A part of this past weekend's TUF finale that I enjoyed was Kenny Florian's commentary. He provided good analysis of fighter's both technical highlights and mistakes, as well as intelligent strategic insight on factors such as stylistic match ups. In such a technical sport, that kind of information really helps my appreciation for whats happening in a high level match. However, I think this highlights a deficiency in MMA broadcasting in general. Focusing on the UFC for the sake of discussion (Strikeforce commentating team has enough to deal with for now), Mike Goldberg and Joe Rogan make up the typical play by play/color commentating team. I do not mind this set up, but I wonder if the system could be improved. Fully appreciating MMA requires a high level understanding of several martial arts and the interconnections between them, which is a lot to ask even from well-educated fans. This is something promotions should realize and adapt to, so they can improve the marketability of their fighters and the fight game itself.

A lot of fans got angry at Mo Lawal's interview a while ago where he stated that MMA fans do not understand what they are watching. He was not even talking about the friend we all have who thinks wrestling is “gay.” He was talking about the community as a whole. The reaction is understandable. How could someone possibly say that we do not understand something we put hours every week into following and watching? I would guess that here at BE, a pretty large majority of the readership has been following the sport for years. I would even bet that a significant percentage of the people here train regularly. But, I think Mo is right. You can spend an entire athletic career learning any single aspect of MMA. How can someone be expected to have a high level understanding of several? Unless you are an MMA professional, I do not think its possible to truly appreciate everything that is going on. You can not possibly have the time to dedicate to learning everything.

This problem was recently highlighted in the aftermath of main event victories by GSP and Rashad Evans. I was really surprised at the amount of fans that were unsatisfied (and in some cases infuriated) with those performances. I won't get into my opinions on that subject since it has been debated ad nauseum in countless other fanposts. However, I think this indicates a pervasive lack of appreciation for wrestling throughout the MMA fanbase. Given the hoards of wrestlers flocking to our sport and finding a large amount of success, this is problematic for the promotions. Wrestling is not going to go away, and there will always be wrestlers towards the tops of the rankings.

I think Rogan and even Goldberg are good at their jobs, but unfortunately for them I think the commentary should follow a different blueprint. Rogan does have a good jujitsu background and I think he does use that to help the fans understand what is going on when fighters are on the ground trading submission attempts. However, I do not think either of them have the striking or wrestling background to give more than an intermediate analysis of what is happening. It would be better if there were a couple trainers and coaches with expertises in different areas that could be brought in to give their opinions. Fighters could also be a good resource (Couture, Florian and Mir usually do a very good job) but you always have to consider they do not want to say too much about people they or their teammates could be competing against in the future. Fans would learn more and more with each event they watched and become much more educated. Fighters would be more appreciated and thus more marketable. More first time viewers would stick around. All these factors would probably cover the costs of hiring a few more commentators.

We haven't had a recap in a little while so I figured I'd write one up for those of us playing on MMAPlayground.

On the medal stand this time is yngjzy with a dominating quarter million, aided by an underdog-heavy UFC 114 performance worth $169k. Silver and bronze medalists DjangoZ and aarondramp had impressive runs as well, especially considering they both more than doubled the score of last season's winner.

On the picks side of things, chengy (69% pick percentage) and myself (68%) tied for first, followed by Nick Thomas (69%) and kool-aid_man (66%). The top five people this season all beat last season's top score of 554.

Top Picks

88 sandiegomma     UFC Fight Night 21
88 Chromium     UFC 111
87 phantasma475 UFC on Versus 1
85 Ubernoober     UFC Fight Night 20
84 chengy     UFC Fight Night 21
84 kastnet     UFC Fight Night 21
84 Yekop     UFC 108
84 Matthew7    UFC on Versus 1
83 michael28150    UFC 108
83 chengy     UFC on Versus 1
83 argyle    UFC 111

Top Earnings

$169,200      yngjzy        UFC 114
$85,342        aarondramp    UFC 113
$78,622        DjangoZ        UFC 114
$75,185        DjangoZ        UFC on Versus 1
$68,671        sday420        UFC 114
$62,073        yngjzy        UFC Fight Night 21
$55,277        aarondramp    UFC 114
$42,870        mattmceven    UFC 113
$41,338        Tayman        UFC 114
$38,210        serrajitsu0876    UFC 114

Top Losses

-$39,722     DjangoZ        UFC 113
-$28,327     DjangoZ        UFC 112
-$22,971     zombie_hobbes    UFC 111
-$20,037     sday420        UFC 111
-$15,740     szucconi    UFC Fight Night 21
-$10,890     termin8r199    UFC 111
-$8,316        woomikee    UFC 113
-$8,315        woomikee    UFC 112
-$7,507        timthemit53    UFC 111

PS, this is my first fanpost, so hopefully everything works.