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Tag: UFC

  • UFC Takedown Notices Include Lots of Porn

    UFC Takedown Notices Include Lots of Porn

    Make no mistake about it: UFC President Dana White absolutely hates it when people stream UFC fights on the Internet. So much so, in fact, he has been incredibly outspoken about making such an act a felony. With that in mind, it stands to reason the UFC has no hesitation about issuing DMCA takedown notices to Google on a regular basis. These requests, however, seem to use an incredibly wide net–in other words, bots–to find sites worthy of being taken down.

    The results of these bot-based searches are, as pointed out by Torrent Freak, takedown requests for sites that may not actually be infringing on the UFC’s content; that is, unless the UFC (or its parent company Zuffa) dabbles in the pornography industry. While some of the infringing sites were, in fact, streaming UFC fights, others included in the DMCA report were offering material of a much more adult nature, something the following screenshot reveals quite well:

    UFC DMCA Takedown
    Click to enlarge

    Of those ten sites, only one was offering content owned by the UFC. The others? Probably not so much, again, unless the UFC/Zuffa is investing in porn on the side. While this may not seem like a big deal, because, hey, content infringement is content infringement and while the UFC may not own the all of the copyrighted material in its request, it is acting like a good citizen by reporting the misdeeds of others. That, however, gets away from the meaning behind DMCA complaints, which were intended to focus on the copyrighted content owned by the entity issuing the complaint, which was not the case regarding the UFC.

    Furthering this point is the following header from the complaint in question:

    This is submitted for my client Zuffa LLC
    These links are facilitating piracy of my client’s work
    The work can be seen by visiting their site www.ufc.com
    The item this is relating to is Ufc content

    Unless I’m mistaken, I’m pretty sure you can’t see Rocco’s Psycho Teens 4 at UFC.com, unless there’s some kind of hidden web portal common users don’t know about. As the Torrent Freak article points out, this is fantastic example of how using bots to populate DMCA takedown requests can lead to unfortunate and ineffective situations like these:

    Instead of pinpointing specific pages carrying UFC torrents for example, the crawlers will target any other pages (even those created dynamically by search engines) that link to them, meaning that the generated DMCA notices deindex hundreds of other items that have nothing to do with the specific rightsholder. This, while often leaving the actual torrent page intact.

    Killing the page, but not the torrent, is a meaningless gesture if ending piracy is the intended goal. With that in mind, should Google even acknowledge complaints that are so wildly inaccurate?

  • “Fast and Furious 7” Adding UFC’s Ronda Rousey

    The Ultimate Fighting Champion, Ronda Rousey, has recently started negotiations to join the cast of “Fast and Furious 7″. If the deal closes, it will be the first major role cast for the next installment in the franchise.

    The movie is set to start filming this fall, and if all goes well, Rousey will be moving her training for her upcoming fight to the location of the movie shoot. “Fast and Furious 7″ will be bringing back most of its regulars including Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, producer Neal H. Moritz and writer Chris Morgan. James Wan will be coming on as director. Justin Lin’s “Fast and Furious 6” grossed more than $740 million and made making another sequel a priority.

    Rousey has also landed a role on the film “Expendables 3”. She says that she does not believe her career as an actor will take away from her fighting career. “If I was going to have three jobs and train at the same time, then I can have one other job and train at the same time,” Rousey said. “Kind of like a different location, it’s going to be kind of difficult. I can multi-task, I do it all the time.”

    The plan is for Rousey to shoot both films back to back so she can finish in time to focus on training for her next fight. Her championship rematch with Mischa Tate is on Dec. 28 and is the co-main event of UFC 168 in Las Vegas.

  • Justin Bieber Pirates Off The Internet, Just Like The Rest Of Us

    So, what do you do if you are a multimillionaire pop music idol and you want to watch Anderson Silva get KTFO’d, but you don’t have the Pay-Per-View broadcast handy? Well, if you aren’t a big money teenage dreamboat, you probably resort to things like Justin.tv and First Row Sports to get your fix. But, again, what if you are Justin Bieber, King of all things Twitter and teenage girls? How do you scratch that particular UFC itch?

    Apparently the same damn way as the rest of us:


    Spoken like a true child of the Internet age. What’s that? You can’t see the latest episode/game/movie that everyone is talking about on social media? Go ahead and pirate it, right? That’s what all the cool kids are doing, right Justin? Anyway, as you can expect, such a tweet caught the eye of UFC boss, Dana White, who was quick to remind the Bieber King he could, in fact, afford to buy the package:


    But who has time for that legal stuff when there are streams aplenty on the web? Justin Bieber certainly doesn’t, because, much like the honey badger, Justin Bieber just don’t care. It should be noted that Bieb’s request came after the UFC event was over, and so, it’s likely he was looking for some replay highlights of Silva clowning his way to his first loss in the UFC.

    Whatever the case, after all the complaining the Universal Music Group has done about piracy, it would be nice for them to take their golden calf to task for perpetuating the same behavior.

  • Ronda Rousey: The Ultimate Fighter is “Emotionally Taxing”

    When Ronda Rousey signed on as a coach for the 18th season of The Ultimate Fighter, she did not expect it to be so much work. The UFC women’s middleweight champion this week took to Facebook for a live chat and opened up about how “emotionally taxing” the experience has been for her.

    According to MMA Weekly, Rousey did not anticipate the emotional toll the show would have on her. She stated that she cares so much about her fighters that, “I just felt like any kind of heartbreak or triumph, whatever they’re going through, I share in it.” She called it “exhausting” to go through the process with each fighter and that it “takes a lot out of you.

    Meanwhile, UFC President Dana White continued to play up the animosity between Rousey and her opposing coach, Miesha Tate. Tate and Rousey have been long-time rivals. White stated that Tate and Rousey “hate each other” and that the filming has been “hard” because of the drama.

    (via MMA Weekly)

  • UFC: Gray Maynard Wins in Spit-Decision, Fans Lose

    Last Friday Gray Maynard got a split decision victory over Clay Guida at the UFC main event in Atlantic City, but it was the fans that lost out in this fight. The key lightweight match-up seemed like it was going to be a brawl from the get go, but what fans saw was anything but.

    Maynard tried to turn it into a slugfest early, but Guida danced around the ring, avoiding him at all costs. Truthfully, this is both of the fighter’s faults. If Guida thought that he was outmatched standing up, than it is only natural to circle the ring and look for the right opening. It isn’t the manliest way to stay in a fight, but at least he was trying to play to his strength. If Mayard wanted a slugfest he should have done a better job of closing in an cutting off Guida’s footwork.

    At one point, Mayard dropped his hands and stuck out his chin, in an effort to give Guida some free shots. Guida obliged, and it looked like we might see some action. Guida landed three punches before Maynard took back control and went straight into a guillotine. It looked like Maynard might get the quick submission, but Guida slammed him and was able to pull his neck out. So there was some action, brief though it was. At one point referee Dan Miragliotta warned Guida about running, but that was about it.

    The lackadaisical fight did not go unnoticed, neither by the fans, nor UFC president Dana White

    Whether you place the blame solely on Guida, or give some to Mayard for not closing the bout, one thing is certain, the match did not deliver, and fans are pissed. Most of them put 100% of the blame on Guida:

     

    [source: Yahoo Sports]

  • UFC Bans Fighter Jason Miller for Questionable Behavior

    UFC bans fighter Jason “Mayhem” Miller after president Dana White claimed that the professional brawler’s outrageous pre-fight antics didn’t fit with the company’s professional sensibilities. Although it’s unclear which incident caused White to throw in the proverbial towel, it’s quite clear that he’s had enough of the guy’s behavior.

    The news arrived hot on the heels of Miller’s loss to C.B. Dollaway, a fight which featured “Mayhem” holding a pink boombox while wearing a pink boa. “When you get embarrassed the way he did against Michael Bisping, then you show up in that pink whatever that thing was, I’m not into that stuff. It’s not my thing. I guess I don’t really care if guys do it because you see it at weigh-ins all the time. Just take this thing serious. If you want to be a clown do that stuff on your reality show,” White explained.

    Regarding which specific incident of unchecked silliness caused him to boot Miller from the UFC, White said that it was “just some bulls–t that I don’t want to talk about. We’re on a crazy string here of dumb bulls–t.” Fair enough.

    Jason “Mayhem” Miller began his career in the mixed martial arts circuit in 1999. Known for his wild behavior, Miller quickly developed a reputation within the UFC for being a bit of a wild child. And while his career as a professional scrapper may have ended with the UFC, Miller can still be found hosting MTV’s “Bully Beatdown” and announcing for “King of the Cage” with Michael Schiavello. His record currently stands at 33-23, with 5 knock-outs and 14 submissions.

  • Anonymous Unleashes Hell on Richmond, CA Police Officer

    Anonymous Unleashes Hell on Richmond, CA Police Officer

    It’s one of those stories that starts off in the simplest way and escalates.

    UFC President Dana White has been embroiled in an online dispute with members of Anonymous after his organization expressed support for SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act. Many back-and-forth exchanges on Twitter and in the media between White and members of Anonymous took place. Supporters of both sides made statements and tweets.

    Then came this Jan. 26 Tweet from Mike Rood, a Richmond, CA police officer, supporting White (his Twitter account has since been deleted):

    Then, yesterday, all hell broke loose.

    Anonymous re-tweeted Mr Rood’s comment, noting that his threat of violence was illegal.

    They then called on their Twitter followers to call Officer Rood and his supervisor about his public statements.

    And, they responded. The Richmond, CA Facebook page was flooded with comments about Rood. They were deleted, and have continued to be deleted. The page currently shows no activity since January 26.

    The Facebook wall for the local newspaper, the Contra Costa Times, was also flooded with complaints about Mike Rood. those are still up to view.

  • THQ Looking To Sell

    THQ Looking To Sell

    THQ, publisher behind the UFC and Saint’s Row games, may be looking for a buyer.

    Over the weekend, industry insider Kevin Dent, took to Twitter to lay a little rumor on us. He said that his sources claimed that THQ was looking to sell the company and that they had canceled their entire 2014 line-up and the planned Warhammer 40K MMO.

    Dent started on Twitter claiming that the Warhammer 40K MMO had been canceled and then went on to say that THQ was offering itself to Asian firms to increase their value.

    Even more damaging was the rumor that THQ had returned IP to Disney after paying an advance with no refund. This part isn’t entirely out of the question as children IPs are harder to sell and generally don’t pay off in the long run.

    Dent then explains that the problem stems from THQ pushing their uDraw peripheral onto HD consoles when the first one on the Wii just sold ok. He then says that THQ didn’t have the money to take that kind of creative risk. He also says that the company was not in the position to make an MMO, with a minimal investment of $140 million.

    Finally, he says that the company’s biggest mistake was releasing Saint’s Row 3 into a hyper competitive market. While the title reviewed well, it was stuffed into the same period as the usual heavy hitters like Call of Duty and Assassin’s Creed.

    Of course, this is just the rumor mongering of one man, albeit a trusted industry insider He can be, and he hopes, he’s wrong.

    THQ finally responded to the rumors with a kind-of denial to VG24/7:

    “As part of the ongoing review of our business, we have made decisions to ensure that the company is strategically addressing the most attractive markets. As we have previously announced, we have dramatically reduced our commitment to the kids’ boxed games sector which leads to a significantly more focused release schedule moving forward. Our slate for calendar 2012 and beyond is focused on high-quality core games and continues to build our digital platform and business. We are excited for our pipeline of original and high-quality content along with our relationships with some of the best talent in the industry.

    “Additionally, we are thrilled with the great performance of Saints Row: The Third, which on a like for like period in North America has tripled in sell-through from Saints Row 2. In addition, WWE ’12’s worldwide sell-through sales are up almost 40% year-over-year for the same sales period with fewer platforms. According to NPD, for the month of December and the 2011 year, THQ was the #5 publisher overall, #4 third party, with reported sell through growing over 18% in a market that was down almost 6%. And coming up next, we have two great titles for the first half of the year including UFC Undisputed 3 and Darksiders 2.”

    After the statement, Dent went on to Twitter to clarify that he never said this was set in stone. He hopes the best for THQ and is happy with their statement. That doesn’t change the fact that the statement is somewhat of a kind-of denial that never sits well with anybody.

    Their statement doesn’t exactly confirm or deny anything except that they are not canceling anything at this time. 2012 is looking good for THQ and hopefully this will soon just be another rumor that never amounted to anything. Still, THQ is not out of the woods yet and they are still up in the air about the fate of their Warhammer 40K MMO. This isn’t over yet, but like Dent, I wish THQ all the best.

  • UFC to Give Twitter Bonuses

    UFC to Give Twitter Bonuses

    The two worlds of social media and professional athletes have not always played well together. Back in the day, organizations had better control over what their athletes said to the public. Statements were either issued in a press release or at a press conference. The world was simple.

    Now, with the rise of social media, especially Twitter, athletes are saying things publicly all the time – making multiple statements a day. Sure, most professional athletes use Twitter like every other person; but since they are followed by so many people every little thing they say gets scrutinized and publicized – much to the chagrin of sports team owners and organizational presidents. And sometimes they forget to filter what they say.

    So while most organizations like the NFL and NBA have implemented rules cracking down on Twitter use, one sport’s President is planning on rewarding “creative” Twitter use.

    Ultimate Fighting Championship’s Dana White announced at the UFC Fighter Summit in Las Vegas that his fighters will begin to receive bonuses for Twitter use starting June 1st.

    From mmafighting.com:

    Starting June 1, UFC and Strikeforce fighters will be divided into four categories, based on how many Twitter followers they currently have. At the end of each quarter, three fighters from each category will be awarded a $5,000 bonus. The three winners will be based on who has gained the most followers since the start of the quarter, who gained the highest percentage of new followers and who wrote the most creative tweets. White will be the judge of the last category.

    At the conclusion of a full calendar year, the UFC will end up paying $240,000 a year to its fighters for their Twitter usage.

    Dana White is a prolific Tweeter himself, so his love of the technology must play some role in this decision. Some big name UFC fighters like Tito Ortiz, Chuck Liddell and Ryan Bader are already pretty active on Twitter, but White wants to expand the Twitter use to every one of his fighters.

    For any relatively new sport, even one that has gained almost immediate popularity, publicity is key. While organizations like the NFL and NBA are well established and simply want to avoid bad press, White and the UFC understand the amount of buzz that can be created by Twitter.

    For over a year and a half, the NFL has had a policy in place that bans Tweeting within an hour and a half from kickoff and also bans the service until post-game interviews are wrapped up. The NBA has also banned Twitter during games for players, coaches and other team personnel.

    But much of the damage that their players have done in the past has been on their own time, nowhere near gametime. The most famous Twitter controversy has to be former Kansas City Chiefs RB Larry Johnson’s gay slur tweets from 2009. After bashing his coach after a loss he wound up in a Twitter-fight with another user. He then referred to his Twitter profile picture as a “fag pic.” That little comment cost him $213,000.

    And then there’s Rashard Mendenhall, a more recent example. His comments following the killing of Osama bin Laden caused quite a stir.

    It looks like Dana White and the UFC are welcoming all that come with Twitter presence. And why shouldn’t he? For a sport than has already come under fire by some for its violence, a possible Twitter controversy is nothing. So tweet away, fighters – and be creative!

  • Like The UFC On Facebook And See Two Free Fights

    The Ultimate Fighting Championship said today that people will be able to watch -for free two live preliminary fights from its Fight For The Troops 2 event on Saturday, January 22 at 8 p.m. ET by clicking the “Like” button on its UFC Facebook page.

    By liking Facebook.com/UFC, fans will have access to a live stream of the lightweight fight between Cody McKenzie (12-0) of The Ultimate Fighter and veteran Yves Edwards (39-16-1), as well as a  welterweight match with TUF alum DaMarques Johnson (16-8) against Mike “The Joker” Guymon (13-4-1).

     

    UFC-Facebook

     

    “I’m always looking for ways to give fans fights for free and this is just another example of that,” UFC President Dana White said.

    “Facebook is such a great tool for people to stay connected and we’re excited to put two live fights on our UFC page for free.”

    In addition to the live stream of two prelims on Facebook , the UFC is hosting an online auction that will raise funds for the brave men and women in the United States Armed Forces with traumatic brain injuries. Prizes include the chance to attend the premiere of season 8 of the show Entourage, as well as the chance to meet Philadelphia Phillies centerfield Shane Victorino and attend a Major League Baseball game as his guest.