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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief ESPN the magazine has an interview with Dana White that's been posted on their website as well that is chock full of news from the boss man in the UFC. He touches on the upcoming Franklin vs. Henderson fight, BJ vs. GSP, UFC 92, Rampage, Forrest Griffin, Chuck Liddell, UFC 100, Fedor, etc. You get the picture.
Some key notes from the interview:
-Hendo/Franklin vs. Bisping at the end of TUF9 will be fought at 185 lbs.
-The UFC 92 buyrate "crushed" that of UFC 91. Dana's actual quote is "The Christmas show crushed the Lesnar fight by 150,000-175,000 buys."
-Rashad's first title defense will more than likely be against Rampage.
-Hughes/Serra will happen sometime this spring or summer.
There's a lot more of the typical Dana White banter everyone's come to love (or hate) and it's another very good interview from ESPN the magazine.
Penick's Analysis: There's plenty of stuff to talk about from this interview with Dana White, but the most significant is the buyrate talk. With no hard numbers at the moment, if he's being legit with that 150,000-175,000 buys more than UFC 91 that more than makes it the highest grossing pay-per-view in UFC history, that makes it two straight events that have surpassed the one million buy plateau. And with the ambition for UFC 94 to be the next "biggest event in UFC history," especially with the Primetime series between GSP and B.J. Penn, they could really push for three out of four. Boxing purists can say what they want for their superfights drawing bigger buys than what UFC does, but those boxing events are also few and far between. If they surpass a million buys for UFC 94, there can be no question that the UFC is more than the top dog when it comes to pay-per-view. And to think, they're doing this at a time of economic downturn in this country that is hurting so many industries and businesses, and yet they continue to grow and grow and grow. And it's only just beginning; 2009 could see these types of buyrates continuing, and the longer they're able to keep up with the marquee match-ups and cards they've been presenting the more likely it is that buyrates of 500,000+ will simply be commonplace and average for the less than superstar shows, and the big shows will continue to reach that high end peak.
[White Photo by Wade Keller (c) MMATorch.com]
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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