You knew something like this was coming as soon as Microsoft announced the Kinect way back when. It’s UFC Personal Trainer, and it’s exactly as you’d expect: flail about in front of your TV while an on-screen avatar carries out the moves. THQ says the National Academy of Sports Medicine helped design the game, and pro fighter gave their input as well. Hearings before the California State Athletic Commission are not expected to be included.

There’s not a whole lot more to the game. Greg Jackson offered his expertise, so there’s a name fans might recognize, and Dana White said the game will give fans who might not have access to a full gym the ability to train like a UFC fighter.

It’ll be available in June, and while the Xbox 360 version is clearly the one to get it’ll also be available for the Wii and PS3.

“There is definitely going to be an EA Sports MMA 2.” That’s the big news coming out of yesterday’s Figure Four Daily interview with EA Sports MMA producer Jeff Ecker, who said that it’s not “if” but “when” there will be a sequel. So, hooray!

The interview touched on a number of things, including the game’s low sales (Ecker referred the hosts to the game’s marketing department if they wanted to discuss sales numbers), what it was like to work with all the different fighters (Bas Rutten is specifically praised for being awesome to work with), how fighters were selected (basically, they wanted to get the biggest names worldwide that they could), and what Paul Heyman brought to the game’s promotion (Ecker was amazed by Heyman’s creativity).

But yeah, by far the biggest news is that Ecker did, in fact, confirm that there will be a sequel.

That probably goes against conventional wisdom. We all know the game didn’t sell too well (which, again, speaks to the fact that Joe Public has no interest in MMA itself, but is only interested in UFC and its recognizable fighters; rabid MMA fans on Sherdog are not indicative of the average sports fan, for better or worse), so this should be a relief to the game’s fans.

I actually got the game this past week, during one of Amazon’s crazy Black Friday deals ($29.99!), and yeah, it’s quite good, at least on the surface. I can’t speak too much to the gameplay, but I would like to see next year the option of full ring entrances (who are Mayhem Miller and King Mo without their elaborate entrances?). Nothing annoyed me more in WWF No Mercy 10 years ago (yes, I hold grudges) than the shortened ring entrances—the entrance is part of the entire experience! Well, that and there was some pretty gnarly slowdown at times.

It also stinks that Sakuraba isn’t in the game, but that’s because of a licensing dispute. Unfortunate!

The interview itself is behind a paywall, so unless you’re willing to cough up $10 to hear it you’re out of luck.

EA Sports MMA went on sale last week. The first week’s sales? Not too good, which furthers the idea that it’s not mixed martial arts (MMA) that’s hot right not, but rather it’s UFC that’s hot right now. A Cowen & Company analyst has called the game’s sales “more or less DOA at retail.” Ouch.

It’s a shame because the game isn’t too bad. Not that I’ve bought it, mind you, but the demo was fun and the reviews aren’t bad. I didn’t like how it bills Alistair Overeem as being from England (yeah, he was born there, we all know that he’s Dutch), but what are you gonna do?

The problem, nearest I can tell, is that EA got behind the idea that an MMA game, regardless of which fighters or promotions it featured, which sell well.

Clearly that hasn’t happened so far (and you wonder how well that other MMA game will do).

And given that THQ has wrapped up the UFC license for several more years, it looks like EA is going to have to hope and pray that Strikeforce miraculously becomes popular real quick.

It’s too bad because Strikeforce has a bunch of good guys, and EA Sports MMA was probably its biggest chance to get some exposure. (Hardly anybody watches its Showtime shows, and there’s no new CBS show in the works, owing to that brawl last April.)

Not to say I told you so, but, yeah: I told you so.

A few days ago we learned that the UFC had subpoenaed Ustream.tv and Justin.tv for the information of people who had ilegally streamed pay-per-view events. Having spoken to these people in the past, I knew they weren’t sitting around in their offices, rubbing their hands together as intellectual property was being violated all over the place. No, these are legitimate businesses looking to cooperate with companies like UFC whenever necessary.

Ustream has released a statement saying exactly what you’d expect it to say:

Ustream was subpoenaed by UFC via Zuffa earlier this year to provide identifiable information on certain broadcasters, which Ustream fully complied with in a timely manner. Ustream continues to work cohesively with our premium content partners to prevent piracy, including UFC to legally stream officially-sanctioned UFC events. As part of our continued efforts to ensure strong content protection for our partners, we also recently updated our copyright protection tools to enable copyright holders to easily and quickly monitor, and take down infringing content on Ustream.

One thing is for sure: you do not want to mess with Zuffa’s legal department. Those guys don’t mess around, and nor should they.

The big test for the stream police will be this Saturday night, as Anderson Silva looks to defend his Middleweight Championship against former WCW tryout guy Chael Sonnen at UFC 117. I sincerely hope Silva wins decisively. He’s a great heel, managed by an even greater heel manager in Ed Soares.

UPDATE Check the comments for Livestream’s point of view. But again, the time to check is on Saturday night. I”ll be looking around for streams and will report back. Fun~!

If this were the AP, the following would be the lede to this next story: “UFC President Dana White wants to put pirates in a kimura.” (That, of course, assumed the AP funny lede guy even knows what a kimura is!) Man, those soft ledes are terrible. Moving on… yeah, Dana White is upset at pirates. The promotion has subpoenaed Justin.tv and Ustream.tv, demanding to know the names of people who stream UFC pay-per-view events.

In typical Dana White fashion, he’s yelling at everyone, everywhere:

I can’t wait to go after the thieves that are stealing our content. This is a fight we will not lose.

I agree with his sentiment, but let’s not continue to confuse stealing with copyright infringement. They’re different crimes for a reason.

Even though UFC makes millions of dollars per year from pay-per-view (its primary source of revenue, by the way), it still feels that it’s losing millions because of these streams.

That assumes a lot of things, of course. The primary one is that it assumes that every single person watching a stream is a lost sale, which is patently ridiculous: how many of the people watching the stream have zero intention of paying for a UFC event? Granted, that doesn’t mean these people are entitled to watch the stream, but let’s not pretend that every viewer is a lost sale.

To be fair to the sites in question, Justin.tv and Ustream.tv, they both actively patrol their users for infringing material. It’s significantly harder to find UFC streams on these sites than it was only a little while ago. So it’s not like the sites are all, “Woo! We’re making money selling ads next to an illegal stream of Anderson Silva beating up Chael Sonnen!”

But let’s also not pretend that Justin.tv and Ustream.tv are the only two sites or services that stream UFC events. In fact, I’d go so far as to say you’d be a fool to stream and/or watch UFC events on these two sites. It’d be like using a public BitTorrent site and then being shocked when you get a notice of infringement letter from your ISP. Look before your leap, etc.

While I’m not sure that UFC would be best served by trying to sue its fans, I definitely understand where it’s coming from.

The numbers are in, and UFC Undisputed 2010, while not exactly a bomb, sure as heck (language, I know) didn’t do anywhere near the amount of business that last year’s version did. THQ sold some 413,000 copies of the game (221K on Xbox 360 and 192K on PS3) of the game. Contrast that with last year’s numbers, which worked out to 1.01 million across both platforms (680K for Xbox 360 and 334K for PS3). That’s a drop of around 60 percent! So what gives?

Hopefully THQ has learned that you can’t release UFC games like you would Madden. For one, there’s not enough year-over-year change in UFC to warrant a new game. The same fighters who were main-eventing last year (Brock Lesnar, Georges St. Pierre, Anderson Silva, etc.) are main-eventing this year. There’s no excitement of seeing, I don’t know, Brett Favre put on a Vikings jersey.

Others are blaming the release of Red Dead Redemption, which was aimed at the same young, male crowd.

There’s also the small fact that the game just wasn’t very good. I’ve read complaints on MMA message boards from here to next Tuesday that say the ground game in the game is wildly unfair and seems to be based on luck more than anything else. It’s very much a case of, well, if you bought the game last year, there’s no particular reason to upgrade.

In fact, the game is available for only $40 on Amazon right now. I feel sorry for the people who payed full price for the game back in May! (Don’t feel too bad, though, I bought Alpha Protocol for full price, too!)

All of this lends credence to the rumor that EA is going to offer Dona White & Co. a giant sack of money for the rights to the next UFC game, making EA Sports MMA very much a beta of sorts.

In other news, I fully expect a Shane Carwin win tomorrow.

I’m not sure if this is an anti-PayPal story or an anti-bully story, but here we go. A guy on Reddit, cerebellum of the Internet, was contracted to build a Web site for an MMA fighter. Not like a big name UFC guy or anything, but a small-time guy, Steve Gavin, whose last fight was in February, 2009, according to Sherdog. So the Web developer builds the fighter a site, then the fighter pays via PayPal. So far, so good. But lo! Then the fighter cancels the payment (while keeping it) by claiming to PayPal that it was an unauthorized payment. Now the fighter has pocketed the Web developer’s money while keeping the site.

Needless to say, not cool.

The worst part of this is that the fighter and his lawyers have threatened the Web developer with LAWSUITS~! if he doesn’t stop asking for his money back.

Clearly the fighter is exploiting a flaw in the way PayPal handles his money, but it’s probably more than that: he’s simply being a jerk. (Now watch I get sued. Thankfully I have no money or assets to speak of.)

The Reddit gang has a nice discussion going as to what’s the best course of action. I’m just doing my part to spread the word, so to speak.

Hopefully the MMA fighter comes to his senses. He wouldn’t like it if a dodgy promoter promised him $2,000 for a win, but then said, “Yeah, not paying you. Tough luck.”

Strikeforce, the mixed martial arts promotion that’s the focus of the upcoming EA Sports MMA video game, has an event tonight headlined by Fedor Emelianenko vs. Fabricio Werdum. Normally I wouldn’t mention that here on CG, but there’s a fairly neat tech angle that’s worth mentioning. Not only is there an Internet pay-per-view option at $24.95 (the event otherwise airs on Showtime here in the U.S.), which, in and of itself isn’t exactly breaking news (WWE, the world’s most technophobic company, has been running Internet pay-per-views for some time now, and even smaller promotions like Ring of Honor have jumped aboard the iPPV bandwagon), but there’s a clever “choose you own camera angle” gimmick that may interest you.

Throughout the event, iPPV viewers will able to choose the camera angle from which to view the action. There’s the standard camera angle that viewers on Showtime see, as chosen by the fancy-pants director in the production studio, but there’s also camera angles from each fighter’s corner, an overhead camera, a roaming camera, and something called CageCam. I believe that’s the referee-mounted camera: what he sees you see. Very much reminds me of PRIDE FC… those were the days.

How nice it is to see major sports promotions (if you’ll allow me to call Strikeforce a major sports promotion) actually embrace the Internet, rather than fighting it like Grim Death. Give people the option to view something like a Fedor fight, which are increasingly rare these days, nice and legally, and maybe they’ll bite—though my gut tells me that the $24.95 asking price is about $10 too high for what amounts to a one-fight (well, two-fight, if you include the Cyborg bout) show.

And if you’re feeling bold, bookmaker.com has Fabricio Werdum at +400 tonight, which means if you bet the maximum amount ($2,000) and Werdum wins you’ll have won yourself a hell of a vacation—plus, think of all the Steam games you could buy!

Then again, you could be out two-large, so whatever.

UPDATE~! Well, Fedor lost. Hope you took advantage of that +400 while you had the chance!

Man, two new trailers in the same day. Our cup runneth over, and so forth! Anyhow, here’s the newest trailer of EA Sports MMA, which should hit stores “late 2010.” That’s all in-game footage, too, so no smoke and mirrors nonsense.

Featured prominently are Bobby Lashely, Brett Rogers,Cune Le, and Nick Diaz (!). Where’s Fedor? You’d think he’d be one of the main guys in the trailer. Hmm…

Considering I much prefer a proper ring, à la PRIDE or DREAM, to a cage, well, I’m happy to see proper rings make an appearance. Remember: EA Sports MMA will feature Strikeforce as its main promotion, which is a pretty big deal for Scott Coker & Co. Nothing wrong with having a giant like EA in your corner.

Breaking news: UFC is popular. THQ has revealed that it sold 3.5 million copies of UFC: Undisputed, its fighting game based on the UFC license. And now you know why EA is making EA Sports MMA: big, fat cash.

THQ has subsequently dropped the price of the game to $29.99. Gotta get rid of that excess inventory before Undisputed 2010 comes out later this year.

The game’s success raises a few questions, namely: Is MMA popular in general, or is UFC popular? That is, are we at the point where anything with a UFC logo on it sells, or have people actually embraced the sport? (No, they haven’t, if we’re to believe a recent poll of New York state residents about the possible regulation of MMA.) Or, will EA Sports MMA be a big flop because EA miscalculated the sport’s popularity in the first place? Strikeforce is a fine promotion, and I thoroughly enjoyed last week’s event, but not everybody who watched UFC spends all day long on Sherdog. The number of “casual” MMA fans, to whom MMA = UFC, far outweighs the Sherdog crowd.

*Cough*

Do not expect UFC to look the other when it comes to online piracy of its various pay-per-view events. Dana White, the company’s president, recently told the Vancouver Sun that he and the UFC will do whatever it takes to eliminate piracy. “It’s gonna cost us a lot of money, but guess what, it’s gonna cost them [pirates] a lot of money. It’s gonna get to the point where it’s like, fuck it, maybe we shouldn’t pirate MMA anymore.” This is not a very forward-thinking way of looking at the problem, no.

It was only a few weeks ago that I first made mention of UFC’s efforts against piracy. The gist of the argument was, just let it happen and concentrate on maintaining the company’s momentum. The UFC doesn’t want to end up like the music industry, having sued its fans into indifference, if not antagonism, toward its product. It seems to me that, in the interest of the greater good, the UFC should ignore the streams that pop up. The greater good, of course, being continued and long-term growth at the expense of short-term profit (or, worse, revenge, because the tone Dana White has here screams nothing if not vengeance.)

(Keep in mind that there’s no telling how many of these illegal streams are set up overseas where copyright laws are non-existent. There’s no telling how many of these streams are watched in countries where the local population has no other exposure to UFC, where they can’t buy an official stream for $10 per show. Why not let these people get a taste now, and in a few years’ time, when you’ve built up an international distribution infrastructure, come in and offer them legal ways of watching your content? Maybe hire Shane McMahon to figure that out? What, the ol’ “I didn’t pay for this before, so I’m not going to pay for it now?” song and dance? Those people aren’t your fans, nor will they ever be. Don’t worry about them.)

There’s a few more things to consider. The year 2009 was the company’s biggest grossing year on record, with a record 7.755 million PPV buys over the course of the year. That’s around $349 million in PPV revenue alone. Arguing that a couple hundred (or even thousand) people watching an illegal stream will ruin the company is a stretch at best. That number, $349 million, is likely to be the biggest number of any company of any sport on PPV ever, even bigger than boxing in its heyday (though boxing has been putting higher profile fights on plain ol’ HBO in order to grow an audience). There’s every reason to believe that 2010 will be even bigger, particularly if current UFC Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar can get healthy. A fight between Lesnar and, say, Frank Mir would do extraordinary numbers on pay-per-view. That’s them up there, by the way.

Needless to say, the UFC is doing just fine.

This all started when the UFC filed suit against a Boston bar last week for showing an illegal live stream of the game. Yes: the bar literally hooked a laptop up to its TVs and had patrons watch that. Not only is that incredibly stupid on the bar’s part (the bar said that someone had set it up without its knowledge, which is incredibly difficult to believe), but, really, who wants to see an Internet live stream blown up onto a TV? It must have looked horrible. UFC wants $640,000 in damages. I hope it gets every single penny.

UFC plans to combat the scourge of live streams by sending subpoenas to Web sites that ask for every single IP address that connected to the stream. Then UFC would go after those IP addresses, just like the RIAA did back in the day. Never mind that I (or anyone with a modicum of tech-savvy) could spoof my IP address with my hands tied behind my back. Never mind that people could just connect to the stream using any number of anonymizers. And what if you live in an apartment building with a bunch of open Wi-Fi access points, or, just as bad, encrypted only with WEP? A ne’er-do-well could hide his identity any number of ways. An IP address is not someone’s unique genetic code, so let’s stop pretending it is.

Then think of the possible backlash. For all the money UFC is going to spend in and around the legal system by going after alleged pirates—and how long would we have to wait till it sues a single mother with three children, the oldest of whom connected to a stream for a moment just to see what all the fuss was about?—does the cost-to-benefit analysis work out? Maybe it does, I don’t know.

I don’t want it to sound like I’m defending the streams, I’m merely saying that it seems crazy to me to risk becoming the RIAA of this decade in order to prove a point. The UFC has every right to go after people who pirate its content, but it really ought to think about wether or not it’s even worth the trouble. Lawsuits didn’t eliminate music piracy. No, it was the proliferation of easy-to-use, legal alternatives (initially iTunes several years ago, and now things like the Zune Pass and Spotifiy and Pandora) that marginalized music piracy.

Suing everyone under the sun is not a method I would recommend to companies that are looking to grow.

Much of the background info via The Wrestling Observer Newsletter

Here’s a conspiracy theory for you (someone call Jesse Ventura): is EA Sports MMA intentionally going to stink in order for EA Sports to lose the Strikeforce license and later acquire the UFC license? Let’s see.

So here’s the gist of it, as I just read in this week’s Wrestling Observer: EA Sports doesn’t like to be number two in anything. There’s a feeling that, no matter how “good” EA Sports MMA is, it’s not going to outsell UFC Undisputed 2009 or the upcoming UFC Undisputed 2010, which will debut at the Spike TV Video Game Awards on December 12. (Rival publisher THQ is responsible for the Undisputed games.)

Why won’t EA Sports MMA outsell UFC Undisputed? I can think of a few reasons. One, in a lot of people’s minds, MMA = UFC. An MMA promotion other than UFC will be seen by these people as second-rate. So why buy a second-rate game?

But that’s out of EA’s hands. What is in EA’s hands is things like fighter selection, and apparently the people in charge of fighter selection are “hardcore” MMA fans, which is fine if that’s what you’re trying to do: appease hardcore MMA fans. The thing is, how many hardcore MMA fans are there versus the average guy who’ll watch a UFC show once a month with his friends while killing some beer and pizza? You can’t outsell an established franchise like UFC Undisputed if you’re purposely leaving out gigantic names like Gina Carano (there’s a no female fighter policy in effect for EA Sports MMA).

Put someone like Carano on the cover and it’ll sell many copies. Fact.

So here’s where the conspiracy comes into play. Maybe EA knows this. Maybe it knows that there’s no way in hell EA Sports MMA is going to outsell UFC Undisputed, and it’s cool with that. Why? THQ’s license agreement with UFC runs out next year (I guess it was for two games). EA, which has a tremendous amount of money at its disposal, could then go to UFC and say, “Look, we’re EA. We’re big time. Undisputed did well, but with our muscle at your disposal, we’ll make a UFC game so incredibly huge that you’d be a fool to stick with THQ. Also, here’s several truckloads of money to help sweeten the deal.”

And then EA has for itself what could be the biggest, most lucrative sports license in the coming years.

This all depends on the EA-UFC dynamic, of course. We all know that UFC approached EA several years ago, before the creation of Undisputed, and that EA basically told UFC to take a hike because UFC wasn’t a “real” sport.

A hit TV show and several successful pay-per-views later, and EA is all, “Hey, UFC. Let’s do lunch.”

I’m over here watching the Strikeforce show on CBS and there’s ads for EA Sports MMA all over the place. So I’m like, “hmm, maybe EA Sports has posted the trailer to its Web site yet?”

Yes. Yes it has.

Let the record show that I beat Sherdog and all the gaming sites I usually visit to this news. Go me~!

Consider this a friendly reminder. Tonight at 9pm ET on CBS (in the U.S.; I’m sure there will be plenty of streams, though, which you can find on your own) two of the big stars from EA’s upcoming EA Sports MMA video game will hit each other very hard. Fedor Emelianenko, the big Russian guy who could well be the best MMA fighter of all time (or is that Sakuraba?), will fight Brett Rogers, of whom I know nothing.

There’s actual a reasonably interesting story vis-à–vis video games and mixed martial arts. A few years ago, UFC approached EA with the idea of making a video game. UFC declined, saying that it didn’t consider MMA to be a real sport, which, let’s just say, really upset UFC president Dana White.

UFC later signed a deal with THQ to make the video game, which has been both a critical and commercial success.

The success of THQ’s game is said to have sparked EA’s interest in making its own MMA game. EA then started signing fighters to a deal, before announcing that Strikeforce would be the game’s main promotion.

So yeah, I’ll be watching Fedor tear apart Rogers tonight. If only it were easier to place bets online from the U.S!

I am spending the day watching old Fedor fights, courtesy of alt.binaries.mma. Hopefully Mr. Emelianenko comes out to that Era song again, and not some generic rock nonsense.

The beauty of this post is that maybe six of you have any idea of what I’m talking about.

Strikeforce (UFC’s closest competitor here in the U.S.) promotes one of the bigger fights of the year tomorrow in Fedor vs. Brett Rogers. It takes place in Chicago, which explains why EA Sports just held a press conference there to reveal more details of its upcoming MMA game, entitled EA Sports MMA. EA Sports says that Strikeforce will be the “premier” mixed martial arts league in the game, and that well-known referee “Big” John McCarthy will be in the game.

The game, which is due out for the Xbox 360 and PS3 next year, will, as such, feature Brett Rogers and other Strikeforce fighters.

In-game commentary will be provided by Frank Shamrock and Mauro Ranallo. I haven’t played an EA Sports game in three years, so I have no idea who good the commentary is these days.

Other fighters confirmed to be in the game include current UFC star Randy Couture, Gegard Mousasi, Renato Sobral, and Cung Le. (Check Wikipediafor the full list of confirmed and rumored fighters. Hopefully Alistair Overeem makes the cut. You’d think he would, being that he’s the Strikeforce heavyweight champion, even if he hasn’t defended the belt in two years.)

Presumably EA Sports MMA will now be colloquially referred to as “the Strikeforce game.” Hopefully EA can work in plenty of Dream fighters, as well as the Dream arenas.

Oh, the first trailer of the game will debut during tomorrow night’s Strikeforce show that airs on CBS at 9pm. And if you’re interested in a little backstory, check out Showtime’s 30-minute documentary on both Fedor and Rogers. Fun stuff.

“Funny” videos on the Internet are often abysmal, but this one I like. I’d describe it, but suffice to say, that’s why it’s a video. For. You. To. Watch.

In other MMA news, The Ultimate Fighter from the other day, where Kimbo Slice lost to that IRL IFL guy, was the highest rated MMA show in American history. Some 5.3 million people tuned in for the show, with 6.1 million tuning in for the fight itself.

It’s safe to say that Kimbo is a huge draw. He still has zero ground game, but give him time. There’s no way UFC is gonna botch this guy’s career; entirely too much money is at stake.

CORRECTION! Yeah, IFL, not IRL. Finger slipped–the r is right next to the f!–and it must have gotten past our team of highly skilled copy editors.

Even casual fight fans know that last night was UFC 103 and Mayweather vs. Marquez. No spoilers here, of course, but I do encourage you all to, I don’t know, buy the replays or find them wherever you find things these days. While on the topic of mixed martial arts, full credit to whatever marketing company put this ad together for Norton Anti-virus. Yes, that’s Kimbo Slice, and he’s admonishing a caterpillar.

The problem with Kimbo—and this is not breaking news or anything—is that he’s a jacked up backyard brawler. He’ll destroy any of us in any type of fight, but what happens when he meets a professional fighter who’s spent the past 10 years down in Brazil learning Judo and BJJ? That’s where the intrigue lies with Kimbo Slice: how he’ll perform when he meets people who can take him to the ground and work him. I guess we’ll find out this year on the Ultimate Fighter, one of only three shows I DVR (the others being Top Gear and Curb Your Enthusiasm).

As for Norton Anti-Virus, am I wrong in thinking those guys don’t have the best reputation? Not that it’s an Evil Corporation, but that the software just ain’t what it used to be? (Maybe that’s an “online” opinion?)

Anyhow, considering how wacky commercials have become (see: the Geico googly eyes spots, the old Microsoft Bill Gates/Jerry Seinfeld spots, etc.), this one is probably a winner. Looking only at the YouTube comments (“This is perhaps the single best thing that has ever been created by somebody with a vision”), yeah, it looks to be a hit.

I’m sure you’ve all heard by now, but just in case: Fedor will not be fighting in the UFC any time soon, as he has signed a contract with rival promotion Strikeforce. So if you’re were hoping, one day, to see him fight Brock Lesnar, well, it looks like you’re out of luck.

The only reason I mention this here, instead of mmacrunch.com, is because Fedor is the marquee signing for EA’s upcoming MMA game. UFC president seemed ready to make an exception to his “if you appear in the EA game, you’ll never fight in UFC” rule, offering Fedor an “assload of money” to fight.

Who exactly Fedor will fight in Strikeforce is still unknown. He said in a press release that “Strikeforce is a top fight promotion that houses some of the greatest fighters in the world,” and that he is prepared to fight “any of them.”

It should be noted that Strikeforce, to quote comedian Patrice Oneal, is the WNBA of mixed martial arts. It’s nice that it exists, sure, but you don’t watch it thinking you’re getting the absolute best, elite fighters.

Dana White has since called Fedor a “joke,” and said that he “feel[s] sorry for the real fight fans. I wanted to make the deal, but it takes two and it is very obvious Fedor doesn’t want to fight the best, and doesn’t give a shit about the fans.”

That Dana, always one with words.

A dream died yesterday, and as a newer fan of UFC I can honestly saw that I saw more than a little bummed out when I first found out about Fedor-Strikeforce.

And that’s probably the last I’ll talk about the story here. If the worlds—MMA and tech—collide again, there I’ll be.

Here’s an update to something I touched on the other day: Does Fedor’s inclusion in EA’s MMA video game preclude him from fighting in the UFC? Apparently not, if you believe what UFC president Dana White said at a press conference yesterday.

The press conference yesterday addressed a number of issues, including the return of Tito Ortiz and a deal with ESPN UK. (ESPN is launching a new channel in the UK, primarily to showcase all the Premiership games it just won the rights to.) But what concerns us here at CrunchGear is that EA MMA game.

Dana White has said in the past that anyone, with the exception of Randy Coture, who signs up to be in the EA game will not fight in the UFC. Fedor looks to be another exception. White said that he offered Fedor an “assload of money,” a deal that he’ll never find anywhere else in mixed martial arts. For whatever reason, Fedor’s people didn’t agree to the deal. (Rumor has it that Fedor’s people want to co-promote any possible UFC fight, presumably against Brock Lesnar, something that UFC doesn’t want to agree to.)

So, reading between the lines, Fedor’s inclusion in the EA game should have no effect on any possible UFC fight(s). Other things may hold up the deal, but it doesn’t look to be the game.

Looks like Fedor Emelianenko will, in fact, be in the upcoming EA MMA video game. Fedor, as he’s known to MMA fans, currently fights in M-1 Global, which is an MMA organization based in Russia. (YouTube helps here.)

This could have consequences further down the road. Pretty much every MMA fan in the world wants to see Fedor fight in the UFC; most of those fans, I would guess, would want him to fight Brock Lesnar, who just gave Frank Mir a thorough talking-to. The only problem is that Dana White, who’s sort of the Vince McMahon of UFC (he’s actually the president of the company, but he also performs a public “look at me!” role like Vince McMahon does/used to), has gone on record, time and again, as sayingthat anyone who appears in the upcoming EA MMA game will never fight in the UFC. (Yes, Randy Coture is the exception to this rule.)

Why is Mr. White resorting to such measures?

I went to EA Sports. Know what EA Sports said? ‘It’s not a sport. This isn’t a sport. We would never get involved in something like this.’ We come out with a video game [UFC Undisputed, the best selling game of the quarter] and now they want to come out with a video game? (Expletive) you.

(Also, Dave Meltzer, the guy whose story that quote comes from, could be the greatest journalist alive today.)

So, in summary, Fedor’s appearance in the EA game complicates matters. Now, because Lesnar vs. Fedor has money written all over it, especially if neither of the two lose any upcoming fights, you’d have to think that Dana White would re-consider his stance.

Fedor isn’t getting any younger, and I’d like to see him and Lesnar go at it before the sun runs out hydrogen.