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One of the most amazing things about the EliteXC show was the utter failure to promote for the future.  They fell into Cyborg/Carano because of that amazing performance, but we dont even know if theyre going to do that.  Otherwise, they blew it on two fronts.

First, how can they not have an opponent for Kimbo by now?  If the idea of this show was to accept a low rating in order to keep building momentum for October, how can they not have a fight lined up to announce to the world?  Instead we were treated to an awkward interview with Kimbo.  

Second, the lack of KJ Noons or the footage of the incident in Hawaii.  A month ago Diaz-Noons II had the potential to be a huge fight for EliteXC.  The heated footage in Hawaii would have made perfect build-up material for a big fight, but they blew it.  This idea of pure fight promotion without any outside antics is so misguided that I can barely find the words for it.  The chance to see two people that hate each other fight has always been a drawing card in the fight game.  How many times did we see the Tito-Ken confrontation stuff leading up to their fights?  How many times did HBO show Mayweather goading De la Hoya in the build to their fight?  Not building the footage was self-sabotage, and not even having Noons there to build the fight was even worse.  I can only imagine what the scene would have been in Stockton if they had shown the footage and then Noons had come out there to announce the rematch or something.  What a lost opportunity...

I suspect the show in October will do as well as the first one back in May, and while its good enough to stay on the air, its not really great progress.  Its hard to maintain a reputation as the fastest growing sport in America if there is no growth.  Outside of signing a big name to fight Kimbo, the only way I see them doing a better number is if they do Cyborg/Gina and promote it the right way.  In case any of them are reading, here is how to do it:  1)  Show Cyborg murdering Baszler over and over again; 2) show Ginas pretty face and have people talk about the fact that shes never fought someone like this before; 3) have people (including her family) talk about concern for her safety, while focusing on what a physical monster Cyborg is; 4) keep mentioning the fact that Ginas opponent is nicknamed CYBORG.  

If last night is any indication, they will focus on the controversy of Cyborgs finish and compare it to Ginas weigh-in problems.  

All sarcasm aside, Cyborg/Gina is a money fight.  I hope they do it well, because it is a big deal for MMA in general, and a big deal for women in the sport.

In order to promote UFC 81, the UFC advertised in a very non-traditional manner.  They partnered with TNA and WWE to promote the fact that an old Pro Wrestling star was going to be making his real fighting debut.  The new method worked, and the show did in the neighborhood of 600,000 buys.  The UFC estimated that up to 300,000 of those were first time buyers.

Brock Lesnar lost an exciting fight, and six months later he has another tough test against Heath Herring.  From the looks of it, it does not look like they plan on playing up Brocks past in Pro Wrestling anymore.  The hype videos on the UFC website barely mention it, and it looks like theyre just going to treat him like another fighter, and hope his name draws in some of those wrestling fans again.  My suspicion is that without the Pro Wrestling push, the vast majority of those 300,000 fans will not buy it again.

If Im wrong, this show could be one of the biggest Pay Per View successes of 2008 for the UFC.  Lesnar did a very strong buyrate up in Canada, only second to the numbers Georges St. Pierre has pulled in Canada, and hes on the card too.  If theyre able to do the kind of Canadian buys they did for UFC 83, and if theyre also able to get a bunch of pro wrestling fans to tune into a very stacked card, this could be a sleeper show that does over 600,000 buys.

The marketing for this show should be very interesting to watch.  Both the Pro Wrestling fans and the Canadian fans are specialized markets that the UFC has targeted in the past, and it will be interesting to see if they do a two pronged attack to get both bases, or if they focus on one and hope the other follows. 

Following last nights TV rating, EliteXC is in a position where they need to do a good rating in October to continue on CBS.

At the same time, they are also planning a Pay-Per-View for early 2009, because they are losing tons of money and they need some serious revenue.

These competing needs are creating serious dilemmas for EliteXC going forward.  In order to pull the numbers they need to stay on CBS, they need to book fights with big names that catch the publics imagination.  At the same time, they cant just give it all away for free every couple months, or there is no reason to buy the PPV shows.  

Since they completely blew their chance to make Nick Diaz vs. KJ Noons a big deal, the only money fight on the horizon for Elite XC is Gina Carano vs. Cristiane Cyborg.  Carano is arguably the biggest star in the promotion, and I knew that fight was money as soon as Cyborg finished destroying Baszler.  The crowd started chanting for Carano immediately, and it sounded like they were all dying to see it.  The idea of this freaky strong foreign woman fighting against the beautiful American girl is an incredibly easy sell.  On CBS, it would probably be a good enough main event to get them the kind of high rating they need.  However, its also one of the only fights that could probably sell a lot of buys for them.  I think they may be tempted to give each girl an easy fight next time to try to build up the Pay-Per-View, but who knows how CBS will react to that?  

Free television is always the most important tool for building up PPV shows, but if the channel owns the promotion, and gains nothing from strong buyrates, its hard to see them foregoing the big fights.

Undefeated WEC Middleweight Champion Paulo Filho has been shoring up his already nasty Brazilian jiu jitsu game in training for his September 10 title scrap with Chael Sonnen by rolling with decorated BJJ world champion André Galvão, Tatame reports:

"I believe a lot on BJJ, and he’s not a rookie, his an expert, he’s a star. I’m sure he’ll debut with a victory, I trust on BJJ a lot more than any other martial art. It’ll be hard to find an opponent with better BJJ than his", guarantees Filho, that believes Galvão helping him on training will be excellent. "He trained with Wanderlei (Silva) and will help a lot on the ground work. I hadn’t a great material to work with for a long time", celebrates Paulão.

It didnt look (or sound) like Sonnen enjoyed that armbar from Filho very much the first time around; its scary to think what "great material" Galvão has imparted on Anderson Silvas training partner now. And, moustache or not, I agree with Paulos assessment that Galvão will probably submit whatever slouch hes thrown against in his MMA debut after about :30. Love him or hate him, the guy is an absolute BJJ monster and could very well be the new "Jacare" in a few years time. His recent interview on FightWorks is recommended listening; the controversial video of him at the 2008 World Jiu-Jitsu Championships in June after the jump.

Warning: video contains strong language.

Just 11 days after posting about his speedy recovery from an early-July arthroscopic knee surgery to repair a torn meniscus, Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipović has updated his blog again. The beleaguered Croatian striker now reports that he has resumed his training for MMA in full and is seeking a match with rolling Dutch heavyweight Alistair Overeem as soon as possible, even on the September 28th DREAM.6 card. He also admitted to keeping an eye on the competition during his layoff, commenting on Overeems short-notice first round keylocking of Mark Hunt at last weeks DREAM show in Osaka, Japan:

It was a very good performance by Alistair I must say. Im happy to accept his challenge and Im looking forward to this fight as I believe that we can deliver an entertaining fight. Now its up to DREAM to make this fight happen, Im ready to face my challenger on the next show already.

I see many people speaking about me as a washed-up fighter but this is just another boost to my motivation. Im working hard to get back on track and meeting and defeating strong competitors in the ring is all that I think of nowdays.

I happen to agree with Mirko that talk of his demise has been greatly exaggerated, but a fight against Overeem is not a favorable one for him right now. While its too early to say whether Mirko will continue down his slippery slope in the near future, theres no denying Overeem is soaring right now, a heavyweight to be feared in a time when so few are.

By the time DREAM.6 rolls around, it will have been one year since Filipovićs decision loss to Cheick Kongo and subsequent release from the UFC. In that time hes had two surgeries (the knee, plus an earlier deviated septum), myriad cancelled fights -- even a bizarre proposed grappling match -- and one 0:56 mauling of a clearly overmatched mid-tier Pancrase worker.

In the same month Mirko lost to Kongo (Sept.2007), Overeem was TKOd in a K-1 Heros match against Sergei Kharitonov. Since then, however, the "Demolition Man" has gone on the strongest run of his career, winning three straight including a championship beating of Paul Buentello in Strikeforce and the recent submission of an extremely tough Hunt.

I really loved last nights show live, and so did almost everyone else.  Unforunately, it looks like nobody saw it:

That airing back on May 31, 2008 scored 4.3 million viewers and a 1.9/6 among 18-49 year olds and since the Kimbo Slice bout for that airing aired past primetime (11p) the most viewed portion wasn’t included. But lacking any Kimbo anticipation, last night’s fights pulled a mere 2.62 million and a 1.0/3 from 9pm-11pm.

Theres no way around this:  It is a terrible rating.  They wont be cancelled because the next show is Kimbo and Gina, but this is going to do a lot of damage to MMAs reputation at the networks in the long run.

Dana White is coming away from this whole thing smelling like roses.  People bashed him for not getting this CBS deal, but he was clearly right not to put all the power in the hands of people that know nothing about MMA.  I have a feeling this rating may hurt the UFCs chances at getting a deal. 

*** UPDATE #1 ***
Ive changed the title, because apparently people at ProElite expected to get a number this bad, so it wasnt really an unexpected disaster or anything. The bottom line, though, is that the second MMA show on broadcast television in America did a bad number. You can set expectations wherever you want, the number is still bad.

*** UPDATE #2 ***
From MMAPayout.com:

Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter is reporting the show got a 1.9 rating on the overnight. When all markets finish reporting in the numbers should bump up a tenth or two for either a 2.0 or a 2.1. This would fall into the low 2 range that MMAPayout.com felt would be a decent number for the show, per our show preview.

Esther Lin has a great gallery of photos from the "EliteXC: Unfinished Business" weigh-ins at Combat Lifestyle.

HT: 5oz of Pain

EliteXCs second CBS show featured a lot of excitement and really delivered the honest to goodness MMA goods despite a lack of big names and strong promotion.  But after last weekends Ultimate Fight Night/Affliction double feature EXC still felt a little flat.  There was a definite minor league feeling to things and the crowd hurt the feel of the show badly at times with booing of exciting fights.

Sure, EXC crowned champions but after last weekend are names like Jake Shields, Antonio Silva and Robbie Lawler carrying the same kind of weight of an Anderson Silva or Fedor?  There was so much of an inescapable feeling of "this is not the best that mixed martial arts has to offer" to the show that despite its successes the show couldnt boost the promotion.

And now to top it off Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito put on an absolute boxing classic.  The fight was so good that I will not talk about who won in hopes that youll make sure you see it.  It was stand up and yell at your TV good.

So once again EliteXC is overshadowed in the fight world.  It now sits as the fourth best combat sports event of the past 7 days.  Well see where the ratings come in, but at this point the only thing that could really make them feel good are better than expected numbers for a show that they never seemed to put their promotional muscle behind.

I guess now its just "Go get em in October boys."  But theyre going to need a hell of a show in such a loaded month to gain any traction in a landscape that got a whole lot rougher with the emergence of Affliction.

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Weve been scratching our heads wondering why tonights Elite XC show had so little heat buiding up to the fights. And weve considered the implications of Elite XC representing the sport aspect of MMA as opposed to the spectacle.

But Steve Cofield puts something together that I had missed. Its pretty obvious why there was less heat for this event than even for the last Showtime Elite XC show -- Gary Shaw was gone:

The media is looking for compelling conversation, controversy and some trash talk to hook readers, listeners and viewers. Vanilla fighters and unassuming promoters can be a deadly combo in pitching a fight. Robbie Lawler and Scott Smith are good fighters with crowd pleasing styles, but they just dont talk a good game. Someone needed to step up and pitch the second EliteXC card on CBS. It hasnt happened. Fightopinion.com tracks fight stories and says EliteXC has gotten little coverage.

I cant gauge the interest of the average fight fan from a keyboard but I can do it on the air doing a radio show. The Kimbo Slice fight card was a very good talk radio topic. This EliteXC fight card has garnered almost no interest on the phones. And its not just radio, the media turnout in Stockton has been very light according to a surprised Ariel Helwani from MMARated.com:

"Surprised that there was virtually no media there. Seriously, maybe a handful...tops. Surprised that the Shaws (Gary and Jared) were no where to be found.
Surprised that no one is willing to give a straight answer as to where they are hiding. Trust me, I asked around. Surprised that there appears to be zero excitement online, around town or even in the local media for this event."

Shaw did a great job as the front man. Id say he was fired but we still dont have a clear answer of where he is or what his role is now.

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Before Elite XCs debut show on CBS I was legitimately nervous.  I woke up on May 31 thinking about how extremely important the coming evening was for the sport that I love.  Unfortunately I went to bed nervous that night as well, worried about how harmful the Kimbo Slice/James Thompson fight would be.

Regardless of the main event though, the show had to be considered a success.  Viewership was great and bottom line...that is all that really matters in network TV.  Obviously Elite XC was ready to push its next show through the roof.  The decision was made to come back with a July show knowing it meant no Gina Carano and no Kimbo Slice.

Due to the war between Robbie Lawler and Scott Smith ending in a no contest and both men being willing to make the fairly quick turnaround for a rematch EXC had a ready-made main event.  The big problem though is that Lawler/Smith, while a very entertaining scrap, was probably the third most memorable fight of the first CBS show behind Carano/Young and Slice/Thompson.  Also, Lawler and Smith dont have the explosive personality of Slice or the mainstream appeal of Carano.

The plan seemed to be to throw Nick Diaz on the show to represent a bit more of the personality side of things.  But, where has the marketing push been with him?  Why havent I seen more from EXC pushing the "bad boy of MMA" image?  American sports fans love to follow the bad boy, and seeing him against a guy who is able to trade verbal jabs with him in the pre-fight interviews should have made for great commercial appeal.  Jake Shields and Nick Thompson isnt exactly a casual fan dream fight and if it turns into Shields working positional control for 5 rounds it could kill the broadcast.  And say what you will about Shayna Baszler vs. Cristiane Cyborg and how good of a fight it could be, but a womens fight cant carry the marketing of a show.

Now it seems like the Shaws cant be bothered to be at the press conference...you know...the final chance for a real marketing push.

So tonight we get to see how MMA does on network TV with no "mainstream stars" and a very weak marketing push.  Is MMA a strong enough draw as a sport alone that it can pull meaningful ratings without the UFC banner or a Kimbo slice level attraction for the curious?

That is what is important about EXC on CBS tonight.  Were getting a glimpse at where the sport of MMA sits in the minds of the American public.  And if this show fails, we could easily be seeing the beginning of the EXCs fall from a level that they managed to climb to a mere 57 days earlier.

I never understood the adversarial nature some MMA fans adopt towards boxing. They act as if enjoying combat sports is a zero sum game. Its not, of course, and for those more enlightened tonights combat sports offerings extend beyond the cage and CBS. Tonight is Miguel Cotto vs. Antonio Margarito, a fantastic style match-up with rich tradition of national rivalry underpinning the whole affair. Its also one of those fights that happens every so often that reminds you boxing is as great as we remember it. SBNations own Bad Left Hook explains the significance:

And so we arrive at this. The battle. The fight that will hopefully kickstart a grand second half of 2008 for boxing. A hope that might be futile, with such lackluster (in terms of action) matchups as Calzaghe-Jones and Pavlik-Hopkins on the slate, plus whatever grand show Oscar puts on in December. And dont think for a second that after he watches tonights fight, Oscar will really want to put his face on the line against the winner of this one.

Cotto sits as a -275 favorite entering the fight, Margarito as a +215 underdog. It seems that the entire world is picking Cotto to win a grueling contest. But there is also no one in the world that cant foresee Margarito being the man to take the "0" away from the toast of Puerto Rico.

There arent a whole lot of fights that come down the pipe that promise to be as good as this one should be. The last time I felt this way about a matchup, it was prior to the first meeting of Israel Vazquez and Rafael Marquez. The style clash is premade for fireworks, drama, blood and heavy doses of pain on both sides of the equation.

No more time to wait. No more time to think about the fight. Its here. Its time for Cotto-Margarito.

Theyll be live blogging the event over there. I highly suggest you check it out if you can. You may be surprised at how entertained you actually are.

Saturday on "MMA Nation" well be talking to "The Texas Crazy Horse" Heath Herring as he readies himself for a showdown with Brock Lesnar at UFC 87: Seek and Destroy. Well ask Heath about training with Rob Kaman, his thoughts on the Affliction show and whether wrestlers have an advantageous style when fighting him.

Well also be talking to Bloody Elbow Staff Writer Michael Rome who attended the Affliction show last weekend. Well talk about the difference between the live and televised experience, where Affliction goes from here and whether the event was a success.

"MMA Nation" airs every Saturday 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. on 106.7 WJFK. To listen live over the Internet, go to WJFKs website and click "Listen Live".

Number to call: 800-636-1067

Email here.

See you then.

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