Fertitta: 11 of last 14 main events fell out

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                                Fertitta: 11 of last 14 main events fell out

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                            <strong class="ArticleSource">[latimes.com]</strong>


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                    <p>UFC chairman Lorenzo Fertitta  Fertitta addresses his company's future with Lance Pugmire of the LA&nbsp;Times.</p>

Lance Pugmire: In addition to your Fox debut, you're building another star in Jones, and now have Brock returning. A good start for your second decade?

Lorenzo Fertitta: "Yes, but our biggest issue lately has been 11 of our last 14 main events have fallen out and required replacement fighters. It's like there's been a hex over us. So it's been a challenge to run the business how we've planned to. Forcing to shuffle in guys, re-scramble … it takes the steam out of your sails. It helped having the Fox card in there, and, listen, we're still kicking ass by not cancelling shows like boxing would. If we get a stroke of luck with good health here, we're off to the races."

LP: How did you make the Fox deal happen?

LF: "We didn't have to do a thing. We were like the pretty girl at the dance. We had every major media company talking to us to obtain our rights from our expiring deal at Spike. In the age of the DVR and things like Hulu, when you can watch any show any time you want, sports is really the one asset that's must-see live television. I know it's rare that a brand like Fox just jumps right in to something, but they wanted us, and we got a deal done over a weekend."

LP: The most valuable player of baseball is dealing with a positive test for performance-enhancing drugs. Your sport has been affected by use. How do you address this in a firm way?

LF: "We do a whole program with our fighters, bring in the [Drug Enforcement Agency] to lecture them about the dangers of PEDs. We urge commissions to adopt random testing — at anytime within 48 hours, they have to provide a sample. If a guy knows he's only getting tested before and after a fight, it's easy to manipulate. To me, that's the weakness of other sports, like with the NFL players running from HGH testing. If you encourage testing, embrace it, there's significantly less perception that you have a safety or credibility issue."

LP: What stands between your sport and full mainstream sports acceptance?

LF: "Sports media — newspapers — have been late to the party. It's a bit like what happened with NASCAR. This is what people want. So it's just a matter of time before these editors realize we have the attention of Generation X and Generation Y. We are the main sport online. That said, I do believe we're completely accepted as a major sport in the U.S. I still get the past stigmas when I go to other countries, but we're past that here now."

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Smart man. I truthfully wonder if he truthfully wants random testing...I think a lot more fighters would piss hot. Phone Post

Truthfully truthfully truthfully... Phone Post

Dangers of PEDs:

#1: You might get caught

Y Phone Post

It's also the Drug Enforcement Administration and not Agency.... Phone Post

Bringing in a doctor only means after he warns of the risks of PED use that the fighters line up to get him to write prescriptions later.

As for 11 out of 14 falling out?

Get used to it.

The new insurance deal has created this as there is zero incentive for fighting while not 100%.

Especially since one loss can get you cut faster than Miguel Torres van goes from zero to sex trafficking. Phone Post

You'd think that, given the # of fall outs, they'd have more contingency plans in place - like having an alternate fighter lined up already. If they had Fighter A facing Fighter B they could tell Fighter C, who is of similar caliber, "hey, make sure to stay in decent shape because you're filling in if Fighter A or B have to pull out for some reason". It'd make things go a little smoother.

""We do a whole program with our fighters, bring in the [Drug Enforcement Agency] to lecture them about the dangers of PEDs. We urge commissions to adopt random testing — at anytime within 48 hours, they have to provide a sample. If a guy knows he's only getting tested before and after a fight, it's easy to manipulate. To me, that's the weakness of other sports, like with the NFL players running from HGH testing. If you encourage testing, embrace it, there's significantly less perception that you have a safety or credibility issue."

lol @ this.

Please. They should adopt testing as seen in professional cycling. That's of course if they're serious about it.

 It's not a hex... injuries are a reality of the sport and one of the solutions to mitigating this problem is better chemistry... fighters need better chemists to mitigate injuries. 



They also need to train smarter and rest properly.



So talking about random drug tests and then whining about injuries is counter productive.

That testing crap is getting old. You know what, test before and after, and if someone is smart enough to work around it then too bad...good for them. You can't just keep going and going and set up testing facilities at peoples houses to make sure they are never taking anything, ever. It is what it is. Test before and after to make sure you aren't throwing guys our there that are running 10x the test level of their opponent and that should be enough. All these annoying cry babies who keep wanting and asking about more and more PED testing, get over it. Its never going to be perfect so let it fucking go already.

I know, I remember growing up with boxing and amateur wrestling before steroids were in vogue in either sport.

Nobody ever fought. Everyone was always injured. You can't train that hard without steroids.

Oh, sorry, that never happened.

Use some logic my friends.

People defending steroids because you need them for training clearly have no knowledge of sports history. How did all those NFL players in the 40s and 50s and wrestlers and boxers ever recover from their workouts?

Because MMA started in 1993, people use steroids as this crutch not realizing there have been similar sports since the beginning of time.

And guess what. In those days, guys got hurt a lot less. Ever think all of those steroids that are so wonderful cause the muscle imbalances that lead to more injuries? Funny, in the NFL, that's the prevailing belief.

Tad Ghostal - Dangers of PEDs:

#1: You might get caught



you forgot #2: You might get caught twice.

 lets see if the 2011 UFC Main Event Curse continues into 2012, I hope Reem passes that those tests



1/22 - Fight  For The Troops 2 - Florian injured

3/19 - UFC 128 - Evans injured

3/26 - Fight Night 24 - Tito injured

5/28 - UFC 130 - Edgar and Maynard injured

6/11 - UFC 131 - Lesnar out

6/26 - UFC on Versus 4 - AJ injured, Marquardt cut

8/6 - UFC 133 - Jones injured, Davis injured

10/29 - UFC 137 - Diaz out against GSP, Diaz in against Penn, GSP out against Condit

11/19 - UFC 139 - Velasquez/Dos Santos moved to UFC on FOX 1

12/10 - UFC 140 - Jones/Evans scrapped again due to injury

I think it's best to have wind in your sails opposed to steam.

Seriously though, why isn't this guy the face of his own company instead of that douche dress-up thug DFW?

SOO72 - I think it's best to have wind in your sails opposed to steam.



Seriously though, why isn't this guy the face of his own company instead of that douche dress-up thug DFW?


 IMO he's responsible for more than we're led to believe. 

Chiron - You'd think that, given the # of fall outs, they'd have more contingency plans in place - like having an alternate fighter lined up already. If they had Fighter A facing Fighter B they could tell Fighter C, who is of similar caliber, "hey, make sure to stay in decent shape because you're filling in if Fighter A or B have to pull out for some reason". It'd make things go a little smoother.


I thought the same thing, but that then prevents you from making other fights. If fighter A is told he might be a replacement for fighter B in November, and they have another fight to fill in December or January, do you keep fighter A on the sidelines or do you book him for a fight and let him get a full camp in, or do you hope no one gets hurt and reschedule if need be?

caposa -  lets see if the 2011 UFC Main Event Curse continues into 2012, I hope Reem passes that those tests



1/22 - Fight  For The Troops 2 - Florian injured

3/19 - UFC 128 - Evans injured

3/26 - Fight Night 24 - Tito injured

5/28 - UFC 130 - Edgar and Maynard injured

6/11 - UFC 131 - Lesnar out

6/26 - UFC on Versus 4 - AJ injured, Marquardt cut

8/6 - UFC 133 - Jones injured, Davis injured

10/29 - UFC 137 - Diaz out against GSP, Diaz in against Penn, GSP out against Condit

11/19 - UFC 139 - Velasquez/Dos Santos moved to UFC on FOX 1

12/10 - UFC 140 - Jones/Evans scrapped again due to injury



 Dayum! I didn't realize it was so many.



Cindy

 Ufc has had an absolutely awful stretch of injuries this year. Look at all the fighters affected by injury this year and who have missed significant time.



Cain Velasquez- 1 fight

Brock Lesnar 1 fight

Gsp 1 fight

Anderson Silva 2 fights

Chael sonnen 1 fight

Rashad Evans 1 fight

Frankie Edgar 1 fight

Gray Maynard 1 fight



They've also only had 11 title fights from their combined champions



Hw title fights- 1 Cain vs JDS

Lhw title fights- Jones vs Shogun, Jones vs Rampage and Machida

Mw title fights- Anderson vs Vitor Belfort and Yushin Okami

WW title fights Gsp vs Jake Shields

Lw title fights Frankie Edgar vs Gray Maynard

Fw title fights Jose Aldo vs Mark Hominick and Kenny Florian

Bw title fights Dominick Cruz vs Urijah Faber and Demetrious Johnson



Also their 3 biggest grudge matches in Gsp vs Diaz, Jones vs Rashad and Anderson vs Chael all were postponed because of injury.

That is totally the guy with the spliff in behind the just bleed guy! Phone Post