Brock Lesnar-Shane Carwin Postponement Spotlights Big UFC Issue: Too Many Events

(Photo by Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images)

With Monday's surprise announcement that UFC Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar's match with Shane Carwin was postponed due to an undisclosed illness, a major flaw in the UFC's business model was once again exposed.

While still hot, the UFC is putting on way too many events, thinning out the talent levels on the shows, giving fans weak PPV main events, and putting them in a terrible spot when having to adjust to situations like the Lesnar one.

I love mixed martial arts as much as anyone, but we're at the saturation point. There is more original and re-aired UFC programming than ever before, both on Spike and PPV. Strikeforce has their major events every two months and then Challengers events to fill in around those.

WEC runs several times a year. When you add in the Japanese organizations, you can literally find enough MMA to fill your plate every night of the week if you have patience, Internet, and a DVR.

For the sake of this argument, let's focus on the UFC—the same group who plans to put on 20 events in 2010, or the equivalent of one every week for five straight months. When you add in the other organizations, we could see almost 60 to 70 percent of next year's weekly calendar with fresh MMA. Holy shnikes.

Some of you are probably saying, "What are you complaining about? I love MMA and can't get enough!"

Well, these three things really stand out to me:

Depth of Talent on Shows

One of the UFC's major selling points to viewers during the start of the boom period was awesome top-to-bottom cards with strong matches and established talent. While the UFC's ability to sell personalities and the brand itself has helped overcome obstacles with putting lesser names on the main shows, the events they've been putting on are weaker than they were a year ago.

Wouldn't you rather buy a PPV with five awesome matches than one with two awesome fights and three average ones? I'd be willing to sacrifice two months off without an event if that meant the one I was paying to see was going to be that much better.

They've managed to avoid the boxing model of one huge event and a bunch of awful fights, but they're slipping due to the amount of cards they have to fill.

Case in point: this past weekend's UFC 104. While the Lyoto Machida/Shogun Rua title match may not have been the sexiest main event in history, look at the card it was anchoring: Cain Velasquez/Ben Rothwell as your second top match? No.

Joe Stevenson/Spencer Fisher? Great opener for a loaded card. Anthony Johnson/Yoshiyuki Yoshida? A great Spike TV match. The Gleison Tibau vs. Josh Neer match shouldn't have made TV at all.

Less shows means less matches you are forced to make, and stronger cards overall. There is also a point to be made about whether the guys who are challenging for a title have truly earned their shot as opposed to being put in a match because the UFC needs a main event. Did Rua earn that shot Saturday or should it really have been Rashad Evans getting a rematch? Or Rampage Jackson? Or even Forrest Griffin?


Weak Main Events

This one kills me. Your main event is supposed to be the obvious big draw. That's why guys like Lesnar and Georges St. Pierre are pushed so heavily: People want to pay to see them fight.

But when I see UFC 103 with Rich Franklin vs. Vitor Belfort on top or UFC 105 with Randy Couture vs. Brandon Vera as the main event, I cringe—not because I don't want to see those fights—but because those aren't UFC-quality main events that we are used to seeing.

Like it or not, there is a definite lack of big money draws in the UFC right now. While there is plenty of top talent (Anderson Silva, BJ Penn, Griffin, Evans, etc.), the money is really made in the matchups.

Again, it's a function of having to fill too many events, but I really liked the days when a main event meant something. Does Couture/Vera get you excited? Me neither. I understand it's on Spike, but if you take a step back, there is no reason Couture should be fighting on cable TV. He can still earn money as part of a bigger card, but they needed the name to justify a main event. That's a bad practice to get into.

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