To the bewilderment of mixed martial arts (MMA) fans and media members across the world, tomorrow’s (Sat., July 29, 2017) stacked UFC 214 from the Honda Center in Anaheim, California, appears to be poised to go off without a hitch (fingers crossed), something that unfortunately hasn’t been the norm for a Jon Jones-headlined card in recent […]
To the bewilderment of mixed martial arts (MMA) fans and media members across the world, tomorrow’s (Sat., July 29, 2017) stacked UFC 214 from the Honda Center in Anaheim, California, appears to be poised to go off without a hitch (fingers crossed), something that unfortunately hasn’t been the norm for a Jon Jones-headlined card in recent years.
The all-time great, who was only beaten by himself and his outside-of-the-cage problems with drugs, will have yet another attempt at a comeback when he meets archrival Daniel Cormier, the stalwart champion who has won four fights in “Bones’” absence but was still beaten by the troubled ex-champ, in the UFC 214 main event. The co-main event features a closely-matched welterweight title affair between power slugger Tyron Woodley and peerless grappling whiz Demian Maia, why consensus women’s No. 1 pound-for-pound star Cris Cyborg meets former Invicta champ Tonya Evinger for the women’s featherweight belt in the event’s third title fight.
The fighters weighed in according to California’s increasingly strict weigh-in standards this morning, the results of which can be seen here. Now, the fighters will square off in the final media event of the UFC 214 build-up when the ceremonial weigh-in begins shortly at 8:00 p.m. EST. Watch the video streaming live right here:
The most stacked UFC card of 2017 is set to go down tomorrow night (Sat. July 29, 2017), and the co-main event will feature an epic welterweight title bout between champion Tyron Woodley and challenger Demian Maia. Woodley and Maia faced off for the first time this past Wednesday following the UFC 214 pre-fight press […]
The most stacked UFC card of 2017 is set to go down tomorrow night (Sat. July 29, 2017), and the co-main event will feature an epic welterweight title bout between champion Tyron Woodley and challenger Demian Maia.
Woodley and Maia faced off for the first time this past Wednesday following the UFC 214 pre-fight press conference, and “T-Wood” claims to have seen an interesting tell from his Brazilian counterpart. Woodley spoke to the media following yesterday’s open workouts at the UFC Gym, and said he noticed a bit of a twitch on Maia’s face when they locked eyes (quotes via MMA Fighting):
“His face was twitching a little bit,” Woodley said. “Sometimes guys want to show you that they’re ready and they really want something. They can’t stop their face from convulsing and kind of trembling a little bit.”
Maia is currently riding an epic seven fight win streak over the most elite competitors at 170 pounds such as Neil Magny, Gunnar Nelson, Matt Brown, Carlos Condit, and Jorge Masvidal. Maia has been campaigning for a shot at the gold since his submission win over Brown last year, but will finally get his shot against Woodley tomorrow night.
In a recent episode of UFC Embedded Maia noted something along the lines of going out with a big title victory, as the 39-year-old knows his fighting days are numbered at this point in his journeyed career:
“This is his shot, man,” Woodley said. “He said one thing in the Embedded thing that really struck a nerve for me. He said, ‘What better way to go out?’ When you start talking about going out when you’re fighting me, I’m a guy that has retired a lot of fighters. Look at Jay Hieron, look at Andre Galvao.
“Those are guys that didn’t fight again after they fought me. If you’re going into this fight thinking this is going to be the crown on the top of your career, I’m the wrong guy. I’m never getting you access to that. I’m not gonna let you get 20 wins against me.”
As for what Woodley believes Maia’s twitch meant on Wednesday – he believes he’s trying too hard:
“It means you’re trying too hard,” Woodley said. “If you really mean it, if you’re really about that life, you don’t have to force it. I’m just calm. I’m relaxed, I don’t have no beef against you. But when you look at me, you know I’m coming to try and knock out you on Saturday. That’s my game plan.”
It’s no secret that the UFC is having a tough run in the first seven months of 2017. After a banner year in 2016 with multiple pay-per-view (PPV) events eclipsing the coveted one-million buy threshold, new owners WME-IMG are finding out just what it’s like to run the world’s biggest MMA promotion in a time […]
It’s no secret that the UFC is having a tough run in the first seven months of 2017.
After a banner year in 2016 with multiple pay-per-view (PPV) events eclipsing the coveted one-million buy threshold, new owners WME-IMG are finding out just what it’s like to run the world’s biggest MMA promotion in a time of downward-trending PPVs without flagship stars Conor McGregor and Ronda Rousey anywhere close to the octagon.
True, McGregor will return to the ring against Floyd Mayweather, on August 26, but that could be hurting the UFC’s actual numbers more than helping them. We’ll get to that shortly.
Regardless, both the preliminary card television ratings and pay-per-view buyrates for July 8’s UFC 213 from Las Vegas were recently revealed, and the numbers ultimately amounted to some of the most dismal overall viewership turnouts the UFC has ever seen. Now, women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes’ extremely late withdrawal from her championship bout versus Valentina Shevchenko most definitely caused the lack of buys, but the numbers are concerning nonetheless.
Things didn’t get better two weeks later when UFC on FOX 25 aired live from the Nassau Coliseum on July 22. Despite former middleweight champion Chris Weidman securing an emotional headlining win over Kelvin Gastelum in his hometown, the card had the lowest-ever ratings for a UFC on FOX event in overnight ratings, a number that rose to “only” the third-worst of all-time when the time slot spillover numbers for the main event were factored in.
That continued a disturbing decline for big FOX-aired cards in 2017, but those numbers are also simply indicative of the overall trend of the year, where pay-per-view rates have went down drastically in addition to TV-aired events and PPV prelim numbers.
There are several big underlying factors for this sharp and disturbing decline. On the eve of the biggest pay-per-view of the year, let’s take at the five most impactful.
Promoting Only McGregor & Rousey:
The UFC enjoyed their most lucrative two-year stretch in history from 2015-2016, a time when their biggest-ever crossover stars in Rousey and McGregor were winning big fights in dominant fashion. Rousey was being called the most dominant fighter in MMA, and McGregor won both the featherweight and lightweight titles while becoming the sport’s biggest star.
But that time period simply couldn’t be sustained, as Rousey infamously lost the belt to Holly Holm at UFC 193, following it up with another unsuccessful title fight in her 48-second loss to Nunes at 2016’s UFC 207, after which it appears Rousey may never fight in the UFC again.
McGregor is not gone; at least not in the same sense as Rousey. He’s obviously involved in his hyped-up boxing match with Floyd Mayweather, and while the UFC will obviously get a ton of attention and hype from that massive spectacle, it brings up one vital, overarching point – the UFC simply promoted only their top two stars in recent years, and while it clearly worked in that regard, it left them much too dependent on McGregor and Rousey for success, because their other fighters just aren’t bringing in any numbers at all.
If they ever want to get back to the level where they have their big draws and their mid-level stars; say in the time of dominant champions Anderson Silva and Georges St-Pierre where mid-level stars like Rashad Evans and Rampage Jackson could still sell an in-between card for 350-400,000 buys, they’re going to have to diversify their promotional strategy.
UFC 214 is less than 72 hours away and the fifth episode of Embedded was released on the UFC’s YouTube channel. In the episode, suspenders, shirtlessness and suits are just a few of the personal styles on display at the official press conference, attended by light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier, his bitter rival Jon Jones, […]
UFC 214 is less than 72 hours away and the fifth episode of Embedded was released on the UFC’s YouTube channel.
In the episode, suspenders, shirtlessness and suits are just a few of the personal styles on display at the official press conference, attended by light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier, his bitter rival Jon Jones, welterweight champion Tyron Woodley, title challenger Demian Maia, and featherweight title contenders Cris Cyborg and Tonya Evinger. Tempers flare and insults fly between the headliners both on the dais and face-to-face. On Thursday at the UFC Gym, the stars have another chance to entertain fans, with Cormier seizing the moment – and the mic – to win over the crowd.
The greatest fighter in MMA history finally returns to the cage Saturday at UFC 214.
Jon Jones isn’t playing around, either. The animosity between him and current UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier has always seemed real, but Jones is …
The greatest fighter in MMA history finally returns to the cage Saturday at UFC 214.
Jon Jones isn’t playing around, either. The animosity between him and current UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier has always seemed real, but Jones is done trying to laugh it off. There’s no better way for the GOAT to return than against his bitterest rival, who happens never to have lost to anyone but Jones.
The main event is a blockbuster, but so is the rest of the main card. There are three—count ’em—three title fights on the slate Saturday in Anaheim, California. And that’s to say nothing of Donald Cerrone vs. Robbie Lawler.
So let’s now take a look at the pay-per-view portion of UFC 214 and make some picks with the Bleacher Report MMA staff predictions team: Nathan McCarter, Steven Rondina, Craig “Cookie” Amos and myself. Let’s get it on.
Imagine a guy.
He is well-educated. Went to the University of Missouri, in fact.
He is articulate, a reflection of that education, and he has done well as a television personality—even actor.
He has a respectable social conscience.
He is a great …
Imagine a guy.
He is well-educated. Went to the University of Missouri, in fact.
He is articulate, a reflection of that education, and he has done well as a television personality—even actor.
He is a great athlete; he excelled as a college wrestler and a mixed martial artist and collected titles in the biggest promotions in the world.
Got an idea in your head about that guy and what he is all about? Thinking he’s probably pretty likable, a man basking in positive vibes wherever he goes?
Think again. You’ve got UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley, and people seem to hate Tyron Woodley.
Going into his third title defense, Woodley is openly disdained in a way few other UFC champions are.
Michael Bisping isn’t beloved, but there is an impishness to him that feels kind of tongue-in-cheek and softens the blow when it comes to people disliking him.
Demetrious Johnson and Jon Jones are divisive, as is Conor McGregor, but none of them are as flatly and unanimously loathed by the fanbase in the way Woodley is.
And when you consider him objectively, it’s kind of puzzling. He seems like a guy people would get behind. It’s only when you dig a little deeper that the dots connect more clearly.
Woodley earned a title shot as dubiously as one could imagine, forging a path to gold built on evasiveness and dispatching some of the most universally adored fighters in MMA along the way.
He beat Carlos Condit by TKO but did it only when Condit blew out his knee and could no longer continue.
He got to the cusp of a title fight after narrowly beating Kelvin Gastelum in a catchweight fight after Gastelum missed weight—no reflection on Woodley—and then spent 18 months inactive, waiting for a title shot.
When he came back, it was against champion Robbie Lawler. He was the most treasured champion in the sport at the time, a fanatically violent man who more or less didn’t know how not to be in a Fight of the Year during his welterweight tear from 2013 to 2016.
Woodley knocked him cold in two minutes flat. Not great for his image, and it only got worse from there.
Woodley took his title win as a chance to act as though he was calling the shots. He demanded fights with Nick Diaz, Georges St-Pierre, Conor McGregor (two retirees and a guy fighting in another weight class) and others, while showing no regard for challengers waiting their turn—including Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson, another figure fans have delighted in and one who had won seven straight bouts on the way to earning his shot.
Yet Woodley held fast in pursuit of his “money fight” and even took to lobbing insults at Thompson while refusing the contest. He eventually relented, but only when the pairing was placed on the lucrative UFC 205 card.
No one can blame him for wanting to get paid, but lots of people can blame him for how he went about it. It’s hard to take to a guy who delays or refuses fights, points fingers along the way and then restarts the whole process the minute he leaves the cage.
Most recently, the process restarted with Demian Maia, whom Woodley will battle Saturday at UFC 214. He showed little interest in Maia as an opponent, citing a desire to chase paydays instead.
Some felt the real concern was Maia, a jiu-jitsu specialist so specialized that the word “specialist” is almost insulting, has a penchant for beating people badly and making them look even worse as he does.
With Woodley’s tendency to fight with his back against the cage, he’s almost tailor-made to fall victim to Maia’s smothering mauling. And if he did, he would lose whatever leverage he has in navigating the MMA landscape or negotiating with the UFC.
So it’s kind of easy to see why people seem to hate Woodley so much. He’s done a lot of irritating things to overshadow the many positives he offers, and he’s always quick to take his stance and go in hard on anyone who isn’t standing with him.
It’s unfortunately paradoxical: The harder he goes in, the harder people hate on him.
You probably don’t need to tell Woodley, though—he’s been hearing it for years, and it looks like it’s going to be around for as long as he’s champion.
As for what Woodley believes Maia’s twitch meant on Wednesday – he believes he’s trying too hard:
Imagine a guy.