UFC 92 – Great Crowd – No Action

Last night, we ventured up the road to J Butlers on New Garden Road to watch UFC 92, live from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. I arrived around 9 PM, and got one of the last good tables in the restaurant.

Despite a Bowl Game being on ESPN, it was apparent the crowd was here to see the UFC event. There are a few tables in J Butlers that are not good for viewing the television sets that are everywhere in the restaurant area (non-smoking) and bar (smoking). I saw folks sit at those tables and then work themselves to other tables or join others at a better table. Beside our table, there were 8 folks sitting at a table for 4.

Around 9:30, most of the TV were changed to the UFC pre-fight program and folks started settling down at the best location they could get. It was an interesting mix of mostly younger crowd – guys out-numbered the girls 2 to 1. Lots of couples.

At 10 PM, the fights began. Cheick Kongo Wins by Technical Knock Out at 4:37 in the 1st round. Quinton Jackson Wins by Knock Out at 3:21 in the 1st round. CB Dollaway Wins by Technical Knock Out at 3:01 in the 1st round. Three fights – three TKO’s first round…. I couldn’t figure out if the Ref’s called the match early or these fighters were simply mis-matched. It was starting to get B-O-R-I-N-G. Thank goodness for the crowd being fun to watch.

The Fourth Match, Frank Mir Wins by Technical Knock Out at 1:54 in the 2nd round. Hey at least we are seeing some time.

The Big Event: Rashad Evans Wins by Technical Knock Out at 2:46 in the 3rd round. It was a decent dance.

In the 5 matches we saw, it was interesting as TKO’s were awarded quickly – I guess to avoid injury. Each loser was up and walking and talking before the ring was cleared. Both fighters hugged after each match, indicating while they might have received a TKO, it was only brief.

No celebrities in the audience, except fellow UFC fighters. The Ring Girls were cute. There was no trash talking, no behind the scenes videos. It wasn’t WWE; but then what is these days.

I think that in an effort to increase revenues, these Pay Per View Events are being scheduled too often with little time between events. The quality of these events have dropped and I think they need to drop a few of these PPV’s to improve the quality before they loose the viewers.