Non-threadworthy MMA Rumors/Quotes/Tweets, etc.

[Jasen777]

Cub's a fine fighter, but Aldo's aggression and accurate striking is scary....

Now there's a late stoppage.

[Jasen777]

Forrest Griffin took Xanax night before Anderson Silva fight, flunked UFC 101 drug test

[blkout]

Bit of an insight into his mental state before/during that fight

[Gold Chain]

Forrest's interviews are always interesting.

His, "I talk to God directly", was pretty cool.
I mean, not my thing, but in his line of work and at the levels he's been, I'm sure there's some serious questions that guys need to find solace and ways to get them answered.

He fought a stupid fight versus Anderson.
He would've lost anyways, but throwing sloppy combos at a guy who can dodge almost any strike was inane.

Hoping Forrest smashes Chael, but that's a very tall task for anyone to keep pace with Sonnen's relentless attack.

[SDM]

C-Bren (Charlie Brenneman) has been cut by UFC.

[Gold Chain]

Rob Broughton and Javier Vasquez also released by UFC.

[REDDzone]

Mitrione basically came out and admitted he'd get smashed by Cormier and that's why he turned it down (paraphrase: DC has great wrestling, bad first fight back, etc).

I'm fine with the dude being a realist. But on the flip side don't turn down fights a few weeks after calling a guy a coward for turning down fights. And also, stop calling out light heavyweights and complaining about not getting fights if you turn down what's offered you.

[NZB2323]

I've wanted to see Mitrione vs. Barry for a while now. I'm a fan of both guys, but I'd be fine with the winner being cut. If you were a professional fighter, would you rather be one of the worst fighters in the UFC, or one of the best fighters in a smaller promotion? I guess that they probably care about the paycheck above all else, but I think that getting cut by the UFC, winning a belt for the promotion that Miguel Torres joined, and then coming back with some hype and hopefully improved technique would be a good thing.

[SDM]

http://www.mmamania.com/2012/10/2/34443 ... ed-out-ufc

[High 5]

The video was one of the dumbest decisions ever made by a professional athlete, but if his intentions were to get kicked out of the UFC then I guess it was kind of smart...but still stupid.

[REDDzone]

The video was one of the dumbest decisions ever made by a professional athlete, but if his intentions were to get kicked out of the UFC then I guess it was kind of smart...but still stupid.

I mean, considering its not even the dumbest thing that Rampage himself has done, I kind of doubt the validity of this claim.

[Gold Chain]

The axe is falling on the UFC roster once again.

Yesterday, the welterweight division was made one lighter as Charlie Brenneman was released following a 1-3 run in his last four fights.

Reports of his departure were followed shortly afterwards by a report from MMA Opinion, which said another four fighters had been cut.

They are Eiji Mitsuoka (0-2 in the UFC), Michihiro Omigawa (1-6), Tommy Hayden (0-2) and Walel Watson (0-2).

The UFC has not made the cuts public or official, in keeping with its policy, but the names have been removed from UFC.com

http://www.fightersonlymag.com/content/ ... ufc-roster

[SDM]

Only one I disagree with is Brenneman. He was fighting some solid competition that was rushed to him. He beat Story because he messed with Story's gameplan, not because he's a better fighter. He's a solid lower-level gatekeeper, but ultimately, these dudes are replaceable and when your offense is grapple-heavy and pretty boring, your leash is shorter than most.

Omigawa has been awful. Watson has ZERO ground game and isn't good enough of a striker to hang. Hayden isn't at this level. Mitsuoka, don't remember him.

[REDDzone]

Brenneman is a guy who will get back fast because he can win local/regional fights really easily with his wrestling.

Omigawa is an automatic decision, win or lose, so meh. Watson sucks. IDK who the other two are unless Mitsuoka is the guy Gomi almost loss to in Japan by any chance.

[REDDzone]

I read that Cub Swanson said he could beat Aldo 10/10 times...except for the one time you DID fight and he put you on a highlight reel?

Is this a Sonnen level troll?

Swanson came out and clarified his comments. He thought they were asking him of Jens Pulver. This makes a ton more sense, as he said he wanted his prospect brother to fight Jens. And yea, he'd beat Pulver 10/10 times today.

Glad that was clarified. I always liked Swanson, seems like a dude who is a hard worker and well grounded. Was thrown off by that comment.

[spykelee]

Interesting blog comparing England to Canada in terms of fan interest in the UFC...

Great Britain isn’t getting the same quality cards it used to either. Early British events were much higher-profile -- some were pay-per-view events and some even included championship fights. Quinton (Rampage) Jackson fought Dan Henderson at UFC 75: Champion vs. Champion to unify the UFC and Pride 205-pound titles in September 2007, while B.J. Penn defended his lightweight belt against Joe Stevenson at UFC 80 in January 2008.

But since then, England has seen few marquee fights, and fans and media have certainly complained. Saturday's event in Nottingham had an interesting heavyweight headliner and plenty of local talent, but it had very few big names. And it was also the first time an England show was not a numbered event. UFC president Dana White can defend them all he wants, but he can't say with a straight face that the focus on England has been the same.

The numbers have also dropped. Saturday’s event had a pretty paltry attendance of 7,241 fans (for a live gate of just under $1 million). That's well below the building’s capacity of about 10,000. It's also down quite significantly from the previous year's trip to Birmingham, which had 10,823 fans, for a $1.5 million gate.

Most trips to England prior to 2011 had an attendance of 13,000-18,000. Granted they were mostly in London, where the venue (the O2 arena) is bigger and the market much larger. But the fact the UFC has not returned to the country’s capital since 2010 is also somewhat telling.

Now let's examine Canada. When the UFC first came north of the border, it broke records left, right and centre. UFC 83, which featured Georges St-Pierre fighting Matt Serra for the welterweight title, sold out one minute after the public sale and set a North American MMA record with a crowd of 21,390. It also generated a total gate of $5.1 million.

UFC 97 the following year broke the attendance record with 21,451 and had a gate of $4.9 million. UFC 113 was down a bit, but there was more than enough interest in the fourth trip to Montreal in December 2010, headlined by St-Pierre vs. Josh Koscheck, for the UFC to release more tickets for yet another record-breaking 23,152 and gate of $4.6 million.

The first trip to Vancouver in June 2010 set its own record, selling out 30 minutes into the UFC Fight Club member pre-sale, though the attendance was only 17,669 at the smaller GM Place (now called Rogers Arena).

Of course, UFC 129 at the Rogers Centre in Toronto in April 2011 smashed all records, selling out to the tune of 55,724 for the organization's first stadium show after the first offering of 42,000 seats was quickly snapped up before the end of the second pre-sale to UFC newsletter subscribers.

Canada continues to be one of the biggest fan bases for MMA, but more recent numbers may be telling a less sparkling story. The Toronto shows have dropped significantly in both hype and attendance, as in a blog last week. It has since been reported that of the 16,800 in attendance (which is already lower than all of the Canadian trips except Calgary this year and Vancouver last year, both of which had far inferior cards), only 10,000 were in paid attendance, according to MMA Supremacy. That would mean a full 6,800 tickets were given away (about 40 per cent), and they still had a few thousand empty seats. By comparison, UFC 140 in December had a crowd of 18,303 but a much more respectable 15,000 paid -- only 3,303 “comps” (18 per cent). I can’t confirm these numbers, but it would certainly explain why last month’s gate was a mere $1.9 million, when December's trip to the city had a gate of $3.9 million -- more than double -- with only 1,503 extra fans in the stands total

http://www.sportsnet.ca/mma/2012/10/02/ ... a_england/

[SDM]

Yeah, I've noticed fan levels dropping here.

There's almost 10M people within a 90 minute drive of Toronto and there's a lot of competition for our dollars. UFC tix are more expensive than 99% of concerts, 99% of restaurants, and all pro sports except the Leafs. Our pro sports teams (again, Leafs excepted) suffer at the gates when they're not doing well, and right now, the UFC isn't doing well as they're dealing with a spate of injuries and card cancelations and all that.

[Shaazzam]

Think you're pretty bang on. Toronto is very much an event city as opposed to a sports town. The first UFC card here was a massive event headlined by the golden boy, so it was easy for me to justify the cost. But now, I'd rather get my buddies together and chip in a little dough and watch it on PPV in HD, drink cheaper beers and scotch, and be able to pause the action so the smokers can do their thing.

[SDM]

I think a lot of organizations have this impression that because the economy and population is growing here and there's quite a bit of money floating around people will automatically come to their events. You can look no further than the Bills flopping here, while they sell out in a city with 20% the population (or even OLG demanding a Toronto casino). You can't just roll into town and expect the public to give you cash if you put out a mediocre product solely because we can support said mediocre product.

[Gold Chain]

You guys do realize that the Brits do not have PPV there, right?

They may have to watch them at 3 in the morning, but it is a channel on TV through a cable package.

If Zuffa is still making the majority of its money from a PPV structure, then why would they ever give the UK fans big cards.

And I sat first row 100's for UFC 152, got a sweet deal on a ticket, and was super close and will probably not attend another live UFC without a comp.

Why? Because you miss so much being there.
I had to re-watch the PPV the next day to see things I missed.