The Weekly Wrap: August 22 - August 28

UFC 102 fizzles?

The Ultimate Fighting Championship sought to pump interest in its debut card in Oregon this past week, holding its usual array of press junkets and premiering a Countdown special on Spike TV. For the first time in recent memory, the hype appears much needed.

Saturday's UFC 102, headlined by Randy Couture vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, appears to be struggling in the ticket sales and public interest department. One week out, the company had sold about 10,000 tickets in the 20,000-seat Rose Garden Arena in Portland, a much slower pace than has been customary this year. According to The Wrestling Observer, the UFC was considering closing off the Rose Garden balcony and moving all fans that bought tickets in the lowest price range to the floor. That’s highly unusual for a UFC card, as shows that are expected to draw smaller crowds are often staged in smaller buildings.

The Wrestling Observer also reported that the UFC is not allowing bars and restaurants within a certain radius of the Rose Garden to air the show in order to encourage ticket sales, and that some last-minute ticket discounts should help boost the gate to $2 million, well down from the $3.3 million the UFC was able to fetch for its debut in Pennsylvania in a similar-sized arena on Aug. 8.

The UFC’s debut in Dallas, Texas -- UFC 103 on Sept. 19 -- has already sold out the American Airlines Arena, according to the promotion.

The UFC positioned Couture, one of the most popular fighters in company history, in the main event to capitalize on the fact that he lived and trained in Oregon in the formative years of his career. The UFC has tried to bring a show to Oregon for a while, including an initial plan to do the Couture-Brock Lesnar UFC 91 card in Portland. Couture remarked during a Thursday press conference that he noticed his phone wasn’t blowing up with interview and media requests for this weekend’s fight as it has for his other recent bouts. Other fighters with Oregon roots, including Keith Jardine and Chris Leben, are also prominent on the main card.

The one-hour “Countdown” special for UFC 102 seemed ill focused, putting emphasis on four fights without much depth, particularly for the main event. The special tagged Couture vs. Nogueira a battle of the “two most decorated heavyweights in the history of the UFC” and touched on their histories since both won their first heavyweight titles in 1997. Couture’s camp said the plan was to be faster than Nogueira and keep him moving backwards, while Nogueira’s side pointed out Couture’s weakness against heavier fighters with threatening submission skills. It will be only the second time in Couture’s illustrious UFC career that he’s been in a fight where a title isn’t on the line. Nogueira said he’s leaner and faster than he was in his terrible performance against Frank Mir in December.

The special also paid extensive mind to Thiago Silva, exploring his dirt-poor upbringing in the Brazilian slums (“favelas”), the product of an abusive father who shunned him for his fighting ambitions. Jardine was portrayed as confident and hungry coming off a loss of his own, but the narrative of Silva rising from poverty was over-arching.

In highlighting Nate Marquardt vs. Demian Maia, the UFC sought to mythologize Maia’s submission ability, matching footage of him applying holds with Royce Gracie doing the same in 1994. Marquardt said he could beat Maia in a grappling match. There was also a short, trash-talk-centric mention of the Brandon Vera vs. Krzysztof Soszynski bout.

All 22 fighters scheduled for UFC 102 made weight on Friday with no issue.