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Can you keep up with the UFC’s schedule over the next three months?

By Zach Arnold | March 8, 2014

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So there was this show today in London where Alexander Gustafsson fought Jimi Manuwa and it wasn’t on television because Dana White said Fox didn’t have the budget to air 10 more fights, so off it went onto Fight Pass. Luca Fury proved right, once again, when he predicted that Melvin Guillard would have a lousy performance and he did reportedly because he didn’t train at Grudge for the fight. Luca pointed out the same issue with Costa Philippou who lost his last two fights after not training with Matt Serra & Ray Longo.

Next week, the big fight in Dallas between Johny Hendricks and Robbie Lawler. I see no reason why it won’t live up to the hype. After the Dallas PPV, things get even crazier if you want to keep up with the UFC grind.

  1. UFC Fight Night (3/23 Sunday) in Natal, Brazil with Dan Henderson vs. Shogun on Fox Sports 1
  2. UFC Fight Pass (4/11 Friday) in Abu Dhabi with Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs. Roy Nelson
  3. Ultimate Fighter Nations Finale (4/16 Wednesday) in Quebec City with Michael Bisping vs. Tim Kennedy
  4. UFC Fox 11 broadcast (4/19 Saturday) in Orlando with Fabricio Werdum vs. Travis Browne
  5. UFC 172 (4/26 Saturday) in Baltimore with Jon Jones vs. Glover Teixeira for Light Heavyweight title
  6. UFC Fight Night (5/10 Saturday) in Cincinnati with Matt Brown vs. Erick Silva on Fox Sports 1
  7. UFC 173 (5/24 Saturday) in Las Vegas at MGM Grand Garden Arena with Chris Weidman vs. Lyoto Machida
  8. UFC Fight Night (5/31 Saturday) in Brazil with Chael Sonnen vs. Wanderlei Silva on Fox Sports 1
  9. UFC Fight Pass (5/31 Saturday) in Berlin, Germany
  10. UFC 174 (6/14 Saturday) in Vancouver at Rogers Arena/GM Place

After UFC 171 in Dallas, it will be 10 shows for the next 12 weeks. Throw in all the Bellator shows upcoming (along with their May PPV) and the big slate of boxing fights coming up and the saturation point will be large.

Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 20 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

20 Responses to “Can you keep up with the UFC’s schedule over the next three months?”

  1. 45 Huddle says:

    That fight schedule is insane. It is extremely confusing and makes it harder for the fanbase to follow the sport.

    The next 5 cards are on 4 different days of the week, in 4 countries, and on 4 different outlets (PPV, FOX, FS1, & FP).

    Now imagine that the majority of their cards were on Wednesday Night at 8pm on FOX Sports 1. And each of those cards showed 4 fights on FS1 and the rest on FS2 or Fight Pass. And then once a month they had a “big” event on either FOX or PPV.

    Imagine how much easier it would be to build a fanbase.

    Insanity…

  2. Alan Conceicao says:

    It was kinda fun to read Bill Simmons and Masked Man’s opinions on WWE Network and then mention the UFC, stating the obvious. Fight Pass doesn’t have nearly enough content, the Fox deal requires so many fights that by trying to do this too, they spread themselves too thin. But we already knew that. None of those fights are *terrible* either, but they’re a mess. and there’s little direction going on. Sonnen/Silva is a fight where the loser is way, way out of contention for the rest of their career and should consider retirement. Hell, Wanderlei should have considered it years ago. I highly doubt the UFC even considers stating anything other than two legends and contenders getting in the cage.

  3. Diaz's cashed bowl says:

    Bellator is on fridays, its short and sweet and it frees up my weekend.
    I don’t want to spend 3-6 hours on sat slogging through these ufc marathons, or ufc fight morning 37 before i’m even awake

    • 45 Huddle says:

      And that is the problem with the current format. They give you a 10 fight card on Fight Pass and want you to figure out what fight is important.

      Bellator is garbage. But one thing they do right is that they have a show weekly and they select the 4 or so fights that they feel is most important. Makes it much easier to follow.

  4. David m says:

    Mma fans used to get a lot more bang for their ppv buck. Too much product is now available, which makes fans disinclined to plunk down $60 for a card only slightly better than the one on Fox or Fox Sports 1.

  5. Chuck says:

    Jesus Christ! Do all these fight promoters and the like worship Ayn Rand or something? How capitalistic can you get?

  6. 45 Huddle says:

    Luke Thomas is 100% right on this one.

    DFW is looking at it from a purely monetary standpoint. How much money he can make out of every person world wide. It is a short sighted viewpoint. They have increased their number of cards by 40% without keeping the same level of talent per card.

    I have made the analogy before…. Imagine MLB increased their number of teams by 10. The league would be extremely diluted. Heck, when they increased it by 2 teams last time, people complained about it being diluted.

    But what the UFC has done is basically the equivalent to increasing their roster by 10 teams. Many of the cards are just plain awful.

    Not to mention they have increased their number of cards without having a true global vision for the expansion. Each country has different rules for what Fight Pass means to them. It is all a giant mess.

  7. nottheface says:

    If no one knows who Luke Thomas is and his opinion doesn’t matter why is the UFC using him and his opinions in their pomotional material to sell ppvs?

  8. Chuck says:

    What the hell is going on with the Bellator welterweight tournament? Three guys (War Machine, Joe Riggs, and Mark Scanlon) have either pulled out or were taken out of the tournament, replaced by three guys. A regular fight already scheduled for Bellator 112 is now being designated a tourney fight.

    Again, what the fuck is going on?

  9. Diaz's cashed bowl says:

    UFC looses gsp, drops Belfort v Jones, and Sonnen v Silva is in jeopardy due to the trt conspiracy.

    …who is fight ghost to say Bellator is a “train wreck” for replacing 3 of 8 fighters in a tournament(most likely due to injury and TRT TUE no longer usable)?

  10. edub says:

    What a train wreck for Bellator. Gotta wonder what the hell happened.

    Maybe something to do with no more TRT? Bit of a reach probably, but maybe?

    • Chuck says:

      Didn’t think of that! So Joe Warren probably won’t get his title shot, eh?

    • Nottheface says:

      I suggested to SPIKE that they should do a four-man one night tournament for their PPV. Now I’m kind of hoping they actually do that with the fighters they removed.

  11. 45 Huddle says:

    According to the UFC Website’s upcoming cards…. It looks like the UFC will be having 2 PPV’s in December. Which means they will be doing 14 PPV’s this year. So increase the number of cards to dilute each card…. And then try to get another paid event in there.

    For people keeping track, that means for 14 PPV’s at $55 and $120 a year for Fight Pass…. That is $890 for 2014 to watch all of the UFC Fights.

    I am ordering Weidman & Jones PPV’s for the rest of the year only.

    • Alan Conceicao says:

      Weidman “PPVs”? That assumes he’s gonna headline more than one.

      • 45 Huddle says:

        If he is healthy he will likely fight on the 14th UFC PPV of the year after X-Mas.

        My point is that I am spending much less on the UFC now.

        It went from buying all of the PPV’s…. Then to just buying HW, LHW, MW, & WW title fights or 2 title fights on the same PPV.

        Now I am down to PPV’s only headlined by Weidman, Jones, or GSP. And GSP ain’t fighting anytime soon.

  12. king famous says:

    Me and my friend have been trading links from new Japan pro wrestling. I find myself watching this lately to take my mma blues away. Nothing like a prince devitt match to cheer you up.

  13. Tradition Rules says:

    Really?

    THAT’S how Dana White responds to someone on Twitter,
    “Dear whoever the hell u are. Nobody gives a shit what u think…”?

    Even if that was how he really felt, which it obviously IS, he could/should be more diplomatic. Even if it is all
    bullshit, Saying something like:

    “Dear so-and-so’, thank you for your feed back and concern. While I do not agree with your assessment, of the current state of MMA, I do appreciate your concern and comments. The goal of ZUFFA and the UFC is to make MMA a global phenomenon and the only way this is possible is currently through attempted consent expansion, blah, blah blah….”

    It may be bullshit, but at leas he wouldn’t come across as a hyperactive, angry, 18 year old. He is the face of the largest MMA promotion and at this point, for as long as he has been in his position, it’s time to start sounding professional. How is MMA ever going to break the “human cockfighting” image if someone in his position keeps coming across like a thug?

  14. Steve Barry says:

    The UFC in 2014 = DGAF … and I used to own a MMA website

    Oversaturation definitely burned me out on it. I don’t know how anybody keeps up with it anymore.

    The FOX deal seems to have done more harm than good. They’re obligated to do all these shows yet it hasn’t done them any favors in terms of growth. On top of that, they’re still hell bent on this world domination thing with their giant egos yet all it seems to be doing is spreading their talent even thinner and lowering the quality of their product.

    In retrospect, they probably would have been better off just staying on Spike TV and focus on improving the quality of their product. Maybe more people would still care. I can’t name one friend anymore who does.

    I watched one full card in 2013 the Silva-Weidman rematch (whatever UFC that was) and I doubt I’ll watch much more in 2014.

    Still enjoy reading Fight Opinion though. Killing it like always Zach.

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