— The Jon Fitch/UFC rift lasted all of 24 hours. Fitch signed the merchandise agreement on Thursday and is back in the fold. He’ll fight on January 31st as scheduled. Christian Wellisch was also reinstated, and there are ongoing talks concerning Velasquez and Koscheck.
Josh Koscheck will be given every opportunity to stick around. He saved the company by stepping in to face Thiago Alves on short notice in October, and Dana White promised him that he’d still be able to fight on December 10th because of that. If he’d beaten Alves, he would have gotten the next shot at Georges St. Pierre after BJ Penn, but because he lost the fight, a stipulation in his contract kicked in that stated he could be cut instantly. All UFC contracts have a clause where the company can cut you after a loss, and if it hadn’t been for his willingness to fight Alves, Koscheck would likely have been cut along with Fitch.
Out of the entire American Kickboxing Academy crew, it’s believed that Velasquez will be the toughest to keep. He’s developed a superstar attitude without the actual superstardom, which is always trouble in this business. He’s easily the best heavyweight prospect the company has and they’ve been very high on his future, but he’s had stuff written into his contract that even established main event guys don’t get, and that puts him squarely on Dana White’s bad side.
Bloody Elbow’s Michael Rome obtained a copy of the merchandise agreement, and while it’s certainly a one-sided document, it’s not exclusive. Nothing in the text prevents any fighter who signs it from creating their own merchandising deals; it simply gives the UFC the option of creating merchandise deals for them as well. Forrest Griffin could have a Nike merchandise line that’s created completely outside of Zuffa, but Zuffa could also create a Forrest Griffin line. That’s all it is.
The video game rights are for life and they are exclusive, which is where things get a bit sticky. Electronic Arts is creating a mixed martial arts game and they are planning on using Randy Couture, Tito Ortiz and other recognizable UFC fighters. Before this merchandising agreement, there was nothing stopping EA from using Brock Lesnar, Chuck Liddell or anyone else associated with the UFC in their MMA game. Now, though, the company has those rights locked up completely, so EA will be forced to turn elsewhere to obtain fighters for the game.
Truthfully, every single fighter who is approached with this contract should sign it. For starters, you will lose far more money by getting canned from the UFC than you stand to gain from royalties on videogames produced without Zuffa. Fitch made nearly $250,000 for his single fight against Georges St. Pierre, and he’d be lucky to get $2,500 in royalties from a video game without the UFC brand attached to it. Secondly, the contract is likely unenforceable in court because “lifetime” rights are a ridiculous concept and no judge will consider it valid.
— The current plan is to have Brock Lesnar face the winner of the Nogueira/Mir fight in March or April, but only if everyone is cleared to fight by that point. As long as neither guy sustains a serious injury, I strongly suspect they’ll shoot for March, since there aren’t too many champions available that month for a quality main event. St. Pierre and Penn will both be out, which only leaves Anderson Silva, and he’s fighting in February in a non-title fight. They’ll need a strong title fight, and the heavyweight unification is the only reasonable fight they can make at that point. Forrest Griffin (or Rashad Evans) will likely face the winner of Wanderlei Silva and Rampage Jackson in April, which could prove interesting because of Silva and Griffin sharing the same gym.
— It’s almost a lock that Randy Couture will be moving to light heavyweight. At this point in his career, he’s fighting mostly for the competition and not for the titles, and there are far bigger fights available to him at 205 than there are in the heavyweight division, a weight class where he’s probably going to be outweighed by anyone he could face.
Personally, I’d like to see Couture face Mark Coleman in a legends match, but I can’t imagine Couture would go for that one given that Coleman was considered washed up five years ago. If Shogun Rua disposes of Coleman as I expect him to, then a Couture/Rua fight would be very interesting and could put either guy near the top of the division.
— Yoshiro Akiyama was in Las Vegas for UFC 91 and is negotiating with the UFC. They’re going to go after him hard because he’s one of the biggest stars in South Korea and Zuffa has a television presence there, so he’d be a huge bonus for the company as they attempt to break into that and other international markets. His DREAM contract has expired and Zuffa officials expect that a deal will be done shortly.
— Ticket prices for the January 31st show are cheaper than UFC 91, ranging from $50 to $750. I think the company learned its lesson when UFC 91 didn’t sell out despite having the biggest fight of all time on the card. The economy is a weird thing and it’s affecting Las Vegas in a big way, and people who would love to go to a UFC event for $100 simply aren’t going to shell out $250 for the same seat. Station Casinos (the chain owned by the Fertitta Brothers) lost $23 million in the third quarter. I don’t believe you’ll see UFC 91 prices again, at least not for a long time.
— Zuffa is talking with ESPN again, so expect coverage of upcoming shows to increase. The Lesnar/Couture fight was all over ESPN in the days leading up to the fight, and it probably got more coverage than any fight in history. I don’t have any metrics to back that up, of course, but it seems like the show got more mainstream attention than any other major show they’ve done.
— Dana White is attempting to sign Cung Le again. Le made $200,000 for his last Strikeforce bout, and I’d expect it will take at least that much to get him to sign with the UFC instead of concentrating on acting. Le could be a gigantic star if promoted correctly and would be an interesting addition to the stagnant middleweight division. I don’t believe he could beat Anderson Silva in an actual fight, but sometimes a big main event isn’t solely about the fight.
— Those getting all worked up over Fedor Emelianenko’s grandstand challenge to Brock Lesnar should probably pipe down. It’s a farce orchestrated by Jerry Millen, and Millen is one of the biggest idiots involved in mixed martial arts. I would wager that Fedor probably never approved that press release, but he should be embarrassed for being associated with it .
The only person who ends up looking badly is Fedor, because he’s had every option of going to the UFC and hasn’t, and I don’t think he’ll ever sign with them. And the truth is that Zuffa doesn’t need Fedor, because while Jerry Millen is making up press releases about Fedor being the best and Lesnar not making it out of the first round with him, 95% of American UFC fans have never heard of Fedor Emelianenko and likely never will because of the idiocy of his management team.
Sorry, I tend to get a little worked up when writing about the stupid stuff Jerry Millen says.
That’s all for this week. Have a safe weekend, a good thanksgiving, and I’ll see you next Friday.
