Tag: UFC on Fox

Ten Different Ways to Look at 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 to Michael Sempervive for the image.)

By Seth Falvo

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 to Michael Sempervive for the image.)

By Seth Falvo

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).

So far, Fight Pass has been pretty rough around the edges; to an extent, that is to be expected from a two week-old network. But will Fight Pass be 100% by the time we’re asked to pay for it? The UFC is optimistic that the entire video library will be available by then, but what about the other issues that fans have been having? Time will tell, but don’t act too surprised if it isn’t 100% by March 1.

5.) The WWE Network is a Much Better Value.

MMA Mania seems to think so. Bloody Elbow seems to think so. MMAFighting.com even wrote a piece that was surprisingly favorable of the WWE Network. So no, it isn’t just pro-wrestling fanboys like me who are saying this (although yeah, I’ve been shouting it from the mountaintops).

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.

Previously: Nine Different Ways of Looking at Testosterone Replacement Therapy in MMA

Mike Goldberg Denies Drug Rehab Rumor, Cites Other Health Issues For Missing UFC 155


(As Goldie himself might say, the precision of those rumors was not very precise.)

When long-time UFC play-by-play announcer Mike Goldberg missed UFC 155 for undisclosed reasons, it didn’t take long for the rumor mill to churn out reports of him being addicted to Adderall and taking a leave of absence to attend drug rehab.* MMA Fighting contacted Goldberg directly on Friday, asking for comment on his health, and the commentator denied the pill addiction rumor and said he hopes to return to work by the next UFC on Fox event later this month.

“Those rumors out there are not true,” Goldberg said via text to MMA Fighting. “I’m dealing with a complicated health issue but feeling better and hoping to be back to 100 percent by Jan. 26.”

Goldberg did not provide more details about his health issues but reporter Ariel Helwani also wrote that “according to multiple sources close to Goldberg, who all asked to remain anonymous, the broadcaster suffered from a severe upper respiratory infection in October…


(As Goldie himself might say, the precision of those rumors was not very precise.)

When long-time UFC play-by-play announcer Mike Goldberg missed UFC 155 for undisclosed reasons, it didn’t take long for the rumor mill to churn out reports of him being addicted to Adderall and taking a leave of absence to attend drug rehab.* MMA Fighting contacted Goldberg directly on Friday, asking for comment on his health, and the commentator denied the pill addiction rumor and said he hopes to return to work by the next UFC on Fox event later this month.

“Those rumors out there are not true,” Goldberg said via text to MMA Fighting. ”I’m dealing with a complicated health issue but feeling better and hoping to be back to 100 percent by Jan. 26.”

Goldberg did not provide more details about his health issues but reporter Ariel Helwani also wrote that “according to multiple sources close to Goldberg, who all asked to remain anonymous, the broadcaster suffered from a severe upper respiratory infection in October.”

“The already-asthmatic Goldberg was then treated with large doses of medication to open the airway and treat  the infection. Goldberg’s doctor later confirmed that the medication taken to treat the infection in combination with his normal asthma medication caused severe side effects that affected his ability to work, which according to the same sources, was the reason he missed UFC 155,” he continued.

* In light of Goldberg’s latest statement, we’ve taken down our previous post about the rehab rumor. Whatever’s he’s dealing with, we wish Mike a full and speedy recovery.

– Elias Cepeda

[VIDEO] Full Replay of The Excellent UFC on FOX 5 Featurette “Road to the Octagon”


(“Why must we have to wait until February for the next episode of The Walking Dead? WHY?!”) 

If their backstories are any indication of how they will perform, then Rory MacDonald best prepare himself for hell against B.J. Penn come Saturday night. Not only is BJ looking to be in the best shape of his (welterweight) career, but the manner in which “The Prodigy” was portrayed in the UFC’s recent UFC on FOX 5 “Road to the Octagon” featurette has all but set him up for an epic career comeback. The “champion hoping to reignite legacy for family’s honor” angle has been played up plenty of times by similar countdowns, fight previews, or whathaveyous in the past, but very few cases have been as emotionally gut-wrenching as Penn’s.

The normally stoic Penn, whose daughter turned 4 around the time of the filming, revealed a completely unseen side of himself as he broke down in front of the cameras while describing how hard it has been to see his children grow up while he has been away fighting to secure their future (14:25). Credit is due to the editing department for brilliantly juxtaposing Penn’s fatherly plight (but did they have to have impose BJ’s breakdown over the Happy Birthday song for his daughter? TOO MUCH EMOTIONS DAMN YOU) with that of MacDonald’s, who admits that his own father wasn’t around much during his childhood. Nice try, Rory, but you are now the Max Bear to Penn’s James Braddock and we will root against you until Penn breathes his final breath. ATTICA! ATTICA!!

Anyway, a full replay of the special is after the jump, and it features an equally compelling handling of the Gustafsson/Rua and Henderson/Diaz fights, so check it out, won’t you?


(“Why must we have to wait until February for the next episode of The Walking Dead? WHY?!”) 

If their backstories are any indication of how they will perform, then Rory MacDonald best prepare himself for hell against B.J. Penn come Saturday night. Not only is BJ looking to be in the best shape of his (welterweight) career, but the manner in which “The Prodigy” was portrayed in the UFC’s recent UFC on FOX 5 “Road to the Octagon” featurette has all but set him up for an epic career comeback. The “champion hoping to reignite legacy for family’s honor” angle has been played up plenty of times by similar countdowns, fight previews, or whathaveyous in the past, but very few cases have been as emotionally gut-wrenching as Penn’s.

The normally stoic Penn, whose daughter turned 4 around the time of the filming, revealed a completely unseen side of himself as he broke down in front of the cameras while describing how hard it has been to see his children grow up while he has been away fighting to secure their future (14:25). Credit is due to the editing department for brilliantly juxtaposing Penn’s fatherly plight (but did they have to have impose BJ’s breakdown over the Happy Birthday song for his daughter? TOO MUCH EMOTIONS DAMN YOU) with that of MacDonald’s, who admits that his own father wasn’t around much during his childhood. Nice try, Rory, but you are now the Max Bear to Penn’s James Braddock and we will root against you until Penn breathes his final breath. ATTICA! ATTICA!!

Anyway, a full replay of the special is after the jump, and it features an equally compelling handling of the Gustafsson/Rua and Henderson/Diaz fights, so check it out, won’t you?

–J. Jones

Manny Pacquiao’s Next Fight Set to C#%k Block UFC on Fox 5

Pound for pound boxing champ Manny Pacquiao‘s next fight has been scheduled for December 8th, the same night as the UFC’s next Fox network show. In the recent past when the UFC has had big shows scheduled the same night as major boxing events they’ve has hoped that earlier telecasts on would catch many viewers who were planning on watching boxing later in the evening.

Things may not have worked out that way for the UFC and this development of Pacquiao fighting on a date that the UFC had already set as a Fox event might end up taking away viewers from the MMA programming. Last May, the UFC on Fox 3 featured an exciting card headlined by a spectacular title contender’s fight between lightweights Nate Diaz and Jim Miller. The free to watch event was also followed, on pay per view, by Floyd Mayweather Jr. fighting Miguel Cotto.

The UFC’s numbers ended up going down from their prior two Fox shows, while Mayweather’s win had an excellent buy-rate on pay per view. The UFC’s “come pre-game with us before boxing,” strategy might be more successful this time around if Fox promotes the heck out of the event during football telecasts as it did last year for the Cain Velasquez vs. Junior Dos Santos heavyweight title telecast.

Otherwise, the UFC had better hope that Fox is taking a qualitative and long-view of things because dropping ratings on network television are never good.

Pound for pound boxing champ Manny Pacquiao‘s next fight has been scheduled for December 8th, the same night as the UFC’s next Fox network show. In the recent past when the UFC has had big shows scheduled the same night as major boxing events they’ve has hoped that earlier telecasts on would catch many viewers who were planning on watching boxing later in the evening.

Things may not have worked out that way for the UFC and this development of Pacquiao fighting on a date that the UFC had already set as a Fox event might end up taking away viewers from the MMA programming. Last May, the UFC on Fox 3 featured an exciting card headlined by a spectacular title contender’s fight between lightweights Nate Diaz and Jim Miller. The free to watch event was also followed, on pay per view, by Floyd Mayweather Jr. fighting Miguel Cotto.

The UFC’s numbers ended up going down from their prior two Fox shows, while Mayweather’s win had an excellent buy-rate on pay per view. The UFC’s “come pre-game with us before boxing,” strategy might be more successful this time around if Fox promotes the heck out of the event during football telecasts as it did last year for the Cain Velasquez vs. Junior Dos Santos heavyweight title telecast.

Otherwise, the UFC had better hope that Fox is taking a qualitative and long-view of things because dropping ratings on network television are never good. The UFC on Fox events have been going up against some stiff competition, however.

This next one will go against Manny Pacquiao, the third went against Floyd Mayweather and Miguel Cotto, and their last one, the superb fourth edition, went up against the highest rated summer Olympic games in history.

Either Fox is grateful to have original programming that draws away some of those blockbusters’ audiences, or they are impatient instant gratification types. Time will tell.

The UFC on Fox 5 will feature a lightweight title fight between champion Benson Henderson and challenger Nate Diaz. Pacqiuao will likely fight either Juan Manuel Marquez for a fourth time or Timothy Bradley for a second.

Marquez is a Mexican star who has fought Pac-Man more closely and competitively than anyone in the last eight years and is also perennially among the top 3-5 pound for pound boxers in the world. Bradley is a champion and warrior who went up in weight to fight Pacquiao and got thoroughly out-classed and beaten before getting a controversial gift decision from the judges.

One of these fights would be infinitely more compelling to watch than the other. Which one do you think the UFC would rather go up against, nation?

– Elias Cepeda

[VIDEOS] Behind the Scenes of UFC on FOX 4: Joe Lauzon’s Vlogs

I’m going to keep this brief, taters…If you watch the above video blog from “Mr. Fight Night Bonus” Joe Lauzon, you will be privy to some of the coolest behind-the-scenes access to a UFC event ever, and what’s more – there are three other great video blogs from earlier in the fight week to watch as well. The above video is Lauzon’s just-released fourth vlog from the UFC on FOX fight week and it takes fans with him from the weight cut to just after his fight of the night year with Jamie Varner.

The video is over 17 minutes long, but well-worth the watch. It has everything – from Lauzon and Varner chatting each other up casually about how they are going to beat one another up right before weighing in to the girl in the white dress we’ve all come to know and love (look for her hanging with Joe’s crew backstage post-fight at around the 15:50 minute mark, you creeps).

Lauzon’s UFC on FOX Fight Week Video Blogs 1-3 after the jump.

I’m going to keep this brief, taters…If you watch the above video blog from “Mr. Fight Night Bonus” Joe Lauzon, you will be privy to some of the coolest behind-the-scenes access to a UFC event ever, and what’s more – there are three other great video blogs from earlier in the fight week to watch as well. The above video is Lauzon’s just-released fourth vlog from the UFC on FOX fight week and it takes fans with him from the weight cut to just after his fight of the night year with Jamie Varner.

The video is over 17 minutes long, but well-worth the watch. It has everything – from Lauzon and Varner chatting each other up casually about how they are going to beat one another up right before weighing in to the girl in the white dress we’ve all come to know and love (look for her hanging with Joe’s crew backstage post-fight at around the 15:50 minute mark, you creeps).

Lauzon’s UFC on FOX Fight Week Video Blogs 1-3 after the jump.

Video Blog 3

Video Blog 2

Video Blog 1

– Elias Cepeda

2.36 Million Watch UFC on FOX Main Event


(UFC on FOX Main Event Fighters Mauricio “Shogun” Rua (L) and Brandon Vera | Photo Credit MMA Junkie)

So, we all know that Saturday’s UFC on FOX card was spectacular, with every main card bout (and many under card ones) being competitive and thrilling, but how did it fare in the ratings? Preliminary ratings from TV by the Numbers, show that the UFC ratings were relatively strong. The UFC on FOX peaked with a preliminary rating of 2.36 during the Mauricio “Shogun” Rua vs. Brandon Vera main event.

The bad news for MMA partisans is that the UFC on FOX, like everything else on television Saturday night, got blown out of the water by the Summer Olympics. These are the highest-rated Olympics in history, so it is what it is.

The good news is that, in overall ratings and in the 18-49 year old demographic, the UFC on FOX telecast placed second to the Olympics in ratings every half hour they went head to head.


(UFC on FOX Main Event Fighters Mauricio “Shogun” Rua (L) and Brandon Vera | Photo Credit MMA Junkie)

So, we all know that Saturday’s UFC on FOX card was spectacular, with every main card bout (and many under card ones) being competitive and thrilling, but how did it fare in the ratings? Preliminary ratings from TV by the Numbers, show that the UFC ratings were relatively strong. The UFC on FOX peaked with a preliminary rating of 2.36 during the Mauricio “Shogun” Rua vs. Brandon Vera main event.

The bad news for MMA partisans is that the UFC on FOX, like everything else on television Saturday night, got blown out of the water by the Summer Olympics. These are the highest-rated Olympics in history, so it is what it is.

The good news is that, in overall ratings and in the 18-49 year old demographic, the UFC on FOX telecast placed second to the Olympics in ratings every half hour they went head to head. That’s higher ratings than ABC’s airing of the critically and commercially successful feature film, Norbit, as well as whatever NYC 22 is on CBS. The 18-49 rating is coveted by networks and advertisers because I guess we are easily persuaded to buy stuff we don’t really need.

In any case, the UFC on Fox ratings did just what the fight promotion and network could have hoped they would do as the telecast went on. Ratings improved each half hour as, perhaps, word started getting around that the fights were exciting as all heck and a small portion of viewers decided that trained killers might be more interesting to watch than people swiping at plastic birdies, throwing hammers or whatever Olympic sports were on NBC Saturday night.

At 8:00pm, the UFC on FOX pulled a 1.91 rating against NBC’s Olympic coverage which garnered a 19.77 rating. Each half hour after that as they went head-to-head, the Olympics ratings increased but so did the UFC’s. The first two UFC on FOX events got 5.7 million and 4.7 million viewers, respectively. The previous one, featuring Nate Diaz beating Jim Miller, peaked at 2.4 million viewers.

Did you do your part, nation, and support the UFC on FOX Saturday night? If so, you’re no doubt the cool-guy or gal at the water cooler this morning. If you decided to watch teenagers in leotards jumping around instead, we understand where you’re coming from but that’s what DVRs are for. Live and learn.

– Elias Cepeda