Mike Goldberg Blasts Recent UFC Broadcasts: We Know What’s Happening
It’s hardly a secret that the UFC’s recent stretch of subpar pay-per-view buys and television ratings has fans wanting more in the MMA-slogged early months of 2018.
With an under-promoted and un-anticipated event seemingly every weekend, fans are left with little meat on the proverbial bone, yet are expected to either sit through another grueling FOX Sports 1 broadcast or pay $65.00 for a watered-down card in order to stay current on the sport they love, not exactly an ideal position for UFC owners Endeavor to put fans in.
It’s lacking a certain something – and many would say that’s UFCmegastar Conor McGregor – but aside from that, some feel the product is just lacking excitement overall. That’s why it’s hardly a surprise to hear Octagon play-by-play man Mike Goldberg call out his former employers for being less than exhilarating.
Ousted from his longtime seat next to Joe Rogan with little fanfare or justification, Goldberg was quickly signed by UFC rival Bellator MMA, and he discussed the differences with Ariel Helwani between the two promotions during this week’s The MMA Hour.
To him, he’s now a competitor, and while he won’t trash any of his former colleagues at the UFC, he added that Bellator’s ratings are going up while the UFC’s are headed the opposite way:
“It’s different, and I’m a competitor, let’s just say that.
“I will do everything in my power to make sure that Bellator has the best TV broadcast in MMA. And that’s not being disrespectful to anybody. Jon Anik is my buddy. He never did anything to me and I never did anything to him.
“Those guy are my friends, but at the end of the day it’s competition. We’re all trying to get ratings and Bellator’s ratings are going up — we know what’s happening on the other side (UFC).”
He also noted that from his own experienced viewpoint, the UFC broadcasts have not been nearly as exciting as they could have been in his opinion.
Often criticized for sometimes head-scratching errors of his own during UFC broadcasts, Goldberg admitted he’s far from perfect, but there are still issues with the current method the UFC is delivering their on-air content to fans:
“I just want to do what I do, so do I see things that make me go, ‘Wow, that was really interesting. That was really not as exciting as it could be.’
“It’s just moments,” he explained. “It’s not anybody’s fault and don’t get me wrong, people have been saying things about me for 100 years and I’ve made my mistakes. I’d like to remind people that my blooper real is maybe 15 or 20 minutes long. I was probably on the air for two million minutes though, so that’s pretty good, right? But I do watch it and I see the difference.”
