This past Saturday night we witnessed the passing of some of the most valuable seconds in the recent history of sports. In just sixty four clicks, Junior dos Santos stopped Cain Velasquez, and became the UFC heavyweight champion. At the same time, he may have helped shape the path of the sport as it begins a new relationship with the Fox network. However, the verdict is still out as to whether his victory lived up to the hype that surrounded the event.
Obviously, the debut of the Ultimate Fighting Championship on network television is a great step for the development of the sport. Since the first announcement of the partnership, numerous stories have been written about the importance of this event. In the weeks leading up to November 12th we saw commercials for the event during Major League Baseball’s World Series, as well as during National Football League games. By the time that date came, both hardcore and casual fight fans were looking forward to the event.
When 9pm hit, Fox kicked into high gear, giving way to the UFC with pageantry that was once reserved only for the NFL and MLB. Faces that have become instantly recognizable to mixed martial arts fans were broadcast to individuals who were not too familiar with their places in the sport. We watched the heavyweight fighters complete their warm-ups and head out to the cage. Then, the fight began.
Sixty four seconds later it was over. Dos Santos had dropped Velasquez with a right hand and pummeled him away from the title. That quickly the main event of the premiere event on Fox was over. Yet the question of the evening was whether this was the outcome that the UFC brass and Fox executives were looking for. It wasn’t.
When it comes to who would leave the event as the champion, either dos Santos or Velasquez would have served as the humble fan favorite that sports fanatics eat up. So that wasn’t the problem that the UFC faced; the problem was the hype surrounding the event. Was 64 seconds of action enough to convert the mainstream fan into someone who will watch MMA again? Was it enough to convert those individuals into buyers of Pay per Views that hit pockets at $50 a pop? That is where the true result does not favor what the UFC had hoped for.
This fight was not Griffin–Bonnar of 2005, the fight that is largely credited with saving the UFC, and perhaps the sport as a whole. Their fifteen-minute battle took viewers away from what they had been watching, and hooked them on the scene of two men battling back and forth. This type of battle is what the UFC needed to make their debut on Fox a success. Instead they were given a quick knockout, one that left people new to the sport questioning what exactly happened. I also wonder if what they witnessed is enough to make them want to come back?
In the moments after the fight, it was interesting to see how the mainstream media reacted to the event. Thanks to the quick response abilities of social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, it was easy to see how sports reporters for major entities such as ESPN, who are still unfamiliar with the sport, responded to the event in the immediate aftermath. Instead of serious analysis of the fight, these reporters questioned the validity of the knockout, the hype surrounding the event, and even the sport as a whole. Instead of talking about dos Santos, who has the skills to become a long-reigning champion, these reporters questioned whether the sport even deserved the coverage it received.
If UFC President Dana White had a time machine in his backyard I’m 100 percent certain that he would go back and give Henderson and Guida the main event slot. The fight these two lightweights put on for fifteen minutes had the live crowd on their feet and cheering from start to finish. That is what the UFC needed to bring that night of fights to a satisfying climax. But the results were not along those lines.
The UFC has a few months until its next event on Fox. It will be interesting to see how the fight card is shaped to avoid this type of ending once again. It remains to be seen, but I find it hard to believe that those who truly know about the MMA community are going to be as excited for the UFC’s sophomore effort as they were for its debut. Expectations have been lowered, which couldn’t possibly be the outcome that the UFC was hoping for.
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How may he have helped shape the path of the sport as it begins a new relationship with the Fox network?
Whether this was the outcome that the UFC brass and Fox executives were looking for was definitely not the question of the evening for me, and honestly I still don't understand why it was for so many fans.