Ufc

[Cyclone]

did anyone see the 60 Minutes story on the UFC? Dana White said that when he bought the rights to the UFC, he paid only $2 million. 2 million!!! He went on to say that the Hughes-St. Pierre fight did $28 million in Pay-Per-View sales alone! Can you imagine the total worth of the UFC today? With Pay-Per-View sales, advertiesments, merchandise, TUF show on Spike, etc etc etc.....hundreds of millions if I had to guess.

Dana White who is the President of the UFC did an interview on Inside the UFC and stated that at one time they (owners Lorenzo Fertitta & Frank Fertitta III) and Dana White were ready to give up on the whole thing after pouring 45 million into it, but they stayed with it and it is thriving now with no signs of slowing down.

It was a brilliant marketing decision to self-promote a pay-per-view enitity by letting potential fans like me who really never order pay-per-view to "get in". They let us see what it was all about and learn the game so to speak on the "The Ultimate Fighter" aka TUF show.

The choice for the original coaches was also a great job to first give us a chance to become familiar with two contrasting enemies/friends with great reputations and careers. Spike got BIG ratings from this show which is apparent in the sudden explosion of the "UFC Unleashed" series, the 2nd & 3rd seasons of the TUF show and now the new "Inside the UFC" shows.

The "UFC Unleashed" series is basically re-runs of matches from previous pay-per-view events usually in a fighter spolight format or "best knock-outs" or "bloodiest fights" format. This was also a great marketing tool because it was the perfect way to get guys like me and I'm sure many others who had no idea what had happened in the UFC in the past. I began watching them all thanks to my best friend mr. Tivo & purposely stayed away from ALL online sites, standings, reviews of the UFC to keep these re-runs "first-runs" for me. I figured that I would run out of un-seen fights sooner or later and earlier this year after hundreds of hours of fights on Tivo I am unfortunately caught-up.... Now that I am hooked and dying to see new fights I gotta pay..... nice work Dana & Co.... Great marketing in motion....




Steve,

Tito waited a year and a half to fight after being boink by Liddell and got a decision win over Patrick Cote. Then he won a split decision over Victor Belfort 4 months later in 2005. He took some time off while filming the TUF show and then won a VERY close decision to Forrest Griffin in April to gear up for the mega-hyped, mega-let-disappointing Tyson like walk throughs against Ken Shamrock this July and October.

[DeepBlue68]

Now that I am hooked and dying to see new fights I gotta pay..... nice work Dana & Co.... Great marketing in motion....

Don't pay for the fights, just go to a bar and watch them. Me and my friends have bought maybe 2 of them, but we've seen every one since probably UFC 51 or 52. Although, I guess by the time you figure in the tab at the bar and any cover they might charge, you probably won't come out that far ahead of just ordering the fight at home.

[Cyclone]

I guess by the time you figure in the tab at the bar and any cover they might charge, you probably won't come out that far ahead of just ordering the fight at home.

Exact-a-mundo..... It is not worth buying it for yourself and unless you can get few buddies who will actually cough up their share it seems to be a waste when they will be re-running it in a month or two, but like I said I am now on the UFC website every few days so I have to do it if it is a big fight. I would like to see a season pass like the NFL ticket maybe or even a UFC network.... that would ROCK!!!

[Cyclone]

Well....... I bought the damn pay-per-view and although I would not consider it "worth" $40 it was not a let-down. The under-cards were great and the main event was action packed.

The biggest surprise of the night was Tito's humbleness & respect towards Chuck in the post fight interview. Tito has gained even more of my respect and admiration after his conduct last night.

I am begininng to think that the UFC is taken self-promotion too far though. My intellegence was insulted over and over last night by their pre-fight "call-in poll". Liddell started the night as a 63% favorite in the poll and by the time the fight rolled around the split was 51% Lidell and 49% Ortiz..... hmmmm............... doubt it!!!

If any of you have this recorded I noticed something after the fight that struck me odd. When UFC president Dana White was about to present the championship belt back to Chuck he did not look happy to do so. As a matter of fact he looked outright pissed! If you read his lips he said A$$HOLE a few times and Chuck seemed to be removed from the belt presentation. I may be over analizing this, but I know that Dana & Chuck are good friends, so I just don't get it. I hate to start a conspiracy theory and I would hate to speculate that the UFC would ever do this, but...... the UFC has seen a change of the guard recently. Was Tito supposed to upset the UFC light heavy weight division too????


Think about it.....a Liddell vs. Ortiz III would make alot more money for everyone involved...... $$$$$


If any of you have it taped...... take a look at the belt presentation again and let me know what you see.

[BA.]

That "call in poll" thing was stupid and obviously a farce. I expect some marketing idiot thought it would be great for the hype and to promote the website. Stupid though.

I love that in the post-fight interview Chuck said "FIRST THINGS FIRST......there's gonna be a party......"

I'm surprised that you didn't mention the 1st round where Chuck probably COULD have won the match, but he let Tito up from the ground pounding.

Oh, props to the ref's Big John and Mazzagatti for letting fighters fight and not stepping in to early with the stoppage.

[colt zantop]

yeah...there was some fishy stuff last night in the fight. I also noticed the "A$$hole" comment but didnt know exactly why it was said. and the first round was rediculous......when have you EVER seen liddell let up when hes got someone down......NEVER! there was some games being played last night.....dont know if I will buy another fight because of it.......

[ironworks]

When they called the fight, Tito was still blocking himself by moving his arms and at the exact time that the ref called the fight. Tito rolled forward to get away. I think he was still defending himself. I'm no tito fan. I could really care less who won, but it does seem more and more staged like the WWF. It was the weirdest celebration in the ring afetr the fight. No one seemed happy.

[southernfriedcj]

The fight:

http://www.dailymotion.com/J3nova/vi...ell-vs-ortiz-2

[rocketrod]

I think the ref stopped the fight a little early, it looked like Tito was defending himself, but the outcome was inevitable. Tito can't stand with Liddell, nor could he take him down, and Tito didn't complain about the fight being stopped early...

[Cyclone]

I noticed something after the fight that struck me odd. When UFC president Dana White was about to present the championship belt back to Chuck he did not look happy to do so. As a matter of fact he looked outright pissed! If you read his lips he said A$$HOLE a few times and Chuck seemed to be removed from the belt presentation.

After reviewing this in slow mo a few times this weekend Dana was upset at Tito as the announcer was giving the results and Tito must have sid or done something just off camera to make Dana call him a A$$hole a few times...... Chuck seems to have been trying to ignore his buddy calling Tito names sinceDana is the UFC president and all.



I got to say that Tito was a real class act in the post fight interview even thanking the troops in IRAQ...... nice touch Tito!! I really respect that from any athlete or celebrity type.

[Bob Johnson]

You could be right and Tito is tough. All it takes is one perfect shot and Lidell could go down, I just don't think it's gonna happen.

And I don't care what she looks like, as many dudes as Jenna has boned I would touch her. haha

after reading your last sentence...would you describe your pud...It might not be big around, but it's short??

[wick]

haha, I meant 'wouldn't' touch her. Is Tito still doing her?

I have still not seen the fight but I have been very busy lately. I was able to watch some the the UFC Unleashed yesterday with some good fights.