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[Sakara=Excitement]

Dana White: UFC 149 PPV 'sucked' and was an 'embarrassment' - MMAmania.com

Reeeee-fuuuuund! Reeeee-fuuuuund! Reeeee-fuuuuund!

The chorus of discontent was audible throughout the UFC 149 main event between Renan Barao vs. Urijah Faber, with many mixed martial arts (MMA) fans inside the Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, voicing their collective displeasure for a fight that simply wasn't living up to its lofty expectations.

Most likely, however, it was more about the listless pay-per-view (PPV) main card card that featured four uninspiring decisions (two split, two unanimous). The featured fight of the night, which wasn't all that bad, was just the final straw that triggered a majority of the Calgary crowd's frustrations.

Frustration that wasn't just exclusive to the 16,089 fight fans in attendance who forked over a record-breaking $4.1 million to witness the promotion's first-ever foray into the region. On the contrary, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) President Dana White revealed at the UFC 149 press conference that he was flat-out "embarrassed" with the action, or lack there of, in the marquee fights.

Check it out:

White was effusive and visibly distraught about the officiating and judging. In fact, he said if it continued in MMA and boxing that it would "kill" combat sports. He singled-out Yves Lavigne for letting Kongo and Jordan hug for nearly 15 minutes, saying that this is not the "Ultimate Clinching Championship." He was also upset (again) with Josh Rosenthal, who thought a perfectly-placed Matt Riddle kick was below the belt when it wasn't.

Of course, he also talked in great detail about how the fighters have the responsibility to entertain and perform.

The good news, as White mentioned, is the "Prelims" portion of the card featured quite a few solid scraps, a seven-second knockout and several stoppages. However, those fights were available to watch for free on Facebook and FX, meaning that no one is clamoring to get their money back.

And, according to White, despite the reaction from the crowd as the night wore on, no one has confronted him (yet) and requested a refund. It was just the scalpers, remember, who were upset with the final fight card, which was cobbled together after numerous injuries and other issues forced several changes.

Indeed, it appears as though the Calgary market is an advantageous one; however, if and when the promotion returns, rest assured that White and Co. will work like hell to ensure that the fan's who show up get their money's worth.

They owe 'em.

Dana White 'Embarrassed' by UFC 149 Main Card, Praises Undercard Fighters | MMAWeekly.com

Saturday night served as a bit of déjà vu for UFC president Dana White, and that was not a good thing.

The main card for UFC 149 ended with four out of the five fights going to decision, with most of them being fairly lackluster affairs drawing boos from the Calgary crowd in attendance.

White remembers an eerily similar night from more than a decade ago when the UFC was hoping to re-launch to the masses with one of the biggest cards ever that quickly turned into one of the biggest disasters ever.

UFC 33 was touted to be one of the biggest cards ever for the promotion, but after injuries scrapped their main event, and every fight on the main card went to decision, forcing the show to go over the pay-per-view time limit, it was anything but a success.

Fast forward to UFC 149 on Saturday night and White was feeling the same exact way he did that night in September 2001.

The night in Calgary definitely did not go as planned, but White couldn’t be mad at the undercard fighters who performed on both FX and Facebook. Fighters like Ryan Jimmo burst on the scene with his ultra impressive seven-second knockout, as well as Bryan Caraway putting on a “Fight of the Night” performance against Mitch Gagnon.

The rest of the card, however, failed to impress and White wasn’t ashamed to admit it. Records were broken in Calgary Saturday night, but White is not a proud man for how his fighters delivered or didn’t deliver as the case may be.

He did defend the main event that came under a wave of boos as well, but White believes that was mostly fallout from the previous few fights that caused the entire crowd to feel like they were on Ambien instead of watching high level mixed martial arts.

The two fights that led into Barao vs. Faber definitely left the crowd in a frenzy as Hector Lombard came up flat in his UFC debut against Tim Boetsch, while Cheick Kongo and Shawn Jordan put on one of the worst heavyweight fights this side of Gabriel Gonzaga vs. Kevin Jordan at UFC 56, which is widely considered one of the most criticized fights in UFC history.

There was definitely a bad taste left in Dana White’s mouth following UFC 149, but the promotion will live to fight another day with hopes that the next group of fighters performance at UFC on Fox 4 in two weeks paid close attention for what not to do when the eyes of the world are on you.

[Pasha K]

Yes, the card was a disaster. It sucked on paper and it sucked on performances.

But I think UFC on Fox 4 will be much much better

[Rise]

Originally Posted by Pasha K

Yes, the card was a disaster. It sucked on paper and it sucked on performances.

But I think UFC on Fox 4 will be much much better

While it didn't have a lot of big names on the card there was some potential for a couple good scraps. I had expected a better fight from the main event and so main event. They just didn't deliver.

[joeodd2]

The Lombard/Boetsch fight could have saved the card. The main event went just as most people who know Faber, should have expected it to go. Faber is a ruined fighter after he lost to Mike Brown.....he lost his spark and creativity and can't deal with fighters who still have it. And Kongo was fighting for his job, it was obvious he didn't want to take any risks by trying to finish. Both Kongo's fight and the Co-mainevent was about getting the W not trying to put on a show. while getting the W is important, I kinda think poor performances like that deserve the Jon Fitch treatment.

[rivethead]

I didn't pay for it, but I thought it went pretty much as I expected it to. This was one of the cards that is a good example of the UFC saturating the market. I think it would be revitalizing for their image to cull 4 PPV's a year and use the fights to bulk up other cards. Even if it doesn't make financial sense to add and hour to their PPV's--something that would would get a ton of attention--they could just add to the free prelims they show on cable or stream themselves.

I didn't have a lot of expectation for this card. I'd be surprised if anyone really did.

rh

[Qball1974]

The ONLY time a Cheick Kongo fight is exciting is when he's getting his ass beat up!

[SWIFTboy]

I really dislike Yves Lavigne as a ref but I'm not sure he deserves that much critisism for not breaking up the clinch battle. Every time they would break naturally, they would end up back in the clinch position soon after. What was Yves supposed to do? Break them up every ten seconds for the whole three rounds just to manufacture 'action'. That's not MMA to me.

When it comes down to it, Jordan didn't have good enough striking to hang with Kongo if he gave him room to get off. His best chance to win the fight is to close the distance (as he did) and get the take down (as he couldn't do). Obviously, the game plan was to take Kongo down, which makes sense considering that has often been the best way to beat Kongo. However, either Jordan's takedowns weren't as good as they needed to be, Cheick's TDD improved, or a combination of the two.

Yes, it lead to a pretty boring fight. Yes, it happened on a night with quite a few other decisions. Yes, Kongo's fights tend to be boring unless he's getting beat down or fighting someone completely beneath him.
Still, fights like this hapens sometimes just because of styles and I'm not sure more breaks by the ref would have really changed anything.

Originally Posted by joeodd2

The main event went just as most people who know Faber, should have expected it to go. Faber is a ruined fighter after he lost to Mike Brown.....he lost his spark and creativity and can't deal with fighters who still have it. .

I have to disagree with this assesment of Faber. Since that fight he's finished Assuncao, Mizugaki, and Bowles who are all very good fighters. He had a very back and forth fight with Cruz that could have even gone in his favour. He got outclassed by Aldo and Barao, who both seem to have a similar style that clearly gives him trouble. Yet he went 5 rounds with both of those elite fighters.

Maybe he will never again be championship material and maybe his true glory days are in the past, but to say he is a 'ruined' fighter who has 'lost his spark' seems both exaggerated and innacurate.

[Kimbo> Rampage]

Bad card. Those things will just happen, some fights easier to predict than others, as far as how exciting they will be...

Faber vs. Barao wasnt as bad as some made it out to be, but both of them knew how explosive the other guy is... the fight could have easily ended with one mistake...

I dont know wtf Lombard was doing, he has faught like that sometimes in the past. I guess if you are that confident in your striking it could potentially work. but doesnt seem like an ideal gameplan at the top level, especially when you almost always give away reach...

I dont get why people are praising Boetch either. He landed a few good leg kicks, but people are acting like he tore up his legs CC style.. Bad fight for both of them.

Kongo was actually an exciting fighter in the past. His first couple fights were good, he showcased his striking... he then lost due to his poor grappling... and really decided to work on in. He has actually done a decent Job, he has solid TDD and a good defensive clinch game, besides when he fights a good wrestler like Cain obviously. Also after he got dropped by Mir he has become a lot more hesitant with his striking... He also got dropped a few times by Barry, and then KO'd by Hunt.... All of those guys have good power, but he may be fighting differently to accommodate his chin...

Now days he initiates the clinch and goes for the take-down against anyone with power. He wont strike with them... Its a shame though, when he first came to the UFC, he had the "stand with anyone" mentality... Sometimes it is necessary... Look at what happened to AA because of his chin...

[roaddawg]

^^ Good post Rampage. I also agree with joeodd2 that they were fighting for their jobs. Even in the Lombard fight it was his debut and very few people come in with shock and awe hell infact they normally have a shitty performance.

Also many here were already calling Lombard overrated/can crusher so what kind of performance did they really expect?

Alo If fighting safe is the only way to get a W and secure your job then I guess they did what they had to do. Personally I wasn't at all motivated to buy this card by the line up alone. Im glad I didn't burn my $ on this ppv.

[rough-n-tumble]

I can't be the only person who liked seeing Kongo getting a cup check. I hope that being the receiver gives him some perspective and he curbs his serial crotch shots.

The Boetch Lombard was hard to watch and don't see a title shot coming out of that fight. I like Tim so hopefully he can put on a more impressive win in his next fight.

And looking forward to Ryan Jimmo against stiffer competition.