Bryan, I caught the Friday Night Fight show on HD Net tonight and since it sounds like I’m the only member of your site that actually gets the channel, I’m sending in a quick report. Hope this is helpful:
First of all, before the actual show, there was a half hour Inside the MMA special with, among others, Josh Gross. They asked his honest opinion about the card and he basically buried it, saying that Paulson is a washed up fighter and they need to do better if they want to compete. Heck of a way to promote the upcoming show.
Ok, here we go, Friday Fight Night: “Initiation Night.”
It took 4 whole seconds for them to show Mark Cuban on the screen and announce that he is getting into the business. The announcers, Kenny Rice and Jeff Blatnick, previewed the main event and showed a taped interview with a very old-looking Eric Paulson.
“Wow, that place is not full at all.” That was the reaction of my dad, a casual MMA fan at best, when they panned the arena. They kept the lights down for the fights and entrances and didn’t show the crowd very much at all during the event.
Before each fight, they had a very quick video package (30 seconds) where each guy introduced himself and talked about what he excelled at. The ring intros all followed the same pattern. There were two entrances set up side-by-side, one red colored and the other blue. Generic rock music played and both men walked out at the same time right next to each other before being introduced. They also had the classic tale of the tape graphic for each guy.
Fight 1
David Roberts vs. Chris Bowles
The fight went to the ground right away. Roberts went for a guillotine. The announcers tell us that Roberts has served time in jail for, among other things, fighting. Bowles gets the mount and grounds and pounds. He then turns Roberts over and gets a rear naked choke. The ref has no choice but to stop it.
Winner: Chris Bowles at 3:06 of the first round.
They interviewed all the winners afterwards in a very similar fashion to what UFC does where the fighter looks at replays and talks about the fight.
Fight 2
CB Dollaway (7-0) vs. Hans Marrero
Dollaway takes Marrero down right away and tries to ground and pound with little success. Fighters are back standing up as Dollaway gets into the clinch, gets a big knee which rocks Marrero, and knocks him onto the mat face first. He pounces and starts laying in shots until the ref stops it.
Winner: CB Dollaway by TKO at 1:07 of the first round.
Interview with Roger Huerta at cage side. He talks about making the cover of SI and how MMA is finally getting respect from the national media. They let him plug his next fight against Clay Guida on Spike on December 8th.
Fight 3
Matt Thompson (242 pounds) vs. Justin Eilers (231 pounds)
Round 1
They go to the ground right away with Eilers on top doing very little. This quickly becomes a pattern in this match. Eilers does just enough for the ref to not stand them up. Boring fight so far, crowd starts to boo at the end of the round.
Round 2
They go to the ground again fairly quickly. Not much happening again but this time the ref stands them up. Thompson gets a good left hand in but is quickly taken back down by Eilers. Not much happening at the ref stand them up again. Eilers has Thompson against the fence as the round ends. Neither guy is doing much and the crowd is booing. My dad’s reaction: “Wow, this is not a very good fight.” This was an understatement.
Round 3
Eilers swings, misses, and slips and falls to the mat. Still, he ends up taking control on the ground. He scores on the ground with some forearms and then the fight slows to a crawl. The ref stands them up. They end up against the fence again and the crowd boos. I sound like a broken record. The ref then stops them while they are in a standing position against the cage and brings them back to the middle. We finally get some good stand up as both guys get some decent shots in before going back to the ground. They finally show the crowd where 2 guys are standing up and clapping while the rest of the people are looking bored. They lay on each other some more as the round ends. They go to the judges, who all have the fight 30-27.
Winner: Justin “Hammer” Eilers by unanimous decision. Afterwards, Eilers says what we were all thinking. “It kinda was a boring fight. I’m sorry for the crowd, it wasn’t what I wanted.” And then he ends the interview with this: “Thank you guys, sorry.”
Next up, we have an interview with NFL Hall of Famer Randy White. Never heard of him. He is a big fan of mixed martial arts. He lives in Prosper, Texas and if anyone has a taste for barbeque food he has a restaurant in the area. Great.
Fight 4
TJ Waldburger (12-3) vs. Pete Spratt (16-10)
Round 1
Spratt stuns Waldburger immediately with a big right hand. Then, he delivers with a big left. Waldburger wants to take it to the ground but Spratt keeps standing up. Waldburger is on the ground and Spratt leans down and just lays into him until the ref stops it. The replays of this were just brutal as Waldburger took a good 4 unprotected shots to the head before the fight was stopped as his head was bouncing around like a pinball. I hope Chris Nowitzki wasn’t watching this. This fight was a slugfest and was as exciting as the last fight was boring.
Winner: Pete “The Secret Weapon” Spratt by KO at 1:29 seconds into the first round.
Fight 5- Main Event
There is a video package where Paulson is played up as the veteran who was great before MMA was popular and now wants to get back into things at 41 years old. Paulson sounds very nonchalant and this just doesn’t have the intensity of the UFC video packages. I think it’s more due to the personalities than the production. This is Paulson’s first fight in over 7 years. Josh Barnett accompanies Paulson to the ring and proceeds to slap him in the face twice before he gets into the cage as motivation. Josh Barnett is great.
Eric Paulson 10-4-1 vs. “Big Diesel” Jeff Ford
Round 1
Both men trade shots back and forth early on and Ford gets in a good body shot. Ford’s strength is stand up. Paulson attempts and misses a spinning back kick. Neither guy looks in great shape. Paulson shoots in, takes him to the ground, circles around, and armbars him in about 5 seconds, causing Ford to tap and the crowd to pop.
Winner: “Man of 1,000 Holds” Eric Paulson at 1:44 of the first round.
Paulson is interviewed afterwards with Josh Barnett by his side. Paulson says some boring stuff and then they get to Barnett. They ask him if he has any fight announcements he wants to make. Barnett says the only fighting he will be doing tonight is fighting to keep his sobriety when he’s out partying.
Quick video package and the show goes off the air a few minutes before the 90 minute mark.
Overall thoughts:
I would give this show a thumbs in the middle. If I happen to be home and notice that the next show is on, I’d check it out but it’s not something that I’d go out of my way to see. There was nothing terribly bad on the show, but nothing too exciting either. The lack of star power hurt the show more than anything else in my opinion. It was definitely presented as a pure sporting event as they stayed away from any freak show fights and larger than life personalities. I felt the announcing on the show was fine. The guys were nothing spectacular and didn’t get all that excited for any of the fights but they also didn’t say anything particularly stupid either. The one thing that I found interesting was that they talked openly about the UFC on the broadcast, including the interview with Roger Huerta where they let him plug his upcoming fight on Spike. It didn’t sound like they were trying to compete with UFC but rather promote MMA in general, which is what Mark Cuban has been saying all along. If Cuban spends a lot of cash on this and starts bringing in name fighters, it could be a very interesting promotion to watch. {plug}
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