Vince McMahon takes a shot at the UFC
When the UFC left SpikeTV they were set to explode in to every corner of mainstream America. They announced shows on Fuel, FX, and FOX. That was surely a recipe for success using an educated analysis. The reality is that the big ratings have not happened yet. The UFC is still insanely popular and a conversation about the organization is a daily occurrence in my real job office. Trust me that is saying something. The issue is that the switch to those channels has not produced the desired effect.
A prime example of the problems the UFC is facing are the ratings for UFC on FOX 3. @tvratings tweeted the numbers out shortly after the event and they were indeed bad.
“@tvratings: UFC on FOX 3: 1.6 Men 18-34 (-50% vs. UFC on FOX 2) and 2.4 mil viewers (-48%)”.
WWE CEO Vince McMahon knows about ratings woes. His WWE shows have suffered viewership drops in recent years mainly because his big name stars simply aren’t drawing. That didn’t stop him from ripping on the UFC decline in its own viewership. He recently told The Hollywood Reporter how he felt.
“Their ratings are abysmal. They are in the pay-per-view business, and they do reasonably well there. We just set a record for WrestleMania. We had 1.3 million buys for this year’s WrestleMania, and our pay-per-view numbers for our shows have been up 30 percent since then.”
This isn’t the first time he has sounded off on the UFC and most certainly won’t be the last.
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About the Author
Lead reporter, ring announcer, writer, director, magician, and family man.
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How does the author consider that a “shot” when he reported the “fact” on which McMahon based the comment just four lines above?
if you can’t say anything nice don’t say anything at all
vince needs to wind his neck in.
his shows are set during prime time and his average viewer age is from pre teen to 50 as is acceptable to let children watch fake violence
UFC ppv is not televised during prime time, fox is not ppv and cannot be compared.
the ppv ratings are high considering the obstacles like viewer age, accessibility, availability etc
this is a shit article on that basis. it cannot be compared. WWE/WWF has been around for a few decades.
the fight business is much different as the card affects sales. WWE doesnt suffer that problem as its a wierd scripted thing and only has a massive smash once a year as opposed to twice a month minimum
if you combine the profit of PPV of all ufc against the profit of PPV of all WWE then i would imagine WWE isnt that far ahead in those terms
they are just less frequent
thats combined in a year
hes talking about tv ratings.he says they do reasonably well in ppv.which he is absolutely correct.
Your email address will not be published…well it clearly did bjpenn.com. i can see dogfart’s email adress.
good job its a bullshit one
whos email is this? lserdahl24@live.com
anyways vince is stating facts.. UFC was stupid to view some of their events on “fuel tv & fx” nobody watches those damn channels and many people dont even have those channels..
Its best they had it on a common network like spike.. FX and Fuel are gay ass channels and very inconvenient for most folks. Thats a huge factor on the ratings..
agreed. Watched all the events on Spike and will still watch them on FX, but don’t get fuel and am not changing my TV plan just so I can watch the occasional card on Fuel. It was better on Spike, in my opinion. I don’t even like it on Fox for the most part with all the lame ass Football music and stuff that’s kind of outdated.
don’t get Fuel either but I just watch all the events that are on Fuel on Fox Deportes. When they did UFC on Fox 1 they had all the fights on Fox Deportes. Luckily I’m hispanic and very fluent in spanish to understand what they are saying, but you can do like my white friend and just mute the tv and watch it and make up your own commentary.
Only poor people don’t have fuel tv.
fox, fx and fueltv sucks. They took a great fighting event and made it into some mellow marchingband driven talkshow with hosts who clearly don’t have the slightest idea what they are talking about.
The move to fox has proven to be a huge step down.
In truth this isn’t good for UFC or MMA . If I wasn’t already starting to think SOME fights were rigged this only confirms it. WWE is not martial arts. On another note anyone see Paul Daley on Bellator the other night? Now that’s a real fighter get him in UFC!! Oh wait thats right Dana cares more about checks and money then good fights.
Paul Daley WAS in the ufc before..
Daley was in the ufc. He got kicked out because he punched koscheck after the bell. And I agree with Dana on that 1, there’s no room for that shit in the ufc.
Also, wwe is the dumbest piece of shit ever. Like I can understand children who watch it because of the entertainment value but grown ass men who go bonkers for it is just a sad sad sight. The ufc needs to expand, and since I don’t live in the usa its very hard to actually watch an event. In South africa, mma is booming, why can’t the ufc show their fights on our networks?
Paul daley?? Shut the fukk up with that bullshit… Daley is trash
if you do not have fuel or fx every fight fox deportes has the fights and all the prelims for pay per view =)
This isn’t good for UFC period. What is the become WWE? If i didn’t already have a hunch that some of the fights were rigged now i do. UFC is after MONEY they do not care about real MMA that’s why the last card sucked. On a side note anyone see paul daley on bellator the other night dude’s on the come up get him in the UFC!!!!
Dude Paul Daley sucks and he got owned by Josh Kos.to the point his sorry arse had to take a cheap shot swing a Kos after the fight. Then lets not talk about all the issues he’s had not making weight and the UFC should NEVER allow his lame excuse for a fighter back in the UFC. Well unless we get a chance to see Nick Diaz knock him out again!
WWE or UFC, two completely different Organisations, one plays at fighting whereas the other is the Fight game. I would watch the UFC Events wherever it is shown. It’s not about the Commentators or the Hosts, it’s about the Fighters and it’s about the best putting on a good show, period.
Wednesdays, when the UF was on Wednesdays I never missed an episode. There’s just too much stuff going on Friday and Saturday nights, especially for the young at heart.
This is awesome, although it’s set up. WWE will be pushing a Undertaker vs. Brock for next Wrestlemania, they started this at Brock’s last UFC match. I hope they do more cross-smack talk, both will come out winners.
How exactly does the UFC benefit from a Brock vs Taker back-and-forth and eventual Wrestlemania match? Brock is no longer affiliated with the UFC.
And Vince bashing the UFC’s ratings isn’t really “smack talk”, it’s business. He’s trying to discredit the UFC and try to make it seem like they are losing steam, it’s misinformation. In fact, the UFC on Fox ratings are doing fine. Why would the biggest network on earth sign a SEVEN YEAR deal with the UFC if the ship would be sinking after only 3 broadcasts? They have much longer term vision than that. Yea, sure, maybe UFC on Fox 3 had lower ratings than the previous 2, but look at the card… it’s much different. Put JDS v.s. Overeem on UFC Fox 4, and I guarantee ratings will explode again. Sometimes people just don’t tune in, and that’s okay. Fox is still making bank off the event with all the sponsorships. Partnering with the UFC can only help you at this point, considering the UFC is expanding globally at a staggering rate…
Awesome! I hope the ufc goes back to pre ufc 100 status so I can stop hearing all thesse post brock fags cry about everything that happens in the ufc!
This is kinda funny because one of my coworkers loves WWE and watches the UFC but doesn’t know shit about MMA. Then I have another coworker who watches only WWE and always talks shit about UFC and MMA and tries to diss on me and my brother since we do mma at a local gym. And well the other night we had a conversation about it. He went on saying that WWE events are more entertaining than UFC ones because of all the lights and plots. He went to Wrestlemania two years ago and I went to 148. I was like theres no way to compare the 2 events. I’ll rather watch UFC fights over WWE “fights” any day of the week.
lol, this is such a crock.
The WWE has been around longer than I’ve been alive (and I’m 28..)
The UFC -JUST- broke onto the network scene….
Let’s look up your ratings during your first year on network TV, Vince, shall we?
The sad part is, Dana and many UFC fighters give props to Vince and what he’s done. Think he’d return the favor? Nope. He just cares about making more money for his mountain of bills.
I think the cable companies and their stupid over priced packages have a lot to do with ratings woes all over the place. In Canada, anyways. I can’t speak for other countries.
I think the UFC should have their own “wrestlemania” type event
Maybe a yearly card with bulk title and contendor fights
Just one mans opinion anyway…
UFC 200 – White vs. Mcmahhon. LOL!
Here is an idea.
Make the steroid WWE wrestlers vs fighters from the UFC.
im prity sure who will come out second best