Sorry I'm late, time difference is a bitch.

Dong Hyun Kim versus Nate Diaz is in round 3 right now.

Seems Diaz was behind on the cards, but he came on strong in the 3rd. I think that illegal knee to the head took something out of Kim. He was out of it after that.

Nate Diaz is gay.

Dong Hyun Kim takes it 29-28 on all 3 cards. Gay fans boo.

Dong Hyun Kim needs to work on his mic skills.


Rogan: ""blah blah blah... tell me about the fight..."

Dong Hyun Kim: "My name is stun gun! I want GSP!"

Rogan: "This is the second fight in a row where you've been able to take guys down with your superior ground skills and hold them, but you also landed some nice shots on the feet. Tell me about it."

Dong Hyun Kim: "My name is stun gun!"

Thiago Silva vs. Brandon Vera up next. Yawn.

Thiago Silva dominates the 1st. Some good ground and pound, and even a split-second attempt at a leg lock. Vera did shit.

Silva wins round 2 of this love-fest with a lot of dry humping followed up with the occasional love tap.

Silva bitch-slapping Vera in the 3rd. Literally. Only amusing part of the fight. Silva should take it 30-27 on all 3 cards.

WOW!!!! Vera's nose is BROKEN!!! Mangled!

Leben versus Stann up next. Should be decent, Leben always brings it.

Leben get stopped. Wow. I was just about to post about Leben eating too many shots then he gets himself stopped. Wowzers.

Edgar versus Maynard up next. Dana White ought to be ashamed putting this card on and charging money for it. It is a UFC Fight Night card at best.

Maynard ROCKED Edgar, but Edgar survives. So far.

Maynard rocks Edgar again, but I think he's shot his load and doesn't have enough to finish.

Good first round. Edgar started to land some decent shots towards the end. Maynard better get Edgar down in the 2nd and try to catch his breath. I think he depleted himself trying to finish Edgar early.

Somewhere BJ Penn is torn about about this fight. Does he cheer for the wrestler rocking Edgar with strikes? Or for the guy who beat him twice?

Beautiful slam by Edgar! Landed some nice shots as well. Fight is all tied up, but Edgar has the momentum.

Close 3rd, judges will give it to Maynard for the decent strikes he landed towards the end, coupled with the takedowns to finish.

Maynard most likely up 2 to 1.

Edagr wasting a TON of energy trying for a pointelss guillotine.

Edgar trying to take Maynard's back, but they're back to their feet.

Maynard keeps checking the clock. Not good. He's exhausted.

Edgar takes the 4th. It is most likely 2-2 at this point. The 5th will decide it.

Close, close 5th. I'd hate to be a judge.

This fight should be a draw, in my opinion. If you had to give it to someone, Maybe Maynard for what he did in the 1st.

Draw.

Both fighters disappointed. Maynard admits he gassed after the 1st.

Rematch is definitely in order.

Overall this was a gay card, and to reiterate, Dana White should be ashamed.

Frankie Edgar is not a solo main eventer, no need to even mention Gray Maynard.

That wasnt a bad card at all. What are you on about.

I think they specifically wanted a few fights where guys would bang, hence the leben vs stann match, and the marcus davis vs little heathen. They also put in guida vs gomi, in what should have been an exciting non stop fight. Whilst guida didnt fight as i expected (a mauling wrestling game), he showed he is improving. For ages guida looked one dimensional, but now that he is adding in more submissions he will definitely become more dangerous.

To his credit, Vera came to bang and was causing silva some concerns for about 30 seconds. Silva was forced to take it to the ground. Once he realized how dominant he was on the ground, he was happy to keep it there. Vera needs to be kicked back to the bush leagues till he gets some take down defence.

Tavares vs Baroni was another good scrap, with Baroni getting brutalized against the cage.

As for the main fight, i had maynard with a 10-8 first, taking the 3rd with his striking, and possibly getting the 5th in a toss up. The card that scored a 2 point margin for edgar was fucking stupid. At best it was a draw for edgar if you gave him the 5th. Al the judges scored the first a 10-8, so having edgar taking rounds 2 - 5... bullshit

Edgar should fight Aldo, there are no challenges for him at featherweight... Maynard can have the winner

What are you on about? I never said it was a bad card. I said Dana White should be ashamed of himself for charging money for it. The quality of the fights was not an issue, the name value of the fighters was.

The equivalent would be if boxing matched up Fernando Montiel against a top bantamweight contender. Even with a solid undercard it wouldn't be worthy of pay-per-view, regardless of the quality of the fighters.

Frankie Edgar versus Gray Maynard is NOT a pay-per-view worthy main event. That was my point. It should've been a Ultimate Fight Night card or the fight for the troops special bullshit Dana White has got going on, anything that was free or close to it. Because I imagine the pay-per-view sales for this show are not going to stack up to some of the others we've been seeing from the UFC recently.

Personally i am glad that a quality fight ppv'd regardless of the name value of the fighters. Name value marketing is what led to boxing going down the shit hole, with one big name happy to fight scrubs for mega $$$

People will buy it anyway. If you have a quality product, it should be promoted as such. Self fulfilling prophecy. They put on a good fight, they are promoted as a main event, eventually the public will accept that these guys belong as the headline

The ufc knows how to market its fighters

I don't pay for any of them, so it doesn't matter a damn bit to me personally. But if Dana White were really interested in helping MMA grow, he would put fights like those on TV for free and expose these lesser known fighters to a wider audience and get them some exposure before trying to herd them onto the big stage. Just my opinion.

Running the amount of shows he is running, he's already risking market saturation. When you put cards on like that, it only expounds the problem. And there aren't many people willing to plunk down $60 on a card featuring fighters they've never heard of, or barely heard of, because they think it may turn out to be a solid match.

As an side, name value marketing isn't what led boxing down the shit hole it is in. Piss-poor match-making and matching up stars against scrub fighters that no one has ever heard of and charging $60 for it is what has led boxing into the shit-hole it is in, not to mention shitty under-cards and pussy-ass fighters ducking top opponents in a plethora of ways.

In fact, I would argue boxing's only saving grace has been name value marketing. Ali, Tyson, Gay La Hoya, and Pacquiao have kept boxing alive precisely because you can/could sell any fight they are in based on name value alone.

And what do you think allows them to get away with shit under cards, ducking fighters, and matching guys vs scrubs. Name value dictates a fighters purse. Few fights generate enough dollars to cover 2 names, so we get a name vs a scrub. It also allows guys to duck legit challenges by saying that the other guy isnt a big enough draw. Even if the fighter wants the dangerous fights, his promoter see's him as a cash cow which must be protected from themselves. Then these fuckers get an overblown sense of their own self worth, greed sets it, and so they funnel all the revenue into the name guys purse, leaving little left over for a quality undercard.

Selling fights based on one guys name (ala pac, floyd, tyson, etc) is a short sighted strategy. The headline fight rarely lives up to expectations, and the public walks away having watched a shitty undercard, and a main event that failed to live up to expectations. The problem is this has become the norm, rather than the abhorent exception, and so boxing fans seem to have just accepted thats the way it is. Fuck that shit

Selling consistently high quality fights, from the undercard to the main event regardless of name recognition, is the only legit long term strategy.

I do agree the UFC is in danger at the moment of market overload, with sometimes 2 or more ppv's a month. And the addition of the lighter weight divisions once reserved for the WEC will no doubt mean more ppv's. Luckily they have alot of potential quality match ups in these lower divisions

Agreed. In theory. But the new fan base you are trying to bring in is not going to lay down $60 for a PPV featuring fighters they've never heard of.

The real long-term strategy is built on brand awareness. But again, brand awareness cannot be built on pay TV. You've got to build this organization up, and these fighters, and you have to do it on free TV. It is no coincidence that the UFC's success began on Spike TV (free TV), thanks to a reality show called The Ultimate Fighter. It is also no coincidence that the UFC's biggest stars were:

1.) All featured on The Ultimate Fighter, a reality TV show that introduced them to a mass audience.
2.) Were already stars previously, whether they be sideshows like Brock Lesnar and Kimbo Slice, or MMA legends who became stars in Japan (on Free TV), such as Wanderlei Silva, Mirko Cro Cop, and Mauricio "Shogun" Rua.

In conclusion, building a company around one or two select stars is, indeed foolish. But thinking you will build a company on no-name fighters and charging money for it is equally foolish.

Brand awareness and fighter awareness is the only thing that will bring in new fans. Quality fights is what keeps them there.