MMA Quick Hits 6/29/10: No one cares about Fedor, DREAM.15 on HDNet

1. Fedor vs. Werdum tops $1 million live gate: Official attendance numbers for the show have been released. The crowd was 11,757 and the live gate totaled $1,066,739. The event was #6 all-time for Strikeforce. Sounds good, right? Wrong. Sure, over a million would be decent, but the fighter payroll was just under 800k. To put this in perspective, Carano vs. Cyborg out drew this event. Sad. I’ve been saying this for a while, but I’ll say it again: MMA fans here don’t care about Fedor. It’s just that simple. And now that he lost to someone who was beat out of the UFC, they will care even less. Judging by the gate numbers and the payroll, Strikeforce will be lucky to break even on this event.

2. Spike TV to air weigh-ins for UFC 116: The UFC’s longtime cable partner, Spike TV, will air Friday’s official UFC 116 fighter weigh-ins beginning at 7 p.m. ET (4 p.m. PT). It will be the first time since 2007 that Spike TV has aired a live broadcast of fighter weigh-ins. Spike will also air two preliminary fights this Saturday leading up to UFC 116. This is great. The weigh-ins have been gaining steam ever UFC PPV event. What used to only house 100s of fans, now the events draw 1000s of fans. I think the last card had over 10,000. That’s just crazy. I’ll have to admit, I’m one of the ones who can’t wait for the weigh-ins. I like to see the pre-fight stare downs. Sue me.

3. Fitch vs. Alves II made official: The long awaited and highly anticipated welterweight rematch Jon Fitch and Thiago Alves has finally been made official. The bout will take place at UFC 117 and will now be moved up to be the co-headliner. Anderson Silva vs. Chael Sonnen will be the Main Event. All I can say is FINALLY. I was bummed that this fight had to be called off because of a brain condition Alves had, but now that that’s over with, we can get to the fight. I fully expect a different outcome than the first time these two met. Fitch won by TKO. Since then Alves has improved by leaps and bounds.

4. UFC 113 re-air top 1.5 million viewers: The re-air of UFC 113 this past Saturday on Spike TV topped 1.5 million viewers. The UFC used the event re-air to counter-program Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Werdum and by comparison, did a wonderful job. Strikeforce’s event drew 412,000 viewers, up from their last event, but no where near the UFC numbers. The re-air was the #1 rated cable program for it’s timeslot. This just speaks to what I’ve been saying all along. MMA fans here are UFC fans. Nothing more, nothing less. That, and no one cares about Fedor here. If Fedor was fighting in the UFC he’d be raking in the viewers. He’s not, and no one cares to watch the guy fight.

5. HDNet to air DREAM.15 live on July 10: HDNet will carry a live broadcast of next week’s DREAM.15 event for North American MMA fans. The event will take place July 10 at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan. DREAM.15 airs early Saturday morning at 3 a.m. ET (midnight PT). This is great news. DREAM.15 is headlined with Tatsuya Kawajiri taking on Shinya Aoki for the lightweight title. That’s going to be a great fight. Two top 10 lightweights going at it is always entertaining. The event will also start the Light Heavyweight Grand Prix. Don’t miss it.