Forrest Griffin's Story Can Draw Big Numbers

Although The Ultimate Fighter 7 rebounded in its final 4 weeks with strong ratings and better shows, the show truly failed to hype up the upcoming Forrest/Rampage fight.  Even at the finale, I got the impression from their interview that they would be carpooling home from the show.  The animosity needed to sell the fight in a conventional way is not there.

However, this fight doesn't need animosity to sell, if they spend the next two weeks on the most obvious narrative of all:  The original TUF winner and perrenial underdog against the guy that knocked out Chuck Liddell in the first round.  Pushing Forrest's history and what it has meant for MMA is a surefire way to sell the importance of his title fight, I think it will resonate with all of the UFC fans that have followed Forrest's career with great interest for so long.  Unfortunately, they won't be able to go the route of hyping the fact that Forrest has Randy Couture in his corner for strategy for obvious and ridiculous reasons, so I think it's time to turn up the cheese factor in relation to Forrest Griffin.

It's very wierd how the UFC hits homeruns hyping certain fights, but strikes out on fights that should be a sure thing.  One of the best examples was Sylvia/Couture in 2007, a fight that could have done 700,000 buys + with the right kind of hype, but ended up doing far less because they dropped the ball.  They still have two weeks to hype this fight though, so they still have time to help this fight live up to its marketing potential.