It’s been a turbulent year so far for the UFC.
With fighters backing out, fights and even whole cards being cancelled, there has certainly been a lot to discuss and a lot of Dana White expletives “bleeped” on sportscasts around the world.
UFC 149 is definitely the low level of the year. The event in Calgary saw fans booing nearly from start to finish on the main card. With an incredibly enthusiastic Canadian crowd excited for the first event in Calgary—even this was beyond a simple let-down.
It’s hard to express what a true UFC fan felt about this event. Hardly worth the money for the pay-per-view, in the end, the entire main card on this fight had to be changed due to injuries, and the main event rescheduled as an interim-champion bout. Suffice it to say, most fans would expect this kind of card to be a freebie—not a PPV.
Those haven’t been the only injuries this year, by any means. It’s understandable that, from time to time, fighters are going to pull out of events because of injury, however, the frequency with which this has occurred in the UFC in 2012 is staggering.
In total, this season there have been 9 numbered UFC events with 27 injuries causing bout changes, many of those main or co-main events.
UFC 151 was completely cancelled as a result of injury (and not included in the above calculation).
The “fight card is subject to change” tag on everything UFC is likely saving the company millions in lawsuits this year, but is turning away fans. While fight cards will always be subject to change, it is the abundance of changes that will turn away even the most hardcore of fans.
There is some hope here.
UFC is putting together some solid cards with real competitors, along with high-energy expectations from some newcomers. It should prove to be successful if the fighters put it all out there.
Perhaps that’s been the problem all along. The undercards typically produce better results for fans because they are trying to earn a spot. Meanwhile, the established vets (when they do manage to train without injury) are dancing around the ring hoping not to have their career ended by another guy who’s also dancing around the ring thinking the same thing.
In my view, they just need to get out there and leave it all on the mat. Nothing is more annoying for me, personally, than someone jumping around the ring after a five round fight. You should be dog tired by this point if you’ve tried to put the other guy away—especially in the heavier weight divisions.
The sport is losing its hold on what was one of the most captive audiences in sport. Perhaps less cards with more bouts and bigger matches is the answer. Or maybe it is going to be lower salaries with bigger bonuses.
In either case, there has to be something left on the mat to get fans cheering. As it stands, the UFC appears to be having trouble just getting its fighters to the Octagon.
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