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UFC on Fox 8 pulled 2.04 million viewers according to the overnights
LOL
UFC isnt even as big as EliteXC
LOL
UFC isnt even as big as EliteXC
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Liquidrob's Top 10 Fighters Rankings
The 10 Fighters Who Changed The Game
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zero star power last night. surprised it did that much -
It was really a missed opportunity. All the major sports are out, except baseball and people don't really care too much about it right now. They could have put together a reasonable big fight and created some buzz and be THE big sports event of the weekend. Instead they put together a pretty low-profile, boring event which didn't even entertain their fanbase, much less captivate the casual viewer.Comment
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Remember when we would obsess about UFC picking the wrong fights for FOX, and it would usually come down to one star vs another, or one mega fight vs another? Could you imagine putting that trash on FOX and drawing that number at the beginning of this deal?
Now UFC doesn't even care what they throw on TV. Money is in the bank, contract isn't going anywhere, they know FOX needs them because they're launching a new network in a month.Comment
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I will go to my grave insisting that UFC blew it the first time out on FOX, when they let FOX convince them to run a one fight show, and got burned with the weak JDS KO of Cain. Casuals and curiosity viewers were laughing at the sport that night. It did a huge number that has never been matched because all of those curiosity viewers were never coming back after that shit. And they had that great Benson Henderson fight on the undercard that they chose not to air, even when it was already in the can, they knew it was a fight of the year contender, and they had time left to air it. Instead they showed a half hour of Curt Menafee & the desk shills talking about dumb shit like "top ten heavyweights" that nobody remembers.
That night was a turning point in mainstream sports fan acceptance. They had them watching, and they blew it.Comment
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Think about the buzz that night compared to now. You have one shot to make that first impression. And they fucked it up. Some was bad luck, most was bad decision making by both sides.
These FOX shows barely have buzz among hardcores, let alone random sports fan guy. Casuals don't even exist anymore if you are pulling two million viewers on a network. That's your base.Comment
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Fox 1 didn't help anything, but they could've skipped by had anyone emerged as a superstar. Nobody has among this current crop since GSP and he's been on top for about six or seven years.
Rousey has to a degree, but no female will ever draw like Georges has....even if UFC could promote a Ronda/Cyborg fight.
So, they're running in place. Plus, thanks to the stagnant state of the sport besides the UFC, MMA as a whole is running in place. Bellator being moved to Friday's in the fall, no good. Nothing else besides them.
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If that Bendo/Guido fight airs, he might have become a breakout star, who knows, that's how stars are made, they have exciting breakout performances in front of millions of eyeballs.
There are a million reasons that night was a disaster imo, but the reactions the next day were all nonsense like "they drew 8 million, what a success!". So short sighted. The buzz was all negative from non fans, which was the majority of that 8 million.Comment
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Yeah, but their Henderson/Diaz fight drew pretty good ratings. Their premier sucked ass and made the sport a punch line to casual fans. I was in a bar when that came on, and I'd bet money that those people who asked what the hell that was will never order a PPV in their life. But they proved with the Benson fight that they can still be the must-see sporting event of the weekend if they cared at all. Going with DJ wasn't a bad idea, but that match-up sucked.Comment
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I'm not saying they can't do a good number now & then, they can (and have).
I'm saying they blew a chance to make millions of new fans that night. That was the most important night in MMA history since Griffin/Bonnar. Griffin/Bonnar won people over and sparked a boom. Cain/JDS drove people away and kept them on the same level when that night could have sparked another boom and took them to a next level. Joe Sports Fan doesn't care about UFC, and i'm willing to bet 3 or 4 million people watched that night that haven't seen a fight since.
If you want a small sample size, check the chatbox on this site on and UFC fight night. The usual suspects (Kuzzy, Empire, me, Shogun etc) talking fights. The night of Cain/JDS, EVERYBODY was talking UFC, they had non fans watching, and it turned into a running joke. A lot of uninformed people thought it was fixed because the KO was so weak. That's a killer. Show those people Bendo/Guida, you have water cooler buzz.Comment
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If Dana was smart that Silva vs Weidman and Rousey vs Tate event would be on FOX.Comment
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They blew it that night. There's no arguing that. Sure, it could have been a more modern Bonnar/Griffin, but it's tough to catch that lightning in a bottle. Bonnar/Griffin was the main event. JDS/Velasquez was going to be the main event regardless. The night was going to end on a dud regardless, instead of MMA's version of Hagler/Hearns.
They just don't care about running a serious main event on Fox. If they did, or if they don't, they're going to have more or less the same number of casual fans watching. MMA is overexposed now. You and Rob and all the rest have been talking about it for years. Nobody cared about Mighty Mouse/Moraga. That wouldn't have changed no matter how many saw Guida/Henderson. Now if they went nuts and gave away Jones/Silva/GSP on Fox, it would generate buzz and draw casual fans in droves.Comment
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Griffin/Bonnar wasn't the main event, the main event was Franklin/Shamrock.
Nobody remembers that, which reinforces my point that they should have at least aired the Bendo/Guida fight once they knew the main event was a dud. The fight had already happened, they had nothing to lose. They didn't even have to tell anybody it was recorded, only 1% of the audience would have known any better. FOX was against airing that fight live, so they have to take the brunt of the blame, but it was just a massive missed opportunity by all. UFC didn't want to run a one match show but they also didn't want to fight with FOX right out of the gate. It was a rare case of UFC backing down in a conflict, and it cost them & FOX dearly, because here we are with world title fights barely beating TNA fucking Impact in total viewers.
Also, while it was with good intentions, it's time to concede that not all title fights should be main events. I get that you want to position your titles as important, but some of the titles/champions are just not draws, so somebody like Mighty Mouse & some of these lower weight titles need to be third from the top or whatever as supporting fights.Comment
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