HDNet News - Page 1

FiveOuncesofPain.com has recently been able to learn from sources close to the situation that reality television kingpin, Mark Burnett, has invested in King of the Cage, and through this recent founded partnership the company has managed to secure a broadcast deal with HDNet Fights for the year of 2010.

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The HDNet universe shrunk a bit on May 21 when Time Warner Cable, a massive cable-television company available in 27 U.S. states, dropped the premium cable station from its list of available channels. The all-high-definition cable station, launched in 2001, features more MMA-related content, including the weekly "Inside MMA" news show, than any network or cable station.

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HDNet has announced that their start time for the DREAM 9 broadcast has been pushed back 2 hours to 5 AM ET on May 26. It had been scheduled to start at the live event's start time, 3 AM ET. No reason given for the change.

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US fans won't have to wait 3-4 days to see the many fights, freakshow or not, at DREAM 9. The CEO of HDNet Fights announced today that HDNet, in a change from recent policy, will air DREAM 9 live on May 26.

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Sengoku has joined the long list of organizations that will be broadcast live on HDNet.

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Thanksgiving: the holiday best celebrated by abusing your arteries and securing central obesity’s graduation from “health concern” to “full-blown epidemic.” In between trips to the apple pie trough, you might feel compelled to mumble some gratitude toward family, friends or -- may God forgive these words -- the fight promoters. Mindful that excessive carbohydrate consumption might render your brain as useful as a bowl of congealed Quaker oatmeal, here’s a handy holiday reminder of things any MMA fan should be grateful for.

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The DREAM Will Be In HD. HDNet Fights has extended its existing partnership with FEG USA, Inc., and will continue to air DREAM mixed-martial-arts events through 2009, HDNet today announced. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. HDNet Fights also today announced it has partners with FEG USA, Inc. to bring the K-1 World Grand Prix and K-1 World MAX tournaments to HDNet. The deal encompasses six events from the 2009 K-1 tournament and six events from the 2009 K-1 MAX tournament.

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For the $650,000 price tag, HDNet will be entitled to all intellectual property, including the IFL’s film, video, and image library; its five-roped competition ring and team trademarks; and proprietary rights, including its Web site. The transaction also includes any remaining broadcast contracts the IFL acquired during its two-year tenure, which includes a deal with FOX Sports Network. An article up at Cage Potato provides speculation as to what this acquisition could mean in terms of HDNet's desire to promote MMA: Not that the IFL didn’t put on some good fights, but how much is old fight footage really worth? With the exception of the really good bouts, watching old fights can be a lot like watching old college football games on ESPN Classic, which is to say it appeals to a very select audience, mostly the unemployed and the very, very drunk, either of whom are likely to think they’re watching live TV. But HDNet seems too savvy to pay that much for a bunch of old fights that have already been aired on Fox Sports Net and MyNetwork, not to mention spread around the internet. So what do you have up your sleeve, HDNet? Don’t tell me you paid more than half a million dollars just to air Chris Horodecki highlights in between old episodes of Hogan’s Heroes. All right, I admit I’d watch that.

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Mark Cuban’s HDNet channel has emerged as the frontrunner for all of the remaining assets of the International Fight League, which filed for bankruptcy Sept. 15. Forms were filed Wednesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission requesting that the publicly owned IFL be given permission to sell its remaining assets to the network. The forms also requested that HDNet be given every consideration as a potential buyer as the IFL’s assets go to the auction block through Oct. 23. HDNet has offered a buying price of $650,000 for all intellectual property, including the IFL’s film, video and image library; its five-roped competition ring and team trademarks; and proprietary rights, including its Web site. The proposed transaction also includes any remaining broadcast contracts the IFL acquired during its two-year tenure, which includes a deal with Fox Sports Network. HDNet Fights broadcasts a multitude of MMA events, including Strikeforce, Affliction and Japan's Dream promotion. The company’s CEO, Andrew Simon, was not immediately available for comment.

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Jimmy 'The Titan' Ambriz will replace Mighty MO at DREAM. 6 & Face Sergei Kharitonov Ken Pavia frm MMA Agents informed PDG today that he will be flying to Japan tomorrow and his fighter Jimmy "The Titan" Ambriz will be replacing Mighty MO at DREAM. 6 against Sergei Kharitonov on Tuesday Sept. 23rd. No word yet on why Mighty MO had to withdraw but an announcement is expected soon. Bad news for MO fans but great that Sergei is still going to be on the card!!

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HDNet And HDNet Movies Announce Affiliation Agreement with Comcast Addition of HDNet Programming Part of Comcast's Project Infinity Commitment to Deliver Best and Most Content Available Anytime, Anywhere (DALLAS) September 4, 2008 - HDNet, the leader in high definition programming, today announced a carriage agreement to add HDNet and HDNet Movies to Comcast's strong high definition (HD) programming line up. The agreement enables Comcast, the nation's leading provider of entertainment, information and communications products and services, to provide the two HDNet networks to HD subscribers in many of its systems, including free On Demand programming, in addition to increasing Comcast's carriage of HDNet over the next year. "We're thrilled to have a partnership that will provide Comcast's customers with top-notch HD programming. This agreement between two leading HD providers will help shape the ever-expanding world of high definition programming," said Mark Cuban, president and co-founder of HDNet. "This marketplace agreement makes HDNet's cutting edge, independent programming accessible to many more cable homes across the country." "With hundreds of HD choices available to Comcast customers, we believe that partnering with HDNet further complements our offering by bringing both compelling and high quality HD programming to our customers in this increasingly competitive marketplace," said Matt Bond, executive vice president, content acquisition, Comcast. "This partnership is another example of the strides we're making on our Project Infinity commitment to deliver more HD choices than anywhere else." Launched in September of 2001, HDNet became the world's first national television network broadcasting all of its programming in high definition. HDNet is the exclusive, high definition home for critically acclaimed original programming, including television's only HD news feature programs "HDNet World Report," "Dan Rather Reports," featuring legendary journalist Dan Rather. HDNet also features championship sports coverage from MLS to MMA and groundbreaking music programming with the HDNet Concert Series. Great news for subscibers of the largest cable company in the US. Remember you don't actually need a HD tv to watch, just a HD decoder. Hell, splurge! you're going to need one pretty soon anyways! Amazing channel for MMA!

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A quote from Crocop from his website at MMA-ID.com "Hello everyone, unfortunately I have some bad news? I won't be fighting at DREAM 5 at all. I was about to face Jerome LeBanner but he decided to fight in K1 against Schilt. Mighty Mo was the alternative and I accepted this challenge, but unfortunately Mighty Mo pulled off from the fight. I was ready to face Mo, but maybe this scenario wasn't that bad for me at all and I'll tell you why. I've been having problems with my right elbow for years and the injury got even worse over last 6 months. I'm already receiving a proper treatment but the recovery won't happen over night. The second problem is a knee injury, something that troubles me for quite a while. I had difficulties using my kicks and over last few weeks I focused more on boxing and grappling. I really wanted to fight on July 21 and I was even ignoring doctor's suggestions, but now I've rached the point from which I can't continue with my normal training regiment due to my injuries. I was willing to accept the risk of fighting Mo or someone else without being 100% ready fo the fight. I had only one fight this year, I miss big fights and top level competition. I'm eager to get back to the big stage, I still have good fights left in me and I won't give up. I'm not happy with this outcome of course, but at this moment I need to be patient and give some time for my body to recover. I'm scheduled for arthroscopy tomorrow morning, it's a minor surgical procedure but it will keep me away from MMA trainings for 2-3 weeks probably. From Wednesday I'll focus on my new cardio training program and we'll add MMA elements to my training regiment as soon as my knee will be ready for action. My goal is to become the first heavyweight champion in DREAM and to do that I need to be ready to fight on September 23. I'm not interested in summer time, vacations or things like that; I'll focus on getting back to shape and hopefully I'll fight in September. I would really like to fight Alistair Overeem, we all know why and I won't let it go. My career is far from being over, I'll be fighting some strong competitors soon again and hopefully I'll meet Fedor in the ring once more in 2009. Thank you for supporting me and I'll get back to you all soon to keep you updated. "

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Even though the Mark Cuban-backed HDNet seems to have the financial resources to be a challenger to UFC, HDNet Fights has chosen to be more a programming brand than a fight promotion in the 9 months it's been around. They have no imminent plans for a 3rd event yet, admitting the timing is completely tied to-no surprise here-Randy Couture getting his freedom from UFC.

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The World Alliance of Mixed Martial Arts (WAMMA) will stage its first title fight next month, with the winner of the Fedor Emelianenko versus Tim Sylvia bout emerging as the alliance's "undisputed world heavyweight champion." WAMMA formed in November of last year as MMA's first sanctioning body with goals that include creating greater visibility for the sport and recognizing world champions in each weight class. The organization's first order of business was assembling a group of journalists and bloggers to rank the best of the best in MMA. (In the interest of full disclosure, two MMAjunkie.com staffers are members of the rankings committee.) Emelianenko is currently WAMMA's top-ranked heavyweight, while Sylvia checks in at No. 4. They meet at the Affliction "Banned" show July 19 at Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif. The winner earns WAMMA's first title belt. While the notion of an "undisputed champion" would ordinarily pit the top two ranked fighters against one another, No. 1 versus No. 4 is as close as WAMMA can get. Both Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (ranked No. 2) and Randy Couture (No. 3) are under contract to the UFC. The battle between former PRIDE titleholder Emelianenko and Sylvia, former two-time UFC champ, is the first of what WAMMA hopes will be a series of title fights, but stringing together meaningful match-ups to create undisputed champions will be a challenge. Of the six weight classes ranked by WAMMA, heavyweight is the only division not currently topped by a fighter under contract to Zuffa. The UFC and WEC have traditionally not worked with other promotions to make fights and appear to have little interest in working with WAMMA.

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This is something that I never thought I’d type: Donald Trump — who has forged a partnership with Affliction MMA — will tomorrow announce the acquisition of former UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski at a noon press conference at Trump Tower in New York, N.Y., according to MMARated.com. In addition, “The Pitbull” will take on Ben Rothwell (as expected) during the debut pay-per-view (PPV) event for the promotion at the at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif., on July 19. Trump is also expected to reveal more details on his partnership with Affliction MMA, which according to the report, he owns a “significant amount” of the upstart promotion. This is about to get real interesting … as if it isn’t already. Stay tuned. In the meantime, to get some more background on Trump’s involvement with mixed martial arts click here.

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DreamFighters.com has learned, and confirming a dreamfighters.com news release last week, GracieMag.com has confirmed that Vitor Belfort will be fighting at Chute Boxe academy in Brazil, and will fight under the Allfiction name in July. anybody thinking LIL NOG VS BELFORT going to happen?!?!!?!?!? i havn't been this excited for a card since, ... well ive never been this excited for a card EVER. war affliction.

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Fedor and Tim Sylvia interviewed together. Nothing really amazing, just cool that HDNet throws a few tidbits on Youtube.

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When Mark Cuban announced his intentions of promoting mixed martial arts, many people were excited about the possibilities the billionaire could bring to the sport. Since the formation of HDNet Fights last year, the Dallas based organization has held two events. It's been five months since they've put on a show, but HDNet Fights CEO Andrew Simon told MMAWeekly they plan on putting together "super-fights" in the future. HDNet started airing MMA with World Extreme Cagefighting, but has expanded their coverage to showing several regional events from around the country as well as Japanese promotions. "We have the ability to partner with pretty much any organization out there," said Simon. "And when the timing is right, you're going to see us promote again some super-fights." "We're going to be pretty opportunistic when we want to promote ourselves. We're in a little bit of a different position than everyone else. We have our own television network. We have our own arena in Dallas with the American Airlines Center, and we're not into it to just put on fights every month ourselves just because. I think you're going to see when we come back it will be a pretty big fight."

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DreamFighters.com's reporter/contributer "MMAPhD" has reported that Kid Yamamoto has just signed a fight deal with DREAM, as is set to fight at DREAM.4 As quoted earlier by Kid Yamamoto" "I don't know when my next fight is yet, but I'm sure I fight in DREAM and I hope I can fight in Jun or July." "At first, I want DREAM to have a lighter weight class than the light weight class. 63 to 64 kg is ideal."

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HDNet cable channel, should cease operations immediately because it was born out of a breach of trust, misappropriation of trade secrets, and other harmful actions on the part of HDNet, the North American Boxing Council (NABC) said in a lawsuit filed March 17th in the Marion Superior Court in Indianapolis, Indiana. The eight count suit seeks to restore the rights ofthe NABC to its proprietary business and marketin gmodel for a unifying mixed martial arts organization, and to recover damages for the ongoing illegal torts committed by HDNet. The complaint states the NABC’s confidential proposal for a unifying mixed martial arts organization was made to HDNet in January 2007. In response to the proposal, HDNet taped two NABC mixed martial arts TV events in Indianapolis in May 2007. HDNet began broadcasting the NABC mixed martial arts events in June 2007 and subsequently placed the events inregular rotation on the HDNet schedule. In August 2007, HDNet advised the NABC it had rejected the NABC’s proposal. However, that same month, HDNet secretly incorporated its own mixed martial arts organization, “HDNet Fights Inc”. HDNet proceeded to introduce “HDNet Fights” to the public beginning with press statements in September 2007 as a unique unifying mixed martial arts organization falsely representing it as the original product of HDNet. The suit seeks to recover damages as determined by ajury trial.

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