UFC 174 (6/14): Johnson vs. Bagautinov, Rory vs. TWood

[SDM]

I have to say, the only Canadian homerism I see on this board CONSISTENTLY is the lack of Anthony Pettis on these hottest mma fighter lists that we make all the time.

Don't fight it bruhs, just let it happen.

He's not attractive though. I just can't see it.

If you told me he was a construction worker from Toronto, I'd believe it. We got 100,000 guys that look like him. Come on up for a date if you're interested. BYOB, but they have their own coolers.

[blkout]

Yeah I can't lie he's not my type. Too small, rodent-esque features. His brother is even worse, looks like a 9 year old.

[lilfishi22]

Condit is a good looking guy

[REDDzone]

He's not attractive though. I just can't see it.

Not even when he's wearing the clothes he has been wearing since winning the title?

[SDM]

He's not attractive though. I just can't see it.

Not even when he's wearing the clothes he has been wearing since winning the title?

I like my men unencumbered with the obligation of fancy dress, especially when one bumps into a new bracket.

Michael Moore can remove these panties whenever he wants.

[REDDzone]

Lots of rumors stirring that the number of buys for this was was atrocious. Like, historically bad.

[Headliner]

Lots of rumors stirring that the number of buys for this was was atrocious. Like, historically bad.

With good reason.
Most people don't care about the 125 division, it certainly doesn't have the ability to headline a card. In all honesty the 125 title should be 3rd fight or co main event on a PPV.
I know this isn't a popular opinion here, but 125 is a niche division kind of like the women's division. It has a small following but nowhere near the heavy divisions.

[REDDzone]

Nothing confirmed yet, to be clear. Just some observations by Melzer and others who cover this stuff. Also anecdotally, this was by far the smallest crown I've ever seen watching at my local place. By far.

[lilfishi22]

Once again the UFC have staked an entire card on 1-2 factors. UFC 151 was on the Jon Jones fight. This one was on Rory Mac and the Canadian crowd. They might have the gate numbers but nobody is buying this crap.

[Jasen777]

Lots of rumors stirring that the number of buys for this was was atrocious. Like, historically bad.

Wouldn't be surprising. Nothing lower that LW draws, and even LW is a weak draw. It's a huge problem for the UFC if people only care about half the weight classes they have (for my part I like the light classes well enough).

I wonder just how much worse than 173 (Barão vs. Dillashaw) the numbers will be. 175 will be better (Weidman/ Machida and also Rousey) but 176 (Aldo vs. Mendes 2) could bomb also.

[blkout]

I don't mind the lower weights, 125 is just way too small for me to give a **** about without there being more quality in the division. If you had a midget Brock Lesnar in there destroying legit guys I'd be all over it but it's the same group of 4-5 guys fighting each other, and aside from Johnson none of them are that good. The entire division is a mini tourney, no pun intended.

[CPT]

Lots of rumors stirring that the number of buys for this was was atrocious. Like, historically bad.

Good.

It was a **** card on paper, and it's about time people stopped supporting the UFC's watered down product.

Interesting thing is hearing that it was under 100k, when that's always been kind of the floor. Even hardcore fans are being alienated. These days I feel most UFC events are barely worth my time, let alone my money.

[Jasen777]

173 did 200k-215K. The low seems to be 140,000 for UFC 147 W. Silva vs. Franklin II and UFC 161 Henderson vs Evans.

[SDM]

MMM mmm this schadenfreude sure tastes delicious.

UFC PPV shows usually range from 200,000 to 500,000 Google searches after the event, and are usually in the top few searched for items in the country. A bad show may only do 100,000. Bellator’s show last month hit 100,000. A big show can top 500,000, with the shows that hover around 1 million buys usually doing anywhere from 1 million to 5 million searches. This show did less than 20,000, unheard of for a PPV.

[CPT]

Still about 20,000 too many, but LOL.

[REDDzone]

I feel like this will be good overall. Let the ufc know that they can't just serve up a pile of **** for a card and have people buy it based on the "brand" or whatever.

Also kind of funny because Dana was so smug about the bellator buy rate, now its not out of the realm of possibility that the bellator event surpassed ufc 174's buy rate (I saw where some viacom hotshot said it was around 100k). Lolzers.

[Jasen777]

I feel like this will be good overall. Let the ufc know that they can't just serve up a pile of **** for a card and have people buy it based on the "brand" or whatever.

With all the shows they're doing there's simply not the talent to do 13 or 14 PPVs a year (especially considering the lack of interest in the lighter weights). If they did say only 6 PPVs the could all be stacked and they might not even lose to many overall buys. Then they might even be able to help the Fox Cards.

Though I do have to wonder how much the issue is UFC overreach, or perhaps MMA has simply become as popular as it's going to be. It's probably less popular than 2009 in most ways, even if it's more mainstream now. Though to be fair, I've never gotten the PPV model, as I've never PPVed anything.

Or maybe Dana simply hasn't insulted his customer base enough. "You're **** morons if you didn't buy this! You can't judge an event until you've already paid 55 **** bucks for it. And Demetrious Johnson is the P4P #1 fighter and if you don't like the 125 class you're a **** moron, don't buy any more shows."

[NZB2323]

The customer is always right, and we want less watered down cards. You can't have 2 events on the same day and then ask people to pay $55 for a watered down card 2 weeks later.

With netflicks, all the media on TV and the internet, the ability to stream, and the fights on at bars, I don't understand why anyone would order a PPV. Now I'm sure that Machida vs. Wediman will do very well, but if you're going to have a million events per year on TV, why would you pay money for a card that's just as good as the free fights?

More people watched Benson than Mighty Mouse. Diego has more fans than Rory. People are more excited to see baby Showtime fight than a guy they've never heard of. Either put on stacked PPVs, or make everything free. I can understand Dana saying you can't judge a card till time already happened with free fights, but people aren't going to pay money to see a movie with no name actors. It'd be like if half the NFL or NBA games you had to pay 55 dollars to watch and half were free. Who's going to pay that money?

They already do 4 stacked cards a year, so maybe they should have 4 PPVs a year. They could increase the price then. Idk, their current model makes no sense and they need to rethink it.

[REDDzone]

I understand what they do by putting some smaller guys on fox to get them exposure and build stars that lead to later ppv buys. Its kind of a tested model that the ufc has used for awhile.

That said, people get used to seeing these guys for free. Guys like Bendo and Mouse have been free on fox and fx time and time again. By the time you randomly start charging money for their fights, especially against guys that casuals have never heard of a la Bagautinov. Just doesn't work.

[REDDzone]

This is the kind of stuff that makes me love this sport:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=db4T5u72JGk#t=110[/youtube]

Analysis starts at 1:50.