bigg jay

It might be an increase but it's still far below the $420-450 million the UFC had been looking for. The new owners are carrying a lot of debt and the interest alone is rumored to be about $100 million a year. They cut a ton of costs since the purchase but they were also banking on a huge new TV deal. It'll be interesting to see if they take it or if they continue to hold out for a better deal.

Venue is the biggest issue imo. Everyone runs the convention center which is expensive and keeps 100% of alcohol sales (at least that's what I heard anyway). In Alberta, they usually run pro/am cards & not having to pay half the fighters is the only way they make a profit... Not an option here at this time.

CFC was Giuseppe Denatale, his CFC gym is one of the biggest and oldest in Winnipeg so 100% local. UCW was Tony Condello and Krzysztof Sozynski so again 100% local. CFM was Gabe Santos. He helped Tony with UCW when Krystof moved away but they shut down soon after. He obviously didn't learn enough from that experience because CFM did not last beyond 2 shows (maybe 3?). The only non-local promotions i can think of in the last 10 years were AFC (2 shows) and King of the Cage (1 show). Neither were fly by night either (both were fairly successful in western Canada), they just didn't have the local support to keep running here. Mods can move these posts if they'd like, not a big deal.

At that time yes, an exhibition would have been outside the scope of the commission as they only regulate pro fights. Amateur kickboxing used to be legal here but when the feds updated their laws to clearly make mma legal (it was a grey area), they accidently made some amateur stuff illegal due to the wording (another grey area). Now you need a recognized PSO willing to sanction a sport before a province will allow it.

We have multiple gyms in the city where amateur fighters can train. Problem is amateur mma & kickboxing are illegal in Manitoba so they can train here but not fight. I wouldn't call the promoters we used to have (CFC & UCW) "fly by night" when they held dozens of events over the course of a decade. UCW essentially ended when Krzysztof Sozynski's mma career took him out of Winnipeg (they had a couple shows without him but it didn't last). CFC stopped running shows because they didn't make money (same issue virtually every promotion in Canada faces unless they are the UFC).

Goldstein has some good (ie terrible) stories of the old commission from the 80's and 90's. They changed leadership in 96 or 97 but major, albeit different, issues remained. Another leadership change about 10 years ago has made a huge difference.

Personally I preferred Omega/Jericho simply because I was more invested in the match. Gargano/Almas was phenomenal though so i dont want to take anything from it.

Yep http://edmontonsun.com/sports/football/cfl/edmonton-eskimos/report-aaron-grymes-returning-to-edmonton-eskimos-backfield

We all know the answer to WWMO'SD... he'd put on some shorts & smirk.

I'm guessing the public/media already knows at least that many names on each team's list so I'm not sure how much of an effect it will have... and it's still only a fraction of the list (there are 45 names) but it's a start.

Actual footage of BB&G at work... I can confirm it's not as dangerous as playing football.

As a CFL fan, I want a guy like that on the field... as a Bomber fan, I fully support his sit-out!

Not in the CFL but he played RB for the Bisons before they switched him to receiver.

My point wasn't about necessarily about his family. Spuds was claiming he lives/eats free but that's not the case. He still has rent/mortgage payments to make & groceries to buy regardless of what the Argo's provide him.

Only in Toronto... his family back home still needs to have a place to live & food to eat.

This. Teams also sign those contracts & they break them all the time (often for financial reasons as well) so it's a two way street.

Henry was also cut due to injury.

Jordan Reaves acquitted. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/jordan-reaves-aquitted-1.4501557?cmp=rss

Henry was cut before main camp last year. Morgan was released before camp... Edmonton picked him late last year but he finished the season on their PR.

WWE writers hard at work.

This is yesterday's news!

Don't think it was Taylor since he agrees with Bond.

He's done commentating before (Affliction) and his podcast was great (he might start that up again now) too so he should be fine. I've spent a bit of time with him and listening him talk about the how's & why's of the sport was fascinating. I hope that translates to his commentating career.

You would have loved the moondogmanson forums then. It was both entertaining and disgusting back in the day. No love for RME in that recap TUP? Lol ?

It's a nice get for Bellator. John has been hinting at retirement for a while so I'm not surprised. He still hasn't officially retired but this drastically limits what he'd be able to do (ie major league mma is done for him).