#dwtncs

Joey

June 26th

Watch any UFC event recently and you'll notice the constant pushing and dare I say shilling of Dana White's Tuesday Night Contenders Series.  The UFC's attempt to push its own content on its own digital platform (a novel concept!) is slowly creeping towards its air date on July 11th. The concept is a simple enough one even if some aspects of it seem to be ever so slightly and ever so gingerly getting modified before the start. Five fights every week with the winners and losers competing for the opportunity to get into the UFC. It'll be held in front of Dana White and what I'm assuming are an audience of his friends and peers given how there is no live attendance. While the original concept suggested UFC fighters would get the opportunity to rebuild their careers, it seems like the UFC has walked that back somewhat given how not a single current UFC fighter is assigned to a spot on the show.

The concept is a fresh enough approach, essentially taking out Dana White's LFAF antics and bringing us what fight fans really want to see; less of Dana hanging with the BOOOOOOYZ and more of the prospects and overlooked guys with potential getting the opportunity to get a UFC gig. As of this point, much of the format is hidden although the general onus seems to be similar to Looking For A Fight's "Win impressively and depending on how the wind is blowing and the whims of one man are at that time, you might get a deal!" That's all fine and good I guess although leaving the future of athletes up to such a vague concept as an impressive win is always going to lead to some problems. At the very least, a lot of good regional talents are going to get the opportunity they all dream of chasing when they sign up for this wacky gig. The chance to fight in front of Dana White and his friends in Vegas for more than you've ever made up until that point with the allure of a potential UFC gig is all good for the sport I'd argue.  Unfortunately quite a few questions remain on how this is all going to work out BUT before we get into that, I just want to poke around a bit on some numbers I've scrounged up.

30.5- The average age of the HWs confirmed for Dana White's Tuesday Night Contender's Series.

The age at light heavyweight and heavyweight will always be a somewhat touchy subject. As has probably been discussed time and time again, MMA's ability to chase elite athletes above 205 lbs is never going to be up there with the bigger sports even though it could/would stand to do a better job at attempting to recruit them. Outside of Stipe Miocic, the UFC's HW division in its current form is a collection of aging but well known guys from the Pride/2008 to 2011 era of the UFC and a small group of guys who rose from the ashes of a broken HW division to carve out niches for themselves. Now to their credit, the UFC HAS been aggressively signing new HWs but the division still lacks depth, prospects and the ability to let guys go on winning streaks before you violently feed them up to somebody at the top. The decision to focus on the HW division is a refreshing approaching and of the six HWs they've roped in thus far, they combine for an average age of about 31 years old (30.5 to be exact). That number is heavily skewed by the 35 year old Greg Rabello. Just for a comparison point, the top 6 in the division (Stipe plus the five contenders under him) come out at about a solid 34.5 years old. So here's my opinion on this one; sign all of them even if they lose. Turn the HW division into the undercard gamblers division and load up FP prelims with big doughy guys. You might luck into one!

10-20- Record for fights either in the UFC or against fighters who have been in the UFC

Yeah, this number isn't too pretty I suppose. Now granted there are guys like Daniel Spohn, Justin Jones and Daniel Jolly who really tip the scales here but as is often the case with TUF seasons, the prospects here haven't faired all too well when they've faced UFC quality competition. People CAN improve of course but going on pure raw data, it's looking rough to start.

0- Women's MMA fights confirmed thus far

This is a concerning number. It's not that I think the UFC is deliberately ignoring the women of mixed martial arts, I just don't know if they're out there to be had. Part of the problem with having an Invicta is that the WMMA community is so small that just about everybody winds up there at some point; most before they're ready. Tuesday Night Contenders becoming ANOTHER Invicta where ladies like Rachel Ostovich are fed to elite talents over and over is probably not good for anybody. What's more with TUF 25 being flyweights, you're not going to send them to Tuesday Night Contenders because you pretty much NEED all of them for that. And of course it's like flyweight or bantamweight TUFs, chances are if you're a good one they're just going to sign you so why bother? The UFC can't keep pilfering talents from Invicta without waiting for the stock to replenish and while a guy like TheAnticool would clearly know more as it pertains to whether it IS being replenished, there needs to be concern about how long it's taking.  Ronda's ascension to the top of the MMA landscape was expected to jolt WMMA and in many ways it did---but it's 2017 and we're still waiting to see the fruits of that labor.

7- flyweights

Be it petty posturing or a genuine warning, Dana White coming out and admitting that the last three years have featured them considering the removal of flyweight has to be concerning for all MMA fans. The UFC removing flyweights from the equation would ultimately be a bad thing for MMA (a hell of a boon to 135 tho!) and would further blur the lines between sport of business and the business of sport. Even if you acknowledge that fighters can always make their money overseas, all of the US orgs (since Bellator has shown no interest in flyweights and I'm not even sure the new chain at WSOF know what flyweights are) abandoning the division would do serious damage to the growth of MMA. As such, it's refreshing to see Dana White's Tuesday Night Contender Series has thus far cornered the market on flyweights not in the organization.

4- Fighters coming off a loss

The idea of DWTCS was the best prospects vs the best prospects and old UFC guys trying to regroup and rebound after a series of losses. When names started getting announced and people started to complete the picture, there was some rankling about signing guys to compete who were coming off losses. That, at least so far, is overstated. Just four of the guys on the show are coming off of a loss.

So those are just some things I wanted to dig through and look over. Despite this, questions STILL remain. Such as....

1- How are they going to make money off of this?

Seriously. There's no TV rights deal (here or abroad) and there's no gate because the show is attended by Dana's friends and fam. One would assume that the UFC is paying for crapola even if the UFC owns the venue and etc etc. Right off the bat, you're talking about 50K going out (5K for 10 guys plus 25K on top for the winners). So how ya paying for this? Fight Pass subs?

2- Is it possible to LOSE and get into the UFC?

We see it all of the time. The "win and get in" style of UFC TUF Finale is bent slightly so that guys who put on an amazing fight and lose can still get a chance. Will the UFC keep with that mentality here? Given that so much of this is the whim of one man, is it win and get in only?

3- What will the outfits look like?

It'd be...awkward if Dana White's side league project featured fighters wearing sponsored swag. Is it going to be like 2013 where dudes had big sponsorship lapses and so they had guys wearing UFC trunks? I know that they're treating Dana White's Tuesday Night Contenders where it's like an alternate organization BUT if I'm a fighter and I make it into the UFC off the show, I want this fight to count for my UFC record.

4- Production? Any ideas?

Again with no real way to make money, what will the production look like? I hate to make the comp here but I don't think this product is going to succeed if it feels like a dark match/house show with no video packages, no commentary and no sizzle with their graphics. I'd really like to see what they do with the commentary spot. One thing I'd really like to see is different guys being given the opportunity to try their hand at live commentary. If they're bad, it's not going to be the end of the world and if they're good, as guys like Cruz proved to be, then you can start grooming your next crop of rotating commentators. I bet the UFC would LOVE a day where they can just sandblast the sports world with a show from Asia that starts at 8 on ESPN/FS1, a show from England that starts at 12 on ESPN 2/FS2 and then a big show at 8 PM that goes back onto the main network. To pull that shit off, you need developed competent commentators and MAYBE this can be an attempt to pull that off.

5- Where are the international guys at?

The current crop are 95% Americans with 5% delegated to some Europeans who live and operate within the US. I'd LOVE to see them move in some guys from Asia to get a chance. There's a lot of PXC guys who aren't good enough in theory for the UFC but could benefit from the opportunity to at least compete there.

6- Ringer Fights

Obviously any REALLY REALLY great prospects are getting UFC calls and not wasting their time on this. But let's say you do so decide to go to the UFC through Tuesday Night Contenders. Let's use Jose "Shorty" Torres for a sec, k? Would you take a Jose Torres and give him an obvious squash match set up so he looks super impressive to get the hype going? If so, can they handle the backlash if we see through it?