Can Affliction Overtake UFC? Maybe, If They Follow These Simple Rules…

So we were invited over to a buddy’s house this weekend to watch the Affliction: Banned PPV, the first one from the budding MMA league. If you don’t know the backstory, Affliction is the clothing line that was started by Randy Couture, former star of the UFC. We say former because he had a falling out with UFC head Dana White, so he left and what began before the tift as Affliction the clothing line became Affliction the fighting league, and challenger to UFC.
Saturday night was their first card, and it started out slowly, but it came to a head with the last three fights, culminating in a 36-second ass-kicking handed to 6′8 Tim Sylvia by Fedor Emelianenko in the night’s last and headlining battle. When that ended (and before we switched to TiVo to watch the free UFC fight that was counter-programmed against the Banned PPV), we briefly discussed what we’d seen. The consensus was that it was on par withe the last few Ultimate Fighting events, but it could use some fine tuning, such as…

• “Big” John McCarthy Sucks “Big” Time As An Announcer: McCarthy was one of the main referees in UFC, so Couture must’ve wanted to get that feel over in Affliction. So what does he do, put him in the ring to ref? No, that would make too much sense. He decides to make the punch-drunk McCarthy the main interviewer, which is hilarious once you’ve had too many beers and can’t understand either the MC or the Brazilian guy who just got his head knocked in. So if you want these things to keep on being unintentionally funny, continue. If not, go another route.
• No Megadeath Encores, Please: The opening act to the fights was an opening set by Megadeath, which was cool for a second. But then they came out twice more for encores, and that got old real quick. While it looked like a lot of the OC crowd was into it, we were tempted to switch over and get sucked in to the UFC event. At least those guys understand what guys want in excess at these things–blood and boobs, not aging heavy metal guys.
• Where are the ring girls?: While Megadeath was playing its third encore of the night, the guys were passing around the new Playboy with Ashley Harkelroad in it. If Couture wants to break away from tradition, that’s fine, but don’t mess with the one proven thing not to suck during a night of fights–looking at a ring girl’s ass as she shimmies across the ring. Bring her in on bungee cord or cannon fire, but bring do not eliminate the ring girl. There’s only so much you can tinker with before you break it.
• As In Drinking, Lightweights Only Bring You Down: It’s no coincidence that Banned got better as the night went along. The fighters in the lower fight classes were too inexperienced and just boring to watch. Once the likes of Andrei Arlovski came into play, then we got hooked. Or maybe we’re just too infatuated with this kid to look at flyweights the same way again.
  
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• Rethink the ring idea: Yeah, the refs were pretty bad last night, but they were even worse when the fights started ending up on the ropes, and out of the ring. They stopped or made fighters change positions at so many inopportune times that just ruined the momentum. Take a lesson from the NBA refs and let the action go if it’s out of the ring but still kosher–and also, let us in on any fixes, too.
• Knock Off The Pre-Fight Fashion Show: During Megadeath’s opening set, all the night’s fighter’s came out and just stood awkwardly on the ramp leading to the ring. They were highlighting Affliction’s fashions, which is okay, I guess. They have to keep in business somehow, but do it somewhat less tacky manner. Don’t just have each guy standing there for five minutes while Dave Mustane wails on behind them. It makes the intimidation factor drop just a little bit in our book.

Did you guys watch the fight? What would you suggest they change, or do you like the way it ran?