Last night the UFC made their long awaited debut on network television. The UFC kicked off their partnership with FOX in a one hour primetime special that featured a heavyweight title bout between now former champ Cain Velasquez and Junior dos Santos.
We all knew that the fight itself would deliver and it did. Junior landed a big right hand just above the ear of Velasquez that sent him down. Velasquez tried to recover as Junior swarmed but he was unable to and ref John McCarthy called it a night at the 1:04 mark of the first round. Junior was crowned the heavyweight champion.
There were some questions about the joint presentation of the UFC and FOX going in. Sometimes fans are not open to change and hearing the FOX sports music over a UFC event was a little different.
However, I thought the presentation was great. It was better then what I expected. The show opened with FOX sports annalist Curt Menefee and Dana White who were later joined by Brock Lesnar. They were set up at the top of the arena in the same manor of other sports telecasts.
The site of Menefee on the set immediately made worry because having a person who may be uneducated in MMA could hurt the analysis. We can all remember Gus Johnson’s early attempts at MMA play-by-play. Menefee did a solid job though it did seem a little forced, he did not say anything that hurt the broadcast and clearly did his homework.
FOX and the UFC choosing to have Dana White as the second man in booth was a mistake. Not that White did a bad job talking about the fight. He is a promoter and promoted the fight. Most athletic commissions frown on a promoter showing any type of favoritism towards fights they promote. This leaves your second analyst (Dana White) without an opinion on who would win the fight or at least unable to share that opinion.
Brock Lesnar did about as well as we thought he could. At least he had a clear opinion on who would win the fight and offered reasons why he would win.
Look, I am not trying to down the performances just offer analysis. Overall I thought the pre-fight analysis worked better then expected and as they add more knowledgeable annalists and get more comfortable with the format it will only get better. I look forward to having this type of analysis on future UFC on FOX events.
The graphics and visual presentation of the show definitely added to show. Everything looked great in HD. The crowd looked hot and they were. The arena was full and continuous shots of the crowd were a good thing. This showed the viewers that the people want to see this fight. Of course normal MMA fans like us knew that but to first timers it is good to show a full arena.
Did we need another fight? Yes. We always need another fight. Did not having a second fight hurt the show? No. While it was disappointing that the fight only lasted 64 seconds, it did show that a big part of the appeal of the UFC is unpredictability. Anything can happen on any given night.
Overall, I think the UFC’s first show on network television did exactly what it was supposed to be and that was leave fans wanting more. The show flowed well and never struggled like we have seen in the past from Elite XC and Strikeforce events.
The UFC and FOX get a B+ for the night. Ten points off for only one fight. It will be interesting to see what the ratings will be for the show. I can’t imagine it pulling in less than 3.5 million viewers here in America.
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