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Raf's Recollection | It's a busy week for the UFC. Coming right off an event out in Abu Dhabi, the organization has not one, but two big events happening this week (including tomorrow night's TUF Nations Finale and Saturday's UFC on FOX 11). It's a busy week for MMA that prompted us to take some time to answer some pressing questions in the world of MMA.
Let's start with the TUF Nations. I know a lot of you have wondered why we haven't done any 1 Minute Reviews of the current season of TUF that (occasionally) airs on Fox Sports Juan. To answer your question, I give you the following chart I like to call Exhibit A:
These are the ratings. MMA Payout has done us all a favor of breaking down what all of this really means. But you may notice that a couple episodes actually dipped below the 100k viewer count. Those episodes aired on Fox Sports 2. In the podcast, we address our full response to this season of TUF and let you know what the future holds in store for the 1 Minute Review.
It seems the UFC was keenly aware of how few people were watching this season and decided to enlist the talents of Tim Kennedy and Michael Bisping to carry the weight of promoting this fight.
Some might argue there's more hype surrounding this match than any of the other rivalries going down on Saturday's UFC on FOX 11 card. But it's clear, these two gents do not like each other. In fact, a couple weeks ago, Tim was nice enough to stop by our podcast to talk about this fight (Verbal Tap, Episode 64), and even then he seemed baffled by "The Count's" unstable form of trash talk.
In retrospect, all of that seems like child's play compared to the nonsense Bisping spewed in his general direction at yesterday's weigh-ins. Look here for more evidence.
Where else can you get this type of drama, folks?
My personal favorite: After walking up and telling him, "it all ends for you tomorrow," Bisping then follows up that gold by asking Tim "you wanna go right now?"
Tim shrugs and says "I'm always ready."
Bisping: You are such a fucking pussy!
Because, as we all know, the biggest pussies are notorious for stepping up to the plate when being called out by a bully.
Bar Rescue
Enjoy watching UFC PPV's at your favorite bars? Well, that may soon start to change.
A new article from the LA Times was brought to my attention (thanks Dad) that talks about how the UFC and Boxing are going after bars that don't pay a hefty fee to show a PPV. And just to make things more interesting, there are people who are being sent to bars on the down low to find out if the bars are adhering to the proper fines.
Kev and I spend a few minutes talking about this very issue and discuss why this paranoid shakedown has a set of serious implications for watching PPVs at your local bars--especially if they are unaware such fines exist.
We hope you'll help us spread the word to your favorite bars so that they don't get these assholes coming after them.
Verbal Tap Responds to Viewer Fan Mail
We opened up a new segment tentatively titled, Viewer Mail, where (you guessed it) we'll be taking your questions and answering them on the podcast.
But wait, we're now opening up our voicemail for you to leave messages. That's right, feel free to call us with your questions--and if we like 'em, we may just play your call and answer it on our next podcast.
So feel free to hit us up with a message at (703) 635-2168!
But Wait, There's More
In addition to your viewer mail, we also share our takes on Royler Gracie saying he wasn't impressed with Eddie Bravo's performance at Metamoris, this so called organization called Bellator (sp?) trying to produce a fight PPV, and review Roy "Big Country" Nelson's huge KO win at UFC Fight Night 39.