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I just did some analysis and research of the UFC’s perceived market share vs that of its many competitors.

Let it be known that by the end of 2008, Zuffa’s piece of the pie will seriously dwindle to a much smaller percentage with K1-Dreams and HDNet Fights gobbling up a large chunk.

If Mark Cuban is able to get a favourable ruling on his suit vs the UFC in Texas, which then is abided by the courts in Nevada, it will be huge for Randy Couture and HDNet Fights.

First off, Couture’s legal costs may be picked by Cuban in not only Texas but also in Nevada. If the UFC was planning on cleaning out Couture’s bank account by tying up his funds in legal battles (thus forcing him to return to the Octagon) Cuban’s deep pockets will most likely save Couture a lot of financial grief.

Second, if the courts rule that Couture’s contract truly ends in Oct 2008, rest assurred that HDNet Fights will be the network that airs Coutures next bout (most likely vs Fedor).

If that happens, HDNet and everyone involved will stake some serious ground on the MMA landscape and we may end up having a new BIG player in town.

Remember, the UFC has legal battles other than those with Couture. There is the one against the former owners of Pride, the shady one with Xyience’s bankruptcy proceedings, etc. I will more on all of these legal battles this Thursday on ‘The Showdown’ as I will be joined by Adam Swift from MMAPayout.com, the industry leader on the business of Mixed Martial Arts.

Things are about to get interesting over the next few weeks.

Ciao for now,

Showdown Joe

Last night’s Elite XC went down in Miami, Flordia and I must say the production value was very good. Any production from ‘Showtime’  should have a high calibre of quality associated with it but now the production is being met with quality MMA bouts, as well as fights that have a fair amount of hype surrounding them.

The main event saw Kimbo Slice knock out former UFC veteran Tank Abbott in 45 seconds. It wasn’t much of a fight and didn’t really show any of Kimbo’s newly acquired MMA technique arsenal. Until Kimbo fights a real MMA fighter who will give him a real test, I will reserve any true critique of his performance(s). To see last nights fight, click here.

The real highlight of the night for me was the bout between Edson Berto and Yves Edwards. Berto’s muay thai skills are ferocious and were being met mano a mano by Edwards. When the fight hit the ground, Berto slapped on an extremely tight guillotine choke that I thought was going to end Edward’s night. Instead, Yves was able to withstand the pressure, get the fight back to their feet and was able to KO Berto with a stunning knee while being stuck in an attempted single leg attempt.

This KO will now be forever linked as a signature move for Edwards and will further enhance the game of mixed martial artists. Moving forward, everytime someone is caught in this position, fighters and fans will now be looking for the knee to shoot up. If you haven’t seen it, check it out here.

Here are the full results:

Main Card

Chuck Liddell vs Shogun is Official

After various weeks of circulating rumours, Chuck Liddell has officially signed on to fight Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua. Liddell is coming off a big victory at UFC 79 over Vanderlai Silva, who is a long time teammate of Shogun’s. On the flipside, Shogun is coming off a shocking upset to Forest Griffen at UFC 76, and will be looking to make an example of the ‘Iceman’.

The bout is scheduled for June 07th, at the yet to be announced UFC 85 show in the U.K. This card will be a star studded affair as Marcus ‘The Irish Hand Grenade’ Davis is already confirmed to be on the card , while other rumoured fighters scheduled to compete include Brock Lesnar and Brandon Vera.

Misc MMA News

• Momma said knock you out - PICS from EliteXC Street Certified
• News and Notes from “EliteXC: Street Certified”
• Post-Fight Video: Kimbo, Bas on Tank Stoppage
• Antonio Silva Has XXXXL Expectations
• Tim Boetsch Talks Hammil and New UFC Contract
• Joe Lauzon Talks About Main Event Bout vs Kenny Florian
• Renato Sobral Claims Tito Ortiz Will Not Be Fighitng Lyoto Machida
• Melvin Guillard to Headline Rage in the Cage 105

Ciao for now,

Showdown Joe

Mark Cuban and his quickly growing entity HDNet Fights has entered the Randy Couture legal battle with the UFC. On Wednesday, HDNet filed a suit vs Zuffa (Owners of the UFC) in a Dallas district court, seeking a ’deglatory judgment’ regarding Couture’s promotional contract with the UFC.

Cuban is looking to receive clarification on when the contract truely expires, as there are clauses within the contract which may allow the UFC to extend it if Couture does not honor the amount of fights within its term. Bottom line, Cuban has entered the Couture sweepstakes in hopes to be a part of the Coutures next bout, which Cuban hopes will be vs Fedor and promoted by HDNet.

Cro Cop Not Making Any Friends

With Mirko Cro Cop’s exodus from the UFC, there are many fighters speaking out on his departure. Some wish him will while others could care less. My favourite has to be Cro Cop’s last opponent, Cheick Kongo, who in no uncertain terms believes Cro Cop is returning back to fighting in Japan so he can take steroids, something he could not do while fighting in the UFC.

Cro Cop was not to impressed and stated Congo was lucky to have fought him ‘during the deepest crisis’ of his career and hopes that when he returns to the Octagon, Kongo will be his first opponent. In the meantime, Cro Cop is aiming for a rematch with Fedor, which he hopes will happen sometime in 2008.

EliteXC: Street Certified Tonight

I am very excited about this card, as it marks the evolution of street fighting legend Kimbo Slice. Kimbo will be taking on the original MMA streetfighter, Tank Abbott. Personally, I don’t think Tank stands much of a chance vs Kimbo, but it is MMA, and anything can happen.

There are some other quality fights on this card including Big Antonio Silva vs former UFC Heavyweight Champion Ricco Rodriquez, as well as familiar faces in former UFC veterans Yves Edwards, Scott Smith and former Pride veteran James Thompson.

George St.Pierre Visits The Fan 590

If you didn’t get a chance to tune in to last Thursday’s show, I was joined by TheMMADigest.com’s Jatiner Dhoot, who is currently promoting his new product,”The MMA Digest’s MMA Trivia Book‘.

The second segment featured UFC Interm Welterweight Champion Georges St.Pierre, who visited The Fan 590 as part of the UFC’s media tour in Toronto. GSP and I spoke about his last fight vs Matt Serra, his mental state going into the rematch, the importance of sports psychology, his coach Greg Jackson and his thoughts on the Habs and the Leafs.

To here the show, click here.

Ciao for now,

Showdown Joe

Breaking news from The Land of The Rising Sun sees a new promotion announced with a current UFC fighter jumping ship.

Today, K-1, one of Japan’s biggest professional kickboxing organizations announced their newest MMA venture ‘DREAMS’. This new organization replaces their existing ‘HEROES’ brand and is being run by the former ‘Pride’ group. Key to all of this is that Mirko Cro Cop Filipovic has joined ‘DREAMS’.

Cro Cop reportedly left the UFC on amicable terms and reports are suggesting that Dana White has given his blessing. I personally find this extremely difficult to believe as the UFC had big plans for Cro Cop when they signed him, and instead, they were rewarded with two terrible showings in the Octagon from the Croatian. To see him leave and go to their newest Japanese competition cannot make White happy.

Looks like DREAMS will now be the new ‘Pride’ and provide serious competition to the UFC, especially when it comes to talent and options. They will be holding a lightweight tournament with the who’s who of the division, many of which the UFC were unable to sign when they bought out Pride last year.

If the UFC thought ‘Dreams’ was a headache, another Japanese promotion, World Victory Road, also announced that consensus #1 lightweight Takanori Gomi not only signed with their organization but he will now be taking on former UFC lightweight, and world famous striker, Duane ‘Bang’ Ludwig.

There is much more to all of this breaking news and it does not bode well for the UFC. To read more, check out these links:

• New Japanese Organization From K-1 - Dream (To Include Cro Cop)
• More on Mirko’s Departure: Emelianenko vs. Cro Cop II Now Possible
• K-1 Dreams and Sengoku Press Conferences
• Japanese MMA Roundup: WVR, DREAMS, and CroCop
• Editorial: Japanese MMA Confusion Leads to Giggles
• MMA Business: New Players, Familiar Faces

Ultimate Fight Night Update

There has been a change to the bout between Stephen Bonnar vs Matt Hammil, as Bonnar has had to pull out due to a serious injury and will be replaced by Tim Boetsch, who is coming off a huge victory at UFC 81 vs Heath Herring.

Finalized UFC 82: Pride Of Champion Fight Card

ANDERSON SILVA VS DAN HENDERSON
CHEICK KONGO vs. HEATH HERRING
CHRIS LEBEN vs. ALESSIO SAKARA
EVAN TANNER vs. YUSHIN OKAMI
JON FITCH vs. CHRIS WILSON
ANDREI ARLOVSKI vs. JAKE O’BRIEN
LUKE CUMMO vs. LUIGI FIORAVANTI
JOSH KOSCHECK vs. DUSTIN HAZELETT
DIEGO SANCHEZ vs. DAVID BIELKHEDEN
JORGE GURGEL vs. JOHN HALVERSON

Diego Sanchez Wants GSP Sooner Than Later

UFC Welterweight Diego ‘The Nightmare’ Sanchez recently conducted an interview where he had some interesting comments about Canadian Georges St.Pierre. The majority of the comments surrounded Sanchez’s decision to leave ‘Team Greg Jackson’ the moment GSP joined. He stated he wasn’t  going to bow down to GSP’, nor would he ‘ride his coat tails’. Sanchez said alot more but here’s hoping that these two meet in the Octagon one day, where George can teach Diego a lesson in humility.

Is Tim Sylvia Back Peddling?

I’m not sure if Tim Sylvia is backtracking on his original statements, but he is now stating he was misquoted by many MMA reporters. Sylvia posted on his personal blog that ‘I have one fight left on my contract i want to stay with the ufc but i am going to go were the money is’ and hinted at potentially signing with M-1. As a rebuttal to the news spreading like a forest fire on the internet, Sylvia posted on his blog that he was misquoted and that ’some of u people are going to get me in trouble with the ufc.’ Ironically enough, all of the aforementioned posts have now been removed from his blog.

Is Brock Lesnar vs Kurt Angle Next? 

Not that Brock Lesnar needs any more hype surrounding anything he does, but it appears there could be a little feeder bait being thrown in the water by Kurt Angle’s wife. While Lesnar made it clear to me that he and Angle are good friends, Angle’s wife Karen recently stated that if the two were to ever compete in an MMA bout, her husband ‘would absolutely kick his ass.” All of this stems from a supposed bout that Angle and Lesnar had in their WWE days where Angle was toying with Brock, tossing him around while wearing flip flops.

Misc MMA News

Growing Discontent: Ortiz and Sylvia Talk About Possible Exits from UFC

Phil Baroni signs with EliteXC; will fight Kala Kolohe Hose on March 15th

Frank Shamrock Expects To Smash Cung Le

Is M-1 For Real?

“EliteXC: Street Certified” Full Card Announced

Robbie Lawler Stripped Of ICON Sport Title

K-1 MMA Event Shaping Up

Iroquois MMA Championship II: Severn and Lamarche Victorious

Canadian UFC fans set a new UFC record this past week, by selling out UFC 83 at the Bell Centre in record time. It took a mere 30 seconds to sell out the remaining tickets that were left for the public sale yesterday afternoon. If you were unable to get tickets, there is good news and…well, sort of good news.

There will be a variety of companies that will be offering packages from various cities across Canada. Starting on Monday, I would recommend doing a few searches for these packages, which will include travel, accomodations, a ticket to the event, with higher end packages most likely including event after-party tickets and UFC Memorabilia.

The other ’sort of good news’ I was speaking about was that you can still get tickets online on Ebay; but the prices are inflated to say the least. This is the unfortunate reality of supply and demand. If you play your cards right, bid at the right time, you may be able to get a very good deal. Above all, this will only be one of many Canadian dates the UFC will add to its event calendar.

MMA News

UFC President Dana White has stated the UFC will most likely have an event in Boston or New York in 2008. Marc Ratner, UFC’s VP of Government and Regulatory Affairs also stated the UFC is looking at having events in Chicago, Vancouver and Ontario.

In 2008, the UFC will be spending a fair amount of time and money in a variety of courtrooms. At the moment, current owners, the Fertitta brothers are suing former Pride Executives in a Multi-Million Dollar Lawsuit. We all know the UFC has also filed suit against current heavyweight champion Randy Couture, and the former champion recently spoke out about the situation, leaving everyone wondering ‘who is right or wrong’.

Dana White continues to make disparraging remarks about Fedor Emelianenko and it appears the Russian has had enough. Fedor is stating he is not impressed with White’s lack of professionalism and has basically challenged the UFC President to stop talking and start putting on some real fights between UFC Champions and himself. 

Tim Sylvia is in the news and doesn’t appear to be a happy camper. Sylvia has one fight left on his existing UFC contract and has already hinted he may leave the organization once its all said and done. Sylvia is not happy with the fact that Brock Lesnar gets paid more than him and expects the UFC to change this. Sylvia also made news a few days ago as the trainers for his most recent opponent Antonio Rodrigo Noguiera, are claiming Sylvia cheated, by greasing himself up before their championship bout.

Tonight, there will be an actual MMA event in Ontario. The Iroquois MMA event goes down just outside of Hagersville, Ontario, on The Six Nations Reserve. UFC Pioneer and Legend Dan ‘The Beast’ Severn will be headling this controversial card. I had the pleasure of having Severn in studio this past Thursday, as well as Hamilton’s UFC welterweight Jeff Joslin, Event Promoter James Procyk and Grand River Athletics Corp Commissioner Jason King. Click here to hear the show.

Ciao for now,

Showdown Joe
joe@showdown.ca

While I believe it was expected that the demand for tickets to UFC 83 in Montreal would be huge, it is safe to say that I am pleasantly surprised by the incredible hype surrounding it.

Tickets sales have far surpassed what the UFC was expecting from Canadian MMA fans (over 15,000 in 24 hrs). I asked Dana White last Thursday during one of my recording sessions with him if he was sincerely ready for what the UFC is going to experience once these tickets are made available and when the event actually happens.

He said he was ready and to basically bring it on. Three days later, his eyebrows were raised and when I spoke to his assistant, even she was blown away by how many ticket requests she has received. Whether it was for blocks of 10, 50 and even 300 tickets, she stated she had never seen such an insane demand for a UFC event.

I have been promoting MMA for 10 years now, often assisting in putting on events with various promoters. I have worked for over five different events and I have never been hounded for tickets as I have for this upcoming UFC show. Dozens of emails, phone calls, Facebook and text messages…it has been non-stop for over a month now. This phenomena known as UFC 83 has been a reality check for me, not because of what it is and what it will be, but for what it represents.

The UFC is looking at this scenario closely. They realize that with this inagural event in Montreal, they are going to break not only attendance and live gate records, but there is a very good chance that the UFC 83 pay per view buy rates could be a potential threat to the existing UFC ppv buy record (775,000 held by UFC 61 - Ortiz vs Shamrock II).

What does all of this mean for the UFC? Money and Growth.

The UFC will experience a pleasant boom to their bottom line while successfully expanding their live event product into a new market. It also means that they will be back again…and again and again. It bodes well for cities like Edmonton, which is another Canadian MMA hot bed, with representatives who have been working with the UFC to bring a show to their city for over a year. I will not be surprised and sincerely hope Edmonton will be added to the UFC’s list of live event cities.

And if I may, and I will, please allow me to sound like a broken record again: just imagine if MMA was legal, sanctioned and regulated in Ontario, specifically in Toronto. This is no disrespect to any other city in our great country, but the reality is this: Toronto is the largest city in the country with the largest population, is the corporate capital of the Great White North and its local fighters and fans have been hungering for MMA longer than anyone else.

I can only imagine a UFC in Toronto…hopefully Ontario’s Athletic Commissioner, Ken Hayashi can be swayed by the event in Montreal. Hayashi has been invited (and supposedly accepted the invitation) by the UFC’s Marc Ratner  to attend UFC 83 in Montreal. I hope Hayashi will get a true taste of WHAT CAN BE, SHOULD BE and hopefully WILL BE in Ontario.

If Hayashi plays his cards right, just one UFC event in Toronto can pay his annual salary, the salary of his staff, and keep the OAC afloat for years to come. Mr. Hayashi, if you are reading this, just ask the athletic commission in Columbus, Ohio to expand on what I’m talking about. They can explain it better than I can.

Well, UFC 81 has come and gone and just when you think everything has been answered, more questions arise from the results. There was an abundance of celebrity firepower in attedance as Barry Bonds, Charles Barkely, Greg Maddux, Jay-Z and Chris Angel sat alongside former and current WWE stars Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Undertaker, Kurt Angle and Lesnar’s girlfriend, Sable.

If you missed the show, here are the results:

While Brock Lesnar lasted a ‘Mir’ 90 seconds in his UFC debut, he showcased some serious takedown and ground and pound skills. I see some true potential in Lesnar, and if built correctly (over the next year or so), he can become a serious force in the heavyweight division. If you don’t take my word for it, then take the words of UFC light heavyweight champion Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson, former champ Chuck Liddell, contender Keith Jardine and the dozens of other UFC stars who echoed the same sentiments to UFC President Dana White.

With Mir winning and Sylvia losing, my hope is that the UFC will grant Syvlia his request in rematching Mir, who broke Sylvia’s forearm in their first fight. At Thursdays press conference, Dana White said if Mir was able to defeat Lesnar, he would be one fight away from a title shot. Why not put him against the guy (Tim Sylvia) who just lost the title fight vs Antonio Noqueira?

Speaking of Nogueira…his performance on Saturday night proved why he continues to be one of my favourite fighters of all time. Fight after fight, he starts off slow and takes round after round of beatings. He patiently waits to take the fight to the ground, so he can get his top game going. During the fight, I told Sportsnet Producer Bob T, that if he can just sweep Sylvia over, start the stopwatch and count back from 30, cause that’s all the time Noguiera needs to slap on a submission. In round three, Nogueira proved my theory right.

So now the real question for Noquiera is whether or not Randy Couture will come back to the UFC and offer him a unification bout. Dana White called out ‘Captain America’ and said he expects Couture to honour his contract and his obligation to the organization, the fans and now, to Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. We still do not know who is right or wrong in the situation between Randy Couture and the UFC, but one thing is for certain: if it can get rectified soon and we are able to see the Couture/Nogueira unification bout, it would truely be one for the ages.