UFC 95, andato in onda come Spike TV special, ha totalizzato un 1.73 di rating e 2.4 milioni di telespettatori.Il dato massimo è stato raggiunto con Joe Stevenson vs. Diego Sanchez nel main event, ottenendo un 2.26 di rating e 3.0 milioni di telespettatori.
Presenti allo show vi erano 13,268 fans alla O2 Arena in London, praticamente sold out. I paganti erano circa 10.700, con un incasso poco inferiore a $1 milione.
L'ultima volta che la UFC è stata in quell'arena, lo scorso Giugno, i paganti furono 12.857, ma l'incasso fu di $2.920.144. Una differenza dovuta dalla combinazione dell'abbassamento del prezzo dei biglietti con il declino del valore del pound, cosa molto importante per le finanze della UFC come della WWE; giacchè la UFC può fare solo show singoli e non tour, diventa ancora più rischioso svolgere show in terra Brittanica.
Ad ogni modo non è previsto un taglio al numero di date da svolgersi negli UK.
Non ci sono informazioni su quanto abbiano percepito i fighters, ma Sanchez e Stevenson hanno avuto un bonus di $40.000 per il best fight, Maia un bonus della stessa cifra per la best submission e Thiago un bonus per il best ko.
Report:
1. Paul Kelly (8-1) beat Troy Mandaloniz (3-2) via decision on scores of 30-27, 30- 27 and 30-28. This was the only match that didn’t air on the U.S. telecast, although it did air in Canada and the U.K. First two rounds were good, but both got tired in round three. Kelly picked apart Mandaloniz with boxing in the first round, and by the third round, Mandaloniz’s eye looked like hell. Fans booed the third round when little happened except two takedowns by Mandaloniz. Most likely that’s it for Mandaloniz in UFC for the time being.
2. Mike Ciesnolevicz (18-3, 1 no contest) stopped Neil Grove (7-2) in 1:03. Ciesnolevicz is a light heavyweight from the Miletich camp, who took this fight as a replacement and got up to 235 against the 6-6, 263-pound Grove. Ciesnolevicz immediately went for the takedown, but ended up on the bottom. Both men were going for heel hooks at the same time, but Ciesnolevicz knew what he was doing and Grove’s knee popped and he had to tap. With two straight early first round losses, Grove’s chances of coming back don’t look that good.
3. Evan Dunham (8-0) beat Per Eklund (15-4, 1 no contest) in 2:14. Dunham connected with a quick punch and then got a guillotine. Dunham eventually scored with a left to the jaw for a knockdown, and after a few more punches on the ground it was stopped.
4. Junior Dos Santos (8-1) beat Stefan Struve (20-3) in :54. Struve is 6-11 and 240 pounds but Dos Santos just came out and blasted him with hard punches as Struve was backed against the cage. He connected with seven hard punches until Struve went down with his leg bent at a bad looking angle. Struve is expected to be used again.
5. Terry Etim (12-2) beat Brian Cobb (15-5) at :10 of the second round. Cobb had a corner with Matt Lindland, B.J. Penn and Urijah Faber. Etim, from the U.K., was the big favorite. Etim scored with strong low kicks. Cobb took him down. Etim held him in a tight guard and just held on waiting for a stand-up. Cobb took him down a second time. Cobb kept throwing body punches, which was about all he could do. Crowd was booing and the ref stood them up. Don’t know about that one as Cobb was staying busy. Etim scored with more hard low kicks to end the round. Etim opened round two with a Cro Cop style left high kick to the side of the head and it was over.
6. Paulo Thiago (11-0) beat Josh Koscheck (14-4) in 3:29. It was a straight boxing match as Koscheck kept connecting with hard punches, but Thiago stayed in there. Then, out of nowhere, when Koscheck left himself open, Thiago connected with the uppercut that stunned Koscheck and the left hook that put him down and out.
7. Demian Maia (11-0) beat Chael Sonnen (23-10, 1 no contest) in 2:37. All I can say is Sonnen’s strategy here was questionable. Sonnen, when he faced Paulo Filho the first time, dominated the stand-up and was able to use his wrestling to keep it standing. Then he went to the ground and got submitted. Sonnen had already garnered a reputation of being able to pull defeats out of victories, but played it so safe against an apparently wasted out of his mind Filho last year that he got a decision win against a guy he had no business not knocking out, in one of the year’s worst fights. Maia is possibly the best BJJ guy in UFC right now, so the deal would be to keep it standing. So Sonnen actually went for a takedown early. And he stayed down for far longer than he should have, while the impatient fans booed, not realizing that with Maia on the ground, something could always happen. Sonnen finally got up and they started trading. Maia then got a belly-to-belly takedown, landing on top, and faster than you can say submission of the night, he already had the triangle locked in. An awesome performance.
8. Nate Marquardt (31-8-2) beat Wilson Gouveia (12-6) via knockout at 3:10 of the third round. The fans were quick to boo this fight. But the first round ended up being some of the best back-and-forth action on the show. Marquardt did more damage in the stand-up, and got a late takedown, and after escaping a guillotine, Marquardt scored with some good punches on the ground to win a close round. Gouveia rocked Marquardt to start the second round. But Marquardt got Gouveia’s back and worked for a choke, but Gouveia escaped. Marquardt got a guillotine standing and threw some knees, and connected with a high kick and more knees late in the round, and Gouveia was in trouble. The win in the third round came from a flying knee, followed by a missed high kick which followed with a spinning backfist that hit, some good punches and a hard knee to the head.
9. Dan Hardy (21-6, 1 no contest) beat Rory Markham (16-5) in 1:09. Markham came out to Scottish bagpipes music, but that established him as the heel. Hardy hit a left to the jaw and Markham went out. Hardy made a point in his post-match interview to bring up that Markham said that he had no one punch knockout power.
10. Diego Sanchez (22-2) beat Joe Stevenson (34-10) by decision on scores of 29- 28, 30-27 and 30-27. This was a different Sanchez in cutting to 155. Sanchez noted that he started his cut at 190, came down to 155 for the weigh-ins, and stepped into the cage at 172. He said when he fought at welterweight, he would step into the cage at 172. He looked gaunt at weigh-ins, but healthy in the cage. Everyone remarked at how completely different he looked. His face was almost unrecognizable. He looked like a Hollywood actor who had major plastic surgery done he looked so different. His body looked completely different, far more muscular, but also smaller. His style was completely different. Sanchez was a guy who used to work for takedowns and ground and pound, and if he couldn’t get a takedown, would work so hard and set such a fast pace he’d wear his bigger opponent out. His stand-up was always so-so. Here, he fought a complete stand-up fight, reinventing himself, with an Oscar De La Hoya stance and mixing up punches, kicks and knees to where nobody knew where he was coming from. He maintained his conditioning and speed and Stevenson was fighting just to keep up. Sanchez dominated the fight with his stand-up, and stopped Sanchez’s attempts to take him down. Sanchez got a takedown in the second round. After Stevenson got up, Sanchez continued to score with a varied attack. Stevenson went for a guillotine and Sanchez slammed him down hard to escape. Sanchez tried a guillotine and Stevenson escaped. Third round was more of the same, before Sanchez got a takedown. Stevenson ended up getting up and the match ended with a great exchange. Match never slowed. The scrambles on the ground were even more exciting than the stand-up, but most of the match was stand-up. I thought really good main event to end a solid show.
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Lo show del 7 Marzo in Columbus è arrivato ad ottenere 11.000 paganti, equivalenti a $1.5 milioni.
Ci sono varie voci che asseriscono che Mirko Cro Cop apparirà allo show in Germania.
L'unica cosa certa ad oggi è che non è stato firmato alcun accordo e che le trattative sono ancora a metà strada dal concludersi.
Cro Cop ha detto che si è parlato della cosa, ed in qualche modo i rumors sono partiti su un possibile Cro Cop vs. Randy Couture, ma questi non sarà disponibile sino agli inizi di Giugno, poichè sino ad allora sarà impegnato sul set del film "The Expendables".
La UFC ha annunciato un nuovo accordo TV, che per la verità è entrato in vigore lo scorso Dicembre su RTL9, network trasmessa in 38 città di madrelingua Francese.
Lo show ha ottenuto buonissimi ratings di Mercoledì alle 11 p.m., in Francia, sin dal debutto, ma ci sono problemi nello svolgere live show, giacchè le regole attuali di combattimento sono fuorilegge.
Manny Gamburyan, dopo aver perso con Thiago Tavares il 31 Gennaio, passa in WEC per lottare nella featherweight division. Lorenzo e Frank Fertitta gli suggerino il passaggio già lo scorso anno.
Manny Tapia vs. Akitoshi Tamura è stato confermato per lo show WEC in Chicago del 5 Aprile.
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