( o Y o )
22nd August 2006, 07:52 AM
UFC 62 Preview
Only the most deluded fool would pretend 2006 has been anything other than the greatest year ever for North American MMA. Paced by the runaway success of UFC live events, the wholehearted backing of Spike TV and some gargantuan pay-per-view buy rates, the opening up of major arenas and cities in California and debut shows for Strikeforce, the IFL and the WFA, this has been an incredible year already. Clearly, the UFC have been the leaders and main beneficiaries of this popularity explosion but itfs amazing to see just how much of their success has been down to rematches and/or fights where few could realistically expect anything beyond a vicious beatdown. The third Couture-Liddell fight was huge, wefve seen Arlovski and Sylvia go at it twice more, Ortiz has drawn enormous money in fights where he was expected to smash Forrest Griffin (he didnft) and the increasingly delusional Ken Shamrock (he most certainly did). In September Matt Hughes (hopefully) fights Georges St. Pierre for the second time after pulling in some 600,000 PPV buyers to see him predictably annihilate Royce Gracie. Who says fresh, competitive fights sell?
The rest is here. (http://kakutougi.info/content/view/313/2/) Read it.
Only the most deluded fool would pretend 2006 has been anything other than the greatest year ever for North American MMA. Paced by the runaway success of UFC live events, the wholehearted backing of Spike TV and some gargantuan pay-per-view buy rates, the opening up of major arenas and cities in California and debut shows for Strikeforce, the IFL and the WFA, this has been an incredible year already. Clearly, the UFC have been the leaders and main beneficiaries of this popularity explosion but itfs amazing to see just how much of their success has been down to rematches and/or fights where few could realistically expect anything beyond a vicious beatdown. The third Couture-Liddell fight was huge, wefve seen Arlovski and Sylvia go at it twice more, Ortiz has drawn enormous money in fights where he was expected to smash Forrest Griffin (he didnft) and the increasingly delusional Ken Shamrock (he most certainly did). In September Matt Hughes (hopefully) fights Georges St. Pierre for the second time after pulling in some 600,000 PPV buyers to see him predictably annihilate Royce Gracie. Who says fresh, competitive fights sell?
The rest is here. (http://kakutougi.info/content/view/313/2/) Read it.