Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer has indicated that last week’s Strikeforce: Carano vs. Cyborg event was exceptionally popular: garnering the most searched items on Yahoo! and Google, breaking Showtime ratings records, and breaking Yahoo! Sports MMA hits records.
Note: Wrestling Observer content requires a low, monthly based subscription fee to access the content in its entirety – it’s a good investment if you’re a hardcore fan, however.
And by every indication, those who were critical of putting women in the main event have this week had to eat major crow.
After a weekend which saw mentions of Carano and Cyborg become the No. 1 most searched item on Yahoo, No. 2 on Google, and the most discussed topic on Saturday night on Twitter, the key number, the television ratings, were record breaking for Showtime. On Yahoo, we had more hits for coverage of the show on 8/16 than we did on 8/9, the day after UFC 101, and UFC 101 was at a level above all but the biggest UFC events in history. Carano stories were put on the front page (not of sports but of everything) both before and after the event, and even as late as 8/18, three days after, a story on Cyborg’s next potential opponents was on the front page.
Payout Perspective:
The Strikeforce: Carano vs. Cyborg event was as successful as it could have been given its television and marketing platforms. The numbers on Showtime, given the marketing that Strikeforce was able to provide, were quite impressive. It also makes you wonder what the event could have done had it been on CBS or had the benefit of the UFC’s hype machine and international audience.
Unfortunately, for as many records as Carano vs. Cyborg seems to have broken, the event probably left more questions than answers in regards to the viability of women’s MMA (as MMAPayout.com discussed in its post-fight coverage of the event).
Questions abound in regards to the future of Women’s MMA: However, despite the skill and athleticism shown by both Cyborg and Carano on Saturday night, the bout seems to have left more questions than answers in regards to the future of women’s MMA. Are fans really interested in seeing two women fight, or were they simply more interested in seeing Gina Carano fight – a girl that’s made Maxim’s top 20 list and has been offered a playboy spread?
Cyborg’s power and aggression would make her an instant success in any of the men’s categories, but I’m not yet convinced that fighting ability is the key ingredient for a women’s MMA fighter.
And, if fighting isn’t the key ingredient to creating a women’s MMA star then what does that say about the prospect of women’s MMA ever catching on. The point of the sport is physical combat and if strength of the product isn’t the product itself, the product is bound for failure.
Mind you, women’s MMA doesn’t have to be a commercial success. I strongly advocate equality in all walks of life, but at the same time, these women have to eat and make a living at what they’re doing; and for the sport to grow, young women martial artists need to know they can make a living with MMA before pursuing a career in the sport.
However, you could make the argument that women’s MMA just needs a proper platform, that Showtime isn’t it, and that perhaps the UFC could give women’s MMA the legitimizing marketing boost it needs. All things that remain to be see. The response that Cyborg receives as the world’s best women’s fighter will be a telling predictor of the future drawing potential for women’s MMA.
Furthermore, a glance at the current line-up of popular professional sports will reveal a landscape more or less devoid of women’s competition. Aside from tennis and, perhaps golf, there isn’t a great deal of precedence for women’s professional sports gaining any significant popularity.
In fact, you could probably point to the inexplicable sporting popularity of the mediocre, yet extremely beautiful Anna Kournikova as an example that parallels some of what we’re bound to see, and have seen, in women’s MMA. It begs the question, is the sport’s popularity derived from athletic and skillful abilities, or some other tangible?
So, while the August 15th event helped to prove that women’s MMA is capable of headlining a successful, top-level MMA card; it failed to remove all doubt that women’s MMA can be the strong, attention drawing force that the rest of the sport has become.
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