MMA Round Up: Butterbean & KSW 14
By Scott Heritage
This week saw Roger Huerta take an unexpected next fight in a parking lot, Alex Emelianenko’s health problems resurface, more law suits for the UFC, and Butterbean and Mariusz Pudzianowski announcing their meeting at KSW 14.
First up, Alex Emelianenko has been pulled from an upcoming KSW card reportedly because of a positive test for Hepatitus C. KSW for anyone that hasn’t heard of them are the premier home grown Polish MMA promotion, and are where much of the Eastern European talent not signed with M-1 Global emerges. This also isn’t the first time that Hepatitus rumors have swirled around the younger Emelianenko, and some have postulated that the reason he was never signed with a big stateside promotion after the collapse of Pride was because of a similar health problem.
There has yet to be any official word on whether or not Emelianenko disputes this claim, made by KSW co-owner Maciej Kawulski. If there was some kind of dispute between the fighter and the promotion, then bringing up past medical problems is a rather underhanded way of making sure he doesn’t fight for the competition in the near future. If the news is true though, then there will be serious doubts over just what promoters will use Emelianenko in the future. Hep C is treatable in some cases, but whether any major promotions would want to risk using a fighter who might fail to compete half the time depending on how his condition is progressing is questionable at best.
On the subject of Polish MMA, Eric “Butterbean” Esch and Mariusz Pudzianowski have confirmed that they will fight at KSW 14, which probably makes more financial sense than using the bout as a headliner for the next Moosin event. KSW airs in prime time in Poland, and Pudz is big news there. Moosin events tend to be on either Korean or American time, meaning any Poles wanting to see Pudz in action would have to stay up all night to watch the event.
Aside from the announcement and surrounding faux-feud between the pair, the stylistic clash should also prove to be interesting to say the least. Butterbean is less than a master of sweeps or submissions, and if someone as strong as Pudzianowski gets him down, he probably won’t be getting back up again. Conversely though, massive as he is, Pudzianowski showed a complete lack of defense or head movement against Tim Sylvia, and was peppered with shots before going down. Butterbean probably hits harder than Sylvia, and as good as Pudz’s chin looked to be, he will have to get something going very quickly if he wants to avoid another loss here.
Former UFC star Roger Huerta was filmed outside an Austin bar over the weekend in a street fight with a stranger he saw hit a woman. In yet another in a recent string of TMZ reports about MMA, the lightweight witnessed the man punch the woman for no particular reason as she stood on the periphery of a larger dispute already going on. The next minute or so are obscured by the crowd gathering to watch the ensuing mayhem, but the footage then cuts back to Huerta stomping on what appears to be an already unconscious man.
It isn’t clear what if any the wider implications will be of this incident just yet. Huerta was obviously right to jump in after seeing a woman get sucker punched, but at the same time the last thing the sport needs is any headlines involving MMA fighters beating people unconscious and continuing to attack them. What angle will be more widely reported, that he stepped in after his victim punched a woman for no reason, or that as a trained fighter he was seen beating someone well after the point that they had continued to fight back, we will have to wait and see.
In what can only be described as a strange and pointless move, Roy Jones Jr’s Square Ring Inc, the one time boxing/MMA promotional vehicle has sued Zuffa inc. and Roy Nelson for breach of contractual rights. They allege that after Nelson fought in their March Badness pay per view event, that they had the right, according to his contract, to match any offers he received from any other promoters. Nelson signed with the UFC and competed on The Ultimate Fighter shortly after, and Square Ring were not given the chance to match any offer that was made to him.
These clauses tend to come up every now and then, and for the most part are completely useless to all parties involved. Nelson, even having received a matching financial offer from Square Ring, would have gone to the UFC. Better exposure, more prestige and better earning potential. So for that alone, the lawsuit is largely worthless.
Secondly, given that Square Ring has yet to host any other events, picking a fight with the biggest MMA promotion in the world itself seems rather pointless. Not only will Square ring and Jones likely lose, but even if he wins Jones and his company stand to gain very little. As bad as his fight against B-Hop was, he doesn’t need the money, and his company is seemingly done with MMA anyway.
The UFC continued their war on the pirates this week, after securing the IP addresses of several broadcasters of their events from Ustream and has also issued a subpoena to JustinTV. Although they claim to be committed to stamping out piracy altogether, logic dictates that they are probably more interested in making a few examples of the worst and most visible offenders.
The way the UFC sees things every person that watches a stream is potentially another pay per view buy that they have lost. They fail to account for the fact that a big number of those viewers are probably individuals who either would not or could not watch if the events were not free. For example teenagers who can’t afford the pay per view price tag and can’t just watch it at a bar. Not to mention if the film and music industries failed to put a stop to pirating, or even succeed in making it more difficult, then Zuffa has very little chance of even scratching the surface, no matter what kind of resources they throw at the problem.