UFC double card event in February

[LittleOzzy]

Just when you think the UFC has broken new ground in the fight industry, it comes up with something even crazier. Saturday night, Dana White added more details of Dave Meltzer's report that the promotion will present two fight cards on Feb. 26, 2012.

The great news for fans is that you'll get to see both and they won't overlap.

The UFC is hitting Japan for the first time since 2000. The 2012 card at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan, will air live in the U.S. during the afternoon. At night, the UFC will offer another loaded pay-per-view card in Las Vegas. The Japan card, which White says will be stacked, will air on free television and serve as a lead-in to the PPV card.

"The thing that we don't do, and what boxing did a long time ago, is when the pay model started they started putting [expletive] fights on free TV and nobody ever wanted to watch it anymore," White explained to the gathered media at the UFC on Versus 6 postfight press conference (1:39 mark - NSFW). "We don't ever put [expletive] fights on free TV."

http://ca.sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cag ... mma-wp7687

[Gold Chain]

Thanks for posting.

I can't see any downside to this, at all.

Hopefully they give the Japs as many ex-Priders as possible, and then have the PPV main card fire on all cylinders.

[Headliner]

This kind of made me think.
The UFC should actually take a page out of the WWE handbook and create their own Wrestlemania type PPV.
A yearly event where they put on a superfight and stack the card. It would be like the Superbowl for the NFL.

[Posey H8er]

new years and the 4th of july weekend are supposed to always have cards like that, but the last few have been plagued with unlucky injuries. ufc 91 had nog vs mir, evans vs griffin, and rampage vs wanderlei. amazing. unfortunately i think the ufc is content with diluting cards to make more ppv cards.

the whole japanese card is going to be very very interesting.

[CPT]

Don't like this news.

The Japanese card is probably going to get screwed; Dana says every card is stacked. I was hoping the return to Japan would be a big deal along the lines of the return to Brazil, but now it is a lead-in to another PPV?

Plus I have a hard enough time watching the prelims (Spike, not even facebook) and main card of one event, this would be what, 7-8 hours?

[CPT]

This kind of made me think.
The UFC should actually take a page out of the WWE handbook and create their own Wrestlemania type PPV.
A yearly event where they put on a superfight and stack the card. It would be like the Superbowl for the NFL.

Wouldn't work and doesn't make sense anyway.

The WWE is able to do that because the guys aren't actually fighting. They can do Wrestlemania one night, RAW the next, house show the next, and so on. UFC fighters need about 3 months before the event to train, and another 3 after to recover and train for their next fight. These are minimums under normal circumstances. Some guys take fights with less notice, sure, but other guys have more like 6 months off between fights, like GSP, Silva, Lesnar, Jones, well, most of the guys you would want on this card. To put on a Wrestlemania style stacked card, the UFC would be crippling themselves for about 3 months on either side of that event, and would then run into a situation where all of their best guys are ready to take fights around the same time again. It would be a nightmare.

If it made sense for business, maybe they would do it, but it doesn't. The law of diminishing returns or something. A card at UFC 100 level is going to get pretty much every available PPV buy. If you add another title fight, it won't be bringing in the extra 500k buys an event usually does. It might bring in an extra 100k, if that. Basically, once Lesnar and GSP are involved anyway, it probably doesn't matter too much who else is on the card, because everyone who would consider buying a UFC PPV is already buying it. This doesn't even factor in the gate, but the same principle applies.

[K1NG]

This kind of made me think.
The UFC should actually take a page out of the WWE handbook and create their own Wrestlemania type PPV.
A yearly event where they put on a superfight and stack the card. It would be like the Superbowl for the NFL.

Wouldn't work and doesn't make sense anyway.

The WWE is able to do that because the guys aren't actually fighting. They can do Wrestlemania one night, RAW the next, house show the next, and so on. UFC fighters need about 3 months before the event to train, and another 3 after to recover and train for their next fight. These are minimums under normal circumstances. Some guys take fights with less notice, sure, but other guys have more like 6 months off between fights, like GSP, Silva, Lesnar, Jones, well, most of the guys you would want on this card. To put on a Wrestlemania style stacked card, the UFC would be crippling themselves for about 3 months on either side of that event, and would then run into a situation where all of their best guys are ready to take fights around the same time again. It would be a nightmare.

If it made sense for business, maybe they would do it, but it doesn't. The law of diminishing returns or something. A card at UFC 100 level is going to get pretty much every available PPV buy. If you add another title fight, it won't be bringing in the extra 500k buys an event usually does. It might bring in an extra 100k, if that. Basically, once Lesnar and GSP are involved anyway, it probably doesn't matter too much who else is on the card, because everyone who would consider buying a UFC PPV is already buying it. This doesn't even factor in the gate, but the same principle applies.

Great points, I agree. With the UFC absorbing the WEC and Strikeforce, they'll soon be able to consistently give us great fights virtually all year round with their loaded roster. Look at the next two PPVs alone for proof.

[REDDzone]

http://www.fightopinion.com/2011/09/28/ufc-world-plan/

Snippet:

One of the most fascinating questions I had going into UFC’s announcement of running Saitama Super Arena is what kind of trouble they were asking for. The only people who can largely afford to pay the expensive front-row seats are yakuza stooges who are a) looking to cause trouble and get into or bet on fights or b) look to work over foreigners and glad-hand politically in order to screw someone over. Anyone who knows the history of Japanese fighting events knows that the rackets want their protection money (often looked upon by promoters as a ‘tax’) and have crashed shows in the past. The whole yakuza scandal that imploded PRIDE was about Seiya Kawamata, a yakuza fixer whose job it was to keep to the mafia out of the front row and backstage hidden away from police.

So, you might naturally suspect (and be correct in assuming) that there’s some people who are looking forward to showing up at the UFC Japan event to cause trouble. By running a show at the same time in Las Vegas, it gives Dana White & Lorenzo Fertitta a reason to stay the hell away from Japan. And for good reason. This is smart. I just feel for Mark Fischer and anyone else Zuffa sends over to try to run the show.

Interesting. I know Dana used to say all the time that if he went to Japan he wouldn't make it back and all this lol, wonder if he was serious? This gives him an out!

[LittleOzzy]

Don't like this news.

The Japanese card is probably going to get screwed; Dana says every card is stacked. I was hoping the return to Japan would be a big deal along the lines of the return to Brazil, but now it is a lead-in to another PPV?

Plus I have a hard enough time watching the prelims (Spike, not even facebook) and main card of one event, this would be what, 7-8 hours?

I don't understand why someone who likes MMA wouldn't enjoy a whole day of it.

That is what makes this a major event. The Superbowl is on TV for like 15 hours on game day, but the game is only 3. At least this way we will get great fights all day long.

I'm excited for what will likely be 20 fights all available in one day.

[REDDzone]

Yea, the more mma the better for me. I get pissed when I miss a prelim or two driving to the bar to watch the fights.

[CPT]

Watching anything for 6-8 hours straight gets pretty boring. Especially if you get a few duds in the middle.

I usually can't do the Japanese events in one sitting unless I'm there.

I'd rather have big events in back to back weeks than back to back on the same night.

[REDDzone]

I couldn't do it all the time, but occasionally would be kind of cool.

There are a couple of times per year where I just dedicate as much of the day as possible to sports. Opening day of March Madness, opening weekend for NFL playoffs, opening of NBA playoffs, etc. I'll just take it as that and use it as an excuse to be unproductive and watch sports.

[CPT]

I couldn't do it all the time, but occasionally would be kind of cool.

There are a couple of times per year where I just dedicate as much of the day as possible to sports. Opening day of March Madness, opening weekend for NFL playoffs, opening of NBA playoffs, etc. I'll just take it as that and use it as an excuse to be unproductive and watch sports.

If it ends up being an event that compares to March Madness, playoffs, etc., I'll eat my words.

I'm assuming both cards (especially the Japan card) will be kind of weak.

[REDDzone]

I'd imagine so as well, just because if the Japan event is good or great, I think it would decrease the ppv buyers potentially. When I first heard the news, I assumed they would do like 5-6 fights there and 5-6 fights here, almost prelim style fights in Japan. Doesn't seem like that though since they have been talking about it.

[CPT]

I'm also wondering how the timing is going to work. In order for the event to start Saturday night at 9 PM EST, it will have to start at 10 AM Sunday morning in Japan. If they want it to be a live lead in, starting at even 7 pm, we're talking 8 AM local time. That's not even considering prelims in Japan (people there are accustomed to 5-6 hour live events), and the fact that Saitama is not exactly easy to get to; it's a good half hour-hour from central Tokyo.

Re-reading the article, it says "in the afternoon" in the US, but that makes it even more problematic. A 1 PM EST start would mean things are getting underway at 2 AM local time. If an event started at a normal time in Japan (9), that would mean US fans would be getting up at 8 AM on a Saturday to watch on TV, which would of course be unacceptable (though it's fine to make the Japanese fans go to an actual event at 8 AM in the morning).

Maybe it just ends up on tape delay, but if that was going to be the case anyway, why bother with the second event? Just have the Japan event, make it somewhat of a big deal, at least locally, and have the Vegas event a week earlier or later.

I'm sure they have a way that makes sense, but with what we know right now (admittedly not much) this looks like a bad idea from where I'm sitting.