Dave Meltzer is high on the women's achievement:

The Carano vs. Santos main event itself did a 2.9 rating and 856,000 viewers, adding 17 percent over the audience from the preceding Gegard Mousasi vs. Renato Sobral light heavyweight title match. Those numbers were far ahead of any MMA match ever on the network.

Also impressive is that the card did these numbers on a short show, as MMA events on television generally will draw better when they are longer, because the pattern is people will find out about the show and stick with it, and a longer show has a higher ratings advantage.

From a ratings standpoint, which throws out the obvious advantage a show on Spike or CBS would have because they are seen in more homes than Showtime, the match was not close to a ratings record-setting event for the sport. But it was the highest rating for an MMA match or event in the U.S. this year, even though as far as total audience, any first-run UFC television show on Spike will have more actual viewers.

And while the UFC touted their replay of UFC 100 on Spike beat every other sporting contest on that evening in the ratings in the male demographic of 18-34 year olds, it's worth looking at what the huge volume of other numbers do to the broader ratings context. Namely, more than 12 million people tuned in to see Tiger Woods lose to Y. E. Yang in the PGA Championship, an achievement MMA in North America hasn't even sniffed:

Nielsen Media Research says its overnight measurements of big cities found ratings for the golf tournament up 150 percent over 2008. Only 4 million people watched the final round last year. Woods was injured and didn't play in the tournament, and the Summer Olympics were televised at the same time.

Nielsen and CBS don't yet have a precise estimate of the audience nationally for this year. In the metered markets, it was the best PGA final round since 2002, when Woods lost by a stroke to Rich Beem.

The golf tournament led directly into "60 Minutes," which featured Vick's interview about his prison time for running a dogfighting operation. CBS estimates that some 12.6 million people were watching the network between 7 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. on Sunday, when the golf tournament ended and "60 Minutes" began with its interview with Vick, who signed with the Philadelphia Eagles last week.

I know a Judo Chop of Georges St. Pierre's takedowns of Alves from UFC 100 are a little dated, but they're absolutely still worth a look not just because they helped carry St. Pierre to victory, but because they are evidence for the notion that St. Pierre has the best takedowns in all of mixed martial arts.

First, it's worth noting that while St. Pierre put on an incredible display of takedown aplomb, he did not take down Alves at will. The American Top Team product was able to shrug off several takedown attempts throughout the course of the fight, which is a testament to his skill and preparation for this historic bout.

Second, what makes St. Pierre so special is that just like high-level BJJ players link together submission attempts in "chains" to increase the likelihood of landing a submission in competition should one or two or even three attempts be avoided, St. Pierre puts together chains of takedown attempts. Admittedly, others already do this in professional MMA, but almost always they do so when trying to takedown an opponent whose back is pinned against the cage. From that position, it's far easier to transition from a double to a high crotch because the opponent is being driven into a wall and doesn't have enough mobility to resist. St. Pierre is able to switch from one type of attempt to another without the help of cage in free space. Working in open space while transitioning requires impeccable athleticism and timing and is indicative of the unique level of skill St. Pierre brings to professional MMA.

Earl from D-1 College Wrestling (a site I cannot recommend enough) adds some helpful context about what makes St. Pierre's takedowns in this fight so special:

Let's break down the more notable takedowns after the jump.

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I'd like to think that my Judo Chop on Brock Lesnar's impressive technical display of top control would have closed this issue, but clearly it hasn't. Last week, UFC welterweight Anthony Johnson joined the chorus of those demeaning Brock Lesnar's performance at UFC 100. Clearly more needs to be done.

Here's Lesnar's jiu jitsu trainer Rodrigo Comprido talking to Tatame.com about his student's performance:

I started to work with Brock after his first fight against Frank Mir. I personally follow the trainings and the guy learns very easily, when you see him fighting you can notice that he’s evolving a lot. I think his ground is strong, solid. We’re managing to make him confident in all areas.

Here's Lesnar trainer Erik Paulson talking to Sherdog:

"He stuck exactly to the game plan. We knew Frank was going to jump that half-guard as soon as he could on the ground," said Paulson. "The whole objective was to control him on the ground, control his hips. As far as the half-guard, it was to put him flat in the half-guard, not let him get on his side and get under your leg."

And if you don't believe Brock's coaches, perhaps his victim opponent Frank Mir carries more weight:

"It wasn't just because of his size that he was able to nullify my technique, but he used his size. He knew how to position his hips, and block my hips, and hold my arm. He did things that I didn't really expect because of his reach. I think I went in with too much of a gameplan, and I wanted it to go one way, and I tried to force it that way."

Sure Lesnar has many obvious physical advantages, but to me the scary thing about him is his discipline and willingness to learn. That makes him a truly scary force to be reckoned with.

Kevin Iole reports that UFC 100 lived up to the very high expectations:

UFC 100 was available in more than 300 million homes in 17 languages. While the UFC has a company policy of not disclosing exact pay-per-view figures, the sales for UFC 100 were in excess of 1.5 million, making it one of the most-watched PPV events in history.

I should add that his basis for this is a somewhat cryptic comment from UFC owner Lorenzo Fertitta about Dana White having to make good on a promise to bungee base jump off Mandalay Bay Casino if the event made the 1.5 million target.

More interesting is this bit about Lorenzo Fertitta's impressive international successes and a hint as to one of his next targets:

...since Fertitta’s first full day as the UFC’s chief executive officer, he has landed television deals in China, Mexico, France and Germany; is on the verge of bringing a fight card in February to Sydney, Australia...

The UFC has long coveted Mexico as a market because of its vast number of fight fans. Fertitta worked out a deal with Televisa, the largest media company in the Spanish-speaking world and UFC 100 was shown live for free and drew 25 million viewers.

In addition, Fertitta believes he’s made significant inroads toward a television deal in the Middle East. A live event in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates seems more and more likely.

Lorenzo better get cracking because it looks like there's already a competitior looking to break into the Dubai MMA market:

Xtreme Kombat League (XKL) has announced its first major international mixed martial arts (MMA) event - "The Road To Dubai" - which starts in Michigan on August 15 2009, followed by a new concept reality TV show and with two of the top names in the MMA world, Pat Miletich and Dan Severn as team coaches. Pat and Dan will be giving their expertise in training these fighters during the reality show. The main title fight event will take place in Dubai as a signature event of Dubai Shopping Festival in February 2010, with a potential 500 million worldwide viewers.

There's a bit of a storied history with Dubai and MMA. The funders behind the illustrious Abu Dhabi Combat Club and associated submission grappling championships once funded a big show in Brazil with plans to bring full on MMA back to Arabia. Unfortunately the infamous feud between jiu jitsu and luta livre caused the headliner to end in a riot and that put the money people off of doing full-on MMA.

Bloody Elbow can confirm that John Skipper, Executive Vice President at ESPN in charge of content attended UFC 100 as a guest of Dana White.  This was the first UFC event he has ever attended.  

Is something brewing between the UFC and ESPN?  When Bob Ryan said that the producers of PTI told him he had to talk about MMA for five minutes, it made me wonder if ESPN's extensive coverage of the UFC after UFC 100 had something to do with a potential business deal with the UFC.  

There are rumors circling that the UFC is in the closing stages of a deal to bring a major live show to network television.  Dana White added fuel to this fire on July 21 when he told ESPN radio that he is currently negotiating a deal to bring the UFC to a major network.  The UFC's deal with Spike TV is cable-exclusive, but would not prevent a deal with ABC, a network whose sports coverage is entirely delegated to ESPN ("ABC Sports" is now "ESPN on ABC.")

I've avoided reporting on potential UFC network deals for the last year because they come up and fall through so often.  But it appears something is brewing between the UFC and ESPN.  Whether or not it actually pans out is a whole different story.

As much as it pains me, I thought I'd take a break from the breathless speculation about who Fedor will or won't be fighting at Affliction: Trilogy, IF the event happens and talk about some actual MMA instead.

I've already done a judo chop on Jon Jones' Greco-Roman technique but what he did at UFC 100 was an even more remarkable feat. To beat Jake O'Brien, Jones seamlessly integrated all three phases of the MMA game -- striking, takedowns and submissions.

Jake O'Brien seemed to present some interesting challenges for Jones. So much so that a certain idiot who didn't do enough research on the fight I even picked O'Brien to win the fight. I hadn't accounted for Jones' enormous 8" reach advantage. I also failed to take into account the fact that Jones' standing game incorporates a LOT of kicks where O'Brien sticks strictly to boxing.

It did take Jones a full round to feel out O'Brien before he ramped up his attack. And what he did really made me a believer in this kid. Lots of MMA fighters have great technique in one or two areas, but only the very best are able to transition from one aspect of MMA to the next. I'm thinking of Fedor Emelianenko, Georges St Pierre, Randy Couture, B.J. Penn, Lyoto Machida -- fighters who use strikes to set up take downs, take downs to set up submissions, feint take downs to set up strikes, etc.

What Jones did was brilliant. First he faked a double leg take down and when O'Brien crouched to sprawl, Jones switched up and caught him with a spinning back elbow (pictured). It wasn't quite a perfect kill shot, but it clearly stunned O'Brien and forced him to do what freestyle wrestlers tend to do when they're hurt -- shoot for the double leg take down.

Jones sprawled and threw off the first shot, but a desperate O'Brien immediately tried again and Jones sprawled and then caught him in a very nice no arms front choke.

Let's geek out (with animated gifs) in the full entry.

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"I was very, very, very impressed with GSP that night, because Pitbull was so hard to take down, people don’t know how good that guy is…GSP just keeps people guessing, you don’t know what he’s doing; if he’s gonna take you down or if he’s gonna strike…I mean, we brought in a lot of good wrestlers to try to take Thiago down, and nobody can do it.  Hughes couldn’t do it, Koscheck couldn’t do it, Karo Parisyan; those are great takedown guys, none of them could do it."  

Mike Brown, who trained with Alves for his UFC 100 title shot, commenting on GSP's performance on Inside MMA.

In the weeks before the fight, I spoke with people at ATT who rattled off names of wrestlers they brought in that could not take Alves down. Mohammed Lawal got on Junkie radio after training with Alves and said GSP wouldn't be able to take him down.  In the end, St. Pierre practically made Thiago Alves look like Cheick Kongo.

Speaking of St. Pierre, it looks like he won't undergo surgery.  A press release today clarified that he will be back in the gym within a few weeks.  I suspect we'll probably see him again in January.

There's a lot made of St. Pierre's ability to keep his opponents guessing. I think it's all true, but it also ignores how good his technique is.  If you take a look at his shots in the Alves fight, he shoots in at the legs, and as soon as he feels resistance he changes levels into a knee tap and gets Alves down.  He uses his opponent's defense against his initial takedown attempt against him and drives through in a way that will be hard for anyone to stop.  Why doesn't anyone else do it?  Because they can't, it takes an incredible skill level to pull off that kind of level shifting in the middle of a takedown.  

Today on "MMA Nation" we'll be joined by Affliction Vice President Tom Atencio. We'll ask Atencio about his views on Brock Lesnar, how likely it is we'll see Fedor vs. Lesnar by 2011 and more. 

We'll also talk to the number one bantamweight contender in the WEC, Brian Bowles, as he prepares for his title fight against current champion Miguel Torres. We'll ask Brian about Torres' previous fights, training at the Hardcore Gym and more

And, of course, all of the Brock Lesnar talk that quite honestly, nearly every one has gotten wrong.

"MMA Nation" airs every Saturday 7:00pm EST to 9:00pm EST on 106.7 WJFK. To listen live over the Internet, go to WJFK's website and click "Listen Live".

I'm also now on Twitter: @mmanation.

"MMA Nation" is also available by podcast on iTunes.

Number to call: 800-636-1067

Email here.

Talk to you then.

UFC 100 coverage

Affliction: Trilogy coverage

I was pretty excited to see that the prestigious Financial Times had a feature article on UFC 100. The text itself is fine enough:

Last Saturday’s event is expected to have generated more than 1.3m pay-per-view sales, with each buyer paying $44.95 to watch three tightly contested bouts. It was broadcast live or nearly live in 70 countries.

UFC’s success and the willingness of the public to pay for televised fights is in no small part due to Mr White, the company’s president. Stocky, shaven-headed and prone to expletive-laden outbursts, the former amateur boxer owns 10 per cent of the company and is in charge of day-to-day operations.

Mr White is also UFC’s public face, signing fighters to exclusive contracts, negotiating deals with an array of heavyweight sponsors that include brewer Anheuser-Busch, the US army and Harley-Davidson, and fronting The Ultimate Fighter, a weekly UFC reality television show on Spike, a Viacom-owned cable channel.

But then I clicked through the photo gallery they had with the article and just had to shake my head. They had three different photos from the Jim Miller vs Mac Danzig fight and as you can see in the caption above, in each case they identified Miller and Danzig as Dan Henderson and Michael Bisbing -- not only misidentifying Mac Danzig as Bisping, but also spelling Bisping's name wrong.

Just pathetic.

UFC 100 coverage

Much of the discussion of Brock Lesnar's utter domination of Frank Mir at UFC 100 has focused on Lesnar's size and strength as if there was no technique involved in his performance.

I've got beg to differ here. Lesnar's years on the mat as a top flight competitor in amateur wrestling clearly paid dividends in the fight.

He also showed both strategic and tactical acumen in the fight. Strategic by restraining himself from bull-rushing Mir. More importantly, he kept the fight where he wanted it -- in Mir's half-guard.

Mike Goldberg pointed out during the fight that the only time one of Lesnar's takedowns landed him in Mir's full guard, he backed right up to his feet. Clearly Lesnar's camp emphasized staying out of Mir's full guard.

Tactically, Lesnar's control of Mir from inside his half-guard was a study in utter dominance. Of course Lesnar's huge mass, incredible strength and insanely long arms allowed him to do things many other competitors couldn't do, but his application of grappling technique made him an irresistible force.

As Luke Thomas told me when we were reviewing the fight:

Lesnar completely won the positional battle. Mir's head and hips are totally controlled. That's pretty damn dominant.

Head and hip control = BJJ 101. If you can block the ability of an opponent to move both their head and their hips, that's a wrap.

Lesnar used his mass and balance to pin Mir's hips to the floor, removing any possibility of Mir escaping out the side or improving position to gain full guard. With his arms, Lesnar controlled Mir's head: check and mate.

Join me in the full entry and we'll talk about the specifics of the hold Lesnar used to control sometimes one and sometimes both of Mir's arms while leaving the other arm free to batter Frank's face. I'm calling it a one-armed full nelson.

UFC 100 coverage

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