By Charles Jay

There is never a shortage of nubile, scantily-clad women around the Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood, Florida. But on this particular night the pulchritude was even more plentiful than usual.

The UFC had landed on the reservation.

My assignment, as I chose to accept it, was not to take in the T&A; well, let me correct that. It was, to some degree, since that is one of the major distinctions between the way boxing and MMA sell their respective "products." But mostly, it was to put a gauge on the differences between the MMA experience and the boxing experience, from the perspective of the presentation of the event and the energy in the audience.

Spike TV was covering some of the event live, but unlike boxing shows, the crowd did not just suddenly appear, or so it seemed, for the televised bouts. They were there, and in a festive mood, when the first fights went off at about 6 PM Eastern time.

What you notice right away about this crowd is that it's a far cry from the demographic you might find at a boxing event. It's much younger (not that I had to tell you that), seemingly more aggressive, with a scattering of Latinos but most predominantly Anglo. There's a possibility that the same group referred to by some as the "Angry White Male" was well-represented. So were, I suppose, the Angry White Females.

Angry about something, maybe, but not here. This crowd was not unruly in the least, with the possible exception of a "stripper mom," as she was described on some websites, who was putting on her best moves for the cameras in front of her two small children (yikes!). But I had positioned myself amongst the crowd, rather than press row, and as people were stepping over me on the way to the beer stand, at least they were polite about it.

In boxing, it's not at all unusual to see women coming to the shows, but in about 25 years of going to the fights I've found that many of them are there to placate the boyfriend or spouse, and they are somewhat subdued in the midst of the action. At a UFC event there is a much larger proportion of women, percentage-wise, than at a boxing show, and they appear to be much more involved in the proceedings. I mean, they are REALLY enthusiastic about it. I got the sense that they also knew the fighters a lot better, something that can probably be attributed to the exposure the UFC has gotten on its "Ultimate Fighter" series on Spike, which has, on balance, done a better job for the UFC than reality shows such as "The Contender" have done for boxing.

The UFC also gives you more "extras" on its shows than what you would typically find in boxing. Of course, we have to preface this by saying that the UFC does not really do club shows, as we know them in boxing, so everything they're associated with is going to have at least some level of production value. To measure the limits of that, the pay-per-view events are probably more appropriate, but even though the abundance of pyrotechnics was not in evidence, the UFC, at this "road" show, still had a way of keeping its crowd entertained between fights that I haven't found at even the bigger boxing events.

That's kind of a double-edged sword as well.

You see, in comparison with boxing, a lot of the UFC fights end early. Very early. One bout, between Anthony Johnson and Chad Reinder, lasted all of 13 seconds. All told, three fights ended in the first round and three more in the second. What that leaves the fan with is a few minutes of action and about twenty minutes of the "wrap-around," which in this case is the window dressing they program onto the big screens throughout the arena between bouts. There's some human interest stuff about the fighters who are about to step into the Octagon, commercials for UFC apparel and merchandise featuring models off whom one would like nothing better than to strip such UFC apparel and merchandise, and endless promos for upcoming shows. For example, what was being hyped on this occasion was Rich Franklin facing Yushin Okami in Belfast five days hence. It was repeated so many times, I think I learned all about that literally by osmosis

The potential problem with all this is that I don't know how long the fan will have a tolerance for seeing so much more outside the Octagon than inside of it. You'd have to assume there are only so many commercials and interviews the viewer really wants to see, and only so many beers one can drink during intermission. I got restless after the second early ending, because I knew that nine fights were being spaced out over five hours. Somewhere along the line you'd think this would be addressed, and perhaps changes instituted. But whether these are changes that can actually be orchestrated is unknown. Heretofore, the philosophy of the UFC has not been to gratuitously build stars through carefully-designed matchmaking (as is the custom in boxing), so if mismatches do indeed occur, it's probably something that is coincidental.

I found it somewhat difficult to see into the Octagon (I capitalized it because I guess it's a copyrighted and patented property of the UFC) to watch the fights, with so much of the activity on the ground and the fencing that surrounds the structure. So I watched the fights on the available screens, as did most of the people around me in the crowd, which was in the second level. I imagine that it can be even more awkward to get a good view from the ground floor, depending on where you're sitting.  Around the Octagon there are five camera men with hand-helds (adding to the obstruction) stationed on stools, who get pretty active when it comes to running around and zeroing in on the action. Since the two fighters are often grappling, and therefore relatively stationery on the canvas, it provides for some great closeups, so viewers probably come out the winner on that tradeoff.

Despite the fact that they operate unlike the way boxing promoters do in "moving" fighters, the UFC has managed to do a pretty good job in building stars. That's mostly because the organization has the ability to put these guys in front of a national television audience, via the Spike hookup, right from the outset, and because of the emphasis they place on the undercard fights, with the human interest stuff, the audience gets to know the fighters relatively early on. These guys also become stars in different ways. One example - a fighter named Tamdan McCrory, making his UFC debut, was put in with Pete Spratt, a veteran who had scored a big upset win on a UFC pay-per-view event against Robbie Lawler in 2003, then turned down a chance to fight welterweight champ Matt Hughes. The lanky (6'4") McCrory looked like he was in trouble, and appeared to some to be dogging it by lying on his back for most of the fight, then suddenly, out of nowhere, he caught a standing Spratt in a leg!

  scissors, then put him in a triangle choke. Boom - tapout. And as I'm watching the replay (the crowd is inundated by replays) I'm wondering, "Gee, how many more pay-per-view buys could Oscar De La Hoya sell if he could do THAT?"

The UFC does a very smart thing after its fights - it affords the winner the opportunity to speak to commentator Joe Rogan, and the crowd, in an interview that goes out over the public address system throughout the venue. That, of course, goes a long way toward personalizing the fighter and cementing a relationship with the audience, and also, as in McCrory's case, gives him a chance to explain the strategy that was questioned by the crowd (from whom had been heard a smattering of boos during the fight) but ultimately successful. People now know him, have seen him in a spectacular win, and will be looking forward to seeing him again.

Of course, something like this can backfire. On the initial Elite XC telecast on Showtime in February, the winner of the first fight, Charles Bennett, went into a profanity-laced monologue during the interview, presumably while a lot of kids were watching. On the UFC show, there was something of an awkward moment, as Drew McFedries was urging the crowd, "Let's party," while opponent Jordan Radev was lying motionless on the canvas and getting medical attention.

That fight represented another potential bugaboo for the UFC and MMA in general. McFedries had knocked Radev to the ground, and after that had happened, he proceeded to pounce on him and literally bounce Radev's head off the canvas. I don't care how big or small the gloves are, that's dangerous stuff. The referee, Jorge Alonso, who also officiates boxing for the Florida Athletic Commission, can probably testify that in that kind of situation, it's tougher to get in there in time to save a knocked-out fighter from one final, crushing blow that might injure a competitor much more seriously.

The one thing that would seem crystal clear about the UFC crowd is that they don't really like boxing very much. A fight between Cleveland's Forrest Petz and Orlando's Luigi Fioravanti was billed as a confrontation of "strikers," and that was no lie. Petz and Fioravanti relied almost exclusively on their boxing skills, and engaged in what would by boxing standards be perceived as a spirited, if not thrilling effort. Petz was throwing more punches with abandon, and even scored a knockdown over his opponent. Still that was not nearly good enough for this crowd, which booed the duo throughout to the point where it erupted into a chorus of "Bo-ring, Bo-ring" toward the end. I heard a few disparaging remarks about boxing coming from my part of the audience. And people were asking when these two were going to start fighting.

The catcalls continued through the announcement of the decision, which was rendered in favor of Petz. In the customary post-fight interview, Petz offered some contrition, albeit rather insincere and unconvincing, for not entertaining the crowd, indicating that there is perhaps still one thing in common between the two sports after all.