UFC 62

She was underwhelmed
If that's a word
I know it's not
'Cause I looked it up
That's one of those skills
That I learned in my school
"Underwhelmed" - Sloan

Well, UFC 62 is in the books, and I turn to CanCon* to sum up my feelings about the show. The fights weren't particularly bad, and I would probably go with a thumbs in the middle, but other factors force me to give this show a thumbs down.

First of all, the fights.

• Varner vs. Franca looked to be going to the judges, until Franca caught Varner in a pretty nice armbar. Neither fighter was particularly impressive, with Varner going for takedowns, and then getting outclassed on the ground. Franca threw some good knees, and even managed to have Varner docked a point for running away.
• Kongo b Wellisch via KTFO. Kongo defended a Wellisch armbar attempt well, and then threw a knee that, were this a cartoon, would have seen little birdies floating around Wellisch's head. It was tough for me to hear at the bar, but evidently Kongo challenged Mir. Not a bad choice on Kongo's part, as Mir still has a bit of his mystique left, and defeating him should put Kongo in the upper echelon of UFC heavyweights. Although I still think the UFC should go with Mir/Arlovski now, before either fighter suffers any more defeats.
• Nick Diaz broke his 3 fight losing skid against Josh Neer. Neer's strategy seemed to be to ignore the fact that match is judged, and instead try to get Diaz to punch himself out. Diaz was a punching machine here, while Neer seemed to be more interested in only throwing punches to prove he was still in the fight. In the third round it went to the ground, and Diaz tied up Neer's arm with a pretty kimura** for the submission.
• Griffin/Bonnar II wasn't as good as their classic first match, but was still, in my opinion, the fight of the night. Both guys were more reserved than last time, but Griffin seemed more aggressive and in control. This isn't to say that Bonnar was totally outclassed, and he still came out looking pretty good. The judges had it 30-27 for Griffin, and I'd agree, but I wouldn't argue too vehemently with anyone, such as Forrest or Stephan, who gave the second round to Bonnar. Perhaps more importantly, Griffin continued to display that self-deprecating charm that makes people love him, and Bonnar asked for a best of five series. And you know what, if these guys fought once a year, I wouldn't mind.
• Chuck Liddell made short work of Babalu Sobral, knocking him out in just over a minute and a half. At thirty seconds in, Babalu got a couple of good shots in on Chuck, but then Chuck took over and rocked Sobral. Big John McCarthy seemed willing to give Babalu the benefit of the doubt on a couple of shots, but when Sobral was knocked to the ground and not defending, BJM had no choice but to step in. You can tell Babalu was out of it when he seemed to want to grapple with Big John.
• Liddell's post-match interview also saw some entertaining banter from Tito Ortiz who came out of the crowd to say he was willing to fight Chuck in December, and then, as an afterthought, congratulate Liddell on the win.
• The ease of Liddell's win has me hoping that Dana rethinks his decision, and decides to bring in Wanderlei Silva.

So the fights weren't terrible, but as I said, other factors force me to give this show a thumbs down.

• It seems that whomever was in charge of the excellent production job on last week's Ultimate Fight Night was rewarded with the weekend off. As a result, the tight well produced quality of that show was completely missing. This show seemed slapped together by a bunch of interns who are going back to school in a couple of weeks and are just killing time till the end of the summer.
• And I get it, there are women and celebrities at the shows. But there is no reason to constantly show skanky ring rats. If you want to show Jenna Jameson because she's with Tito Ortiz, that's cool. Hell, if you just wanna show Jenna Jameson, thats cool. Jenna's in class of her own. You know what, you can even show Brittney Skye. She does things that other women won't. Like have sex for money. Plus, she's a big UFC fan. But random skanks? Once is fine. Twice is is pushing it. But for every crowd shot? Thats just pathetic. If I want to see marginally attractive slutty women dancing, I'll go to a club, and not watch UFC PPVs. I don't want the two combined.
• Almost as obnoxious are their boyfriends/johns, who wave their arms in front of the camera and hoot. Go away. I hate you. I understand these people are in the crowd. But that doesn't mean they need to show them. If I'm watching a PPV, I'm not interested in seeing which random drunken strangers are in the crowd. I want to see the fights.
• Guess what? If I'm watching UFC 62 with the main event of Chuck Liddell vs. Renato Sobral, there is no need to plug Chuck Liddell vs. Renato Sobral. So don't. There is no need to tell us that the fight is coming up later, and no need to show clips from the Spike TV preview show. We've already ordered the show, you already have our money. Now you're just wasting time.
• I understand that UFC television specials are used as advertising platforms, because the show is free, and paid for via advertising. And it seems logical to promote UFC 63 during UFC 62. And its even acceptable, but just barely, to promote the next episode of The Ultimate Fighter on the PPV. But to use a PPV to show a movie clip for a completely unrelated film and then interview the star is just cheap. Its an utter abuse of the popularity of the UFC's popularity, and it offends me. Everyone involved in that should be ashamed of themselves, and I truly hope that the next PPV's buyrate suffers. UFC is already taking their audience for granted, and making it clear that they are more concerned with making as much money they can, rather than being concerned with putting on good shows that entertain.

This wasn't a bad show. But it wasn't a good one. Its a sad state of affairs when the shows that UFC is giving away on television are better than the ones they want people to shell out $40 for. Thats the kind of logic that started WCW on the slippery slope to bankruptcy. And while I understand that UFC can't rely on the worked nature of professional wrestling to guarantee good shows,*** it doesn't mean that they shouldn't make the effort to ensure that the product people are paying for is of the highest quality possible.

*Canadian Content, for those not familiar with the term.
**Can you use the word pretty to describe a kimura?
***Not that professional wrestling is churning out gems every month, but I digress.