IFL World Team Championship Finals photo Gallery

Found a great photo gallery of the recent IFL World Team Championship Finals on December 29.  Check it out here.  There’s a link in that same page to the complete gallery.  Thank you MMA Weekly!

IFL Word Team Championships

December 29, 2006. My first time to watch MMA live. Also my first time to the Mohegan Sun.

The fights were great, even the pre-show fight for alternate was awesome. The show was produced well. They had Miss Connecticut (or some other state) do the national anthem and had some teeny pop girl sing for half-time. All the fights were good…few ended with decisions and there was only one really bad fight which had one of the fighters in guard almost the whole time. The Renzo Gracie – Carlos Newton fight was all right. Gracie is showing his age I think, and even though he was able to avoid a lot of strikes, he didn’t look like he trained too hard – – at least compared to Newton, who looked huge and at his prime. Gracie won, by (controversial) decision. Everyone, including himself, thought that Newton won. I took the fight with round 1 – Gracie, 2 – tie, 3 – Newton.

It really sucked that by the time I was able to confirm who was going to go watch the fights with me, tickets were almost sold out and didn’t have any choice as to the class and location of seats – – we sat almost near the last row of seats. I really need to confirm the number of tickets sooner so I can get better seats next time. Not only were the seats far, all the freebies (contests, shirts) all went to those with better seats (read: managed to get tickets earlier). You could still see the fight going on pretty well though, but it was better to watch the fight on one of the big screens – which kinda defeats the purpose of watching live. At least they gave lots of free popcorn to everyone – that is, they were handing them out near the restrooms and concession area. I brought my binoculars-camera and it worked pretty well. Here are some pix I managed to take:

The ring and the stage before the event got started

The Pre-fight dance. Could be the worse MMA pic ever. Was a good fight

Ground and Pound: First fight of the night

Guillotine attempt on the fourth fight

The ring girl 1

The ring girl 2

Trading blows. First main event fight

Ryan Schultz: carried out on a stretcher and feeling great…third main event fight

The fourth main event fight. It was pretty much just like that…

The lone Wolfpack win and the fifth main event fight

Renzo Gracie going for something on Carlos Newton

Newton and Gracie throwing punches

It was good that the IFL really does put a bigger emphasis on fighter safety. Doctors would jump into the ring when a fighter would get knocked out and every hurt fighter was thoroughly check out. One fighter was even taken out of the ring on a stretcher with a neck brace on. It was announced that it was just a precaution and that he was ok. Additionally, even though regular elbows were not allowed, you didn’t miss them in the fights…the fights actually seemed better with out them. These fighters really gave everything they had and they fought well. I can’t remember what the weight was, I believe it was the heavyweight bout, the one guy went airborne and kicked the other guy. I think that fight ended with a kick too. Not what you’d expect from heavy fighters.

Overall, it was a great show and I can’t wait to go and watch another live MMA show. If only there would be more of them in the east coast…

Holiday Week

It was a great week!!  I took a week off from work and had two weeks away from school.  Spent most of the time with my family.  A friend from California visited and I got to show her around the city.  I went to the 1st International Fight League World Team Championships in Mohegan Sun in Connecticut.  Finally got to snowboard the day after, in Okemo, Vermont, where it pleasantly snowed about 5″ all day.  Upon returning to the city, I saw the UFC 66 at a friends place on tv.  I’ll try to write more about the week, all the MMA and snow, and will try to post some pix too.

looking for internships

Similar to what I did before, I’m applying for internships again. It feels very discouraging that I’m not finding a lot. Hopefully after the holidays there will be more postings.

At least an internship isn’t the biggest thing for me to get. If I don’t get one, I’ll just look for another job. The whole purpose is to further my career anyhow and leaving my current job for another is my main goal right now, whether it be an internship or not.

I shouldn’t be so down the day after christmas, especially since I’m going snowboarding, watching the IFL live, watching UFC on PPV, and I have the whole week off from work and school! I feel better already.

Watching the IFL Championships

Finally get to see some pro MMA live!!  I can’t wait for MMA to get legal here in NY, It’d be awesome to get to watch it at Madison Square Garden or something.  All the other ticket types were sold out already, but that’s ok…I bought meself binoculars with a digital camera.  Hope it works well, I’ll be posting some pix here if it does.

Some reasons why I want to invest in the IFL

There really is one main reason: I think they’ll do well. There are so many ways that a company can do well, so I’ll try to name some specifics as to why I like the stock (or the company).

– They fight in a team. The team is the one that fights, not the individual. Although they fight one-on-one, they still need to win as a team to advance. Similar to the way the Philippines taekwondo Nationals were held before.   There’s nothing better than training in a team.  Very interesting concept which I hope will be accepted and will succeed.

– They are open about their business. They’re a public corporation. Their books are open and we can see what’s happening to the company. They’re not hidden like some other promotions.

– They are promoting MMA as a sport, not a spectacle like the fake wrestling, which is how the UFC is marketing their shows. Promoting MMA as a sport will have a better, long lasting impact on MMA as a whole.

– They acknowledge the truth about the origins of MMA in the US. They obviously don’t subscribe to the “Zuffa Myth” (I forgot which blog I got that term from) that distorts the history of the UFC saying that before the present managers of the UFC were in place, it started with no rules (they had rules from the start), that they ran away from regulation (they were always going for it), and that they didn’t get any sanctioning (they did, in NJ and even in NY – but the NY story deserves a whole other post).

– They treat MMA journalists as they should. I remember that an MMA journalist was kicked out of a UFC show. Why? I dunno.

– They treat their fighters well. The fighters have a salary and can support themselves between fights. Unlike in the UFC where most fighters get a minuscule paycheck only when they fight.

– They fight in a ring.  Which is safer for the fighters and keeps the fight fair.  Too many people use the cage as a weapon.  Saying that a cage is better since it protects fighters from falling out of rings.  That’s bull.  Go watch some Pride Fighting.  They aways get reset to the center of the ring and there are always people that try to keep you from the ropes.

– They removed elbows.  Elbows should be permitted, but another tactic that is abused is trying to give an opponent a cut above the eye.  Elbows do that very well.  A cut above the eye bleeds.  A lot of blood will go to the eye.  The fight will be discontinued because of the cut even though the fighter is still in excellent condition.  Not a fair fight.  Besides, cutting down on the blood factor will bring MMA closer to being a sport more openly accepted by the general public.

-They don’t sign exclusive contracts with their fighters.  They can still fight elsewhere.

– They have shows on free tv.  No need to pony up each time just to watch a show.  Just know the schedule – like you need to for any other tv show.  Not that I watch TV, I don’t.  But majority of people do.

So yeah, they are doing great things for MMA and I would like to see them succeed.  I hope I got my facts straight, although I wrote the whole post based on some other blogs I read – I can’t remember which ones, and the No Holds barred podcast.  So thank you unknown blogs and NHB podcast.

So my Tradeking account finally cleared.  I just set up a limit order for 100 shares.

My IFLI mistake

Over a week ago I wanted to buy stocks of the International Fight League. The price was $3.50.

I searched and compared online brokerage houses and decided on TradeKing. The stock was rising.

It took 5 days to clear my savings account for ACH transfers to my TradeKing account. The stock rose some more.

When it finally cleared, I transferred money. I was told it will be reflected in my account later in the evening. It was, but was on a five-day hold since I had a new account. The stock had risen to almost $15.

Because I insisted on reducing my commissions to $5 a trade, I lost out on a quadrupling of the stock. I lost out. I should have a giant “L” on my forehead. I should’ve just bought the stocks right away with Vanguard ($15 commissions).

Good thing I didn’t buy at $15 though, it dropped down to $11…

All this dancing around of the stock price – – this is why I don’t buy individual stocks…

IFLI’s price

I blogged about buying stocks of the International Fight League (IFLI – Yahoo, Google). Last week, their price closed just below $4 around $3.50 or something. This morning the stock jumped up to $8. That’s a big leap, I wonder what the closing price will be.

I opened a Tradeking.com account last week so I could buy the stock. Tradeking is a fairly new online brokerage firm, but so far they have had wonderful reviews. They offer the lowest fees per trade ($4.95 – no limits) and even offer things I don’t care to know about like options and puts and whatnots. The research portion of the site is supposedly not as good as that of other online brokerage firms, but in the age of google, why should that matter? I had transferred some funds from my checking account over to Tradeking, but it is still in process.

Imagine, I could have had a quick 60% gain!! This morning’s gain really is just noise in the long-term stock price of IFLI and I’m sure that their overall trend will be upward. I’m looking forward to watching the IFL perform over the next year and watching the fights they put up, of course.

Just a note: My overall financial plan is good and all, with a majority in index funds in tax sheltered accounts. I’ve no intention of becoming a day trader and the portion of money that I’m going to put in IFLI is considered “play money”. I also have “play money in Prosper.com in the amount of $1,500 making about 15%.

International Fight League

I remember reading an article many, many years ago about investing in company’s that you know and whose products you like. So when I heard that the International Fight League went public, my interest went up. The stock started at $8 and had dropped down to about $4, which is normal for IPOs. Normal in a way that the stock price adjusts to the market after the IPO and it is usually a downward adjustment.

I’d like to buy their stock but I don’t like buying individual stocks though. I’m a buy and hold investor and would rather buy index mutual funds. I’ve only bought one company’s common stock which I bought through a Dividend Reinvestment Plan (DRIP) over two years. I’m waiting until I’ve owned all the shares for a year, so when I sell I’ll only owe long-term capital gains tax and not short term gains. And I’ll only sell if I make at least a 10% – 15% profit. I’ll wait for the price to go up before I sell too. I am a buy and hold investor after all. It might be a long wait, since it’s a huge S&P 500 and DJIA company, and it’s not exactly a growth nor volatile stock.

The IFL stock will be different though. I can easily afford a block of stocks (or is it called a “lot” ? ). It’s a micro stock. I like what they’re doing with MMA and I think they have a lot of growth potential. Guess I’ll look through their financial statements 1st and make a decision then.