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UFC 3/27 Newark, New Jersey (PPV)
By Zach Arnold | March 27, 2010
Dark matches
- Welterweights: Matt Riddle vs. Greg Soto
- Middleweights: Rousimar Palhares vs. Tomasz Drwal
- Light Heavyweights: Rodney Wallace vs. Jared Hamman
- Lightweights: Kurt Pellegrino vs. Fabricio Camoes
- Middleweights: Ricardo Almeida vs. Matt Brown
- Lightweights: Nate Diaz vs. Rory Markham
Main card
- Lightweights: Jim Miller vs. Mark Bocek
- Welterweights: Jon Fitch vs. Ben Saunders
- Welterweights: Ben Saunders vs. Jake Ellenberger
- #1 Contender’s match (Heavyweights): Frank Mir vs. Shane Carwin
- UFC Welterweight Title match: Georges St. Pierre vs. Dan Hardy
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Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 39 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
I predict 700-800,000 for the show. And all of that will be for Mir-Carwin because I cannot believe anybody would pay to see GSP outclass Hardy for 5 rounds. I have no idea who will win Mir-Carwin. Hopefully Carwin because another Lesnar-Mir fight is pointless.
GSP is a huge draw, he’s easily one of the top 3 draws in MMA right now. People will gladly pay to watch him outclass opponents, after all, that’s pretty much his entire career in a nutshell. The Mir-Carwin fight elevates this from a 600k+ event to something closer to 800k.
Not only will this card do a huge PPV buy rate, it will get even more money from the movie theater business. I’ve already talked to a few casual fans about this card. They don’t seem to care that GSP is a near guaranteed favorite. They just want to see him fight.
UFC Primetime starts on Wednesday. Hardy’s mouth will guarantee this is a mega event.
Trash talking only works when you can meet the fans half-way with the belief that you could win the fight. And I don’t even think Dan Hardy believes Dan Hardy can beat St. Pierre. For example, if Paul Buentello were trash talking Brock Lesnar, nobody would care because nobody really believes he has a chance.
I kind of hope this does turn out to be an upset to justify this fight even happening, because if it’s another 5 round takedown clinic like GSPs other fights have been it will be as worthwhile as if they just showed footage of him sparring for $45.
“For example, if Paul Buentello were trash talking Brock Lesnar, nobody would care because nobody really believes he has a chance.”
Mark a better example would be if Jake Shields was talking about beating Anderson Silva, or if Tatsuya Kawajiri were talked about crapping on Penn.
Hardy is ranked around 4,5, or 6 most places and Kawajiri and Shields are probably around the same. Buentello isn’t even top 15.
On second thought I’d probably have Kawajiri a few spaces lower.
“UFC Primetime starts on Wednesday. Hardy’s mouth will guarantee this is a mega event.”
I don’t know about “mega event”, but I definately do believe it will help sell it.
You have got to love 45 huddle the UFC sunshine pumper lol
Once upon a time, Mitch Blood Green talked a lot of trash to a young Mike Tyson. It didn’t really work out. I expect a similar level of success for Hardy.
I do like the card though. Has 2 really strong competitive bouts on it. But I’ll save my money. There isn’t a fight on the Pacquiao/Clottey card that isn’t a competitive, likely action packed, and interesting matchup.
Alan do you know any of the indercard fights besides Diaz vs Soto off the top of your head?
Alan what are the competitive bouts you care for on that card? I’m only ordering it because enough casual Pac fans are coming over that it will be free, but it looks crap to me. I’m sure the undercard will be on mute or drowned out by the sound of my guests not giving a f’. Except maybe Diaz-Soto none of these fights are even HBO-worthy, never mind PPV. And in the style of this website, I would say they don’t set up a damn thing in any of these divisions.
Duddy/Medina and Castillo/Gomez have interesting implications within their divisions that I could get more into if I was willing to write a few paragrahps: Castillo is headed to the HOF and this is a last gasp. Duddy wins and gets a fight with JCC Jr, possibly now for a vacant 154lb WBC title (depending on other things). In comparison to the fights with nonranked guys on the UFC card (Miller/Bocek and Ellenberger/Saunders) there’s no question that the results have much more of an immediate impact in terms of the promotion of future evens and within the world title picture of pro boxing versus that of MMA. They also are much more likely to be long exciting fights. If Saunders or Bocek end up winning, its unlikely to be a decision, and 3 minute fights with guys I’ve never cared about don’t get me amped. If Miller or Ellenberger win, odds are it will be by laying on their guy and throwing some punches for 15 minutes. Again; not exciting, especially when compared to the likely wars on that undercard.
There’s some other pieces; No doubt that the boxing main event is more competitive. Not even a question. Only diehard Brits give Hardy a shot, and most of them probably wagered on GSP. Mir/Carwin is a legit tossup, but I’m not going to buy a PPV to see the #4 heavyweight fight the #9 heavyweight alone. Fitch/Alves is competitive on paper, but I don’t expect any wild change from the first fight. Again, its not exciting when Soto/Diaz probably will be.
Why even come on to MMA websites and discuss them? Every UFC PPV, big or small, you put down and say you aren’t ordering it.
Ugh … Duddy vs. JCC Jr. for a vacant belt is so terrible you must be right that they are setting it up. It’s a total farce though so personally I wouldn’t consider that an impact on the world title scene. I worry Castillo may get Gatti’d by Gomez, but even so Gomez is going nowhere with a win. On the whole I agree I rather watch these fights than Miller/Bocek and Ellenberger/Saunders if I could only have one card. But at least there’s other stuff on the UFC card that could be exciting and about as relevant. I’m thankful Margarito was pulled off this show but Top Rank could have done something special with this card…
Does that mean we can look forward to GSP beating him up even worst outside of a bar a year later? It would still be very politely done.
Between Mir’s fight, the hope that Fitch is finally dispatched, and the GSP exhibition there is just enough for me to consider this. Like with the Pac-man PPV I already have casuals calling to come over, for GSP. Hopefully the undercard produces some good grappling and they deign to show it.
Pacquiao-Clottey has ‘action’ fights on the undercard that will be entertaining but without much significance. Diaz-Sotto is ok and this undercard is better then most of the recent big boxing PPV cards (outside of Marquez-Mayweather)but thats not much of an accomplishment.
I don’t see this UFC card as being epic like everyone else is trying to make believe it is on all the forums. Fitch-Alves II is good and so is Mir-Carwin, though both these heavyweights are massively overrated. Then there is the main event, GSP is a star and Hardy has no business fighting him. If GSP doesn’t finish Hardy its going to be a big disappointment.
I also don’t like the fact that they are manufacturing Hardy to be some great threat just because he has a big mouth and they decided to run the primetime show because of this…oh well the fans will eat it up.
Why even come on to MMA websites and discuss them? Every UFC PPV, big or small, you put down and say you aren’t ordering it.
Big or small, they all cost the same. Don’t blame me because the cards for UFC 102, 103, 106, 108, 109, & 110 didn’t set the world on fire. Blame the UFC for putting on mediocre PPVs. I know you occasionally do it, so its not beneath you.
On the whole I agree I rather watch these fights than Miller/Bocek and Ellenberger/Saunders if I could only have one card. But at least there’s other stuff on the UFC card that could be exciting and about as relevant.
Oh, totally. I see two fights on the dark card I’d want to watch. But I don’t pay money to hope that a fight I want to watch will make TV. That’s for suckers, especially since they have a strong shot at going the distance. The other problem is that those fights on the boxing show have a good shot of being epics. A bunch of snacksized KOs of dudes I don’t know ain’t the same.
It’s funny alan on one day you’ll say James toney’s belts he has right now don’t mean anything. Then the next you say fights between John Duddy/Medina and Castillo/Gomez have implications. See where I’m going with this.
I knew what the fights were. I was busy on Queensberry yesterday talking to the moderator about how bad this undercard was, and when you tried to hype it as action packed fights with implications I about fell out of my chair. The fights are between Journeymen and a washed up legend who hasn’t been in his prime in close to 4 years. You really care about who will face JCC jr. next. The guy is like 30-0 without a fight against a top 20 opponent. The last guy he beat was more of a club fighter than he was a contender. He took forever to finish him if even did(I don’t feel like looking it up) and then he failed for steroids.
I think I got your thought process down. If it’s involved with Zuffa you down play it, give it the smallest amount of respect that you can get away with without looking like something of a troll. If it is something you think people don’t know much about its great. It is worth your admiration.
There are two guys ranked in the top ten of any weight class on the whole Pac-Clottey card(Manny and Joshua).
On the UFC card there are the top 3 welterweights in the world fighting, and 3 or 4 other top ten ranked guys.
Now I’m not saying the Pac-Clottey card isn’t worth buying because watching manny fight is a thing of beauty. Its just from top to bottom the UFC’s card blows this away.
Oh and how is there no doubt that Clottey vs Pacman is more competitive?
Similar rankings for both fights. Similar invincible looking champions. Similar bad style matchup for the challengers, and very similar betting lines….
Clottey is a closer dog, and should be. He’s been a career welterweight and Pacman is not remotely that. If you had to pick someone to score an upset, would you really pick Hardy first?
I see 6 top 10 ranked guys on that UFC card. Which is great for them. More than the 3-4 on the boxing card. But the boxing card has fights more likely to be exciting, and more likely to have serious effect on title pictures. If Fitch beats Alves, well, do you think he’s getting a title fight of some sort? Or a title eliminator? I don’t. Say what you will about the ridiculous nature of boxing rankings and how they reflect the sport – at least there is consistency there.
Lemme put this another way; The UFC doesn’t really care about Fitch/Alves II, for all the supposed implications it has. Why should I?
“If you had to pick someone to score an upset, would you really pick Hardy first?”
The thing is I wouldn’t. Neither are going to lose. Both are terrible style matchups for their challenger, but yes if I had to pick one it would be Hardy. Tiny gloves with power beats a size advantage.
Good to see that no matter what changes, Alan continues to downplay whatever the UFC does and prop up their competition it amazes me sometimes the depths he will reach with this stuff.
A boxing event Dana is giving away tickets to is UFC competition? What isn’t competition?
Alves out. Ellenberger being given his show and win bonus. Fitch vs. Saunders is on. Pellegrino vs. Camoes being promoted to main card….
If Ben Saunders defeats Jon Fitch, he is guaranteed a title shot….. Highly doubt that will happen…
WHy is alves out? Got any specifics?
Failed CT scan.
Darn. That Turns two good fights into one ok fight. I like watching Ellenberger. I hope he gets another fight soon.
Alves dropping out was a blow to the card. I think Fitch/Saunders is a good replacement considering the circumstances….
Personally, I would have rather seen Ellenberger vs. Saunders and then promote Almeida to the main card and have him fight Fitch. Of course the UFC has a hard-on for Matt Brown for some unknown reason, so they probably didn’t want to cut him from the card….
All I can ask for as a fan of this sport is for Jon Fitch to lose.
And of course we get an instant “OMG HIS CAREER IS OVER FOREVER!” from Dana. Although he hasn’t even been properly examined yet and his camp is downplaying the severity. I’d hate to see his reaction to a family member having cancer. He’d probably offer to euthanize them on the spot.
They should have left the Saunders/Ellenberger fight intact and let Fitch sit it out.
But since they’ve made the switch they need to dump the Fitch/Saunders fight to the undercard and replace it with Pellegrino/Camoes. I would actually prefer the Diaz/Markham over Pellegrino/Camoes on the main card but I know there’s no chance they are removing that from the Spike broadcast.
According to that card, Saunders has a tough night! Fighting both elenberger and Fitch.
“Dan ‘Ardee ees not eh true martial arteest.”
I feel like the dude just got thrown to the sharks, and then those pieces were thrown to bears. Poor guy.
From the play by play, it seems Hardy got utterly dominated. One judge scored it 43-50? Was it really that big of a blowout?
It was a ground clinic, as expected. Hardy pulled a Ben Henderson impersonation on a couple of the sub attempts.
The real winner at this show is the UFC’s HW division. Carwin went from “a prospect that hasn’t beaten anyone” to “his best win is Gonzaga” to becoming a legit top 5 fighter that looks like a monster. That power is unreal. When a guy can generate that much power while pressing an opponent against a cage, it has very scary implications, especially given his wrestling background.
So next is Carwin/Lesnar, then winner faces Velasquez, then that winner faces JDS (who will probably fight in the interim). The next year and a half is going to be fantastic for that division.
Canada is afraid of organized crime .And i tought Shedog had security issues with visters. Go figure