« Monday news highlights | Home | Tuesday MMA media notes »
UFC 68: Road Report
By Zach Arnold | March 5, 2007
By Dan Bliss
Live, UFC 68 was certainly an experience. Wildly successful, I would also imagine. The crowd at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus last night was there for three reasons: To see Matt Hughes and Rich Franklin win and, most of all, to see Randy Couture beat the heavyweight champ Tim Sylvia. No one left disappointed, and it was an awfully happy group of people leaving the arena.
The main event was a spectacle unlike any I’ve personally experienced at a sporting event. I knew Couture was popular, but I didn’t know he was that popular. Outside of his corner and any family members that may have made the trip, I don’t think there was a Sylvia fan in the audience. When Couture dropped Sylvia in the opening seconds of the first round, everyone in the crowd was on their feet within seconds. Any doubt that anyone had in Randy Couture vanished at that instant. There was an air of cautious excitement throughout the fight that kept building like a wave as the rounds wore on. The place just erupted in the waning seconds of the fight. I can’t recall a reception like that anywhere.
Everyone knows the UFC is popular right now, but experiencing it live is quite different than reading pay per view buy rates or looking at gate figures. The shear mass of humanity waiting outside for the doors to open in the cold night air was quite the site. Inexplicably, UFC fans do not like coats. It didn’t hurt their enthusiasm, however. The restaurants and bars in the area were bursting at the seams. Once inside, the place was packed. There were six sections in the upper deck blocked off by large screens. I have no doubt they could have filled those seats as well. The crowd was mostly the under 30 or so young adult crowd that I expected to see. There were also a fair number of children in attendance with their parents, which has to be a testament to the mainstream movement of MMA in America. Merchandise sales must have been high. The lines were long and people were walking away with piles of goodies. When attractive young ladies are excited to see that they can buy UFC panties, the company must be on the right track.
It looked to be a fairly educated crowd, but one that was there to see the stars. At least until the headliners fought, the section I was sitting in was extremely silent. Most people were intently watching the fights and would pop when someone tried a submission or made a nice reversal. Sitting in the very last row of the arena, as I was, I could hear instructions from the corners during some of the opening bouts. Still, everyone looked interested in all of the fights.
The rest of the card was largely by the books. The only truly bad contest was Jason Dent vs. Gleison Tibau. Basically a stalemate on the ground for the three rounds that left the crowd restless, with loud chants of “stand them up.†Matt Hamill received a surprisingly loud reaction. Besides the big three, it was by far the biggest reaction of the night. He looked impressive finishing Rex Holman in short order. It may be too soon for Hamill to hang with the elite of the Light Heavyweight division, but the UFC may have a drawing card on their hands. Jamie Varner also looked great in demolishing Jason Gilliam quickly with a choke to open the show. The only surprise before the main event was Jason Lambert’s come from behind win over Renato Sobral. A hell of a turn around and probably the second best fight of the night.
Matt Hughes and Rich Franklin are, without a doubt, superstars. It may have been bolstered a bit by the Midwest connection, but both had thunderous ovations. The reactions paled in comparison to Couture’s, but it seemed quite impressive at the time. Hughes win over Chris Lytle was unspectacular at best. It was still a solid performance, but hardly the most exciting. Franklin, on the other hand, looked like he had regained his old form in a pretty exciting little match. Besides Tim Sylvia, Anderson Silva had to be the least popular man in the building. Perhaps it’s the name. In any event, I’d expect a dynamic similar to Slyvia/Couture should the UFC go ahead and have the rematch in Cincinnati.
From the homeless man I saw disco dancing to the Bee Gees in an Arby’s before the show all the way through the crowning of Randy Couture as heavyweight champion, it was quite an unforgettable evening. The big question about the UFC’s recent success seems to be is this a fad or is it here to stay? I can’t say, but I do know that being there live, it sure doesn’t feel like a flash in the pan.
If business is about sending folks home happy, you could not possibly do any better than UFC 68.
Topics: All Topics, MMA, UFC | 17 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
I just wanted to lob my two cents on this article and a lot of the articles from the site in general: [Let me start off by making the qualifying statement that I realize the UFC has the market cornered and is massive marketing machine]
From my understanding PRIDE was roundly criticized here on the outcome of their fights from their most recent (and possibly last) US event. In looking at the reaction post UFC 68, I wonder where the criticism is against the UFC.
1. Randy Couture at 43 yrs old wins the HW belt from their most dominant HW fighter in recent memory. The same Couture who was more or less chased out of the 205lb division and was forced to retire b/c he no longer fit the picture – ran roughshod over their big man. What does this say about the quality of their HW division given that their #1 HW – who’s beat all his challengers was whipped pillar to post by a “blown up” 205 lber that was chased from the division.
2. Babalu Sobral was brutally KTFO’d by a relative no namer. The last “quality”/”deserving” challenger to face their 205lb champion, was made to look pretty mediocre by Lambert – a fighter who hasn’t looked much better himself in recent outings.
What does this say about the depth within the LHW division of the UFC? (Tito Ortiz’s “title match” was all on the basis of drawing a gate and without making any case as a deserving challenger) Forrest Griffin’s bubble has been burst as a legitimate challenger and they’re not racing to get Liddell – Rampage II on the books.
3. They threw an overwhelmed and nowhere near ready Jason MacDonald to the wolves against the returning Franklin. Now they’re left with a Silva – Franklin II and to me that result is not going to be any different.
Why isnt anyone calling out the fact that their HW division was made to look like a complete and utter joke, that there’s absolutely no matches competitive at LHW & MW title pictures and that it looks like Chuck hasnt been facing any decent talent since he fought Couture?
I realize they’ve reached the point where it doesnt matter who’s in the main event b/c the UFC = MMA in the USA, but why isnt anyone critically looking at any of the situations??
Things always look great wearing rose covered glasses and worshipping the “hot thing” of the day.
I agree with Gaijin on a few points. I find the UFC to be overall, boring. This past show however, was a showcase for Randy and he did a good job (as he always does) in doing what he does. He transcends every fighter the UFC has to offer. I still feel the talent in the UFC is subpar even to the floundering Pride roster. The pitfight style of UFC should be left behind. While they may never put the fights in a ring, it would increase the excitement of their shows. The ring is a natural fighter’s stage and instead of closing the action of the fighters into a confined space, the ring allows more natural technique and makes for a better show.
I called my old gym and they now offer a “Chuck Liddell MMA class.” I asked them what MMA is and the girl on the phone said “Mixed Martial Arts.” I couldn’t believe it. The marketing of the UFC, like so much other of the marketing in the USA became a paid-for reality. The success of the UFC is not unlike when Korean Karate came to the states and blew up schools in the 80’s. Its bigger then pizza now — its MMA, and everyone wants in. It doesn’t matter then Fedor could eat Timmy with a blindfold on, it doesn’t matter that Tito-Chuck II is a completely dumbass fight. All that matters is the bubble world that UFC has built and shows to its public. Some call it genius, but at the end of the day the Art in mixed martial art is not the art of the gracies, the sakurabas or the fedors — its the art of the business marketing man. He’s got us all tapping out whether we like it or not.
Citizen, you touch on an interesting point in your last paragraph and one I’ve spoken about at length with two different sets of people on both coasts this weekend. Back when UFC first came out it was all about the Strip Mall Masters getting crushed and exposed. All the guys showing up saying they study this that the other thing Karate or John Mattua and his Samoan bone breaking style. Ranger Stott who could kill a man 40 ways in seven seconds (if he didn’t get kneed in the grill first). Those guys got whupped by Royce and Tank Abbot. Royce showed how well BJJ worked but Tank crushing those guys to me was even more important. Tank Abbot is the stereotypical big, drunken creep that scares people into learning a MA for self defense. If he can bend over Mr. Samoan Bone Break style backwards then you shouldn’t waste your time learning Samoan Bone Breaking.
In the mid 90’s people reallized all those TKD, obscure forms of Karate and kickboxing schools were being run by frauds. But now you’ve got all of those frauds lining up to teach MMA. Invariably what they are teaching is high school wrestling with some punches and probably some imporperly performed arm bars minus all the finer points of how to make them stick. These same clowns were running Ninjitsu schools after American Ninja came out. I rember asking my dad (who is a cop and then a Judo practicioner) if I could learn Ninjitsu. He told me all they’ll teach you is how to be a victim and you’ll look silly wearing footsie pajamas while doing it. Man he was right on. I went to see a buddy of mine compete in a TKD tourney a few months ago. It’s been years since I was at one of those things. TKD is (with few exceptions) a total fraud as a for of self defense. I value it for it’s discipline and lifestyle points. But honestly you’re not going to throw an axe kick or a push kick to someone’s hogue in a street figth. You’r going to kick them in the balls and stick your thumb in their eye. I saw 15 yr old girls who were black belts demonstrating how to escape an attacker. Swing your arms and grab their wrist, then throw them down. DOES NOT WORK. But I guess you’re always going to have lots of frauds and hucksters in the Marital Arts. I’m sure it’s been that way for centuries. Those guys Musahsi was beating to death with an oar were probably clowns too.
As for Gaijin’s point. I think UFC is in a honeymoon phase with the huge crop of fans who have come to the sport since TUF. Those people are just getting into their second year of watching MMA. It’s still new to them. They’re not hip to all the subtelties of the game. They’ve only seen Chuck fight four or five times, Randy three or four times, Sylvia and Arlovski the same. They don’t really know the game yet. Pretty soon they’re going to get hip to the fact that about 8 out 10 fights they’re paying for one of the guys in the fight has almost no chance to win.
I’d agree with The Gaijin that many of the matches that are the main event recently have been lame or repedative. The real problem I have with the UFC is they almost randomly pick fighters to pit against the champs, Jason MacDonald vs Frankin when Mike Swick has been waiting since he beat David Loiseau, who had been the contender for middleweight. I know Swick doesn’t have the same MMA record as MacDonald but has had more UFC fights. I’m just not sure what criteria the UFC uses to pick fighter for contention/championship bouts. I did like how some of the fighters this last UFC were promised fights with either the champ or future champ, Franklin vs Silva and Couture vs Cro Cop. Maybe they should have some kind of visual ladder or pyramid that shows who is worthy or who might some day fight who.
PS: Dan, glad you had a rocking time. I’ve been to a few UFC shows and they are awesome. UFC does a great job of putting on an event. That crowd was loud and I could see on TV they were on their feet for the whole Couture fight (just like I was watching at home).
I remember much of the criticism of the Pride results was a response to how Pride marketed the card in Japan, and the loss of face they were said to have suffered because of the results. No such issue was in play here with UFC 68
“Randy Couture at 43 yrs old wins the HW belt from their most dominant HW fighter in recent memory. The same Couture who was more or less chased out of the 205lb division and was forced to retire b/c he no longer fit the picture ”
How was he chased out of any division? He lost to the best LHW in the world, imo. No one chased him out. I don’t even know what that means. The UFC HWs were overall weak until recently. No longer. look at the whole roster of established and up and coming fighters. Anyone who makes light of Randy Couture as a champion has credibility problems themselves
“Babalu Sobral was brutally KTFO’d by a relative no namer”
It probably wasn’t the best thing for the UFC. Babalu was very marketable and had a strong record with victories over many top fighters. Still, Babalu losing isn’t that big of a hit for the UFC. He lost twice to Chuck and he wasn’t getting a third shot at the title until Chuck stepped down. Compared to rogerio’s loss, it wasn’t as big a deal.
What does it say about the depth of the LHW division? Maybe it says that it is pretty deep. When a relative unknown takes out Babalu, it shows that the UFC midcarders are perhaps better than some people thought.
“They threw an overwhelmed and nowhere near ready Jason MacDonald to the wolves against the returning Franklin. Now they’re left with a Silva – Franklin II and to me that result is not going to be any different.”
MacDonald was ready. He wasn’t good enough. Why is this important to you. If he wasn;t ready, then losing doesn’t effect his chance at the title, since he wasn’t ready anyway.. Silva, Franklin and Marquardt are three top MWs. Nate has the next shot at Silva. I don;t think the division is weak, in fact I would say the top MW in the world is in the UFC.
Again, the anti-UFC feeling on the net from the Pride fanatics has a very strange feel to it. Are thay jealous of a succesful businessman? Do they just think foreign things are better than what they have at home? I don’t know, but if the UFC signed all of Pride’s top fighters tgomorrow, most of these people would still insist Pride was still so superior.
1. Couture couldn’t beat Lidell. Past that I’d hardly say he was chased from the LHW division. Past that point, no one is contesting the fact that the UFC’s HW division isn’t great. Zach has commented on the HW division being shallow a number of times.
2. I agree, Sobral getting KO’ed was bad for the UFC. A win would have positioned him to fight Ortiz, who was already badmouthing Babalu and setting up the foundations for a profitable feud. However, the UFC books all it’s fights for a reason … no one gets the opportunity to move up or down without a good reason. Again, I can’t disagree that the UFC is stuck with a large number of fighters who really can’t hang with Chuck Liddell … I attribute this more to Chuck’s status as #1 heavyweight in the world than any shallowness in the UFC’s light heavyweight division.
3. If there was one underdog i would have bet on, it would have been Jason MacDonald. Honestly I think it should have been Swick/Franklin for #1 contender, or even better the winner of Swick/Okami vs Franklin for #1 contender. I agree that a rematch so soon will probably end up exactly the same … although i would also say Franklin’s brutal loss had more to do with Franklin than Silva. How Franklin will do in their second match is a big question mark, but as Dana loves to say “The Rich Franklin that lost the belt isn’t the Rich Franklin I know”
Anyways, I agree with some of your points but your conclusions that the UFC’s divisions aren’t that deep are somewhat flawed. Off the top of my head the HW division now has 7 elite fighters in it: Sylvia, Couture, Arlovski, CroCop, Werdum, Vera, Herring. While not perfect, the UFC has done a good job in the last six months adding to the roster to fill it out. The LHW division … again, if it wasn’t for Liddell being so dominant, things would be much more exciting. Fighters like Ortiz, Jackson, Bisping, Jardine, Evans, and Sobral would be involved in some very competitive fights for the belt.
Your initial statement makes me think you’re trying to draw up a comparison between the Pride33 results and UFC68 results, in that a number of the matches ended ‘badly’ business wise for the UFC. In truth, I’d say the only ‘bad’ ending was the Babalu fight and even then it creates a new contender in Burkman – the same way beating Griffin made Jardine an instant contender. Pride’s losses were bad because they discredited two of PRIDE’s best assets: Wanderlei Silva and Takanori Gomi … and lets not forget the extra embarassment of LWGP winner Misaki losing AGAIN. At the very least, all of the UFC fights moved it’s combatants up and down a logical contender’s ladder.
Look – in the end i understand your comments and you’re probably just trying to offer some counterpoint to PRIDE always getting badmouthed on the site. And I do feel there’s lots of things that are great about PRIDE and from a pure fan perspective I enjoy PRIDE greatly. But you can’t ignore the fact that a lot of PRIDE’s bookings lately are kinda retardo, and there’s so much drama going on with the business end lately it’s pretty near impossible to ignore. If you look at things ‘critically’, as you’d propose, you’d realize that the UFC is going up and PRIDE is going down. Even a more entertaining PPV doesn’t change that fact.
Fightlinker.com, I was with you until you called Heath Herring an elite fighter.
He hasn’t been elite since Fedor bloodied him up years back. He’s done nothing since then, unless you count getting dominated by Cro Cop, getting choked out silly by an anaconda, blowing out your knee right at the beginning of a fight, getting disqualified before the fight even starts, getting dominated by 312-year old Gary Goodridge (until the lucky punch and premature stoppage) and then getting dominated because of his non-existent takedown defense as “elite”.
Anyway, I did think Gaijin did have some valid points, but I don’t think Franklin loses the rematch. He won’t so stupid as to stand with Silva the second time around. The tea leaves in front of me say TKO by ground and pound for Franklin in the rematch.
I guess we’ll see regarding Herring and Franklin over the next 6 months. As I mentioned, I also agree with some of Gaijin’s points … I just found his conclusions to be a bit shaky. But it’s all good, one love on Fightopinion.com – everyone here expresses themselves in an intelligent manner and all discussion is generally rational and polite. It’s like we treat eachother with common human decency or something!
MacDonald is completely unimportant in mma–he was never going to be champion, let’s not kid ourselves. He is a gutsy fighter, but severely lacking in skills. This was supposed to be a squash match to get Franklin looking legit again, and it served its purpose.
Tim Sylvia was hardly a dominant champion. His most prominent wins are over Gan McGee with the aid of steroids, chinless Arlovski, 5’9 Monson, and Cabbage (who for the record did much better against Sylvia than he did against Butterbean). The best UFC hw fighters under contract are in order Mirko, Randy, and Vera, who is nuts for thinking Gary Shaw is going to give him 1.5 million per fight when nobody knows who he is.
At 205 there are some interesting matches. I think Jardine and Evans are both very good fighters, and along with Tito and Rampage, it’s not a bad “pack.” If they sign one prominent free agent at that weight, then we will have nothing to complain about. I think Dana needs to get on the phone and call Lindland, who IMO would probably beat Franklin and Anderson Silva.
Thanks for the feedback guys.
Maybe I didnt clearly state it enough but I was in no way attacking anyone or anything like that. I was just trying to apply a more critical eye to the match making in general and some of the outcomes from the event. I admittedly realize some of the “arguments” are not the strongest, but I was attempting to make a bit of a point…ZERO disrespect to Randy was meant by the comments but I do think getting “retired” out of the division and then suddenly jumping up and killing the top dog, leaves a few questions to be ask. Maybe “chased out of the division” was too strong of a statement – but I think most of you got the idea.
And as for the HW division, I do agree that it has become a lot deeper. However I’m not so sure about the LHW division b/c outside of Rampage who is there to go against Chuck?? No one is anywhere near ready.
The LW and WW divisions are probably the best in the world…but much like boxing, it seems like the real money is made in the bigger weight divisions.
And FightLinker – Im fully aware and in agreement that PRIDE is booked pretty idiotically and run “geniously” business wise…its pretty sad what such a great company has turn into in the last 18 months. From what would have been considered to have been the top “worldwide” org and a legit threat, to a company gasping on life support but a bunch of ignorant fools. I didn’t mean to say PRIDE was in anyway being run better etc…just attempting to make a kind of “counterpoint” and say that it seems everyone is into writing fluff pieces praising all that is UFC, while ignoring other concerns.
I am also going to add Hardonk’s name to the HW list, even though I am in no way saying he deserves top ten status, yet. His ground game is picking up-he is training very hard with Rickson- and I predict he WILL be a force. He just needs to get by Mir.
Anyway, the original article was great. I would have loved to have been there.
Gaijin,
Regarding your points and having a ‘critical eye’
Two points I would like to make.
1. There was a reason why the Pride event and Pride’s champions were roundly criticized as opposed to what you are hearing today about the UFC 68 event and fighters. The long and short of it is that Nick Diaz, Frank Trigg and Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou are NOT Randy Couture.
Tim Sylvia lost to Randy. He didn’t lose to 12th to 20th ranked guy at 205lbs, which is the equivalent of Misaki losing to Trigg. Trigg moved up from 170 to 185lbs and is not a top ten fighter there. Tim lost to Randy and Randy Couture is a multiple time champion. He’s fought at heavyweight for most of his career so it’s not a stretch to see him fight there again. He’s also held the belt at Heavyweight, not to mention 205lbs. Randy is also a very well respected top athlete long before coming into MMA, in terms of accomplishments and pedigree. Unlike Nick Diaz whose biggest claim to fame ‘today’ is being busted/tested for smoking pot after the Pride event.
So to sum this up, Randy is, pretty much, on a completely different level than the three above mentioned guys. Nick Diaz and Frank Trigg have never held belt and for that matter, it’s a stretch to even find them any wins over top ten fighters in their career. Do they even have any other than their recent wins over Pride’s ‘champs’? I put an asterick next to those wins because of the whole validity of Gomi and Misaki being champs. Gomi fighting in a protected tailer-made 161lb weight class (while no other orgs use it) and Misaki losing in the GP, but then getting a free shot. That though, is another post for another day.
The above is why you don’t see people applying the same level of criticism to the UFC event as being done to the pride event. You make some points, but at the end of the day, they don’t hold up.
2. My last point. I’m seeing some accusations thrown at the UFC for not having great fights lined up in the future. The whole, “Who does Chuck have left” and “what’s left after Silva vs Franklin II” This is kind of pointless, especially from the perspective that it’s a negative, vis a vi Pride and other companies.
Listen up…EVERY top organization has these problems. To single out the UFC as an ‘example’ shows you have no point here. Who does Showtime have ‘lined up’ for their next big ‘title fights’? Ok, stop laughing. How about Strikeforce? Perhaps another Tank Abbot appearance? How about the IFL? Ok, we can’t name a single fighter there so that’s a bad example.
Point is, Pride is no different too. Want to complain about Chuck’s competition? Well, look no further than Fedor in Pride. Fedor has Barnett and Sergei. That’s it. He’s already fought and beat everyone else there. How about Maurcio Rua at 205lbs? He’s already fought and beat Overeem and Arona. He won’t fight Wanderlei. All that’s left is Little Nog and their 183lb champion moving up a weight. That sure sounds like the cupboard is bare to me.
I’m not ragging on Pride there. My point is to show that it’s pointless and stupid to scrutinize the UFC for potential matchups 6 to 12 months down the road, hold them to ridiculous standards, when EVERY fight organization has the same issues. In fact, the UFC’s situation is probably the least worrisome of all the groups, as they can easily go out and bring/pay for new fighters to come in. Other groups can’t do that.
Randy Couture’s win wasn’t criticized because from a business perspective he’s a much more marketable champion, given his story, history and age. Nick Diaz and Frank Trigg don’t have that same marketability. Randy Couture vs. Mirko Cro Cop is a FAR more marketable and mainstream main event than Tim Sylvia vs. Mirko Cro Cop. Couture/Mirko has the potential to do 800-1 000 000 buys on PPV. CroCop/Sylvia doesn’t have that potential.
If Renato Babalu were a PPV draw for UFC, and he lost to a relative nobody like Jason Lambert, it would’ve been roundly criticized. But neither of those guys are main event level guys for UFC. Babalu losing doesn’t hurt UFC’s PPV business at all. It hurts Babalu, and his standing in UFC, which we talked about, but it really has little impact on UFC LHW division at the moment seeing as though Babalu has arleady been devastated by Chuck Liddell twice, and until Liddell loses the title, I don’t see Babalu being a challenger again, because there really is no impetus for him to face Liddell for a third time.
Not exactly the type of discussion I would have expected coming out of the article, but interesting none the less.
A couple of comments on the comments:
The notion that Sylvia was a dominant champion is just absurd. His title win was impressive, but we all know the first two defenses were anything but. I was nodding off at a bar watching the second Arlovski match with a beer in one hand and a slice of pizza in the other. A half way dominant performance would have kept me awake. He’s just a guy, hardly elite.
Just in general, I think everyone would agree that Pride has always had deeper pools of talent and puts on shows with more loaded lineups than the UFC. But it’s not really necessary for the UFC to do much different. They way they spread out the top talent, they don’t need as much. With Cro Cop/Couture on the horizon and probable matches involving Arlovski and (sadly) Sylvia, they’re good for at least a year in the heavyweight division. If Vera sticks around and they do Cro Cop/Lidell, they are set for a year and a half. The newer folks to the sport are used to set ups like this, with a couple of top bouts and a fairly weak undercard. They don’t seem to mind. Boxing is the same way. I’d rather see 16 great fighters on a show than 4 or 5, but there’s no reason to change and burn through all the match ups they can put together.
And really, 100% or so of the MMA fans in America are not thinking about things this hard. Good fights and good shows are all they want.
Sobral wasn’t going anywhere – didn’t mean anything for business and he wasn’t going to get another title shot. Lambert can move up the ladder with a great comeback. Maybe he can be made into something, so I see no harm.
I really couldn’t believe all the idiots waiting outside in the freezing cold for the doors to open, when there was still an hour before the fights actually started. I went into the Starbucks next door and just chilled out in the nice heated store and waited for the line to shorten then got up and walked right in.
[…] Original post by Zach Arnold […]