Televised in a bad time slot on Christmas Eve, I have a feeling that a lot of people missed the countdown to UFC 168. Realistically, this is the best card of the year and probably the biggest card they’ve done in a few years and when it comes to television marketing, outside of the recent UFC on Fox show which did a bad rating, it hasn’t been hyped like you’d expect.

Part of that is because they stacked the fourth quarter with their best cards which also included Georges St-Pierre’s semi-retirement, but part of that is also that their Primetime series isn’t as successful on Fox Sports 1 as it was on FX. It’s an expensive series to produce and they decided not to do it for this fight.

Hopefully, the bigger media channels like ESPN give it the proper coverage it deserves.

As far as the countdown special is concerned, it’s good. There’s some great footage of Chris Weidman and his family dealing with Hurricane Sandy as well as Anderson Silva coping with losing for the first time in ages.

There’s nothing much on the Ronda/Miesha front that you wouldn’t have seen if you watched The Ultimate Fighter, but the realness of their conflict comes across well. What isn’t convincing is if Miesha truly believes she can win. That’s not to say that Miesha isn’t tough, because if you watch their first fight, her arm is bent terribly and she didn’t tap. But it seems like Ronda wouldn’t take losing very well (and that’s underselling it) while you don’t get the same from Miesha.

The Josh Barnett and Travis Browne fight didn’t get enough time, but the 8 or so minutes was good even though it felt rushed. Also, make sure to take a look at Barnett’s t-shirt. It’s amazing.

Check out all three videos below:

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