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UFC 101: Just asking…
By Zach Arnold | August 9, 2009
…why my server got log-jammed for this show but was able to withstand the volume of hits for UFC 100?
Second look at 1 million PPV buys for UFC 101?
Suffice to say, our tech will no doubt be taking a look at what went wrong. (The server being overwhelmed has screwed up the headlines from being updated.)
As I’m busy transcribing quotes from the UFC 101 press conference and various interviews, I noticed something funny in Alessio Sakara’s post-fight interview on UFC.com:
Wonder what he’s signing? Maybe the termination papers for Thales Leites in UFC…
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 31 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
My first thought looking at those photos…. wonder if his manager has a credential/lanyard for this card… a la the loretta hunt manager credential imbroglio…. I\’m assuming so, ATT had three guys on the card so there should have been a surplus of credentials…. I would hope they wouldn\’t step to him for such things if he didn\’t have representation around
Leitas deserves to get cut. Two absolutely horrible fights that he lost…. It’s like he has zero care for the people who pay his salary….
Here’s a thought for you Zach,
its amazing how the coverage/interest is high when the UFC puts on legitimate main events in the east coast (no Evans vs. Bisping crap).
Almost as if the media center of the U.S. responds to the events being closer.
Maybe we can chalk this one up to some good ole fashioned East Coast Bias
The problem with saying UFC should cater more to the media-heavy east coast is they and their supporters spend so much time on the “newspapers are dead, who cares that they don’t cover us” train of thought that if they do get New York Times and Washington Post coverage and gloat about it, they look like hypocrites. And plus just as many boxing shows are held in Las Vegas as UFC shows and they get next-day write ups for the big fights (not 50,000 buy events like “Latin FISTesta IV” events, but the marquee fights.) It’s just that the “old school media” doesn’t care because they still don’t take MMA seriously, not that they’re not going to stay up late to write about it.
Number of takedown attempts by Forrest Griffin: Zero.
That was a masterful performance by Anderson Silva, but seriously, what was Forrest Griffin thinking?
As I said after the Cote and Leites fights, Silva is a counter-striker who doesn’t fight particularly well when he’s forced to be the one coming forward, but he fights incredibly well when his opponent is the one coming forward. As Silva said in the post-fight press conference, “Styles make fights,” and as Josh Gross said on his live blog last night, “This is what happens when the best counterfighter in MMA gets a guy who recklessly moves forward.”
That’s not to take anything away from Silva. He looked insanely good in that fight. But the lack of takedown attempts from Griffin was flat-out baffling, especially considering that fighters much smaller than Griffin have succeeded in taking Silva down when they’ve attempted to do so.
Yes, But it was reported that Griffin suffered a dislocated Jaw witch he thought was brocken. That would make me tap and get to the hospitle as fast as I can.
Anderson Silva has very scary power indeed.
Now I have this hilarious visual of Forrest barefoot in his fight trunks sobbing uncontrollably and running through traffic to get to Pennsylvania Hospital without stopping.
“Yes, But it was reported that Griffin suffered a dislocated Jaw witch he thought was brocken. That would make me tap and get to the hospitle as fast as I can.”
The tap (if it was a tap) came at the end of the fight. Also, if he had a dislocated jaw, wouldn’t that be all the more reason to attempt a takedown at some point, instead of standing and trading strikes with Anderson Silva?
Ten percent of the US population lives within 100 miles of the port of Philadelphia. Less than one percent lives within 100 miles of Las Vegas.
Even in this era, that still makes a difference.
WEC.tv has connection issues this morning. They got a lot of mentions on the 101 PPV, could be a slashdotting effect.
It’s a pay per view business, this isn’t the 1950s before even closed circuit where everything was based on live attendance. Enough people travel to Vegas to give them a good gate. Even the overseas shows are successes in America. They could run a show in Timbuktu and it would be successful.
I don’t see any increase in media coverage. They still held the press conference at 1:30 am EST so stuff would have been late getting to the press anyway. Location is meaningless. They can’t bump the time up to start the show at 7 EST because it would be 4pm on the west coast and nobody likes afternoon PPVs.
I just noticed MMA Mania is reporting UFC could hold an event at Fenway Park in 2010. Now that’s stretching it. They didn’t even get a sell out last night but they think they could fill up a baseball stadium enough to not embarrass themselves? Maybe if they had really cheap tickets, but I can’t see that happening. We’re talking about a 40,000 seat stadium, which would be double what they get for Rich Franklin fights in Ohio. Bad idea.
I am pretty sure that it is a medical release form
He’s wearing a Hayabusa logo on his tshirt… thought they were on the UFC banned list?
Fenway would be a horrible event for a UFC. It’s not even friendly to baseball. I can’t imagine it being friendly to MMA.
Besides, the TDBankNorth Center is a very nice building that holds like 20,000. It’s actually very comparable to the Wachovia Center.
We’d have to put a regulatory regime in place before they’d hold an event here. Fenway horrible for baseball? You must be a Yankees fan, or terribly uninformed.
The most recent ownership has been attempting to expand the use of Fenway beyond just baseball, they had Paul McCartney last week, and apparently one of those outdoor hockey games is going to be played there this winter. I wouldn’t be shocked.
It’s just the TD Garden now, BankNorth has been excised from the name like all the others. It’s all terribly confusing so I just keep calling it the Shawmut Center hoping that it will eventually come full circle. The top tier of seats has too sharp a pitch for my sensibilities, but otherwise it’s adequate. If you wanted to simulate Vegas capacity, we have a lot of smaller hockey arenas in this area that would be serviceable (Agannis at 7k or so, then others that are suburban to greater or lesser degrees). I’d be happier if they held a WEC show here, honestly.
Mark,
If they didn’t get a sellout, they came very close. The Wachovia center seats over 20,000 but the seats in the four corners of the upper level had their view blocked by the four big screens they have up during fights, so I don’t think they were for sale.
Also, this event had the highest gate is PA combat sports history, and as Dana White said on comcast sports net on Friday night, the UFC averages the highest ticket price of all professional sports.
The UFC drew very well, and the local media treated MMA as a sport, not as a spectacle. Great event, and the Philly crowd proved to be knowledgable about MMA, clapping for every submission attempt and guard pass.
Nyc is missing out
I am a Yankees fan, but I’ve been to Fenway a few times. Heck, I’m all for old buildings, but that stadium needs to go. The poles hurt the view for many fans is bad. The area near Pesky’s pole makes it way too easy for fans to reach over and interfere. Not to mention how dirty and old it is. And the walkways to get to your seats are way too small.
Plus, a concert makes sense there with the green wall. It doesn’t make sense for a fighting event…
And I didn’t know the name was changed again…. They should just it The Garden….
I think the given figure was 17,411. Even if that was a sell-out taking the big screens into consideration, 40,000 seats is a lot of people to convince to come to your show. They would have to have the greatest card in the history of MMA, like every single title defended on the same show. And who would their “local boy done good” be for a MA show? Joe Lauzon? Try to convince people that Florian deserves a rematch with Penn? Sean Gannon vs. Kimbo II? If even uber-shill 45 Huddle says this is a bad idea, that speaks volumes.
How long has it been since you were at Fenway? If it’s been more than five or six years, then your information is out of date.
The thing is this, we’re not that far from Montreal. They could quite easily sell out 40k or so seats with a GSP headliner in Boston. That’s my fear, that Boston is just “Montreal with a more cooperative regulator, better weather, and a cooperative venue.”
If they bring GSP down here, it would be a fantastic show, but there would be no chance in hell that I could get tickets to an event in my own goddamn home city.
And if you don’t like Fenway, get used to it, man. It has outlasted one Yankee Stadium and it’s probably going to outlast another one too. They’ve made a lot of changes to it that have improved things substantially and I can’t see anyone seriously discussing a new facility anymore.
Nice to see condom depot back in the octagon – glad they were able to come up with the £100,000.
“Nice to see condom depot back in the octagon – glad they were able to come up with the £100,000.”
It would be $100,000 in American dollars, not British pounds. So it’s a lot less than what you are saying.
I think that the UFC has three aces.BJ at lightweight, Gsp at ww and anderson at mw. Machida has a ton of competition at 205, and Brock is still new. But Bj, Gsp and Anderson seem unbeatable at their natural weight classes. I don’t think that the Ufc has anybody under contract you can beat these guys right now. And after last night it is clear to me that if Gsp and Anderson fight, it will be the same outcome as the Gsp penn fight. The bigger man (Anderson) will win. They are almost equally skilled but Anderson will be to bog,and to strong.
For those with long memories, Fenway Park used to have wrestling and fight shows all the time when Abe Ford was promoting them 50 or 60 years ago. Fenway’s the same place that wanted the NHL outdoor ice game in January and the idea of UFC coming there, given that Dana’s from Boston, really is not that unrealistic. They could do well if Florian, Davis, and the Northeast crew headlined. Why not?
Penn has some solid competition coming up. Both Diego and Maynard will provide a solid threat to his belt. Even though people claim Penn has this great conditioning now, he was still very winded in the 4th. And that is after a slow paced fight. If Diego can keep the high tempo for a few rounds without getting too injured, he has a solid chance. I thought Florian was going to do that, but he wasted all of his energy on takedowns that weren’t going to be successful.
GSP is really out of challengers. Neither Swick or Kampmann will pose a true threat. Neither would Shields if he was signed. But at least they would be solid challengers. I do think they need to give Fitch & Alves each one more fight an have them fight each other. The loses moves to Middleweight. The winner gets a rematch with GSP. Once again, maybe not a true threat, but still a strin title fight. GSP vs. Silva should never happen. GSP is too small.
As for Silva, they need to get him to fight Machida. At least agree to it, and then put him in a few fights to build it up. And then vacate the Middleweight belt an have a 4-man tournament. I wouldn’t min seeing Henderson get another title shot before the belt is potentially vacated.
40,000 is a big number. It’s more than what PRIDE claimed they’d draw in every month for the Saitama Super Arena shows. And there’s no Yakuza ticket racket to help UFC get asses in seats.
That, and none of the guys mentioned are anywhere near to being the hometown draws of GSP or even Rich Franklin and Bisping. Davis probably isn’t the hometown draw that Matt Hammil is.
If they do this (and I forgot Dana was from Boston since he’s so associated with Vegas, so it probably will) I hope they save GSP-Silva for that show, because they will need something massive. Or a Chuck Liddell retirement fight, although that probably doesn’t sell that well in 2010.
Another thing is, when people point to the Japanese mega-gates and say it’s only a matter of time before MMA matches them, they’re forgetting how small Japan is compared to the US. It’s much easier and cheaper to travel to a Japanese event than it would be if your were a UFC fan living in New Mexico to get to Massachusetts. It’s why pay per view is a bigger deal here.
Davis is no one. Florian defending a title would be a good draw, but not 40k. Line up GSP and it will be sold out in 15 minutes, and I won’t be able to get a ticket 🙁
Has the UFC implemented the $100,000 fee for advertisers? I saw a logo for http://www.ripnroll.com which is another condom store but I didn’t think they had the coin or were even a large enough company to advertise condoms in the UFC especially if the entry fee is now $100,000.00