Since lots of the high end fighters have fought recently and have decided to show my Top 10 in the P4P in MMA.
1. Anderson "The Spider" Silva (25-4)
Silva who had been criticized for his last two middleweight title fights silenced a lot of the critics by KO'ing Forrest Griffin with a right hand in the first round at UFC 101. It shows why he is at the top of the heap in MMA.
Future Bouts: vs Dan Henderson,
Future on P4P: He will stay at the top unless Hendo does something nobody in the UFC has been able to do yet and defeat Silva.
2. Georges "Rush" St. Pierre (19-2)
GSP has been destroying all welterweight competition that he has been placed against, and making it look easy. His last fight at UFC 100 vs Thiago Alves he fought the 5th round with a torn groin and controlled the round. The only reason he isn't at the top is of his loss at UFC 69 to Matt Serra.
Future Bouts: vs the winner of Mike Swick vs Martin Kampmann
Future on P4P: This may look like one of his dominations like against Trigg or Sherk, he staying in second spot unless Anderson Silva loses.
3. Fedor Emelianenko (30-1, 1 NC)
Fedor has long been on this list and has ruled with an iron fist. However due to the lack of fighting top end heavyweights, Fedor finds himself on a slippery slope of falling down the P4P rankings and will probably continue to fall as he has signed with Strikeforce who only have one guy that may even pose a slight problem in Alistair Overeem. Other than Overeem, there is nobody even close to be considered a Top 10, maybe even top 20 heavyweight to challenge Fedor with.
Future Bouts: TBD, Strikeforce has said he will fight sometime this fall.
Future on P4P: It looks like The Last Emperor will be heading down this list due to failure to take on high end competition. He may have made a grave mistake in not signing with the UFC.
4. Lyoto "The Dragon" Machida (15-0)
Machida has made a slow and steady rise up the ranks of the light heavyweight division and is still impossible to damage (Can you even recall the last time took a half decent punch?). Machida is methodical in his approach and is always figuring out ways to destroy people while he escapes without a scratch on him. I don't see him being dethroned for a while unless someone catches him with a lucky shot.
Future Bouts: It is rumored that he will be facing Mauricio "Shogun" Rua this fall for the title.
Future on P4P: He will likely take over the #3 spot if he gets through Rua and Fedor gets the soup can he seems so desperate to fight.
5. "The Prodigy" BJ Penn (14-5, 1 draw)
After Penn was pretty much humiliated by GSP at UFC 94, Penn rebounded with a RNC submission victory over Top 10 lightweight Kenny Florian. Penn once again showed why he is one of the best by returning to the division he was meant to conquer.
Future Bouts: Possible Diego Sanchez fight at unknown time right now.
Future on P4P: Probably staying still in this spot unless someone above him gets blown out in a bout.
6. Mike Thomas Brown (22-4)
Brown was pretty much an unknown commodity in the MMA world until he shocked the world by destroying Urijah Faber to claim the WEC Featherweight Title. Since then, Brown has looked even better in his fights and is willing to play the heel because they place him in fights where he either walks into the opponents backyard or is against a much more popular fighter.
Future Bouts: No advertised bouts at this time but it sure to be explosive.
Future on P4P: He is most likely going to stay in the same spot as long as he keeps on winning, the Top 5 is hard to crack.
7. Brian Bowles (8-0)
This guy performed a near miracle by defeating Miguel Torres in the first round by KO. However how do you argue with not having the guy on the list, he beat a guy who was on every prominent P4P Top 10 list. He has to be seen has a major player as much as some people don't like it.
Future Bouts: None known at this time but Torres should be on a short list to fight him again.
Future on P4P:One month ago he wouldn't have been on here, however his victory over Torres makes him much more legitimate for this list. He will probably stay in this spot unless he wows in another couple fights.
8. Miguel Torres (37-2)
Torres was on an incredible winning streak until Bowles stopped him, however his overall body of work keeps him on this list.
Future Bouts: None known right now but would like to see rematch with Bowles
Future on P4P: He may go down but if he gets right back on the horse and gets his title back he will be staying on the list.
9. Jon Fitch (19-3, 1NC)
Fitch has only had one loss since 2002 and that was to GSP. He isn't flashy, but he always gets the job done in the ring. He may approaching a rematch for the WW title but one would have to wonder what he could employ against GSP since he was so badly dominated last time.
Future Bouts: Speculated match at UFC 106 with Ricardo Almeida
Future on P4P: One of the steadiest fighters, he will be hard pressed to move up the rankings unless someone dethrones GSP.
10. Quinton "Rampage" Jackson (30-7)
Since Rampage has come to the UFC, Rampage has only faced high end competition (with the acception of Marvin Eastman). Rampage has defeated Liddell, Henderson, Wanderlei Silva, Jardine with only losing to Forrest Griffin. He is the TUF 10 coach and is facing Rashad Evans at the end of the year.
Future Bouts: Rashad Evans at a December PPV.
Future on P4P: Will have to win to stay in Top 10, a loss and there are many possible replacements for the spot.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Monday, August 3, 2009
The Next Death of Another MMA Promotion
Earlier today Fedor Emelianenko signed with California based MMA promotion Strikeforce. For the most part Strikeforce has been a good promotion putting on good fights and able to get bigger names at decent prices for one fight deals. This signifies a deal saying we want to go head to head with the big name of MMA, the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). Strikeforce has always been seen as a thrifty company saving money everywhere they can without hurting the product that takes place in their ring. Signing Fedor takes a huge step in the other direction as it is probably a six figure deal and he is once again not fighting the best fighters in the world with the exception of Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem.
If your asking, "Why didn't Fedor sign with the UFC?" it is actually quite simple. Fedor's management company, M-1 Global wanted a co-promote the show and take home a good deal of the profit for them selves. The UFC was unwilling to co-promote an event but were willing to give Fedor everything else he wanted, and if the money numbers are accurate Emelianenko would have earned five million dollars per fight which would be absolutely insane considering the fact that Brock Lesnar and Georges St. Pierre both earned only $400,000 at UFC 100 from the UFC (These were the top disclosed payouts excluding bonuses payed out for UFC 100) not including money from their respective sponsors. UFC right now is the top MMA organization in the world and is one of few MMA organization that is making profits and is able to pay fighters in the six figure range to the best fighters of their organization even though the low end guys are known for only getting paid $6,000 and that is if they win ($3,000 if they just fight and lose).
So why do I say that Strikeforce will be going into the grave. The companies that Fedor has worked for have all gone under, RINGS, Pride FC, and Affliction have all gone belly up due to various reasons. This is not to say Fedor is at fault for these companies going under. Where the fault lies for these promotions going under actually has various reasons. RINGS was in a tough Japanese market having to compete with big organizations such as Pride and kickboxing promotion K-1. Pride FC was owned by Yakuza and when information of this went public it literally was taken off all channels in Japan and the UFC bought them out with the intention of having Pride continue to run in Japan and UFC running in North America bringing them together once or twice a year for super fights however ZUFFA (UFC's parent company) could not get a foothold in Japan due to the business tactics the Japanese took against ZUFFA. Affliction was doomed almost before it began, the clothing company decided it was going to start running MMA shows and go head to head with the UFC. Affliction mostly known for their T-shirts that support MMA fighters such as Georges St. Pierre, Randy Couture, Chuck Liddell and various other top end fighters decided to pay amounts for fighters that made some people shake their heads in disbelief. Andrei Arlovski who fought Fedor in January of 2009 was given a base salary of 1.5 million dollars was KO'ed in the first round with a devastating right hand. Affliction's final straw came when Fedor's next scheduled opponent tested positive for steroids, combined with a slow gate for the show the card was eventually cancelled and Affliction went back to it's role of the shirt promoter of UFC. However these are not the problems facing Strikeforce. There problem is that they have already given up some ownership to CBS who owns the channel Showtime which shows the Strikeforce events live, but also that Fedor's management group, M-1 Global is wanting to co-promote which means they will be taking home some of the profits. The exact percentage number is unknown to me at this time but if it is in the area of 25% then Strikeforce could be in major trouble. In order for any company to stay in the MMA game they want to be making profits after a while and Strikeforce has been doing that. However they are now not getting approximately 45% of the profits if the number that I have for M-1 Global is accurate (CBS has a 20% ownership of Strikeforce). Strikeforce will be put into a corner into which they might not be able to escape from since the UFC has pretty much every other marketable name and familiar name to the casual MMA viewer who will only tune in when Chuck Liddell or Randy Couture for example is on the fight card (They even have popular street thug Kimbo Slice on the upcoming of The Ultimate Fighter).
With all this having been said I hope Strikeforce survives but I don't see how they can since they have pretty much said were going head to head with the UFC, everybody else who has didn't come off so well.
If your asking, "Why didn't Fedor sign with the UFC?" it is actually quite simple. Fedor's management company, M-1 Global wanted a co-promote the show and take home a good deal of the profit for them selves. The UFC was unwilling to co-promote an event but were willing to give Fedor everything else he wanted, and if the money numbers are accurate Emelianenko would have earned five million dollars per fight which would be absolutely insane considering the fact that Brock Lesnar and Georges St. Pierre both earned only $400,000 at UFC 100 from the UFC (These were the top disclosed payouts excluding bonuses payed out for UFC 100) not including money from their respective sponsors. UFC right now is the top MMA organization in the world and is one of few MMA organization that is making profits and is able to pay fighters in the six figure range to the best fighters of their organization even though the low end guys are known for only getting paid $6,000 and that is if they win ($3,000 if they just fight and lose).
So why do I say that Strikeforce will be going into the grave. The companies that Fedor has worked for have all gone under, RINGS, Pride FC, and Affliction have all gone belly up due to various reasons. This is not to say Fedor is at fault for these companies going under. Where the fault lies for these promotions going under actually has various reasons. RINGS was in a tough Japanese market having to compete with big organizations such as Pride and kickboxing promotion K-1. Pride FC was owned by Yakuza and when information of this went public it literally was taken off all channels in Japan and the UFC bought them out with the intention of having Pride continue to run in Japan and UFC running in North America bringing them together once or twice a year for super fights however ZUFFA (UFC's parent company) could not get a foothold in Japan due to the business tactics the Japanese took against ZUFFA. Affliction was doomed almost before it began, the clothing company decided it was going to start running MMA shows and go head to head with the UFC. Affliction mostly known for their T-shirts that support MMA fighters such as Georges St. Pierre, Randy Couture, Chuck Liddell and various other top end fighters decided to pay amounts for fighters that made some people shake their heads in disbelief. Andrei Arlovski who fought Fedor in January of 2009 was given a base salary of 1.5 million dollars was KO'ed in the first round with a devastating right hand. Affliction's final straw came when Fedor's next scheduled opponent tested positive for steroids, combined with a slow gate for the show the card was eventually cancelled and Affliction went back to it's role of the shirt promoter of UFC. However these are not the problems facing Strikeforce. There problem is that they have already given up some ownership to CBS who owns the channel Showtime which shows the Strikeforce events live, but also that Fedor's management group, M-1 Global is wanting to co-promote which means they will be taking home some of the profits. The exact percentage number is unknown to me at this time but if it is in the area of 25% then Strikeforce could be in major trouble. In order for any company to stay in the MMA game they want to be making profits after a while and Strikeforce has been doing that. However they are now not getting approximately 45% of the profits if the number that I have for M-1 Global is accurate (CBS has a 20% ownership of Strikeforce). Strikeforce will be put into a corner into which they might not be able to escape from since the UFC has pretty much every other marketable name and familiar name to the casual MMA viewer who will only tune in when Chuck Liddell or Randy Couture for example is on the fight card (They even have popular street thug Kimbo Slice on the upcoming of The Ultimate Fighter).
With all this having been said I hope Strikeforce survives but I don't see how they can since they have pretty much said were going head to head with the UFC, everybody else who has didn't come off so well.
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