should the UFC hold a mma card every month?

Question

looking at the UFC 69: SHOOTOUT card in houston...the quality of the matched look pretty slim. should dana stop making cards every month and hold ppv's say 4-6 times a year so that most of the high calibur fighters can be on the same ppv or just stay on the path they are doing?

Answer 1

I think they should hold cards every month, but I think that Dana should rotate between PPVs and free Fight Nights on Spike TV. The cards which are slim could be aired for free, and gain publicity for UFC.

Answer 2

The UFC should hold a card close to every month maybe slightly longer. The UFC is able to field a quality PPV most the time. The sport is growing and new fighters are coming along. What they do now is let the other promoters build up fighters by putting on local shows like KOTC, Gladiator etc. Then when the UFC spots talent they take them from the small time shows. The UFC just needs to focus on producing top shows and using the supporting promoters as a source of talent. The sport is big enough where 8-10 quality shows a year is a good target.

Answer 3

I agree that they should have the PPV's every 2 months (6 times per year).

The fight cards for the PPV's should be limited to the following:
1) Title Fights
2) Fights to determine No 1 contender
3) The premier of a top ranked non-UFC fighter (for example: Cro-cop, "Rampage" Jackson, etc.)

They could have respective champions defending their belts and with the contenders of the same weight classes at every other PPV (assuming every 4 months). Granted, this is essentially what they are doing right now.

I agree that the fight cards should be strengthened by moving the participants of the PPV dark matches to UFC Fight Nights, exclusively. They could increase the number of these events to twice a month if they wanted and keep using it as a testing ground.

I also think that they should add a Super Heavyweight class for 240lb+, but that is not really related to the question. The UFC has been having a hard time filling the Heavyweight ranks....

Answer 4

Stay with the path they're doing now cause the other way you're referring to is old school. Back in the day when UFC was under different management, they held fights every 3-4 times a year. When Zuffa took over, one of the first things they said was that #1 we are going to work on getting exposure on nationally recognized TV, #2 hold a PPV at least once a month every month, & #3 be bigger than WWF & boxing. Of course Dana White was new at the time he made those bold statements & the whole "being bigger than the WWF" angered Vince McMahon & he pulled his resources to try to keep UFC off TV. Of course he was shocked when Spike TV who had bought the rights to RAW 2 years earlier from the USA Network and started showing The Ultimate Fighter 1 right after RAW. This lead to McMahon leaving SpikeTV to go back to USA but unfortunately even Dana White said not to long ago UFC will never be as big as the WWE as it's called today because it's a man's soap opera & we deal only in "real fighting competitions" not scripted BS. I would say they should hold Ultimate Fight Nights on Spike at least 3-4 times a year if not 5 times a year to further expose UFC to the public & build a bigger fanbase to what's now being called the "fastest growing sport" today.

Answer 5

Most of the fun is to see the technique, positioning and strategy when grapling. Submission holds are essential. U want MMA without submissions.... u get something like kickboxing... not even close in appeal. Real fights usually end up on the ground and chokes, arm twists etc are all part of it. Now if you add headbutts to UFC that would be coser to street fighting, but there is no need to get these athletes injured and end careers in just a coupple of years. UFC is a sport, you seem to want brutality, not skill and intelligence. Go sign up for the marines and go fight in Afganistan! once you see real blood come back and talk about brutality and you liking it. Cheers

Answer 6

You know I was thinking the same thing about the way that they are holding the matches and drawing fighters and promoting these matches whether on PPV or televised, and it is up to Dana if he decides it is going to be a draw that will get the media in a frenzy or not.

You got to remember there are only so many fighters of caliber that people want to see in matchups that will get the stadiums to a full capacity for them to hold the matches also.

I don't feel that there are not that many caliber fighters, but just that there are only so many that will create that media frenzy that will present a marketable tool for Dana.

What do you think?

Answer 7

As long as people keep ordering pay per view, he'll keep having fights every month, and it does seem at least one title in on the line every month. Of course there are like 8 fights every UFC too. The "high calibur fighters" seem to have had a rough year. Hughs lost, Tito lost, Arlovski couldn't beat anyone for a while. I don't know how good Silvia really is, but I loved watching him get worked by Cotoure.

Answer 8

They can continue holding the cards every month and still build good cards. They are starting to bring in better and better talent and this will make it a viable option to build better cards. The past few cards have been somewhat weak but they are starting to get high quality fighters and if they truly are going to or have picked up Pride then they will have even more options to build strong cards. It is a business though, they arent going to put all the top fights on one card, they are going to dispurse them throughtout a year and make more money. They can certainly build a stronger card and still hold them montly.

Answer 9

The UFC cards are often pretty weak. They'll tout one good match, then fill the rest of the card with no-names and b-level fighters from The Ultimate Fighter shows.

Pride Fighting cards, on the other hand, are loaded with talent and usually the first fight is as good as the last fight.

Another installment of TUF is coming on Apr. 6th (I think) and it will be on Thursdays. Just saw the commercial last night.

Answer 10

In order to get proper exposure, this is exactly what he should be doing. If UFC only does PPV events, not everybody will see it. PPV events should only be if the card has big names.