Mark Cuban announces HDNet Fights

[AlSi]

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcont...n.35580a2.html

Looking for a fight? Cuban to launch HDNet Fights

Mavs owner wants to put mixed-martial arts on high-def network

Mavericks owner Mark Cuban always puts up a good fight in his cutting-edge business endeavors.

Now, he's going to put on a good fight.

Lots of them, in fact, as his newest sports venture, HDNet Fights, will showcase the craze that is mixed-martial arts competitions. Cuban says the first event will be Oct. 13 at American Airlines Center. Details of the project will be provided at a news conference today.

The one certainty, however, is that HDNet Fights will be a cornerstone to Cuban's HDNet, the high-definition network he launched in 2001.

"I was a casual fan, but over the last 18 months, I've really gotten into MMA," Cuban says. "HDNet was the reason I started watching. I started watching and got hooked. As we did more and more, our numbers went through the roof. So getting this heavily involved is both the result of being a fan and a business move.

"It's going to be great programming for HDNet."

Cuban's involvement with the fast-growing sport, whose primary name brand is the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), will be far-reaching. He has hired a talent guru, Guy Mezger, and has visions of owning a stable of fighters.

"[It] works just like the NBA," Cuban said. "We have scouts around the world looking for talent, just as we do here in Dallas. Guy is our Donnie Nelson."

Nelson is the president of basketball operations for the Mavericks.

Numerous reports have linked Cuban to Fedor Emelianenko, widely considered to be the Shaquille O'Neal of UFC and is essentially a free agent.

Cuban also said he hopes to sign some local fighters to HDNet Fights, perhaps including Alex Andrade.

UFC events in Dallas have been met with mixed reaction. An "Art of War" event on Sept. 1 at AAC drew an announced crowd of under 8,000, meaning the arena was less than half full.

But interest in the burgeoning sport has grown dramatically in the last year.

"It's still early for MMA in Dallas," Cuban says. "There have been some good events. As more happen at the AAC, the crowds will grow. Our event Oct. 13 has a great card, and we plan on having more after that."

Mixed martial arts is a style of fighting that includes elements of boxing, karate, judo, kick-boxing, wrestling and other fistic genres.

[AlSi]

http://www.star-telegram.com/287/story/233547.html

DALLAS -- He's not Fred Astaire, but that isn't stopping Mark Cuban from Dancing with the Stars. He's not Don King, either, but the Dallas Mavericks owner is jumping into the fight game, merging the burgeoning sport of mixed martial arts with high-definition television.

Cuban's latest venture, HDNet FiGHTS, will begin signing a stable of MMA fighters as well as organize premier events, seeking to leverage his half-ownership of American Airlines Center and his high-definition television network, HDNet.

The debut of HDNet FiGHTS is Oct. 13 at AAC, a 10-bout card featuring a light heavyweight main event between Eric Paulson and Jeff Ford, both of whom attended Wednesday's news conference outside AAC.

Cuban wants to expand fight broadcasts beyond HDNet and into movie theaters, including possible 3-D broadcasts much as the NBA did with last season's All-Star Game and a 3-D broadcast in Cleveland of an NBA Finals game.

Cuban said he plans to refine the MMA's bar-room brawl image and promote the fights and fighters ahead of the sideshows.

He suggested MMA, wildly popular with the male 18-34 demographic, can one day be on par with the NBA or NFL.

"These are professional athletes," Cuban said. "One of the challenges has been in the way it's been structured up to this point. It's almost like basketball was in the '60s and '70s. I listen to Nellie [Don Nelson] and Del [Harris] tell me stories about how they had to get summer jobs because they weren't making enough or some people who passed up playing professional basketball because it didn't pay enough to feed their families, and that's what's going on in MMA right now."

Cuban said he doesn't view himself as a promoter, but as a unifier, someone who can bring the various tentacles of MMA fighting under a common umbrella and provide competition for the Ultimate Fighting Championship, or UFC, the runaway MMA leader on television.

Cuban wouldn't divulge how much he's invested in the venture, only to say he'd do "whatever it takes."

3-D HD in theaters sounds interesting.

UFC has plans to make a deal w/ HBO which would bring more events into HD on cable too (Spike is going HD later this year also i think). the competition should be nice; raise the pay scales, hopefully attract fighters who wouldnt otherwise compete in MMA. Cuban's already mentioned Fedor's name a couple times in the past few days; that would be a huge plus if he could make it happen. Apparently he's not going for the same contract fighter system as UFC, so im not sure how that would work since Fedor's conditions are pretty high atm.

in his conference call he talked about planning 24 events for 2k8 (including other organizations; IFO (Steele Cage), Art of War, & IFL). there will also be some sort of MMA Week in Review show; i could be remembering wrong but i think it will have bas rutten & kevin james (from king of queens).
edit: yea its called "Inside MMA"

the website
http://hdnetfights.com/