Bao Quach really disappointed me! He did not look like himself at all tonight.
To be quite honest with you Mike (and I know you'd know Bao better than all of us,) he didn't disappoint us watching at home. In fact, I quite liked watching him fight. For a little guy who I'm guessing many people assume is automatically an underdog because of his unassuming size, he did well in my eyes...just unfortunate he couldn't finish out his choke in the first round.
Agreed the UFC is so greasy. I am not buying Penn vs. GSP.
Hey guys...once again, I don't condone the UFC's actions, but I do have to say that this has been done before on a worse scale before. Vince McMahon nearly put the NWA out of business Thanksgiving of 1987 in the Starrcade/Survivor Series fiasco where the NWA announced a pay per view for Thanksgiving Night, and McMahon, capitalizing on the success of Wrestlemania III told cable providers he was going to hold an event called Survivor Series the same night, and whoever chose to air Starrcade anyway would not be allowed to air Wrestlemania IV next Spring. Considering cable companies were (and I believe still are) picking up 60% of the PPV proceeds, it's a tough spot to put people in. NWA countered by showing the Clash of the Champions for free over Wrestlemania IV. This is just a part of business and I really had no problem with what the UFC did. I half expected it, and continue to expect it to counter every Affliction event in the future.
Realistically, as far as Affliction goes, those people who want to order the PPVs will continue to order them. I (and pretty much everybody in the room with me last night) personally will never give priority to a UFC re-airing or live TV event over an Affliction event, but I guess I'm the minority UFC isn't worried about
It's too bad Affliction put out all their superstars last night, because I'd be interested in seeing them put out a cheap PPV airing parallel to UFC 95 to help introduce newbie UFC fans to the fed.
A couple of observations from last night:
-Though Fedor won last night, and at least one of the guys over (canucksfan77) was ecstatic, there was still a bit of disappointment in the room because we finally saw Fedor in a bit of a vulnerable state, and though I was playing the "How fast will Fedor win?" game with the guys before the fight, all of us were calling for a rematch afterwards. Arlovski was shattered after the loss, and it was saddening to see him get caught like that and tear up afterwards.
-Matt Lindland...wow. I really hope he'll be alright because I was not expecting to see that at all (I was actually thinking he'd come out with the win.)
-I was half expecting Bobby Green to win and reveal he was actually Charles "Krazy Horse" Bennett fighting under an alias. Man, what energy.
-All of us enjoyed the card top to bottom. It's a shame that they've been hinting at Affliction not being around very much longer because there's so much potential. Trump should try to put together a primetime MMA reality show of some sort with whatever network the Apprentice is on...that would really kickstart it and give it a bigger base of people to start with than the UFC and Spike if people could get a sneak preview at what they'd be watching before they committed. I believe NBC runs the Apprentice, and well...they're going to need to find something to air after the Office and 30 Rock when ER finally ends
