I went to see The Avengers on Tuesday night at 7pm. Normally, my date night decisions wouldn’t be something that serves as the genesis for an opinion piece here at The Roar, but this past Tuesday night was also Fight Night.
That’s right; for the first time in years, I opted to watch something else instead.
Outside of the main event between “The Korean Zombie” Chan Sung Jung and Dustin Poirier – which turned out to be as awesome as expected – there just wasn’t anything that trumped catching the exploits of Iron Man and the rest of The Avengers in glorious 3D.
While I watched the prelims and caught the first few main-card contests before departing, the fact that a hardcore UFC fan like me opted against catching Tuesday’s show doesn’t speak well to the collection of fights on offer.
This wasn’t an outlier either; there are other hard-sell cards on the horizon as well.
UFC 147 was supposed to feature the epic rematch between middleweight champion Anderson Silva and his arch-enemy Chael P. Sonnen. Unfortunately logistics forced that fight to be moved back to the States.
Instead, the UFC’s third Brazilian event in ten months is now set to be headlined by The Ultimate Fighter. Brazil coaches Vitor Belfort and Wanderlei Silva and heavyweights Fabricio Werdum and Mike Russow have earned second billing.
Lacking a truly enticing main event and drawing heavily on Brazilian fighters – many of whom are unknown to the majority of the casual audience – this event could produce the lowest pay-per-view buy rate the UFC has seen in some time.
What makes it worse is that there are four additional events between now and the June 23rd show in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
Rather than rolling out a quartet of average-at-best events, couldn’t they just combine some of the solid fights from each into a pair of mildly intriguing, above-average shows?
Save for UFC 148 – the event that benefitted from the Silva-Sonnen relocation – the summer schedule is altogether underwhelming.
Outside of one or two fights per event, there just aren’t enough marquee match-ups to draw the kind of audiences the UFC is used to attracting.
Not to throw a jinx out there, but imagine how rough some of these cards become if one of the few intriguing pairings were to fall apart?
The UFC has reached its saturation point, maybe even gone passed it to be honest.
It’s not all doom and gloom, as some journalists will try to spin it, but things are trending in the wrong direction and the tide needs to be stemmed.
New markets keep delivering sell-out crowds and quality audiences because the first chance to get to see the UFC live in your backyard is always going to be a draw.
The television and pay-per-view numbers paint a different picture.
You used to have to wait three, four or five weeks for the next event and by the time Friday afternoon rolled around, you couldn’t sit still because the fights were 24 hours away.
The anticipation is gone. Watching fights used to be something you planned for and designated a night for with your friends.
You knew every fight on the card and wondered if any of the main-card fights would end early, so that you could see some bonus preliminary card action.
You genuinely celebrated the arrival of Fight Night.
Now there’s an event almost every week. With so many different fight cards being built it’s hard to keep track of who is fighting where and when.
Save for unexpected six-week breaks, like the one between the last show in Sydney and the UFC’s debut in Sweden, the next show is never more than three weeks away.
There just isn’t enough time to get excited about the next card because it’s come and gone before you know what hit you.
What furthers complicates the issue is that the abundance of events has resulted in a decline in the quality of the fight cards on offer.
Other than the odd marquee pay-per-view, most shows now feature two or three bouts that are appealing to the majority, with the rest of the card being filled out by solid-but-unspectacular fights.
Outside of the hardcore types, I doubt there are many people interested in seeing how Francisco Rivera’s return to the UFC against Alex Soto played out.
The same goes for Brad Tavares, Dongi Yamg and the final bout on the preliminary portion of the card.
More often than naught, there are more fights that fall under that category than must-see match-ups, which generate interest from anyone beyond the hardcore audience.
And now even the hardcore audience is starting to tire of watching every fight from every card.
I’m usually the guy who can find a number of reasons to watch even the most unrecognizable collection of talent assembled.
Two new-to-the-UFC welterweights most people haven’t heard of? Sign me up – there’s an interesting stylistic battle at play.
Lately, even I haven’t been able to summon the energy and interest to find those connections.
When a die-hard fight fan who earns a living watching fights is willing to take a night off because there is another event around the corner, it’s clear that the UFC has reached the point of over-saturation.
But I doubt they’re willing to concede as much.
Now the big question is, will they be able to take the necessary steps to correct the problem before it’s too late?
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