(We’d include “The Dana White 24/7 feed — all Dana White, all the time,” but that’s kind of what the UFC is already. / Photo via Getty.)
If the UFC expects us to shell out $10 every month to watch local talent and foreign-language reality shows on the Internet, they’ve got another thing coming. Here are some suggestions for new Fight Pass content that would actually make the digital streaming service worth our time and money…
1. Live footage of fighter weight cuts (i.e., “sauna-cam”/”salt bath-cam”). Who wouldn’t want to see how brutal these things can get?
(We’d include “The Dana White 24/7 feed — all Dana White, all the time,” but that’s kind of what the UFC is already. / Photo via Getty.)
If the UFC expects us to shell out $10 every month to watch local talent and foreign-language reality shows on the Internet, they’ve got another thing coming. Here are some suggestions for new Fight Pass content that would actually make the digital streaming service worth our time and money…
1. Live footage of fighter weight cuts (i.e., “sauna-cam”/”salt bath-cam”). Who wouldn’t want to see how brutal these things can get?
10. “The World of Elliot”: A new video blog series starring that Elliot guy who shoots Dana White’s video blogs. (You know, the dude who’s always lurking in the background of staredowns? Yeah, that guy.)
11. Live-stream of the janitors cleaning up the arena after each event.
14. All the fighter interview footage that was left on the cutting room floor while creating the PPV intro packages, extended event trailers, UFC Primetime, and the rest of the UFC’s promotional offerings.
After a month of rumors, it’s finally official: Heavyweight sluggers Mark Hunt and Roy Nelson will be trading bombs in the main event of UFC Fight Night 51, which is slated to take place September 20th at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan.
The only drawback to this guaranteed slobberknocker is that the event is expected to air on Fight Pass, which means that most of us North American types won’t see it live, and will have to settle for the GIFs that hit the Internet later. Ah well. The Great and Powerful UFC has a plan, and we must always trust in it.
After a month of rumors, it’s finally official: Heavyweight sluggers Mark Hunt and Roy Nelson will be trading bombs in the main event of UFC Fight Night 51, which is slated to take place September 20th at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan.
The only drawback to this guaranteed slobberknocker is that the event is expected to air on Fight Pass, which means that most of us North American types won’t see it live, and will have to settle for the GIFs that hit the Internet later. Ah well. The Great and Powerful UFC has a plan, and we must always trust in it.
MMA Fighting’s Luke Thomas tweeted the following yesterday:
A reasonable sentiment, especially in an age where the UFC is going to put on two events in the same day, though the tweet was not specifically directed at the UFC. It was tweeted two minutes after a jape at Bellator’s expense. Dana White ignored such nuances. He took the tweet personally, and responded with 140-character artillery fire this morning:
MMA Fighting’s Luke Thomas tweeted the following yesterday:
A reasonable sentiment, especially in an age where the UFC is going to put on two events in the same day, though the tweet was not specifically directed at the UFC. It was tweeted two minutes after a jape at Bellator’s expense. Dana White ignored such nuances. He took the tweet personally, and responded with 140-character artillery fire this morning:
Hilariously, Dana White didn’t know Luke Thomas—one of the most well-known figures in the MMA media—was a media member. Once White found out how accomplished Thomas was, specifically that he was on an episode of UFC Countdown, White brought the hammer down. But there’s something more concerning about White’s behavior. He doesn’t care about legitimate criticism that’s offered politely and eloquently. White’s intransigence in the face of disagreement is nothing new, however, but it’s starting to wear thin; he’s been more churlish than usual lately. He went mental when the always-reasonable Georges St-Pierre announced his retirement. More recently, he behaved questionably at a media luncheon, and buried Alistair Overeem and Jose Aldo after fantastic performances.
“Dana is gonna Dana” is no longer a valid excuse for such behavior. Lorenzo Fertitta has proven that you can respond to criticism courteously while maintaining the UFC’s “as real as it gets” image. Dana White needs to do the same or be yanked off stage with a Vaudeville hook. We understand he’s used to hearing whatever he wants from the media, but acting in a hyper-emotional, immature manner when writers offer their take on issues in the sport (which is their job) is unacceptable. More unacceptable than that is intentionally telling fans not to watch your product and disregarding their opinions, as White did on twitter this morning too.
The UFC’s product is clearlydiminishing in value. Fans are getting restless. While White is to be commended for his accessibility on social media, hurling insults that read like they were written by a 14-year-old as well as telling fans to not watch the UFC’s product is harmful. Instructing potential customers to not buy what you’re selling is a terrible practice, but to Dana White it’s business as usual. In case you don’t understand why that’s a bad idea, check out this exchange between MMA firebrand Front Row Brian and famed MMA historian Jonathan Snowden. Telling fans to ignore your product has disastrous results. Words of apathy become acts of apathy. There are fights on tonight? Meh, who cares? Instead of fostering behavior like that, Dana White should be trying to demolish it root and stem. But White will do no such thing. If you don’t watch every single card, and shell out more cash than any other sports fan, your’e not a real fan, dummy!
By the way, here are the complete results for UFC Fight Night 37, a card some of you might not been real enough fans for:
Main Card
Alexander Gustafsson def. Jimi Manuwa via TKO (knee, punches) – Round 2, 1:18
Michael Johnson def. Melvin Guillard via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
Brad Pickett def. Neil Seery via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
Gunnar Nelson def. Omari Akhmedov via submission (guillotine) – Round 1, 4:36
Preliminary Card
Ilir Latifi def. Cyrille Diabate via submission (neck crank) – Round 1, 3:02
Luke Barnatt def. Mats Nilsson via TKO (strikes) – Round 1, 4:24
Claudio Henrique da Silva def. Brad Scott via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Igor Araujo def. Danny Mitchell via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Louis Gaudinot def. Phil Harris via submission (guillotine choke) – Round 1, 1:13
Fans didn’t think it could get worse than UFC 169. Then they watched UFC Fight Night 36—a night of fights so horrid even the technical artistry in the main event bout between Lyoto Machida and Gegard Mousasi couldn’t save it.
The negativity ran deeper than the amount of decisions on the card—which was the most common criticism. A decision doesn’t necessarily equate to a bad fight. But a decision that lacks action and is fought between C and D level fighters who aren’t even known by everyone at their respective gyms, let alone the fans, does equate to a bad fight.
1. Fighters that are so evenly matched they negate one another.
2. Fighters have become risk-averse—fearful that one loss will send their contract to the paper shredder. Removing submission and knockout of the night bonuses probably didn’t help spur such fighters on to accomplish great in-cage feats.
3. The baseline quality of the average UFC fighter is far lower than it used to be. The days of elite athletes fighting in the “Super Bowl of MMA” are long gone. Welcome to the age of lowered standards; The UFC needs warm bodies to fill out a Fight Pass card in Djibouti. The term “UFC caliber” means nothing.
For the time being, the UFC seems content to ignore these problems to focus on “World Fucking Domination.” They don’t realize marketing what amounts to UFC-branded regional shows in other countries is losing them their fans in the United States. Just look at TUF’s most recent ratings. Fans simply don’t care about the UFC like they did in the halcyon days days of SpikeTV, Brock Lesnar, and PPVs that didn’t hearken to boxing’s age-old strategy of a good main event preceded by an army of no-names. Fans don’t care because what’s there to care about? The product is, to put it simply, lacking. The few remaining big names are islands in a sea of wiki-less, generic UFC fighters™.
This is the situation Bellator finds the MMA landscape in as the Viacom-0wned promotion starts its 10th season…
Fans didn’t think it could get worse than UFC 169. Then they watched UFC Fight Night 36—a night of fights so horrid even the technical artistry in the main event bout between Lyoto Machida and Gegard Mousasi couldn’t save it.
The negativity ran deeper than the amount of decisions on the card—which was the most common criticism. A decision doesn’t necessarily equate to a bad fight. But a decision that lacks action and is fought between C and D level fighters who aren’t even known by everyone at their respective gyms, let alone the fans, does equate to a bad fight.
1. Fighters that are so evenly matched they negate one another.
2. Fighters have become risk-averse—fearful that one loss will send their contract to the paper shredder. Removing submission and knockout of the night bonuses probably didn’t help spur such fighters on to accomplish great in-cage feats.
3. The baseline quality of the average UFC fighter is far lower than it used to be. The days of elite athletes fighting in the “Super Bowl of MMA” are long gone. Welcome to the age of lowered standards; The UFC needs warm bodies to fill out a Fight Pass card in Djibouti. The term “UFC caliber” means nothing.
For the time being, the UFC seems content to ignore these problems to focus on “World Fucking Domination.” They don’t realize marketing what amounts to UFC-branded regional shows in other countries is losing them their fans in the United States. Just look at TUF’s most recent ratings. Fans simply don’t care about the UFC like they did in the halcyon days days of SpikeTV, Brock Lesnar, and PPVs that didn’t hearken to boxing’s age-old strategy of a good main event preceded by an army of no-names. Fans don’t care because what’s there to care about? The product is, to put it simply, lacking. The few remaining big names are islands in a sea of wiki-less, generic UFC fighters™.
This is the situation Bellator finds the MMA landscape in as the Viacom-0wned promotion starts its 10th season—which features some pretty intriguing tournaments. In fact, I’m looking forward to these tournaments playing out more than I’m looking forward to the slew of upcoming UFC Fight Night cards. True, many of the Fight Night cards have more talent in their main events, but their undercards and prelims are lacking. I have more interest in watching Bellator hopefuls like Goiti Yamauchi, Marcin Held, Liam McGeary and Bubba Jenkins than I do in watching many nameless fighters hired only to fill air time on prelims and on televised portions of UFC cards.
“But Bellator has a bunch of no-names too,” you say? Fair enough. Bellator’s shows and UFC Fight Night cards are, at the worst of times, both regional events with more pomp; the quality of fighter is, to make a tired reference, virtually identical. But I can watch Bellator’s prelims for free. They aren’t forcing me to buy a half-finished, poorly put together, potentially dangerous digital network to watch fights that belong in a strip club parking lot in Raleigh-Durham. And, at the risk of dozens of CagePotato commenters calling me “Mat Sackofshit,” I think that free Bellator cards are in some ways more interesting to watch than free UFC cards. Sure, as I mentioned, the UFC’s free cards almost always have better main events than Bellator’s, but the undercard on Bellator’s free events are tournament bouts—and unlike many undercard matches on Fight Night cards, they actually have implications.
This isn’t to say that Bellator doesn’t have problems. They have loads. They can’t sell tickets. Their reality show was a bust. Their PPV last year became one of MMA’s most cringeworthy failures, as was their acquisition of Tito Ortiz (signing Rampage Jackson was frowned upon too but at least he made it into the cage). It’s unlikely that any future Bellator PPV will reach any notable or even average heights. Their matchmaking doesn’t correspond with the supposedly sacrosanct tournament system, and they’ve pulled some pretty shady stuff in the past.
Still, Bellator isn’t out of the fight. They’re closer to the UFC’s level than they’ve ever been—and not necessarily because they upped their game, but because the UFC diluted and lowered theirs to the point where a Friday night SpikeTV Bellator card matched (and in some cases exceeded) the entertainment value of a UFC Fight Night card on Fox Sports 1 (or Fox Sports 2, or UFC Fight Pass).
(Saffiedine! Lim! Eleven fighters we’re so confident you won’t know that we aren’t even going to bother showing you their faces! Props toMichael Sempervive for the image.)
With all of the coverage that UFC Fight Pass has been receiving, it’s hard to believe that it has only been two weeks since the launch of the network. So far, opinions have ranged from “pathetic cash grab” to “everything a fight fan could possibly want.” In an effort to evaluate Fight Pass up to this point, here are ten ways of looking at the network, arranged in no particular order.
1.) Should You Buy Fight Pass? Well, Should You Buy Netflix?
“Netflix for Fight Fans” is how Lorenzo Fertitta summed up the service, and honestly, that sounds about right. Fight Pass offers exclusive content in the form of international events and preliminary fights – just like how Netflix offers Orange is the New Black – but its selling point is its archives. If you already own all of your favorite fight cards on DVD and are only interested in watching the UFC’s pay-per-views, then Fight Pass has nothing to offer you. For the rest of us, it’s a matter of whether archives and international cards are worth $9.99 per month.
2.) It Isn’t Nearly the Bargain that Supporters Claim It Is.
The Netflix analogy doesn’t quite hold up though. I use my Netflix account every day, and regardless of who I’m watching it with, I can find something on there that everyone will enjoy. I’m not about to sit down and watch old fights on a daily basis, and unless the original documentaries that the UFC is promising us are downright spectacular, I doubt that my non-fight fan friends are going to want to watch Fight Pass with me. This doesn’t mean that Fight Pass is a waste of money, but let’s not pretend that paying $119.88 per year to watch old fights and Facebook preliminaries is the best thing to ever happen to MMA fans, either.
3.) It Isn’t Nearly the Insult That Detractors Claim It Is.
(Saffiedine! Lim! Eleven fighters we’re so confident you won’t know that we aren’t even going to bother showing you their faces! Props toMichael Sempervive for the image.)
With all of the coverage that UFC Fight Pass has been receiving, it’s hard to believe that it has only been two weeks since the launch of the network. So far, opinions have ranged from “pathetic cash grab” to “everything a fight fan could possibly want.” In an effort to evaluate Fight Pass up to this point, here are ten ways of looking at the network, arranged in no particular order.
1.) Should You Buy Fight Pass? Well, Should You Buy Netflix?
“Netflix for Fight Fans” is how Lorenzo Fertitta summed up the service, and honestly, that sounds about right. Fight Pass offers exclusive content in the form of international events and preliminary fights – just like how Netflix offers Orange is the New Black – but its selling point is its archives. If you already own all of your favorite fight cards on DVD and are only interested in watching the UFC’s pay-per-views, then Fight Pass has nothing to offer you. For the rest of us, it’s a matter of whether archives and international cards are worth $9.99 per month.
2.) It Isn’t Nearly the Bargain that Supporters Claim It Is.
The Netflix analogy doesn’t quite hold up though. I use my Netflix account every day, and regardless of who I’m watching it with, I can find something on there that everyone will enjoy. I’m not about to sit down and watch old fights on a daily basis, and unless the original documentaries that the UFC is promising us are downright spectacular, I doubt that my non-fight fan friends are going to want to watch Fight Pass with me. This doesn’t mean that Fight Pass is a waste of money, but let’s not pretend that paying $119.88 per year to watch old fights and Facebook preliminaries is the best thing to ever happen to MMA fans, either.
3.) It Isn’t Nearly the Insult That Detractors Claim It Is.
You mean to tell me that the UFC isn’t giving away fights for $9.99 that over 500,000 people are willing to pay $60 for? You mean my credit card information may be stolen over the previously secure and trustworthy Internet? You mean that Fight Pass uses the same binding, horrific terms of use that other streaming services use? We’re really grabbing at straws to put down the UFC this time, aren’t we?
4.) It’s a Work in Progress (That We May Be Paying to Test).
6.) UFC Fight Pass and the WWE Network Really Aren’t That Different.
The WWE Network is offering pay-per-view events for the same price that UFC Fight Pass is offering international events with mostly unknown prospects. Believe it or not, from a business standpoint, both products are actually more similar than they appear to be. The WWE business model isn’t build around the success of its pay-per-view events the way that the UFC business model is. Given both the rise of the UFC and the storyline-driven cable product that the WWE produces (this makes it necessary to recap what happened at each PPV on cable so that fans who didn’t buy the card can still follow the story), the WWE’s move away from pay-per-view has been long overdue; most WWE PPVs don’t break 300,000 buys. In that sense, both companies are essentially offering original programming that only their most hardcore fans were previously willing to pay for – as well as their archives – on their digital networks.
7.) Come on, There Isn’t a Fair Way to Compare the UFC Product to the WWE Product.
Did point #6 really just compare the WWE Royal Rumble to a UFC Fight Pass card full of unknown Turkish prospects? Oh man, that’s adorable. In our attempts to determine whether UFC Fight Pass is worth the asking price, we’re pretty much comparing an NBA game to an AND1 mixtape. “The mixtape gave away the coolest stuff they’ve seen this year, while last night’s NBA game was just another regular season contest between two teams I don’t care about. And there was only one 360 windmill dunk! NBA hates its fans! Will boycott until they fix!” Doesn’t that sound stupid? Well, now you know how you sound when you go on your “The WWE books PPV events to be more important to the WWE Universe storylines than minor league sports!” rants.
8.) Is This the Beginning of the End for “Free” Fights?
Cable costs money – that’s why the word “free” is in quotations – but is there a chance that the days of fans not directly paying the UFC to watch fights are numbered? We’ve already lost our one true form of legal free UFC fights – Facebook preliminaries – to Fight Pass. How many times is the UFC going to have its minor league Fox Sports 1 cards be outdrawn by actual minor league MMA organizations before those cards are moved to Fight Pass as well? If that happens, how long before the UFC decides to use the flyweight title fights and the other divisions’ contendership bouts on Fox to beef up their pay-per-views, and move strictly to Fight Pass and PPV? If Fight Pass is successful enough to make cable programming an afterthought, don’t be surprised if the UFC slowly begins to drift away from it, the same way that the WWE has pulled the plug on pay-per-view.
9.) Forget The UFC, Is This the Future of Cable?
How many of you only watch a few TV shows, and couldn’t be bothered keeping up with television unless you’re extremely bored? How many of you only own cable so you can watch sports? For that matter, how many of you only watch MMA? Anyone here only watch the UFC?
Since we’re already thinking about a world where UFC fights only exist on Fight Pass and pay-per-view, why not one where people who only watch a few things on TV cancel their cable packages and purchase their favorite digital networks? For far less money than the premium cable package that I currently pay for, I could own several digital networks that give me access to basically anything I could possibly want to watch regarding my interests. And I could access it all anywhere that I have an Internet connection. If Fight Pass and the WWE Network are both successful enough, don’t be surprised to see other companies follow their footsteps.
10.) The Way That You, The Reader, Look At UFC Fight Pass.
Which is obviously the correct way, and anyone who thinks that numbers one through nine are even remotely relevant is a complete idiot. Of course, the correct way to look at UFC Fight Pass is….
Don’t be shy. Let us know how you view UFC Fight Pass in the comments section.
(“So, did you find a stream of that UFC fight we bought tickets to, or will we have to show up halfway through the main event to play on our phones during it?”)
by CagePotato.com staff
1.You use “UFC” and “MMA” interchangeably.
2. You don’t know how to score a fight under PRIDE rules.
3. You boo fights the second they hit the ground.
4. Your “MMA training” consists of curling in the squat rack, shadowboxing while watching MMA (despite having never hit pads in your entire goddamn life), and picking fights at Buffalo Wild Wings.
5. You don’t have the UFC Fight Pass, security issues aside.
6. You don’t have Legacy FC and Titan FC fight cards committed to memory.
7. Your pathetic DVD collection doesn’t even have any events from Rumble on the Rock.
(“So, did you find a stream of that UFC fight we bought tickets to, or will we have to show up halfway through the main event to play on our phones during it?”)
by CagePotato.com staff
1.You use “UFC” and “MMA” interchangeably.
2. You don’t know how to score a fight under PRIDE rules.
3. You boo fights the second they hit the ground.
4. Your “MMA training” consists of curling in the squat rack, shadowboxing while watching MMA (despite having never hit pads in your entire goddamn life), and picking fights at Buffalo Wild Wings.
5. You don’t have the UFC Fight Pass, security issues aside.
6. You don’t have Legacy FC and Titan FC fight cards committed to memory.
7. Your pathetic DVD collection doesn’t even have any events from Rumble on the Rock.
8. You didn’t create a Facebook to watch preliminary fights.
9. You didn’t post a four paragraph “I don’t even have a Facebook” rant when CagePotato switched over to Facebook comments.
10. You shout “PRIDE NEVER DIE!” during every UFC card, yet you can’t name five PRIDE fighters who didn’t eventually compete in the UFC.
11. You’ve never set foot in an Indian reservation to watch amateur-level fights.
12. You’ve never gotten your ass beat in an unsanctioned smoker.
