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David

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I'm still concerned that come August they could move UFC to sky sports which really would suck

 

Best case scenario is that we get them all free like we used to get the WWF/E PPV's. Sky might put some free to air and some we have to pay for. Sky might do it like they do boxing PPV's when you can pay to see it on the night or wait when it's shown for free a week later. Worse case scenario is that all the shows are PPV only. I miss Bravo when they showed them.

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I don't think the market is there for PPV in the UK yet, especially when boxing, which has been a long term PPV business over here has seen Sky drop all future PPV in favour of showing major events on their Sky Sports channels.

 

I'd be quite happy if Sky got the deal actually, I'd imagine they would be on one of the mainstream Sky Sports channels for the medium term.

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Does anyone on here train any form of martial art?!

 

I'm wanting to go to an MMA class but I'm an unfit bugger and was wondering if there's any point.

 

What's your general advice for a total beginner looking to start training?!

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I'm still concerned that come August they could move UFC to sky sports which really would suck

 

Why?

 

It would be the biggest move the ufc could do in the uk.

 

The ufc is know where near a mainstream sport in the uk which is not helped by being on espn a channel that 99.9% of people dont have. Ufc would grow massively if it moved to sky.

 

You would have primetime tv slots to build up shows , sky sports news would cover events and ppv's would be on there.

 

The market isnt there to charge

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Does anyone on here train any form of martial art?!

 

I'm wanting to go to an MMA class but I'm an unfit bugger and was wondering if there's any point.

 

What's your general advice for a total beginner looking to start training?!

 

Get fit.

 

Get the ufc trainer on the xbox kinect :-)

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Does anyone know what's happening with Ariel Helwani? There's been no MMA Hour since last year, and he's been absent during the UFC in Brazil pre & post shows?

 

He was hosting on Fuel TV for UFC 142.

 

According to his Twitter the MMA Hour will be back tomorrow and will then return to it's usual spot on a Monday.

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Does anyone know what's happening with Ariel Helwani? There's been no MMA Hour since last year, and he's been absent during the UFC in Brazil pre & post shows?

 

He's moving to a new studio for the MMA show, hence why there has been no show. It was meant to be back today, but I think it has been delayed until tomorrow. He was doing the post show for UFC Brazil on Fuel and hence wasn't in Brazil, he says he will be back with interviews for the 2nd Fox show. He seems to be under some kind of UFC contract now, so I'm not really sure what kind of stuff we will see from him in the future. It actually wouldn't shock me to see the MMA Hour moved over to Fuel.

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"Ken Shamrock filed a bogus lawsuit against us and lost. He owes us that money. Do you know what I've done for Ken Shamrock? Ken Shamrock, when I brought him over, he was broke – flat [expletive] broke. He was in income-tax trouble. His knee was shot. I rebuilt his knee. I got him out of income-tax trouble, fronted him a [expletive]-load of money. We gave him money – literally gave him money – $60,000. We gave him $60,000 just to get him back on his feet. You know how much money he made in the two fights he fought with us? It was $2.5 million.

 

While 2.5 million, plus the extras that Zuffa/UFC spent helping out Shamrock, it was hardly like Shamrock gave them nothing in return during his stints with the ufc.

 

UFC 40: Vendeetta drea 150,000 buys during a time when the UFC was on the verge of going out of business. This buy rate was by far the best buy rate the company had done at that time for sometime and showed Zuffa that the UFC could draw with the right people on top.

 

The Ultimate Fighter 3 was a MASSIVE success thanks to the coaches. It drew the highest ratings for a show (until the Kimbo TUF) and helped pave the way for Michael Bisping to become a big star with the company.

 

UFC 61: Bitter Rivals drew a MASSIVE 775,000 buys which was a company record at that time.

 

Sharock Vs Ortiz 3: Drew a 3.1 overall rating (and 4.3 for the actual Sharock/Ortiz fight). It was and still is a massive number for an MMA show of anytime.

 

If you look at what the UFC made from these fights. Lets say from the first one they grossed the UFC ten million dollars. The second grossed $34,310,775. I'm not sure what they grossed in revenue from TUF and the third figh but lets be conservitive and say 5 millon.

 

That means that the UFC grossed roughly 39 millions from this programe.

 

Now I'm not saying that it was all Shamrock that drew that number, but he was a massive part of the success the UFC used to grow from a struggling company that nearly went out of business to a big success.

 

So for the money he helped draw, is $2.5 million that big of a return for Ken to get from those three fights!

I agree that Shamrock was a big part of the growth of the UFC, he made Tito Ortiz into a big star in a dark era and drew some new fans to the sport, however Shamrock needed the UFC just as much as vice versa in 2002 and most of all in 2005.

 

TUF 3 was a commercial supernova, it drew big ratings and helped the UFC crack the UK marker thanks to Bisping, however they did not have to choose Shamrock to coach apposed to Tito to make it this much of a triumph.

 

They could have put Liddel or Couture in there against Ortiz, if they would have waited a few months to see who won out of them two in early 2006. Remember the monster rating Ortiz vs Ken pulled was only because the third fight ended with a supposed early stoppage of their PPV bout, the goal of the coaches battle was to get a monster PPV buyrate which they could have acheived with Liddel going against Ortiz, as was proven when they fought at the end of 2006 and drew a massive buyrate. The big rating was indeed a fortunate piece of good luck.

 

They could have not had Ortiz face Forrest and Liddel face Babulu, and instead have them fight in the summer of 2006 after TUF had finished, they did not need Shamrock absolutly, he maybe made things easier as it gave Tito a few more wins to get him inline to face Liddel and there was still a bit of mileage and money to be made with the Ortiz/Shamrock feud, but the UFC 205lbs weightclass was pretty thin at the time and no one would have minded if Tito would have walked back in and got a title shot right away after TUF, he was on a win streak anyway.

 

Ken was damaged goods even to the western audience who did not know that he had been knocked out in Pride a few months before as Rich Franklin had beat him on the famous TUF 1 finale. They could have left him alone, but they chose not to and brought him back. Ken was a hit on TUF 3 ratings wise but as far as being professional he was the absolute shits, he was a crap coach and came across as a deluded nutcase.

 

Ken would have not got a payday anywhere else after he flopped in Pride in 2005, or at least as big a payday. For a man who was as deluded and as washed up as he was, I think he is a very lucky man.

 

I did enjoy Shamrock vs Ortiz and would not do anything differently if I had a time machine, but I think the UFC would be where its at today if they had not chose to bring him back in 2005.

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Does anyone on here train any form of martial art?!

 

I'm wanting to go to an MMA class but I'm an unfit bugger and was wondering if there's any point.

 

What's your general advice for a total beginner looking to start training?!

 

I don't train MMA (used to do boxing and later did some Muay Thai training on and off from the age of 15-about 19). I know people who've trained at MMA gyms who had no intention of becoming a fighter and just wanted to keep in shape so being unfit shouldn't be a problem if you're just starting off to raise your fitness level. They won't expect you to be in GSP shape and from everything I've been told most people in them gyms are sound and pretty helpful. You get the odd dickhead like anywhere but good places to train on the whole. Once you get in decent/good shape then think about if you want to take serious MMA training up.

 

If I was you I'd have a look at the Cage Warriors forum. There's some really good gyms all over the UK so you should be able to find something that suits you not that far from wherever you live. Cage Warriors is a good place to get info on places to train and training methods/injuries/MMA gear and stuff like that.

 

I've thought about joining an MMA gym myself before to learn some type of grappling and refresh my boxing and Thai, I'm well rusty and nowhere near as fit as I was a few years ago. Always kinda wanted to give Jiu-Jitsu a bash aswell but never got round to it yet. I will eventually. Helio Gracie was tapping fuckers well into his 50s and 60s so time's on my side for BJJ I reckon :D

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That ESPN/fighter pay debate is interesting stuff

 

UFC have released the full 47 minute Lorenzo interview

 

Also, Jon Anik and Kenny Florian will be the B-Team for UFC commentary and will announce on the FX show this Friday.

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