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Dwayne Johnson underwent surgery on 4/23 to repair three muscle tears in his abdomen, and publicly said it is a possibility his match with John Cena at WrestleMania was his last one.
Johnson attempted to start training to get ready for his role as Hercules, this past week. He started doing two sessions daily of training on 4/17 and was beginning physical therapy the next day. The idea was likely to do light weights with the idea of really cracking down on the diet and being able to come in ripped for the movie. That lasted a day or two before he was back in the hospital and wrote, Saw my doctor who had to push my intestines back through the tear in my abdomen. Kinda romantic. Surgery is next week.
As noted before, he was desperately trying to avoid surgery because of the filming schedule of the movie, or have the surgery after completion of the movie. Right now the movie is scheduled to start filming in Istanbul, Turkey in late May, around the 22nd give or take a couple of days in either direction.
Johnson publicly talked about his in-ring career possibly being over in a 4/22 interview with New York radio personality Pete Rosenberg.
Was it my last match? Possibly. said Johnson in an interview promoting the reality show Hero on TNT, that debuts this summer, and he is producing and hosting. Im really not too sure. I wouldnt rule it out.
He said the plan the whole time was to build to having the biggest show of all-time in the New York market. He said he came in with a three-year plan that would end with him putting over Cena, but had planned on wrestling Lesnar at next years Mania.
That was the next thing that made sense to me because I love Brock and weve been friends for over a decade now, and we could have a great athletic match. So that was the plan, but when I tore two tendons off my pelvis, I had to fly home that day. So we couldnt do what we wanted to do at Raw that day. So, possibly with Brock down the road.
Besides the obvious situation regarding the injury and his movie schedule in early 2014, another factor may be whether he believes a match with Lesnar can top what hes already done, when it comes to fan interest.
He said all the stories that came out about him being mad, walking about, the injury not being real, etc. were ridiculous. He said Vince McMahon, HHH, Punk and Cena all knew he was hurt after the match, that he was being checked out for a hernia by WWE doctors on 4/7, and that he wouldnt be at Raw the next day.
We were told by those in WWE that Vince was aware of the injury on Sunday night, but didnt know for sure he wouldnt be at TV until Monday morning. The story that Rock walked out without telling Vince was never the case. But they were scrambling to change the television show on Monday afternoon since the key segment on the show was to be the Rock vs. Lesnar angle. The idea there was a falling out between the two sides was a story that took on a life of its own, partially because very few of the wrestlers and company personnel were aware he was hurt after the match on Sunday.
Very few were told of the injury Sunday although at the same time I could say the same for Punks knee injury, since few were told about that one either. Then Johnson wasnt at TV as advertised, so speculation ran rampant. But there were some really bad stories being made up out of thin air out of this one.
If Johnson was considering doing SummerSlam this year, that looks to now be out of the question due to the surgery. I dont believe that was the case because the only thing going forward he had talked about was a WrestleMania match with Lesnar. If he does return for WrestleMania next year in New Orleans for that match, it would probably not be for several more months before hed be able to do the physical angle to set it up.
Johnson missed a 4/22 premiere for Pain and Gain because he was having surgery the next morning.
Director Michael Bay made a remark about it, saying to E! News, He was pushing it too hard. (He) needs to grow up and stop wrestling 300 pound men.
Because of the injuries, there will likely be more pressure from studios on him not to wrestle.
When Gilbert Melendez and Josh Thomson were battling with each other over the Strikeforce lightweight championship in probably the best three-fight program in modern MMA history, both fighters looked at the various sets of rankings going around, and the overall perception of where they stood, and felt they werent getting their due.
Melendezs goal was to be recognized as the best lightweight in the world. Even though no lightweight of the past seven years could match his win-loss record and top ten status over a long period of time, he was always considered one of the best and never the best. As a Strikeforce fighter, he wasnt going to get to fight the people in UFC that would allow him to be considered No. 1. At one point, he had accepted being happy to be the highest paid lightweight in the sport (at east when it came to base salary).
Thomson, on the other hand, was not even considered top ten, even though he argued that he believed and most who saw fight three believed he had won two of three from Melendez, who by that time was often ranked as high as No. 2.
The 4/20 UFC on FOX show from the HP Pavilion in San Jose was going to put an historical perspective, after the fact, on how both mens seven year Strikeforce career should be viewed. If both lost in dominating fashion, Strikeforce would have been considered a secondary promotion where they had good fighters, but not UFC championship level fighters. The titles would be worth what a Bellator or King of the Cage title was worth, but neither would have been considered as part of their legacy to be in a position where they would be argued as near the best in the sport at any time.
If they both won, then their battles would be elevated greatly as being two of the best in the world going at it three times.
Even though they both didnt win, they both clearly established that they are now, and probably have been since 2006, two of the best in the world.
The battle of the UFC lightweight champion, Benson Henderson, and Melendez, the Strikeforce lightweight champion for most of the last seven years, ended in a razor-thin split decision win for Henderson on scores of 47-48, 48-47 and 48-47.
Melendezs status as the last Strikeforce champion was not ignored in the promotion of the show. But it was not heavily pushed as champion vs. champion, at least not at the level the 2007 Rampage Jackson (UFC champion) vs. Dan Henderson (Pride champion) fight that did gigantic TV ratings was.
The decision being announced for Henderson was heavily booed. That was more because Melendez is from San Francisco, and had fought on most of the Strikeforce big shows in the arena as one of the headliners. It was clear that most of the crowd was there to see Melendez get his overdue shot at proving he really was the best in his division.
Moments after winning, in the cage, Henderson got down on one knee and proposed to girlfriend Maria Magana, a high level Jiu Jitsu competitor. Because the crowd was furious about the decision, they booed the proposal. There was some tension backstage after the fight, particularly with Melendezs live-in fiancee, Kerri Taylor, herself a high level kickboxer, literally a few feet away from Magana as both talked with others about the scoring. Nothing happened and no words were spoken, but Taylor did walk away for fear her temper would get the better of her.
The general feeling after the show is that Henderson won the third and fourth rounds, and Melendez won the first round. As far as who won, that depended on how you saw rounds two and five, which were both close. I had both for Melendez and had him winning 48-47. Id estimate 75% of the people at press row live saw it the same way, since after, almost everyone, with a few exceptions, were saying 1, 2 and 5 for Melendez.
In the fifth round, with the fight hanging in the balance, neither man established themselves as the winner. In the last 20 seconds or so, neither went after it, which is a decision Melendez in particular, may have to deal with for a long time. Had Melendez done something significant in the last 20 seconds, enough to make one judge, Dennis Cleary, believe he won the fifth round, he would be champion. Both of the other judges saw round five for Melendez.
In the scoring, Cleary gave Henderson rounds three through five to give him the fight. Wade Vierra gave Henderson the second and third rounds, but interestingly gave Melendez the other three, including round four, which I had Henderson clearly winning. Michael Bell gave Henderson rounds two, three and four, to give him the fight.
There was controversy after the fight involving Vierra, who lives in Sacramento and runs a school affiliated with Cesar Gracie, who helped train Melendez. While its probably best for all concerned someone running a Cesar Gracie gym probably shouldnt be scoring a fight with a fighter affiliated with Cesar Gracie, Vierra himself had no affiliation with Melendez, and from what I gather, did not even know him. Vierra had told the California State Athletic Commission, which appointed the judges, that he didnt want to judge the Nate Diaz vs. Thomson match, because he knew Diaz. The MMA world is relatively closed-knit, and most judges some of the fighters they judge, often many, and even in many cases socialize with them. Vierras card wasnt outrageous and among those live was the only one with the same score the majority had.
Henderson outlanded Melendez in significant strikes 68-43 during the fight, including landing more in every round. Most of Hendersons significant strikes were low kicks. When it comes to blows to the head, Melendez had more in rounds two, three and five, and his punches landed harder, which may explain the difference between the views of those watching from ringside and in the building and those watching on television. But Hendersons low kicks were significant, knocking Melendez off his feet twice and turning Melendezs left thigh into a shade of raspberry.
Fightmetric, which gave the fight to Henderson overall, had a total fight effectiveness score of 33-32, to show how close it really was, and scored three 10-10 rounds.
The Observer poll went with Henderson, with 55% to 36% for Melendez and 9% had it even.
No matter who it was scored for, it was going to be controversial. In reality, it was so close that either could have won. But Melendez proved in the fight hes the equal to UFCs champion. Thomson, who fought 15 rounds with Melendez over the past several years, and proved to be on the same level, was not even ranked top ten. But he rectified that, finishing No. 4 ranked Diaz, making the first time the younger Diaz had been stopped. In reality, beating Diaz should have put Thomson no lower than No. 4, behind Melendez, Gray Maynard and Anthony Pettis (who is currently campaigning as a featherweight with an 8/3 fight with Jose Aldo Jr.).
In the official UFC ratings that came out after the fight, Melendez remained the No. 1 contender due to his close loss. However, Thomson was No. 8, behind Melendez, Pettis, Maynard, Jim Miller, Donald Cerrone (Diaz finished Miller in a one-sided fight and beat Cerrone), Diaz (who Thomson dominated) and T.J. Grant (whose biggest career wins are Evan Dunham and Matt Wiman).
In all, of the eight UFC vs. Strikeforce fights, the tally was 4-4, and the Strikeforce guys came out on the short end in two decisions that could have gone either way.
As far as what happens next, the winner of the 5/25 fight in Las Vegas with Maynard vs. Grant, gets Henderson next. Melendez and Thomson really should both be considered one win away for being in strong consideration. And a fourth fight between the two, this time with the following UFC title shot at stake, also makes sense.
In the other controversial call on the show, Francis Carmont scored straight 29-28 scores in a win over Lorenz Larkin. It was a dull fight. I had it for Carmont, largely because he was the aggressor. Larkin never got untracked, and got taken down a few times. A takedown on its own shouldnt win rounds, but when the opponent does virtually no effective audience, at that point a takedown can win you a round if the opponent does nothing, and Larkin did land some strikes, but nothing of significance and Carmont controlled most of the fight even when he wasnt getting the takedowns. The Observer poll was solidly for Larkin, with 61% to 31% for Carmont and 8% had it even.
On paper, given the quality of the fighters and how they were matched up, this looked to be the strongest show so far this year. With those kind of expectations going in, the show had a good chance of being a letdown.
As it turned out, the fights were, for the most part, as good or better than expected, and most were talking of it as a show of the year candidate. The finishes were as spectacular as any show in UFC history. There were eight knockouts, tying the record set at UFC 92 on December 27, 2008,in Las Vegas. But it wasnt just eight knockouts, but the nature of them. Every one of them would have had a good shot at winning the knockout of the night bonus on most shows. In the end, UFC awarded two, one to Thomson and one to Yoel Romero.
In the No. 2 bout, Daniel Cormier, who won the Strikeforce heavyweight tournament, fought a safe fight, winning a clear-cut straight 30-27 decision over former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir.
The question next is whether Cormier will stay at heavyweight, or cut to 205 and go after Jon Jones or Chael Sonnen. Cormier started his career at 250 pounds, but, without any kind of serious dieting and just training hard, was 228 without cutting a few weeks ago. He upped his calorie intake because he as afraid 228 would be too small for Mir, who showed up in his best shape ever at 257. Cormier doesnt want to cut significantly, because his kidneys shut down in 2008 when he was trying to cut from 248 to 211.5 in the Olympics, and he doesnt want that to happen again. He said he would be talking to UFC later this week and decide what to do next. He said he wants big name fights, that he could fight at heavyweight right now, and it would take time before he could go to 205.
He said he wanted at least one fight at 205 to get used to the weight before getting a title shot, but did want a top contender if he dropped. While he has not ruled out fighting Cain Velasquez, his training partner, Velasquez has said he would not fight Cormier. If Velasquez was to lose to Antonio BigfootSilva on 5/25, which would be a huge upset, then I could see Cormier, who knocked out Silva, trying to get a heavyweight title shot.
Cormier fought the safe wining fight, clinching and physically dominating the bigger man, wearing him out. At a distance, while Cormier still would have been favored since Mir tends to tire and Cormier is significantly faster, there was still danger. Mir had a big reach edge and had knockout power. On the ground, Mir is a master. But it was going to be next to impossible for Mir to take Cormier down.
The fight was heavily booed. Both guys were working hard in the clinch. It was not an exciting fight, but it was a real struggle with no stalling. Cormier was down about his performance, noting after the fight he wants to put on exciting fights. A few days later, after watching the tape, he had changed his viewpoint. He felt that he had dominated a Frank Mir that was in his best all-time condition, and was happy with the match.
The other TV fight saw Matt Brown win his fifth in a row with a knockout of Jordan Mein. Because Browns career record was at one time 12-11, hes always been viewed as a tough guy who wont get knocked out and fights exciting. But nobody has ever thought of him as anything more than an entertaining journeyman level fighter. But with this win, he should be taken seriously and given a top ten caliber foe to have a chance to be viewed as more than a guy who is put on FOX openers because you know hell open the show with action.
Overall, the show proved two things. The first is that UFC is, all things being equal, going to do bigger numbers during football season because of all the promotion due to large heavily male sports fan audience. The second is out of football season, a good show can do well, but a bad show will struggle.
The show did a 2.2 rating and 3.74 million viewers going against NBA playoffs and a Canelo Alvarez vs. Austin Trout boxing match on Showtime. Hendersons last FOX main event, a title defense against Nate Diaz, did a 2.5 rating and 4.39 million viewers. But this show blew away the previous two FOX shows on out of football season, which did a 1.45 rating and 2.42 million viewers (crappy marquee lineup headlined by Nate Diaz vs. Jim Miller) and a 1.44 rating and 2.44 million viewers (Shogun Rua vs. Alexander Gustafsson against the Olympics). But even with the best lineup to date, it didnt do as well as any of the four shows during football season.
There is also a factor that even though this had the best lineup and was the best FOX show to date, it didnt have the major draw of the past on free TV like Chael Sonnen and Rashad Evans on the second show, B.J. Penn on the December show and Rampage Jackson on the January show. As hot at this show was live, there was nothing on the show when it comes to audience reaction from start-to-finish that could touch the Penn vs. Rory MacDonald fight.
Henderson should be a bigger star coming off the Diaz win, and may be, and the show not doing as well probably is little more than the seasonal difference. The show did a 2.2 in Males 18-34 and 3.2 in Males 35-49, so its now doing much bigger numbers among viewers older than 35, showing a shift in the companys audience, at least for Saturday night TV fights. The 12/8 show did a 3.5 in Males 18-34 and 4.5 in Males 35-49. Still, in Males 18-34, FOX had more than double the number of viewers as the other three major networks (CBS, NBC and ABC) combined (2.2 to 1.0). In Males 35-49, the 3.5 beats the combined total of other three networks of 2.2.
The Henderson vs. Melendez fight on its own did a 2.9 rating and 4,97 million viewers. Henderson vs. Nate Diaz did a 3.3 rating and 5.7 million viewers.
The main event did a 2.9 in Males 18-34 and a 4.1 in Males 35-49. Both numbers would have been the second best totals in that demo for any show of the past week on network television, and Saturday night is the hardest night to draw to begin with, let alone draw with adult males.
The highest rated markets were a surprise, since San Francisco wasnt one of them (which may have had to do with it airing from 5-7:30 p.m. local time) since the event was held in San Jose and Melendez, Thomson and Cormier are all Bay Area fighters. The highest rated markets were Kansas City (4.6), Portland, OR (3.8), Minneapolis (3.6), Fort Myers (3.4) and Indianapolis (3.3).
One thing amazing is there were a number of markets, the key ones being Boston and Shreveport, where the local affiliate cut away to start the network news (already 30 minutes late in starting by that time) right after the fifth round ended, not even waiting for the decision to be announced. Its so tone deaf to have an audience watch a five round title fight that was so close, and then cut away without rendering the decision, even though its only going to take another two minutes.
As far as the individual fights, Matt Brown vs. Jordan Mein did a 1.6 rating and 2.69 million viewers (gained 322,000 viewers), Josh Thomson vs. Nate Diaz did a 2.2 rating and 3.66 million viewers (gained 732,000 viewers which is really good for a prelim fight), Cormier vs. Mir did a 2.4 rating and 4.07 million viewers (gained 449,000 viewers) and Henderson vs. Melendez at 2.9 and 4.97 million viewers. It gained 1,182,000 viewers from start-to-finish, the same gain as Henderson vs. Diaz and the 1 million viewers gained from the start to finish of a match is rarified air historically.
The FX prelims, which included top ranked fighters Chad Mendes and Joseph Benavidez, did a 0.85 rating and 1.06 million viewers from 5-8 p.m. Eastern and 2-5 p.m. Pacific. The two previous prelims on FX for the FOX shows, which were two hours in duration (6-8 p.m. Eastern, 3-5 p.m. Pacific), both did 0.90 ratings and 1.21 million viewers. Once again, the variables were that the actual quality of stars were higher this time, but you re talking about spring weather and no football promotion. The prelims for GSP vs. Nick Diaz on FX did a 1.03 rating and 1.58 million viewers, but that was in the 8-10 p.m. slot, or with the higher television prime time audience.
The show drew 13,506 fans at the HP Pavilion in San Jose and $1,333,000. It was the largest gate ever for an MMA show in the building.
Johnson attempted to start training to get ready for his role as Hercules, this past week. He started doing two sessions daily of training on 4/17 and was beginning physical therapy the next day. The idea was likely to do light weights with the idea of really cracking down on the diet and being able to come in ripped for the movie. That lasted a day or two before he was back in the hospital and wrote, Saw my doctor who had to push my intestines back through the tear in my abdomen. Kinda romantic. Surgery is next week.
As noted before, he was desperately trying to avoid surgery because of the filming schedule of the movie, or have the surgery after completion of the movie. Right now the movie is scheduled to start filming in Istanbul, Turkey in late May, around the 22nd give or take a couple of days in either direction.
Johnson publicly talked about his in-ring career possibly being over in a 4/22 interview with New York radio personality Pete Rosenberg.
Was it my last match? Possibly. said Johnson in an interview promoting the reality show Hero on TNT, that debuts this summer, and he is producing and hosting. Im really not too sure. I wouldnt rule it out.
He said the plan the whole time was to build to having the biggest show of all-time in the New York market. He said he came in with a three-year plan that would end with him putting over Cena, but had planned on wrestling Lesnar at next years Mania.
That was the next thing that made sense to me because I love Brock and weve been friends for over a decade now, and we could have a great athletic match. So that was the plan, but when I tore two tendons off my pelvis, I had to fly home that day. So we couldnt do what we wanted to do at Raw that day. So, possibly with Brock down the road.
Besides the obvious situation regarding the injury and his movie schedule in early 2014, another factor may be whether he believes a match with Lesnar can top what hes already done, when it comes to fan interest.
He said all the stories that came out about him being mad, walking about, the injury not being real, etc. were ridiculous. He said Vince McMahon, HHH, Punk and Cena all knew he was hurt after the match, that he was being checked out for a hernia by WWE doctors on 4/7, and that he wouldnt be at Raw the next day.
We were told by those in WWE that Vince was aware of the injury on Sunday night, but didnt know for sure he wouldnt be at TV until Monday morning. The story that Rock walked out without telling Vince was never the case. But they were scrambling to change the television show on Monday afternoon since the key segment on the show was to be the Rock vs. Lesnar angle. The idea there was a falling out between the two sides was a story that took on a life of its own, partially because very few of the wrestlers and company personnel were aware he was hurt after the match on Sunday.
Very few were told of the injury Sunday although at the same time I could say the same for Punks knee injury, since few were told about that one either. Then Johnson wasnt at TV as advertised, so speculation ran rampant. But there were some really bad stories being made up out of thin air out of this one.
If Johnson was considering doing SummerSlam this year, that looks to now be out of the question due to the surgery. I dont believe that was the case because the only thing going forward he had talked about was a WrestleMania match with Lesnar. If he does return for WrestleMania next year in New Orleans for that match, it would probably not be for several more months before hed be able to do the physical angle to set it up.
Johnson missed a 4/22 premiere for Pain and Gain because he was having surgery the next morning.
Director Michael Bay made a remark about it, saying to E! News, He was pushing it too hard. (He) needs to grow up and stop wrestling 300 pound men.
Because of the injuries, there will likely be more pressure from studios on him not to wrestle.
When Gilbert Melendez and Josh Thomson were battling with each other over the Strikeforce lightweight championship in probably the best three-fight program in modern MMA history, both fighters looked at the various sets of rankings going around, and the overall perception of where they stood, and felt they werent getting their due.
Melendezs goal was to be recognized as the best lightweight in the world. Even though no lightweight of the past seven years could match his win-loss record and top ten status over a long period of time, he was always considered one of the best and never the best. As a Strikeforce fighter, he wasnt going to get to fight the people in UFC that would allow him to be considered No. 1. At one point, he had accepted being happy to be the highest paid lightweight in the sport (at east when it came to base salary).
Thomson, on the other hand, was not even considered top ten, even though he argued that he believed and most who saw fight three believed he had won two of three from Melendez, who by that time was often ranked as high as No. 2.
The 4/20 UFC on FOX show from the HP Pavilion in San Jose was going to put an historical perspective, after the fact, on how both mens seven year Strikeforce career should be viewed. If both lost in dominating fashion, Strikeforce would have been considered a secondary promotion where they had good fighters, but not UFC championship level fighters. The titles would be worth what a Bellator or King of the Cage title was worth, but neither would have been considered as part of their legacy to be in a position where they would be argued as near the best in the sport at any time.
If they both won, then their battles would be elevated greatly as being two of the best in the world going at it three times.
Even though they both didnt win, they both clearly established that they are now, and probably have been since 2006, two of the best in the world.
The battle of the UFC lightweight champion, Benson Henderson, and Melendez, the Strikeforce lightweight champion for most of the last seven years, ended in a razor-thin split decision win for Henderson on scores of 47-48, 48-47 and 48-47.
Melendezs status as the last Strikeforce champion was not ignored in the promotion of the show. But it was not heavily pushed as champion vs. champion, at least not at the level the 2007 Rampage Jackson (UFC champion) vs. Dan Henderson (Pride champion) fight that did gigantic TV ratings was.
The decision being announced for Henderson was heavily booed. That was more because Melendez is from San Francisco, and had fought on most of the Strikeforce big shows in the arena as one of the headliners. It was clear that most of the crowd was there to see Melendez get his overdue shot at proving he really was the best in his division.
Moments after winning, in the cage, Henderson got down on one knee and proposed to girlfriend Maria Magana, a high level Jiu Jitsu competitor. Because the crowd was furious about the decision, they booed the proposal. There was some tension backstage after the fight, particularly with Melendezs live-in fiancee, Kerri Taylor, herself a high level kickboxer, literally a few feet away from Magana as both talked with others about the scoring. Nothing happened and no words were spoken, but Taylor did walk away for fear her temper would get the better of her.
The general feeling after the show is that Henderson won the third and fourth rounds, and Melendez won the first round. As far as who won, that depended on how you saw rounds two and five, which were both close. I had both for Melendez and had him winning 48-47. Id estimate 75% of the people at press row live saw it the same way, since after, almost everyone, with a few exceptions, were saying 1, 2 and 5 for Melendez.
In the fifth round, with the fight hanging in the balance, neither man established themselves as the winner. In the last 20 seconds or so, neither went after it, which is a decision Melendez in particular, may have to deal with for a long time. Had Melendez done something significant in the last 20 seconds, enough to make one judge, Dennis Cleary, believe he won the fifth round, he would be champion. Both of the other judges saw round five for Melendez.
In the scoring, Cleary gave Henderson rounds three through five to give him the fight. Wade Vierra gave Henderson the second and third rounds, but interestingly gave Melendez the other three, including round four, which I had Henderson clearly winning. Michael Bell gave Henderson rounds two, three and four, to give him the fight.
There was controversy after the fight involving Vierra, who lives in Sacramento and runs a school affiliated with Cesar Gracie, who helped train Melendez. While its probably best for all concerned someone running a Cesar Gracie gym probably shouldnt be scoring a fight with a fighter affiliated with Cesar Gracie, Vierra himself had no affiliation with Melendez, and from what I gather, did not even know him. Vierra had told the California State Athletic Commission, which appointed the judges, that he didnt want to judge the Nate Diaz vs. Thomson match, because he knew Diaz. The MMA world is relatively closed-knit, and most judges some of the fighters they judge, often many, and even in many cases socialize with them. Vierras card wasnt outrageous and among those live was the only one with the same score the majority had.
Henderson outlanded Melendez in significant strikes 68-43 during the fight, including landing more in every round. Most of Hendersons significant strikes were low kicks. When it comes to blows to the head, Melendez had more in rounds two, three and five, and his punches landed harder, which may explain the difference between the views of those watching from ringside and in the building and those watching on television. But Hendersons low kicks were significant, knocking Melendez off his feet twice and turning Melendezs left thigh into a shade of raspberry.
Fightmetric, which gave the fight to Henderson overall, had a total fight effectiveness score of 33-32, to show how close it really was, and scored three 10-10 rounds.
The Observer poll went with Henderson, with 55% to 36% for Melendez and 9% had it even.
No matter who it was scored for, it was going to be controversial. In reality, it was so close that either could have won. But Melendez proved in the fight hes the equal to UFCs champion. Thomson, who fought 15 rounds with Melendez over the past several years, and proved to be on the same level, was not even ranked top ten. But he rectified that, finishing No. 4 ranked Diaz, making the first time the younger Diaz had been stopped. In reality, beating Diaz should have put Thomson no lower than No. 4, behind Melendez, Gray Maynard and Anthony Pettis (who is currently campaigning as a featherweight with an 8/3 fight with Jose Aldo Jr.).
In the official UFC ratings that came out after the fight, Melendez remained the No. 1 contender due to his close loss. However, Thomson was No. 8, behind Melendez, Pettis, Maynard, Jim Miller, Donald Cerrone (Diaz finished Miller in a one-sided fight and beat Cerrone), Diaz (who Thomson dominated) and T.J. Grant (whose biggest career wins are Evan Dunham and Matt Wiman).
In all, of the eight UFC vs. Strikeforce fights, the tally was 4-4, and the Strikeforce guys came out on the short end in two decisions that could have gone either way.
As far as what happens next, the winner of the 5/25 fight in Las Vegas with Maynard vs. Grant, gets Henderson next. Melendez and Thomson really should both be considered one win away for being in strong consideration. And a fourth fight between the two, this time with the following UFC title shot at stake, also makes sense.
In the other controversial call on the show, Francis Carmont scored straight 29-28 scores in a win over Lorenz Larkin. It was a dull fight. I had it for Carmont, largely because he was the aggressor. Larkin never got untracked, and got taken down a few times. A takedown on its own shouldnt win rounds, but when the opponent does virtually no effective audience, at that point a takedown can win you a round if the opponent does nothing, and Larkin did land some strikes, but nothing of significance and Carmont controlled most of the fight even when he wasnt getting the takedowns. The Observer poll was solidly for Larkin, with 61% to 31% for Carmont and 8% had it even.
On paper, given the quality of the fighters and how they were matched up, this looked to be the strongest show so far this year. With those kind of expectations going in, the show had a good chance of being a letdown.
As it turned out, the fights were, for the most part, as good or better than expected, and most were talking of it as a show of the year candidate. The finishes were as spectacular as any show in UFC history. There were eight knockouts, tying the record set at UFC 92 on December 27, 2008,in Las Vegas. But it wasnt just eight knockouts, but the nature of them. Every one of them would have had a good shot at winning the knockout of the night bonus on most shows. In the end, UFC awarded two, one to Thomson and one to Yoel Romero.
In the No. 2 bout, Daniel Cormier, who won the Strikeforce heavyweight tournament, fought a safe fight, winning a clear-cut straight 30-27 decision over former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir.
The question next is whether Cormier will stay at heavyweight, or cut to 205 and go after Jon Jones or Chael Sonnen. Cormier started his career at 250 pounds, but, without any kind of serious dieting and just training hard, was 228 without cutting a few weeks ago. He upped his calorie intake because he as afraid 228 would be too small for Mir, who showed up in his best shape ever at 257. Cormier doesnt want to cut significantly, because his kidneys shut down in 2008 when he was trying to cut from 248 to 211.5 in the Olympics, and he doesnt want that to happen again. He said he would be talking to UFC later this week and decide what to do next. He said he wants big name fights, that he could fight at heavyweight right now, and it would take time before he could go to 205.
He said he wanted at least one fight at 205 to get used to the weight before getting a title shot, but did want a top contender if he dropped. While he has not ruled out fighting Cain Velasquez, his training partner, Velasquez has said he would not fight Cormier. If Velasquez was to lose to Antonio BigfootSilva on 5/25, which would be a huge upset, then I could see Cormier, who knocked out Silva, trying to get a heavyweight title shot.
Cormier fought the safe wining fight, clinching and physically dominating the bigger man, wearing him out. At a distance, while Cormier still would have been favored since Mir tends to tire and Cormier is significantly faster, there was still danger. Mir had a big reach edge and had knockout power. On the ground, Mir is a master. But it was going to be next to impossible for Mir to take Cormier down.
The fight was heavily booed. Both guys were working hard in the clinch. It was not an exciting fight, but it was a real struggle with no stalling. Cormier was down about his performance, noting after the fight he wants to put on exciting fights. A few days later, after watching the tape, he had changed his viewpoint. He felt that he had dominated a Frank Mir that was in his best all-time condition, and was happy with the match.
The other TV fight saw Matt Brown win his fifth in a row with a knockout of Jordan Mein. Because Browns career record was at one time 12-11, hes always been viewed as a tough guy who wont get knocked out and fights exciting. But nobody has ever thought of him as anything more than an entertaining journeyman level fighter. But with this win, he should be taken seriously and given a top ten caliber foe to have a chance to be viewed as more than a guy who is put on FOX openers because you know hell open the show with action.
Overall, the show proved two things. The first is that UFC is, all things being equal, going to do bigger numbers during football season because of all the promotion due to large heavily male sports fan audience. The second is out of football season, a good show can do well, but a bad show will struggle.
The show did a 2.2 rating and 3.74 million viewers going against NBA playoffs and a Canelo Alvarez vs. Austin Trout boxing match on Showtime. Hendersons last FOX main event, a title defense against Nate Diaz, did a 2.5 rating and 4.39 million viewers. But this show blew away the previous two FOX shows on out of football season, which did a 1.45 rating and 2.42 million viewers (crappy marquee lineup headlined by Nate Diaz vs. Jim Miller) and a 1.44 rating and 2.44 million viewers (Shogun Rua vs. Alexander Gustafsson against the Olympics). But even with the best lineup to date, it didnt do as well as any of the four shows during football season.
There is also a factor that even though this had the best lineup and was the best FOX show to date, it didnt have the major draw of the past on free TV like Chael Sonnen and Rashad Evans on the second show, B.J. Penn on the December show and Rampage Jackson on the January show. As hot at this show was live, there was nothing on the show when it comes to audience reaction from start-to-finish that could touch the Penn vs. Rory MacDonald fight.
Henderson should be a bigger star coming off the Diaz win, and may be, and the show not doing as well probably is little more than the seasonal difference. The show did a 2.2 in Males 18-34 and 3.2 in Males 35-49, so its now doing much bigger numbers among viewers older than 35, showing a shift in the companys audience, at least for Saturday night TV fights. The 12/8 show did a 3.5 in Males 18-34 and 4.5 in Males 35-49. Still, in Males 18-34, FOX had more than double the number of viewers as the other three major networks (CBS, NBC and ABC) combined (2.2 to 1.0). In Males 35-49, the 3.5 beats the combined total of other three networks of 2.2.
The Henderson vs. Melendez fight on its own did a 2.9 rating and 4,97 million viewers. Henderson vs. Nate Diaz did a 3.3 rating and 5.7 million viewers.
The main event did a 2.9 in Males 18-34 and a 4.1 in Males 35-49. Both numbers would have been the second best totals in that demo for any show of the past week on network television, and Saturday night is the hardest night to draw to begin with, let alone draw with adult males.
The highest rated markets were a surprise, since San Francisco wasnt one of them (which may have had to do with it airing from 5-7:30 p.m. local time) since the event was held in San Jose and Melendez, Thomson and Cormier are all Bay Area fighters. The highest rated markets were Kansas City (4.6), Portland, OR (3.8), Minneapolis (3.6), Fort Myers (3.4) and Indianapolis (3.3).
One thing amazing is there were a number of markets, the key ones being Boston and Shreveport, where the local affiliate cut away to start the network news (already 30 minutes late in starting by that time) right after the fifth round ended, not even waiting for the decision to be announced. Its so tone deaf to have an audience watch a five round title fight that was so close, and then cut away without rendering the decision, even though its only going to take another two minutes.
As far as the individual fights, Matt Brown vs. Jordan Mein did a 1.6 rating and 2.69 million viewers (gained 322,000 viewers), Josh Thomson vs. Nate Diaz did a 2.2 rating and 3.66 million viewers (gained 732,000 viewers which is really good for a prelim fight), Cormier vs. Mir did a 2.4 rating and 4.07 million viewers (gained 449,000 viewers) and Henderson vs. Melendez at 2.9 and 4.97 million viewers. It gained 1,182,000 viewers from start-to-finish, the same gain as Henderson vs. Diaz and the 1 million viewers gained from the start to finish of a match is rarified air historically.
The FX prelims, which included top ranked fighters Chad Mendes and Joseph Benavidez, did a 0.85 rating and 1.06 million viewers from 5-8 p.m. Eastern and 2-5 p.m. Pacific. The two previous prelims on FX for the FOX shows, which were two hours in duration (6-8 p.m. Eastern, 3-5 p.m. Pacific), both did 0.90 ratings and 1.21 million viewers. Once again, the variables were that the actual quality of stars were higher this time, but you re talking about spring weather and no football promotion. The prelims for GSP vs. Nick Diaz on FX did a 1.03 rating and 1.58 million viewers, but that was in the 8-10 p.m. slot, or with the higher television prime time audience.
The show drew 13,506 fans at the HP Pavilion in San Jose and $1,333,000. It was the largest gate ever for an MMA show in the building.
