RSS
Home
Fedor versus Rogers wins moral victory for MMA
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
Fedor flurries as Rogers covers
Preliminary ratings results are in regarding Strikeforce’s network debut on CBS Saturday night. Strikeforce: Fedor versus Rogers may not have been the most talent-heavy card put on in 2009, but it did feature the most evenly matched top 15 fighters covering every aspect of the game. If it exists in MMA, it can be found in one of the four bouts on the Fedor versus Rogers main card.*
*Click here for a complete treatment of the main card fights
For being a shining example of all the things that set MMA apart from any other sport on television, the Strikeforce card was rewarded with modest but respectable ratings that came nowhere near winning the time slot. While the top shelf display of MMA failed to draw as many viewers as journeyman mixed martial artist Kimbo Slice whenever he decides to put on his gloves and show off the glaring holes in his game, Strikeforce’s ability to put its best foot forward for network television was one of the greater moral victories the sport has ever claimed.
The last time CBS broadcast an MMA card, the marquis bout was the aforementioned Mr. Slice gassing very badly against perennial tomato can James Thompson. That embarrassment may have moved the needle more than my pick for Saturday’s fight of the night: the tactical battle between Jake Shields and Jason Miller. But it’s fights like Shields versus Miller that will generate fans of the sport rather than spectators watching a freak show.
Unlike the kind of viewer who can only be bothered to watch MMA when cover girl and actress Gina Carano gets paraded out to beat up a woman half her size, every person watching CBS on Saturday night has a good reason to keep following the sport. The brand of MMA showcased on Fedor versus Rogers was a competition of conditioning, skill, and guile. And that is a brand people will not abandon for the next fad that rolls into town.
As of now, no CBS representative has shown any displeasure with the event’s ratings, which were still solid even if they failed to take the world by storm. Provided Strikeforce continues to grow as a promotion, more network broadcasts are likely in the organization’s future.
Related Articles:
Comments
