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MMATorch correspondent Ian Saul sent the following additional notes regarding anticipation for UFC 112 in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
- UFC110 was a huge success over here being the highest rated program of the week (beating 24 Day 8 by over 30 percent). The most watched fight was Wanderlei Silva vs. Michael Bisping which was watched on around 40 percent of televisions in the country (according to Mobily who are the main TV/Phone/internet providers). I have no idea if that is an accurate figure as I have no idea if the company are trustworthy; that said, the verbal feedback I have received certainly point at it being the top end of the expected viewership.
- The KSA fans were particularly talking about the chin of Big Nog being shattered in the main event. Everyone here expected him to lose but the way it happened surprised them.
- An advert for UFC112 ran straight after the PPV which advertised the old main event of Anderson Silva vs. Vitor Belfort. Apparently this was changed on the replay to the correct main event fighters
- UFC 112 is now a nightly news story on the main news network over here (unfortunately, my Arabic isn't good enough to understand what is being said, but each night they flash up a graphic of the arena and a graphic of the three main events).
- The word out of Abu Dhabi is that people are speculating that UFC will come to Abu Dhabi once a year and also to Dubai once a year. In terms of making money, I'm not sure how much business sense this makes as the time difference may effect PPV buyrates in the U.S. I guess that we will find out in April if a loaded card overcomes the possibility of ESPN and webite spoilers. I would have to assume that the deciding factor will be how much money the Arabs are putting into the company vs. the money that can be made on PPV.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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