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The Natural

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This is SO true. I have casual friends that don't even watch anymore because following it has become a "chore". Multiple people have told me they liked it better when everything was on Spike cause you knew where to look.

 

It sucks, it really does. This conversation has happened WAY too often lately, Me: "You guys watch UFC last night?" Friends: "There was a UFC on? PPV?" Me: "No on FS1." Friends: "Huh... had no idea. Didn't see any ads about it"

 

They don't advertise ANYTHING anymore and the vast majority of causal fans (unlike some of us) don't spend there whole day at work on MMA sites. It seems like back in the day if you watched Spike for 5 minutes you would see an add for a PPV, Fight Night, TUF, or a Countdown show.

 

Zuffa was under the belief that they could hold one big card that would draw people to FS1 and people would be hooked.  They drew great ratings on the first Fs1 card, which was heavily advertised.  People tuning back in didn't happen though.  They have no contingency plan.

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Meltzer made a point on Observer Radio last week about the Fox Sports format and basically how their programming shouldn't be on a sports network. I guess he means a startup like CBS Sports, NBC Sports, and the old FUEL/SPEED channels because ESPN is a glaring omission. But look at how Spike catered to the UFC and caters to the Bellator programming. Bellator is getting beat by Cops reruns in ratings, but do well enough to where they can replace Rambo 4 being shown on a Saturday night three consecutive times in a row. The same thing applied to Silva vs. Irvin five years ago. The question is whether or not the content elevates the channel or vice versa because we all know the mutual stuff is bullshit everytime they begin these relationships. UFC still being on Spike would be lovely from a fan standpoint, but it did reach a point where Spike no longer elevated UFC programming. No one gives a shit about Dana White making some fight or video game announcement on the Scream Awards or Guys's Guys Awards or w/e.

 

You can argue that Spike played too much of it and cards were shit (thus the overkill), but that's what comes with being the flagship of something. However, you can bitch about the NFL having too many shows with analysts and ex-football players that have no clue what they're talking about. When the NFL lockout ended, you had shows like that on ESPN and ESPN2 airing at like 2 pm ET that no one watched being sponsored by IBM and the like. You can also bitch about how many mediocre to subpar MNF games there have been over the last two years. With the way NBC has struggled on Thursday this year, I bet they would love a second NFL Thursday game being on NBC. That's what Zuffa wants IMO. They can't have a billion dollar deal in rights fees, but they have a shot at Fox shoehorning them into better spots. And when you're a niche sport, that's all you can ask for. As long as you're in the door, you can have shows like Machida vs. Munoz. They're hoping to get to the point where they can earn their way to having more than four shows a year on Fox. It would be different if no one watched ANYTHING on FS1. But the live programming from the UFC is the only thing remotely being watched. Less than three months of programming isn't going to determine success or failure for the UFC anyway. If they can do well enough to the point where Fox wants to scrap some shitty Pac-12 game in primetime for UFC, it benefits Zuffa more than it could if they were on Spike replacing some terrible action movie.

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Watching the UFC Primetime show, I've determined that Hendricks suffers from the Tim Bradley-Danny Garcia syndrome. His dad is like 1000% more naturally charismatic than him. They needed more time with Papa Hendricks instead of Jeff Gordon not knowing who Johny Hendricks is. Way to make your guys look uncool.

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Some good news:

 

52 days since the accident. Today we discharged from the hospital. Matt is out of inpatient rehab! We are so excited to be home together as a family again. Matt still needs therapy care and will start outpatient rehab 3-4 days a week. His Dr. described this a remarkable recovery. What a miracle and a journey so far. Thank you everyone for the support and prayers. #gricestrong #fighter

 

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Josh Barnett got licensed today in Nevada for his fight against Travis Brown. It was conditional on him passing random NSAC enhanced testing (the WADA accredited testing program they came up with for Marquez/Bradley) through the end of 2014. The UFC will pick up the $20,000 testing bill.

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Technically it was 4 months early he pulled out, beginning of November-December-January-February, fighting first week of March doesn't as a whole extra month  Same point though that unless you have had an injury that requires surgery kind of lame to pull out this far in advance.  Why even bother to accept a fight if you're going to pull out a few days later?

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Kawajiri's opponent for his UFC debut will be Hacran Dias.  

 

Also on that card is Jake Ellenberger vs. Tarec Saffiedine (who is finally making his debut almost 1 year after Strikeforce folded).

 

Could be interesting... Smart money is of course on Kawajiri, bur Dias has shown lots of ways to win a fight.

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