As some of you might’ve noticed, we’re really into reviewing, admiring, critiquing production of MMA.  Can’t help it, it’s what we know — production is far more familiar to us than MMA, in fact.  If you’re ever hanging out at the All Elbows clubhouse, we pretty much sit around all day watching stuff.  Promos, movies, random MMA videos floating around the internet, instructional clips, NY Times slideshows, just soaking everything in, pointing out what we like and don’t like, what we think we could do better, what we wish to do one day.

Over the last few years, I’ve noticed that the UFC has continued its steady rise to the mainstream, and paralleled it in increasing production quality.  While sometimes, like in the case of Penn vs GSP Primetime, it was superficial, just better cameras, bigger lights, but not better storytelling — sometimes it’s a real step up into the kind of branding and viewer connection that the NFL, NBA, and MLB enjoy.  I’ve always felt that the way to a fan’s heart (and wallet) is through solid storytelling.  People want to root for someone whose tale is compelling enough to support.

This latest round of promos for the new season of The Ultimate Fighter have been really top notch.  The lighting is slick, the graphics clean and stylish, a welcome departure from the eroded block text, blood splatter, spewing crap angry music commercial.

And the Marcus Jones promo for the tenth season is really swell.  I especially love the little quick cut where you can see the lights surrounding Jones in the studio while he tells his story, and I like how they edited past seasons’ moments into Jones’ dialogue about getting into the cage for the first time.

Nicely done, for sure.

Here it is.

Also, I can’t believe I’m so lazy I haven’t mentioned the fucking killer Dream 11 poster.  I love how DREAM never fails to push forward, always trying something artistic, crazy, innovative.  I can’t say enough about how this makes the design geek in me feel, so I’ll just post it here for you to admire too.  And c’mon — “Everybody say DREAM!”  Whee. I’m definitely staying up for that on Oct 6.