesome on commentary during the FOX fights. You have to, at least in theory, call FOX different from PPV with the idea you have newer fans watching. In practice, you probably didn’t. But Rogan hit both bases, explaining moves while not dumbing down, and in particular did the best work of his career while Rousimar Palhares and Alan Belcher were trying different things on the ground. The show also did a very good job of promoting the Junior Dos Santos vs. Frank Mir fight, with strong commercials and video packages, and those were viewed by several million.

Charges were dropped against Scott Hall in the 4/6 allegations of him grabbing his girlfriend by the throat while drunk and pulling her out of the car. Authorities decided against going forward with charges because his girlfriend refused to press charges.

Former HWA independent wrestler Andre Davis, 29, pleaded guilty on 5/4 to attempted felonious assault, a plea bargain from felonious assault, and faces another three years in prison. Davis was already sentenced to 32 years in prison for similar charges of having unprotected sex with 11 women that had come forward in Hamilton County in Ohio without telling them he was HIV positive. The new charge came from a different woman in Butler County and he’ll be sentenced on that charge on 6/6. He’s still facing nine more counts in Warren County.

Quebec promotion ToW ran at the Pierre-Charbonneau Center in Montreal on 5/5 for a show that honored the late Dino Bravo, who was shot to death in 1993. Jimmy Hart came in for the show and talked about him. Bravo’s daughter, Claudio Bresciano (Bravo’s real name was Adolpho Bresciano), 25, spoke about her father, who was gunned down in their home gangland style when she was only six.

Nicholas Busick, the son of former pro wrestler/powerlifter Nick Busick, and a former college football player at West Virginia University, was sentenced to five years probation and 250 hours of community service on a guilty plea of two counts of assault during the commission of a felony. He was ordered to also pay $1,500 restitution to victims and all court costs. He was also ordered to have no contact with any drugs or alcohol, cannot be with people using drugs or alcohol and cannot be with any convicted felons, as well as continue his Alcoholics Anonymous program. Prosecutors had asked for him to server 4-20 years in jail but Busick had a number of character witnesses, including a number of his teammates, and the judge believed since he had a clean record before the incident, to not sentence him to time. Busick was accused of two robberies. He was accused of attacking a man and stealing his wallet and iPhone, and in a second alleged robbery, police said he pointed a gun at people inside an apartment, demanded money and pistol whipped one of the men. He was arrested and his parents bailed him out by posting $25,000 bond. Busick was expected to at least compete for a starting linebacker position in 2011 when he was arrested, but coach Dana Holgorsen kicked him off the team immediately.

The Dominick Cruz vs. Urijah Faber bantamweight title match for 7/7 is out the window as Cruz suffered a torn ACL in training on 5/3, which means the injury took place before the Ultimate Fighter episode the next day. But they didn’t know the extent of the injury or that he’d be out of the fight at the time. I don’t think they knew until 5/5. The injury will be a focal point of the 5/11 episode of Ultimate Fighter. Oh well, so much for that three month promotion. The one good thing is historically when TUF coaches were to fight and things got screwed up, like Matt Hughes vs. Matt Serra and Rampage Jackson vs. Rashad Evans, when they did finally have the fight, it ended up being just as big as it would have been when the season was over because it was easy to rekindle the feud on television. Of course, that was with the Countdown shows on Spike and not Fuel. In fact, I think Jackson vs. Evans was stronger when they did it then it would have been had they done it at the end of the season, as the wait made it better. Nothing else has been said but Cruz is expected to undergo surgery and be out for at least nine months. Dana White announced they would be creating an interim bantamweight title and Faber will be fighting for it on the 7/7 show. The opponent wasn’t named. There are two leading candidates for the spot. Michael McDonald (15-1), at 21 years old if he gets the nod would have a chance to become the youngest champion in UFC history. He’s won eight in a row and his only loss came to Cole Escovedo , which he avenged months later, at the age of 18. He’s coming off a first round knockout win over Miguel Torres on 4/21 in Atlanta. The other is Renan Barao (28-1, 1 no contest), 25, whose only loss came in his pro debut at the age of 18, back in 2005, and has a 29 fight unbeaten streak since that time. He hasn’t lost a round in UFC or WEC competition and is coming off a decision win over Scott Jorgensen on 2/4.

I’d go with McDonald if possible. I think the youngest guy ever to challenge for a title is a good storyline, and his last win was over someone with a name and it’s fresh in everyone’s minds on a show that a lot of people saw. If he wins great, he’s an instant new major star. If he loses, that’s great, as Faber gets a title which he desperately needs and it doesn’t hurt McDonald since he can come back in a few years and would probably beat Faber down the line. If McDonald can’t go, Barao, who is scheduled against Ivan Menjivar on the 7/7 show, should get the nod. Barao seems to be the favorite since Faber was on Inside MMA and talked like he expected to be facing Barao. Barao is already on the card, so the training and the time frame won’t be an issue. McDonald didn’t appear to suffer any damage in his 4/21 win over Torres. The thing is, if Faber beats McDonald, he’s likely still going to have to face Barao before Cruz returns. So the odds are Faber vs. Cruz happening two fights down aren’t good, which is too bad with the last few months of promotion. According to White, Cruz will finish out the season coaching.

In the past, when Tito Ortiz was injured and couldn’t fight Chuck Liddell, they sent Ortiz home and brought in Rich Franklin to coach for one week to build up the new fight.

T200 wrote:

Instead, Overeem said that on 1/12, he went to Dr. Hector Molina of Colleyville, TX, a doctor recommended to him by former UFC fighter Tra Telligman.

powerlifter54 wrote:

T200 wrote:

Instead, Overeem said that on 1/12, he went to Dr. Hector Molina of Colleyville, TX, a doctor recommended to him by former UFC fighter Tra Telligman.

http://adambrennan.wordpress.com/2012/0 ... or-molina/


Hmmm...right on the way home from the gym.

On December 31, 2003, in what was the biggest non-boxing combat sports or entertainment television event of the last 30 years, Bob Sapp and Akebono had a kickboxing match at the Nagoya Dome that was viewed by 54 million people in Japan, nearly half the country.

Today, K-1, the promotion that seemed to be an institution in the country, is virtually dead. On 5/7, Tokyo District Court declared Fighting Entertainment Group, the parent company of K-1, bankrupt with debts that those close to the situation believe exceeded $30 million, in a confusing entanglement of who owns what and the future of a brand which has claimed to be back in business with a show on 5/27 in Madrid, Spain, and has talked of running major events in Los Angeles and New York this year, which would sound like a new way to burn money.

Golden Glory, the Holland-based gym and promotion, which had attempted to purchase the rights to the K-1 brand name, claimed it is owed nearly $2 million to both fighters and trainers. The laundry list of fighters owed money is long, and many who should be financially in good shape at 40 are now broke with many in the high six figures of owed purses from recent years.

The bankruptcy was an issue forced on FEG by Golden Glory and Bas Boon, who had attempted to buy the brand name. In an interview with Tadashi Tanaka and Miruhon.net, Emcom acquired the domestic trademark rights and footage owned by Barbizon Company, Ltd for 548 million yen ($6.85 million), a figure that isn’t a whole lot higher than what years ago the networks would pay them for the New Year’s Eve spectaculars.

According to Boon, Fighting Entertainment Group received a loan from Barbizon Company, Ltd. a Tokyo-based real estate developer, using the domestic (as in Japanese market) trademarks and the tape library as collateral. When Golden Glory attempted to buy those rights, Barbizon Company, Ltd. told them they would only allow someone to take over their loan, not purchase the company, because they were afraid of all the creditors coming after them.

Boon said in an interview that his company offered more than Emcom for the K-1 rights, saying he thinks there is suspicious business going on.

“We know there is some very suspicious business going on here, because we actually offered a higher price to Barbizon, that would have put some extra money in the hands of FEG creditors, and to pay all the money up front to buy the loan from them, and instead, Barbizon went with Emcom. (Former owner and founder Kazuyoshi) Ishii’s agent in Tokyo told us that Emcom had offered Ishii an important share in the future K-1 business, so you can draw your own conclusions from this.”

Boon said he’s hopeful the Japanese court will look into all this to protect the creditors, which include a number of the biggest name fighters.

The question is also that since Barbizon’s collateral that Emcom purchased were only the Japanese trademarks to the K-1 name, not overseas, how can they use the K-1 name for shows in the United States and Europe? The other question is if they did have the ability to purchase the loan, with the collateral of the Japanese rights to the name, why aren’t they promoting any events in Japan, the place where the K-1 name is the strongest?

Boon said the international rights had always been held by Rightscom, a Japanese company run by Ishii, which also owes FEG and all the credit money and the international rights to the name, which has been on television around the world for years, are still considered the company’s most valuable asset.

Southern California independent wrestler Chippy Sanchez, best known for working for World Power Wrestling in Anaheim, was convicted on 5/14 of two felony counts involving sex with a 12-year-old girl. Sanchez, real name Matthew Castaneda of Anaheim, 35, was convicted on charges of sodomy of a child and performing a lewd act on a child younger than 14. He was acquitted on two other charges, rape of a child and attempted forcible oral copulation. Castaneda according to testimony met the young girl through Facebook. He then met the girl on February 17, 2010, took her to two amusement parks and then to a motel in Anaheim, and then stole the girl’s bus pass, leaving her stranded at the hotel. The girls’ MySpace profile listed her age as being 19, but according to testimony, when she met Castaneda, she told him she was 16. Castaneda, who was 33 at the time, told the girl he was 21. According to testimony, at the hotel, the girl told Castaneda she had never had sex before and wanted to go home and she testified he forced himself on her and he tried to make her give him oral sex, but she refused. Jurors took two days to come back with a verdict.

Jordan Rogers of Mead High School in the state of Washington was awarded the 2012 Junior Hodge Award for the best high school wrestler in the country. Competing at 182 pounds, he pinned 41 of his 42 opponents in the first round (the other guy was pinned in the third round, when he moved up a weight to face the state champion in Idaho). In the state tournament, his four matches combined lasted 4:15 and he was a 4.0 student. He will be attending Oklahoma State in the fall.

Ashley Fliehr Johnson, Ric Flair’s daughter, is scheduled to start at FCW under a WWE developmental deal, as opposed to OVW with a TNA deal, this summer.

The National Enquirer reported this week that the woman in the sex tape with Hulk Hogan was Heather Clem, the 37-year-old ex-wife of Bubba the Love Sponge. While you can scoff that it’s the Enquirer and for good reason, but for the past few weeks, long before this story came out, the rumors have been everywhere that the women in the tape was Bubba’s ex-wife and that it was in Bubba’s bed where it was filmed. The story noted that Hogan was the best man at their wedding. Bubba and Heather Clem were divorced in February. Those who had viewed the tape said that by the nature of what was being talked about that they believed the tape was several years ago. Hogan claimed it was during a wild spell in his life, after his divorce from Linda and before getting together with current wife Jennifer. He would have to say that anyway, but there was also a period of time Hogan lived with Bubba after Linda kicked him out and it would have fit the time frame Hogan was claiming. In the story, the Enquirer said that both Hogan and attorney David Houston would not confirm the identity of the woman in the video, but did say both knew who it was.

Nick Diaz failed to get an injunction that would throw out his suspension and allow him to fight, but the attempt was not a total loss as Judge Rob Bare ruled the Nevada State Athletic Commission had technically violated state statutes by not giving Diaz a hearing within 45 days. The NSAC had argued that they were waiting for Diaz to give proof of a California medical marijuana card as he had claimed to have, but never produced. The judge ruled that Diaz needed to get an immediate hearing or he would have to intervene. He said the commission failed to produce a written agreement where the Diaz camp agreed to a delay of the hearing so they could produce more evidence. A hearing was then scheduled for 5/21. The Diaz camp considered it a victory since the commission had refused to schedule a hearing until they got the card, creating an impasse since Diaz’s side had not produced a card. Keith Kizer of the commission said that they disagree with the judges ruling, but also proclaimed it as a win noting that the judge ruled that the commission still has jurisdiction over the case. He noted that Diaz’s attorney, Ross Goodman, never denied the commission’s assertion that he had promised to get them proof of the medical marijuana card, or that he originally asked for the delay in the original hearing to get the card. Kizer said that he believed Diaz and/or Cesar Gracie lied to Goodman about having the card. Diaz did not attend the hearing.

The 5/21 commission meeting also includes Chael Sonnen’s request for a testosterone use exemption for his 7/7 bout with Anderson Silva. Sonnen applied for the exemption and underwent both blood and urine testing under the auspices of commission doctors this week. Before the hearing, as he first item on the commission’s agenda, they will discuss with doctors the current policy on testosterone use exemptions and look at ways to improve it, and having doctors testify on the subject.

Josh Thomson suffered a knee injury in training before his fight with Gilbert Melendez on 5/19. This led to a unique twitter exchange as Front Row Brian claimed Thomson suffered a torn PCL and would be out of the fight. Thomson didn’t deny the injury, giving the everyone goes into fights with some injuries line, but insulted him significantly and said he would still be fighting.

Chris Lytle, 37, who retired after his 8/14 win over Dan Hardy in the main event of a show in Milwaukee, failed in his bid to win the Republican nomination for state senate in Indiana. Lytle got 31% of the vote, finishing second in what ended up a three horse race, losing to Mike Crider at 41%.

Yoshihiro Akiyama’s injury that took him out of the 7/21 show in Calgary was a torn ACL, which required surgery, suffered while doing kickboxing training.

The continuing saga of Nick Diaz took its latest turn this weekend when he no-showed an iPPV Jiu Jitsu match with world champion Braulio Estima in Long Beach.

As usual, there are a number of excuses made, and it was generally conceded the event was disorganized, and promoter Renzo Gracie put the blame on himself. According to those on the scene who had talked with Diaz when he got to Long Beach, he had no idea of the schedule and he was learning details of the issues from fans and others not even associated with the event.

Still, this is part of a pattern, which included him no-showing a seminar in New Jersey the past week. Before, the Diaz supporters would always claim that while he may no-show a lot of things, he’s never missed a fight. And while this was technically not a fight, it was a competition and a main event on a show that drew thousands of people.

I’m not exactly sure what can be done. It’s easy to say the UFC should try and get him help because there are issues. And that’s true. They should make that attempt, but would he even be open to it?

According to the play-by-play we received, Nick and Nate Diaz arrived late Thursday night to the Hilton in Long Beach, and after checking in, came down to talk with people. He was at that point 183 pounds for a fight where both men had agreed to get down to 180. He was told that Estima was 189, and was asked if it would be okay for Estima to weigh-in at 185. Diaz got mad when he was told the news and may have quit cutting at the time.

Estima, the next morning, weighed in at 180, not 185. The next day, both Diaz brothers were supposed to sign autographs at the Metal Mulisha booth, the clothing line that sponsors both brothers. They were supposed to be there at 11 a.m. but it’s not clear if they even knew it. Nate arrived at 2 p.m. while Nick never came. Nobody had an explanation at the time as to why. At 7:30 p.m., when the Jiu Jitsu matches were scheduled to begin, there was no sign of Diaz and eventually the announcement was made that he wasn’t there.

Renzo Gracie went on Mauro Ranallo’s MMA Show and took the blame for it.

“I have to be honest, if there’s someone to blame, it’s me,” he said. Even though it was my expo, I had one guy working on it (Nalty Junior) and he was good at organizing it and putting it together. The only thing he’s not good at is dealing with fighters. Junior called Cesar Gracie’s room the night previously at midnight and said Braulio Estima would be ten pounds overweight (it should be noted that Diaz was told this information by fans shortly before that time). You have to understand Nick Diaz was already giving up too much, fighting that caliber of fighter in BJJ (Estima, a world champion, was heavily favored to beat Diaz, since that is his sport). For Nick to take the match, it shows the kind of guts he has. It ended up turning out the way that it did because the guy dealing with the fighters is an amateur, and he didn’t understand the emotions athletes go through.”

Cesar Gracie, Nick’s manager, said that in February when this event was being put on by Renzo Gracie (Cesar’s cousin) that Nick agreed to enter a black belt gi tournament just as competition. He said that Junior, who was the intermediary, asked that Nick do a no gi Supefight because that would bring the event more attention with a specific opponent. Cesar wrote that Nick was not enthusiastic about that idea, but he agreed to do it as long as the opponent wasn’t an MMA fighter, because he didn’t want an MMA fighter using a Jiu Jitsu win over Diaz as a way to promote himself. He said that they agreed he would face someone who strictly competes in Jiu Jitsu.

Cesar Gracie said their camp learned Estima was the opponent in early April, and he said when he heard the name, he thought Estima competed at 200 pounds, but was told he could weight-in as light as 175. Diaz usually fights at 170. Diaz accepted at that point.

Cesar Gracie said he was suspicious because he learned Estima was looking at getting into MMA, and that’s exactly what they were trying to avoid, someone coming into MMA and being marketed as a guy who beat Nick Diaz, even if it was at another sport. Gracie said Junior told him Estima had given up on the idea of ever fighting MMA, saying he talked with Estima, who he said was in his 30s, had a family and didn’t want to live the MMA fighter lifestyle at that point.

Gracie then claimed a week later they found out Estima had joined the Blackzillians, the South Florida gym that includes a number of prominent fighters including Rashad Evans and Alistair Overeem. Gracie claimed that their wishes of not facing someone who was about to go into MMA was violated, but they were still going through with the fight. Diaz also had said he was going to donate his entire purse from the fight to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital. It has been said that after he no-showed the event, Diaz still donated the amount of money that he was to be paid for the event to the hospital.

He said that at 3:20 a.m., he got a text saying that Estima would weigh in at 180 at 10 a.m. the next morning, but by that time, Diaz had left.

Estima was mad about how this was portrayed, claiming that he had been training with the Blackzillians before he accepted the fight so everyone knew he was training MMA, and nobody pulled out of the fight. He said he viewed this as a friendly match, not an MMA match, and he wouldn’t have cared if Diaz showed up off weight, but when asked, he dropped to 180. He said he was asked to weigh-in that night but was in Irvine, CA, and it was late at night, and asked if weigh-ins could be the next morning. He said it was confirmed by midnight having 10 a.m. weigh-ins the next day and he would be on weight.

He said that people saying Nick had already left at 10 a.m. was news to him. He said he spoke to Gracie after 10 a.m., and said one of Cesar’s reps called Nick in his room after 10 a.m. and said Nick was in his room sleeping.

The news this past week of a first-time ever joint agreement under the auspices of Spike TV, where King Mo (Muhammed Lawal, 31) would be promoted as a superstar for the next few years in both Bellator and TNA was announced in a press conference on 5/10.

Lawal, TNA President Dixie Carter and Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney followed later that evening as guests on Spike’s MMA Uncensored show, and the following night Lawal was introduced on Bellator’s TV show from Atlantic City. Lawal did not appear at the TNA tapings this week, but brief interviews with Lawal from the MMA Uncensored studio in New York were cut into Impact commercials hyping the show. They immediately teased an angle between Mo and TNA champion Bobby Roode. Lawal in a promo said that Roode isn’t the “It Factor,” but the “Shit Factor,” (which wasn’t even bleeped, a line sort of stolen from Steve Austin in his feud with Bret Hart in 1997 when he would say he’s not the Hit Man but put an S in front of Hit Man and that’s what I think of him). Later, when Mo was on Uncensored, Roode sent in a tweet challenging him.

During the show, host Craig Carton asked fans to vote on whether Lawal would become world champion in TNA or Bellator first, and he said it would be TNA, since Dixie Carter can just script it to happen. The audience also voted similarly, saying he would win his next world title in TNA.

At the press conference, which also included Kevin Kay of Spike TV, it was asked at least twice about the possibility of Bellator moving to Thursday at 10 p.m. directly after Impact in 2013. Nobody gave any direct answers other than the idea that they talk with Rebney about what would be the best potential time slot for the promotion all the time. Really, I can’t see anything better as they’ll get a lead-in of 1.4 million people, 70% male and while they range in age more than an MMA crowd, it was also the same principle that built UFC in 2005, putting Ultimate Fighter after Raw on Spike.

Plus, a live 10 p.m. show would enable Bellator to more easily run West Coast events that they’ve shied away from because of the idea they’d have to start at 4 p.m. on a Friday afternoon, and MMA is far stronger on the West Coast than anywhere else. Spike used to put Ultimate Fighter before Impact and those in TNA complained it didn’t work (you’d get the big first quarter for Impact and then a big decline, unless you opened with a hot bloody match and those seemed to keep viewers lasting longer) because it made them look bad. But MMA after pro wrestling worked in 2005. That doesn’t necessarily mean it would now because MMA is more established and less people are sampling it.

TNA and Bellator have a lot in common, in the sense they are desperate for things to get attention because they are both in the No. 2 position in sports entertainment businesses where the No. 1 group is the brand name. The key with Bellator is that it is owned by Viacom. While Bellator now has limited popularity, it’s doing 100,000 to 170,000 viewers every Friday night on weaker MTV 2, numbers that have been gradually declining over the past year (the new day hurt, and the fall of 2011 on Saturday nights saw it go against UFC live events and big boxing shows far more frequently than the spring), just being on Spike will increase its viewership greatly. And if Viacom wants to be competitive for talent with UFC, they have the money to do so. But the tournament format is a great hindrance when it comes to building programs and getting older established stars in the mix. A real key thing to watch will be next year when Quinton Jackson claims he’s done with UFC and wants to continue fighting. Jackson has one fight left on his UFC contract and has insisted he is leaving. With getting surgery on one knee, and possibly another, it could be as long as the end of the year or early 2013 before he can fulfill that fight. Jackson and Mo actually have one of those Internet MMA feuds and the two are in the same weight class. However, Jackson was one of UFC’s highest paid fighters, far beyond what anyone in Bellator earns. Lawal earned $95,000 in his last fight, a win over Lorenz Larkin on the 1/7 Strikeforce show in Las Vegas.

There is a real question in this day and age where one company controls such a high percentage of talent, and produces so much product, that if it’s even possible to have a secondary group that can be a factor past being watching it on TV for free. Neither TNA nor Bellator can draw big crowds at the arena. Bellator’s long-term goal is PPV, but no secondary MMA group has ever been able to sustain PPV, and many have had bigger name fighters.

On the surface, this seems like a scary amount of overhype. Lawal right now, if he can make a full comeback after knee problems, would be heavily favored to win the Bellator light heavyweight title in 2013. Rebney stated that Lawal would debut when the promotion moves to Spike in January. One would expect that Lawal would be in the main event of the first Spike show, with the idea this debut fight would have been promoted for weeks on both Impact and Uncensored. Rebney noted that Lawal would be booked no different from anyone else. He will enter an eight-man light heavyweight tournament, meaning he would have to win three fights in three months, before he could get a title shot in the fall of 2013. Christian M’Pumbu, who Lawal would be heavily favored against unless his knee doesn’t recover, is the current champion. Many of Lawal’s prospective tournament opponents will first be doing a tournament between June and August for a shot at M’Pumbu in the winter.

Lawal, as far as MMA credentials and big name wins, is the most decorated fighter on the Bellator roster with the possible exception of Eddie Alvarez. He’d be heavily favored against anyone fighter currently in Bellator’s light heavyweight division. The company’s best light heavyweight may be Travis Wiuff, who beat M’Pumbu in a non-title match. Mo, giving up 40 pounds and fighting as a heavyweight, knocked out Wiuff in 2:11 in his pro debut on September 28, 2008, fighting for the Sengoku organization in Brazil. Wiuff at the time had 65 recorded fights to 0 for Lawal. But his knee, and if he’s dividing his time and thus not devoting full-time to MMA, could narrow that gap. Bellator has no breakout star and winning tournaments or even beating Eddie Alvarez hasn’t created any, so they have to be open to a different approach.

Lawal, now fighting out of San Jose’s American Kickboxing Academy is a former Strikeforce light heavyweight champion, has first round knockout wins over Mark Kerr, Mike Whitehead and Roger Gracie, as well as a decision win over Gegard Mousasi. The latter won him the Strikeforce belt on a CBS prime time broadcast, even though he has less than three years experience at the sport. He would have been in a match this summer to create a new Strikeforce light heavyweight champion (Dan Henderson vacated it when he was moved to UFC) before his positive drug test.

But when it comes to pro wrestling, Lawal has at this point, one weeks worth of training at Ohio Valley Wrestling when it was a WWE developmental group, during a tryout many years ago.

He will be returning to OVW as soon as he’s medically cleared due to more than a dozen knee surgeries this year. However, what Carter wasn’t counting on is that while he can train in Louisville, he would not be allowed to wrestle any matches in the state of Kentucky until 10/7 according to Angela Robertson of the Kentucky Boxing and Wrestling Commission, saying a fighter suspended in MMA would not be approved for a pro wrestling license in the state. This is a further hindrance in him being ready to do matches on Impact or at a TNA level by the fall.

Carter was of the impression that the suspension in MMA would not apply to pro wrestling, and in non-commission wrestling states, like Florida, it wouldn’t. It’s a completely different era but the only precedent on this I can recall was in 1998, when Mike Tyson was suspended by Nevada for biting Evander Holyfield’s ear, and he was signed to WrestleMania, Marc Ratner, who ran the commission, was spoken with by both Tyson’s people and the WWF (which at the time was still regulated in Nevada). As I recall the news at the time, Ratner said that as long as Tyson refereed and didn’t wrestle, it wouldn’t be an issue either for Tyson being able to return, or for WWF. Ratner, who now works for UFC, said he remembered talking with them about it at the time, but not the specifics.

Lawal has full knee reconstruction surgery in February, since he’s been fighting for a few years on a blown ACL. The injury weakened his knees and limited his takedown ability in his lone loss, on April 31, 2010, when Rafael Feijao Cavalcante finished him in the third round in Houston to win the Strikeforce belt. He had his first surgery after the fight and was out 13 months. But the knee was still bothering him. When he was suspended by the Nevada State Athletic Commission for testing positive for the steroid Drostanolone after his 1/7 win over Lorenz Larkin, figuring he was going to have a lengthy suspension anyway, decided to have a second operation in February.

He got a staph infection from the surgery and has had a dozen or so surgeries since. The infection was so bad it was not only feared he would lose his leg, but at one point his life was in jeopardy. The staph only recently cleared and he is still some time away from where he could even begin pro wrestling training. He has no timetable, other than he will be returning to OVW, which is now TNA’s developmental headquarters. He hopes to go sometime this summer.

Carter, who seemed on the surface to not understand how much training in takes to be the kind of a pro wrestler who can live up to the “two-sport superstar” hype, talked about wanting to debut Lawal on Impact in the late summer or fall. The problem is, the working standard for wrestlers in TNA is pretty high and it’s almost unrealistic to believe Lawal could be at that level with a month or two of training, not to mention he still has to cover from major knee surgery.

The back story of all this goes back to last year, when it became clear that UFC was leaving Spike and Bellator would be appearing on the station. Rebney and Carter became friends, and seemed to talk frequently, as Spike and the two companies put together a deal where they would promote each other. When UFC was on Spike, Dana White refused to have anything to do with TNA. He told Spike that he would not have his announcers read any copy promoting TNA during live shows on Spike. The only time he acquiesced to promoting TNA was at the 2009 Ultimate Fighter finals in Las Vegas when Hulk Hogan appeared at a UFC event to promote his debut on Impact. The reaction from White was apparently he’d be willing to allow a major celebrity like Hulk Hogan, Dwayne Johnson, Sylvester Stallone and others at that level promote their projects during UFC broadcasts, and did a favor since it was such a big deal event for Spike. But afterwards, still refused any cross promotion ideas. Carter even mentioned on MMA Uncensored about how he had ideas in the past and the other guy, without mentioning White’s name, wasn’t opened to listening. But from White’s standpoint, there really was no reason. UFC fighter Marcus Davis appearing on Impact was a deal done on his own. Tito Ortiz appearing on Impact was during a period he was on the outs from UFC. TNA did help promote Brock Lesnar’s first fight with Frank Mir, but nothing going forward.

Carter had been wanting the “two-sports superstar” gimmick in the past. In fact, the idea dated back to the company’s inception in 2002 when Ken Shamrock was made their first NWA world champion. There was talk of using Don Frye at that time as well, as well as Bob Sapp and even Daniel Puder, particularly with the latter two being used once Kurt Angle came over in 2006. But money got in the way of closing all of those deals. Eventually, they made a deal for Bobby Lashley for that role. The idea was to have a TNA wrestler appear on fights, promoted as a TNA wrestler, with them building up his upcoming fights on Impact. However, that fell through because once White promoted Hogan’s return, and at the time, Strikeforce, which signed Lashley, was UFC’s biggest rival. TNA and Carter thought politically pushing an MMA fight on a rival network and with a promotion that was the lead rival to the flagship programming on Spike wasn’t a good idea. Lashley didn’t last very long in TNA, as they continued to book him for television right up until his fights, which wasn’t the best thing for his fighting career. He was also booked poorly in TNA and didn’t sustain his initial level of interest. They parted ways fairly quickly as Lashley went to concentrate on his Strikeforce career.

When Rebney and Bellator came on Spike’s radar, Carter and Rebney began talking. Rebney came to a few Impact tapings, and appeared on television, including broadcasting matches, as did some of his fighters. Both were hot on the idea of the guy who would appear on both shows, but nobody fit the bill. Then Lawal was fired by Dana White and they found a person for their gimmick. It’s important to note this was a cross-promotional idea both had wanted for probably a year, and saw Lawal as the closest thing to a fit, as opposed to an idea that was put together in the last few weeks when suddenly Lawal was a free agent.

Lawal was fired by White after using the term racist bitch in a Twitter post to describe Pat Lundvall of the Nevada State Athletic Commissions during a hearing on 3/27 where he was suspended for nine months and fined $39,000 for the Drostanolone positive. Most expected that when his suspension expired, Lawal would be brought back. He felt insulted by the questioning by Lundvall. When it was brought up that his medical form for Larkin fight saw him state he had taken no medications nor supplements, but then before the commission claimed it was a since-recalled food supplement that had caused his positive test, Lundvall asked why he put that he had taken no supplements before the fight, and asked him if he could read or write. Lawal took that remark as demeaning, given he was black, although Lundvall under the same circumstances has asked the exact same question to white athletes who failed drug tests or had inconsistencies between what they testified they took and what they put down on their pre-fight form.

Lawal apologized to Lundvall in a phone call shortly after the Twitter remark, and Lundvall accepted the apology.

Still, Lawal, did make an off-handed slavery comment on MMA Uncensored about the other organization, which I’m sure Zuffa couldn’t have been happy with. Later he explained that in Zuffa, he was just a number, and it is true that in Zuffa there are hundreds of fighters and he was one of them, although paid at the star range, but not superstar range. With Bellator, he’ll be given the kind of treatment that the biggest star in a promotion gets–as long as he can win. The episode of Uncensored was the highest rated in the history of the show, which may have been wrestling fans staying to see Carter, but Spike officials attributed it to Mo, and it was noted he drew more than episodes that included fighters like Jon Jones and Georges St. Pierre.

However, between the fine and the mounting medical bills that topped six figures this year, when Lawal was able to get a strong offer where he could work for and get paid by two companies, he took it rather than waiting for a new offer from Zuffa that has yet to be made and wouldn’t likely be made until October. The deal came together in a matter of weeks.

Carter said that she kept the negotiations secret from everyone in TNA. Apparently nobody knew as there had been no hints of his name anywhere until Front Row Brian McMahon on twitter broke it the day before the press conference. Those in production at TNA only knew something was up when they got word to put into the 5/10 show (which is done in studio the Tuesday before it airs) to have the announcers (who do voiceovers in studio in Nashville, and not live in Orlando–in fact, Mike Tenay and Taz are no longer even brought to Orlando unless it’s a PPV week) and plug that Carter would be on MMA Uncensored.

Carter said that Lawal would not be introduced with vignettes nor would his name be pushed right now on Impact, but they would start hyping him on the show a little before he is ready to debut. She said his name would start being talked about a little before the time he’s ready. She said that she and Lawal have talked about angles and said he’s got a great mind for them.

For Rebney, the deal is a positive as long as TNA doesn’t get him “under.” He has a fighter who will at worst, have exposure weekly on a TV show that will reach ten times as many viewers as his will for the rest of this year, and in 2013, he’ll be exposed regularly to a larger audience as a star (at least that’s the idea, because it’s really asking a lot for Lawal and TNA to be able to make this work) outside his promotion.

At best, Lawal will garner a following on TNA that will follow him to Bellator. Even if they don’t, Lawal comes into Bellator as immediately the biggest star in the company. Carter said that when Mo has fights on Bellator, his training beforehand and the fights will be chronicled on Impact. This was the idea they were wanting to do with Lashley, but felt political pressure not to. For TNA, the upside isn’t as easy since he has no experience as a pro wrestler and is being rushed on and politically would have to be protected. It can backfire in the sense he isn’t going to be polished, or may not be that good at pro wrestling, and fans can turn on him. Plus, it’s easier for a newcomer to get over as a heel (using the fan resentment of the hype to turn on him and try and make it work as heat, like TNA ended up doing with Crimson, its last attempt to take an unknown and make him a superstar). But that doesn’t work well for the face of the network and face of Bellator position.

Trying to do both regularly is the big question. Both MMA and pro wrestling individually in the learning phase take a full-time commitment. MMA always takes one due to the conditioning that is always necessary if fighting at a high level. Wrestling takes it in the learning phase.

Kevin Kay discussed how Lawal would not just be appearing regularly on both the company’s fighting shows in 2013, but that Spike would be promoting him as one of the station’s superstars, which may mean other programming with him, as well as him being at all the various awards shows Spike covers and major events the station is involved with. The line “Before there was Bo (in reference to Bo Jackson, who played in the NFL and Major League Baseball at the same time from 1987 to 1990), Now There’s Mo,” was used at the press conference as a possible network slogan.

Lawal is a student of MMA, boxing, amateur wrestling and pro wrestling. Of Nigerian ancestry, he grew up in Murfreesboro, TN, he started as a pro wrestling fan of people like Ric Flair (who he asked to have his first match against), Arn Anderson, Jerry Lawler and Harley Race. While he followed wrestling since, and has always said his goal in life was to win a world championship in pro wrestling, his super fan period was really Jim Crockett Promotions in the mid-80s. Later his goal was to win a world championship as a amateur first, the a gold medal, then a pro wrestling title. When MMA came along, winning a world title in that sport became the second idea after the gold medal.

Lawal, who Dixie Carter claimed was second to only Kurt Angle as far as the most decorated athlete to come into pro wrestling, moved to Texas, where he was a state champion in wrestling as a senior in 1999, after placing second as both a sophomore and junior. He went to Central Oklahoma, a Division II school, where he placed second in the nation at 185 in 2001, and first at 197 in 2002. He transferred to Oklahoma State, and because of his impressive physique, and placing third at 197 in the 2003 NCAA Division I tournament, ended up on the radar of Gerald Brisco at WWE. At the time, he said his goal was to win an Olympic gold medal in 2008, and after that, would sign with WWE.

He won three national championships in freestyle wrestling at 185 pounds, in 2005, 2006 and 2008, and placed second in 2007. He was champion and the top star in the short-lived Real Pro Wrestling promotion in 2005, a pro wrestling group using amateur wrestlers and having real matches that aired on Ion and Fox Sports Net but was funded by private individuals who had a dream but couldn’t get the financial partners to keep it going, if the idea was even viable in the first place. It may have never worked, but UFC just getting on television at the same time with the striking, kicking and submissions added to the wrestling made it a bad time to attempt to introduce it.

Lawal placed seventh in the 2005 world championships at 185. In 2007, at 211 pounds, he won the Pan American Games and placed second in the World Cup. But after splitting two matches with Andy Hrovat (a high school teammate of Dolph Ziggler and Gray Maynard) for the 2008 Olympic team, the third and deciding match went to overtime with Hrovat winning.

He was then planning on going into WWE, but after talking in camp with Shad Gaspard, Gaspard told him how he had a background in fighting and had always regretted going into pro wrestling before pursuing a fighting career. He told Lawal that if he didn’t try fighting now he would always regret it and that pro wrestling would always be there after fighting.

With only a few months of training, the Sengoku promotion liked his look, his charisma, and his amateur credentials, so brought him in. He became an immediate star in Japan, with photos of him debuting in mainstream sports newspapers. He got the mainstream publicity more because of his ring entrance, dancing with several women while wearing a crown, rapping to the ring, and calling himself King Mo, than for winning his debut fight over Wiuff. Lawal readily admits his gimmick was inspired by growing up watching Lawler, as well as more recently watching Booker T). He did well and was signed by Strikeforce.

I don’t want to go too much into this one, because this Dave Meltzer vs. Dana White stuff has gotten silly, particularly since we are, as funny as this sounds if you saw his video blog, in pretty regular contact and on good terms. Not that there wasn’t an issue, but that’s likely to happen again. He’s a promoter and that’s his job. The FOX rating was down, but he focused on the idea that they delivered they won the night in the key demographic, which is true compared to the other network shows, but it was also not the highest rated show that day in those key demos. And they were also way down in the key demos from the prior shows. But everything going in knew that would be the case, between the competition and the weaker lineup from a marquee standpoint.

The 1.5 rating and 2.418 million viewers were both the lowest marks for MMA on network television . It was below that of a 2008 Elite XC show headlined by Robbie Lawler vs. Scott Smith . That show did a 1.75 rating and 2.6 million viewers. And that show had head-to-head competition from a UFC show on Spike with the first TV airing of Chuck Liddell vs. Wanderlei Silva fight from the previous December, which at the time was a monster fight. That replay did a 1.23 rating and 1.6 million viewers. That CBS show did not do well with Males 18-34, doing a 1.0, but did a 1.6 in Males 35-49. The UFC show last week did a 1.6 and 1.8 in those respective demos. MMA is on network television more to target Males 18-49, the idea of super serving a unique clientele than draw the largest total viewing numbers. It’s already accepted that older people and younger people aren’t going to watch MMA in great numbers on television. But for advertisers, the idea is for people looking for males with disposable income of a certain age group, UFC can be a strong target buy. At least, that’s the theory behind it.

The other low rated MMA show on prime time network, the disastrous April 17, 2010, Strikeforce show from Nashville, headlined by Jake Shields vs. Dan Henderson fight, did a 1.76 rating and 2.86 million viewers. Once again, it had to compete with UFC ran counter programming on Spike, a tape of a PPV show headlined by Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs. Cain Velasquez that did a 1.0 rating and 1.37 million viewers. That CBS show did a 1.3 in Males 18-34 and 1.7 in Males 35-49. Still, CBS was in first place that night among every adult male demo that night, the point White made about the FOX show on 5/5, but it wasn’t enough. CBS never ran another Strikeforce show. The primary reason given was the brawl at the end involving the Diaz Brothers, Gilbert Melendez and others beating down Jason Miller when he got in the ring to challenge Shields to a rematch. However, if the show had done better ratings, it would have been saved. The reaction at CBS was very negative to the rating. There were those at the time against the programming to begin with, but the first show with Fedor Emelianenko on top did well. When the rating dropped big, even though it was the brawl as the reason, there were plenty of people saying CBS needed to get out of this because it does weak ratings as well. Those ratings were comparable, a little higher in most demos but lower in Males 18-34, than what the UFC FOX show did on 5/5.

White did note the reasons, and in our article last week, we noted almost every one of them as well. The point about the number of homes watching television that night being down 10% from a usual Saturday night is valid. The opening of “The Avengers” absolutely hurt the rating. All the other factors are also not a secret. Even throwing them out, this show wasn’t doing close to what the other two shows did. But the Mayweather fight was bucking all the same things, the holiday, the movie, prom night, the other sports, and did great, the second biggest non-heavyweight fight in history and the biggest boxing PPV show in five years. But that was a must-see event for a lot of sports fans and the UFC event was not.

FOX also didn’t market the show well.

One point that needs to be brought up is the marketing of the event during sports broadcasts were built around “four fights,” as noted last week, never saying UFC, never saying MMA. If you heard the commercial and didn’t know better, you would assume it was a bunch of no-name boxers except put in prime time. The argument was that Jim Miller and Nate Diaz weren’t big names to the public is true, but how do you become big names? A big part of it is being marketed as big names. Who, really, was Junior Dos Santos to anyone but a UFC fan in August of last year? But they promoted the hell out of Dos Santos and Cain Velasquez, and the night of the show, they were big enough stars to have 9.5 million people watching that one minute fight.

I’m not saying if FOX promoted the hell out of Nate Diaz, they’d have gotten a similar rating, because that wasn’t going to happen on that night. The heavyweight title meant something. Two big knockout artists mean something. It wasn’t the right night. And Jim Miller as an opponent, God bless him, but he’s not a guy who is going to draw you big money on top. Football season shows have an advantage because such a huge male audience watches the NFL and they can directly hit people who at least may have the proclivity to be MMA fans. But if FOX promoted the hell out of Nate Diaz on all their sports properties for a month, all of a sudden, as sports fans keep hearing his name as the main eventer of a major fight card, it becomes a recognizable name.

White even argued that Diaz came out of the show a bigger star. And he got a decisive win in a main event that 2.9 million people saw. It probably does help the eventual Diaz challenge to either Frankie Edgar or Benson Henderson. White said coming off this that the Diaz Brothers can be one of the hottest commodities in UFC. And the show was good, although I’ve seen plenty of awesome exciting sports events from leagues that aren’t in existence today. This isn’t saying UFC is going down, just that it’s great to have a good show, but a company can’t hang its hat on good shows and that being enough. It needs to constantly make big stars, because star power trumps exciting fights every time, and Mayweather Jr.’s numbers prove it since he’s a superstar, but he rarely has exciting fights (the last one being an exception). And if anything, UFC’s has clearly proven for years that it can be a successful sports franchise without prime time network television.

On 5/12, as part of FOX’s new Saturday night sports experiment, a NASCAR race from Darlington Speedway did 5.716 million viewers, well over double the UFC audience, and beat the UFC number by 50% in the targeted 18-49 demo. Granted, it was an easier night. No Mayweather. The Avengers did “only” $42.9 million on that night as opposed to the $69.6 million it did the prior Saturday. But there were still NBA and NHL playoffs. The baseball numbers are going to be important as well this summer. In the end, UFC in prime time is going to be judged by how well it produces in the ratings with the other sports in FOX’s Saturday night lineup, baseball in the summer, college football in the fall and winter, and NASCAR. Strikeforce got canceled winning the target demographics of Males 18-34 against shows the equivalent of Crimetime Saturday and 48 Hours Mystery on other networks that everyone knows mainly hit a lot older viewers. UFC does have an advantage Strikeforce and Elite XC don’t have. UFC is a key sports franchise under the company’s umbrella and having big shows on the big network adds prestige to the franchise as a whole. They have a long-term deal and the franchise is key prime time programming on FX, and the entire Fuel station is being built around UFC as its key programming. But at the end of the day, nobody stays on network prime time without delivering.

The card was the No. 1 show on network television in both Males 18-34 and Males 18-49. But three NBA games and one episode of Sports Center that day on cable beat them in Males 18-49. Four NBA games beat them in Males 18-34, including a Memphis vs. Los Angeles Clippers game that aired at 5 p.m. Eastern, outside of prime time, that did a 3.45 rating in the Male 18-34 demo as compared to the 1.6 the UFC show did in prime time.

Jim Duggan is part of the retired NFL players class action lawsuit against the league for not providing players with adequate information on the effects of concussions. Duggan was on the practice squad of the Atlanta Falcons for one season, and never played in a regular season game. If the players get big cash settlements from the league in this lawsuit, every league that seemingly has money, including WWE and UFC down the line are going to find lawyers trying to get ex-performers to be involved in class-action lawsuits against those franchises. Duggan also noted in his new autobiography that by being part of the NFL Players Association that when he gets his right knee replaced, which he said was inevitable, that he can have it taken care of.

Siliana Gaspard, the wife of former pro wrestler turned actor Shad Gaspard, is featured in the new issue of Flex magazine. Gaspard this year won the Miss Texas bikini division championship.

Josh Koscheck was offered a fight with B.J. Penn. At this point Koscheck has accepted but no word on whether Penn is going to take the fight or not. Penn announced his retirement in late October after losing to Nick Diaz. Since that time, there have been points he was ready to fight, but he was interviewed on TV not that long ago and said that while he wouldn’t rule it out completely, he at that point had no interest in fighting. He had turned down a fight with Gilbert Melendez which would have been on the 5/19 show in San Jose.

Related to the K-1 story, the new company using the name, K-1 Global Holdings, which has its debut show on 5/27 in Madrid, Spain. On 5/16 in Japan, Teikou Data Bank announced that Fighting Entertainment Group was bankrupt, and one of the major newspapers covered the story so even though it happened a week earlier, this was the first time the general public had heard the news. Evening News Fuji, a newspaper catering to commuters sold at train stations everywhere had an eye-catching headline in red ink saying, “K-1 Bankrupt.” The new K-1 Global Holdings held a press conference that day at the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo to announce Masato, one of the most popular fighters in the history of the organization and before his retirement a few years back was easily the most popular lightweight fighter, as the Executive Producer. They said his job duties would include matchmaking as well as scouting new young talent. They also announced a lineup for this year that would include a September show in Los Angeles, an October show in Miami, a November show in Taiwan and the K-1 World Grand Prix finals in December in New York. We’ll see if this actually happens because they have no television in the U.S. which means they aren’t going to be able to draw with a largely unknown brand name and unknown fighters in a sport that has no mainstream interest. Sadaharu Tanigawa, who was the public face running K-1 the past several years, then issued a public statement admitting that Fighting Entertainment Group, the former K-1 parent company, has been declared bankrupt. For what this is worth, Emcom, the company behind the new K-1 Global Holdings company, was worth 107 yen per share three weeks ago, but closed after all this news at 39 yen per share.

Fat Cat wrote:[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-E8jnYJJ2Tc[/youtube]
Anyone see Barnett find out what a real wrestler can do?