Tag: Sports Business

UFC Attorney Says Fans Who Stream UFC PPVs Are Not Actually Fans at All

The UFC is taking a new tact in the war against pay-per-view piracy.Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter reported earlier this week that the UFC had obtained email addresses, usernames and IP addresses of users who had illegally streamed e…

The UFC is taking a new tact in the war against pay-per-view piracy.

Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter reported earlier this week that the UFC had obtained email addresses, usernames and IP addresses of users who had illegally streamed events through the website GreenFeedz.com.

The UFC has spent plenty of time and money going after websites that illegally stream UFC events, and they’ve had plenty of success in doing so. But this marks the first time that the promotion has targeted individual users who stream events.

Today, Zuffa chief counsel Lawrence Epstein had some strong words for fans who would rather stream the event illegally than pay for it. Epstein spoke to MMAjunkie.com:

We love our fans, and we’ve got some of the greatest fans in the world, and all the success we’ve had with the UFC is directly attributable to those fans. But people that steal our stuff – they’re not our fans. 

If you’re a huge [Georges St-Pierre] fan, would you steal from him? I don’t think so. So we love our fans, we respect our fans, but people who steal from us, frankly, aren’t our fans.

Epstein makes a valid point here. It’s easy to sit back and say, “Well, the UFC makes plenty of money off of these events, so it won’t hurt them at all if I watch a stream instead of buying this event.”

And that’s partially true, because the UFC does indeed make plenty of money from these events.

But Epstein’s reference to St-Pierre is a wise one. GSP, like many other top-level UFC superstars, earns a portion of his paycheck from the sales of pay-per-view events. He earns a percentage of each individual pay-per-view buy—reportedly as high as five percent, depending on the actual numbers the event draws. 

When you stream a pay-per-view, you’re directly taking money from the pockets of a fighter you proclaim to be a fan of. And sure, St-Pierre is a very rich man, and the two or three bucks he earns from your purchase isn’t going to affect him much. 

But that’s not the point, is it? The point is that you’re intentionally stealing from a fighter and a man that you proclaim to be a fan of. 

That doesn’t seem like a very good way to express your fandom.

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UFC Imperial Strategy: Buy Them Out, Then Kill Them Softly

The UFC Empire, in its quest for global domination, has effectively caused the expiration of one colony and the evisceration of another. One’s from another continent across the Pacific Ocean, the other more accessible in Northern California from …

The UFC Empire, in its quest for global domination, has effectively caused the expiration of one colony and the evisceration of another. One’s from another continent across the Pacific Ocean, the other more accessible in Northern California from UFC’s home base in Las Vegas.

In the first quarter of 2007, the MMA world—with the exception of the legendary Japanese promotion’s head honchos and a couple of hard-nosed sports journalists—was surprised to find out that Pride Fighting Championships was hanging on life support.

In March of the aforementioned year, Zuffa, UFC’s parent company, presumably came to the rescue. Trumping with triumphalism, it bought Pride FC out, with what many thought for the altruistic goal of resuscitating its erstwhile leading competitor.

It didn’t take long for the excited but equally apprehensive fight fans to realize that Zuffa did enter the intensive care unit, only to milk Pride FC of its remaining top fighters before pulling out its life-support instruments. Then finally throwing its corpse to memory for all eternity.

By October 2007, Pride’s Japanese staff was laid off, officially ending the organization’s business of MMA promotion. (If ever Pride FC miraculously rises from its tomb someday, Lazarus-like—complete with fireworks and entrance music—then we’ll surely know about it.)

The demise of Pride FC may be due to a multitude of factors; some may not be Zuffa’s fault at all. Perhaps UFC president Dana White was right in saying then about his Japanese counterparts what has become his catchphrase now regarding M-1 Global’s, “It’s hard to do business with them.”

But in light of all the developments since Zuffa purchased Strikeforce, its closest competitor at home in the US, one can’t help but think that the sorry fate of Pride FC has been part of a malevolent imperialist master plan all along: Buy ‘em out then kill ‘em softly.

Here are excerpts from the excellent slideshow “Business as Usual?: 10 Major Events in the Year Since Zuffa Bought Strikeforce” of Bleacher Report MMA lead writer Jonathan Snowden:

In the most transparent bit of double dealing, wink, wink, tomfoolery, Alistair Overeem is “released” by Strikeforce after an injury forces him to delay the Heavyweight Grand Prix.

Overeem, of course, almost immediately signed with the UFC and headlined a December card against Brock Lesnar. […]

Dan Henderson, the MMA legend who abandoned the UFC for a shot at superstardom in Strikeforce, returned to the loving embrace of UFC President Dana White. […]

Dana White announced that the [heavyweight] division was on life support. After the Grand Prix and “one more fight,” the Strikeforce heavyweights would be no more.

Isn’t it eerie how the long shadow of Pride FC—until now projected from the shining light of its former fighters—was, until recently, still sprawled all over Strikeforce? (Heavyweight Josh Barnett, another Pride FC veteran, remains there, though.)

Now, Strikeforce is desperately clinging on its last threads: Ronda Rousey and Miesha Tate, and, representing the less beautiful half of our species, Barnett and Daniel Cormier.

In hindsight, Pride FC’s appears to be an execution by musketry, though a considerable waiting period lapsed before the act of murder was finally consummated. Strikeforce’s is a slower death by garrote vil—the medieval instrument of choice used to subject unlucky victims to guillotine choke, with the coldest disregard for even the healthiest tapout.  

Making analogic examples from the Philippines’ Spanish colonial history, Pride FC suffered the same death of Jose Rizal, while Strikeforce is currently undergoing what befell the three martyr-priests collectively immortalized as Gomburza.

The abovementioned martyrs underwent their respective mock trials before meeting their Maker. In the same way, Pride FC suffered, and Strikeforce suffers, from a mockery of good faith with regard to their perpetuation in the hands of their common new master, the UFC.

Here’s to the glory that was Pride FC and the grand challenge that was Strikeforce.

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