UFC 72 Spoilers

Vince135792003

Just thought I'd stick up an article from Yahoo on the event seeing as it was quite the success in Belfast. Dana White also said that they would come next to Dublin but it would be not this year in the post fight press conference.

Heres the article from yahoo sports:

Ultimate success
By Kevin Iole, Yahoo! Sports
June 16, 2007




BELFAST, Northern Ireland – They sang soccer chants and schoolyard songs. They roared until their lungs were hoarse. They surrounded every arena exit and hotel entrance, hoping to get a glimpse of their heroes.

Rich Franklin and Forrest Griffin were the winners in the Octagon, but the biggest winner in UFC 72 at Odyssey Arena was the sport of mixed martial arts.

MMA proved on Saturday that it is not simply an American phenomenon or a casino driven sport. A sellout crowd of 7,850, which paid an arena record live gate of about $1.2 million U.S., spent about four hours singing, screaming and proving that MMA is a serious player on the world sporting scene.

UFC owner Lorenzo Fertitta said officials overpriced the tickets, which had a top price of $500 U.S., but it didn’t matter. The fans were out in force – long lines snaked around the arena more than an hour before the first fight – and had by all indications the time of their lives. “I thought that was the coolest thing ever,” said Griffin of the fans’ singing soccer chants as he was fighting. He received the loudest ovation of all fighters when he was introduced prior to his unanimous decision win over Hector Ramirez. “Damn, that was cool,” he said.

Fertitta and UFC president Dana White felt much the same way, though for vastly different reasons. They are convinced they’ve made new fans of the sport in what is the epitome of a grassroots effort.

The sport gained traction in the U.S. about four years after the Fertitta family purchased it in 2001 at a time when it was hemorrhaging money and in danger of going under. It grew with little mainstream media coverage, largely succeeding because of the Fertittas’ money and business savvy and White’s guile and sheer persistence.

Saturday’s fight was the third in the U.K. and the second this year, with another one set for Sept. 8 in London.

But that, Fertitta said, is only part of an international expansion that he sees taking the sport to Germany next year and, soon, to Italy, Spain and Australia, as well as points in between. “The cool thing about it, and the reason I like moving things around, is every time we go to a new place, we create new fans,” Fertitta said. “There are going to be a lot of people in the arena tonight who don’t know the UFC. Maybe they heard about us from a friend, but they weren’t sure.

“But I know this: They’ll leave here a fan. Going forward, our plans are to continue to hit it hard. We’re going to do at least two more fights this year in the U.K. … and slowly grow the tentacles out.”

Clearly, the nearly 8,000 people who attended Saturday’s card, which had been criticized for not being worthy of pay-per-view, felt they got their money’s worth.

Its success was partly due to a series of enthralling fights – it would be difficult to top the acrobatic lightweight battle between Tyson Griffin and Clay Guida in any venue in any form of combat sports – but it was also because of the UFC’s investment in the sport.

Fertitta said the company is spending $4.5 million to market the UFC brand in the U.K. alone. And that doesn’t include the $1.4 million the UFC spent to market Saturday’s event.

Fertitta credits the investment for building a brand that has made the UFC the dominant force in MMA and helped push it past boxing in terms of popularity with the young audience who will be his customers for decades.

“We’re definitely looking at this long term,” Fertitta said. “One of the things Dana has talked about is that nobody has ever invested in boxing the way we have invested in this sport. The fact of the matter is, when we come to the U.K., we have a $4.5 million marketing expense. It’s just branding the UFC.

“There’s no boxing promoter who has done that, putting his own money into market boxing.”

And it’s had its impact on fans like Brendan Neill of Glasgow, Scotland, who made the trip to UFC 72 with his friend, Noel Murray of Coleraime, Northern Ireland.

Neill is a judo fan who began to follow MMA four years ago, or about the same time the UFC held its first show in the U.K.

Neill and Murray bought front-row tickets because they said they had to see the show.

“It’s a total spectacle and I didn’t want to miss it,” Neill said. “This is the top level of the sport you’re seeing here. You think of MMA and you think of the UFC.”

Because of the ravenous appetite for the sport, Fertitta wants to continue to be a globetrotting company, but the large number of shows comes at a cost. There is only a finite number of fighters and, in a combat sport, the talent occasionally gets injured and can’t compete for periods of a time.

A side benefit of the UFC’s global view, though, is that it helps develop fighters in the countries where it is held.

Light heavyweight contender Michael Bisping, who is from Manchester, England, turned to the sport after UFC 38 was held in London on July 13, 2002.

“It broadens the pool of fighters where we can pull guys from,” UFC heavyweight champion Randy Couture said. “There are a lot of talented guys over here in a lot of different combative sports who are now seeing the wisdom of making the transition to mixed martial arts.

“A guy like Bisping is a perfect example of that. The progress he’s made after being on (The Ultimate Fighter) TV show to the way he’s fighting now is amazing. He’s at the point where he’s ready to carry a card fairly soon.”


The whole scene was incredible, but none of it would be possible without White, a one-time hotel bellman with limitless energy whose passion for the sport knows no bounds.

After the weigh-in for UFC 71 in Las Vegas last month, White walked to a crowd of several hundred screaming fans. He easily could have avoided them by turning to his left and going to a secure area, but he turned toward them and spent more than a half-hour signing autographs and posing for pictures.

One fan handed White his mobile phone and asked him to speak to his sister.

“Why aren’t you here?” White barked at her in mock indignation.

White then offered her tickets if she would come to the show. It sounded as if she declined, but you can bet White made another customer in those 45 seconds.

“As long as they want to talk to me and take pictures with me, it’s absolutely my duty to do that for them,” said White, who was partying in the hotel bar post-fight Saturday with many of the fans who bought tickets in the arena. “I say this all the time, not just about boxing, but about baseball, basketball and football: These guys make $65 million to play basketball and they won’t spend five minutes with the fans? Come on.

“It’s the same thing with baseball. There are times I’ve been caught walking somewhere and I have an important meeting. But I’ll stay there for two-and-a-half hours. I don’t care what I have to do. If I have somewhere to go, a meeting, people waiting for me, a rehearsal for the show, I don’t care. We’re successful because we make sure every last fan gets what he wants.”

The Sparrow

It was amazing to be there... Especially during the Forest Griffin fight, he was over like rover! The undercard was good but not a lot was amazing. However the atmosphere was amazing and it was just so great to be there when Bruce Buffer was doing the introductions. Its a shame that there were no huge fights because I could only imagine how great a big fight atmosphere would be:D

Comment of the night though was from Marcus Davis when he knocked out Jason Tan. he had come out to House of Pain in his usual tartan and was introduced as the Celtic Warrior. After his fight he said that he was Irish and his family was from Waterford and it was his dream to fight in Ireland. Then he said that he grew up on a potato farm in the States at which point he was cheered out of the building.

Other than that the Tyson Griffin v Clay Guida fight was amazing... I definitely thought that Guida won and the crowd agreed and booed the decision heavily.

The main event was pretty boring though. And I thought Okami probably shaded it, but I could see why franklin got the decision. But I really couldn`t understand at the end of the fight, loads of ppl left before the decision. It was madness... I mean why bother going at all if you don`t stay for the decision in the main event. They were probably the sam knobs who were booing fights 20 seconds in because the fighters were feeling each other out.

All in all it was a great experience and I would reccommend that anyone goes to a UFC show. They really know how to put on a show and it was much better than any of teh live WWE events I have attended. Its just a shame that belfast sucked so much once the show was over, but that is another story!

ShawnRaven

I too was in attendance for this, and the main event got booed out of the building! And rightfully so, save for the last 2 minutes of the 3rd round it was utterly boring. The Griffin/Guida fight ruled the f*ckin school except for the bullsh*t decision at the end of it.

The EIEIO chant for the MacDonald fight was hilarious.

Anyone hear "Shermanator!" yelled out for the Herman match?

We got to meet Dana White, Quenton Jackson, Bruce Buffer, Michael Bisping, and Joe Rogan as we were front row ringside for it. Almost got to meet Randy Couture but we had to dash as our bus was leaving. (No pics, but take my word for it, as they greeted anyone that was in the first rows anyway and they'd tell you the same thing. And besides, i'm not that much of a dick to make sh*t up)

As woooo232 said, it knocked spots off any WWE event that has been put on over the last few years. I'll disagree with Belfast on him though, i've had nothing but good times any time i've been up there

VR!

MikeHoncho

Can anyone else see SkySports taking UFC coverage away from Bravo in the next few months? I really wanted to go to this event but due to other commitiments couldnt make it so its great news to hear they are coming to Dublin next year.

vasch_ro

I haven'y been to any WWE shows primarily being an MMA fan, but I was really impressed with the show, I was slightly dubious about the card, but I have to say the live event was amazing, even the undercard the fans were reallt really up for it especially when Colin Robinson from Antrim was fighting Eddie Sanchez the crowd went wild,
I was impressed with the way Dana White and Randy Couter and other fighters gave up loads of their time for photos etc, I for one will definately be going back !!

ShawnRaven

MikeHoncho wrote:

Can anyone else see SkySports taking UFC coverage away from Bravo in the next few months?

They're too late. Setanta have already done so
VR!

Vince135792003

MikeHoncho wrote:

Can anyone else see SkySports taking UFC coverage away from Bravo in the next few months? I really wanted to go to this event but due to other commitiments couldnt make it so its great news to hear they are coming to Dublin next year.

They were on Sky for a time back in 2002. There was a fall out with UFC and Sky though. I don't remember the details only that in a conference call Dana said "Thank God for ****ing Bravo".

The Sparrow

validreasoning! wrote:

They're too late. Setanta have already done so
VR!

Have Setanta actually taken the full UFC rights away from Bravo? I thought that it was just that when UFC had a show from the UK it was on Setanta PPV, but if it was an American show it would still be on tape delay on Bravo?

Actually Setanta showing UFC is a bit of a quirk in itself... Because they have the rights to Ricky Hatton`s next couple of fights alone and they are not putting (at least his next one) on PPV... So therefore they must think that they can draw more PPV buys with UFC than with boxing!

Also VR, I had high hopes for Belfast but when we came out of the arena at about 11 everything was closed:eek: We got a taxi driver to bring us to where the bars etc were and when we got there 75% of the bars were closed and the other ones had big queues of people dressed up in shirts and shoes etc and we had no chance of getting in. FFS there wasn`t even a chipper or a MacDonalds to get some food in! We walked around the centre of Belfast for about an hour and it was like a scene out of 28 days later, it was completely deserted. Imagine the centre of Dublin at midnight on a Saturday night? You would falling over places to find a pub for a few quiet pints or somewhere for food! If anyone goes to another UFC show in the Odyseey get out of dodge asap and try and make it back to civilisation by last orders:D /rant over lol!!

Wacker

I have to disagree with both Wooo232 and Validreasoning; I had Griffin ahead of Guida. Only by a shadow though. Top notch fight.

The Sparrow

Wacker wrote:

I have to disagree with both Wooo232 and Validreasoning; I had Griffin ahead of Guida. Only by a shadow though. Top notch fight.

I have to disagree with you being alive!

ShawnRaven

woooo232 wrote:

Also VR, I had high hopes for Belfast but when we came out of the arena at about 11 everything was closed:eek: We got a taxi driver to bring us to where the bars etc were and when we got there 75% of the bars were closed and the other ones had big queues of people dressed up in shirts and shoes etc and we had no chance of getting in. FFS there wasn`t even a chipper or a MacDonalds to get some food in!

UK Law states all bars to be cleared out by 11pm. Most people have usually found a club by then! And anyone daft enough to wear a pair of runners on a night out deserves to get refused! They invented Dockers and Catapillars for a reason folks.

Nah i hear what you're saying. I went to Bristol a couple of months ago for a gig to discover the exact same thing, although we were able to go back to the hotel and get sloshed.

VR!

ShawnRaven

woooo232 wrote:

I have to disagree with you being alive!

I have to agree with the above disagreement!

VR!

The Sparrow

validreasoning! wrote:

Nah i hear what you're saying. I went to Bristol a couple of months ago for a gig to discover the exact same thing, although we were able to go back to the hotel and get sloshed.

VR!

Yeah damn it for cheap hostels booked the night before when we found out that a certain Tyson Griffin loving Wacker screwed us HBK style over our lift to Belfast!

Anyway back on some sort of UFC topic, if they have a show in Dublin next year, where will it be? Isn`t The Point being rennovated?

ShawnRaven

Yeah it is, but apparently the Ody drew 8,000 people. RDS Indoor would fit that easily. If they can fit Scumderland in there, they'll be able to fit UFC's ring and lighting rig.

VR!

Vince135792003

Yep the Odyseey sold out at 8000 people with a gate of 1.2 million dollars. That was the record gate ever for the arena.

The previous record was not held by WWE but by Dolly Parton.

ShawnRaven

It may have "sold" out, but the crowd wasn't a sell out, there were empty seats all over the place. it was a hell of a crowd, but there were loads of spare seats, people were shifiting around left right and centre!

VR!

Vince135792003

Dolly's record still got broken.

ShawnRaven

Yeah but was it for ticket sales or attendance? Chances are it was probably both.
Wasn't difficult either given how much the tickets were for UFC too, they were kinda expensive

VR!

Vince135792003

It was for the total live gate number of 1.2 million dollars.

ShawnRaven

Vince135792003 wrote:

It was for the total live gate number of 1.2 million dollars.

Ticket sales, what could have happened is companies buy tickets in bulk and give em to people, and then people may not turn up at the event, explaining empty spaces.

VR!