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« | Home | »

Monday headlines: Casual fans react to UFC 71

By Zach Arnold | May 28, 2007

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Dana White predicts 1 million PPV buys for UFC 71.

MMA On Tap is compiling a list of online radio MMA shows.

Tim Duncan talks UFC. Over at The Fanhouse, another critic lays in on Rampage/Liddell.

I’ve been keeping my eye on what I call the ‘casual bloggers’ that Technorati indexes. They are generally more or less your typical fans online with MySpace or LiveJournal accounts. So far, the reaction is negative towards the action in the Liddell/Rampage fight and split about 50/50 as to whether or not UFC 71 was a good or bad show. I am not sure on how many new fans UFC generated due to the mainstream media attention, so the most important question to ponder is how many new fans UFC was able to generate and how many new fans did they turn off. In other words, the conversion rate of PPV customers and viewers into long-term UFC fans. One thing is for certain — Liddell is taking an absolute beating from many of the casual bloggers as basically a fighter built on all hype and no substance. Rampage, on the other hand, seems to be gaining a lot of steam amongst the same bloggers. Some really fickle newbies (or bandwagon jumpers). That, and the PRIDE vs. UFC debate continues to surface on the blogs. Seriously.

Here’s some blogger reaction to the UFC 71 event:

  1. The Cage Effect: Drama could have taken Liddell (he calls Liddell’s loss disastrous for UFC and says UFC is a fad)
  2. The Shreveport Times (Blogspot) Blog: UFC’s parity something new fans will learn (they should advertise this blog more prominently in their MMA newspaper articles)
  3. The Somewhat Manly Nerd: Having a black champion like Rampage will bring a new audience to MMA
  4. Truth or Consequences: “What’s a Chuck ‘I’m doing a job’ Liddell?”
  5. The Postmen: Last night’s knockout was good for UFC. No, seriously (that AP picture of Rampage howling and Chuck dazed will live on forever)
  6. Chris Vernon (Memphis ESPN radio host): UFC First Impressions
  7. The O Show: Is White America ready for Rampage?
  8. Shut Up and Play Ball: UFC = Ultra-Frail Chuck
  9. Signal to Noise: See, UFC and boxing aren’t so different! (Dana White is MMA’s Don King)
  10. Random Thoughts and Observations: This UFC thing (a boxing fan not impressed)

It is a unusual paradox that we’re seeing in the media coverage of UFC 71. UFC is getting attacked by two media camps. The first camp is trying to associate MMA with other anti-social activities like dogfighting, and the second camp of writers is lambasting the UFC 71 show for not having enough action (i.e. the main event) to live up to the hype.

Cage Warriors ace Dan Hardy is on a roll.

Onto today’s headlines.

  1. Sprawl ‘n Brawl: UFC 71 not good enough for casual fans?
  2. The Houston Chronicle: Quinton Jackson looking to fall fight against Dan Henderson
  3. The Arizona Republic: Difference in boxing and UFC is money (related article at The Fanhouse)
  4. Maxboxing: One Last Ferocious stand
  5. ProphetFighting: Sports Illustrated on MMA (this is a long, but very good article that you should read)
  6. Mixed Martial Punditry: The surprises continue
  7. MMA Fever: UFC 71 – The Iceman Melts
  8. Lay and Pray: UFC 71 Observations
  9. The San Jose Mercury News: UFC delivers the goods

Topics: Boxing, Japan, Media, MMA, PRIDE, UFC, UK, Zach Arnold | 24 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

24 Responses to “Monday headlines: Casual fans react to UFC 71”

  1. liger05 says:

    Watched the show in the UK last night and really liked it. War Rampage. I knew he could beat chuck. Wondered whether he would ever recover from the brutal KO in the 2nd silva fight but Quinton always had the style to beat Chuck

  2. Erik says:

    UFC will hit a peak and then round out to a steady level.

    All the hate is coming from uneducated new fans and writers who just want to say something despite not really knowing what it is they are saying. In my opinion UFC 71 was easily the best UFC card this year so far.

  3. GassedOut says:

    Really, who didn’t see this coming? Sure, Chuck is bad. He’d sure kick my white ass. Rampage didn’t just beat him in Pride, he STOPPED him. I’m sad for Chuck, who lost the belt, I wanted to see him avenge his last loss. But MAN am I glad to see Quinton Jackson with a belt! Especially THIS belt! Besides, Chuck will be back.

    The rest of the card was good too. Rock on Karo!

    And can you ask for a better fight now than Henderson/Jackson? Well, okay, I could, but Fedor is still a hold-out apparently…

  4. Diamond Dave Williams says:

    I am pleased that we will finally start seeing the best against the best (Jackson/Henderson). But as far as a rematch goes for Liddell against Jackson, I do not see why this would happen with the exception of greed by Dana White. Rampage did not let Liddell get on his game in either fight. in fact with all the talent in the UFC LHW division, this would be a great time for the UFC to have a LHW tournament. If money is what the sport is going to evolve into, could you image a tournament that includes Ortiz, W.Silva, Henderson, Shogun, Arona, Líl Nog, Rampage, Soko, Liddell, Couture, Bisping, Randleman, Yoshida, Yvel, Overeem and Sakuraba.
    This tournament would definatley get the casual MMA fan excited and it would raise the bar as far as great events in America should be.
    The marketing for this could be huge.
    Just a thought.

  5. I can understand why casual fans didn’t like Chuck vs Rampage. I can also understand why they would not have liked Couture vs Sylvia. That’s the good thing about the UFC though – the rest of the night was full of great fights, something for everyone. So even if the main card wasn’t the war it was supposed to be, the rest of the card makes up for it and everyone is happy.

  6. hbdale309 says:

    I thoroughly enjoyed UFC 71. Well worth $39.99. Houston Alexander(KO of the night) and Rampage fights were awesome. My jaw shattered it hit the ground so hard. Those 2 are effin’ animals.
    Karo put on a great fight; loved it. Fight of the night, imo. Wish Buckman hadn’t gassed so quickly.
    Starnes/Leben was decent – and I thought Leben won. They all can’t be great fights.

  7. 45 Huddle says:

    The typical person who writes online about anything (UFC or not) should not be classified as your typical casual fan.

  8. GassedOut says:

    In fact with all the talent in the UFC LHW division, this would be a great time for the UFC to have a LHW tournament. If money is what the sport is going to evolve into, could you image a tournament that includes Ortiz, W.Silva, Henderson, Shogun, Arona, Líl Nog, Rampage, Soko, Liddell, Couture, Bisping, Randleman, Yoshida, Yvel, Overeem and Sakuraba.

    No argument here! I’d buy that! Question though…isn’t the reason we don’t see this is because tournament-style cards are frowned on/banned by state athletic commisions? I mean, if you can do that, bring it on! But if not…I guess the ladder system they use will have to do. ::shrug::

  9. Matthew Watt says:

    Cannot believe that the PRIDE vs. UFC debate is still out there. Seems so silly in my opinion. Why can’t wait just take the two for being great organizations producing great fighters.

  10. Jeff Turner says:

    I don’t watch boxing anymore and haven’t in years. I don’t watch wrestling (WWF, WCW) anymore either. MMA is much more exciting and combines the best of all fight sports. I feel that boxing is history as far as being the best contact or fight sport to watch and boxers should use their skills to build up to the MMA just like professional wrestlers can use their wrestling skills to build up their MMA skills.

    This picture of me wearing my Rampage Chain says it all as far as my excitement level for MMA. I wore it out Saturday night in support of Rampage and everyone wanted to get a picture with me with the Rampage Chain on.

  11. Re Tournaments, the NSAC allowed it’s first one night tournament just a few months ago. I think though that DDW was talking about a standard multi-event ladder tournament. It’s a great idea, but at the moment with Silva and Shogun apparently coming in it’s not really a good time.

  12. Ivan Trembow says:

    The NSAC has said that they have no problem with one-night MMA tournaments as long as it’s only a four-man tournament (no eight-man tournaments on a single night), and that they would not allow the loser of a fight to advance in the event that the winner is injured and cannot fight in the finals. And of course both of the winning fighters would have to pass some medical exams backstage before they go out for the finals.

  13. Dave says:

    A lot of those blogs are from pro-wrestling fans, which is kind of funny. Esp ‘TheCageEffect.’ It is hard to take the opinion of a dude who posted pictures of him half-naked doing wrestling moves on his little brother, followed by a picture of himself wearing nothing but a WWE replica title.

    Needless to say, I don’t think his opinion holds much weight. It is fun to see all of these ‘bloggers’ so shook because they feel Dana White and the UFC has somehow lied to them/made fools of them.

  14. Kev says:

    Rampage was right, it was a mistake for the UFC to match him so quickly with Chuck. Maybe the UFC was thinking a build-up for Rampage didn’t make enough financial sense, but Chuck’s rep is taking a beating for having a relatively unknown fighter beat him so quickly.

  15. Zack says:

    “It is fun to see all of these ‘bloggers’ so shook because they feel Dana White and the UFC has somehow lied to them/made fools of them.”

    LOL so true.

  16. Matt Boone says:

    New Spencer Fisher interview up at http://www.mmanews.com RSS feed link is http://www.mmanews.com/rss.xml

  17. Zurich says:

    4 man tournament..? Bleh. 12 or 16 is fantastic, 8 is passable, but 4 just isn’t much of a tournament. I don’t really see the NSAC’s logic here. I can understand them prohibiting a “fight twice in one night” Final Conflict style event, but that all the fighters on one card happen to be in Grand Prix poses no heath risks I can see. Heck, 10 of the fighters at UFC 71 were LHW (Chuck/Rampage, Belcher/Salmon, Jardine/Alexander, Silva/Irvin, Marrero/Gouvia) – for all accounts, that could of been a Grand Prix card!

    I think that GP-style events will keep fans interested in the UFC over a prolonged period of time and help to offset the ‘fad’ effect I’m sure it’s experiencing right now. Make it happen, Dana!

  18. JThue says:

    Zurich: As you also point out to yourself, it’s two rounds IN ONE NIGHT that’s the limit. They can probably do a million qualifying round shows before the final four, like PRIDE have been doing in Japan.

  19. Ivan Trembow says:

    Oh yeah, they could have a 64-man tournament for all they care, they just can’t fight more than two times on a single night, and in order to fight that second fight on the same night you need to have been the winner of your first fight and also pass medical exams in between fights.

  20. 45 Huddle says:

    I was reading the Wrestling Observer this weekend, and Dave Meltzer brought up a point that I thought was really important, and obviously completely ignored by the majority of the MMA Media.

    Sakuraba’s Medical Tests – If Kazushi Sakuraba is found to be unable to compete due to the tests run, then K-1 is in massive trouble. The reason is…. If he is then used in Japan, then no credible MMA Sanctioning body will allow FEG (K-1) t get a promoters license in the US. Which means they have one of two options.

    1. Get rid of Sakuraba, who is a national star in Japan, and lose a lot of attendence.

    2. Continue to use Sakuraba in Japan, and then be blocked from putting on cards in the US.

    They could always team up with Pro Elite, but how long will that last for? And the athletic commissions are going to make it very hard on Pro Elite is they still have an alliance with a known company who is defying the commission.

    The decision we get from the CSAS on Sakuraba in the next few days could shape the landscape of MMA in the United States over the next few years.

  21. Zach Arnold says:

    K-1 will likely run future shows only in Hawaii (although legislation is coming soon to regulate MMA there). Massachusetts is open to interpretation if they want to run there.

  22. Grape Knee High says:

    This year is a watershed year for MMA. The year of upsets; the year of the utter destruction of Japanese MMA; the year of the explosion of the UFC.

    What a crazy year. And the K-1 show hasn’t even fully self-destructed yet, though it’s clearly on its way.

    Zach, one thing you hit dead on was that without the old PRIDE, no one has the ability to create new Japanese/international stars with the magical storyline as you put it, which will be a shame for us as fans.

    However, I personally think there is only a limited number of fighter “slots” available in the UFC for non-English speaking fighters. So I guess I don’t think they will throw the PRIDE brand away unless it just proves to be absolutely useless from a marketing standpoint in Japan (ie, worse than a straight-up “UFC Japan”). No doubt the PRIDE could very well be useless at this point, but I do think there is room for some version of an “International UFC” that has different stars and different champions, especially for those fighters that might be elite but the UFC might find hard to market in the US UFC.

    For example, if Fedor, Shogun, A. Silva/Okami, Gomi all become champions of the UFC at the same time — which, while not likely, is a distinct possibility — I do think the UFC will be in for a hard time having all these champions that will not be able to do proper promotional marketing for UFC events.

  23. 45 Huddle says:

    The entire North East still isn’t a big MMA Market yet. It really hasn’t caught on to this part of the country as it has on the west coast or central America.

    I agree that Pride will still be used. It will really be a feeder system at this point. A really high level one, but still a feeder system. Even if the UFC takes 2 to 3 fighters a year and brings them over, that is enough talent to spice up their divisions, and keep things interesting and high level enough.

  24. Zurich says:

    There’s no requirement that the final four guys in a GP fight twice on the same night. Look at the PRIDE HWGP in 2004 – Nog and Fedor (more or less) only fought once that night, due to the no contest. The finals were held on Shockwave, and I can’t say it detracted much from the overall GP-feel at all. The UFC could easily do a 16 man tournament over 4 events.

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