I just saw the Countdown to UFC 98 show that will air tonight on Spike TV. It aired in the United Kingdom last night on Setanta, and it is a great program.
Many will focus on the hype for Hughes and Serra, but I thought the work they did promoting the Rashad Evans vs. Lyoto Machida fight was masterful. The UFC has struggled to promote foreign fighters in the past, but they decided to go all out in creating a karate persona for Machida, and it worked.
For the first time both of these guys really came across as superstars on television. UFC 98’s buyrate success does now largely depends on how many people watch the countdown, as I suspect the conversion rate of viewers to buys will be extremely high.
Rashad’s team sounds very confident that they’ve found holes in Machida’s game, and Rashad is going to catch him a few rounds into the fight. He had a star-studded training camp for this fight, with all the resources of Team Jackson dedicated to this fight. Is that enough to figure out Machida? I don’t think so, but my confidence in Machida has been shaken over the last week.
Make sure to catch the countdown tonight on Spike.