UFC: Two Events In One Day A Folly?

For the second time in two months, the UFC will be offering two cards in a single day. On June 28th, the promotion will host UFC Fight Night: Te Huna vs. Marquardt and UFC Fight Night: Swanson vs. Stephens. Is this a windfall of fights for MMA fans, or a case of quantity over quality? With PPV buyrates on the decline, the UFC has been looking to network and cable television more and more over the past year, airing free fights via a lucrative deal with FOX which draw in solid ratings and advertising dollars. At the same time, the promotion has launched UFC Fight Pass, its online content delivery service, which hosts original shows (Fightology), fight archives for the UFC, WEC, Strikeforce, Pride, Affliction, and Invicta, and airs live events for the UFC and, soon, Invicta MMA. Fight Pass, in short, is an attempt to get the diehard fans to pay year in, year out and therefore build a monthly revenue stream with little more than the cost of bandwidth, hosting space, and a couple of admins. The real hook to get those fans in is, of course, exclusive live events - not just preliminary fights, but entire cards. The UFC has to cover the cost of streaming those cards, of course, but that's a drop in the bucket when you consider what the live gate for an event is. They're making their money back on ticket sales anyway. Think of it this way: consider UFC Fight Nights on Fight Pass to be like WWE house shows, which aren't normally broadcast. The money comes in from the live gate; that covers fighter salary, production, transportation, venue rental etc. Putting these shows on Fight Pass is just the icing on the cake, and maybe a bit of forward thinking, because frankly, as we've seen with professional wrestling, and with the recent UFC 174 event's rumoured buyrate (under 100,000 buys is the number floating around, which would be the worst buyrate since 2005), the Pay-Per-View model can't last forever. In the short term however, what you wind up with are weak Fight Pass cards with only one or two watchable fights, teamed up with overly long Fight Night cards on free TV. Take, for example, the pairing of the TUF Brazil 3 finale (available on free TV) with UFC Fight Night: Munoz vs. Mousasi from Germany on May 31st. Between the two cards, UFC fans had 22 fights to choose from that Saturday. Yet how many were noteworthy? Traditionally, the UFC has had main cards with at least 3 decent fights on the main card, and usually one or two good bouts to draw viewers in on the prelims and get them watching the main bouts, be it a PPV or FOX event. Fights with prospects or local fighters with little name value had traditionally been left to early prelim slots, or aired on Facebook for free - fights which were then transferred to UFC Fight Pass as exclusives when that service launched. In other words, for starters, a lot of what you get with Fight Pass, you used to get for free. I'm not here to knock Fight Pass though, but rather, the two-event days that stretch the promotion thin. Fight Pass is a fine idea - so long as the content isn't watered down, as it has been. To sustain the sport, you need strong network TV deals, supported by live gates, international events, and offerings like Fight Pass for the hardcore fans. PPVs, meanwhile, need to go back to actually being special. And there's definitely a place for Fight Pass, and exclusive events: the UFC Fight Night in Japan this September is looking downright stellar, with Roy "Big Country" Nelson versus Mark Hunt (sure to be over with the Japanese crowd from his Pride days) headlining the event in a fight fans have wanted for years. Throw in rumours of Miesha Tate vs. Rin Nakai, and possibly Shogun Rua or Alistair Overeem, and you have the makings of a stacked card that will get people watching. We don't know if there will be a second bout that day, but if there was, you at least have one event worth watching. You didn't have that with the dual TUF Brazil 3/Munoz vs. Mousasi cards. You had, on paper at least, maybe a half dozen decent fights between them, and a lot of filler. For starters, a six fight main card for a Fox Sports 1/2 event is stretching it, as with breaks and entrances, the event is stretching into the wee hours of the morning (depending, of course, on where you live, but point being - it's almost over-long after a full day of fights). Other than the headlining fight, really only the co-headliner of C.B. Dollaway vs. Francis Carmont had any relevancy, and even then, Carmont's not exactly known as an exciting fighter to watch. On the TUF Brazil side, you had a headline fight reduced to a joke when Junior Dos Santos went down to injury, and light heavyweight Fabio Maldonado stepped in instead on short notice to face Stipe Miocic. Beyond the TUF finale match-ups, Damian Maia was the only notable name to be found - again, not exactly known for the excitement he brings. Of course, MMA is sport not spectacle, right? There needs to be balance however. Scheduling two cards in one day eliminates that balance, and is almost surely folly. This is a trend likely to continue with UFC Fight Night: Te Huna vs. Marquardt and UFC Fight Night: Swanson vs. Stephens. The hardcore MMA fan in me is thrilled to have a full day of fights, but I suspect that next Saturday, by the end, I'll feel worn down more than anything, as I did back in May when the UFC paired the Germany and Brazil cards. I'm excited to see Swanson vs. Stephens. I'm curious about Joe Ellenberger's debut, and looking forward to Palelei vs. Rosholt. I'm not sure Te Huna vs. Marquardt is a legit headliner however, though it'll likely be a solid fight. Beyond that? Lamas and Gastelum are names I'm keeping an eye on, and the rest, well - they'll be on more because they're there, than because I have any actual interest in seeing them. If I'm the UFC, that's a worrying prospect, as even their most ardent fans begin to feel burned out.