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« | Home | »

Sunday stroll: Aftermath from UFC 72

By Zach Arnold | June 17, 2007

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“Judo” Gene LeBell was a judge at the IFL event in Las Vegas on Saturday night. California won’t give LeBell a referee’s license for MMA. The IFL claimed 3,200 paid for their LV Hilton show. The June 16th date was originally scheduled for the 10,000-seat Reno Events Center in Reno, NV. — which is an hour away from Susanville, CA. (home to The Lions Den).

There is absolutely little discussion on the blogs about the UFC 72 event. After doing a Technorati search, there is next-to-no heat at all for this show.

A new edition of The Fightworks Podcast.

Onto today’s headlines.

  1. The Green Valley News & Sun (Arizona): MMA overcomes obstacles toward mainstream
  2. The Boston Herald: Penn-Pulver pure poison
  3. The Savannah Morning News: Savannah aboard MMA Express
  4. The Grand Junction Sentinel (CO): Fight night good for locals at Brownson Arena
  5. The Roanoke Times (VA): Full night for fans of MMA bouts (Tim Sylvia makes an appearance at the Roanoke Civic Center)
  6. MMA Weekly: Pancrase Neo-Blood tournament finals update
  7. The Lineup Card: The pro-wrestling/MMA connection
  8. MMA Madness: Jeff Hamlin interviews Frank Shamrock
  9. My West Texas: Story on West Texas MMA school
  10. The Sunday Life (UK): Belfast gets a pounding
  11. The Orange County Register: Franklin bests Okami in unimpressive fashion
  12. MMA Insider: UFC 72 wrap-up
  13. MMA on Tap: Goldberg, Rogan talk UFC 72 on ESPN

Topics: IFL, Media, MMA, Pancrase, UFC, UK, Zach Arnold | 17 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

17 Responses to “Sunday stroll: Aftermath from UFC 72”

  1. What’s the reason why CSAC won’t give LeBell a license?

  2. 45 Huddle says:

    Niko Vitali is replacing Murilo Rua on the Strikeforce card. Over the last 2 years, Niko is 2-4, with the wins coming against virtual nobodies.

    It isn’t a shock that the UFC PPV isn’t getting much talk. I don’t think Zuffa even thought it would sell well.

    All signs point that ESPN is only willing to really cover the UFC, and really just want high level coverage. This is apparent with the outsourcing of news to Sherdog.com. It also shows with the use of Rogan & Goldberg.

  3. 45 Huddle says:

    As for the IFL… The 4 team tournament really doesn’t interest me too much. I will follow the Grand Prix. As much as the IFL showcases a lot of lower level talent, it will be nice to see the best compete against each other and to see 2 cards of higher level talent. The IFL Champions will make nice undercard fighters next year in the UFC.

  4. MoreThanUFC says:

    Wow, Zach, I think there’s a ton of discussion going on over 72. Mania ( 141 comments ), the UG ( 100s ), Junkie ( 243 )… lots of talk. Most centered around the Clay v Tyson and Franklin v Okami bouts.

  5. Zach Arnold says:

    You’re referring to the hardcore MMA sites. Technorati and other search engines that focus on blogs focus on your casual, average fan online — and there’s little or no talk about the 72 show on those sites.

  6. No activity at my local sports bar either.

    It’s like everyone forgot about the whole event.

    If there’s anything to prove by this, it’s that the bars possibly pick up cards when the Sports Media will cover them.

    Speaking of which, how do you guys see the next card getting covered? Who or how will it get hyped?

  7. Jonathan says:

    I agree with you on this note Zach. It is more depressing given the high number of outlets covering UFC 71…UFC 72 was a red headed step brother to that event. Maybe the UFC has problems selling fights NOT involving Liddell, Ortiz, or Couture?

  8. Tim Lee says:

    I will say this. If couple fights are boring, then it’s boring. Not every fighter’s style is exciting. I would tell a fighter to do whatever it takes to win, even if it’s in a boring lay n’ pray OR Stand N’ Pray decision

  9. Body_Shots says:

    [If there’s anything to prove by this, it’s that the bars possibly pick up cards when the Sports Media will cover them.]

    I don’t know, there wasn’t a lack of media covering the event. Had it been on Spike like they planned, more causal American fans would of been talking about it.

    Moreover, it appears that the event sort of got lost in the shuffle, between the UFN, TUF 5 finale & UFC 73. I don’t think they expected to do well on PPV with this card anyway.

  10. Ivan Trembow says:

    This is what is naturally going to happen when there are five different UFC events booked in a seven-week period (plus TUF on Spike TV every Thursday).

  11. Ivan Trembow says:

    Also, was the UFC-provided video analysis footage (featuring Mike Goldberg and Joe Rogan) airing on any of the ESPN and/or or ESPN News loops at any time? I was looking to see if there would be any coverage of UFC Fight Night 10 or UFC 72 on either ESPN or ESPN News, and as of this morning I hadn’t seen any before, during, or after either event. In the meantime, they’ve had highlights of (and ticker results of) a few boxing matches in the past few weeks that were probably smaller events than the UFC events. It makes no sense.

  12. MoreThanUFC says:

    Zach, I got ya on the casual blogs. But that was to be expected, of course. It got ZERO mainstream coverage. I’d bet 90% of the paying customers have never read an MMA blog before, except the home site. I talk MMA at the gym and am amazed how many “fans” in the digital age havent been to Sherdog? 3-4 years before we’re off the hook of a major drug/death/gambling/mafia/yakuza/ scandal derailing this train.

  13. The Citizen says:

    If I’m the ufc and I’ve got Liddell-Jackson coming up, I call ESPN and ask for the meal deal, and get it. But I dont ask for the cover-every-event-i’m-doing deal because that just costs too much. I figure if we cover the big event, then everyone will be hooked because something Zack mentioned on FO radio — Dana buys into his own ka-ka. Thats why he continued to push a champ that lost, ignored the champ that won, and then took a dookie called UFC 72. I was thinking the other day, were ring events like Pride more exciting because you could see the audience? Either way, if you uninvite the biggest corporations to be a part of your revenue, how can you be truly successful as mainstream? It doesn’t matter anyway — Dana’s chilling in a phat house and rollin in dough. We are just getting more of the same UFC treatment — mediocre shows and once in awhile a really great show like 71. Knees to a downed opponent, the ring, Fedor.

  14. Jonathan says:

    I think that this event fulfilled almost everyone of the UFC’s own expectations…and I think that there is something to be said for that. This was not the K-1 show where expectations were huge and very little, if anything was delivered. Also, it was not like the first Strikeforce show where very little was originally expected and in the end there were new records set. All in all, this was a medium card and it gave medium results. I guess you could call this card “solid” and “something to build on” and you wouldn’t be far from the truth.

    In the end, I think that it is cards like this one that will in the end help the UFC solidify itself as a mainstream sport.

  15. 45 Huddle says:

    I just re-watched Guida vs. Griffin. Originally, I had Guida winning round 2. After watching it again, I had Griffin winning it. First, Griffin controlled about the first 3 minutes of the round. Secondly, Guida had 2 big submission attempts. The first was a leg bar, but he took so many punishing shots, that Griffin almost scored better in the exchange. It wasn’t until 90 seconds left in the round that Guida got back control.

    I really thought it was the 3rd round that was debatable, but after watching it again, I scored the fight for Tyson Griffin.

  16. Stevie J says:

    Even if this show was a dud to the mainstream, I still watched it and recapped it and enjoyed it a lot.

    http://www.angrymarks.com/news/View.php?ArticleID=1422

    Clay Guida got straight up robbed.

  17. Body_Shots says:

    [I just re-watched Guida vs. Griffin. Originally, I had Guida winning round 2. After watching it again, I had Griffin winning it. First, Griffin controlled about the first 3 minutes of the round. Secondly, Guida had 2 big submission attempts. The first was a leg bar, but he took so many punishing shots, that Griffin almost scored better in the exchange. It wasn’t until 90 seconds left in the round that Guida got back control.

    I really thought it was the 3rd round that was debatable, but after watching it again, I scored the fight for Tyson Griffin.]

    LOL me too, re-watching the fight the 2nd round is a lot closer than I thought it was the first time, but the two sub attempts gave Guida the round. In the 3rd, Tyson controlled the stand up and Clay didn’t start taking over until the 2 minute mark, he didn’t land anything solid until the last ten seconds while Tyson was offensive from his back throughout.

    I’d give the fight to Griffin as well, but it’s very close.

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