The main event had all the makings of a long-lasting rivalry. Nick Diaz did not feel Diego Sanchez deserved all the attention that the 'nightmare' had been receiving. Diego described that fight most appropriately as 'two lizards going at it'. Both grapplers fought to a decision with Diego gaining the judge's favour because he was able to take down Nick and hold him down more effectively.
The commentary by Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg was outstanding. Rogan is a long-time fan of the sport. His enthusiasm and expertise on the subject is very enjoyable and serves to promote the sport to the general audience. So it was not about the fights, not about the commentary, then what was it that I did not like about the show?
The fights were great, but that was also the biggest issue I had with this finale - there were too little of it in the three-hour show! In between fights, there were an abundance of repeated pre-fight interviews and a bevy of commercials. I never like this style of event broadcasting even when watching the pay-per-views. It was extremely annoying for a fan to realize that this time could have been used to show more fights.
I hope the UFC will get more popular so that they do not have to bend over for their sponsors and start delivering more quality fight content. The UFC girls were cute when they asked the audience not to change channels but I flipped the channels so many times and got frustrated with the pace of the special. In the end, whether the UFC intended or not, does the advertiser get more bang for their buck if the format of the show encourages viewers to divert their attention away?
The environment left much to be desired, especially when you compare the UFC's production against other fighting entertainment shows such as the professional wrestling. Lack of organization, technical difficulties with the microphones all plagued the production. The show obviously was not live as they were very efficient at censoring the obscenities from the 'live' fighter interviews. Confusion as to whether the fighters could do plugs for their sponsors also lowered the quality of this fine programming.
I hope the UFC will get their act together, not only to improve their pay-per-view, but also to improve on the season finale for season three.
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Article comments
1 - Graham
Yeah...the production left a little to be desired, which is weird. It's not as if the UFC hasn't been doing these events live on PPV forever....
The sponsorship stuff is just killing me, but I guess Zuffa needs the cash to keep the sport moving forward in the public's eye. I don't mind paying for a comerical-free pay-per-view, and I'd support an ad-sponsored free show, but this show came on cable, which I already pay out the nose for to begin with.
I think they do need to stop fighters from hawking companies in the post-fight interview. I want to hear a fighter talk about the fight he just had, not about how "Joe's Tire Barn and Gym rock!" However, in order to get to this point, the UFC needs to actualyl PAY the fighters enough money so that they don't have to become walking advertisements just to pay the bills.
I don't know if it's true or not, but I've heard several times that a no-name fighter in a real UFC PPV might get literally a few thousand dollars to fight. Come on! The UFC can't pay NFL-level salaries yet, but they need to get the fighters paychecks up a little more!