FOX fights fail to deliver
There were great fights at UFC on Fox: Evans vs. Davis. Unfortunately, they never made onto FOX, but instead were…
There were great fights at UFC on Fox: Evans vs. Davis. Unfortunately, they never made onto FOX, but instead were broadcast on the FOX owned FUEL channel, which this far has shown small viewership.
For the very first UFC fight ever on FOX, the determination was made to choose a fight that was sure not to go the distance. The choice worked too well, as Junior Dos Santos knocked out Cain Velasquez in one minute, leaving up heartwarming profiles, ads, and general banter to fill up the rest of the hour.
This time it appears that an effort went into choosing fights that were significant, but that were not likley to end in a minute, or 14 minutes.
MMAFighting’s Michael David Smith explains.
Between the three fights Fox broadcast on Saturday and the Junior dos Santos-Cain Velasquez fight in November, there still hasn’t been a really good UFC fight on network television yet.
Any curious newcomers to the UFC who turned the show on from the beginning probably changed the channel after the first round of Chris Weidman’s decision win over Demian Maia.
Chael Sonnen’s fight with Michael Bisping was better, but that fight wasn’t much to look at, either: Sonnen showed how to use superior wrestling and clinch work to win a decision, but the new fans the UFC wants to draw on Fox probably didn’t find that too entertaining, either.
And in the main event, Rashad Evans dominated Phil Davis for 25 minutes without ever coming close to finishing. If you know enough about MMA to appreciate that Davis is a very talented athlete, an NCAA champion wrestler and a rising star in the sport, you were probably impressed with how thoroughly Evans controlled him. But if you’re new to MMA and had never seen Evans or Davis before, you probably figured at the end that you’d rather spend half an hour watching a Seinfeld rerun.
The UFC and FOX both say they’re in this for the long haul, and that they plan to grow the sport together. That’s good, because this is going to take time. The UFC and Spike got lucky when the first Ultimate Fighter Finale had a sensational battle between Forrest Griffin and Stephan Bonnar. So far, there’s been no such luck for the UFC and FOX. Through four live, televised fights, the network television viewers haven’t seen much action.
The fact that the FOX audience has yet to see a fight that is compelling to a new fan is all the more maddening, because it was predictable. In fact, MMAMania’s ever excellent Gene Mrosko made the prediction last Tuesday.
UFC plays it safe with ‘Evans vs Davis’ event on FOX and it could produce disastrous results
The match-ups themselves could result in three of the least aesthetically pleasing fights possible.
When the UFC dipped its toes in to test the waters with FOX last November, it did so with a heavyweight championship fight that all but guaranteed a knockout. Sure enough, 64 seconds into the bout, Junior dos Santos floored Cain Velasquez with a looping punch to win the title.
When the ratings came in, the fight was deemed a smashing success, having garnered a peak of 8.8 million viewers for the short but sweet contest. Obviously, that gives hope for something to build on.
However, UFC President Dana White was quick to tell folks that he was dealing with a lot of heat behind the scenes and we, both the media and fans, are not privy to the kind of pressure his organization is put under from various sources. Perhaps that played a big part in the “play it safe” mentality when it came to booking the next FOX card.
Rashad Evans vs. Phil Davis
We could very well be looking at 25 minutes of Davis shooting for takedowns and because Rashad has serviceable takedown defense, they could end up stalling each other out up against the fence while the Chicago crowd showers them with boos.
Chael Sonnen vs. Michael Bisping
Unless Bisping finds a submission or Sonnen’s ground and pound actually scores a knockout (as if), this should serve as the worst possible appetizer to the main event to come.
Demian Maia vs. Chris Weidman
Maia is a jiu-jitsu wizard who creates sweet poetry when he works his craft on the mat against what always seems to be helpless opponents. Weidman is the furthest thing from that, as he provides quite the foil for Maia’s vaunted grappling … how likely is the casual crowd tuning in on FOX to be enamored with it?
This is a fascinating card for many reasons, but the biggest of which is that UFC decided to play it so safe with the matchmaking, offering three separate fights between foes who could all cancel out the strengths of the other. It’s entirely possible — likely, even — that all three bouts go to decision … that means fans may very well come to learn terms like “lay-n-pray.”
No one wants that.