Key questions in the lawsuit filed against the UFC

The class-action antitrust lawsuit filed on Tuesday in federal court in San Jose, Calif., seems to come down to a line of what constitutes building a strong business, and what constitutes attempting to crush opposition, which can be argued are at times one and the same thing.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship over the last eight years, with the fall of the Japanese-based rival Pride Fighting Championships, has emerged as the dominant force in the mixed martial arts business. While there have always been dozens, and now hundreds of promotions, including many that have national television exposure, the UFC has in recent years had a dominant market share and controlled most of the sport’s top fighters.

During that period, a number of companies attempted to be competition. Almost all failed, many of which then had their intellectual property, which included contracts and videotape libraries, purchased by Zuffa, LLC, the parent company of the UFC.

In doing so, there were less options for the elite-level fighters. And in recent years, with the implement of the sponsor tax, fighters themselves had seen a one-time lucrative market dry up, both from the tax and from market conditions. Some companies found, over time, that it was not economically worthwhile to spend the level of money it had in sponsoring fighters. And with more shows, and smaller audiences, the value of sponsoring a UFC fighter, unless it was a major champion, wasn’t as strong as in what some would call the period of the sport’s greatest mainstream popularity, from roughly 2006 through 2011.

The lawsuit, filed by current UFC fighter Cung Le, and former UFC fighters Nathan Quarry and Jon Fitch, is being handled on contingency by lawyers representing five major law firms.

Le said that while he is still under contract with the organization, he would not fight for the UFC again. But he said if given a release, he would be open to fighting for another organization.

This will likely be a slow process that the plaintiffs hope will change the structure of the sport, although at a press conference announcing the suit nobody spoke in any specifics of what they wanted or expected the end result to be past creating an environment where there was more competition for fighters’  services and likenesses for merchandising endeavors, thus increasing the revenue going to talent.

Le, 42, who was one of the main stars of Strikeforce, has been a UFC headliner since the Zuffa purchased Strikeforce in 2011. He had major recent issues with the promotion concerning an announced drug test failure and suspension for allegedly using human growth hormone in a test taken at his Aug. 23 fight, in Macau, China, where he lost to Michael Bisping.

Due to irregularities in the testing procedure, the results were later ruled invalid, and the UFC rescinded his suspension. Le had publicly asked for an apology, which didn’t happen. He then asked to be released from his contract. This coincided with Scott Coker, the former head of Strikeforce, a promoter he had worked for from 1998 to 2010 as both a San Shou fighter and later an MMA fighter, taking a job as the head of Bellator.

Le said his involvement in the suit had nothing to do with the bad publicity stemming from the drug test story.

“Not at all,” he said. “My involvement is more for the fighters, past, present and the future. That’s why I’m involved in this lawsuit.

“It’s about how we were treated, how we’re paid, and what we have to go through. If it wasn’t for us, there would be no MMA, and there would be no UFC. What’s fair is fair.”

Quarry, also 42, is a retired fighter who was part of the cast of the first season of The Ultimate Fighter reality show in 2005, a key building block of the modern success of UFC. While he didn’t win the show, as he was injured during the competition, he was one of the most popular fighters in the cast. Later in 2005, Quarry had a shot at middleweight champion Rich Franklin, which he lost. He remained with the UFC until his retirement in 2010, due to injuries that resulted in spinal fusion surgery.

“I think, more than anything, [taking part in the suit] was to see current, former and upcoming fighters recoup some reward for their hard work,” said Quarry, who after retirement, hosted the TV show MMA Uncensored on Spike TV. “Now, it’s such a monopoly that the fighters have no real options, and that’s not the American way.”

Quarry, who has always been very popular with his fellow fighters, said fighters who have known about the suit have been quietly behind him. He also noted that for fans who think this will hurt the sport, that historically in major sports when athletes filed suit for free agent rights, that the end result of the enhanced competition for the athletes is that it ended up benefiting both the athletes and the fans, and helped make the sports more popular and lucrative for everyone.

“Competition is good for the sport, good for the fighters, and good for the fans,” he said.

Fitch, 36, who just competed on Saturday night for the World Series of Fighting, losing to Rousimar Palhares in a match for their welterweight title, was not at the press conference. While he connected via phone line, he never spoke during the proceedings. He fought for UFC from 2005 to 2013. For almost that entire period, he was considered one of the top 10 welterweights in the sport. In 2008, he faced Georges St-Pierre for the welterweight title, losing via decision.

He was released by UFC in what may have been the most controversial firing in company history, since he was still listed among the company’s top-10  contenders.

His career was hurt because he was viewed as not being an exciting fighter, which likely cost him a second shot at the title. He had come off one of the most exciting fights of his career in a win over Erick Silva, but then lost to Demian Maia in a lackluster showing, and was let go. Dana White cited Fitch’s salary and that he felt at his age, he was declining as a fighter, as reasons for letting him go. Fitch has since gone 2-2 in the World Series of Fighting, although both fighters who beat him, Josh Burkman and Palhares, were clearly UFC-level competitors.

Fitch’s name came up in a dispute years back when Zuffa required its fighters to, with no compensation, assign their likenesses in perpetuity for video-game usage when the company signed a deal with THQ, Inc. Fitch attempted to negotiate a fee for his likeness, as did other fighters under the management of DeWayne Zinkin. UFC President Dana White terminated Fitch, although that termination only lasted a few days.

For a time, White claimed any fighter who appeared in a competing video game produced by EA Sports (which years later acquired the UFC license when THQ had financial problems) would never be allowed in the UFC. However, when top fighters who were in the EA Sports game became available, that provision was quickly forgotten about.

Former UFC welterweight champion Carlos Newton, who is not a plaintiff, was also at the press conference expressing support for the fighters. According to Robert Maysey, a longtime MMA fan and writer, and one of the lawyers involved in the case, Newton had been a strong supporter from day one.

The legal team involved is a strong, heavyweight panel.

Eric Cramer has been listed since 2011 as one of the country’s top antitrust lawyers. Michael Dell’Angelo is one of the top lawyers at Berger & Montague, which won a $100 million cash settlement from JP Morgan Chase & Company from the bank’s role in the collapse of commodities broker MF Global, which forced MF Global to distribute about $1 billion to former commodities customers, who Dell’Angelo represented in a class action suit. He was also one of the lawyers involved in a $163.5 million settlement in the Titanium Dioxide antitrust litigation. Benjamin Brown is a leading class action antitrust attorney. Joseph Saveri has specialized in antitrust law and class action litigation for more than 25 years, and has been involved in cases in dozens of industries regarding cases that involved monopolistic business practices. Joshua Davis of the Saveri Law Firm has more than 15 years experience in antitrust class action suits. Maysey is the MMA business expert on the panel, a name familiar to most MMA industry insiders from his writing about topics that this lawsuit encompasses for many years.

There is little doubt that more competition is the best thing for the athletes. But the question is whether the UFC’s domination of the MMA business comes from having the right name brand, getting on strong television first andbuilding an organization to a level that the others who tried to compete couldn’t make it work profitably, or did UFC engage in anti-competitive practices that stifled competition and put rivals out of business?

A key aspect of the suit is that the competition for top fighters ceased when a number of organizations, including Pride, Affliction and Strikeforce were purchased by UFC. But in all three cases, the purchase was because the promotions were looking to get out of the business. Pride and Affliction were about to cease existence anyway. Strikeforce was losing money and its parent company wanted to divest itself of its MMA brand, and Zuffa made the best offer. According to those with Silicon Valley Sports, the Zuffa offer was the only truly serious one made.

It wasn’t a good thing for fighters at the time. But since the Strikeforce purchase, Bellator was purchased by Viacom, a far stronger financial entity than had backed Strikeforce, and has television on Spike TV, the network UFC itself was built on. While nobody would argue that Bellator is equal to UFC, nor from a quality of fighters standpoint even equal to Strikeforce at the time of the purchase, it appears to be very much a competitor.

On Nov. 15, when the two companies went head-to-head, with Bellator on Spike TV and UFC on Fox Sports 1 and pay-per-view with its first show ever in Mexico, Bellator captured the lion’s share of viewers and seemed to generate more public interest.

However, the lawsuit dismisses Bellator as competition, even though there were two very public examples, Gilbert Melendez and Eddie Alvarez, where the competition between the two sides led to each fighter getting far more lucrative and beneficial deals, including potential title shots specifically written into their deals, based on using the other side as leverage. But those incidents are the exception rather than the rule.

“Another potential competitor, Bellator, is viewed within the MMA Industry – and by the UFC itself – as a minor league, a training ground for future UFC fighters, or as a place for former UFC fighters to compete after they have been released by the UFC,” stated the lawsuit. “Bellator athletes lack significant public notoriety, in part because it is a `minor league,.’ and in part because UFC refuses to co-promote with any of Bellator’s fighters regardless of talent or merit, leaving Bellator unable to promote MMA events of relative significance. Bellator’s bout purses, gate revenues, attendance figures, merchandise sales, television licensing fees and ad rates are minimal compared to those obtained by the UFC.”

The question becomes whether vigorous competition crossed over into anti-competitive practices. This is one of those struggles that is expected to take years to play out, and little in the way of details past the basics of what the key arguments will be, were talked about in the press conference.

The lawsuit addresses issues of exclusive fighter contracts, UFC decisions that they claim have restrained fighters from making as much as they could from both the sponsorship market and the merchandise and licensing market, as well as UFC’s ability to use the likeness of the fighters, per their contract, even after the fighter is no longer with the organization.

Dell’Angelo said that the domination of the market by UFC and ability to extend the contracts indefinitely, since the UFC has the rights to match outside offers when the contracts expire, prevents rival promotions from garnering the best talent and makes real competition in the marketplace virtually impossible.

“That gives UFC all the leverage to drive fighter compensation down and its own profit margins up,” said Dell’Angelo.

There are fundamental issues here regarding what share of revenue the athletes deserve. While the major team sports’ athletes can get 50 percent of total revenues, largely due to unions and collective bargaining, neither of which MMA has, nobody really knows exactly what the UFC percentage truly is. The UFC, from the late 90s through probably 2005 or 2006, was losing significant money on virtually every event. Zuffa went $44 million in the hole before starting to turn things around.

In its fiscal year that ended on September 30, 2013, Zuffa grossed $483 million and had EBITDA in the $110 million range. The 2014 number, as least as far as EBITDA goes, is estimated at being down 40 percent due to all the injuries that have lead to weaker pay-per-view main events and a huge drop in buys from the previous years. But even during a year that was almost a disaster, devoid of any truly huge fights and some of the weakest marquee pay-per-view main events in company history, the company is still profitable. And, barring another catastrophic year of injuries, the company would be expected to be significantly more profitable in 2015.

The lawsuits states that the fighters are paid a fraction of what they would make in a competitive marketplace.

Lawyers and fighters were generally vague on questions, stating they didn’t want to get into details or other aspects, such as if other fighters have talked about joining in, or more specific complaints about UFC business practices. They either referred to the suit itself, or said the information would play out in the future. Lawyers involved noted this will likely be a lengthy process. Zuffa will likely respond in some form to the suit and it will go into discovery. Cases like this with other major sports took years to reach their conclusion.

Cramer detailed what is likely to happen next.

“Zuffa will be served formally, and they will have an opportunity to respond,” he said. “They can either answer, or move to dismiss. We don’t know what they will do. If they answer it, we begin a period of discovery. We expect it to move forward.”

The end of the line, in the event there isn’t a settlement, would be a jury trial in San Jose.

Maysey said the difference between this and the major sports leagues, which also control virtually all the top talent and have the stadium and television deals to where it would be a virtual impassability to compete with them, is that the leagues have teams with individual owners, and the teams are in competition, plus the biggest leagues have players associations. Even in individual sports, like golf, he argued that each tournament is not owned by the same owner, even if the major league tournaments for the most part fit into the same organizational banner.

The lawyers said that they are not filing a lawsuit about the fairness or unfairness of the Zuffa contracts.

However, points made in the suit mention the exclusivity clause, which prohibit fighters from plying their trade with rival promotions, and UFC’s decision to not co-promote events with other organizations. It also mentions the champion’s clause, which allows the UFC the right to extend a fighter’s contract as long as they hold a UFC championship. This blocks rival promotions from bidding for the person generally considered best in the world in their specific weight classes. They also bring up UFC’s right to match any outside offer given to a fighter whose contract expires, making it difficult to sign up a fighter whose deal has ended.

They also note that UFC has the ability to merchandise fighters in perpetuity worldwide, which would lower the fighter’s leverage to garner merchandising or video game deals for the fighters themselves after leaving the organization, since the company negotiating with them wouldn’t even get exclusivity on their rights. They also note that if a fighter loses and is cut, the UFC still can merchandise the fighter when no longer with the organization, or even after retirement. It also notes a fighter can’t even sit out the terms of his contract, because if a fighter refuses to fight, like Randy Couture did years back, the UFC can freeze the contract length and essentially either force the end of his career or force him to return.

They also note that UFC not allowing certain sponsors on its broadcasts cuts back on potential income for fighters.

They note that sponsors not only have to pay sponsorship tax, but the UFC bans a number of companies from sponsoring if they compete with companies the UFC has existing deals with.

Also mentioned was that in or about January 2014, the UFC had added in contracts a provision that allowed them to lower the pay of fighters during the contract period if they lose fights.

It claimed the UFC had exclusive deals with key venues on the Las Vegas strip, which wouldn’t allow rival promotions to run in those key arenas. It also noted that Quinton “Rampage” Jackson had negotiated an action figure deal with Round 5 and a Reebok deal, but the UFC blocked both deals and entered into deals of its own with both companies.

There was also a claim that UFC had threatened sponsors that if they work with rival promotions, the UFC would ban them from being part of UFC events or sponsoring UFC fighters. The suit mentioned that Fedor Emelianenko, according to his manager, Vadim Finkelchstein, had a potential seven-figure one-year sponsorship deal with Tapout that fell through with Finkelchstein claiming they were told to either dump Emelianenko or lose access to UFC events.

Mentioned also in the suit was a claim that UFC embarked on a campaign to  monopolize or monopsonize the industry, claiming the purchase of WEC in 2006 was to block rivals from getting television on Versus (now NBC Sports). Versus at the time was negotiating with the IFL, which later got television on MyNetwork TV, which ended up being a stronger distribution platform. But the IFL’s TV show ended up canceled due to declining ratings. The purchase of WFA was of a promotion that was essentially done, and the UFC got the videotape rights and contracts with some key fighters, notably Jackson and Lyoto Machida, who eventually both became UFC light heavyweight champions.

Pride was essentially done when the UFC purchased it. Affliction had also lost millions of dollars and was looking for a way out. They claimed the UFC forced Mark Cuban to shut down HDNet Fights, but that was more a business decision with them feeling it was more cost-effecitve to pay fees to broadcast shows other promoters did, and they have aired events regularly for years, first on HDNet, and to this day after the name change to AXS TV.

The claim was that UFC regularly counter programmed against Strikeforce, claiming it as a means to prevent Strikeforce, due to UFC being the stronger company, from promoting successful events and pressured sponsors to withdraw from Strikeforce by threatening to ban them from UFC fighters and broadcasts if they didn’t.

But counter programming has been part and parcel of competitive sports businesses since the beginning of time, and given most major shows are on Saturday nights, as UFC and Strikeforce each expanded their schedules, it was a given there would be Saturdays with both companies running.

And ultimately, that’s what this case will come down to, the line between natural competition in an industry, and anti-competitive practices, and if it ever gets to a trial, how a jury will view those points.

Read more from original source

Key questions in the lawsuit filed against the UFC

Remembering why Gilbert Melendez has a title shot at UFC 181

Gilbert Melendez is confronting UFC lightweight champ Anthony Pettis for that division’s most esteemed title on Saturday. Melendez is definitely a winner in other organizations or highly rated in the UFC. Yet, his present position is one which did not occur organically or by chance. It turned out to be a unified attempt just made possible by contractual openings, the fiscal readiness and skill of some other suitor, and maybe above all, efficient direction.

let us fast piece together the timeline of the important parts of Melendez’s mixed martial arts profession to aid us better comprehend these facts.

Read more from original source

Remembering why Gilbert Melendez has a title shot at UFC 181

Former NCAA champ starting professional amateur wrestling group

Wayne Boyd is more passionate about wrestling than almost anyone, and his latest goal is to succeed at something that everyone else that has tried and failed: the idea of running a promotion doing professional amateur wrestling.

Boyd’s new venture, The Global Wrestling Championships, debuts with a Saturday afternoon show with three main event matches, featuring six of the country’s top wrestlers. The event brings four-time NCAA champion Kyle Dake back to Cornell University. It will be a combination of prelim matches streaming for free at 2 p.m. Eastern time on GoFightLive.tv and the championship matches as a $6.95 Internet pay-per-view if ordered in advance, at 3 p.m. ET.

Boyd’s goals are ambitious. He wants to present real wrestling, with the country’s best wrestlers, in a professional sports league team format. He wants to present the shows like MMA, with interviews, storylines and grudge matches. The idea is for the teams to be from the ten to 20 best wrestling clubs in the country, doing dual meets. The goal is to generate enough revenue that 88 of the best wrestlers in the country would be able to earn $50,000 per year with the hope it will help sustain them so they won’t have to work a full-time job while preparing for international competitions. They also want the U.S. team to surpass Iran and Russia for the top spot in the world. It would also gives those so inclined the experience of competing in a sports league and learning to promote matches before moving into MMA.

It’s something that is the reverse of two decades ago, when people like Randy Couture, Dan Henderson, Matt Lindland, Mark Coleman and Tom Erikson originally started fighting in MMA as a way to earn money to support their Olympic wrestling dreams.

For Saturday’s event, the prize money will be $7,500 to the winner and $2,500 to the loser, for three championship bouts.

In marketing, Boyd wants to change terminology. He doesn’t like the term amateur wrestling. And he wants to use boxing and MMA terms for weight classes.

When Sam Hazewinkel, a member of the 2012 Olympic team, faces Tony Ramos, who won the NCAA title last year for Iowa, they’ll be battling for the GWC flyweight championship, complete with a title belt. The actual weight of the competitors isn’t even decided, but it will be something in the neighborhood of 126 or 127 pounds.

Dake, the only man in history to win NCAA titles in four different weight classes and the best U.S. college wrestler in recent years, will battle Andrew Howe, a former NCAA champion from Wisconsin, for the welterweight title, which will be at around 163 pounds. The two went into triple overtime last year when they were in a tournament for a spot on the U.S. team in the world championships.

The heavyweight championship will be decided with Tervel Diagnev, who placed fifth at the last Olympics, facing Tyrell Fortune, a former Division II national champion who lost to Diagnev in the finals of the tournament in 2013 to make the U.S. team for the world championships. Both men will be about 285 pounds, and Boyd wants to go back to the past the make the heavyweight division an unlimited weight class, bringing back the days of the behemoth 400-pound heavyweights.

Boyd, 68, won an NCAA title in 1969 while going undefeated in dual meets during his college career at Temple University. He’s finishing his 57th year in the sport, and still trains twice a week. He notes that in 1981, he became the only man to ever pin Victor the Wrestling Bear. After the age of 45, he won seven age group national championships, the most recent being in 2009. He’s also produced movies about wrestling, most notably the 1996 movie, “One More Shot.” 

The idea of a professional league for amateur wrestlers isn’t new. A number have sprung up in the last 40 years, usually lasting very little time. The AGON promotion tried it in recent years.

The most visibility any of these projects got was nearly a decade ago, when Real Pro Wrestling had a run on national television. RPW was on both PAX TV (now Ion) and Fox Sports Net, but folded after one season, with minimal ratings and an inability to get sponsors. But that league featured some of the best wrestlers in the country at the time, who a decade later are now names in MMA, including 184-pound champion Muhammad Lawal (King Mo) of the Oklahoma Slam, teammate Daniel Cormier, who won the 211-pound championship, and 264-pound champion Patrick Cummins. Also in the promotion was current Bellator bantamweight champion Joe Warren.

“It’s a real challenge,” said Boyd, about the promotion. “I’m really hoping we can do what UFC accomplished. We’re looking to give wrestling a bigger audience, more entertainment value and get more media interest. That’s what we are looking for. For years, we’ve called ourselves amateur wrestling. If you call yourself amateur, how do you expect to get any attention?”

The amateur wrestling community has constantly been trying to figure out a way for its top stars to be able to earn a sustainable living while full-time training for national and international competitions.  And it’s come full circle, because Boyd is in discussion about putting on a second show in conjunction with the annual amateur wrestling spectacular held in New York’s Madison Square Garden, on Dec. 21. He talked about getting Lawal and Warren to wrestle on the show, and wants to get in touch with Tito Ortiz.

Ultimately, he’s talking about major arenas and pay-per-view, and hoping to be a circuit where guys can make some money, make a name, and then some would then transition into the UFC or another MMA promotion.

They are experimenting with rules. On the first show, each match is a series of a best-of-five series of three-minute rounds, calling them rounds and not periods. The rounds will be scored both separately and together. If there is a pin, the match is over. If not, the first person to win three rounds takes it. However, if the loser wins his rounds stronger, enough to where after four or five rounds, he has more cumulative points than the winner, they go into a three round overtime to decide the championship. If that fails, they stand up and have a sudden death, first person to score round. If neither man scores after three minutes, there will be three judges who decide the champion.

“We’re pushing scoring more points, wrestling longer and wrestling harder,” said Boyd. “Our guys, if they go to the world championships, when they wrestle the Russians and Iranians, they’ll have trained for 15-18 minute matches, so they’ll have a little edge in conditioning. We want the U.S. to dominate wrestling and dominate Russia and Iran.”

“I need to see what happens after ten minutes,” he said. “We need to see how it looks when they’re exhausted. I may find the magic number is 12 minutes, not 15, maybe nine, but I want the matches to be longer. Whose ever heard of an entertainment event that lasts six minutes?

He’s talking to NBA owners, with a goal to get exposure by putting on wrestling matches at halftime of games.

“People call me crazy, but without vision, you’ll just do the same things over and over,” he said. “We’ve never been able to pay our athletes. We’re looking at being a bridge to UFC. If I can sit down with Dana White, we can map something out.”

He looks back at the early 1900s, when Frank Gotch was one of the biggest sports heroes of the time, and battled George Hackenschmidt before 29,000 fans at Comiskey Park in Chicago, or when Joe Stecher battled Earl Caddock in Madison Square Garden in legitimate matches for the world championships.

“I’d like to do a match in Yankee Stadium, Dodger Stadium, a big match where the lure is that the winner would get $1 million,” said Boyd. “If people knew two guys were fighting for that much money, they would get interested.”

He thinks that will lead to more participation in the sport.

“The characteristics of being great in any sport are common in wrestling,” he said. “Any ten year-old boy, or ten year-old girl should experience wrestling for at least one season. It’ll make him a better baseball player or a better football player. It builds character. It’s the world’s oldest sport, the original sport of the ancient Olympics, and it’s a natural teacher of life experiences.”

Read more from original source

Former NCAA champ starting professional amateur wrestling group

Nursing a back injury, Cat Zingano would not have been prepared for Jan. 3

Though there’s been much conjecture why Ronda Rousey’s following bantamweight title shield against Cat Zingano was transferred from Jan. 3 to Feb. 28, most of it’s been off base.

According to your report on UFC Tonight, the substitution in date had less to do with Rousey’s marketability as a headliner than it did a schedule for retrieval. Zingano’s management team told Ariel Helwani the opposition continues to be coping with a back injury, and would not have been prepared for UFC 182 in Las Vegas on Jan. 3.

Read more from original source

Nursing a back injury, Cat Zingano would not have been prepared for Jan. 3

The very best of Michael Bisping

Michael Bisping, who confronts Luke Rockhold Friday night on UFC Fight Pass, talks regarding the craft of trash talking and his amazing power to get under his adversaries’ skin.

Read more from original source

The very best of Michael Bisping

Former UFC fighter Matt Riddle believes professional wrestling could be his "shot to make it"

Halloween nighttime means celebrations or trick or treating for most 28-year old couples with three children. For former UFC fighter Matt Riddle, and his wife Lisa, they have been less than two weeks into a fresh path in life – striving to become pro wrestlers. Riddle fought 12 fights in UFC between 2008 and 2013, after coming in through the Ultimate Fighter reality show with zero fighting encounter. He was a New York high school state champ at Saratoga Springs High School in 2004, then wrestled for a couple of years at East Stroudsburg University, before employed as a roofer. He’d no fights nor proper training when he tried out for The Ultimate Fighter.In those days, contestants in the show were decided both from the UFC and Spike. The UFC was deciding based on people that could go on to be combatants in the business. Spike would pick people according to character, or appearances. Among the reasons they began doing the fights to enter the house was to weed out the men who might have now been television characters, but were not actual combatants. Riddle had a great look, as well as a huge grin and appeared to constantly be joyful, however he never fought, even though he’d a strong real wrestling history. He walked to the cage for the very first time and quickly scored such an horrific knockout, breaking the jaw of Dan Simmler in two positions, that he was the next man decided by trainer Rampage Jackson for the seventh season of the show. He lost to Dan Cramer in his next fight, a loss he avenged another year. Those at the UFC understood he’d possible. The truth is, he was a name brought up especially in those days when the thought of a UFC developmental system was talked about, getting men who’d possible and athletic skill, but from an experience point of view, were not prepared for UFC. But no such thing existed. He was in the UFC from day one, and, equipped along with his wrestling, won his first three fights. Subsequently, by his own admission, he showed up out of form to get a fight with Nick Osipczak in Manchester, England, and learned a lesson, being ended late in the 3rd round.”That was a terrible night,” he remembered. He never reached the top in the UFC. However he could have won his last four fights, except two of his triumphs were overturned for testing positive for cannabis. The second one led to his being let go from the corporation after having a run of going 7-3, using the two no contests. Bellator needed him, but he and CEO Bjorn Rebney had a public falling out after he blasted the organization, said he was retiring, afterward came from retirement, subsequently pulled from a fight, and was let go. His only fight since being released by the UFC in early 2013, was on Feb. 28 for Titan Fighting Championships, which he won via guillotine in the second round. Fighting in the UFC was more something he fell into. As a child, he along with his wrestling dummy would spend all day long in the trampoline with him practicing professional wrestling moves and he had do backyard matches.So now he is looking to return to his youth. Three times weekly, every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, he is said he along with his wife will travel 90 minutes in every single direction to head to The Monster Factory in Paulsboro, N.J. It is among the earliest professional wrestling schools in the nation, opening up in the early 80s by Larry Sharpe plus among the renowned names in professional wrestling history, the late “Nature Boy” Buddy Rogers. One of the stars that have trained there contain the wrestler who set the health club in the map, the late Bam Bam Bigelow, as well as King Kong Bundy and present WWE stars The Big Show and Sheamus.”We get here early,” said Riddle. “At 7:20 p.m., we begin practicing what we understand. Afterward we go over new stuff. I train Tuesday and Thursdays in MMA. I lift daily. That is the next section of my entire life. This is exactly what I am committed to. Tuesday and Thursday I am doing MMA to pay the invoices, also it covers the grocery stores for now. I make an adequate cent doing privates (MMA lessons) and items.”He and his wife on their off days from training in the institution, train at home going over the things they can. “It is his third day, he is every dynamic, and respectful, and that I do not have to get in his ear about things like being rigorous and getting right down to business,” said Danny Cage, a former pro wrestler who now runs the school. “Lots of new pupils may have wandering eyes, and begin daydreaming. He along with his wife come in and get right down to company.”Cage did say during real training he needed to split the two since they were speaking too much to every other during course.”It Is clear, they’ve been wed.”Cage said Riddle is way ahead of the game due to the tools he brings to the table, most notably he does not need to be instructed to get into shape and he is far ahead of most athletically. He is way ahead in cardio training. Plus, Cage considers it is an important advantage to get powerful amateur wrestling encounter, even though there certainly are numerous customs recreational wrestlers have that are not easy to break, including matters nobody would see. In amateur wrestling, you lock up together with your right hand. In American-style professional wrestling, everything is completed in the left side. But lots of the basic moves and reversals come from amateur wrestling.”Some folks prefer to crap on an expert sportsman going into professional wrestling,” said Cage. “As someone who trains these men, if I could take their fire in a single sport into this one, it is an edge. They have a reputation for training difficult. He wished to be a pro wrestler first, but the UFC presented itself. He came in. Every once in a while he really wants to do hardcore wrestling, like anyone who comes in, but I told him, ‘Let Us get a foundation and we’ll take it one step at a time.’ He will be patient.”Right now, they may be still concentrating on simply tying up, headlocks and getting the wrist for the initial fourteen days. They’ll begin in the ring, learning to safely take the lumps off moves like arm drags and hip throws.”We can not speed it up only because he is a great sportsman,” said Cage. “Itis a formula we’ve and we have done it this way for the past 30 years.”,Cage said he could phone the WWE tomorrow and Riddle, together with his appearance and history, could get a tryout, however he believes it is best for him to go there first with training. He does not need him going there as a professional athlete with no principles and no comprehension of the backstage games and accidentally rub somebody the wrong manner. In the WWE developmental, there are men who were strong sportsmen, as well as star athletes like school football players, professional soccer players and top level school as well as ex-Olympic wrestlers. And in another corner, there are men who spent years doing small time professional wrestling shows. There are still those who’ve practiced the trade in areas like Mexico, Japan and Europe and in the ring are truly a lot better in relation to the largest stars on national television. The former group are generally larger, more powerful and much more fit, but the latter group, using their ring encounter, could blow them away in regards to wrestling. It is frequently frustrating for the men who were star athletes in valid sports, that have worked hard to get to be the greatest at the things they do and with all the assurance of star athlete, to be so far behind men that aren’t anywhere close to the same amount of sportsman and sometimes don’t have any sports history at all. Even at The Monster Factory, Cage sees the problems involving both groups, but he views non-sportsmen with no world-wide expertise resenting sportsmen striving professional wrestling.”Someone having any sort of a professional fit history, I Will take that any day,” said Cage. “There is a whole lot of people that are interested in being a pro wrestler. They come in at 24, and they’re out of shape, however they believe since they see WWE on a regular basis, it makes them much more enthusiastic about pro wrestling than someone who played professional sports. However there is a difference between a fanatic and somebody doing professional sport. Itis another creature.””If everything goes as intended, I am expecting he will be gone (signing with a leading firm) in six to eight months, but that is not my call. I can not tell folks to sign him. He is 215 legit, 6-foot-2, shredded, his build reminds me of Steve Cutler (a wrestler Cage coached who’s now in WWE’s developmental system).””I saw ECW, WCW, WWF, I saw it all,” Riddle recalled fondly about the so called Outlook age, the period from 1997 to early 2001, when professional wrestling peaked in U.S. popularity. “My parents hated me. All I did was see professional wrestling and that I wrestled using a hefty bag around the trampoline. That was my youth.” His wife, who isn’t a wrestling fan, but was an All American gymnast at Louisiana State University, and then an exercise competition after school, comes with him.”We met in Vegas, I had been training for a fight and she was running sprints. She enjoyed the way I looked. I enjoyed the way she looked, and today we have three children.””Fitness competition is lots of hard work and there is no pay check in that,” he noted.”She Is doing fantastic,” said Cage. “She is rough. She was a gymnast and has terrific instincts in there. She does not whine. She does not back down. She does everything the men do.”The two went to your seminar two weeks ago put on by Ring of Honor, the nation’s third-biggest professional wrestling promotion, which occurred to create one of Riddle’s favourite wrestlers, Colby Lopez, who’s WWE’s present star villain, Seth Rollins.”My wife does not watch wrestling, but she sees the (Whole) Divas on E!,” he said. “I told her how interested I was and she is quite a physical man, so she was curious. She saw a few of the Divas doing it and she is fairly certain. She is put together quite nicely and she is able to go. I told her, ‘I am planning to check it out, why do not you attempt it?’ She is discovered and she is doing excellent.”Riddle gets the correct look, naturally broad shoulders, a tiny waistline and eight pack abs. He explained his greatest aim isn’t to win tournaments, but to do insane things in the ring that leave people by making use of their jaws hanging open, like places he recalls to this day from his own youth. He said he can already do crazy acrobatics and was a natural at running the ropes, however he is got no foundation.”When I see wrestling now, it is not the mat technicians, but the men who will draw you in with ‘Oh My God’ seconds, ‘Sacred s*** minutes, those will be the minutes I would like to make,” he said. “Even when I fought in the UFC, I needed to get fight of the night time. You get right into a fight and get the fans roaring, I enjoy men like Seth Rollins, for the reason that they are ready to push the pace more difficult than others. If a person does something enormous before in the night time, he is planning to head out as well as take it that much further. I do not understand if it is everyone’s aim in wrestling, but I need folks to get excited.”The one thing that is square one, is becoming in the ring trusting individuals,” said Riddle. “Running off the ropes, bound, that came natural to me. It is the basics I should understand. I have to understand how to not get hurt, and how to not damage others. I am quite certain I already have x, y and z, but I want a, b and c. That is the reason why I came to The Monster Factory. I used to be told that is where you should be to pick up the basics.”I do not need to come off poor, but I ‘ve lots of possible at this,” he said. “I am a world class sportsman and what I desired to do was be a pro wrestler. It was always my love. I am not in the UFC anymore so I am not getting paid decent money to fight, therefore I desired to do something I adore. I had rather wrestle professionally and have pleasure than fight for no reason at all.”It was the professional wrestling that accidentally got him into a twisting road that caused the UFC.”I began wrestling in seventh grade,” he said. “I ‘d about 200 backyard matches under my belt by then. I saw every wrestler, or at least every wrestler who had been great, had an amateur history. I went to school wrestling, subsequently began doing Jiu Jitsu, afterward I was in the UFC for six years.””I did it for a while. It was not something I needed to do, it was something I was great at. They needed me to fight at 170 or 185 pounds. Once I get below 190, my kidneys hurt, my lower back hurts, it is not safe for my body. I do not get enjoyment out of suffering, particularly if I do not get paid. I am no longer 22, I do not care about tough guy competitions. It’s been my aim my whole life. I looked in the mirror four months past. I had been tired of cutting weight, becoming ill, I got the (WWE) network for $9.99 and began reliving the Outlook Age and got that spark that I Have been missing since I was 20. I understood I could generate income doing that. I saw the men I grew up observing, I am observing the newest men and these guys are not larger than me, I am a little more ripped than they’re, I am a cage fighter so I ‘ve abilities, so perhaps this is my chance to make it. If worst comes to worst, they say ‘No.’ Iwill keep striving. I have shown people wrong before.”

Read more from original source

Former UFC fighter Matt Riddle believes professional wrestling could be his "shot to make it"

Conor McGregor: "I am in everybody"s head in the minute"

LAS VEGAS — UFC featherweight competition Conor McGregor talks about why he is not wearing a suit, his power to sell out a soccer stadium, if he considers he is ahead of the victor of Frankie Edgar vs. Cub Swanson for a title shot and much more.

Read more from original source

Conor McGregor: "I am in everybody"s head in the minute"

Mark Hunt: I need one opportunity for this title shot

Unlike many men and women in MMA, Mark Hunt never wished to be a combatant. Itis a point he makes abundantly clear several times even in a brief dialogue. Being a combatant is something he considers he was set on this particular Earth to be, and he is good with that, and having fun with that, however he makes it clear it had not been his decision but only his destiny. He was born having a strong punch and an inordinate number of durability. His clout, and power to get a punch, enabled him to make up ground fast both in kickboxing and afterwards in MMA, surpassing a lot more proficient and experienced individuals. And it enables him to still be a main event combatant, and maybe even a title challenger, after he’s passed his 40th birthday.”I Have had 23 years of fighting, as well as because time, I Have had two ACL reconstructions as well as a busted hand,” he points out seeing an injury history unusually brief to get a guy that is fighting the top level competitors, and been in several noteworthy wars, in three different sports (he briefly boxed as well) for such a long time. “I feel blessed by God. This is exactly what I am supposed to do in life. I never wished to be a combatant. That is what God said I am planning to do, and I am happy with that. The end is exactly the same, if I win, lose or draw.”His doctrine is quite Japanese-like, where it is around entertaining the viewers first and the outcome is not as significant. During the K1 and Pride heydays, nobody was concerned with win-loss records. It was all about getting the fans to enjoy you. Unlike many combatants who a day or two out from a fight which could be a ticket into a title run or the end of the line, Hunt looks unusually composed and care-free. He is going right into a five-round main event fight at his home from home, the Saitama Super Arena, just outside of Tokyo. Hunt, whose 9-8-1 career record may seem just like a contradiction to his being ranked as the No. 6 competition for winner Cain Velasquez, confronts Roy Nelson, who at 20-9, is the No. 8 competition. The estimated haymaker throw-down takes place on Saturday night in Japan, which will be really early Saturday morning in the U.S., on a show that will air only on Fight Pass. The show internally continues to be dubbed Fight Pass Mania, as it is considered the largest occasion having the most name gift of any show on UFC’s streaming service since its start.”I am excited regarding the matchup,” he said. “I am not planning to underestimate any combatant. I did that once, and that I got knocked out. He is among the best fighters on the planet. We are kind of similar. I am looking forward to Saturday night and having an excellent performance.”It Is Hunt’s first match back since a uncommon harm, the broken hand, coming from an original draw against Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva. That fight, on Dec. 7, in Brisbane Australia, was considered one of the greatest heavyweight fights in UFC history. Silva tested positive for an elevated amount of testosterone that night, hence the fight on Silva’s record is known as a no contest, but on Hunt’s record, it is still a draw. The Saitama Super Arena is a part of Hunt’s home from home. For most of his career, he was two individuals. He was a relative unknown living in Australia, after growing up in New Zealand. When he flew to Japan, he became “The Super Samoan,” a Japanese star who had been nearly a comic book figure come to life. But this trip was different, having been shaken up by the Tokyo quake when he arrived on Tuesday. “We only landed and it was the quake, bloody,” he said about his reaction. “When God says it is time for just one of us to go, we are done.”But Hunt does not feel like he is done in any manner.”It Is great for me to be doing what I am doing at my age,” he said. “I love doing what I am doing. Nevertheless , as soon as I am finished, I am not planning to return. I will not want the cash. The sole reason I am still fighting is since I consider I am still the best fighter on the planet. I’d like to defeat Roy on Saturday night, and then I’d like to fight a top-five man. Afterward I would like to challenge for the title once, whoever that may be against. That is all I am curious in. I need one opportunity for this title shot.”It’s been almost 13 years because both Mark Searches were born. It was on Dec. 8, 2001, at the Tokyo Dome, before a sold out crowd of 55,000 enthusiasts, and with 23 million more seeing on television. Hunt, who’d only fought once earlier in Japan, was considered to be out of his league in the K-1 World Grand Prix. He was a heavy underdog in every one of his fights. But he knocked out Jerome LeBanner, won via decision over Stefan Leko, and won an overtime decision over Francisco Filho to win the one-night eight-man tournament. The thought of a 5-foot-9 and 271-pound powerhouse, who’d just debuted in Japan two months before, knocking off three leading stars in a single night along with his chief ability being a knockout punch, as well as a granite chin, made him an immediate star in Japan. Itis a status he’s mostly preserved even though both the kickboxing and MMA age for the reason that state is long finished. He managed to make it to the top rung in kickboxing with little expertise – his first professional fight arrived four days after he was seen by means of a bouncer in a night club knocking multiple folks out in an Auckland, New Zealand pub. Another thing he knew, he was in the ring. But MMA proved to be a little more demanding. That career began in 2004, when the Pride Fighting Championships upped his pay significantly to tempt him from K1, mainly as among K1’s largest stars, during a promotional war. The concept was to find a huge man having a large name the people understood was rough, but was not an MMA fighter, to feed to Hidehiko Yoshida, a Japanese gold medalist in judo that Pride was attempting to establish its business near. It was Hunt’s first MMA fight, along with his first fight in the Saitama Super Arena. He continued only 5:25 before losing via armbar. But even without earth training, his natural power enabled him to live much longer than he should have.”I needed to learn an entirely new sport,” he said in regards to the move to MMA in the age of 30. “It was tough coming from a dramatic history, and I needed to learn the hard way. I’d just 3 or 4 weeks of training, and that I got armbarred by a gold medalist. It was kind of rough to come from a standing stunning history. I used to be like a fish out of water. It was a completely new and different challenge.”He learned quickly, knocking out enormous American wrestler Daniel Bobish, before competing in his first New Year’s Eve event on Dec. 31, 2004, and winning a freak show fight over Wanderlei Silva, who he outweighed that nighttime by 76 pounds. He fought several more times on New Year’s Eve, the greatest fighting day of the entire year in Japan. Recently, with fighting no longer popular, Tokyo has still been his New Year’s Eve destination, as he is competed with sportsmen from several sports in arm wrestling and tug of wars, winning the title once in the latter sport. However, even with triumphs over legends like Silva and Mirko Cro Cop in his early MMA fights, UFC needed no part of him when his contract came to them in 2007 together with the purchase of the assets of the Pride Fighting Championships. The feeling is he was lacking in earth abilities. The UFC was prepared to pay him off to simply go away, however he desired to fight MMA in the top level. Following a legal fight which continued three years, the UFC ended on the losing side and Hunt debuted, losing via straight armbar to journeyman fighter Sean McCorkle. At that time, Hunt was considered past his prime, at 36 years old, but his contract, because it came from Pride, did not let UFC to cut him. Subsequently he began winning, going all of the way into a title eliminator in 2013 where he lost via knockout to Junior Dos Santos.”I Have always believed I was the best fighter on the planet,” he said. “Coming from a standing history in dramatic, I could not catch up to the men with 20 plus years of training on the earth. I needed to learn entries. I found out it was not an easy road. I ‘d six losses in a row, but I still believed I was the greatest fighter in the world.”Saturday’s fight will probably be his 11th in the Saitama Super Arena, with wins and losses against a who is who of heavyweights in the Pride generation, including Yoshida, Cro Cop, Fedor Emelianenko and Josh Barnett.Nelson and Hunt have some clear similarities. Both are short power stations with one-punch knockout power and both are not easy to quit. Both do not seem anything like a classic striker, being short and thick, with more than considerable weight around the center. Hunt figures he’s got the takedown shield to maintain the fight standing. Nelson, a black belt in Jiu Jitsu, would determine to truly have a leading border in the floor, but Hunt does not appear concerned.”If the fight goes to the earth, I do not care,” Hunt said. “We’ll see what Roy’s got. We are only going to fight.”

Read more from original source

Mark Hunt: I need one opportunity for this title shot

Morning Report: Miesha Tate and Rin Nakai discuss promoting women"s MMA in Japan

The fact that former Queen of Pancrase Rin Nakai is famous for her racy viral videos at least at substantially as her fighting skill is not an injury.

Clearly, the focus-catching videos help sell herself, but Nakai says that finally they are meant to encourage her organization.

Read more from original source

Morning Report: Miesha Tate and Rin Nakai discuss promoting women"s MMA in Japan