Mixed Martial Arts Thread (UFC and others)

[azjoe_02]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

Best thing about that is that Guida/Henderson might get on the air. maybe.

I sure hope so. It was a great fight.

[PilotMan]

No way this was going more than 1. Still shocked. I got hit to the ear really hard once. All I could do was sit down, standing wasn't an option. Of course, I got my revenge later.

[DeToxRox]

I like Brock but Reem, please fucking win so we can see you vs JDS.

[EagleFan]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

Best thing about that is that Guida/Henderson might get on the air. maybe.

Don't they just have an hour? Not enough time for that to make it. If they started this fight earlier it could have.

[Lathum]

Just had my first UFC watching experience. I gotta say, if they are trying to pull in new fans with tonights fight being on FOX they failed miserably. 40 minutes of pre fight and 40 seconds of actual action. Pretty underwhelming.

[PilotMan]

Cain was definitely out.

[sovereignstar v2]

Originally Posted by EagleFan

Don't they just have an hour? Not enough time for that to make it. If they started this fight earlier it could have.

Besides the fact that from the very beginning they were saying that this was the only fight that would be aired period.

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by sovereignstar v2

Besides the fact that from the very beginning that this was the only fight that would be aired period.

Only fight aired live.

[PilotMan]

Well they have 10 minutes to fill, hopefully they put a fight in, instead of just another 10 minutes of talking. It would be a total failure then. On the level of Tyson/Spinks.

[DeToxRox]

Fox made the call that only one fight will air. Clay Guida's manager said they were told that Guida and Hendo didn't have star power to get put on the main show.

[sovereignstar v2]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

Only fight aired live.

You don't know what you're talking about.

[azjoe_02]

Originally Posted by Lathum

Just had my first UFC watching experience. I gotta say, if they are trying to pull in new fans with tonights fight being on FOX they failed miserably. 40 minutes of pre fight and 40 seconds of actual action. Pretty underwhelming.

Heh... Plenty of good fights all the time on Spike. If you are only going to watch because it is on Fox, you probably arn't going to watch much anyway. You can't fault them for trying.

[EagleFan]

Originally Posted by DeToxRox

Fox made the call that only one fight will air. Clay Guida's manager said they were told that Guida and Hendo didn't have star power to get put on the main show.

How ironic that that was the fight that I think everyone thought was going to be better than the main event and was by a mile.

[EagleFan]

Originally Posted by Lathum

Just had my first UFC watching experience. I gotta say, if they are trying to pull in new fans with tonights fight being on FOX they failed miserably. 40 minutes of pre fight and 40 seconds of actual action. Pretty underwhelming.

This was not a good way to judge it. If you saw the Guida/Henderson fight I think you would have a whole different opinion.

[Travis]

I can understand that they wanted to try and personalize the fighters to new fans tuning in tonight and that Brock was likely on there as one of the most recognizable faces in the sport, but it's really disappointing that they didn't air the Guida/Henderson fight for the simple fact that you knew those two would simply go to war no matter how long their fight lasted. Be the easiest way possible to double your chances at having at least one fight go 2.5+ rounds of action and minimize the chances of having your one fight go poorly (either early stoppage or boring decision)

That and even allowing for 8 rounds of fighting they still could have done some decent background on Cain/JDS (have a couple different packages ready depending on how long the first fight lasted). If nothing else they could have just skipped most of Buffer's annoying prattling.

Hell of a job by JDS though.

[PilotMan]

Yeah, overall, this is going over like a lead balloon.

[DeToxRox]

Originally Posted by EagleFan

How ironic that that was the fight that I think everyone thought was going to be better than the main event and was by a mile.

I'm with you. They wanted to sell the big guys fighting and put all their focus into that but the problem is that there was no real shot in hell these two were going into the championship rounds with how they can stand and bang. Fox obviously was worried about scaring people away with a stinker but I think most people figurted Bendo/Guida would deliver and they did. Now the egg is on Fox's face.

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by DeToxRox

Now the egg is on Fox's face.

yep

[DeToxRox]

Dana is so pissed lol.

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by azjoe_02

Heh... Plenty of good fights all the time on Spike. If you are only going to watch because it is on Fox, you probably arn't going to watch much anyway. You can't fault them for trying.

The only reason I watched it was because Saldana is here visiting and he wanted to see it. I don't think you can compare FOX to Spike. People watch Spike specifically for MMA. I have been seeing promos for this fight for a few weeks during NFL games, House, Terra Nova, etc...

FOX has been pimping this fight to their general audience, that is much broader than Spikes, and it was a total dud to the average viewer who knows nothing about MMA.

[DaddyTorgo]

What they needed was Wanderlei vs. Cung Le on FOX. That's going to be a fucking war.

[DeToxRox]

Heavyweight's are so fast and so powerful now it's insane not to think that any HW fight is going to end in the first round. Just bad planning by Fox.

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by EagleFan

This was not a good way to judge it. If you saw the Guida/Henderson fight I think you would have a whole different opinion.

But you have to look at it as the average viewer who decided to turn in and see what the hype was all about. They didn't show Guida/Henderson, they showed a 40 second fight after 40 minutes of fluff.

[EagleFan]

Originally Posted by Lathum

But you have to look at it as the average viewer who decided to turn in and see what the hype was all about. They didn't show Guida/Henderson, they showed a 40 second fight after 40 minutes of fluff.

I agree. I think they screwed the pooch with this one. Sounds like it was Fox making the call and it was probably someone who knew nothing about the sport that made the decision.

Of course, if it ends up being something that's not for you, then there isn't much that would change that.

If you got to see the Guida/Henderson fight I think you would have known the answer to that for sure as if that one wouldn't make you want to see more than it's just not for you.

[EagleFan]

dola: My original comment to you wasn't meant as saying that you weren't jusding UFC correctly. I misworded it probably. Only meant to say that tonight's show was unfortunately a lousy way to showcase the sport.

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by EagleFan

Only meant to say that tonight's show was unfortunately a lousy way to showcase the sport.

That's what's terribly ironic about this whole thing. This is the feeling after watching a very limited free show, but no way would we be saying this if we had dropped 45 for the PPV. It's funny.

[EagleFan]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

That's what's terribly ironic about this whole thing. This is the feeling after watching a very limited free show, but no way would we be saying this if we had dropped 45 for the PPV. It's funny.

If the free show gave you the other matches we would't be saying it.

[kingfc22]

Originally Posted by HiFiRevival

(Pacquiao got beaten handily, judges didn't agree).

truth

[DeToxRox]

@arielhelwani
Ariel Helwani JDS and his dr. just confirmed that he tore his meniscus 11 days ago, was on crutches for 2 days after. Couldn't walk.

[molson]

Eh, I don't think it was too bad, I think casual fans love quick knockouts. Casual fans like me that could DVR through the 40 minutes of fluff like them even more.

The fight should have just started a lot earlier. I was ready for something else, pre-taped or otherwise. Live MMA with a fixed network timelot is going to be a little tricky no matter what, but if you're selling a single fight, you gotta start the fight sooner. If you're selling a show, you gotta have more than an hour....but even then, you might have to juggle the card and the order of matches as the night goes on to make sure you leave time for the main event at the end.

The odds of that going less then 1 round had to be pretty high, the odds of it going less than 2 full rounds were close to 100%. I think viewers will hang with you for a while for post-fight, and they'll be thirsting for some more blood of some type. And if not, hey, you gave them fast and quick OCD entertainment, which is going to help the brand more than what happened tonight. Tonight kind of left the impression that in the UFC, thousands of fans file into an arena, wait around for a while, watch a fight lasting a minute, and then leave.

Later at night might help too - traditionally, the late night shows are going to kick off with their best stuff, and then kind of fizzle out throughout the night as they lose viewers - Saturday Night Live, the late night talk shows, do this, as did WWF Saturday Night's Main Event back in the day (a fixed sport obviously but I think the comparison works - they would start with with Hulk Hogan at 11:30 and fizzle out to the lower-card guys by 1AM.)

[AlexB]

We were lucky over here then by the sounds of it: got Henderson v. Guida on first, followed by the HW fight, and then DaMarques Johnson v. Clay Harvison to fill the last ten minutes of a one hour show.

All good fights! I thought the same on the main event stoppage intially, that it was a bit early, but on replays Velasquez went limp/stopped defending for at least two punches, and he didn;t complain at all - even nodded his head in agreement to big John.

The way we got the fights over here, it must have been on delay (it was 3am or something here, so recorded and watched this morning, as always with UFC)

[judicial clerk]

Interesting info on JDS. I liked Cain coming out with the low kicks and I wonder if he knew about the meniscus thing. I also liked JDS coming out with the body shots. Of course none of it ended up mattering after Cain took the 500 mph overhand right behind the ear. That punch in that spot would have dropped anybody it connected with. On a side note, I saw Velasquez came in at 250 lbs, is that heavy for him?

[DeToxRox]

Originally Posted by judicial clerk

Interesting info on JDS. I liked Cain coming out with the low kicks and I wonder if he knew about the meniscus thing. I also liked JDS coming out with the body shots. Of course none of it ended up mattering after Cain took the 500 mph overhand right behind the ear. That punch in that spot would have dropped anybody it connected with. On a side note, I saw Velasquez came in at 250 lbs, is that heavy for him?

Cain weighed in at 244 vs Brock, so it was heavier then that fight. I did notice he seemed to look a bit bigger in the stomach this time around but it wasn't anything I think cost him the fight.

[molson]

It's kind of funny that Dos Santos fights for about a minute, and now probably won't fight again for 8 months or something. I understand the training that the goes into this and everything, but it seems like that's a ton of time when career windows are so short. One punch can define a pretty good chunk of a guy's prime, good or bad. I guess that's part of the drama, but you'd think these guys could fight more often than boxers, especially after extremely short fights.

[molson]

Originally Posted by HiFiRevival

Did you miss the torn meniscus part of things?

I'm saying generally, even if he was in perfect health, we wouldn't see him for 8 months. Unless he injured himself training, and then it'd be 12-16 months.

Edit: It's just anti-climatic from a casual fan perspective, and a roadblock for UFC I think. The biggest stars can fight a couple of rounds a year. Or sometimes, a lot less. I don't know if that's more grueling than 24ish rounds of boxing a year over two fights a star might fight (though even that's on the high side), but it is a lot less time you're out there in front of the fans.

[DeToxRox]

Originally Posted by molson

It's kind of funny that Dos Santos fights for about a minute, and now probably won't fight again for 8 months or something. I understand the training that the goes into this and everything, but it seems like that's a ton of time when career windows are so short. One punch can define a pretty good chunk of a guy's prime, good or bad. I guess that's part of the drama, but you'd think these guys could fight more often than boxers, especially after extremely short fights.

Well for champions it is different because the UFC has to obviously put together Main Event fights. JDS is probably going to fight again in March/April assuming the winner of Overeem/Brock doesn't get hurt. That isn't too bad.

It just depends on the fighter otherwise. Cowboy Cerrone has his 5th fight of 2010 vs Nate Diaz on the Brock/Overeem card. He wants fights so he gets them. It all just depends.

[molson]

Ratings-wise, it looks like they did OK considering all of the football competition, but it looks like only 75% of the total viewers of the Kimbo Slice CBS fight/show.

UFC On Fox: Early Ratings Estimates Have It Coming Short Of Kimbo Slice On CBS Or Spike TV - MMA Nation

[Carman Bulldog]

That ratings article is wrong. It didn't take into account West Coast. It was actually higher than the Slice fight. Meltzer has an article up about it on Yahoo.


So, should we chalk that one up to a punch catching Velasquez in the right spot? Or based on last night and Velasquez frequently getting knocked silly by Cheick Kongo, are there any concerns about Velasquez's ability to take a punch (much like Brock)?

[AlexB]

Gotta love Tom Lawlor - how often have fighters walked out to Olivia Newton John?!!!!!!

Spoiler

OK, maybe there's a reason for that

[PilotMan]

wow what a main event. wow.

[DeToxRox]

That might be the best fight I have ever seen. I had it a draw with Shogun getting 10-8 in the final round. Unfuckingreal.

[DeToxRox]

Also, Chandler vs Alvarez on Bellator tonight was fucking insane as well. I didn't think it had a shot to be topped, and yet it was.

[k0ruptr]

they both gave fucking everything they had. CRAZY. I wanna see them fight again in 4 months, not Hendo - Jones

[PilotMan]