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Please tell me things will get more interesting for TUF 12 and Brocktober
By Zach Arnold | October 7, 2010
Ross Pearson told ESPN that he will get knee surgery shortly and come back next February.
Ed Soares says that he would like to see Jose Aldo (his client) vs. Frankie Edgar. Tasty. The WEC 51 show last Thursday drew a tad under 500,000 viewers of Versus. Will Cooling at Inside Fights says the WEC 51 numbers are a disgrace.
A brand new martial arts center has opened up in Dubai.
Here’s Sarah Kaufman talking about her fight against Marloes Coenen:
“My training for this camp has been great as always, you know Adam Zugec obviously’s a great coach, I’ve gone really far so far with him. My whole team at Zuma, you guys rock and, yeah, as I said, the camp’s been really good.
“You know, I’m really happy obviously that I’m on the main card, it’s a great card. There are, you know, all four fights on the main event of the card are awesome fights or have the potential to be awesome fights so I’m excited for that. I’m excited for the title itself because it’s where it should be and everyone’s, the fans, I’ve had really good support.
“Of course you want a knockout and you want an exciting finish and you want to be able to kind of follow up with what you did the last time as much as you can this time, but it’s a fight and anything can happen and obviously I want to finish it and I’ll try for one but probably not a slam.
“I think it’s a really good fight. Again, it has the potential to be a really tough fight for both of us and I think she’s expecting that and I’m expecting that and that’s what it’s going to be.
Marloes Coenen reflects upon her early fight career and what a win this Saturday against Sarah Kaufman would mean for her. Dave Meltzer has a preview of Saturday night’s fight between Josh Thomson and Gesias “JZ” Cavalcante. I’m really, really looking forward to that fight. Here’s a Josh Thomson interview talking about the goal he wants to achieve, which is another fight with Gilbert Melendez. Speaking of highlights, yesterday’s appearance by Frank Shamrock on Chronicle Live (CSN Bay Area) was too funny. He appeared with retired NFL player Lorenzo Neal (big MMA fan) and Greg Papa and put over Nick Diaz as “the Mike Tyson of MMA.” Frank was promoting his “MMA for Dummies” book and the upcoming Strikeforce show in San Jose. In a five-minute segment, Frank did a better job promoting the show than everyone else has combined. Not even close.
Speaking of Mike Tyson, I thought his appearance last night on The Ultimate Fighter was unfortunately the one highlight on what has become a rather boring series. You can certainly tell that UFC made sure to bring in star power over the next several weeks (including Chuck Liddell) to try to keep viewers tuned in. Unfortunately, with fights like last night’s bout between Kyle Watson (Team GSP/red) and Andrew Main (Team Koscheck/yellow), there’s not a lot of hope for this season. That was one of the worst fights I’ve seen in a long time. I don’t necessarily blame Kyle, either — he did what he had to do, but he largely played positional control with an incredibly weak opponent and then took advantage in the second round. On the show, GSP and coach John Danaher tried to play up that Watson was in trouble in the first round, but he wasn’t. At no point during Main’s monkey climb on Watson’s back did I ever sense any danger at all. And I certainly didn’t sense any danger when I saw Main punch, or should I say try to punch because he can’t punch on the ground to save his life. The technique was simply not there and the fight outcome was never in doubt. I know that Jordan Breen and others have long said that TUF has become a vehicle to sell coaches fighting at the end of the season, but the show used to genuinely recruit raw talent and mold them into stars. The show has lost its way and needs to reinvent itself in order to build new stars that can help carry the UFC for the next decade.
As for the first half-hour Primetime special featuring Brock Lesnar and Cain Velasquez, all I can say is I don’t agree with the sentiments that it was ‘awesome’ (as Bryan Alvarez said it was.) I came away from it thinking the same thing that I did going into watching the show, which is that Brock Lesnar is trying to sell a fight by himself without a lot of help. Cain Velasquez is a nice guy and a talented fighter, but that’s about it as far as creating an emotional connection with the fans. Zuffa tried to make him out to be a big star doing Spanish-language interviews, but I was largely unmoved by the constant “first Mexican heavyweight champion” rhetoric. In short, I didn’t come away after watching the show any more excited about the Lesnar/Velasquez bout than I already was in the first place.
I have plenty of thoughts about the Primetime show and you can read them right here.
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, UFC, Zach Arnold | 22 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Really? Personally I found the Primetime quite compelling and am excited for episode two.
Ed. — In the detailed breakdown linked, I noted that if you’re big into Brock that it was good, but if you were looking for a real heat-up between the two I don’t know if the sparks were there.
The incredible hypocrisy in mma journalists saying a countdown show is boring when the guys don’t talk
shitabout each other, and slamming the fighters for saying uncouth things when they do talkshit, is not lost on me.I have really enjoyed this season of TUF, and I liked the Countdown show as well. I thought it was well done and made me more excited to see the fight.
You had me until you said TUF this season was good.
As far as Velasquez is concerned, I’ve never denied his talent or his work ethic. He reminds me, in many ways, of Tim Duncan. Shaq was the one who gave him the most color ever by calling him “The Big Fundamental,” but ask most basketball fans about Duncan and they will say “boring” or “forgettable.”
I thought the Lesnar part of Primetime was fine, but I’m not sure that there is mass appeal for Cain like so many think there is or will be.
UFC is working the boxing-style racial angle on this one, which I’m not a huge fan of. The idea is to tap into that hispanic boxing audience and hope they’ll watch just based on that. Hell, boxing has sold fights based on that angle for years so it might just work.
Outside of huge douchebags like Mir, I don’t think we should expect a huge trash talking build up to every Brock fight, and I’m not sure why everyone does. Because he was in WWE? He seems like he just wants to train, get in there, and do what he does.
Anecdotal, but my girlfriend really likes Cain. I plan to yell “IN YOUR FACE!” if Brock beats him.
Zach: The first two fights were good, and the one last nite wasn’t that bad. Seeing Tyson on the show was awesome, and I really like the Koscheck-GSP dynamic; their personalities really shine through in the coaching arena. Koscheck is so intense and you can tell he really hates losing/hates GSP. You can also see clearly how GSP approaches the fight game…very interesting. I don’t know how someone can be a mma fan and not find this show entertaining.
I agree that there isn’t mass appeal for Cain yet, but if he beats Brock, that will definitely come. I thought the countdown show was awesome; I actually watched the replay at 11:30 as well. Seeing Brock work the ropes was insane.
You are starting to sound Meltzery by complaining that there isn’t enough hype; just make sure that if you go down this road, that you don’t turn around and become Ioley by bashing fighters for making outrageous statements to sate the ever-bored/cynical/jaded mma press.
The Sky is falling: Dirrell dropped out of the Super Six and I agree with David M.
I thought the countdown who was very well done. Brock doesn’t really talk that much smack anymore (probably from the life changing disease he almost died from, and taking an ass whoopin for a round against Carwin) , and I really like that. I think the casual viewer (who this kinda stuff is supposed to bring in) will eat up the diversity in both opponents, and will be able to appreciate things on the show that most hardcores wouldn’t.
I don’t understand the constant downhill position you take with this season Zach. We all know the competitors aren’t blue-chip anymore. It would be a huge boost to start offering 7 figures for the TUF winner. But I think we all know that’s not gonna happen. There only seems to be a little drunken stupidity this year compared to past seasons, and that’s a good thing. I thought the fight was alright and Watson definately got clipped a couple times on the feet, whethter Main punches were sloppy doesn’t really matter.
Dirrell dropped out?!?!? WTF.
Well I at least give them tonnes of credit for trying to do something interesting and meaningful. Just seems like this event was cursed from the get-go. Three of the “Super Six” are out of the tourney (Taylor, Kessler and Dirrell), so I say they just have King Arthur fight Froch and Ward fights Bute for the semis and winner take all in the finals.
Do I really care to see Glen Johnson vs. Allan Green, tourney-wise, at this point?
That would be the perfect scenario, but it’s boxing so that’ll never happen. The intial thoughts by most is that Froch and Abraham will still fight. The winner of Green/Johnson will make it to the final 4, and Ward will fight a non-tourney fight (aka garbage opponent) on Nov. 27th.
Really just crappy. It’s pretty convenient that Dirrell got an injury in the middle of negotiations for a fight that neither guy acted like they wanted too…
“The intial thoughts by most is that Froch and Abraham will still fight.”
I have a sneaking suspicion that someone gets an “injury” here. The tournament is in shambles and what’s the point of continuing it when you can’t even staff the semi-finals with the guys you started with.
Froch and Abraham can probably get much easier fights for the same money or most likely could get far better money doing it as a one-off fight in one or the other’s home territory. But if I recall correctly, neither holds a title, so I have a hard time believing they’d each fight a guy of this difficulty for no belt or at least a truck full of money..however you slice it, I really don’t see them doing it under the tourney umbrella at this stage.
I thought the Countdown show was a breath of fresh air compared to Evans/Rampage. I enjoyed that series, but not every fight can be trash talk 24/7.
Both Velasquez and Lesnar just want to perform at their best. And they work out like madmen in order to do it. And watching them train is actually fun…. unlike most countdown shows where watching training is boring. Both guys are huge and yet are so quick. Both are well spoken yet confident. There isn’t even a hint that either fighter thinks he will lose. Sure both know one guy will lose, but they both come in with complete confidence in their skills and want to test themselves against the other man.
This fight has the chances of being an all out war. The Primetime show did their fight justice.
“And watching them train is actually fun…. unlike most countdown shows where watching training is boring. Both guys are huge and yet are so quick.”
I echo this…I am actually a far bigger fan of seeing how these guys train, drills they’re doing, who they bring into camp, etc. For obvious reasons they would never do this, but I would totally geek out to see the strategizing and game-planning they’re doing in camp leading up to the fight.
I’m the same way. I was glad to see that Brock is training with Pat Barry.
The segments focusing on training are always my favorite parts of the hype shows.
Sarah Kaufman does not look half bad in that video interview.
The dark room helps.
That and the hair. But who am I kidding. I still would.
But not for Cyborg. No.
Guys who are into Cyborg are 82% more likely to watch She-Male p#rn. A purely made up stat, but it sounds true.
Hard to disagree here ^
You’re not wrong there!
Primetime was OK. I certainly didn’t pop wood like Bryan Alvarez over it, who always thinks every Countdown/Primetime/All Access show he sees is the greatest marketing ever and declares it will get “A MILLION BUYS~!”
I think people were spoiled by Frank Mir and Brock Lesnar both playing the game, and that any other opponent outside of maybe Roy Nelson is not going to come close to selling the show as strongly. Few people have it in them to turn up their personality to make fans get invested in them to that level. Carwin certainly didn’t, Velasquez doesn’t seem to, and Dos Santos also comes off as the “nice guy” Velasquez does.
And I’m sure everybody will be rushing into to say “Who cares, it’s all about the fight”, and you’re right. But few people believe Velasquez is beating Brock, so I really think this will be the lowest seller of his PPV championship-run. Mir beat him once so that was a toss up rematch for the fans, Carwin’s one punch KO power made people believe he could take out Lesnar, and Dos Santos also has the dangerous striker aura to make people believe he could KO Brock (although you could argue being unable to take out Nelson hurt that) But Velasquez is a smaller than Lesnar grappler who while having a brutal Nogueira KO, the fans who weren’t into PRIDE don’t think much of Nogueira and also saw Frank Mir stop him as well. They haven’t seen him string up the KOs like they saw JDS and Carwin. And wrestling wise it’s a no brainer Lesnar has the advantage.
I certainly give Velasquez a chance to beat Lesnar, but I do not think the casuals will. So this will be the true test of how many people buy shows just because it’s Brock versus how many people buy shows with Brock that have a compelling match up.
I really think Kid Nate over at Bloody Elbow put it best by saying this show was all about telling him who is fighting when and why, and why he should watch it.
There are a thousend different stories to tell and there is no-one way of selling a story. This isn’t the same story as any of Mir Lesner, Anderson Sonnen, or Evans Jackson – but it is a powerful story in itself and with Lesner’s name and Velasquez’s trainers talking I’m inclined to agree with Bryan Alvarez.
My buddy mentioned that he was looking forward to the Brock fight, but he wasn’t that excited. I had him watch the Countdown show, and he’s way pumped, but only because of the Brock segments. After watching Cain for a few minutes he fast forwarded through everything that didn’t have Brock.
Luckily, I don’t think Brock needs help selling a fight. He’ll sell it to everyone that could be persuaded to buy it by his lonesome.