What I learned

This semester I learned that blogging can be fun, even if sometimes I forgot to update it in a timely fascion. I really enjoyed all the field trips and speakers in the class, It seems better to learn from people that have real world experience. I enjoyed that much more than being in the books the whole time. It has been a blast doing work for GRWW especially if it does go through. I would feel accomplished to show off if they take out the dams. This class was educating and fun.

European Sports taking a foothold here

My Former roommate is a very interesting blogger. He has an affection for Premier League "Football". Recently ESPN has brought up some contracts to have viewing of soccer games. While a massively successful sport around the world it is still a niche sport around America. Can soccer refine its brand to become a successful mainstream sport around here.

Info from Back of the Onion Sack

Fedor to the UFC?

Fedor Emelianenko is widely thought as the best fighter in the world right now. He was with the largest competition brand that the UFC had. Affliction fighting has ceased fighting and has became a sponsor to the UFC. Fedor had a contract with Affliction and could now be brought in to battle the current champ Brock Lesnar. This would create one of the biggest fights in the history of Mixed Martial Arts. This matchup would propel MMA into the spotlight, even during a period of time of spectacular growth.

Info from Sherdog blog

Price for Publicity on Lawsuits

Mark Cuban is a Big Person when it comes to business. He got his start by creating videos for the internet and then yahoo bought out his business. He creates a spectacular business blog to follow.

The topic that I found interesting is that ESPN has found ways to Avoid publicizing lawsuits on air. This may prevent frivolous class action suits within the sporting community. This is due to the info not going public and inciting more people to create more suits. Maybe with all the money saved by the Associations of sports, they can all improve their brand.

Info from Mark Cuban on Blog Maverick

The decline of boxing

Former champ Arturo Gatti died and today another former champion boxer was killed in a hail of gunfire at a gas station. Vernon Forrest was killed by robbery suspects after filling up his tire with air. Police stated that he exchanged gunfire with the suspects.

Within the ring a welterweight, Marco Antonio Nazareth, has died due to a brain hemorage he sustained after a loss to Omar Chavez. He was the son of former champ Julio Cesar Chavez.

All of these constant deaths have led to the decline of boxing as a sport.

Info obtained by Espn here and here

Arturo Gatti

The Funeral of Arturo Gatti had recently occurred. His wife is the primary suspect of his death. The former champ was strangled earlier in the month. He was hung, but people that knew him say that they are 99 percent sure that he did not commit suicide. Mike Tyson before his funeral said, "We never knew he would be such a great fighter. I was always happy to see his success, to see him walk in the gym a boy and become a great man." The boxing world has lost a good fighter and a good man.

In espn.com/boxing

Dana White's battle vs EA Sports

EA sports is the giant when it relates to sports games. The UFC has a relationship with THQ to produce the New UFC game Undisputed. EA is trying to get into the market of MMA games, and Dana has officially barred his fighters from making an appearance within the game. The threat is that they will lose their contract to the UFC if they make any attempt to be put in the game. Dana made this decision on the fact that as they were trying to produce a game a few years ago, and all EA did was laugh and state that this type of game would never work. The Undisputed game is one of the top selling games of 2009 so far, and now EA sees a market to target.

Video Games have made new opportunities within marketing, for in game ads and the marketing for each fighting federation. Affliction Fighting has put their support in the game. ECKO has proclaimed their interest in the game. Only time will tell if the UFC has the staying power or if Domino like support to EA will give the upper hand.

Information from MMAJunkie.com

UFC 100

Last night the UFC ushered in a new milestone with the PPV event UFC 100. Two title fights and a spectacular undercard fight made this event spectacular. The Heavyweight belt was unified with the phamp, Brock Lesnar, and interim champ, Frank Mir. Lesnar TKO'ed Mir in the second Round with a Takedown and then pounded him out until the ref stopped the fight. Current Welterweight Champ; Georges "Rush" St. Pierre defeated Thiago "Pitbull" Alves to defend his Title. For the Undercard; The coaches for The Ultimate Fighter 10 met up when Dan "Hollywood" Henderson beat Micheal "The Count" Bisping.

Credit given to the UFC's website

New UFC Hall Inductees

Today the UFC inducted one of my favorite fighters, Chuck "The Iceman" Liddell. A vicious brawler that is currently reaching the decline of his career. He is a former Light-Heavyweight champ at 205 Lbs.

But the Primary thing that caught my Eye was that Charles "Mask" Lewis was being Inducted as well. One of the Founders of the clothing line TAPOUT. He recently died in a car crash, and was being honored by TAPOUT clothing, The UFC, and other establishments within the industry. The day after he died I was inspired to buy one of the memorial shirts from the clothing line. All the proceeds went to the Mask foundation. It is also one includes one of the most inspiring quotes that I have ever read.

"Life is full of influences, It's your application that sets you apart. That's something I wrote to myself and completely believe in. You can't be scared to set out to do something in life because you believe it may be similar to something, or because you don't know the clear cut path on how you're going to accomplish your goal or dream! Just take a step towards your belief daily - fearlessly, wholeheartedly, digging and dreaming within yourself, believing that as you push on through sacrifice, you will one day stand alone on top of a hill that you created that now encourages and inspires others to chase their dream. Knowing that through tenacity and patience anything can be achieved. If you simply believe." -Charles "Mask" Lewis

Without all of his constant efforts to the TAPOUT Line and to all of MMA there would be very little to see within the sport, and it would not be as revered as today.


As Blogged on Sherdog: