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MMA-GAF |OT5| Father Time Is Undefeated
- Thread starter polyh3dron
- Start date
:|
industrian
will gently cradle you as time slowly ticks away.
Wasn't that fight literally just announced yesterday?
"I told you yesterday that Jones will fight on Feb. 22," White told reporters following the UFC 167 press conference. "He won't fight in Feb. 22. He just pulled out of the fight. He's not fighting Feb. 22."
"He's not injured," was the only further info White offered on the reasons for the pullout. White also said he believe Jones-Teixeira could go off in March.
"He's not injured," was the only further info White offered on the reasons for the pullout. White also said he believe Jones-Teixeira could go off in March.
Can Crusher
Banned
Fuck it, strip Pettis of the title.
Lol
Bones went soft after fighting Gus. He ain't about dat life
Lol
Bones went soft after fighting Gus. He ain't about dat life
Can Crusher
Banned
slightconfuse
Banned
JBJ ducking glover come on son
At this point, the UFC shouldn't announce fights until the weigh-in.
A
A More Normal Bird
Unconfirmed Member
Now that he's beaten Tito's record, Jones is gonna start counting his title reign in days, not defences. Jones is a young man, constantly improving, whereas every month that goes by takes its toll on the aging Glover. Unfortunately for Jones every month he delays is a month the young Mauler spends ducking spinning elbows and working counters to baby thigh taps.
Is Pettis out again too?
Also, Jones is disappointing the whole organization with this move. Champions need budo. Where is Jones' budo now?
Jer youre worthless
As good as it gets. Great googly moogly
Come one, come all to Nerd Chat: Scrappin' on the Reserve
http://client00.chat.mibbit.com/?channel=#MMA-GAF
http://client00.chat.mibbit.com/?channel=#MMA-GAF
Everyone get in here.
Master Thespian
Member
Jer youre worthless
Jer youre worthless
Ninja Scooter
Member
GAF is now about as reliable as Dominick Cruz. We should keep the chat open tonight for when it inevitably crashes.
dream
Member
Wrote a phenomenal essay about the decline of the Ultimate for yall, friends.
As the UFC approaches its 20th anniversary, it is in a unique situation, not at all unlike pro wrestling.
It is financially on stronger footing than at almost any time in its history, but it is hard to ignore the signs of a decline in domestic popularity. The historical ups-and-downs that the more Wild Wild West versions of Brazilian Vale Tudo and the Japanese game have shown historically cant be ignored, even if economics today and roots are very different and seem to guarantee the sport being around at a significant level for the long haul.
In the case of both, there is a situation regarding the future as if escalating television rights fees can keep the piggy banks strong if the traditional revenue streams and measures of popularity start to weaken.
UFC has shown some softness in recent months on PPV, but the real state of what has historically been the revenue stream that carries the company wont really be known until early next year. If the next two shows dont do well, there is a problem. Nearly all predictions months ago when the last four months schedule was put together were that the company would have one of the most, if not, the most successful PPV period in its history.
With two shows down and one a few days away, there has to be concern. A show headlined by Jon Jones, thought to be the companys third biggest star and best rising star, did maybe 325,000 buys, when hed nearly headlined to less than 415,000 before. There were excuses as to why that was the case, including opponent Alexander Gustafsson not having much of a buzz about him nor did most give him a chance. But I dont know that anybody had given most of Jones previous foes a chance. More concerning was the 10/19 show with Cain Velasquez vs. Junior Dos Santos only beating that number by a slim margin, because it was the heavyweight championship and a battle between the two best heavyweights in company history who had split their two previous bouts. Plus the show had a strong undercard.
Saturdays 20th anniversary show features Georges St-Pierre, the top PPV draw, against a very legitimate top contender in Johny Hendricks. But interest in the fight doesnt seem close to the level of St-Pierres most recent fight with Nick Diaz. Then again, it would have been almost impossible for it to be. The 12/28 show is one that should do 1 million buys, and Dana White is pushing that itll set the companys all-time record. That would feel like a longshot right now. With the softness of recent shows, what looked like something that should be a lock is far from it. Even if both shows do big numbers, that doesnt mean overall business is at that level.
This year, as compared with 2011 and 2012, will almost surely end up ahead in PPV. But that isnt a strengthening of PPV at all, but more this year has had far fewer big show main events destroyed by injuries.
Where one has to be concerned is on the ratings front. Numbers in Brazil, even for the big fights with Anderson Silva and Vitor Belfort, are way down from the peak in 2011. In the United States, UFC has been hurt of late by being on a network that is new and struggling out of the box, even though its consistently a strong performer based on the standards of the station.
But this comparison shows the situation. In January, a Vitor Belfort vs. Michael Bisping fight from Brazil on FX did 1.86 million viewers, setting UFCs record on the station. Things looked like they had finally gotten untracked the early part of this year after a ratings decline on cable from 2011 to 2012 with the move from Spike. On 11/9, the same Belfort faced Dan Henderson, also from Brazil. In theory, Bisping and Henderson should be relatively close in drawing power. Henderson is more of a legend, but Bisping is a good talker, and thats clearly important to garnering interest in a fight.
But even if Bisping has the marquee edge, the numbers should be in the same ballpark for each fight. So a nearly equivalent fight on FS 1, ten months later, did 722,000 viewers, a decline of 61%. You can immediately explain about 9% of that drop as due to FS 1 being in fewer households. The rest of the drop is largely the station, and some may be a UFC decline in popularity, and stiffer competition from all the college football. But thats still a staggering figure.
UFC numbers show just how important things like the strength of the station are for its product. Conversely, WWE has moved stations for Raw twice and Smackdown multiple times with only slight ratings volatility. It also has shown that for its product, what the value of a staggered feed as opposed to going live on the West Coast, which is also the case with WWE, but not with other sports. The numbers do point to the idea that the loyalty factor of the fan base to the product is more volatile than most would expect. For years it has been the case, like with boxing, that it is a star-driven business, but UFC also had a strong bottom line base that even a weaker marquee show was guaranteed to draw. Its that number that has declined greatly. Over the next two months well see how much, if any, that top-end number may have declined. When the decline is sudden, there are only two factors in play. The first is a severe and drastic weakening of the product, like WCW went through in 1999. That is clearly not the case here. The big cards have been strong. While not every show is a home run, and in a real sport that is impossible, by and large the shows have been very good. So the declines have to largely be attributed to the growing pains of a new station. And in theory, if that station grows in importance, UFC should grow with it. But still, it has to be concerning that half or more of the previous audience wasnt into the product at a level to find it with the move from really only a few months ago.
NFL ratings show huge differences depending on the station the games are on, as do that of every major sport, and virtually any television show. WWE is the exception.
But no matter how you slice it, when prelims before the big PPV shows are doing half as many viewers as they were six months ago, the trickle down effect when it comes to buys shouldnt be a big surprise. In addition, the key to growth and sustenance at current levels of overall popularity is the visibility and popularity of the next generation of viewers. If the show itself is not a hit with teenagers and young adults, and not on a station they regularly watch, long-term, it looks like a situation where they may take in more money on rights fees and be bottom line healthy, but it is not optimum for building the brand. Unlike with Spike and FX, the UFCs future growth is not tied in with its own show quality, star-making ability and promotional capability, because when the greatest Countdown programming in the world is drawing 125,000 viewers, inherently, it is not moving the needle no matter what the content is. Their popularity is instead, tied to whether or not the television station they are on takes off. FS 1 is expected to bid for and get more big-time major league sports, which would up its profile. But that isnt happening this month, or next, and at best this period looks like a fairly long period of growing pains. At worse, real damage is done. And as noted from the start, historically isnt guaranteed to repeat itself, but it also should never be ignored as a learning tool, because most often, it does.
MMA, or Vale Tudo, under previous ownership, whether it was the United States first success in the mid-90s, Brazilian hot periods in the 20s and 50s, and the Japan boom in the early 00s, all had something in common. Things go really big for a few years, but they dont sustain. Now, there has never been the kind of television financial backbone of revenue, both in the U.S. and Brazil, like now. Its not some local promoters looking for one big match and a score. This is a major worldwide company, with the ability to garner television deals and make major business partnerships.
But still, of the 1.86 million who saw Belfort beat Bisping ten months ago, you would think more than 39% of them would be loyal enough to find what was a strong marquee name value main event ten months later if it moved stations.
Even though UFC is 20, it has not proven the test of time. From 1997 through 2004, it was being propped up by companies who knew about the good days and thought if they could just get the right break, it would happen again. The second boom, which kicked off in 2005 and really hit in late 2006 in a huge way, was created by television and booking fights that people wanted to see. From 2008 to 2010,the company grew due to some great drawing champions like Brock Lesnar, St-Pierre, B.J. Penn, Anderson Silva and assorted grudge matches and characters on the periphery like Rampage Jackson, Rashad Evans, Forrest Griffin and Chael Sonnen.
Most of those names are older, and many are not around today. Nobody new has captured the interest of the public like the champions of three years ago did. And there is a real question as to whether this season of Ultimate Fighter hasnt damaged the drawing power of the one major star they had created this year in Ronda Rousey. Again, these statements right now about a decline in popularity sound silly because the next two shows should do great, and will both be among the largest live gates in history.
The plethora of shows has created an environment where the vast majority of fans are skipping most shows, or dont know about them even with more mainstream media giving coverage. This past week were two live events. On 11/6, Fight for the Troops from Fort Campbell, KY did 641,000 viewers for a show with limited star power. Three nights later, from Goiania, Brazil, on the more familiar Saturday night, a show with a strong marquee main event for television in Belfort vs. Henderson did 722,000 viewers. We already know the number of shows will continue to increase, with plans on greatly increasing international events in 2014.
The 20th anniversary show on 11/16 doesnt feel like it has anywhere close to the momentum of UFC 100. Its got a strong lineup on paper, starting at 7 p.m. with the Facebook prelims with Cody Donovan vs. Gian Villante and Will Campuzano against the debuting Sergio Pettis, the 20-year-old brother of lightweight champion Anthony Pettis.
FS 1 will air two hours of prelims at 8 p.m. with Edwin Figueroa vs. Erik Perez, Brian Ebersole vs. Rick Story, Thales Leitis vs. Ed Herman and Donald Cerrone vs. Evan Dunham.
The PPV show at 10 p.m. has Ali Bagautinov vs. Timothy Elliott, Josh Koscheck vs. Tyron Woodley, Rory MacDonald vs. Robbie Lawler Chael Sonnen vs. Rashad Evans and GSP vs. Johny Hendricks for the welterweight title.
Both shows this week were strong. Fight for the Troops, the UFC equivalent of WWEs Tribute to the Troops show, saw an octagon cage put in a hanger on an air force base. When the show started, in this little hall, with it raining on the outside and the doors open, it at first looked like something that would look bad for television. But that wasnt the case. The crowd of about 4,000, all clad in uniform, was almost a perfect crowd. They were enthusiastic and appreciative. The fighters sensed that and responded in kind. It seemed like everyone was trying to put on the best fights, as a show with few big names was loaded with excitement.
In Brazil, Belfort drew a sellout of 10,565 fans that were hot in a very different way. They were loud, but they would boo when things were slow, or when their favorite was not doing well, or even when things went to the ground. But they saw an amazing show where only two of 11 fights went the distance and seven ended in the first round.
Not a lot on the shows affected the main event and title picture much. The Fight for the Troops really only had big crowd favorite Liz Carmouche seemingly not her usual self in losing a decision to Alexis Davis.
Carmouche, a former Marine, usually does well by being aggressive and using her physical strength to dominate on the ground. In this fight, she wasnt aggressive at all, and seemed content to stay on the outside and lose the striking battle.
The star of the show and headliner, Tim Kennedy, a decorated Army Special Forces sniper, had no business fighting after tearing his quadriceps a week earlier in a freak accident. He was sprinting on the track in his final hard day of training when a woman, who he thought was between 60 and 65, out of nowhere jumped into his path. He said he had two choices, to either run her over or put on the breaks immediately. He did the latter and collapsed. He faced Rafael Natal with one leg, and he also was clearly not himself. Worse, he was getting leg kicked over and over until he landed a left to the jaw of Natal and the servicemen exploded as he got the finish and got regular rotation coverage the next day on Sports Center. If he had not landed that perfect punch, it looked like it was going to be a long and painful night.
In Brazil, the star was Belfort, who knocked Henderson skyward before gravity took him back down with a left uppercut. Henderson, never stopped by strikes in his long career, got to his feet and was met with an immediate head kick and put down again.
For Belfort, it broke any logjam there may have been over who is the top contender for the winner of the Chris Weidman vs. Anderson Silva fight. Even Silva, who beat Belfort in early 2011, and was adamant about not fighting him again, admitted Belfort earned the next title shot.
For Henderson, the circumstances are a lot different. It was the final fight of his contract. Hes 43 years old and has lost his last three fights, although he was competitive in losing close decisions to Lyoto Machida and Rashad Evans, before this knockout. But he has a high dollar contract, as it was the final fight of the deal he signed with Strikeforce. He was not a big draw when he was winning, and his fight with Evans was the lowest drawing PPV the company has put on in years.
I dont sense Henderson could headline a PPV now, although he could headline a TV show, although hes not a ratings draw. If he was cut, one would think Bellator would pick him up just for the name value.
On the Wednesday show, the $50,000 bonuses went to Kennedy for best knockout, Michael Chiesa for best submission, and Rustam Khabilov vs. Jorge Masvidal for best fight. That show had plenty of good fights but I thought the best was either Yancy Medeiros win over Yves Edwards, Michael Chiesa vs. Colton Smith or Dennis Bermudez vs. Steven Siler.
On Saturday, Belfort got best knockout, Adriano Martins got best submission and the debuting Omari Akhmedov vs. Thiago Perpetuo got best fight, all with $50,000 bonuses.
As the UFC approaches its 20th anniversary, it is in a unique situation, not at all unlike pro wrestling.
It is financially on stronger footing than at almost any time in its history, but it is hard to ignore the signs of a decline in domestic popularity. The historical ups-and-downs that the more Wild Wild West versions of Brazilian Vale Tudo and the Japanese game have shown historically cant be ignored, even if economics today and roots are very different and seem to guarantee the sport being around at a significant level for the long haul.
In the case of both, there is a situation regarding the future as if escalating television rights fees can keep the piggy banks strong if the traditional revenue streams and measures of popularity start to weaken.
UFC has shown some softness in recent months on PPV, but the real state of what has historically been the revenue stream that carries the company wont really be known until early next year. If the next two shows dont do well, there is a problem. Nearly all predictions months ago when the last four months schedule was put together were that the company would have one of the most, if not, the most successful PPV period in its history.
With two shows down and one a few days away, there has to be concern. A show headlined by Jon Jones, thought to be the companys third biggest star and best rising star, did maybe 325,000 buys, when hed nearly headlined to less than 415,000 before. There were excuses as to why that was the case, including opponent Alexander Gustafsson not having much of a buzz about him nor did most give him a chance. But I dont know that anybody had given most of Jones previous foes a chance. More concerning was the 10/19 show with Cain Velasquez vs. Junior Dos Santos only beating that number by a slim margin, because it was the heavyweight championship and a battle between the two best heavyweights in company history who had split their two previous bouts. Plus the show had a strong undercard.
Saturdays 20th anniversary show features Georges St-Pierre, the top PPV draw, against a very legitimate top contender in Johny Hendricks. But interest in the fight doesnt seem close to the level of St-Pierres most recent fight with Nick Diaz. Then again, it would have been almost impossible for it to be. The 12/28 show is one that should do 1 million buys, and Dana White is pushing that itll set the companys all-time record. That would feel like a longshot right now. With the softness of recent shows, what looked like something that should be a lock is far from it. Even if both shows do big numbers, that doesnt mean overall business is at that level.
This year, as compared with 2011 and 2012, will almost surely end up ahead in PPV. But that isnt a strengthening of PPV at all, but more this year has had far fewer big show main events destroyed by injuries.
Where one has to be concerned is on the ratings front. Numbers in Brazil, even for the big fights with Anderson Silva and Vitor Belfort, are way down from the peak in 2011. In the United States, UFC has been hurt of late by being on a network that is new and struggling out of the box, even though its consistently a strong performer based on the standards of the station.
But this comparison shows the situation. In January, a Vitor Belfort vs. Michael Bisping fight from Brazil on FX did 1.86 million viewers, setting UFCs record on the station. Things looked like they had finally gotten untracked the early part of this year after a ratings decline on cable from 2011 to 2012 with the move from Spike. On 11/9, the same Belfort faced Dan Henderson, also from Brazil. In theory, Bisping and Henderson should be relatively close in drawing power. Henderson is more of a legend, but Bisping is a good talker, and thats clearly important to garnering interest in a fight.
But even if Bisping has the marquee edge, the numbers should be in the same ballpark for each fight. So a nearly equivalent fight on FS 1, ten months later, did 722,000 viewers, a decline of 61%. You can immediately explain about 9% of that drop as due to FS 1 being in fewer households. The rest of the drop is largely the station, and some may be a UFC decline in popularity, and stiffer competition from all the college football. But thats still a staggering figure.
UFC numbers show just how important things like the strength of the station are for its product. Conversely, WWE has moved stations for Raw twice and Smackdown multiple times with only slight ratings volatility. It also has shown that for its product, what the value of a staggered feed as opposed to going live on the West Coast, which is also the case with WWE, but not with other sports. The numbers do point to the idea that the loyalty factor of the fan base to the product is more volatile than most would expect. For years it has been the case, like with boxing, that it is a star-driven business, but UFC also had a strong bottom line base that even a weaker marquee show was guaranteed to draw. Its that number that has declined greatly. Over the next two months well see how much, if any, that top-end number may have declined. When the decline is sudden, there are only two factors in play. The first is a severe and drastic weakening of the product, like WCW went through in 1999. That is clearly not the case here. The big cards have been strong. While not every show is a home run, and in a real sport that is impossible, by and large the shows have been very good. So the declines have to largely be attributed to the growing pains of a new station. And in theory, if that station grows in importance, UFC should grow with it. But still, it has to be concerning that half or more of the previous audience wasnt into the product at a level to find it with the move from really only a few months ago.
NFL ratings show huge differences depending on the station the games are on, as do that of every major sport, and virtually any television show. WWE is the exception.
But no matter how you slice it, when prelims before the big PPV shows are doing half as many viewers as they were six months ago, the trickle down effect when it comes to buys shouldnt be a big surprise. In addition, the key to growth and sustenance at current levels of overall popularity is the visibility and popularity of the next generation of viewers. If the show itself is not a hit with teenagers and young adults, and not on a station they regularly watch, long-term, it looks like a situation where they may take in more money on rights fees and be bottom line healthy, but it is not optimum for building the brand. Unlike with Spike and FX, the UFCs future growth is not tied in with its own show quality, star-making ability and promotional capability, because when the greatest Countdown programming in the world is drawing 125,000 viewers, inherently, it is not moving the needle no matter what the content is. Their popularity is instead, tied to whether or not the television station they are on takes off. FS 1 is expected to bid for and get more big-time major league sports, which would up its profile. But that isnt happening this month, or next, and at best this period looks like a fairly long period of growing pains. At worse, real damage is done. And as noted from the start, historically isnt guaranteed to repeat itself, but it also should never be ignored as a learning tool, because most often, it does.
MMA, or Vale Tudo, under previous ownership, whether it was the United States first success in the mid-90s, Brazilian hot periods in the 20s and 50s, and the Japan boom in the early 00s, all had something in common. Things go really big for a few years, but they dont sustain. Now, there has never been the kind of television financial backbone of revenue, both in the U.S. and Brazil, like now. Its not some local promoters looking for one big match and a score. This is a major worldwide company, with the ability to garner television deals and make major business partnerships.
But still, of the 1.86 million who saw Belfort beat Bisping ten months ago, you would think more than 39% of them would be loyal enough to find what was a strong marquee name value main event ten months later if it moved stations.
Even though UFC is 20, it has not proven the test of time. From 1997 through 2004, it was being propped up by companies who knew about the good days and thought if they could just get the right break, it would happen again. The second boom, which kicked off in 2005 and really hit in late 2006 in a huge way, was created by television and booking fights that people wanted to see. From 2008 to 2010,the company grew due to some great drawing champions like Brock Lesnar, St-Pierre, B.J. Penn, Anderson Silva and assorted grudge matches and characters on the periphery like Rampage Jackson, Rashad Evans, Forrest Griffin and Chael Sonnen.
Most of those names are older, and many are not around today. Nobody new has captured the interest of the public like the champions of three years ago did. And there is a real question as to whether this season of Ultimate Fighter hasnt damaged the drawing power of the one major star they had created this year in Ronda Rousey. Again, these statements right now about a decline in popularity sound silly because the next two shows should do great, and will both be among the largest live gates in history.
The plethora of shows has created an environment where the vast majority of fans are skipping most shows, or dont know about them even with more mainstream media giving coverage. This past week were two live events. On 11/6, Fight for the Troops from Fort Campbell, KY did 641,000 viewers for a show with limited star power. Three nights later, from Goiania, Brazil, on the more familiar Saturday night, a show with a strong marquee main event for television in Belfort vs. Henderson did 722,000 viewers. We already know the number of shows will continue to increase, with plans on greatly increasing international events in 2014.
The 20th anniversary show on 11/16 doesnt feel like it has anywhere close to the momentum of UFC 100. Its got a strong lineup on paper, starting at 7 p.m. with the Facebook prelims with Cody Donovan vs. Gian Villante and Will Campuzano against the debuting Sergio Pettis, the 20-year-old brother of lightweight champion Anthony Pettis.
FS 1 will air two hours of prelims at 8 p.m. with Edwin Figueroa vs. Erik Perez, Brian Ebersole vs. Rick Story, Thales Leitis vs. Ed Herman and Donald Cerrone vs. Evan Dunham.
The PPV show at 10 p.m. has Ali Bagautinov vs. Timothy Elliott, Josh Koscheck vs. Tyron Woodley, Rory MacDonald vs. Robbie Lawler Chael Sonnen vs. Rashad Evans and GSP vs. Johny Hendricks for the welterweight title.
Both shows this week were strong. Fight for the Troops, the UFC equivalent of WWEs Tribute to the Troops show, saw an octagon cage put in a hanger on an air force base. When the show started, in this little hall, with it raining on the outside and the doors open, it at first looked like something that would look bad for television. But that wasnt the case. The crowd of about 4,000, all clad in uniform, was almost a perfect crowd. They were enthusiastic and appreciative. The fighters sensed that and responded in kind. It seemed like everyone was trying to put on the best fights, as a show with few big names was loaded with excitement.
In Brazil, Belfort drew a sellout of 10,565 fans that were hot in a very different way. They were loud, but they would boo when things were slow, or when their favorite was not doing well, or even when things went to the ground. But they saw an amazing show where only two of 11 fights went the distance and seven ended in the first round.
Not a lot on the shows affected the main event and title picture much. The Fight for the Troops really only had big crowd favorite Liz Carmouche seemingly not her usual self in losing a decision to Alexis Davis.
Carmouche, a former Marine, usually does well by being aggressive and using her physical strength to dominate on the ground. In this fight, she wasnt aggressive at all, and seemed content to stay on the outside and lose the striking battle.
The star of the show and headliner, Tim Kennedy, a decorated Army Special Forces sniper, had no business fighting after tearing his quadriceps a week earlier in a freak accident. He was sprinting on the track in his final hard day of training when a woman, who he thought was between 60 and 65, out of nowhere jumped into his path. He said he had two choices, to either run her over or put on the breaks immediately. He did the latter and collapsed. He faced Rafael Natal with one leg, and he also was clearly not himself. Worse, he was getting leg kicked over and over until he landed a left to the jaw of Natal and the servicemen exploded as he got the finish and got regular rotation coverage the next day on Sports Center. If he had not landed that perfect punch, it looked like it was going to be a long and painful night.
In Brazil, the star was Belfort, who knocked Henderson skyward before gravity took him back down with a left uppercut. Henderson, never stopped by strikes in his long career, got to his feet and was met with an immediate head kick and put down again.
For Belfort, it broke any logjam there may have been over who is the top contender for the winner of the Chris Weidman vs. Anderson Silva fight. Even Silva, who beat Belfort in early 2011, and was adamant about not fighting him again, admitted Belfort earned the next title shot.
For Henderson, the circumstances are a lot different. It was the final fight of his contract. Hes 43 years old and has lost his last three fights, although he was competitive in losing close decisions to Lyoto Machida and Rashad Evans, before this knockout. But he has a high dollar contract, as it was the final fight of the deal he signed with Strikeforce. He was not a big draw when he was winning, and his fight with Evans was the lowest drawing PPV the company has put on in years.
I dont sense Henderson could headline a PPV now, although he could headline a TV show, although hes not a ratings draw. If he was cut, one would think Bellator would pick him up just for the name value.
On the Wednesday show, the $50,000 bonuses went to Kennedy for best knockout, Michael Chiesa for best submission, and Rustam Khabilov vs. Jorge Masvidal for best fight. That show had plenty of good fights but I thought the best was either Yancy Medeiros win over Yves Edwards, Michael Chiesa vs. Colton Smith or Dennis Bermudez vs. Steven Siler.
On Saturday, Belfort got best knockout, Adriano Martins got best submission and the debuting Omari Akhmedov vs. Thiago Perpetuo got best fight, all with $50,000 bonuses.
dream
Member
Fedor Emelianenkos first advertised appearance at a pro wrestling show will be at Antonio Inokis New Years Eve event at Tokyo Sumo Hall. The IGF announced Emelianenko as appearing on the show, but only as a special guest, doing an autograph session, being introduced to the crowd, and to be part of the pageantry as a ringside witness for the IGF title match between Kazuyuki Fujita vs. Satoshi Ishii. Fujita and Ishii are scheduled to do a rarity, have a legitimate match for a pro wrestling world championship, which means it is almost a sure thing that Ishii will enter 2014 as the IGF champion. Emelianenko had fought and beaten both men during his career. He is also appearing at the companys after event party.
Anthony Pettis suffered a knee injury and had to pull out of his 12/14 match in Sacramento where he was to defend the lightweight title against Josh Thomson. Theyve moved the Demetrious Johnson vs. Joseph Benavidez fight from Las Vegas on 11/30 to Sacramento on 12/14 because a title match on the FOX show is higher priority than on the FS 1 show, which is really about the two TUF finales and already has Gray Maynard vs. Nate Diaz as well. Diaz vs. Maynard will now be the main event, but itll be a three-rounder since they signed a contract to go three. Benavidez has been living in Sacramento so youve got a show with Benavidez, Urijah Faber and Chad Mendes, all from Sacramento, in the FOX matches.
Dana White said the 12/28 show had a $5.6 million advance, which would include the casino buys. The only advances we get are those at the ticket outlets and they had topped 10,000 tickets and $4 million several weeks ago in sales to the public. Both the show on 11/16 and 12/28 will rank among the biggest grosses in company history. The 12/28 show should end up in the top three of all-time, behind only the Toronto stadium show and the Anderson Silva vs. Chael Sonnen II show.
The company was looking at an April debut in Mexico City at Arena Ciudad, but it is now out since the plan was to go with Cain Velasquez vs. Fabricio Werdum as the main event. Velasquez suffered a shoulder injury in his win over Junior Dos Santos and underwent an MRI this past week to determine if he would need surgery, which he wont. But the injuries are serious enough that it is going to be a while before he can fight, long enough that they are thinking of offering Werdum a new fight as opposed to him waiting for Velasquez to be ready. He had one MRI already done, and it was unclear as pinpointing the injury so a second one was scheduled. Surgery would put him out of action well past that date.
Antonio Rogerio Nogueiras injury that forced him out of the fight with Alexander Gustafsson was a herniated disc in his lower back. In actuality, even though he was announced, Nogueira had never agreed to the match. UFC has done this before, but for whatever reason, they announced the match at the press conference after the show in Manchester to headline the 3/8 show in London before they had heard back from Nogueira. At the time, Gustafsson had agreed to the fight and they had tried to contact Nogueira. They somehow couldnt contact him, but figured since he hadnt fought since February (and that was his only fight since the end of 2011) hed be willing to take the fight, so they announced it. They got burned with that once before when announcing Jon Jones vs. Lyoto Machida before asking Machida if hed take it and Machida then turned it down. But UFC wasnt aware of Nogueiras injury and the fighters or their management is also always supposed to keep UFC in the loop on injuries.
In the fan polling on who will get the video game cover with Jon Jones, a surge of late votes saw Miesha Tate surpass Ronda Rousey to advance in the playoffs. I dont know what you can read into a web site poll, and Rousey was ahead most of the balloting. But there are people who think this season of TUF has really hurt Rousey and the ratings, even with the huge DVR delayed viewership, the bad West Coast time slot and new station, still cant be viewed as anywhere near what would have been expected going in. Many of the fighters were constantly on Twitter this week urging people to vote for them. As far as the playoffs went, the others saw Anthony Pettis over Demetrious Johnson, Johny Hendricks over Dominick Cruz, Michael Bisping over Urijah Faber (those two were constantly pushing people to vote for them), GSP over Chris Weidman, Alexander Gustafsson over Daniel Cormier (who was pushing for votes on TV which one would think would be a good platform), Chael Sonnen over Junior Dos Santos and Jose Aldo over Benson Henderson. So the next bracketing is GSP vs. Hendricks, Pettis vs. Aldo, Sonnen vs. Bisping and Gustafsson vs. Tate. Tate said she was surprised she won since she was behind the entire time, and that Rousey had double her number of twitter followers. Tate said to MMAJunkie.com that she thought if the vote had taken place several weeks ago, shes have lost in a landslide. Honestly, I think she would have (won big). I think people were under this kind of sentiment that Ronda Rousey can do no wrong and shes the princess of MMA, shes the golden girl, shes the Olympian, shes the blond-haired, blue-eyed All-American perfect girl and she has the full support of the UFC. Everyone has gotten to see the Ronda Rousey that I havent got along with for a long time.
Anthony Pettis suffered a knee injury and had to pull out of his 12/14 match in Sacramento where he was to defend the lightweight title against Josh Thomson. Theyve moved the Demetrious Johnson vs. Joseph Benavidez fight from Las Vegas on 11/30 to Sacramento on 12/14 because a title match on the FOX show is higher priority than on the FS 1 show, which is really about the two TUF finales and already has Gray Maynard vs. Nate Diaz as well. Diaz vs. Maynard will now be the main event, but itll be a three-rounder since they signed a contract to go three. Benavidez has been living in Sacramento so youve got a show with Benavidez, Urijah Faber and Chad Mendes, all from Sacramento, in the FOX matches.
Dana White said the 12/28 show had a $5.6 million advance, which would include the casino buys. The only advances we get are those at the ticket outlets and they had topped 10,000 tickets and $4 million several weeks ago in sales to the public. Both the show on 11/16 and 12/28 will rank among the biggest grosses in company history. The 12/28 show should end up in the top three of all-time, behind only the Toronto stadium show and the Anderson Silva vs. Chael Sonnen II show.
The company was looking at an April debut in Mexico City at Arena Ciudad, but it is now out since the plan was to go with Cain Velasquez vs. Fabricio Werdum as the main event. Velasquez suffered a shoulder injury in his win over Junior Dos Santos and underwent an MRI this past week to determine if he would need surgery, which he wont. But the injuries are serious enough that it is going to be a while before he can fight, long enough that they are thinking of offering Werdum a new fight as opposed to him waiting for Velasquez to be ready. He had one MRI already done, and it was unclear as pinpointing the injury so a second one was scheduled. Surgery would put him out of action well past that date.
Antonio Rogerio Nogueiras injury that forced him out of the fight with Alexander Gustafsson was a herniated disc in his lower back. In actuality, even though he was announced, Nogueira had never agreed to the match. UFC has done this before, but for whatever reason, they announced the match at the press conference after the show in Manchester to headline the 3/8 show in London before they had heard back from Nogueira. At the time, Gustafsson had agreed to the fight and they had tried to contact Nogueira. They somehow couldnt contact him, but figured since he hadnt fought since February (and that was his only fight since the end of 2011) hed be willing to take the fight, so they announced it. They got burned with that once before when announcing Jon Jones vs. Lyoto Machida before asking Machida if hed take it and Machida then turned it down. But UFC wasnt aware of Nogueiras injury and the fighters or their management is also always supposed to keep UFC in the loop on injuries.
In the fan polling on who will get the video game cover with Jon Jones, a surge of late votes saw Miesha Tate surpass Ronda Rousey to advance in the playoffs. I dont know what you can read into a web site poll, and Rousey was ahead most of the balloting. But there are people who think this season of TUF has really hurt Rousey and the ratings, even with the huge DVR delayed viewership, the bad West Coast time slot and new station, still cant be viewed as anywhere near what would have been expected going in. Many of the fighters were constantly on Twitter this week urging people to vote for them. As far as the playoffs went, the others saw Anthony Pettis over Demetrious Johnson, Johny Hendricks over Dominick Cruz, Michael Bisping over Urijah Faber (those two were constantly pushing people to vote for them), GSP over Chris Weidman, Alexander Gustafsson over Daniel Cormier (who was pushing for votes on TV which one would think would be a good platform), Chael Sonnen over Junior Dos Santos and Jose Aldo over Benson Henderson. So the next bracketing is GSP vs. Hendricks, Pettis vs. Aldo, Sonnen vs. Bisping and Gustafsson vs. Tate. Tate said she was surprised she won since she was behind the entire time, and that Rousey had double her number of twitter followers. Tate said to MMAJunkie.com that she thought if the vote had taken place several weeks ago, shes have lost in a landslide. Honestly, I think she would have (won big). I think people were under this kind of sentiment that Ronda Rousey can do no wrong and shes the princess of MMA, shes the golden girl, shes the Olympian, shes the blond-haired, blue-eyed All-American perfect girl and she has the full support of the UFC. Everyone has gotten to see the Ronda Rousey that I havent got along with for a long time.
Maklershed
Member
lol Jamie Yager. And who is Jared Papazian? Was he in the UFC? The name sounds familiar.If you like mixed martials, good or bad, you owe it to yourself to watch rocks fly on the Tachi reserve tonight. This will be fantastic.
Tachi Palace Fights 17: Fall Brawl
Starts at 6:00 PM PT / 9:00 PM ET, free on Livestream.com
Oh mah Gah. Who is this? She has a Corinne Bailey Rae look. :drool:Jer youre worthless
Master Thespian
Member
Roland Deschain
Member
Only when he isn't too busy doing the same for pro wrestling.
You can't make this stuff up
https://www.facebook.com/TAPNAPSNAP/posts/691977907481162#!/TAPNAPSNAP/posts/691977907481162
https://www.facebook.com/TAPNAPSNAP/posts/691977907481162#!/TAPNAPSNAP/posts/691977907481162
killamajig
Member
I saw the JCVD commercial yesterday.
It was more enjoyable than the Expendables 2 by far, where JCVD played a Satanic nuclear arms dealer from Eastern Europe (I couldn't make that up if I wanted to). And like others have mentioned, this really should have been a Super Bowl commercial - it was that good.
It was more enjoyable than the Expendables 2 by far, where JCVD played a Satanic nuclear arms dealer from Eastern Europe (I couldn't make that up if I wanted to). And like others have mentioned, this really should have been a Super Bowl commercial - it was that good.
Is everyone listening to Sherdogs UFC recaps? They are fantastic if you have a desk job and not the greatest memory of all the events.
Lots of small nice stories and a nice overview.
http://www.sherdog.com/tag/sherdog-rewind-radio
ALSO:
MMA is the only sport I ever really followed so I have no references.. how is general viewership in other sports? Dream, you touched on it briefly.. There is always a lot of doom and gloom in UFC coverage and I don't know if its the nerd culture or an actual thing.
Do baseball fans talk about ratings? Does a hockey fan care about that?
Lots of small nice stories and a nice overview.
http://www.sherdog.com/tag/sherdog-rewind-radio
ALSO:
MMA is the only sport I ever really followed so I have no references.. how is general viewership in other sports? Dream, you touched on it briefly.. There is always a lot of doom and gloom in UFC coverage and I don't know if its the nerd culture or an actual thing.
Do baseball fans talk about ratings? Does a hockey fan care about that?
Master Thespian
Member
He's literally Zangief.
I've heard baseball fans speak of ratings, but that's just because baseball is slow as fuck so they come up with any and every statistic they can to pass the time - meaningful or otherwise. The news there is that fans are getting older and the World Series ratings are comparable to Sunday Night Football ratings. The final game of the World Series was watched by about 19 million people, but the last Sunday Night Football game had 21 million viewers. The biggest game in all of baseball is lagging behind a football game that happens every week of the season, that's all that needs to be said there.
As for other sports, I'm not sure what the ratings are or how much they care. I imagine soccer does great, but I've never cared for a sport where it's possible that no one wins after 90 minutes of running around a field and faking injury is a viable tactic to earn on-field advantage.
MMA isn't really a sport.
Dream said it best: "Even though UFC is 20, it has not proven the test of time."
Sports are firmly ingrained in society, where as the MMA landscape is much more volatile. We're talking the difference between 20 million viewers and 200,000 viewers. Duck Dynasty re-runs eclipse live MMA ratings ten-fold. As it currently stands, MMA is always a 6 month swing from things changing drastically one way or the other. It's not like it could go away completely, but there is a looming risk that the bottom falls out of this sport and completely changes the landscape.
"OSU/Baylor game did 2.11 Million viewers receiving the highest ratings for FOX Sports 1 to date."
College football.
Sports are firmly ingrained in society, where as the MMA landscape is much more volatile. We're talking the difference between 20 million viewers and 200,000 viewers. Duck Dynasty re-runs eclipse live MMA ratings ten-fold. As it currently stands, MMA is always a 6 month swing from things changing drastically one way or the other. It's not like it could go away completely, but there is a looming risk that the bottom falls out of this sport and completely changes the landscape.
"OSU/Baylor game did 2.11 Million viewers receiving the highest ratings for FOX Sports 1 to date."
College football.
industrian
will gently cradle you as time slowly ticks away.
If ratings is a "thing" in MMA, it's because it's an unstructured sport. "Proper" sports have structures: seasons, playoffs, cup matches, Champions League matches, (etc) where - if ratings were important - there are predictable TV ratings building up to the important matches. MMA however is totally on an ad-hoc basis. You could potentially have GSP vs. Anderson Silva one week, and Buddy Roberts vs. Jim McKenna the next week. I give a lot of credit to Bellator for toying with a "seasonal" structure where they can go out and say what belts are on the line in the next few months and provide a narrative to go with it, but at the end of the day it's still a niche and fractured sport. It took hundreds of years for present-day sports to get where they are today, the fact the UFC is at this level right now is either evidence of supreme and commendable growth, or the longest bubble in history. Time will tell.
TLDR: This "ratings drama" exists purely for Dave Meltzer to jerk himself to sleep every Monday night.
Good discussion, I had not considered the fundamental difference that a "single athlete" sport brings over all the team based stuff.
You are never going to have that thing that all the big sports live on, the team that is the city, the team that your dad followed, the team that you grow up with.
On another note, VICE did a new fightland, JAPANESE MMA NEVER DIE:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBayTVkKD8o
You are never going to have that thing that all the big sports live on, the team that is the city, the team that your dad followed, the team that you grow up with.
On another note, VICE did a new fightland, JAPANESE MMA NEVER DIE:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBayTVkKD8o
Just came back from the pet shop. Did not get a doggy sadly. Saw a pretty german shepherd but she was a girl..Cautionary tale friends. Im not sure what a doctor actually does aside from making me take 3 different pills. Im pretty sure i almost face planted at least 3 times mid sentence today and im not even sure what my name is right now. I thought medicine was supposed to make things better, oddly enough i feel ten billion times worse. also then there is this..
I'm liking this transition vom McKayla- to Yellowbone-GAF.
Tennis doesn't have this problem, the vast majority of people simply aren't interested in cage fights. Those that are often times have something wrong in their head. Whether it's repressed homosexuality, living vicariously through a badass or just a desire to see a trainwreck...add them all up and you're still going to hit a pretty low ceiling. The good news for the UFC is that these kinds of weirdos are a global phenomenon and there are a lot of untapped countries still out there.
Tennis doesn't have this problem, the vast majority of people simply aren't interested in cage fights. Those that are often times have something wrong in their head. Whether it's repressed homosexuality, living vicariously through a badass or just a desire to see a trainwreck...add them all up and you're still going to hit a pretty low ceiling. The good news for the UFC is that these kinds of weirdos are a global phenomenon and there are a lot of untapped countries still out there.
Jest Chillin
Member
Even in the delusional mindstate that Askren must be in to say that he could bring "exciting" match ups, he surely realizes that calling anyone in the UFC a scrub isn't exactly the best way to get the match up he wants...
industrian
will gently cradle you as time slowly ticks away.
Tennis has hundreds of years of evolution, upper-class baggage, and has a centralised structure with a yearly schedule of events and tournaments.
MMA is young, working-class and has hundreds of organisations holding events on an ad-hoc basis.
His best win is Jay Herion as far as I can see... The guy is fucking mental.
This should be the first thing people read when they come into the OT.
I would have trouble enjoying the sport would I think thats true but I can imagine that stuff is colored by your peers and who you are in general.