Curly Howard
04-26-2003, 01:30 PM
From http://www.mmaweekly.com/
My friend Neil said it all when we first saw the broadcasters open the show. After watching the opening moments of the broadcast, Neil made the remark, "Is this amateur try out night or what? What are they doing? Who are these people and how did they get on t.v.?"
If UFC 33 was a disaster to Zuffa as far as the actual fights go, UFC 42 will go down in history as one of the worst produced shows I've ever seen period.
Where to begin? When will Zuffa learn that we have no idea what happened in the David Loiseau and Mark Weir fight? Once the actual pay per view started, there was no mention of what happened. The Canadian fans are probably rioting at this hour and they deserve too. This guy wasn't even mentioned? What the hell?
Folks that's just the beginning. Let's start with fake crowd noise. The UFC hired a company who used to work for the WWE at UFC 39. This company, for some reason, piped in fake crowd noise, ala pro wrestling which became very apparent especially at the end of the main event.
With the entire crowd almost gone and Matt Hughes doing an interview with Lisa Durgan, Hughes finished the interview as a few people stuck around to actually listen to what was being said.
After Hughes concluded, the crowd erupted like he just got a knockout. The only problem? There was no crowd in the building to even cheer that loudly, so to hear a crowd go crazy when there was only six people in the building was down right foolish to say the least. They did this the entire night, piping in this crowd noise after each guy would walk to the ring. I love the heart of Dave Strasser, but a guy from Ohio has that kind of following in Florida? It sounded like the immortal Hulk Hogan was making his way to the ring as the crowd really loved a guy we had never seen before. (touch of sarcasm)
For some reason there were plenty of techincal issues. Joe Rogan tried to throw to a taped piece with Lisa and Tank Abbott and the guys in the production truck were either asleep or taking a coffee break, because it took 10 seconds to get to the piece on television.
There wasn't any audio for the Sherk vs Hughes preview package before the main event. There were many technical problems and it was a sad show as far as presentation goes. As far as the broadcast team goes, can we please hire the professionals you guys had from UFC 33 to UFC 40 please?
The UFC put Joe Rogan in a bad spot as a play by play announcer, when they should have flew a guy like Ryan Bennett or Jeff Osborne in who have called MANY MMA events and kept Rogan in his strong suit of the analyst role. Joe Rogan and Phil Baroni, the two New Yorkers, were average on the broadcast.
They seemed to be o.k. once the fights started, but both guys had a blank look once the camera was on them and it was like they were embarrassed to be there. It was tough to watch in some spots as Rogan starred at the camera with a blank, what the hell are we doing now look.
The duo's best quality moment came at the end of the show when they dissed the ditzy Lisa Durgan. That was actually very funny and I wanted to see Baroni go off more like that on the broadcast. Baroni seemed too reserved on the broadcast and I would have liked to see him have more fun.
Lisa Durgan - For the love of god..... Dana and Lorenzo FIRE her beautiful ass yesterday, please! Your credibility was shot last night as this woman continues to embarrass herself and the company by not having a clue of what's going on.
I've seen some bad interviewers in the past. The worst was "Herb" in UFC 1 and 2. James Werme was a close second as he was a baffoon and looked as though he always had bad gas, but Lisa Durgan may have passed Werme for the second worst interviewer of all time.
Durgan continued to make amazingly bad comments with some bizarre statements like "You got him with a good knee kick"?
Uh, excuse me? What the hell is a knee kick? Durgan is taking this sport to record lows with the fact we all know she doesn't have a clue what she's saying and she can't help the sport grow.
If we want eye candy, then we would watch the ring girls. The scripted questions didn't even help, as she doesn't have a clue what is going on. She couldn't tell an armbar from a candy bar and it's time to bring Ryan Bennett and Jeff Osborne back to your broadcasts immediately with play by play voice Mike Goldberg.
Joe would be fine as the third guy in the booth, but if you want any kind of credibility you need to change yesterday.
Eddie Bravo - Bravo was a strange, weird guy who acted like he had a big secret to get out by saying "Robbie Lawler was laughing his ass off at the commentary of Joe Rogan and Phil Baroni". He didn't add anything insightful and had no significant role on the broadcast.
Bruce Buffer - It wasn't one of his better days. He introduced Romie Aram as Dave Strasser, then started to introduce Aram and as he started to introduce him, his mic was immediately cut off. Not sure why he stopped in mid sentence.
This was a very bad effort by the UFC and I wouldn't be surprised if some guys lose their jobs in the truck when it's all said and done. Bring back the pro's and let's get rid of the.....you get my drift.
My friend Neil said it all when we first saw the broadcasters open the show. After watching the opening moments of the broadcast, Neil made the remark, "Is this amateur try out night or what? What are they doing? Who are these people and how did they get on t.v.?"
If UFC 33 was a disaster to Zuffa as far as the actual fights go, UFC 42 will go down in history as one of the worst produced shows I've ever seen period.
Where to begin? When will Zuffa learn that we have no idea what happened in the David Loiseau and Mark Weir fight? Once the actual pay per view started, there was no mention of what happened. The Canadian fans are probably rioting at this hour and they deserve too. This guy wasn't even mentioned? What the hell?
Folks that's just the beginning. Let's start with fake crowd noise. The UFC hired a company who used to work for the WWE at UFC 39. This company, for some reason, piped in fake crowd noise, ala pro wrestling which became very apparent especially at the end of the main event.
With the entire crowd almost gone and Matt Hughes doing an interview with Lisa Durgan, Hughes finished the interview as a few people stuck around to actually listen to what was being said.
After Hughes concluded, the crowd erupted like he just got a knockout. The only problem? There was no crowd in the building to even cheer that loudly, so to hear a crowd go crazy when there was only six people in the building was down right foolish to say the least. They did this the entire night, piping in this crowd noise after each guy would walk to the ring. I love the heart of Dave Strasser, but a guy from Ohio has that kind of following in Florida? It sounded like the immortal Hulk Hogan was making his way to the ring as the crowd really loved a guy we had never seen before. (touch of sarcasm)
For some reason there were plenty of techincal issues. Joe Rogan tried to throw to a taped piece with Lisa and Tank Abbott and the guys in the production truck were either asleep or taking a coffee break, because it took 10 seconds to get to the piece on television.
There wasn't any audio for the Sherk vs Hughes preview package before the main event. There were many technical problems and it was a sad show as far as presentation goes. As far as the broadcast team goes, can we please hire the professionals you guys had from UFC 33 to UFC 40 please?
The UFC put Joe Rogan in a bad spot as a play by play announcer, when they should have flew a guy like Ryan Bennett or Jeff Osborne in who have called MANY MMA events and kept Rogan in his strong suit of the analyst role. Joe Rogan and Phil Baroni, the two New Yorkers, were average on the broadcast.
They seemed to be o.k. once the fights started, but both guys had a blank look once the camera was on them and it was like they were embarrassed to be there. It was tough to watch in some spots as Rogan starred at the camera with a blank, what the hell are we doing now look.
The duo's best quality moment came at the end of the show when they dissed the ditzy Lisa Durgan. That was actually very funny and I wanted to see Baroni go off more like that on the broadcast. Baroni seemed too reserved on the broadcast and I would have liked to see him have more fun.
Lisa Durgan - For the love of god..... Dana and Lorenzo FIRE her beautiful ass yesterday, please! Your credibility was shot last night as this woman continues to embarrass herself and the company by not having a clue of what's going on.
I've seen some bad interviewers in the past. The worst was "Herb" in UFC 1 and 2. James Werme was a close second as he was a baffoon and looked as though he always had bad gas, but Lisa Durgan may have passed Werme for the second worst interviewer of all time.
Durgan continued to make amazingly bad comments with some bizarre statements like "You got him with a good knee kick"?
Uh, excuse me? What the hell is a knee kick? Durgan is taking this sport to record lows with the fact we all know she doesn't have a clue what she's saying and she can't help the sport grow.
If we want eye candy, then we would watch the ring girls. The scripted questions didn't even help, as she doesn't have a clue what is going on. She couldn't tell an armbar from a candy bar and it's time to bring Ryan Bennett and Jeff Osborne back to your broadcasts immediately with play by play voice Mike Goldberg.
Joe would be fine as the third guy in the booth, but if you want any kind of credibility you need to change yesterday.
Eddie Bravo - Bravo was a strange, weird guy who acted like he had a big secret to get out by saying "Robbie Lawler was laughing his ass off at the commentary of Joe Rogan and Phil Baroni". He didn't add anything insightful and had no significant role on the broadcast.
Bruce Buffer - It wasn't one of his better days. He introduced Romie Aram as Dave Strasser, then started to introduce Aram and as he started to introduce him, his mic was immediately cut off. Not sure why he stopped in mid sentence.
This was a very bad effort by the UFC and I wouldn't be surprised if some guys lose their jobs in the truck when it's all said and done. Bring back the pro's and let's get rid of the.....you get my drift.