Round 2 belongs to the UFC
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- July
- 29
SpikeTV just fired off a fierce press release.
It appears that many of the hardcore MMA Fans that were completely alienated in the first installment of Saturday Night Fights did not answer the bell for the second round.
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.
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, July 29th, 2008 at 3:13 pm by Larry Vollmer.
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I do believe the UFC is the Top Dog in MMA. The UFC has incredible talent in almost every weight class. Now the EliteXC isnt bad in my book either and the women’s fights always come out on top, but that is the problem with the EliteXC. If the women arent fighting on their program I’m i have to think long and hard about watching EliteXC. UFC will be on top for a while. The only way I see them falling is if Affliction pays more than UFC and more fighters abandon ship from UFC to fight with Affliction. So Dana better start paying up.
Affliction is going to be a legitimate threat to the UFC, I think more so then EliteXC.
I watched Elite, as I always do, and didn’t think it was a bad show. It lacked a certain feeling to it, I thought.
I really was disappointed that they did not hype a Noons/Diaz rematch after Diaz dismantled Denny. I was really looking forward to that.
Cris Cyborg is no joke. Carano looked pretty stunned after that beat down Cyborg delivered. That will be a good fight, I hope they set it up.
I have no evidence to support this, but I think a lot of people who tuned in to the first Elite-CBS show were the type who watched a lot of Kimbo videos on Youtube.
The low ratings this time around were probably a combination of Kimbo not fighting and the fact that the last card was pretty bad…way too many stoppages and not enough fights allowed to play out.
It will be interesting to see if the numbers rise again for the next Kimbo fight, or if people were put off enough by the Thompson bout not to tune in again.
That will be the sure fire way to tell
After the last EliteXC show, my brother said he would never watch the organization again, and he is a die hard MMA fan.
Interesting news following the fight:
According the latest filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission from Pro Elite Inc, Elite XC Live Events President Gary Shaw and Executive Chairman of Pro Elite, Doug DeLuca, have resigned from their positions in the company effective immediately.