Friend of our site


MMA Headlines


UFC HP


Bleacher Report


MMA Fighting


MMA Torch


MMA Weekly


Sherdog (News)


Sherdog (Articles)


Liver Kick


MMA Junkie


MMA Mania


MMA Ratings


Rating Fights


Yahoo MMA Blog


MMA Betting


Search this site



Latest Articles


News Corner


MMA Rising


Audio Corner


Oddscast


Sherdog Radio


Video Corner


Fight Hub


Special thanks to...

Link Rolodex

Site Index


To access our list of posting topics and archives, click here.

Friend of our site


Buy and sell MMA photos at MMA Prints

Site feedback


Fox Sports: "Zach Arnold's Fight Opinion site is one of the best spots on the Web for thought-provoking MMA pieces."

« | Home | »

Dana White: Yeah, Michael Bisping won that fight against Chael Sonnen

By Zach Arnold | January 29, 2012

Print Friendly and PDF

Interesting to note that Dana’s comments in the video were echoed to me by a well-known MMA judge and they basically expressed the same sentiments. Michael Bisping certainly thought the same thing. So did Neil Grove and many other fighters.

On the other hand

Dana trying to say 30-27 for Sonnen was robbery. R1 and 3 were obvious for Chael. R2 close. 30-27 card not controversial in the least.

By the time the Sonnen/Silva fight rolls around this Summer in Sao Paulo, everybody will have forgotten about how average Sonnen looked against Bisping… except the oddsmakers, of course, who probably will overcompensate when they make the line and make Silva a bigger favorite.

At the tail end of the Dana interview, he gave props to Chris Weidman for taking the fight against Demian Maia on 10 days notice and having to cut 32 pounds. There’s just something that doesn’t sound right about praising the concept of cutting over 30 pounds of weight in 10 days. It brings me back to what Dr. Johnny Benjamin said about the topic a couple of weeks ago… There was talk about Chael Sonnen vomiting during the week and having trouble with his weight cut. If you have to cut so much weight that you’re making yourself sick, making your blood thicker, and draining water out of your system which leaves you more vulnerable to head trauma due to those four ounce gloves… that doesn’t sound like a good recipe for safety to me.

Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 30 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

30 Responses to “Dana White: Yeah, Michael Bisping won that fight against Chael Sonnen”

  1. Sundog says:

    Agreed, although he only cut 11 pounds the last day, which is what I personally count. 32 pounds sounds really impressive, but with the amount of exercise these guys do in a training camp, it’s fairly simple to pull off two pounds a day with an energy-restricted, ketogenic diet.

    11 pounds of water is 1.375 gallons of water, which is not the same as 4 gallons of water.

    Not to say it’s ideal or healthy, but it’s not as drastically dangerous as “cutting” 4 gallons of water.

  2. Mark says:

    Yeah it was a 29-28 fight where Bisping won round 1, Sonnen won round 3 and round 2 could go either way. I leaned towards Bisping, but it’s not like it was such a clear victory Bisping got robbed and the world should be outraged. Don’t leave it up to the judgges. But whoever had it 30-27 needs to be fired immediately.

    And Chael embarrassed the hell out of me. UFC needs to hold an intervention for him to stop acting like this. A dash of pro wrestling is great in MMA. But completely acting like a pro wrestler reading off scripted lines as Chael did all night is awful. Now he’s talking in the third person like he is The Rock? Oh God. Just stop, dude. The first few months of him building the Silva fight was an acceptable amount of rasslin’. This is just going to turn people off. First time viewers last night are going to think he’s the biggest idiot in the world and if UFC are going to gush over his stupidity they are not worth watching.

  3. 45 Huddle says:

    I had it for Sonnen, but it could have gone either way. Nothing would have been a bad decision. It was a very hard fight to judge. Sonnen pushed the action more and that will always be a deciding factor in the judges eyes.

    Sonnen/Silva and Jones/Evans should each do over 500,000 PPV buys. JDS/Overeem will probably do between 400,000 and 500,000. And it should be interesting to see what type of momentum Cruz/Faber get from TUF.

    After a really poor 2nd half for the UFC’s PPVs….. They are set up nicely for the next 6 months.

    • Mark says:

      In PRIDE judging it would have been a clear cut decision for Chael since overall he did more to work to finish the fight than Bisping did.

      But scoring the fight round by round on points, it could go either way and goes by if you give more credit to takedowns that go nowhere for Sonnen or strikes that are harmless for Bisping.

    • Mark says:

      Man, 500K is a blockbuster superfight in 2012? That’s kinda sad. Remember when people were so sure Silva/Sonnen II was going to do Brock-level numbers? I know Chael being out for so long really hurt, but cutting estimations in half is very telling.

      • 45 Huddle says:

        Oh, I think Jones vs. Evens will actually do closer to 800,000…. I just used 500,000 as a line to show that it will be a bigger event…. And that the UFC is now lining up many of these bigger PPV’s compared to the Edgar/Maynard 3 type of stuff.

        Plus they are lining up the winner of Diaz/Condit to be a big fight for GSP…. Which will also likely do in the 800,000+ range.

        2011 was a huge transition year for the year. New weight classes, changing channels, and lots of injuries. Despite losing Lesnar at the end of 2011…. 2012 is shaping up to be a bounce back year with what they have scheduled….

  4. 45 Huddle says:

    The biggest problem with the FOX telecast is the pacing of the show. Way too much filler. I think it’s a perfect example of what happens when TV Executives who don’t understand the sport get involved. In the first hour we had 1 fight. In about 140 minutes, they only put on 3 fights. There was no reason a prelim couldn’t have been shown to get a good fight on the telecast.

    What has always made the UFC great is that they put fight after fight on and keep fans entertained. It’s the anti-boxing which has way too much time between fights. These FOX telecasts feel too much like HBO Boxing, which isn’t a good thing.

    For me the fight fan, it’s not the end of the world. I have to put up with these horrible telecasts 4 times a year…. For a total of 12 fights. I’m just glad the vast majority of the fighting…. on PPV, FX, & Fuel TV…. Is produced the correct way.

    ********

    The other problem seems to be that for some reason the UFC is afriad to put on the smaller fighters onto FOX. Doesn’t make much sense when the best fights in the UFC are typically Welterweight and below….. And yet so far we have only gotten 4 fights…. All Middleweight and above.

    • Mark says:

      It is to be expected that for a while they’re going to treat UFC like the viewers are just seeing it for the first time and need to explain the backstories, especially since the FOX shows are there to set up PPVs. And lots of casual fans don’t even understand why Jones and Evans have issues, so they felt they needed to explain it.

      The problem was, Jon Jones was freakin’ awful. Brock was great in November, he came off like a huge star and you cared about what he had to say. Jones just came off as really annoying and added nothing. He reminded me of when Tiger Woods would try to be funny and cool in PGA interviews and just came off annoying.

      Randy reminded me of Howie Long, but Howie needs somebody colorful like Terry Bradshaw to play off of. They need to look deep in their fighters of past and present and find somebody who can do it and just bring “guy hawking upcoming fight” in for an interview. And hopefully they won’t bring in Chael to tell the Chaelamaniacs what he smells cookin’ and what Sonnen 3:16 MEANS.

      • 45 Huddle says:

        Jon Jones is actually smart and a good talker.

        He suffers from the same problems that the 3 Frank’s suffer from (Trigg, Shamrock, & Mir)…. There big ego gets in the way of a good telecast. Hmmmm…. I wonder if his parents almost named him Frank and changed their minds at the last minute to Jon.

        I’ve talked to a few people about last nights UFC. The sky isn’t falling like it is for some of the online community. They all thought it was on the boring side. But they all seemed to like the fact that it felt like a PPV quality event and was still free. And it’s much easier to get people to come back time and time again when it’s free. They don’t feel half as cheated as when they spend $55 and get a dud of a fight.

        • Mark says:

          Smart, yes. Good talker, not last night. And I like Jon Jones, I’m far from one of those people on the internet hating his every move. IMO he’s the best fighter of his generation. But he just sucked last night. Brock in the role months ago made me want to see his fight. Jon, not so much.

          I don’t think “the sky is falling”. But I think the show was bad and that’s not going to “get new eyes” like is the whole point of this TV deal. The first fight was the kind of thing that is going to have boxing zealots crapping on MMA, Chael did not look like a guy who has a chance in hell against Silva, and the main event was OK but nothing I ever need to watch again.

          But this was supposed to be about making Chael/Anderson a must-see fight to the casuals, and to me, it did anything but. I actually care way less about that fight than I did 24 hours ago. I think Chael is going to be slaughtered if he had that much difficulty with Bisping. And the “promos” are embarrassing.

    • Alan Conceicao says:

      They’re already showing all the prelims on TV via Fuel. Why would they interrupt hype and analysis of a top level fight to show some scrubs? It would be like showing highlights of indoor football games in between the 1PM and 4:15PM NFL games.

  5. Fight Metrics had it for Sonnen 29-28, which is how 2 of the 3 judges saw it.

    http://www.mmamania.com/2012/1/29/2755675/ufc-on-fox-2-results-chael-sonnen-vs-michael-bisping-fight-metric

    I`m not sure how much it scores to just push your opponents body up against the cage? Because that is all Bisping really did.

    Sonnen’s interview was brilliant! Just the right amount of pro wrestling for me. (although I could have used a Homicidal Backdrop Driver when he had Bisping’s back…that would have been sick)

    He’s a legitimate star, and he’ll boost the buyrate for Sonnen vs. Silva if Anderson accepts the fight.

    Rashad didn’t come off as much of a star vs. Phil Davis though, and I doubt he won many fans during the fight, or with his post-fight interview. I can’t see him vs. Jon Jones doing huge Brock or GSP-like numbers in the 800k+ range. The casual fan doesn’t care enough about either guy.

    GSP vs. Diaz later in 2012 will likely be the closest the UFC gets to 1M buys for a PPV this year (if it happens).

  6. Kelvin Hunt says:

    I had it 29-28 Sonnen…pretty easy to score IMO…

    • edub says:

      I had it 30-27 Sonnen. IMO people are overplaying the striking advantage Bisping had on the feet way too much. I thought the takedown in round 2 edged the score in Sonnen’s favor. It’s not like he was outstruck by a lot in the round anyway (he technically landed more).

  7. bluerosekiller says:

    Dana & the boys are going to be wailing & gnashing their teeth when all the ratings & the fallout from this show are out. I guarantee it.
    And they only have themselves to blame because they did a sh*tty job of matchmaking right from the start. Even before all the reshuffling due to injuries.
    Back when the line up was first announced for this show, I knew that we were very likely looking at a night of mediocre distance fights. And if you don’t think that there was a LOT of channel changing & tuning out going on by casual viewers during the telecast, you’re delusional.
    WTF were they thinking?!!
    Between Dana’s refusal to find a way to shoehorn the Henderson-Guida fight into the first show & it’s ballyhooed main event ending in 2 minutes & now this deadly dull marathon of a second one, he couldn’t be doing much worse thus far if he were INTENTIONALLY trying to screw the FOX deal up. Seriously.
    What do you think the “water cooler” talk is going to be about tomorrow regarding the UFC ( assuming that there’s ANY )? Well, my guess is that the most often repeated “buzz words” will be, as follows: “boring”, “sucks” & perhaps the most damning of all, “fake”.
    Yep, “fake”.
    I’ve already heard people say that none of the fighters looked like they were “really” trying or going “all out” in their attempts to win. These people are, it goes without saying, idiots & morons, but when combined with Sonnens’ silly post fight “promo cut” with Rogen, it could be damaging if such impressions are wider spread than what I’ve seen & heard thus far. Especially if it’s wide enough to get back to FOX execs & make them nervous.

    All that being said, I don’t think that last night was a deal killer of any sort, but I do think that Dana & the boys had better put ALL their eggs in one basket for the next FOX telecast & do everything in their power to make every fight on that show a F*cking barnburner.
    And I mean Joe Silva’s job should be on the line after last night’s crapfest.

    • The Gaijin says:

      Overnights are already in – I think you’ll see there won’t be much wailing and gnashing.

      1st hour had a 2.0 rating/6 share [18-49] (3.98mm).
      2nd hour went up to a 2.5 rating/7 share (4.77mm).

      For comparison sake – UFC on Fox 1 had overnights of 2.5 rating/7 share (4.64mm).

      So we’ll have to wait and see what it looks like when west coast and fully sorted out numbers come in (probably not going to have the peak the main event had for various reasons) but I think they’ll be fine with what they got last night and so will Fox b/c it was a runaway winner in the 18-49 demo last night.

      • Chromium says:

        As I’ve said elsewhere and below, that’s a very positive sign. The first one was a one-hour show with a Heavyweight World Title fight. This one was a two hour show with two title-eliminators and Maia/Weidman, and did these numbers despite the main card fights ranging from so-so to awful.

        • 45 Huddle says:

          And the most important thing with the ratings is how great the UFC attracts the 18-49 demographic. The vast majority of those commercials were for that age demographic. The UFC’s success has always been in their ability to attract that age group.

          I think what these numbers show is that the UFC can be a solid staple on broadcast television a few times a year. Not a huge ratings success. But solid.

          By comparison… If you take the 18-49 numbers… Which is a 2.2 rating…. And compare it to Thursday’s ratings… This show would beat 30 Rock, Parks & Rec, & Private Practice. The Office…. Which is one of NBC’s biggest hits scores a 3.0.

          The first show ended up doing a 4.0 in the 18-49 demographic (after the final tally)…. Which is Grey’s Anatomy & Jersey Shore Territory…. Only American Idol & The Big Bang Theory easily beats those numbers.

          To say the UFC is in safe territory is an understatement.

      • Light23 says:

        Those are very solid ratings, especially considering the show was a snoozer.

  8. Megatherium says:

    ZUFFA needs to grow a brain when it comes to asking people to make weight on short notice fights. Asking a middleweight to cut 32 lbs in 10 days is incredibly dangerous, Weidman looked like a zombie out there.

    Maia should have been given the choice of taking a catch weight fight or sitting out. This kind of scenario is far too dangerous and is easily avoidable.

  9. Chromium says:

    Show was kind of ass. The main card fights were mostly boring (Sonnen vs. Bisping was the best one only by default; nearly every undercard fight was better and Swanson/Roop was amazing).

    However the early television viewership numbers are a very positive sign and they went up from the first to the second hour as they should despite the ugly Maia/Weidman fight.

    Also while I didn’t score the match for Bisping (and neither did Compustrike) he surprised me and I really wanted Sonnen to beat the crap out of him. Bisping nearly won that fight for real and demonstrated that he is underranked, not overranked. At worst he is #6 in the world. At best he is #3 and I can’t even wrap my head around that concept. I guess the silver lining is that Mayhem Miller shouldn’t feel as bad now.

  10. If they want people to walk away from a UFC on Fox show and be actually talking about it the next day, they need to:

    a) book some Lightweight, Featherweight or Bantamweight fights on the main card,

    b) not put Maia on the card (ever), and

    c) have some striker vs. striker fights, especially in the main event.

    Not too difficult to figure out. I would be shocked if the ratings for UFC on Fox are nearly as high the next time.

    • Jonathan Snowden says:

      “If they want people to walk away from a UFC on Fox show and be actually talking about it the next day, they need to:

      a) book some Lightweight, Featherweight or Bantamweight fights on the main card,”

      Wait, what? Based on what track record? Years of WEC stagnation? The horrible buy rates for lighter weight fighters on pay per view?

  11. King Famous says:

    I watched the entire fox show and it was good to see the fights on free t.v.
    Randy was great I thought – Jon Jones looked a bit nervous but I’ve heard the commentary job is not as easy as it looks. I’d say they would do OK with airing some of the under card fights.

  12. EJ says:

    I really want some of whatever Dana and Joe Rogan were smoking to score that fight for Bisping it must be some very strong stuff.

    While I give Bisping all the credit in the world for making it a close fight than I initially though it would be. He still lost all 3 rounds pretty clearly, I even rewatched the fight looking for reasons to score it for Bisping and couldn’t. The guy fought a really good defensive fight but you can’t win a fight on defense you actually have to score on offence.

    Sonnen while he didn’t look really good until the third round did what he had to do to win the fight. And he did an even better job of hyping things up with his 2 great promos, the guy is a star and was treated as such by the crowd.

    I will say one thing for all of those excited over the possiblity of Evans vs. Jones and Sonnen vs. Silva 2. Don’t be surprised if 1 or both of those fights get postponed again. Since Bones and Silva have gone out of their way to duck both Evans and Sonnen don’t be shocked to see a mystery illness or injury postpone things again.

  13. Megatherium says:

    So Jones is an early 6-1 favorite over Evans. That seems about right, not only are they a full weight class apart size-wise, but Jones would seem to be the stronger fighter skill-wise in just about every area of the fight.

    They’ll have to sell this one on the Greg Jackson soap opera back-story because this fight is likely to disappoint anyone expecting more than a one sided beatdown.

  14. edub says:

    I scored the fight 30-27 for Sonnen. IMO it’s easy to see which rounds go where, and the single round that could have gone to Bisping was round 2. However, Sonnen still technically out-landed him in the round and got the only takedown (although he didn’t do much with it).

    Round 1 he out-landed Bisping almost 2-1, and got the only takedowns of the 5 minutes.

    In judging the fight as a whole: I’m not seeing where Bisping had all this success on the feet. Did he edge Sonnen there in rounds 1-2? Maybe by a little bit. Did he deserve to win those rounds because of that? Imo, that answer is an emphatic no (except the second was admittedly very close). Bisping doesn’t hit that hard. He never rocked Sonnen, and the cuts on Sonnen’s face had just as much to do with the head clashes as the ones on Bisping’s face.

    A question for everyone: Is some of the favor being given to Bisping in the scoring of the fight connected to the fact that most people thought Chael was going to run through him quite easily?

  15. edub says:

    And to Dana: You’re the same guy that thought Diego Sanchez beat Martin Kampman, and Bj Penn beat Jon Fitch.

    Give it a few days, and watch it again.

  16. Kelvin Hunt says:

    UFC needs to put lower weight classes on FOX….fighters like Jose Aldo are not PPV draws…they are exciting…and almost surely will not be boring.

  17. Megatherium says:

    Chael just isn’t the same dynamic performer without his TRT jet pack. This mere mortal version of Chael can cut the funniest promos in history and it still won’t sell ppv.

    I think ZUFFA wastes their time commission shopping this guy.

Comments to 45 Huddle

*
To prove you're a person (not a spam script), type the security word shown in the picture.
Anti-spam image