EXCLUSIVE: IS K-1 BUYING ENGLAND'S CAGE RAGE?
Monday, March 26, 2007 - by Lee Whitehead - MMAWeekly.com
Interesting developments on the UK MMA scene of late would lead you to believe that Zuffa LLC (owner of the Ultimate Fighting Championship) is in the process of purchasing venerable British promotion Cage Rage; the reality is a little different...
Sources close to Cage Rage have confirmed that K-1 has tabled an offer in the neighborhood of 10 million pounds as a takeover of the company and all its assets. The deal has apparently come about due in large part to the pending purchase of Pride FC by the UFC owners Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta and the severance of links between Cage Rage and Pride FC. Cage Rage has recently been somewhat of a feeder show for Pride FC with several fighters under contract to Pride FC fighting on Cage Rage events.
In a first for Cage Rage, the April 21st card will feature a K-1 rules kickboxing bout between James McSweeny and Michael McDonald. At the time of this writing, Dave O'Donnell and Andy Geer, principals at Cage Rage, were unavailable to comment due to ''being in Los Angeles for a business deal," but as soon as any more information is revealed we will let you know.
How this affects PRIDE contracted fighters such as James Thompson and K-1 refugee Bob Sapp is currently not known, but one thing is for sure, the UFC just got a step up in opposition for the British fans’ pennies.
(Right now it is 5AM in Osaka but I have tried to get in touch with my connection in Japan to see if he has heard anything in the sports papers or the rumor mill in that part of the world.. I guess since FEG lost out to the Fertittas on PRIDE they intend to use Cage Rage to counter Zuffa's expansion into the UK? FEG already has decent relations with Cage Rage, having signed Shaolin and Melvin Manhoef to contracts.)
I don't know who is all in CR that I might care too see but it still could be a good move.....I'm still waiting to see whats up with the HEROs show here in the states.
O and its Melvin Manhoooooooooooooef LoL
__________________ "Don't think of your self as an ugly person, Think of your self as a beautiful monkey"
"I just want to choke her till she doesn't breath anymore......Why wont you die !!!" - Gina Carano[/i]
K-1 is being smart and making big moves while they still can. They know Pride + UFC is not good for them. Glad they're taking the necessary precautions to secure their spot in the MMA scene.
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So what we'll end up having is a big US-based MMA org (UFC+PRIDE) and a big Japan-based MMA org (K-1+CR)...
Times, they are-a changing.
The circle of life
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i think this is a great move on k1's part and i hope they build themselves strong enough to compete with UFC+Pride, i didn't know that cage rage was having problems financially though? o well great move imo.
This is great news for us in the UK! I didnt like the idea of CR going into competition with the UFC as they would be at a great disadvantage, but with K1 buying the company I can only see it growing and having stronger cards and better fighters!
Oh my god. K-1 ain't f'ing around, are they? What's scary is now they may have the draw to steal away some of the best fighters and we'll be back at square one, arguing about who's better, only aruguing K-1 or the UFC.
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LOS ANGELES, CALIF. – Officials from FEG (the parent company of K-1), EliteXC, and Showtime announced today, not only their plans for a ground breaking event on June 2nd, but also several new alliances around the world.
Doug DeLuca, EliteXC’s CEO, verified what MMAWeekly had reported last week, that the K-1/EliteXC co-promoted event on June 2nd will actually be two shows in one. The first portion, the EliteXC portion of the show, will consist of a one-hour special that will air on Showtime’s premium channel and will serve as a lead-up to the K-1 portion of the show, which will air on a pay-per-view broadcast that will be distributed by Showtime PPV. As previously reported, the event will be held at the 92,000-seat capacity Los Angeles Coliseum.
In DeLuca’s own words, “There are many, many historic events that will happen on June 2nd. This will be the largest MMA event to ever take place on U.S. soil. It is taking place at the L.A. Coliseum.”
“We will be doing two separate shows out of this one event,” explained the EliteXC exec. “We will be doing a one-hour special Showtime presentation, which will be free to Showtime subscribers. It will be called EliteXC Dynamite USA. And then immediately following, Showtime will be pushing viewers to the pay-per-view event… called Pro Elite Presents Dynamite USA.”
The televised events of June 2nd, featuring a fight between Brock Lesnar and Hong-Man Choi as well fights involving MMA legend Royce Gracie and former NFL player Johnnie Morton, were only half of the focus of today’s press conference.
Perhaps just as interesting was the inclusion of various new collaborators in the Pro Elite movement to unite MMA forces in a stand against the UFC/Pride juggernaut.
DeLuca explained, “From the moment that Pro Elite was conceived, we’ve always said that in order to grow this sport, it will take collaborativeness, it will take inclusiveness, and it will take the willingness of other organizations to work together, to cross-promote, and to ultimately create a true world championship system. This is a major step in that direction. This is a major step in the continuation of the next generation of mixed martial arts.”
Following his words into the winds outside the L.A. Coliseum, several collaborators were announced. Adding to the conglomeration of Showtime/Pro Elite/EliteXC and FEG/K-1 were Strikeforce, BodogFight, Cage Rage, and Spirit XC.
Both Cage Rage, the most prominent fight brand in Europe, and Spirit XC, the largest promotion in South Korea, were represented at the press conference.
Andrew Geer and Dave O’Donnell, who head up Cage Rage, were enthusiastic about the collaboration: “Thank you so much to all the partners in the newly formed alliance for inviting us over here. We’re very proud to be part of this event… It’s a fantastic time.”
Also in attendance was Kwong Park from SpiritMC, who said, “I am really glad to be here to join the alliance.”
Summing up this new alliance, DeLuca said, “This sport will be an Olympic sport. This sport will have world cup champions. This sport will have true world champions… A collaboration means that we share fighters… This alliance speaks to everyone working together to make this a better place for the sport and a better place for the fighters… It’s a way to help other people succeed in the sport. It doesn’t need to be just one…”
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LOS ANGELES, CALIF. – Officials from FEG (the parent company of K-1), EliteXC, and Showtime announced today, not only their plans for a ground breaking event on June 2nd, but also several new alliances around the world.
Doug DeLuca, EliteXC’s CEO, verified what MMAWeekly had reported last week, that the K-1/EliteXC co-promoted event on June 2nd will actually be two shows in one. The first portion, the EliteXC portion of the show, will consist of a one-hour special that will air on Showtime’s premium channel and will serve as a lead-up to the K-1 portion of the show, which will air on a pay-per-view broadcast that will be distributed by Showtime PPV. As previously reported, the event will be held at the 92,000-seat capacity Los Angeles Coliseum.
In DeLuca’s own words, “There are many, many historic events that will happen on June 2nd. This will be the largest MMA event to ever take place on U.S. soil. It is taking place at the L.A. Coliseum.”
“We will be doing two separate shows out of this one event,” explained the EliteXC exec. “We will be doing a one-hour special Showtime presentation, which will be free to Showtime subscribers. It will be called EliteXC Dynamite USA. And then immediately following, Showtime will be pushing viewers to the pay-per-view event… called Pro Elite Presents Dynamite USA.”
The televised events of June 2nd, featuring a fight between Brock Lesnar and Hong-Man Choi as well fights involving MMA legend Royce Gracie and former NFL player Johnnie Morton, were only half of the focus of today’s press conference.
Perhaps just as interesting was the inclusion of various new collaborators in the Pro Elite movement to unite MMA forces in a stand against the UFC/Pride juggernaut.
DeLuca explained, “From the moment that Pro Elite was conceived, we’ve always said that in order to grow this sport, it will take collaborativeness, it will take inclusiveness, and it will take the willingness of other organizations to work together, to cross-promote, and to ultimately create a true world championship system. This is a major step in that direction. This is a major step in the continuation of the next generation of mixed martial arts.”
Following his words into the winds outside the L.A. Coliseum, several collaborators were announced. Adding to the conglomeration of Showtime/Pro Elite/EliteXC and FEG/K-1 were Strikeforce, BodogFight, Cage Rage, and Spirit XC.
Both Cage Rage, the most prominent fight brand in Europe, and Spirit XC, the largest promotion in South Korea, were represented at the press conference.
Andrew Geer and Dave O’Donnell, who head up Cage Rage, were enthusiastic about the collaboration: “Thank you so much to all the partners in the newly formed alliance for inviting us over here. We’re very proud to be part of this event… It’s a fantastic time.”
Also in attendance was Kwong Park from SpiritMC, who said, “I am really glad to be here to join the alliance.”
Summing up this new alliance, DeLuca said, “This sport will be an Olympic sport. This sport will have world cup champions. This sport will have true world champions… A collaboration means that we share fighters… This alliance speaks to everyone working together to make this a better place for the sport and a better place for the fighters… It’s a way to help other people succeed in the sport. It doesn’t need to be just one…”
I love this. I can't even empasize how great this is.
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And Dana White called these guys a joke. Looks like he may have to rethink his position on that.
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So what we'll end up having is a big US-based MMA org (UFC+PRIDE) and a big Japan-based MMA org (K-1+CR)...
Times, they are-a changing.
Well K1 is already BIG in Japan they are just going worldwide now.....Getting over in two Europe a lot more and coming back to the States again.
Pretty much what it comes down to is all the heads of those other orgs should just take some nice little office job so they can get a nice check and leave the K1 guys to do all the work....LoL they are much better at it then the other guys anyway.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mulla
Excellent news! Looks like Dana and the Fertittas wont have a monopoly after all! This can only be good for the sport imo!
Well I get that if there is only one big MMA org then fighters might not be able to get big contracts, As Rampages trainer said in something I read but.....I can't help but think of how boxing is so %@%@ up because of the fact that they have so many bodies with titles that no one cares about at all, With all these smaller shows popping up left and right I think it is good that the big boys team up buy them out and have companies no one will try to match.
Every sport in the world pretty much has one top company and I don't think they have any problems with the players not getting enough money.
Soccer/Futbol "FIFA", Football(NorthAmerican) "NFL", Basketball "NBA", Baseball "MLB", Hockey "NHL".
So with all that is going on now we pretty much have two big boys again FEG's K1 and LFF’s UFC/PRIDE WW.
And to tell the truth I don't think it would be so bad if there was only one top org, These guys are all businessmen and its not like they would buy someone out and then fire every body that works for the company, If one buys the other down the road we would just end up with the best of the top brass from PRIDE, K1, and the UFC running the same show and working together, It worked out pretty darn good for the AFL-NFL wouldn’t you say ??
__________________ "Don't think of your self as an ugly person, Think of your self as a beautiful monkey"
"I just want to choke her till she doesn't breath anymore......Why wont you die !!!" - Gina Carano[/i]
More shakeups: K-1 to purchase CageRage?
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