Would you rather see us at 1on1fights.com or here at MMA.BS? We’ve had a lot of comments that the BS just makes it seem like we’ll have crappy quality; what do you think? A lot of the thoughts have been that because of the .bs extension, we might have difficulty ranking well against other .coms in our niche. In addition, people outside the martial arts industry think the BS just makes you think of bullshit in the worst way, and visitors wouldn’t be interested in visiting. They think 1on1fights.com would be better, since in addition to being a brandable(ish) .com, it also has the advantage of placing highly on other websites blog/link lists, should they have the organized alphabetically. Which plenty do.

Let us know, we’re developing both sites together but we’ll only stick with one. And if you like any of the new themes, we’re experimenting a bit the next week and we’d like to hear your thoughts! Please excuse the mess for the next couple of days!

Contrary to popular belief, the story of modern mixed martial arts doesn’t begin with UFC 1 in Denver in 1993 or with the Gracie family of Brazil. Though of course the Gracies deserve a prominent place in the history of MMA, their intention was never for fighters to begin training across styles. Quite the opposite! Their intention was to prove that Gracie Jiu-Jitsu was the most dominant style of martial arts, a traditional and now seemingly archaic notion about dominance of a single fighting art. Sport MMA is an unintentional by-product of their goal.

No, UFC 1 created the most prominent forum ever for martial arts styles to mix, but the philosophical underpinnings of MMA began in the San Francisco Bay area in 1965 by an ingenious martial arts pioneer: Bruce Lee, known in his native China as Jun Fan.

Lee’s daughter, Shannon, spoke exclusively about her father’s contribution to mixed martial arts and her efforts to assert his legacy within the sport.

Mrs. Lee recounted the story that lead Bruce to the epiphany on which modern MMA is founded. The story is now legendary, but rarely told in context of the history of mixed martial arts.

Lee was already challenging traditional notions by 1965. He was a practitioner of Wing Chung kung fu under Master Yip Man in Hong Kong and had been teaching the art since 1959 after expatriating to the United States. Lee was calling his style Jun Fan Gung Fu, but it was essentially his approach to Wing Chun. After opening his school in Oakland, his teaching of non-Chinese began to cause controversy among other Chinese martial artists in the San Francisco Bay area. Lee defended his spreading of Wing Chun and a duel was arranged between Lee and a fighter fielded to defend the art’s tradition of Chinese exclusivity.

The fight was to be no holds barred. If Lee won, he could continue to teach Jun Fan Gung Fu to anyone he desired. If he lost, he’d close his school and quit teaching to non-Chinese.

The duel wasn’t televised on pay per view and no documentation exists but a few first-hand accounts, including Lee’s own, his wife Linda’s, and his opponent Wong Jack Man’s (which, notably, differs dramatically from Bruce and Linda’s).

Shannon Lee told Fighters.com the version told by her parents. The fight lasted three minutes and, after absorbing strikes from Lee during the first minute, Man began to literally run from Lee. But, Lee desired a conclusive victory and chased Man, beating him into verbal submission.

But, Lee felt the fight should’ve ended quicker. He was disappointed with his physical conditioning and the limitations of his traditional Wing Chun martial art. This was a key turning point in the history of mixed martial arts, a philosophical evolution from traditional to modern, the way fighters think and train today.

After the fight, Lee had an image created of a burial mound with a tombstone to symbolize his death as a traditional martial artist and his rebirth as the first modern mixed martial artist, though of course the term “mixed martial artist” would’ve been unknown to Lee.

Lee went on to inspire generations of Westerners to train martial arts through his cinematic work and even developed an entirely original fighting style based on his epiphany he called Jeet Kune Do. It was his writing and research in cross-training traditional styles with a focus on practicality and emphasis on physical conditioning leading him to create Jeet Kune Do that is truely the foundation of MMA as we know it today.

Shannon Lee doesn’t consider Jeet Kune Do a linear precursor to MMA, but a style all it’s own. However, she does encourage Fighters.com’s tenth-ranked welterweight “Killa B” Ben Saunders (8-1-2) to talk about his foundation in Jeet Kune Do and it’s influence on him as a professional mixed martial artist. Through her LeeWay Media Group she produced “How Bruce Lee Changed the World” for the History Channel last year, which included commentary by Saunders, Fighters.com and UFC middleweight champion “Spider” Anderson Silva (25-4), tenth-ranked heavyweight “Natural” Randy Couture (18-10), and UFC President Dana White. The documentary is available to rent on NetFlix.

Mrs. Lee also told Fighters.com that she plans to make her father’s place in MMA history more apparent over the next year through her production company, licensing company, and the non-profit Bruce Lee Foundation.

Shannon said she’s had talks with the major MMA apparel companies over the years to license Bruce Lee’s image and market it to MMA fans, but that nothing substantial or, she thought, worthy of her father’s legacy had come about until recently. In the next year she told Fighters.com that MMA fans will have to opportunity to honor Bruce Lee’s connection to the sport with apparel that’ll be designed and marketed for them.

You can read the rest of the article by Chad Edward at Fighters.com.

What do you think, how do they make Bruce Lee apparel appeal to a lot of these TapouT-types?

UFC 115 takes places from Vancouver, BC on June 12th and will be the promotions debut in the province. British Columbia just recently began regulating MMA. The card is expected to host the third and hopefully final bout between Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz as well as see Wanderlei Silva take on Yoshihiro Akiyami.

The rumored card (always subject to change):

MAIN CARD

Chuck Liddell vs. Tito Ortiz
Yoshihiro Akiyama vs. Wanderlei Silva
Patrick Barry vs. Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic
Ben Rothwell vs. Gilbert Yvel
Evan Dunham vs. Tyson Griffin

PRELIMINARY CARD

Carlos Condit vs. Rory MacDonald
Jesse Lennox vs. Mike Pyle
Peter Sobotta vs. James Wilks

What do you think?

I personally believe Jones will destroy Vera. Wanna bet?

After discussing Alistair Overeem’s future again with his management, the only comment was that the next announcement we will hear about Alistair Overeem will come from Strikeforce. While the date and opponent have not been officially unveiled yet, the rumors right now are that Overeem will compete at DREAM.13 as well as Strikeforce in May. As for his opponent? The only solid guess right now is Neil Grove, who recently said he was fighting at DREAM.13. All signs are pointing for Alistair Overeem to fight in the United States again and very, very soon.

This of course could mean that Overeem will not participate on the K-1 World Grand Prix in Yokohama show if he is fighting at the DREAM event just days before and Strikeforce the next month. That of course will have to be ironed out in the coming weeks, as more of the fights for K-1 Yokohama and DREAM.13 start to filter out. The kickboxing world might have to wait for Ray Sefo vs. Alistair Overeem, which is a shame.

EDIT: Although, K-1′s Tanigawa does say on his twitter that Overeem will fight at 4/3 Yokohama and not DREAM.13. This has been a fun weekend for Alistair Overeem news. As always, grain of salt until there is a fight announced.

What do you think? Extra points at being a slick SOB if you get your guess in before the announcement!

The mixed martial arts promotion last year announced that it had struck a three-year deal with Topps — the leading creator and marketer of sports and related trading cards and entertainment products — to produce trading cards and stickers that feature “current, future and former UFC athletes.”

Yesterday (Feb. 24) the UFC “Main Event” cards for 2010 became available in stores with a special promotion that will send one lucky fan (and a guest) on an all expenses paid trip to Las Vegas to be UFC President Dana White’s special guest at the UFC Training Center — in addition to sitting cage side with Dana during one of the Ultimate Fighter (TUF) preliminary matches.

All you need to do is be the first collector to find one of the 10 randomly inserted triple autograph cards featuring Dana White, Chuck Liddell, and Tito Ortiz and email Topps at UFCprize@topps.com. Nine second place collectors will receive a pair of UFC gloves signed by White, Liddell, and Ortiz.

Brock Lesnar, BJ Penn, Anderson Silva, Kimbo Slice and many other fighters are currently featured in the sophomore series.

For more details on the UFC “Main Event” 2010 trading cards click here.

For those that don’t know. I fight Quinton May 29th in Vegas at the MGM. I’m gonna do most of my camp in Denver at Grudge still team Jackson.

I’m knocking Rashad out May 29th!! It’s on!!

Sweet, although unfortunately much of the hype that had built up during Rampage’s and Rashad’s numerous hee hee, ha ha, ‘here they go again’ moments during the last season of TUF has faded; we’re still damn excited to see them throw down. Kevin Iole noted in his recent mailbag (thanks to Cage Potato for the heads up) that he thought Rampage looked “plump” in Australia. Yeah, we noticed that too while watching this weekend’s UFC, although we weren’t sure if it was a case of ‘that’s just from the lighting’ gut. Iole also mentioned he saw Rampage smoking a cigarette…Hollywood…

Anyways, we thought Rampage would be back, now let’s all sit back and enjoy the show.

Thanks to MMAFix for the story.

February 22, 2010

Welcome to another edition of Payout Perspective! This week we’ll be taking a look at the UFC’s first event in Australia, UFC 110, held on Sunday, February 21st from the Acer Arena in Sydney (but shown live on PPV in North America on Saturday). The event featured a heavyweight contender’s match between Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Cain Velasquez, in addition to a middleweight showdown between Wanderlei Silva and Michael Bisping.

UFC 110 by the Numbers

Attendance/Gate

The announced attendance for the fight was 17,431, which drew a live gate of approximately $2.2 million US ($2.5m AUD).

Disclosed Payouts

Unlikely to be released.

Disclosed Bonuses

Fight of the Night: George Sortiropoul0s vs. Joe Stevenson ($50,000 each)
Knockout of the Night: Cain Velasquez ($50,000)
Submission of the Night: Chris Lytle ($50,000)

Total Disclosed Bonuses: $200,000

PPV Buyrate Prediction:

The numbers for UFC 110 are again pretty strong with the live gate generating approximately $2.2 million US and Countdown to UFC 110 drawing 635,000 viewers. However, the countdown viewership has been skewing unusually high lately as the result of Spike’s new strategy to schedule the show immediately following large demographical lead-ins from other related content like other MMA or wrestling programs. Thus, I’ve decided to weight the prediction with a 75-25 skew towards the gate (traditionally a less volatile indicator than the countdown ratings).

When you plug the figures into the linear equation derived from a regression analysis you’re left with the following range:

* UFC 110 gate prediction: 412,000
* UFC 110 countdown prediction: 570,000
* Weighted average: 452,000

The expectations for this card weren’t superb in terms of its ability to sell. Indeed, 450,000 seems to be the ceiling for a card of this caliber and hype. However, let’s take a look at some of the factors that may have influenced the buyrate one way or another.

+ Strongest card on paper since UFC 107
+ The UFC did a very good job of promoting the fact it was taking its show on the road; may have drawn a part of that casual crowd, curious to see what all the international fuss is about.
+ Nogueira isn’t the tremendously weak draw that everyone believes him to be; he’s co-headlined two shows that surpassed 600k, and was last seen in a candidate for 2009 fight of the year when he beat Randy Couture at UFC 102. Also don’t forget he did TUF with Mir.
– On the other hand, there was again no title match on the card. These make all the difference in the world where buyrates are concerned.
– The live gate may be inflated by the fact that it was the UFC’s first-ever time in Australia. If you discount the gate by 20% you’re looking at a new weighted average of 390,000.

Greg Saks of Tapology.com has predicted 355,000 buys using his online buzz indicators.

Business Story Lines

Velasquez dominant, heavyweight division looking tough

Velasquez has officially jumped the chasm from being touted prospect to legitimate title contender. He keeps getting better with each and every fight, and to dismantle a legend like Nogeuira the way he did was very impressive. Granted, Nogueira’s chin threshold has lowered substantially – the man that used to be able to take a beating, no longer can – but he’s still a formidable top 10 opponent.

Now things are looking very interesting in the heavyweight division. Velasquez will likely get a crack at Lesnar (or whomever the champion happens to be) at some point this year. He also joins a slew of capable threats at the top of the division (including Mir, Carwin, and Dos Santos), which gives the UFC heavyweights a look and feel that it’s probably never had before – depth.

If Lesnar’s ability to draw is any indication, the public is very much interested in seeing these gargantuan men collide in the cage. Thus, while the growth of the UFC and MMA has yet to be paced by the success of the heavyweight division, the big men will likely play an increasingly critical role in driving interest and sales in the future.

Velasquez has immense potential to help draw Hispanic audience into MMA

Velasquez claims Salinas, CA to be home, but he’s very proud and in-tune with his Mexican heritage. The importance of this fact should not be understated, because the UFC is trying to attract the hispanic demographic (traditionally a very strong supporter of boxing) and possibly expand into Mexico with a live show in the next few years.

The marketing study performed by Damon et al talked about vicarious achievement, which is essentially a fan experiencing a degree of perceived achievement just by watching his/her favorite fighter succeed. The study suggested this was a strong motivator for the consumption of MMA, but I propose – strictly through my own observations – that the effects of vicarious achievement are even stronger within MMA’s minority demographics. The Hispanic audience doesn’t just like boxing, it likes cheering for Hispanic boxers.

Thus, perhaps the key to success in terms of attracting the Hispanic demographic is to utilize fighters like Cain Velasquez and Efrain Escudero to help build that market. Similarly, judging by the reaction that George Sortiropoulos was given by his hometown crowd (or even what GSP receives in Canada) the effects of this vicarious achievement may become even more important for the growth of MMA as it increasingly becomes an international sport.

Mixed reviews from Australian media

The Good: Dan Koch, The Australian, Ultimate Fighting Championship Takes Center Stage

The Bad: Peter Fitzsimons, Sydney Morning Herald, ‘Smell the blood!’ The Sickening Roar for Gore

UFC breaks Acer Arena records

According to Dana White, the UFC broke arena records for highest grossing event and highest merchandise sales. UFC 110 was also the second fastest sellout in UFC history when tickets vanished in little over an hour (Montreal owns the top spot with something like six minutes).

UFC plans annual event in Australia

The UFC’s debut in Australia was so successful that the organization is hoping to hold an event in the country on an annual basis. This is something we’d heard talk of before the event, but White confirmed as much at the post-fight press conference. Melbourne is the target destination, but the market has yet to be sanctioned. Perth is the other location being discussed.

Not only was the show a success in terms of the tremendous response the UFC received from the fans in Australia, but the event performed so well in terms of entertainment value that it’s hard to believe the UFC didn’t make a host of new fans watching the event on TV throughout the country. It helps, of course, that the fight of the night came from the performance of an Aussie.

Prospect Watch

UFC 110 showcased a plethora of young fighting prospects, so understandably the results weren’t all positive. Cain Velasquez obviously stepped up and shed his prospect status, becoming a bona fide title contender at 265lbs. Further success was had by Sortiropoulos, Bader, and Dollaway – the former two are now ready to face top ten fighters, while the latter secured a much needed victory to remain in the UFC. Unfortunately, the night wasn’t as positive for Goran Reljic and Brian Foster; each man will look to re-group but neither is likely in danger of being cut loose.

Sponsorship Watch

The UFC’s approach to sponsorship understandably changes when it ventures internationally, so we saw a slightly different approach to cage mat sponsorship at the event. Gamefly.com took the center octagon sponsorship, but was joined by a host of smaller logo sponsorships on the periphery (including new comers USAToday.com and SI.com). The event was sponsored by a new television series on the FX network, Justified, set to debut in March.

Something to keep an eye on as the UFC continues to expand internationally is the exclusivity of its sponsorship contracts. MMAPayout.com talked about the emerging technologies that might allow the UFC to offer unique sponsorship packages to different broadcasts throughout the world, which would obviously boost revenues. If the organization can pair down its contracts to exclusivity by region, it may have an opportunity to utilize green screen technology to give, for example, English, Hispanic, Arabic, Korean, and Japanese feeds different title sponsors.

Courtesy of MMAPayout and available at UFC 110 Payout Perspective.

What do you think?

The move would be the first of its kind in MMA, following the example of boxing and their theater presentation of Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Juan Manuel-Marquez last year.

According to MovieTickets.com , retail price for one ticket is $25.00 plus a $1.00 service charge, with no change in price for seniors or children.

The early opinion from fight fans is not of the most positive and many have been voicing their dislike of a few characteristics of the situation.

Opportunities to drink your choice of alcohol may not be readily available at most, if not any, theaters showing the fight on Mar. 27.

With Bud Light being one of the main sponsors of the UFC, it’s difficult to imagine a tremendous amount of it will be sold to theater goers during the hours of the event.

In addition to the price of the ticket, those who enjoy a good meal during the fights will be restricted to the concession stands, where a box of candy costs close to five dollars.

A couple going to watch the fights will have to spend a minimum of $50 just for tickets, while spending anywhere from an additional $20 to $30 for food.

For the common fight fan, these points make it a tough sell for the UFC to make, and movie theaters could be close to empty as a result.

Not all opinion is negative, however.

Having the fights shown on a giant screen in high definition with a state-of-the-art sound system is an experience that is second to none.

Seeing an already enormous Shane Carwin fight a recently beefed up Frank Mir on a giant screen is unlike any view one might have at a local sports bar.

Only millionaires have screens that size in their own homes, while the average UFC fan is still saving money trying to buy their first flat screen.

Eating at home before the fight might be an alternative to eating during the action and would save good chunk of money. With the fight being three hours (and depending on where one lives in the lower 48 states), having a few drinks before or after the fights is also a valid option.

Dinner, then a movie is the thrifty approach as opposed to dinner during the movie.

One cannot ignore the question of how the UFC will perform when it comes to theater revenue and how many seats are filled once UFC 111 is on the silver screen.

Like other sports in the past, the UFC is hopeful to sell a decent amount of tickets and add that revenue to the amount they make off of Pay-Per-View sales.

The speculated goal is to avoid the low numbers of the Mayweather-Marquez theater effort reported by USAToday.com , where they earned a $6.8M (gate) with 12,006 tickets sold. Over 2,600 tickets were unsold and over 800 seats were given away.

The bottom line is Dana White and Zuffa see a profit in putting this highly anticipated card in movie theaters, so there must be something they know that the majority of the public fails to realize.

Each fight fan is different, and they enjoy watching UFC events in their own particular fashion.

Whether it be in a movie theater, in a crowded sports bar, or in the comfort of their own home, viewers will find a way to watch this card and enjoy it for all it’s worth.

This time around, there is just one more option.

With the recent win by Cain Velasquez at UFC 110, the UFC 111 bout between Frank Mir and Shane Carwin gains more attention and curiosity with the question of who will fight heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar.

UFC 111 will give more clarity to the heavyweight title picture and, if seen in HD on a movie screen, nothing will be more clear and, literally, in your face.

Georges St. Pierre and Dan Hardy will headline the card while Jon Fitch and Thiago Alves add fire with a pretty intense rematch.

UFC 111: St. Pierre vs. Hardy will take place on Mar. 27, 2010 at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ at 10pm ET, 7pm PT.

For list of theaters showing the fight, click here.

Story courtesy of BleacherReport.