For that matter, could Good Guy Junior have saved last season?
We’rejust finishing up with a season of The Ultimate Fighter that most of us didn’t even pretend to watch, and are getting ready for a season that we’ll only watch to see how creatively Chael Sonnen can troll Jon Jones. Okay, perhaps some of us actually want to watch TUF for less cynical reasons – say because it’s free MMA or to see if the show discovers a legitimate fighter who has slipped through the cracks – just like how some professional football fans actually keep up with the UFL.
With the show in desperate need of a mix-up, Dana White has been open to the idea of casting Ronda Rousey as a coach, while still keeping the contestants themselves men. The idea picked up even more steam yesterday when White suggested that Ronda Rousey could be coaching against Miesha Tate on an upcoming season of The Ultimate Fighter. Via MMAFighting:
“It could happen,” White said. “If there’s two people who would probably coach, you kick [the idea] around, this could happen, that could happen. If they did, it could be [Rousey] and Miesha. You know, we’ll see. Timing has a lot do with it.”
For that matter, could Good Guy Junior have saved last season?
We’rejust finishing up with a season of The Ultimate Fighter that most of us didn’t even pretend to watch, and are getting ready for a season that we’ll only watch to see how creatively Chael Sonnen can troll Jon Jones. Okay, perhaps some of us actually want to watch TUF for less cynical reasons – say because it’s free MMA or to see if the show discovers a legitimate fighter who has slipped through the cracks – just like how some professional football fans actually keep up with the UFL.
With the show in desperate need of a mix-up, Dana White has been open to the idea of casting Ronda Rousey as a coach, while still keeping the contestants themselves men. The idea picked up even more steam yesterday when White suggested that Ronda Rousey could be coaching against Miesha Tate on an upcoming season of The Ultimate Fighter. Via MMAFighting:
“It could happen,” White said. “If there’s two people who would probably coach, you kick [the idea] around, this could happen, that could happen. If they did, it could be [Rousey] and Miesha. You know, we’ll see. Timing has a lot do with it.”
Having Rousey and Tate coach a season of TUF is an interesting idea on paper. The show would give WMMA exposure, Rousey and Tate would have some memorable clashes throughout the season and the season-ending coaches’ fight would actually be meaningful. It may not be a drastic change, but simply making two skilled female fighters coaches may be able to regenerate interest in the show.
But if the UFC really wants to give the show a complete overhaul, why not cast an all-female season?
My biggest gripe with The Ultimate Fighter is that the show hasn’t been producing relevant fighters, because talented prospects no longer have to go through reality television in order to get a shot in the UFC. Case in point, Hacran Dias was a 20-1-1 fighter when he tried out for TUF Brazil. Rather than being sent through the show, Dias was offered a contract on the spot, and won his UFC debut over Yuri Alcantara at UFC 147. The lesson here is that if you have a shot at immediate relevance, you aren’t fighting on The Ultimate Fighter anymore.
An all-female season could be different because WMMA is still in the early stages of its development. Much like how the first two seasons of The Ultimate Fighter made plenty of previously unknown fighters staples in the UFC for years, it’s possible that there are enough skilled females flying far enough under our radars to be willing to go through a season of TUF in order to land a contract.
For that matter, it’s also possible that established female fighters like Sara McMann would be willing to compete on the show simply because WMMA gets practically zero exposure. Just look at the first article we wrote about Ronda Rousey. When Strikeforce first inked a deal with her, she was…some sort of vegan Olympic judoka, I guess? In hindsight, it’s comical that the collective MMA community wasn’t shitting bricks over such an important signing, but we simply hadn’t heard of her until then. It’s very possible that even more potentially great fighters are going undiscovered due to the lack of coverage that WMMA has been receiving.
The catch is that while fans are more than happy to accept Ronda Rousey as a world-class athlete, they may still not be ready to accept WMMA as a legitimate competition. Female athletes in America simply do not receive the same coverage as their male counterparts, which may make the TUF formula even more stale with the inclusion of women. For example, will an altercation in the TUF house between two women be interpreted by viewers the same way as an altercation between two male contestants, or dismissed as just petty female drama? Logically, the sexes of the contestants shouldn’t make a difference, but it does, and it could wind up turning even more people away from the struggling franchise.
So that leads us directly into our question: Assuming that the editting crews do their best to portray the fighters in a positive light and as serious athletes (i.e. none of this), do you think an all-female season can save The Ultimate Fighter? Would you be more likely to watch the show if Ronda Rousey and Meisha Tate are coaches? And what are the odds that something like this happens if they’re coaching an all-male season? Keep it civil, you guys.
As a quick perusal over the average forum, message board, or comments section on a given CagePotato, MMAMania, BloodyElbow, etc. article will show you, most fans of this thing called MMA would like to think that, on the off chance they were dropped into a random group of their peers and asked to debate various MMA-related issues, they would surely come out the victor. Hence our frequent inability to both see or respect another person’s argument on a given subject, admit in the slightest that we could be wrong, or realize that there might be no right answer to begin with (we’re looking at you, Nippletwist).
However, it would be fairly easy for anyone of us to notice a direct correlation between the increased awareness/popularity of MMA and an increased understanding of the sport by the average person. It only makes sense; with information regarding everything from various techniques used by certain fighters to the long-term effects of the sport on the human body being made more available by the day, the opportunities for fans to elevate their knowledge in regards to the sport are seemingly endless. Even if you aren’t a fan, all you have to do is go channel surfing for about thirty seconds these days to find something MMA-related to absorb.
But let’s be honest, we are still a long way from the universal acknowledgement, not to mention acceptance, of MMA. Go ahead; ask the three nearest people to you at the office what their opinion is on MMA legalization in your state. Make sure not to mention the phrase “UFC” in any way, shape, or form while doing so. Prepare yourself, for you are about to stare deep into the vacant, soulless eyes of someone who hasn’t the slightest clue what the hell you’re talking about. Creepy, isn’t it?
(Based on this, we’re gonna say…maybe?)
As a quick perusal over the average forum, message board, or comments section on a given CagePotato, MMAMania, BloodyElbow, etc. article will show you, most fans of this thing called MMA would like to think that, on the off chance they were dropped into a random group of their peers and asked to debate various MMA-related issues, they would surely come out the victor. Hence our frequent inability to both see or respect another person’s argument on a given subject, admit in the slightest that we could be wrong, or realize that there might be no right answer to begin with (we’re looking at you, Nippletwist).
However, it would be fairly easy for anyone of us to notice a direct correlation between the increased awareness/popularity of MMA and an increased understanding of the sport by the average person. It only makes sense; with information regarding everything from various techniques used by certain fighters to the long-term effects of the sport on the human body being made more available by the day, the opportunities for fans to elevate their knowledge in regards to the sport are seemingly endless. Even if you aren’t a fan, all you have to do is go channel surfing for about thirty seconds these days to find something MMA-related to absorb.
But let’s be honest, we are still a long way from the universal acknowledgement, not to mention acceptance, of MMA. Go ahead; ask the three nearest people to you at the office what their opinion is on MMA legalization in your state. Make sure not to mention the phrase “UFC” in any way, shape, or form while doing so. Prepare yourself, for you are about to stare deep into the vacant, soulless eyes of someone who hasn’t the slightest clue what the hell you’re talking about. Creepy, isn’t it?
And although MMA is still miles behind that of its professional sports counterparts in terms of awareness, it is has begun to attract a whole new type of audience — a more diverse, famous, and dare we say informed audience — that seeks to shed the stereotypical image of MMA fans worldwide as personified by the “Just Bleed” guy. This will probably be the first and last time we ever say this, but if you want an example of an educated, enthusiastic audience, look no further than Canada. This may be painting with too large a brush, but in recent years, there has not been an audience that even comes close to matching Canada when dealing with the intricacies of the sport. Ground transitions, stuffed takedowns, and submission attempts are often treated with the enthusiasm and applause of ten punch combos and wheel kicks in other venues, and truly show how far the MMA fan has come in just a few short years. This observation has been duly noted on several occasions by UFC commentators Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg.
But for every Canadian card, there are two or three cards/venues that make us reconsider how in touch with the underlying discipline, honor, and integrity of the sport fans actually are. Where some audiences applaud the ground aspects of MMA, others relentlessly boo and mock fighters for even considering taking the action there, to the point that it often has an influence on the referee’s decision to stand up fighters for a “lack of action.”
The same can be said about fighters who follow a succinct gameplan; just look at how Carlos Condit was eviscerated for his performance against Nick Diaz as an example of this. In one relatively lackluster fight, Condit’s reputation went from the “Natural Born Killer” to the “Natural Born Runner” amongst many fans, simply because he utilized an effective, albeit unspectacular, strategy against a nearly impossible to finish opponent. Then again, Condit’s gameplan was pretty much a cookie-cutter representation of the “always play it safe” mentality that Team Jackson has nearly patented by this point, which could have been enough in and of itself to earn such ire.
There are an endless number of factors that determine how an audience will react on a given night (fight quality, matchups, and amount of alcohol consumed to name a few), but suffice it to say, as MMA has become more popular, the larger audience it has drawn in has both its upsides and its pratfalls. MMA popularity has, whether directly or indirectly, stirred up a mentality that anyone can become a full-fledged martial artist if they own a Body by Jake and practice Chuck Liddell’s moves from the UFC 52 DVD they own “like a hundred times, bro!” on the heavy bag. This is more a reflection of our society’s long-running tendency to mimic what we see on TV than anything else, but let’s face it, human stupidity will never run out of things to exploit. MMA has also been tied in, often out of ignorance or a hidden agenda, with despicable acts of violence by such anti-MMA organizations as The Culinary Union and unfitforchildren, leading many casual audiences and former New York Assemblymen to believe that the furthering of MMA will come hand-in-hand with a general acceptance of violence.
So with that in mind, we figured we would host a good old fashioned CagePotato Open Discussion. The question: Do you think the evolution of mixed martial arts can be reflected in its fanbase? Or is the popularity of the sport actually diluting the intelligence of the average audience member?
It is not a question that can be easily answered given the ever-changing landscape of both the sport and its fans, but what you really have to ask yourself is whether or not the new breed of fans that have hopped on the bandwagon in the past few years are helping improve the sport’s image or destroy it.
(A stranglehold on the competition, or on the sport in general?)
We don’t know about you, but as we were watching last weekend’s UFC on FX 3 event in our various states of drunken stupor, we couldn’t help but notice a few glaring observations. The first was that the term “dicknailed” will always be both appropriate and hilarious when describing knockouts like the one Mike Pyle delivered on Josh Neer in the first round of their welterweight affair. The second revelation, however, was much more disheartening. As we looked past the fighters and into the stands, it was pretty shocking to see how little of a crowd was actually in attendance. “What is this, a Super Fight League card?” we said to ourselves, then collectively tweeted to one another like a bunch of snickering high school girls. But the simple truth is, our Stalter and Waldorf attitudes were nothing more than a defense mechanism, a cover, if you will, for something we feared might be happening: The UFC is stretching themselves a little thin.
Sure, UFC on FX 3 was as under-promoted as it was lacking any sort of star power, so much so that I will personally admit to all but completely forgetting about its existence until BG reminded us why we should be stoked in the first place. And sure, as with this season of The Ultimate Fighter, the fact that the card was scheduled for a Friday night surely didn’t help gain any new viewers either (a move that should most certainly be retracted next season if TUF ever hopes to recover ratings wise). Be that as it may, the real problem with last weekend’s card was certainly not that of the fight quality (because they were all great fights), but rather part of the looming, aforementioned oversaturation problem the UFC may find themselves facing. And here’s why.
(A stranglehold on the competition, or on the sport in general?)
We don’t know about you, but as we were watching last weekend’s UFC on FX 3 event in our various states of drunken stupor, we couldn’t help but notice a few glaring observations. The first was that the term “dicknailed” will always be both appropriate and hilarious when describing knockouts like the one Mike Pyle delivered on Josh Neer in the first round of their welterweight affair. The second revelation, however, was much more disheartening. As we looked past the fighters and into the stands, it was pretty shocking to see how little of a crowd was actually in attendance. “What is this, a Super Fight League card?” we said to ourselves, then collectively tweeted to one another like a bunch of snickering high school girls. But the simple truth is, our Stalter and Waldorf attitudes were nothing more than a defense mechanism, a cover, if you will, for something we feared might be happening: The UFC is stretching themselves a little thin.
Sure, UFC on FX 3 was as under-promoted as it was lacking any sort of star power, so much so that I will personally admit to all but completely forgetting about its existence until BG reminded us why we should be stoked in the first place. And sure, as with this season of The Ultimate Fighter, the fact that the card was scheduled for a Friday night surely didn’t help gain any new viewers either (a move that should most certainly be retracted next season if TUF ever hopes to recover ratings wise). Be that as it may, the real problem with last weekend’s card was certainly not that of the fight quality (because they were all great fights), but rather part of the looming, aforementioned over-saturation problem the UFC may find themselves facing. And here’s why.
As the UFC has increased its number of fight cards seemingly exponentially over the past few years, each individual card has in turn lost a significant amount of hype amongst its audience. This may just be subjectivity on our part, but we feel as if most of you would more or less agree with this point. We’re not going to act like the UFC’s marketing department doesn’t know how to milkthe shit out of a “grudge match” or title fight, but when comparing the UFC’s schedule, say, five years ago, to its current one, the most obvious difference one can notice is the amount of cards held per year. In 2007, the UFC held 19 events, with an average of one pay-per-view card being held each month with some Fight Night and TUF Finale cards sprinkled throughout. In 2011, the UFC put out 26 cards, with nine of them being either Fight Night, TUF Finale, or UFC Live type cards, which have never done great in terms of viewership. Although there may not be a direct correlation between these two things, would it surprise you to learn that last year was the UFC’s worst year for PPV buys since 2008, with the average buy rate being the worst since 2007? The UFC’s total buyrate dropped from 9.215 million in 2010 to just 6.79 million last year, and while Dana White is willing to pass off last weekend’s abysmal attendance/TV ratings to Florida being a shitty place for MMA, we think there may be other issues at hand. For instance, the UFC’s last trip to Florida, which was headlined by Rashad Evansvs. Sean Salmon, drew both a higher gate and attendance than last weekend’s event.
But before we get into all that, we’d like you to think back to mid-2007, if your brains aren’t too clogged with malted hops and bong resin to do so. Chuck Liddell was still the baddest man on the planet (until May 26th came around) and Randy Couture had just capped off the most improbable career comeback in ever by defeating Tim Sylvia at UFC 68 in March, capturing the heavyweight title once again in the process. Sound familiar? It should, because to this day, UFC 68 still holds the record for being the largest attended MMA event in the United States.
As you can see, it’s not like the cards just a few years ago were exactly stacked with more talent compared to today’s average card. Then why, pretell, were we seemingly more excited for them? The answer is simply because just five years ago, it was almost a privilege to witness a UFC event. We’re not trying to act like hipsters here, but before the UFC started gaining network deals left and right, it wasn’t every weekend that we were treated to the gift that is a fight card, as is nearly the case today.
When big fights were more sparsely scattered throughout the year, each individual card was given a few weeks more time to stew, if you will, and gain interest from any on-the-fence fans that may have existed at the time. As they say, absence makes the heart grow fonder, and the UFC’s current policy of jamming two, and sometimes three cards into a month gives even the most enthusiastic fans little time to truly take stock of a given fight before another is billed as “the next big thing in the ______ division.”
As the kind of fan that simply cannot get enough of the sport, the idea of being treated to more fights for free excited me more than when I received my first Nintendo 64 for Christmas, but even I am a little overwhelmed by the amount of unknown and less than intriguing matchups that are being put before me these days. Then again, fans like myself (and most of the Potato Nation staff/readers) are not the kind of fans that the UFC is trying to reel in. Because the “hardcore” fans will always stand by the sport we love, until it becomes insanely obvious that the fights are being fixed, that is. The UFC is trying to bring in new markets, different crowds, and wider audiences to truly lift the sport into the realm of the NBA and NFL, but the difference between the “major” sports and the UFC is that those sports have an off season for both fans and players to recover, rebuild their rosters, and hype the upcoming season. The fact the the UFC has no off period is both a blessing and a curse, because it gives the fans so little time to do this. The closest thing to an off season an MMA fan ever had used to be the four or so weeks off in between cards, but the abundance of events to spring up in the past few years have perhaps spoiled us a bit in the process. In short, there’s a reason that March Madness blows the roof off of most other sporting events in terms of pure hype and interest. In fact, we guarantee that most of you, college basketball fans or not, at least filled out one bracket to partake in the festivities this year. Hell, your grandmothers probably did.
But the problem the UFC is facing is that, by simply delivering quantity over quality, they might just be risking over-saturating their market in terms of interest. The fact that injuries have wiped out nearly every fight we were looking forward to this summer surely isn’t helping matters, but the problems these weak cards face could just as easily be solved by combining the best matchups from a couple of cards into one stacked lineup. Let’s be real here, Aldo vs. Koch (now Faber vs. Barao), Munoz vs. Weidman, and Shogun vs. Vera are pretty pathetic headliners for a sport that has nearly acquired a monopoly on the sport’s top talent, and unless there are some major changes made, the buyrate for these events will likely reflect the lack of exciting matchups at hand. While combining/spacing events may mean that the promotion has to sideline, or even cut, some of it’s lesser fighters is an unfortunate side effect, but the UFC actually has the roster to deliver amazing cards capable of reaching the Brock Lesnar or Jon Jones levels of PPV buys every time if those in charge would just space out them out on occasion.
Look no further than the UFC on FOX’s downwardly spiraling ratings if you need proof of this. The first event, which only featured one fight, mind you, reeled in over five and a half million viewers. Why? Because the one and only fight they showed was a title fight between an undefeated champion and the most deadly number one contender known to man. The fight sells itself. Trying to sell a pair of “number one contender” bouts between Rashad Evans and Phil Davis or Jim Miller and Nate Diaz is not as easy of a task, regardless of how good (or in Evans/Davis’ case, bad) the fights are, simply because there is not as much at stake to garner interest. Again, last minute injuries were partially to blame for some of the FOX ratings, but so were the matchups. The upcoming UFC on FOX 4 event will likely see an even farther drop down the rankings due to this same issue as well.
Look at it this way, you wouldn’t headline a PPV card with any of those fights excluding Velasquez/dos Santos, and perhaps that is what some of the new fans are starting to realize. Being a business that wants to make money, the UFC saves its best cards for PPV’s, because who wouldn’t, and shell out mediocre to above average cards for live TV. And some fans may be sick of being fed the scraps.
To reiterate, I personally will never complain about free fights, but am rather simply pointing out what seems to be a trend in the UFC’s plateau of popularity as of late. And I’d rather not have my ass chewed out by DW for making such an observation, so at this point, I’d like to turn the focus on you Taters. Do you think the UFC could be giving its new fans too much, too fast? Or is even bringing up such a notion insanely idiotic?
