Welcome to the Botterm Dollar in MMA News. Why the silly column title? A reader suggested it many years ago for my old pro-wrestling news updates on another site, and it stuck. I’m still using it because I either think it’s really clever or I’m just too lazy to come up with something good to replace it. You decide.
I’ll be doing these each and every Friday, hopefully without fail. The concept of this update (and the Monday and Wednesday updates written by other Inside Fights staff writers) is to fill you in on the latest happenings from the world of mixed martial arts while throwing in a healthy dose of opinion. Ideally, those of you who lead busy lives will be able to read the three weekly expanded news updates and be completely up to date on all the latest MMA news from around the world. I’ll be putting a heavy emphasis on North American promotions, but we’ll also cover any major breaking news from DREAM and other Japanese promotions as well.
Enough with the introduction. Let’s get to the news, shall we?
UFC
–Frank Mir suffered a back injury while training two weeks ago. He’s still fighting in December, but the injury is serious enough that he had to cancel a seminar a few weeks back. Mir was already the unquestioned underdog against Nogueira, and this injury will likely stack the odds even higher against the former UFC champion. In reality, Mir got extremely lucky in catching Brock Lesnar in a rookie mistake, and he’s very much out of his league in this tournament. Even Lesnar, while inexperienced, would probably be a gigantic favorite against Mir in a rematch, and I guarantee you that the result of a rematch would look very different from the first fight.
— It appears that the rift between Randy Couture and Affliction has deepened into a chasm that will likely never be repaired. Affliction co-head Todd Beard ripped Couture last week on the Scott Ferrall show last week, saying “Randy, if you’re listening, I hope Lesnar [expletive] kills you.” Yahoo’s Steve Cofield interviewed Couture and asked Couture about Beard’s comments and the status of his relationship with Affliction, who produces the Xtreme Couture clothing line.
“Things will come out the way they come out, but I don’t intend to do anymore business with Todd or Affliction in any way.” – Randy Couture
“Things will come out the way they come out, but I don’t intend to do anymore business with Todd or Affliction in any way. Whether or not they still manufacture the [Xtreme Couture] line down the road or not is still yet to be seen. But, you know, guys with drinking problems is what it boils down to. I’ve seen at several different professional meetings, business manager meetings, where he’s ordering shots and just out of control, and that’s not something I really want to be associated with.”
The situation between Zuffa and Affliction is much more serious than people think. Zuffa will likely end up filing a lawsuit against Affliction for tampering with Couture’s contract. Couture’s new Zuffa contract gives him immunity against Zuffa lawsuits regarding the contract tampering, but it doesn’t protect Affliction. A relationship that appeared on the verge of repair in the early fall (when Zuffa and Affliction met to work out a deal that would see Affliction clothing back on UFC fighters and the end of Affliction as a promotion) now appears to be completely beyond repair, at least as long as Todd Beard is one of the guys in charge.
Click here for the video of Couture’s comments. [Bloody Elbow]
— The hype show for the Randy Couture/Brock Lesnar fight will air Monday night at 11pm ET and again at midnight ET on Thursday. I’m still not sure I understand why the original idea for a three part hype series for this fight was scrapped, and I doubt we’ll ever get a clear explanation from Dana. This is potentially the biggest UFC fight in history, but they’re treating it like any other main event, at least in terms of programming, and the result is a fight that feels no bigger than other “big” main events. The company could’ve completely ripped off the 24/7 concept from HBO’s boxing programming and done a one-hour episode weekly for the three weeks leading up to the fight, with real-time comments and responses from both fighters.
— The live fights for The Ultimate 2008 show in December will be Forrest Griffin vs. Rashad Evans for the light heavyweight title, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs. Frank Mir for the interim heavyweight title, Quinton Jackson vs. Wanderlei Silva, C.B. Dolloway vs. Mike Massenzio and heavyweight Mustafa Al-Turk fighting Cheick Kongo. Yushin Okami will be fighting Dean Lister on the undercard, but they’ll definitely show his fight if he beats Lister and time permits. The choice of having Okami on the undercard is very strange, since Okami will be the #1 contender for the middleweight title if he beats Lister since he was supposed to get a shot before Patrick Cote but was injured while training. I have a feeling that Anderson Silva is probably finished in the middleweight division, which means Okami would likely fight the winner of the Henderson/Franklin fight that’s happening in January for the vacant belt.
— ESPN’s “MMA Live” team will be covering UFC 91 live from the event in Las Vegas. This marks the first time that ESPN has sent a team to cover a UFC event live, and is very likely an indication of how much press coverage the show will get leading up to the fight.
— Martin Kampmann has signed a new four-fight deal with the company and will be dropping to welterweight. It’s a very wise move on the part of Kampmann, as he’s severely undersized at middleweight and is typically much smaller than his opponents, who cut from 200-plus pounds to make 185.
— Josh Koscheck still plans on fighting on the December 10th military show.
— Kim Dong Hyun vs. Karo Parisyan has been added to the 1/31/09 card.
— MSNBC has a new article detailing the UFC’s emergence as a new powerhouse in the mainstream sports world.
WEC
— In a followup from yesterday’s post-show WEC notes, it has been confirmed that Mike Brown tore cartilage in his ribs and not a broken rib as was originally believed. Brown will be out of training for four to six weeks, but is expected back by the proposed WEC pay per view event in early 2009.
OTHER PROMOTIONS
— The California State Athletic Commission has suspended the operating licenses of EliteXC and King of the Cage. The suspension wasn’t due to the Petruzelli/Slice controversy that killed the company, but rather because of the fact that the company is actually dead and will be auctioned to the highest bidder on November 17th. [Bloody Elbow]
— Robert Drysdale, the grappling coach for Team Mir on The Ultimate Fighter, has announced that he’s leaving submission wrestling and BJJ competitions for mixed martial arts. Drysdale will be training out of Xtreme Couture and there is no word on which promotion he’ll sign with. [Bloody Elbow]
That’s all for this week. Stay tuned to Inside Fights next week for our in-depth previews and coverage of UFC 91 featuring Brock Lesnar challenging Randy Couture for the UFC Heavyweight championship.
Jeremy Botter is the Editor of Inside Fights. He has written about mixed martial arts since 2001, and also contributes to MMA coverage for the Houston Chronicle as well as Bleacher Report’s MMA community.
