Countdown to UFC 87 a Slam Dunk

by Michael Rome on Aug 8, 2008 12:49 AM EDT in News Comment 19 comments

Anybody that missed tonight's Countdown to UFC 87 show needs to find a way to see it. Watch it here.

This was the best countdown I've ever seen, because they took two guys that were not draws at all before and did enough to make them stars. The Roger Huerta stuff in particular was the most compelling television they've ever had in one of these shows. I was already a fan, and after this I am really hoping he wins. It is impossible to hate him after watching this.

It's interesting they chose to focus on Huerta/Florian over the Brock Lesnar fight. It's clear they expect Lesnar to lose, so they are choosing the focus on the other fights in order to build stars for the future. If Lesnar is able to pull off the win, the hype train for Lesnar will be back on.

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I agree..

This was one of the best Countdown shows to date. I would have liked to see more of a focus on GSP, but I understand the need to let the fans learn more about Fitch. (side note: Is anyone else getting sick of GSP’s opponents letting everyone know they are going to shock the world?) I will be pulling for Huerta too on Saturday, though Florian is great as well. I don’t like all the ‘fight of the year’ talk though. Fights of the year usually come out of nowhere and though this is an incredibly compelling matchup, I feel that it has very little chance of being ‘fight of the year’.

by scottish_rage on Aug 8, 2008 1:04 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

A few notes..

The Countdown format saw a considerable boost for 86. This is the second superb show they’ve produced.

Secondly, I don’t agree that they’re underplaying Lesnar. His inherent fans will be going to the show or ordering it, regardless. Not much to learn about it. It was evident to me that they wanted to create a more intimate and personable awareness for Fitch, Florian and Huerta—three guys that are great fighters, but are relatively unknown personalities. Victories for any of the three could produce increased followings and edge them steadily towards UFC stardom. Herring even got a little love. But Lesnar and Herring have both received considerable coverage in past Spike TV specials that essentially described who they are as individuals and how they got to the UFC. I think those simply three guys got the treatment this time around..

Makes me sort of hope they make it longer and go further down the card in the future. The MacDonald/Maia fight is probably going to be lights out and I wish they would shed a little light on their backgrounds (particularly Maia, who is a relative unknown to the casual MMA observer).

by Blackout612 on Aug 8, 2008 1:18 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Nice show so far …watching the rerun now on spike. Thx for the heads up.

by Sauce on Aug 8, 2008 1:39 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

How is it clear they expect Lesnar to lose?

by Eugene Schelfaut on Aug 8, 2008 2:56 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

They’d promote the guy that drew the biggest buyrate of the year if they thought anything else.

by Michael Rome on Aug 8, 2008 3:02 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

You say they expect him to lose, but they are the ones who made the matchup. So, they made the match thinking that Lesnar would lose—so they could what? What would be the goal of that? To promote Heath?

Is not having the event in your home state a little like promoting? Franklin in Ohio seems to push Franklin. GSP in Canada did not really promote Serra.

It is not like they are promoting Herring over Lesnar. I don’t think you can connect a lack of “hype-train’ with expecting Lesnar to lose.

What could they have done on this Countdown that was not covered in his All-Access?

by Eugene Schelfaut on Aug 8, 2008 4:52 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

They gave him a sink or swim fight. If they were interested in protecting him they could have done any number of fights. As is, they already made their money back off him. The bottom line is they could have done 3 weeks straight of heavy WWE and TNA deals and advertising like they did last time to promote him, but they didn’t.

by Michael Rome on Aug 8, 2008 5:36 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I disagree

They expect Lesnar to win, and they hope Lesnar wins. However, they have a great story in Florian and Huerta. These guys have very compelling and are exciting fightes. They should put up a great fight. Huerta has a terrific back story that could go very far in MMA.

You advertise unknowns who could be stars. There’s no need to advertise Brock Lesnar; everybody knows Brock Lesnar.

by cyph on Aug 8, 2008 10:12 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Like someone else said, Lesnar is already a draw, and doesn’t really need much more promoting. Plus they probably told his whole story for UFC 81. Not a lot has changed since then.

Promoting Florian and Huerta makes a lot more sense, because one of them is practically guaranteed of being in main event the next time he fights.

by idefinecagefighter on Aug 8, 2008 4:56 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

also, check out their pitch to wrestling fans at WWE.com

Guess they’re not done pushing it to those fans.

by Michael Rome on Aug 8, 2008 3:02 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I think Lesnar is a very polarizing figure for their fanbase, folks are either fascinated or reviled by him…not much middle ground…..folks have pretty much made up their minds if they buy this pro wrestler being serious about the MMA thing…. it may have been a case where they felt they should expend their promtoional efforts where they would see the most return…ie huerta vs florian.

Mike Goldberg on robnashville:
"His analysis is so analytical"

by robnashville on Aug 8, 2008 5:07 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I liked how they showed Fitchs whole background and even went to Fort Wayne and talked to his High School teammates and Coach. I’m from Fort Wayne too and there has been no talk at all about tomorrows fight. There has been a paragraph in the corner of the paper on Monday that said he’s fighting for the title. Hopefully there will be a big cover story today or tomorrow about Fitchs title fight

Bring Back BA

by marco054 on Aug 8, 2008 7:21 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I don't buy...

that they’re expecting him to lose. I don’t buy it for one second. As has already been said. They know that the Brock buys are going to come in without any big push on the countdown show…if they can squeeze a few more people in on the strength of Fitch as a dangerous challenger and Huerta/Florian as a potential FotY with two very marketable guys then they’re focusing their efforts correctly.

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

by Brent Brookhouse on Aug 8, 2008 8:59 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Also...

if they are serious about giving the Huerta/Florian winner a title shot then they need to build them up even more to help start selling that fight already. There is a long way to go before it comes around…but they need a bit more of a legitimate STAR to be challenging for the title. Which is something they didn’t really manage to do with Fitch ahead of time.

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

by Brent Brookhouse on Aug 8, 2008 9:02 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Brent is correct.

http://tharealness.wordpress.com/

by Tha Realness on Aug 8, 2008 10:00 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I don’t know if they expect Lesnar to lose, but I think the UFC has finally woken up to Fitch’s marketability. They already knew about Huerta’s, and Lesnar is a given. His popularity will bring in the buys, because his fans know what he’s up to. So many people still don’t know who Fitch is, or what he’s capable of. Fitch is a potential future champ; if he doesn’t win on Saturday, he could still challenge again later. Fitch will probably hover around the top five WW’s for a while. Guys like Fitch and GSP are the future of MMA, so it’s nice to see Fitch getting the push he deserves.

And Huerta. Man, what a back story! I never really thought much of Huerta until he beat Clay, and the show just gave him so much more in terms of depth. I’d have to agree with Rome that this was the best Countdown I’ve ever seen. The look and feel and direction of the piece made it seem like an HBO special.

by pud333 on Aug 8, 2008 10:34 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs