There is something odd about the online reaction to UFC 90 doing 300,000 buys. First of all, the number is nowhere near the disaster some are making it out to be. Anderson Silva’s fights have all done in the 300-325 range, this one was against a guy with no name value on a card with no casual fan appeal. The fact that it did 300 in a month with so many shows is hardly some kind of imminent disaster. If they had done this fight a year ago it might have done less than 200. It still beat out a number of European cards.
Maggie Hendricks surmises that Couture-Liddell is some kind of response to this:
After disappointing UFC 90 pay-per-view numbers, the UFC is clearly looking to suck as much as they can out of their two biggest draws , Randy Couture and Chuck Liddell:
This fight was discussed and planned if Randy lost well before these numbers came in. The number isn’t really all that bad, and maybe it’s a good thing that a lot of people didn’t see that fight.
On another note, I can’t link this post without commenting on this:
Ostensibly, the winner of this fight would get a chance at the belt in late 2009. This is where I have a problem. First, why would any up-and-coming heavyweight fighter — Shane Carwin, Junior Dos Santos, Cain Velasquez — want to train and push themselves up the ladder when they know that a title shot is out of the question until 2010? Secondly, Couture just lost the heavyweight belt. I wanted him to win as much as anybody, but he didn’t, and now he should have to work his way back into title contention, just as Liddell would have to at 205.
Junior Dos Santos has one fight in the UFC. Carwin and Velasquez are basically unknown to the general public, and have fought twice in the UFC. The idea that giving Randy Couture or Chuck Liddell a title shot is somehow shortchanging Junior Dos Santos is beyond words.
If rookies are unmotivated because they might have to wait a whole 3 or 4 fights to get into title contention, I’d suggest it is their motivation that is the problem and not anything else. If anything, this plan is perfect because it keeps big matches in the title slot and gives the up and comers about a year to rack up a number of wins and make their names so they don’t take painful losses early on. Again, there is no reason to rush any of these guys.
This blank slate approach doesn’t make any sense in the fight world. When GSP lost his title, he was expected to get another title shot after winning just one fight. Same for Matt Hughes. Rich had to win 2, and Chuck was going to get his after winning 2. Randy Couture has earned his perennial status as a contender, there’s no reason to make him beat Cheick Kongo to get back into a shot at contention.