MMAterial Facts (03/03/10): James Toney Signs Non-Exclusive UFC Contract

• James Toney Signs Non-Exclusive Contract with UFC
• UFC 115 In Jeopardy, Moving to Counter Strikeforce on 4/17?
• New UFC gym to open in Rosemead, opposed by Councilman
• Fedor, Strikeforce and the Travails of Non-Exclusive Contracts
• Rogers sportsnet launches MMA Buzz

James Toney Signs Non-Exclusive Contract with UFC

He’s one of the premier boxers of the last 25 years, a future Hall of Famer who has won world titles in three weight classes while taking on a Who’s Who of the sport, including fellow champions Evander Holyfield, John Ruiz, Hasim Rahman, Vassiliy Jirov, Roy Jones Jr., Mike McCallum, Iran Barkley, and Michael Nunn. But there is one more mountain left to climb for James “Lights Out” Toney, and that’s to show if he can defeat the mixed martial arts warriors of the UFC®.

So later this year, UFC President Dana White is prepared to give Toney his shot, signing the boxing superstar to a multi-fight contract this week to compete in the UFC.

“A lot of pro boxers have made a lot of noise about how they would do in mixed martial arts, but nobody on the level of a James Toney has been willing to back up his talk,” said White. “He’s a legend whose boxing record speaks for itself, and he’s a guy who I’ve got a lot of respect for. Now he’s got every intention of matching that success in MMA, and I think he’s got the right attitude – let’s see if he can do it.”  (MMAPayout Perspective)

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UFC president insists Toney signing isn’t ‘freak show’

The Ultimate Fighting Championship didn’t become a billion-dollar enterprise by having its executives take crazy risks. The company was built methodically, with the larger goal always in mind.

But on Wednesday, the bus swerved sharply in a different direction when UFC president Dana White confirmed that the company had signed boxer James Toney to a multi-fight contract.

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“We threw the kitchen sink at Brock when he came in. Are we going to do that same thing with James? I don’t know. To be 100 percent honest with you, all [expletive] aside, I haven’t thought it out.”

“I like James Toney. He’s one of the greatest boxers ever. I have tremendous respect for him. He said he wanted to fight in the UFC and I was interested. Now he’s here and I have to figure out what to do with him. What we won’t do is make a freak show out of it. I’d be the first to scream if someone else did that, so I’m not going to do it.”

“Hey, I don’t want this to be seen as a joke, and it’s not like Herschel Walker or Canseco or any of those guys. James Toney is a fighter. The worst thing anyone can ever say to me is that they were watching one of my fights and they changed the channel. That’s why I’ll never put [expletive] fights on.”

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For the first time, the UFC will have to manage the schedule of one of its fighters with someone else, since Toney’s contract allows him to box. There are a lot of variables that are going to make this a difficult proposition.  (Yahoo! Sports)

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MMAPayout Note:  First, the story was first reported by (FiveOuncesOfPain). Second, an interesting tidbit here: Toney’s flirtation in the UFC has been ongoing. In October 2006, former UFC champion Randy Couture said he was called by the promotion with a potential bout against the pro boxer that never came to fruition.  (Sherdog)

UFC 115 In Jeopardy, Moving to Counter Strikeforce on 4/17?

The Ultimate Fighting Championship’s first trip to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada may not happen as quickly as planned. According to a report from MMA commentator and analyst Paul Lazenby, the city has yet to implement regulations to promote mixed martial arts professionally and may not do so for at least two months.

Subsequent reports have suggested that the UFC may already be looking into other options, including a rumoured UFC Fight Night event on April 17th that would go head-to-head with Strikeforce on CBS.

As reported on Lazenby’s website, PaulLazenby.com, a meeting was held last night with North Vancouver Athletic Commission Chair Mike Pattenaude, Assistant Director of Vancouver’s Licences and Animal Control division Tom Hammel and new Vancouver Athletic Commission Chair Mirko Mladenovic. The discussion led to the discovery that necessary regulations that would allow professional mixed martial arts events to take place in the city have not been implemented.

Hammel was said to have indicated that it could be at least two months before the situation was resolved, which would leave the UFC in a difficult position if they opted to continue moving forward with the planned UFC 115 event in June. Despite the passing of a two-year trial period for MMA by the Vancouver City Council, concerns remain regarding legal and financial liability.  (MMARising)

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MMAPayout Note: Hearing Strikeforce has the option of moving to April 24 to counter WEC if UFC counters SF on CBS April 17… (Josh Gross)

New UFC gym to open in Rosemead, opposed by Councilman

A new fitness gym half owned by the mixed martial arts promoter Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) will open off the 10 freeway in three months, over the objections of some city officials.

Though UFC’s claim to fame is popularizing the often bloody combat fighting sport of MMA, the gym will not allow any such fighting, company officials said.

Instead, they said it will provide members a unique fitness workout, attract an audience that may not otherwise exercise and help reduce obesity in the community.

“This is not a fighting gym,” general manager Ryan Junk said.

But that explanation has not appeased councilman Gary Taylor. Taylor worries that the gym will lead to on-site fights and train future fighters in what he calls a “brutal” sport.

“Watching those fights was ridiculous. They would hit somebody in the head, knocking them to the ground, then pounce on them and use both fists to beat their head while they are on the ground. I don’t understand that kind of fighting,” Taylor said at a recent city council meeting on the subject.

As the name suggests, competitors in mixed martial arts face off using a combination of fighting techniques, from muay thai kick-boxing to Brazilian jiu jitsu to wrestling. When UFC first emerged in the early 1990s, it faced serious backlash because of its levels of violence. It has since incorporated stricter rules, allowing it to become more mainstream.  (MMAWeekly)

Fedor, Strikeforce and the Travails of Non-Exclusive Contracts

When Scott Coker and Strikeforce signed Fedor Emelianenko, it was heralded by the media as the promotion’s first shot at the UFC in a newly waged promotional war.
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Momentum seemed to be building. But now, just one fight into a multi-fight deal, Emelianenko’s M-1 team is seeking to renegotiate the terms of the contract.

In an exclusive fight deal favored by the UFC, a fighter would have little leverage in such a situation. As Randy Couture found when he challenged the UFC in court back in 2007, such a scenario would likely have left him mired in legal limbo for years. After months of sitting on the sidelines waiting for the slow wheels of justice to turn, Couture (whose goal, ironically enough was to fight Emelianenko) decided against a drawn-out legal battle and found a way to make peace with the UFC. Couture might have eventually won the case; he simply could not afford the time to find out.

So Strikeforce is hardly the first organization to have a fighter hold out; it’s just that the circumstances with non-exclusive deals tilt the leverage away from the organization and towards the fighter — or at least a fighter with the clout of Emelianenko.

Strikeforce’s willingness to free certain fighters for possible paydays in non-U.S. promotions is an athlete-friendly gesture, but can now work against them. Should negotiations get ugly (and there’s nothing to suggest they’ve yet devolved to that level) Emelianenko can simply walk away — or threaten to walk away — to a promotion such as DREAM or Sengoku, or even to fight under his own M-1 banner, as long as it’s overseas (MMAFighting)

Rogers sportsnet launches MMA Buzz

Rogers Media today announced that it has launched MMA Buzz on its popular sports news Web site, sportsnet.ca. Powered by thoora.com, MMA Buzz collects and displays only the most popular and interesting mixed martial arts stories based on what is happening within social and traditional media, and provides fans with a new way to keep up-to-date.

“The MMA fan is super committed and engaged. They blog, they tweet, they shout. MMA Buzz gathers the best-of-the-best in fan conversations, and serves it to one dashboard,” says Claude Galipeau, SVP & GM, Digital Media, Rogers Media. “Thoora is the perfect platform to power MMA BUZZ, since it’s all about live search on blogs and tweets. We’re really excited that our audiences and ad clients will adopt this new product.”

Chul Lee, CTO and Founder, of thoora.com says that MMA Buzz uses Thoora’s “proprietary, cutting-edge filtering, clustering, and ranking algorithms to identify the stories that people are talking about most in real-time.”

MMA Buzz is available now on http://www.sportsnet.ca/buzz/mma/  (Newswire)

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“We’ll figure something out,” White said. “I’m not really sure. Here’s the thing with James: We were sitting around finishing the deal and talking and he told me that he’d been talking to Strikeforce. He said they were talking to him about a fight with Herschel Walker. James said to me, ‘Do you know what I’d do to that [expletive]?’ He looked at me and said, ‘You know, I have a lot of pride and I’d never do anything to embarrass myself. I’m a fighter. I want to fight. And don’t ever underestimate me.’ ”  (Dana White on signing James Toney, Yahoo)

IMAGE OF THE DAY

QUICK HITS

• Toney Working with Ibarra for UFC Debut (Sherdog)
• Reminder: Pre-sale tickets for “Strikeforce: Nashville” available today (MMAJunkie)
• Aoki Can’t Wear Usual Pants in US Debut (MMAFighting)
• Who’s First for ‘Lights Out’? (MMAFighting)
• KAMAL SHALORUS INJURED, OFF WEC PAY-PER-VIEW (MMAWeekly)
• WEC GM REED HARRIS TALKS PPV PRICE MODEL (MMAWeekly)
• The UFC gets into the freak show biz: James Toney signs (Cage Writer)
• Shinya Aoki Thinks You Should Be Thrilled To See His Bare Legs (Heavy)
• Exclusive: James Toney signs multi-fight deal with UFC (FiveOuncesOfPain)

TV LISTINGS

• HDNet Fights Presents K-1 Classics (2008 K-1 World Max) at 8 PM ET on HDNet (03/05/10)
• InsideMMA (Matyushenko, Renzo Gracie) at 9 PM ET on HDNet (03/05/10)
• HDNet Fights Presents Furious Finishes IV, at 10 PM ET on HDNet (03/05/10)
• Best of Pride FC at 10 PM ET/PT on Spike (03/05/10)
• WEC 47: Bowles vs Cruz on at 10 PM ET on Versus (03/06/10)
  

UPCOMING EVENTS

• WEC 47: Bowles vs Cruz on at 10 PM ET on Versus (03/06/10)
• HDNet Fights: Sengoku Raiden Championship 12 at TBD on HDNet (03/12/10)
• HDNet Fights: XFC X-Night of Champions at 10 PM ET on HDNet (03/19/10)
• UFC on Versus: Vera vs Jones at 10 PM ET on Versus (3/21/10)
• HDNet Fights: King of the Cage – Legacy at 10 PM ET on HDNet (03/26/10)
• Strikeforce Challengers: Johnson vs Mahe at 11 PM ET/PT on Showtime (03/26/10)
• UFC 111: GSP vs Hardy at 10 PM ET on PPV (03/27/10)
• UFN 21 : Florian vs Gomi at 10 PM ET on Spike (03/31/10)
• The Ultimate Fighter 11 Debut after UFN 21 on Spike (03/31/10)