From the NSAC, via MMA Payout.

Tickets sold: 8,004
Gate: $1, 969, 670

Tickets comped: 4,373
Value of comped: $1,005,000.00

A two million dollar gate is pretty good for this card. I would not have been shocked if the tickets sold had been around 7,000 or a tad lower. If memory serves, I think the card was already a mess by the time tickets went on sale so it is not as though folks bought tickets and then got stuck...though several bouts did fall apart in the weeks leading up to the event.
One thing I think is likely going to be a staple of forthcoming UFC cards is comps. Dana seems to really enjoy giving out tickets through Twitter. Last Nights UFN was a legit large crowd, but they held back a certain number of tickets for give-aways.

Considering the economy, it is a cool thing to do.

So how will UFC 109 do compared to this? My guess is it will do a little bit better, but not too much. Maybe 8500 sold.

The UFC 108 Prelim show, on Spike, drew 1.5 million viewers for an overall rating of 1.0. This is up slightly from the previous prelim shows, which generally do between 1.2-1.4 million viewers.

This suggests that Dana might be correct when he predicted 108 would do 400-500k buys. This, along with the solid numbers that the Countdown to 108 did, seems to indicate that there was more interest for the card that most of us thought.

The 108 countdown show did 618,000 viewers, the highest since the Countdown to 101. The 106 Countdown show, by comparison, did only 445,000.

Even if Dana's prediction is off, it is likely that 108 won't do as bad as was expected. Looking at these numbers, I don't see it being lower than 350,000 buys.

 

In the past, I have been a vocal critic of BJ Penn. And while I still have issues with his attitude at times, I can't help but be hella impressed with his performances in the cage.

According to Fight Metric, Penn landed 70% of his strikes last night. That is beyond good, that is awesome. Sanchez attempted approx ten thousand takedowns and got not a single one.

And after last night, I can't help but say this:
It is time for him to make the permenant move to 170.

Penn has not simply been dominant in his title defenses, he has negated virtually all of his opponents' offensive tools, leaving them to merely survive as long as posible. Florian, Sherk and Sanchez are all world class fighters, yet Penn made each one look like they made a wrong turn and ended up in the cage by mistake.

An argument could be made for one or two more defenses, but I see some very real problems with that. The remaining two legit contenders are Gray Maynard and Frankie Edgar. I doubt that anyone, outside of their families, sees either as a realistic threat. What is worse, neither would draw much interest for the casual public. So not only would they almost certainly get killed, nobody would give a shit about the match-ups.

Clay Guida, had he won last night, would have some appeal. Oh sure, he would get completely destroyed, but he is likeble and would appeal to folks enough that some would watch the fight.

One might make the same argument about GSP, but he is not yet interested in moving up and has a couple more viable opponents. He will likely pound Hardy, but Dan's mouth should help build up the bout enough that some will think he has a shot. Koscheck is slowly positioning himself for a shot and he can argue that he won a round from GSP when they previously fought.

Moving Penn up to WW would do two things:
A) Allow the LW division to regain some excitement. The UFC LW division has a handful of great fighters as well as quite a few good ones that deliver the goods. Who would not like to watch Edgar, Florian, Sherk, Griffin and Maynard all battle it out to see who becomes the next champ?

B) The move gives the WW division another legit draw and creates some interesting match-ups. Alves/Penn? Koscheck, Hardy, Daley, Fitch (ok, maybe not after last nights' yawnfest)...all of these sound, at least to me, like good bouts.

M-1/Strikeforce has issued a press release stating:

In total, over 25 million MMA fans all around the world were treated to a vintage performance from the world’s greatest MMA fighter, Fedor Emelianenko. The main event of Fedor vs Rogers reached an impressive 5.46 million viewers in the United States on the CBS Network. The fight was also broadcast in Fedor’s native Russia by “Channel 1,” Russia’s largest television network, and reached 16 million viewers in Fedor’s home country. In addition, “Fedor vs. Rogers” was broadcast to millions of viewers in Korea on SBS, one of the 3 major national South Korean networks, as well as television networks in China, Latin America, United Kingdom, New Zealand, Ukraine, Finland, Africa, Turkey, Israel, Indonesia, Bulgaria, Romania, and Malta. Live internet streams of the “Fedor vs. Rogers” bout generated ground-breaking viewer numbers in Japan and all over the world and these numbers continue to grow through Video on Demand.

That is pretty impressive, but I am having trouble with the Russian number. According to TNS, a media company in Russia, Fedor/Rogers did a share of 12 and a rating of 3.8. I used this translation.

One rating point equals one percent of television households and one share point equals one percent of the televisions in use at the time. Since I can't find any data as to how many households have televisions, I decided to use the most liberal date I could and used the population for Russia: 141 million. Using that, the number would be 5.386 million. That is ten million less than the press release.

Is there anyone here that can provide more insight on these numbers. I just don't see anyway that it comes out to what is being claimed.

I don't want this to be a UFC vs. M-1 argument, I am simply looking for some info.

Right after the Fedor/Rogers card, Scott Coker said he would be announcing the signing of two big Heavyweights in seven to ten days.

That was on Nov 7th. I wonder what has happened that those signings have not taken place. I am sure one was Lashley, as it sounded like it was a done deal. It also seemed likely that Arlovski was the other one.

Maybe they are going to hold off and announce at the next show? If so, it is odd that he would publicly set a timetable for making an announcement.

MAybe the UFC has stepped up and entered bidding? It is the only other reason I can think of.

UFC 105 did a 1.9 rating with a 3.45 in Males 18-34, a 2.84 in M18-49 and an ave audience of 2.9 million. The show peaked, during the main event, at 3.7 million.

The demos are great, as they beat everything else on television that night, but I think the UFC was hoping for slightly higher overall audience. I can't help but wonder what they would have done with the original Penn/Sanchez or even Couture/Evans. No trying to hate on Vera, but he simply is not known to most casual fans.

Pac/Cotto likely hurt a little, but since it was on ppv, I don't think it was too much of an impact.

Personally, I was expecting an overall aud of a little over 3 mil with a peak of around 4.5 million. These numbers are good, but not great (outside of the demos, which are very strong).

Here are the early numbers.

9:00 p.m. – Viewers: 3.50 million (#4), Adults 18-49: 1.5/ 5 (share)
9:30 p.m. – Viewers: 3.53 million (#4), A18-49: 1.6/ 5
10:00 p.m. – Viewers: 4.12 million (#3), A18-49: 1.9/ 6
10:30 p.m. – Viewers: 4.01 million (#3), A18-49: 1.8/ 6

Key demos: Males18-34 (2.2) and M18-49 (2.3) with an ave audience of 3.79 million.
Those are solid. They certainly will go up once the main event is factored in, but that won't be until Tuesday.

For comparison, the first Elite show did an ave of 4.2 million with Adults 18-49 doing a 1.9. That show also saw the main event go late so those numbers do not include Kimbo. But it should be noted that this did better than the second Elite show.

via www.5thround.com

Week two did a 2.2, down from the record-breaking 2.9 of last week.

That rating is still better than anything else TUF has done.

The show did a 4.2 in Males 18-34, 3.2 in m18-49 with an audience of 2.9 million. The replay at 11 did 1.1 million viewers.

I think we are all assuming Kimbo loses next week. While that show should do a huge number, it remains to be seen whether or not there is a drop-off after that. Especially if Nelson beats him by controling him on the ground for two rounds, which is not out of the question.

The overall feedback on Kimbo seems to be fairly positive so I am guessing he still works hard and gets along with everyone for the rest of the season. Even with a loss on the show, Kimbo is slated to fight on the finale. You know the UFC  is going to be careful with who they have him face. These ratings have to have the powers that be grinning from ear to ear.

If they do keep a strong audience for the rest of the season, it will be interesting to see what impact it has on UFC 104-106. If they are drawing...let us say it drops from 3 million down to 2 million viewers a week, if they do 2 mil (still an impressive #) a week, will advertising during the show add to the buy rates of 104 and 106? What kind of numbers will Couture and Vera do for the Spike broadcast of 105?

106 could end up gaining even more momentum from this.

These come from f4wonline:

Daniel Cormier (0-0, 250.2) vs. Gary Frazier (0-0, 245.2)

Thomas Longacre (4-0, 148) vs. Travis Calanoc (4-0, 146.6)

Tyron Woodley (3-0, 171) vs. Zach Light (6-8, 170.4)

Ray Sefo (1-0, 240.8) vs. Kevin Jordan (11-7, 236.6)

Tim Kennedy (10-2, 186) vs. Zak Cummings (10-0, 186)

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Fighters Only magazine has an interesting interview with Mark Dellagrotte in which he confirms that he and Kenny have parted company:

"I think he is going to do well, I think the people he is going with are some of the best in the world. It wasn’t a bad break or anything like that, it was just a mutual decision we made in order for us both to move forward. It was necessary for Kenny to move forward with his career and me to move forward as a coach."

He also confirms that there have been problems between him and Keith Florian:

"I have to stress that I have nothing negative to say towards Kenny or his brother. Its not his brother’s fault, it’s not my fault, its just one of things that happens in sports like this," the Boston man says. "There has been a constant… ‘power struggle’ between me and his brother Keith. We never really got along - which is not anybody’s fault, some work well together and some don’t.
 
"We worked well together at first but over the last few camps and fights we put together, there were differences and I am just the type of guy that if I can’t steer the ship, if I can’t be the captain, I would prefer not to be onboard."

Reading the entire thing, it really does sound like things are good between Kenny and Mark. Too many bad splits out there, it is nice to see these guys were able to do so without burning bridges.
 
I know that Keith has always been an important figure in Kenny's personal and professional life, but I question how well he will be able to steer Kenny's career. After the BJ fight, I could not help but wonder if Kenny and Sherk got their plans mixed up as neither seemed to embrace their strengths.

Photo via ThatGirlisFunny.

Dana White, on Twitter:.

 

Tuf 10 premier did 4.1 million viewers last nite!!!! Thank you all very much. You are the best fans in sports!!!

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Antonio Nogueira 460k* (250k to show, 150k to win, 60k Fight of the Night bonus) def. Randy Couture 310k* (250k to show, 60k FotN bonus).

Thiago Silva (29k to show, 29k to win) def. Keith Jardine (55k to show).

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After the UFC 101 pre-fight  press conference, Dana mentioned that Brock Lesnar has signed a new contract with the UFC.

Some had speculated that he might be lured away to Strikeforce to match up with Fedor.

I will be very curious to see where his downside is at. After the success of his last two bouts, Brock has proven himself to be a huge draw. It is likely that he becomes the highest paid fighter.

BJ Penn has announced that he will no longer be working with the majority of the online MMA media.

Penn is unhappy with how he was protrayed during the GSP/Penn II fallout. He made mention of the document that suggested that GSP took a pill that made him greasy. Penn pointed out that he did not write it, but was getting blamed for it. 

He also said he felt that his other points (warning the commission in advance) were not given the proper coverage.

MMA Weekly, MMA Junkie and Sherdog were mentioned specifically, but he said he would be doing most of his talking through his website. He did say he would do any media work that the UFC sets up.

Continue reading this post »

After UFC 100, GSP will officially be the biggest draw in UFC history. In terms of ppv buys and ticket sales.

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There have been been rumors of this with all of Sentanta's financial problems, but Fighters Only is reporting that the UFC has terminated it's relationship with Sentanta sports in the U.K.

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By now, we have all heard Dana's comments and statement that Mirko has left the UFC and signed with Dream.

Earlier this morning, Miko was asked about it:

Cro Cop returns home:

Q: Can you comment on signing for DREAM?
"No comment, that is my private business relations."

Q: How was the knee?
"Good. Good. He was going

Now another report has come out with Mirko saying this is not the case: http://www.jutarnji.hr/sport/borilacki_sportovi/clanak/art-2009,6,14,,166592.jl

 

According to this, he has not signed and is surprised by this. He also said (apparently) that Dana had not talked to him about it prior to going public.

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This Fan Post was promoted to the front page by Nick Thomas.

Kevin Iole is reporting that Mirko has signed a new deal with Dream. According to Dana White, Mirko notified them shortly after his bout at UFC 99.

In addition, White said that Mirko turned down several opponents for 99, including Cain:

“He didn’t keep his word,” White said, who said he’d had a two-hour talk with Filipovic on the day Filipovic texted and asked to be able to return. “He talked about honor and all this other [expletive] and he [expletived] me.

“He fed me this bull [expletive] about wanting to take a run for the title, and what I think he did was, he went out and did this. He turned down every other [expletive] fighter I offered him, because I needed him to fight Cain. He didn’t just poke Al-Turk; he poked me, too.”

Since Mirko verbally agreed to a one fight deal, he had every right to go elsewhere after the bout. But it certainly looks like he never intended to compete in the UFC. I am guessing he either

A) Planned it with Dream in hopes of garnering publicity
or
B) Used the UFC deal to get Dream to pony up more money.

Either way, this does not exactly enhance Mirko's legacy.

**Edited by Luke Thomas.

And it looks like another fighter has left MFS. In part one of Dana's latest blog, Dana and Spenser are talking about his training:

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Not sure how legit it is, but U.K. site MMABay is reporting that Rampage has agreed to once again coach on The Ultimate Fighter.

According to the piece, his opposing coach will be the winner of Machida/Evans, with the bout likely taking place on the New Years card.

Jackson will begin training for the fight back at his UK camp, the Wolfslair MMA Academy, in October to ensure that he has a thorough three months to prepare, making sure he goes into the fight at 100%.

Despite the identity of his opposing coach being in the air at the minute, SPIKE TV officials and “Rampage” himself hope that Rashad Evans comes through at UFC 98 and sets up what could escalate into one of the biggest grudge matches of all time after being separated in the middle of the octagon at UFC 96.

I don't how I feel about this. Personally, I thought Jackson was a fairly poor coach, with Juanito appearing to be the real brains of the Tean Jackson. If so, then we will likely see the same folks Bisping has assisting him.

I wonder if Greg Jackson would act an assistant coach for Rashad? Would he be willing to take that much time away from training other guys? Especially when both Jardine and GSP have bouts coming up later in the summer. The idea of getting to watch Greg and see how he works certaining is intriguing.

This would also provide Rashad with an oppontunity to establish himself as a top star. He would be coming off three wins over top guys and this would give him enough camera time to increase his drawing power.

The prospect of having the belt on the shelf for another seven months is also frustrating, but I hope the UFC lines up some bouts to create clear cut contenders if this rumor is indeed true.

1.1 rating with 1.28 in M18-49, 1.41 in M18-34 and an average audience of 1.5 million.

The show seems to have found a steady audience over the last couple of seasons. For a while, it looked as though the ratings would continue to slide each season, but appear to have stablized. It is interesting that it does not seem to matter who the coaches are anymore, the ratings stay pretty much the same.

I mentioned this before, but this season is holding close to last without all of the drama and drunken antics of recent seasons.

Season so far:
Ep 5: 1.04 rating with 1.33 in M18-49, 1.59 in M18-34 and an ave aud of 1.4 million.
Ep 4: 1.0 rating with 1.20 in M18-49, 1.5 in M18-34 and an ave aud of 1.4 million.
Ep 3: 0.9 rating with 1.2 in M18-49, 1.13 in M18-34 and an aud of 1.2 million.
1 rating with 1.2 in M18-49, 1.3 in M18-34 and an ave aud of 1.5 million.
Ep 2: 1.1 rating with 1.2 in M18-49, 1.3 in M18-34 and an ave aud of 1.5 million.
Ep 1: 1.3 rating with 1.8 in M18-49, 2.1 in M18-34 and an ave aud of 1.8 million.

Ep 1: 1.3 rating with 1.8 in M18-49, 2.1 in M18-34 and an ave aud of 1.8 million.
Ep 2: 1.1 rating with 1.2 in M18-49, 1.3 in M18-34 and an ave aud of 1.5 million.
Ep 3: 0.9 rating with 1.2 in M18-49, 1.13 in M18-34 and an aud of 1.2 million.
Ep 4: 1.0 rating with 1.20 in M18-49, 1.5 in M18-34 and an ave aud of 1.4 million.
Ep 5: 1.04 rating with 1.33 in M18-49, 1.59 in M18-34 and an ave aud of 1.4 million.

After five eps
Season 8: 1.14.
Season 7: 1.1
This season is averaging 1.07

Realistically, last season got a major boost was the Junie nonsense. His antics caused the fourth ep to do 1.4.

One interesting thing is that this season has had far less drama than last season. That this season is close to the numbers of last has to please those that hated Junie and the rest of the nonsense that filled many of the eps.

A 1.0 is generally considered a hit for an original basic cable show and is considered the threshold for TUF. If it's weekly average sinks below that number, I think Spilke and Zuffa would be concerned. Of course that rating is not the only thing that is important, the numbers for the Male 18-39 and male 18-34 are also very important. In those areas, the show has always delivered. <!-- / message --><!-- sig -->

Somebody posted this on another forum.

We see Stitch's hands go from Hughes face to his body.

After seeing this, one has to question credible Hughes' comments about GSP being slippery are?

Personally, I think this shows just how easy it is for somebody, even the best, to get careless.

Stitch is repected by virtually everyone in the MMA community and works not just on wrestlers, but BJJ guys as well. Why would he intentionally do that?

And if he can slip up, one should not be surprised that it happened with Nurse, especially when he was not only in charge of the vasoline, but also with applying the goofy voodoo breathing massage.

By now, I am sure we all have read Josh Barnett's comments about Kenny Florian. Mr. Josh was  upset at Kenny's comments on MMA Live and took some shots at Kenny.

On the Underground, Kenny recently responded:

Anyone who watches MMA Live on ESPN.com knows that I am fair when talking about UFC, Strikeforce, Affliction etc . . . or any of the fighters. In the most recent episode, I spoke about Joe Lauzon's dominant win over Stephens. Joe has spoken negatively about me in several interviews lately but I call it like I see it. He did well against Stephens and dominated the ground action. I also spoke about Strikeforce being a great thing for mma fighters and fans. Criticizing fighters or even picking winners and losers is always tough but it is my job and what ESPN pays me to do. Most here understand that and many here supporting Barnett most likely never saw the episode.

I expected a dominant finish from Barnett because HE IS a top heavyweight going against a man in Yvel who doesn't have his ground skills. Barnett certainly dominated but for whatever the reason, he struggled to put him away. It was my job to tell people watching the show what I thought about the fight.

I have always had a lot of respect for Josh Barnett as a fighter and he has always came across well in the past. Hearing his comments about me shows that while he is a good fighter, he is like school on Sunday, he has no class. I am not sure if Barnett is overly sensitive, sexually frustrated or believes he had a perfect performance, whatever the case, I think the comments he made shows what kind of a background he comes from. He has made some unusual comments about the UFC and other fighters so I find it odd that he is so sensitive.
As a professional mma fighter myself, I have been subjected to a lot of criticism. I think all of my performances are terrible after a few weeks after my fights. I know I need improvement which is why I train so hard. To resort to insults and name calling because someone thought I should have fought better is immature and pointless. We can always do better. We fight on TV and people will criticize. No mysteries here.

It is fighters like Josh Barnett who help support the perception that MMA fighters are ignorant and low class individuals. This is unfortunate since the MMA world needs guys who act like professional athletes if we want people to take this sport seriously. Barnett isn't a kid anymore and has been around the sport for a long time now, he should act like a pro. If we show a lack of respect, how can we want people to respect us?

Either way, thanks for watching MMA Live on ESPN.com. All of our past episodes are available on the MMA page at ESPN.com.

KF

Shortly thereafter, Josh responded:

Now that I have your attention Kenny, and the rest of the internet it seems, I’ll lay it out for you without the attention grabbing obnoxiousness. I have done media work in MMA for years and know the difference between acting as a professional on camera and taking shots at someone. You obviously do not and did not have respect for me as a fighter when you decided to not simply be critical of my performance but talk of it with derision and disdain. Your clearly condescending attitude is where I took offense and when I have fellow fighters sending me messages saying, "Hey, did you see Kenny Florian talking down about you on ESPN?" it’s clear to me you’re being disrespectful.

Yeah I know all the crass comments were a bit much and "Sit-on-a-dong" in retrospect was in very poor taste. I regret that one. But for grabbing attention and putting more listeners in front of the PC for Shoman and Co. it did the trick. The offer still stands however if you, K-Flo, think you can teach me a two about throwing an armlock or two. Your attitude suggested you sat on a pretty high perch for someone so much my junior in this sport and you must think yourself a better fighter. I’d simply like to see you stand up for that attitude. I have been submitted plenty of times by Matt Hume who is around your weight and you’re a professional athlete so no need for anyone to whine about me picking on you Kenny.

Who are you to speak of class or more importantly my background? The only thing you need to know about my background is that no one ever let me act like an arrogant prick without smacking me one. My teachers are men who put up or shut up and take no shit from anybody. See when I started fighting I didn’t have the luxury of gyms everywhere, promotions all over the US, sponsors, or even MMA gear. We fought whoever, whenever pretty much regardless of weights, time limits or rules. What you see on Sherdog isn’t the extent of my fighting history. Ever fight bare knuckle, with headbutts or no time limit? No cutting and running in those matches buddy boy. No, I bet you didn’t. You got all the benefits of a modern MMA created by people like myself and I can tell you what it really means to suffer for a sport when we didn’t make dick. But we fought however we could and for free if we had to, just to fight.

You’re a kid in this game. A mewling babe sucking from a teet. You haven’t done the things I have or even have as many fights as I have wins. You need to realize that just because you fight in the UFC and are on an ESPN internet show, we are not peers. Not even close. Not as fighters, not in MMA knowledge, not in the business aspects, not in anything.

I must say that as a fighter your improvement has been impressive and I think you have come far from the finals of the first TUF. This however is not just about professionalism but about being a man. If you want to speak with contempt and flout be prepared to have own up to it –even if it means having to get physical. That’s the way it is.

Don’t talk shit if you don’t want shit.

Josh

Folks have already pointed out that Kenny's comments were nothing compared to what mainstream Sports writers would have offered up. When you step into the spotlight, you have to accept that a certian amount of criticism is going to come with it.

Was Kenny critical? He was, but I don't think anything he said crossed the line. Actually, I think he hit the nail on the head. He said nothing that was not being said online and even among the MMA fans I know.

I give Josh credit for admitting some of his remarks were crass, but he still comes across in a very condescending manner. I think Kenny and Josh are indeed peers. Kenny has become one of the top LWs in the world and has established himself as a fine commentator as well. To me, Josh's latest comments almost had a tint of jealousy to them.