Elsalvajeloco Posted May 13, 2016 Author Share Posted May 13, 2016 Bruno is the softest of the soft touches. Never knocked out anyone out, hasn't submitted anyone worth a damn, and barely scraped by on TUF Brazil. I think he can wrestle Bruno for 15 minutes. Now anyone better than that is going to be a different story. This is the bottom of the barrel at 145. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheVileOne Posted May 13, 2016 Share Posted May 13, 2016 Didn't Botter say the Chinese companies are only looking for partial ownership, or would this be a total buyout? What happens to the staff, ie matchmakers like Joe Silva, etc? My concern is do go forward with full new-new owners really understand and love the fight business as well and will they really know what to do with it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elsalvajeloco Posted May 13, 2016 Author Share Posted May 13, 2016 6 hours ago, TheVileOne said: Didn't Botter say the Chinese companies are only looking for partial ownership, or would this be a total buyout? What happens to the staff, ie matchmakers like Joe Silva, etc? My concern is do go forward with full new-new owners really understand and love the fight business as well and will they really know what to do with it? Looks like it's just a 13%-15% stake in ownership. That could mean getting $520-$600 million without having to give up majority ownership. Right now, according to Meltzer, there is/was fear that Blackstone Group (looking at how they did the The Weather Channel) would do that type of housecleaning if they got majority ownership. If it's just a partial stake, then that's nothing to worry about. However, most signs do point to the current top brass sticking around. They just started on a new HQ in Las Vegas. That doesn't sound someone who is about to give up majority ownership. Also as a mentioned some replies back, Zuffa getting into football would require Lorenzo and Frank getting out of the casino business. Station Casinos just went public (as Red Rock) and bought the Palms. Plus, there is no certainty that Mark Davis will sell the Raiders, even though Jerry Jones is pushing for that. So the Raiders thing is certainly overblown at this point. Another sign that IMO it is partial is that most of the reputable people that I've heard have gotten their lines crossed up. You got some people saying whoever may own it in the future is keeping Lorenzo and letting Dana go about his merry way and you have others (like Greg Savage) saying the exact opposite since Lorenzo does has more love for football than MMA. Out of the five or six people I trust or kinda trust, no one is in agreement with what a full ownership sell will look like. So it's hard to say who is going or who is staying BELOW that. With that said, Joe Silva along with Dana and Lorenzo make all the decisions with Sean Shelby doing the matchmaking in the other divisions. There are other critical pieces there, but what the fans see is a product of Dana, Lorenzo, and Joe Silva. It has been like that for the last 15 years. Meltzer was talking about this on WOR as well as his Twitter discussing this with people. It's hard to make sense of a company that shouldn't be as profitable as the WWE (which he values at $1.3 billion and beat WWE in profits last year $150m to $24m) and doesn't have as many revenue streams as WWE being valued at $4 billion. Buying something for $2 million and possibly getting $4 billion is an outrageous ROI. So for a company whose business can vary wildly like it did between 2014 and 2015, it would be insanely stupid to just fuck what made it that successful. So it could be that people are trying to get on the train now, so they can go all in when they get that new TV deal, which is guaranteed money. If someone wants 15%, they can play it safe until then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheVileOne Posted May 13, 2016 Share Posted May 13, 2016 Dana White's language on Dan Patrick seems to say that this a partial sale with the Chinese media companies rather than a total buyout. Unless he's lying about about the total buyout sale . White said the first time they received a major offer to buy the UFC was for $1 billion in 2010. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elsalvajeloco Posted May 14, 2016 Author Share Posted May 14, 2016 Siyar Bahadurzada is fighting Claudio Silva at UFC 201. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elsalvajeloco Posted May 14, 2016 Author Share Posted May 14, 2016 Bellator has released Will Brooks and stripped Minakov of the HW title. Apparently, the talks with Minakov must have went south really quick. So Bellator has like a handful of top fighters, and they treat one of them like absolute shit. Not sure if the Coker regime has decided to stay in the same place or just go backwards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twiztor Posted May 14, 2016 Share Posted May 14, 2016 so essentially they just got rid of their Heavyweight and Lightweight champions? that is truly bizarre. Brooks has won like 8 in a row or something. and isn't Minakov still undefeated? you couple this with their treatment of Askren (the undefeated then-Welterweight Champion) and i really question the sanity of the people running the promotion. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elsalvajeloco Posted May 14, 2016 Author Share Posted May 14, 2016 I think the Askren one baffles me most out of the three. Granted, this happened pre-Coker IIRC. Minakov was one of the Rebney dudes who was just around, and as I said before, didn't fit the mold of what Coker wants that HW division to be. You can't have two seperate HW divisions where you have Kimbo fighting whomever and trying to have a serious division with Minakov defending against some UFC castoff like Matt Mitrione. They want to promote Kimbo, Ken Shamrock, Lashley, or whatever freakshow that comes their way in an effort to get ratings. In addition, I don't think Minakov is too interested in coming back anyways. In the time he was HW champion, they may have said his name once or twice on the broadcasts. One of those mentions was when they said they hope to have him back. So yeah, that relationship was doomed. With Brooks, it was the same but a little different in that they had their dude they wanted to promote over him: Michael Chandler. They got the Dave and Busters commercials, and that's the person they wanted to promote. They had no desire to treat him like he was the champ, and it's very evident. I get it that he may have been hard to deal with, but that is what comes with MMA promotion. It's not just a UFC thing. You're going to have people like Will Brooks. That's when you have to decide which problem trumps the other. You want to have top fighters, make stars, and have production cues like UFC, but you don't want to deal with the problems that the UFC runs into? All this would make sense...only if they had the luxury of being the UFC. I think short term it makes sense as they wanted to do Chandler, Thomson, maybe Bendo, and a few other guys in a robin round type deal. Long term it makes a zero sense because this still ain't pro wrestling. You can lose out and have someone you don't want as champion...like you did with Will Brooks. Plus, you don't know whether someone like Brooks might become something bigger than a potential perennial top 5 or top 10 lightweight. Twenty nine ain't that old when you factor in someone not taking a ton of punishment. Michael Chandler has been in tough fights and has only looked good against limited opposition they hand picked. Benson is going to only get older and likely doesn't have an lengthy future at 155. The problems surrounding Thomson speak for themselves. So it comes down to: are you willing to deal with a headache now so you don't have to deal with bigger ones (directly related and unrelated) in the future? The last thing Bellator needs right now is being caught shortsighted in a sport where someone can become a draw overnight. Even though Askren's style ain't exactly the most exciting, they had their own Chael Sonnen and never realized. I felt that relationship could have been mutual. They give him a platform to fight and cut promos, and he slowly turns into someone they could put out there to be in front of media to grow their brand. They hoped Joe Warren would be that person, but he was too old and not that good. I think with Askren, he doesn't have to be that good just like Chael. It's clear that he was better than a certain level (especially to beat some of the fighters they've cycled in and out) and that's all that matters. Plus, the UFC didn't have that interest in him so he was safe in free agency as long as they kept him happy. Bellator just decided not to invest in him, and it makes no sense. I think Douglas Lima and Koreshkov are more than decent fighters, but that's not who Bellator wants as the face of their welterweight division. Benson getting an immediate title shot is proof of that. That did not work out (in ratings or the actual result). On the very same show, Brennan Ward lost in like negative 20 seconds to the former Mr. Cyborg. So now, they're stuck. They're going to have do something with Daley or Michael Page that they clearly didn't want to do this early. It goes back to what I said about those headaches. They lost out on someone they could have done something with so they didn't have to deal with that one headache. Now, they have a whole bunch of them. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheVileOne Posted May 15, 2016 Share Posted May 15, 2016 9 hours ago, twiztor said: so essentially they just got rid of their Heavyweight and Lightweight champions? that is truly bizarre. Brooks has won like 8 in a row or something. and isn't Minakov still undefeated? you couple this with their treatment of Askren (the undefeated then-Welterweight Champion) and i really question the sanity of the people running the promotion. It's not bizarre at all. They don't care about building their roster and champions. They are in the freak show fight business. They already booked Kimbo Slice again after his failed drug test. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elsalvajeloco Posted May 15, 2016 Author Share Posted May 15, 2016 Well, they suspended him in Texas where their punishment is the same amount of time he was going to take off anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elsalvajeloco Posted May 15, 2016 Author Share Posted May 15, 2016 UFC 201 is now official for Philips Arena in Atlanta on 7/30. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elsalvajeloco Posted May 16, 2016 Author Share Posted May 16, 2016 Pedro Munhoz is returning against Russell Doane on the 7/7 Fight Pass card. Will Brooks is going to be on the MMA Hour in approximately 2 hours discussing his release and what he plans to do next. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elsalvajeloco Posted May 17, 2016 Author Share Posted May 17, 2016 Francis Ngannou vs. Bojan Mihajlovic has been added to the UFC on Fox card in Chicago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elsalvajeloco Posted May 17, 2016 Author Share Posted May 17, 2016 Undefeated RFA fighter Matthew Lopez is fighting Rani Yahya on the Ferguson vs. Chiesa card. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elsalvajeloco Posted May 17, 2016 Author Share Posted May 17, 2016 Former RFA fighter Jordan Rinaldi (fought and loss to James Moontasri and Brian Ortega in RFA) is replacing Carlos Diego Ferreira against Abel Trujillo on next Sunday's UFC card. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elsalvajeloco Posted May 17, 2016 Author Share Posted May 17, 2016 Lawler vs. Woodley at UFC 201 is finally official. I am expecting UFC 202 to start getting hammered out within the next 1-3 weeks. The final bouts for 200 will probably be finalized in that timespan as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChesterCopperpot Posted May 17, 2016 Share Posted May 17, 2016 Weidman is out of 199 https://twitter.com/jeremybotter/status/732678384002568192 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elsalvajeloco Posted May 17, 2016 Author Share Posted May 17, 2016 I'm guessing it is a Bisping rematch. I think Jacare might have a slight knee injury. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DreamBroken Posted May 17, 2016 Share Posted May 17, 2016 Damn was looking forward to the rematch and rooting for Weidman, one of my favs. But I'll be happy with another of my top favorites being the replacement in Bisping finally getting his shot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheVileOne Posted May 17, 2016 Share Posted May 17, 2016 Give Michael Bisping the honor of finally losing in a UFC title bout. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elsalvajeloco Posted May 17, 2016 Author Share Posted May 17, 2016 Part of me believes that even if Jacare was completely healthy, he would want 6-8 weeks to train. Two weeks and a day isn't the ideal situation for someone who is legitimately no worse the #3 contender. If I was him, I would sit out and rehab that injury. The thing is...that waiting game could backfire. Rockhold beats Bisping again and now Rockhold holds out for Weidman at MSG. Jacare, if he didn't fight again, would be out until at least February or March of next year if he ain't a standby injury replacement. Unless he plans on getting healthy and rematching Romero (or waiting around to see the severity of Weidman's injury), there is big risk in letting Rockhold fight someone that's not in the immediate contendership. He could be on the shelf for 5-6 months waiting for this to play out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elsalvajeloco Posted May 18, 2016 Author Share Posted May 18, 2016 Mousasi wants to replace Weidman as well FWIW. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elsalvajeloco Posted May 18, 2016 Author Share Posted May 18, 2016 Maybe this just amuses me, but Will Brooks is destroying Kevin Lee on Twitter. I think Lee barked up the wrong tree. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elsalvajeloco Posted May 18, 2016 Author Share Posted May 18, 2016 Jacare is currently front-runner and he is getting his knee checked out. They will know if he is cleared tomorrow. If not Jacare, it will be Bisping. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Natural Posted May 18, 2016 Share Posted May 18, 2016 9 hours ago, ChesterCopperpot said: Weidman is out of 199 https://twitter.com/jeremybotter/status/732678384002568192 Bugger. Bisping or Jacare Souza to challenge for the UFC Middleweight Championship. I'd give it to Bisping, he's only the second fighter to ever beat Anderson Silva in the UFC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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