THE TORCH: THE #1 WORLDWIDE BRAND IN COMBAT ENTERTAINMENT COVERAGE - OVER 250 MILLION VIEWS & LISTENS PER YEAR REREACHING MORE FANS EVERY WEEK THAN ANY OTHER INDEPENDENT SOURCE • VIA THE WEB, MOBILE, PRINT NEWSLETTER, AND ITUNES
Saturday's broadcast of the UFC 118 Prelims Live special on Spike TV was the lowest rated version of the specials to date. The one hour lead in to the UFC 118 pay-per-view brought in 1.1 million viewers on average, 100,000 less viewers than the previous worst at UFC 111 in March.
Viewership started off strong in the first quarter hour, with 1,204,000 viewers tuning in to the start of the first bout between Nik Lentz and Andre Winner, but the fight turned fans off quickly and the ratings took a precipitous dip in the next two quarter hours. It had dropped to 1,128,000 in the second quarter hour before going to 1,062,000 in the third.
Unfortunately, the two fights that aired to less viewers in the second half of the show were much better than the Lentz-Winner tilt, with Joe Lauzon and Dan Miller each scoring impressive submission victories before the pay-per-view broadcast.
Penick's Analysis: It's not surprising to see the number drop like that, because the Lentz-Winner fight was one of the least entertaining televised fights in a long, long time. Still, they draw well enough on Spike TV, and we've seen that the lower ratings don't necessarily translate into poor pay-per-view buys. And, it has to be remembered that neither of the live fights were originally planned for this special, as injuries changed both spots late. Putting the Lentz-Winner fight on the televised portion of the event was a poor move in retrospect, but they couldn't have known it would be as bad as it ended up being. And both fighters are better than that fight would suggest.
ALERT: Every Tuesday night, listen to the MMATorch Livecast from 9-10:30 p.m. ET or listen now to the most recent shows by clicking here. Listen live this coming Tuesday as Jamie Penick, Rich Hansen, and Matt Pelkey discuss the latest MMA happenings. Online listen at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/mmatorch or call into the show at 646-716-8090 to either just listen or participate.
"There's still a large contingent of people, that they just want to see these guys almost die, or the other guy almost die and come back, and sometimes fights are like that. Certainly they are. But sometimes you get technical masterpieces too, and to hate a beautiful, technical fight - you're not really a fight fan...
Diaz has a granite chin, possesses perhaps the best recovery in the sport, his pace and conditioning are second to none and he sets records with the volume of his punches almost every time he steps into the cage. Nick Diaz is simply designed to fight the way he fights, and not many other fighters are...
"There was a lot of poison going on around there and I'm really disappointed because we had a good thing going. It was a good thing and I think people's egos got in the way. Well, not people just Javier, his ego got in the way, and too many cameras in the gym and him trying to build himself up and his brand, his AKA brand...
PART OF THE USA TODAY UFC GROUP