What Could Have Been – The Banning (and Unbanning) of the American Kickboxing Academy from the UFC

2008 was a banner year for the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Their expansion and dominance over the world of mixed martial arts had never been more prevalent, as their biggest mainstream competitors – PRIDE FC and Elite XC – had been run out of commission in the past two years. To cap it all off, the company promised a groundbreaking UFC video game for release in early 2009 that would further push the sport into the mainstream. However, this expansion led to turmoil within the UFC.

While the gameplay development went relatively smoothly, the organization ran into some major concerns with fighter likenesses and usage rights. Some of these issues were minor – Clay Guida could not be included because animating his hair caused problems with the game’s physics formulas – but there was one major problem. The UFC was asking for its contracted fighters to sign contracts allowing the company lifetime usage of their image for promotional purposes. While many fighters, including UFC lifers Chuck Liddell and Georges St. Pierre, acquiesced with little conflict, welterweight contender Jon Fitch did not.

Clay Guida’s hair, completely unprogramable.

Fitch, coming off a UFC 87 loss to champion St. Pierre, was upset with the contract and refused to sign. Why? “Because it asked me for a lifetime contract for the video games, so they would have exclusive rights to use our likeness for these video games and we couldn't go and do any other video games ever again in our lifetime." Those are Fitch’s words, which seem reasonable enough, especially when he also claims that the contract wouldn’t have paid the fighters for the use of their likenesses. The UFC was in a bind – it had promised all of its fighters to game publisher THQ, and now stood to face some embarrassment, but this was something that could be worked out with a little more communication, right?

Well, no, not immediately. Jon Fitch, who had gone 8-1 in the UFC and was widely considered the second best fighter in the world in his weight class, had his contract voided by the UFC. And then the UFC cut all the guys he trained with for showing solidarity in contract talks. In essence, president Dana White banned anyone who trained at the American Kickboxing Academy (AKA) in San Jose, California, from fighting in the promotion.

Quit smiling, jackass, Dana says you're fired.

Less than 24 hours later, things were resolved. Fitch and his AKA teammates were back on the roster after a talk with UFC co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta, and they signed the video game agreement, apparently without any changes to the contract’s language. Just like that, things were back in order, and the Ultimate Fighting juggernaut rolled on. But what would have happened if the AKA remained exiled from the UFC?

The major fighters in question here make up the bulk of the UFC’s top tier of welterweights – Fitch, Mike Swick, and Josh Koscheck – respectively ranked second, fourth, and seventh in the division in BloodyElbow’s consensus rankings, would have been cut from the UFC, and in this instance, let’s assume they would be blackballed from the promotion for several years. These fighters would likely have been snatched up by Affliction or possibly Strikeforce, and then probably had their contracts optioned to Strikeforce after Affliction closed up shop and turned back into a t-shirt company for guys who can’t wear clothing without skulls on it. This also assumes that these American fighters would prefer to stay at home rather than fight in Japan with Dream (who would develop a relationship with Strikeforce in later years) or Sengoku (a long shot for elite fighters).

It is also interesting to think of what may have happened if Affliction snapped up these contracts. Could Fitch, Swick, and Koscheck have revived Affliction? It seems unlikely, as their methods of overpaying fighters, having long, uneven breaks between events, and a severe lack of depth or dedicated fanbase had doomed the promotion from the start. For the sake of argument, let's assume that even if these fighters went to Tom Atencio’s promotion, they would have ended up in Strikeforce afterwards.

More skulls! I want so many skulls that Ed Hardy craps himself when he sees this shirt!

Now, all of the sudden, Strikeforce has one of the best welterweight lineups in MMA, with Fitch, Swick, and Koscheck battling for the belt with Jake Shields (assuming he’d stay at welterweight), Nick Diaz, and Jay Hieron. The added attention to the 170 pound division may also have put pressure on the company to pick up Paul Daley’s option from Affliction rather than let him jump to the UFC. The top 5 welterweights in either promotion would look like this:

UFC (BE Rank) Strikeforce (BE Rank)

1. Georges St. Pierre (1) Jake Shields (6)
2. Thiago Alves (3) Jon Fitch (2)
3. Matt Hughes (4t) Josh Koscheck (4t)
4. Carlos Condit (8) Mike Swick (7)
5. Dan Hardy/Paulo Thiago (12/10) Paul Daley/Nick Diaz (9/18)

What was once a major gap in competition between the two groups is now much closer, and Strikeforce has the juice to either stage some big PPVs or fill up a nationally televised fight card. With their solid management and blue collar style, the UFC would see one of the most credible threats it has ever dealt with (behind only PRIDE in terms of overall talent and depth).

The only other notable fighter that would have been dropped in the equation is quickly rising heavyweight Cain Velasquez. Velasquez is the kind of fighter that Strikeforce loves – a young, hard fighting prospect from California that can rise to prominence, and then become too expensive to resign. However, given the company’s recent acquisition of Fedor Emelianenko they’ve shown a willingness to spend money on heavyweight talent. That would reshape the heavyweight division to look like this:

UFC (BE Rank) Strikeforce (BE Rank)

1. Brock Lesnar (2) Fedor Emelianenko (1)
2. Minotauro Nogueira (3) Brett Rogers (8)
3. Frank Mir (4) Andrei Arlovski (10)
4. Shane Carwin (7) Cain Velasquez (11)
5. Couture/Dos Santos (12/10) Overeem/Werdum (12/13)

While the UFC still has the edge, there’s a lot of interesting matchups to be made in this fictional Strikeforce division. Maybe even enough to get Overeem back to America to defend the belt that he hasn’t even looked at since 2007. Of course, this fails to look at the glaring holes in Strikeforce’s light heavyweight (major gaps) and lightweight (minor gaps) divisions, but these deficiencies could have been temporarily filled with more women’s title fights (an option the UFC doesn’t have) while the company reloads.

We need you to fight every time one of our divisions craps out. Think you can be a distraction?

All in all, if the UFC dropped AKA, it could have been a costly move. While Strikeforce has emerged as a legitimate threat in the past year, the ability to sign guys like Fitch, Koscheck, Swick, and Velasquez, would have been a coup for them, and given the company some notable headliners – which would have helped them sell tickets at the gate and possibly develop their network deal with CBS even faster. Though some might say that Strikeforce couldn’t afford these fighters, the deal with Fedor completed after the collapse of Affliction shows otherwise. The company is showing new signs of life, which was necessary to fill the void left by countless competitors in attempting to become an elite fighting promotion in the United States.

So the UFC made the right decision in bringing these fighters back. White’s strongarm technique worked, getting his guys to sign their contracts without seemingly losing anything on his end but a little goodwill. And if there’s one thing Dana’s public battles with fighters like Tito Ortiz and Randy Couture have shown, goodwill is only a minor negotiating ploy in the world of mixed martial arts.

Dammit Kareem!

At the very least, he remembered he was in the movie, right?

This is disappointing. Here's Kareem Abdul-Jabbar completely botching the most memorable thing he's ever done off the basketball court (his guest appearance on Full House doesn't count, because he was technically on a court while teaching Uncle Jesse how to play). And yet, despite this memorable stupidity, he still has double the money of CNN anchor Soledad O'Brien.

Breaking Down the Henderson/Cerrone Fight

Well that doesn't look too bad after --- Gaaaaaaaaaah...

The WEC showcased once again why it deserves to stick around Saturday night with yet another superb headline fight. The Benson Henderson/Donald Cerrone scrap was another in a long line of stellar battles, but probably the first one not taking place in the bantam/flyweight divisions in a while (discounting Cerrone/Varner from last year). There's no doubt this was a war where both fighters improved their stock, but some controversy has come up regarding the decision.

After escaping at least five deep submission attempts that seemed destined to make him tap, Henderson was declared the winner on all three cards, 48-47, through use of controlling wrestling and strong striking from the top. Many experts, such as the boys over at Sherdog, had the fight the other way for Cerrone. In all cases, the consensus seems to be that Henderson clearly won rounds 2 & 3, while Cerrone took the championship rounds (4 & 5). The cause of the controversy is the opening stanza, which was not only evenly contested, but difficult to score due to the difference in styles between the two fighters.

Ben Henderson, shown here not tapping, in what would be a theme for the night.

The round started with a missed kick and slip by Cerrone, which opened the door for attack. Henderson, however, overzealously rushed in and left him self open for a tight guillotine. Cerrone held this for about a minute before transitioning to a triangle choke that, while not terribly deep, could have been enough to drop a potentially gassed opponent. The only problem is that Henderson wasn't gassed, and after punching his way out of the hold, bounced to his feet looking as fresh as when the round started, despite having spent the solid part of two minutes being choked. He then took Cerrone down and controlled him from the top for the last 2 minutes of the round, squashing any offense or escape attempts Cerrone attempted. Judges, and the folks over at BloodyElbow, presumably scored the round 10-9 for Henderson, while others gave Cerrone the 10-9 edge. This would be a deciding factor in a fight that many scored 38-38 afterwards.

Some will point to the fact that Cerrone's submissions won the round for him. At no point did Ben Henderson have a shot of ending this fight in the first round, while Cerrone made it look like the fight would be over within 2 minutes via tapout. However, Henderson never appeared remotely concerned with the submission attempts, as even when his neck was in a tight guillotine, he calmly and slowly worked his way out and back to his feet. This was a recurring theme of the night, as Henderson often found his arms being put in directions not meant for human limbs, but calmly escaping rather than tapping.

Flash back between this picture and the one above for 25 mins, and you have a pretty good idea of how the fight went...

After Cerrone failed to get the tap, he was controlled by Henderson, who rained down blows on his opponent. In this, Henderson showed to be slightly more effective in the round than Cerrone. While the submission attempts scored points, they proved no more effective than a wrestler taking down an opponent and working his lay'n'pray. When Henderson got out, he controlled Cerrone in a less dominant fashion, but was able to inflict a little more damage with his strikes. As a result, it appeared that Henderson was the more effective fighter in Round 1, and deserving of the 10-9 nod.

However, it's easy to see how the round could be looked at differently. The subjectivity ofscoring is one of the great things about MMA - how do you score a submission attempt vs. effective punches? Ground'n'pound vs. leg kicks? Takedowns vs. offense from the guard? Henderson/Cerrone is a great example of this, and the discussion it raises is one of the better aspects of MMA, even if fighters occasionally get screwed as a result.

So where does the WEC go from here? It has lost its biggest potential lightweight bout in a rematch between hated rivals Jamie Varner and Donald Cerrone, at least for a few months. That fight would have been the easiest to sell, but I think the outcome of Saturday night's fight helps the WEC in the long run. Henderson gets promoted to top tier status, and he shouldn't be too hard to sell. He's an interesting guy who can sell an interview, and his walkout music has been "Our God (Is an Awesome God)." Since the two have trained together in the past, there are a lot of different ways to frame the kid and make his title unification fight with Varner a big deal. You know, if Varner is actually healthy in the near future. To be fair, he'll have more time to recover as Henderson will need time to recover from his injuries sustained in this fight.

As for Cerrone? He'll probably get a mid level up and comer (maybe Shane Roller?) in his next fight, and a deserved shot at the belt if he wins. That title shot will be a big money card for the WEC - either the Cerrone/Varner deathmatch everyone had been hoping for, or a rematch of last Saturday's potential Fight of the Year. At any rate, the WEC is in a good position, providing the UFC doesn't fold them first.

Off Topic: Resurrecting a Failure That Isn't a Boston Sports Franchise

Of course Kim Jong-Il is sports related. Have you SEEN the man golf?

In our continuing interest in the failures of others, let’s step outside the realm of sports for a while. If you’ve lived in Pyongyang, North Korea in the past two decades (and it’s safe to assume that you probably haven’t, seeing as free press isn’t a priority there – and the estimated readership of this blog hovers around 2-3 people a month – you’ve no doubt felt a sinister presence casting a shadow down upon you. Beyond Kim Jong-Il’s militant grip, you’ve been forced to live with the presence of the world’s greatest architectural failure for nearly 20 years.

The Ryugyong Hotel: because the name “Mount Doom” was already trademarked.

The Ryugyong Hotel is an engineering marvel; not for its structure or design elements, but for the fact that it cost 2% of North Korea’s gross domestic product (GDP) and has remained uninhabited – and largely untouched – throughout the 90s and into the new millennium. Esquire has called it “The Worst Building in the History of Mankind.” North Korea essentially denied its existence for over 15 years and airbrushed it out of official state photos. But it’s tough to ignore a 1,000 foot skyscraper, especially when it completely dominates your capital’s skyline.

Giant Pyramid? Nope, we don't have one of those.

The building itself was designed as a kneejerk reaction to the South Korean designed Westin Stamford in Singapore, which had opened in 1986 as the world’s tallest hotel. In the midst of Cold War tensions, North Korea cleared the way for a hotel to be built that stood almost 300 feet taller, despite several flaws throughout the planning process, including major funding and construction issues. $750 million and several work stoppages later, the building sat empty and windowless, stretching out over Pyongyang like an abandoned tomb.

The exterior is dull concrete, ensuring that the building, even if finished, will be an eyesore. In 2008, an Egyptian company revived a 20 year hiatus of bad decision making to renovate the hotel, adding windows and cell phone towers to the structure, despite the fact that North Korea expressly forbids its citizens to carry cell phones. The new construction seems like a clear ploy to essentially monopolize cell phone business in the country, but that’s a pretty big gamble when you consider that the man you have to clear your business plan with is completely insane.

Renovations include the addition of a Death Laser and several missile silos

The design of the building itself is a spatial nightmare. Assuming that land in Pyongyang – the national capital – is extremely valuable, the Ryugyong Hotel would have been a waste of space even if it were running at full capacity. Aside from dominating the city’s skyline, the building also makes little use of its three pronged pyramid shaped design, leaving plenty of wasted space across a large plot of land. Additionally, who would be the target audience to fill this hotel? Pyongyang is the heart of a military state with few tourists. While discos, restaurants, and casinos would bring in a few people, it is doubtful that they would have been able to sustain prolonged business for a hotel so large in a city of only two million without outside travel.

According to Korean officials, the building is slated for completion by 2012, only 23 years behind schedule. But at an estimated cost of up to $2 billion to be made fully inhabitable, it seems unlikely. And honestly, I don’t want to see it finished. Dress it up if you want, but let’s face it - when the apocalypse begins it will be headquartered at the Ryugyong Hotel. And a working hotel that happens to be the 3^rd largest in the world? That’s interesting, I guess. But not nearly as interesting as the Worst Building in the History of the World.

Here’s to more Korean failures to come.

The Pacers Season Ticket Experiment: Failure #1

One game in, one set of wasted tickets. That's how things have gone so far.

With the Pacers opening up their season October 2nd, I was instead in Nashville, Tennessee watching my Dores get pounded by a mediocre Ole Miss team. So what did I miss?

Josh McRoberts dunks while getting a squeezer from John Salmons.

Well, not too much, actually. A Tyrus Thomas concussion (part of me is concerned for a guy who was becoming a threat with his mid-range game in the Celtics series last year, while the other part thinks he's just a talented punk who'll never get his dead straight), a Solomon Jones start (solid, if underwhelming, but they've had worse backup centers), four Roy Hibbert fouls compared to just 5 rebounds, and...well

this

Either Derrick Byars has put on a ton of weight and developed Vitiligo since he played at Vanderbilt, or ESPN has somehow confused him with Kevin Love. Still, it's nice to see him back in America, even if he did shoot 4-11 in the opener. With Shan Foster in Turkey and Langhi and Frejie still in Puerto Rico, it looks like Derrick's the most likely Vandy alum to be playing in the bigs this year.

So now I have 2 weeks until the next game, since the Pacers will be over in Asia playing a couple of preseason games. It must be nice for those kids in Taipei to see their idols Troy Murphy, Earl Watson, and Dahntay Jones play in person. Meanwhile, the Fieldhouse is bracing for another sellout from the WNBA Finals, as the Fever play someone for...something.

This is more exciting than anything I saw at the playoff game I went to.

As the excitement for the Fever builds, it's going to be interesting seeing how it affects the expectations for the Pacers season. The dropoff from sold-out WNBA(!) playoff games to a season opener at 75% (or less) capacity will hopefully send a big message to Messieurs Simon and Bird. The team recently sent out an online survey to gauge fan interest and - of course - at least three player names were misspelled.

It doesn't bode well for the season.

Next Home Game: 10/16 vs Houston

Level of Excitement: 1/5

(Editor's note: level of excitement for Pacers games depicted by Achewood characters along with a scale of 1-5)

The Pacers Season Ticket Experiment

They came last week.

Direct from FedEx and left on the floor in front of my office (Thanks, reception, that's much more convenient than a desk or mailbox). A thick envelope with 86 tickets inside. Each set of 5 had a different player for each ticket - Danny Granger (All-star), Troy Murphy and TJ Ford (decent, but unspectacular), and finally Brandon Rush and Roy Hibbert (hopeful, but mediocre, 2nd year players). Emblazoned with a font and style that looked like a throwback to the early 90s - a better time...a Miller time - my Pacers season tickets had arrived.

Admittedly, this isn't my first go around with the Pacers. When I first moved to Indianapolis, I called up the ticket office almost immediately, assuming that I was probably too late to get a half season. Of course I was wrong - for about $30/seat I picked up a pair of tickets in the first row of the balcony for 21 games. The purpose was to take people from my new office to games as a way to get to know them...only I grossly overestimated the popularity of the Pacers, as Indianapolis, much like the rest of the country, seems indifferent to them these days.

They gave these seats away several games last year. It was still lonely.

So why re-up for this year? A love of half-empty arenas? The desire to watch T.J. Ford dribble down the shot clock before taking a fade-away 20 foot jumper? Because the Fieldhouse has the closest Quaker Steak this side of Columbus? No, no, and at $15 for a small bucket of wings, absolutely not.

After seeing the scores of downtrodden scalpers outside Conseco last year, I decided that I could scalp tickets and pick and choose my games for a fraction of the cost, and that's what I would do this year. For me to re-up my tickets, the Pacers would have to do 3 things:

1. Drop prices considerably.

2. Give me tons of extra tickets, upgraded seats, cool giveaways, and free booze.

3. Have Rasho Nesterovic personally call me every morning to read me the Pacers team pledge so I could start my day.

Rasho Nesterovic: Poet, Nobleman, Lover.

Well, 2 out of 3 aren't bad. For $100 less than last year's 1/2 season, I could get a full season this year, plus a parking pass and other benefits just for moving 2 rows back. In 2008, the team gave away lower section tickets for the last 13 home games, allowing me to either upgrade my seats or attend games outside my plan. In fact, just for showing up to the games that I already had tickets for (!), the Pacers treated me to courtside seats for a game against the Spurs and a free dinner in their Legends club for another game. In fact, for a piddling 1/2 season ticket holder in the balcony, they treated me extremely well.

So I was sold. For $1200 I bought back in and re-upped to a full season. For a 36-46 team that lost two of its best guards, has their 2nd best player injured indefinitely, and drafted a scrappy white guy from the ACC, who - when healthy - will duplicate the role of the other scrappy white guy from the ACC that they already have.

Shuuuuh...

Hurrrrrrrrrh?

At least the Pacers were good at home last year. This year, I'll be chronicling all my interactions with the team - a birds eye view of what it's like to be a season ticket holder for a struggling team in a mid-major market with one superstar and a collection of role players. I'll post for every home game - along with an index of my excitement, promotions, upgrades, and my love of the PaceMates.

Welcome Back

It's been about a year of inactivity between posts. Sorry about that. In the meantime, we've all matriculated to new places - I got my masters and moved from Nashville to Indianapolis. Gumbercules got his masters and moved from Pittsburgh to Wisconsin. And Ernie is probably still doing something gay like medical school or some other form of letting his family down.

But, more importantly, having a real job has not only helped dig me out of poverty slightly, but also given me the boredom and lack of focus to get back to posting. The constant distractions of the women in our office talking about Twilight and their muffin tops now give me ample time to reflect on the sports world...and ultimately make fun of it. Hopefully, I plan on posting 2-3 times a day, focusing on basketball, football, MMA, and Alex (fucking) Gordon. Even more hopefully, Gumbercules and Ernie will return as well to make this place a little more comprehensive.

Look for a new feature coming soon. And enjoy this picture of the Turkish league's finest player in the interim:

#2 Best Seller: The only website written in English that still talks about Alex Gordon.