What a Debbie Downer of a Week

There's been a ton of news happening over the past week, and quite frankly, most of it has run the gamut from mediocre to poor for the UFC. Combat sports in general, what with the official cancellation of the K1 Grand Prix and even smaller stories like Pedro Rizzo getting hurt and necessitating an unknown German guy to replace him against Tim Sylvia in a few weeks... Don't get me wrong, I'm not chicken littling here, the sky is quite intact, but pretty much every time I load one of the MMA news sites, Buzz Killington has shown up to kill the mood. Let's do a quick recap:

• According to Dave Meltzer: UFC 136 Did 250,000 PPV Buys - This puts it at one of the worst selling PPV cards in modern UFC history - and it came on a card featuring two title fights and needle-pusher Chael Sonnen. There are a ton of conclusions one can draw from this. It's hard to properly evaluate this without contextualizing a number of things, but a few likely theories are that the lighter weight classes are still uninteresting to the casual fan, Sonnen won't do anything unless he goes full retard, and this a distinct downward trend for the UFC. This doesn't bode well for 137, either.
• GSP is hurt. The news sucked for Carlos Condit as much as it did for everyone else. One of the biggest draws in the history of the UFC is going to be shelved for at least a couple months and Condit is going to wait for him rather than face Josh Koscheck on short notice. On other 137 related news, Nick Diaz is still Nick Diaz and who the hell knows. Whatever. F**K YOUR MOOOOOOOTHEEEEEEER
  
• Paulo Filho is still nuts and allegedly taking copious amounts of stuff one generally shouldn't take.
• Last night's episode of The Ultimate Fighter 14 was lovely and stuff if you like reality show shenanigans and controversial Brazilian/Oregonian phantom taps.

Yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.... that's a tap. Next time, sir, imitate Paul Harris (I don't believe I just wrote that) and keep cranking until the ref pulls you off.

• Shane Carwin is hurt for at least half a year - and given his age and injury history, no one would be surprised if that meant a permanent retirement
• Zuffa and Casino Station owners, the Fertitta brothers, are still battling the Culinary Union, and the union has brought in the FCC and is using the UFC as a collateral damage chip. Also piling on is gossip blogger and general scummy person Perez Hilton, who has hopped aboard the UFC IS GAY BASHING train. I'm not really one to sit and defend what Dana White said a few years ago, but if his apology and subsequent donation to GLAD is good enough for them, then it should be good enough for some guy who says a bunch of nasty ish on his website then calls other people fa**ots. Carecup is completely empty on this one.
• Speaking of going full Paulo Filho on us, Paul Daley put out a video claiming that he will lose 40 pounds in one day. I'm not sure, but I think Paul can see my disdainful stare all the way from here in NJ.
• Rich Franklin and the UFC brass have some minor drama going on about possibly ducking Alexander Gustafsson and other nonsense, but as Rich is a smart company man, this has mostly been soothed over already.
• Oh, yes, the K-1 Grand Prix. People (myself) like to bring up that boxing is dying, and to some degree they're right. This, however, is what dying truly looks like. Now we're down to It's Showtime and... yea.
On a lighter, yet equally dreadful note, this video for the UFC on Fox was made public and jesus pogo-sticking christ it is awful. Cain banging on the cage fence like a gorilla? Junior staring sideways at the camera while hitting the heavy bag and then flexing with flames everywhere? The creative mind behind this should be fired on the spot.