This week in “not honoring the spirit of the deal” news: Spike TV is upping the ante on their UFC counter-programming efforts, launching a new best-of-TUF series that would compete directly against season 15 of The Ultimate Fighter. “The Ultimate Fighter Fridays” will be a three-hour programming block debuting on Friday, March 2nd, at 9 p.m. ET/PT, featuring the best episodes from the first 14 seasons of the reality show. According to the press release, Spike will air special-themed editions of “The Ultimate Fighter Fridays” with input from fans via Facebook and Twitter.
Meanwhile on FX, The Ultimate Fighter LIVE is scheduled to kick off March 9th at 9 p.m. ET/PT, helmed by coaches Urijah Faber and Dominick Cruz. Moving the show to a different network on a different night of the week will surely leave some fans confused if they haven’t been paying attention, and Spike’s new programming block just throws a few more tacks on the road, so to speak. But wait, there’s more…
(“Fuck it, I’m calling in the air strike.”)
This week in “not honoring the spirit of the deal” news: Spike TV is upping the ante on their UFC counter-programming efforts, launching a new best-of-TUF series that would compete directly against season 15 of The Ultimate Fighter. “The Ultimate Fighter Fridays” will be a three-hour programming block debuting on Friday, March 2nd, at 9 p.m. ET/PT, featuring the best episodes from the first 14 seasons of the reality show. According to the press release, Spike will air special-themed editions of “The Ultimate Fighter Fridays” with input from fans via Facebook and Twitter.
Meanwhile on FX, The Ultimate Fighter LIVE is scheduled to kick off March 9th at 9 p.m. ET/PT, helmed by coaches Urijah Faber and Dominick Cruz. Moving the show to a different network on a different night of the week will surely leave some fans confused if they haven’t been paying attention, and Spike’s new programming block just throws a few more tacks on the road, so to speak. But wait, there’s more…
Just as Spike aired the incredibly named “Dos Santos vs. Velasquez: Unleashed for the Heavyweight Title“ marathon to steal a few gullible viewers from the UFC’s first FOX broadcast last month, they’re doing it again on January 28th with an eight-hour block called “UFC Unleashed: Evans vs. Davis,” which will (of course) run against the UFC on FOX 2 broadcast headlined by Rashad Evans and Phil Davis. As MMAFighting put it:
Labeling the event “Evans vs. Davis” may do a disservice to some viewers who will set their DVRs for “Evans vs. Davis” only to realize after the fact that they recorded the wrong program, although it’s hard to imagine many viewers will be fooled into watching the wrong fight.
Spike and the UFC will also compete with weekly MMA news shows in 2012 — MMA Junkie Live on Spike and UFC Tonight on FUEL. Time-slots haven’t been finalized yet, but don’t be surprised if they go head-to-head as well.
Last week, it was announced that Bellator Fighting Championships would be changing the night they broadcast their weekly fights, beginning with their Season 6 tournaments in March 2012.
Instead of competing for an audience on Saturday nights, when most fans are preoccupied with UFC pay-per-views and college football, Bjorn Rebney in conjunction with Viacom, has determined the best night for the largest number of MMA fans to enjoy the show is Friday. Good choice? Perhaps.
Also airing on Friday nights starting in 2012 is the UFC’s flagship reality series, The Ultimate Fighter. In its fifteenth season, Zuffa decided to mix it up a bit in hopes of revitalizing fan interest and attracting new viewers by airing the fights live.
So will Bellator gain any ground if they’re still competing with the world’s largest MMA promotion? Will the in-house shenanigans, trash-talking coaches, and UFC brand be able to attract a larger audience than an entire night of live fights, some of which have been classified as ‘Super‘? Not only can we not be in two places at once, we can’t watch two television programs at the same time either. So, who wins the ratings war?
Last week, it was announced that Bellator Fighting Championships would be changing the night they broadcast their weekly fights, beginning with their Season 6 tournaments in March 2012.
Instead of competing for an audience on Saturday nights, when most fans are preoccupied with UFC pay-per-views and college football, Bjorn Rebney in conjunction with Viacom, has determined the best night for the largest number of MMA fans to enjoy the show is Friday. Good choice? Perhaps.
Also airing on Friday nights starting in 2012 is the UFC’s flagship reality series, The Ultimate Fighter. In its fifteenth season, Zuffa decided to mix it up a bit in hopes of revitalizing fan interest and attracting new viewers by airing the fights live.
So will Bellator gain any ground if they’re still competing with the world’s largest MMA promotion? Will the in-house shenanigans, trash-talking coaches, and UFC brand be able to attract a larger audience than an entire night of live fights, some of which have been classified as ‘Super‘? Not only can we not be in two places at once, we can’t watch two television programs at the same time either. So, who wins the ratings war?
If you’re the type of person who roots against Lebron James, Jon Jones, or the Los Angeles Lakers, chances are you’re probably going to slam the UFC as well. In which case, you and your buddies probably chat it up on the bar stools or at the water cooler about how The Ultimate Fighter is stale, annoying, and that one lousy fight doesn’t motivate you to watch fifty minutes of predictable Real World-esque antics sans hot chicks.
Bellator on the other hand, offers four fights that actually have meaning, scraps that can possibly materialize into Fight of the Year candidates. You’ll witness up-and-comers, veterans looking to bounce back, and everything in between battle it out for a novelty-sized check and a title belt — not because they want to be on TV, sign autographs and bang broads. From a fan’s perspective, there’s more to life than making chicken salad out of chicken sh*t.
While those arguments are logical enough in their own right, you’d be foolish to overlook the fact that MTV2 (Bellator’s home for one more year) is in roughly 80 million homes, while FX (TUF‘s new home) is sitting pretty at 98 million. When Bellator’s Spike deal kicks off in 2013, they’ll regain a slight edge in cable broadcast reach against FX, but for next year they’ll be at a clear competitive disadvantage.
Over the past decade, UFC has become synonymous with mixed martial arts. Audiences come to expect a certain level of production and sizzle from their MMA, which is something the UFC has been able to deliver better than anybody. For that reason alone, casual observers are betting on them to claim Friday nights as their own. Thanks in large part to their pioneering work with socialmedia, the brand loyalty held by the UFC is unrivaled, and unprecedented. While fans of other professional sports might have loyalty to their favorite teams and players, they don’t have the same emotional connection to the leagues themselves. (I doubt David Stern gets many requests from grown men asking to sit in his lap these days.)
Another reason no one in Vegas is worried about going toe-to-toe with Bellator is the fresh format in store which includes a voting system similar to American Idol where fans can choose who they want to see face next. Allowing viewers to hand-pick the next fight is reason enough to make TUF the Friday night go-to for MMA fans.
Why are ‘voting enabled’ shows so darn popular? Two reasons: We love watching people humiliate themselves (think of the Idol reject who is convinced of their talent) and we love feeling like we’re a part of something. When we vote, we believe that our voice matters thus strengthening our appreciation of the show. Who could resist a company that asks them what they want? The fifteenth season of TUF will prove this true.
So who do you think will win the ratings war on Friday nights in 2012? Will you tune in to watch another guy fight and lose to Hector Lombard, or are you more a fan of doors getting smashed and food getting inseminated? Whichever side you fall on, you can rest assured that if one starts bludgeoning the other to a bloody pulp, the other will tap out and live to see a new day (I’m hoping for Wednesday). There is far too much money at risk to settle for being number two in a world that only cares about numero uno.
Filed under: UFC, NewsEarly Tuesday at a press conference in Rio, UFC president Dana White announced Vitor Belfort and Wanderlei Silva as coaches on the first-ever international edition of The Ultimate Fighter, which will take place in Brazil.
Early Tuesday at a press conference in Rio, UFC president Dana White announced Vitor Belfort and Wanderlei Silva as coaches on the first-ever international edition of The Ultimate Fighter, which will take place in Brazil.
In the past, White said that international editions of TUF would likely air on FUEL as part of their new wide-ranging deal with FOX-owned networks, but on a Tuesday afternoon teleconference, FUEL executive vice president and general manager George Greenberg said that as of right now, the two sides are still in negotiations to bring the new editions of TUF to air in the U.S.
“Right now, any international edition of The Ultimate Fighter is something we are in discussions with the UFC,” he said. “We have no firm deal for TUF Australia or TUF Brazil, or any other TUF show right now.
“We’d love to do this,” he added. “I don’t think it’s going to be an obstacle to get through negotiations.”
Greenberg said that he believed the channel, which is already planning 2,000 hours of UFC programming in 2012, still has room to add the international editions of TUF.
Asked to describe the negotiations for the TV properties, he said that the relationship has made for easy communications between the two sides thus far, and that they speak four to five times a day.
“For us, negotiations are sort of easy,” he said. “Specifically we’re in talks, but I can’t tell you what stage. Everything we do with the UFC always will turn out with a healthy ending for both parties. If it’s good for the sport, it will be good for the UFC, and it will be great for the FOX Sports media group. I can promise you that.”
FUEL will kick off its commitment to its new partner with 24 hours of UFC programming on Jan. 1. On Jan. 3, its weekly news show UFC Tonight premieres at 10 pm, hosted by former WEC announcer Todd Harris and featuring our own Ariel Helwani.
Other UFC on FUEL programming notes:
– Live weigh-in shows begin airing on FUEL on Jan. 13, with UFC 142.
– Live event post-fight coverage will feature one-hour shows hosted by Jay Glazer, beginning on Jan. 14 with UFC 142
– FUEL begins televising UFC preliminary fights on Jan. 20, with the undercard of an FX event.
– FUEL will have the right to air the U.S. editions of The Ultimate Fighter 24 hours after original episodes air on FX.
– There will be quarterly “Champion’s Roundtable” specials, with past and current titleholders discussing a wide range of MMA topics
FUEL is currently available in about 38 million households, but Greenberg said the channel’s goal is to house so much UFC programming that fans will demand and receive it from their cable and satellite providers.
“I can guarantee you we’re going to become the most wanted channel in the television landscape,” he said.
Tonight, TUF as we know it comes to an end. Before us lies a shadowy, uncertain world of live fights aired on F/X on Friday nights and international spin-offs. But no matter what comes next, you can feel secure in the fact that we’ll still be complaining about the show just as much as we always have, because we know no other way to live.
Welcome, friends, to our liveblog of The Ultimate Fighter: Team Bisping vs. Team Miller Finale. On the menu this evening — Diego Brandao and Dennis Bermudez battle to decide the first featherweight TUF winner in UFC history, while John Dodson and TJ Dillashaw do the same for the bantamweights. Plus, heavy-handed TUF 13 winner Tony Ferguson steps up against seasoned vet Yves Edwards, and in the main event, Michael Bisping looks to remove the smirk off the face of his latest rival, Jason “Mayhem” Miller, who will be making his first Octagon appearance in over six years.
Round-by-round results from the TUF 14 Finale main card on Spike TV will be piling up after the jump beginning at 8 p.m. ET. Refresh the page every few minutes for all the latest.
Tonight, TUF as we know it comes to an end. Before us lies a shadowy, uncertain world of live fights aired on F/X on Friday nights and international spin-offs. But no matter what comes next, you can feel secure in the fact that we’ll still be complaining about the show just as much as we always have, because we know no other way to live.
Welcome, friends, to our liveblog of The Ultimate Fighter: Team Bisping vs. Team Miller Finale. On the menu this evening — Diego Brandao and Dennis Bermudez battle to decide the first featherweight TUF winner in UFC history, while John Dodson and TJ Dillashaw do the same for the bantamweights. Plus, heavy-handed TUF 13 winner Tony Ferguson steps up against seasoned vet Yves Edwards, and in the main event, Michael Bisping looks to remove the smirk off the face of his latest rival, Jason “Mayhem” Miller, who will be making his first Octagon appearance in over six years.
Round-by-round results from the TUF 14 Finale main card on Spike TV will be piling up after the jump beginning at 8 p.m. ET. Refresh the page every few minutes for all the latest.
Preliminary card results:
– Marcus Brimage def. Stephen Bass via unanimous decision (30-27 x 2, 29-28)
– John Albert def. Dustin Pague via TKO, 1:09 of round 1
– Roland Delorme def. Josh Ferguson via submission (rear-naked choke), 0:22 of round 3
– Steven Siler def. Josh Clopton via unanimous decision (29-28 x 3)
– Bryan Caraway def. Dustin Neace via submission (rear-naked choke), 3:38 of round 2
We open the Spike broadcast with the traditional pan through the Las Vegas crowd. A fat guy with a thick red beard screaming his lungs out will surely be the subject of an animated GIF tomorrow. We’re reminded that later on the show they’ll be announcing the Fight of the Season, Knockout of the Season, and Submission of the Season awards from TUF 14, each one worth $25,000 to a hungry castmember.
Louis Gaudinot vs. Johnny Bedford
Bedford got a haircut, and Gaudinot’s green mop is even more insane tonight. He’s like a bantamweight Clay Guida/Kermit the Frog hybrid. Bedford is seven inches taller and has an eight-inch reach advantage. Gaudinot is basically just killing time until the UFC opens up a flyweight division.
Round 1: Gaudinot misses a leg kick and gets tagged with one in return. Bedford with a long right straight and a takedown. Elbow from the top from Bedford. Gaudinot rolls to stand and Bedford grabs a headlock. Gaudinot stands and Bedford lands a knee, then a punch in the clinch. Another knee from Bedford and they separate. Bedford with another takedown and he moves quickly to mount. Punches from the top, and Gaudinot can’t do much except cover up. He bucks, but it doesn’t work. Bedford tying up Gaudinot’s arms. Gaudinot rolls to his knees and Bedford takes his back. Gaudinot trying to get to his feet, but Bedford stretches him back out on the mat. Gaudinot returns to his back, establishes half-guard. Bedford gets some space and throws down a punch. Gaudinot scrambles to a knee and eats a pair of punches. Gaudinot gets up, Bedford knees him in the gut and strolls off at the bell. 10-8 Bedford; Gaudinot did zero offensively in that round.
Round 2: Leg kick Gaudinot. Gaudinot gets in with a punch and kick, and exits. Bedford returns fire. He misses a spinning backfist but scores with a takedown. Gaudinot gets up, but Bedford is landing on him. Bedford goes for the ankle pick and gets it after some struggle. Bedford on top of Gaudinot in half guard. Bedford with punches to the body. A solid elbow. Bedford briefly gets mount again, but Gaudinot escapes. Bedford throws down a barrage of punches, and again, Gaudinot can’t do much except minimize damage. Gaudinot twists his body around and Bedford goes to north/south. Mount again. Bedford smashes Gaudinot with elbows. Bedford grabs an arm and tries for a straight armbar, but Gaudinot defends it on sheer muscle. There’s the bell. Either 10-9 or 10-8 for Bedford. I guess it doesn’t matter at this point; Gaudinot is going to need a miracle stoppage in round three.
Round 3: Bedford clinches up, throws a pair of knees. Gaudinot tries a leg kick. Another clinch/knee series from Bedford. Gaudinot fakes low and lands a backfist. Bedford makes him pay, swarming with strikes and dropping Gaudinot with a body shot and knee. He follows it up with a soccer-kick to the ribs, and slugs him with punches and knees from the top. Referee Steve Mazzagatti has finally seen enough.
Johnny Bedford def. Louis Gaudinot via TKO, 1:58 of round 3. “That’s fun to watch right there,” Bedford says, admiring the replay of his body shots. A good debut for Bedford, though beating up Louis Gaudinot doesn’t guarantee that he’ll be a force at 135 in the UFC.
Hey, an ad for Gina Carano’s Haywire! OPENING DAY, SON.
Tony Ferguson vs. Yves Edwards
Round 1: Leg kick Ferg. Another. Edwards throws back a jab, and Ferguson lands three leg kicks in quick succession. Edwards scores with a stright left to the grilland one to the body. Ferguson tries a teep to the body. Ferguson with a leg kick that’s checked, then throws two jabs. Edwards lands a punch then a head kick. Edwards lands a left in a firefight. Punch/leg kick from Edwards that spins Ferguson around. Leg kick again from Ferguson. Another. Edwards lands a punch but gets countered hard. Ferguson pushing forward with punches. Ferguson lands uppercut, then blitzes forward with punches. Edwards is hurt and covering up as Ferguson bombs out on him. Edwards returns a head kick then shoots in. Ferguson defends with an omoplata and gets to his feet. Awesome finish to the round. You gotta give it to Ferguson 10-9 for putting Edwards in trouble.
Round 2: Ferguson with a lead uppercut. He goes inside with the leg kick. Edwards lands a great right hand counter, then a head kick and a leg kick that stumbles Ferguson. Edwards fires a flying knee and one more in a clinch. Leg kick Ferguson. Ferguson switches to southpaw, jabs, and goes back to orthodox. Ferguson fires a hard right hook, then an uppercut that makes solid contact. Ferg misses a jab and Edwards lands in return. Ferguson lands the better punches in a boxing exchange. Edwards tries the head kick again. Edwards shoots, gets stuffed. Ferguson shoots and gets his takedown but the round ends before he can do anything with it.
Round 3: Ferguson touches Edwards with his jab. Edwards lands a great leg kick at the end of a punch combo, but slips and has to retreat. Body kick Ferguson. Ferguson kicks high. Edwards lands another leg kick that puts Ferguson off balance. Ferguson lands a left. They trade low kicks. Edwards with a straight left. Ferguson with a superman jab. Edwards responds with a leg kick. Edwards with another head kick that rolls off Ferguson’s shoulder. Leg kick Edwards. Side push kick from Ferguson. Head kick from Edwards. Edwards shoots, gets stuffed. Ferguson trying to land some punches, but missing. That’s the end. Tough one to call.
Tony Ferguson def. Yves Edwards via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28). Damn, Ferguson is sponsored by Jimmy John’s? I want to be sponsored by Jimmy John’s.
But before we put this sumbitch to bed, we have two more semi-final fights to get through. John “The Snitchin’ Magician” Dodson is training for his bantamweight face-off with teammate Johnny Bedford, while Bedford blatantly creeps on him the whole time. Coach Mayhem decides he won’t corner either man, leaving that responsibility up to the assistant coaches.
Says Dodson: “I only got taken down once, by Prince [John Albert], and I’m never going to get taken down again.” But taking Lil’ John down is, in fact, Bedford’s gameplan. And he doesn’t think Dodson has the power to hurt him. Dodson giggles and poses in the face-off after weigh-ins. Once again, we marvel at how small this man is, and how he should really be competing at 125, if such a division existed in the UFC. And once again, his size disadvantage probably won’t matter one damn bit.
(Gentlemen, please. You can *both* eat dicks. / GIF via IronForgesIron)
But before we put this sumbitch to bed, we have two more semi-final fights to get through. John “The Snitchin’ Magician” Dodson is training for his bantamweight face-off with teammate Johnny Bedford, while Bedford blatantly creeps on him the whole time. Coach Mayhem decides he won’t corner either man, leaving that responsibility up to the assistant coaches.
Says Dodson: “I only got taken down once, by Prince [John Albert], and I’m never going to get taken down again.” But taking Lil’ John down is, in fact, Bedford’s gameplan. And he doesn’t think Dodson has the power to hurt him. Dodson giggles and poses in the face-off after weigh-ins. Once again, we marvel at how small this man is, and how he should really be competing at 125, if such a division existed in the UFC. And once again, his size disadvantage probably won’t matter one damn bit.
And it’s go time already. Bedford remarks that Dodson likes to smile after getting hit, but he won’t be smiling in this one. Dodson’s rebuttal: “You ain’t gonna get me dog. You know why? I’m awesome, you’re not.”
Round 1: Bedford and Dodson both land with leg kicks and punches. Bedford fires a pair of high kicks. Bedford shoots in, Dodson defends. Dodson lands a lightning fast knee/punch combo. Bedford tries to clinch and Dodson launches a flurry of inside punches. Dodson sticking and moving, landing counters. Bedford tries to clinch again, but Dodson is too slippery. Bedford with a left. Dodson lands two leg kicks. Bedford clinches and throws some knees but eats a punch as Dodson escapes. Bedford finally gets a takedown, but Dodson is up and out. Bedford tries to swagger-jack Jon Jones with a rolling backfist that misses wide. Dodson fires a looping hook. Bedford dashes forward with a knee, but can’t grab on. Bedford goes body/head with punches. Dodson catches a kick and dumps Bedford down. Bedford gets up and Dodson seems to punt him in the nuts on the way up, but Bedford is unfazed. They scrap to the bell. “I lost that round, didn’t I,” Bedford asks his corner. Yeah, pretty much.
Round 2: Dodson in a great rhythm, landing his counterpunches and exiting. He slaps in an inside leg kick. Now Bedford catches a kick and slugs Dodson against the fence, forcing him to retreat. Dodson lands to the body. Dodson connects on a stiff left that drops Bedford, and follows it up with some wild masturbation punches until Bedford’s soul leaves his body. And so, John Dodson will be facing TJ Dillashaw at the TUF 14 bantamweight finals on Saturday night.
“He looked like a monkey trying to open up a coconut when he was bashing on Bedford’s head” says Louis Gaudinot, an observation that’s equal parts offensive and accurate.
The doctor asks Bedford where he is, and he guesses Ohio. Now what were you saying about Dodson’s power?
Back at the house, Diego Brandao menacingly sharpens a meat-cleaver in the backyard while Bryan Caraway chills in the hot tub, trying to not look terrified. As Coach Bisping puts it, ”Look, I’d be scared of the guy, and he’s only the size of my leg!” Brandao says something about weening TUF so ee can buy house for ees mother.
Caraway just wants to keep his guts on the inside of his body. According to his own calculations, he threw up before his first 30 MMA fights, but is currently riding a three-fight streak of not throwing up. The sport gives him such anxiety that he hates it sometimes. Mayhem tries to talk him down from the ledge. At the end of the day, it’s better to be a UFC fighter than a Starbucks barista. Unless you love coffee and hate fighting, in which case it’s worth it just for the employee discount.
Bedford steps in as the voice of reason: “I’ve seen Diego lose in person. He’s definitely beatable. Bryan’s one of the most experienced guys here.”
But now that his fighter is considered such a massive favorite, Bisping bravely offers to bet Miller $100 on the fight. You can tell that Miller doesn’t want any part of this, but since Bisping made the challenge publicly, in front of both fighters and their teammates, Mayhem gamely accepts.
It’s the last night in the house, and the guys are gettin’ cray-cray. Mayhem rides through the house in his undies. A beer-pong tournament ensues. Meanwhile, Brandao is getting pissed off because he actually has to fight the next day and all this ruckus is fucking with his focus. Still, an angel appeared to Brandao in a dream, and told him he’s going back to Brazil to help a lot of families for Christmas. So he’s got that going for him.
“The pressure’s just as much on him,” Bryan says, not sounding too convinced. Meanwhile, Diego is upstairs beating the shit out of a box-spring.
And here it is, TUF 14′s final battle…
Round 1: Brandao opens with high kicks. Caraway shoots in to clinch, Brandao defends and escapes. A big haymaker from Brandao glances off the top of Caraway’s head. Caraway shoots, Brandao sprawls. Big kick from Brandao. Caraway returns fire. Brandao tries a superman punch, Caraway grabs him and pushes him to fence. Brandao knees him off. Brandao lands a leg kick that spins Caraway around. Brandao with a body punch, Caraway with a left hook. Hard leg kick from Brandao. Caraway shoots and misses, Brandao makes him pay with punches. Brandao lands another hard leg kick spins Caraway 360 degrees. Brandao fires an overhand right, Caraway mimics it. Brandao launches a flying knee that drops Caraway. Brandao starts jackhammering punches from the top. Caraway does his best to move around on his back and avoid damage. Caraway finally gets up but he’s still dazed, and gets dropped by another punch. More ground and pound. Caraway is tough as fucking nails and won’t quit. He gets up again, Brandao slugs him and Caraway collapses to his back. Another punch from Brandao finally finds Caraway’s off button. That’s three straight first-round knockouts for Diego Brandao. He’ll meet Dennis Bermudez in the featherweight finals.
The first thing Brandao does after the fight is threaten to smash Bermudez for talking shit the night before, a charge that Bermudez denies. Bisping’s prediction: “Diego kills Bermudez and goes on to be a big star in the UFC.” Now that he’s in the finals, Brandao promises to buy his mom a house, get his brother out of the drogas, and change his life. Seriously? They’re still just paying you guys $10k/$10k, right?
Before it’s time to leave, Dana has the coaches rub their foreheads together in one last face-off before their live fight at the Finale on Saturday. “Welcome to the UFC, dickhead,” Bisping says. “Back to the little leagues after this. Go find another TV show to present.”
“I feel like my whole life has been building up to beat this one bully,” Mayhem says.
Come back to CagePotato.com on Saturday night for our liveblog of the TUF 14 Finale main card. The full lineup looks like this:
Main Card (Spike TV, 8 p.m. ET)
– Michael Bisping vs. Jason Miller (MW)
– John Dodson vs. T.J. Dillashaw (BW)
– Diego Brandao vs. Dennis Bermudez (FW)
– Tony Ferguson vs. Yves Edwards (LW)
Preliminary Card (Facebook)
– Dustin Pague vs. John Albert (BW)
– Louis Gaudinot vs. Johnny Bedford (BW)
– Marcus Brimage vs. Stephen Bass (FW)
– Josh Clopton vs. Steven Siler (FW)
– Bryan Caraway vs. Dustin Neace (FW)
– Roland Delorme vs. Josh Ferguson (BW)
Filed under: UFC, Strikeforce, BellatorWith season 14 of The Ultimate Fighter drawing to a close and the big finale fight between the coaches drawing near, now seemed like as good a time as any to go head-to-head with my buddy and colleague Michael Dav…
With season 14 of The Ultimate Fighterdrawing to a close and the big finale fight between the coaches drawing near, now seemed like as good a time as any to go head-to-head with my buddy and colleague Michael David Smith over a few of the more pertinent questions of our day.
Questions like, what’s up with Strikeforce? Also, what’s up with Bellator? And, if you’re not into this TUF Finale business, just what are you into, smart guy? All that — only, you know, slightly more artfully rendered — awaits you below. MDS, why don’t you start us off.
1. A big part of TUF is supposed to be hyping the fight between the coaches. Has anything on The Ultimate Fighter this year made you any more interested in Michael Bisping vs. Mayhem Miller than you were three months ago?
MDS: I’m kind of surprised by how little the Bisping-Mayhem feud has moved the needle because Bisping and Mayhem are both engaging characters who know how to sell a fight. I assume part of the issue is that there’s been less promotion for the fight because it’s on Spike, and Spike and the UFC have ended their relationship. If this fight were going to be on pay-per-view, as most coach vs. coach fights have been, I’m sure the UFC would be doing a lot more to promote it.
But the larger issue seems to be that Bisping vs. Mayhem doesn’t seem to do a lot for fans in terms of its relevance to the UFC’s middleweight division. Both guys are solid fighters, but the winner of this fight will still be behind Chael Sonnen and Mark Munoz in line for a title shot, and if either Bisping or Mayhem did get a title shot, it’s not like anyone would pick either one of them to beat Anderson Silva. So it doesn’t have the feel of a really important fight.
Fowlkes: While I don’t disagree that this fight lacks the promise of an immediate impact on its division, I have a hard time accepting that that’s why there’s not more heat behind it. Yes, the UFC seemed to choose these two as coaches based on force of personality alone, but didn’t that work as well as anyone could have hoped? They laughed, they yelled, they pranked, and they even coached. They had their obligatory tense and borderline violent moments, but they also had some fun. That’s got to be better than “Rampage” Jackson sleeping on the mat, right?
The TUF franchise did its job on this one, at least according to its own abilities, and its stagnant formula. It’s the UFC that decided not to go hard in the paint when it came time to push it on fans. Maybe that’s a consequence of the brewing feud between White and his soon to be ex-TV partners. Maybe it’s collateral damage from a crazy couple of months worth of events. Maybe it’s a little of both.
I just know that this is, on paper, a pretty good fight. I was interested when I first heard about the pairing, and I’m interested now. I can’t say that watching them trade expletives or kick through a couple flimsy cardboard doors on the TUF set did a whole lot to get my heart rate up (after fourteen seasons, I’ve seen all the meaningless property damage and half-bleeped arguments I can take), but so what? It’s still an interesting fight, and I still genuinely want to see it.
2. Bellator’s season has come to an end. Do you think MMA fans cared? What do you think needs to happen to make fans pay attention in 2012?
Fowlkes: Here’s an instance where we must resist the temptation to think of MMA fans as one monolithic slab. Did fans care? Sure. Some of them, anyway. Bellator gets a small, though consistent slice of the MMA pie with every event, and that slice is big enough to spread the word when there’s an awesome finish or a great fight. And yet, there’s another side to that coin. I suspect there’s a healthy segment of the MMA fan population that is aware of and maybe even mildly interested in Bellator, but nonetheless doesn’t feel the need to watch every weekend because, hey, if something worthwhile happens, it’ll be on YouTube in the morning.
Part of the problem is the Bellator schedule. It’s cool to have a fight every weekend as the season plows forward, but it also makes it difficult to convince fans that one fight night is bigger or more important than any other. Oh, there’s a Bellator event on Saturday? Well, there’ll be another one next Saturday, and the Saturday after that, so no big deal.
The schedule also makes it difficult for Bellator, as an organization, to focus on building a select few stars. As soon as one show ends, the Bellator crew has to turn its attention to the next one. Meanwhile, the champ in each weight class can either sit around and wait for the next tournament winner, or he can engage in a completely non-sensical non-title bout. Neither is a particularly attractive option for the champ or the organization.
These are all problems that arise as a result of Bellator’s main selling point, which makes them especially difficult problems to resolve. How do you keep the tournament structure without taking the spotlight off your champs for too long? How do you keep a season rolling forward without it feeling routine? I’m not sure I know, but Bellator is going to have to figure it out eventually.
MDS: I agree with you that there’s a problem with the Bellator schedule, but I don’t think the problem is that they run every week during their two “seasons.” I actually like the weekly format of knowing you’re going to have a certain night of the week when Bellator is going to be on, just as I like knowing that The Walking Dead comes on every Sunday while it’s in season and Modern Family comes on every Wednesday while it’s in season.
My suggestion to Bellator is they should choose a night other than Saturday. I just don’t think it makes sense for a No. 2 MMA promotion to go on Saturday nights, the territory that the UFC has already staked out. To me, that makes about as much sense as a startup football league scheduling its games for Sunday afternoons in the fall.
I love the tournament format and want Bellator to keep it, but it does create major problems with the champions: What are they supposed to do while they wait around for the next No. 1 contender to emerge from the next tournament? The “superfights” haven’t really worked out very well, as Bjorn Rebney himself has acknowledged.
I think the answer is that the champions should be in the tournaments. You win the Season 5 tournament? Congratulations. You’re the Season 5 tournament champion. Now Season 5 is over, so it’s time for you to enter the Season 6 tournament. That’s what every sport that uses a seasonal format does — the defending champion goes right back into the mix. And that’s what Bellator should do, too.
3. Strikeforce is back this month with its first non-Challengers show since the Heavyweight Grand Prix semifinals more than three months ago. Do MMA fans still care about Strikeforce? Should they?
MDS: I don’t get the sense that fans care much about Strikeforce. If anything, fans wish the UFC would hurry up and absorb all the best fighters so guys like Gilbert Melendez (who fought only once in 2010 and only once so far in 2011) could fight elite opposition more often. Melendez is defending his title against Jorge Masvidal in the main event, and the overwhelming reaction I’ve heard has been disappointment that Melendez isn’t in the UFC fighting a better opponent than Masvidal.
The reason I still care about Strikeforce is, more than anything, my affinity for women’s MMA. Cris Cyborg vs. Hiroko Yamanaka is going to be a very good women’s fight, and if Strikeforce disappears there’s going to be an uncertain future for women’s MMA.
But the bottom line is that the UFC is currently stripping Strikeforce for spare parts and will eventually do away with it. Given that, it’s hard to fault fans for losing interest in the promotion.
Fowlkes: Well MDS, you just confirmed my suspicion that it’s impossible for a dude to type the phrase “my affinity for women’s MMA” without it feeling just a little bit creepy for some reason. But okay, I have to agree with the sentiment even if the phrasing conjures images of an evil villain making women fight for his amusement on a secret island somewhere. I would also like to see women’s MMA survive, and Strikeforce is the best bet for that right now. Pulling the plug immediately would probably put a lot of very dangerous women out of work, and that’s not good for anybody.
But as for whether fans do and/or should care about Strikeforce in general, I have to say ‘not really’ and ‘probably not.’ Sorry, but that’s what happens when the UFC pillages your roster, taking almost every significant draw and leaving you with a couple champions who are all but begging to be the next ones sucked up by the UFC tractor beam. The heavyweight GP still has a legitimately compelling final between Daniel Cormier and Josh Barnett, and a middleweight title fight between Luke Rockhold and Tim Kennedy is one I wouldn’t sneeze at, but after that it starts to look pretty thin.
The Strikeforce fighters — the ones who have options, anyway — don’t really want to be there, and few can even be bothered to maintain the illusion anymore. Everyone knows this thing is running out of road, and nobody particularly wants to be there to ride it all the way to its sad end in a nearly empty arena, with a home audience that’s just waiting for Dexter re-runs to come on. Who can blame them? Not me, brother.
4. December features the TUF Finale, a Strikeforce card and two UFC pay-per-views. What’s the best fight of the bunch?
Fowlkes: Without a doubt, the biggest fight in December is the UFC 141 main event between Brock Lesnar and Alistair Overeem. And I don’t just mean big in terms of total combined weight, though there’s that too. It’s just, from a media buzz/pay-per-view sales perspective, nothing in the coming month can top the combination of Lesnar’s name and Overeem’s experience. It’s smart of the UFC to have that on the night before New Year’s Eve, when people will be more likely to stay home and rest their livers anyway, and you have to think the end result will be plenty of eyeballs on that one fight.
But then, biggest doesn’t necessarily equal best. That distinction I save for another fight on the UFC 141 card: Donald Cerrone vs. Nate Diaz. Cerrone’s been on a one-man paper-stacking mission this year, racking up win purses and post-fight bonuses like a man in hock to the IRS. Diaz struggled at welterweight, but looked downright scary when he took Takanori Gomi apart as a lightweight at UFC 135. Both these guys have the sort of tough-first mentality that involves taking no crap off of nobody, and when they get in the cage together I expect a technical, though ruthless fight.
It’ll be sort of like a demolition derby featuring half-drunk Nascar drivers: a whole lot of engine-revving and middle finger-waving, no small amount of profanity before, during, and after, and absolutely no regard for safety or long-term repercussions. How can you not like that?
MDS: Lesnar-Overeem is without a doubt the biggest draw, and I don’t know if there’s any other fight in December that will give me butterflies in my stomach when the cage door closes like Lesnar-Overeem will. That fight is going to be awesome.
But for pure entertainment value, I don’t think there’s a better fight on the docket than Mark Hominick vs. Chan Sung Jung at UFC 140. Remember how often we used to say after WEC cards that there was no promotion putting on great fights as consistently as the WEC? Hominick vs. Jung is exactly the kind of fight that made us love the WEC, with two featherweights who will relentlessly batter each other for 15 minutes or go down swinging if they can’t.
If Hominick vs. Jung is the best fight in December, I won’t be the least bit surprised. If it’s not, that probably means we’re in for an amazing month.
Early Tuesday at a press conference in Rio, 
With season 14 of 
