Dave Meltzer gets the Dana's reaction and points out how well UFC on Spike has done relative to Strikeforce on CBS:
"CBS made its biggest mistake partnering with a tiny, small show with a roster no one cares about," said Dana White. "Just because you read on MMA.TV that someone is a superstar doesn't make it true. This should prove that no one out there gives a [expletive] about Fedor."
"We're pulling those numbers on Spike," White said. "I mean, how the [expletive] is what they did considered any good in any way, shape or form? What kind of numbers do you think we would pull with a live show on CBS? I'll tell you. Huge. It would be significantly, significantly more than what they got with these idiots from Showtime."
"You'd think everyone [in the industry] would be happy because it's great for the industry for everyone to be doing well," responded Coker.
Of the eight episodes of the current season of the UFC's "Ultimate Fighter" reality show on Spike, two had higher ratings than this show. Aside from that, UFC has topped a 2.5 rating for a live event twice, for a 2006 Tito Ortiz vs. Ken Shamrock fight and a 2007 Quinton Jackson vs. Dan Henderson fight. UFC 105, which airs this coming Saturday night, headlined by Randy Couture vs. Brandon Vera, the first time Couture will have ever fought live on Spike TV, could do a rating in the same range as Strikeforce show.
But the TV ratings news isn't all good for Dana and the UFC:
UFC's attempt at counterprogramming the opposition didn't prove as successful as in the past. UFC has always put on replays of past major pay-per-view events against the prior CBS shows, usually doing a 1.2 rating, considered very strong for Spike TV for using old footage. But they were down 25 percent from usual, doing a 0.9 rating and 1.2 million viewers with a custom-made show featuring the television debuts of four recent never-before-seen pay-per-view main event matches.
It's widely rumored that UFC 75 was aired free on Spike as a demonstration for the networks -- particularly CBS -- of what UFC could do on free television. Having seen the Strikeforce broadcast, Dana White has to be happy he didn't sign with CBS since one of their demands was supposedly taking over production and commentary. It was bad enough for me to hear Gus Johnson talking about Jake Shields "holding his breath" to avoid being submitted by a rear naked choke, can you imagine Dana White's reaction to hearing that kind of commentary on a UFC telecast?
On the other hand, it's very hard for me to imagine a scenario where any major network, even Fox, let's the UFC bring its own production and commentary team along for the network broadcast. It's one thing for the UFC to hire its own announcers on Spike TV or on PPV, but any organization with its own sports news operation is going to be very resistant to airing sports programming that is announced by the promotion's own commenters. Rogan and Goldberg may be better than any team a network could assemble right now, but it's just not big time to let the fight promoter control the coverage. It's not big time, it's WWE.
Dana White's desire to control the presentation of his product is probably the right instinct and might well be what's best for the long term health of the sport, but it's also what's keeping UFC off the networks and allowing otherwise second-tier promotions to grab the opportunity.