UFC presented "Countdown to UFC 86" tonight, and it was a great one.  I was not very impressed with the previous two showings, but they really did a perfect job hyping the Forrest Griffin vs. Quinton Jackson fight.

Like the UFC 83 countdown, this one focused on their family backgrounds and their personal histories in addition to their fighting careers.  We got interviews with Jackson's mom and cousins, and we also got to hear from Forrest's mom and childhood friends.  It's hard to put into words how much more effective this was than showing them using sledgehammers and pushing over tires.  I'm not sure if this is a compliment of tonight's show or an indictment of The Ultimate Fighter, but the countdown special did more to get Quinton Jackson over as a star than twelve weeks of The Ultimate Fighter did.

It's only Monday, and it's usually impossible to make a good guess of how the show will do until the day before, but I think this will be a successful show for the UFC.  They are close to selling out Mandalay Bay even though the event is just six weeks out from the last Vegas show, which is significantly better than the last followup Vegas show did at the gate.  By the time all of the countdown repeats air and everyone sees this on DVR, more than a million people will see an excellent countdown that got me really pumped up to see these two fight.  Finally, a significant portion of UFC buyers skipped the show in June, and will likely be interested in buying a title fight on a holiday weekend.  As of today, my guess is 500,000 buys, with an outside chance of a surprise 600,000+ showing.