Fight week, blog week! Well, not really.
Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) President Dana White, who frequently takes to YouTube.com to virally promote his mixed martial arts (MMA) events, switched things up this week in advance of UFC on FUEL TV 3: "Korean Zombie vs. Poirier."
White starts off his latest vlog talking about the upcoming show from the Patriot Center in Fairfax, Va., tomorrow night (May 15, 2012), but then one minute into his address he reveals that he has a more important message that he wants to deliver to fight fans:
Check out his intro:
"This isn't really a video blog, this is just something I was pissed off about this week. It was supposed to be the presidential address on Fuel, but they're dark this week so I'm just putting it out there in a video for you guys. It's about the ratings from the last FOX show [UFC on FOX 3]. You get these reporters who go out there and say all this shit about the ratings without knowing all the facts. Well, I'm going to layout the facts for all you guys who don't know a lot about television ratings."
White is talking about the 2.4 million viewers who tuned into watch the Nate Diaz vs. Jim Miller-led event that took place from the IZOD Center in East Rutherford, N.J., on May 5, 2012. From an entertainment perspective, it was far and away the most impressive show to date for the world's leading MMA promotion.
In fact, White referred to it as a "perfect night."
But, then the ratings came in, indicating that UFC on FOX 3 experienced a 50 percent drop-off in key demographics from the UFC on FOX 2: "Evans vs. Davis" event earlier this year in Chicago, which placed it sixth out of the eight programs that ran in the same time slot.
UFC co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta quickly addressed the not-so-serious situation, unfurling several reasons not to be discouraged. That apparently was not enough. Or, White simply felt compelled to reinforce what Fertitta had already explained ... without throwing the recently-released Yahoo!Sports reporter, Dave Meltzer, under the bus.
And the reversing. Repeatedly.