My Attempt At Converting A Casual Fan Into A Fulltime Fan
A friend of mine who is a novice to MMA came over last night to watch the card and although I had to answer question after question I was more than happy to do so, isn't that what the point of this show was? EXC was trying to get the fan that was on the line and get them to crossover and start watching their product. We were both disappointed and for different reasons. I was disappointed by the fact that the refs and "ringside physicians" seemed to have as much to do with some of the fights as the actual fighters themselves. It seemed like everytime there was a threat to a fighter's "well-being" someone was making their way into the cage. My friend had a good point and that was if this wasn't on CBS would they have been this cautious? I had to agree with him on that one.
Anyway, I tuned in to watch mixed martial artists engage in a battle. I didn't tune in to watch girls dancing Mauro Ranallo making ridiculous comments, Brett Rogers curse or do some stupid dance or see premature endings to these fights. My friend was thoroughly disgusted with James Thompson's ear, Kimbo winning the fight in the manner he did and the BS way the Lawler-Smith fight ended. Just when I had him on the edge of his seat during the Smith-Lawler fight and I was discussing both of their histories, the fight ends. I wonder how many other casual fans they had hooked onto the line only to see them escape.
His first reaction was the thuggish attitude and way that Brett Rogers came off. His "I be's working and I does work" line was horrible. My friend asked me if this was WWE not MMA. He had totally forgotten about the impressive KO that Rogers had just scored and was now focused on the crap that took place during his interview. Next up was the Baroni-Villasenor fight. He was happy with Villasenor's entrance which was uneventful and professional. Up next was Baroni's dancing, shirt-ripping routine all the while Ranallo claimed Baroni had a degree in psychology from Central Michigan. I gave him my take on the fight, both guys like to throw hands, Baroni has no gas tank but puts on a good show. Well we got 1:11 of disappointment, I really thought we would get more than that, but I had to remember Baroni is not a .500 fighter for no reason. Before the Carano-Young fight we discussed the fact that Carano only had a 3 week training camp and I explained why it's necessary to train longer than that. Fighter's need to build their stamina, work on their areas of weakness and get familiar with their opponents' strengths. That kind of went out the window with Carano's performance. Other than her looking tired which I fully expected she looked great. My friend commented on how this was up to that point the fight of the night. He was enthralled with her power and her accuracy, he really got excited and it wasn;t because we had two women fighting. I could tell he was really into that fight.
Up next was the Smith-Lawler fight. I really delved into this fight and gave him a lot of background. I explained to him about Pete Sell and his fight with Smith and he was surprised that Sell would be in his corner. This is the opening I was really looking for, it gave me a chance to show him why these athletes are so great and that is the respect they have for one another. He was taken back by the fact that these guys could beat the crap out of each other and then help one another out afterwards. I explained to him about Matt Hughes and his accomplishments and even went into my Sell interview and his remarks about Hughes. The fight itself was fantastic, the back & forth action, every time my friend said that was it for Smith, he came back and my friend would say the same about Lawler and he would come back. He commented on how they touched gloves before the third round, he really was into it at this point, he must have said three or four times how he wanted to see these guys do it again, their had to be a rematch. He was amazed at how high Smith was kicking and the brutal shots both guys were absorbing. This was MMA at its' best and then it gets stopped. To say we were both thoroughly disappointed is an understatement. None the less, this fight made my friend a fan, it just may have pushed him over the line from casual to excited.
Kimbo-Thompson lasted about 10 minutes longer than either one of us expected. While Thompson had Slice on the ground and against the cage my friend came out of nowhere saying if Kimbo was in there with a legitimate wrestler or jiu-jitsu guy he would have been finished in the first round, I thought that was pretty insightful for a guy who is just a casual fan. We were both shocked that Thompson was able to absorb some of the punches he did based on his history. I explained to him about Thompson's glass jaw and even showed him a few of his previous fights in which he was Ko'ed. The terms tired, gassed and out of steam were used quite often to describe Kimbo. When Kimbo busted Thompson's ear open we both almost puked and we were quite surprised with the stoppage, then Thompson goes after the ref, that was something else.
So my quest to turn my friend from a casual fan into an educated, involved fan was not helped by EXC's performance, it was helped by 3 fighters, Smith, Lawler & Carano. They definitely gave him a reason to watch tonight's show with me. I was able to explain to him that The WEC is a lot more professional and he would see some really well-rounded fighters especially Urijah Faber. I can only wonder how many people tuned in and were turned off by some of the antics we saw last night, how many people were able to see through the crap and were willing to give it another chance like my friend will do tonight? One more thing I failed to mention, my friend really liked the commentary by Gus Johnson and Frank Shamrock, he really liked the idea of explaining the rules to the fans at the beginning of the show. He also said that Johnson & Shamrock offered a lot to the casual fan and made up fpr the quirky one liners thrown out by Ranallo.
- KingLev's blog
- Login or register to post comments
Comments
Just as I had said many
Just as I had said many times, why does people act as if Kimbo hits really hard? If he did the youtube videos would not be 10 minutes long they would be 5 punches or less. Now my next question Shaw has been saying Nelson, Tyson, Butterball, Fedor? I don't think so! Who is he going to find that Kimbo can beat? I think he will have to pay people to fall down like he did Bo.
EERS_1_Fan
Head of South East Tribe MMAFIA
Wrestle for 6 minutes then golf for an hour and see which one is harder.
tyson is pretty beatable in
tyson is pretty beatable in an mma aspect, considering he is old, kinda crazy, isnt in shape, and doesnt train in mma. if he is on the drugs, throwing some money at him might be an easy way to put together another kimbo - spectacle main event ... or maybe, since slice beat the colossus, its time to move it up and take on the techno goliath? make it happen gary shaw! (man i hope kevin fergusson has a good retirement plan because he needs to save the money he is making right now)
Hong-man Choi was putting
Hong-man Choi was putting the smoke on Fedor until he was caught. Kimbo would not have a chance. I have never bet on a fight (other than with buddies) but I would be wanting in on that one lol.
EERS_1_Fan
Head of South East Tribe MMAFIA
Wrestle for 6 minutes then golf for an hour and see which one is harder.
the setup of the exc
the setup of the exc broadcast was good, i thought it dragged on a long time but having shamrock go into the unified rules should help the casual viewer. i think the production itself was amateurish and dave doyle on yahoo pointed out that this kind of thing would never happen on a ufc event, and he is right because the ufc uses its undercard wisely when to fill time for fights that dont go the distance. with the amount of allotted cbs coverage, i think exc totally lied to them about how long it would take (or they just completely suck at math). it would have been better to see more bjj card / submission wrestlers on the card and 2 days ago when i actually looked at its structure, i was under the impression that carano-young was going to be the most technical fight on the main card. thank god those two delivered, despite gina not making weight. kudos to kaitlin young for taking the fight despite the weight disadvantage. i think the best thing shaw did all night was pay both lawler & smith the win figures.
Let's call a spade a spade,
Let's call a spade a spade, EliteXC proved why it is nowhere near the level of the UFC, they put on a minor league show with the exception of the Smith-Lawler and Carano-Young fights. Although as I said before I was very impressed with Gus Johnson he definitely gave them some sense of respectability. Kimbo has a long way to go before he gets put in there with a top 25 fighter let alone a top 10 guy.
Godfather and all-around Mafia Aficionado
Co-Founder of The MMAFIA
Live Blogger for Fightticker.Com
Great post KingLev. We all
Great post KingLev. We all give our feedback on last night, but it's really important to hear how new interpreted last night. Mahalos...
I bribed a buddy to watch
I bribed a buddy to watch EliteXC by agreeing to watch the NBA finals. At least it's Celtics-Lakers...He liked what he saw as far as MMA is concerned but still likes boxing more...
A cousin of my wife's who's in town for the week watched EliteXC and then WEC the next night and really enjoyed the two WEC title fights. I told him those were two of the best fights he'd ever see while EliteXC was middle-tier MMA at best...
One thing I'm seeing is that new fans have no perspective for what they saw Saturday night...It's a long educational process...I just hope they are intrigued enough to learn more about the sport...
The two title fights from
The two title fights from last night along with the Razor Rob (bad call from where I sit) and Chase Beebe (can't wait to see) 4 of the most cardio filled fights of the year! I have no doubt that the Torres fight would have been fight of the year had it went 5, it still might win? And the Pulver fight was exciting he really should think od calling it a day he took a lot of hits in that fight.
EERS_1_Fan
Head of South East Tribe MMAFIA
Wrestle for 6 minutes then golf for an hour and see which one is harder.
Fight Ticker wrote: One
One thing I'm seeing is that new fans have no perspective for what they saw Saturday night...It's a long educational process...I just hope they are intrigued enough to learn more about the sport...
i believe a part of that is the matchups that they aired. we essentially saw a lot of boxing, dirty boxing, and kick boxing on saturday. if you want to create intrigue, put some scrappy ground technicians on display.
watching 2 guys slug wildly isnt anything new to even the new viewer, but watching applications of a footlock or an armbar, transitions, position battles, i think those would be considerably more intriguing than uppercut to the head, hook to the body. and if they wanted striking, they should have tried to find a way to put a more dynamic striker like cung le on the card.
You left out the end of the
You left out the end of the evening though King. After the fights did you let your date get to second base or did you go all the way? LOL
Seriously though, now that you have planted the seed (no sexual innuendo intended there) of MMA fighting in him, get him over the UFC card this weekend and split the PPV with him to see how thinks this "show" ranks against CBS's free card. I am sure he will be blown away (again, no innuendo) and will be hooked for life. He will be able to go back to watching the free stuff on CBS as the rest of us will but will be in greater anticipation for the real fights.
Head of the MMAfia's Canadian Family - Canada Eh!
once their is a lot of
once their is a lot of people on here after the fights, like a mass of people, we can mass debate.
Underboss MMAfia
Head of the West Coast Family
That was a cool read on CBS
That was a cool read on CBS when you did that...funny stuff.
Head of the MMAfia's Canadian Family - Canada Eh!
it's still
it's still goin...haha
Underboss MMAfia
Head of the West Coast Family
havn't been over there for a
havn't been over there for a while. I'll go over to check in maybe tomorrow.
Head of the MMAfia's Canadian Family - Canada Eh!
Cindy likes to mass debate
Cindy likes to mass debate to a bunch of wild canadian geese!!!!
My friend watched the Faber-Pulver fight and was very impressed, I said that is what MMA is all about, the sportsmanship, the athleticism, two athletes with a ton of heart laying it all out on the line. He couldn't get over how quick Faber was, I told him you are watching one of the very best in the world right now just enjoy it.
Godfather and all-around Mafia Aficionado
Co-Founder of The MMAFIA
Live Blogger for Fightticker.Com