On a Friday afternoon conference call, the UFC shed light on the specifics of their much-anticipated November debut on Fox, announcing the featured fight for the televised event. Cain Velasquez will be defending the UFC Heavyweight Championship for the first time against #1 Contender Junior dos Santos. As more information was presented about this upcoming fight it became very apparent that so much is riding on this contest for Zuffa that the pressure is already beginning to mount.
During the conference call UFC President Dana White compared this fight to the Stephan Bonnar-Forrest Griffin fight from The Ultimate Fighter season one finale in 2005. This fight is often credited as being the most important factor in the UFC being saved from financial ruin. Even typing the Bonnar-Griffin comparison makes me feel for Velasquez and JDS. The simple fact that White made the comparison between these two events shows that the UFC, and the sport of MMA as a whole, feels it has a lot riding on this bout.
It seems that UFC executives are hoping that Velasquez and dos Santos will stand in front of each other and throw strikes, trying their best to cause the most damage possible. This fight will not be a full display of what MMA is about; it will be a display of two of the sport’s best strikers. Velasquez may attempt to take this fight to the ground, but it would not be surprising if the competitors are stood up by the referee the moment the first boos from fans are heard. It will be interesting to see how this fight plays out, and if any stories come out regarding additional bonuses if the fighters “give fans what they want.”
Also happening that night will be a fight involving some boxer you may have heard of named Manny Pacquiao, who will be taking on Juan Manuel Marquez. As both are known as exciting fighters, this is expected to be an action-packed contest from the first to the final bell. Instead of going head-to-head with this Pay per View event by offering a full MMA card on free television, the UFC has decided to offer just one televised bout that evening. I would have liked to see the UFC try their hand up against the PPV giant.
While it is obvious that Pacquiao generates a large number of PPV buys every time he steps into the ring, the UFC could have been able to generate a strong enough buzz for a full card to pull some eyes away from the boxing event, and towards their free product. It would have been a bad move to try to place a PPV UFC event on the same evening, but a free televised event with a stacked card would have presented an interesting alternative. If nothing else, the MMA fans who attend sports bars to watch UFC events would stick around to watch Pacquiao later that evening. In essence, the UFC may help the Filipino champion gain even more fans by the time the fight night is over.
The UFC’s debut on Fox is going to be a big moment in the history of mixed martial arts. The discussion leading up to the event for these next few months will be very interesting to hear. However, we won’t know exactly how momentous of an event this will be until all is said and done, and the credits have rolled on the broadcast.
