BYU 14 Posted January 17, 2011 Share Posted January 17, 2011 I agree with bats I am really enjoying this and especially like your pre-views before each show. Format is good and easy to follow, maybe beef up the news from other companies a bit in the monthly recaps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WCW Mark Posted January 23, 2011 Author Share Posted January 23, 2011 End of Year Review 1998 Well it’s been a year of steady growth for most companies in MMA, with the exception of KDM FC. It’s time to review the year in a little more detail and see how the companies are positioned going forwards. ALPHA-1 Lets start with the worlds number 1 MMA company ALPHA-1. First a little summary of the stats that matter. Popularity Japan: Mid Level National - 47.2% (Jan 1998 Low Level National 30.0%) Asia: Low Level Regional - 22% (Jan 1998 Low Level Regional 22.0%) Momentum 56.7% (Jan 1998 70%) A good increase in popularity in Japan is off set by their failure to capitalise on the collapse of KDM FC in Asia. The drop in momentum will also be a worry but 56.7% remains high. Divisions Lightweight - Prestige: Great The lightweight belt has changed hands a few times this year. Naizen Hamacho (10-0) is the current Lightweight Champion having taken the belt from Motoki Hojo on the last day of the year. Hojo won the belt in July from two time champion Shizuya Nakae who won it from Fumiaki Hayashi in May. So far no one has been able to defend the belt and whilst a title change is exciting it Alpha-1 executives must be hoping that Hamacho can muster up a couple of defences in 1999. The rankings look a little stale at the top with Hayashi, Hojo and Nakae occupying the top three challenger spots. Hayashi is the only one of those three coming off a win and he is the obvious next contender. Overall with only 14 fighters this is not a great division and Alpha-1 need to look to strengthen in the near future. Welterweight - Prestige: Great Carlos De Guia (16-0) remains the Welterweight Champion having defended the title once in 1998 against Fukusaburu Hirano. Of course this is the division that features Alpha-1’s biggest acquisition of the year in the form of Nathan Chambers (18-1). He actually ranks ahead of De Guia and this is surely the match the fans will be demanding. Ex-champions Ichisake Miyagi and Ikku Funaki wait in the wings to fight the winner as they are both on good winning streaks. In fact we have to go down to 8 in the rankings to find a fighter who isn’t on a winning streak and doesn’t have an aura of 100%! Veterans Chew Chua (20-4) and Syed Tan (15-2-1) occupy the next spots whilst the unbeaten Kafu Bunya (12-0) is 7th. Overall a division packed with talent which should be one of Alpha’s focal points for 1999. Middleweight - Prestige: Fantastic Heiji Endo (16-1) has been dominant in the Middleweight Division. Coming into 1998 as the newly crowned champion he has defended it 4 times against Kojuro Kudo, Tadao Miyazaki, BamBang Sriyanto and Mal Phe Roby. Unfortunately for Alpha these belts have been rated as Poor, Decent, Poor and Very Poor respectively. Despite his popularity Alpha executives must be hoping that someone unseats Endo soon. Looking at the rankings though it is difficult to see where the challenge will come from. Stiyanto (23-7-2) who occupies the number 2 slot has already lost to him and hasn’t fought since whilst the number 3 contender is veteran Ieyoshi Yama****a (24-11) who probably doesn’t look like he has the skills to beat Endo and even if he did is almost as dull in terms of fighting style. Things don’t get much better in terms of credible challengers as you go down the rankings with Haranabu Oshiro (16-6) being the only one in the top 6 to be coming off a win. This is another division that needs strengthening, I had better be careful that Alpha-1 don’t look to target any of my fighters. Light Heavyweight - Prestige: Fantastic Sho Kitabatake (15-0) beat long time title holder Tadamasa Yamada in April to become the new Light Heavyweight Champion (Yamada had held the belt since 1995 making 5 defences, all pre game). Kitabatake has since defended his title against Jin Katou but doubts remain as to who is the best Light Heavyweight in Alpha-1 as he remains 3rd in the rankings behind Hyun-Shik Lin (14-0) and Zvonmir Asanovic (29-2) and these are the next two obvious challengers. Who ever emerges victorious out of these three will have a legitimate claim to being the best Light Heavyweight in the world. Let’s hope Alpha executives give the fans the fights they are clamouring for. Heavyweight - Prestige: Excellent Hassan Fezzik (26-0) sits atop both the Alpha-1 Heavyweight rankings and their p4p rankings. In fact he sits on top of everyone as the worlds #1 ranked fighter. He didn’t have the most active of years defending his title only once in a 1 round submission of Kunimichi Kikuchi back in March. Contenders to his title are lining up for a shot with Armen Sarkisian (23-2), Ari Peltonen (25-7), Palmer Lette (20-5-2-2), Hiro Arai (15-4) and Gyokusho Fujimoto (9-0) all in with a shout. In addition Alpha-1 added a lot of hot prospects to the division over the course of the year and they will be looking for some of these to start stepping up in 1999. Overall Overall Alpha-1 had a busy year, they held 11 PPV’s and briefly had a tv show called Warriors of the Ring which had two episodes which despite good ratings seems to have fallen by the wayside. They currently have PPV coverage in Japan and Asia with Jade 237 but their attempts to sign deals in other markets have been unsuccessful. Their best selling PPV was Hojo v Hamacho on New Years Eve bringing in 225,378 buys and it scored good commercial and critical ratings so they ended the year on a high. Whilst for the most part Alpha-1 and Gamma have been happy to grow in their respective markets there have been a few warning shots fired. Alpha will feel they struck the first big blow with the acquisition of Chambers but I have a feeling 1999 will see the cold war starting to thaw and several other big names change allegiance. GAMMA Well this is obviously my org and if you are reading this the chances are you’ve been following the diary and pretty much know what is going on. I’ll still do a brief summary of the action and try to give you some hints as to what’s in store for 1999. Popularity USA: Mid Level National - 40% (Jan 1998 Low Level National 15.0%) Canada: Mid Level Regional - 55% (Jan 1998 Low Level Regional 30.0%) Mexico: Low Level Regional - 5% (Jan 1998 Low Level Regional 5.0%) Momentum: 73.4% (Jan 1998 60%) Good increases in popularity in the USA and Canada are pleasing to see, and the lack of change in Mexico is hardly surprising since I don’t have any coverage there, something I may want to look at addressing in the near future. My momentum has increased, probably due to so good event ratings and a couple of big names signings in the Lightweight Divisions. Lightweight - Prestige: Fantastic Sean Morrison (28-4) bounced back from an early loss in January to Julio Regueiro when he tried to become the first ever two weight GAMMA champion with an impressive victory over Truck Gleeson in August. His next fight is against #1 contender Bruce Steven at GAMMA 15. However many fans are already looking past this fight for the one they really want to see Morrison v Sukarno. Provided they both win their next fights this is one I’ll be looking to put on around GAMMA 21. Welterweight - Prestige: Great Going into 1998 many people were talking about GAMMA’s seemingly unbeatable champion Julio Regueiro, a defence against Lightweight king Sean Morrison seemed to reinforce the view until along came Josh Aldarisio (17-1) to spoil the party in September. Aldarisio’s victory wasn’t pretty but his style was certainly effective. His next defence is due to be against Alan Kendall (14-3) in the summer. Other contenders at Welterweight include the undefeated Bud Brockett (9-0) who has just stepped up from Lightweight and will need to prove himself at this weight before getting a title shot, veteran Jim Carpenter (51-9-2) who has claimed a top 5 spot with impressive victories over Bobby Brubaker and David Allen and of course the ex-champion Julio Regueiro who will be looking to get back on track and avenge the only defeat of his career (although with his last match against Aldarisio being rated as poor GAMMA management may make his route to a rematch pretty tough). Middleweight - Prestige: Fantastic Another division which saw a change in champion in 1998, Buddy Garner (15-0) has had a great 1998 first defeating fellow BJJ expert JJ Reid and then taking the title from Mathew Dean (who has since moved to Light Heavyweight). Garner is scheduled to fight Stuart Strange at GAMMA 13. The winner of that bout will face the winner of Napier (16-0) v Ripley (15-2) in the summer. Further down the division Adam White (9-0) is making waves and he’ll be looking to become a credible challenger in ‘99. Meanwhile the bottom of the division sees ex-Champion Maarten De Vries (15-8) ranked 19 out of 20 fighters following 2 losses. Whilst De Vries style means he will always have a job for me he needs to pick up some wins soon if that job isn’t going to be a stepping stone for young up and comers. Light Heavyweight - Prestige: Great Spencer Rubenstein (15-4) sits atop a packed division. However with talent such as Osmosis Benn (17-0), Aleksei Chekhov (21-3), Mike Watson (11-0), Lawrence Herringbone (13-1) and Mathew Dean (32-6) snapping at his heels it’s tough to say how long he’ll stay there. Benn has a #1 contender bout lined up for GAMMA 13 against Lawrence Herringbone. This is an talent packed division and it is a credit to Rubenstein that he was able to remain champion in two tough title defences. The fact that both fights were rated as Great does his standing with me no harm either. Heavyweight - Prestige: Fantastic Jeff Carlton (34-7) shocked the casual fan base with a dominating win overall the face of MMA James Foster in June. Industry insiders however weren’t surprised at the victory as they felt that Foster was on the wane and was ripe for the picking, a fact reinforced by his loss to Norbert Vinkus later that year. Whilst Foster remains a big name he needs to start picking up some wins soon to remain relevant. Carlton’s first defence of his title was delayed due to a nasty facial injury to #1 contender Tony McCall, that McCall was able to KO Leon Banks while suffering from a broken orbital speaks volumes about the mans character and the fans are excited for this fight. Elsewhere Raul Hughes (16-3) is getting back on track after losing to Carlton at the start of the year, he’ll be hoping for a rematch in the near future. Fatuma Roy (22-8) and Gary Sampson (19-5) have perhaps been the surprise packages of the year picking up good wins to move to 4th and 5th in the ranking respectively. There is a lack of young talent coming through though with only Chuck Dooley (6-0) positioned to make any waves next year. Of all its divisions this is the one that GAMMA need to invest in. Overall A good year for GAMMA, they kept right on ALPHA-1’s toes and with 4 of the top 5 selling PPV’s of 1998 to their name they are gearing up to challenge ALPHA-1 for the title of worlds top MMA company. Overall the divisions are in a stronger position than this time last year with greater strength in depth and the addition of a few big names to their weaker divisions (Sukarno and Makamori being key). Word is spreading with fans in Canada and Mexico getting into it and ‘99 could be a banner year for GAMMA. SIGMA The world’s number 3 ranked org SIGMA is a long way behind the big boys, however with some good fighters on its roster it is perfectly positioned to make a surge in 1999. All it really needs is that elusive PPV or TV deal to get over to a wider audience. Popularity Europe: Mid Level Regional - 54.6% (Jan 1998 Mid Level Regional 45%) Momentum: 57.3% (Jan 1998 18%) The big story here is the big increase in momentum for SIGMA, hopefully this will lead to popularity gains in 1999. Featherweight - Prestige: Decent Manish Khan (9-1) sits atop this division after Koing previous title holder Lars Bohlin in 28 seconds. Fellow Brit Jason Dalglish (20-5) is the obvious challenger but Colm Dee (13-2) could also prove a threat in a bout that will most likely more resemble a boxing match than an MMA match if it goes ahead. With only 12 fighters though this division lacks depth, perhaps SIGMA could look to offer a home to some of the fighters previously under contract to KDM FC. Lightweight - Prestige: Good Champion Luis Basora didn’t defend his title during ‘98 meaning he has held it for almost 2 years now without making a single defence. My prediction for ‘99 is that he will be forced into fighting the #1 contender, Fiyero Lermontov (12-0) and will lose. Lukas Milberg (17-3) and Georges Nouri (10-1) are also pushing for a title shot and there can be no excuses for the Spaniard to have an equally inactive 1999. Welterweight - Prestige: Good Welterweight Champion Noach Van Der Capellen (23-3) is another champion who didn’t defend his title in ‘98, however given that he only won it in SIGMA’s last event of the year he can be forgiven. His victory over Evgeni Medtner (20-6) was enough to make him Sigma’s #1 ranked p4p fighter and as such he is one of the figureheads for the org. He faces tough competition with Templeton Crumb (20-3), Alberto Basora (18-7) and Dominykas Jankovic (10-2) all clamouring for a title shot and it will be interesting to see who SIGMA pick first. Middleweight - Prestige: Good Fjodor Kanchelskis (11-0) started the year as champion and after a dull 5 round points victory over Fernando Amaro in May he ends it as champion. The questions remain though as to who is the best Middleweight in SIGMA as veteran Jaromir Grygera (20-5) sits at the #1 spot in the rankings after an impressive year which saw him take victories over Ezio Gnocchi, Bixente Fontaine and Oleg Tariverdiev. Hopefully these two will clash in the near future in what will be a big event for SIGMA. Light Heavyweight - Prestige: Decent The Light Heavyweight Division was dealt a blow when reigning champion Aleksei Chekhov left to join GAMMA. Chekhov was champion after beating Soldo in March and had already made one defence against Nicolai Mickiewicz. Daniil Skala (21-6) took advantage and claimed the vacant title with a points victory over Shane Gilchrist. Skala faces challenges from Dmytro Dargomyzhsky (20-7) and Faas Smit (35-14) while Jacob Matthaus (16-8), who already holds a victory over Skala at the start of ‘98 will be hoping he can get pack to winning ways and earn a shot against the champ. Heavyweight - Prestige: Decent Another division with a champ who didn’t fight in ‘98. Boniek (33-4) is a respectable champion but he faces threats from Terron Cabal (12-0), Stratos Papaioannou (26-5) and Lefter Oktay (13-0). With up and comers like Souleymane Ya Konan (9-0), Mugur Boc (7-0) and Aleksander Ivanovo (6-0) the SIGMA Heavyweight Division is stacked with talent. Let’s hope they put it to better use in the forthcoming year. Overall A reasonable year for SIGMA, they managed to retain most of their talent and continued to grow slowly in size. Worryingly for them Medtner v Van Der Capellen in December was their 2nd lowest gate of the year with only January’s Bohlin v Khan attracting lower. However with steady growth throughout the year this will hopefully turn out to be a one off. Some of the talent is a little underutilised at the moment but a step up from their current 6 shows a year format would require some serious investment as the roster just isn’t big enough to cope at the moment. With BCF close to them, both geographically and in terms of popularity next year could be a real battle for SIGMA. BCF Based in the UK BCF have a relatively long history and a good roster of fighters. With only 5 weight divisions instead of 6 like their rivals SIGMA they have a slightly better concentration of fighters across those divisions. Mainly held back by the lack of exposure of MMA in Britain they need to look to get a TV show or to cross border into Europe if they are going to expand. Popularity Britain: Mid Level Regional 49.6% (Jan 1998 Mid Level Regional 40.0%) Momentum: 59.8% (Jan 1998 30.0%) A good gain in momentum (although not as good as SIGMA’s again positions BCF for growth in 1999. What I’m not certain about is whether Britain and Europe are big enough to contain two fast growing MMA companies and as such it is a race to the top for these two. Lightweight - Prestige: Decent Seth O’Breen (14-0) is the new Lightweight Champion having taken the belt from long time champion Jake Keane in BCF’s last event of the year. Keane remains at the #2 slot in the rankings though so I’m not sure who will get the next title shot. Sid Morgan (4-0), Tim Oldacres (3-0) and Nigel Collett (3-0) are all very inexperienced while George Astaire (10-5) isn’t really title material. Unless they bring in new talent O’Breen could be champion for a while. Welterweight - Prestige: Good Vikram Sithalayan (17-2) is the reigning champion having beaten Will Kane in June 1998, he is BCF’s #1 P4P fighter and is the #9 ranked Welterweight in the world. David Webb (16-3) is the top contender after beating both Brett Clement and Steve Griffin by submission. A match for the title against Sthalayan would surely be a purists dream. Mills Mulally (15-4), Doug Hansen (16-4) and Gordon Idle (10-2) are all credible contenders whilst ex champ Will Kane (15-4) is looking to get back into the mix after a win against Mikey Wallace. A strong division for BCF. Middleweight - Prestige: Decent Andrew Rush (16-6) took the title from Davis Spyrou by 3rd round KO back in August but has yet to defend. Rob Baines (29-10) is the number one contender and the difference in styles could make for an interesting bout. Davis Spyrou (19-5) finds himself 3rd in the rankings after a rehabilitating 1st round TKO of Richard Smith and Henning Olsen (13-4) is the only other credible challenger. There are a potentially a few good bouts BCF could put on here and I don’t see anyone fighter as being significantly better than the others. Light Heavyweight - Prestige Decent Curt Kitson (10-0) is the only BCF champion to keep his title through out 1998, beating Gary McSweegan by Submission in a good fight back in April. Since then he hasn’t fought while BCF line up his next opponent. Adrian Majoram (7-0) is good level kick boxer and could be the next challenger in an all Scottish affair. He already holds a decision win over ex champ George Laurent (37-13) and is probably the only viable threat to Kitson. 3rd ranked McSweegan has already lost to him and 4th ranked Laurent has lost to Kitson (pre-game) and Majoram. This is a fairly week division and if Kitson beats Majoram it is hard to see who his next challenger will be. Heavyweight - Prestige: Good The Heavyweight Division is a division with the potential to launch BCF to the next level. Whilst new Champion Rav Kapur (9-0) is yet to defend his title he was dominant through out ‘98 with wins over Fritz Phipps and Perry Barr early in the year before taking the title from Carter Potter in October. Kapur is a beast and could be the poster boy for BCF, if they can keep hold of him when his contract expires in 2 fights time. Of course a champion can only look as good as the competition and BCF have several fighters lined up. Veteran Harry Milne (42-7) will prove a tough test as well as a high profile opponent, while Dave Lennon (15-4) and Stafford Alois (27-9) could also prove interesting fights with Lennon’s punching power and Alois’ size offering something for Kapur to worry about. BCF will be hoping Kapur will be able to help them overtake SIGMA and become the #3 rated org in the world. Overall A lot of title changes in 1998 made it hard for management to know who to get behind in their push to the next level. This could change in ‘99 as I think 4 of the 5 champions have the potential to reign for a while. Attendances were generally on an upwards curve throughout the year with Decembers event , headlined by Keane v O’Breen, pulling in 863 fans. Provided they can hang onto their champions ‘99 could be a good year for BCF. FLB Ranked as the 6th biggest company in the world at the start of 1998 FLB have grown quickly and have overtaken WEFF for the #5 slot. If they continue at this rate they will soon be pushing SIGMA and BCF for that crucial #3 slot. Popularity South America: Mid Regional 37.8% (Jan 1998: Low Level Regional 25.0% Momentum: 58.9% (Jan 1998 15.0%) A good increase in both popularity and momentum shows that BCF are a fast growing organisation. They have strong rosters and a strong culture of MMA in their home region. They could be the company to watch in 1999. Lightweight - Prestige: Decent Top man in this division is the impressive Helio (18-1), at only 22,and ranked as the #2 Lightweight in the world, he could dominate the division for years to come. He fought 4 times in ‘98 winning them all with his final bout being for the title against veteran champion Branco. Paulo Roberto Bezzerra (12-5) is the #1 contender having beaten Laerte Portinari and Giovani Silva while Delma de Brito (19-6) is also in with a shot after beating Edson Edmilson. The division also contains some promising up and comers in the form of Anderson Desailly (5-0) and Grande Silveira (5-0) who have made it to 6th and 7th in the rankings respectively after picking up a win a piece in ‘98, they’ll need to be a bit busy in ‘99 if they hope to make it to the top. Welterweight - Prestige: Decent Manuel Silva (15-0) is the reigning FLB Welterweight Champion and is rated as the 3rd best Welterweight in the world. Two defences of his title against Claudio Palacios and Gabriel Gallego cemented his reputation and it will be interesting to see if FLB can hang onto him as he only has 8 months left on his contract. With only 12 fighters this division is pretty shallow and I don’t see anyone who is likely to beat him although Charles Stiles (16-2) and Procopio Golias (13-4) will be hoping to prove me wrong. Middleweight - Prestige: Decent Zaco (44-14) is the current Middleweight Champion and at low level national popularity he is one of the more popular fighters in FLB. He beat Braulio Moura to take the title but has yet to defend it. The man who will be hoping to get that first shot at the title is the man at the top of their Middleweight ranking, Joaquim Fontes (22-3) a man Zaco will need to use all of his considerable experience to beat. Light Heavyweight - Prestige: Decent Champion Affonso Villar (22-2) didn’t fight in ‘98 and this is something that FLB will need to correct in the forthcoming year. Possible challengers include Pedro Sousa (21-3), Roberto Aldez (42-11), Carlos dos Santos (14-3) and Leandro Piquet (21-7). Off these Pedro Sousa is the top contender after beating Elgar and Arkan Gleiser. I don’t think he has the skills to beat Villar and this is a division that FLB need to strengthen. Heavyweight - Prestige: Decent Long time champion Elzo Alves Moura (13-1) started the year well defending his title against Vitor de Melo before losing to current champion Marcelo Boccoli (13-5). Despite this win Boccoli stays below de Moura in the rankings at #5, perhaps due to his fighting style which favours Boxing over other more traditionally Brazilian fighting styles. He’ll need to dispatch some of his opposition to cement his status and he has a wealth of challengers to choose from. Murilo Satinho (8-0) is ranked #1 after beating Gladstone Lopes and certainly looks like he has the ability to become champion if given the chance. Vitor de Melo has recovered from his loss to the ex champ with wins over Ilson de Lima and Tiago da Paixao and is ranked at #2. Mora and Lopes are ranked 3rd and 4th but given that they are both coming off losses they don’t deserve a title shot at the moment. Overall FLB have a good roster with a good mix of veterans and up and comers with one or two stand out fighters. The danger for them is that many of the younger fighters may be a target for GAMMA or ALPHA-1 and FLB don’t have the finances to challenge them. They need to continue developing that young talent and have a real shot at finishing 1999 as the 3rd ranked company in the world. WEFF The only company to feature women only WEFF have grown impressively over the last 12 months, just not as impressively as FLB. With only two divisions WEFF’s champions are pretty active compared to some of the other companies and as such are vitally important for any future growth. Popularity Canada: Mid Regional 34.4% (Jan 1998: Low Level Regional 28.0%) Momentum: 54.1% (Jan 1998: 20.0%) Again good increases in popularity and momentum mean that they can be pleased with their performance despite slipping down the rankings. It’s not clear however how far their female only policy can take them. Lightweight - Prestige: Poor Current champion Karen Curtis (7-0) had an impressive year beating Tabitha Cameron to become #1 contender for the lightweight title before taking it from Michelle Addams in December. Whilst it is early days for the champion she will be hoping she can keep both the title and her unbeaten streak for a while. Waiting in the wings are Hazel McClay (5-1) who fought once this year beating Gina Dixon and Rachel McGuiness (4-0) who beat Rhonda Britton on the undercard of Curtis’ title win. Further down the rankings Katherine Williams (4-0) looked impressive in her victory over Harriett Fey, while Brooke Rockerfeller (4-0) also remained unbeaten after edging out Lisa Labone in a split decision. There are a lot of potential match ups here and ‘99 should be a good year if WEFF book their matches correctly. Heavyweight - Prestige: Poor Samantha Sachs (7-0) shocked everyone by beating Sandy Oliver to take her title in October spoiling a potential blockbuster for WEFF in Oliver v Shimizu. Hanako Smimizu (9-0), who has recently joined after taking the KDM FC women’s title shortly before they went bankrupt, is a major acquisition for WEFF. Her popularity in Canada is zero but don’t expect it to stay that way as she will likely start racking up the wins in the near future. Overall Despite good growth in ‘98 WEFF face two problems, the first is the lack of female competitors in the world and the second is a lack of places for those women to fight. With the bankruptcy of KDM FC, WEFF and XCC are the only two companies in the world that showcase women’s MMA. Whilst this means they will be able to have their pick of the fighters it does mean there is a lack of places to season those fighters. In addition the lack of competitors means they can really only have two divisions meaning the number of events they can hold each year is limited. XCC Based in the USA XCC focus on the lower weight divisions in an attempt to position themselves in a different area of the market to GAMMA. They also feature women’s bouts which puts them in the firing line for WEFF. Popularity USA: Low Level Regional 28.4% (Jan 1998 Low Level Regional 22.0%) Momentum: 57.7% (Jan 1998 24.0%) The gains in terms of popularity are very small and there must be a worry for XCC executives that they may be left behind. With WEFF’s growth they may struggle to hold onto some of their better female fighters while the Lightweight Division is always susceptible to raids from GAMMA. As such XCC need to ensure their Featherweight division is strong. Women’s Title - Prestige: Very Poor Layla Holmes (5-0) took the title from Hester Maclean in a good fight in December. This was a disapointment for MacLean (6-1) who after defending against Olivia Sweet in June must have been hoping for a big money match up against Sarah Vaughan (11-0) who racked up an impressive 3 wins this year. Holmes’ victory makes Holmes v Vaughan the next logical match up for XCC. Featherweight - Prestige: Poor Philip Ziskie was the poster boy for XCC, retaining his title against Sammy Gaffigan and Rafael Tavares and fighting in a weight class which GAMMA didn’t feature at low level national he was XCC’s main draw. This all ended in October when Eastern Frye (14-4) beat him for the title. At only mid level regional popularity and 20-40% marketability Frye is nowhere near the draw Ziskie is and XCC may have a hard time selling him to the public. In terms of opponents Luiz Machado (23-4) and Shuler Eigen berg (10-2) seem like the obvious choices being ranked 2nd and 5th in the rankings and both being on winning streaks. However neither are particularly marketable and XCC may opt for Sammy Gaffigan (11-2) who has recovered from a loss to Ziskie earlier in the year by beating David James Diggle. Lightweight - Prestige: Average Former champion Jamie Hewitt (8-4) has had a tough year, following up losing the title to Jackson Gray with another loss to Kyle Sagal. Gray (18-9) hasn’t fought since winning the title in February but has numerous challengers snapping at his heels. Of these Kyle Sagal (5-0) is the most deserving after beating Hewitt while Glen Siemaszko (5-0), Sammy Newton (4-0) and Ross Smith (4-0) are all unbeaten and take the next 3 slots. Overall XCC must be disappointed with both their lack of growth and with the defeat of Philip Ziskie. However they have a lot of up and coming fighters and they just need to hope they can step up to the plate. If they can start generating some money they may be able to bring in some of the fighters who found themselves jobless after KDM FC closed and this could start to generate the momentum they need. Conclusion 1998 in general was a good year for MMA, GAMMA secured a PPV deal and all the remaining companies experienced growth. The loss of KDM FC was a blow to the prospects of female fighters and male fighters at the lower weights with many of them yet to find employment. There is a sense that the big two are secure and that both have enough growth in their home markets to avoid to much in the way of confrontation next year but expect to see attempts top poach top level talent increase. SIGMA, BCF and FLB are all well placed and if any of them can get on a roll they could start to bridge the gap to the big two. My money is on FLB but all three need to retain their big names to make any progress. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BYU 14 Posted January 23, 2011 Share Posted January 23, 2011 Really like th eyear end summary, nice work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WCW Mark Posted January 26, 2011 Author Share Posted January 26, 2011 Thanks for the compliment, it took a little longer than I expected but at least it's only once a year. Year 2 has now started and I've put it in a seperate thread. It can be found here http://www.greydogsoftware.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1383959#post1383959 Rankings for the new year are up and I hope to put the first card up before the weekend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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