Why TUF-7 and Forrest vs. Rampage isn't interesting

First off let me say this Rampage is the most entertaining fighter the UFC has. But why are the ratings mostly flat if such an entertaining cat is on the show. Well there are several reasons. The first is the UFC's fault. The build up of the Liddell-Rampage II was the biggest media blitz the UFC has undertaken to date. It was successful in building lots of pre-fight hype but after Rampage's KO the UFC did not cash in on the media equity they had built up. Yes they had Rampage vs. Henderson on for free, but after that Rampage went silent and off the radar till this season of the Ultimate Fighter. Rampage is still a fairly new commodity to the U.S. fan base, he has only three fights in the Octagon thus he needed more exposure. Now it is necessary to point out that the UFC was building and marketing other fights, such as Serra-Hughes, Hughes-GSP, Silva-Henderson and Liddell-Silva, these were all big market fights. But keeping a personable, charismatic, funny star out of the spotlight was simply poor management. UFC conspiracy theorists will say that Dana didn't want to plug the guy who beat his golden boy, Liddell, and was looking for some way to get Liddell back to the title shot by ignoring the man who beat him. I don't think that is true but seriously whomever was in charge of marketing Rampage post-title deserves to be fired (then the UFC can hire me).

That brings us to Forrest. While an entertaining guy there doesn't seem to be a big following behind him. In his three biggest fights he is 1-2. A KO lost to the inconsistent Keith Jardine, a split decision loss to Tito Ortiz and a significant win over Mauricio 'Shogun' Rua. That win of Shogun (he was considered #1 LHW at the time) catapulted Forrest into the number one contender slot. However let us not forget that Shogun was fighting without an ACL which seriously affected his conditioning (full disclosure, Forrest did have a injured shoulder too). With Shogun recently re-injuring the same knee his long term viability is seriously in question and the significance of Forrest's win may be in doubt as well. Essentially Forrest just doesn't bring a lot of hype to a fight with Rampage due to the consideration that he really isn't a top five fighter. Granted if he wins it may be the second biggest upset in UFC history.

Back to the show though. Reality T.V. needs good characters for it to truly be entertaining. While Rampage and Forrest fit into that mold there really isn't anyone else who elicits strong feelings one way or the other. There is no crazy Mac Danzig, no douches like Gabe, and no straight bad asses like Leben was. With middleweight talent being weak in the UFC they need the show to generate some interest as well as inject new life. However it makes one think, if any of these guys were absolute great blue chip prospects wouldn't they be in the UFC already due to that division being thin?

The UFC needs to change models for their cable (maybe network) television show and soon. If it is going to occur it will probably be after TUF-8. But a season of heavyweights man that is going to be really boring.