Feedback to Super Saturday
Affliction:
Thumbs up
best fight: Arlovski/Rothwell
worst fight: Lindland/Negao
I have to give the show a thumbs up because the fights were pretty good but as I expected with a new company the actual show aspect wasn't good. The production from the start was bad, the hard camera was at this odd downward angle and if the place was packed you'd never know as it was pitch black with these terrible laser lights flashing. The announcing was horrendous, Glazer had to be the worst and Trigg was only slightly less crappy. Trigg shouldn't be allowed to commentate on fights with his "team mates" if he can't even pretend to be non-bias. John McCarthy did get better as the show went on but he couldn't save it. I can see people having been put off by the quality of the TV show but I hope for the company's sake they judge based on the last couple of fights.
UFC:
Thumbs up
best fight: tie - Edgar/Franca and Silva/Irvin
worst fight: Vera/Andy
While I don't really like The Pearl for the UFC shows the production was so far a head of the Affliction PPV it wasn't even funny. If the idea was to get Anderson Silva and Brandon Vera over they at least got one of them.
Dan Atwood
East Hartford, CT
Thumbs upBest: Silva/Irvin, for the pure aweWorst: n/a Televised undercard was blah, but it was worth it in the long run to establish Silva as a drawing card at 205 and leave fans dreaming about possible future match-ups. Both Irvin and Tim Sylvia are better fighters than they appeared to be last night, and I give both props for having the courage to fight the two best fighters in the world; how would you feel if your task last night was to step in the cage with Silva or Fedor? I’d be sh*tting bricks, and I think both had so much mental pressure that they choked. Who can possibly blame them.
Jeff Gagliardo
Thumbs up.
This was a great show and I would say that it is the first time an event came off much bigger than anything the UFC has been able to put on in quite some time. The production values were great, huge stage, though I dont see the reason for Megadeath playing. No real bad matches either.. Fedor is I would say without a doubt the best pound for pound fighter right now... Silva is on quite a streak but he really hasnt been the cream of the crop like Fedor has... Franklin, Marquhart, Leben, Irvin, Lutter, these guys arent top ten fighters.... Fedor even after not facing any top ten heavyweights completely destroyed Silvia and should silence any of his detractors once in for all. Also nice to Arlovski back to his old self. Hopefully they can partner up with some good TV coverage for their next show.
Best Match. Arlovski/Rothwell.
Worst.. none really
UFC
Best Match, Edgar/Franca
Worst Vera match..
I think this was a pointless match to have.... if he were going to go up in weight class should of taken on a quality opponent... almost like a squash match from the old wrestling days.
Mike Kulyk
|
Hi Dave,
Thumbs in the middle
Best Fight: Rory Markham/Brodie Farber
Worst Fight: Brandon Vera/Reese Andy
I fight would like to say that I watched the Affliction show live and taped this show and watched it immediately after (I recorded the show until 1am and started then in case it went long). I was fortunate enough to be able to avoid all spoilers so I saw the UFC show with fresh eyes and as if it were live.
To me the Rory Markham/Brodie Farber fight was not only KO of the night but also FON as it was just a fun fight to watch. I hope that they won both awards tonight.
After watching both shows I have to say any voter who keeps Anderson Silva (or GSP who I had ranked as #1) as the P4P #1 fighter in the world is nuts. I don't include someone like Dana White who is supposed to defend his guys and quite frankly has no credibility when it comes to most of the stuff he says because of the amount of bluster he blows.
A funny thing to me was that the Brandon Vera fight actually was the fight that went head to head against the Fedor fight as the Affliction show was off the air at 12:30am EST (including all the interviews and post show recaps and credits) and the Anderson Silva fight hadn't even started at that point.
James Irwin put on a very poor display for himself as he showed that he can't take a punch. I say this b/c Silva didn't hit him that hard as he saw the punch coming. Silva has hit many a man much harder than that and I'm talking about punches that didn't end a fight or even lead directly to the end of a fight.
I was disappointed by the Edgar/Franca fight as both seemed content to go the 15 and it seemed to me that was the outcome in the first minute of the fight. I guess b/c of the insane pace that the 2007 LWs were able to show off in fights such as Edgar/Griffin; Griffin/Guida; Huerta/Garcia; Gomi/Diaz; Griffin/Tavares; Tavares/Black; and Guida/Huerta that I've come to expect more from that division and they haven't delivered to that level (or anywhere close to it) this year.
CB looked good tonight and he looked very quick on the ground, both on top and on the bottom - especially when he was able to transition very quickly from the bottom to apply the Peruvian necktie on Jesse Taylor.
Cain Velasquez looked like he may be ready for a mid range guy like a Heath Herring or Cheick Kongo. Maybe I'm putting too much stock in tonight's performance, but he looked very good tonight.
Unfortunate ending to the AJ/Burns fight as they had a decent fight going. I wonder if MMA will adopt a rule similar to boxing in that they go to the scorecards if they have completed 2 rounds in a 3 round fight or 3 in a 5 round fight when a fight has to be stopped to do an accident - be it an eyepoke or an accidental butt. I understand that it would be much more difficult to adopt due to the fewer rounds that MMA employs, but I think something should be done. I wouldn't be surprised if the fight's ruling was changed to a NC.
Body type wise Vera looked very good, but I think what he said about the cut taking a lot out of him was true. I suspect that he will look much better in his next fight at 205.
Looking forward to UFC 87. Also looking forward to the large break (4 weeks being a large break in the current MMA landscape) in the North American MMA scene b/w 87 and 88.
Rishi Malhotra
Toronto
Hi Dave,
Thumbs Up
Best Fight: Andre Arlovski/Ben Rothwell
Worst Fight: Paul Buentello/Gary Goodridge
Well I guess there was no hype to Fedor b/c he finished that fight so fast you barely had time to get comfortable in your seat.
Fedor appeared to use the same gameplan as Randy Couture did when he fought Tim - ie. the beginning of the fight was remarkably similar - the difference, of course, being that Fedor finished a healthy Sylvia and Randy could only decision an injured Sylvia.
Arlovski to me came off as a huge star as did Josh Barnett as I don't think they could have hope for anything more from their performances.
The card reminded me of the old Pride cards in that all the favourites won and most very convincingly - I believe that every favourite won on the card tonight/last night.
There were some disturbingly, deadly, devastating, damaging and destructive (I felt the need for alliteration
) KOs provided by Arlovski, Barnett and Belfort.
Yes there were some disappointments such as Matt Lindland's far from impressive display. He did nothing tonight to make people believe that he could give Anderson Silva a run for his money - let alone beat him - and I don't think too many people are going to be calling for that fight based on the fight tonight. I'm still not sure whether to be disappointed in Matt's performance or to give Negao the credit. I was expecting him to give a 'professional' performance similar to the one that Lil Nog gave tonight as Lil Nog just walked Dewees down until an opening presented itself and then chopped him down.
Belfort's performance wasn't looking that great until the finish and now, quite frankly, I don't remember much about the fight other than the highlight reel finish. I guess you could say that he just set up Martin until the KO presented itself and then Vitor helped himself to it.
Definitely agree with the comments in your blog/play-by-play in that it felt like a big time event and not UFC lite unlike say the Elite XC show in May. The crowd at times came off as quiet but during that main event and the Arlovski fight they were great. I'm not sure if it was the way the crowd was miked or if the production did tone down the crowd noise to focus of the in ring action.
Regardless of how much attention the show gets/got from the non-MMA media, I know that I'm looking forward to their next show and I'll definitely be talking up the show.
Rishi Malhotra
Toronto
Dave,
Good lord. Fedor is unreal. Total domination.
Watched both shows last night. Affliction put on a hell of a first show. Sure it had its flaws from a production standpoint but the fights were great. The show came across as major league with caliber of fighters and fights, the celebrities in attendance, etc.
The November show is critical though. They'll definitely need a solid buyrate or solid improvement from the July show to give them the confidence going into the February show that this thing is financially going to be viable at some point.
-Nomit Shah
Best Match: Arlovsky/Rothwell
Worst Match: Linland/Negao
The production values of this PPV were sub par. The arena was dark (I assume to hide empty seats), there were several dead air spots when the announcers and production team were out of sync. Big John and Jay Glazer are not good announcers, Trigg however is. The good thing is, these are correctable mistakes. Without a doubt, Fedor looked like the best heavy weight fighter in the world, and I think that is the most important thing for the Affliction brand. Arlovsky looked better than he has in years. Barnett provided an exciting KO. Clearly the heavy weights were supreme on this PPV. I would give this PPV a THUMBS MIDDLE.
David Baker
Long Island City, NY
Observer Subscriber
Best Match: Arlovski vs Rothwell
Worst Match: Lindland vs Negao
Big Thumbs up for Affliction's first show. I thought the card was
great - not the best ever - but great. The Arlovski looked fantastic
and Fedor delivered in a way that lived up to his legend. There was
some serious electricity in the air for the main event. For the last
two fights alone, I would strongly recommend ordering the replay if
you missed to show. And how come every time Belfort fights, it's the
"return of Belfort"? Is he the Old-New Belfort or the New-Old
Belfort?
I DVRed the UFC show. Except the dominant showing from Silva, I found
myself unimpressed a kind of bored. I fast-forwarded through most of
it. It seemed like a meaningless card.
- Dan Cruikshank
Calgary
I'm spent.
Affliction:
Thumbs in the middle - I didn't feel ripped off buying it, but I can't say it was well
worth it either. Three Megadeth performances, though giving us the opportunity for an
abundance of jokes, was just ri-goddam-diculous.
Best match - tough to call, mainly because no one match was that great. I'm giving it to
Arlovski/Rothwell, because it was good to see the old Andrei again, even if he was still
tenative and should have won the fight a lot quicker. It also pissed me off that we had
to suffer through the crappy Andrei for the last couple years - his talent never waned
and it cost us some great potential fights.
Second place was what I think everyone will say, Fedor. Oh my holy god. I said going in
that this fight was win-win because either Fedor would be exposed as a paper champion or
Silvia would get his head knocked in. I wasn't disappointed in the least. I've never
been a big Fedor supporter but he made a believer out of me. Tim Silvia is as good as he
will ever be, and if he didn't train his hardest for this match he deserves to be in the
same category as Kalib Starnes, and Silvia just got demolished. In the past, I wanted to
see Couture/Fedor just to see Couture shut people up. Now I want to see it because it'll
be fantastic.
And how about them showing Couture wearing an Affliction shirt on an Affliction show and
giving an interview talking about being UFC champ? Does that qualify as freaky as Eric
Bischoff on Nitro, or is it more like Kurt Angle showing up on TNA?
Worst match - same as above, hard to choose, but Whitehead/Balalu was an absolute
snoozefest in a match that should have been great. I give it worst fight because it went
further below my expectations than any other.
Where do we go from here? Does Affliction have enough fighters to support Arlovski/Fedor
or, if it can happen, Fedor/Couture? Most of the fights looked like the MMA version of
BG James - theres a reason UFC dropped these guys, you know? Will I buy the next one?
If it has Fedor vs Arlovski or Couture, you bet. If not...well, we'll see. I think when
the buyrates come back, a lot of people are going to be sorry they signed contracts with
M1, and UFC will take advantage of that fact.
Speaking of UFC, we switched over, naturally, after Fedor. I didn't pay much attention
to the fights that were on except for Cain Velazquez. I hope the UFC sees what they have
in this guy and pushes him to the moon.
And then there was Anderson Silva. Good LORD.
One has to wonder if Rogan saw the Fedor fight at all, and if so, if he really thinks
Silva is the best PFP fighter in the world. I don't think it could work, but I'd buy
Silva/GSP every day of the week and twice on Sundays. Silva may not be THE best PFP
fighter but he's in the top five, possibly top three. James Irvin has beaten a lot of
tough guys at 185, but he's hardly Chuck or Wandy, you know? When it's all said and
done, Anderson will be able to write his own check, but until then, he'll just keep
impressing the hell out of people and hoping they get some 185 talent, stat.
Mike DeGeorge
Thumbs Up
Best Fight: Arlovski/Rothwell
Worst Fight: None, but I did see the worst crowd sign of all time: "You Are Fedorable". Even Megadeth was tolerable.
Little Nog, Belfort, Barnett, and Arlovski were all as impressive as could be. Lindland looked rusty, and was lucky to be facing a very inferior opponent. Hominick looked good, too.
But this night was about Fedor. What else can you say? All doubt should now be put to rest about not beating top competition, and i'm just not convinced the man is human. Tim Sylvia dominated the UFC, beat Arlovski twice, and nearly finished Big Nog, and Fedor beat him like a jobber.
Barnett & Arlovski positioned themselves as Fedor's next victims, until the Couture situation works itself out. I'd pay $40 for either of those fights.
Joe Lanza
Hey Dave,
Good night of fights, best fights were on Banned show.
UFC - Thumbs in Middle
Best fight: Silva proving he is No.1 P4P
Worst: Vera, boy he needs to watch tapes of himself circa 2006
As a Fight Night, this was OK. Nothing more, nothing less. We all know this was thrown together in 6 weeks notice and, given that fact, it was OK. Card was very shallow, though.
BANNED -thumbs in middle
Best fight: Andre v ROthwell
Worst fight: Babaloo v TUF quitter
Great to see Andre, Josh and Fedor right back at the top of their games. Fedor was always going to do that to Tim, who used to be called a joke when he was UFC champ but magically became the No.2 in the world once he left. I was suprised to see it go that fast, but this is exactly what Randy would have done to Tim if he had subs. If you hit Tim right on the first bell, he goes.
I see those kidnappers who replaced Andre with that boring clone finally let the real one back into action. Great fight, esp round 2. Would love to see Fedor fight Andre next even though I think Fedor gets a first round KO.
Couple of notes. Megadeth was uncool "your dad's music" back when I booed the hell out of them at Nitro 10 YEARS AGO. Please, no more of that crap. The production let the fights down, the commentary was pretty awful.
How come Trmup didn't brag that they had the Humble Telescope as the hard camera for the show? Because the camera angle used for most of the fights sure looked like it was positioned in outer space, I've got a huge plazma screen but the fighters looked like Action Men on my TV. Afflication needs to tighten their production, big time, and get a camera placed in the same zip code as the ring.
Have to say Big John McCarthy is a piece of shit. How fast that guy changes his tune to his new songwriter! The WAMMA belt is the "first real world title"!!! What a joke from a joker who is trying to ruin the sport with his dumbass 101 weight classes. Bill Goldberg's old WCW US title belt has been dusted off and now is the REAL world title? Really? Please tell me no-one in the real media believes this! McCarthy has no honor or credabilty at all, his commentary was the most biased I've ever heard and the strilling was sickening.
Paul Pao
UFN 14 Feedback
I'm one of the MMA fans who had to choose between UFN 14 and the Affliction PPV. I chose the free UFN on Spike. I have to say I wasn't disappointed with the UFN card. I have no clue as to how the Affliction card went, so my opinion is objective in that I only saw 1 card.
Best: Silva beating Irvin: Anderson Silva was my 2nd favorite fighter after GSP. I'm seriously rethinking this after his performance tonight. He caught Irvin's leg kick and countered with a straight right that basically KO'd Irvin for the win. Damn! Silva rules!
Worst: Vera vs. Andy: The whole fight I was thinking why can't Vera finish this guy? Maybe the 1st cut from HW to LHW hurt Vera. Overal I wasn't impressed with his performance.
I'm happy to see CB beat Jesse in that he's probably the more talented of the TUF has beens. Frankie Edgar winning was also nice to see. I'd actually like to see him contest Faber or Vsrner in the WEC.
A. Wong
Toronto, ON
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