Countdown to UFC 86 a Home Run

by Michael Rome on Jul 1, 2008 2:26 AM EDT in News Comment 13 comments

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.

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It was very well-done. It would be nice to see it expanded a bit, so we can see at least a brief introduction to some of the other fights are the card.

by Popetastic on Jul 1, 2008 2:35 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I understand that sentiment, but it’s all about main events when it comes to selling shows.

by Michael Rome on Jul 1, 2008 2:47 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

That’s certainly how it works in boxing, since the undercards have a tendency to suck. That may be how it works in MMA right now too, but I don’t think it should be. One of the major possible selling points for MMA is the excellent talent that shows up on almost every undercard, at least in the big shows. Great main events are awesome. Great cards from top to bottom are significantly better.

by FRANKIE on Jul 1, 2008 10:45 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I agree with you, and think that Michael Rome may as well, but in terms of the 1 hour Countdown show, you are really pressed to highlight 3 fights off the main card in that time allotment. Really, only doing 2 fights is preferrable, if you want to get any in depth storylines developed or show any extensive training footage or backround montages on the fighters.

by Hardcharger on Jul 1, 2008 12:25 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

agreed

Strangely enough the show got me more interested in the Almeida vs Cote fight as well. At first they were saying that this was a fight for a title shot and i thought that there wasn’t really a way that either person could put up a fight against Silva but atleast the fight seems more interesting after the show.

by TannerMatthews on Jul 1, 2008 3:03 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I missed the beginning, but i did catch the home video footage of Forrest headbutting his teammates during a H.S. football game with no helmet on. Also calling Don Frye a “fat Freddie Mercury”...Ridiculous!

by Kel on Jul 1, 2008 7:18 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Scar above my eye...

...from that same headbutting teammates without a helmet nonsense in high school (my usual pre-game ritual). The fun thing is that it meant that I missed the first series of the game as the refs wouldn’t let me play while bleeding. ...I really was a moron.

Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.

"The reason a lot of people do not recognize opportunity is because it usually goes around wearing overalls and looking like hard work." -- Thomas Edison

by Brent Brookhouse on Jul 1, 2008 10:40 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

lol!

by mythbuster on Jul 1, 2008 11:30 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I DVR’ed this…I can’t wait to watch it when I get home from work.

by Tha Realness on Jul 1, 2008 8:11 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Hey michael, Are you talking about UFC 84 in terms of doing poor gate numbers? because I thought that show did pretty well in terms of gate and attendace..

or are you talking about UFC 81 following up on the New years Eve show at mandalay?

by I Can't Feel My Face on Jul 1, 2008 2:20 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I’m talking about 81

by Michael Rome on Jul 1, 2008 2:39 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Interesting take, because I was watching with some people in the MMA-TV chat and the general consensus was that the countdown show was kinda flat and didn’t do much for the anemic hype surrounding 86. For my money the 84 countdown was the best one they’ve done, I think that type of card where you have 3 true “superfights” headlining is better at drawing in the longtime fans

by smoogy on Jul 1, 2008 3:47 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs