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BY WADE KELLER, MMATORCH SUPERVISING EDITOR
-In retrospect, I wonder what UFC's rating Saturday night would have been had they done ten minutes of pre-fight hype with a countdown clock, then went to the fight earlier. Then, if the fight ran short, go to the tremendous Ben Henderson vs. Clay Guida fight with the remaining time. I know Fox wants "live fights," but there was a good chance that an undercard fight - especially that one - would be fantastic. Why not build in a back-up plan in case the main event live fight lasted only a minute or two? Sure, some fans would know the outcome, but most wouldn't have, and those who did hear about how great it was online would have wanted to watch it anyway.
-UFC on Fox 2 will be a two-and-a-half-houir show, according to Mike Goldberg's interview with MMA Hour's Ariel Helwani. Previous reports said 90 minutes would be the norm. In either case, that affords them a lot more flexibilty. I think Fox execs need to warm to the idea of not necessarily airing all live fights. If the main event ends quickly, filling in the post-fight time with undercard highlights would be a great way to keep viewership high. I'm all for post-fight analysis, too, but 20 minutes or more of talking heads is probably not the best use of that TV time.
-One aspect of the post-show analysis from Dana White and Brock Lesnar that was missing was their selling the idea that Cain Velasquez had never lost before. They did seem more on their heels about how short the fight was and, perhaps, defensive about it, shifting into criticizing Velasquez's strategy. Instead, just reacting with dropped jaws and then really driving home the historic nature of what just happened would have been better. That was history being made and a new star being born. That was a time to turn lemons to lemonaid. Yes, there was reason to be on their heels, but they needed to be prepared for that very real possibility and then be ready to go with a positive (realistic and credible) spin on what viewers just saw. Of course, that would have been easier if they were able to transition into Henderson vs. Guida, too.
-I know Fox didn't want their one hour to seem like an infomercial for a pay-per-view, but UFC could make an honest argument that these specials shouldn't just hype fighters on the card, but include some short, high-impact video packages on fighters who might fight on Fox in the future. Ideally, those video packages would coincide with the next PPV fight. So I'd like to have seen a little more synergy between the Fox broadcast and the upcoming PPV. If UFC could present it as a news segment about the sport of MMA - i.e. upcoming major title fights and contender fights, it would make sense to mention upcoming dates and how people can see those fights. I get wanting to give a ton of time to profiling the fighters in the actual main event, but airing a Big Picture Story on the state of the heavyweight division that would have also made a household name of Allistair Overeem along with Brock Lesnar would have been smart business for UFC and Fox.
-Keep in mind, UFC is not receiving enough money from Fox network to sustain their business model. Pay-per-view is still their primary source of revenue and will be until the genre dies or Fox antes up to broadcast all big fights each month because the sport really takes off among mainstream fans at an NFL level (and don't rule that out completely). So UFC has to use Fox specials as almost a loss-leader since Saturday's fight would have made a lot more money on PPV than they got from Fox. UFC has to strike a delicate balance between attracting new fans for big fights that draw big ratings on Fox and not spoiling their current PPV base on thinking they're getting "Fight Night" level cards instead of the big title fights and packed lin-ups so they begin to skip the PPV events and just wait for the free specials on Fox (and FX). Serving two masters is tough, and for the first time UFC is facing that challenge.
-What's good for Brazil is bad for Mexico (and the Hispanic demographics in the U.S.). Dos Santos became a star with his KO win, and that helps UFC's attempts to expand in Brazil in 2012. The sudden loss of a potential huge Mexican icon is a setback at the same time, though. Had Velasquez put in a star-making performance, the buzz among the Hispanic population who hadn't warmed up to MMA yet might have taken UFC to another level in the U.S. (and Mexico). UFC bet on both black and red in this scenario, so they were guaranteed to win and lose at the same time. Velasquez will be back, though, and the story of his comeback will be one worth following as a UFC fan.
-Where this was a win-win for the sport of MMA is how nice and gracious both fighters came across. This was not a freak show between two trash-talking brawlers. Obviouisly trash-talking can help sell fights, but Saturday night was more about selling the sport, and having true classy sportsman set the tone for the sport was more important than having Chael Sonnen or Rashad Evans cutting pro wrestling style promos to sell the fight. The sport is fighting preceptions from those this Fox deal is trying to reach, and Velasquez and Dos Santos were role models.
-On another note... I'm proud to welcome artist Grant Gould to the MMATorch website and app as our official commissioned original artist. He is a top level, in-high-demand full time professional graphic artist whose resume includes Topps, Lucas Films, Viper Comics, Upper Deck, Universal Pictures, ECW Press, among others. He drew the Junior dos Santos image on the front page of our website (www.MMATorch.com) right now and his top level art will increasingly show up in coming weeks, giving the site and app a new, fresh, and high-end graphic appearance headed into 2012 unlike any other MMA news and commentary source. View more of his work at www.GrantGould.com.
-Thanks to everyone for your continued support of MMATorch! If you visit us on the web, check out our free apps (available for the iPhone, customized for the iPad, plus Android and Amazon's app marketplaces). If you visit us on your smart phone or tablet, be sure to also visit our website when you're at a computer (www.MMATorch.com). We have a comments area on our website to react to articles and interact with other readers, plus polls and web-exclusive videos from our affiliation with USA Today.
Wade Keller is supervising editor of MMATorch. He has covered MMA since before UFC 1 for the Torch Newsletter, and is among the longest tenured reporters covering the sport. He is a double-black-stripe belt in tae kwon do and has practiced judo and jiu jitsu at the North Star Martial Arts Academy under Michelle Holtze and Tom Crone. He founded MMATorch.com as a dedicated MMA website in 2006 and launched the MMATorch App in 2008. MMATorch is among the top five most read MMA-dedicated brands in the world.
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