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(Good lookin’ out, Steve at WallStreetFighter)

(Robbie Lawler does his best Joe Stevenson impression at EliteXC: Unfinished Business. Photo courtesy of Esther Lin via Fightlinker.)

The California State Athletic Commission has released figures on the attendance and gate revenue for Saturday’s “Unfinished Business” show, and good Lord are they awful. Of the 8,541 seats available for the event, only 2,871 — or 33.6% — were purchased by fans. Of the remainder, 3,701 were given away as comps, and 2,023 went totally unused. The 2,871 paid tickets brought in $268,715 in revenue, which is less than the dollar value of the tickets that were given away ($340,960).

So, not only was “Unfinished Business” a ratings disappointment, but its live attendance (6,752 Stocktonites in total) was destroyed by other major MMA events held in California recently. For example…

Affliction: Banned — 14,832 total attendance, 11,242* paid (Anaheim, 7/19/08)
Strikeforce: Melendez vs. Thomson — 7,288 total, 6,750 paid (San Jose, 6/27/08)
WEC 34: Faber vs. Pulver — 12,001 total, paid figure unavailable (Sacramento, 6/1/08)
Strikeforce: Shamrock vs. Le — 15,192 total, 14,710 paid (San Jose, 3/29/08)
UFC 76 (their most recent event in California) — 13,770 total, 11,817 paid (Anaheim, 9/22/07)
* figure is debatable.

Back in May, EliteXC’s “Primetime” card — held at Newark’s Prudential Center and starring Kimbo Slice and Gina Carano — drew a respectable 8,033 spectators. EliteXC plans on holding their next CBS show in October at the 20,000-seat BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise, Florida. Of course Kimbo is going to be a big draw in his home state, but unless EliteXC likes hearing the echo of thousands of empty seats, they might want to think about scaling back a little.

(Props: “Kakkarotto_san” on the UG)

Check out this clip of Fedor and Aleksander Emelianenko (along with their coach, Vladimir Voronov) putting on a Sambo demonstration in Korea — and pay attention, because this might be the only time you’ll see Fedor tap in your lifetime. There’s a lot of super-slick throws from both brothers during the demo, though we don’t understand why Aleks didn’t haul off and start whaling on Fedor’s face when he had the chance.

Speaking of Aleks, the younger Emelianenko brother claims that those Hepetitis reports were false, and he was blocked from competing at Affliction only because he was late in getting his medical tests done. Well, who are you gonna believe, us or some mulleted ex-con? (It’s times like these that I truly appreciate the fact that I can hide behind a computer.)

Somewhat related: The upcoming Street Fighter IV video game will contain a new character named Abel, an MMA fighter whose outfit looks to be Sambo-influenced. Dude kind of looks like Jake O’Brien on massive amounts of steroids. According to DasGamer.com, Abel was a huge hit among nerds gamers? nerds at Comic-Con, who overwhelmingly chose to play as him rather than new female character Crimson Viper.

(My inner child, consumed with rage.) One of the things I like to do in my spare time is read the internet and get mad. I honestly love it, to the point where it’s a shockingly poor use of my time. But I can’t deny that there’s a pleasure in indulging in the viewpoints [...] - [Read more]

(Did Fedor make approximately 640,000 ice cream cones at Affliction? Oh, would that he had more than two hands.)

We all knew there was no way in hell that Fedor Emelianenko only pocketed $300,000 for throttling Tim Sylvia at Affliction: Banned, as was reported in the official payout figures from the CSAC. Word had it that he got “a sizable” amount of his money in the form of a signing bonus. Now FightLine.com says they have sources telling them that the figure was $1.3 million, bringing his total cheddar from the event to $1.6 million.

Sizable? Yeah, we’d say so. Especially since he owns the right to his fight footage in Europe, which is both a little weird and totally awesome. So this seems to be more in line with what we’d expect Fedor to be getting paid, right? After all, if Tim Sylvia got $800,000, and Fedor is at least twice as valuable, $1.6 mill is right on the button.

But if we’re to believe everything we read (and we do, even science fiction, which explains why we’re terrified of Asimov’s robots) Fedor was offered and declined a deal for more money with the UFC. Dave Meltzer wrote recently that Emelianenko was offered “a seven-figure signing bonus and a minimum of $1.5 million per fight.”

If that’s true — and we’ll point out that Meltzer is probably getting his info from the UFC on this one, who also once claimed that they totally weren’t offering Fedor waaaaaay more than Randy Couture, who as you’ll recall got pissed off enough to leave behind these failed negotiations — then something isn’t adding up here. Or else Fedor and his management team love their video rights and their freedom more than cash. Or else they’re dumb.

(Werdum and Andrei Arlovski throw down at UFC 70.)

As the man responsible for de-hyping both Gabriel Gonzaga and Brandon Vera, Fabricio Werdum is riding high in the UFC’s heavyweight division. And to make sure he doesn’t slip away like Randy, Tim, and Andrei, the UFC has just locked him into a five-fight contract extension, with the promise of an immediate title shot if he wins his next fight. Sweetening the deal is the fact that his next fight might be a cakewalk for the well-seasoned and impossible to finish “Vai Cavalo” — he’ll compete at UFC 90 (October 25th, Chicago), possibly against Junior Dos Santos, a 6-1 vet of various Brazilian shows who’s probably not ready for the UFC yet.

Assuming he wins his next match, Werdum will then face either Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira or Frank Mir, who are expected to fight in late December. Werdum hopes Big Nog comes out victorious, telling Tatame:

“A fight against Minotauro would be like a dream. It would be great for me, because I fought against him at PRIDE and it was a great fight, he deserved the victory, and I want to say that I’m fighting for the belt against Minotauro, probably in March.”

Werdum is referring to his unanimous decision loss to Nogueira at PRIDE Critical Countdown Absolute in July 2006. Following that fight, Werdum choked out Aleksander Emelianenko then moved to the UFC where he lost another unanimous decision to Andrei Arlovski before knocking off Gonzaga and Vera.

Related: Heavyweight Power Rankings

(Doug DeLuca, CBS Senior Executive VP Kelly Kahl, and our man Gary. Photo courtesy of 411 Mania.) So let me get this straight: All that talk from Jared Shaw and Doug DeLuca about how Gary Shaw wasn’t being pushed out of ProElite turns out to be…bullshit? ‘Fraid so, people. ProElite’s latest Securities Exchange Committee filing shows [...] - [Read more]

(This picture is just another part of TapouT’s attempt to make you constantly feel like you are on mushrooms. That, and the paint and wigs and stuff.) As much as we like to give the guys from TapouT a hard time about their TV show and their plans to make children’s furniture, we have to [...] - [Read more]

You thought it couldn’t get worse for James Irvin after his 61-second destruction at the hands of Anderson Silva at UFC Fight Night 14. You were dead wrong. Turns out Irvin’s post-fight urine sample was positive for both methadone and oxymorphone. That’s right, methadone, as in what they give to help recovering heroin addicts. And that’s also right, oxymorphone, the semi-synthetic opiod that is 6-8 times more potent than morphine. Damn, James Irvin. Sup?

Because this is undoubtedly a rough time for “The Sandman” we’ll refrain from jokes suggesting that if he was on these narcotic pain relievers before the bout with Silva, he may have to rob a pharmacy to get through his recovery afterwards. Instead we’ll just say that we’re very curious to hear an explanation and to see what steps the UFC and Nevada State Athletic Commission will take with something like this. Irvin has twenty days to respond and contest the results, or else it’s likely to be fine and suspension time.

Both drugs are considered “banned substances”, but are they performance enhancing? Will he suffer a suspension and fine similar to Nick Diaz, who the NSAC accused of being so doped up (on weed, no less) that he was virtually impervious to pain?

Guess we’ll wait and see. In the meantime, let’s just be glad that everyone else who was tested on the card came back clean.

Update: Justin Levens also tested positive for oxymorphone before the Affliction card that he didn’t even fight on (his bout was scratched due to time issues). He’s been fined $1,000 and is suspended until January 15. All without stepping into the ring.

(There’s really no reason for us to post this picture except that holy shit is Cris Cyborg terrifying.)

From an amusing new press release just sent out by Spike TV:

SPIKE TV’S RE-BROADCAST OF UFC 84 DRAWS MORE YOUNG MEN THAN A LIVE PRO ELITEXC CHAMPIONSHIP FIGHT ON CBS

Need proof the UFC is the preeminent mixed martial arts brand in the world? On Saturday, July 26, more men 18-34 watched a repeat…a repeat…of a UFC event on Spike TV than a LIVE telecast of a Pro EliteXC championship card on CBS. Despite being available in over 17 million more homes [ed. note: I think they mean over 17 million less homes?], Spike TV drew 27% more Men 18-34 for a re-broadcast of “UFC 84: Penn vs. Sherk” from (9:00-12:00am ET/PT) than CBS’s live show (9:00-11:00pm). Spike TV’s telecast tallied 433,000 Men 18-34 to CBS’s 341,000.

Overall, “UFC 84: Penn vs. Sherk” drew higher ratings than Pro EliteXC in Men 18-49 (1.5 to 1.3) and Men 18-34 (1.5 and 1.0).

Reminiscent of the XFL’s rating collapse years ago, the CBS telecast was 69% lower in Men 18-34 and 57% lower with Men 18-49 than its initial broadcast on CBS in May featuring the “He Hate Me” of MMA, Kimbo Slice.

Garbling the competition’s name as “Pro EliteXC” is an awesomely passive aggressive touch, as is comparing EliteXC to the ill-fated XFL. We’re not sure what’s up with referring to Kimbo as “He Hate Me,” though it sounds vaguely racist, and Spike Lee is probably preparing an infringement lawsuit as we speak.

Anyway, sending out a press release on your competition’s weak ratings is a barrel of laughs, but maybe the joke’s on Spike.

First off, the UFC 84 rebroadcast was three hours, compared to EliteXC’s two-hour show. It’s a bit disingenuous to do a straight ratings comparison when many of SpikeTV’s viewers could have simply tuned in for that last hour, when Spike wasn’t going up against CBS — potentially after they had finished watching the EliteXC card.

But here’s the part that really strikes me: If “Unfinished Business” took in 2.6 million viewers, and only 341,000 of them were young males, who else was watching? The press release wisely leaves out how many total viewers each broadcast drew (leading me to assume that the Spike show got a lower total rating), but the data suggests that the EliteXC show enjoyed a more diverse crowd — more women, more older people — than the UFC 84 replay. So the UFC remained strong with their same old fans; is that something to brag about? Meanwhile, EliteXC is doing their best to make MMA a truly mainstream sport, appealing to a wider base thanks to their female division and newly cleaned-up production style. Dissing competition in press releases is the UFC’s obvious next step in their war against everybody, but we’re calling this one a ill-advised self-ownage.

(Photo courtesy of CageToday.)

Josh Gross has a lengthy update on Quinton “Rampage” Jackson in his SI column, and while it’s good to hear any news on the troubled former UFC champ, nothing that Gross passes along could be classified as “reassuring.” First and foremost, Rampage and his trainer/manager Juanito Ibarra have indeed parted ways:

With defeat as the impetus, Jackson responded to rough terrain by relieving the trainer of his duties, though “bottom line, somehow, someway it all involves money,” said the fighter’s friend.

Jackson is now out of psychiatric observation and is attending outpatient treatment on a daily basis, but he didn’t seem completely cured after his initial release.

“He would still make comments that were slightly weird,” said Jackson’s longtime associate. “You could tell that he wasn’t all the way there, but each day you could tell he was better…He knows what he went through,” said the source. “He knew he had an emotional breakdown that led to a mental breakdown.”

There’s a few other things worth pulling from the article. First off, Jackson came to the Lord under duress. (”In 2004, Jackson…claimed he was touched by Jesus in a dream, scaring him enough to bolt from his apartment with his son D’Angelo in tow. That night he was born again.”) Second, at the time of his PRIDE 28 rematch with Wanderlei Silva, he hadn’t eaten for three days, because he had read on the Internet that fasting would keep the devil away.

Finally, Gross reports that the UFC wants Jackson to return in November, facing off for a third time against Silva. (”His appearance in the cage will depend primarily on his mental state.”) Wow, bad idea. Possibly the worst thing that the UFC could do for Quinton right now is throw him up against the demon that stole his soul twice in PRIDE. My prediction is Rampage would freak the hell out, and either get sunk in the first round or bite Wandy’s nose off during the staredown. Can we wait until Jackson is given a clean bill of mental health before trying to set up his next fight?

The cynic in me thinks that Rampage is being “busted out” — fed to Silva before he’s mentally ready so that the Axe Murderer can score another brutal knockout and boost his marketability in the light-heavyweight division. Something like that could spell the end of Jackson’s career for good. I can only hope the UFC truly looks out for his best interests, because Juanito’s gone, and Rampage might not be able to look out for himself quite yet.

Ryan Reser (above, right) is said to be one the United States’ best hopes in judo at this summer’s Olympics in Beijing, but apparently that doesn’t mean he isn’t still chapped about judo being largely ignored in the U.S. while MMA enjoys a growing a fan base. From a story in yesterday’s New York [...] - [Read more]

(Former IFL fighter Claude Patrick: awake and relatively unscathed.)

It seems that the fighting didn’t stop with the final bell at Ottawa’s Freedom Fight this past weekend, as word of a taser-filled assault is spreading across the internet. The boys at Fightlinker (who attended the show, and whose whereabouts the time of the attack are currently unaccounted for) first mentioned the story yesterday.

Details about exactly who was tasered and beaten, by whom, and why, have all been sketchy. But Sherdog caught up with Canadian welterweight Claude Patrick, who was a victim of the assault. Unfortunately, because he was tasered into unconsciousness and then put into a medically-induced coma for twenty-four hours at the hospital, he doesn’t really know what happened either:

“All I know is that I walked into my friend Pete Rodley’s room to say goodnight and thanks for the show, and next thing I woke up in the hospital,” Patrick told Sherdog.com Monday. “I’m assuming I got tased from behind. They said I got hit with a stun gun or a taser and that’s all she wrote.”

[...]

“Dude, I was hoping you were calling me to tell me what happened,” Patrick joked. “They kept me in an induced coma for 24 hours and I just got up today. Actually, I thought today was Sunday.”

Well, at least he’s in good spirits. Patrick escaped with a chipped tooth and a cut lip, but thankfully no serious injuries. The Ottawa Sun reported that ten men stormed into the hotel room after the show and began tasering people and beating them with bottles, all as part of an apparent robbery attempt. But Metro Ottawa quotes a police officer who seems confident that robbery wasn’t the motive:

“That is not the cause,” said Vaillancourt. “Something happened the night before.”

Sounds like we’ve got a real MMA mystery on our hands. At least no one was more seriously injured or killed during all this.

Update: Sherdog says a CBC.ca report is attributing the attack to “a dispute over payment for sound and lighting services provided at the show.” Just, wow. Also, as reader “Nick” pointed out, ring announcer Chancey Voulgaris said another man was stabbed in the eye with a broken bottle, though his status has not yet been confirmed. If all this is true, the AV club types in Canada are some serious dudes.

So, former WWE star Brock Lesnar still has his heart set on this whole “becoming the UFC heavyweight champion” thing. His Octagon debut against Frank Mir in February was a rude awakening, and the road isn’t going to get much easier on August 9th, when he’ll face the battle-tested Heath Herring at UFC 87, in his adpoted hometown of Minneapolis. In this video from ESPN, Lesnar is clearly aware of the threat that “The Texas Crazy Horse” poses, and seems to be taking him very seriously. Right now, Big Brock is a -230 favorite on BetUS (compared to Herring’s +180 ‘dog line), which surely reflects the hype of wrestling fanboys throwing down money on their boy. With far more experience and more ways to win, maybe Herring should be the favorite here. Any early predictions?

Another fresh MMA clip from ESPN — guillotine choke-master Joe Stevenson giving a quick primer on the beloved sub — is after the jump.

Considering how “special” Donald Trump thinks Tito Ortiz is, this moment was inevitable: Steve Cofield is reporting that Affliction’s second event (October 11th, Las Vegas) will feature a co-headlining bout between Tito Ortiz and Renato “Babalu” Sobral. Though a 60-day non-compete clause in Ortiz’s UFC contract has prevented Affliction from dealing with the HBBB to this point, Ortiz will soon be free to re-launch his career with another fight club, and Affliction VP Tom Atencio is expected to drop the news at a press conference on August 6th.

According to Cofield, “Atencio said the biggest stumbling block for an Ortiz deal would be the financial terms.” Which is especially true given Affliction’s already-loose purse-strings — if Tim Sylvia is worth $800k, and Fedor Emelianenko is worth who knows how much, Ortiz may demand $2 million or more to face Sobral, being that he’s a proven PPV draw.

As for Babalu, he really wants the Tito fight. Oh God does he want it. As he told Tatame, “I want Tito Ortiz. I’m going after that motherfucker, I’ll fuck him (laughs).” Man, those Brazilians — always with the fucking.

Related: Check out this new MMA Rated interview with Tito Ortiz, where Ortiz talks about his future prospects, trashes Dana White some more, discusses his loss to Lyoto Machida, and refers to himself in the third person like 50 goddamned times.

It seems that wherever local news cameras go they manage to zero in on the idiots in the crowd almost effortlessly. It’s no different in this footage from Sacramento’s Channel 10, which Steve Cofield thankfully dug up. Bashing an entire city based on the people who find their way on to the evening [...] - [Read more]

(’I am here to pick up your daughter. There is dowry, yes?’)

In a recent entry to his MMA-id.com blog, Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic addresses his recovery (it’s going well) and the possibility of a fight with Alistair Overeem in Dream (he’s all for it). But what’s more interesting is that Cro Cop seems well-aware that most MMA fans believe his best days are behind him and, dammit, he’s motivated by it:

I see many people speaking about me as a washed-up fighter but this is just another boost to my motivation. I’m working hard to get back on track and meeting and defeating strong competitors in the ring is all that I think of nowdays.

Man, of all the once-heralded, now-mostly-forgotten fighters from Pride, the collapse of Cro Cop has to be the most disappointing. If it takes us saying that to get him to become a serious fighter again (and no, scheduling and then pulling out of grappling matches against members of the Gracie family doesn’t count), then it’s worth it. Even if Cro Cop gets mad and plays crazy pranks involving assault rifles on us:

Cro Cop Assault Rifle Prank - Watch more free videos

Of all the factors that could have contributed to EliteXC’s sharp decline in network ratings, one we haven’t touched on is the fact that a minor classic in the world of boxing was happening the same night. On Saturday, Antonio Margarito ripped the WBA welterweight (147 pounds) title from the grip of the undefeated Miguel Cotto, in a back-and-forth war that ended with an 11th-round TKO victory for the Mexican fighter. If you have the time/interest, check out the video above. If you only have a little bit of time and interest, skip to the 44:54 mark, where Margarito weathers a fist-storm in the beginning of the tenth frame before turning the tide for good.

(Props: MMA Scraps)

(Steve Mazzagatti hangin’ ringside with Anthony “Two Face” Johnson.)

According to Fightline.com, EliteXC’s “Unfinished Business” show was the site of a very touching reconciliation, as Anthony “Rumble” Johnson buried the hatchet with the man responsible for turning what should have been a DQ victory at “UFC: Silva vs. Irvin” into a TKO loss. As the story goes:

…Johnson approached Mazzagatti at ringside during last night’s event. Mazzagatti and Johnson shook hands and hugged. Mazzagatti apologized to Johnson and noted that it was “a bad call” and Johnson immediately accepted, saying it was all good.

If you’ll recall, Kevin Burns repeatedly poked Johnson in the eye during their match, leading to a serious retinal injury that would later require surgery; Mazzagatti awarded Burns the win when Johnson couldn’t continue. Rumble’s surgery was pretty grisly, apparently, though it was ultimately a success. As he told MMA Weekly:

“My retina was damaged, possibly detached, and the laceration was pretty long. It was basically from one end of my eye to the other. They did laser surgery that took about two hours, put some stitches on it basically. The doctor said I should be back in the September. So, hopefully you’ll get to see me do my thing in September or October…

I have nothing against Kevin; but personally I don’t want him to fight again until he gets his hands fixed. I don’t want any other fighter to go through what I went through. I don’t think it’s cool that he fought with his hands like that. It put himself and others that he’s competing with in danger. Just look at me. I can accept a loss, but I can’t accept a loss or the consequence of someone else’s wrong doing in a fight like that.”

We’ll let you know when Shayna Baszler forgives Steve for making Cristiane Cyborg knock her out twice.

Watching this MMA Rated interview with Elite XC’s Jared Shaw where he answers questions as to where he’s been and what he’s doing for the company now (you should also check out their interview with a very drunk Tonya Evinger), I get the strange sense that he’s lying to me. What’s more, I feel like he knows how transparent he seems, but he’s just charging ahead with it anyway. In a strange way, I almost respect that. Almost.

But let’s talk for a moment about Elite XC’s decision of late to push Jake Shields as the world’s best welterweight, which Shaw also claims. Obviously, they like it because it allows them to call out Georges St. Pierre and the UFC, thus piggybacking on the success of their betters. But it also makes them seem a little desperate, and it’s not hard to tell that this is a strategy destined for failure.

It’s not that Jake Shields isn’t a good fighter. He is, but that isn’t the point. The point is that Elite XC has essentially just decided to proclaim him the number one welterweight because he is their number one welterweight, and because it’s the only way they can think of to get some of the UFC magic to rub off on them. Plus, they can be secure in the knowledge that the UFC will never actually take them up on the cross-promotional offer.

This is what makes it so insincere, this call for a unification match. Elite XC doesn’t really believe there is any possibility that it will happen. That’s why they’re pressing for it. It would be pretty devastating for them to have their champion demolished by GSP, thus further cementing in the minds of MMA fans the notion that they are a second-tier promotion at best. But they don’t have to worry about it, because they know as well as Dana White does that there is very little for the UFC to gain by making that fight happen.

To the UFC’s credit, they’ve shown a willingness in the past to cross-promote. They sent Chuck Liddell to fight in Pride back when the two companies were on equal footing. But after Pride burned them by not following through on their end of that bargain, the UFC would probably be unlikely to jump into a similar deal with any organization, particularly one that needs the UFC’s star-power much more than the UFC needs theirs.

If Shields really wants to fight GSP, here’s how he can make it happen: sign with the UFC. That’s the only way it will happen in the foreseeable future. I know that’s not exactly comforting, but it’s the truth.