In a previous article, I had mentioned that the International Fight League could become interesting in the coming months leading up to and past the Grand Prix event this past weekend. I came to that conclusion based on the fact that the IFL was moving toward broadcasting LIVE events on MyNetworkTV and based on the talent in the IFL's roster of fighters. For the most part, the IFL has some very good talent in their ranks. Fighters like Andre Gusmao, Delson Heleno, Benji Radach, Chris Horodecki, Wagnney Fabiano, Jay Heiron, the list goes on. There are some fairly good standup strikers as well as great submission artists within that list. The potential for some great fights is there, but it seems that many of the great fights that were supposed to make the IFL Grand Prix something that was going to be exciting ended up being thrown out due to contract disputes and injuries. If that wasn't bad enough to hurt the Grand Prix event, the event only featured a couple of fairly good fights. The IFL has regressed from my once thought idea that they may be able to pull off a decent ratings boost from all of the hype surrounding the upcoming events. Some big problems during the IFL Grand Prix, poor ratings, and the overall disinterest in the IFL seem to be causing the ship to sink further. Will we see the IFL demise? Let's take a look.

IFL Grand Prix Problems

Before I dig a bit deep into this event, I will say that there were some fairly exciting fights on the card. Chris Horodecki vs. Bart Palaszewski was a fight that had flashes of greatness, back and forth brawling, and impressive combinations by the still undefeated Horodecki. I thought the Wagnney Fabiano vs. John Gunderson fight was also a good fight to determine the IFL Grand Prix Finals matchup for the Lightweight title. Wagnney showed off his impressive ground tactics against a fairly well-rounded ground fighter in Gunderson. Other than that, the fights lacked huge excitement.

Vladimir Matyushenko had one of the worst referees in mixed martial arts during his Light Heavyweight title bout with Alex Schoenauer. Not only did Vlad tackle Schoenauer at will during the fight, but he controlled the top position fairly well and landed some choice punches. The problem was that Vlad has about 10 seconds in the guard to work any type of submission or strike on Schoenauer before the referee stood the bout up. Even when Vlad was clearly jockeying for position to the side mount or full mount, the fight was stood up. There was one instance in which the fight edged itself toward the ropes and, unlike PRIDE, the referee stood the fight up. Only in a couple of instances did the referee actually move the fighters away from the ropes and restart the action. Other than the horrible refereeing during the bout, the fight was rather boring because both guys were ground fighters who weren't being allowed to do so. The mismatch between the two fighters was clear. We can't blame the IFL for this completely as far as the fighters they had LEFT to actually fight for the title. Injuries plagued the division.

Another huge problem... only one hour of LIVE coverage in the U.S., simply terrible. We got two whole fights which were both long decision wins, one of those wins being tainted by poor refereeing. It almost seemed as if the referees were being influenced by Kurt Otto and company to stand the fights up in order to see huge knockout wins. Fact is, two ground fighters aren't going to do that. One hour of live MMA isn't the solution if you want to boost your ratings. Another problem that I found with my cable company specifically was that there are channels that only broadcast the MyNetworkTV schedule at certain times. Apparently that night was not the time for the parent station to broadcast MyNetworkTV's lineup of shows. I wonder if there are similar agreements between MyNetworkTV and other stations as well. If there are, this could have been a problem in maximizing the amount of eyes that could have seen the event across the United States.

Ratings are everything

The results from the IFL Grand Prix have come in. The GP received an abysmal 0.4 rating. According to the article that reported the ratings, the IFL did manage to sell out their advertising space for the event and received much more media coverage for the event that previously before. For profits, this definitely helps the IFL but in the long run, the ratings are going to be the barometer for whether or not the IFL can continue to get advertising dollars and media coverage. The overall performances at the events will also determine the viewership.

For the IFL to truly be successful with this event, they really needed a rating near 1. 0.4 seems to be their gauge for successful events and television ratings and they did increase their viewership by a small amount, but it just isn't enough to significantly improve their financial status and status in the MMA community. Another unbelievable statistic that came out of the Fight Network Radio show on Tuesday was a quote from John Pollock stated that only 200 viewers tapped into the IFL event on Fox Sports World. That seems like a ridiculous number to me, but may be a number that gives us a sense that nobody really watched it there. It was a full two-hour event on FSN World, even more of the GP in Canada than in the States. It just seems to sound worse adding in that type of low number to the conversation.

Can we expect the ratings to ever rise? I doubt it. It seems that these small networks such as ION and MyNetworkTV don't field the power behind them to promote these events to their full potential. Personally, I never watch the networks and that's half the battle. You can't promote an event on television if nobody watches the network it is on in the first place. Both networks would have to promote the events on their parent networks. I don't see the IFL grabbing up anymore viewership than they already get. Get ready for another year of horrible ratings that will most likely finally sink the IFL ship.

Can the IFL turn it around?

In my previous analysis, I went from an optimist about the IFL's upcoming events to a pessimist because of the horrible contract issues between the IFL and MFS fighters Ben Rothwell and Mike Whitehead. The issue was that in order to fight in the Grand Prix, the fighters must sign contracts to ensure that if they do win the title, they will not vacate the position for a better contract offer. This caused the Grand Prix to lose two of its top fighters. Bad move that hurt the Grand Prix significantly.

The IFL has a small stable of fighters as well in each division. With the new talent coming in from the tryouts that they have been doing recently, the IFL will be trying to bolster the divisions enough to stop injuries from affecting the cards extensively. It seems injuries killed half of the matchups in the Grand Prix and they also caused matchups during the regular season to be unfair at times because teams were bringing in veteran ringers against younger talent. It'll be interesting to see who will come out of the tryouts.

Now that my analysis has been confirmed by the poor ratings that the Grand Prix produced, my final thought on the IFL's current situation is that the organization doesn't have very much time left. The Grand Prix looked to be a redeeming event, but failed because of injuries, contractual issues, and overall poor refereeing and uneventful fights. There were some highlights, but there weren't enough people watching to care. Add in the fact that IFL's stock is at about .30 cents and dropping, the laundry list of problems with the IFL is becoming increasingly huge. I doubt that a small increase in the number of hours that the IFL GP Final will have broadcast is going to significantly boost the ratings, but I guess we'll see. My prediction is that we won't see the IFL after next season.