Some people are quite fond of the modern direction of the UFC, where the product is omnipresent on the sports landscape thanks to regular appearances on FOX and its satellites. There is no offseason, no reset button and no reason to go without a UFC fix for more than a couple of weeks.
There are times that can be nice, like when Conor McGregor and T.J. Dillashaw put on remarkable shows in entirely different ways only a couple of weeks apart, as they did in July. There are also times that it is a total nightmare, as was the case at UFC 190.
In the middle of the event, which was probably exceeding expectations after a spirited strawweight fight, a heavyweight knockout and a second, watchable heavyweight bout, the UFC saw fit to dump a pair of finals for The Ultimate Fighter right in the middle of the broadcast. A regional The Ultimate Fighter, at that.
No. Thank you.
This was the product of a scheduling mishap, where the original finale for TUF: Brazil 4 was supposed to take place in Brazil, then in Florida, then visa issues scattered fights and fighters over a few different events. However, it’s reasonable to suggest that, with more care paid to spreading itself too thin, the UFC could have avoided said mishap and avoided subjecting people to the low-level combat that broke up an otherwise passable event.
And before you rush to defend the overlords at Zuffa, consider this: The prime argument of Dana White and his pals has long been “if you don’t like it, don’t watch it.” While that hot take is still sizzling, take a moment to realize that such action was not possible if someone were inclined to see the rest of the standard five-fight card they were making available. Pay-per-view is not a pay by the fight enterprise, so if you wanted stars like Nogueira, Shogun Rua and Ronda Rousey, you better believe you were getting Glaico Franca and Dileno Lopes.
Also ponder the notion that, if you were to break down the cost of a pay-per-view by fight, you spent roughly $17 to watch those TUF fights that you didn’t ask for. That’s nearly two months of UFC Fight Pass, which offers every fight in the history of the UFC, down the drain on four guys you’ve never heard of and didn’t want to see in the first place.
This is among the first times in history where “card subject to change” has resulted in an addition of multiple bouts, and those bouts actively detracted from the experience of an event. Besides taking away some of the momentum that had been built to that point, the TUF: Brazil finale fights also wreaked havoc on the pacing of the pay-per-view.
It was deep into the early morning before Ronda Rousey took to the cage, and anyone arguing that people cared more for unknown bantamweights and lightweights than the sport’s biggest star is simply delusional.
Now, there is a logical explanation for this beyond the scheduling concerns noted above. Guilherme Cruz mentioned on MMA Fighting’s wrap-up show that the UFC’s television partner in Brazil, Globo, wanted the fights on UFC 190 to maximize exposure. That make enough sense, but was there truly no other way to make it work than to stick it to audiences everywhere else in the world? Many of whom paid straight cash for everything but those fights?
One of the greatest benefits of running shows nearly every week should be that a card bloated by uninteresting fights should never be forced on consumers who are shelling out cash for what is, theoretically, the best product the UFC can offer. These fights should have been somewhere else—anywhere else—because forcing substandard competition into the middle of the biggest stage is problematic for everyone involved.
This isn’t even to say the fights themselves were horrible. The first had some excitement and the second ended with a submission, which is more than a lot of UFC fights offer. But most people who paid for the event would have been just as happy to read about them in a results post after they happened on FOX Sports 1 some other time.
If you don’t like it, don’t watch? Fine, sounds good. But at least give the option instead of dumping it in the middle of a pay event and shrugging.
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