#Planning on making him a whole squad because I love the idea of Lopez having a bunch of kids who act as his annoying nieces/nephews LOL.

[lavernius]

My self-indulgent doodles...check out my OCs who are Lopez's lieutenants (Brown Team) + are only half as rude as he is.

[thesportssoundoff]

Eight Weeks Later, What Can We Conclude About The Dana White’s Tuesday Contenders Series?

When the UFC announced its decision to put on a special run of five fights a week every Tuesday under the (skirt around the rules) Dana White Tuesday Night Contender series label, plenty of people were intrigued. Some obviously questioned the intentions behind the concept or the application behind the show but the MMA community agreed to give it all a shot because why not? Best case scenario, a bunch of new talent would be discovered in a fresh hip format designed to boost up the ranks of some slumping divisions. Worst case scenario, some fighters who were earning crumbs on the regional scene would get the opportunity to earn a bit more money and a hell of a lot more exposure. Even if the idea of fights in a gym with Snoop on commentary seemed simply too far fetched to fathom, we all gave it a shot. So what have we learned as the UFC and Dana White walk towards the final episode for the foreseeable future?

There is a hopelessness at two divisions of great importance

Each DWTCS episode features a fight either in the light heavyweight or the heavyweight division. Each time without fail, those fights are generally the worst fights on the entire episode. Even when those fights are finished, the action leading up the finish proves to be dull and even at times unwatchable. Through 35 fights, 2 heavyweights (with one more planned next week) and 6 light heayweight fights. Of those 8 fights, 2 of the fighters who won those fights got signed with one of those guys getting immediately shimmied down to middleweight which means that 8 fights have produced 1 fighter at a division of need. The UFC has been running shows for two months now and determined that a single light heavyweight was worth signing and no heavyweight of note is out there. Or at least out there competing on the radar which opens you up for DWTCS. Compare that to the fact that they've had 6 bantamweight fights and 3 of those winners have been signed. I don't know what the solution is regarding fixing 205 and 265 lbs but the Contender Series surely doesn't seem to be it.

The Value Of New Commentary Voices

Jon Anik is a tremendous lead analyst for the UFC, acting as a smartened up Mike Goldberg for traditional UFC broadcasts. At the same time, Anik is but one guy and asking him to do 40 events a year plus all of the ancillary broadcasts can tire out anybody. The UFC took two guys who weren't professional live fight commentators and gave them a test run. The same was said for Yves Edwards (which is cheating a bit since Yves has called regional MMA before) and Paul Felder.  The Dan Hellie/Yves Edwards broadcast was okay-ish but the Paul Felder and Brendan Fitzgerald combo is really good for two newbies calling their first fights. With Brian Stann and Joe Rogan likely not here in 2018, the desire to find a color guy for these broadcasts has to go up. Cruz is very good analytical but I wonder if MMA fans can go for his more laid back style of calling fights. Cormier sometimes feels like a bad Joe Rogan; dipping into personal anecdotes and bad jokes to kill time and Florian's just bad at the gig. Felder has the potential to fill that role in time. Furthermore new voices and new ideas should always be filtered into a sport that LOVES to live as if it's on the cutting edge of something new. Why NOT use a platform to give new people a chance?

The talent at 125 is out there, the finishes are not.

The UFC has had 7 flyweight fights to this point. Of those 7 fights, 3 ended in finishes----and 2 of those fighters were signed. The last fighter is almost certain to get a call up. 125 lbs has a reputation where decisions are almost always expected so guys who finish fights will always have a leg up. Brandon Moreno is not as good as say Henry Cejudo or maybe some of the other more talented 125 lbers but he finishes fights and the guys who do that will always be fresh in your mind. There's a lot of talent at flyweight still filtering into the MMA world but the bar is high enough as is. Not finishing fights just feeds the narrative.

Raising the bar on regional MMA

These are essentially regional fights. Fighters who compete earn a one shot of 5K win or lose. We all know horror stories of regional fighters earning $300 bucks on shows televised on AXS or what have you. We've read the ticket sellers dilemma which is the equivalent of when the guys who put up the most posters for indie shows get to wrestle (and often times get hurt). Hopefully the DWTCS gives some of these fighters a little bit of leverage to earn MORE money down the line.

So what didn't work?

The post fight sit around

I know it's engaging television for some folks and the raw emotion from the guys who are getting contracts is truly great sometimes but can't we get that WITHOUT the shots of guys sitting there realizing their dreams are either on hold or just flat out not going to happen. Don't think we entirely need all of that.

The Production Team

The UFC's production team has always been at least pretty good. The DWTCS looks almost like a bit of a scab crew was working on it given the technical errors. There was an entire episode where guys were talking during the video packages, graphics were late on arrival and the commentators sounded lost while trying to lead from one plug to the next. It's sharpened up a bit but I think we can all agree that if you really want to do something different then maybe you need to sharpen up the production quality or perhaps even scrap the whole squad entirely.

The venue/ambiance

Live fights are fun. Live fights with a live audience should be fun. Live fights in front of family members just seems so TUF-y. I know there's nothing wrong with that (and I imagine it'd look stupid to book a 5,000 seat arena with just 50 people inside of it) but it just carries too many Ultimate Fighter vibes to feel like a clean slate. It's like when ECW would run before Smackdown instead of its own small venues designed to simulate the original ECW experience.

Not Enough Women’s Fights

Simply put. Over an eight week period, there are two WMMA fights on these events. I don't want to suggest they raid Invicta again but that's unacceptable given the weeks worth of fights. Let's try to connect that for the next run.

So besides more women fights, what else can be done going forward?

International Fights

@theanticool had a good idea here. The UFC kept it entirely to fighters based in North America which was probably a book keeping related travel expense decision. I get it. Still let's try to expand this sport. About once a month, the UFC runs an event overseas where you could in theory do a double shot with a --blank- Night Contender Series the night before and then the live event the next day. Look at the markets like Latin America and Asia (China specifically) that  probably have a fair bit of underdeveloped underexposed talent. Wouldn't it be easy to just hold a show for the fighters not in the UFC the night before to maybe stumble upon something you might've missed?

Snoopcast Modifications?

The Snoopcast has been one of the more controversial aspects of DWTCS. If you've ever watched an MMA show with your average casual buddy, you've essentially heard everything Snoop's ever said in some form or fashion. Fighters who get knocked out are mocked/laughed at in some respect, wrestlers who make boring fights get chewed up, dudes with wacky haircuts/tattoos/nicknames are joked about and if it's a good fight, all technical analysis goes out the window for some variety of "oh shit this fight is crazy!" or something or another. That's essentially what the snoop cast is. It's a drunk/high Snoop drinking on air and goofing about MMA with Urijah Faber left to act as the point man/recovery lead. It's enjoyable but I could do without Snoop poking fun at fighters who are KO'd or joking about how they got slept. Still...if you watch an event with an MMA casual/novice/non-fan, that's what they do. What were you folks expecting?

To me, the problem with the Snoop Cast is that Snoop really can't do this every week. By week 5, I had already heard enough references to "The Blood Bank" or "What lullaby do you want me to sing you to sleep to?" to last me a lifetime. Doing this every week is tough especially for a guy whose funny may not stretch quite as far as people imagine it to stretch. I'd like to see them treat this similarly to how they treat the actual broadcast and just have a revolving door for people other than Snoop for Urijah Faber to commentary with.

Something For The Losers

I get it. The idea of the Contender Series is all or nothing* in a sense. The winners get a contract* and the losers are fucked. The problem is that we've seen some genuinely good, truly worthy fighters be on the losing end of some great fights thus far. Steven Peterson had a great fight with Benito Lopez and the same can be said for Manny Vasquez in his fight or Austin Arnett or so on so forth. It can't just be out of sight out of mind for the losers, ya get me?