Trending: UFC on FX 8
UFC welterweight Jonathan Goulet, sidelined since June from a dislocaed shoulder, is expected to return to action on May 1 when the UFC returns to his native Quebec, Canada for UFC 113 at the Bell Centre in Montreal. [MMA Weekly]- Popular referee “Big” John McCarthy has been assigned by the California State Athletic Commission to be a judge for WEC 46 on January 10 in Sacramento. [Wrestling Observer]
- Bellator has signed top British welterweight Jim Wallhead (18-5) to compete in the promotion’s upcoming 170-pound tournament that also features Dan Hornbuckle, Jacob McClintock, and Ben Askren.
- The U.S. House Judiciary Committee recently held a hearing on live sports piracy, with UFC co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta testifying that more than 140,000 people viewed UFC 106 illegally.
- Harold Howard, an early UFC competitor who fought at UFC 3 and UFC 7, was charged with attempted murder this week after allegedly assaulting two people then driving his truck through a casino in Niagra Falls.
- Veteran welterweight Phil Baroni, rumored for a March bout against Marcus Davis at UFC 111 in New Jersey, is instead planning time of to improve his training following his November loss to Amir Sadollah. [MMA Weekly]
- UFC 107 headliner Diego Sanchez (pictured), who was battered by BJ Penn at the December 12 event before suffering a fifth-round TKO due to a gash on his forehead, says he is “90% healed”. [Twitter]
- The Ultimate Fighter 3 winner Kendall Grove has signed a new multi-fight deal with the UFC following his November first-round submission of Jake Rosholt and plans to return in early-2010. [Sherdog]
- UFC 107, headlined by lightweight champ BJ Penn vs. Diego Sanchez and also featuring Frank Mir vs. Cheick Kongo and Kenny Florian vs. Clay Guida, reportedly did 620,000 buys on pay-per-view on December 12. [Wrestling Observer]
- Strikeforce: Evolution, which aired live on Showtime on December 19 and featured Cung Le vs. Scott Smith and Josh Thomson vs. Gilbert Melendez, drew 341,000 viewers, while 330,000 tuned in for WEC 45, which aired directly opposite “Evolution” on Versus and was headlined by lightweight contenders Donald Cerrone and Ed Ratcliff.
- The Nevada State Athletic Commission has denied Jon Jones’ appeal of his controversial loss to Matt Hamill at The Ultimate Fighter 10 Finale on December 5. Jones dominated the light heavyweight matchup, including dislocating Hamill’s shoulder on an early takedown, and appeared close to finishing the fight with ground and pound when he landed several illegal elbows that cost him the fight. [Heavy]
- Bantamweights George Roop and Eddie Wineland will square off at January’s WEC 46 after their original opponents, Jesse Moreng and Rafael Rebello respectively, were recently forced to withdraw from the card. [MMAjunkie]
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Good to see diego is better, wow did he take a beating. He need to get back to the cage as soon as possible.
well lots of good news here… im glad the NSAC denied Bones appeal… they made the right decision
140,000 people illegaly watch 106… i wonder how they can know such a number yet not do anything about it… seems odd
big john as a judge… well that can be a good thing for the sport, just depends on how good he can call things from the sidelines… although im sure with his years of in-ring experience it will be good… i wonder if he will continue to be a ref…
The number is obviously an estimate, and they do what they can about it, but that can be a lengthy process, and some of the illegal streams, etc. come from China, and they have no recourse against those.
- Not to kick Diego Sanchez when he’s down, but there is no way in He11 that kid is 90% recovered after the beating he caught from BJ. I’m sure he’ll be back in the new year, but the guy should give himself some time to get his sh!t in order before heading back to the gym.
- I’m not sure what to think about this Jon Jones thing. He wasn’t malicious about it, but he did throw multiple illegal strikes, so, y’know, better luck next time, dude.
- Nice non-UFC combined numbers for our sport when you add Strikeforce’s and the WEC’s numbers. IMO that shows that this sport IS in fact a lot more than just the UFC, and has a great future in front of it.
- With all of their recent signings, Bellator is becoming “must see TV” for its second season…
About your last comment, you do know that the WEC is also owned by Zuffa and that the Strikefource and WED shows where basically free?
can’t really add much more than that!!!
guys look out for jim “judo” wallhead……Im picking him to upset bellator and win the ww tourney over the favorites askren,hornbuckle and mcclintock……judo is rumored by dan hardy and paul daley as the best fighter at team rough house and they have alot of good fighters…..I expect some great hands from wallhead and definitly some judo…he became a judo blackbelt at the age of 16…..maybe if bellator picked up karo decisyan we could see an awesome judo match between two clearly top judo practitioners
While I would never disregard any fighter, especially a judo blackbelt, I find it hard to believe that any Bellator fighter will be remaining upright if Askren decides to put them on the mat…
;)
I met Harold Howard about twenty years ago. He couldn’t give a s**t about anybody but himself then and clearly nothing has changed. So much for evolution. He was the living characature of the Cobra Kai master from the Karate Kid movies. Hope the people he went after are alright.
When they say that over 100,000 people are watching illegally, are they talking about sports bars and the like that air the fights for free?
They are likely talking online viewership (where one person purchases the PPV and streams it nearly live…face it we all know which sites to go to), or those who purchase it and charge more than the purchase price for a group to see it in their home. Basically, if you buy the PPV for $50 and charge 10 friends 10 bucks each, you may be watching it illegally…unless you use the extra 50 to buy food.
Secondly…there is nothing wrong with a sports bar showing it for free, provided they are not subscribed to a consumer-level service and ordering the PPV with consumer-level pricing. In fact, most do not charge for what they show on tv, provided you are there as a consumer (buying food and/or drinks).
Cable companies vary, but for a business that seats 1-100, DirecTV offers their 170+ channel line up for $100 a month. They also have packages for many major sports/events. Most are based off of fire code occupancy or estimated viewership. While the UFC does not have a package there, the WWE does and it is NOT cheap (package includes all PPV events esxcept Wrestlmania). For those who don’t feel like clicking through, it ranges from $1800 for 1-50 viewers to $35,000 for 10,000+ viewers.
Individual WWE PPVs are available from $300 to $6000 for the same occupancies.
http://www.directv.com/DTVAPP/content/business/bars_restaurants/sports
The illegal viewers they were referring to were those that watch it on the streaming sites. The hearing included people from the NFL, MLB and other sporting organizations in addition to Fertitta talking about the UFC.
Due to the UFC being made of suck lately I certainly am one of those 140k :D
Then you better not ever complain about fighter pay, since you are taking money out of their pockets.
Jackpot
That’s not cute at all, Vinz–very poor form. No one’s impressed…
Actually, I am. I’m very impressed that, rather than do the right thing and make his feelings known our dear Vinz decided that he was going to go all Rebel Without a Clue and just watch illegally.
If only that were the case. I suspect he’s another of those cheap idiots who think the UFC is supposed to cater to them, when they don’t pay for the product. Guess what, sparky. You don’t get to voice a worthwhile opinion, since you don’t steal the product.
Get a job, get the PPVs, then get an opinion.
Aside from the integrity and character issue that Justin touchs on in his post, my question to you Vinz_Clortho is a simple one:
If in your opinion the UFC is “made of suck”, then why bother watching at all?
I’m sure the 500+ channel cable-verse has something better suited to your discerning tastes…
lol, so true