Issue 121
November 2014
Fighters Only editor Nick Peet on the impact MMA and Cain Velasquez can have in Mexico at UFC 180.
November 15th 2014 is destined to be another game-changing date in the relatively short but storied history of mixed martial arts. It’s the moment when Mexico finally joins the party.
One of fight sports’ most recognizable and influential nations hasn’t indulged itself at the MMA table just yet. But following its first TUF season, make no mistake, the sport will have arrived there next month.
Mexico City’s Arena Ciudad de México will host the UFC 180 fight card, with headliners Cain Velasquez and Fabricio Werdum contesting the heavyweight championship. And it’s likely another red-hot region for MMA will be baptized.
Mexicans, after all, love a scrap. Their proud sporting history is dominated by fighters, and when it comes to major events the entire nation regularly stops to watch. Practically 80% of households in Mexico with a television tuned in to Televisa to watch Floyd Mayweather Jnr vs. ‘Canelo’ Alvarez last September.
The fight received a national rating of 41.1 points, 22.1 million viewers and 5.9 million television households, making it the highest-rated boxing program ever on Mexican TV. Evidently a country bursting with fight fans and, if the networks are to be believed, the crossover to MMA could be even greater.
In September 2013, Televisa launched UFC Network, a channel that can be watched in over 12 Spanish-speaking countries, including: Mexico, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Panama and Uruguay. And, according to Televisa, the UFC, and with it MMA, already has a fan base of around 33.4 million in Mexico alone.
It’s not happened over night. In fact, UFC president Dana White has voiced his frustrations about the lack of progress in cracking the Mexican market on more than one occasion over the past decade. And this is Televisa’s second shot at live sports’ golden goose.
Their first UFC deal, back in 2009, despite starting well, wasn’t all that successful. UFC 100 was broadcast on free TV and generated a 13.30 viewer rating – more than a national team soccer match on the same day. But events like UFC 103, originally billed to go live on free TV, were canceled at the last minute, only to be shown on the Televisa Deportes Network, a cable channel.
After the Televisa deal expired, Fox Sports took over the Mexican market for two years, with similar stop-start results. But in 2013, Televisa regained the deal with UFC and has invested in the brand ever since.
Incidentally, Fox Sports is now screening Bellator MMA events, while TV Azteca, Televisa’s biggest broadcasting rival, is reportedly in talks with World Series of Fighting (WSOF). So the demand is clearly there.
The other, bulging 240lb factor in the UFC’s timely drive for Mexico, of course, is Velasquez. When it comes to boxing, the country has been spoiled with riches. Julio Cesar Chavez, Ricardo Lopez, Salvador Sanchez, Oscar De La Hoya, Marco Antonio Barrera, Juan Manuel Marquez, ‘Canelo’ Alvarez... the list of multiple-time world champions just runs and runs. But they all have one thing in common: not one of them weighed over 170lb.
Velasquez is Mexico’s first-ever heavyweight champion, and it loves him for it. During a quick trip to the country last year – with Fighters Only for company – Cain was supposed to sign around 150–200 autographs during an event at a shopping mall. But the turnout was overwhelming, close to a thousand people showed up, collapsing the event.
Mexico’s most prominent daily newspapers, such as El Universal, Milenio and Reforma, were the first ones to cover mixed martial arts, back when Cain was building his career, long before he was UFC champion.
He became a household name, in fact, long before the UFC brand ever did and that’s thanks enlarge to Brock Lesnar. Pro wrestling has a mega fan base in Mexico, so when Cain took the belt from Lesnar at UFC 122 on free national TV, Velasquez became an overnight superstar.
Now with the right TV deal, a nationwide fan base and mainstream media backing, the UFC is ready to pounce. And with tickets for the 22,300-capacity Mexico City venue priced from just $27, UFC Mexico sold out in record time and is destined to be another landmark moment in the history of the Octagon, and the popularity of mixed martial arts worldwide.
