UFC on FOX International Broadcast More Fan Friendly Than U.S. Show

While the American fans' experience of UFC on Fox last night featured 1 minute of fighting sandwiched between 59 minutes of promotional fluff and basic analysis, it seems the international broadcast had a lot more meat to it. Just from the feedback from fans at Bloody Elbow and from watching myself in the UK via Premier Sports, our hour of television was mostly packed with combative action.

Based on the collective experience of fans watching in the UK, Canada, Australia, the Philippines and Sweden, we opened with Jon Anik playing host, welcoming us to the broadcast and boldly claiming the UFC Heavyweight title as the most prestigious in all of combat sports; the initial mood was already celebratory. A quick pass-over to Rogan and Goldie before we were treated to an immediate replay of Ben Henderson vs Clay Guida to get things going. I thought this was a smart move and wondered if Fox had changed their minds and wanted to wait and see how this fight turned out before giving the go-ahead for its inclusion on the main broadcast. That at the least would have made sense, but it would appear American fans missed out unless they caught it online.

There were commercial breaks between rounds but that was to be expected, and because the fight was a replay they didn't cut into the beginning of the second or third.

Jon Anik comes back on and reaffirms what most should now be feeling: what a great way to get things going with this Fight of the Night performance. Back to Rogan and The Goldster and the introduction of the main event fighters Junior dos Santos and Cain Velasquez, their entrance, the fight and the post fight interviews, all without a commercial break. I imagine this would be the same as the Fox broadcast.

After the Octagon was cleared, we were then treated to a replay of DaMarques Johnson KO'ing Clay Harvison.

With the wild energy of Guida vs Henderson as a lead-in followed by two emphatic (T)KO stoppages, the international fans were more than satisfied with the portion of MMA they got in the comfort of their living room. Jon Anik remains a pro and helped make the presentation feel like a legitimate sporting event and a positive experience. We also benefited from not having to listen to Dana White be a Buzz Kill in his appearance on the U.S. post-fight show.

It's just a shame American fans were shortchanged, even if it was free to watch on Television. Hopefully they can better service its audience when the UFC 'officially' starts working with Fox next year.

LINK

No offence but American Fans are hard to please... There's a reason why Canada and Brazil was always regarded as MMA's hottest markets by Dana White.
American fans have by far the least MMA knowledge out of all the countries. I'm not saying they are dumb, I say this because they have a lot more things to watch, such as so called "American Football" and the most boring past time ever, in Baseball.

Its hard to educate so many people so its hard to get them to be interested in MMA. The UFC and MMA will expand and have already expanded to many parts of the world. USA will take longer.

---

Posted by Geoffo

No offence but American Fans are hard to please... There's a reason why Canada and Brazil was always regarded as MMA's hottest markets by Dana White.
American fans have by far the least MMA knowledge out of all the countries. I'm not saying they are dumb, I say this because they have a lot more things to watch, such as so called "American Football" and the most boring past time ever, in Baseball.

Its hard to educate so many people so its hard to get them to be interested in MMA. The UFC and MMA will expand and have already expanded to many parts of the world. USA will take longer.

---

And what do you base your claim that American fans have the least knowledge out of all countries? That is a pretty bold and silly comment but I guess you are entitled to it. A huge percentage of the users on this site are US based and are extremely knowledgeable so again, what exactly are you basing your opinion on? Step down off your pedestal now.

Canada is such a hot market because they have not been privileged to as many events as the US. It was not till recently that the UFC started going to Canada regularly so what do you expect? If a huge event such as the UFC only came to the States once or twice a year, you could damn well bet that that place would be packed to the rafters. I think Canada has had 8 events so far compared to what, a 100+ in the US. The Canadian fans are awesome, don't get me wrong but it is currently the hot bed because it is a new(er) demographic as far as live events go. Brazil has always been a hot bed, I don't think that needs any explaining.

Whether people hate to admit it or not, an American company (the UFC) has been crucial in the development and growth of MMA. The UFC holds the majority of its events in the US and I'd expect that a large (if not majority) of its PPV revenue comes from the US. So the sport has been grown on the back of the American fan that you give so little credit to.

Unless you can cite something that says country A has more MMA knowledge that country B per capita then I have to say that your opinion is exactly that, an unfounded opinion.

---

American fans have by far the least MMA knowledge out of all the countries

---

Might wanna rethink this one

---

Posted by Adrenaline

---

Posted by Geoffo

No offence but American Fans are hard to please... There's a reason why Canada and Brazil was always regarded as MMA's hottest markets by Dana White.
American fans have by far the least MMA knowledge out of all the countries. I'm not saying they are dumb, I say this because they have a lot more things to watch, such as so called "American Football" and the most boring past time ever, in Baseball.

Its hard to educate so many people so its hard to get them to be interested in MMA. The UFC and MMA will expand and have already expanded to many parts of the world. USA will take longer.

---

And what do you base your claim that American fans have the least knowledge out of all countries? That is a pretty bold and silly comment but I guess you are entitled to it. A huge percentage of the users on this site are US based and are extremely knowledgeable so again, what exactly are you basing your opinion on? Step down off your pedestal now.

Canada is such a hot market because they have not been privileged to as many events as the US. It was not till recently that the UFC started going to Canada regularly so what do you expect? If a huge event such as the UFC only came to the States once or twice a year, you could damn well bet that that place would be packed to the rafters. I think Canada has had 8 events so far compared to what, a 100+ in the US. The Canadian fans are awesome, don't get me wrong but it is currently the hot bed because it is a new(er) demographic as far as live events go. Brazil has always been a hot bed, I don't think that needs any explaining.

Whether people hate to admit it or not, an American company (the UFC) has been crucial in the development and growth of MMA. The UFC holds the majority of its events in the US and I'd expect that a large (if not majority) of its PPV revenue comes from the US. So the sport has been grown on the back of the American fan that you give so little credit to.

Unless you can cite something that says country A has more MMA knowledge that country B per capita then I have to say that your opinion is exactly that, an unfounded opinion.

---

LOL guys, in no way am I saying Americans do not deserve MMA or UFC or anything silly like that. I'm saying in countries like Brazil, they're not big on sports such as hockey, american football, and baseball. MMA in Brazil is bigger than in the US as of now. I'm not bashing Americans, I'm saying it'll take them longer for it to gain mainstream popularity.

I'm saying MMA to mainstream USA is low, therefore the people's knowledge of MMA is low. I'm not bashing Americans, it just bothers me sometimes people call themselves "fans".

Watch Ariel Helwani's video where he interviews people on UFC on Fox. People claim they're fans, but when Ariel asks them the most popular fighter in the UFC they say Kimbo Slice, or cannot even pronounce or remember Brock Lesnar's name.

I'm not bashing Americans. I'm just saying MMA is growing faster in Canada and Brazil because the MAJORITY of people care to learn about it because we don't have the NFL or a lot of baseball teams or many other sports that are big.

---

Posted by Geoffo

---

Posted by Adrenaline

---

Posted by Geoffo

No offence but American Fans are hard to please... There's a reason why Canada and Brazil was always regarded as MMA's hottest markets by Dana White.
American fans have by far the least MMA knowledge out of all the countries. I'm not saying they are dumb, I say this because they have a lot more things to watch, such as so called "American Football" and the most boring past time ever, in Baseball.

Its hard to educate so many people so its hard to get them to be interested in MMA. The UFC and MMA will expand and have already expanded to many parts of the world. USA will take longer.

---

And what do you base your claim that American fans have the least knowledge out of all countries? That is a pretty bold and silly comment but I guess you are entitled to it. A huge percentage of the users on this site are US based and are extremely knowledgeable so again, what exactly are you basing your opinion on? Step down off your pedestal now.

Canada is such a hot market because they have not been privileged to as many events as the US. It was not till recently that the UFC started going to Canada regularly so what do you expect? If a huge event such as the UFC only came to the States once or twice a year, you could damn well bet that that place would be packed to the rafters. I think Canada has had 8 events so far compared to what, a 100+ in the US. The Canadian fans are awesome, don't get me wrong but it is currently the hot bed because it is a new(er) demographic as far as live events go. Brazil has always been a hot bed, I don't think that needs any explaining.

Whether people hate to admit it or not, an American company (the UFC) has been crucial in the development and growth of MMA. The UFC holds the majority of its events in the US and I'd expect that a large (if not majority) of its PPV revenue comes from the US. So the sport has been grown on the back of the American fan that you give so little credit to.

Unless you can cite something that says country A has more MMA knowledge that country B per capita then I have to say that your opinion is exactly that, an unfounded opinion.

---

LOL guys, in no way am I saying Americans do not deserve MMA or UFC or anything silly like that. I'm saying in countries like Brazil, they're not big on sports such as hockey, american football, and baseball. MMA in Brazil is bigger than in the US as of now. I'm not bashing Americans, I'm saying it'll take them longer for it to gain mainstream popularity.

I'm saying MMA to mainstream USA is low, therefore the people's knowledge of MMA is low. I'm not bashing Americans, it just bothers me sometimes people call themselves "fans".

Watch Ariel Helwani's video where he interviews people on UFC on Fox. People claim they're fans, but when Ariel asks them the most popular fighter in the UFC they say Kimbo Slice, or cannot even pronounce or remember Brock Lesnar's name.

I'm not bashing Americans. I'm just saying MMA is growing faster in Canada and Brazil because the MAJORITY of people care to learn about it because we don't have the NFL or a lot of baseball teams or many other sports that are big.

---

Oh no hard feelings dude, it was not hard to see where you were going with your post but you went about it the wrong way and didn't do as well of a job explaining it as you did in your followup post.

Its a numbers thing, the population in the US is almost 10X that of Canada (you guys are lucky, I hate people ) and we are a third larger in population than Brazil. So even though there really is no data to prove it, it is possible that more people identify themselves as fans of mma per capita in Canada or Brazil but on the flip side if half of your population (an incredibly generous number) were MMA fans that would equate to roughly 15 million or 5% of our population. So while per capita it might be possible that you have more "fans" by sheer numbers there are easily more people in the US who identify themselves as MMA fans than in Canada. It would not be a huge stretch of the imagination to say that atleast 10% of the US population had some knowledge of MMA or the entire population of Canada.

I think your logic is flawed however I do agree with you that in the US we have the NFL and MLB as well as college sports that are truly mainstream and it will take a long time for MMA to reach those levels, if it ever does.

I love my brothers to the north so I hope MMA keeps booming up there. The more the merrier ehhh?

---

Posted by Adrenaline

---

Posted by Geoffo

---

Posted by Adrenaline

---

Posted by Geoffo

No offence but American Fans are hard to please... There's a reason why Canada and Brazil was always regarded as MMA's hottest markets by Dana White.
American fans have by far the least MMA knowledge out of all the countries. I'm not saying they are dumb, I say this because they have a lot more things to watch, such as so called "American Football" and the most boring past time ever, in Baseball.

Its hard to educate so many people so its hard to get them to be interested in MMA. The UFC and MMA will expand and have already expanded to many parts of the world. USA will take longer.

---

And what do you base your claim that American fans have the least knowledge out of all countries? That is a pretty bold and silly comment but I guess you are entitled to it. A huge percentage of the users on this site are US based and are extremely knowledgeable so again, what exactly are you basing your opinion on? Step down off your pedestal now.

Canada is such a hot market because they have not been privileged to as many events as the US. It was not till recently that the UFC started going to Canada regularly so what do you expect? If a huge event such as the UFC only came to the States once or twice a year, you could damn well bet that that place would be packed to the rafters. I think Canada has had 8 events so far compared to what, a 100+ in the US. The Canadian fans are awesome, don't get me wrong but it is currently the hot bed because it is a new(er) demographic as far as live events go. Brazil has always been a hot bed, I don't think that needs any explaining.

Whether people hate to admit it or not, an American company (the UFC) has been crucial in the development and growth of MMA. The UFC holds the majority of its events in the US and I'd expect that a large (if not majority) of its PPV revenue comes from the US. So the sport has been grown on the back of the American fan that you give so little credit to.

Unless you can cite something that says country A has more MMA knowledge that country B per capita then I have to say that your opinion is exactly that, an unfounded opinion.

---

LOL guys, in no way am I saying Americans do not deserve MMA or UFC or anything silly like that. I'm saying in countries like Brazil, they're not big on sports such as hockey, american football, and baseball. MMA in Brazil is bigger than in the US as of now. I'm not bashing Americans, I'm saying it'll take them longer for it to gain mainstream popularity.

I'm saying MMA to mainstream USA is low, therefore the people's knowledge of MMA is low. I'm not bashing Americans, it just bothers me sometimes people call themselves "fans".

Watch Ariel Helwani's video where he interviews people on UFC on Fox. People claim they're fans, but when Ariel asks them the most popular fighter in the UFC they say Kimbo Slice, or cannot even pronounce or remember Brock Lesnar's name.

I'm not bashing Americans. I'm just saying MMA is growing faster in Canada and Brazil because the MAJORITY of people care to learn about it because we don't have the NFL or a lot of baseball teams or many other sports that are big.

---

Oh no hard feelings dude, it was not hard to see where you were going with your post but you went about it the wrong way and didn't do as well of a job explaining it as you did in your followup post.

Its a numbers thing, the population in the US is almost 10X that of Canada (you guys are lucky, I hate people ) and we are a third larger in population than Brazil. So even though there really is no data to prove it, it is possible that more people identify themselves as fans of mma per capita in Canada or Brazil but on the flip side if half of your population (an incredibly generous number) were MMA fans that would equate to roughly 15 million or 5% of our population. So while per capita it might be possible that you have more "fans" by sheer numbers there are easily more people in the US who identify themselves as MMA fans than in Canada. It would not be a huge stretch of the imagination to say that atleast 10% of the US population had some knowledge of MMA or the entire population of Canada.

I think your logic is flawed however I do agree with you that in the US we have the NFL and MLB as well as college sports that are truly mainstream and it will take a long time for MMA to reach those levels, if it ever does.

I love my brothers to the north so I hope MMA keeps booming up there. The more the merrier ehhh?

---

Yeah no hard feelings, sorry about that I didn't do a good job explaining. I re-read my post and it came out kinda wrong, I apologize. Yeah there are about as many people in California than there is in Canada.
Yeah I guess i was trying to say, a larger PERCENTAGE of the population in Canada/Brazil follow MMA more closely or are legit fans. I'm not saying Americans or dumb or anything, I'm pretty dumb when it comes to Football and Baseball, I just... don't care about the sports whatsoever, doesn't intrigue me. Much like some people don't like MMA at all.

Love you guys to the south as well. Lots of the credits go out to the US and UFC for getting MMA so big.

---

Posted by Geoffo

---

Posted by Adrenaline

---

Posted by Geoffo

---

Posted by Adrenaline

---

Posted by Geoffo

No offence but American Fans are hard to please... There's a reason why Canada and Brazil was always regarded as MMA's hottest markets by Dana White.
American fans have by far the least MMA knowledge out of all the countries. I'm not saying they are dumb, I say this because they have a lot more things to watch, such as so called "American Football" and the most boring past time ever, in Baseball.

Its hard to educate so many people so its hard to get them to be interested in MMA. The UFC and MMA will expand and have already expanded to many parts of the world. USA will take longer.

---

And what do you base your claim that American fans have the least knowledge out of all countries? That is a pretty bold and silly comment but I guess you are entitled to it. A huge percentage of the users on this site are US based and are extremely knowledgeable so again, what exactly are you basing your opinion on? Step down off your pedestal now.

Canada is such a hot market because they have not been privileged to as many events as the US. It was not till recently that the UFC started going to Canada regularly so what do you expect? If a huge event such as the UFC only came to the States once or twice a year, you could damn well bet that that place would be packed to the rafters. I think Canada has had 8 events so far compared to what, a 100+ in the US. The Canadian fans are awesome, don't get me wrong but it is currently the hot bed because it is a new(er) demographic as far as live events go. Brazil has always been a hot bed, I don't think that needs any explaining.

Whether people hate to admit it or not, an American company (the UFC) has been crucial in the development and growth of MMA. The UFC holds the majority of its events in the US and I'd expect that a large (if not majority) of its PPV revenue comes from the US. So the sport has been grown on the back of the American fan that you give so little credit to.

Unless you can cite something that says country A has more MMA knowledge that country B per capita then I have to say that your opinion is exactly that, an unfounded opinion.

---

LOL guys, in no way am I saying Americans do not deserve MMA or UFC or anything silly like that. I'm saying in countries like Brazil, they're not big on sports such as hockey, american football, and baseball. MMA in Brazil is bigger than in the US as of now. I'm not bashing Americans, I'm saying it'll take them longer for it to gain mainstream popularity.

I'm saying MMA to mainstream USA is low, therefore the people's knowledge of MMA is low. I'm not bashing Americans, it just bothers me sometimes people call themselves "fans".

Watch Ariel Helwani's video where he interviews people on UFC on Fox. People claim they're fans, but when Ariel asks them the most popular fighter in the UFC they say Kimbo Slice, or cannot even pronounce or remember Brock Lesnar's name.

I'm not bashing Americans. I'm just saying MMA is growing faster in Canada and Brazil because the MAJORITY of people care to learn about it because we don't have the NFL or a lot of baseball teams or many other sports that are big.

---

Oh no hard feelings dude, it was not hard to see where you were going with your post but you went about it the wrong way and didn't do as well of a job explaining it as you did in your followup post.

Its a numbers thing, the population in the US is almost 10X that of Canada (you guys are lucky, I hate people ) and we are a third larger in population than Brazil. So even though there really is no data to prove it, it is possible that more people identify themselves as fans of mma per capita in Canada or Brazil but on the flip side if half of your population (an incredibly generous number) were MMA fans that would equate to roughly 15 million or 5% of our population. So while per capita it might be possible that you have more "fans" by sheer numbers there are easily more people in the US who identify themselves as MMA fans than in Canada. It would not be a huge stretch of the imagination to say that atleast 10% of the US population had some knowledge of MMA or the entire population of Canada.

I think your logic is flawed however I do agree with you that in the US we have the NFL and MLB as well as college sports that are truly mainstream and it will take a long time for MMA to reach those levels, if it ever does.

I love my brothers to the north so I hope MMA keeps booming up there. The more the merrier ehhh?

---

Yeah no hard feelings, sorry about that I didn't do a good job explaining. I re-read my post and it came out kinda wrong, I apologize. Yeah there are about as many people in California than there is in Canada.
Yeah I guess i was trying to say, a larger PERCENTAGE of the population in Canada/Brazil follow MMA more closely or are legit fans. I'm not saying Americans or dumb or anything, I'm pretty dumb when it comes to Football and Baseball, I just... don't care about the sports whatsoever, doesn't intrigue me. Much like some people don't like MMA at all.

Love you guys to the south as well. Lots of the credits go out to the US and UFC for getting MMA so big.

---

We actually don't count California... Just kidding. Back on topic though, I was a little bummed out that I couldn't watch Bendo/Guida live ( I guess there were a few option but none were convenient at the time) but I would never bitch about it, we are generally pretty lucky here, the UK guys get a little boned by never getting big fight cards and although an event has never came near my state I could easily hop on a plane or go on a road trip to see one so I have it better than alot of people who have to settle for just seeing it on TV.

This event was a just a teaser anyway so it served its purpose for the most part. It can only get better from here (fingers crossed)

Sorry Adrenaline, but I actually agree with Geoffo. Clearly you can point to something like this site, the PPV buys, and the fact that the UFC is an American company, but none of that changes the truth of his statement.

If ANYTHING, you basically illustrated why it was true when you cited the populations of Brazil and Canada as compared to the U.S.

The fact that we have such a huge population and the majority of them don't watch the UFC makes his statement statistically true.

Hell, Twitter basically reinforced it last night when you got to see so many first time fans tweeting about the event. The knowledge wasn't there, a lot of the tweets were comments we would consider stupid, and most people didn't understand what the big deal was about that fight after being treated to 64 seconds of action.

Just because we, the die-hard MMA fans, have decided to all become members of this site and share our opinions/knowledge of the sport with other fans doesn't mean that most people couldn't even tell you what was going on. That was made painfully clear last night when a bunch of first time viewers had something to watch and complain about.

I totally see where Geoffo is coming from. Walk up to the average American and ask them about intricacies of hockey and most of them will say "huh." It's not a cultural sports here. Go to a Canadian and ask them that same question and I'm willing to bet that the majority of them would have an answer for you.

The same idea applies to soccer in Europe compared to NFL football.

Hell, even something as historic as college football isn't even as appreciated in the U.S.

I know hundreds of people who couldn't tell you shit about the history of college football or why teams do what they do, but they could sure tell you about the Eagles-Cowboys game that they watched on Sunday Night Football.

The funny part is that college football has been around WAY longer than professional football or the NFL and I'm willing to bet you that if you polled 10 people, they would sooner be able to tell you the Dallas Cowboys' rivals before they could tell you the Texas Longhorns' rivals.

Brazil's national sports seem like they ARE fighting and soccer.

How many times do we need to hear people refer to Brock Lesnar as the "WWE guy that fights" before we admit that U.S. citizens don't really have the best handle on the sport of Mixed Martial Arts?

The visitors and members of MMAPlayground are the exception, not the rule.

Game 5 of the World Series had the exact same number of viewers as UFC on FOX 1. That should probably tell you all you need to know since two relatively "small" teams played in the World Series. People generally have to care about the teams involved in the World Series to watch it. This is why sportswriters refer to World Series' featuring the Yankees or Red Sox as a win for TV networks. People either love the Yankees or want to see them lose, so they tune in.

The Houston Texans could play the Seattle Seahawks in the Super Bowl and the majority of America would STILL watch it because it's the Super Bowl. The NFL is just that big.

It's just one of those things where you have to step outside your MMA fan box and look at the majority of our society. They don't know or care about MMA & the UFC.

Here's a quote from grappler0000

---

Posted by grappler0000 from another thread

USA - 5.7* / 312** = 1.8% of population watched
Bra - 10* / 192** = 5.2% of population watched

*million viewers
**million people live in country

Brazil had a much higher percentage of the population watching than the US, so I would say that it is indeed a good number. 60 million would have been crazy. 31.25% is nearly 1 in 3 people.

---

It pretty much illustrates that 98% of Americans couldn't have given a shit about the UFC. And this was a free event for a title in combat sports' biggest division (I realize their are bigger divisions like Super Heavyweight, but come on, y'all know what I mean).

.