Yahoo Buzz Index: UFC Internet searches down, potentially'worrisome?'

Of course the Liddell fight is going to generate the most activity due to the massive hype Chuck got around that time. Too bad for Dana Chuck got his ass whipped again.

there just goin to have to get better cards.. ufc 72 wasnt a good one if u werent a die hard fan.. and ufc 73 stacked was good but couldve been better .. matchmaker make us a match!

yep, better cards and more televised fights per card.

There is one good thing happening here and it’s this: the posers and chumps who don’t know sh*t but continue to sound off like they know everything may start to be weeding out. That’s fine with me. The less clowns talking about the sport, the better.

I think it’s b/c everyone can get there info from sites like this and ufcjunkie now and shouldn’t have to use google to find a good site.

yep, better cards and more televised fights per card.

Especially the latter. They put in so much fu*$ing fluff its insane. I thought that there would be less commercials on a pay-per-view event. Apparently, I was wrong. More fights and less fluff!

I think it has to do with the cards as well…Not as many names that the casual fan would know so they don’t watch. This upcoming ppv should generate hits with Couture and St. Pierre on the card. If I was the UFC I wouldn’t care about the hits as long as the PPV buy rates are still good…

I hate to say it but I think MMA has reached a tipping point with the general public. When I saw UFC 71, the people there were pretty upset to see Liddell go down so quickly. They were leaving en masse even before they announced Rampage as the champ. The next two shows (granted UFC 72 was in the afternoon) weren’t even as close to being as crowded.

Wait, people still use Yahoo! for searches? I thought we had all graduated to google and others…

its so weird how the big names will always draw the masses. Im not just figuring this out, but I guess people are still learning about all the fighters out there and what they can do.

I mean I understand Lidell creating a spike, but Tito should be out along with his big paydays. The ufc should start throwing a bone to the new guys and quit wasting the money.

It is a necessity to have more televised cards on Spike TV. Now when I say this, I do not want the main event to be a “Din Thomas versus Spencer Fischer” ….. High profile guys are going to have to put their pride aside and fight on Spike TV to draw in the casual fans.

I dont see why that should be a problem considering they do not earn any percentage of PPV sales so why would they care ? Potentially more people would watch them fight so as big stars, they would get additional exposure. The only downfall would be that Dana White still pays them a shitty purse for the fight haha.

Either way this isn’t a big deal. It simply means that the “casual” UFC fan is spending more time keeping productivity down at work with searching for porn or getting ready for fantasy football like me. I mean how often do any of us go to Yahoo.com to search for UFC crap ? We all know where it is (UFC.com, UFCmania.com, etc.)

Kevin “cuts” Kelly

yep, better cards and more televised fights per card.

I agree with more televised fights per card. They also need to start marketing some of the lesser known fighters as well. I mean before the lidell/jackson fight. A lot people knew who Chuck Lidell was but few knew Rampage. They marketed that fight really well because by the time the fight started a lot of people knew who Rampage was. I mean I got sick and tired of seeing the trailer talking about how Rampage is the only loss on Lidell’s record that he hasn’t avenged.

Tito tried to hype up the fight against Rashad. The bad thing is that Rashad didn’t really know how to play it up. In the case of Lidell/Rampage, we all know Rampage is a colorful character and he did a tremendous job at creating a buzz.

Let me clarify my last statement a bit. Few casual fans knew who Rampage was. By the time the fight started there were people that were buying chains to wear around their necks because they liked Rampage so much.

I know this may stir up a different topic but is hype for fights a good thing or a bad thing? The reason why I say that is will hyping the fights end up catering this sport to the casual fans? The fight makers will start setting up fights that are more marketable as opposed to more interesting match ups based on the fighters skill.

Shadyone33 brought up a good point if the PPV numbers are up who cares about the site hits. I think the site hits at this point are coming from the more casual fans. The fans who are becoming more involved in the sport know about the good MMA sites to get all their information. I mean http://www.mmaplayground.com is a fun site for fans and they have doubled their user size in like a month.

Actually, it doesn’t look down at all. It just looks like there was a spike in interest due to UFC 71, or more specifically Liddell fighting. The next two events were right in line with the events before UFC 71. To me, this indicates a plateau, not a drop in interest.

Keep in mind that the media coverage of 71 was ridiculously heavy. While most sports media outlets still run stories with regard to upcoming PPV cards, many of them (i.e. ESPN, SI) ran larger pieces on MMA as a whole around that time.

I would assume that those kinds of stories resulted in a large jump in google/yahoo searches. Following that, new viewers either became interested and found useful websites such as this one, mmaweekly, sherdog and ufc.com (and subsequently no longer required a search engine to find info), or decided that they weren’t especially fond of mma and didn’t search again. As such, I wouldn’t read too much into yahoo numbers without this and many other issues of context being considered.

Seems like a fairly standard summer trend.
Folks are out and about more.

hahaha so pretty much Chuck losing is costing Ufc is popularity.. Espn and everyone wanted him to win and they would always be talking about just him and no other fighter.. they dont have poster boy now. Rampage isnt getting his media attention for some reason and i dont no why.. The champions should be on espn and other sports channels all the time, talking and promoting the sport.. if they want to have half assed fans thats wat they should do.. im fine wit it not goin mainstream.. fuck the posers..

I agree with Kevin Kelly. More free fights on Spike with cream of the crop fighters. That should draw more fans. I think they better watch the quality of those PPV though and make sure the fans get the most bang for their buck otherwise they will see a drop off in purchases. I think they should air every fight on the card.

The main stream coverage definately made its mark. I would also like to know if the apperent decline of the searches coincides with increased hits on sites like this one.

Actually, it doesn’t look down at all. It just looks like there was a spike in interest due to UFC 71, or more specifically Liddell fighting. The next two events were right in line with the events before UFC 71. To me, this indicates a plateau, not a drop in interest.

Looks like that. I guess they figured every PPV would be as anticipated as 71?

Actually, it doesn’t look down at all. It just looks like there was a spike in interest due to UFC 71, or more specifically Liddell fighting. The next two events were right in line with the events before UFC 71. To me, this indicates a plateau, not a drop in interest.

That’s a very good point you brought up. I also think that a lot more people know where to look and they don’t have to use search engines because they know what they’re looking for now.

The main stream coverage definately made its mark. I would also like to know if the apperent decline of the searches coincides with increased hits on sites like this one.

That would be a good study to do. Because I bet that you would see a larger number of hits to the main stream MMA sites. UFC Mania could give us an idea by checking their traffic over these periods. WHAT DO YOU SAY MANIA? I know it wouldn’t give us the whole picture but a sample size at least.

Google has 80% of the search market so why would Yahoo be a predictor of anything?

http://www.google.com/trends?q=UFC&ctab=0&geo=US&geor=all&date=all&sort=0

If you look at the news reference data for UFC you would see that it’s steadily climbing. This is just in the US. In other countries it’s similar as well.

Plus, you only search when you don’t know where to look. I have an RSS feed of this site and I have UFC in my google news so no need to search.

ESPN has gotten into the mix too, and everyone who watches any kind of sport goes either there or to foxsports. They are the premiere. You dont have to search the internet trying to find someone talking about UFC anymore. It everywhere. SO why would people look it up on google, they know what sites to go to.

Also the 72 card sucked. Dana and the guy who matches up the fights, forgot his name, need to stop babying their fav fighters. Hughes and Franklin are two good examples of guys who get east fights once they lose to keep them in title contender status. There are too many good fighters in the UFC and coming over from pride not to have GREAT matchups every PPV. And yes show more fights.

HOLY CRAP!!!!! UFC MANIA U HAVE GOT TO SEE THIS IF YOU HAVNT ALREADY!!! I THINK THE VIDEO JUST CAME OUT TODAY!! ITS FOR THE NEW UFC GAME COMING OUT ON THE XBOX 360!! IT LOOKS FREAKIN AWESOME!!!
http://www.ign.com/

That game looks great. Thanks for informing us.

Seems like a fairly standard summer trend.
Folks are out and about more.

I totally agree

Google has 80% of the search market so why would Yahoo be a predictor of anything?

http://www.google.com/trends?q=UFC&ctab=0&geo=US&geor=all&date=all&sort=0

If you look at the news reference data for UFC you would see that it’s steadily climbing. This is just in the US. In other countries it’s similar as well.

Plus, you only search when you don’t know where to look. I have an RSS feed of this site and I have UFC in my google news so no need to search.

Thanks Brian, that is some pretty good information.

HOLY CRAP!!!!! UFC MANIA U HAVE GOT TO SEE THIS IF YOU HAVNT ALREADY!!! I THINK THE VIDEO JUST CAME OUT TODAY!! ITS FOR THE NEW UFC GAME COMING OUT ON THE XBOX 360!! IT LOOKS FREAKIN AWESOME!!!
http://www.ign.com/

I am a little bit skeptical. When they show the trailer and do not have any clips of the actual game play worries me. I don’t see how they could mimic the actual fighting without making it like a boxing match but I guess we will see.

I think they should air every fight on the card.

I would like to see the same. I haven’t missed purchasing a PPV in
a very long time..but I must admit I find myself hoping for quick fights
so some of the undercard will be shown.
Come on Dana for $40.00 show me the whole card you cheap prick.

What is the y-axis? Mania?

Wait, people still use Yahoo! for searches? I thought we had all graduated to google and others…

QFE.