CBS will ramp up their promotional efforts for Saturday night’s Strikeforce “Nashville” event with 30-second promos, which are scheduled to air in commercial slots around its top-rated shows leading up to the event. Sherdog was able to break the news this weekend:
A 30-second “I Am a Fighter” spot featuring Strikeforce lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez will air during breaks for Sunday’s “Undercover Boss,” which has been the No. 1 rated show in its timeslot for the last month, averaging 13 million viewers each week. Additional spots featuring middleweight champion Jake Shields and his April 17 opponent, Dan Henderson, will be added throughout the week.
Here is the Dan Henderson “I Am a Fighter” promo, which will be edited down to a 30-second commercial scheduled to air around CBS programming this week:
Along with the promotional push by CBS, Strikeforce is also benefiting from this weekends’ aftermath. After BJ Penn’s UFC 112 loss, a heated debate within the MMA community commenced as to who to consider the #1 Lightweight in the world. A good number of fans are now claiming that Shinya Aoki should be considered the #1 Lightweight in the world, since most rankings had him in the #2 slot before Penn’s loss on Saturday night. As a byproduct of the UFC 112 performances, Strikeforce can now ride a wave of momentum leading up to Saturday night, promoting Aoki as the #1 LW in the world and marketing their upcoming event as a quality product free of charge to the fans.
Not only has the buzz picked up stateside, Japan holds a great deal of interest for this weekends event as fans trumpet their Japanese against the DREAM Lightweight champ. Here is a fan made promo from Japan, which resembles the superb DREAM promotional video quality and style.
Payout Perspective:
Strikeforce debuted with some of their most marketable fighters on NCIS: Los Angeles last week in front of 13.65 million viewers. Throughout this week, CBS will use 30-second fighter promos around their most popular television shows leading up to the Strikeforce Nashville event on Saturday night. Introducing their fighters to the CBS audience as more than just “cage fighters” by focusing on their backgrounds, childhood, and family is not only essential, but a great way to create buzz and develop a fighter’s fan-base for upcoming and future events.
As an example, Bellator was able to create buzz for their second season participants by using FSN and YouTube as tools to get the promotional content across to the fans. The video package that Bellator was able to put together for Roger Huerta was excellent, and come across well during their televised debut last week. Strikeforce is now hoping for similar results this week, as promos for Jake Shields, Dan Henderson, and Gilbert Melendez make their way into prime time television .
One thing I notice CBS doing this time around, that they didn’t last time, is promoting Strikeforce with a brief little graphic at the bottom of the screen during the actual programs, like they do to plug their regular shows. I saw one such promo during the NCAA tournament, with Jim Nantz actually plugging Strikeforce while a graphic was shown briefly at the bottom of the screen, and tonight, I saw a Strikeforce promo graphic in the opening minute or so of “Two and a Half Men”.
Ed,
You are correct. Take a look at the link below. Promo played during the NCIS:LA show last week and they mentioned “Strikeforce” as part of the event name. It appears they are more willing to promote the brand and fighters now.
http://mmapayout.com/2010/04/exclusive-strikeforce-nashville-417-cbs-promo-featured-during-ncis-los-angeles/
Anyone who thinks Aoki is #1 is a tool and a noob. Who has he beat that has proven themselves as a top dog? noone. Fighting guys who stayed over seas and was the big fish in a small pond dont cut it. He lost to Hansen who is 6-7 in his last 13 fights. This are the guys he built his name on. Has beens and never was’. Penn lost a controverial decison so he should probabley stay #1. If not then Edgar gets the nog and Penn goes to #2. I find it ironic that Penn loses a close decision and he drops from #1 by sherdog and other lame ass’. But when Gomi was submited by Aurelio he stayed #1. Gomi couldnt even decisivley win the rematch and had lost to Penn in the past yet these tools couldnt see him not being #1. Penn has beat everyone at 155 and noone has even come close to him. But after a close fight he drops. Would Aoki beat Penn? Hell no. Florian? Maynard? I wouldnt even be so sure he could hang with the Varner, Stevenson, Sherk of the world. Maybe he could take guys like Nate Diaz and Jens pulver but thats about it. Not to mention everyone who fights him says his “Fly Paper” pants should be illegal and would be under legit sanctioning.
Brian,
It’s not that simple. If Edgar was able to stop BJ in glorious fashion maybe he would be considered #1. But Edgar has to reverse his loss against Maynard first and defend the title before he can be considered #1. Right now it’s up in the air, but I would not be against calling Aoiki #1 if he beats Melendez in a quick and ruthless fashion. Without a doubt he would be #1 if he can do it, however, my money is on Melendez for some strange reason.
What makes Gilbert the measuring stick of who is #1? Who has he beat that was ever a top dog without a doubt? Going to small promotions and winning doesnt make you the best fighter in the. Gilbert lost in Dream and he lost to (cant remember his name) who lost to Yves in the UFC. Even Yves is not even a contender. Yet Aoki can get KOed by Hansen who is completely washed up and would never have been able to hang with the wrestling based fighters in the UFC or anywhere so he never had to prove himself against that style. Aoki may be able to get by being 1xD in dream but as we have saw over and over it dont fly anywhere else in the world. HE has horrible striking, Has almost zero wrestling, and has been KOed a few times. His one strength is dependant on sticky pants who noone else wears and commissions dont allow and he refuses to stop wearing.
If winning a bunch of fights regardless of the competition makes you #1. Then i guess Jason Reinhardt was #1 in the world before he come to the UFC. He beat as many people to have claim at #1 as Aoki.
I would also like to add that BJ Penn arguably didnt lose the fight. You dont base rankings on the official decision if the fight dont agree with the result. Does Jon Jones drop in the rankings because he lost to Hamill by a technicallity? Did Nick Diaz drop in the rankings after the NSAC called his win over Gomi a “no contest”? These had no effect at all because a ranking is based on effectiveness in the ring/cage, momentium, and body of work and skill level. All rolled into one. Penn didnt lose or win. The only thing that come from it is a new respect for Edgar which moves him up the rankings because his skill is higher than everyone expected.
Keep in mind that Aoki is only beating the has been scraps left by Gomi in Japan. Not only that but struggling with the scraps. Gomi who was by far better than all of them got beat in every aspect of the fight by Florian of all people.
Brain, a couple of points:
1) Aoki is 2-1 against Hansen, back when Hansen was considered a top 10 LW. The only time Aoki lost to Hansen was after fighting twice in one night during the DREAM LW GP, after Aoki had already fought and won earlier in the day.
2) Aoki is 23-4, losing to a bigger Mach Sakurai (2x) and Hansen once in the tourney after fighting 2 times in one night. Aoki avenged that loss and beat Hanse after the fact.
3) Aoki also has wins over (Hirota, Shaolin, Hansen, Alvarez, Uno, JZ, Jason Black, and Kikuchi). Most of those wins were against top 10 LW’s at the time.
4) Consensus MMA Rankings have Aoki at #2, so when the #1 fighter goes down, the #2 fighter elevates to #1. That’s the way sports and rankings work.
5) Melendez (17-2) is a the #8 LW in the world. Aoki beating another top 10 LW would definitely give most people enough quality wins to rank him #1. Melendez has wins over Thomson, Ishida, Damm, Kawajiri, Rumina Sato, and Clay Guida.
6) Gomi was struggling and considered done by most before coming to the UFC, which is the reason Japanese promotions and Strikeforce didn’t wan to pay him the money he wanted. Gomi got outclassed much much worse by Kitaoka (beat Gomi in first round 1:41 by Achilles Lock) in Japan and was 2-2 before the UFC signed him.
7) The reason why a lot of LW’s were ranked in Japan is because the UFC discontinued their LW division after BJ Penn left the UFC as the LW Champ and went over to Japan (K-1 Heros). Most of the best LW’s went over to Japan because of that and gained some high rankings by beating some tough fighters. So, stating that Aoki and Melendez have beaten nobody’s because they haven’t fought in the UFC is quite misinformed.
Jose Mendoza,
You said it a lot better than I could. Hopefully Brian can see the reasoning in what you have posted. It’s difficult for those who caught on to the sport post TUF to understand the history of MMA and why at one time most top fighters were over in Japan. Suffice to say things are much different now, but within the LW and HW divisions, there is consensus that not all the top 10 are in the UFC, unlike other divisions. In LW, they are spread between Dream, Strikeforce, Bellator and UFC to say the least.
Now the unfortunate part for Penn is that he lost, no matter how he lost, he can’t be considered the #1 guy anymore. So in a logical system it would make more sense that a) the #2 guy moves up to #1 b) the guy who beat #1 moves up to #1. All things considered din this case, I would lean toward (a) that is until Edgar defends the title and erases his loss to Maynard.
For the record, the current top 10 as per the consensus rankings are as follows:
1 B.J. Penn 100 UFC
2 Shinya Aoki 92 DREAM/Strikeforce
3 Eddie Alvarez 90 DREAM/Bellator
4 Kenny Florian 88 UFC
5 Gray Maynard 83 UFC
6 Tatsuya Kawajiri 81 DREAM
7 Frank Edgar 69 UFC
8 Gilbert Melendez 61 Strikeforce
9 Sean Sherk 57 UFC
10 Diego Sanchez 56 UFC
Jose.
You are not fooling anyone with your own version of History. I have followed this sport to long to fall for that. Noone went over seas because the UFC didnt have a 155 for a couple years. Most of the fighters in the UFC 155 fought at 170. Yes many guys went to japan of Which Aoki fought none of them.
Lets go point by point here.
#1 yes Aoki had fought twice in one night. But so did Hansen so your point? keep in mind Hansen isnt very good. This is nothing new. HE always had piss poor wrestling and if not for avoiding that style would have been exposed long ago.
#2 So now we get Sakurai being bigger as an excuse but your are probabley one of those people who ranked Sakurai #2 for years dispite him being a cheater. However Aoki isnt small and the different wasnt much.
#3 We are not ranking him in the past we are taking about now. Those wins in the past didnt get him to number 1 so most of the people on the list being exposed as over rated and hasbeens surley dont help his case.
“4) Consensus MMA Rankings have Aoki at #2, so when the #1 fighter goes down, the #2 fighter elevates to #1. That’s the way sports and rankings work”
Really? I seem to remember Gomi being choked out like a ametuer yet retaining his number 1 ranking simply because he was a Pride fighter and fan boys with an asian fetish were always looking to keep Pride fighters atop the rankings. Yet which Penn loses a controverial decision everyone jumps at the chance to drop him down the ranks and not prop up the guy who beat him. Fact is Aoki dont crack the top 5 in the UFC. Not based on body of work but simply he dont have the skill to beat the top 5. I know rankings are not soley based on head to head match ups but i wont pretend a guy is the number 1 guy in the world when he isnt very good at all and his body of work is over rated by fans who are bias. Over hyping someone based on zero substance is why Prides fighters were seen as gods yet got their ass kicked when they entered the UFC. Of course each time it was luck or the Pride fighter magically got old.
#5 Well i dont feel Gilbert is #8. I dont think he would be champ even in the WEC. He benifits from fighting in a weak promotion so he gets the wins to stay ranked high. But being highly ranked and highly skilled are very different. I feel he is just a better version of Guida who has a fast pace but not over skilled so he dont get a lot of finishes.
#6 Dont get me started on Kiaoka. I believe is fight with Gomi was more than fishy as are a few of his fights. When was the last Achilles lock you see work in the UFC? People dont tap to them because they dont injure you. Thats the first thing you are taught in BJJ class. You are not going to get top fighters to tap and lose their belt to a achilles hold. Add to that Gomi 2 days after the fight Gomi hinted at the work and said he hoped Kitaoki the best and hoped his win would bring in many fans. The fight was just a ploy to draw in new fans because the old guard wasnt doing it. With that said yes Gomi isnt in his prime. But he wasnt getting owned in every aspect of the fight like Florian did to him. Where was Gomis wrestling background verses a Florian who cant stop takedowns? He still stopped Gomi. HE took Gomis punches, he took him down, out boxed him, and submited him. noone has done that to Gomi. BUt if you want to believe in magical japanese ankle locks when the last one in the UFC i remember was the well known Work between Mark Hall and Don Frye then by all means.
To finish up IF Penn didnt lose decisively he should still be #1. If Edgar did flat out beat him then a win over Penn added to Griffen, Aurelio, etc is more than anything Aoki has done so Edgar should be #1. What ever the case Penn stays above Aoki because Penn is better head to head and he has beaten 10 times the opponent quality as Aoki.
Guru. I have been following this sport hardcore since the beginning. I was part of the ADCC forum from the mid 90s till 2006 when i went to another site. I know more about the history of MMA than you could imagine. I can ask you useless MMA trivia that you probabley havent even heard about.
Fact is i know to much about MMA history which is why i take the stance i have. To many Anti UFC tools what to pretend they are hardcore by liking non UFC events as if they are the only ones who know about them. When Rpide fighters won fights they would get huge bumps in the rankings. When they lost they wouldnt drap at all. So when you are only going up you get a log jam of Pride fighters who are not as good as everyone made them out to be. There was a reason Alex Emelinko, Sergei, Hunt, Overeem, etc kepts beating each other but none of them dropped out of the top 10. Hunt won a decision over CroCop and become a top 10 MMA fighter for life. But is Hunt that good? Was CroCop that good? No. Perception becomes reality.
Thats what is going on with Aoki. 100 excuses why he loses and why those loses dont count and why his wins are more meaningful than they really are.
Where is Varner in the rankings? He lost to a Prime Franca in his UFC debut because he gassed but was owning him the entire fight. He won the rest of his UFC fights in impressive fassion. He Beat Cerrone from beginning to end. HE was beating Henderson until the submission. He would KO Aoki. Yet even before the Henderson loss noone ranked him even close to top 10. Varner, Henderson, and Cerrone are much better than Aoki, Gilbert, and Thomson.
Brain,
You are not alone when you say you have followed the sport for a long time.
=)
A lot of your arguments are based on hypothetical match-ups that have never occurred or the fact that a fighter is not well rounded. Shinya Aoki wouldn’t be top 5 in the UFC, etc is just an opinion, and you have no real facts to prove that other than to say he would get taken down by any wrestler. Not trying to make excuses for Aoki losing, but his last loss against Sakurai was at WW, not LW. Plus losing to Mach at LW years ago in Shooto when Mach was considered one of the best LWs in the world shouldn’t be a knock against anyone.
Your opinion is like those fans that said Paul Daley shouldn’t be in the UFC b/c he has no ground game and would be submitted in 30 seconds by any UFC fighter because they are well rounded, etc, and look now, he is one win away (if he beats Kos) from a title shot. Just like those that say Shields wouldn’t beat top UFC WW’s b/c he doesn’t have much of a stand up game, yet he has beaten a good amount of UFC fighters already like Condit, Okami, Daley, Lawler, and Pyle.
The funny thing is that you can’t base your arguments on what you think would happen, and we can only base it on facts. Everything else is just an opinion, and everyone has a right to have one, doesn’t make true or legit in any way though.
Crediting Gomi for going 2-2 in Japan before coming to the UFC is a bit odd, and saying that somehow the Kitaoka loss was a work is even odder. So did Gomi purposely struggle against KOTC fighter Tony Hervey after the fact as well, and was lucky to win a 5 round decision against him? (Hervey went on to lose his next 2 fights)
Melendez is a more skilled version of Guida? Not only did Melendez beat Guida, but Melendez finishes fights. He started his career w/ 5 consecutive TKO’s, recently KO’d Damm (a good LW) and was able to over power, and put a striking clinic & finish Ishida as well. Guida just pushes the pace and wrestles his way to victories where as Melendez finishes fights on his feet or GnP. In Gil’s last 5 fights, he has 3 T(KO)’s and 2 decisions (both D’s to Josh Thomson). Guida has never had 2 consecutive T(KO)’s in his career. In fact, if you actually studied both fighters styles, you would see that Melendez is a striker/wrestler based fighter where as Guida is a grappler/wrestler based fighter.
The hate on Hansen is also baffling. He has wins over Rumina Sato, Gomi, JZ, Uno, Yves Edwards, Imanari, Luiz Azeredo, Aoki, etc. Those are solid wins for a LW fighter. Yes he may not have great wrestling, but a lot of fighters are not well rounded in all aspects. It still doesn’t prevent them from being good fighters. Is Maia a weak fighter because he lacks wrestling and striking?
I also don’t really understand your reasoning of “he fights in a weaker promotion” argument. Gil has fought in PRIDE, DREAM, and Strikeforce. Are you saying that all those promotions had/have weak fighters b/c they are not the UFC? Were a lot of UFC’s current fighters weak b/c they weren’t in the UFC but now are better fighters b/c they joined the UFC? This is an odd argument. It’s like saying Nick Diaz is washed out b/c he is not in the UFC anymore, yet Anderson Silva lost more fights in PRIDE then he will ever lose in the UFC, yet was not considered a washed out PRIDE fighter.
Key points here: You can’t base how good a fighter is on hypothetical matchups. Saying X fighter would not cut it in the UFC b/c he lacks Y has been proven wrong again and again. That’s the great thing about MMA, is that you don’t know what could happen. Most people predicted that Maia had a better chance of beating Silva than Edgar did of beating Penn, and there you have it.
You also mention that LW’s went to 170 after the UFC discontinued their LW division. That only applied to some fighters and don’t account all LW talent around the world. Brazil, Europe, etc. all had lighter weight fighters going to Japan to fight at that time because that’s where the money was. Same reason why BJ Penn left the UFC and signed with FEG.
You also mention how Gomi didn’t drop from the rankings after losing in PRIDE. Guess what? There weren’t any consensus rankings back then and only a few websites ranked fighters at the time. So, you bringing that up has no bearing because a consensus ranking didn’t even exist back then, it was all based on the opinion of whoever ran 1 or 2 sites. That wouldn’t fly now.
Hope that answers your questions.
I didnt credit Gomi for going 2-2 in Japan. I dont think he is at his peak. But he isnt washed up like some want to claim just because he would get beat by a dozen UFC fighters. Fact is Gomi would still beat the same guys he always has beat. The reason he started to struggle is no so much he has decline but because he is finally out of the bubble of fighting the same guys over and over for the last 10 years. HE started getting younger fighters instead of the same aging group from the past. The game might have left Gomi by many years ago but noone would be the wiser sin ce he was never givent new blood. Chuck liddell would still be champ if he fight fight Babalu, Tito, and Randy til the end of days. The UFC always brings in the best young fighters. There is never a long period where its the same old guys. Every event has rookies. If you decline it will be clear very fast. No so in the old Pride days. When Gomi got beat everyone gave him a free pass.
“The hate on Hansen is also baffling. He has wins over Rumina Sato, Gomi, JZ, Uno, Yves Edwards, Imanari, Luiz Azeredo, Aoki, etc. Those are solid wins for a LW fighter. Yes he may not have great wrestling, but a lot of fighters are not well rounded in all aspects. It still doesn’t prevent them from being good fighters. Is Maia a weak fighter because he lacks wrestling and striking? ”
Hansen is inconsistant. I like him actually he is fun to watch fight. But he is just a striker with decent sub game. I dotn think he is a bum. But beating him dont make you some sort of great fighter because he loses all the time. Maia is a good fighter and you are right he has holes. But it would nieve(sp) to think there is a ton of striker based fighters who would probabley KO him. If Someone the ranking of Pete Spratt KOed Maia i wouldnt be ranking Spratt top 10. Its not that impressive to beat him that way.
This isnt just a pro UFC stance with Aoki. I just dont think he has fought the level of talent needed. I wouldnt rank Florian #1 even if Gomi was in his Prime. Florian is someone like Aoki. HE is good when given fights taylor made for him to look good. Florian has to prove himself verses wrestling based fighters to ever have any claim to the top spot. The UFC can steer him around a Sherk rematch, Edgar, Maynard, etc. all they want. Its smart match making to mislead people and build Florian but you cant be #1 when there are 5 guys ranked around you who you cant beat and wont fight.
“I also don’t really understand your reasoning of “he fights in a weaker promotion” argument. Gil has fought in PRIDE, DREAM, and Strikeforce. Are you saying that all those promotions had/have weak fighters b/c they are not the UFC? Were a lot of UFC’s current fighters weak b/c they weren’t in the UFC but now are better fighters b/c they joined the UFC? This is an odd argument. It’s like saying Nick Diaz is washed out b/c he is not in the UFC anymore, yet Anderson Silva lost more fights in PRIDE then he will ever lose in the UFC, yet was not considered a washed out PRIDE fighter.”
Thise promotions had some good fighters but the division as a whole was weak and stale. Pride was created around Sakurai who couldnt hang in the UFC 170 division. Gomi just got beat like a punching bag by Penn. So they created their own 160 weight class which they probably never made weight in. So its hard to argue their quality because the entire division was built around them to draw the japanese fans. They werent the best when it started and beating guys like Azeredo isnt going to make their past loss go away. If Gomi si the best and Sakurai is #2 and they were not making weight for their fights who really knows how good anyone over there was? If Gomi has his 10 lbs of muscle advantage he was used to having maybe that punch he landed on Florian in round 2 may have KOed him. Being forced to make weight by dream my be the reason behind his decline more so than anything like age. Take a better punch, Hit harder, bat takedown away like they are not there. Due to the munipulation going on over seas i expect their fighters to do a little extra to earn their rankings. The presense of fixed fights(well known in Japan), no talent developement system, no sanctioning to enforce rules. So you have to be skeptical about the talent of each fighter. It was just a few years ago that over estimation of Pride talent got everyone ranking Sudokuju around the top 5 fighters in the world. To be honest he is just an average fighter with a ton of holes.
I am not most people i didnt think Daley wasnt good enoguh for the UFC. For the record i expect him to beat Koscheck. NOt that it isnt close and going out on a limb with such a big underdog.(Favorites win close to 78% of the time in the UFC) But Kos is slower and robotical wit his strikes, has been hurt a few times in the past and some what easy to hit. It will also be dificult to shoot under the strikes of a shorter fighter. Kos is also flat footed and dont move very well and Daley is quick on the feet. This will make it hard for Kos to close the distance. If Daley dont win it wont be for lack of opportunity. Back to the point. I pick fights at about 75% rate. Very few people do that. That dont mean my opinion shoudl be gospil. BUt i am explaining my reasoning for my opinion on Aoki. When i say he will lose again so and so most of the time i am right. Simply because i spend so much time breaking down fight tapes technically. OF course head to head isnt the only aspect of rankings. At the end of the day i dont like how things were done and are done over seas. I not sold on the talent of the fighters and i would rather error on the side of caution when it comes to rankings after so many fighters from Pride went fro top 10 to top 30. I need to see more from him.
You really think there is a consensus ranking? By who? There is no official rankings for MMA. Just because you choose to agree and follow one ranking dont make it legit.
Brain, very good discussion. Yes, there is a consensus(average) ranking out there:
http://www.bloodyelbow.com/rankings
Here is how they do it:
Compiling the rankings of twenty top mixed martial arts web sites, the USA TODAY / SB Nation Consensus MMA Rankings present the top 25 fighters in MMA for the seven major weight classes. These world MMA rankings are the most accurate reflection of how the top fighters in MMA across all promotions like UFC, WEC, Affliction and DREAM are viewed by the experts who cover the sport.
And the Independent World MMA Rankings are also highly praised:
http://www.independentworldmmarankings.com/
“The Independent World MMA Rankings are independent of any single MMA media outlet or sanctioning body, and are published on multiple web sites.
The rankings are tabulated on a monthly basis in each of the top seven weight classes of men’s MMA, and each of the top four weight classes of women’s MMA, with fighters receiving ten points for a first-place vote, nine points for a second-place vote, and so on.
The rankings are based purely on the votes of the members of the voting panel, with nobody’s vote counting more than anybody else’s vote, and no computerized voting.
The voters are instructed to vote primarily based on fighters’ actual accomplishments in the cage/ring (the quality of opposition that they’ve actually beaten), not based on a broad, subjective perception of which fighters would theoretically win hypothetical match-ups.”
…
Check them out, and I feel they pretty much reflect what the MMA landscape rankings are and what the MMA Media and experts believe the best fighters in each weight class are.
Jose