I am sick and instead of doing the sensible thing and skipping out on Friday's podcast I decided to solider forth. I hope you enjoy a nasally, sick sounding voice. Don't worry, you won't have to listen very long as this episode is a short one.

With our available time we talk about UFC 110's trending pay-per view buyrate, which, at the moment, is dismal. Also, we talk about WEC 47's ratings, which were also dismal. Basically, it is bad news all around but thanks to NyQuil we got through it.

You can download the episode here, subscribe to our RSS feed here and check us out on iTunes. The streaming version is below and you can open up a new window to listen here. Send feedback to watchkalibrun@gmail.com

SBN coverage of UFC 110: Nogueira vs. Velasquez and WEC 47: Bowles vs. Cruz

Dave Meltzer brings us his early (and I stress the early) trending data for UFC 110 and it is not good (subscription only):

I don't have a number of buys, but based on trending data which has historically been pretty accurate, it could be in the 215,000 to 240,000 range, basically along the lines of the tape-delayed foreign shows. This was foreign, but wasn't tape delayed. One cable industry source gave an estimate of 215,000.

For those not familiar with Dave Meltzer he is the go to source for pay-per view data and if his early numbers point to a 250,000 buy rate then it will certainly lead to questions about what happened.

UFC 110 was scheduled on Sunday to fit the North American pay-per view audience and featured several meaningful bouts with several big name fighters. So why are the numbers worse than UFC 108? Perhaps fans aren't interested in seeing aging legends fight like Wanderlei Silva and Mirko Cro Cop? Maybe fans weren't sold on Cain Velasquez or George Sotiropoulos? It could be that there was no real meaning attached to any of the fights as the winner of Nogueira-Velasquez would be, at best, an "on deck" challenger in the heavyweight division.

The nightmare scenario is that the core audience is shrinking. However with the UFC's recent injury blight it is far more likely that the audience is being more selective. Ultimately, we will need to see how UFC 111, 112, 113 and 114 do as these cards represent the return of many top-tier fighters and draws.

However, It could be something else.

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(That's not an appeal. This is an Appeal!)

Bad news for Stephan Bonnar.

Bonnar lost his appeal to overturn the TKO loss to Krzystztof Soszynski. The fight was stopped due to a cut but the referee ruled that the laceration was from a strike though replays clearly showed it was due to an accidental head butt.

MMA Junkie spoke to the Combat Sports Authority of New South Wales, which stated that they didn't want to interfere with the referee's decision. If commissions are unwilling to overrule their referees several weeks after a bout then instant replay systems need to be put in place, to get the call right on the night of the fight.

SBN coverage of UFC 110: Nogueira vs. Velasquez

Brent Brookhouse of SB Nation passes along this information regarding the UFC's merchandise sales at UFC 110 in Sydney, Australia.

UFC 110, headlined by the Antonio "Minotauro" Nogueira vs. Cain Velasquez heavyweight bout, grossed $540,000 in merchandise sales at Acer Arena in Sydney, breaking the previous record of $498,000 for UFC 83 at the Bell Centre in Montreal. Total sales also topped the previous arena record held by Iron Maiden.

Holy crap that is a lot of apparel, DVDs, posters and, well, apparel sales.

For a comparison Strikeforce only did $8,000 of merchandise sale at Strikeforce: Miami. Obviously, the UFC is an aircraft carrier to Strikeforce's schooner but still, wow!

UFC 110 also put up record numbers for attendance outside of North America. Though it would've been nice if UFC 110 had beaten Meerkat Manor in the ratings department. Hakuna Matata my ass!

SBN coverage of UFC 110: Nogueira vs. Velasquez

I like your....uh....flag.....

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Throng.com reported the top-fifty rated programs on Australian television for last Sunday:

Top shows for the night:
1 Seven News - Sun Seven 1,292,000
2 Border Security - Australia's Front Line Seven 1,276,000
3 Air Ways Seven 1,267,000
4 The Good Wife Ten 1,256,000
5 Twenty/20 - Australia V West Indies Nine 1,247,000
6 Nine News Sunday Nine 1,237,000
7 Bones Seven 1,156,000
8 Talkin' ‘Bout Your Generation Ten 1,091,000
9 Sunday Night Seven 1,027,000
10 House Ten 958,000

It was unrealistic to expect UFC 110 to break into the top-ten of television programs in Australia.

11 Vancouver Gold 2010 Winter Olympics: Day 8 Nine 916,000
12 Castle Seven 893,000
13 The Biggest Loser (Aus) - The Weigh-In Ten 869,000
14 Doctor Who: The End Of Time ABC1 840,000
15 ABC News-Su ABC1 825,000
16 Monty Python: Almost The Truth The Lawyer's Cut ABC1 740,000
17 Ten News At Five Sun Ten 697,000
18 Vancouver Gold 2010 Winter Olympics: Day 8 (Late) Nine 532,000
19 International Women's Twenty/20 Nine 519,000
20 Sports Tonight Sun Ten 478,000
21 Collectors ABC1 460,000
22 Vancouver Live 2010 Winter Olympics: Day 8 Nine 450,000
23 Scrubs Seven 441,000
24 The Simpsons Sun Ten 406,000
25 Australia's Greatest Athlete Seven 391,000
26 Antiques Roadshow Nine 391,000 Excl M
27 Animal Emergency Nine 350,000 Excl A

Alright...Animal Emergency...*despair beginning to set in*

28 Weekend Sunrise - Sun Seven 294,000
29 Seven's V8 Supercars Round 1: Abu Dhabi D2 Seven 287,000
30 Postcards Nine 282,000 M,A
31 Compass ABC1 274,000
32 Boys Weekend Ten 267,000
33 The Unsinkable Titanic SBS ONE 263,000
34 It's Me or the Dog Ten 231,000
35 Mercurio's Menu Seven 231,000 Excl B,A
36 The Beach Ten 228,000
37 Insiders AM ABC1 225,000
38 Coxy's Big Break Seven 209,000 M Only
39 Landline PM ABC1 207,000
40 Air Crash Investigations Rpt Seven 198,000
41 Meerkat Manor Rpt Ten 198,000

Meerkat Manor is higher rated than UFC 110! Damn those cute, lovable little mammals. Blame Disney!

42 Kochie's Business Builders Seven 196,000
43 Bewitched GO 187,000
44 The Great South East Seven 177,000 B only
45 Gardening Australia Rpt ABC1 165,000
46 The Big Bang Theory GO 162,000
47 The Love of Money SBS ONE 162,000
48 Dateline SBS ONE 159,000
49 Born to Be King: Prince Charles at 60 Rpt. ABC1 150,000
50 Wipeout GO 147,000

WHAT!? They are outside the top-fifty? How many people actually watched it?

UFC 110 Main Card Live One 123,000
UFC 110 The Main Event Live One 122,000

Oh.

MMA Payout believes these ratings are encouraging and points out that UFC 110 was the second highest rated program on sports channels (though they were walloped by the Olympics).

It all depends on how the data is cut and where the goal posts are. If the goal is to do well against other sports channels while ignoring the Olympics as a four year anomaly and bracing for expansion difficulties, such as a negative local media environment, then the data is encouraging. Once the live gate response is taken into account, it appears that Zuffa had a successful trip "down under".

Sports are suppose to be entertaining. So, have a chuckle at our LOL feature.

SBN coverage of UFC 110: Nogueira vs. Velasquez

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AUSSIE! AUSSIE! AUSSIE!

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Last week WKR noticed that there seemed to be a drop off in MMA media coverage and general lack of "heat" leading into UFC 110. While this wasn't due to a lack of previews or pre-fight interviews or discussing stories coming out of Australia there wasn't the expected data dump (other than planned Zuffa events) that many have grown accustomed to from a major UFC event.  Obviously, there are serious geographic and time barriers between the United States and Australia, which caused many credentialed MMA sites to not show up, which in turn resulted in less information disseminated into the electronic ether that is the Internet.

Some would say that this is an indictment on the blogosphere who are nothing more than parasites that ratchet up the volume in our self-imposed echo chamber. Others would argue that this is a prime example of why Zuffa needs dedicated and credentialed MMA media on site in order to indirectly build excitement through independent reporting outside of official functions.  

WKR wanted to explore this topic further so we decided to talk to Jonathan Snowden formerly of Heavy.com about the coverage in the run-up to UFC 110 as well as the post event coverage from the Australian media. Oh yeah, we talk about Frank Mir's "death" comments too.

You can download the episode here, subscribe to our RSS feed here and check us out on iTunes. The streaming version is below. Send feedback to watchkalibrun@gmail.com.

SBN coverage of UFC 110: Nogueira vs. Velasquez

(These ladies know what it takes to be a fighter. No pants!!!)

For a sport that critics believe is nothing more than an exercise in bloodlust for an uneducated crowd of meatheads there are certainly a lot of controversies over attire--almost as many as ice dancing.

The latest flare up concerns George Sotiropoulos and his choice of attire at UFC 110. George wore normal shorts with  compression shorts underneath then knee sleeves and ankle sleeves. Essentially 80% of Sotiropoulos' legs were covered and under the Unified Rules pants, more specifically grappling pants, are a illegal. Commissions have even gone so far as to ban shorts with "no slip" properties.

Did George break the rules by wearing a combination of legal attire that essentially creates pants without actually wearing pants?

Keith Kizer of the NSAC says that Sotiropoulos' outfit was kosher and that members of a fighter's camp are present with the power to object when the commission and referee check attire before a fight. But looking at pictures from UFC 110 it seems that the combination of sleeves and shorts may not be in the spirit of the rules.

Decide for yourself and vote!

SBN coverage of UFC 110: Nogueira vs. Velasquez

I promised a video recap on Monday and by George I delivered. Now, I just hope someone out there has read Dune...

WKR's Weekly Video Recaps and SBN coverage of UFC 110: Nogueira vs. Velasquez

Cro Cop is coming for you (that used to be scary)

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Cro Cop was back for at least one night, well, sort of...

Fans of the Croatian striker have long pined for a return to glory of one of the most memorable spectacular fighters of the middle 00's. For one night in Sydney "Cro Cop" was back in action, albeit against less than stellar opposition.

With the Grim Reaper knocking at the door of Mirko's career following his inglorious loss to Junior dos Santos back at UFC 103, Cro Cop retained some semblance of a fighting future with his pedestrian win over Anthony Perosh this past Saturday night. Despite coming away with a stoppage victory, Cro Cop did little to satisfy those fans who were expecting nothing less than an emphatic LHK KO, which has been M.I.A since 9/10/2006.

Instead of an impressive KO, observers were treated to another underwhelming win against underwhelming competition. Cro Cop's victory over Perosh was reminiscent of his previous underwhelming performances against Mustapha Al-Turk and Eddie Sanchez and it did little to back up his claim that he belongs at the top of the heavyweight division.

What was particularly puzzling while watching the fight was just how few kicks Cro Cop threw. On several occassions the body kick was there, but for whatever reason he didn't pull the trigger on it.

To Mirko's credit, the elbow he used to cut Perosh was nasty and it proves that he has at least partially adapted his game to the Octagon, which is something that had been previously questioned. Another positive to takeaway from Cro Cop's performance was his absolutely brilliant takedown defense which continually stymied "The Hippo."

The bottom line is that while Cro Cop did what he needed to do to secure the victory, at this point his fans expect much more than what was delivered. So while fans anxiously await the announcement of Cro Cop's next match -- likely against original UFC 110 opponent, Ben Rothwell -- let's enjoy this highlight video which sums up the brilliance of Cro Cop in his prime:

SBN coverage of UFC 110: Nogueira vs. Velasquez