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MMA Link Club: Over/under 800,000 viewers for UFC Live on Versus this Sunday?

By Zach Arnold | August 12, 2011

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A couple of links to peruse before you take a look at the regular linkage in the MMA Link Club.

The battle is over for Scott LeDoux. He died on Thursday at the age of 62 due to complications from Lou Gehrig’s disease. Despite many notable accomplishments in his boxing career, LeDoux gained a level of notoriety for working Verne Gagne’s “Wrestlerock” show at the Metrodome in Minneapolis. He was involved in a classic 80s rap promo to promote the event.

This is a horrifying article to read, as it’s about TJ Cook and his return to active MMA fighting after suffering from kidney failure due to bad weight cutting. Is it a stretch to say that someone will die sooner or later due to weight cutting in MMA?

For those of you who haven’t gotten Blake Northcott’s new MMA eBook, you still have time to become a ‘late adopter’ and get on board. Check out her hot friend who designed her newest book cover. I hang with only the finest of ladies.

Member sites of the MMA Link Club

This week’s MMA Link Club featured stories

Five Ounces of Pain: Pat Healy wants to be the first guy to finish Eric Wisely this Friday night

“Really, I’d like to fight right away barring no injuries or anything serious happening in this fight. I’d like to even maybe be on the Challengers show on September 25. I’d like to be right back on it. Shoot, man, I’d really like to have two more fights by the end of the year.”

MMA Fighting: Gerald Harris agrees to face Kazuhiro Nakamura at DREAM 17 on 9/24 at Saitama Super Arena

NBC Sports: Mike Chiappetta’s primer for UFC Live (Hardy vs. Lytle)

Will Jim Miller become No. 1 contender or head to the back of the pack? And who wins the mini UFC vs. WEC war?

Cage Potato: Gambling Addiction Enabler: ‘Hardy vs. Lytle’ Edition

Dan Hardy allegedly holds the striking advantage — but I’m not entirely convinced of that either. Straight money on Lights Out is a wise choice.

MMA Mania: Chris Lytle plans to end his fight against Dan Hardy ‘as soon as possible’

5th Round: Rampage says Jon Jones can’t bust a grape

“This guy has never been tested, he’s never been hit,” Rampage said of Jones. “I ain’t worried about his height, his reach. I ain’t worried about none of that. The guy can’t bust a grape. I ain’t worried about his crazy spinning elbow moves … We’ve done broke this guy down.”

Bleacher Report: Where has the love for Jon Jones gone?

Now people are talking about him being “overhyped”. Excuse me? Fans, much like the media, are failing to understand what they are seeing.

Middle Easy: The possibility of Dennis Hallman’s elbow giving birth to an alien is frighteningly real

LowKick: Interview with UFC Connected’s Showdown Joe Ferraro

And here I am at the Rogers Centre surrounded by 65,000 people. I just told myself “carpe diem, seize the moment here, look around you, appreciate this, and realize how far you’ve come”. At that moment I felt like a fan again, I got to sit back, and say “wow this thing is just unbelievable.”

At that point I realized I had to work that much harder. It’s like that guy in Jiu-Jitsu who gets their black belt and he finally realizes “I might be a black belt, but there is so much more to learn here”. I now have to work that much harder, to get that much better, and really do what I can to help bring this sport to the mainstream in Canada.

The Fight Nerd: Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney on season five, Nate Marquardt, and steroids

“Nate [Marquardt] was a dynamic in that we do things in a very specific way. We have a tournament format, you have to fight three fights to get there, nobody gets an automatic title fight. It’s a different way to promote MMA, it’s objective… it may not be the right fit for everyone. We just weren’t able to fit all the pieces of that puzzle together to get it done.”

MMA Convert (Jim Genia): What you need to know about Ronda Rousey

Rousey’s got a judo background. But not just any judo background, you see. At the 2008 Olympics inBeijing, she became the first American female to medal in the sport (she got a bronze) at that level. Prior to that, Rousey racked up world title after world title, smoking international competition like it was salmon for her bagel. As for credentials, when all is said and done, she’s got a fourth degree black belt in judo – which is a pretty badass thing on its own.

MMA Payout: Pro Elite relaunches web site, releases 8/27 event promo

Who will be in their upcoming Heavyweight Grand Prix tournament?

Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, UFC, Zach Arnold | 27 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

27 Responses to “MMA Link Club: Over/under 800,000 viewers for UFC Live on Versus this Sunday?”

  1. 45 Huddle says:

    1) Hopefully under 800,000 and Zuffa stops caring about Versus soon.

    2) Rebney wants to sell Bellator. Almost every interview I see of him he is talking about the company sort of breaking even. He has money and selling on the brain. But Bellator is useless if it can’t even sign the Nathan Marquardt’s of the world. And he touts his companies tournaments like they are great. They have turned into a hinderance at this point.

    3) Jon Jones comes across a so fake and full of himself that fans have really turned on him. So much that Evans is starting to become the more popular one if that feud. I’m not sure if Jones is just immature or just a narcissist. Could be both….

    • RST says:

      “3) Jon Jones comes across a so fake and full of himself that fans have really turned on him.”

      Jon Jones is NOT fake.
      He IS full of himself.

      That can happen when you are legitimately the sh!t and under 25.

      I am also a bit disenchanted by some of his recent statements/activities.

      But then I imagine: If I was 25, chicks wanted my babies left and right, and I’m whooping the baddest asses in the history in my sport, I’d probably be full of myself too.

      He’s got a youngmans confidence, exasperated by nobody being able to humble him so far.

      He’s never tasted failure or defeat.

      But is that so offensive.
      I think we should at least cherish that while it lasts.

      The natural instinct of course is to wish for him to get humbled and rejoin the human race. But I dont see why we should be in a hurry to tear him down just yet.

      He’s young, and we’ve put up with worse attitudes off some great fighters before (barnett, anderson…).
      And we continue to.

      Let him grow first and lets see what happens.

      He seems like he has fairly reasonable judgment and values underneath his current egotrip.

    • Mark says:

      How have the fans turned on him? Because some people on message boards said he was a prick? So what. The internet hates everybody. When the buyrates come back cold, then you can theorize the public turned on him. Until then, you’re just projecting your feelings.

      I don’t think egos mean fans won’t like someone. The closest this has happened was with Anderson Silva, but his performances did more for that than him just being smug. If worse and comes worst, they can sell him on being an a-hole and fans will pay to see him get beaten if they hate him. Like that one guy who used to fight for them. Brock Something or other.

  2. chris says:

    Hopefully over 800k. But that’s borderline wishful thinking imo.
    With the talk moving more and more towards NBC Sports, It would, from a branding perspective add value to the brand and product but the fact outside the first stacked card the Verses shows haven’t been eyeball successful and that’s what counts in the end.

    I hate to say it, but I didn’t even remember this show was coming, or that Henderson/Miller was on it until I was watching last weeks PPV and I’m rarely out the loop on upcoming shows of interest.

    The only way the free broadcasts shows will ever gain traction is with more high value names on the shows. Plain and simple. The ratings over the past years speak for themselves. Shows with compelling match-ups with less name value don’t draw vs. a show with a big money name atop.

    The UFC is going to have to start booking some top tier names vs. up and comers as headliners for these shows. Unless a guy is a Champion or the “no.1 contender” everyone should be fighting on free tv atleast once a year-every two. A Forrest Griffin, Jon Fitch, Stephen Bonner, are all examples of guys you only see on PPV. Take guys like that, or guys who are coming off a Main Event loss and throw them on a free broadcast vs a guy knocking on the door of the Top 10. Nate Marquardt vs. Rick Story is a fair example of that.

    From a money perspective, if a top tier name fight is going to cost the UFC 175-225k, money that isn’t in a free broadcast budget, than taking a guy that you’ll pay 100k-125k to vs. a guy coming up the ranks making 25-30k seems a lot more feasible for a free broadcast tv show on Spike or Versus.Also attaching a money fighter to a free show will draw more than the supposed ratings ceiling we’ve been seeing the past few years. Discussions of over/under 800k would be a thing of the past.

  3. david m says:

    Honestly, as of right now, without looking it up, I have no idea who is fighting on the Versus show. I don’t particularly care. Is it this weekend? If I can remember to watch I will, but there certainly isn’t a ‘must see’ feel to it.

    • RST says:

      A lot of WEC/type guys.

      Some of the best ones like henderson, but I’d have to agree, it dosn’t do much for me either.

  4. Stel says:

    weight cutting gives us watered down mma

    while it does allow for larger fighters fighting smaller, the larger fighters are weaker than they should be.

    It should be like the old days, no weight class. That way the ultimate fighter is THE ultimate fighter, not just the ultimate ww, mw or hw fighter. Then there would be no bickering about “PFP” or “cutting weight”.

    • Chuck says:

      If they completely did away with weight classes then Cain Velasquez or JDS would be champion of the universe. Jon Jones would probably be somewhere in the top five. And Alistair Overeem would be somewhere in the top ten. Anderson Silva would be the new Chris Lytle or Joe Riggs (win some, lose some). Lytle and Riggs wouldn’t exist as fighters. Urijah Faber would probably be a surf board polisher in California.

      See where I’m getting at? Weight classes are a necessity. I don’t mind catch weights or open weights, but true weight classes are needed.

    • RST says:

      The reason for weight cutting is because Fighting shape is not the same as walking around shape.

      It takes more effort and diligence.

      And It makes better fighters.

      Anything can be abused.
      Too much pornography or Icecream and cookies is bad for you.

      • Chuck says:

        Too much porn? Nay! You can never have too much porn, mma, pro wrestling, naked oil wrestling (watching or doing), video games, reading books, reading comic books (I refuse to use the term “graphic novel”), internet surfing, etc…

        This pale yellowish color I have is perfectly healthy…

        • RST says:

          “This pale yellowish color I have is perfectly healthy…”

          Well, it can be adjusted to…

          (Lord knows!)

  5. David m says:

    I watched strikeforce tonight and really enjoyed it. Good pacing to the show and excellent announcing. I think Miletich and Quadros have skills, and Mauro seems to be a little bit less over the top. They were far better than Goldberg and Rogan.

  6. edub says:

    Mazzagati gets it right, even in doing a bad job of it. Ronda would have broken Sarah’s arm and let go because of the scream.

    I think Quadros is on his last legs as a fight announcer. Mauro seemed great tonight compared to him. Miletich is the only one I see out of this trio staying around after SF rolls into Zuffa, or just disappears.

    • David m says:

      Ronda should not have let go of the arm; that was her fault. That however doesn’t mean Steve was right to stop the fight at Ronda’s insistence…somewhere, Dana was watching and shaking his head that Mazzagatti is a sanctioned referee.

      • edub says:

        “somewhere, Dana was watching and shaking his head that Mazzagatti is a sanctioned referee.”

        Haaaaa! That’s exactly what I was thinking.

  7. Stel says:

    Mazzagati is quickly becoming the new larry landless. After not hearing the verbal submission if there was one, he hears Rousey’s plea to stop it then before asking the other fighter if they want to stop he just calls the fight. That’s as bad as any landless or mr. boo call, you can’t call the fight because a fighter tells you that the other fighter told them something… or because you are confused.

  8. 45 Huddle says:

    1) Maz continues to do bad. He is just horrible now. He has no business being a ref.

    2) I was bored with the Challenger card. Same way I’m bored with M-1, or Bellator, or any of the other lower level fighting. Zuffa is already 30+ deep in each division. And the rest is mostly spread out across smaller organizations. The level of fighting just isn’t good enough for me to care.

  9. edub says:

    Agbeko-Mares is hella entertaining. Great fight so far.

    • edub says:

      Sooo many low blows.

      • David m says:

        Literally the worst refereeing I have ever seen. Great job by Jim Gray…i wonder how much the ref was paid?

        • edub says:

          Agreed.

          I absolutely loathe Jim Gray, and I was cheering him on like a mofo.

          This is why people talk so much about corruption in boxing. Mora was either paid off, or is legally retarded.

  10. Mark says:

    Will someone die in MMA from bad cutting? Very possible. Will it be a UFC fighter? Probably not. I think chances are the majority of camps know their stuff when it comes to semi-healthy weight cutting (or as healthy as it can be). The difference is with boxers dying from weight cutting or dying from brain injuries due to a lack of brain fluid protecting them and why UFC fighters don’t is any ramshackle boxing gym can get a no-name a fight on an undercard. But UFC really only deals with major camps or at least major managers. They’re not going to sign a guy who trains out of “Archie’s Female Self Defense Training & Jiu Jitsu Center” at a strip mall the same way boxing promoters do business with boxing gyms with intermittent electricity under a highway overpass just to get a body to pad a record. And safe cutting is one of the reasons.

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