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Last night was a huge night for the sport of mixed martial arts. Getting a deal on Fox to showcase a fight in prime time was a huge coup for Dana White that clearly gave him the opportunity to draw in some new fans and increase his brand’s awareness. He made a smart decision in showcasing a heavyweight title fight as the attraction for their first Saturday night special. Unique viewers were the name of the game and the premiere division of any combat sport is usually its heavyweight class, in terms of casual interest level. Boxing built its reputation as a box office draw through the likes of Joe Lewis, Rocky Marciano, Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, George Foreman, and Mike Tyson (all great heavyweights). Casual interest in boxing is in the toilet at the moment, in large part because the heavyweight division has floundered. So, as a unique viewer to MMA, I favored the decision to base the entire 1-hour broadcast around Velasquez vs. Dos Santos. I tuned in with pretty high expectations, ready to see how the premiere promotion (the UFC) in the sport would present themselves. I commend them for how they built-up the fight in the opening half hour. With each passing segment, I became further engaged. By the time the fight happened, I was highly anticipating it. I thought they did a fantastic job hyping the two fighters and setting the stage. I was highly impressed with the presentation. The FOX NFL theme, the recognizable Fox sports personality, the introduction of White as the charismatic, affluent figurehead, and the added commentary by one of the biggest names in the sport in Brock Lesnar. All of that was handled so perfectly. Someone in the WWE should’ve been paying attention to how you make people interested in seeing a match by focusing on the little things. The UFC proved last night that you don’t need a bunch of over-the-top nonsense to sell a marquee bout. The drama was there, at that point, by sticking to the basics that appeal to masses – pride, glory, patriotism, honor, and victory. The WWE is out there promoting their stars with the damn Muppets and ignoring the simple things that draw interest. All that the UFC needed was a fight that built the drama to a crescendo and then followed through with a satisfying conclusion. Unfortunately, the fight itself was a big letdown. This is where the WWE owns the UFC and always will as long as they put competent athletes in the biggest situations. The payoff is so very important to long-term success not just in short-term ratings, but in the long-term in terms of sustainability. One thing that sports ratings are predicated upon is drama. One of the great things about sports is drama. That’s the factor that transcends the rules and the details and lets the masses in on the action. Drama is the hook and is what drives the ratings. ABC has seen excellent ratings for their primetime Saturday night football games this season because so many of them have been classic, offensive shootouts ripe with excitement (the kind of things people want to see). People flock to that. Competition is contagious and competition and drama go hand-in-hand. The least watched Super Bowl of the last twenty some odd years was the one where Denver got blown out by Joe Montana’s 49ers. The considerable hype has to be backed up by the actual competition. Highly competitive = great ratings and more unique viewers. Less competitive = stunts ratings growth and turns unique viewers away. The last few Super Bowls have been extremely competitive and really good games, thus the reason that they’ve broken the TV ratings record in consecutive years. If those games are duds, then they don’t justify the hype and people find something else to do. What we saw with last night’s fight conclusion was the antithesis of drama in sport. Did you listen to the crowd? The finish was met with a quick eruption of excitement that died out very fast. Quick knockout; total domination; game over = no drama. The knockout that came just over a minute into the fight last night let the wind out of the sails of what was a ship heading for uncharted waters. If you got up to grab a quick refill of your beverage, you might have missed the whole damn thing. It was like being that guy getting into bed with a beautiful woman and, after building to the consummation with a half hour’s worth of foreplay, lasting for just over 60 seconds. Best of luck getting to sleep with her again, pal. He becomes the butt of a lot of jokes like it’s an episode of Sex and the City. The hype was brilliant, but the payoff left her feeling like, “That was it?” Well, the UFC baited a whole bunch of people last night and all that they had to do was deliver the goods. Instead, it ended prematurely. This is not to say that the UFC isn’t capable of delivering a satisfying payoff, but the problem with drama in sports is that you cannot predict it. Dana White had no idea that Dos Santos and Velasquez were so unevenly matched; he had no control over how dominant one fighter would be over another, but that’s the reality of the situation from the unique viewer perspective. It’s an aspect of sport that pro-wrestling has the power to manipulate to a certain degree. If the WWE knew how to lure people in the way that the UFC is doing right now, then if they put two of their top guys in the same situation, people would walk away feeling like they got a better result for the time they invested. You put Cena vs. Punk in MSG and make it a primetime special, then the drama and atmosphere and conclusion is going to give you a shot at some further long-term interest in all probability (given the current American sports landscape and its affinity for drama). True sports don’t necessarily have the ability to control the dramatic aspect of the game – a superior team dominating a game or, in last night’s case, a superior fighter dominating a fight is not nearly as dramatic. It takes away the hook that lures in the unique viewers. Now, the UFC is just about in the same spot it was before last night and, while they may have gained a few fans, I seriously doubt that a massive number of unique viewers are going to come away anxious to see another MMA fight. I know that I’m not. Before the fight started, I was sitting there thinking to myself what the best possible scenario was for that fight. As a unique viewer, I figured one of the following two scenarios would catch my attention the most: #1 is if it went past one round, featured some big blows and a little bit of back and forth/momentum changes, and then came through with a knockout OR #2 if it was an all out dogfight that ended with one bloodied warrior’s hand being raised in a close decision. One of the worst scenarios that I could have imagined would be either a quick knockout or a long, boring mat-based contest. Sadly, one of the bad scenarios was what we got. MMA is relatively new and still trying to find its way as a mainstream, popular new entity. It needed something epic last night that would draw interest from people that aren’t necessarily fans already; they needed something that they could use as a launching pad for MMA to take that next step into American sports consciousness. They’ll get another chance, but you could see even by looking at the facial features of the UFC president in the post-match analysis that it wasn’t what they were hoping for. White looked irritated and disheartened. So, while there is plenty for the WWE to learn from the UFC in terms of how to build a simple, straightforward athletic exhibition – even though one is a legit sport and the other has a predetermined outcome – the WWE still does have an advantage over the UFC because they can deliver a stronger payoff. The WWE most often fails at the hype. Convoluted stories and excessively day-time, soap opera themes acted out poorly by men and women that aren’t trained to act usually hurts the WWE. However, they usually make it happen when it’s time to deliver the goods in between the ropes. ------------------------------ We've got a competition going on in the LOP Columns Forum to groom a new MP writer. These guys are going to have to earn their stripes. They're competing to get you to read their work, essentially, so check it out...http://www.lopforums.com/forumdisplay.php/24-Columns ------------------------------ Follow me on Twitter @TheDocLOP or hit me up on Facebook (DocLOP). Always up for some discussion... ------------------------------ COMING SOON 
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