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Charles Jay

I don’t know about the ratings or how long a run it’s going to have, but from what I’ve seen so far, I’d say “Strikeforce on NBC” is off to a pretty decent start. This past weekend they featured a lightweight fight that was pretty entertaining; albeit one that was held a couple of years ago, between  their champion at the time, Clay Guida, and Gilbert Melendez, who won the title from him.

The production was clean, the graphics were sharp, and although there were several commercial plugs for Strikeforce’s web site, it didn’t look like a too horrible an overall shill job - certainly not on the order of what they do over on Showtime.

I don’t know how much time he’s spent doing commentary, but I would say that one of the pleasant surprises was the job done by Ken Shamrock, who went in the studio and did a voice-over with partner Lon McEachern.

I’m starting to get into this thing a little more now, but from the standpoint of getting to know the fighters and analyzing them, I’m still a relative novice.

What I found with Shamrock is that as things were happening in the cage, he was explaining things in a way in which I could get something basic and fundamental out of many of the things he said, as if he was tailoring the commentary for guys like me.

I think this is important because it is the right tone for the audience.  When you watch the UFC pay-per-views, you will hear Joe Rogan, who does a very good job, speak in a rather technical pattern, using terminology you might have no idea about if you were tuning in to an MMA fight for the first time. Of course, that might be expected because if a fan is paying money to watch it, chances are he (or she) is an aficionado.

But I think the purpose for - and the benefit of - showing the Strikeforce fights on NBC is to reach that wider audience. By definition, that means getting to the newer or more casual fans with the hope of turning them subsequently into more avid fans. The design is obviously to help the sport grow in popularity, and so naturally a more explanatory approach is going to work better. That’s what Shamrock delivers.

It would seem ironic, but maybe it makes all the sense in the world, that Rogan, who has not been an MMA fighter, would feel compelled to be a lot more esoteric, as if for purposes of validation, while Shamrock, who has had vast experience and great success as an MMA competitor, is secure enough that he doesn’t really need that kind of validation.

That’s a little more useful for someone like me and I’ll be looking forward to the next fight if he’s on the mike.

If I can stay up that late.