World Series of Fighting President and six-time world kickboxing champion Ray Sefo launches his new MMA fight promotion live on NBC Sports Network tomorrow, Saturday, Nov. 3

By Joshua Molina

In his epic, 87-fight career, Ray Sefo has fought the some of best (Mirko Cro Cop) and undoubtedly the worst (Bob Sapp).

He’s an indefatigable warrior who spent a majority of his career as a K-1 kickboxing star, but who has also fought inside the cage and as professional boxer.

And now the scrappy 41-year-old is taking on a new fight, one that just might be the most challenging of his enduring career.

Sefo on Saturday night will debut his World Series of Fighting Mixed Martial Arts promotion from Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas, in a fight that will be televised live on the NBC Sports network.

At a time when mixed martial arts has emerged as the fastest-growing sport in the world, led by the rise of the UFC, the WSOF is looking to usher in the next big era of the sport and take advantage of the UFC’s slight drop in popularity.

It’s a tall task, but as any fighter knows, no one or no thing is unbeatable; it’s all about timing, seizing opportunities and being unafraid to fail.

An air of intrigue surrounds the debut of the show. The MMA media, the UFC and Bellator and hardcore fans will watch to look at the production quality, the live attendance, and the quality of the fights.

While the UFC has barely acknowledged the show, everybody knows that there’s a lot a stake in how the show comes off. NBC sports has committed to televising the first show; unless the ratings are horrible, it’s likely that NBC Sports will televise a second show.

But others are watching. With Strikeforce in shambles, Showtime might be looking for a new MMA company to partner with in 2013.

Will the World Series of Fighting be one and done? Or are we watching the birth of the next big thing in MMA? We don’t know yet.

What we do know is that the show has a strong main event. Former UFC champion Andre Arlovski will battle one-time rising star Devin Cole.

Arlovski is an enigma. He looks great (but can he please replace the ridiculous vampire mouthpiece?) and with power in his hands can undoubtedly can fight. But he can’t take a punch. After lose four straight fights, three by knockout, Arlovski has put together three straight impressive performances. His last fight was declared a NC because of an illegal kick, but Arlovski was well in control at the time.

If he can beat Cole Saturday, then we can say that Arlovski is back. That’s because Cole, a former All-American wrestler, will be Arlovski’s toughest opponent since he fought the tough, at-the-time confident Brett Rogers. Cole has won eight out of his last 11 fights. He would likely be fighting in the UFC right now, but an arrest on sex assault charges prompted the UFC to back out of doing business with him. The charges were eventually reduced to assault and sexual harassment.

Cole, who went three rounds with Daniel Cormier,  is hungry to redeem himself.

Both fighters are hungry to redeem themselves. They both stand in each others’ way.

The card is stacked with 10 fights, including Anthony Johnson vs. DJ Linderman and Miguel Torres vs. Marlon Moraes.

Saturday’s show is also important because it gives fighters another option to make a living. These days, the UFC routinely dismisses fighters because the company has little fear that they will be successful in another promotion.

Competition will only make every company better. In the vicious business of MMA, fighters need options so that they don’t live or die on the whims of one or two power brokers.

Sefo now enters the business of MMA. Round 1 begins Saturday night on NBC Sports at 7:30 PST.

Saturday night also features an exciting kickboxing Pay Per View (also an iPPV on GloryWorldseries.com) event put on by the GLORY. In MMA, (unless your Ovince St. Preux in 2010), fighters compete, twice, maybe three times a year.

Imagine competing three times in one night? GLORY will hold the Final 8 tournament in Rome, Italy Saturday night. The winner of the single-elimination, one-night tournament will win $300,000 — an amazing amount considering that fighters in the UFC don’t make nearly that kind of money, (except for a handful of guys at the top).

The stand-up fighting promotions are growing in popularity and appear to represent a significant growth area for the combat sports movement.

Kurt Angle

By Joshua Molina
The World Series of Fighting really knows how to come out swinging. Whether it is a home run or a whiff remains to be seen.

The upstart league formally announced in a press conference on Thursday that it would hold its first show Nov. 3 in Las Vegas, in a bold attempt to take on the UFC, Strikeforce and Bellator and become one of the sport’s big MMA promotions.

The show will air live on NBC sports, a cable channel formerly known as Versus.
But like any good MMA fight, there’s already a lot of drama surrounding the organization.

NBC announced on Friday that they have only agreed to air one show on the network – not the eight to 10 that league officials announced on Thursday. That’s a sobering blow to the league, particularly because officials in the press conference made such a big deal about what a big part NBC would play in the development of the organization.

If NBC is waiting to see what the ratings are like for the show, then news is not good for the WSF.

That’s because the cable show will go head to head with Showtime’s Strikeforce show, headlined by Strikforce heavyweight Grand Prix champion Daniel Cormier battling former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir, in the first inter-promotional matchup between the top two MMA organizations in the world.

The show will likely break Showtime viewing records because UFC fans who have never watched a Strikeforce show on Showtime will likely watch to see their guy, Mir, take on Strikeforce’s top heavyweight.

Already out of the gate, the WSF has top-notch MMA to compete with and now NBC has committed to no more than one show.

Here’s some good news about the show – for pro wrestling fans. Former WWE champion and Olympic gold medalist Kurt Angle will be part of the broadcast team for the show. Angle, regarded as one of the best professional wrestlers of all time, won the gold medal in freestyle wrestling in the 1996 Olympics.

Angle had always toyed with the idea of going into MMA, but mercifully, never made the move. That’s because years ago in the WWE he regarded himself as the best “real fighter” in the business. Angle, however, was humbled when a real life fight broke out during one of the storylines.

At the time, the WWE was filming reality show called “Tough Enough.”
It was a reality show where WWE wannabees lived in a house and trained to become professional wrestlers. (UFC totally ripped off the idea years later with The Ultimate Fighter). The show exposed the business – and taught young wrestlers how bump (fall without getting injured) bodyslam, and essentially be a pro wrestler.

One of the guys who tried out for the show was a guy named Daniel Puder. Angle, during one of the show scenes, challenged anyone from the cast to try to pin him or make him submit. Puder, who trained in MMA, after grappling with Angle got him in a kimura and legitimately had Angle’s arm in keylock. Because Puder was on his back while applying the hold, and Angle was defenseless, the referee, trying to cover for Angle, counted Puder’s shoulders down for a really, really fake (even by pro wrestling standards) three count.
You can see it here:
After Puder broke the hold, Angle freaked out and yelled and Puder in the ring. It was quite the hilarious moment that you can see here. It was one of those classic, real things that happens in the wrestling business.

But Angle is charismatic and a great talker on the microphone. He will join MMA legend and a personality of his own, Bas Rutten and Michael Schiavello, to round out the announce team for the show.