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By almost all accounts, UFC 146 was a great success. Heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos defended his title, former champ Cain Velasquez showed how dangerous he can be, and the rest of the card exceeded expectations.
Well, for most people it did.
“UFC was a bit disappointing with quick bouts.”
That’s the opening line from a comment left on a previous column by “turbodewd”. As I promised him in responding to the comment, I’m using his initial reaction to last week’s fights as the inspiration for my latest effort.
Simply put, some UFC fans are never satisfied.
No matter how an event plays out, there is always a small minority who take issue with the way things unfolded.
For the majority of fans, this last event was an entertaining, action-packed good time, with five heavyweight fights ending in finishes on the main card, and a great deal of excitement taking place on the preliminary portion as well.
And then there are those like “turbodewd” who look at a five-fight main card that delivered a slick submission, and four quality stoppages, and want to pick holes in the performances.
If the bouts all went to decisions, chances are that wouldn’t have been satisfactory either. Nothing ever seems to be good enough for a small sub-section of fans, and I find it frustrating.
I know we’re all different when it comes to what we like in a fight, and not everyone is going to be over-the-moon about a great 15-minute grappling match the way I am, but I genuinely wonder what it would take to meet the desires of fans like “turbodewd” who didn’t come away from Sunday’s fights satisfied with what they saw transpire in the cage?
What makes a fight or a fight card good enough? I honestly feel that if UFC 146 didn’t fit the bill, nothing will because that show had all the major elements most people look for:
– Big names.
– Meaningful fights.
– Lots of action.
– None of those stupid judges decisions on the main card.
Not every event is going to hit all the marks, and not every fight is going to be deserving of universal praise, but the overwhelming consensus within the MMA community was that UFC 146 was a home run. Unfortunately, some still weren’t satisfied, and my guess is that they never will be.
Some fans just have to have something to bitch about, even when it means clutching at straws.
The perfect example of this is the assessment “turbodewd” offered of the Shane Del Rosario-Stipe Miocic bout: Stiopic (sic) v Rosario was okay and at least reached the 2nd round.
Okay? That fight was great!
Del Rosario showed off his Muay Thai in the first round, and had me thinking about how much better he can be in the future, now that he’s healthy, and has a fight under his belt. As for Miocic, he answered a few questions I had about his ability to absorb punishment, and his Fight IQ, along with adding to his win total and establishing himself as the top prospect in the heavyweight ranks.
They paired for just over eight minutes of action, with the only extended break coming between rounds, but still only registered a “just okay” rating, and that was only because it lasted beyond the first frame.
Un. Be. Lievable.
Fight cards that exceed expectations like the event prior to UFC 146 never get a chance because there aren’t enough big names or big fights, and events like Sunday’s show still get picked apart even though they hit all the marks.
You can’t win for losing; some folks are just never satisfied.
E. Spencer Kyte is the author of Keyboard Kimura, the MMA blog of Vancouver’s leading newspaper, The Province. Follow him on Twitter (@spencerkyte), or Facebook.
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