The Weekly Wrap: June 6 -- June 12

UFC 99 hype

The UFC laid the final groundwork for its debut card in Germany this past week, hyping Saturday’s UFC 99 through a Countdown special, conference calls and press junkets.

UFC President told the press that the card at Lanxess Arena was just about sold out despite a heavy dose of negative local publicity, which called into question whether MMA was too violent to sanction as an acceptable sport. In an effort to head off the backlash, the UFC agreed to not allow anyone under 18 to attend the show. The publicity is reminiscent of the perception the sport battled for over a decade in the United States.

The UFC pushed the return of heavyweight standout Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic on the show. A conference call was held specifically with Filipovic and White, in which White said he took the unusual step of signing Cro Cop to a one-fight deal to get him on the show. A Croatian celebrity, Cro Cop is expected to be a significant attraction on the Germany card. The one-fight deal is significant in many ways, as a weariness of such deals is said to be one of the reasons White has not reached a deal with Fedor Emelianenko. Emelianenko’s management told MMAWeekly.com that they’d be willing share the heavyweight kingpin under similar terms to Cro Cop’s contract.

Cro Cop’s appearance was only briefly referenced on the “Countdown to UFC 99” special that aired this past week on Spike TV, which attracted 552,000 viewers for its premiere airing, well down from the 768,000 for the UFC 98 hype special. The program focused on Rich Franklin vs. Wanderlei Silva, Cain Velasquez vs. Cheick Kongo and Mike Swick vs. Ben Saunders. Curiously absent was the heated Marcus Davis-Dan Hardy fight, which has sparked a memorable war of words. There was a plan to feature Hardy and Davis at one point but the idea was cut, according to WrestlingObserver.com.

The “Countdown” special played heavily on the dynamic of Anderson Silva helping train Franklin for his fight, and the bad blood between Anderson and Wanderlei, who are former partners in the famed Chute Boxe camp. Cameras were not allowed in the Franklin-Silva training sessions in Los Angeles. Much was made about Franklin's trouble with the Thai clinch against Anderson and Wanderlei's strength there, while Franklin’s left straight and left kicks were played up vis-à-vis Silva’s susceptibility to knockouts. While Silva comes in the underdog, 20 MMA insiders polled by Sherdog.com picked Silva to win compared to 14 for Franklin.

The special also featured the strongest promotional push to date for 5-0 American Kickboxing Academy product Cain Velasquez. Veteran AKA instructor Dave Camarillo called Velasquez the best fighter to ever come out of the camp, above Jon Fitch and Josh Koscheck, while others called him a potential heavyweight version of Georges St. Pierre and Anderson Silva. The profile also played up Velasquez’s Mexican heritage, interviewing his father who worked long hours in produce companies to support his family after immigrating to America at age 18.