UFC Nottingham: Success inside the cage, not in the stands.
Live from the Capital FM Arena in Nottingham, Matthew Harold
So it’s another year over for the UFC in the UK, as the organisation’s visit across the Atlantic to Nottingham is in the books.
It was a really good card, but the problem was that if you weren’t a hardcore MMA fan then most of the matches never really grabbed your attention.
That along with the extremely high, bordering on outrageous ticket prices led to the crowd inside the Capital FM Arena being announced as 7,241, the worst attendance at a UFC event in the UK since the promotion’s debut at the Royal Albert Hall in 2002.
The main issue was the headliner, Struve vs. Miocic does look a good fight on paper, but there was no real build up that would get casual fans to part with £75 and upwards for a ticket, instead a fairly large portion of the crowd were there to see local hero Dan Hardy and when his bout finished they headed for the exits.
This all coming a week after British favourite Michael Bisping was in a three round war with Brian Stann at UFC 152 in Toronto, which led me and many others during the main event to ask, why not swap both bouts and thus bring in the casual fan that knows about Bisping, a man that can sell a fight no problem.
Unlike the heavyweight pair, who maybe the future of the division, but they aren’t ticket sellers, Struve looks awkward due to his massive height, while Miocic, partly due to be born in America doesn’t have anywhere near the same level of support as his hero Mirko Cro Cop did.
They managed to put on a good bout, which was entertaining, but by no means was it the Fight of the Night, that somehow the pair won, even when the majority still inside the area at the end of the evening would have probably gone for Watson vs. Tavares which was an absolute three round war.
That bout along with Manuwa vs. Kingsbury delivered big on the prelim card and will no doubt have everyone at BAMMA headquarters extremely happy, as these two fights, along Pickett vs. Jabouin and Hardy vs. Sadollah gave value for money for those who ventured to Nottingham.
Like many although I have to agree that the worst match of the card was the all British bout between John Hathaway and John Maguire, we were all expecting to see Paul Kelly vs. Paul Taylor but instead we were served up a version of the boring American style lay and pray action as Maguire looked like a deer in the headlights as he completely froze on the big stage.
Overall the card was good, but didn’t offer anything were you can see the winners taking a step towards a title bout, Brad Pickett was probably the only one you could say was nearing a title chance, the rest, they all look like they’ve moved sideways.
The crowd however was possibly one of the most lacklustre the UFC has seen in the UK, even though the majority were in early, the crowd never seemed to reach the heights of previous events over here.
With the card being on Fuel TV over in the United States, the bottom rung of the FOX television ladder showed, with Jon Anik doing the weigh-ins on Friday, which weren’t very well attended and also the UFC only provided us with one ring girl, though thankfully it was Brittney Palmer, despite the protests of the Arianny Celeste fan club who were at the weigh-ins.
Once again after the event Dana White claimed that the UFC will return more often to the UK, especially with the appointment of former Manchester City chief executive Gary Cook, but we’ve heard it all before.
The main problem we have is our time zone, because it makes no real commercial sense to have a PPV over here and FOX do not want to do what Spike TV used to do and have an event from the UK shown on a tape delay in the USA, so until that changes then it looks like we’ll be screwed in favour of Canada, Brazil and Australia.
THE GOOD: Watson vs. Tavares was a superb bout, which despite coming out on the losing end of a decision, Tom ‘Kong’ Watson’s stock went up far more than it did during any of his headlining bouts for BAMMA, while Brad Tavares also looked even better than he has recently.
THE BAD: Hathaway vs. Maguire. If you are looking for something to help you sleep then put that 15 minutes of non-action on the television, Maguire looked like he was more interested to stay on his back for the full 15 minutes, while Hathaway added to the boredom by engaging with Maguire whilst on the ground.
THE UGLY: Kyle Kingsbury’s left eye, after receiving a two round pounding from Jimi Manuwa, with the oh and ah’s coming from the Capital FM arena crowd after every uppercut and strike from Manuwa landed flush in Kingsbury’s face and despite being stopped by the doctor the American won a ton of fans in Nottingham.
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