JAMES TONEY TRAINING FOR UFC DEBUT
San Francisco, CA– Weeks after slamming Strikeforce for inking 48-year old NFL Hall of Famer Hershell Walker to an MMA contract, the UFC, Dana White in particular, signs James Toney to a UFC deal. The 41-year old Toney, twice caught boxing on steroids, is supposed to be fighting in the cage at 205 lbs. That might be tough seeing James hasn’t been under 217 since 2003. As a pugilist, Toney is 72-6-3, 44 KOs having turned professional in 1988. Supposedly, James will have one fight as a boxer before making his UFC debut sometime this summer.
MOSLEY’S LAWYER TAKES ATTENTION FROM FIGHT
Shane Mosley’s attorney is Judd Burstein. According to somebody privy to such info, Judd has charged Mosley $1,000 an hour for a case that Mosley and Burstein filed against Victor Conte. From the videotaped deposition of Mosley, it is in my opinion, aided by his squirming, stuttering, stammering, shucking and jiving, that Mosley is full of s*it! As for Burstein, long before he threatened that NY Daily News writer, the 6’6 Wall St. power forward that he is, Burstein threatened me with litigation over my writing in 2004 that Shane had admitted taking BALCO Lab’s illegal performance enhancing drugs. They took my press credential for a Mosley fight after I had hit town, all because Shane was a liar, a cheat, a man who portrayed himself as clean when he was anything but! Yesterday, the king of going off, promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank seemed to be of the opinion that Burstein has lost his ****** mind! Oh, in case you got lost in Burstein’s 6’6 pile of BS, Shane fights Floyd Mayweather this Saturday in Las Vegas.
UFC REALITY SHOW & BOXING NUMBERS
When Ultimate Fighter #11 aired its first episode on Spike TV April 1, it pulled in 1.9 million viewers on a Wednesday. In contrast, ESPN boxing would be happy with 600,000 viewers on a Friday night. Speaking of numbers, UFC 111 with Canadian Georges St. Pierre did 770,000, meaning they handily beat out Wrestlemania both here and in Canada…The Bernard Hopkins-Roy Jones rematch on PPV did 91,000 homes I’m told. That and less than 3,000 for the live gate. Who’s idea was it to do this anyway?
GODFATHER OF HBO DOESN’T GET MMA
During a conversation with HBO’s Larry Merchant Sunday morning, I told him that the UFC’s farm club, the World Extreme Cagefighting, drew 18,000 people Saturday night at the Arco Arena in Sacramento, CA for hometown lad Uriah Fabor’s loss to Jose Aldo. “I don’t get it,” said Merchant. “I look this stuff up and find out the heavyweight champion is only 4-1.” I explained that Brock Lesnar is a former NCAA champion who was at the top of the WWE when he decided to embark on an MMA course. Although sidelined by some serious maladies for months, Lesnar is slated to return in June.
BASEBALL & UFC DEMOGRAPHICS SIMILAR
81% of web visitors to the UFC website UFC.com are White. Blacks account for 3%, same as the Asian contingent, with Hispanics being 11% of their web traffic. 58% of the UFC traffic is male. As for Blacks, they hit double digits numbers with the NBA at 25%, TNA Wrestling 19%, WWE 15%, NFL 11%. On another note, Blacks only account for 3% of the Major League Baseball site’s total numbers.
$64,000 QUESTION FOR YOU ALL!
Do the scant numbers of Blacks online at these sports sites, do they indicate African Americans don’t care? Or do Blacks go online at a far lesser number per capita per Whites or Hispanics?
Pedro Fernandez