When UFC announced their new television contract with FOX in August for a seven year deal at reportedly $100 million a year, MMA fans, including myself were excited for the potential exposure and growth for one of my favorite sports. However, almost six months since the deal was announced it has lost a bit of it's initial luster.
The first Fox show in November, featured a lot of talk and only 64 seconds of fighting, with Junior Dos Santos winning the UFC Heavyweight Championship from Cain Velasquez. The decision to only show one fight was questioned by a lot experts, and their worst nightmare became reality. Dana White's comically angry post fight reaction was one of the top unintentionally funny moments in sports. With the UFC president scowling and questioning why Cain Velasquez would stand and bang with Dos Santos.
Length of the fights weren't a problem for the second Fox show, with all three fights going the distance. Due to a last minute injury to Mark Munoz, Chirs Weidman had to step in to fight Demian Maia in the opening fight. Both fighters gassed early and the 15 minute fight felt like a half hour. The second fight was the best of the night with Chael Sonnen beating Michael Bisping. Bisping was supposed to fight Maia, but stepped up to fight Sonnen when Munoz was injured. The fight featured a lot of work out of the clinch and up against the cage. The final fight was a 25-minute dominating performance by Rashad Evans over Phil Davis. The show still did well ratings wise. but neither Rashad nor Chael, the two guys the UFC wanted to win because of potential championship grudge matches (Sonnen-Silva, Evan-Jones), looked very impressive.
Now the third event is in May from Izod Center in Jersey, and the lineup is pretty much set. The main event of Jim Miller against Nate Diaz is weak as far as star potential is concerned. The rest of the card, as follows, features guys that put on exciting fights but don't offer much as far as being a ratings draw.
- Josh Koscheck vs Johny Hendricks
- Alan Belcher vs Rousimar Palhares
- Pat Barry vs LaVar Johnson
Yahoo Sports writer Dave Meltzer suggested that UFC may be experimenting with this card to see how much of a draw the UFC brand is without giving away potential pay-per-view fights. However, with the show taking place in Jersey, and with UFC's battle with New York state to legalize MMA, you would think that they would want to put on a bigger show. Once UFC gave a top-shelf fight for their Fox premiere, they set the bar and fan's expectations high, only to follow it up with what used to be Spike Fight Night quality shows. I think they need a bigger main event to differentiate the Fox network shows from their FX and Fuel shows or the ratings could drop significantly.
That brings up another knock on the Fox contract, that Fuel TV is pretty much the UFC channel, and isn't available with some of the bigger cable companies, including Comcast. Fans like myself, have missed out on the new UFC Unleashed, PPV replays, UFC Tonight, and UFC Insider shows. Fuel is also home to the pay-per view Countdown shows as well, which could be potentially damaging in the long term. But what hit MMA fans hardest was the fact that UFC had a live show on Fuel this past Wednesday. Luckily, one of my friends has Fuel, so I was able to see the show, but many people don't have that luxury, plus with the show being on a work night it was harder for people to go out to a bar to watch the fights also.
Fox and the UFC are still in their honeymoon phase though, and many of these problems are easily fixable. If the ratings drop in the Fox shows, UFC will be forced to put better fights on the shows. Also, Fox could be using the UFC to build up Fuel, hoping that fans force cable providers hands in giving clearance to them, thus getting Fox more money. In the meantime, UFC should offer die-hard fans an opportunity to watch the Fuel shows, even at a small price. I wouldn't mind shelling out $10-$15 to watch the Fuel fights online. In the long-term, Fox could be what MMA needs to blow up and become even more popular, but so far it has hit a few road bumps.
Elimination Chamber/ Wrestlemania in the Meadowlands
WWE's Elimination Chamber pay-per view is tomorrow, and is the final PPV on the road to Wrestlemania. The Raw Chamber features CM Punk, Chris Jericho, Kofi Kingston, Dolph Ziggler, The Miz, and R-Truth. With the rumored Wrestlemania 29 title match between Punk and Jericho, I see Punk retaining his title. The Smackdown Chamber is more unpredictable. The six participants are Daniel Bryan, Big Show, Wade Barret, Cody Rhodes, Great Khali!? and Santino Marella!!!???? With injuries to Randy Orton and Mark Henry opening up the slots for Marella and Khali this match doesn't have the same feel to it. I expect something to happen to Marella though, opening a slot for someone else, perhaps Christian, to keep up the surprise element WWE loves to give to it's PPV buyers. In the other major match, John Cena takes on Kane in an ambulance match. I just want this story-line to end so Cena can move on to building his Wrestlemania main event feud with The Rock. Can WWE finally pull the trigger on a heel turn for Cena? I would love to see it, but doubt it.
Wrestlemania is shaping up to be a really good show on paper this year. Headlined by Rock-Cena, and HHH-Undertaker III with Shawn Michaels playing a role in the match, as well as rumored matches of Punk-Jericho, and Daniel Bryan-Sheamus. WWE always does a great job building up Wrestlemania, so the next two months of TV should be interesting.
Finally, WWE held a press conference this week to officially announce that Wrestlemania 29 will take place at Metlife Stadium. This is the first time 'Mania will be held in an outdoor venue in a colder city. I'm surprised that they decided to do this, since it means that WM 30 will probably not take place in MSG, like the first, tenth and twentieth Mania's were. At the press conference, The Rock announced that he is going to be at the Grandaddy of 'Em All for the third straight year. I'm pretty excited for this, as it will be the second Wrestlemania I'll have the privilege of going to live.
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