The Week That Was – A Look Back at ‘Super Saturday’
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July 19 - July 25
One of the biggest weekends in
the history of mixed martial arts ended with plenty of buzz, and even more debate,
about who is the number one pound-for-pound fighter in the world. The consensus
top-two contenders, Fedor Emelianenko and Anderson Silva, both defeated their
opponents in strikingly similar fashion on July 19. Emelianenko, who had
recently fallen in rankings because he hadn’t faced top competition since 2005,
bashed former UFC Heavyweight Champion Tim Sylvia and submitted him with a
choke in 36 seconds; Silva floored and TKO’ed James Irvin in one minute with
sharp punches in his debut at light heavyweight. Several Top 10 rankings
were effected as a result, perhaps most significantly those of Sherdog.com. The
website’s rankings were cited by ESPN in coverage of the weekend, bestowing the
same stature as the venerable Ring Magazine’s boxing rankings. Emelianenko’s
fight, which resulted in him being crowned the first World Alliance of Mixed
Martial Arts heavyweight champion, headlined a successful inaugural event by
Affliction at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif. Silva’s fight headlined a
competing UFC Fight Night card that drew impressive ratings on Spike TV and
likely put the middleweight champion over-the-top as a drawing card.
Emelianenko’s performance drew
roars of approval from the 14,832 spectators on hand in Anaheim, 11,242 of which were paid, and
helped “Affliction: Banned” draw $2 million at the gate. While it
started slow, the pay-per-view presentation picked up momentum as the
heavyweight fights hit the ring, an abnormally large 30 x 30 surface. Former
UFC marquee heavyweight Andrei Arlovski was in incredible form knocking out Ben
Rothwell with a series of dynamic strikes, including a highlight-reel jumping
knee, that sent blood flying onto a television camera lens. Josh Barnett
avenged his 2001 loss to Pedro Rizzo with a brilliant left hook for an emphatic
knockout. Randy Couture, who remains in contractual limbo with the UFC, entered
the ring at the show’s conclusion and shook hands with Emelianenko, a scene
that instantly rekindled the flame of interest in a fight between the two. The
card had an eye-popping $3 million payroll, which is especially large
considering the UFC card the same night had a $623,000 disclosed payroll. The
Affliction tab includes an $800,000 payday for Sylvia, a $750,000 purse for
Arlovski and $300,000 purses for Emelianenko, Barnett and Matt Lindland.
Affliction Vice President Tom Atencio told MMA Junkie that the event exceeded
expectations in pay-per-view buys, but hinted the next event would have a
scaled-down budget. Yahoo! Sports reported that an Emelianenko v. Arlovski
title fight will headline Affliction’s next card on Oct. 11 at the Thomas and Mack Center
in Las Vegas.
On Spike TV the same night,
Silva’s destruction of James Irvin helped the UFC draw a 2.1 share rating,
which translates to an average of 3.1 million viewers. The rating was the third
highest to ever watch a UFC event. The three-hour telecast dominated in
coveted male demographics for the night, and beat out Saturday afternoon Major
League Baseball on Fox. According to MMA Junkie, the audience peaked at 4.46
million watching the Silva fight, a performance that earned the middleweight
champion $200,000. Brandon Vera looked sluggish in dropping to light
heavyweight competition, though he was able to outpoint International
Fight League veteran Reese Andy with strikes to earn $200,000. Unlike
Silva, Vera may stay at light heavyweight; 205-pounder Keith Jardine announced
he will face Vera at UFC 89 in Birmingham,
England. The
UFC issued $25,000 bonuses after the Fight Night card. Lightweights Frankie Edgar
and Hermes Franca received the bonus for their three-round battle, which went
to Edgar via unanimous decision. Also, the debuting Rory Markham won a best
knockout payday for his head kick KO of Brodie Farber, and “Ultimate
Fighter 7″ alumnus C.B. Dollaway, who submitted Jesse Taylor with a unique
arm choke submission called The Peruvian Necktie, got submission of the night.
Also picking up wins in Las Vegas
were Cain Velasquez and Steve Burns. Burns was awarded a TKO victory over
Anthony Johnson although he poked Johnson in the eye.
NEWSWORTHY
- The Fight Network confirmed
this week that the International Fight League, formed in 2006, will be closed
by July 31. The league faced financial issues from the outset, routinely
spending more on television productions than they took in for tickets and
sponsorships. The latest IFL fighter to announce singing with the UFC is the
group’s middleweight champion. Dan Miller’s manager confirmed to MMA Junkie
that the submission specialist, who defeated Ryan McGivern for the title on the
IFL’s last card in May, has signed a four-fight contract. Miller’s brother Jim,
a lightweight fighter UFC has shown interest in before, has also signed. It is
almost certain Zuffa LLC, the parent company of the UFC, is the buyer of the
IFL.
- With the second live MMA event
on primetime network television set for Saturday night on CBS, EliteXC went
about making news this week. Officials from the league’s parent company,
ProElite, hinted a deal is likely with Fox Sports Net to broadcast fights from
fight promotions owned by the company, which include EXC, Cage Rage, King of
The Cage and ICON Sport. FSN is likely looking holes in its MMA schedule with
the IFL going out of business and the end of a series of archived Pride
Fighting Championships bouts. EXC also hinted they are looking at doing a
pay-per-view card in early 2009. The arena for Saturday’s card, in Stockon, Calif.
is configured for 7,500 to 8,000 seats and half were sold as of last weekend,
according to company officials. The company added a last-minute swing bout
between Stockton’s
David Douglas and Chute Boxe’s Marlon Mathias, which will only see the light of
day if the fights before the main event of Robbie Lawler v. Scott Smith end
quickly. Saturday night’s “Unfinished Business” event will be
countered by a free airing of UFC 84 on Spike TV, during which UFC President
Dana White promises a big announcement.
- Joachim Hansen emerged from
Dream 5 the surprise winner of the company’s inaugural lightweight grand prix
tournament. The card on July 21 from Osaka
saw Hansen win a tournament reserve match over Kultar “Black Mamba”
Gil via armbar; he was later tapped to fill in for an injured Eddie Alvarez.
Alvarez dazzled in a thrilling throwdown with tournament favorite Tatsuya Kawajiri,
surging forth with left hands to knock out the Japanese fighter. But Alvarez
suffered a badly swollen eye, and Dream doctors would not allow him to compete
in the final despite his protests. This meant submission whiz Shinya Aoki, who
earlier used superb ground control to win a decision over veteran Caol Uno,
faced Hansen in the final. Hansen dropped a powerful punch on a ground-prone
Aoki for the TKO after dodging a Kimura attempt. Hansen collected a $100,000
prize and a championship belt for the win, and is expected to face Alvarez in a
rematch of a fight of the year candidate in his first title defense.
Dream 5, a live network television
special in Japan,
drew an announced 11,986 fans and a 10.0 share television rating. The event was
hurt by the losses of two of the country’s top draws, Norifumi “Kid”
Yamamoto and Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic, due to injuries. The
most-watched fight of the night was Yoshihiro Akiyama, the controversial and
charismatic judo master, versus pro wrestler Katsuyori Shibata. Akiyama had
little trouble dispatching Shibata with a gi choke. Also picking up wins were
Alistair Overeem, who submitted brawler Mark Hunt with a kimura lock, and
Joseph Benavidez, who was set to face Yamamoto but instead submitted Shooto
veteran Junya Kudo with a guillotine. WEC superstar Urijah Faber, who is
neck-and-neck with Yamamoto at the top of the world featherweight rankings, was
on hand to corner Benavidez.
- In matchmaking notes this week,
the card for UFC 88 on Sept. 6 in Atlanta
was rounded out with the announcements of Dan Henderson v. Rousimar Palhares,
Rich Franklin v. Matt Hammil, Kurt Pellegrino v. Thiago Tavares and Karo
Parisyan v. Yoshiyuki Yasuda. Chuck Liddell v. Rashad Evans will headline the
event. In addition, the Diego Sanchez v. Thiago Alves fight originally expected
for UFC 89 on Oct. 11 has been moved to UFC 90 on Oct. 25, which takes place
just outside of Chicago.
Leonard Garcia has reportedly agreed to fight Jens Pulver on the big Sept. 10
World Extreme Cagefighting event from Florida,
which is headlined by Urijah Faber v. Mike Brown. Garcia was recently cleared
of federal drug distribution charges. Finally, the next fight for top-ranked
lightweight Takanori Gomi is set for “Sengoku 4″ on Aug. 24 at the Saitama
Super Arena in Japan. The former PRIDE champ faces DEEP lightweight titleholder
Sung Hawn Pang
QUOTEWORTHY
“Once again I think the UFC
proved that UFC has the best fighters in the world. If there was any event out
there that would have the balls to put together a team to fight a UFC team,
there’s no doubt in my mind that it would be a slaughter” — Anderson
Silva in post-fight press conference after defeating James Irvin.
“You never know how short or
long the fight will be, but I just wanted to end it as quickly as possible. I
just wanted to show the fans my skills” — Fedor Emelianenko after
defeating Tim Sylvia.
“I was amazed at how good he
is. The guy’s a stud. I don’t think he’s human. He’s incredible. I don’t think
anybody’s going to beat him for a while” – Tim Sylvia after his loss.
“Anyone who doesn’t think
that guy is the baddest man on the planet is completely full of s—” –
John McCarthy to Sherdog.com about Emelianenko.
“I’m going to make some
adjustments in the next fight, and we’ll take it from there. If we want this to
be a viable business, we have to make some changes. We needed to come out of
the gates guns-a-blazing, and that’s what we did. We made a splash” -
Affliction vice president Tom Atencio to MMA Junkie about the group’s first event.
“I heard if I [won] I may be
in the final if someone got injured. I was ready for a beer, you know, and [to]
kick back and relax. The guys in my team told me I was in the final, so I said,
‘I’ll give it a shot, you know, do my best’” – Joachim Hansen to Sherdog.com
about being tapped for, and winning, the Dream lightweight tournament final.
“We are very proud of what
we did here in just over two years, building a brand from nothing into
something that people in the industry and outside of the industry actually
noticed . . . At the end of the day sometimes the finances don’t make sense,
but it certainly wasn’t for lack of trying” — IFL senior vice president
of communications Joe Favorito to The Fight Network about the closing of the
company.
“To be perfectly honest, I
think there was more of a wrestling element to that show and I didn’t like it.
I’d much rather present them as great athletes and warriors, which they are,
but it got a bit clownish and that didn’t do us any favors” — Kelly Kahl,
senior executive vice president of CBS Primetime, to MMA Junkie about the first
EliteXC CBS presentation on May 31.
“We understand that the
numbers won’t be as big as the first time, but we’re all expecting to do some
good numbers. I really couldn’t tell you what is a success and what isn’t a
success. I’m just looking forward to putting on the best event possible and
getting as much people as possible out to watch it.” — ProElite executive
vice president Doug DeLuca’s about EXC’s return to CBS Saturday night.
——————–
NEXT WEEK
Many questions will be answered
about the sport’s mass appeal as ratings numbers trickle in from the second
EliteXC event on CBS, a no-gimmicks card headlined by Robbie Lawler v.
Scott Smith.
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