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Watching tonight, it struck me how stale UFC's Fight Night format is. It's the same music, the same cadence and body language from Mike Goldberg, the same quick summaries of the backstories on some of the fight and fighters, and the same 15 minutes that go by before the first fight begins.
If UFC Fight Night was drawing great ratings on Spike TV, UFC could rest on their laurels and stick with what's working. There is so much room for improvement, and some simple ways to give themselves a better chance at better ratings.
Spike loves the demographics that UFC draws. It's one of the best rated shows on the network in the key male demos. That said, UFC is simply more popular than the ratings on Spike indicate. UFC's stale format and lazy production techniques are holding it back.
To improve ratings, they should start with a countdown clock on the screen reading "90 seconds until the first fight starts." Then give a 30 second preview of the main event, a 30 second preview of the rest of the card, and a 30 second preview of the first fight. Then, sans ring announcements or introduction, sound the horn to begin the first fight.
UFC is drawing the hardcore fans already. They need to hook those who are prone to flipping channels. The heavy dose of commercial breaks with a few words by announcers over clips of fighters is testing the patience of those casual fans, I believe. Give them a high-energy 90 second opening with a countdown clock in the corner confirming that the first punches will be thrown within two minutes.
Then after the first fight, have high-energy video packages put together pushing the main event and one other marketable fight on the card. Wrap that with commercials, since they clearly do need to find commercial time to make these broadcasts pay off.
The exclusive interviews with upcoming title fight competitors and PPV main eventers are also a reason to watch UFC Fight Night. UFC needs to build them up a little more than they do. Make people anticipate hearing live from UFC's top stars talking about their upcoming fights.
Also, not to get too "talk heavy," but to add some perspective and excitement to the main event on Fight Night cards, which usually don't feature top-tier name brand fighters (they've saved for the PPVs, obviously), UFC should present a panel discussion with a few huge names (Randy Couture, Chuck Liddell, Dana White, and Kenny Florian, for example) talking about the main event. Discuss the ramifications of either fighter winning. Put in perspective where they come from, what they're fighting for, and the strengths and weaknesses of each fighter.
Then later in the show, once they've adequately built up the televised main event, have a few Panel Discussion segments ready to fill TV time if the live fights run short. Ideally fit in a 60-90 second roundtable talk on the next PPV main event, too, to utilize Fight Night to get casual viewers excited about the next PPV.
Also, sprinkle into the show a sense of tradition for the Fight Night format. Honor the past big moments in Fight Night history so that it creates a sense that what's happening tonight is also History in the Making rather than the B-show that a lot of people see it as.
After each fight ends, right before going to the commercial, plug what fight is coming up next. Just a 10-15 second video package with narration hyping what's at stake and who is fighting with some high-energy, explosive clips can keep people tuned in who otherwise might not have the patience to sit through the forthcoming commercial breaks and post-fight interview without a little hype for the next fight thrown at them.
UFC is guilty of letting the sport speak for itself. Now that there is so much MMA being offered - not like the old days with one PPV every two or three months and no live TV events - they need to work harder at promoting and profiling their stars and building excitement with context for their fights. They're doing the same thing on Spike they've done for years. UFC would benefit from bringing in elite video production people to hook those fans who need that little extra to get their adrenaline pumping.
It's not "beneath UFC" to start taking extra effort from a production standpoint to hook the more casual or newer fan. They seem to be stuck five or ten years in the past when it comes to just presenting the fights and generic background music with a few locker room shots. They could do so much more to boost those ratings and get people excited even about mid-card non-PPV fights on Spike TV Fight Night specials. It's not about overhyping or faking anything. It's about giving the best production techniques that live up to what the entertainment these fights provide and the ramifications of wins and losses.
OTHER THOUGHTS...
-Any pro wrestlers looking for a cool new finishing move should find inspiration with The Twister applied by Chan Sung Jung in the opening fight tonight.
-When was the last time someone had to live with the fact that he tapped out with just one second left in the round? Clock awareness is huge, but then again one more second in that hold might have been intolerable and damaging. I'm not going to judge.
-Joe Rogan said what I was thinking, which is the weight and size differential between Anthony Johnson and Dan Hardy looked huge. I know the downside of weigh-ins at fight time rather than a day or so before fight time, but what about introducing a "maximum differential" where they weight fighters a day before the fight and then 20 minutes before the fight and have a standard difference that is allowed. It just seems, with all the downsides health-wise of weight-cuts and how unpleasant the whole experience is, couldn't some happy medium be agreed upon to avoid these major weight differentials in fights. Not that there aren't plenty of smaller fighters who win against bigger fighters, but when all else is equal and the difference is simply a fighters ability to cut weight better this opponent, it does take some of the value out of the point of weight divisions and fighting someone your equal size.
-Hardy's exuberance during the ring intros and even his enthusiastic smile when he was in the guard at the end of the end of a round he was losing add to his being a draw on TV whenever he fights.
-Joe Rogan Quote in response to Mike Goldberg saying it's time for UFC to cross the Hudson River and hold a show in New York: "That's embarrassing. There are only three states in the country that don't sanction mixed martial articles. One of them doesn't have an athletic commission and one of them is New York. Come on, get it together."
-The crowd booed Johnson when he took Hardy down mid-third-round because they wanted to see a slugfest with Hardy. But it's uneducated booing and unjustified criticism because Johnson was not just taking Hardy down and holding him down; he was pushing for a win, getting Hardy's back, executing strikes, and constantly maneuvering to try to end the fight. It's Hardy's job to prevent takedowns, not Johnson's job to alter strategy for the pleasure of fans who want to see blows to the head. I almost wish UFC handed out wireless earpieces to novice fans so they could hear the play by play that put in perspective the strategy and near-submissions that were going on that they don't see or appreciate.
-That was a big 30 seconds that Antonio Rogerio Nogueira survived at the end of round two. He took a lot of punishment, but still that was a situation where Phil Davis might have been able to get in a relentless barrage of punches to give the referee a reason to consider moving in for a stoppage. In the end, it didn't matter, as Davis outscored Nog throughout. Another Pride legend is knocked down a notch. It's nice that these emerging UFC stars are getting chances to connect those two eras. Even if Nog isn't in his prime, it's not like he's 40 or anything and just a shell of his former self by any means. These wins mean something for UFC's emerging class, especially this one.
-I'm not sure what reason would justify this, but I think they made it through this entire show without mentioning Jon Jones. No clips of him on "The Tonight Show." No highlights of his fight last Saturday. No notes on Rashad Evans. I assume it's part of UFC's apparent philosophy of "the only fight card that matters is the next one and the only fighters who matter are those on that card." I just think that's so short-sighted. It's like the NFL broadcasters never talking about the upcoming schedule and big games coming up in weeks six, seven, eight... fifteen, sixteen. I mean, there's a time to capitalize on excitement regarding a new young champion, especially one who is still largely unknown to many casual viewers watching Fight Night. I don't get it.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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