The UFC Has Issues, but Quality Isn't One of Them

I know what I’m getting when I tune into a UFC broadcast. There’s a baseline level of quality in the production and presentation I can expect every time I turn on my TV.

I watch Strikeforce and I cringe. While I can look past technical issues in the production to the fights, I still find it distracting and really wish I could focus more on the product than the presentation.

100%

And it tends to be small things that you take for granted while watching UFC events, and you don’t think about until watching Strikeforce. Like camerawork… even the Bellator camera guys are quicker to move the shot away from the ref’s ass than the Strikeforce guys are.

Elvis and JFK told me about it at last night’s poker game.

The UFC seemingly always markets to their fighter’s strengths.

They did not cut away from Yoshihiro Akiyama’s entrance for one single second. Yet Strikeforce cut away from King Mo’s entrance, something he is known for and with his charisma being so prevalent that seems totally backwards.

I know we all bitch about Mike Goldberg and on occasion Joe Rogan, but Saturday’s Strikeforce announce team was goddamn horrendous and I for one appreciate the UFC broadcast team so much more after listening to Gus, Mauro and Frank Shamrock. Frank’s pre-fight verbal burial of Jake Shields was beyond un-professional.

I know there must be competition to keep the sport growing and thriving but if everything else other than the UFC continues to be bush league and visually second or third rate all those promotions will all go the way of EliteXC and Affliction.

UFC and SF aren’t comparable, you can’t compare mustangs to hyundais either, both cars are drivable, but one you’ll take good care of while the other you’ll use for long trips and lending to friends, but it gets the job done. SF has potential, they did everything right to the best of their abilities, and fell short on delivering due to things out of their control. Hope SF survives CBS, they have a great potential and if successful have the ability to promote MMA even further. I love the UFC (although I hate DW), but there is room for other promotions out there and getting a free alternative could bring in more fans who’d potentially buy UFC cards as well.

Since they are the leader in the sport. However, a lot of the time, it seems that Strikeforce gets a free pass because they are experiencing growing pains. I found this piece to be one of your best.

When it comes to quality control/production control, I think that’s what you need right now for MMA. Gus Johnson’s “sometimes these things happen in MMA” and the fact that CBS didn’t cut to commercial when the brawl happened are inexcusable. Goldberg/Rogan are UFC employees but they were critical of 112. I think there is a way to be critical without being amaturish and what we saw on Saturday was amature.

I look forward to see how Coker handles the brawl as the parties involved were his champs. You can’t drop them or suspend them, but in reality you should.

One other thing, it does seem like these secondary promotions (EliteXC/Afffliction/Strikeforce/IFL) all poach off the work that the UFC does. The amount spend on getting MMA legalized is enormous and no other organization helps with getting lobbyists. I think this alone gives a negative perception as they aren’t growing the sport.

Thanks Luke. This was a good one.

The UFC builds up fighters so that fans get attached to them and care when they get high-level fights. The UFC keeps control of the care area after fights. The UFC has the timing of their events down pat; I can’t recall the last time they’ve gone more than a few minutes over their allotted time, let alone screwed things up so badly that they only got in two fights in a 2-hour window, and had the third fight starting right about when they were supposed to be going off the air.

I can guarantee you that the CBS affiliates who had their local news pushed back for Strikeforce are bombarding the network with complaints. That, if nothing else, dooms Strikeforce’s chances of staying on network TV in the long-term; even if a big part of the responsibility for the timing rests with CBS Sports production folks, Strikeforce gets the blame.

Damn you Luke!!!! Good article.

You were right when you were talking last night about how UFC has the ability to recover like none of their competitors can (or ever have been able to). They can have a bad main event and Dana will come out and say he’ll make it up and usually does by putting something on SpikeTV. If one PPV is a bummer, the next could have a huge draw and everyone will forget. And shows like TUF and all the other constant UFC stuff running on Spike keep momentum going.

And with the fight sat night; I can’t help thinking how it’s remotely possible in the UFC, but how it would be handled so very differently (not to mention not having enough cornermen in there to really mount something that looked like half a riot). Not only how would Dana and Rogan handle it (much much better I’d say) but how would the UFC crew handle it on camera/broadcast, etc. It’s not like Strikeforce/Showtime/CBS with several hands in the pie at the same time.

As for the comments about UFC’s juvenile and reactive attitude, I think we can usually pin that on Dana. And I have wondered if Dana is just what the UFC needs right now while it’s growing and depending on diehard fans. We want someone to come out after what Silva did and get pissed with us, etc. But I can’t help but think if MMA ever really makes it true mainstream, then that sort of attitude will be a detriment to them and the UFC will need a more politically correct leader.

  I have to agree. UFC have their problems, but, I’ll take them any day of the week. How many times can SF afford to let down their fanbase b4 they ar out of business? The UFC appear to be the Teflon Dons of the MMA landscape.