- Athletic commission gives UFC conditional approval for event
- Alves off UFC 111, expects to return soon after minor procedure
- Station breakup proposed, Fertitta brothers would acquire stake in four casinos
- Spike Launching UFC Destination Site
- Bellator Signs International Distribution Deal
Athletic commission gives UFC conditional approval for event
The Vancouver Athletic Commission gave conditional approval Wednesday for an Ultimate Fighting Championship event at GM Place on June 12.
The mixed martial arts event at the 19,000-seat venue would be the UFC’s first in B.C.
Commission chairman Mirko Mladenovic said the approval is contingent on insurance and indemnity issues with the city being resolved. Those issues are expected to be addressed at a city council meeting April 6.
The commission also tentatively approved a promoter’s licence for UFC. (Vancouver Sun)
Alves off UFC 111, expects to return soon after minor procedure
Alves announced that he is having an Angiogram, a non-invasive exploratory procedure on Wedneaday. The procedure will be performed at Hyman-Newman Institute for Neurology and Neurosurgery located at Roosevelt Hospital.
Alves has malformation of the left side of his brain. After a few days of anguish, they found that whatever it is, it should not be career ending- not an aneurysm. He should be back to training full speed in three weeks. (Cage Writer), (Tracy Lee)
Station breakup proposed, Fertitta brothers would acquire stake in four casinos
The Fertitta brothers would acquire a minority stake in four casinos but the bulk of Station Casinos’ 18 properties would be put up for court-supervised sale under a reorganization plan to be filed this morning with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Reno.
Under the proposed joint plan of reorganization, the ownership of Red Rock Resort, Palace Station, Boulder Station and Sunset Station would be taken over by a creditors group controlled primarily by investment bankers Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan. The four casinos have been given a value of $1.8 billion.
The newly formed company would sell 46 percent of the equity in the four casinos to Station Casinos founders Frank Fertitta III, the company’s current chairman and chief executive officer, and Lorenzo Fertitta, the company’s vice chairman.
The brothers will make an $85.6 million investment in the new company. (MMAJunkie)
Spike Launching UFC Destination Site
MTV Networks Entertainment Group Executive VP of Digital Media Erik Flannigan says the decision to create the site was spurred on when Spike and UFC looked at where people searching on the web for info about fighter names and video ended up. More often then not, third party sites such as YouTube were at the top of the search results. The new site is designed to capture some of those searches.
“While the business model for UltimateFighter.com will yield material direct revenue to both parties through ad sales, sponsorship and other distribution opportunities, the value of the property is equally tied to converting more of those casual fans to paying customers of the UFC, as well as converting a massive group of people scouring the web to see footage of fights into viewers of The Ultimate Fighter and other UFC programming on Spike TV,” Flannigan said at a press event in New York Thursday (March 25). (Broadcasting Cable) … (MMAPayout Perspective)
Bellator Signs International Distribution Deal
The international production and distribution company Engine Entertainment has completed an agreement with Bellator Fighting Championships to handle the exclusive worldwide distribution (excluding US and Canada) for this first-of-its-kind mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion.
With its unique tournament format, Bellator allows fighters to control their own destiny by eliminating the subjectivity of matchmaking and replicating the objectivity of virtually every other professional sport. Guided by this concept, Bellator produces a unique, exciting, competitive and entertaining brand of MMA programming that is based on the most successful real-sports, objective competition format.
Bellator has taken the U.S. by storm since it debuted in April 2009 on ESPN Deportes. Due to the success of its first season, Bellator returns for its second and third seasons with one of the largest domestic television distribution alliances in fighting sports history, including 24 live events on Fox Sports Net (reaching 92 Million homes), with weekly highlight shows on both NBC (112 million homes) and Telemundo (62 Million homes) – bringing Bellator to virtually every home in the U.S.
In addition, Bellator will be broadcast across Canada through an alliance with The Score sports network.
Engine Entertainment is exclusively distributing the twenty-four 2010 season live events, plus all additional premium pay-per-view events that Bellator produces, worldwide (outside of the US and Canada) as well as the twelve previously aired 2009 Bellator Season 1 shows.
“With fighters from across the globe, Bellator has produced some of the most electrifying moments in MMA history,” said Chris Philp, Chief Executive, Engine Entertainment. “Bellator will thrill audiences in every country and we are excited to be distributing this successful nationally televised sports franchise worldwide.”
Said Bellator founder and CEO Bjorn Rebney: “Bellator is very pleased to be working with Engine Entertainment—a dynamic and accomplished player in the highly competitive international programming sales industry. With some of the best fighters from every corner of the globe and a unique format that allows fighters to truly control their own destiny, we are confident that our real-sport format will enjoy success internationally that equals or exceeds the success we have had to date here in the U.S.” (PRESS RELEASE)
IMAGE OF THE DAY
UFC 112 Venue in Abu Dhabi
QUICK HITS
- Fistic Medicine: Alves and ‘Brain Irregularity’ (Sherdog)
- “MMA Live” debuts May 6 on ESPN2, future placement could depend on May ratings (MMAJunkie)
- Gatorade Canada re-signs UFC welterweight champ Georges St-Pierre (MMAJunkie)
- Strikeforce Challengers VII official weigh-in results and photo gallery (MMAJunkie)
- UFC middleweight Chael Sonnen staying busy on campaign trail, title path (MMAJunkie)
- Featherweight champ Joe Soto meets Diego Saraiva in Bellator 19 non-title fight (MMAJunkie)
- Alves Will Return to UFC After Minor Procedure (MMAFighting)
- Lesnar: Mir, Carwin Vying for ‘Make-Believe’ Belt (MMAFighting)
- St. Pierre-Hardy, Carwin-Mir Official for UFC 111 (Sherdog)
- STRIKEFORCE CHALLENGERS 7 WEIGH-IN RESULTS (MMAWeekly)
- The Ultimate Fighter Season 11 Video Preview: Chuck vs. Tito (MMAWeekly)
- UFC 111 weigh-in: Mir and Carwin bring the beef, Hardy is the devil (Cage Writer)
- “Strikeforce Challengers: Johnson vs. Mahe” weigh-in results and quotes (FiveOuncesOfPain)
- Gatorade Announces New Deal with St. Pierre (Heavy)
TV LISTINGS
- HDNet Fights Vault (Eddie Alvarez) at 8 PM ET on HDNet (03/26/10)
- InsideMMA (Wanderlei Silva, Joe Soto, Shane Carwin) at 9 PM ET on HDNet (03/26/10)
- 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)
- HDNet Fights Presents DREAM.13 at 11 PM ET on HDNet (03/27/10)
UPCOMING EVENTS
- 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)
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