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Saturday's UFC vs. Bellator broadcast of paid streaming services failed to win a decisive or decisive victory.
The UFC put on the most exciting main map, with four of the six fights being fights that could earn night fighting honors on many, if not most shows.
Bellator, on the other hand, presented the most media show with two league fights.
Saturday night, the standard seems to be the norm in the future, with fights against streaming services that will serve existing hardcore fans, but do not do much to attract new fans and hurt the creation of new stars because they do not are not seen by many fans. . This is part of the growing difficulties of technology, where a lot of money is being offered to get these services off the ground, and there is more money for companies to put these broadcasts on these platforms, but up to the end of the day. in order for the complete fan base to subscribe, the impact of the programs on the public decreases.
The UFC Fort Lauderdale, in particular, was the type of show you would like to see as many fans as possible, as it was a good showcase for fighters who have won great victories, including Jack Hermansson , Mike Perry and Cory Sandhagen.
With Bellator 220, the situation is even more remarkable because DAZN is a $ 19.99 service a month, much more expensive than most others in the genre. ESPN +, which costs $ 4.99 per month, is virtually essential nowadays to follow the UFC, and is at a low enough price for the existing fan base to fit for the most part. The only negative is that the less free television of big fights prevents to make new fans. But the UFC still has a regular television presence, as Saturday, three fights against ESPN2 including fighters named Jim Miller, Angela Hill and Court McGee, and four against ESPN including Andrei Arlovski, Ben Saunders and Carla Esparza.
The main event of the UFC was brought back to the fifth round. Hermansson surprised Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza in a fight that greatly changed the prospects for both. Perry won the biggest victory of his career on Alex Oliveira in the fight that earned him the honors of the Fight of the Night. The veteran Glover Teixeira had a thriller in a second round stop on Ion Cutelaba. Sandhagen 's made a name with a split – decision win against the title – rich contender, John Lineker, in a fight that could easily have gone to the opposite.
Yet, despite all this, only one search term Saturday night in one of the two series was the top 20 Google searches for the night. It was Greg Hardy. The former controversial NFL star participated in a UFC show improvement game, instead of the main event on a map filled with names. Hardy had a quick victory over Dmitrii Smoliakov. With the exception of Hardy, the results of the research showed that these events were not a dominant topic of conversation that night, compared to the usual Bellator broadcasts and many Fight Uights.
The lack of ranking in the top 20 is all the more notable as Bellator was one of the most important events of the year. The show did not have the heavy promotion that could be given to a legitimate pay-per-view, but the price was still significant, it was not available on television. But for promotion, the DAZN agreement changes the rules of the game financially. But this also prevents the majority of fans from watching the show and keeping a close eye on the main fighters.
And Bellator had a lot to talk about.
The main event, a welterweight championship bout, saw Rory MacDonald attempt to draw a majority tie with Jon Fitch. The decision was strongly booed although it was not such a bad decision as very lucky for MacDonald.
Fitch clearly won rounds three and five. MacDonald clearly won the second round.
There were similarities in turns one and four. In the first round, MacDonald got the best punch, while Fitch beat him and controlled much of the lap, but did not do much harm to MacDonald. The fourth round was more pronounced. At the beginning of this round, MacDonald hurt Fitch standing, to whom Fitch seemed in great trouble. But once Fitch hit the ground, he controlled the rest of the round and received constant shots from the top. MacDonald came close to finishing, but Fitch controlled and dominated much of the round.
In the end, two of the three judges gave the rounds to MacDonald and, with a third-place Fitch, 10-8, which he dominated from start to finish, the result was a draw.
This led to a very unique situation. The rules of the tournament provided for a draw, since a person had to advance, the three judges would then be forced to choose a winner. The fight would still be a draw, but that choice could move forward.
But that was not the case here, as the tournament was built around the idea that there would be three league fights during the tournament. MacDonald, as champion, retained his title with the majority draw and, as the championship was to be at stake for the future, he had to move forward. It was even if the only judge who had a winner on his card, had the bout scored for Fitch.
And then, when the fight was over, it was very clear that MacDonald was wondering if he should be in the sport, noting that he was not sure he had the killer instinct in him.
MacDonald entered the tournament as a favorite, the champion who, at age 29, had beaten a much higher level of competition than anyone else. Fitch, at age 41, appeared to be a renowned fighter from the past who would be a recognizable figure, but MacDonald's variety of skills made the Canadiens the favorite.
With Fitch, you know the game plan. It's just a tireless struggle. But Fitch was able to implement this game plan even when MacDonald knew what was going to happen and had an edge for both youth and skills.
And so, even when Fitch was perfectly right to be crazy about the decision, he entered the press conference with a smile and spoke as if it was probably his last fight. He noted a promise he made in 2016, after undergoing a review revealing damage to the neck and a brain scan, that he would be retiring. after his next loss. He has continued to win since then and has not lost here either. But he felt that the weather was exhausting because of his age and his injuries. He was in this tournament largely to win the $ 1 million bonus back to the winner. As it no longer seemed possible, he asked again to fight.
Let's see how Fortunes changed to five stars from Saturday night.
RORY MACDONALD – MacDonald (20-5-1) retained the title, but it was not a solid performance and anyone who saw his reaction after the fight had to see the red flags.
Worse yet, the tournament schedule was that the champion had to defend against Neiman Gracie (9-0) on June 14 at Madison Square Garden. Gracie said he thought Fitch had won four of the five innings. Prior to the winner's announcement, he was so sure of the result that he was in the cage and spoke to Fitch about what he presumed was their imminent fight.
Like almost every fighter named Gracie, Neiman's specialty is soil. Of his nine wins, eight were submitted by bid in both rounds. But MacDonald represents a significant advance in competition. Nevertheless, if Gracie can fight on the ground as often as Fitch, he is a finisher of this position as opposed to a crusher.
ILIMA-LEI MACFARLANE – MacFarlane (10-0), Bellator's flyweight champion, made her third successful defense in a fight she fought over.
Macfarlane was certainly very tired, as she drove constantly with legs for hard-to-reach tuning. The champion's legs were tiring and opponent Veta Arteaga (5-3) beat her on the stand-up. After two rounds, two judges had 19-19 and one of two rounds for Arteaga.
In the third round, Macfarlane got takedown and landed on an elbow that left a sick head on Arteaga's forehead. Bloody was flying like crazy. The cut, though not close to the eye, was so long and deep that you could see Arteaga's skull through it. It was impossible for the fight to continue.
Macfarlane immediately told Arteaga that she was giving him a revenge, believing that no one was happy with a cut stop and that Arteaga wanted to continue. She repeated this at the press conference, claiming that she knew her next opponent.
Later, when the discussion turned to Bellator's probable return to Honolulu, where Macfarlane had grown up in December, she said that was where she would want to fight. Last December, Macfarlane was sold as a local star and created an atmosphere rarely seen in the MMA on this show. She noted that between moving into a home in San Diego this summer and wanting to take some vacation, this end of the year sounds the moment she wants to fight again.
Scott Coker was not so convinced that Arteaga got a revenge. While the fight was competitive and Arteaga had seemed stronger until the elbow arose, it was a legitimate stunt victory.
Bellator is not deeply in the running in this division. Otherwise Arteaga, Juliana Velasquez (8-0) or the winner of a fight in London on June 22 in London between Kate Jackson (10-3-1) and Lena Ovchynnikova (12-5).
JACK HERMANSSON – Hermansson (20-4) easily won the biggest win of his career by basically eliminating Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza from the title. The fight came and went, returning to the last round, which Hermansson won decisively.
After his victory over David Branch, we must now talk about Hermansson at the top of the middleweight.
Champion Robert Whittaker against interim champion Israel Adesanya is the next game for the division title. There also seems to be a fight between Yoel Romero and Paulo Costa, which the UFC has tried to organize several times.
Hermansson's next fight should be either with Chris Weidman (14-4) or Kelvin Gastelum (15-4).
MIKE PERRY – Perry (13-4) was one of the most talked about fighters over the weekend, winning the war with Oliveira by winning the third round. Leon Edwards (6-3) would be a good opponent for him.
GLOVER TEIXEIRA – It's been five years since Teixeira, now 39, challenged Jon Jones for the lightweight title. He left 7-3 on this period and his role is now to be a guardian of the sport to the top of the division.
Ion Cutelaba (14-4, 1 no contest) seemed ready to pass the test in the first round, with great speed and hard shots. But Teixeira stood firm and came back to finish it in the second round.
Dominic Reyes (11-0) is the next light heavyweight on which the jury has come out, and it makes sense to face Teixeira. Another good opponent would be Nikita Krylov (25-6).
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