Dana White "embarrassed" by UFC 149 pay-per-view card performance in Calgary

By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

Saturday's UFC 149 event got off to a solid start. The fans in Calgary were getting a good show from the preliminary card, with several solid fights, vicious knockouts, and submissions. UFC President Dana White was in a good mood, as the UFC had shattered the gate record at the Scotiabank Saddledome, bringing in $4.1 million for the event.

Then the pay-per-view started.

The opening bout between Matt Riddle and Chris Clements was alright, and it ended with a fantastic submission from Riddle, but things quickly went down hill. For three straight fights, 45-minutes of in-cage "action" left fans restless and booing, as James Head, Brian Ebersole, Cheick Kongo, Shawn Jordan, Tim Boetsch, and Hector Lombard failed to give them any semblance of a show.

The way those fights played out led to an unappreciative audience during a technically sound main event, which also got booed. It was not at all the way White wanted to debut in Canada, and he was brutally honest afterward about how it went.

"Before I get too negative, I think that the undercard was awesome, these guys blew it out of the water," White began at the post-fight press conference. "I said this the other day and it's true: We make money; this company makes money, and I like breaking records. We broke the gate record tonight and I'm embarrassed by it. I was excited when I heard and now I'm embarrassed. The undercard delivered - they were awesome - and the main card did not."

White expanded on his feelings later in the press conference, and after injuries tore apart the card they originally planned to bring to Calgary, he couldn't help but to be disappointed in the fact that they weren't able to still come in with a knockout show.

"I'm bummed out about it, I don't know what else to say," White said. "I'm pretty honest about it. I'm not out here saying 'that's the greatest show you've ever seen.' It wasn't. When you buy tickets, we come into a market like this, we break the record and do the kind of gate we did because people believe in us. People believe in the UFC, and that when we come to town, we're going to bring you the best fights possible. And then our guys go out and they deliver. Like I said, this is a partnership between us and the fighters. We do our part and they always do theirs. Unfortunately, I was so excited to stick this one up everybody's a** that said this card sucked, and we didn't."

Penick's Analysis: This was a rare event that failed to live up to massively lowered expectations. The UFC almost never hits a main card dud like this, and there's no reason to believe that it's a trend. However, the massive amount of events they run means they're employing a lot more fighters than they used to, watering down the talent pool. That means a lot of non-top 20 or even top 30 guys are getting higher profile spots than in the past because the best fights and fighters are getting spread out further among events. Add injuries into the mix and it at times gets worse. It may not be a problem with a solution right now, but it's a reality of the new UFC.

Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/UFC_2/article_13907.shtml

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