The Dark Side of MMA

Imagine if they had an MMA event with top ranked world-class fighters and nobody came?  Well that seems to be BodogFIGHT's established philosophy even before putting on their first and only MMA show in U.S. soil.  Initially this organization made a splash with lavish closed shoots from Costa Rica's surf of busty women with bumblebee waists bearing tangas between each round. They then did a show at "home," which nearly packed a 3,000-seat arena (with many, many complimentary tickets.) This PPV from Vancouver, Canada was four-hours long and didn't even feature the (Main Event) Eddie Alvarez vs. Aaron Riley title match. (it was without doubt the fight of the night)

Yuki Kondo’s strategy did not pay off against the larger South African, as a cut ended the fight before Prangley ever gassed.

They then resurfaced with a "capacity crowd" from the exotic St. Petersburg Ice Palace, with Russian beauties out of Dr. Zhivago and a main event which couldn’t even make up for the rest of the event, although Vladimir Putin, Jean Claude Van Dam, and Peter Aerts all sat side by side next to some "horror show devotchkas."

After an incredible Big Apple MEDIA BLITZ for that brief Fedor - Lindland encounter in Russia, Bodogfight then set a new trend with their show in Jersey, and most recently followed it up with a shoot at a recreation center twenty minutes from downtown Vancouver.  As always, the results are barely noticed except by the hardcore MMA fans. 

It seems that when you release fights on some unknown cable channel months after the fact, the audience doesn't seem to give much of a damned, and that's too bad because not only are fans uninterested, but the fighters get no immediate recognition or motivation from events which are almost clandestine. "Private party!  Keep the results hush hush!" With this style of management from a fight promotion the fighters can never earn decent money from sponsorships because there is less exposure. It is the "non-fight" people who either don’t know or don’t seem to care about such issues, but they are the ones who seem to run Bodogfight.

Trenton makes it!  The world takes it!
Bodogfight, is just waking up to the realization that airing "old news," doesn't get many consistent viewers, so they decided to actually start showing fights on the tube from a less exotic location from around the world called, Trenton, New Jersey.  No offense to Trenton, they deserve all the best to resuscitate their bleak economy.  Unlike in previous Bodogfight events, this time the media was actually allowed to reveal the results as they occurred. Bodog has released fights on their website but it is still months later than the fights which once aired on ION TV. Unfortunately for the fighters, this is how this online gambling organization has operated their MMA wing since the beginning.

Veteran Yves Edwards lost in a stoppage against Jorge Masvidal, a fighter many believe to be an up n coming force.

An Audience?
With an international field of fighters, Bodog's New Jersey show turned out to have thousands of empty seats with an attendance that could not have even filled up most high school gyms in the USA.  This obviously did nothing to add to the fighters' motivational levels.  Imagine coming all the way from Russia or Japan, fighting before thirty, perhaps sixty thousand hardcore PRIDE fans and then having to put out in this scenario in a post industrial ghost town? Officially, it was about 1,200 in attendance but it was local hero Eddie Alvarez alone who sold around 750 of these tickets.  Bodog spent close to $200,000 in advertising on radio, and wild rock n roll style postering in New York City but the marketing people sitting in Vancouver just didn't really have a clue about the MMA audiences in the New York / New Jersey area, as this night revealed that fact. These Canadian's have an expensive sense of humor, they might as well not have told anyone about the show.  Especially since for a few months after, only the hundreds of people who attended (many of which were part of the production carnival crew or fight corners) had seen all the fights. Yuki Kondo vs. Trevor Prangley was only aired in late September, a couple months after the fact.

Bodog shakes it! The press fakes it!
As a member of the so called MMA media, the overall Bodog experience was quite pleasant, except when I tried to sit at the press table only to be patronized by some smarmy "Bodog guy" in charge of the press.  Although I was the first member of the press to take a chair and plant my lil’ nest ringside, I was heckled back a few tables by "Bodog guy" because I was taking up the space of the "bloggers." Only moments before I was given a nice heavy complimentary pen I was ready to use. 
As the night progressed, everybody around me began realizing that almost no one would be there, and not even the press table would fill up. Anyways, the point of this anecdote is that although this ship may be laced with gold, the crew on board has their heads up their asses, and while the captain parties on his own pirate ship (which has been jumped by the law a couple times as of late, literally and metaphorically speaking) no one is steering the direction of this organization in any clear or honorable manner.  (This became clearer in months to follow, especially after what would occur in their last filming in Vancouver.  After an initial postponement of the show from July to August, forty plus fighters were left with no fights, no pay, and no contracts after three months of training and having depended on this gig to feed their families.)

In a very closely contested match…came out winning by decision against…

Match Making
Excellent matchmaking in Bodogfight can be credited to the efforts of Miguel Iturrate who brings a lifetime of experience, exposure and credibility to a corporate organization who has jumped on the bandwagon and is attempting to exploit the MMA craze. (Mr. Iturrate was abruptly terminated right after the Bodog sponsored Strikeforce show at the Playboy mansion.  Hum! What did he do? As a matter of fact there seems to be no matchmaker in Bodog currently and there isn't any scheduled show.

Show Title
We could have had kindergartners come up with a much more creative title to Bodogfight's American debut, but leave it to a bunch of geniuses to come up with a title such as Eddie Alvarez vs. Matt Lee, both fine fighters and gentlemen, but still not widely known in the greater MMA landscape. This was Eddie's comeback bout after dropping the title to the Goat, Nick Thompson. Sources told me that this show was initially supposed to be named East Coast Collision but some people said it was "too local, not international enough," and thus marketing came up with the Eddie Alvarez vs. Matt Lee title. Hum!

Ah! The Fights
There were many upsets such as Chael Sonnen overwhelming Amar Souliev, or Brandon Lee Hinkle out grappling and classing Russian striker and M.D. Roman Zentzov, as well as the young and cocky Bodog darling Jorge Masvidal forcing a stoppage against everyone's favorite, Yves Edwards.  (It's interesting to note that Masvidal's natural "trash talking" skill seems to make him a favorite of Bodog TV's producer, who behind the scenes actually suggested to certain fighters that they trash talk at the press conference for filming purposes. This particular TV producer is obviously not experienced in sports broadcasting trying to promote and capitalize on negative stereotypes and clichés.) Trash talk seems to be the only solution he has in his head, which is very stupid since there is so much talent, particularly at this weight. 

Other Talent
Masvidal is 3-0 in Bodogfight and Rodrigo Damm is also 3-0 in Bodogfight beating Kultar Gill (a.k.a. Black Mamba - HERO'S star).  There is Santino Defranco (who has a tapout win over Melvin Guillard), and Ryan Bow (former number one-ranked Shooto fighter in the world – a true gentleman) but these authorities prefer to focus on Masvidal because he talks a lot of sh#!%t.  We are in the age where MMA is trying to promote the athletic aspect of the sport but on the contrary TV producers and organization such as this one are basically clueless about the sport, and believe this is the only way to sell an MMA show.

In true Kamikazee fashion, … came out looking for the KO punch against the Super Large American, …

More Fights
It was a battle of pure tough striking against a battle of pure will and skill.  Tara La Rosa had a very tough order against an undefeated and heavy-handed striker as the women stole the show. (This has always been the case with all MFC backed events.) Although Midwesterner … was swinging for the stars and attempting to send the defending champion into orbit, La Rosa's experience and skill allowed her to avoid most of the heavy hits as she took it to the ground and neutralized her foe's standing attack.  At the end of the fight LaRosa was all tears as cheering from the local crowd and her family licked her wounds.

What can be said about the main co-event, except for the fact that Trevor Prangley won by a cut and Eddie Alvarez for the first time in his MMA career got taken to a decision?

What Alvarez and Kondo had in common in these fights was the fact that both are men who could be fighting in lighter weight classes.  In one case the lighter and quicker striker kept the game standing and won, while in the other fight a cut got in the way of a strategy which was "to let the opponent wear away." Hoping to turn it on in the later rounds, Kondo's strategy backfired due to a cut obtained early on in the combat. For Prangley it was championship belt, but rather unceremoniously earned.

As the night wore extremely long due to the number of fights on the card, the thin crowd became thinner and there was nothing to do except to have a sip of purified filtered water compliments of BodogFIGHT. The entire show went past 1 AM, almost six hours.  Perhaps due to inexperienced and unqualified TV producers and event staff. In the dark confusion I also lost all the notes I took of the fights with my nice shiny bodog pen, which would later be banned from an airplane ride. As the fighters boarded the buses from the ghetto infrastructure of Trenton back to the hotel in drastically sunnier Princeton silence lined the buses.  For many the main concern became a search for beer and relaxation before having to wake up early in the morning or stay up all night prepared to be shipped back to Russia, Ohio, or perhaps Japan. Another day at the factory for most of these athletes.

In the toughest test yet to her MMA career, Tara LaRosa had to get past the powerful dukes of

Fight For The Party
In the end, four months after the Trenton Showdown, the newest bloated man in charge of BodogFIGHT was able to get MMA banned from Vancouver because he stated at a legal hearing that both he and his daughter (who is on Bodog's music label) have "black belts in MMA."  This individual enjoyed his own intelligence until a member of the panel retorted, "I didnt know there are black belts in MMA." He was left tongue tied by his own utterances and since, it resulted in a ban of MMA in Vancouver, Canada, home of BodogFight.  So what is Bodog's answer? Buying the rights to advertise in and broadcast ,other shows such from the rather provincial Hook n Shoot to the recently hip Hollywood blessed Playboy Mansion show put on by Stikeforce. 

In the end the solution for this crew is, if you can't organize an MMA show but want your name associated with MMA, become a sponsor and buy the rights to broadcast other shows.  For about a year BodogFIGHT appeared on the corner posts of PANCRASE shows, but like everything else this Canadian conglomerate does, it fades into the background and nobody much seems to notice. According to sources from Pancrase, BodogFight has yet to recompense the Japanese organization for holding up their end of the bargain, placing BodogFight cornerposts inside the Korakuen Hall ring. As of yet, free advertising.

In trying to be objective about bodog and the various fight shows they had actually filmed in the past, I watched the entire St. Petersburg Show followed by the Vancouver Agrodome show, although the latter occurred first.  The St. Petersburg DVD, unfortunately was missinng many fights including women's matches. From the commentators to the production to the actual level of the fights themselves, only one thing stood out, very few good bouts.  The production (except for the St. Petersburg CD) was not top quality, and the play-by-play commentators left a lot to be desired.  Maybe this other cat should ask The Cornel what having a good time is all about.

Real Bodog Girls
It's mostly the women who fight it out in the ring who give this show real integrity, such as Amanda Buckner and Hitomi Akano, Lisa Ward or the toughest one, Tara LaRosa. Perhaps it the female energy, and passion on top of the technical aspect which always allows the Femmes to steal the shows, but it seems many fighters contracts are now in limbo.

Megumi Fujii was in the most recent Bodog filming and is a living icon of women's MMA.  Perhaps because of these talented MMA women, Bodogfight still has one more string to hang onto and from which to weave any true integrity. It seems though, that the brighter brawlers are already jumpinng from what they may deem to be a ship of fools.

Official Results - bodogFIGHT 07/14/2007 >>

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