Inside The UFC Review

Last night Spike TV debuted its newest UFC program.  Inside the UFC is a half hour, magazine style show hosted by Joe Rogan.  Inside will air a new episode every Thursday night at Midnight.

Last night’s show started with Rogan giving us an overview of the show, and gave us his Top fight KO’s by punch of the past year.

1. Scott Smith v. Pete Sell
2. Chuck Liddell v. Renato Sobral II
3. Chuck Liddell v. Randy Couture III
4. Rich Franklin v. Nate Quarry
5. Tim Sylvia v. Andre Arlovski II

Rogan then interview Dana White. I felt like the interview was rushed for time.  It was basically one question one answer, one question one answer.  I would like to have had White elaborate more on some of the topics.  White did however promise to figure out a way for his champions to fight the top guys from other promotions in 2007

Finally Rogan interviewed Matt Serra and GSP about their up-coming fight.  Pretty good stuff.  Both guys like each other, and we got to hear how much Serra doesn’t like Matt Hughes again.

This show has a lot of  potential, and FTT recommends watching every Thursday night (Midnight Eastern) on Spike TV.

UFC Premieres New Show Tonight!

The UFC will premiere its new show, Inside The UFC, tonight at Midnight (11 p.m. central) on Spike TV.

The show will be a magazine style show hosted by Joe Rogan.  For more info click here.

FTT

My Take

Recently Pride FC announced some major changes to their programming, and I gotta say they’re pretty smart moves. Moving in the the American market is not going to be easy for them, so copying the UFC style of programming is a good move considering the recent PPV buy figures.

Let’s start with Sakakibara saying the 6 of the 12 Pride events in 2007 will be held in the U.S. They may not get the PPV buys the UFC has initially, but the best way to compete for the American public’s attention is to be in their face as often as possible. (Does anyone even remember the WFA at this point?) It would also benefit them greatly if they could move their free programming from FSN to a bigger audience. As anyone who follows MMA closely knows, it is pretty much impossible to watch Pride on FSN without TiVo. Having another major organization doing regular shows in the U.S. is going to be great for MMA fans and MMA fighters.

The second major change is that Grand Prix’s will be held once every four years (Four weight classes = One grand prix per year).  I believe this is another good idea.  By increasing the time between Grand Prix’s Pride is increasing the hype and anticipation behind each event.  Only getting a chance to win a Grand Prix every four years will increase its significance to fighters around the world.  Imagine what its going to be like for Gomi (after losing this year) to have to wait four years for a chance at redemption.  This will also help reduce the number of rematches that we see.

Finally, having at least one Pride champion defend his title on every show is going to be great.  People love the drama of a good title bout, so if you want to sell PPV you need to have some drama.  The UFC does this, and as we know PPV buys have been through the roof.  Now, if Pride can just get off of FSN, and on to a channel with a regular programming schedule, there’s no telling how much they can grow.

Eddie Mott