There's the crux of the issue.

I've read this in numerous interviews, you can google it. It's coming from DW and Joe Rogan, so they might be expected to make the Fertitas look like god, but it's likely they are telling the truth. When Zuffa bought it, the UFC for a while was just losing money hand over foot at an incredible rate. SEG had mismanaged the hell out of it. Nobody had heard of it and they could barely pay fighters. Right before the TUF1 show, they tried to sell it and only got an offer of 2 million dollars for the whole thing, which is pretty telling for a sports league. Any big business with any chance of being profitable goes for way more than 2 million. They paid the production costs of TUF themselves, around 10 million. TUF happened, BOOM, UFC is popular and raking in crazy PPV numbers 5 times what they had ever done before. the rest is history.

Danny, I think you watched the same "60 minutes" or whatever segment that we all did, but I have to agree with Boris on this one - no sane businessmen will plow 50m of their own cash into a company that's bleeding from every orifice, that's in a sport no one has really heard of, and has no brand name to fall back on atm... I wouldn't go so far as to say it's not done - maybe it is, who knows - but it definitely doesn't sound plausible in the least. I'm sure there's way more to that story.

So, hey, does anyone not think Matt Brown will kill that other dude tomorrow on TUF??

Kirk

You would sign. Do you think that Don King or Bob Arum or Golden Boy productions don't have these clauses in their contracts? Why would a promoter bring in a fighter and invest in all the marketing and then let him leave as soon as he pays off by winning a championship belt?

OMG I hope so but I'm never that lucky :P

Hmm, I wonder what the line is going to be on the tito machida. I suspect this may be one of the higher values on the upcoming ufc card.

If this were the only clause I had issue with in the contract, yeah, I probably would be able to look past it. But when you combine it with the erosion of ancillary rights, inability to fight for other organizations or promoters, etc. etc. I would refuse.

? There already is a line up on it. It's somewhere around -200 Machida.

NYTimes.com article: "Fighters Press Albany to Lift Ban on Mixed Martial Arts"

Interestingly enough at the most recent Sambo championship i believe Fedor fought for a total of 40 seconds.

Yeah well it's not Fedors fault that 2-3 of the fighters chose to let him win by WO instead of fighting him

Gawd, please kill Jeremy, Matt.

Yeah, that was close enough.

LOL @ Forrest screaming like a crazy ass.

Edit: OMG, Rampage "$2 in the tank" line was awesome.

Nice to see Team Rampage get a win.

Ive seen that R8 Rampage was driving at the Bellagio once. Im assuming it was the same one since not many people have them

They both looked super sloppy and appeared to have terrible conditioning. Jeremy's punches were so ridiculous and wild, lol. That KO was pretty sweet, though. I need to go back and check the 2nd fight since I fell asleep during it, but I remember one of the dudes taking like 5 unanswered shots to the jaw and not dropping. Nice chin.

I think it was more about Rampage's guy not having any power, but still impressive. Dude took so many shots right on the button.

It appears that conditioning was an issue with 3 out of 4 fighters who fought this evening. I know it is not easy fighting 5 minutes, but aren't these guys supposed to train for 15? And hopefully one day 25.

While I was on my couch drinking a beer while watching, I was perplexed as to whether I was witnessing under-trained athletes or whether I was underestimating the extremely high level of endurance it takes to fight for 5 minutes. I did assume that most who make it to this show have well above the average athletes' level of endurance. I was severely underwhelmed by the fights tonight and especially the conditioning.

I hope I am not being too critical, because any fighter who makes into that house and fulfills a basic implied contract of just fighting, earns my respect to some degree. But, wow, 5 minutes and your done?

from my limited viewing of tuf fights, it seems that conditioning is a problem in many of the fights. why do you guys think this is? guys just not having enough time to prepare?

Many fighters simply hate conditioning training I think is the main reason why. Especially given the immaturity of many tuf fighters.

lol I was watching the show thinking the same thing as everyone else, "wtf..conditioning..wtf?!"
Matt Brown's 2nd fight was definitely less impressive than his first to get on the show, he just seemed sorta frozen, it was weird.

Kirk

It never seemed to be a problem with Tito's team. But he was probably the best TUF coach so far.

During the fight, you could just see right from the beginning that both fighters were amped up trying to land some hard shots and forgetting to breathe. I think 10 seconds in Forrest was screaming orders to breathe. I think the adrenaline got to the fighters and they fell behind quickly by not breathing and expending all of their energy early on. Still, it's pretty ridiculous that so many fighters this season can't even make it to the 2nd round with a little gas left in the tank.

Rampage is just a brutal coach and he doesn't have anyone else to coach the guys it seems. I feel bad for those who ended up on his team.

THANK GOD Jeremy got f knocked out. He seems to be very disrespectful and very annoying. His comment after the game about Matt being lucky wasn't very classy either.

People totally gassing should be a lesson for those remaining.

Fighting for 2 5 minute rounds is way more exhausting than anyone who hasnt done anything like that realize. BUT they are living in a house with nothing to do except train and eat right. They should be able to get into top shape.

I have been training with a guy that leaves for the next ultimate fighter in a couple weeks. He has been coming down in the morning and doing crossfit with us to get in shape in addition to the other stuff he has does.

He knows he has to come in shape. I think it really helps now that they have to fight to get on the show. So they have to get ready for that first fight.

I honestly don't know why people are bitching so much about this season of TUF. It is an order of magnitude better than last season. The fighters are fighting and not being pussies and the house "drama" is tolerable imo.