Like and like. Is Mark Hunt too high up the ladder to be paired with Johnson?
Really liked Rogan's cheering for Belcher ... Palhares is such a talented, everybody-knows-what-he's-trying-for fighter that all the fans were thinking the same thing and either a) also yelling "GET OUT OF THERE!" or b) yelling "THERE IT IS! GET IT!" Can't think of a grappler with a "signature" hold like that except for Ronda Rousey. Guys like Werdum or Leites or Maia have too many weapons for us to be singularly-focused on one type of grappling hold like you need to be if you want to cheerlead like that.
I liked the card today but got into an argument with my roommate about the marketability of the Diaz brothers. I think Nate Diaz with the title is a really sharp departure from most of the champions in recent memory. Anderson, GSP, Bones, Smooth, Edgar, JDS, Cain, Forrest, Carwin, Rashad, Randy, Shogun, Machida, BJ ... these are all "nice" guys ... Rampage and Brock can both wear the black hat, but look very artificial when wearing it. Koscheck came up just a bit short but would have been the best villain champ in recent memory, and Diaz is a couple of big steps beyond Koscheck. World class combat sportsmen vs world class FIGHTER. Diaz definitely has the jits and the boxing to deal with Henderson, and I think he'd make the sort of champion the UFC hasn't seen since ... since early Tito? I don't know if it's the sort of marketing Uncle Dana wants to do, but a Diaz champion would be fascinating.
I think Nate Diaz could definately be a similar figure to BJ Penn at LW--BJ had that same devoted following, and that same fighter mentality. Although the first two fox cards lacked excitement, and this one lacked big draws, the UFC has got to be happy with the outcomes of the fights. Sonnen and Rashad winning set up two big main events. ate Diaz could be LW`s biggest draw in a while. Hendricks is slowly building a name and will carry that into a WW title fight. The HW, LHW, MW, WW, and LW titles have all been given a rub by these FOX cards.
Bad night of picks for me. Fun card to watch though. I'm not sure why I picked some of the guys I did. Found myself wishing before the fights that I had picked both Lavar Johnson and Belcher but was too late to change.
I was 50/50 on who to pick in the main event but went with Miller because of Diaz track record against similiar fighters. Diaz has really improved in the last year or so though. I like his chances against the Bendo/Edgar winner. He should have to fight Pettis first though.
Biggest suprises of the night for me were Gaudinot, Bermudez and Michael Johnson all winning their fights. I thought picking them to lose were the 3 easiest pick to make on the card. So much for that.
Bad night of picks for me. Fun card to watch though. I'm not sure why I picked some of the guys I did. Found myself wishing before the fights that I had picked both Lavar Johnson and Belcher but was too late to change.
I was 50/50 on who to pick in the main event but went with Miller because of Diaz track record against similiar fighters. Diaz has really improved in the last year or so though. I like his chances against the Bendo/Edgar winner. He should have to fight Pettis first though.
Biggest suprises of the night for me were Gaudinot, Bermudez and Michael Johnson all winning their fights. I thought picking them to lose were the 3 easiest pick to make on the card. So much for that.
Yeah for me seeing Johnson beat Ferguson was shocking to me. Ferguson had looked sensational during the show and in his fights since. I thought he would roll right through Johnson, but he looked completely brutal. I almost wonder if he was sick or something, he looked tentative, slow, and just listless.
Yeah for me seeing Johnson beat Ferguson was shocking to me. Ferguson had looked sensational during the show and in his fights since. I thought he would roll right through Johnson, but he looked completely brutal. I almost wonder if he was sick or something, he looked tentative, slow, and just listless.
I was amazed he kept fighting after breaking his arm in the first. Nasty break.
Belcher can definitely win. Palhares has managed to crap the bed in his two biggest fights against Henderson & Marquardt. He's due for another mental breakdown.
Called this one
Quote:
Originally Posted by DeathFromAbove
I guess there's always a possibility that he submits a guy with fantastic BJJ who's never been submitted, but it isn't likely.
Not taking away anything from Diaz b/c he fought well and deserved to win. But Miller looked tentative and even scared from the beginning of the match, something I've never seen of him.
I'm sure some of you saw this, but for those that didn't, the ratings for this event were absolutely terrible. Ratings being down is one thing, especially when taking into account the Mayweather fight, it being Cinco de Mayo, NBA playoffs, and possibly even The Avengers, but what really surprised me was that it finished sixth out of only eight programs that ran in the same timeslot. That is awful. I could see if ratings were down but it still fared well in the timeslot, but that just has to be alarming. Don't get me wrong, I think the fights delivered, but it brings me back to a point I'm sure I've mentioned in the past.
The UFC needs to realize that they're still an emerging sport, and for the casual fan to tune in you need big names. The last show had Rashad Evans, that worked. Obviously the first show was an enormous fight so there was no question people would watch that. The casual fan barely knows who Jim Miller is. Not to mention I still feel the higher weight classes are a bigger draw (all things being equal) than the lower ones. Certainly a solid card for the hardcore fans, and the fights didn't disappoint, but the UFC needs to make sure they have a name or two on the card on future Fox shows if they want to beat reruns of Shark Tank.
The UFC got cocky with Fox, trying to use it as a promotional tool to build up contenders that will sell PPVs in the future. They gambled that they could pull big ratings hyping fights as #1 contender bouts and lost. It turns out as you mentioned that casual fans don't care about a fight between Jim Miller & Nate Diaz. They need to instead be putting big fights on Fox. Take the hit on PPV buys and use popular fighters to help build the sport.
I think the Fox deal is hurting the UFC right now. Content like the countdown shows is getting buried on obscure channels like Fuel that no one gets, and no one has followed TUF to FX. Hopefully they can turn this around.
The UFC got cocky with Fox, trying to use it as a promotional tool to build up contenders that will sell PPVs in the future. They gambled that they could pull big ratings hyping fights as #1 contender bouts and lost. It turns out as you mentioned that casual fans don't care about a fight between Jim Miller & Nate Diaz. They need to instead be putting big fights on Fox. Take the hit on PPV buys and use popular fighters to help build the sport.
I think the Fox deal is hurting the UFC right now. Content like the countdown shows is getting buried on obscure channels like Fuel that no one gets, and no one has followed TUF to FX. Hopefully they can turn this around.
Completely agreed. When it comes to having their biggest stars on FOX it's not going to happen, we got lucky just to have Rashad fight on one of the cards. It also doesn't help the UFC that their two biggest stars either retired (Brock Lesnar who is the PPV king for MMA), and GSP who hasn't fought since April of last year. FOX/UFC can't expect to see casuals tune into see a card like this, a card of this caliber was barely promoted and it catered more towards hardcore MMA fans like ourselves. Another thing that is killing them is Fuel TV. Hardly anyone here in the States has it, and most cable companies that don't have it, won't get it until their contract with FOX is up and has to be renewed. This deal is starting to bite them in the ass.
__________________ "I don't know what the stronger emotion would be, the joy of winning or the pain of losing"-Sidney Crosby.
Another thing that is killing them is Fuel TV. Hardly anyone here in the States has it, and most cable companies that don't have it, won't get it until their contract with FOX is up and has to be renewed. This deal is starting to bite them in the ass.
Yep it's pretty brutal. They have shows like UFC Tonight that are geared towards casual fans, but it's on a channel that only hardcore fans will watch. It's such a mess.
In Canada, the regulators have determined Fuel TV is too similar to another channel and won't even allow it to be broadcast here. I'm not even sure if we can watch the countdown shows anywhere now. It used to be much simpler with Spike.
Yep it's pretty brutal. They have shows like UFC Tonight that are geared towards casual fans, but it's on a channel that only hardcore fans will watch. It's such a mess.
In Canada, the regulators have determined Fuel TV is too similar to another channel and won't even allow it to be broadcast here. I'm not even sure if we can watch the countdown shows anywhere now. It used to be much simpler with Spike.
Yep. They're only hurting themselves with this.
Also, I really wish they would have struck a deal with NBC instead of FOX. Everything NBC does with their sports is incredible. You could have your 4 network cards on NBC and have everything else put on NBC Sports Network. It would have been much more simple to have it done that way, but I guess FOX just wanted it more.
One thing I cannot stand about the UFC being on FOX is the presentation of it. It's terrible, I don't want to hear the damn NFL theme song all the time...
In Canada, the regulators have determined Fuel TV is too similar to another channel and won't even allow it to be broadcast here. I'm not even sure if we can watch the countdown shows anywhere now. It used to be much simpler with Spike.
Us Canadians are pretty lucky actually as Sportsnet has picked up the vast majority of Fuel/FX programming. The countdown shows, as well as the primetime shows, have been airing on Sportsnet regularly, just not in the same time slot they are shown in the US.
Us Canadians are pretty lucky actually as Sportsnet has picked up the vast majority of Fuel/FX programming. The countdown shows, as well as the primetime shows, have been airing on Sportsnet regularly, just not in the same time slot they are shown in the US.
Yeah, Sportsnet is killing it with their UFC coverage in Canada. They suck at everything else but they're great for MMA. The only thing we don't get is the live weigh-ins and the UFC tonight show. I think Sportsnet shows everything else.
Yeah, Sportsnet is killing it with their UFC coverage in Canada. They suck at everything else but they're great for MMA. The only thing we don't get is the live weigh-ins and the UFC tonight show. I think Sportsnet shows everything else.
We don't get TUF live anymore. But yeah, Sportsnet is pretty awesome for UFC stuff.
