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Alvin Benjamin Carter III, MMATorch Specialist
August 17 will be a pivotal day in the Ultimate Fighting Championship's relationship with Fox. The television network will debut its new channel, Fox Sports 1, on that date. It will reach 90 million homes and feature 5,000 hours of live and original programing each year. One of the first live events on the network will be the UFC's Fox Sports 1, which will take place on at TD Garden in Boston, MA on that new sports channel's start date.
This is huge for the Massachusetts and east coast mixed martial arts community. The fight community here is vibrant with Sityodtong being a town over in Somerville, Redline Fight Sports in Cambridge, and Wai Kru in Boston. These gyms have trained many professional fighters, some of whom have competed in the UFC. There are various grappling and striking based gyms in the area as well. The UFC is coming to place where combat sports are popular, and they need to put on a strong card to help the launch of the new sports channel. Fans locally and nationally benefit from this.
A fight card with a star powered main event and possibly co-main event will most likely grace the Garden and the airwaves. MMATorch writer Rich Hansen wrote a great article about what fights make the most sense as headliners, and just about any of the options he set forth are plausible. In any event, the mixed martial arts community in the Greater Boston Area will be excited for the card.
I have been part of the MMA scene here as a spectator for years, and, like I imagine it to be on other parts of the country, MMA fans show support of regional MMA promotions and are always excited for the biggest show on earth to grace Beantown. When UFC 118 came to Boston, it had over 14,000 fans in attendance, a gate of about $2,800,000, and a pay-per-view buyrate of 570,000. I was at the event and attended the Fan Expo, and it truly is a different experience to see the UFC live. That card was headlined by Frankie Edgar vs. B.J. Penn II, and was received with mixed emotions by critics.
This time the UFC and Fox have a lot more to prove with the success of this event, so having a few household MMA names seems to be a necessity. In already announced fights, area favorite Joe Lauzon will be on the card facing Michael Johnson, and Thiago Alves will face Matt Brown. Those are solid fights, but to quote one of my favorite mobile phone commercials, "We want more. We want more!" Fans look forward to cards that give them the opportunity to witness greatness or at least see the rise of a star.
Now, even the best matched fights can go wrong, but there has to be a name associated with the bout that makes fans feel like they are part of an era. Someone like Urijah Faber is a perennial fan favorite, but there are others that are currently legends. If the Silva's and GSP's of the world are too valuable and unavailable, and the Velasquez's and Dos Santos' of the world are saved for holiday weekend cards, Joe Silva should check out Mr. Hansen's article and make it happen.
Having an expo where fans can meet fighters and celebrities can soften the blow of a mediocre fight card for the fans that will be in attendance at the venue. Fans watching at home will be apt to be more critical of the card because they are on a new channel and the programing could be perceived as different or of less value since the channel is new. It really is a delicate situation for the UFC and for Fox, but there are so many options depending on how they want to play it. I plan on attending the event regardless of the card. Nut I am a fight fan who will go see some well trained amateurs on the local circuit.
The live event experience the UFC offers far surpasses any event most fans have attended, and that most likely ensures a gate similar to that of UFC 118. Still, making 14,000 fans happy, and hundreds of thousands - if not millions - of people happy are two different things. Give me a Daniel Cormier or a Wanderlei Silva any day, but a Jon Jones or an Anderson Cain Velasquez will get fans in the seats and viewers in homes across the country.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
STAFF COLUMNISTS: Shawn Ennis - Jason Amadi
Frank Hyden - Rich Hansen
Chris Park - Matt Pelkey
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