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Can the UFC Possibly Create a Card to Top UFC 100’s Buyrate?

In what was perhaps the biggest night for the UFC and the sport of MMA, approximately 1.6 to 1.75 million viewers paid their hard-earned money to watch UFC 100 on pay-per-view. It was a huge night for the sport ,as fans seemed to find something in the …

In what was perhaps the biggest night for the UFC and the sport of MMA, approximately 1.6 to 1.75 million viewers paid their hard-earned money to watch UFC 100 on pay-per-view.

It was a huge night for the sport ,as fans seemed to find something in the card or about the event that helped inspire them to spend their money; never before had the company enjoyed such a massive pay-per-view audience.

Of course, it was the hundredth numbered show, and people love anniversaries, so that probably played a part.

Then, it had big names and compelling matchups: Brock Lesnar (the biggest domestic star the company has ever had) defending his title against the only man to ever beat him in his MMA career (to that point), Frank Mir.

Canadian superstar and reigning welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre was also defending his belt against Thiago Alves, and then you had the coaches of The Ultimate Fighter season 9, Dan Henderson and Michael Bisping, slugging it out in a rivalry that had been brewing for months.

But those were just some of the known names involved. UFC 100 was big because there were many established (as in known by the public) names on the card: Stephan Bonnar, Mark Coleman, Mac Danzig, Brock Lesnar, GSP, Frank Mir, Dan Henderson and Michael Bisping were men that the public had known either thanks to The Ultimate Fighter or an established career in MMA.

And it was also a well-built event with a lot talent spread all though the card and it got a big push in the media. It seemed there was a little something for everyone.

Now, it is still the biggest selling pay-per-view the company has ever known, and as expected, that is the record everyone is waiting to see broken. But will it ever be broken?

Will the UFC ever see another event that produces the same numbers or surpasses those of UFC 100?

Yes, they will.

Granted, it will not be an easy mark to overcome. UFC 148 was supposed to be able to generate those kinds of numbers, but it didn’t, and it seems clear as to why.

One of the biggest things UFC 100 had going for it was name value, and on that night, they had a lot of it.

Now, imagine if you will, another fight card, with matchups like GSP vs. Nick Diaz, Alistair Overeem vs. Junior dos Santos, Shogun vs. Rashad Evans and so on. If the UFC wants to see those kinds of numbers again, they need to think about mega-cards with many big names.

But this is known to everyone. Eventually, all records fall, and UFC 100 will fall to second place, then to third, etc. On a long enough timeline, all records end up broken.

In looking back at UFC 100, it’s painfully clear that one of the biggest assets available to the company then that is missing now is Brock Lesnar. Say what you will about the man as a fighter, but he was a walking event maker; just his name being announced for a card got people to marking the time and date on their calendar.

The UFC, and the sport, are making good on their claim to be the universal attraction that speaks any language, and in the long haul, that will be huge in how big the sport will grow. But for now, the UFC suffers from having too many great fighters who come from a different culture and value different things when it comes to entertainment.

Anderson Silva, for all his greatness, was on magazine covers, striking poses that imitated the late, great Michael Jackson, which for Silva, was a wonderful moment. But it also speaks to how different the rest of the world is when it comes to entertainment: The era of Michael Jackson was in decline many years ago in the US.

No matter how legitimate and profound the sport of MMA is, there is still an entertainment aspect to it, just as there is a sporting aspect to it. It’s become so regulated and professionalized that it no longer enjoys the pull it once had for simply being true to its design. Everyone goes to the zoo to see the lion or the grizzly bear, but no one will watch them for very long if they are sleeping.

Once upon a time, fans flocked to the sport because of what it represented, because of what it was. Now, that wild, random aspect is gone, for the most part. Fighters like Brock Lesnar carried that air of unpredictability with them every time they step into the cage, even if the state of their fight plan never changes.

Still, even with all that is missing, the UFC is still the UFC, and the sport is still growing every year, and with that growth will come more superstars that will in turn see bigger fights made on bigger cards.

Until then, if the company wants to see that record broken, they might want to scale back the number of events per year so they can put three “main event” worthy fights on a single card, and having two title fights on said card wouldn’t be a bad idea, either.

Unless, of course, they can coax Lesnar back to the octagon and pay Fedor enough to come out of retirement for one fight. That might sell a few pay-per-views.

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Sonnen’s Rare Species of Victory over Anderson Silva: Is Jon Jones or GSP Next?

It’s a very rare thing when a fighter, who has never held a championship title, can claim any kind of victory over a 10-time defending champion who is among the pound-for-pound elite in the sport. But that is exactly what Chael Sonnen has accompl…

It’s a very rare thing when a fighter, who has never held a championship title, can claim any kind of victory over a 10-time defending champion who is among the pound-for-pound elite in the sport.

But that is exactly what Chael Sonnen has accomplished, and for that, perhaps he should get a congratulatory call from David Copperfield.

Ever since Chael Sonnen smack-talked his way into a rematch with Anderson Silva, “The Spider” has taken the back seat to his American wrestling counterpart.

Now, as the highly anticipated rematch between Silva and Sonnen has come to a disappointing conclusion, we are still left smarting as Sonnen dominates the press: the great collegiate wrestler who never won a UFC championship, overshadowing the great UFC champion who never was a collegiate wrestler.

There are even some who are calling Sonnen “classy” because after his defeat, he acted slightly contrite and observed some of the fight game traditions incumbent upon the loser of a bout. In short, he finally shut his mouth, and now it seems a great many want to give him the Nobel Peace Prize for all his humanitarian efforts.

Who said Sonnen isn’t the man?

What has been lost, by comparison, is the real class shown by the only gentleman in the cage that night, which was Silva. He was the one who applauded Sonnen, and asked his countrymen to forget about all the slander and slurs Sonnen had aimed their way.

With so much talk and media attention afforded to Sonnen over the past many months, he was happy to take aim at everyone, including GSP.

“He’d take me down a total of zero times and I’d take him down every time I wanted to,” said Sonnen of GSP during a Q and A session for the UFC in 2010. “Bring your $3,000 suit and your $3 date and get the $0.03 tan beat off your socialist back.”

In the quest to hype his rematch with Silva, anyone who came into the conversation was quickly ridiculed and then dismissed by Sonnen as if he had somehow accomplished so much more than they had that even giving them the slightest degree of respect was below him.

And that’s a damn shame, because Sonnen’s second go around for the middleweight title was wholly disappointing.

With all the talk Sonnen put forward, time and time and time again, you would think he would have been happy to hop up from the floor after missing that badly timed spinning back fist. God knows Anderson Silva was happy to give him the time needed to do so.

But instead, we got to watch as Chael “The greatest middleweight fighter ever” Sonnen simply gave up; scooting back against the cage as if his legs were broken. From there he just sat and waited for the end.

Thanks for the second effort, Chael.

While everyone is loudly crying foul, one need only look at the film. Sonnen fell, but had a great deal of room and opportunity to get back up. He could have easily popped back up to his feet, but he decided against it.

And then he got pounded for his identity crisis.

And all the while, a true fighter—and a nine-time defending champion, no less—was being discounted and disregarded because he wasn’t as “entertaining” as Chael P Sonnen.

If Sonnen proved anything over the past months, it’s that he’s the greatest talker in the game and that his victory in the press—coming from diminishing such fighters as Silva and GSP—was a victory of sensationalism over substance.

Sonnen has dominated the spotlight so thoroughly, both before and after his abject surrender in both of his fights with Silva that, to a casual observer, it would appear that a Sonnen loss was so uncommon that it must have been an apparition: a single blemish on the career of a long-standing champion.

The simple fact is, Sonnen’s only real victory over the past months has been given to him by the press, because he hasn’t proven himself the better of Silva, GSP or any long-standing champion in the company. And now the media is happy to promote the American as a role model of sorts; which makes it easy to understand why many a fan does not take the media seriously.

If anything, Sonnen is the anti-Silva, the anti-GSP, and his is the victory of hype over results; he didn’t need to win the title in order to call himself the champion, he simply had to buy a replica belt.

Where Silva and GSP have been consistently and thoroughly defeating the best in their divisions in the cage, Sonnen has been defeating them in the media and it’s made him a superstar.

Sonnen’s gift for the gab may be entertaining, but will only remain so if he can somehow manage to accomplish his heart’s desire: winning a championship.

Now, it looks like he’s thinking about returning to the land of 205, where the ultimate prize would be a chance to face champion Jon Jones. If that fails, he may decide to attempt a hard weight cut in order to face another champion in GSP.

If he can secure a title shot in either division, to think of him being anything but loud, clever, self-promoting and utterly insulting is contrary to our experience. He must win a title in order to excuse or validate any of his lip, or else it was all simply tall talk and empty promises.

So, until a championship comes, the only victories Sonnen will ever enjoy will be won every time a member of the media puts a microphone in his face and allows him to do his stand-up routine as he pleases.

His oratory powers seem so great that he will forever be claiming the spotlight with his sound bites, giving him empty victories over fighters like Silva and GSP, who let their actions speak for them in the place it matters most: inside the cage.

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Wanderlei Silva: When He Retires, How Will He Be Remembered?

Tito Ortiz has ridden off into the sunset to join the likes of Chuck Liddell, Randy Couture, Frank Shamrock and many others in the land of retired champions who fought when MMA was struggling and continued to fight on as it grew into an era of prominen…

Of all the fighters of past generations, perhaps none has seen the wars—and the damage that comes with them—that Wanderlei Silva has.

Silva has spent time at both ends of the spectrum. As Shakespeare said, “we all play many parts,” and Silva has spent time as both the hammer and the nail.

Much of the “tarnish” on his career began while he was in Pride, when he proved his worth to the company as the reigning middleweight king of the world by jumping at any chance to fight, even against heavyweights.

A KO loss to Mirko Cro-Cop begat another KO loss to Dan Henderson, and thus began a downhill slide that every great fighter suffers on a long enough timeline. When you consider just how long Silva has been fighting, and the style in which he fought damn near every fight, it’s amazing he’s still fighting today with any success at all.

As he continues to compete in what is the twilight of his career, losing as many as he wins, the question becomes: how will he be remembered?

Will he be viewed cruelly in hindsight as an overrated fighter who saw his career falter when he was finally exposed to top-level competition?

Or will he be remembered as a true great of the sport, who fought anyone put in front of him and carved his throne out of the names and reputations of the best fighters of his time?

Much is made about how a fighter ends his career, and in truth Silva will not escape this bit of conventional criticism. Many have short-term memories when it comes to a fighter’s achievements, and his failings seem to never be very far from the corner of our eye.

Since the fall of Pride FC, Silva has enjoyed only a moderate level of success. He’s suffered violent knockout losses to Chris Leben and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, and the latter is perhaps what many will remember as a true sign of Silva’s decline: when he was at the height of his power, he finished Jackson on two separate occasions, and each time he did so in highlight reel fashion.

When considering a fighter like Silva, who was at one time the most successful and destructive fighter in all of MMA, his fall is what will be remembered simply because of the drastic contrast it provides, constantly attached to and weighed against his reign.

But all of this sounds like I am doing the fans of the sport, and the man himself, a gross injustice.

Truth be told, Silva is one of the most popular and enduring fighters of an era nearly passed. Fans love a great fight, and they know and love what Silva brings to each and every fight: he brings the axe, and he swings it mercilessly, without a single care for himself or any level of defeat, no matter how violently he may suffer.

And even though that blade has been dulled with the passage of time and the steel is knocked and notched by countless battles, it is always with him, because it belongs to him alone. Silva serves the axe faithfully, and it in turn serves him for as long as he cares to wield it.

So, how will Silva be remembered when he retires?

He’ll be remembered as the man who, in his prime, annihilated Kazushi Sakuraba on three separate occasions and eventually was annihilated, near the end, by Chris Leben.

He’ll be remembered as the man who destroyed Quinton “Rampage” Jackson on two different nights during the glory days of Pride, and was in turn destroyed by Jackson long after Pride had fallen.

He’ll be remembered defeating and being defeated by heavyweights, by his Fight of the Year performance against Chuck Liddell, by his many records in Pride (most consecutive wins in Pride history and most knockouts in Pride history among them), and much more.

But above all else, he’ll be remembered for the purity of his motives and the clarity of his intent; consistently personified by the axe he always brought into battle and how violently he used it to carve out his place in history.

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MMA Musings: Is the Era of Pride Finally Dead?

On April 8, 2007, Pride Fighting Championships held their last show promoted by Dream Stage Entertainment before being bought by the owners of the UFC, Zuffa LLC. The company had been in existence for 10 years, and during most of that time they were th…

On April 8, 2007, Pride Fighting Championships held their last show promoted by Dream Stage Entertainment before being bought by the owners of the UFC, Zuffa LLC.

The company had been in existence for 10 years, and during most of that time they were the premier organization in the world of MMA, selling out stadiums while the UFC was struggling to sell out arenas.

Once Pride was bought out, a new MMA promotion, Dream, was born, and it seemed that Pride was destined to live on, albeit in different incarnations. Dream enjoyed some success, but not enough to keep the company alive, as they closed their doors on May 16 of this year.

Now, ONE FC looks to pick up where Dream left off.

With so many MMA companies from Japan rising and falling—always looking to reach the level of success enjoyed by Pride FC when it was the biggest MMA promotion in the world—each a little bit lesser than the last, is it safe to say that the days of Pride FC are finally over?

Is Pride finally dead?

Let’s hope that is not the case.

The sport of MMA has long enjoyed high levels of attention in Japan, and many fighters who have fought in the Land of the Rising Sun have said they love fighting for the Japanese fans, who appreciate many aspects of the sport that other fanbases do not.

A strong Japanese MMA promotion is certainly not necessary for the continued growth of the sport. But there are too many fighters for just a handful of companies to accommodate. After all, the whole of the MMA world does not belong to the UFC alone.

A Japanese MMA promotion would serve the sport well in addition to keeping the flame lit in a country that clearly enjoys earnest fighters fighting earnestly.

It may be necessary for promotions to continue to rise and fall in Japan before the next in line finally get it right, and that is as it should be. As fighters evolve, so do promotions, one would hope.

But in the end, Pride should be allowed to die, just so another, better Japanese organization can rise and take the next steps to shepherd that fire of competition that is so clearly beloved by the fans of that country. There is another group of Japanese fighters just waiting to be discovered, and chances are much of the early work—important beyond telling as they learn how to ply their trade—will be done at home, in front of modest to huge crowds that watch the sport as eagerly as anyone else.

Many seem to be of the mind that Pride has lingered on far longer than it should have, but in truth it seems that it lingered for as long as it is needed. Were the demand not there, the memory would fade quickly; yet we know that is not the case.

And while the UFC is, and probably will continue to be the biggest MMA show on earth, it is unrealistic to think that certain countries will not go about the business of celebrating their own and seeing them rise up as far as they can push them.

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UFC 148: Forrest Griffin’s Role in the Passing of a Legend

With all of the attention being afforded to Tito Ortiz and his last fight in the octagon, it’s easy to forget Forrest Griffin’s place in all this. But in truth, he is the ideal opponent for Ortiz to be facing for his final fight in the spor…

With all of the attention being afforded to Tito Ortiz and his last fight in the octagon, it’s easy to forget Forrest Griffin’s place in all this.

But in truth, he is the ideal opponent for Ortiz to be facing for his final fight in the sport of MMA.

Griffin has always been the opposite of Ortiz in terms of personality and fighting style, and the two men have played off each other beautifully over the years. Griffin has always been there as a fan favorite; the anti-Ortiz, so to speak.

As Ortiz steps into the cage one last time, it should be against a man who is so different than himself that no manufactured animosity is needed. Where Ortiz is loud, Griffin is quiet; where Ortiz is outspoken and cocky, Griffin is reserved and humble.

And where Ortiz is a wrestler and a ground-and-pound former champion, Griffin is a standup brawler with the heart to match.

Griffin seems as shocked as anyone when he wins, but against Ortiz in their bout at UFC 106, Griffin made it clear in the Countdown special that he didn’t want to lose to Ortiz.

Both times that Griffin has fought Ortiz we saw his desire to win shine bigger than it has against anyone else, save Stephan Bonnar. Perhaps it’s the mocking t-shirts Ortiz wears after a win, or the grave digger routine, but Griffin fights hard anytime he sees Ortiz standing across the cage from him.

And there is also something else about Griffin that makes him the perfect final opponent for Ortiz: he’s so quiet and unassuming that he almost seems harmless in a way, and that in turn brings out the tiger in Ortiz.

If Ortiz is really healthy and in good shape, he will probably be swinging for the fences every time, hoping to get that one thing that has ever evaded him in his entire MMA career: a clean knockout due to a hard strike.

Ortiz has never really been the kind of fighter who goes for submissions if the victory can be attained in a way that makes him look ferocious. Ortiz feeds off of dominating opponents and beating them down, and in his last fight, he’ll no doubt want to walk out of the octagon with his hunger for a violent victory sated.

Griffin, for his part, has a chance to make a big statement about himself and his future. Closing the book on his trilogy with Ortiz, having successfully authored two of the three chapters as victor, will do much for him, both professionally and personally.

Ortiz has spent his entire career making the black hat look as stylish and sympathetic as he could, and anytime he’s fought Griffin, that didn’t work. You can’t make a fighter as beloved as Griffin into a bad guy; you can only hope to defeat him soundly and then embrace him after.

Ortiz would love to be able to do this the third time around, but Griffin has a chance to show that he’s still far from walking off the stage himself.

At UFC 148, Griffin has the opportunity to play the role he was born to play by defeating Ortiz, firmly and decisively, then giving him a firm handshake and a pat on the back as he walks him to the door that leads “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” into history.

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UFC 148: Will Chael Sonnen’s Mind Games Help Him Upset Anderson Silva?

Ever since their first meeting, Chael Sonnen has been waging a tireless mental assault on Anderson Silva; so much so that anything less than a total war between these two men will seem like theft.Sonnen hasn’t just attacked Silva in the press; he…

Ever since their first meeting, Chael Sonnen has been waging a tireless mental assault on Anderson Silva; so much so that anything less than a total war between these two men will seem like theft.

Sonnen hasn’t just attacked Silva in the press; he’s insulted the entire country of Brazil and even made comments about Silva’s wife.

If there ever was a line that separated the acceptable from the unacceptable, Sonnen has obliterated it.

But there is something else drifting out there in the madness and the haze; the realization that if Sonnen does pull off this upset as he predicts, no small part of that will be due to how the American got into Silva’s head, much like Muhammad Ali got into the head of Sonny Liston prior to their first bout.

It’s not so much that Sonnen and Ali are similar in their choice of words as it is how similar they are in their tone, the confidence behind them and their relentlessness.

Anytime Ali got in front of a camera or talked to a reporter, he was relentless in his attack of Liston, making bold predictions on one hand while attacking Liston’s character and credibility as a fighter on the other, and it was always a two-fisted attack.

Sonnen is doing much the same thing, but on a much larger scale, and as Liston finally broke and began to return fire by his own limited means, so has Silva.

But the difference is in their styles of fighting. Silva is much more akin to Ali while Sonnen is much more like Liston, which makes this fight all the more compelling.

Sonnen has raised the bar for this bout so high that all other bad blood matchups in the history of the sport are miles below it. He’s invested so much time into his mental attack on Silva that the pressure to deliver rests squarely upon his shoulders.

Anything less than an inspiring and dominant victory will not do, at least when it comes to living up to all the claims Sonnen has made. Of course, any kind of victory that sees him claim the title will be good enough for Sonnen on a personal level, but it won’t be good enough to empower his words the next time he takes to the camera to make bold predictions and demeaning comments.

Still, in the fight game, sometimes the best way to go into such a high-profile fight against such a great competitor is to make sure you have no other option but victory, and Sonnen has done this for himself—or to himself—if he should lose.

If he has truly rattled Silva so much that it will make the champ fight furiously instead of surgically, Sonnen could have perhaps the easiest night of his life.

Or, it could take on all the aspects of Ali’s rematch with Liston, when it was Ali who was the furious one, and we all know how that ended; Ali blew Liston out of the water in the first round as his anger focused his skills to a needle point. Should Silva be of the same state of mind, Sonnen could find himself getting knocked out just like Liston did.

As time winds down, we know one thing for certain: Chael Sonnen believes in Chael Sonnen, no question about it. That in turn begets the true question to be asked of this fight: does Anderson Silva believe in Chael Sonnen?

If he does, then this will be one fight Sonnen has won before even stepping into the octagon.

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