2009 Bloody Elbow Reader Awards: Story of the Year
by Mike Fagan on Jan 14, 2010 1:00 PM EST
in MMA News
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As 2009 headed into July, Zuffa appeared to reach the endgame in their quest to control the entirety of MMA's elite talent. UFC 100 blew away all pay-per-view records. Josh Barnett pissed away an entire promotion. And with a deal secured with the remnants of Affliction Entertainment, Dana White looked to finally have a heat-seeking lock on his coveted Russian prize.
Just when it looked like fans would finally see Fedor Emelianenko in the UFC and get the biggest heavyweight fight in the sport's history, negotiations between Zuffa and Fedor's management team M-1 Global came to a screeching halt. While Zuffa reportedly made several concessions to acquire Emelianenko's services, the organization took a hard stand against any sort of co-promotion with the Russian fight promotion and management company.
Enter Scott Coker and Strikeforce. Coker had just worked a deal to purchase the assets of the Kimbonered EliteXC, which included that company's deal with the CBS network. Still viewed as a niche regional promotion lacking star power, Coker swept in during the negotiating standstill between Zuffa and M-1 Global and found himself an entity to build around.
Fedor made his Strikeforce (and cage) debut on November 7th, knocking out former tire mechanic Brett Rogers on prime time network TV. The fight drew nearly 5.5 million viewers.
Full results after the break.
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Total | |
| Fedor signs with SF | 26 | 8 | 10 | 164 |
| Affliction folds | 13 | 11 | 11 | 109 |
| Barnett fails test | 6 | 9 | 4 | 61 |
| Rampage quits | 3 | 10 | 6 | 51 |
| GreaseGate | 5 | 5 | 5 | 45 |
| Brock's sickness | 2 | 1 | 13 | |
| A. Silva breaks record | 1 | 2 | 7 | |
| UFC 100 PPV number | 1 | 3 | ||
| Henderson signs with SF | 1 | 3 | ||
| Bob Arum comments | 1 | 1 | ||
| Sherdog reinstated | 1 | 1 | ||
| Nelson wins TUF | 1 | 1 |
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they got credentialed again by the UFC after years of being blacked out since Josh Gross spoiled TUF.
by Matthew Roth on Jan 14, 2010 1:48 PM EST up reply actions
u think SF ever wonders what would happen if fedor lost?
it’d probably take a miracle for werdum to beat fedor but if he does this promotions pretty much screwed they base all their cbs cards on having the best heavyweight in the world and if werdum beats him thats no longer true
Its much better to get on Fedor than Kimbo
Don’t you get an immediate rematch though and maybe even a trilogy…The problem is if he retires or stops wanting to fight in their shows…Especially if Werdum is champion…
At least Brett Rogers had some marketing appeal
Strikeforce != EliteXC
It’s also worth noting that Strikeforce has plenty of stars and prospects in the making as far as the general public goes – Nick Diaz, Mayhem Miller (if he fights again?), Gina Carano, She-Cyborg, Kerry Vera (the Gina Carano of 135 if Strikeforce promotes her properly after that AWESOME beating she put on Kim Couture), Scott “Comeback” Smith, Cung Le (still fun to watch, assuming he’s not done with fighting now he’s tasted a loss)…those are the names that spring to mind off the top of my head. A mixed bag as far as real talent goes, but entertaining to watch? Absolutely.
I finish beers at 1:55.
Still changes their business model
They really have no business being on CBS or a PPV without a Fedor…I suspect the ratings will show this…Maybe if Carano fights, but she hasn’t shown a ton of interest in fighting regularly…
They won’t collapse without Fedor, but they’ll go back to more of a niche promotion
On PPV, I agree
But on CBS they totally belong – so long as the fights are exciting. And they’ve got the stable for that so long as it’s promoted properly.
I finish beers at 1:55.
A few more names to think about.....
Gegard Mousasi
Robbie Lawlor
Melvin manhoff
Bobby Lashley
Dan Henderson
Joe Riggs
Renato “Babalu” Sobral
Brett Rogers
These are all fighters with a name that will draw more eyes to SF. Although some of the names here are either washed up/never was/never will be’s…they still have drawing power and will put on fun fights to watch.
Riggs, Sobral, Manhoef, and Lawlor have no drawing power here in the states. Mousasi, Lashley, & Rogers are unproven as proven draws.
Henderson is Henderson. He’s a name, but not a big name.
Not entirely true
Manhoef and Sobral are awesome to watch, and I live in Ohio. With HDNet you can see these guys fight (especially Manhoef) all the time.
Yes, but you're on here :)
So you obviously know about them – my post was more about getting less aware MMA fans interested in the CBS broadcast. People who tune in to the fights on CBS with no real history of watching MMA will have a clue who Manhoef is and they’ll only know Sobral as the guy who was demolished by a bored-looking Dutch guy.
I finish beers at 1:55.
Right
I was thinking of names people with only a cursory knowledge of MMA would be interested in seeing. Lawlor headlined one of the EliteXC broadcasts and the card bombed. Smith should generate some interest with his comeback wins against Radach and Le.
But the point still stands, they do have a good stable of fighters that they can make highly promotable fights with.
I finish beers at 1:55.
Just goes to show you what type of bubble the internet fans are living in. The top 3 stories of the year are all outside of the UFC? And yet the UFC is without question with biggest organization in the world.
The real Top Story of the Year is UFC 100. It was the first mega event for the UFC and for North American MMA…..
Wow...
talk about living in a bubble.
by scrambledeggs on Jan 14, 2010 2:11 PM EST up reply actions 1 recs
Uh...
I would argue the first “mega event” was EliteXC on CBS.
“UFC PUTS ON EXCITING CENTENNIAL SHOW IN AN EFFICIENT MANNER” is not as big a story to me as the fact that the biggest MMA promotion today failed to sign the #1 heavyweight and were scuppered by a “regional” promotion.
I finish beers at 1:55.
Just goes to show you what type of bubble the internet fans are living in. The top 3 stories of the year are all outside of the UFC? And yet the UFC is without question with biggest organization in the world.
Take 2. This time, make more sense.
If you can't laugh at yourself... Who can you laugh at?
The Packers, that’s who.
-- The almighty Manimal
It was not legitimate “news” and yet I believe it was the #1 story in terms of reaching outside the usual fanbase. There was a certain drama to the issue like the pine tar on George Brett’s bat that resonated with non-fight fans.
by casey manrique on Jan 14, 2010 9:25 PM EST up reply actions
In a year in which UFC 100 broke all sorts of records for Fedor to be called the top story is a joke, really the delusion surrounding some of his fanboys has gotten out of hand.
It actually wasn’t the idea that Fedor who’s still irrelevant to the majority of the public has even close to the same meaning as one of the biggest shows ever in ppv buyrates. Not to mention the biggest mma show of all time, which made millions upon millions for the UFC and Brock the biggest name in ppv for all of that to be ignored shows plain ignorance on behalf of many of the people here.
So there’s a mass amount of ignorance here because not everyone shares your opinion that UFC 100 with your hero Brock Lesnar weren’t the biggest story of the year?
Who’s being ignorant?
by scrambledeggs on Jan 15, 2010 7:28 AM EST up reply actions
These are some strange selections. Kimbo doing TUF was bigger than a lot of stuff on this list. And despite all the rampant debate at the time “GreaseGate” and the Barnett test failure were barely relevant in the big picture. With the former, all that changed was Nevada being more strict between rounds, with the latter it just hastened the inevitable (Affliction’s demise, which was the real story) by a month or two.
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