NEW YORK, N.Y. (June 12, 2009)—VERSUS, the exclusive television home of World Extreme Cagefighting® (WEC®), garnered a 1.1 national HH rating and was the top-rated cable network in the country among all key male demos for its live WEC telecast on Sunday, June 7, featuring the most-anticipated featherweight championship re-match in MMA history between Mike Brown and Urijah Faber.            

 

The fight lived up to the hype and featured five full rounds of intense action in the cage with Brown proving to viewers that he is still the #1 featherweight fighter in the world.  Faber, who broke his hand in the first round, battled it out until the very end, but without full use of both hands, Faber was unable to overcome Brown and win back his belt.  VERSUS re-aired the entire Brown vs. Faber II fight card immediately following its live telecast on Sunday and, due to overwhelming demand from fans, twice again on Wednesday, June 10.  In total, the bout was seen by more than six million viewers.

Great News for the WEC - Eugene add this to your charts.

 http://www.tournamentguidemag.com/2009/06/brown-vs-faber-wec-title-fight-lived-up-to-hype/

http://mmajunkie.com/news/5275/war-machine-ufc-cut-me-over-declined-fight-evan-tanner-comments.mma

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War Machine (5-2 MMA, 1-1 UFC), "The Ultimate Fighter 6" cast member previously known as Jon Koppenhaver before he legally changed his name, has been dropped by the UFC in the wake up a controversial web posting the fighter made regarding the death of former UFC champion Evan Tanner.

War Machine said he recently turned down a fight -- one with an opponent who had little name recognition -- and that the decision may have also played a part in the UFC's decision to drop him from the roster.

"The UFC cut me," Koppenhaver confirmed with MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com).

Earlier this week, the mixed-martial-arts community learned that former UFC middleweight champion Evan Tanner died while camping out in a California desert. Initially, little was known about the situation other than a body had been found and that it was believed to be Tanner.

Upon learning of the news, Koppenhaver posted a MySpace bulletin in which he speculated that Tanner had committed suicide and that he may have been depressed over the fact that his career might be over and that he had little to show financially for all his greatness.

Nearly one year after his resignation from the UFC, the MMA world remains transfixed on Randy Couture and his quest to fight Fedor Emelienanko. In a sport of short attention spans, the bout remains the most anticipated in MMA as evidenced by the reaction generated by the staredown between the two heavyweights at Affliction’s innaugural event. Couture and Emelienanko had hoped to square off later this year, but a recent setback in Couture’s legal battle with the UFC appears to have delayed the fight until at least 2009. However, despite the hurdles in their way, the consensus top five heavyweights remain committed to turning the dream fight into a reality. MMAPayout.com has learned that Couture and Emelianenko, along with their respective management teams, have spent a great deal of time together in Los Angeles this week. The purpose of the informal summit is not entirely clear, but one logical goal of the meetings could be the development of a collective strategy moving forward in order to insure that the fight takes place, sooner rather than later. Adding intrigue to the meetings are recent statements from both parties, as well as the UFC, publicly indicating a willingness to discuss resolving their respective differences in order to have the fight take place in the Octagon, perhaps by the end of the year. Speculation within the industry pegs the pay-per-view expectations for the fight around one million buys if promoted by the UFC, which combined with what has become an expensive and protracted legal battle, give both sides ample motivation to come to an agreement. In addition to the meetings, MMAPayout.com has also confirmed that Couture and Emelianenko are scheduled to participate in a magazine photo shoot. A previous Affliction photo shoot featuring a staredown between the two fighters caused waves in February.

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Promoted by Michael Rome.

SpikeTV has issued a press release on the ratings for the UFC 84 replay on Saturday night:

Here is the release:

SPIKE TV’S RE-BROADCAST OF UFC 84 DRAWS MORE YOUNG MEN THAN A LIVE PRO ELITEXC CHAMPIONSHIP FIGHT ON CBS

Need proof the UFC is the preeminent mixed martial arts brand in the world? On Saturday, July 26, more men 18-34 watched a repeat…a repeat…of a UFC event on Spike TV than a LIVE telecast of a Pro EliteXC championship card on CBS. Despite being available in over 17 million more homes, Spike TV drew 27% more Men 18-34 for a re-broadcast of “UFC 84: Penn vs. Sherk” from (9:00-12:00am ET/PT) than CBS’s live show (9:00-11:00pm). Spike TV’s telecast tallied 433,000 Men 18-34 to CBS’s 341,000.

Overall, “UFC 84: Penn vs. Sherk” drew higher ratings than Pro EliteXC in Men 18-49 (1.5 to 1.3) and Men 18-34 (1.5 and 1.0).

Reminiscent of the XFL’s rating collapse years ago, the CBS telecast was 69% lower in Men 18-34 and 57% lower with Men 18-49 than its initial broadcast on CBS in May featuring the “He Hate Me” of MMA, Kimbo Slice.

Compared to last week’s live Spike TV UFC telecast featuring arguably the best pound for pound fighter in the world, Anderson Silva, the UFC outdrew CBS by 165% with Men 18-34, 82% with Men 18-49, and 21% with total viewers.

Update from Mike:  This is sure a combative press release.  It looks like they lost in the total numbers but won in the demographic that counted.  Ignoring the propaganda, this was a good rating for the UFC.  I also need to know who came up with calling Kimbo the "He Hate Me" of MMA.

 

Update from Robert Joyner of MMAPayout:  The Spike premiere of UFC 84: Penn vs. Sherk (Saturday 7/26/08, 9-1130p) delivered a 1.23 household rating, a 1.47 among Men 18-49, a .95 among Adults 18-49, a 1.54 among Men 18-34 and had an average audience of 1.6 million viewers.

“UFC 84: Penn vs. Sherk” did a 1.5 in Men 18-49 and a 1.5 Men 18-34.

http://knoxxgear.wordpress.com/2008/07/25/anthony-rumble-johnson-after-his-eye-surgery/

Anthony “Rumble” Johnson had to get laser surgery today because Kevin Burn’s finger damaged the retina of his eye. He also had a laceration from one end of his eye to the other end which required stitches. UFC took care of all expenses for this surgery since it was related to his incident in his last UFC fight.

He wants to tell everyone that his surgery went smoothly and he would also like to give thanks to all his family, friends and fans for their continuous support. Once his eye heals he will start up his training because he would like to fight atleast one more time before the end of this year.