Will the Spike TV UFC PPV lead-in TV specials increase buy rates?
By Zach Arnold | October 13, 2009
Not as crazy of a question to ask as you might suspect.
UFC 103 in Dallas did an reported 400,000 PPV buys for an event headlined by Vitor Belfort and Rich Franklin. 400,000 PPV buys for that show is pretty damn good business.
So why was Spike TV’s 1-hour lead-in event with dark matches from the PPV site portrayed as a failure in the media?
Because the show did a 1.4 cable rating, which was labeled by various writers as ‘disappointing.’ But, wait a second, aren’t many of those writers the same people that claim that it’s not how big your cable rating is but how many viewers you convert into PPV customers?
By those standards, the Spike TV experiment was a success — enough of one for the network to continue doing it for future UFC PPVs, including the October 24th event at the Staples Center headlined by Machida vs. Shogun.
The question is — how effective will the lead-in program on Spike be this time around for the PPV buy rate for UFC 104?
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 29 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
“Terminator” Sano destroys the competition at The Outsider event in Tokyo
By Zach Arnold | October 12, 2009
Tetsuya Sano, my old MMA writing friend, continues his winning ways in Akira Maeda’s event The Outsider. The promotion had a show at Differ Ariake in Tokyo on the 11th and Sano won another fight by KO (this time in 100 seconds) in the 65-70kg tournament the event producers held. Photo gallery for the fight here. A couple of great photos there.
He’s turning into a terrific fighter and is in great physical condition. I am very proud of what he has accomplished.
Topics: Japan, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | No Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Donald Cerrone gets royally screwed over by Texas judges
By Zach Arnold | October 10, 2009
That was, realistically, a 49-46 win for Cerrone (four rounds to one) over Ben Henderson. And how did the judges score the fight? 48-47 unanimously for Henderson.
Don’t get me wrong – Ben Henderson showed tremendous heart and flexibility, as much as Clay Guida did against Diego Sanchez. However, Cerrone was the aggressor with the submission attempts and he stayed on offense most of the way. Henderson was not even in Cerrone’s level in terms of finishing the fight.
What a horrible decision by Texas officials. The referee’ng was very spotty as well.
That’s MMA for you. Fight of the year still ends in a bullshit decision. I’m going to go watch boxing and cry in the closet now.
Very fun fight. Scored it even heading into the 5th, which was clearly Cerrone’s. Getting tired of judges overlooking close sub attempts. First round was very tight and you could make a good case either way. Too much weight for a TD. Not enough for someone who stands or reverses.
Topics: Media, MMA, WEC, Zach Arnold | 74 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
WEC 10/10 San Antonio, Texas
By Zach Arnold | October 10, 2009
AT & T Center in San Antonio, Texas (10 PM EST – TV start)
Dark matches
Featherweights: Javier Vazquez vs. Deividas Taurosevicius
Bantamweights: Charlie Valencia vs. Coty Wheeler
Bantamweights: Eddie Wineland vs. Manny Tapia
Featherweights: Wagnney Fabiano vs. Mackens Semerzier
Bantamweights: Scott Jorgensen vs. Noah Thomas
Lightweights: Anthony Njokuani vs. Muhsin Corbbrey
Main card
Bantamweights: Damacio Page vs. Will Campuzano
Featherweights: Raphael Assuncao vs. Yves Jabouin
Lightweights: Richard Crunkilton vs. Dave Jansen
Interim WEC Lightweight Title match: Donald Cerrone vs. Ben Henderson
Topics: Media, MMA, WEC, Zach Arnold | 16 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Forrest Griffin vs. Tito Ortiz on 11/21 in Las Vegas
By Zach Arnold | October 8, 2009
It’s a good fight for both men to take, as Ortiz will have an built-in excuse of ring rust if he loses.
The big loser? Rashad Evans, who does seem hellbent on fighting Thiago Silva in a match not many casual fans care about.
Griffin/Ortiz seems almost imperative to book, especially if they need to rebound from bad business at the Staples Center show for the 10/24 PPV with Machida vs. Shogun.
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 56 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
UFC fires Junie Browning
By Zach Arnold | October 8, 2009
He overdosed on Tuesday in Las Vegas on anti-anxiety medication. Browning is accused of battery of three hospital employees.
Interestingly, Kevin Iole says that Dana White terminated Browning’s contract after the incident. So why didn’t he do the same to Josh Neer or Quinton Jackson?
Asked if the UFC would try to coordinate care for Browning, White said no.
“He’s an adult,” White said. “He’ll figure it out.”
Would Browning have been helped out more by UFC if he was a big draw on PPV?
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 28 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Zuffa should hire Joe Warren and bring the Featherweight division to UFC
By Zach Arnold | October 7, 2009
Throughout all the talk about WEC surviving in 2010 and the promotion doing a PPV or two, the debate has been about whether or not WEC has enough star power to make it on its own. We know Urijah Faber and Miguel Torres have star potential and the two champions (Mike Brown and Brian Bowles) are very respectable fighters. Dominick Cruz is on his way up and Joe Benavidez is always a high-paced fighter.
However, there was one fighter whose charisma and personality caught my eye this week and that’s Joe Warren. Sure, we know Warren beat Kid Yamamoto by split decision and lost to Bibiano Fernandes on Tuesday at DREAM 11. Yes, he is a newcomer in the sense that he only has three fights, but Joe Warren has two qualities that could easily make him a top-level MMA star in America — a great heelish/cocky personality and super amateur wrestling credentials.
Warren is an exciting fighter to watch in the ring and outside the ring, he has a personality that comes across as a more likeable, dynamic version of Matt Hughes. He can talk really well and make people want to see him, win or lose. His promos in the Japanese media leading up to the DREAM 11 Featherweight GP tournament fight against Bibiano Fernandes were really fun to watch. Warren seems really comfortable in front of the press and has a unique quality of knowing how to put himself over but also put over a fight. He uses terms like ‘taking the guy’s soul’ and violence and all sorts of other phrases to describe what he wants to do to his opponents. The guy’s good at what he does and is only going to get better in the ring.
Warren mentioned that he is currently training with Alberto Crane and Rani Yahya for his jiu-jitsu skills. He needs some time to train and obviously he would like to be involved in the 2012 London Olympics, but an MMA promoter would be absolutely foolish not to snatch him up in the States and push him very hard. Watching Warren compete with the likes of Brown and Faber would be great, but not in the WEC platform — the Featherweight division needs to be in UFC so that new stars can be developed and added to the current crop of top fighters at 145 pounds.
It’s time to give DREAM some credit here — they are pushing some new faces in addition to the old PRIDE names and it’s great to see some fighters get a chance to fight in Japan for a promotion that will give them more matches than a company like Strikeforce.
Topics: DREAM, Japan, Media, MMA, UFC, WEC, Zach Arnold | 15 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
DREAM 11 at Yokohama Arena
By Zach Arnold | October 6, 2009
Update (10/7): The show drew a 12.7% rating on Tokyo Broadcasting System. The highest quarter-hour mark? Minowaman vs. Choi Hong-Man. Minowaman faces Sokoudjou in the Super Hulk tournament finals. This is funny news because Sokoudjou was not too thrilled about having to face Bob Sapp at DREAM 11 (Sokoudjou wanted his fight against Gegard Mousasi). Sokoudjou should be thrilled with the easy payday and the fact that he will get another easy payday against Minowaman and draw some eyeballs.
—
For the hardcore fans, the big story of the show was Joe Warren losing to Bibiano Fernandes in the Featherweight tournament. Warren, who was the clear cut favorite on the sportsbooks to win the tournament, got submitted/referee stopped by Fernandes. In the week leading up to the show, Warren had been doing media rounds and telling writers that he has been spending too much time away from home, so much so that he wanted to open up a Team Quest branch in Denver in order to get some consistency back in his home life. Warren was anywhere from a +100 ~ +150 to win the tournament. Hiroyuki Takaya was second at around +200 ~ +225. Fernandes was a big underdog as a ‘win the whole tournament’ play. Which, naturally, meant that he would win the whole deal like he did. It will be very interesting to see where Fernandes gets ranked on upcoming Top 10 lists in the 145-pound category.
Kazushi Sakuraba dispatched of boxer Rubin Williams (video here) and Sokoudjou finished off Bob Sapp pretty quickly. Ikuhisa Minowa, being outweighed by over 150 pounds against Choi Hong-Man, submitted the (former) giant with a heel hook.
Shin’ya Aoki defeated Joachim Hansen by submission to get the DREAM Lightweight title.
The claimed attendance for the show at Yokohama Arena was 14,039.
Topics: DREAM, Japan, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 27 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Bas Boon talks about Alistair Overeem’s upcoming fight schedule
By Zach Arnold | October 6, 2009
There are a lot of rumors online about what Alistair Overeem of Golden Glory is up to as far as future fights. There was a rumor online that he would fight Sam Hoger in Holland.
Bas Boon, who represents Golden Glory, issued this response to us regarding the rumors:
“Alistair will be doing K-1 and MMA in his career. He qualified for the K-1 GP finals on December 5th. He may fight on October 25th in Osaka (Castle Hall) at the DREAM show and also on the NYE card in Japan. We are planning to face Fedor after the first quarter of 2010 in Strikeforce in a heavyweight title defense when the money is good and guaranteed! He would have fought already in Strikeforce this year if it was not for his hand injury. The first new option to fight after August was last September in K-1 against Peter Aerts. We took this booking because Peter is a legend not only in Japan but in many different countries. It proves that Alistair’s stand-up skills are getting really good. He is training every day with Martjin de Jong, Roberto Flamingo and Cor Hemmers, sparring with Errol Zimmerman, Semmy Schilt, Sergey Kharitonov, Gokhan Saki, Ruslan Karaev, and John Olav Einemo. There are a lot of heavyweight sparring partners at Golden Glory for Alistair. He will be ready for Fedor!”
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 13 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Debating the future of the WEC
By Zach Arnold | October 5, 2009
So, this Saturday in San Antonio, Texas, the promotion has a show on Versus featuring Donald Cerrone vs. Benson Henderson. This was the show that got bumped from Youngstown, Ohio in early September amidst Versus and DirecTV having their major squabble (which still is lingering). Truth be told, very few people care about Saturday’s WEC event — which prompted Jake Rossen to ask if the WEC still matters or not.
What we know is that UFC had the option of keeping the league around for another year or perhaps doing a merger. In a recent interview on RawVegas.tv, Faber said that he was about to sign a new deal with Zuffa to fight as WEC’s ace in 2010. He also mentioned that WEC would hit PPV next year and that this seemingly will be the core of the promotion’s financial model in ’10.
So, will the WEC be successful on PPV? What would you consider a successful buyrate number for the promotion on PPV? Will the promotion end up merging with UFC?
Topics: Media, MMA, WEC, Zach Arnold | 28 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Smell the desperation — Kazushi Sakuraba to fight Rubin Williams at DREAM 11
By Zach Arnold | October 3, 2009
No other conclusion to reach for booking him at the last-minute for the Yokohama Arena event on 10/6.
update (10/4): Sakuraba’s opponent will be boxer Rubin Williams (Gladiator Academy/Ring Media Group).
Topics: DREAM, Japan, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 25 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Kimbo Slice vs. Roy Nelson outdraws RAW on cable
By Zach Arnold | October 1, 2009
A 3.7 rating, which will drive Vince McMahon into a tailspin and give heartburn to anyone having to deal with him this month in WWE. The quarter-hour rating for the Kimbo/Nelson fight itself was well over a 4.
In our comments section, Rob Maysey talked about just how much the media influences the numbers in American MMA and how media-initiated the business is as opposed to the media simply responding to what fans want.
If all of this talk sounds bizarre to you, it should be. The media apologists for this are out of their minds. It’s the equivalent of you paying for a concert ticket and going to the event and realizing that the performing artist is lip-syncing the entire time, only to read the next day in the newspaper or see on the local telecast the critics praising the artist for screwing over the fans and taking their money by ‘working the marks’ over.
If the UFC apologists in the media want to get all Southern Fried Carny on us, then let’s use an appropriate wrestling term to describe what we saw on Wednesday night. Screwjob seems like a tame phrase. We could use the term fuck finish but realistically speaking, the finish was ‘perfect’ and it was the fans who get fucked.
The good news is that UFC did great ratings for the fight. You would think that it would be a great indicator of the company’s health, right?
Maybe not so fast.
MMA Payout has two critical reports (here and here) about Zuffa LLC’s finances. Long story short — UFC is still an event-driven company financially, they’re not losing as much internationally any more, and they took out a $100M USD loan — but a fair amount of money the company is generating is going to the owners as dividends.
What does that sound like is going on to you?
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, WWE, Zach Arnold | 84 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Will Kimbo Slice replace Marcus Jones on The Ultimate Fighter?
By Zach Arnold | September 30, 2009
Dan Wetzel of Yahoo Sports:
What’s most amazing isn’t that Kimbo will return. It’s that the show – either through the magic of reality television or by brilliantly showing what was legitimately real – has turned Kimbo into a likeable, humble and easy-to-root-for guy.
Dana White had changed the expectations game.
Suddenly Kimbo was being hailed for putting up a decent fight against Nelson, a former International Fight League heavyweight champion with far more experience.
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 88 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |