Quick thoughts on The Ultimate Fighter Finale

• I learned my lesson from previous TUF finales. I DVR'd this show, and started watching it about 60 minutes in. By the time the main event was over, I had caught up to the live broadcast. So I watched a 3-hour show in 2 hours. That made it bearable.
• I was happy that Amir won the TUF title, but it looked more like CB's hand slipped onto Amir's leg and not a tap. It was very interesting that during the post-fight interviews, there was not a single mention of the controversial (non)tap despite the fact that CB was obviously upset about it.
• Amir's got a ton of charisma and he's funny as heck. Let's now see what he does against real competition. Remember, he's now just 1-0 in MMA.
• OK, the judge who scored the main event 29-28 in favor of Evan Tanner should never be allowed to judge again. Particularly when the other two judges had Tanner losing one round 10-8.
• All in all, a thumbs in the middle show. Nothing terribly exciting but nothing awful. I'm not sure if I would have felt the same way, though, had I watched it live without being able to fast-forward through all the commercials, interviews, etc.
  

The UFC's big announcement is ...

... kinda underwhelming.

Ah, well, I await listening to Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez's audio update from earlier this afternoon to explain it all to me.

Is this UFC's big announcement tomorrow?

MMAPayout.com: The Business of MMA: Update on UFC's Major Announcement

MMAPayout.com has learned that Bertelsmann Media, a German based international entertainment company, is rumored to have had advanced discussions about acquiring a controlling interest in Zuffa.

Hmmm ... if this is it, I have decidedly mixed feelings about it. The plus side would be Bertelsmann would likely have way more leverage to get UFC a major TV deal. But as we've seen in pro-wrestling (Hello, Ted Turner's WCW!) just having a big corporate media owner doesn't necessarily guarantee huge success.

The most shocking twist in Ultimate Fighter history!

There are no words

MICHAEL JACKSON LOVES THE UFC

Where to watch UFC shows in Edmonton

There's a UFC pay-per-view tonight, so time for my monthly post on where to find a bar to watch UFC in Edmonton.

We stand on guard for thee!

UFC® : Ultimate Fighting Championship®

The link above is to a UFC news release on its new closed-circuit PPV agreement with Canadastar to broadcast UFC PPVs in Canadian bars and restaurants.

The announcement is notable for the following quote right at the bottom:

Canadastar has been established as a household name to sports oriented bars, restaurants and casinos throughout the dominion.

I have to admire any news release that for whatever reason, references Canada as a Dominion.

Every UFC should be in Canada

Great show last night! And what a crowd! We Canadians provide such great crowd atmosphere.

Best fight: Tough to pick. I'm going to say Mac Danzig vs. Mark Bocek just for the war it became, and for Bocek leaking like a faucet.

Worst fight: Nate Quarry vs. Kalib Starnes ... although Quarry redeemed the fight somewhat with his Running Man and Fighting Robot antics at the end.

Kudos to Kenny Florian, who really impressed me as a commentator. He's got a second career when the fight game is done. He was good enough to not even make me miss Joe Rogan.

GSP turned in a dominant, if not earth-shattering, performance. Sorry, Matt Serra, but you got lucky the first time. That much was made apparent.

I really hope UFC does a show in Calgary or Edmonton soon.

Where to watch UFC shows in Edmonton

Due to the number of Google searches leading to this site that ask a variation of the title question, I provide as a public service this link.

And a clip from Dana White from Off the Record.

The Ultimate Fighter Most Brutal Knockout

Let's see how long this stays on YouTube before it gets taken down.

The UFC Wednesday Night Marathon of Doom!

Sorry, but four hours for the two UFC shows last night was just too long, particularly after the kind of weekend the WWE just gave us.

I mean, it's one thing to make Mania four hours long, but last night was NOT Wrestlemania. While the Fight Night matches turned out to be (mostly) really good, the show had zero buzz going in. And after the star-studded Mania weekend, Fight Night came across as a bunch of UFC PPV opening match geeks fighting for free on TV.

It would be like the WWE giving us a three-hour Wednesday night broadcast of Heat - the workrate may be great, but there's so little star-power, why bother to watch?

I'll be really interested to see the rating for last night's show.

That said, Ultimate Fighter was really good. I like the new format of making 32 guys fight their way onto the show to become the 16 who make it into the house. However, now guys who go on the show will be expecting to fight right off the bat, so they may have to change it up again really soon. This should be the best season ever in terms of the coaches being entertaining. I suspect Forrest will completely out-coach Rampage ... and then get stomped by him at the PPV.

Ultimate Fight Night - Ultimate Fighter

UFC has a three-hour Ultimate Fight Night tonight, followed by the premier of the new Ultimate Fighter series featuring Rampage Jackson and Forrest Griffin as the two coaches, which should rule the Earth.

But that's FOUR HOURS of UFC programming tonight!

FOUR HOURS!

Seriously ... who has time on a Wednesday evening, the middle of the work week, to watch FOUR HOURS of MMA.

Sure, Wrestlemania was four hours long. But it was Sunday afternoon. And it was WRESTLEMANIA!

This is no Wrestlemania.

UFC 82: I'm wrong again

I predicted Henderson over Silva. Oops.

Where to watch UFC shows in Edmonton

Due to the number of Google searches leading to this site that ask a variation of the title question, I provide as a public service this link.

UFC 82: TOO MANY EVENTS!

There's another UFC PPV tonight. I'm out at a soccer tournament, so I won't be ordering it. Although even if I was at home, I probably wouldn't get it, as I'm planning to get next month's Montreal debut instead.

As for tonight's show, I really want to see Dan Henderson beat Anderson Silva for the middleweight title. I've been watching some of Hendo's Pride matches of late, and - yes, based on three-, four- and five-year-old fights - he's really impressive. I think he can take Silva.

Thanks to DaveMillicanBelts.com for the picture of the UFC championship belt!

This could be HUGE for MMA

There's talk today that EliteXC, probably the closest thing the UFC has to a rival in North America as far as MMA promotions go, is going to get a TV deal with CBS.

If this happens, this is huge for the sport of mixed martial arts. It's obviously great for EliteXC, which would go from being the distant second-place promotion in the U.S., to being a legitimate threat to the UFC overight.

It will be good for fighters, too, as a rising EliteXC is going to be trying to lure talent from UFC, and bidding wars are going to erupt for top talent.

It could even be good news for Dana White, the combative UFC president who has been acting more and more like Vince McMahon recently than ever before (and that's not a compliment). Dana has tried to get on HBO ... and failed. He tried to get on CBS ... and apparently failed.

Sure, Spike TV probably saved UFC from bankruptcy, but UFC needs to take the next step in growth, and Dana's reported insistence on maintaining total control over his product (including how it is broadcasted) has hindered that growth and kept him from signing those deals with HBO and CBS.


Maybe this will be the kick in the pants that Dana White needs to realize he's not the only game in town and that it's time to loosen up on the controls in order to take his company to the next level.

EDIT: More info on the pending deal here.

Thanks to Jason Genegabus, a columnist with the Honolulu Star-Bulletin for the use of the great photo of the Elite XC title belt!

UFC 81 - I'm wrong!

Judging from reviews I'm reading on the Net, last night's UFC card was quite entertaining and bordering on "awesome." (Which is a word that is massively overused, but that's another blog entry.)

Ah, well, I can't win them all. And neither can Tim Sylvia! Good for Big Nog beating Sylvia to win the UFC heavyweight crown. I'd love to see Nog vs. Randy Couture to unify the UFC titles. I will not be getting my hopes up, however.

Based on the clips I've hunted down this morning, Brock Lesnar was done in by inexperience, but was absolutely brutalizing Frank Mir before getting tapped by a knee-bar.

UFC 81

Tonight is UFC 81, featuring the very hyped debut of former WWF champion Brock Lesnar, who is facing ex-UFC heavyweight champ Frank Mir.

This was a show that for the longest time I had planned to buy. About a week ago, I changed my mind and decided I would skip this show.

It basically boiled down to deciding that watching Brock Lesnar's first UFC fight wasn't worth $45.

I have absolutely no doubt that I am in the minority on this one, because the buzz for tonight's show is gigantic, and UFC has very smartly cross-promoted the fight to WWE fans to get them to buy the show.

Bully for UFC. But I'm not plunking down $45 for a one-match show ... particularly when that match has the high potential to be a three-round snoozefest.

The secondary consideration in skipping the show tonight was that the only title fight is Tim Sylvia facing off against ex-Pride heavyweight champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira - and it's for the interim UFC heavyweight championship. (Interim, of course, because of the contractual standoff with Randy Couture, who remains the official UFC heavyweight champion for the time being.)

I have and will continue to pay for UFC title fights - even interim titles on occasion. (I bought the December show, which featured the interim welterweight title match of GSP and Matt Hughes.) But Tim Sylvia is hardly the most entertaining fighter in UFC, and this match is nearly guaranteed to be a five-round snorer.

Bottom line for me: I'm figuring there's not going to be $45 worth of entertainment out of this show. And if I'm wrong, I can buy the DVD for $25 in a couple of months.

Now ... the April show in Montreal featuring George St. Pierre unifying his interim welterweight title against welterweight champion Matt Serra ... nothing will stop me from watching that show on pay-per-view.

Ultimate Fight Night ZZZzzzzz...

It's a good thing that the Invading Peruvian Missionaries were watching last night's UFC Ultimate Fight Night with me, or else I probably wouldn't have made it through to the end of the show. Not the best Fight Night ever - some pretty dull fights that featured a bunch of pretty dull fighters.

OK, maybe that's not fair. I didn't hate it as I watched it. Some of the show I really enjoyed. But writing this now, less than 24 hours after it was over, I remember almost nothing about it - except the one guy with the hole through his lip. And that's all I remember about it - not his name or anything; just the image of him showing the camera the giant hole where part of his lower lip had been a few minutes before.

Otherwise, it was completely forgettable - the fights, and the fighters.

Sure, the Fight Nights are supposed to spotlight lower-level guys and give them some exposure and experience. And, unlike wrestling where everything can be planned out, UFC President Dana White can't be telling fighters, "I want a knockout 1:32 into round one, and make it dramatic!"

It's live TV. If it's dull, that's the risk they take.

But even at the best of times, Fight Nights can be pretty frustrating.

The big problem with Fight Night shows is that they contain about 1 minute of fighting for every 9 minutes of promotional material, commercials, or extended previews of the show's sponsoring movie or video game (or, like last night, both).

Normally I just tape them and watch them using the FF button to skip past the extraneous stuff. No such luck last night watching it live.