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From: "Sean OLeary"
Not sure if this is something to get worked up about since Mayweather/Cotto was last night as well as the Kentucky Derby but still....ouch: http://www.f4wonline.com/more/more-top-stories/118-daily-updates/25490-ufc-on-fox-ratings
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Not shocking considering how shitty that card was. They had months to plan and the best they could find was Miller v Diaz? No buys.
The card in general wasn't the problem; the main event was. As much as hardcore MMA fans might enjoy a stacked card, the casuals are going to want to see a main event featuring A Big Name.. nothing more, nothing less. Doesn't matter how old or irrelevant.. throw Tito or Chuck in there, and the broadcast would've done great. It's a pretty telling sign of the sport's general plateau in North America as of late, which is a-ok by me as long as the quality of the fights don't suffer.
ReplyDeleteI liked the card quite a bit. Every fight on the main card was exciting. Title implications for each of the co-main events. Diaz-Miller was a match-up of 2 of the top 5 players in the most stacked division in the UFC. I would have liked to have seen it perform better, but as a fan, no complaints
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed this card. I'm not a big mma fan but I enjoyed it. I knew it was on because Im on the observer site daily. My other friends who are UFC fans hardly knew about it.
ReplyDeleteLesnar's championship reign was the "Who Shot Mr. Burns" of the UFC; it's all downhill from here.
ReplyDeleteEvery bar and every party last night was about boxing, you can't charge a cover for a network broadcast.
ReplyDeleteI didn't even know there was UFC on Fox last night until I read this post, so it seems that a lack of promotion might have been part of the problem.
ReplyDeleteAnd, by the way, what a star making performance for Diaz! Can't believe he handled Miller like that.
ReplyDeleteI don't think he matches up well with the champ, but he's a cardio machine and a lot can happen in 5 rounds.
Agreed, this would of been the perfect spot for Tito's retirement fight with Griffin.
ReplyDeleteSorry MMA does not go over well on network tv.
ReplyDeleteWhen Strikeforce was on CBS (of all networks) Its only saving grace was Kimbo and once he lost it was over for them as a promotion.
I never even watch EliteXC, so I cant comment.
I am the pure definition of a casual MMA fan, if it wasnt for Brock I wouldnt know half the guys I know. I couldnt pick Anderson Silva out of a crime lineup. I have no clue the difference between a half guard and a full guard.
But MMA appeals to the freakshow crowd. Theres just no place for MMA or Boxing on network tv. Where do you put it? MMA followed by The golden girls. Or stayed tuned for MMA right after Days of our lives. Dont fit.
Lack of star power + Floyd Mayweather fighting = TNA-esque ratings. I understand counter-programming, but doing a middling card against boxing's biggest draw is a terrible move any way you slice it. I think FOX/UFC will think twice about going head-to-head with a Floyd fight, or for that matter a Manny fight, again. If FOX and UFC want to grow their partnership and the sport, they need to do it on nights that they can own by themselves.
ReplyDeleteWhat channel is EliteXC on?
ReplyDeleteThey want entertaining fights more than names. The names became names through having entertaining fights. This is like saying the way for wrestling to do better ratings is to bring in a name which might work in the short term but isn't going to work in the long term. Booking entertaining fights will help UFC more than throwing Tito in there again. The first Forrest-Bonnar fight made both guys when they were nobodies. Why? It was a good fight.
ReplyDeleteWe were out camping Saturday night so I'm not sure but who was playing hockey/basketball too? LA Lakers? NY Rangers? DC Capitals? Phoenix Coyotes? Boston Celtics? Chicago Bulls? Philly 76'ers?
ReplyDeleteI'm too lazy to match game times against the time of the UFC broadcast but that's basically a list of every market you could possibly want to tune in. Between all of those cities having something going on that day AND the boxing PPV taking over ever bar...
I think Dana was just dumb to have an event at this point in the calendar. There's a reason WM is in the dead zone between football and NBA/Hockey.
(Oh hey... and by the way...how many potential viewers were watching that
movie that just broke the opening weekend record...what's it called
again)
We
ReplyDeletewere out camping Saturday night so I'm not sure but who was playing
hockey/basketball too? LA Lakers? NY Rangers? DC Capitals? Phoenix
Coyotes? Boston Celtics? Chicago Bulls? Philly 76'ers?
I'm too lazy to match game times against the time of the UFC
broadcast but that's basically a list of every market you could possibly
want to tune in. Between all of those cities having something going on
that day AND the boxing PPV taking over every bar...
I think Dana was just dumb to have an event at this point in the
calendar. There's a reason WM is in the dead zone between football and
NBA/Hockey.
(Oh hey... and by the way...how many potential viewers were watching that movie that just broke the opening weekend record...what's it called again)
This man gets it...
ReplyDeleteI think it's called "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel"; theaters were packed throughout the weekend for it. Judi Dench = SMELL THE BUYRATE
ReplyDeleteDid you happen to see Nate Diaz get rag-dolled by Rory Macdonald a few fights back? Was pretty funny. Rory was like Chris Benoit going nuts with the German Suplexes.
ReplyDeleteThere was no counter-programming involved, UFC started early and ended before the Floyd fight. UFC just thought that it was combat night for the fight fans so the free UFC event would lead right into the Boxing PPV.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, for the UFC, at the end of the night everyone was talking about boxing and not them. The UFC became an afterthought.
But the UFC won the coveted 18-49 demo against network re-runs. That counts for something, doesn't it?.
ReplyDeleteI think the UFC has reached the territory where no one gives a crap about the fights but would rather check the results online.
ReplyDeleteTito Ortiz is 1-8-1 in his last 10 fights.
ReplyDeleteUFC 148 between Tito-Forrest won't draw crap, nor if it was on FOX.
Just more pathetic excuses.
ReplyDeleteYou just said that you were out camping Saturday Night, so how in the hell would you know what's playing in the bars and at every party? More excuses, buddy?
ReplyDeleteThe only bright side for the UFC is that for those who did watch the show, they saw an entertaining night of fights and star-making performances from Diaz, Belcher and Johnson. (And, to a lesser extent, Hendricks.) Diaz is definitely being lined up for a LW title shot if they ever get around to this damn Henderson/Edgar rematch. As for Belcher, he's definitely right in the mix with Mark Munoz and Hector Lombard among the top middleweight contenders. The long wait between Anderson Silva's fights has given that division time to replenish itself with new challengers.
ReplyDeleteSomething I've wondered for a couple of months now...
ReplyDeleteIs it possible that we're about to find out how cyclical UFC can be as well? I'm sure in the late 90s when pro wrestling in general was freakin awesome......some of us just assumed it would keep going like that for
Meh, I don't really care what the ratings were, it was an AWESOME night of fights.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, looking at single events, or even year by year doesn't really matter. No new sport will ever be fully ingrained until you have at least one generation of father watching with their sons. MMA is a few years away from that, as I don't really count the sport as having started until the creation of the unified MMA rules.
The UFC is in it for the long term, building an audience state by state and country by country.
Insightful comment about father/son. Really drives home the difference between "sport" and "athletic fad."
ReplyDeleteBecause every bar goes with whatever is on PPV so they can charge a cover?
ReplyDeleteWhat scary logic!
LOL
ReplyDeleteI like how you argued my 9 points with...oh...you didn't.
I totally thought this was just some nonsense you made up until I looked at the Top 10 Gross on IMDB, I had no fucking clue that was even a movie.
ReplyDeleteThis is so true. We battle this with the popularity of sports teams here in the Tampa area. A team that has been around 15 years (the Rays) can't compete with generations of Red Sox, Yankees, etc. fans just yet. They need to build their own history, have fathers take their sons to the games and cultivate new fans from a young age.
ReplyDeleteOf course, that may be a difficult prospect with UFC, as a pro wrestling show is probably more appealing to youngsters than the UFC... so you may be looking at a bit longer of a gap until that second generation becomes teenagers and wants to see something "real". That, accompanied with another red hot fighter could usher in a boom period... kind of like how the WWF pulled in a whole generation of teens/young adults with Austin and the Rock.
Not this state, New York won't legalize it.
ReplyDeleteNope, no counter-programming other than a few hockey games, a few basketball games, the biggest horse race of the year, a huge boxing match, the biggest drawing movie of all time, and a huge cultural/family holiday for a good 30% of the country.
ReplyDeleteOther than THAT...lmao