“People associate the sport with UFC; we have a very strong brand. No one else has been successful with this except us. There is a long list of tombstones…. You can’t point to one thing that [differentiates] us. We’ve created a fast-paced, edgy show…. No one has ever been successful except us. There is no No. 2.”
– UFC majority owner Lorenzo Fertitta gushes to MultiChannel.com about the wild success of his mixed martial arts promotion. He indicates that the UFC essentially has no competition. And he is more than likely accurate, considering Pro Elite is hemorrhaging massive amounts of money, the International Fight League has folded, DREAM is already in dire straits and Affliction MMA had to reschedule its October show until sometime in January because of lackluster ticket sales. Steve Cofield suggests, however, that a marriage between Pro Elite and Affliction could be just what the doctor ordered. We’ll have to see how that relationship grows after the October 4 show. For now, though, it appears to be a UFC world and all the others are just along for the ride.
79 Comments »
It’s true!! elite, strikeforce, affliction and king of the cage could all merge and they wouldn’t have 1/10 of the talent that the ufc has. Guys like diaz, shields, bigfoot etc need to realize this (fedor) and go where the top competition is. UFC owns the brand and for those who think it’s bad fot the sport, you’re crazy. do you want 3 football or basketball leagues? nope. do you want 3 or 4 ppv’s a month or only having to buy 1 ok with you? Those of you who think competition is good for sport are crazy. This is the one time wher no competition is good for us the fans. Less money spent and a collection of the best fighters all under one banner! the good fighters in other promotions realize this and will start coming over, or the other promotions will just begin to fold!
thats a ridiculous opinion, if the UFC were the only promotion, wed get one card a month max and wed be spoon fed all the UFC’s propaganda and have to sit through all their commercials and advertisements. you think wed get to see anderson silva fight for free if it werent for afflictions card? nope… you think the UFC would be showing 87 and 86 for free coming up if it werent for these other promotions cars? nope… keep swining on dana whites sack kevin
Do you think we would have been able to see Couture/Fedor by now, Couture out of action for 15 months when he is 44? Would it have taken that long to see Wandy/Chuck? Gomi/Penn? Think of the match-ups.
NO, we wouldnt have seen couture/fedor because the UFC is too cheap to sign fedor, bottom line… thats the only thing holding that fight up, end of story… the only match ups we would get are the ones the UFC want to put on, not what the fans want… if a match up is expensive i guarentee the UFC wouldnt put it on when theyre the only promotion
imagine a basketball league with Michael Jordan, and another league with Magic, and a third with Larry Bird, and most of the rest of their teams are filled with second stringers and they never ever play against each other.
nope, we’d still get fight nights, and I don’t need reruns of ppv’s, I unlike you buy them all.
GREAT NEWS thats actually relevant to the topic so Mania cant NOT post my stuff!
FEG issued a statement that said that regardless of their problems, DREAM isnt going anywhere! MUSIC TO MY EARS!
I am OUT! time to start getting Rowdy thinking about tonights EAGLES game!
that is great newz!
a couple of days ago there was a thread on dream going
out of business.
and i was shocked to read all the hate towards dream
from my fellow mma nerdz.
how can u guys not like dream?
how can u be happy with it failing?
it is almost sickening to have read all those posts the
other day.
props john.
it seems like u r the only peep around here who cares.
i care, dream throws a great event! good news!
word.
And I like Dream’s Tournament style, grand prix format. reminds me of the old school UFC days! I prefer it that way actually. Only the strong will survive!
WTF Mania, post my comments already!
Now you post this irrelevant thing above, but my priceless insight is now lost in cyberspace…
How can they say that regardless of their problems, they aren’t going anywhere? So they just figure to keep bleeding money for the good of mankind?
Why cant they? Whats so hard to believe? that a new mma organization is loosing money in the beginning? r u really surprised? They are saying that they will continue to eat losses till they turn it around.
whats so hard to believe? UFC was in zillions of dollars in debt before they turned it around! WTF?
WTF is right John, we’ve told you over and over it’s loses not looses, it’s hard to take you serious when we realize it’s not you hitting O once too many times, but really your spelling!
your eagles suck by the way!!!
hahaha. Needless to say I agree.
LMFAO Who the hell is forcing you to watch UFC commercials? There should be one promotion where all the best fighters are. I don’t give a shit if that org is called UFC, Pride, Affliction, WNBA, or whatever. But the fact is that the UFC is the closest to being that “one” organization, and they’re never gonna be anything but the number 1 or at the worse number 2 org in the next half-century. Book it. It’s funny how so many people say they are against a single “major-league” type org, but would gladly see Affliction put UFC under. You’re not against having one org, you’re against the UFC. Guess what, if Affliction had the talent pool that the UFC had, they too would give a crap about what the hardcore fans think.
kevin makes some great points today..
i could not put it better!
if all the top talent came to the ufc it would be great!
fighters should realize this and strive to be in the
top org.
i do like the minor orgs too
but minor orgs should have the up and comers.
and the ufc should have all the top fighters
so we can see the best fight the best all the time.
well then you just made my point didnt you? its better to have competing organizations so there isnt a monopoly on the market and we dont get taken advantage of as the consumer by a single promotion
Fine Brendan. I’ll watch my NFL, and you can enjoy CFL, Arena Football, and NFL Europe lol.
brendan- that is not what i said.
i said that i think all the top fighters
should be in the top org[ufc].
but i also think there should still be minor leauges
for the new up and comer fighters to build a name and
experience in mma
befor they jump in with the sharks in the top org[ufc].
no competition cause the minor orgs will know that their
fighters are striving to reach the ufc.
what is the differance between NASCAR and what UFC is doing? Besides nock Dana all you want if you were as smart has him we would be talking about your promotion!!!
Yeah its kinda funny how the UFC says their all about mma, but in my mind its all about the cash. I understand you have to make money, but they give titile shot to undeserving fighters and ingnore any kind of ranking process. I love Dan Henderson but he get s title shot against Rampage then loses. What does the UFC do, what the hell lets give him another shot in another division and loses again. I hope Randy beats the living snot out of steroid Lesnar.
LESNAR was never on roids dude, He’s been big since his college days. He’s naturally a freak of nature.
lol thats why he got caught with a bag full of roids, the wwe paid to get the case thrown out (it was HGH before HGH was previlant) do some research before making an obviously dumb statement! Look at him now and then…he was ripped more in the wwe,
Henderson got two title defenses because he was the champion of two weights in pride and they were unifying titles!
where do you guys on the weekends come from…nothing but moronic easy to prove wrong responses today…can’t wait until tomorrow
go philly/over
down 2k right now!!! plus 4 vigs (4 and 4 this morning, 0 and 2 late!)
I watched the fights and don’t recall Dan Henderson handing the belts over to either man or the UFC dislpaying the pride art all. Kevin I am glad you are here to keep us all informed and telling us when we are wrong, thank you o great poobah
HGH has been previlant for a long time, just look at pro bobdybuilding for the last 15 years. Most guys weigh 50-70 lbs. more than what Arnold weighed, and they are only agbout 5′8″-5′11″.
Bigmcmac, Henderson was the dominate Pride 185 lbr, and KO’d Wandy for the Pride 205 lb title… and U obviously missed the 1st introduction of Dan Henderson when aquired by the UFC when he entered the ring carrying his 2 Pride belts… that’s besides the point, that u don’t know what your talking about.
Thorazine thands for filling me in, now you can go play UFC dolls with Kevin.
lol “ridiculous opinion!” everyone has their own opinion, no one mans is more ridiculous than the next…just as many guys agreed with me as you, but that was a ridiculously dumb statement brendan
ufc can eat kevins shit
True….Well put
BTW…I meant Brendan’s comment…No competition…Not interesting!!!
UFC is a fixed organization out of the betting capital of the world…..Makes sense why anything can happen……….And why U SHOULD NEVER LEAVE IT TO THE JUDGES!!!!! I respect a lot of UFC fighters but the organization does have twisted practices and there is something going on behind the scenes…….Also its great other fighters are given the opportunity to find success in other promotions and prove thier skill….. Without other promotions, half the UFC Champs and contenders wouldnt exist……We are M-M-A not U-F-C…..At least some of us……
so you can care less about the hundreds of fighters that would be left without a job?
What in the world are you talking about? There can still be more than one org, but there needs to be one recognized org as the top dog, where their champions can be recognized as true world champs. See my football analogy above. There’s smaller leagues like Canadian Football, but everybody knows the NFL is the shit. Now imagine if the AFC and NFC were two different orgs and their top teams didn’t face each other. It would be crap!
And there’s never such a thing as a true monopoly. Even if the UFC were the only professional MMA league, they can’t just put on shit shows or else ppl would turn to K-1, or boxing, or pro wrestling, or any other sport or entertainment. Hell, every single thing that has a fee is competing with each other. Even something non-related to MMA like gas prices can affect viewership. It’s all inter-connected.
you see killer, pat sumed it up for you, but yeah, I could care less. It’s like all you guys that called for evan tanner to retire, now crying over what a terrible loss it is. I could care less! My wife likens me to dexter (on showtime) very cold very heartless! How is my life affected if 100’s of fighters don’t work? I’ll tell you…better mma! Those fighters who aren’t working will have to work harder (in the minor orgs) to get the exposure! Better fights from those in the UFC, because they’d be more expendible. If sean sherk has to go to body building or personal training, how am I affected??? oh yeah, no more boring lay and prey fights!!!
Really good points Kevin, except Dexter is a methodical serial killer, u bludgeoned your victims.
I NEVER agree with Kevin, but he’s right on the money with this one. I would just like to see every possible great match up out there. AND I Have bought EVERY UFC event since I watched my first one UFC 61.
i have to agree with them, and the only thing elite and affliction really have that i like is gina carano,jake shields,and nick diaz.. im not fond of fedor mainly because he’s not a big attraction in the united states yet so business wise he wont be as good as kimbo nowhere near BUT we all know he’d murder kimbo just wont bring money like kimbo
prepare to get flamed, I’ll get in and agree, fedor isn’t marketable in the U.S. that’s why he own his own rights overseas…people here (majority) don’t know fedor. Yes, he’s the top HW ever, but KImbo (unfortunately) is more marketable!!
everyone knows that… guess what? the sky is blue!
UFC won’t pay Kimbo what he’s been getting.
Not even close.
I think I saw Kimbo’s getting Lensar money.
Your right. It’s kind of like how Disney markets “The Jonas Brothers” as the new face of rock, when everyone know they suck compared to real rock music, if that makes any sense. They only exception, Disney makes profit, Elite doesn’t.
I just about barfed when those pencil necked geeks were on the cover of Rolling Stone.
Completely agreed. I used to think that it was good for the sport to have multiple avenues of MMA. But all the other brands have just proved to be a watered down version of the UFC. They all pale in comparison and lack substance. They are essentially “minor League” and how many “minor league” games in any other sports are televised? I spend way too much money on ppv’s and to be quite honest I will not stop because i am a fiend for mma. But would much prefer watching everyone under one banner.I also believe that every event would be almost guaranteed to be an awesome night of fights with limitless possibilities for matchups.
I love the “long list of tombstones” line.
THE_MEXICUTIONER IS THE BIGGEST DWEEB ON THIS BLOG..BECOME RELEVANT NIMROD
you sure showed him..
Yawn. Do people still use the word dweeb?
or nimrod?
Mexi , I’d be flattered if I were you. That guy/girl/kid can’t post to anything else, except screaming about you.
ha. LOL, isn’t that exactly what mexi does to stinky fingers?.Doesn’t he usually comment after every one of stinky’s, just to call him a name or something stupid like this “dweeb” above did to mexi??
Kind of ironic, if you ask me…funny too, because it is obvious that mexi got all butt hurt over it too..lol
I don’t know if it’s just me, but every other MMA organization that I’ve ever seen on TV (ie: Elite EX, Affliction, etc…) are super cheesy. Jimmy Lenin Jr. (or whatever his name is) has the most annoying voice. And the CBS broadcasters they use during Elite XC fights are so fucking lame. Like who is that skinny black chick with the curly hair and why do we give a shit what she has to say? I don’t want to watch some CBS lame ass retards talking about something which they know absolutely NOTHING about. I honestly feel that the commentators at CBS speak like they are mocking the sport.
Seriously, every other promotion EXCEPT for the UFC is so poorly done its almost embarrassing. Like I am actually embarrassed for the sport of MMA when I see promotions like Elite XC and Affliction exist.
The UFC, in my opinion, is a perfect entity. They manage to do everything extremely well. You could have the most exiting fight card on whatever promotion Fedor fights for and I still wouldn’t go out of my way to watch it.
UFC is the future of the sport, and it is the ONLY organization worth watching.
The comparison to the NBA and NFL is wrong. They are leagues with several teams. The UFC would be oen of the teams not the league because they pay all of their fighters where as the NBA doesn’t the individual teams do. Personally i like the competition it keeps the UFC on their toes. Keeps PPV prices low. I think NASCAR is a better comparison. Where the fight isn’t which league you are it is for the best sponsor deal and which team you race for. Eventually this is how the UFC will end up. Where the top fighters get a certain amount of money but they are really fighting for sponsor money and which camp they are part of as a means of the camp advertising there laymen gym/grappling and such classes for us normal people
good post staples
very good post, interesting insight.
the ufc has the best talent all they need to get is a few other names and you have the best fights all the time
the only fighters they should get are
afliction-fedor/barnet/arlovscy/rodriges
strikeforce-josh tompson/chung li/melendez
elite xc-robbie lawler/diaz/noons/alvarez/shields/daley
dream-aoki/hansen
sengoku-gomi
and apart from that they need some from wec palo philo/carlos condit/faber and torres to move to 155 and you could have faber vs gomi or torres vs penn or diaz vs diaz li vs silva all kinds of crazy match ups thats why you only need one brand
the ufc has the best talent all they need to get is a few other names and you have the best fights all the time
the only fighters they should get are
afliction-fedor/barnet/arlovscy/rodriges
strikeforce-josh tompson/chung li/melendez
elite xc-robbie lawler/diaz/noons/alvarez/shields/daley
dream-aoki/hansen
sengoku-gomi
and apart from that they need some from wec palo philo/carlos condit/faber and torres to move to 155 and you could have faber vs gomi or torres vs penn or diaz vs diaz li vs silva all kinds of crazy match ups
The only reason why Fedor is not the god of mma in America like overseas is because he has only fought here once…..After he whooops a few more top tens he will be HUGE in america. Kevin your name is spot on i must say, “elite, strikeforce, affliction and king of the cage could all merge and they wouldn’t have 1/10 of the talent that the ufc has” LOL!
what’s lorenzo been doing all this time? training for a fight? nice kicks by the way. according to the special announcement, he quit his casino job to make some improvements in the UFC? what happenned with that?
he is doing most of the overseas ventures that the ufc is planning over the next 5-8 years. the phillipenes and the uk are already a lock, but countries like germany and india will be tough. the ufc has already stated that they plan on taking a loss with these new expansions (they can afford it), but they are really tring to be the biggest sport globally. i can see them becoming 2nd to futbal (soccer) someday.
interesting. why will germany and india be tough? speaking of india and china, don’t they have MOST of the world’s population? yet i don’t remember seeing any indian fighter.
Kultar Gil, aka Black Mamba, is Indian.
The sport is mostly unknown there though.
China is just picking up on MMA, there is one small league called Art of War, which is sometimes show on CCTV and there is one BJJ school in Beijing.
oooo ok black mamba. i know that guy. mannn theres a lot of people there. billions. 1 of those touch of death shaolin guys must know something we haven’t seen yet.
yeah i wanna see the five finger heart explosion whatnot in the cage! where you at david carradine?
Why the hell are they going to india? they don’t know anything about sports there..
i think they are into cricket. lol. wouldn’t be surprised if technical strikers or ground specialists came out of there considering how they dissected the hell out of computers and kama sutra.
go to japan ufc!
japan doesnt care about there own fighters, what makes you think there gonna care about the ufc’s.
good
If there was only one organization, and and it did happen to be the UFC, you would not have been able to see Fedor, Barnett or Arlovski fight. There is no way one organization should be that dominant and have total control. Other organizations give fans a great opportunity to see great fighters who the UFC do not want or great fighters who do not want to bend over and part their cheeks for the UFC. And the way title shots are sometimes handed out in the UFC are a joke. Dana’s butt buddies and fan favourites being given priority. I am glad that there are other organizations it gives the fans more choice and it also gives fighters other options and stops the tight squeeze of the UFC on their balls.
I think it’s exactly like it should be.. there is one Premier league and the others are playing in the lower divisions trying to make it..
The UFC is #1 bro. Do you know who I am? Do you know who I fight for bro? The UFC bro.
Are you Nate Diaz’d dad ?
way to go lorenzo way to flex. thats like pulling out of a whore throwing a couple bills down on her embarassed shameful ass and then telling her she aint nothing but a dirty little whore. i knew i liked lorenzo
Lorenzo is so mafioso! he must be straight out of Corleone..
LOL! He’s from the Vegas mob though…