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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
The UFC has brought an annual event on Super Bowl weekend for the last ten years, and that will happen once again in 2014. However, with this year's Super Bowl taking place on Fox - the UFC's current television partner - they'll be featured heavily in the promotion of the biggest sports Championship in the U.S.
That will include another live event on the eve of the Super Bowl, only this time it will be in close proximity to the event itself. It was revealed in a promotional video during the UFC Fan Expo on Friday that the Super Bowl weekend event will leave Las Vegas, and will instead emanate from the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.
That puts them very close to the Super Bowl event itself, which takes place from MetLife Stadium on Sunday, February 2. Though the UFC is going to feature heavily as the culmination of a week of events on Fox Sports 1, the main card is likely to be featured on pay-per-view.
The UFC has run in Las Vegas that weekend every year since 2004, making this a pretty big shift, but with the Fox relationship and the Super Bowl taking place nearby, the UFC has a chance to be a big piece of that sports weekend.
The Prudential Center played host to the UFC just this April, when Jon Jones defeated Chael Sonnen at UFC 159.
Penick's Analysis: This was essentially expected, but with the Super Bowl happening in East Rutherford it only makes sense for Fox to help use their relationship with the UFC to not only help with the Super Bowl promotion, but to have that weekend rub off on the UFC as well. Whether it's a pay-per-view card or a major event perhaps on Fox that Saturday night, it will be huge for the UFC to be involved.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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