Tag: Strikeforce Challengers

The UFC Can Learn a Lesson From Bellator: How to Promote Bad Fights


(Photo via Getty)

By Matt Saccaro

The UFC said “Hey, did you hear there’s UFC FIGHTS™ on tonight? The finest athletes in the world are facing off and it’ll be action packed. Watch it!”

So we took their word for it, and watched. The athletes faced off, but they weren’t the finest in the world, and it wasn’t action packed. The athletes were green, regional-caliber competitors and there was more labored breathing and bouts of stalling than action.

Then the next event came. “It’s FIGHT WEEEEEEK! UFC FIGHTS™ are on again. The finest athletes in the world are doing battle in the Octagon™. Be sure to watch!”

We were skeptical, but being loyal MMA fans, we watched again. We were let down again. We voiced our concerns, only to be told we weren’t Real Fans if we didn’t appreciate the fights the UFC gave us. Not wanting to lose our MMA streed cred, we watched the next event that promised the top 1% of fighters battling in the Superbowl of MMA only to be disappointed.

This is what being an MMA fan has been like for the past year or two–especially since the UFC went full “World Fucking Domination” on us.

Fight cards are tougher to sit through because the talent levels are lower. Sometimes there’s two of these regional-level, star-sparse cards on the same day! And I’m not ragging on UFC Fight Night 42 specifically; on paper the card was pretty decent for a free Fight Night Card. I’m referring to the general lowering of the bar in terms of card quality that’s become undeniable as of late. The most insulting part is all these events are, for the most part, marketed the same way: Here’s awesome UFC Fights. They’ll be good. Watch them or you’re not an MMA fan.

And judging by the decline in interest (and PPV buys), lots of viewers decided they weren’t fans. And I’m not going to go on for much longer because I’ve written about the issue of over-saturation extensively on CagePotato, but the UFC can learn an important lesson from Bellator regarding how it promotes less-than-stellar fights: Be honest.


(Photo via Getty)

By Matt Saccaro

The UFC said “Hey, did you hear there’s UFC FIGHTS™ on tonight? The finest athletes in the world are facing off and it’ll be action packed. Watch it!”

So we took their word for it, and watched. The athletes faced off, but they weren’t the finest in the world, and it wasn’t action packed. The athletes were green, regional-caliber competitors and there was more labored breathing and bouts of stalling than action.

Then the next event came. “It’s FIGHT WEEEEEEK! UFC FIGHTS™ are on again. The finest athletes in the world are doing battle in the Octagon™. Be sure to watch!”

We were skeptical, but being loyal MMA fans, we watched again. We were let down again. We voiced our concerns, only to be told we weren’t Real Fans if we didn’t appreciate the fights the UFC gave us. Not wanting to lose our MMA streed cred, we watched the next event that promised the top 1% of fighters battling in the Superbowl of MMA only to be disappointed.

This is what being an MMA fan has been like for the past year or two–especially since the UFC went full “World Fucking Domination” on us.

Fight cards are tougher to sit through because the talent levels are lower. Sometimes there’s two of these regional-level, star-sparse cards on the same day! And I’m not ragging on UFC Fight Night 42 specifically; on paper the card was pretty decent for a free Fight Night Card. I’m referring to the general lowering of the bar in terms of card quality that’s become undeniable as of late. The most insulting part is all these events are, for the most part, marketed the same way: Here’s awesome UFC Fights. They’ll be good. Watch them or you’re not an MMA fan.

And judging by the decline in interest (and PPV buys), lots of viewers decided they weren’t fans. And I’m not going to go on for much longer because I’ve written about the issue of over-saturation extensively on CagePotato, but the UFC can learn an important lesson from Bellator regarding how it promotes less-than-stellar fights: Be honest.

Bellator 121 was easily the worst card (on paper) the Viacom-owned promotion had put together in a while. The best fight it offered was a match between James Thompson and Eric freakin’ Prindle. Fans and media didn’t care about Bellator 121 unless they were mocking it. “Oh, James Thompson is in the so-called #2 promotion in 2014. LOL.”

But then this trailer came out:

Yes, it’s a little cheesy at times but in some ways it’s unabashedly honest. There’s never been a better trailer for a worse fight.

Am I saying the UFC should promote all their Fight Night cards as “OMG BACON AND PIZZA FIGHTS AMAZEBALLS”? No. What I’m saying is that the UFC’s current method of promoting low-level fights is factually bankrupt and without substance.

Remember the Strikeforce: Challengers series? It was Strikeforce’s low-level show devoted to their lesser-known fighters and prospects. Perhaps the UFC should start promoting their Fight Night cards as something similar rather than a generic night of UFC action. Saying a barista is a world-beater when he clearly isn’t makes your word meaningless. Saying the pound-for-pound best fighter alive is whoever’s headlining the next card makes your word meaningless. Strikeforce never tried to pass off a Challengers as one of it’s A-level events. The UFC does the opposite. All of its shows are presented as equal in quality because they all have the UFC brand attached. This is a mistake because it teaches the viewer to associate the brand with an inferior product (poor fighters and poor fights). Sometimes a jobber is just a jobber. The UFC would do well to remember that.

Strikeforce Deathwatch: Rockhold vs. Jardine Live Gate Totals a Meager $68,805


(This is when we’d normally tell you to keep your chin up, Keith, but that seems to be what got you here in the first place.) 

Perhaps this might not come as a shocking revelation to most of the Potato Nation, but Strikeforce is in some bad shape. Like, Bubba on the beaches of Vietnam kind of shape. Let’s put it this way, if we were gambling men, and someone were taking bets on its probable death, we’d bet everything we own on death.

What are we jawing on about? Well, the Nevada State Athletic Commission just released its figures for “Strikeforce: Rockhold vs. Jardine” today, which took place at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada on January 7th, and the live gate for the event totaled LESS THAN HALF OF WHAT ROBBIE LAWLER WAS PAID TO FIGHT. As ridiculous as it may seem, Lawler did manage to knock out Aldan Amagov with the power of his testicles alone, so the somewhat exuberant compensation he received seems fair in this case. But boy does it not look good for Strikeforce.

Hauling in an abysmal 68,805 dollars, “Rockhold vs. Jardine” achieved a final attendance of just under 2000 (1992) with only 927 tickets sold. The other 1,065 tickets were comped, and 727 tickets remained unsold. The total fighter purse for this event was an even $566,000.


(This is when we’d normally tell you to keep your chin up, Keith, but that seems to be what got you here in the first place.) 

Perhaps this might not come as a shocking revelation to most of the Potato Nation, but Strikeforce is in some bad shape. Like, Bubba on the beaches of Vietnam kind of shape. Let’s put it this way, if we were gambling men, and someone were taking bets on its probable death, we’d bet everything we own on death.

What are we jawing on about? Well, the Nevada State Athletic Commission just released its figures for “Strikeforce: Rockhold vs. Jardine” today, which took place at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada on January 7th, and the live gate for the event totaled LESS THAN HALF OF WHAT ROBBIE LAWLER WAS PAID TO FIGHT. As ridiculous as it may seem, Lawler did manage to knock out Aldan Amagov with the power of his testicles alone, so the somewhat exuberant compensation he received seems fair in this case. But boy does it not look good for Strikeforce.

Hauling in an abysmal 68,805 dollars, “Rockhold vs. Jardine” achieved a final attendance of just under 2000 (1992) with only 927 tickets sold. The other 1,065 tickets were comped, and 727 tickets remained unsold. The total fighter purse for this event was an even $566,000.

To look at this through an even dirtier windowpane, along with Robbie Lawler, Luke Rockhold and a juiced up Muhammed Lawal also cleared more than the live gate. Hell, Tyrone Woodley made nearly that much to take a fifteen minute nap on Jordan Mein. Again, it’s not necessarily mind-blowing, but those are Challengers numbers, people. Blame it on the UFC snatching up all their champions and the lack of big name fights as a result, or do what we do, and blame everything on the combination of Mauro Ranallo and Frank Shamrock. In either case, nothing short of a heart transplant is going to save this old man; all we can do now is offer him a hospital bed at a discount price, so to speak. Forget the Ronda Rousey death pool, chances are Strikeforce won’t even be around long enough to promote that match-up. We give ‘em 6-8 months, how bout you?

Speaking of shitty numbers, the UFC 142 Prelims, which were the first to air on FX last Saturday, only pulled in 880,000 viewers, which was lower than any “Prelim” episode to air on SpikeTV in the special’s history. UFC 141, on the other hand, managed to reel in over 1.8 million viewers, despite the fact that both FX and Spike are delivered to roughly the same number of homes (around 100 million). Though this can be partially attributed to the fact that most casual fans have yet to become aware of the transition in networks, the numbers are still disappointing to say the least. Let’s hope the UFC’s full event debut on FX this Friday brings in some more/new fans, because we do not need to go back to watching three hours worth of fights on Facebook. Sorry, Jimy.

And hey, speaking of the UFC on FX, make sure to join us Friday night for our liveblog of the event, which will feature more than it’s fair share of whiskey fueld rants courtesy of yours truly. See you there.

-Danga

Strikeforce Loses Heavyweight Division…Don’t Stress We Still Get our Tournament Finale

Be honest, none of us thought Strikeforce would actually get to renew their contract with Showtime network, but miraculously a deal was made. So naturally, Dana White will finally be involved in promoting the organization..

Be honest, none of us thought Strikeforce would actually get to renew their contract with Showtime network, but miraculously a deal was made. So naturally, Dana White will finally be involved in promoting the organization. White stated, “I never thought I would say this, but I am very much looking forward to building Strikeforce and working very closely with Showtime.”

Thankfully White will be apart of things though, because Strikeforce is losing its best known division, the Heavyweights as the top guys migrate over to the UFC. But don’t fret, we will all get to see that long awaited Heavyweight Grand Prix Tournament Finale with Josh Barnett vs. Daniel Cormier before the division is completely absorbed, though of course, no date on that fight card has been announced.

Also on the list of cuts is the Strikeforce Challengers series, but you probably don’t care about that since that’s pretty much why it’s been axed.

Ask the Potato: P4P Lists, Kung Fu Movies and Baldness


Victory, comrade!

Don’t worry- we didn’t forget about you. We were just a little busy yesterday. To demonstrate that your questions weren’t asked for no reason, we’ll jump right into answering them today. Unless, of course, you asked a question and we didn’t answer it. Then it was definitely asked for no reason. Oh well.

So let’s get started, shall we?

Kyle Gifford asks (via Facebook): Why haven’t you taken any questions from FB?


Victory, comrade!

Don’t worry- we didn’t forget about you. We were just a little busy yesterday. To demonstrate that your questions weren’t asked for no reason, we’ll jump right into answering them today. Unless, of course, you asked a question and we didn’t answer it. Then it was definitely asked for no reason. Oh well.

So let’s get started, shall we?

Kyle Gifford asks (via Facebook): Why haven’t you taken any questions from FB?

Sorry about that, Kyle. We won’t ignore you in the future. Unless you continue to ask awful questions, that is.

Kyle Gifford asks (via Facebook):  I’ve been following CP since the beginning. Can I get a free shirt? I no longer frequent the forums but I did when it first started.

No, Kyle. No you cannot. Next question.

Tarran Constable asks (via Facebook): who are the 2 worst pound for pound fighters in the ufc and strikeforce? And if they were to fight, who would win?

If you’re asking us to compare the worst fighter in the UFC to the worst fighter in Strikeforce, you’re just begging us to make a weak basketball analogy. So here it is: This is like asking what would happen if the worst player in the NBA played one on one against the worst player in the D-League. Even if that happened, you’d never hear from the winner again, so who really cares?

Now, if you’re essentially asking us who are the two worst fighters under contract with Zuffa, and don’t believe Chael’s answer of Wanderlei and Cro Cop, then complete the following steps:

1.)    Pick two fighters who lost on the undercard of Friday’s Challengers event. Go ahead, any two will do.
2.)    Get a coin, and label one side for the first fighter and the other side for the other fighter.
3.)    Flip said coin.
4.)    Acknowledge that you just wasted your time.

RwilsonR asks:  What is the best fighting/martial arts movie of all time that doesn’t involve Bruce Lee? And no picking some cult Hong Kong POS that is totally unwatchable. I’m talking classic 70?s, 80?s, 90?s Hollywood cinema.

Throughout MMA’s short history, we’ve seen countless fighters try to adapt the martial arts to suit their particular skill set and physical attributes; it’s basically how Gracie Jiu Jitsu was formed.  We’ve also seen our fair share of former Olympians make the transition to the fighting world. Lost in the revisionist history of mixed martial arts, however, is Kurt Thomas. In addition to founding his own martial art form, he put his life on the line to serve his country. Never forget.

Fried Taco asks:   Who is your favorite commenter (can’t be someone who works for CP, or any of the secret Break Media alliances with other organizations that we all really know about but pretend don’t exist – and no fair picking a girl who takes her clothes off for you).

Okay, Fried Taco. We know where you’re going with this, so we better have a chat. We like you. You’re a wonderful guy, and we’ve had some great times with each other. But things are very hectic here at Cage Potato, and frankly, we’re not ready to commit to just one commentator right now. We know it sounds like a total cop-out, but we’re serious when we say it: It’s not you, it’s us. Let’s just stay friends, okay?

EnemyofReality asks: Dear CP…. I think I might be going bald. Should I go with the shaved head w/ goatee-tattoo and piercing Kerry King look or should I go with the regular guy, ball cap smiling Junior Dos Santos look?

Neither. You’re not a famous metal guitarist or a UFC champion, so you’ll look like a tool trying to imitate one. For an image that won’t get people to refer to you as “that douchebag”, try either of these:

You’re welcome.

That’s all for now, folks. Tune in next week as we answer even more of your (hopefully at least kind of) MMA related questions. You know the drill: You can send us questions through our Facebook page. You can tweet them to our Twitter account, as well as hashtag questions with #AskThePotato. You can register for our forums and post your questions there. Or you can just post them in the comments section of this article. Or maybe you can show us how to use that Google+ page we set up so we can take questions from there. You can ask questions on that thing, right?

Friday Afternoon Link Dump

(Two words: Ipecac bitches! Video courtesy of Vimeo/Fightlinker)

– Hector Lombard: ‘Chael Sonnen is boring as f*ck (MMAJunkie)

– Chris Weiman’s one wish (WithLeather)

– Fowchart: what to do if there is no NBA season (Clutch.MTV)

-Eddie Alvarez on fear as motivation, facing unbeaten Chandler and Aoki possibility (MMAFighting)

– Machida details new camp for Jones bout (FightersOnly)

– The secret way to make sure you never get fired (AskMen)

– Wand talks pressure and training with ‘The Spider’ for Le fight (Tatame)

– Cpyotes using cell phones to get people across border (TuVez)

– Sonnen genuinely wishes Wand well Saturday night (ESPN)

– NFL’s hottest cheerleaders: Seattle Seahawks (Guyism)

– Sakurai-Chonnen rematch, bantamweight finals slated for DREAM NYE show (Sherdog)

– Strikeforce Challengers weigh-in vid (YouTube)

– Dexter re-upped for two more seasons (ScreenJunkies)

– FTW video: how to make awesome bacon appetizers (MadeMan)

– The 8 most exciting fighters on the UFC 139 undercard (BleacherReport)

– 25 math geek tattoos (HolyTaco)

– Elle Liberachi in lingerie is a good way to end the work week (Guyism)

– Dana White talks UFC 139, promises four exciting main card fights for UFC on Fox 2 (LowKick)


(Two words: Ipecac bitches! Video courtesy of Vimeo/Fightlinker)

– Hector Lombard: ‘Chael Sonnen is boring as f*ck (MMAJunkie)

– Chris Weiman’s one wish (WithLeather)

– Fowchart: what to do if there is no NBA season (Clutch.MTV)

–Eddie Alvarez on fear as motivation, facing unbeaten Chandler and Aoki possibility (MMAFighting)

– Machida details new camp for Jones bout (FightersOnly)

– The secret way to make sure you never get fired (AskMen)

– Wand talks pressure and training with ‘The Spider’ for Le fight (Tatame)

– Cpyotes using cell phones to get people across border (TuVez)

– Sonnen genuinely wishes Wand well Saturday night (ESPN)

– NFL’s hottest cheerleaders: Seattle Seahawks (Guyism)

– Sakurai-Chonnen rematch, bantamweight finals slated for DREAM NYE show (Sherdog)

– Strikeforce Challengers weigh-in vid (YouTube)

– Dexter re-upped for two more seasons (ScreenJunkies)

– FTW video: how to make awesome bacon appetizers (MadeMan)

– The 8 most exciting fighters on the UFC 139 undercard (BleacherReport)

– 25 math geek tattoos (HolyTaco)

– Elle Liberachi in lingerie is a good way to end the work week (Guyism)

– Dana White talks UFC 139, promises four exciting main card fights for UFC on Fox 2 (LowKick)

Reminder: Strikeforce Challengers 19 Goes Down Tonight

(One of the above people has no clue that Strikeforce Challengers even exists.) 

Depending on what kind of MMA fan you are, the Strikeforce Challengers series is either one of the many great ways to scout up and coming talent or one of the many open wounds that is bleeding Strikeforce to death. Regardless, Strikeforce Challengers 19 goes down tonight from the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas and features the likes of Ryan Couture, Jason “The Kansas City Bandit” High, and is headlined by a light heavyweight tilt between undefeated Lorenz “The Monsoon” Larkin and Nick “Leatherface” Rossborough. So if you determine whether or not to buy pay-per-views based on the originality of fighter’s nicknames, then this is the card for you.

(One of the above people has no clue that Strikeforce Challengers even exists.) 

Depending on what kind of MMA fan you are, the Strikeforce Challengers series is either one of the many great ways to scout up and coming talent or one of the many open wounds that is bleeding Strikeforce to death. Regardless, Strikeforce Challengers 19 goes down tonight from the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas and features the likes of Ryan Couture, Jason “The Kansas City Bandit” High, and is headlined by a light heavyweight tilt between undefeated Lorenz “The Monsoon” Larkin and Nick “Leatherface” Rossborough. So if you determine whether or not to buy pay-per-views based on the originality of fighter’s nicknames, then this is the card for you.

Ryan Couture will be looking to erase the memory of his rather revealing loss to Matt Ricehouse back at Challengers 16, taking on 4-1 Wand Fight Team member Maka Watson. Since being ousted from the UFC following a unanimous decision loss to Charlie Brenneman, Jason High has gone on a five fight tear including a nasty technical submission via guillotine over Rudy “Bad News” Bears, and will be looking to continue his hot streak against Todd “Maniac” Moore, who most recently earned a unanimous decision victory over Mike Bronzoulis at Strikeforce: Overeem vs. Werdum.

Strikeforce Challengers 19 will be broadcast live (tape delayed on the west coast) on Showtime starting at 11 p.m.

-Danga