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Originally Posted by loveminuszero
Importance BEFORE the fight can make it interesting for me, like Sakuraba vs Royce in that it's actually quite boring to sit down and watch the whole fight in its 90 minute entirety, but what made it great was the backstory and the history. Griffin vs Bonnar became important afterwards so I don't have the same interest in it. I don't know if that makes any logical sense, oh well.
I only started watching MMA in late 2005 so maybe the whole reason I got into it was because that fight gave it so much of a boost and as a result I ended up seeing it on TV as it became more and more prominent. But that doesn't change the fact that at the time it was two solid but not spectacular fighters who put on a scrappy but sloppy fight... if I was watching TV right now and it came on, I would change the channel. I found Bonnar's last fight vs Kingsbury more interesting than the TUF 1 Finale fight, his ground game is far more refined than his boxing
As someone who was followed MMA prior to TUF 1, I was watching that night and knew going in how important that night was. You can say Griffin vs Bonnar became important later but the fact was the entire night was so crucial for UFC and Griffin vs Bonnar was the sole reason that led to the MMA boom.
UFC was on the verge of folding with staggering losses to Zuffa, (a recorded 34 million). Stars like Ken Shamrock had quit the UFC to join WWF to make more money. At the TUF finale, Spike officials were in the audience and there was no guarantee at the time that they were going to renew TUF and put UFC on tv again for the following season (they were probably going to get it, but there was no guarantee at that point). Zuffa was banking everything they got on that night.
As a side note, many MMA fans may not know this. Before UFC went on Spike with their reality series TUF, Spike contacted Vince Macmahon and asked if it was okay for Spike to start showing UFC on the station. At that time WWE was Spike's flagship program so Vince had to pull to squash the idea of UFC coming on Spike. Vince not seeing UFC as competition at the time and not having the foresight to see what UFC would've become okayed the project. So Vince actually had a hand indirectly in helping the MMA boom
Joe Rogan even said after the match "and thank you Spike for having the balls to put this on TV". It was huge for UFC. After Senator Mccain led a campaign to ban UFC calling it "human cockfighting" UFC had a hard time getting on cable TV and PPV. Many states banned "no holds barred" fighting. UFC had so much riding on this event. The main event was Ken Shamrock vs Rich Franklin (originally Tito Ortiz but Tito left after a contract dispute), and also the finals between Forrest Griffin and Stephan Bonnar.
For many people this would've been their first time watching live MMA on TV and it was an increbible fight with Griffin and Bonnar beating each other for 3 straight rounds. The rating kept going up for Spike as the fight went on as people were calling their friends and telling them about the incredible fight. Dana White was so overjoyed he offered both Griffin the winner and Bonnar who lost the fight a UFC contract. The Spike officials loved the event and right there offered a renewal for TUF on Spike and thus the relationship started between UFC and Spike.
Dana White has stated many times how important that fight between Bonnar and Griffin was to the company and how important Spike was to them for mainstream emergence. You will also never see Dana say a bad word about Vince Macmahon and many times now they've gotten together to talk about business together.