Random Fight Forum News and Comments 2013

[Guest John Hancock]

Yeah, they're planning on doing the 20th anniversary show in New York, with Jones/Silva as the rumoured main event.

[Guest Jack]

"Former welterweight contender Jon Fitch was among the 16 UFC fighters who were released from the promotion on Tuesday.

UFC president Dana White also confirmed with MMAFighting.com that the following fighters were also let go: Wagner Prado, Mike Russow, Jacob Volkmann, Vladimir Matyushenko, Che Mills, Jay Hieron, Terry Etim, Paul Sass, Jorge Santiago, Mike Stumpf, Simeon Thoresen, C.J. Keith, Motonobu Tezuka, Josh Grispi and Ulysses Gomez.

Each fighter was coming off at least one loss in his most recent fight."

 

 

 

This is a joke. Dana has had it out for Fitch for years, so I guess he was finally given enough of an excuse to get rid.

[Chris2K 176]

They're all victims of the Strikeforce invasion most likely, but it is surprising that Fitch has gone. The release of Mills, Etim and Sass isn't a good sign for UK MMA.

 

If I had to guess I'd say that a lot of the younger ones/Fitch will be back if they win a couple of indy fights and don't sign with Bellator or World Series of Fighting.

[Guest John Hancock]

Jon Fitch getting fired is hilarious. I remember him winning the number one contendership, and Dana just pretending it didn't happen for like two years until he finally lost.

[Guest Frank Botch]

I'd grown to like Fitch over the past couple of years (or so). I am going to spend the next seven months grinding my opinion onto people on the forums.

 

Fitch is the big shock but I'm also suprised at Mills and Matyushenko who was a fine Journeyman type. Ulysses Gomez should be kept on the power of his name alone.

[Guest John Hancock]

Well Dana White believes ya'll can f*ck ya selves.

 

[video=youtube;0aigksieKBE]

[Chris2K 176]

In the ongoing saga that only Chris2K is interested in, BT have now bought out all of ESPN's sports deals which will go into effect from some point this year. I have a feeling that it means that if you're a Sky customer you will need to fork out for both the BT Channels and then ESPN as an addition to that in order to see UFC shows.

 

If that is the case then I'm just going to have to pray Sky get the UFC rights.

[Guest Jack]

Is there a chance the ESPN shows will just be moved over onto the new BT sports channel instead? If so, they could create a really good rival to Sky Sports 1.

[Chris2K 176]

From what the BBC are saying BT are going to be keeping the ESPN and ESPN America channels as they are, just under their umbrella instead of Sky's. You will get the BT Sports package if you have BT Vision, if you have Sky (and that's 10,000,000 people with Sky compared to 700,000 for BT Vision) it seems you'll have to pay the extra for BT Sports and then possibly more if ESPN is made a pay-channel like it is now.

 

Basically at the moment if you have the Sky Sport package you can get ESPN as an extra, in July/August if you have the Sky sport package you will also need to get the BT sport package (if it's made available) and maybe extra for the ESPN channels too.

[Guest John Hancock]

So, Velasquez/Silva II has been confirmed for May. Who cares right? Well, if you're feeling ultra-unofficial and generous, you could call this fight a three-belt unification fight;

 

- The last official Strikeforce Heavyweight Champion was Overeem, Bigfoot beat him and hasn't lost since, so he's the Strikeforce Heavyweight Champion.

 

- The last official PRIDE Heavyweight Champion was Fedor, Werdum beat him, then Overeem beat Werdum, then Bigfoot beat Overeem.

 

- Cain's the UFC Heavyweight Champion.

[Chris2K 176]

Or if you're feeling ultra un-generous:

 

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/82567444/

[Guest John Hancock]

Well, there's that too.

 

EDIT: Meltzer says there's a possibility that, in North America, UFC 158 might get a higher buyrate than WrestleMania 29. GSP/Condit did 700,000, WrestleMania 28 did 715,000, and both are expected to do better numbers this time around.

 

EDIT II: Julio Chavez Jr. has been fined $900,000 for testing positive for weed. The Nevada State Athletic Commission is insane.

Edited February 28, 2013 by John Hancock

[Guest Jack]

Are UFC cards on PPV in Canada? And if so, do they get good numbers when GSP isn't fighting? Canadian crowds always seem to be fiercely loyal with their own athletes yet pretty passive when it comes to the sport as a whole, unless it's ice hockey.

 

A $900,000 fine seems hugely excessive, especially for what drug it was. I'm against drugs in sport but...really? I wouldn't be surprised if Keith Kizer's head was left outside a school tomorrow.

[Guest John Hancock]

UFC is on pay-per-view in Canada, but it's hard to tell how well it does compared to North America, because the numbers for the whole continent tend to be bundled in together when they're released.

[Chris2K 176]

Details on the re-branding of the FOX Sports stations are in;

 

Fox officially announced the launching of Fox Sports 1, which will debut on Saturday, August 17th, to major publicity.

 

The debut day will feature live events throughout the day, highlights by "UFC on FS1 1" as its prime time offering.

 

UFC will be a Wednesday night staple on the station. There will be live fight cards on Wednesdays. It will also air prelims for the FOX shows on Saturday nights and most of the PPV shows, UFC Tonight will move from Fuel (this is a big move) and will also air hundreds of hours of taped matches that are now featured on Fuel.

 

I hate the idea of mid-week shows, I won't have time to watch them until the weekend which means three days of spoiler avoiding.

[Guest John Hancock]

The New York State Senate has voted to legalise MMA. State Assembly up next, and that's the big one, because that's where all the union/Mafia money is.

[Guest Frank Botch]

Couple of pieces

 

Ariel Helwani reported at http://www.mmafighting.com/2013/3/6/4072916/alistair-overeem-injured-out-of-ufc-160-fight-against-junior-dos that Alistair Overeem suffered an injury that will put him out of training for four to five weeks, so he has pulled out of his 5/25 fight with Junior Dos Santos in Las Vegas.

 

No decision has been made regarding whether to move the fight to a later show or give Dos Santos a new opponent.

Dana White today released to ESPN that the main event for UFC 161 in Winnipieg on 6/15 will be Renan Barao vs. Eddie Wineland for the interim bantamweight title.

 

Dan Henderson vs. Rashad Evans, which in this case actually is the "real" main event (I wqnder if there will be all the Internet drama last time), like for real this time, was also announced last night by UFC after the press conference earlier in the day not making it official.

[Guest John Hancock]

What do you do with Dos Santos now? Mark Hunt maybe? There's so few heavyweights that matter that he hasn't already beaten.

[Guest The Beltster]

Mark Hunt I expect. Sucks because Reem/JDS would have been good and they hate each other which always helps make things interesting.

[Chris2K 176]

I think this would be the perfect opportunity for Chael P. Sonnen to test himself in the Heavyweight division.