The Fighting Life Is Moving

That’s right. I officially engaged the services of a web designer, and now this blog is becoming something resembling a real website. You can check out the brand new version at thefightinglife.com right now. Is it basically the same thing that I’ve been doing for some time now? Yeah, but I think it looks a little cooler.

Why I’m Eagerly Anticipating BET’s “Iron Ring”

Tonight, my friends, marks the premiere of BET’s foray into the world of mixed martial arts with their new show “Iron Ring”.  I could not be more excited.  Why?  Just take a look at this description of the show from BET’s official website:

An all-star line-up of celebrities, including Ludacris, Juelz Santana, Lil Jon, Nelly and Floyd Mayweather, will manage teams of fighters in the best mixed martial arts match-ups on television.

From a steel ring above the arena, the celebrity “owners” will interact with their gladiators between rounds – and sometimes right in the middle of them. Each week, as top competitors enter the battle zone to face off, using the combined techniques of jiu-jitsu, judo, karate, boxing, kickboxing and wrestling, viewers will witness true-to-life, bone-crushing, face-smashing sports entertainment unlike anything ever seen before. Only the strong will survive!

I don’t know about you, but all I caught there was “gladiators”, “steel ring above the arena”, and “Ludacris”.  That’s all I needed to know.  Count me in, BET.

Now, I realize I’m not a member of BET’s target demographic.  I’m what sociologists refer to as “a white dude”.  I only own one pair of sneakers and zero sets of spinners.  I only get about half the jokes on “Comic View”, and though I’ve heard of “106 & Park” through rap songs, I’ve never seen a full episode.

That being said, I am making it a point to watch “Iron Ring” tonight.  I know some MMA fans are already against it, the same way they were against “Never Back Down”, based solely on the previews, but not me.  It’s not that I’m necessarily expecting “Iron Ring” to be any good.  I’m not.  But the mere fact that it’s happening is important and, dare I say, encouraging.

For one, it introduces a whole new demographic to our sport.  That’s not to say that black Americans don’t know or care about MMA right now, but I think it’s fair to say that they haven’t embraced it the way nerdy white dudes on the internet have.  That’s somewhat of an unfair comparison, I realize, because if there’s one thing nerdy white dudes are good at it’s embracing things on the internet.  But bringing MMA to BET means exposure before a different audience, maybe an audience that hasn’t been properly courted in the past.  Maybe you come for Ludacris and you stay for the fights.  Stranger things have happened.

Aside from that, though, we have to remember that TV is a business built on imitation.  A new MMA show means that TV producers are beginning to recognize the potential of the sport.  “Iron Ring” may not change the face of MMA forever, but if it gets fresh blood involved that means things are headed in the right direction.

On another level, I can’t wait to see what Ludacris and Lil Jon are like as “owners” of MMA teams.  I’m guessing that their technical advice between rounds might be something along the lines of “hit him in the face”, which is always helpful.  But I’m also guessing that they’ll have some hilarious commentary mixed in there somewhere.  Personalities like that have never hurt the fight game.

Of course, I could be wrong.  “Iron Ring” could be an abomination with only a vague resemblance to MMA.  Or it could be the greatest thing ever to come on basic cable.  My feeling is that it will be somewhere between those two extremes, but at the same time it might alert a few new people to this thing called MMA, wherein men punch and kick and slam and choke one another, and those people will wonder why they weren’t informed of this earlier as they rush off to investigate it more fully and discover a beautiful world they never knew existed.

Even if that only happens for one person who tunes in hoping to catch the last hour of “Soul Plane”, it will be worth it.  It’s like Ludacris once said: “Ho tell everybody, even the mayor.  Reach up in the sky for the ho-zone layer.”

No, wait.  I guess it’s not like that at all.  Still cool, though.

Exclusive Kenny Florian Interview

I had a chance to talk with UFC lightweight contender Kenny Florian recently, and the full interview is now live on Cage Potato.  Florian is one of the smartest, most self-aware fighters that I’ve had the opportunity to interview, and his story is an interesting one.

Here’s an excerpt:

Reading past interviews with you, it seems like you’re really motivated by your losses. What’s it like after a big loss, when you get back to the dressing room and have to face that dark moment? How do you move past it?

It’s a terrible, terrible feeling. My loss to Sean Sherk haunts me to this day. At the same time it motivates me, and I can look at it as a positive experience. You can let things like that defeat you, or you put them behind you and learn from them and get better. That’s what I tried to do. There’s no such thing as a setback in life. There are only lessons. We’re made to evolve and get better and faster and stronger. You can do that within your own life.

It’s like pushing weights for the first time and your body’s sore and it sucks and it’s really hard, but after a while your muscles and your nervous system and everything gets stronger. Your muscle memory gets better. That’s the way it is with certain things in fighting. If you have a loss, you need to look at it and learn from it. What technical mistakes did I make? What strategic mistakes did I make? What mental mistakes did I make?

You cover all those bases and, if you need to, write it down and start working on patching those holes up. You can only look at it as a positive and live in the present day. If you live in the past, you’re dead.

Reading about your near-death experience in Brazil, it seems like that had a profound effect on the course of your life. If that incident didn’t happen, do you think you’d have become a pro fighter?

It’s funny, because I’m not sure. I think there are certain times in life where we need to be shaken up so we realize that life is short and you need to not just follow what feels good, but follow what you love. That was a fear of mine. What if I give up this full-time job to try to be a pro fighter or a jiu-jitsu teacher or whatever my plans were at the time, and what would happen? I might be a failure and my friends and family will look at me as a loser, and here I had this job and this life that I gave up.

But that experience just made me realize how much regret I would have had if I had died at the moment and never got a chance to chase my dream and do what I really loved doing. It would have been a shame. I think there are a lot of people in life who are doing that. I’m not saying it’s necessarily bad, because I think there’s something noble about trying to provide for your family and making ends meet, but at the same time if there’s something that you love and that you’re passionate about, why not try and do it?

I’m glad I made that decision. It was tough at times. I had to move out of my place. I had to live with family and friends for a while. It was tough, but I wouldn’t change anything. I went from making around forty thousand dollars a year to making just a few thousand dollars a year, but I was waking up and putting a gi on every day and I was happy as hell.

Read the full interview here.

Roy Nelson Punches Me in the Face

It seemed like a good idea at the time.  During our pre-fight interviews before the IFL’s show in Las Vegas, we asked some fighters to demonstrate their favorite moves.  After a brief discussion, it was decided that I would the demonstration dummy for these.  It made for an interesting day, especially when Matt Horwich put me in something called a “ninjaplata”, which I suspect he made it up on the spot.

I wasn’t crazy about Roy Nelson’s idea to demonstrate an overhand right on me, but it worked out okay.  He stopped just short of hitting me, though just hearing him describe how he liked to target his punch on the back corner of a man’s jaw made me a little uneasy.  I mean, that just sounds unpleasant.

Anyway, here’s the video demonstration of “Big Country” doing the overhand right, plus a look at how he put it to work against Antoine Jaoude.

Paulo Filho Goes to Rehab

First Paulo Filho pulled out of his rematch with Chael Sonnen, citing depression.  Then the WEC middleweight champion changed his mind and got back in.  Now he’s out again, and this time it may stick.  Filho has reportedly checked himself into rehab for a non-specific chemical dependency problem.  Hmmm.  Depression.  Huge muscles.  Trouble making weight.  Mercurial behavior.  I wonder what he’s on…

Honestly, it’s hard not to feel for Paulo Filho right now.  Ever since I saw the video clip of him getting seriously concerned for Ricardo Arona and his stab wounds, I’ve had a soft spot for the guy.  We saw glimpses of his almost uncomfortable sincerity when he initially pulled out of this rematch, basically saying that he was too sad to train.  Now that he’s entering rehab I feel equal parts disappointed and relieved.

Filho seems like he needs help, and we all hope he gets it.  His manager, Jorge Guimaraes, had this to say to Sherdog about the situation:

 “We tried our best with Filho, but it didn’t work and he’ll not fight in the WEC. He tried with all his effort to accomplish the title defense, but he realized he couldn’t do it due to chemical dependence and depression. He knew this kind of stuff does not have a link with the sport, and I’m happy he had a conscience and looked for help…The WEC staff was superb with us. They understood the situation, and Filho will return and defend his belt in June.”

Now, I’m no addiction specialist, but June seems like a quick comeback.  That gives him three months to get clean and get into fighting shape.  If I were Filho’s friend, I might advise him to deal with one issue at a time.  First kick this drug problem and get your mind right.  Then get back in the gym and think about fighting again.  The stress of preparing for a title fight doesn’t seem entirely conducive to focusing on sobriety.

Let’s hope Filho has friends who can give him this kind of advice, rather than managers who might have other priorities.  For now, let’s all enjoy this Zapruder film of Filho taking on recent IFL addition Alexandre “Cacareco” Ferreira in a no-gi grappling match in Brazil.  Watch for the totally sweet suplex from “Cacareco” just after the two-minute mark.  As this video makes clear, Brazilians love them some grappling.  Sounds like a soccer match in there.  Enjoy.

The Transitive Property Fallacy

Yesterday, commenter Vrax brought up an interesting point in his response to my Fedor article.  He wrote that we have reason to believe that Randy Couture is better than Fedor Emelianenko based on Couture’s victory over Gonzaga, who defeated “Cro Cop”, who had gone to a fairly close decision against Fedor.

This, my friends, is what we’ll call the Transitive Property Fallacy of MMA.  We’ve all used it at one point or another to try and justify some unprovable statement, just like we’ve all built up straw men or confused correlation for causation (for example, my friend Dan Brooks wears glasses and and is a closeted homosexual, though this does not mean that wearing glasses has caused him to be a closeted homosexual. The real cause is most likely singing in his church choir all the way into his teens.  See how that works?).

I’m not trying to call out Vrax in particular here, because we’re all guilty of this at times.  He seems like a smart guy and so I’m guessing he won’t mind me using his comment to make a point that is long overdue. Though there are some good reasons for why we continue to employ this fallacy, we should stop it.  Failing that, we should at least realize that we’re doing it so we don’t take our own arguments too seriously.

Simply stated, the Transitive Property Fallacy of MMA is this: if Fighter A beats Fighter B, and Fighter B beats Fighter C, then Fighter A would beat Fighter C.  This works in math, or so people who went to school past the ninth grade tell me (personally, I never had a use that much schoolin’), but it doesn’t work in MMA for several different reasons.

For one, fighting ability is not quantifiable.  We can’t look at a guy and say how he will perform against any opponent on any given night.  Some fighters might look like world beaters one night, then completely choke on another.  Georges St. Pierre’s performance against Matt Serra comes to mind.

Plus, as we love to say in this business, styles make fights.  A powerhouse wrestler might dismantle a good striker, but get submitted by an average jiu-jitsu fighter.  You never can tell how the strange alchemy of MMA will turn out, which is really what makes it so damned interesting.  If we could determine everything by looking at someone’s record, we wouldn’t need to fight the fights.  It ignores the possibility that some guys have gotten better since the last time we saw them, or that others have gotten worse, or even that they’ve just changed, matured, given up booze, found Jesus, or finalized their divorce, all of which could affect their performance.

If the Transitive Property worked in MMA, we’d be living in a much different world.  For instance, Evan Tanner beat Phil Baroni (twice).  Baroni knocked out Ryo Chonan.  Chonan submitted Anderson Silva with a crazy flying heel hook.  By the Transitive Property, this means that Evan Tanner is superior to Anderson Silva, which is so untrue that I’m surprised my computer even allowed me to type it.

This could go on and on.  Josh Barnett once beat Randy Couture, and later lost to “Cro Cop”, who was defeated by Fedor.  In that equation, Fedor > Couture.  Couture also lost to Ricco Rodriguez, who lost to Ben Rothwell, who lost to Tim Sylvia.  By the Transitive Property, Sylvia should beat Couture.  And yet…he didn’t.  Need I go on?

There are many reasons why we can’t figure out who the better fighter is by comparing common opponents.  This won’t stop us from doing it, I suspect, because we’re all jerks who can’t stand the fact that we don’t know everything.  That’s why we fill in the gaps in our knowledge with twisted reasoning when necessary.   It’s stupid but, much like Dan Brooks’ sad charade of faux-heterosexuality, it goes on.

But the next time you’re having an MMA discussion with someone and they trot out this fallacy, you should make damn sure you call them on it.  Because that’s the only way we’re ever going to learn, and learn we must.  If the Transitive Property worked for MMA, it wouldn’t be very fun at all.  It would be math.  And I don’t care what those jerks at NASA say, MMA is > than math.  If Euclid were alive today, he’d be the first to admit it.

Living With The Fedor Backlash

Few men have caused so much trouble by doing so little. In the past year Fedor Emelianenko has sparked controversy and debate, provided the impetus for the creation of one new company and strained relationships within another, and all while barely maintaining an active career as a pro fighter.

We of the MMA media are more than a little complicit in all this. We’ve hailed Fedor as the greatest, then lambasted him when he dared to chase a paycheck instead of carrying the mantle we had thrust upon him. Now that he’s seemingly come to his senses and is leaving M-1 for greener pastures, we have to find something else to get upset about.

Don’t worry. If it’s one thing MMA writers and fans alike are good at, it’s manufacturing discontent.

A recent article by Sherdog ace Jake Rossen got the ball rolling. In it, Rossen takes aim at, among other things, Fedor’s position atop the rankings. The support for this criticism comes primarily from Fedor’s inactivity, which is fair. In the last fifteen months Fedor has fought a circus freak, a middleweight, and a K-1 kickboxer with a limited ground game. Then again, he beat them all in the first round. If the sharpest complaint you can level at him is that it took him a few minutes longer than expected to finish opponents who he far outclassed, you have to wonder how much you really have to gripe about.

But let’s be honest, most of the Fedor-hate these days doesn’t have anything to do with his fighting ability. It’s about his business decisions. To be more specific, it’s about his decision not to fight in America, for American audiences. Spurning an offer from the UFC was the first step. Dana White claimed publicly that Fedor was overrated, which doesn’t explain why he offered him millions to fight for the UFC or why he’s now trying to hype two-time Fedor victim Mark Coleman, but still.

The point is that complaints about Fedor’s recent opponents are legitimate, but not as a criticism of his abilities as a fighter. All Fedor has ever done is beat whoever was put in front of him. Granted, he may not have made the best choices about who to trust as a manager or promoter or matchmaker — and he wouldn’t be the first fighter to be taken advantage of in that regard — but it doesn’t mean he isn’t the best heavyweight in the world.

What this is really about is sour grapes and hurt feelings. That goes for those on the production and promotion side, such as the UFC, as well as for fans and the media. Because Fedor is unbeaten, it’s easy for us to say he is untested. And if we say he’s untested, well, we demand to see him tested. Fedor’s admittedly poor business decisions of late have denied us that opportunity, and so we lash out at him. We try and take back the title that we gave him — world’s best fighter — as if it might somehow convince him to come to America just to placate us.

Odds are Fedor doesn’t care what we say about him. Maybe he doesn’t even know. There’s a good chance that all he cares about are the zeros on his paycheck, and if you don’t think that’s an honorable enough motivation you should bring it up with Randy Couture and see what he tells you. All the talk about who’s the best in the world doesn’t mean much at the end of the day, so it’s hard to criticize a guy for not placing as much importance on it as we do.

Whatever we may say about him when our feelings get hurt, the truth is that Fedor has been nothing short of dominant in his career as a fighter. He’s beaten everyone he’s faced, even if his list of opponents of late isn’t what we’d like it to be. He’s still Fedor. His abilities — once the match is finally set and the opening bell rings — are still unassailable. We know this. If we didn’t, we wouldn’t spend so much time arguing about him. And then what would we do? Nothing that’s this much fun, that’s for sure.

Dana White Loves Analogies

Here’s a Dana White gem for you, from a recent interview with Carlos Arias of the Orange County Register. This is White’s response to a question about competitors in the MMA business:

“You come over to my house this weekend and we kick back and watch TV. We put on (expletive) NASCAR. We’re like, ‘Holy (expletive). Look at all the (expletive) people at this race. All those fans and this and that. These guys got television deals and merchandise deals and all this crazy (expletive). You know what? Let’s steal two of their drivers, and let’s start our own (expletive) company. We’ll call it (expletive), you know, GASCAR instead of (expletive) NASCAR.’ That’s how (expletive) stupid it is.”

Now, I love comparing two things that are different and making them sound the same just as much as the next guy, but I find this viewpoint troubling. White’s contention here is that competing MMA organizations are “(expletive) stupid” because they hold MMA events similar to those held by the UFC, though they are not the UFC. This, in the business world, is called competition. It’s kind of like how Pepsi sells a similar product to that of Coca-Cola, though they are in fact two completely different companies.

By Dana White’s logic, that makes Pepsi “(expletive) stupid”. See? Fun with analogies.

It should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with White’s comic book-type persona to hear him argue in favor of a UFC monopoly. If you read the interview, it’s pretty clear that the OC Register’s Carlos Arias has zero problem going along for the ride with his leading questions, such as this one, doing the driving:

“Everybody says there is this big surge and rising popularity for mixed martial arts, but it seems like it’s the UFC getting this big surge and poularity [sic] rather than the sport itself? How do you see it?“

Gee Carlos, I wonder how Dana White sees it, now that you asked in so cooperative a fashion. Let’s find out:

“You’re the first (expletive) smart guy that I’ve talked to who has actually really caught that. They come out with all these demos and all these numbers and all theses [sic] things that mixed martial arts is doing. Mixed martial arts isn’t doing that, the UFC is.”

That’s called softball, ladies and gentleman. But my point is that, yes, of course Dana White thinks it’s stupid to have to deal with competitors. That’s why he bad-mouths them every chance he gets, why he does everything in his power to try and hinder them, and why he’s so receptive to a question suggesting that any success MMA is enjoying is solely because of the UFC and, by extension, Dana White.

But whatever he says, remember this, fight fans: competition is good, especially for fans and fighters. White likes to make comparisons between the UFC and other pro sports leagues. In the past, he’s pointed out that there’s only one NBA, one NFL, and so on.

But here’s where that analogy falls apart. Those are leagues. They serve to unify the different teams and help them co-promote. The NFL doesn’t decide how much Randy Moss gets paid. Because the league is made up of many separately owned and operated entities, he is free to get as much as he can (within pre-set limits) by pitting them against one another in a bidding war. The UFC doesn’t work that way. The UFC gets to tell fighters who they’re fighting, when, and for how much. The fighters can take it or leave it, but because of the competing organizations they have options.

If you take away those competing organizations, fighter salaries will come down. The UFC will have less motivation to put on a compelling product. They’ll be secure in the knowledge that if you’re an MMA fan, you’ll pay to see their fights no matter what. Why? Because they’re the only game in town.

Dana White might not want to admit it, but the increased competition in the last few years has made the UFC and MMA stronger. It’s drawn more attention to the sport and created more fans. It’s also kept the UFC, at least to some extent, honest. The UFC is without a doubt the biggest show around, with the greatest stable of fighters. But if you think they would somehow get better without competitors nipping at their heels, you’re just plain wrong. Competition is good. It’s good for fans, fighters, and — whether he’ll admit it or not — for Dana White and the UFC.

Now, who wants to come over to my place this weekend and watch some (expletive) Gascar?

Fedor to M-1: I Just Need My Space Right Now

It was a whirlwind romance, but it seems the flame has burned out.  Fedor and M-1 are breaking up.  At least, that’s what one of Fedor’s agents, Apy Echteld, told ESPN’s Ryan Hockensmith.   Echteld claimed that an announcement was forthcoming in the next few days, and that Fedor would officially be a free agent.

It’s not hard to see what prompted this split.  Fedor wants to see other people.  And considering that M-1 has had him for about five months without even coming close to putting on an event of their own, who can blame him?  There he sits, surrounded by big promises and not much else from M-1 Global — which has shown itself to be little more than a Rent-a-Fedor operation thus far — while outside the MMA world turns without him, and the big fights pass him by.

One man who was very happy to hear this news was UFC president Dana White.  His inability to sign Fedor the first time he was a free agent precipitated the Randy Couture debacle.  Though that matter soon got ugly in other areas, Fedor joining the UFC could be the impetus that Couture and the UFC both need to put their differences aside and make this highly anticipated bout happen.

But, would White be willing to take another go at signing Fedor, whose abilities he has publicly disparaged many times, even once calling his management team “crazy Russians”?

“Absolutely, 100 percent, in a heartbeat,” White told ESPN. “People think he’s the best—I don’t, not even close. But if it’s somehow possible, I would make it happen.”

Granted, none of this is going to happen easily.  At the moment, no announcement about Fedor leaving M-1 has been made, and some in the MMA world have cast doubt upon the possibility.  One notable shift in the dialogue is the fact that it’s now Echteld doing the talking for Fedor, and not Vadim Finklestein, Fedor’s longtime manager.  But then, we also have to remember that Finklestein also has a stake in M-1.  If Fedor’s on the outs with the organization, he may also be looking to split from Finklestein, who guided him in that direction to begin with.

It’s still too early to know exactly what’s going to happen, but the wheels seem to be in motion.  Now we just have to wait and see how M-1 is going to take the breakup.  Something tells me she’s the kind that doesn’t let go easily, especially since Fedor is all she’s got.  Attention-grabbing fake suicide attempt, anyone?  Maybe an “accidental” pregnancy?

Okay, this metaphor has officially gone too far.  I’ll stop now.

Is Mark Coleman The Perfect Opponent For Brock Lesnar?

Let’s not kid ourselves, the UFC knows exactly what they’re trying to do with the recently announced Mark Coleman-Brock Lesnar bout.  They screwed up with Lesnar’s first opponent, and ended up paying the big man a quarter of a million dollars just to see him get submitted in the first round.  They aren’t going to make that mistake again.  They want to put Lesnar over, and dammit, they’re going to do it even if it means that we all have to keep a straight face when Mark Coleman gets on TV to insist that he’s not retired.

Okay, Mark.  Fine.  I guess you’re not retired.  I guess we just assumed you would be.

Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against Coleman.  He deserves his place in the UFC Hall of Fame.  He was nothing less than a pioneer in the sport of MMA.  You ever hear of ground-and-pound?  Yeah, that was him.  If they hadn’t outlawed headbutts who knows what Coleman could have accomplished.

But at the same time the game has passed Coleman by.  His skill set didn’t evolve the way it needed to — the way Randy Couture’s has — and the UFC knows it.  That’s why they’re putting him against Lesnar.  They need to put Lesnar over, and as any pro wrestling fan knows, the best and laziest way to do that is to have him beat some older, more established icon.  And make no mistake, Lesnar will beat Coleman like a rug.  And it’s going to be sad.  And we’re all going to watch it anyway and feel bad about ourselves for at least fifteen minutes afterwards.

I’ve seen some people on the MMA blogosphere who seem to think that Coleman stands a good chance of beating Lesnar.  This is an absurd suggestion, and here’s why.  The wrestler style of ground-and-pound that Coleman helped create is a style that relies more on physical superiority than technique.  It’s an alpha-male style of fighting.  It only works when everything goes right.  If, say, you aren’t able to put your opponent on his back, or if he puts you on yours, it doesn’t work.  The methodical nature of it is both its strength and its weakness.  You take a man down, you immobilize him, maybe move his head up against the cage, and then you go to work tenderizing his face until he quits or the ref pulls you off, whichever comes first.  That’s it.  No big secret.

This is not a strategy by which an older, smaller man is going to defeat a younger, bigger, more athletic one.  Coleman against Lesnar is like Hillary Clinton against John McCain: the strengths that allowed them to beat other people are suddenly weaknesses against an opponent who does everything they do a little bit better.  Coleman’s not going to take Lesnar down any more than Clinton is going to beat McCain on experience or national security.  Is this metaphor too much of a stretch?  Probably, but you get the point.

Still, it’s the smart move for the UFC.  They take two Midwestern wrestlers, one old and one new, and make them fight in the Minnesota.  Midwesterners would walk through fire to see this match.  The irony is that in order to make it seem credible, Dana White has to ignore the fact that he recently accused Fedor of having not defeated anyone worthwhile in years.  One of those not-worthwhile opponents was, of course, Mark Coleman.  Twice.

But that’s okay.  If there’s one thing White is used to, it’s playing make-believe in front of a microphone.  You think you’re going to make him stick by the logical implications of his own statements?  You’ve got to be f*cking kidding me.

Brock Lesnar needs Mark Coleman.  And Coleman?  He probably needs the cash.  His best chance in this fight is if Lesnar goes down with some freakish injury, the way “Shogun” Rua did.  But that probably won’t happen.  What will happen is Lesnar will take Coleman down and pound on him with the trademark angry-four-year-old punching style that nearly did Frank Mir in.  Then the UFC hype machine will get behind Lesnar again, the way it got behind Rich Franklin for beating Ken Shamrock.

Is it cheap and more than a little insincere?  Yeah.  But that’s the fight business.  Some things never change.

The Secret Lives of Bonuses

Randy Couture’s parting shots at the UFC first put the spotlight on the organization’s bonus system, but a look at the disclosed fighter payroll for UFC 82 also tells an interesting story.  For example, take Chris Leben.  He recently signed a new deal with the UFC to up his show money and win money to $25 grand each.  Not bad for “The Crippler”.  But in garnering knockout of the night honors he added a $60,000 win bonus to his final paycheck for the event.  Which means he more than doubled his pay thanks to what is essentially a subjective decision made by UFC brass.

I’m not saying Leben didn’t deserve it.  The way he went after Sakara and displayed his own brawlability in the process ought to be worth something.  But let’s consider for a moment the other side of the coin, which fittingly enough features Josh Koscheck.  He also won a pretty exciting TKO victory on Saturday night, but he didn’t see any bonus money, at least that we know of.  This is because, at least in part, he’s on not-so-great terms with the UFC these days as he tries to renegotiate his contract.  That’s also why they stuck him on the preliminary card, just as they did with Andrei Arlovski.

That’s not to say that Koscheck deserved the bonus any more than Leben did.  But it is worth noting that politics within the UFC can have a grave effect on a man’s pocketbook.  Playing nice at contract time might increase your chances of getting a fat bonus check worth more than your agreed upon payout, but at the same time it builds resentment, as it did with Couture.

Take a look at how Anderson Silva fared at UFC 82.  Despite being the organization’s most talented fighter and a dominant champion, he gets only $70,000 in guaranteed money when he steps in the Octagon.  Brock Lesnar, on the other hand, made a reported $250,000 for his debut loss at UFC 81.  Fortunately for Silva, he made up some ground in bonus money.  He got a $70,000 win bonus, plus another $120,000 for both Fight of the Night and Submission of the Night.  Add it all up, and he just edged out Lesnar.

This isn’t necessarily an indictment of the UFC, but it’s worth pointing out that this is a hard way to make a living.  Imagine going to work and knowing that you might make a certain amount of money, though if you perform well and are on good terms with your employer you might make twice as much.  It’s sort of like sales commissions, but it’s the ‘and’ in that situation that can lead to problems.  Just ask Randy Couture.

In case you’re curious, here’s how the rest of the fighter payroll shaped up.  Thanks to Cage Potato for the info.

Anderson Silva — $260,000 ($70,000 to show, $70,000 to win, plus $120,000 in bonuses)
Dan Henderson — $160,000 ($100,000 to show, $60,000 for Fight of the Night bonus)
Andrei Arlovski — $170,000 ($105,000 to show, $65,000 to win)
Heath Herring — $140,000 ($70,000 to show, $70,000 to win)
Chris Leben — $110,000 ($25,000 to show, $25,000 to win, $60,000 for Knockout of the Night bonus)
Jon Fitch — $60,000 ($30,000 to show, $30,000 to win)
Diego Sanchez — $60,000 ($30,000 to show, $30,000 to win)
Cheick Kongo — $30,000
Yushin Okami — $28,000 ($14,000 to show, $14,000 to win)
Evan Tanner — $25,000
Josh Koscheck — $20,000 ($10,000 to show, $10,000 to win)
Alessio Sakara — $17,000
Luigi Fioravanti — $16,000 ($8,000 to show, $8,000 to win)
Luke Cummo — $16,000
Jorge Gurgel — $14,000 ($7,000 to show, $7,000 to win)
Dustin Hazelett — $12,000
Chris Wilson — $12,000
Jake O’Brien — $11,000
David Bielkheden — $8,000
John Halverson — $3,000

Anderson Silva, How Could I Have Doubted Thee?

I take it all back. Anything I may have ever said to suggest that Anderson Silva is not the world’s pound-for-pound best fighter, I was wrong. I apologize. Anderson Silva, thou art an MMA god, and I shall put no other fighters before thee.

Okay, maybe I’m overreacting, but not by much. The way Silva not just defeated but dismantled Dan Henderson, who is himself unquestionably a top middleweight (and light heavyweight, while we’re at it), I was awed. Some of you may recall that I picked Henderson to win that fight. I thought that Henderson’s ability to take a punch, combined with his ability to close the distance and use the body lock to get opponents to the mat where he could control them, would allow him to grind out a victory. At the end of round one, it looked as though Hendo would do precisely that. But in the second, Silva decided enough was enough.

First Silva rocked Henderson on the feet, which is no small task, then dominated and submitted him on the mat. By the way, do you know how many fights Henderson lost by submission before this one? Two. One against each of the Nogueira brothers, including the one who is now UFC heavyweight champion. Does that help put it in perspective?

Watching Silva on Saturday night, I knew I was seeing something special. Since I had picked Henderson and since the egotistical part of my brain (which is most of it) always roots for the guys I’ve picked so I can brag about what an MMA genius I am, I should have been disappointed when Silva took over the fight. But I wasn’t. It was too beautiful, too impressive for me to even remember my picks right then. If you had asked me at the exact moment that Silva was choking Henderson I might have told you that only an idiot would pick against him.

Truly, I am that idiot, for I doubted Anderson Silva.

The question now is, what’s next? The middleweight division is essentially cleaned out, and though some are already clamoring for Silva to go down in weight to face Georges St. Pierre, I have to tell you I don’t see it. Silva is incredibly lean at middleweight, I don’t know if he can shed another fifteen pounds. Perhaps a catch weight bout at 177.5 pounds is the answer, assuming St. Pierre beats Serra.

All I can say for sure right now is that if any of you out there still have someone other than Anderson Silva at the top of your pound-for-pound list, you’re refusing to face reality. Forget Fedor, who would rather pick up a cheap paycheck than get tested in the ring, Silva is the man. We’re witnessing history just watching him. Stop arguing and enjoy it.

IFL Recap, UFC 82 Liveblogging

I’m finally home from Las Vegas and ready to gear up for UFC 82.  My flight was actually on time, and I sat behind comedian Dave Attell, who spent the five hours trying to be nice to two nosy old women who refused to let him watch his mini-Jet Blue television in peace.  Just witnessing it made my flight endlessly pleasant.

You can check out my insider recap of last night’s IFL event at Cage Potato, and I’ll also be writing a live blog of UFC 82 there tonight.

Basically, it will be like sitting next to me on my couch during a UFC pay-per-view, except this way you don’t have to think up a polite excuse to leave when I go off on a tangent about Heath Herring’s style-over-substance approach to fighting, which inevitably makes people uncomfortable.  Actually now that I think about it, maybe it’s the fact that I typically deliver this tirade drunk and with my shirt off that does that.  Either way.

For more of my clever witticisms, check out Cage Potato tonight.

“Sometimes You Have to Hit People”

My first IFL diary is now online at Cage Potato, featuring some behind-the-scenes commentary from Las Vegas.  Here’s an excerpt:

Covering the IFL for the past year and a half, here’s one lesson I’ve learned: during any interview with Matt Lindland, he’s going to get mad at me at least once. I can never tell what will cause it; it could be anything. This time it’s Kimbo Slice.

It’s the day before the IFL Las Vegas event and we’re interviewing all the fighters and coaches. It can be monotonous, to say the least. We get just about everyone to weigh in on Kimbo, but as soon as I ask what Lindland thinks of him, the mood of the interview changes.

“He’s a bum,” says Lindland. The look on his face tells me to leave it alone. I ask what he means by that. He glares at me. I bring this on myself. I really do.

“I mean he’s a bum,” he says. “He’s a nobody. What do you want me to say? You asked me what I thought and I told you. I don’t have anything else to say about him.”

The hell of it is, despite how ornery he can be I really like Lindland. I can’t help it. Even when he gives me the look like he’s trying to figure out how one human being ever got to be this stupid, at least I know it’s sincere. You have to respect honesty like that.

Read the rest here.

UFC 82 Head-to-Head Picks

I apologize for the lack of updates, but I’m in Vegas for tonight’s IFL event and haven’t had too much free time.  Fortunately, CBS Sports now has our head-to-head picks up, so you can head over there and check out our predictions for the fights.  You also might want to scroll down and see the records for all the respective analysts.  I know what you’re wondering.  Does first place feel as good as I think it does?  The answer is no.  It’s better.

I will admit that this time around I had a little help with my picks.  Pat Miletich and I talked them over in the IFL office yesterday, and he agreed with me that if Henderson fights smart he should win.  Pat seemed to think that the key will be wearing Silva out with takedowns to the point where his strikes lose their sting.  Since Miletich is the sport’s foremost trainer and strategist, I can’t argue with him.

He also didn’t think much of Evan Tanner’s chances against Yushin Okami.  He explained the UFC’s thinking with this fight by saying that they had taken a big rubber stamp labeled “Victim” and applied it firmly to Tanner’s forehead.  Ouch.

Check out the UFC 82 preview here.