THE CANADIAN PRESS
Bob Meyrowitz was around for the beginning of the UFC and now the 65-year-old New Yorker hopes to add a new chapter to his mixed martial arts promotion story.
Meyrowitz, who sold the financially ailing UFC to the Fertitta brothers and Dana White in 2001 for US$2 million, and partner Peter Kauff launch Yamma Pit Fighting on Friday with a show at the Trump Taj Mahal Arena in Atlantic City, N.J. (available on pay-per-view).
Yamma offers a new-look cage, a return to the era of eight-man tournaments and a “masters’ superfight” division that matches Oleg (The Russian Bear) Taktarov against Mark (The Titan) Kerr and Butterbean against kickboxer Pat Smith.
Meyrowitz says he got back in the game because he thought the sport he helped develop was getting dull.
“I was trying to think of what you can do to make it better and I came up with this fighting surface,” he explained.
The UFC has the Octagon and Yamma has, well, the Yamma. It’s a rounded cage which has an angled collar at the bottom of the fence. The ring surface is the same, as mandated by the state athletic commission. But the addition of the angle means the fence comes less into play.
“You’re going to have to stay in the middle, you’re going to have to fight.” Meyrowitz said. “You cannot stay up against the fence, it’s too much of an angle. . . . this I think is a better design for mixed martial arts.”
A glimpse of the Yamma — Meyrowitz explains it is mountain in Japanese and pit in Russian — is available in a video on the organization’s website (www.yammapitfighting.com).
The old-timers are slated to fight between breaks in the heavyweight tournament. The eight heavyweights will square off in four bouts that consists of one five-minute round. The winners will be checked out by a doctor and then take part in the semifinals, which will also last five minutes. Following another doctor examination, the two finalists will square off for the tournament title over three five-minute rounds.
“No other sport could do this, where you’re going to ask a fighter to fight three fights in one night against he doesn’t know who,” Meyrowitz said. “In fighting, as most sports, you really prepare for your opponent. After the first round, they don’t know who they’re going to face. They just have to be totally, totally ready to go in and do what they had to do.”
The tournament roster is mixed, to say the least. Ricco Rodriguez is a former UFC champion who was most recently seen on the TV show “Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew.” Sherman Pendergarst had one fight in the UFC, losing to Antoni Hardonk at UFC 65. Travis Wiuff has fought in the IFL, UFC and Pride.
The other entries are Tony Sylvester, Chris Tuscherer, Alexey Oleynik and George Bush.
As for the seniors, Taktarov, Kerr and Butterbean are 39 while Smith is 44 or 45. Smith lost to Ken Shamrock in the very first UFC event in 1993 while Taktarov fought in UFC 5, 6 and 7 and Pride 1. Kerr’s resume stretches back to Pride 2 and UFC 15.
The card has changed somewhat with Don (The Predator) Frye and Canadian Gary (Big Daddy) Goodridge both withdrawing in the leadup.
Meyrowitz, who hopes to hold one show every two months in Yamma’s first year and then one a month after that, says he wants to continue with the seniors concept.
“People want to see the great fighters but it’s not fair to ask them to fight a younger fighter in his prime. . . . When they put in Royce Gracie to fight Matt Hughes (at UFC 63) and Matt Hughes beats up Royce Gracie, Matt Hughes doesn’t look great for beating up Royce Gracie and Royce Gracie doesn’t look bad for losing. It just looked like a bad idea.”
Butterbean, a.k.a. Eric Esch, has a 10-5-1 record in MMA but is better known in boxing circles. At 5-11 and 350 pounds, he is hard to miss.
“He is unbelievably popular. It shocked me,” Meyrowitz said. “I have toured with the Rolling Stones, the Who, Bruce Springsteen, I’ve never seen anybody get stopped for more autographs, more pictures than Butterbean. It amazed me. He’s very gracious. Fans seem to love him.”
Meyrowitz has a history with music (he was involved in the creation of radio’s “King Biscuit Flower Hour”) and still has rock ties. Toronto-based promoter Live Nation is involved with Yamma.
He also was one of the first in the pay-per-view business through Semaphore Entertainment Group (SEG), which hooked up with Art Davie and Rorion Gracie at the start of the UFC.
Today he says he has no regrets about getting out of the UFC in 2001.
“Not at all. We built something that was quite incredible. We had run into a wall and it’s not fun to beat your head against a wall. These people came along, offered me a good deal of money. They then had the courage, the fortitude to invest an additional $40 or $50 million of their own money into it.
“Good for them, I think they deserve kudos for doing it and I’m proud of what we started, I’m thrilled to be back in it and I’m looking forward to the show Friday night.”
