So what will it take to derail the high speed train that is the UFC? How about a night when your biggest star gets knocked out once again and put into forced retirement, chased by the pound-for-pound king of the sport getting booed for 25 minutes of boredom?

Chuck Liddell was knocked out — again — and this time for good. His BFF Dana White won’t let him back in the Octagon, and rightfully do. Liddell is done as a fighter. Hell, he was done three fights ago, but there was too much money to let him walk away then. Now, he has no choice and the face of MMA in the United States has left the stage for good, even if he wobbled away from the stage on shaky legs.

Anderson Silva has now bored the shit out of UFC viewers in consecutive fights. He may be the pound-for-pound king, but UFC and MMA fans aren’t watching for the titles or dominance, they are watching for the action and blood. In back-to-back fights, Silva has offered nothing but sleep inducing dancing — this time enough of it to get the wrath of Dana White sent in his direction.

Said Dana White, as quoted by Yahoo! Sports’ Cagewriter:

“After being in this business for almost 10 years now, I’ve never been embarrassed of a UFC fight like I was in the main event tonight.”

White was clueless in trying to explain what is going through Silva’s mind:

“I’m trying to wrap brain around this thing and figure this out, I just cannot.”

White said it got so bad in the middle of the fight he wanted to be anywhere but cageside in the midst of 21,000 angry fans”

“I was seriously sitting in my seat going, ‘No, no this is not happening again.’ I swear to god I wanted to leave tonight.”

The UFC is changing. Sure, the frat boy fans may not notice it because they are too busy trying to get someone to bite on their “boxing is dead” argument, but make no mistake about it — the UFC is in trouble.

Not only do you have a guy like Dana White running the show (a man I wouldn’t let run my Burger King, much less a billion dollar industry), but the action in the ring is suffering. I know that White played a big part in building the UFC into what it is, but that doesn’t mean that he should get lifetime immunity from any actions he takes. As long as he is in charge, the UFC will not progress from where it is. For a while, people put up with it in exchange for action and quality fights. Now what?

Out of 12 fights in UFC 97, seven of them were decisions. This is not the action that their demographic wants. I don’t doubt that the serious and hardcore MMA fans enjoyed the show. But what the UFC can’t afford to lose is the casual fan. Cards like this will drive casual fans away. Minimal action and a terrible main event will make people hesitant to fork over $44.95 the next time it comes around.

There is no excuse for putting on a main event like the one in UFC 97. And I don’t blame the UFC or White for making the fight. I blame the two fighters in the ring that would not engage. Thales Leites made no effort to strike Silva, and Silva made no effort to finish a fighter that he should have been able to finish.

UFC 97 will be seen as a colossal failure, no matter what the PPV numbers say. White was right to apologize, but more will need to be done to please the casual fan. Nobody is going to want to watch Silva as a headliner again anytime soon, and now there is no face of the franchise (Liddell) to fall back on for some PPV buys.

The next two or three UFC events will show a lot about White’s ability to deal with adversity in his sport. Let’s see how he handles it.

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