Fedor/Rogers ratings

Quote :

The American public wants what it wants: Saturday’s live bout between reputed number-one bruiser Fedor Emelianenko and former tire worker Brett Rogers scored 5.46 million viewers on CBS. In October, a tape-delayed, spoiled-result UFC telecast featuring Kimbo Slice and a distended Roy Nelson grabbed 6.1 million. It is this kind of mass-consumer thinking that will give us a “Transformers 3.”

Strikeforce’s debut ratings for network television are roughly on par with what EliteXC drew in 2008. They also won the evening in the prized 18-34 male demo. But the idea that a basic cable channel could use a UFC logo and a boatyard athlete to outdraw a network special is a lesson in the UFC’s reach of the American fight business. Spike devotes hours and hours each week to putting that signature in neon lights. CBS has no similar investment in Strikeforce. This is the end result.

The rating -- solid, unspectacular -- answers one question but leaves the issue of retention: that will be addressed in a future broadcast, when we find out whether viewers were satisfied with what they saw with enough enthusiasm to return. Emelianenko effectively got himself a seven-minute commercial on free television. That has to count for something.

Technically not that bad for Strikeforce if it went on par with EliteXC when they were using Kimbo. The only difference is that the star of the show didn't get embaressed by a nobody.

Those are pretty good numbers, probably a lot better then it would have gotten on Showtime. Is Brett Rogers the best heavyweight they have, after Fedor? Rogers hung in the first round, but he was clearly out matched and got jacked up early in the second round.

I'd probably rank him (Rogers) second after their champ Overeem because Overeem had substantially more experience and has beaten bigger names.

Why didn't Fedor go for the title in his first fight? Did they have to throw him some bullshit fight to get him to sign?

Coker said that he wants Fedor to work his way up and that these fights "make sense" for him. I personally think Coker doesn't want Fedor ripping through his champ in his first fight because he knows it'll make his division look really weak.

I will continue to have a hard time buying Fedor as the best MMA fighter in the world, until he fights the best in the world and for me, that means he has to fight in the UFC. If he beat Carwin, Valesquez, and then Brock, he would be the best heavy weight in the world. Beating Brett Rogers does not impress me.