The Weekly Wrap: Aug. 1 - Aug. 7

UFC/WEC run-up

Zuffa kicked into gear this past week for a weekend that features two major televised events in UFC 101 on Aug. 8 and WEC 42 on Aug. 9.

The UFC held a press conference Thursday in Philadelphia to hype UFC 101, the company's first event in the city. The show will set a combat sports gate record for the state of Pennsylvania, about $3.4 million according to a report by the Philadelphia Inquirer. The show is headlined by B.J. Penn vs. Kenny Florian and Anderson Silva vs. Forrest Griffin.

A "Countdown" special focused on the bouts drew 805,000 viewers on Spike TV. That's down from the record 1.1 million audience for last month's UFC 100 hype show, but well above the 552,000 audience for the UFC 99 special and 768,000 for the UFC 98 one.

The special told the story of Penn rebuilding after his loss to Georges St. Pierre, with no mention of the greasing allegations that characterized the fight's fallout. Penn relocated his camp for the last two months to California to distance himself from the distractions and interruptions of his Hawaiian homeland, and joined up with Marv Marinovich, known for coaching his son Todd as a college football standout, as his strength and conditioning coach. Penn had already brought in a who's who for the training camp, including Nick Diaz and Jake Shields. The special featured the widely seen viral clip of Penn jumping out of three feet of pool water. The lightweight champion was portrayed as nonchalantly dismissive of Florian's bold statements about assuming the division’s mantle.

Surprisingly, the special focused to a much lesser extent on Griffin vs. Silva, equally if not more anticipated than the title fight. Silva's oft-derided past performances were referenced, though more focus was placed on Griffin's familiar position as the underdog. There were several clips of Griffin on a book tour signing copies of his bestseller and answering questions about the Silva fight in trademark sardonic fashion. There was a curious emphasis on Silva ripping on Robert Drysdale, Griffin's jiu-jitsu coach, for Drysdale’s criticism of Silva's ground tendencies.

In the Griffin fight, Silva has a chance to become the first fighter to defeat top-5 fighters in three different weight classes (Dan Henderson/Rich Franklin at 185, Griffin at 205 and Hayato Sakurai at 170).

On Friday in Philadelphia, all 22 fighters made weight without issue.

As for WEC 42, the Miguel Torres vs. Brian Bowles card will be staged in a newly expanded Joint arena at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. The card, which broadcasts on Versus, will also air as a $9.99 Internet pay-per-view. WEC General Manager Reed Harris told the Sherdog Radio Network's "Beatdown" show that the pay-per-view component was added to accommodate European and Japanese fans looking to see Takeya Mizugaki fight Jeff Curran.

The show is considered particularly important for WEC's future in Mexico, where the promotion has promising, though tape-delayed, television. Harris said he and Torres will do a press tour of Mexico next week in attempt to firm up a Mexico City WEC card for 2010.

Though the event takes place the night after a major UFC event, Harris said he does not detect stilted interest in the latest WEC offering. He said the promotion has gotten more media requests than ever to cover the event, and will benefit from several plugs on the UFC pay-per-view the night before. The card will have widespread implications on the featherweight and bantamweight divisions, with top-10 fighters Torres, Bowles, Mizugaki, Joseph Benavidez and Leonard Garcia all in action.