Last Saturday Fedor Emelianenko blasted Brett Rogers with a bone crushing right hand to the jaw that sent the 6-foot-5, 265-pound fighter flailing to mat leading to a TKO. The fight lasted a mere 6:48 seconds (1:48 into the second round of a three-round bout) but just might have caused enough commotion in the sporting world to prove Mixed Martial Arts can truly become a viable television spectacle outside of Pay-Per-View and Spike reruns.

The CBS broadcasting of the Strikeforce event didn’t bring in overwhelming numbers, 5.46 million viewers tuned in to watch the fight, but it was the type of viewers the fight brought to CBS that made it worthwhile for the broadcast station. The L.A. Times reported that the station received more than 264 percent increase in its male viewers age 18-34–which beat out the college football numbers.

Dana White, president of UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship–the biggest name in MMA), rebuffed the fight, telling the Times, “CBS would be out of their mind to put that rinky-dink [Strikeforce] . . . on the air again . . . and without that backing, [promoters] won’t have the money to pay [Emelianenko].”

Whites comments seem like sour grapes after his company failed to come to terms with Fedor and his promoter, M-1 Global, in July. But he is correct in stating that under 5.5 million viewers is hardly reason to break out the cheap champagne and schedule a weekly bout.

However, for a station like CBS, whose viewers tend those rocking-chair-white-hairs who feared Obama’s alleged death panels, gaining viewership under retirement age is like finding a job during the Great Recession. Those 18-34-year-olds provide a much needed statistic for the station to wag in the face of sponsor like Gillette, Anheuser-Busch and PlayStation.

There are several things about CBS’s broadcast that if corrected next time around could help gain even more viewership.

1. By many accounts the network did a poor job promoting its broadcast. They didn’t do enough cross promotion with their other programs–especially during its football broadcasts the prior week, (Everyone knows 60 Minutes will be on, use your time better, like ABC does by jamming their NASCAR promos down our throats at every turn on Saturdays.)
2. There wasn’t the big name that American’s can associate with and provide water cooler fodder on Monday morning. Sure Fedor is known to anyone who follows MMA at all, but he isn’t American, doesn’t speak English and isn’t the imposing menace ala Mike Tyson. After the prime time fight he is more well known, “It also seemed that they weren’t all MMA fans, just people that happened to recognize me when I got a cup of coffee or something,” Emelianenko told si.com about his popularity. “A lot more people than usual.” If he become more well-known in the U.S. and/or Strikeforce can set him up with a more intriguing opponent that could be a boon for the next broadcast (potentially in the spring of 2010).
3. Never believe the rating system. Nielsen is one of the biggest jokes ever. Their mode of monitoring is about as out dated as David Letterman’s jokes. Professors at USC’s School of Journalism working at both NBC and CBS have joked about how inefficient and imprecise Nielsen is. Even if that 5.46 million number is an accurate number of people watching from home, they leave out the thousands of those 18 to 34-year-old males at bars on Saturday night who undoubtedly took five minutes from hitting on the semi-attractive-but-drunk-enough girl to watch Fedor blast Rogers in the face.

It’s true that had UFC been involved in setting up and promoting the event it would have been a much more pervasive success. They have a bigger following, better access (especially in America) and to be frank better fighters.

With all due respect to Rogers, his story is a great one–going from changing tires to a being highlighted on a premier heavyweight bout–but he is far from a dominant MMA fighter. Sure he has the size and strength, but watching the fight he seemed to lack the tenacity and technical skill of many of the UFC fighters.

White was skeptical of Fedor’s victory, claiming many of his fighters would beat the snot out of Rogers.

“The guy just got his face smashed in by Brett Rogers. Do you know what Brock [Lesner] or [UFC heavyweights] Frank Mir and Cain Velasquez would do to Brett Rogers?” White said. “It’s time to bring this guy [Fedor] in, to see Brock Lesnar smash his head.”

We haven’t seen this type of intra-sport squabbling since 1986 when the USFL sued the NFL and was awarded a whopping $3.

White is right in a sense. Americans love the best going up against the best. That’s why we love Top Gun, Kobe vs. LeBron, Peyton Manning vs. Tom Brady, et al.

But we also love big stories and bigger personalities. MMA, for all its guts and gore, doesn’t have that presence yet that can capture an audience. There is no Mike Tyson or even Andre Agassi to unify the passive audience and gossip channels. It’s not good when a gimmick like Kimbo Slice garners more attention than Fedor, who some deem the best MMA fighter in the world.

That won’t stop its popularity from growing, however. CBS even sent Gus Johnson to call last Saturday’s fight, and we all know Gus could induce excitement about watching swine flu injections–no word on whether CBS planned to send him to the fight or if it was punishment for his “He’s got gettin’ away from the cops speed” call on a Chris Johnson touchdown.

MMA will only get bigger as more boxing fans realize it’s a more entertaining and exciting sport. As the stigma against the violence dies with most of CBS’s aged viewers, the base of MMA fans, both casual and addicts, will grow by leaps and bounds.

And until the next fight we can at least enjoy the bickering of promoters:

“Fedor’s not ducking anybody,” said Jerry Millen, vice president of M-1 Global. “If UFC wants to prove it has the best fighters, step up and co-promote. Fedor just wants to be treated fairly. The UFC business model is to own the souls of their fighters. Fedor doesn’t have to do that, and if the fans scream loudly enough, we can make that happen.”

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