ironworks
12-15-2014, 11:16 PM
Junior Dos Santos and Stipe Miocic went on last Saturday night, but there was no doubt watching the five-and-a-half hours on FOX and FS 1, what the real main event was.
The night was all about promoting Jon Jones' light heavyweight title match with Daniel Cormier on Jan. 3. This is UFC's biggest match, perhaps in many years. It may not do UFC 168 numbers, but Jones vs. Cormier is a bigger match than the second Chris Weidman vs. Anderson Silva match, because the emotions are so much stronger. It's bigger than Georges St-Pierre vs. Nick Diaz, because the challenger is far more viable. It's bigger than the second Silva vs. Chael Sonnen fight, because, even though Sonnen was the master promoter, he barely squeaked by Michael Bisping, and while he did well the first time against Silva, nobody really believed Sonnen was one of the elite fighters in the sport, a level there is no doubt that Jones and Cormier belong in.
After being apologetic in front of the Nevada Athletic Commission, Jones said on Saturday that under the same circumstances, he'd do it again, referring to what turned into a brawl at the MGM Grand Garden Arena lobby. It's one of those great contradictions that this sport is full of. On one hand, you absolutely don't want fighters to be throwing punches, knocking down backdrops, tumbling off stages and throwing shoes. Either man could have gotten hurt,and plenty of people whose job it was to break them up or just in their paths could have gotten hurt.
There's a part of it that is really bad for the image of the sport. Except when it isn't, like it is three weeks before they actually fight.
The footage of their brawl and their verbal outbursts were played to death on Saturday in commercials and video pieces. Then the two spoke some more, while being kept in separate locations, on the broadcast. It was presented as if is the can't miss fight of the last few years. And to borrow a Diaz terminology, in this case, nobody is selling wolf tickets.
One almost crosses their fingers that neither man gets hurt in their final two weeks of training, since almost every talked about big fight on 2014 seemed to have an injury just as people started getting excited for it. This is actually the second try at making this fight, which was originally scheduled for Sept. 27.
One thing notable in the advertising was that tickets still remain. One would think that the combination of the biggest fight and the Jan. 3 date in Las Vegas would mean tickets would be scarce. But one can see that a lot of people are hesitant about buying tickets because there have been too many lessons learned about late injuries, and this show doesn't have a strong marquee undercard.
Provided the injury jinx doesn't take down another show, Jones vs. Cormier is going to be a huge test on pay-per-view. While there could be a stronger show when it comes to depth, it would be hard pressed to have a match with not just so strong personalities and tremendous footage to hype the rivalry, but also the level of talent involved.
It's the guy who has destroyed everyone (sans Alexander Gustafsson) who he has been in the cage with him, who may be the most gifted fighter of this era, against the guy who has never lost a round, and has never even been in a strong disadvantageous position in securing a 15-0 record. It's freak athlete vs. Olympic level wrestling combined with fast hands.
But for all his talents, Jones has never been the kind of pay-per-view draw that the true elite, like St-Pierre, Brock Lesnar or Chuck Liddell were. People are in awe of him, but for the most part, they don't love him. And they don't hate him enough to want to pay to see him beat. And even if they did, perhaps he's been so dominant that people can't even bring themselves to believe somebody has a chance against him.
The best thing for UFC would be a close, and somewhat controversial decision going Cormier's way. With all due respect to whoever wins between Anthony "Rumble" Johnson and Alexander Gustafsson, which headlines the Jan. 24 show on FOX, is absolutely a deserving contender, but neither will be Jon Jones, as far as an opponent for Cormier should he win.
This past year has not been good for the pay-per-view industry when it comes to big events. Everything has been down a lot. But when you look at what has been presented, everything should be down. Pro wrestling has essentially thrown in the towel on pay-per-view. Boxing, for years, has revolved around Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao, and neither has had as interesting opponents as in years past, and Pacquiao has clearly lost a lot of his luster a star.
UFC has only presented two shows in the last year that could have even been expected to do big numbers, UFC 168 and UFC 175. The first, with rematches with Weidman vs. Silva and a Ronda Rousey vs. Miesha Tate rematch built off the Ultimate Fighter reality show, did about 1 million buys, one of the bigger numbers in company history. UFC 175 did 540,000 buys, with Weidman vs. Lyoto Machida and Rousey vs. Alexis Davis, which was not a bad number considering neither Weidman nor Machida were super draws on their own, and there was no rivalry with Rousey and Davis, nor did anyone think Davis stood much of a chance.
Jones vs. Cormier should do big numbers. If it does less than 700,000 buys, it will show that it's not that less attractive fights have been on map in 2014, but that pay-per-view itself has declined. Between 700,000 and 900,000 buys would indicate things are very healthy and people are more than willing to pay, at least for the big events, since Jones has never been in that stratosphere before. If it beats 900,000, then the pay-per-view doomsayers, at least when it comes to the truly strong events, are wrong.
UFC is coming off its last big weekend of the year, with two shows. Let's look at how Fortunes Changed for Five of the weekend stars.
The night was all about promoting Jon Jones' light heavyweight title match with Daniel Cormier on Jan. 3. This is UFC's biggest match, perhaps in many years. It may not do UFC 168 numbers, but Jones vs. Cormier is a bigger match than the second Chris Weidman vs. Anderson Silva match, because the emotions are so much stronger. It's bigger than Georges St-Pierre vs. Nick Diaz, because the challenger is far more viable. It's bigger than the second Silva vs. Chael Sonnen fight, because, even though Sonnen was the master promoter, he barely squeaked by Michael Bisping, and while he did well the first time against Silva, nobody really believed Sonnen was one of the elite fighters in the sport, a level there is no doubt that Jones and Cormier belong in.
After being apologetic in front of the Nevada Athletic Commission, Jones said on Saturday that under the same circumstances, he'd do it again, referring to what turned into a brawl at the MGM Grand Garden Arena lobby. It's one of those great contradictions that this sport is full of. On one hand, you absolutely don't want fighters to be throwing punches, knocking down backdrops, tumbling off stages and throwing shoes. Either man could have gotten hurt,and plenty of people whose job it was to break them up or just in their paths could have gotten hurt.
There's a part of it that is really bad for the image of the sport. Except when it isn't, like it is three weeks before they actually fight.
The footage of their brawl and their verbal outbursts were played to death on Saturday in commercials and video pieces. Then the two spoke some more, while being kept in separate locations, on the broadcast. It was presented as if is the can't miss fight of the last few years. And to borrow a Diaz terminology, in this case, nobody is selling wolf tickets.
One almost crosses their fingers that neither man gets hurt in their final two weeks of training, since almost every talked about big fight on 2014 seemed to have an injury just as people started getting excited for it. This is actually the second try at making this fight, which was originally scheduled for Sept. 27.
One thing notable in the advertising was that tickets still remain. One would think that the combination of the biggest fight and the Jan. 3 date in Las Vegas would mean tickets would be scarce. But one can see that a lot of people are hesitant about buying tickets because there have been too many lessons learned about late injuries, and this show doesn't have a strong marquee undercard.
Provided the injury jinx doesn't take down another show, Jones vs. Cormier is going to be a huge test on pay-per-view. While there could be a stronger show when it comes to depth, it would be hard pressed to have a match with not just so strong personalities and tremendous footage to hype the rivalry, but also the level of talent involved.
It's the guy who has destroyed everyone (sans Alexander Gustafsson) who he has been in the cage with him, who may be the most gifted fighter of this era, against the guy who has never lost a round, and has never even been in a strong disadvantageous position in securing a 15-0 record. It's freak athlete vs. Olympic level wrestling combined with fast hands.
But for all his talents, Jones has never been the kind of pay-per-view draw that the true elite, like St-Pierre, Brock Lesnar or Chuck Liddell were. People are in awe of him, but for the most part, they don't love him. And they don't hate him enough to want to pay to see him beat. And even if they did, perhaps he's been so dominant that people can't even bring themselves to believe somebody has a chance against him.
The best thing for UFC would be a close, and somewhat controversial decision going Cormier's way. With all due respect to whoever wins between Anthony "Rumble" Johnson and Alexander Gustafsson, which headlines the Jan. 24 show on FOX, is absolutely a deserving contender, but neither will be Jon Jones, as far as an opponent for Cormier should he win.
This past year has not been good for the pay-per-view industry when it comes to big events. Everything has been down a lot. But when you look at what has been presented, everything should be down. Pro wrestling has essentially thrown in the towel on pay-per-view. Boxing, for years, has revolved around Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao, and neither has had as interesting opponents as in years past, and Pacquiao has clearly lost a lot of his luster a star.
UFC has only presented two shows in the last year that could have even been expected to do big numbers, UFC 168 and UFC 175. The first, with rematches with Weidman vs. Silva and a Ronda Rousey vs. Miesha Tate rematch built off the Ultimate Fighter reality show, did about 1 million buys, one of the bigger numbers in company history. UFC 175 did 540,000 buys, with Weidman vs. Lyoto Machida and Rousey vs. Alexis Davis, which was not a bad number considering neither Weidman nor Machida were super draws on their own, and there was no rivalry with Rousey and Davis, nor did anyone think Davis stood much of a chance.
Jones vs. Cormier should do big numbers. If it does less than 700,000 buys, it will show that it's not that less attractive fights have been on map in 2014, but that pay-per-view itself has declined. Between 700,000 and 900,000 buys would indicate things are very healthy and people are more than willing to pay, at least for the big events, since Jones has never been in that stratosphere before. If it beats 900,000, then the pay-per-view doomsayers, at least when it comes to the truly strong events, are wrong.
UFC is coming off its last big weekend of the year, with two shows. Let's look at how Fortunes Changed for Five of the weekend stars.