Much has been made of the UFC adopting five-round non-title fights, which will begin with the main event of UFC 138, a middleweight bout between Mark Munoz and Chris Leben.However, there is a strong possibility that this matchup produces a finish befor…
Much has been made of the UFC adopting five-round non-title fights, which will begin with the main event of UFC 138, a middleweight bout between Mark Munoz and Chris Leben.
However, there is a strong possibility that this matchup produces a finish before the end of the third round.
In 18 fights inside the Octagon, Chris Leben has only seen five fights go to decision. Of all the fighters in the UFC, Leben is one of the last you’d expect to see in a 25-minute fight.
Munoz has had a higher percentage of his fights go to decision. However, Leben has a way of luring the most conservative of fighters into brawls. This fight should be no different.
Eventually, one of these power-punching middleweights will connect with the china of the other. Although both fights have solid chins, they will only be able to take so much punishment through 15 minutes.
For that reason, there is a strong possibility that this fight turns out no differently than any other three-round non-title fight. Eventually we’ll see a non-title fight reach the fourth and fifth rounds, but it won’t happen at UFC 138.
Sean Smith is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report MMA. Sean has also had his work featured on UFC.com, LowKick.com and TheMMACorner.com. For the latest insight and updates on everything MMA, you can follow Sean on Twitter @SeanSmithMMA.
MMA is growing, whether people choose to accept it or not, and it’s shown for most of 2011 so far. We’ve seen knockouts come forth in stunning fashion, we’ve seen legends take hard shots while other legends gave hard shots, we’ve seen non-traditional s…
MMA is growing, whether people choose to accept it or not, and it’s shown for most of 2011 so far. We’ve seen knockouts come forth in stunning fashion, we’ve seen legends take hard shots while other legends gave hard shots, we’ve seen non-traditional submissions win fights, and of course, we’ve seen Jon Jones’ “Bonejitsu”. The current UFC Light Heavyweight Champion is 3-0 in 2011 bouts, by the way.
The wild, crazy, insane, and unfathomable have all taken place in 2011, but we still have quite a ways to go before we’re done with the year, and as combat sports fans in some respect, we’re not just leaving it at MMA either—though, an entire section could be dedicated to what’s left in the boxing world in 2011. With all that being said, what exactly can we expect in the last few months of 2011?
It was a rough week for the world of mixed martial arts as a number of fighters suffered injuries and were forced out of upcoming bouts.Most notably, UFC welterweight champ Georges St-Pierre fell victim to a knee injury and is out of the UFC 137 main e…
It was a rough week for the world of mixed martial arts as a number of fighters suffered injuries and were forced out of upcoming bouts.
Most notably, UFC welterweight champ Georges St-Pierre fell victim to a knee injury and is out of the UFC 137 main event against Carlos Condit.
Former UFC interim heavyweight champ Shane Carwin revealed that will be out until 2012 due to lower back surgery.
Additionally, a former winner of the The Ultimate Fighter has found a new promotion and a number of upcoming cards have undergone changes.
At one point Thiago Alves was a star in the welterweight division. He was knocking people out and dominating those he couldn’t. He had problems with making weight, but he was exciting enough that it was ignored.And then he lost to Georges S…
At one point Thiago Alves was a star in the welterweight division. He was knocking people out and dominating those he couldn’t. He had problems with making weight, but he was exciting enough that it was ignored.
And then he lost to Georges St-Pierre.
After that he went on a losing streak while still struggling to make weight. It got to the point where Dana White almost demanded that he move up to 185 pounds.
Instead Alves got his weight problem under control, but he still has lost three of his last four fights.
These are the steps he’s going to need to take if he wants to get himself back into title contender status.
UFC 138 will take place on November 5, 2011 from the LG Arena in Birmingham, England.At this point (pending any late injures), the fight card is set.The main card will be broadcast on Spike TV. No plans have been unveiled as of yet concerning the broad…
UFC 138 will take place on November 5, 2011 from the LG Arena in Birmingham, England.
At this point (pending any late injures), the fight card is set.
The main card will be broadcast on Spike TV. No plans have been unveiled as of yet concerning the broadcast of the preliminary card.
Filed under: UFCIf you’ve been feeling like the UFC is occupying a lot of your free time lately, it isn’t your imagination. The world’s foremost MMA organization is coming off a stretch of four straight events — two of them pay-per-views, and all of t…
If you’ve been feeling like the UFC is occupying a lot of your free time lately, it isn’t your imagination. The world’s foremost MMA organization is coming off a stretch of four straight events — two of them pay-per-views, and all of them on Saturday nights — before going into the briefest little two-week hibernation leading up to UFC 137 at the end of the month.
After that, it’s UFC 138 from England on November 5, then the UFC’s FOX debut the weekend after that, and then UFC 139 in San Jose the weekend after that. Once we hit 2012, the UFC calendar only gets busier.
It makes you wonder, between the UFC’s pay-per-view offerings, cable TV events, and regular reality show installments, what’s the true cost in both money and time for hardcore fans who simply have to see it all?
For starters, take a glance at the pay-per-views. If everything proceeds according to schedule, the UFC will have put on 16 of them in 2011. They run you about $55 a pop in HD ($45 in what I like to call “regular D”), so let’s split the difference and call it $50 per event.
If you had stayed home all by your lonesome and paid for every single event without any friends or even sympathetic, MMA-loving acquaintances to pitch in, you’d have spent $800 just on UFC events in 2011. Of course, that doesn’t count the cost of monthly cable (which you need in order to watch those Spike TV or Versus events, not to mention the prelims before each pay-per-view) or monthly internet access (which you need in order to watch the Facebook prelims and, you know, read this article).
But let’s be realistic. Very few people are laying down the dough for each and every pay-per-view all by themselves. For the sake of argument, let’s say you had three friends who were just as fanatical about seeing every single pay-per-view. Let’s say the four of you split each one equally. Then you’re looking at $12.50 a pay-per-view, and $200 on the year (not counting snacks, drinks, and carpet cleaner for when your friends inevitably get drunk and spill some snacks on your floor).
That’s no small chunk of change, but most of us probably spend at least that much per year on coffee or junk food, so it’s not unreasonable, either. To put it in perspective, compare the cost to other entertainment expenditures.
UFC president Dana White likes to tout his pay-per-views as being a relatively cheap form of entertainment, assuming you can get a significant number of people to chip in. The average price of a movie ticket in the U.S. now hovers around eight dollars, which means you could see about 25 movies per year for the same price as splitting 16 UFC pay-per-views among you and your three friends.
Or, at $18 per month, you could pay for almost an entire year’s worth of Netflix (assuming you want DVDs in the mail and instant streaming — and be honest, you do), which would allow you to stay home and watch a theoretically unlimited number of movies (even if you have to wait an extra few months to see Real Steel).
If you’re the type who feels like Hollywood never measures up to real-life sporting events, however, you could buy tickets to about eight major league baseball games or about four NFL games, depending on the team, the seat, and how you go about acquiring them. Of course, that doesn’t factor in parking, refreshments, or stadium pickpockets, though it does get you out of the house in a way that UFC pay-per-views don’t.
But it’s not just money that fight fans invest in order to keep up with the UFC — it’s also a great deal of time. Those 16 pay-per-views in 2011? Those clock in at around three hours each, which adds up to 48 hours — two whole days — spent watching grown men beat each other up.
Add up this year’s Fight Nights, UFC Live events, TUF Finales, and UFC 138 on tape delay from England, and there’s another 10 events at two hours each, including commercials. Then there’s the one-hour UFC on FOX, for a total of 21 hours spent watching the UFC’s free events. Add in another 22 hours spent watching two full seasons of The Ultimate Fighter, plus the one hour prelims before each pay-per-view event, and what you’re looking at is 107 hours spent watching the UFC alone in 2011, and that doesn’t even include little extras like Facebook prelims or Countdown shows.
If you’re curious, that’s almost four and a half full days in front of the TV. But as general sports fandom goes, that’s not even necessarily so extreme.
For instance, over the course of the NFL’s 17-week regular season, you could easily watch three full football games every Sunday, plus another one every Monday night. At around three hours per game, that’s 204 hours a year. Factor in three weeks of playoffs, plus the Super Bowl, and you’re up to about 237 hours, or nearly 10 full days.
One major difference is that the 10 days of NFL viewing is packed into about five months, whereas the UFC’s 4 1/2 days is spread out across the entire year. But then, NFL games take place mostly on Sundays, when people are more likely to be home anyway, whereas UFC events are almost exclusively on Saturday nights, when people are more likely to go out in search of some form of social life. The NFL is also almost entirely free to watch, if you don’t count the toll that sitting through all those commercials takes on your mind and spirit.
So what does it all mean? That depends on your perspective. If you’re a lonely but dedicated fight fan doing it all by yourself, it means you could be taking a date to the movies almost once a week for what you’re spending to watch the UFC alone at home on Saturday nights, and in the end you’d still have about seven extra hours to spend perusing online dating sites or improving your personal hygiene (perhaps some combination of the two would be best).
If your UFC fandom goes hand-in-hand with your social group, you might only spend as much on pay-per-views as you do on pizza every year, and at least it’s in the company of friends who will tell you if you have sauce on your face.
Whatever you’re spending, and however long it’s taking you, get ready to put in more time and money next year. The UFC isn’t slowing down. Not as long as its fans are still willing to do what it takes to keep up.
Much has been made of the UFC adopting five-round non-title fights, which will begin with the main event of UFC 138, a middleweight bout between Mark Munoz and Chris Leben.
If you’ve been feeling like the