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Post by Shadess on Jan 3, 2024 17:40:55 GMT 1
So for anyone who hasn't followed this so closely. Rodtang has been wearing a cast at least on and off for a little while now. He's been hiding his hand either behind other people or with a very long sleeved jacket in just about all his social media. There's only like some blurry live stream screenshots of his cast. It's been borderline comical. ONE/Rodtang don't want to acknowledge an injury at all and keep selling the event with the Takeru vs. Rodtang fight. Extremely shady marketing practices if Rodtang ends up getting replaced later on. Abema fight channel producer hasn't been able to get in contact with ONE for 2 weeks. |
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Post by K1power on Jan 4, 2024 19:33:54 GMT 1
Enfusion is on Viaplay, and Viaplay is near bankrupt. Supposedly the French Vivendi/Canal+ among others might bail them out. Canal+ also owns fightbox, maybe someone there finally figures out they should do something with their content in France too, perhaps some events there...idk. Perhaps a few sidenotes/tidbits I can add to this. Canal+ is actually the parent company of the one I work for. When higher ups shared the strategic vision for 2024 in an internal presentation a few months ago I was intrigued when "investing in sports" came up, only to be mildly disappointed when the next slide said "Women's Tennis". I believe there was something else as well, but it was far removed from anything related to fight sports. Now, this concerns only Canal+ branded products in their main markets and I have no clue if some movements could be made for other brands/networks they own, but if a notable investment was in the works I would have expected at least a mention of it. That's not to say nothing is going to happen for Fightbox, I just wouldn't hold my breath for any major developments. Interestingly, Canal+ has a presence in Vietnam and Myanmar (Burma) and they do air Lethwei cards there. As for Viaplay, we actually did some work with them in recent years (not sure if we still do from the top of my head) and they have been in the news negatively a lot over the past few months, but the one thing that works for them is the Dutch market, so they should be afloat for a bit longer at least in this area. Their success here is attributed to them broadcasting the Formula 1, which Max Verstappen is currently extremely successful in. So I guess as long as he keeps winning races Enfusion has a broadcasting partner lol. |
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Post by K1power on Jan 5, 2024 10:12:56 GMT 1
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Post by larsenator on Jan 5, 2024 10:36:28 GMT 1
Let's appreciate ONE giving a fighter a fight instead of postponing and postponing. Takeru gets paid, stays active, and will be ready when Rodtang is.
After all: isn't cancellations and postponements what most people criticise ONE for?
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Post by K1power on Jan 5, 2024 12:02:44 GMT 1
On one hand I want to agree with you: Takeru's opponent drops out with an injury, Superlek's opponent drops out with an injury, they're around the same weight, so let's make it happen.
On the other hand, (late) replacements rarely work out and they usually end up making one fighter look bad. Let's say Takeru loses (which is very possible in this case), suddenly his matchup with Rodtang loses a lot of its shine. Case in point, Plazibat vs. Rico. Glory absolutely ruined the appeal of that matchup. Instead of postponing it like they should have, they gave us Plazibat vs. Cookie in an interim title fight (is there anything more useless in fightsports than interim titles?), Cookie upset Plazibat and ended up taking his place against Rico in one of the worst title fights we've seen in Glory history. Of course there's the chance Rico and Plazibat meet in the upcoming GP and Plazibat somehow redeems himself, but I'm skeptical that will happen. Either way, their matchup just isn't as anticipated anymore. But I digress..
Let's say Superlek loses. He'll have lost the title to an outsider taking his belt in his first fight in the promotion, which is a situation no promotion should ever allow, ever. Most major promotions break this rule, because they're terrible at understanding some extremely basic dos and don'ts.
Also, Takeru's one of the best paid kickboxers in the history of the sport. I'm sure he could wait a few months for Rodtang. It's not like he fights regularly anyway. Since leaving K-1 he's essentially become a showpony like Badr was when he was fighting for Russian billionaires and dictators a decade ago.
Even if Takeru/Superlek ends up being a brilliant fight that somehow increases the stock of both fighters, it's just an unnecessary risk to take from all parties involved.
Last, but not least: I personally just don't care for this matchup.
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Post by larsenator on Jan 5, 2024 12:58:32 GMT 1
I think the general fans want to see fights / want to see their favourite fighters fighting.
The reasons you stated could be the very same reasons plus potentially a whole lot of extra / other reasons why some of the kickboxers in ONE are not fighting as often as you/we/the fighters themselves would like to.
So we complain, when the promotion steps up and delivers in the face of an injury, but we also complain when all things don't fall into place, and for whatever reason a particular fight is not possible at the time.....
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Post by K1power on Jan 5, 2024 13:47:05 GMT 1
True, in general fans want to see their favorites in action, but above all else at the top of everyone's list are anticipated matchups.
I think the main reason we don't see a lot of Kickboxing fights in ONE, is because they don't really care about it anymore. And I don't blame ONE for shifting their focus. In fact, it's what I said they should have been doing all along. The problem is that they're keeping fighters hostage with terrible contracts, because in some half-assed way they still want to put some Kickboxing fights on their cards here and there. There's a reason all these fighters want to leave the promotion. This is not baseless speculation; we saw interviews and reports pop up all over the place throughout the past year.
I don't really blame promotions for fights falling through because of injuries. It sucks and it weakens cards, but it's part of the game. I'd rather have a fight fall through and be postponed than get a replacement that nobody asked for.
And just speaking for myself here; I absolutely tend to complain about developments, but don't feel like I'm being unreasonable or unrealistic. It's because I genuinely want to see improvements and not see the sport continuously plummet into the same pitfalls. It's not like I enjoy having to bitch about stuff.
Like everyone else I obviously have some biases, which I don't make a secret about. I'm still gonna give promotions shit when they do something unacceptable, whether I happen to like them or not.
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Post by Shadess on Jan 5, 2024 14:52:59 GMT 1
For me the way they've gone about this just leaves a bad taste. It's been an open secret for many weeks that Rodtand very likely wasn't going to fight. Yet, they kept selling non refundable tickets with the much more appealing Takeru vs Rodtang headliner. Very scummy by ONE here.
It's still a good fight, just doesn't have the relative mass fan appeal the Rodtang fight had.
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Post by K1power on Jan 5, 2024 15:31:47 GMT 1
James McSweeney retires from fighting: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C1sPnQtJrrL Would have been cool if he capped off his career with the Badr fight, but James has had a solid career regardless. He's fought in most major promotions both Kickboxing and MMA and has some notable wins under his belt. |
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Post by K1power on Jan 5, 2024 15:36:52 GMT 1
Big new interview with Ernesto Hoost. I haven't watched it yet, but it has some okay translated subtitles.
Not sure if it comes from this specific interview, but Hoost said he'd like to fight LeBanner in his comeback.
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lero
Advanced Member
Posts: 943
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Post by lero on Jan 5, 2024 15:38:32 GMT 1
I think ONE did't have much options here. Is Takeru fighting in Japan, so it should be Abema calling the shots, if Abema says Takeru fights in january, ONE has to comply and that's it.
For japanese audience should not make a big difference which Thai gets the fight.
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Post by larsenator on Jan 6, 2024 10:40:08 GMT 1
True, in general fans want to see their favorites in action, but above all else at the top of everyone's list are anticipated matchups. I think the main reason we don't see a lot of Kickboxing fights in ONE, is because they don't really care about it anymore. And I don't blame ONE for shifting their focus. In fact, it's what I said they should have been doing all along. The problem is that they're keeping fighters hostage with terrible contracts, because in some half-assed way they still want to put some Kickboxing fights on their cards here and there. There's a reason all these fighters want to leave the promotion. This is not baseless speculation; we saw interviews and reports pop up all over the place throughout the past year. I don't really blame promotions for fights falling through because of injuries. It sucks and it weakens cards, but it's part of the game. I'd rather have a fight fall through and be postponed than get a replacement that nobody asked for. And just speaking for myself here; I absolutely tend to complain about developments, but don't feel like I'm being unreasonable or unrealistic. It's because I genuinely want to see improvements and not see the sport continuously plummet into the same pitfalls. It's not like I enjoy having to bitch about stuff. Like everyone else I obviously have some biases, which I don't make a secret about. I'm still gonna give promotions shit when they do something unacceptable, whether I happen to like them or not. I agree on everything you say mate! The kickboxing issue with ONE is just terrible. But If ONE really is and want's to be the promotion of all martial arts, I don't think they will trash kickboxing. They should have an equal focus on all the disciplines, they promote. Or easen up on their contracts!! And YUP: we, the fans, all want to see positive developments. We care, thus we give them shit when they do something ridiculous. This is obvious. This is only natural.  |
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Post by K1power on Jan 6, 2024 12:32:06 GMT 1
I think there's a path to redemption - or at least a sustainable business model - for ONE and while I'm skeptical that's the direction they're going in, there are at least a few things they could do - like easing up on contracts - that would earn them back a bit of respect from everybody in the scene.
We did see a handful of notable fighters leave the promotion last year, but none of them were beltholders at the time.
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Post by larsenator on Jan 6, 2024 16:17:31 GMT 1
Agree.
They should either let people fight, where they want to, or give them enough fights during a year, to make it worthwhile!
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Post by larsenator on Jan 7, 2024 12:16:28 GMT 1
The Sheehan Show: ONE Championship 2023 Year-in-Review
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