Issue 057

November 2009

It’s a myth that UFC are exporting weaker fight cards abroad. If I had a dollar for every sneer on internet chat forums that the Ultimate Fighting Championship is weakening its exports to foreign fields, I’d be wealthy, for sure.  

But even more than that, the arguments being put forward by moaning anoraks are totally wrong. When a new event is announced outside the United States, there is forever a rumble over the headline protagonist. Everyone wants to give their opinion and most are ‘critics’, though I have to say that the criticisms are hollow.  

Randy Couture on the UFC 105 card, in Manchester (UK), is the tip of a very large, far-from-melting, iceberg. Let’s look at the facts rather than, as many do, side with the keyboard warriors ranting away (inaccurately) on the Internet.  

The facts. On Monday, September 14 the first day that tickets went on general sale for UFC 105 at the Manchester Arena, over 9,000 were sold. That remains in the top eight first-day sales of any UFC event in its history, going all the way back to 1993. Eighth of all time. It grossed over $1million in 24 hours. On the same evening, over 600 fans turned up at the MEN Arena in the heart of Manchester to meet Michael Bisping and Dan Hardy. By any standards, that’s some turnout. Eighth behind UFC 100, the first two Montreal shows, and on a par with UFC 70 (the UFC’s return to the UK in 2007).  

Now – back to Couture. The Hall of Famer is fighting in the UK less than a year after he was the incumbent UFC heavyweight champion. It is the first time he has fought outside the USA in over nine years (the only other place he has fought was in Japan) and I can reveal that Couture, who is being paid around $1.5 million a fight in his new six-fight deal, is second only to Brock Lesnar in contractual remuneration in the entire UFC roster.  

So, therefore, in monetary terms (and let’s be honest about this, the UFC do not throw money at fighters who do not draw their major gates) he is the second-biggest star in the UFC. I believe he may even be on a better guaranteed purse than Lesnar, who relies on such things as a cut of the pay per view – such is the selling ability of ‘The Natural’.  

Fans – some of them casual MMA fans, some die-hard supporters – who are in contact with me regularly, believe they have hit the jackpot by getting their tickets early for UFC 105. I already know of fans that were willing to travel from all parts of the UK, and mainland Europe, to see Couture in the flesh. And let’s not just stop there. Since 2007, when the UFC put its flag into the ground on British shores, staking a claim to the UK market, fans in the British Isles have seen Shogun Rua, Lyoto Machida, Forrest Griffin, BJ Penn and (another Hall of Famer) Mark Coleman all fight there. Facts again: UFC events in Newcastle, Dublin, the previous Manchester event (with Bisping versus Elvis Sinosic and Mirko CroCop versus Gabriel Gonzaga), UFC 75 in London, and 72 in Belfast, all broke either box office or merchandising records.  

Sure, the UFC have had a few testy moments during their time here. A few insiders were feeling that UFC 85 should have been renamed ‘Mayhem’ rather than ‘Bedlam’, after there were 13 drop-outs, including Chuck Liddell vs Rashad Evans, through injury and illness. I was there. It was still a good event, as was UFC 95, which has become one of the standout nights and arguably the best ever in the UK.  

But it’s hardly a thinning-out process, as some have claimed. We do have to be realistic with what the UFC are unlikely to do. My view is that we can forget the likes of Lesnar fighting away from the US, or even Canada, any time soon. Lesnar is unquestionably the biggest pay-per-view draw in the sport at present, and the UFC would lose millions of dollars on the gate if he were to appear in the UK, or the Republic of Ireland. The UFC would also lose millions of dollars in pay-per-view revenue.

The only way of doing it, as some boxing promoters have done, is put fights on in football or rugby stadiums with availability for 50,000 fans or more, in the small hours of the morning to maintain interest and timing with the American market. In boxing terms, it is why Sugar Ray Leonard, Oscar De La Hoya, and Floyd Mayweather never fought, and will never fight, in the UK. For the same reason, it is why the A+ events (such as UFC 100, with two title fights and a contest between two TUF coaches) will only ever take place in Las Vegas.  

More is the pity, but this is a business and the UFC will never throw away millions of dollars for nothing.  

Gareth A Davies is boxing and MMA correspondent for The London Telegraph.