Occasionally, we actually get off our asses and write something interesting.
This time we’ve had a little help, putting together this interesting opinion on the upcoming UFC on FOX event, set for Nov. 12 in Anaheim, California.
Take a read and let us know what your thoughts are!
A Failure In The Making: The Coming Ratings Disaster For UFC on FOX
If you go to any MMA forum, blog, or website, you will find article after article salivating over this weekends UFC on Fox. It’s the UFC’s coming out party. The pinnacle of Dana’s vision. The moment when MMA will finally surpass soccer (something actually said by Dana in an interview). Absolute rubbish. This coming card, if you can call one live fight on TV a “card”, has all of the makings of a ratings disaster.
For starters, neither man has a proven record of being a Pay Per View or ratings draw. Dos Santos has headlined exactly one card before being thrust into the spotlight. After being a coach on one of the lowest-rated seasons of The Ultimate Fighter, his fight with Carwin only garnered 300,000 buys. Before that, he was the opening act of UFC 117, and part of the low-rated UFC experiment on Versus with Jon Jones. Cain doesn’t fair much better. The first card he headlined, UFC 110, barely cracked 200,000 buys, making it one of the most poorly purchased events of the year. Yes, his fight against Brock Lesnar was a success at one million buys. I would put an asterisk the size of Brock Lesnar’s “sword” tattoo beside that one. Brock’s pay per view buy rate history speaks for itself. Cain simply rode his coattails. With Cain now not having fought in over a year, it will be a miracle if most fans can even remember his victory of Brock.
Just as detrimental to a ratings success is the illusion that MMA is a mainstream sport. A great example of this is the recent movie Warrior. Although it was critically acclaimed, it was a box office bomb, only grossing $19,000,000 on a $25,000,000 budget. You can also see this in the ratings for the UFC Primetime show which aired last Sunday between football games on Fox. It only scored two million viewers, barely more than watched when the Primetime shows aired on Spike. As much as I may love MMA, I have no illusions over what it is; two adults punching each other in the face. We can dress it up, talk about it as we would stick and ball sports, but the raw, naked violence of a fight will turn off far more people than it will ever attract. The UFC, as popular as it is, seems to be destined to remain a niche sport.
I hope I’m wrong, but when the final ratings come in for the fight this weekend, it looks like Dana will be seeing how much he can sell the Champaign for rather than popping Champaign corks.