UFC Middleweight Yushin Okami

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Of course we posted that the Ryan Bader vs. Eric Schafer and Antoni Hardonk vs. Pat Barrypreliminary fights would be televised on Spike TV prior to the UFC 104 PPV broadcast.  I've read a couple of message boards and other sites that think the Yushin Okami vs. Chael Sonnen fight should be broadcast instead of one of the fights above.  Personally, I can understand why some folk would think he deserves to be on the televised portion of the broadcast.  The guy is a veteran, one of the top middleweights in the world, and has gone 7-1 inside the octagon with the only loss being to former UFC middleweight champ Rich Franklin.  Plus, he has history with the current UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva.

However, let's look at the flip side of this thing for a minute.  The sole purpose of airing a couple of preliminary fights on Spike is to entice viewers to purchase the PPV.  He's not a fan favorite, nor does his style appear to be exciting to most casual fans.  Okami is notorious for his methodical(but effective) style and most of his fights go to a judges decision.  Whereas, the Hardonk/Barry fight will basically be a K-1 match with smaller gloves which is more appeasing to casual fans(not that it's right).  In the other fight, Ryan Bader probably deserves to be promoted some since he won the TUF show.

So I can understand both point of views, but it basically comes down to what will help bring in more PPV buys.  I'll ask you all.  Do you want to see the Okami/Sonnen fight at UFC 104?

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