UFC

There is a story that has been inevitable that could change the world of contact sports as we know it.

It is inevitable that within a few years there will be a test for CTE on those living. Sports like football, hockey, boxing, MMA and pro wrestling will then be in for a huge problem.

And the big problem is we don’t know what CTE means other than there are tau proteins that show in the brain. It’s been used as a buzz word for people like Mike Webster, Junior Seau, Chris Benoit and most recently Aaron Hernandez who have had bizarre ends of their lives. But for every one like that, there are dozens of people who have been diagnosed with CTE who may not have had any serious problems. And that’s the issue.

The problem for all those sports is that when there is a test, once you are tested and confirmed as having CTE, the inevitability is that your career will be over. When it comes to almost all sports, this would lead to shortened careers. There will be those in college not allowed to go into pro football, and I’m relatively sure long pro football careers will be extinct. Or they will have to totally restructure the rules and change the sport, and it will be hard to justify football at the youth, high school and college level. And high school and college football are such huge parts of our society that they aren’t going to go away without a huge fight.

In boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, MMA and other fighting style sports where head blows are legal, they will either have to change the sport when it comes to blows to the head, and with that, a great aspect of their popularity will be gone.

Pro wrestling has the best chance of survival, although it will also have to change to a safer sport, which is a good thing, but also could decrease its marketability.

And the problem is that we don’t fully know what causes CTE. Is it caused by concussions, or hard blows to the head, or is caused by jarring of the body that shakes the head, in which case every single bump in pro wrestling may be a culprit.

Researchers from Boston University’s CTE Center announced on 9/26 that they may have found a way to detect CTE in living patients. We had been told this was close to happening not too many months ago.

A significant percentage of college football players who passed away young have been diagnosed after death with CTE. Nearly every former NFL player who had donated their brains to be tested ended up being found with CTE. These stories have also made recent headlines, but the unanswered and key questions are this. Players who have had memory issues or headaches or feel that their lives have changed in some way and are concerned about it are the ones most likely to either themselves or families who watched this happen, donate their brains to be tested. So the percentage issue of what we know can be misleading. And also, does having CTE guarantee problems, or is it that everyone who had problems also has CTE? To get those answers we are going to need long running studies done. For example, even with the CTE scare, the reality is that long-term studies of European rugby players have shown no signs of brain deterioration as compared to the general public. NFL players, for all the talk of CTE leading to depression and suicides, still commit suicide at a lesser level than the public at large, but because they are celebrities and CTE is such a story, every time there is a suicide of a former player, it gets tied into the story. You have to go with percentages and these are issues that are going to take many decades to really get a handle on, but the reality is the snap judgment reactions are going to be used in what will be a political issue.

What if tests show that the majority of NFL players after one season have signs of CTE, or that most pro wrestlers who have done more than 300 matches have it, or that most fighters after seven fights, and I’m just throwing a number out there, start showing signs? Even if it’s not enough to actually cause long-term damage if that’s what studies decades down the line would indicate, when these tests are out, people are going to have to stop using people whose brains show any signs of CTE. All of these industries will have to be greatly revamped, because decades before the long-term studies that are needed can be completed, the public and just the threats of lawsuits and the like will demand these athletes leave their sport at the first sign of any issues showing up.

One of the things with the very different Evoke Neuroscience eVox test, the one that at the time confirmed the already decided upon end of the career of Bryan Danielson, at least in WWE, is that we don’t know what would happen if every NFL player, every WWE performer or every fighter used that test. We do know the test is used somewhat in MMA, and the results have usually just been delaying people returning to sparring until their tests show they are back to what is normal for them.

The Boston University School of Medicine said that it examined the brains of 23 former college and pro football players, and compared them to the brains of 50 non-athletes who have Alzheimer’s Disease, and another 18 non-athletes with no known brain issues.

They found that a certain biomarker, CCL11 levels, were normal in both the non-athletes and the group that never did sports but did have Alzheimer’s. Those levels were significantly elevated in examining the brains of people who were diagnosed with CTE after their death. They also found those levels were also higher in football players. But at this point more studies are going to have to be made to find out if this is a breakthrough, or just something coincidental.

Dr. Ann McKee, the Director of Boston University’s CTE Center and chief of neuropathology at the VA Boston Heathcare system did note a positive in this, in that once doctors are able to successfully diagnose CTE in living individuals, they were also be on the road to coming up with treatments that can possibly reverse the problems, such as some, like Bryan Danielson, have been experimenting with such as the use of Hyperbaric chamber treatments.
.......................................................................................................................................
UFC ran shows these past two weeks for TV events that didn’t have a lot of interest as far as big names, but both ended up being some of the most-action filled shows of the year.

The 9/16 show in Pittsburgh had eight finishes in ten bouts, and featured a legit match of the year contender with lightweights Gregor Gillespie, a 2007 NCAA Division I champion, against Jason Gonzalez. It featured strong finishes with the main story the return of Luke Rockhold, in his first fight since his June 4, 2016, middleweight title loss to Michael Bisping. Rockhold was shaky on his feet against David Branch, but when he finally got the fight to the ground, his top game was too strong and he finished quickly.

The middleweight division is interesting because the big three would seem to be Rockhold, interim champion Robert Whittaker and Yoel Romero, with Chris Weidman and Ronaldo Jacare Souza. But the title is held by Michael Bisping, who is defending on 11/4 against Georges St-Pierre. There is a feeling that whoever wins that fight won’t face Whittaker, although GSP has said that he will and Bisping has hinted of retirement. Rockhold would likely get the next shot, but since it’s so far down the line, he’d probably have to fight once more. Romero would be interesting, since Rockhold’s strength is on top, but getting on top of Romero won’t be easy.

A week later (six days in the U.S. because of the time difference), the UFC returned to the Saitama Super Arena, a building that has seen more great fights than perhaps all but one building in the world (MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas). UFC has little interest in Japan these days because of a lack of good television exposure and of a native star, but Japanese fighters usually have skilled fights and this show was no different. A lot of unknown fighters delivered strong fights, but it was also the least-watched UFC prime time show of the year. But to air in prime time in the U.S., it was moved to FXX since FS 1 was airing college football. Because of time zone issues, that meant the show started at 9 a.m. on a Saturday morning in Saitama.

The 9/16 show drew 872,000 viewers for the main show on FS 1, peaking with 1,118,000 for Rockhold vs. Branch. On Fox Sports Go, the streaming service, the show averaged 8,375 viewers. The show went against the

Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin fight, although that fight was over before the UFC main event started. It also went against four college football games. It was the best Fight Night number on FS 1 since the 6/11 show headlined by Mark Hunt vs. Derrick Lewis.

The prelims headlined by Tony Martin vs. Olivier Aubin-Mercier did 653,000 viewers. The prefight show did 224,000 viewers and postfight show did 361,000 viewers.

The show drew 7,005 fans to the PPG Arena, but with a gate of $396,190.75, that indicates probably a lot of papering. It was the lowest gate for a UFC show so far this year.

Bonuses of $50,000 went to Gillespie and Gonzalez for the fight, and to Mike Perry and Uriah Hall.

Luke Sanders, the boyfriend of WWE’s Becky Lynch, was scheduled on the show, but his opponent, Felipe Arantes was pulled due to illness two days earlier. Thiago Alves pulled out because he couldn’t get a flight out of Florida due to the hurricane.

1. Gilbert Burns (12-2) beat Jason Saggo (12-4) at 4:55 of the second round in a lightweight fight. Burns drove from Florida to Pittsburgh to do the fight because he couldn’t get a flight out. Burns dominated, taking Saggo down and landing good punches late to take the first round. In the second round, Burns got the knockout with an overhand right counter to a jab.

2. Uriah Hall (14-8) beat Krzysztof Jotko (19-3) at 2:25 of the second round in a middleweight fight. Jotko dominated round one to the point I had it 10-8. He landed six uppercuts and took Hall down and landed hard punches on the ground. He got mount and landed all kinds of punches. But at the end of the round, Jotko looked tired. Jotko was still landing in the second round until Hall caught him with a hard right and finished him with punches on the ground.

3. Daniel Spitz (6-1) beat Anthony Hamilton (15-8) in :24 in a heavyweight fight. Hamilton tried for a takedown, Spitz landed a lot of punches and it was stopped. He dropped Hamilton with a right to the ear and landed punches on the ground, most of which were blocked. It looked early in real time and the fans booed it heavily, but the replay indicated it was a good idea. Spitz said he’s watched every UFC show since 2001 and wants to fight Chase Sherman in Detroit on 12/2.

4. Olivier Aubin-Mercier (11-2) beat Tony Martin (12-4) on via split decision on scores of 28-29, 29-28 and 29-28 in a lightweight fight. Fans were chanting “USA” since Aubin-Mercier is from Canada. Aubin-Mercier got the better of the first round, winning the standup and getting a takedown. In the second round, Aubin-Mercier got two takedowns, side control and landed enough on top to stay busy. In the third round, Aubin-Mercier got another takedown. Martin went for a guillotine. Aubin-Mercier escaped, but Martin got on top and landed punches and got Aubin-Mercier’s back with a body triangle and worked for a choke. He was landing a lot of punches and dominated the round. He could have gotten a 10-8, which would have made the fight a draw, but no judge scored it that way.

5. Justin Ledet (9-0,1 no contest) beat Zu Anyanwu (14-5) via split decision on scores of 28-29, 29-28 and 29-28. First round was boring. Both landed punches but Ledet landed more. In the second round, Ledet took over. The crowd was booing. Ledet seemed up 20-18 going into the third. Anyanwu won the third round. The crowd booed the fight heavy.

6. Kamaru Usman (11-1) beat Sergio Morales (12-4-1) in 2:48 in a welterweight fight. Usman looked and talked like a star here. He dropped Morales twice in the first round and it was stopped after the second one. Usman said he wanted a top contender, brought up Rafael dos Anjos, and overall made himself noticed.

7. Gregor Gillespie (10-0) beat Jason Gonzalez (11-4) at 2:11 of the second round in a lightweight fight. This was non-stop action. Gonzalez opened with a head kick. Gillespie dropped him and landed punches on the ground. Gonzalez was back up and Gillespie kept landing big punches. Gillespie took him down, and got mount. Gonzalez landed a big head kick but Gillespie took him down again. Gonzalez got up and he knocked Gillespie down. But Gillespie took him down and got mount position. In the second round, Gillespie got another takedown, moved to mount and finished the fight with a head-and-arm choke.

8. Anthony Smith (28-12) beat Hector Lombard (34-8-1, 2 no contests) at 2:33 of the third round in a middleweight fight. Lombard was giving up a ton of reach. He landed hard shots in the first round. He hurt Smith with punches and also landed a lot of low kicks. In the second round, Lombard continued low kicks and punches. Lombard looked to have won both rounds. In the third, both landed big shots, but Smith landed a right that put him down and ended the fight.

9. Mike Perry (11-1) beat Alex Reyes (13-3) in 1:10 in a welterweight fight. While both weighed in at about the same weight, Reyes is a lightweight whose natural body weight is about 168 and Perry, after rehydrating, was probably closer to 185. The size difference was huge and Perry dropped him with a knee very quickly.

10. Luke Rockhold (16-3) beat David Branch (21-4) at 4:05 of the second round in a middleweight fight. Branch came into this fight with an 11-fight winning streak. Branch got the better of it early, landing a lot of punches. Rockhold looked a step slow, and Branch crowded him so Rockhold couldn’t land effective body kicks early. Branch landed big punches and took Rockhold down. Rockhold came back at the end of the round with a takedown. In the second round, Rockhold started connecting with body kicks, but Branch came back with good punches until Rockhold took him down. Once Rockhold got on top with time left, he took over, got mount, got his back, and started throwing punches. Branch tapped from strikes, which is a rarity in modern UFC. Rockhold after the fight said that GSP should step aside, that he shouldn’t be fighting in this decision, and should let him face Michael Bisping for the title in Madison Square Garden.
.......................................................................................................................................
The 9/23 show from the Saitama Super Arena, didn’t do much business wise.

The crowd was announced at 8,571 fans, the smallest UFC has drawn in what has been roughly an annual trip to the building. Based on reports from Japan, this show was heavily papered as well, which makes sense since there was nothing that would draw big in Japan, and 9 a.m. on Saturday morning in Saitama isn’t exactly a great time to draw a big crowd for a fight.

The show was moved to FXX, and between it airing on Friday night, the lack of big names on the show, and the unfamiliar station, it drew 502,000 viewers on television and 3,614 on average streaming, peaking at 623,000 for the Teruto Ishihara vs Rolando Dy fight. That’s notable that the audience peaked before 11 p.m which tells you there wasn’t a lot of mainstream interest in the top fights.

As it turned out, the semi, with Jessica Andrade and Claudia Gadelha was one of the best women’s fights in UFC history. Gadelha dominated early, but got tired before the end of the first round. Andrade took over and Gadelha could do little but survive, losing a one-sided decision.

This puts the strawweight division in a weird place. Gadelha had fought Joanna Jedrzejczyk close twice. The first time, many felt she should have gotten the decision. The second fight, she won the first two rounds handily, but got tired and lost the last three. However, Andrade was completely dominated by Jedrzejczyk for five rounds, to the point that even with this win, that would be a difficult fight to sell.

The prelims, headlined by Keita Nakamura vs. Alex Morono, did 416,000 viewers on television and 3,992 streaming.

The prefight show did 139,000 viewers and the postfight show did 158,000 viewers, both figures way below usual.

Andrade and Gadelha got $50,000 bonuses for best fight, and the other bonuses went to Gokhan Saki and main eventer Ovince Saint Preux.

Saki was one of the big stories after the fight. A former world kickboxing champion, Saki easily has the best standup in the division, and showed takedown defense against Henrique da Silva. But he got tired after the 3:00 mark in the first round and was taking hard knees. Saki then landed a left hook to win in 4:45. Saki is 33, but he’s taken punishment in 83 prior pro kickboxing fights dating back 17 years. He needs to get used to the new rules and obviously it’s a question how he could handle a real wrestler, but his hand speed and quickness standing would make him dangerous at any time against anyone in the division.

1. Daichi Abe (6-0) beat Hyun Gyu Lim (13-7-1) on straight 29-28 scores in a welterweight fight. This was a great opener. Lim had a huge size advantage here. The fight went back-and-forth. I had Abe in the first round and Lim in the second. The third round saw Lim clearly winning until Abe dropped him with a right and landed a running kick that busted Lin’s nose. Abe got a takedown. Abe pulled out the fight most likely in the final seconds.

2. Shinsho Anzai (10-2) beat Luke Jumeau (12-4) on scores of 29-28, 29-28 and 30-27 in a welterweight fight. Jumeau was bleeding from the right eye in the first round. Anzai landed punches and got a takedown in the second round. In the third, Jumeau was blocking takedowns but Anzai landed knees and punches in the round.

3. Syuri Kondo (6-0) beat Chan-mi Jeon (5-2) via split decision on scores of 28-29, 30-27 and 30-27 in a women’s strawweight fight. Kondo is a Japanese woman pro wrestler for one of the smaller companies. She’s also a model. Jeon took he first round. The second was close. Jeon was bleeding form the nose. In the third round, both landed punches and Kondo had the best blow, a spin kick to the stomach.

4. Keita Nakamura (33-8-2, 1 no contest) beat Alex Morono (13-4, 1 no contest) via split decision on scores of 29-28, 28-29 and 29-28 in a welterweight fight. Nakamura bloodied Morono’s right eye in the first round. Nakamura was winning the second round early but Morono came back and landed big punches and a front kick, so I had it even after two. Nakamura immediately got the takedown in the third round. But Morono came back with punches and landed an elbow that cut Nakamura open badly. Nakamura was bleeding heavily, but got the takedown. Morono got up, but Nakamura was landing jabs to take the round, which appeared to be the deciding round.

5. Jussier Formiga (20-5) beat Ulka Sasaki (20-5-2) at 4:30 in a flyweight fight. Formiga is one of the few top flyweights that Demetrious Johnson hasn’t already beaten, and looked great here. Sasaki had a huge reach edge. Formiga got the takedown, got Sasaki’s back and finished it with a choke. Formiga asked for a title shot next.

6. Teruto Ishihara (11-4-2) beat Rolando Dy (8-6-1, 1 no contest) on scores of 28-27, 28-27 and 29-27 in a featherweight fight. This was another exciting fight. Ishihara came out strong and knocked Dy down with a left uppercut. He was landing good shots on the ground. Dy got up and Ishihara took him back down, landing big punches and elbows and I saw this as a 10-8 round. In the second round, Dy landed a knee to the groin and it was stopped for a time out. Dy started landing and Ishihara couldn’t take him down. For a guy who doesn’t have a good record, Dy’s stand-up looked really good here. Dy continued to land good punches and a knee and won the round. Dy continued to dominate until landing another low blow. This should have been a foul call. Dy landed a left hook and head kick, and they traded head kicks. This was a great round back-and-forth. Dy did a third low blow and Ishihara went down hard. Finally they took a point from Dy and with that, he probably was going to need a finish to win. Ishihara did get at takedown but Dy got up and continued to land. I had it the same as two of the judges, that Dy won rounds two and three but round one was a 10-8. With the penalty point on Dy, Ishihara won the decision. Without the low blows and penalty point, the fight would have been a draw.

7. Gokhan Saki (1-1) beat Henrique da Silva (12-4) in 4:45 in a light heavyweight fight. Saki’s first fight was in 2004, so UFC signed an 0-1 guy who hadn’t fought in MMA in 13 years, based on his kickboxing record. But it looked like a good choice. Saki came out and was taking da Silva apart. He knocked him down with a left. He told da Silva to stand up rather than going to the ground. Da Silva went for takedown, but Saki blocked it. Saki was landing lefts to the body and all kinds of punches, bloodying da Silva up. Da Silva went for another takedown but Saki threw him down. But then Saki got tired and da Silva took control and landed hard knees. Saki looked in trouble and about to go out when Saki threw a left hook and da Silva was out. This was another great fight.

8. Maestro Dong Hyun Kim (15-8-3) beat Takanori Gomi (35-14, 1 no contest) in 1:30. This was sad since Gomi, now 39, was one of the first great lightweight stars in MMA during the heyday of Pride. Kim dropped him right away with a right and was landing punches on the ground and it was stopped. The stoppage was early, and there were three punches on the ground and Gomi blocked two of them. Kim noted that his hero growing up when Gomi from watching him while in high school.

9. Jessica Andrade (17-6) beat Claudia Gadelha (15-3) on scores of 30-25, 30-26 and 30-27 in a strawweight fight. This capped off the great fights. Gadelha landed a lot of punches early and bloodied Andrade up. She just overwhelmed her until Andrade took Gadelha down with what was pretty close to a vertical suplex. Gadelha went for a guillotine, but Andrade ended up on top. Andrade kept landing punches from the top until Gadelha was all bloody. Both were in trouble in the round but Andrade did more damage late to win the round. In the second round, Gadelha got a takedown but Andrade got back up. She went for another takedown but Andrade blocked it and landed on top. Andrade landed body punches and knees from the top. Gadelha was exhausted at this point and Andrade was landing big punches. But Gadelha came back with hard punches. Andrade threw a ton of punches and wasn’t getting tired. Gadelha then got a guillotine just as the round ended. In the third round, Andrade picked Gadelha up and slammed her into side control. She used punches and elbows to the body, and then tons of punches from the top. She just kept landing punches. Her stamina throwing so many punches was very impressive here. Andrade moved to side control and landed elbows and punches to the head. Gadelha got up and Andrade landed more punches. I had the third round at 10-8 and came close to that in the second, so my score was 30-26.

10. Ovince Saint Preux (21-10) beat Yushin Okami (34-11) in 1:50 in a light heavyweight fight. Okami has been fighting of late at 170, so he was moving up two weight classes. He was 203.5 without cutting and Saint Preux was probably 220. Saint Preux took him right down and put him out with a Von Flue choke. The notable thing is that in the history of UFC, there have been only five

Von Flue chokes that have finished fights. Saint Preux has won his last two with that move and had three of those five.
.......................................................................................................................................
UFC: Reuters ran a story that Conor McGregor could speak before U.S. Congress in trying to push a bill that would put MMA under the auspices of the Ali Act. Those behind it, including Oklahoma Congressman Markwayne Mullin, the key sponsor and himself a former fighter, talk about it as something that will change the industry and lead to higher fighter purses. Mullin said that he was told by McGregor’s team that he was willing to come to Washington, DC and speak in behalf of the bill, which would be something UFC management would hardly be happy with. Among the key things this would establish is banning stringent contracts and establishing independent rankings that would have to be used for championship fights (which has been one of the things that has created a zillion boxing organizations where belts mean very little unfortunately) and bans promoters from having a financial interest in management of fighters, which in boxing still happens. “We want to make it a professional sport where a guy who is not a loud-mouth can still climb the ranks and eventually have that title shot,” said Mullin. “Right now you can’t get a title shot unless you sell a lot of tickets.” While selling a lot of tickets does give you an advantage over a guy who doesn’t, that is the same in boxing. And if you look at who has gotten title shots and who are champions, most are not loud-mouths and really, most aren’t selling a ton of tickets on their own either, but they are still on top

The latest estimate is 4.4 million domestic buys for McGregor vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr., or slightly behind the 4.6 million final total for Mayweather vs. Pacquiao in the U.S. McGregor vs. Mayweather was bigger worldwide. It should be noted that at the same point in time, Mayweather vs. Pacquiao was estimated at 4.4 million, so they are even. The belief is because McGregor vs. Mayweather had a higher percentage of iPPV buys, and those are actual numbers that are tallied and won’t change, that the late growth won’t be quite as much, but nobody knows that for sure. I still can’t get over how in 2017 we don’t have that number by the Monday after the show like we have all the movie numbers the next afternoon and TV ratings within a day or two. It doesn’t matter as much now because we know the general vicinity pretty quickly

For anyone who thinks the marketing of that fight was real, Mayweather in his new home that he bought in Beverly Hills after he got his first check of $100 million for the fight, put a large portrait of McGregor on the wall

Matt Brown, 36, announced that his upcoming fight with Diego Sanchez on 11/11 in Norfolk will be his retirement fight. Brown was a cult favorite coming off the spring 2008 season of The Ultimate Fighter. In 2010 and 2011, he went 1-4 and only his popularity as a quiet tough guy saved his job. But his career turned around, including handing Stephen Thompson a defeat in 2012 as part of a six-fight winning streak that also included Jordan Mein, Mike Pyle, Erick Silva and Mike Swick before losing fights to Robbie Lawler and Johny Hendricks. He comes into the Sanchez fight having been stopped three times in a row, a submission loss to Demian Maia and knockout losses to Jake Ellenberger and Donald Cerrone. Brown said he had been thinking about it since before the Cerrone fight, and even more, with a family, after being knocked out and is worried about future implications. He said he doesn’t have the hunger he once had but said he’s not looking at pulling out of the drug testing program or asking for a contract release after the Sanchez fight because he’s leaving the door open if he changes his mind

There is no UFC show this weekend. They return for the 10/7 show in Las Vegas at the T Mobile Arena with Tony Ferguson vs. Kevin Lee for the interim lightweight title and Demetrious Johnson vs. Ray Borg for the featherweight title, plus Derrick Lewis vs. Fabricio Werdum

Paige VanZant vs. Jessica Eye was one of the key fights on that show, but VanZant pulled out due to suffering an intervertebral disc injury. Basically her disc moved in training Jiu Jitsu and the doctors realigned it. But it’s sore and she can’t train for a few weeks. She won’t need surgery but had to pull out of the fight

Two big fights have been added to the 12/2 PPV show in Detroit. Francis Ngannou will face Alistair Overeem. If Ngannou can win this one, he’ll probably get a shot at Stipe Miocic. The other is Henry Cejudo vs. Sergio Pettis, where the winner is likely to get a title shot at flyweight

The first two fights announced for the 12/30 PPV show in Las Vegas are Dominick Cruz vs. Jimmie Rivera and Cynthia Cavillo vs. Carla Esparza

Added to the Nick Roehrick was officially suspended for one year for a positive test for Clomiphene in an out of competition test on 8/8. Roehrick will be eligible to fight again on August 17, 2018

Azamant Murzakanov, who is 7-0 and is under contract but has yet to fight, is on a provisional suspension for a failed out of competition drug test taken on 9/2

James Vick vs. Joe Duffy has been added to the 11/4 show in Madison Square Garden

Felipe Arantes vs. Josh Emmett and Aspen Ladd vs. Lina Lansberg have been added to the 10/21 show in Gdansk, Poland

Scott Holtzman vs. Darrell Horcher and Eryk Anders vs. the debuting John Phillips have been announced for the 12/9 show in Fresno..

Ultimate Fighter on 9/20 did 261,000 viewers, up 19 percent from the prior week.
.......................................................................................................................................
BELLATOR: The change of Spike to the Paramount Network will take place on 1/18, and it will be a new relaunch. Bellator is scheduled for the new channel

Lots of major names were at the 9/23 show in San Jose, which drew about 7,500 fans, beating Raw numbers from a few days earlier. Among them were Herschel Walker, Gina Carano, Frank Shamrock and Akira Maeda. Maeda was there to discuss business as he wants to start up a new MMA group in Japan and is looking at Bellator to send talent. Scott Coker said they were up for those negotiations and he respected Maeda, who is one of the most famous Japanese pro wrestlers of all-time mainstream (he was on fire in particular in the late 80s and drew big until his retirement match with Alexander Karelin in Karelin’s only pro wrestling match). Maeda promoted RINGS, a very unique promotion because it started with mostly pro wrestling matches and some shoot matches, and as time went on, the percentage of shoot matches increased to where the last few years almost every match was a shoot. Antonio Inoki does shows like that now but once Pride came, that no closed fist style of real fights died out. But Maeda is the one who first discovered both Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Fedor Emelianenko, before Pride got big and started taking his talent. He also promoted the great series of matches with Volk Han, Kiyoshi Tamura and Tsuyoshi Kosaka against each other that were years ahead of their time

The show was entertaining. One theme from the week among the people who came from UFC to Bellator was how much more they enjoyed working at Bellator, almost like night and day. I think it’s because I did a story on Roy Nelson where he said it’s not the money, but that people tell you “please” and “Thank you,” which he said he never got in UFC. And then others chimed in and said from that standpoint how much better things were. Goiti Yamauchi (22-3) beat Northern California’s Adam Piccolotti (9-1) at 3:19 via choke. Yamaguchi’s grappling was exceptional as Piccolotti is a black belt and known for being real good on the ground and he was outclassed here. Aaron Pico (1-1) beat Justin Linn (7-4) at 3:45. Pico, who celebrated his 21st birthday, looked like the future superstar people have been saying he would be since he was 15. But you have to temper things. Linn was not a star, and he usually fights at 135. Pico showed that he’s got great hands as far as speed goes and his combinations are more like a high-level boxer than an MMA striker. Obviously his wrestling is top tier. He’d take Linn down whenever he wanted, do some ground and pound, and then let him up. But in throwing all those punches in succession, he does leave himself open and was caught with some shots. The crowd went nuts for the fight and Pico knocked him out with a left hook. This was a scary knockout. It ended up being shown on ESPN all night as one of the sports highlights, but Linn was down for what felt like two minutes. They brought in a stretcher but he was able to get up. Pico asked to fight again on the 1/20 show in Los Angeles and said that he would win the world title some day. Roy Nelson (23-14) won a decision on scores of 30-26, 29-28 and 29-28 over Javy Ayala (10-6). The story of this fight is that Ayala was getting the better of the standup, as he was too quick for Nelson, but Nelson at 41 can still take hard repeated shots. Nelson was able to get the fight to the ground in every round and controlled Ayala. The crowd loved this fight in the sense they were rooting for the underdog and the underdog looked great when he wasn’t on his back. Paul Daley (40-15-2) beat Lorenz Larkin (18-7) at 2:40 of the second round with a spinning punch that stunned Larkin, and then Daley put him away with a left. The fight wasn’t that exciting until the finish. Daley then cut a promo n Michael “Venom” Page. So the funny part of the story is that before the fight, I asked him about Page and he didn’t seem interested. Then he cut the promo on Page. Then he told me he thought beating Larkin put him at a level above Page and while he would fight him if asked, he thinks he’s above him now. But he cut the promo because he said he wanted everyone to know he’s not afraid of him. The main event saw Patricky Pitbull Freire (18-8) beat Benson Henderson (24-8) via split decision on scores of 28-29, 29-28 and 29-28. This was a boring fight. All three rounds were very close because little happened and nobody really hurt the other, but I did feel Freire deserved the decision. Freire challenged champion Brett Primus next. Henderson is 33, but he seems to have slipped a lot. This was a fight he could have won, but he wasn’t aggressive at all

The listed pay is misleading, because if you look at Henderson, Larkin and Nelson, all were lured away from UFC based on offering more money than UFC wished to spend, and given the fight pay, you could see that UFC would have easily matched those numbers and then some, for all three, but particularly since Henderson and Nelson were significant stars. So there must have been signing bonuses and other guarantees that don’t have to do with the specific event pay. The listed pay was Freire at $110,000, Henderson at $50,000, Daley at $50,000, Larkin at $40,000, Nelson at $60,000, Ayala at $50,000, Pico at $50,000, Linn at $4,000, Yamauchi at $32,000 and Piccolotti at $18,000.

Bellator on 9/23 did 598,000 viewers, which I’d have to call a disappointing number given this was considered a major event and featured Benson Henderson, Roy Nelson and Lorenz Larkin.
The Henderson vs. Patricky Pitbull Freire main event was the highest rated fight at 754,000 for the fight itself, peaking at 847,000.
Bellator went against five different college football games as well as NASCAR and boxing on a very competitive Saturday night.
Henderson vs. Pitbull was the most-watched actual fight of the night, as the replay of the Gennady Golovkin vs. Canelo Alvarez fight on HBO did 726,000 viewers and the Luke Campbell vs. Jorge Linares live fight on HBO did 687,000 viewers. It should be noted that Spike is available in almost triple the number of homes as HBO.
.......................................................................................................................................
OTHER MMA: The Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin fight ended up being the third biggest gate in the history of boxing, trailing only Mayweather vs. Pacquiao and Mayweather vs. McGregor. The 9/16 show in Las Vegas at the T Mobile Arena did 17,318 paid, 934 comps and a gate of $27,059,850. Lance Pugmire of the Los Angeles Times reported 1.3 million buys for the show, which would be a lower figure than I had expected. Golovkin had never beaten about 160,000, but there was a lot of hype to this fight and Alvarez did 900,000 with Miguel Cotto, and this fight was hyped so much bigger. It probably got hurt coming three weeks after Mayweather-McGregor.