I think Fedor made alotta new fans saturday night….the boxing website I’m a regular at will occasionally cover an MMA story if its a big event and most of the regulars on there are boxing die hards who had no idea who Fedor was and could care less. However, all the posts I read on there after the Fedor fight were all positive…all were impressed and I’m guessing they will be tuning in the next time he’s on for sure.

The Couture/Vera numbers. Depending on how the Fedor/Rogers numbers get the Couture/Vera numbers can do higher and it will be interesting to see if they do.

MMA still has a ways to go. People made way more of the amount of viewers than there actually should be. They did great in the demo’s which I guess is what is really important but did not do as great as everyone seems overall.

still cant get the older crowd to tune in and that doesnt matter weather it’s the UFC or Strikeforce or anyone else.

That is why every article about mma ratings always spins the demographic numbers as the success. Yes the demographic numbers are what advertisers want but it would be nice to see an mma event win in the total viewership and not just key demographics.

Will that change with time? Sure the demographic now is getting older and will stay into mma and so eventually you will have a time when an mma event can win with total viewers and key demographics but how long until that happens. Are we looking at a couple of years or like 10-15 years?

IMO, the heavyweight fight almost couldn’t have gone more perfectly for CBS/Strikeforce. It was competitive, exciting, and a bit of a microcosm of MMA in general- there was stand up, ground and pound, grappling and submission attempts all in the first round. They were able to keep the storyline of the plucky underdog in Rogers, but also in the dominating monster that is Fedor, and got a highlight reel knockout from the fight. Both guys emerge with heightened public and fan profiles.

Only way it would have been better IMO is if Fedor knocked him out in the middle of the third rather than start of the second, but I can’t see anybody at Strikeforce being unhappy in the way this event went….

Iole’s is looking at the “quire”… almost everyone in that building is already sold on Fedor.

He certainly delivered a quality “experience” but to really gauge how much repetition is needed and how a “casual” (new eyeball) was impacted by this we need only close our eyes for a minute and go back in time when we first saw fedor fight(herring)…

that’s about the same impression the 4 million or so people have about who this russian guy is.

There are some differences with this example as Fedor was framed by the
announcers as the best fighter in the world and that wasnt the case when we first saw him fight Herring which is a plus .. However when we first saw him fight we knew who herring was so there was a strong reference point to better value his performance.

Consider the time it took for Fedor to become well known in Japan and then you have a closer idea of what it’s gonna take.

The advantage he had in Japan and when he finally made some headway was when he defeated an opponent everyone knew to be the best at the time (big nog) The disadvantage he has here is that nobody knows the guys he’s fighting.

If Fedor beat Sylvia and Arlovski on CBS instead of ppv (which nobody saw) it would have been better than beating 6 Brett Rogers and a dozen werdums.

People think because the casuals see him once all of sudden they will fully grasp who “fedor” is… did you “know” or give a second shit about fedor after he decimated Herring? It was cool for a moment but It took YEARS of beating the best guys (guys the viewers were already familiar with) for Fedor to build this cult following.

We spent years with Fedor, getting to know him, holding our breaths as he was rocked by fujita and slammed on his head by randleman only to come out victorious. We sat in anticipation and awe (while our endorphins were spiking through the roof) as he beat crocop and shut down Nog

To expect those 4 million people to “get Fedor” and fully grasp who he is – after one show – is just not reality.

Lets say it was boxing instead of Strikeforce , for example one of the Klitshcko brothers (who are still both heavyweight champions ? I barely know anymore) fighting a top 7 or 8 opponent , free on CBS . Do you think that in that case boxing would have done better? My point is that mma has come a long way , even if it were only 4-5 million who tuned in to watch this. I don’t think boxing would’ve done better unless it was Mayweather or De la Ho ya and Fedor can’t be compared to them popularity-wise.
All and all this was very good to mma imo , it finally exposed a big amount of people to a ‘real’ mma fighter and to an exciting fight. The rest should take care of itself , I thought the fight was awesome and most of the people in the room with me thought so too – some of them very very casual fans.

I really like that picture.

I am so sick of people only wanting to see fighters punch eachother. I watched the Shields/Miller fight twice. It was a great fight! Back and forth lots of action. Jake put on a jujitsu clinic on a game fighter, Miller is really scrappy and very difficult to fight. Put the deep dish down and see it for what it was. A hard fought win against a game opponent. One of his biggest challenges yet. They should have booed Rogers complete lack of class and not showing respect for Fedor. Rogers really acted like a third rate fighter on a big stage after the fight, he fought better than I than I thought he could. MMA logic is entitled to his opinion but I would have expected more from someone of your experience and credibility. Bad call in my opinion the whole event was a home run with lots of variety in fighting styles

GSP is a Van Damme
Lyoto is a Ryu or the lead martial artist in the karate movies we used to see.
Anderson (Silva) comes off as an extra henchmen type or the bad guy the hero has to beat at the end of the movie.
Fedor looks like the fat guy behind the counter where the lead actor is buying a pretzel.

Anyone care to type cast Forrest?