When it comes to analyzing the business of mixed martial arts, Dana White is no slouch. His recent comments on TSN’s Off the Record were similar to the countless hours of interviews he’s done over the years when speaking about the UFC’s marketing, financials, and acumen for business matters. In every case, he talks about how the UFC “makes it look easy” and that the competition around the market can’t compete with his own promotion. To an extent, it’s true and BodogFIGHT’s demise is a supporting point to that statement.

BodogFIGHT hasn’t been in the market for quite some time. After holding events in Russia, Costa Rica, Canada, Las Vegas, and New Jersey for roughly a year, the promotion began to see signs of demise. It was obvious that there wasn’t any money being made, and Calvin Ayre, Bodog’s founder, was trying to keep a sinking ship afloat. Instead of holding their own events, BodogFIGHT tagged their name onto other promotions’ events and loaned their stable of fighters to those events. Slowly but surely, BodogFIGHT died.

It looks like this could be a trend that will rear its ugly head again unfortunately. Both the IFL and ProElite posted huge losses this year that surpassed $20 million. In fact, ProElite managed to lose $27 million in the last year while grabbing up more exposure and holding some quality events.

One of their biggest problems is their production values in working with all of the promotions under their umbrella. Cage Rage, King of the Cage, Icon Sport, and their own EliteXC with ShoXC must create huge deficits in their budget for production work. They also happen to have some sinking ratings on Showtime, and they are likely spending a lot of money to try to attract top talent that currently isn’t in the UFC.

The IFL is in a different boat. While they have only one promotion’s production to deal with, their events have suffered from lackluster performances, limited live events, and under talented fighters. They have recently began to regain some ground with their last event having some fantastic fights, but it may be too little too late for the IFL. While the HDNet deal is great for the promotion, the numbers that the event produces just won’t cut it.

ProElite seems to have an edge over some of the other promotions that may not make the cut by the end of the year. The potential of the CBS deal is huge, and it put the promotion in the black eventually with the right marketing. The IFL, on the other hand, isn’t going to do much in the numbers game unless they can scout talent well, market themselves better, and make their events more available. HDNet still isn’t big enough to get the IFL off the ground itself, and I believe that’s the major flaw for the IFL. It’s a shame because their last event was actually exciting and entertaining. They really have some talent in that promotion that can potentially lift the promotion up with some quality events to a bigger demographic.

Tim Leidecker over at Sherdog has given us another update in the European and Asian markets of the MMA world with a story regarding Bodog's recent moves in the Russian community. In his article, he mentions the feud between Bodog and M-1 Mixfight that occurred over the Clash of Nations card that featured Fedor Emelianenko vs. Matt Lindland. In interviews that were done at Sherdog some time ago, Vadim Finkelstein, Fedor's agent and M-1 Mixfight promoter, mentioned that he had done all the legwork in setting up the Bodog event, and even brought in big name VIPs such as Vladmir Putin, the Russian president. Bodog denies those claims and states that they 100% financed the event and held their end of the bargain.

Let's think on a larger scale though. Considering the fact that Vadim Finkelstein has the connections in Russia to produce a mixed martial arts event that will sell, it has been perceived that Bodog's initial thoughts were to use Finkelstein to get to those connections and then move on to do their own work in Russia. That thought is now becoming a reality.

Bodog will hold a Russian event known as "Russia vs. The World". It'll feature fighters such as Zuluzinho, Ibragim Magomedov, and Andrei Semenov. Although not a star-studded cast of great fighters, there is some interest in the event in Russia due to the popularity of a few of the stars. Semenov is featured on a Russian TV series that is equivalent to the U.S.'s Prison Break, according to the article. Semenov was thrown off the Red Devil Team for the decision to fight with Bodog instead of M-1. There must be some money being thrown around by Bodog if Semenov was willing to leave Red Devil to fight for Bodog.

The bigger picture

Has Bodog managed to sabotage M-1's plans already? According to the article, M-1's non-exclusive agreement structure has had its first lapse. Daniel Tabera, an undefeated Light Heavyweight prospect, has signed on with Bodog to fight on the card, but he's on contract with M-1 Global non-exclusively. This presents a problem because their events are two weeks apart, and it will cause Tabera to be unavailable for the M-1 Global event. Unfortunately, it seems that M-1 didn't take the lessons learned from the American market when creating these contracts.

Other promotions have stipulations that bar fighters from fighting two weeks, three weeks, even a month before and after their matchup in the promotion. HDNet has been in the spotlight with this clause. Sean Salmon was hurt badly in the Strikeforce Middleweight Tournament, and had to pull out of his fight with Jason Miller with only two weeks until their showdown. Luckily, Tim Kennedy stepped in. It's situations like those that should be considered when these contracts are made.

We may now have a turning point for M-1 Global. Will their attitude toward Bodog in Russia cause them to become stiffer on their contract clauses or possibly go non-exclusive so that Bodog cannot tap into the younger Russian talent? It's very possible considering Bodog's biggest MMA market is Russia.

A power struggle has begun in Russia in the mixed martial arts market. Fedor holds the reputation as being the best in the world, bringing fighters in to want to train with him, but Bodog seems to be offering more money as it tries to pull in more fighters within the market. The two are destined to clash, and it could mean more restrictive contracts from both promotions. It could also mean less opportunity for fans to see upcoming talent in action in the States.

 
I wrote a preview for the BodogFIGHT show in Las Vegas on Friday a few days ago for MMA Madness. I thought I'd let everyone know about it since there is at least some interest in the title fight and possibly the women's matchups on the card. Here's a short excerpt from the preview:

Making its return to the city of sin, BodogFIGHT in conjunction with Tuff-N-Uff promotions will present a night of mixed martial arts action on February 1st, 2008 from the Las Vegas Sports Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. The main card will feature Nick “The Goat” Thompson (33-9-1) taking on undefeated contender John Troyer (8-0) in a battle for the BodogFIGHT Welterweight Title. The women’s division will also be on display during the event when powerful striking Kaitlin Young (4-0) takes on newcomer Sara Schneider. A four-man tournament was scheduled to take place within the welterweight division, but has since been canceled. Seth Baczynski will take on Chris Kennedy, and Waachim Spiritwolf will now fight Jeremy Razonable in regular MMA matchups in place of the tournament.

It might be worth checking out for you fans out there who are into smaller shows or some of the fighters in the mix. The tournament was cancelled by the NSAC, and Tonya Evinger was taken off the card, so Kaitlin Young can knockout another newcomer. Check it out if you are interested.

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