Dana White has said several times throughout the past five or so years that he plans to expand his business into Europe. As of now, it is just England that has got to experience the UFC in their home country. The last live event, Chris Leben vs. Michael Bisping, (UFC 89) was aired on October 18, 2008 in Birmingham, England. According to MMAJunkie.com, the event had 3.4 million viewers, and the gate drew $1.2 million.
Next order of business for Mr. White: Germany. On June 13, UFC 99 will be held in this uncharted country at the Lanxess Arena in Cologne. The arena can fit up to 20,000 attendants. There has been no word as of yet though, who will headline this special night. There has been some talking however, that UFC stars; Chuck Liddell and Randy Couture, will be fighting on that card. It obviously makes sense to feature two of the most popular names in the sport, as the UFC begins to tap into a completely new country. It is always exciting when Chuck Liddell enters that cage, with his superhuman knockout power in both hands. Even still, with his past couple of unfortunate losses, he is still the guy fight fans will pay big money to see. And of course, the Hall of Famer-Randy Couture may very well have the most loyal fans of all MMA fighters in the game. Dana White and the “match-maker,” Joe Silva would be making an excellent move putting these two infamous warriors on the fight card.
http://www.sherdog.com/news/news/ufc-99-storms-germany-15288
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/mma/10/19/ufc.89/index.html
2 comments:
I feel as though the UFC has so much international potential that they should be doing some of the pay per view events overseas. Besides England and Germany I feel that they can even stretch there market into other countries where mixed martial arts is the national sport of the country.
Probably nothing other than good can come out of the UFC expanding internationally. And Dana White is no idiot with the marketing of his company - bringing two major names will draw a ton of fans alone. It seems like people are just so hungry for UFC. And when people don't get to see something live too often, they'll be even hungrier for it. It will look great on TV with thousands of fans, probably absolutely rabid for the product. It will be exciting to see how it goes for them.
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