On the recent edition of E:60 Brock Lesnar had the highest rated segment in the history of the show. UFC 87 drew big numbers and trends (internet searches..etc) would seem to indicate that Lesnar was as big, if not bigger, of a draw as the headliners for that card. It isn’t exactly scientific but two of the biggest days in terms of traffic in the history of this site were for UFC 81 and 87.
Now comes news that Countdown to UFC 91 drew poor ratings..as in 10% lower than the average for 2008 Countdown shows. This is just awful news considering that the UFC has been trying to sell this as one of the biggest fights in the history of the promotion.
In searching for answers to why the ratings for the countdown were SO bad the same question just kept popping up in my head. Is this Randy’s fault?
American sports fans are notorious for turning on athletes that get involved in disputes over money or contracts that they willingly signed. I’m not saying that I thought his actions were right or wrong, but I wonder how much it hurt Randy in the eyes of the super casual fans to see a fighter turn into “just another spoiled athlete looking for more money.” Most people who don’t follow the sport closely don’t care about Fedor or understand that Randy really wanted to make that fight happen. They just know that the fights they want to see aren’t happening because of “contract problems.”
Add that in to the fact that Randy was made into a non-entity for the better part of a year (scaling back on mentioning his name, not showing him in fighter corners..etc) and I wonder if the kind of sub-par interest in this show to this point can be pinned on Randy Couture’s break from the UFC.
Obviously a fair portion of the blame would have to be placed on the UFC for an odd lack of a big promotional machine behind the card but could it be that the fans have turned on Randy?
Editorial Note: I should go ahead and note what many people already have in the comments. This countdown was on at a different time than is normal and being that it was on a Monday night did have to go up against football. So this could also be a very understandable reason for the decrease in viewership.