...OH, ONE MORE THING - PLEASE BOOKMARK US & VISIT DAILY!
By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief After Tuesday's report that the UFC had requested November 21st to stage UFC 105 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center, MMAJunkie.com reported that it's likely an event will precede that in the U.K. the week before.
That November 14th event would be dubbed UFC 105 and will likely be a free event on Spike in the U.S. and could take place in Manchester. That pushes the number down to UFC 106 for the pay-per-view event in Las Vegas the week after.
With these two events that brings the remaining UFC event schedule to 9 events, six pay-per-views and three free live events on Spike, and ther will be at least one addition for a year end pay-per-view as well. The remaining schedule shapes up like this:
-UFC 100 on July 11 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas (pay-per-view)
-UFC 101 on Aug. 8 at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia (pay-per-view)
-UFC 102 on Aug. 29 at the Rose Garden in Portland, Ore. (pay-per-view)
-UFC Fight Night 19 on Sept. 16 at the Cox Convention Center in Oklahoma City (Spike)
-UFC 103 on Sept. 19 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas (PPV)
-UFC 104 on Oct. 24 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles (pay-per-view)
-UFC 105 on Nov. 14 in the U.K. (Spike)
-UFC 106 on Nov. 21 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas (pay-per-view)
-The Ultimate Fighter 10 Finale on Dec. 5 at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas (Spike)
Penick's Analysis: The UFC may be setting up something big in Manchester with this November 14th event in the hopes that Michael Bisping is victorious at UFC 100. If he is, it's almost a lock that they put Bisping against Anderson Silva for the Middleweight Title at UFC 105 on Spike. It makes sense, too, as Silva hasn't been the strongest pay-per-view draw, even though UFC 97 purportedly did well on the back of Chuck Liddell, but the atmosphere in the U.K. with Bisping fighting for the title will be absolutely insane; and an event with a fight of that caliber a week before another major pay-per-view will do wonders for the 106 buyrate.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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