As we all know for Mixed Martial Arts to have success on TV the show and event must be able to do one thing; put asses in the seats at home. Ratings is king on TV if The Ultimate fighter 1 Finale got the Ratings EliteXC had the other night on CBS we might not be having this conversation right now. Other things that would be effected in the space time continium would be Slap Boxing would replace both Boxing and MMA. There have been successful shows with EliteXC's first show on CBS, The Ultimate Fighter and the UFC's broadcasts of pay per view events on Spike. There have also been failures like Bodog, the IFL shows on the UPN/MY Network and EliteXC's second show that happened this passed weekend to counter every successful show. Ratings is King, it is all that matters in Network executives eyes. The 18 to 49 Male demographic being its most coveted target audience. It is no different in Japan where FEG has had success with its K-1 Tournaments but not with Dream. Now in an attempt to get their ratings a boost, FEG has contemplated putting its two most popular stars in Mirko Cro Cop and Yoshihiro Akiyama against each other for their next Dream card according to Dave Meltzer of Yahoo!Sports who wrote this in a article,"Dream’s back isn’t up against the wall like Elite XC, but it faces a similar situation to the company for the next show on September 23. Under the gun to draw ratings, the company is attempting to put together middleweight Akiyama against heavyweight Mirko Cro Cop, the country’s most popular foreign fighter."
As some of you may know Dream 3 was taken out of its prime time slot earlier this year as rumors of the shows cancellation ran rampant. FEG countered the reports and rumors by saying it was a deal that was already planned with the network in advance because of previous commitments. It would be sad in a day where we now have EliteXC, Dream and Affliction not to see these companies make it into 2009. In July alone we have had UFC 86, UFN-14, Affliction Banned, MFC, Dream 5 and EliteXC Unfinished Business, 7 shows in total. It would be sad to see MMA return to how it was last year 1 UFC event only per month and maybe a EliteXC show every 3 months. We will keep you posted on any other information that comes our way.
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