@MichaelCoughlin
See, because the card is headlined by Mighty Mouse as he defends his Flyweight Championship against John Dodson. Oh, there’s nothing too special about it, as by now you’re aware of how the UFC tells tales. I will say though that this seemed a great deal more effective at storytelling than in the past. Yes, it’s the usual, “We fought. I won. No, I won. We will battle it out to decide once and for all” stuff. But it’s part of a larger trend that I once made fun of the UFC for but now get: things simply look slicker and more professional. In a good way.
The company promised new flashy graphics and such beginning with Conor-Fest 2015 and at the time it was easy for me to poke fun and “HAW HAW! The logo is the same.” But for whatever reason, this 9 minutes (or so) clip really highlighted how different things are. Reebok, dress codes, all that stuff is annoying to fighters – and understandably so. (Maybe they should form a union…) But the overall presentation is amongst the best I see in sports today. The NFL, MLB, etc… are all very sterile to me. This has a feel of clean, smart, minimalist, and yet still somehow a sport of grown men punching each other in the face. The only other presentation I see that I’m as impressed with is NBCSports coverage of the Premier League.
I saw the first fight these two had, live. It was good. But I’ll admit that I’ve been conned into actually caring about UFC 191. I hate myself.
Behold: The UFC 191 Video Preview
Main Card on PPV 10 ET/9/8/7
- Demetrious Johnson vs. John Dodson for flyweight title
- Andrei Arlovski vs. Frank Mir
- Anthony Johnson vs. Jimi Manuwa
- Corey Anderson vs. Jan Blachowicz
- Alex Chambers vs. Paige VanZant
PRELIMINARY CARD FOX Sports 1, 8 p.m. ET/7/6/5
- Paul Felder vs. Ross Pearson
- John Lineker vs. Francisco Rivera
- Jessica Andrade vs. Raquel Pennington
- Clay Collard vs. Tiago Trator
PRELIMINARY CARD UFC Fight Pass, 7 p.m. ET/6/5/4
- Joe Riggs vs. Ron Stallings
- Nazareno Malegarie vs. Joaquim Silva
A short preview, I get it!