Author: Anton Tabuena

Oscar De La Hoya has called for a rematch against Floyd Mayweather.

Oscar De La Hoya recently pulled out of his boxing return against Vitor Belfort after being hospitalized due to COVID-19, which describes as “five days of hell.” The boxing legend is still looking to return after being out of competition for 13 years, and he has called for a high profile rematch.

“You know who I’m going to call out for my next fight? Floyd Mayweather,” he told TMZ. “I’ll offer Floyd Mayweather $100 million.”

De La Hoya stated that he plans on fighting before the end of the year, and also said that if he the Belfort bout pushed through, he would’ve won very early.

“I would’ve knocked him out in 30 seconds,” De La Hoya said.

De La Hoya and Mayweather fought in 2007, with the latter winning a split decision in a bout that broke PPV records at the time. Beating a huge mainstream star in De La Hoya was the catalyst as Mayweather’s popularity truly shot up even further and constantly made big money his next several bouts.

De La Hoya is now 48-years-old, while Mayweather is 44, and has also been far more active. In the 13 years that De La Hoya has been retired and working as a promoter, Mayweather had 11 professional fights, along with two exhibition bouts.

Is Conor McGregor marking out for his own gimmick?

Following yet another public outburst from Conor McGregor, Daniel Cormier asked “has this gimmick overtaken who Conor McGregor is as a person?”

One fighter who knows a thing or two about pro-wrestling and building a persona, is Chael Sonnen. He tackled Cormier’s question on his latest video, and he started off by praising McGregor’s gimmick and persona that has worked brilliantly for years.

“I have the same fear, but don’t quite have the confidence that Daniel has in labeling Conor a certain way, because I have watched him masterfully maneuver through a very tough industry,” Sonnen said.

“I’m actually watching him do his finest work right now. Do you know how hard it is to be talked about if you don’t have a fight coming up? Even if you want to fight a massive fight, if it’s not coming up you just don’t fit into the media cycle.

“If you’re Conor, you’re hurt, you’re broken, you’re in rehab — and you’re still a headline? You’re doing something very well,” he said. “I just can’t quite blame him, yet.”

While Sonnen says he’s still not sure if he can come to the same conclusions as others, he concedes that having issues outside of promoting fights is a bit concerning.

“How you stay in character is you take it from the ring, to your real life. If Hulk Hogan was to book a reservation for a restaurant, he doesn’t call up and say ‘hey table for two, Terry Bollea,’ he will book it under Hulk Hogan. He will live the gimmick,” Sonnen explained.

“If you live the gimmick and the character at all times, you can then do what Daniel is talking about, which is mark out for your own gimmick. I’m just not sure where within Conor’s schtick, he had to be a prick.

“He was aggressive towards opponents. He would show up late to his own press conference. He would make people clamor to come watch him when he was about to warm up — when he had a match for sale on pay-per-view. These were the brilliant things, these were the entertainer…

“But I can’t dismiss what Daniel Cormier said, where it does appear that there needs to be a more distinct separation between the person and the character.”

Is it painkillers making him go “out of his mind”? Is it the money that changed him? Is it the losses or even the brain trauma? Is it still even a gimmick at this point? Several people seems to have speculated about how and why McGregor has changed, but in reality, this VMA dust up isn’t even the first time he’s had a public outburst. It’s actually one of the milder ones too.

Even ignoring all the vile things that was said about Dustin Poirier’s wife and kids recently, McGregor has had numerous arrests, altercations, and very serious allegations and legal issues through the years. None of those things are due to promoting fights, nor have they just started after the recent injury and losses.

Jake Paul and Dana White aren’t done taking shots at each other.

Jake Paul recently asked Dana White to allow Jorge Masvidal to fight him in boxing. The YouTuber-turned-boxer proposed that if he wins, he gets more access to UFC fighters, and if he loses, he will leave White and his “exploitative business” alone forever.

Unsurprisingly, White immediately shut down the idea. He says that after facing welterweights like Ben Askren and Tyron Woodley, Paul should fight someone his own size.

“Masvidal’s 170 pounds,” White told The Daily Telegraph (HT: MMA Fighting). “He likes 170-pounders. Go fight somebody your own size. Anderson Silva’s not under contract, he’s 46 years old – that’s the age group you love to fight – and he’s your size and he’s actually winning fights.

“If you look at Jake Paul’s history, Jake Paul either fights basketball players who have never fought or he wants to fight washed up older guys who haven’t won fights in years. Anderson Silva has actually been boxing, he’s won some fights, he’s 46 years old, and he’s in your weight class. There you go. That’s a no-brainer. Fight Anderson Silva,” he said. “Fans would actually probably like to see that fight. It’s actually a viable fight that would actually sell some pay-per-views.”

Paul has since responded, saying that he’d be willing to face a bigger fighter instead in Derek Brunson.

While Brunson is obviously interested in a big payday, this is yet another match up that isn’t likely to ever happen due to his UFC contract.

Interestingly enough, Paul really hasn’t called out a free-agent and fellow pro-boxer in Anderson Silva, as much as he’s been repeatedly calling for unrealistic match ups against all these other MMA fighters under contract. Closest he got was answering a question about the former UFC champion, and Paul basically just saying he’s not Tito Ortiz.

Chatri Sityodtong says reports on ONE Championship’s losses and curious financial transactions are “not worth addressing.”

Over the last few years, Bloody Elbow has covered ONE Championship’s own financial filings in ACRA (Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority of Singapore, very similar to the US Security and Exchange Commission). While ONE routinely made bold claims about their success, their own filings showed the opposite, and has revealed hundreds of millions in losses.

Their latest financial documents have been making the rounds with investors, and it showed almost $47.6 million in losses for the 2020 year, along with a very curious $400 million transaction that had ONE (Group) selling IP rights to their own ONE subsidiary.

The price for these was shares they deemed to be worth $200 million, and another $200 million in cash that as of date remain unpaid. They filed this as a huge $400 million revenue, and listed the company to have had $341 million in profit.

ONE has also reported accumulated losses of $273 million.

Through those years of Bloody Elbow following ONE Championship’s unique finances on each of their filings in Singapore, officials from the MMA promotion repeatedly declined to comment.

For these latest 2020 numbers, we reached out and sent them a list of questions about their own financial documents two weeks before publication. ONE ultimately did not answer any of our questions on the topic.

ONE Championship’s founder, Chatri Sityodtong has since appeared on the MMA Hour, and it’s where Ariel Helwani was able to ask him about the financial numbers. Sityodtong, whose real name is Chatri Trisiripisal, said that “the internet is a dangerous place” and that people shouldn’t believe everything they read online.

He declined to answer a specific question about the $400 million sale, and claimed there were a lot of “factual errors and inaccuracies.” When pressed to address and reveal which parts weren’t accurate, Sityodtong said “it’s not even worth addressing.”

Here’s a full transcript of the exchange:

Helwani: “I want to ask you about, yesterday, BloodyElbow.com had a very long report about ONE’s financial situation, and talking about some of the financial losses, some of the improvements over the past year, but there’s this one big item about a transfer of $400 million dollars from the Group to the Company, which then ONE reported this big financial gain in 2020. What can you tell us about this transaction and just perhaps overall the financial health of ONE Championship?

Sityodtong: “I will say that the internet is a dangerous place and you shouldn’t uh believe everything you read, and there is a lot of factual errors and inaccuracies you know? Uh, but that I mean, um, I’ll just say that we have some big news that I’m announcing and um, that’s, I’ll leave it at that. Some exciting news and yeah, I mean uh I’ll leave it at that. I’ll just say like look, the internet is a dangerous place if you believe everything you read, especially from less than uh… How can I say it politely? I would yeah, I would just leave it at that.”

Helwani: “Since you say inaccurate, would you like to clear up anything that was reported there?”

Sityodtong: “No, it was I mean, it was, there was tons of inaccuracies, tons of errors, it’s not even like one or two, if it were just like one or two I would point it out. I mean like, it’s not worth addressing. Again, it’s like I said, um, like, I like to let the truth speak over time as opposed to uh you know, um, yeah… it’s just one of these things.

I mean uh, you know for a long time people doubted us for example, our viewership numbers and Nielson Industry, Nielson came out with an Industry Report on the biggest sports properties in the world just a few months ago, and you know this “so-called publication” was also one of those publications that was like you know, “yapping about our numbers” — and Nielson comes out and says, “Look, ONE is in the top ten in terms of viewership, engagement metrics, um, and actually number three in the world for most watched uh Global Sports Property on TV. Umm, and then our organic, our Online Organic Video Views, I think it was number four or something like that, or number five in the world or something like that”.

Uh, so I prefer the truth to come out, and and my team and I are working hard, and I can just tell you that um, we have literally some of the smartest blue chip institution investors in the world, like Sequoia Capital, um like Temasek Holdings, uh who are razor-razor sharp and their not gonna hand us $346 million dollars if we don’t know what we’re doing. Uh, and yeah, I mean if, if uh… I’ll just leave it at that.

And like I’m super excited for so many things, and I’m obviously announcing our December 5th event, which will be a blockbuster event and a huge 2022… I don’t know if you saw, uh saw the interview I gave I think uh last week um to MixedMartialArts.com or whoever, and um 2022 is gonna be our biggest year yet. I mean we have the plans and we will announce our calendar of events imminently.”

Helwani: “I look forward to that and I appreciate you weighing in on that… Plan on potentially going public, is that in the works?”

Sityodtong: “I um Ariel, I’d love to make some big announcements. I can’t talk about stuff right now. Man, you’ve done, uh, let’s just say that you’ve uh, you’ve just… I can’t uh. I can’t say anything.”

As mentioned earlier, John Nash’s report on Bloody Elbow is simply based on ONE Championship’s own financial document that they created themselves.

Below is the list of questions that Bloody Elbow sent ONE Championship:

1. Was there any specific reason why Wei Jin Soh resigned his position in the company?

2. According to the statement as of Dec 31, 2020 the Group has raised approximately $276 million from investors and also has a $72 million loan in the form of a convertible note. Accumulated losses at that date were reported as $273 million with around $89 million in cash available. Is there any additional details about One’s current available cash that we should be aware of? Has there been a new round of funding this year or has the company taken out another loan to guarantee they have capital for the future? Has the convertible note been converted to shares?

3. The report shows a $400 million transaction with One Championship, inc, a subsidiary of Group One Holdings Pte. Ltd. Can you tell us the source of the cash for this transaction and when it is expected to be paid to Group One Holdings Pte. Ltd. Also how was the fair value of both the IP rights (at $400 million) and the valuation of One Championship, inc. arrived at?

4. You have filed a lawsuit with former employee Loren Mack in Clark Country, Nevada alleging a breach of non-competition restraints and theft of intellectual property. He in turn has filed a counterclaim against One Championship. Is there any additional information you can give about this suit, and do you have any statement you wish to make regarding the counterclaim?

5. You note in the statement that revenue from broadcast partners can take the form of cash and non-cash considerations. The non-cash considerations include “marketing efforts such as promotional plugs provided by the broadcast partner in exchange for the right to broadcast the events.” Can you tell us how much of your revenue is made up of such non-cash considerations?

6. Does One have any plans to go forward with an IPO or SPAC? If they do, when can we expect for this to take place?

7. Has ONE renewed their broadcast deal with Turner Sports. If not can you tell us if there’s any plans for it to be renewed or if there are plans for any other US broadcaster to carry the promotion?

ONE Championship chose not to respond to these questions. Singapore-based financial news outlet Deal Street Asia has also since obtained a copy of ONE Championship’s 2020 finances, reporting that it is consistent with Nash’s report on this website.

Recently, ONE also set up a Cayman Islands entity, which has a more opaque structure when it comes to finances.

Looks like Lee Murray enjoyed seeing his former rival Tito Ortiz get knocked out by Anderson Silva.

This past weekend, Anderson Silva easily knocked out Tito Ortiz in the first round of their boxing match. The KO quickly went viral, and as it made the rounds online, it even reached an old rival of Ortiz.

Lee Murray, a UFC veteran with a history and infamous brawl with Tito Ortiz, is currently serving time in a Moroccan prison for being the alleged mastermind of the biggest cash heist in British history. News of the knockout not only managed to reach Murray in Morocco, he also somehow found a way to troll Ortiz about it.

“Not the first time I’ve seen him sleeping,” the post read.

The screenshot above was an Instagram story from a social media account we have previously verified to belong to Murray and his family.

For those unfamiliar with the long history between the two fighters, in 2002, Murray and Ortiz were involved in an infamous brawl outside a nightclub, soon after UFC 38.

Pat Miletich, Matt Hughes, and Chuck Liddell were all there. Some details vary depending on the source, but as the story goes, Murray dropped then stomped on Ortiz, who was a dominant UFC light heavyweight champion at the time. Ortiz of course denies this was how things happened, but the pair have traded barbs for years about the incident.

Here’s a summary of the almost mythical street fight, with takes from those involved:

Murray, now 43, went 8-2-1 (1 NC) in his MMA career. His last fight was back in 2004, where he lost a decision to Anderson Silva, the legend who just KO’d Ortiz.

In 2018, Bloody Elbow also managed to get a rare interview with Murray from his Moroccan prison. In the series, the British MMA fighter discussed various topics, including the brawl, and what he plans to do when he gets released.

Watch video from the Evander Holyfield vs Vitor Belfort boxing match.

Evander Holyfield returned to the boxing ring at 58-years-old, sparking a lot of concern and controversy from many. He faced former UFC champion Vitor Belfort, who is also past his prime, but still a lot younger at 44-years-old.

Holyfield looked in great shape for his age, but he truly didn’t belong in the ring. He looked slow, was hurt multiple times and was stumbling around the ring early. Belfort scored a knockdown, and pounced after. Moments later, the referee stopped the contest. Holyfield protested the stoppage, but it was the right call as he wasn’t really throwing back and the official prevented him from suffering any more unnecessary damage.

Watch highlights from the fight, along with a snippet from our play-by-play of the contest.

Evander Holyfield vs. Vitor Belfort – Round 1

For better or worse, here we go. A lot of pawing and feeling out. Slow three-punch combo by the 58-year-old Holyfield. Left hand by Vitor hurts Evander. Uppercut by Belfort. This is bad. Right hook and then Holyfield slips almost through the ropes after Vitor misses with a left. And now Holyfield does go down via a left hand from Belfort. This is awful. Vitor going for the finish. It’s over. Ref stops it standing. Holyfield complains but my god you’re 58 and you were hurt.

Absolutely fucking disgusting that this was allowed to happen.

Vitor Belfort def. Evander Holyfield by TKO at 1:49 of round 1