GDT: UFC 218: Holloway vs. Aldo 2

[Avs_19]

Date: December 2, 2017
Venue: Little Caesars Arena
City: Detroit, Michigan
Time: 10pm ET/7pm PT
Viewing: PPV

MAIN CARD (PPV)

Featherweight Championship bout: Max Holloway (c) vs. José Aldo
Heavyweight bout: Alistair Overeem vs. Francis Ngannou
Flyweight bout: Henry Cejudo vs. Sergio Pettis
Lightweight bout: Eddie Alvarez vs. Justin Gaethje
Women's Strawweight bout: Tecia Torres vs. Michelle Waterson

PRELIMINARY CARD (FS1, TSN 2)

Lightweight bout: Charles Oliveira vs. Paul Felder
Welterweight bout: Alex Oliveira vs. Yancy Medeiros
Lightweight bout: David Teymur vs. Drakkar Klose
Women's Strawweight bout: Felice Herrig vs. Cortney Casey

PRELIMINARY CARD (UFC Fight Pass)

Welterweight bout: Abdul Razak Alhassan vs. Sabah Homasi
Light Heavyweight bout: Jeremy Kimball vs. Dominick Reyes
Heavyweight bout: Justin Willis vs. Allen Crowder
Women's Strawweight bout: Amanda Cooper vs. Angela Magaña​

Click to read more...

 

[Avs_19]

I'm still disappointed we don't get to see Holloway/Edgar but it's still a really good card. The main card includes fighters who are all in the top 5 of their weight class. Overeem/Ngannou and Cejudo/Pettis might both be #1 contender fights. Oliveira/Felder could be a fun one on the prelims and I'm also interested in seeing Teymur again after that performance against Vannata.

 

[canucksfan]

I can't see how Overeem and Ngannou last passed for the first round. Very good card looking forward to it.

 

[TorMenT]

Just FYI - UFC 218 HF Boards sports betting event has been created. Feel free to get your wagers in! No real money involved. http://hfboards.mandatory.com/sportsbook/category/ultimate-fighting-championship.93/

 

[LSCII]

If Aldo ends up taking another bad KO loss, does he retire?

 

[m9]

Should be a fun one.

I want Holloway to win, but it would be cool for Aldo to show some of his past glory and put together a competitive fight. I mean, I'm as disappointed as anyone about losing Edgar but it wasn't that long ago that Aldo ran over him at UFC 200.

No idea what to expect with Ngannou v Overeem, though Overeem getting viciously KO'd seems the most likely.

I thought Cejudo and Pettis both looked the best they ever have in their last fight. If that is the new level they both are at, I like Cejudo in this one.

Alvarez v Gaethje should be amazing. Wish this was 5 rounds on another card, but whatever.

Oliveira v Felder & Teymur v Klose should be great as well. Actually, a pretty good prelim card in general.

Kind of a weak Fight Pass card. Hopefully Abdul Razak Alhassan can get back on track, he's a pretty exciting guy.

 

[m9]

If Aldo ends up taking another bad KO loss, does he retire?

Really? He's still a top fighter in the division regardless of what happens. He's been knocked out twice, by two of the best strikers around.

 

[LSCII]

Really? He's still a top fighter in the division regardless of what happens. He's been knocked out twice, by two of the best strikers around.

He has been a great champion. No question. But that's not what I'm saying. He's a guy right now that's been knocked out 2 times in his last 3 fights, and if it happens again, it would be 3 out of 4. At some point, you have to wonder whether it's worth the potential for long term damage for the guy to continue. FWIW, I feel that way about Cowboy Cerrone and Bisping right now too.

 

[m9]

He has been a great champion. No question. But that's not what I'm saying. He's a guy right now that's been knocked out 2 times in his last 3 fights, and if it happens again, it would be 3 out of 4. At some point, you have to wonder whether it's worth the potential for long term damage for the guy to continue. FWIW, I feel that way about Cowboy Cerrone and Bisping right now too.

My barometer for these situations is Chuck Liddell, as he got out at the right time IMO. He got knocked out in 4 of his last 6 fights by 4 different guys including a final loss to Franklin who was a guy that wasn't really a KO artist. I'm still a couple fights away from that with Aldo. He is also 31 and hasn't gotten the paydays some of these others have.. I think he's not going anywhere for awhile.

 

[LSCII]

My barometer for these situations is Chuck Liddell, as he got out at the right time IMO. He got knocked out in 4 of his last 6 fights by 4 different guys including a final loss to Franklin who was a guy that wasn't really a KO artist. I'm still a couple fights away from that with Aldo. He is also 31 and hasn't gotten the paydays some of these others have.. I think he's not going anywhere for awhile.

I get the fact he's likely chasing money, but man, it's hard to watch these guys take those kinds of beatings and wonder what kind of long term repercussions they're going to face later in life.

And yeah, watching Liddell get pummeled by the end of his career was really awful. Which is why it's insane to me that he was even thinking about coming back recently.

 

[m9]

I get the fact he's likely chasing money, but man, it's hard to watch these guys take those kinds of beatings and wonder what kind of long term repercussions they're going to face later in life.

And yeah, watching Liddell get pummeled by the end of his career was really awful. Which is why it's insane to me that he was even thinking about coming back recently.

I think Aldo in mainly 3-round fights against most of the 145lb division will be pretty safe. Obviously anything can happen, but there aren't many other Holloway's or McGregor's waiting around to knock him out.

 

[kurt]

Impressive depth for this card, damn. A shame more cards can't be like this. I sincerely hope they scale back the schedule on whatever new deal they make.

 

[m9]

Impressive depth for this card, damn. A shame more cards can't be like this. I sincerely hope they scale back the schedule on whatever new deal they make.

That SHOULD be the #1 goal. We'll see though.

 

[Peter Griffin]

That SHOULD be the #1 goal. We'll see though.

There's an event scheduled every weekend from January 14th until the first week of March. Unfortunately the UFC has no plans of scaling back.

 

[m9]

There's an event scheduled every weekend from January 14th until the first week of March. Unfortunately the UFC has no plans of scaling back.

2018 is still under the Fox arrangement, though. The hope is that the new contract will have less (but better) cards starting in 2019.

 

[Peter Griffin]

After spending over $4 billion dollars on the organization I highly doubt they have any plans of ramping back production. Although stacked cards are better for us fans, I don’t think they necessarily translate to more eyeballs watching. It’s the big headliners that do that and less cards per year isn’t going to change much there.

 

[kurt]

After spending over $4 billion dollars on the organization I highly doubt they have any plans of ramping back production. Although stacked cards are better for us fans, I don’t think they necessarily translate to more eyeballs watching. It’s the big headliners that do that and less cards per year isn’t going to change much there.

True. I think they also need a streaming partner that gets way more eyeballs than Fight Pass, and a better format to showcase fighters than TUF, and whatever the other series was called.

 

[m9]

More cards doesn't always mean more money, though. One of the things the new owners have tried to do is make the UFC more efficient, and with all the associated costs I don't think they make much money with random Fight Night cards.

Or if they didn't want to disrupt the fight cards on the deal, ditch the Fight Pass cards and go from 12/13 PPV to 8. That probably adds 30+ quality fights to the other cards throughout the year, so probably an extra good fight per card. If those PPVs are doing 100-150k they aren't making much anyways.

I do think they'll streamline things one way or another.

 

[m9]

Just a reminder there's a TUF Finale on Friday night too.

The card is.. underwhelming.

 

[Peter Griffin]

More cards doesn't always mean more money, though. One of the things the new owners have tried to do is make the UFC more efficient, and with all the associated costs I don't think they make much money with random Fight Night cards.

Really depends on what their TV deal is I think. I think on some of their fight night cards they may lose a bit, but overall given they usually carry a reduced fighter payroll and some of them do a pretty decent gate I'm sure they're making money.

Or if they didn't want to disrupt the fight cards on the deal, ditch the Fight Pass cards and go from 12/13 PPV to 8. That probably adds 30+ quality fights to the other cards throughout the year, so probably an extra good fight per card. If those PPVs are doing 100-150k they aren't making much anyways.

Is adding one good fight to a PPV card going to make any difference in sales for that particular card though? Highly, highly doubtful. And even if the event does 100K in PPV, doesn't mean they aren't making money. If they get a good gate for the event I'm sure there is money to be made. Really depends on what cut of the PPV they get as well. Even at a 50% cut, 150,000 PPV sales is probably worth North of $4,000,000 to the UFC.

I do think they'll streamline things one way or another.

I think this is the one thing they will do. Instead of having multiple TV platforms plus FightPass they should be looking for one deal where all programming is available.

 

[m9]

Really depends on what their TV deal is I think. I think on some of their fight night cards they may lose a bit, but overall given they usually carry a reduced fighter payroll and some of them do a pretty decent gate I'm sure they're making money.

Is adding one good fight to a PPV card going to make any difference in sales for that particular card though? Highly, highly doubtful. And even if the event does 100K in PPV, doesn't mean they aren't making money. If they get a good gate for the event I'm sure there is money to be made. Really depends on what cut of the PPV they get as well. Even at a 50% cut, 150,000 PPV sales is probably worth North of $4,000,000 to the UFC.

I think this is the one thing they will do. Instead of having multiple TV platforms plus FightPass they should be looking for one deal where all programming is available.

On the PPV costs - I believe in the past there was talk the break-even point for PPV's was 100,000-150,000 buys. It's mainly speculation, though I do remember Bob Arum talking about needing 75k as a break-even for a boxing PPV card a year or two back where the fighters weren't getting paid a ton. Obviously the salaries are the big variable, but the production, travel, insurance, arena costs, and everything else all adds up. We are obviously guessing on what the break-even point would be, but there is a break-even point somewhere. At some point as well, it makes sense to "sell" those cards to a network instead of having them on a PPV.

I'm actually pretty confident that the new owners will scale things back. There was lots of talk that the UFC had spent lots of time/money going to different places all over the world for these smaller shows, when actually they could make more money by just having less events in a few different places.

 

[MD thaivuN]

Just a reminder there's a TUF Finale on Friday night too.

The card is.. underwhelming.

This looks like an Invicta card to me. I honestly don't like seeing champions being crowned off TUF. Fighters perform so differently on TUF (based on fight preparation, coaches, game planning, environment) that there's no indication who's the best fighters there. Until Roxanne replaced one of them, it was going to be a title fight between a 3-2 and 2-2 fighters, both off a loss in their pro career. The UFC should have made a real tournament with all fights being on real UFC cards with real fight preparations.

 

[m9]

This looks like an Invicta card to me. I honestly don't like seeing champions being crowned off TUF. Fighters perform so differently on TUF (based on fight preparation, coaches, game planning, environment) that there's no indication who's the best fighters there. Until Roxanne replaced one of them, it was going to be a title fight between a 3-2 and 2-2 fighters, both off a loss in their pro career. The UFC should have made a real tournament with all fights being on real UFC cards with real fight preparations.

I'm okay with the belt up for grabs if the talent is there, but in this case it's not. Most of the future 125lb division is already in the UFC or fighting in Invicta.

I was actually interested in seeing Eubanks tomorrow as I think she looked good on the show. Without her though, this card is somehow even worse.

 

[kurt]

This looks like an Invicta card to me. I honestly don't like seeing champions being crowned off TUF. Fighters perform so differently on TUF (based on fight preparation, coaches, game planning, environment) that there's no indication who's the best fighters there. Until Roxanne replaced one of them, it was going to be a title fight between a 3-2 and 2-2 fighters, both off a loss in their pro career. The UFC should have made a real tournament with all fights being on real UFC cards with real fight preparations.

A real tournament would have been great. UFC missed the boat. TUF sucks.

 

[Avs_19]

Just a reminder there's a TUF Finale on Friday night too.

The card is.. underwhelming.

That card is an embarrassment, including the title fight. Joe Soto might be the best fighter on the card.

I know Roxanne because she has been around for a while but don't know much about the other women. I think they need to get this fight over with and then book the winner against someone like Shevchenko ASAP.