Well, so much for all that.

PREVIOUSLY: UFC on Fox 2 Preview

The second installment of the UFC on Fox delivered with some exciting fights, memorable finishes, and one of the better Lightweight fights of the past month between Evan Dunham and Nik Lentz.

Too bad all of that was in the preliminaries.

The reactions I read on Twitter spoke volumes and are the talking points for various websites this morning. What was the UFC thinking in putting this main card together? Why put so many grapplers on there? Isn’t that instant death for mainstream attraction?

My initial reaction was that the show was something of a disaster from a network broadcast standpoint. One follower on twitter asked if this could have gone any worse for the UFC. I semi-jokingly replied that all that was missing was a death in the ring, while another follower suggested that Maia could have just pulled guard for three rounds. He might as well have; I didn’t like what I’d seen of him and thought he’d have issues with Weidman, but I didn’t think his cardio would be that bad. It was a very rough start to what turned out to be a largely uneventful and taxing night for all but the most diehard fans.

Those who stuck through the plodding Maia/Weidman fight or missed it entirely were then subjected to a very underwhelming performance from Chael Sonnen, who got a Unanimous Decision win based on takedowns from Sonnen that went nowhere and did nothing to improve position. Bisping, to his credit and my surprise, was the better striker in the first two rounds and was actually more effective with his grappling defense and cage clinch. So much so, in fact, that he won it 29-28 on my scorecard. Sonnen’s excuse can and should be that Sonnen spent six weeks training for Mark Munoz, a different style of fighter. But to the mainstream fan who has to accept that this guy can somehow beat the best pound for pound fighter in the world, that’s a hard sell.

I thought and was hoping the main event would have gone better for Phil Davis, but Rashad Evans is just that good. My main concern about Evans and the reason I went with Davis is that he’s a bit undersized as a Light Heavyweight, but as I said before and I’ll resoundingly state again, it only makes what he’s able to do in there that much more impressive. As we expected he was able to outstrike Davis, but surprisingly he also outwrestled and overpowered a much larger former NCAA Division 1 champion. What others have been saying to me and the UFC’s matchmakers was proven true: Davis isn’t quite ready yet for that level of competition. Some guys just have to be brought along at a steady pace, and clearly jumping from fighting guys out of the top 10 to the #2 Light Heavyweight in the world was way too much to ask of “Mr. Wonderful.” On the flip side, I was impressed with his ability to hang in for all five rounds and felt he kept his composure despite what must have been a frustrating bout. It’s the type of fight that will only make him a better fighter.

As for Fox itself, I continue to have issues with its sports production. Red Cleatus fighting Blue Cleatus (I was hoping beyond hope we’d be spared the Fox Sports Bots) and Curt Menefee acting like the UFC was an alien race that just landed on our planet made me really miss Spike TV’s broadcasts.

My frustration could not match what the affiliates must have felt with that unnecessary overrun. To put it bluntly, Fox fucked them. They wanted to do an overrun to artificially jack up the rating, and did so by doing absolutely nothing the first quarter hour. When I say nothing I do mean nothing; Menefee talked to a charisma-less Randy Couture (great fighter, bad broadcaster) and a woefully unprepared Jon Jones about…well, nothing. They didn’t even show any pre-fight video packages until sixteen minutes into the broadcast. From a promotional standpoint, that’s inexcusably inept.

As a fan of fights, I wasn’t totally turned off. But I’m one of those diehards, and I’m also not as impatient when a fight goes to the ground as others are. Still, it was an overall frustrating broadcast, and someone needs to have a come to Jesus meeting, whether it’s Fox telling the UFC they need matchmaking that’s going to entice the casual fan or the UFC telling Fox it needs to hit the ground running and opt out of its usual bullshit pandering and bad habit of insisting professional athletes be broadcasters.

Former WEC Bantamweight champion Miguel Torres was fired by Dana White after tweeting a rape joke on Thursday.

Miguel Torres was publicly fired by Dana White yesterday after White was blindsided by “Outside the Lines” host Michael Landsberg about an offensive rape joke that Torres posted to his Twitter account earlier in the day.

The tweet, which was originally said to be a reference to an episode of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia but Ariel Helwani later tweeted was from an episode of Workaholics that Torres was watching, was deleted and replaced with an edited version after Torres caught some heat for it online. Either way, Torres didn’t provide any context, and when Landsberg made White aware of it, he was furious.

This comes on the heels of the UFC on Fox 2 press conference, where Rashad Evans told his opponent, Penn State alumnus Phil Davis, that “you’ll be the first one to take a shot cause I’m going to put my hands on you worse than that dude did them other kids at Penn State.” White seemed amused at the comment initially, but later said he didn’t hear it clearly and that it was “a dumb thing to say” in light of the Sandusky controversy.

Immediately there was a cry of “double standard.” Rashad got a talking-to from Dana White, while Torres got fired by proxy. Seems unfair, right?

Well, it is. As much as people like Miguel Torres, he’s not a star like Rashad Evans. If you’re going to fire a guy to make an example, you don’t do it to one of your most recognizable faces that is, by the way, headlining your next event on Fox. It would be cynical and dismissive to just simply say “them’s the breaks” and that life is sometimes unfair, but MMA is no different than any other sport in this. If Tom Brady said something stupid during a press conference and a third-string linebacker later tweeted an offensive comment, you can guarantee that a similar scenario would play out. Brady would have to apologize and would get a talking-to, while the third-string linebacker would be sacked without hesitation (no pun intended).

The other thing to consider is that White was physically there with Rashad for the press conference, and could at least address it immediately and give the appearance of some degree of culpability and regret. With Torres, White was blindsided and embarrassed on a national stage (even if that nation was Canada). He didn’t even have the opportunity to say he apologized for his fighter’s comment, that his fighter wasn’t thinking, and that the issue was addressed. And as embarrassing as it was for Dana, it would have been even more so if, say, he had been asked first by a member of the American press. In fact, his first scheduled interview right after Landsberg was with Sports Illustrated, and I guarantee he was grateful it was in that order rather than the other way around.

It’s also worth mentioning that Torres has done this before. Dana was quick to say that Torres is an otherwise good guy and that there hasn’t been an issue previously. But as Cage Potato pointed out, he’s always been known by fans to tweet some fairly offensive, shock humor tweets to get a rise out of people, and specifically use rape as the subject (exhibit A, exhibit B).

The thing is, it’s not funny. And I don’t mean that from a standpoint of taking offense, but that it’s all just hack comments meant to shock, but none of them are amusing and rarely are they provided with context. The bottom line is that Miguel’s just not as good at being funny as he is at being a fighter. It reeks of desperation, insensitivity, and stupidity. We all know he’s better than that, but some guys just can’t help themselves until it’s too late.

I’m going to go out on a limb (okay, not really) and say that we’ll see Torres back in the UFC before the end of 2012. I don’t expect this to be a lifetime ban. I do, however, expect that the UFC is going to start sending more messages like this to their fighters to remind them that they have finally, after years of struggling to get the sport passed in several states, gained mainstream notoriety and acceptance. But with that comes the cost of being under a microscope. The days of MMA as a niche product are gone, and as much as fans like having access to their fighters and those fighters being genuine and forthright, sometimes – just like in day to day life – some discretion is necessary.

The UFC has released the full card (sans a couple prelims yet to be decided) for UFC on Fox 2 on Saturday, January 28th.

In addition to the previously announced main event of Rashad Evans vs. Phil Davis and co-main of Chael Sonnen vs. Mark Munoz, both presumably to determine the #1 contenders for their respective divisions, the speculated fight between Michael Bisping and Demian Maia will happen on the UFC’s second primetime network event.

Earlier this week, Dana White told journalists to expect another “big” fight, saying it would be comparable to the other two in terms of prestige and importance. I’m not quite sure Bisping and Maia is quite that important to the fans, but it is an important fight for Michael Bisping. White has also said in recent interviews that the two-hour broadcast is likely to include at least three fights.

Bisping will go into the fight just seven weeks after his dominant win over an out of shape and unprepared Jason “Mayhem” Miller at The Ultimate Fighter 14 Finale. Despite being in the UFC for seven years and compiling a 22-3 record, Bisping has only fought a Top 5 fighter twice in his entire career. The last time was the now legendary knockout loss to Dan Henderson at UFC 100 over two years ago. Before that, he lost a highly controversial and disputed split decision to Rashad Evans in 2007 at UFC 78. That loss, ironically, was the closest he’s come to beating a legitimate contender in any weight class; Evans went on two fights later to win the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship from Forrest Griffin before immediately being dropped by Lyoto “The Dragon” Machida.

The problem is that Bisping is British. No, I’m not trying to be funny, and no I’m not going to bore you again with my treatise on the grappling deficiency overseas. Rather, it makes him a commodity to the UFC that they have actively sought to protect, though they’d deny it and be able to provide circumstantial evidence to suggest timing has always been the issue. Still, the fact is that Bisping is easily their biggest British draw, and he’s important to maintaining a presence and further penetrating the British market.

But the UFC can only coast on Bisping for so long. His drawing power has been diluted by a resume that’s not quite as impressive once you get past his record. It’s certainly not his fault, since he seems eager to face better competition and has been making no secret of the fact that he’s getting restless and chomping at the bit to be given a chance to prove himself.

To an extent he’ll get that against Maia. A suspect chin has kept him out of the Top 5 at middleweight, and he hasn’t finished a fight in over two and a half years. He’s not facing the Maia that went on a tear after his UFC debut with five consecutive decision wins. But he’s still a lot more dangerous than Jason Miller, Jorge Rivera, and Yoshihiro Akiyama. A win against Maia goes a long way towards legitimizing Bisping at Middleweight and could, realistically, put him within one fight of title contention.

The rest of the card:

Rashad Evans vs. Phil Davis
Chael Sonnen vs. Mark Munoz
Michael Bisping vs. Demian Maia
Evan Dunham vs. Paul Sass
Michael Johnson vs. Cody McKenzie
Cub Swanson vs. George Roop
John-Olav Einemo vs. Mike Russow
Demetrious Johnson vs. Eddie Wineland

Phil Davis and Rashad Evans will face off on January 28th, and it's the perfect fight for a Fox network broadcast.

According to ESPN.com, the UFC is going to make the main event of their second broadcast on the Fox network a Light Heavyweight bout between Rashad Evans and Phil Davis. The fight, if confirmed, will air live in primetime on Saturday, January 28th.

Davis vs. Evans is actually the perfect fight for network broadcast. Evans has the star power and mainstream recognition to draw in the casual audience, while Phil Davis is a huge prospect with great upside that would benefit from the increased exposure.

Barring unforeseen circumstances, it’s all but a lock that the winner will be named the #1 contender for the UFC Light Heavyweight championship currently held by Jon Jones. Rashad Evans has been waiting for his shot ever since an injury kept him from a scheduled bout with then-champion Mauricio “Shogun” Rua in March. As a result of Evans’s injury, the fight was offered to teammate Jon Jones, who accepted and won the title from Rua. Evans has been itching for a fight ever since, with media attention gravitating towards his disappointment with his former teammate for taking the title shot. Now the only thing standing in his way is Phil Davis, a highly touted prospect and has been on an absolute tear since entering the UFC in February of 2010 and racked up wins over the likes of Brian Stann, Alexander Gustafsson, and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira.

It’s also an intriguing fight for fans on its own competitive merits. Although Evans is a solid striker and wrestler, he’d be giving up a lot of size and strength to Davis. On the other hand, Davis is still a young fighter with an untested chin. I’m hedging my bets on Davis being a long-term fixture at Light Heavyweight and eventual champion, but Evans has the most technically proficient stand-up game of any opponent he’s faced.

For their second go around, the UFC has already confirmed that two fights will air on the Fox network. There’s still no word on what that fight will be. A Welterweight fight between Diego Sanchez and Jake Ellenberger was rumored for the event, but that’s since been confirmed as the main event for the February 15th fight card airing on Fuel TV. Another fight, still rumored and not confirmed by either fighter or the UFC, is a Middleweight #1 contender’s match between Chael Sonnen and Mark Munoz.