UFC 304 was a massive middle finger to the UK fans

[DatSamboKid]

I know I’m beating a dead horse here, but Dana's post-fight tantrum during the press conference was mind-blowing. His behavior was embarrassing and disrespectful towards the fighters and UK fan base. With two champions from the UK headlining the event, as a promoter, you’d think he’d want to maximize their chances of winning in front of their home crowd. Making Leon Edwards fight at 5AM and hiring sleep specialists is absolute nonsense.

They claim to cater to the UK market, yet they make loyal, ticket-paying fans sit in an arena until 5:30AM. For UFC 267 in Abu Dhabi, the main card started at 2PM EST, 10PM local time. They had no problem making accommodations for that market, likely due to that oil money.

It's clear they don’t prioritize the fans. It’s always been and always will be about money. The only reason they brought this card to the UK was because they knew the UK fan base would buy overpriced tickets and stay up until 6AM. Otherwise, they wouldn't have bothered.

Rant over.

 

[Poirierfan]

They don't care about the fans or the fighters, that much is known.

 

[Neck&Neck]

Yeah that was some bulshit for the locals
Big Tom should step to uncle Dana

 

[HHJ]

It was shit behavior considering everything that the fans and fighters had to go through to make that happen

 

[SuperNerd]

It was a fine show and nobody was forced to go.

Cry more.

 

[Domitian]

ESPN only let's the UFC hold 2 PPVs per year that aren't on the standard time they want to be on.

The alternative was to not go to the UK and just have the card in Vegas or somewhere else in the US.

You guessed one of the venues for this year correct.

 

[Hdfi]

the card was great. Paddy & Aspinall saved it.

 

[NoBiasJustMMA]

The strange thing to me is that most of the people that I know that watch MMA like the earlier midday cards or early evening cards they don't like the card starting at 10:00 p.m. so I'm not exactly sure why they need to put the times on so that the card start at 10:00 p.m. on the east coast in the United States.

 

[Bubzeh]

I think this was widely known when they started the early prelims at 11pm…

 

[Carrotman23]

The strange thing to me is that most of the people that I know that watch MMA like the earlier midday cards or early evening cards they don't like the card starting at 10:00 p.m. so I'm not exactly sure why they need to put the times on so that the card start at 10:00 p.m. on the east coast in the United States.

100% . I mean I'm one of those people , I love a morning card. I don't really get the UFC's logic on this one. Would changing the card to the morning/afternoon really effect their US PPV buys all that much?? Seems wildly greedy to me.

But yeah the 10 pm time is usually because the cards in Vegas or around there so with the 3 hour difference it makes it a perfect time for west coasters.

Also it was very funny watching a Dana White TNT interview gushing about how awesome UK fight fans are while the whole event timing is a huge middle finger to them .

Honestly I'm surprised UK fans attended in mass, id boycott that shit ha

 

[ccfc]

It’s not the first time they’ve done that to UK fans either. Astronomical ticket prices too. I live in Manchester but am I fuck staying up until 6am to watch Leon and Belal.

Fans should have just refused to go and embarrassed them with a half empty arena

 

[Pechan]

Give Dana a break, he was cranky, it was 6 am over there ffs!

 

[Alpha_T83]

That's the problem with UFC events overseas. They make a lot of their money from PPV sales, and it's basically proven that if they run events at 2-4pm US eastern time that the PPV sales are garbage.

That's why I don't like people addressing fighting at 5AM in this context. It's a disingenuous argument that ignores reality. The real argument is: Do you want MMA events in the UK or not? Because if you have UFC events in the UK, the main event will start at 3AM. Period. If you don't think fighters should be fighting at 5AM in the UK, then you're arguing that you don't think the UFC should host events in the UK.

 

[DapperDave]

UFC is racist.

They coddle to predominantly Arab nations and time zones, but they force predominantly white nations stay up and party all night until the fans can't even remember who won the damn fights.

Fucking bigots!

Can I get an AMEN and a That's-Racist gif !!

Englishmen of the world unite!!!

 

[SuperNerd]

That's the problem with UFC events overseas. They make a lot of their money from PPV sales, and it's basically proven that if they run events at 2-4pm US eastern time that the PPV sales are garbage.

That's why I don't like people addressing fighting at 5AM in this context. It's a disingenuous argument that ignores reality. The real argument is: Do you want MMA events in the UK or not? Because if you have UFC events in the UK, the main event will start at 3AM. Period. If you don't think fighters should be fighting at 5AM in the UK, then you're arguing that you don't think the UFC should host events in the UK.

Posters acting like this is the first event where a fighter had to deal with jet lag, and prepare for it.

It happens almost every card.

 

[Only Here for Attachments]

It was a fine show and nobody was forced to go.

Cry more.

Dana's done plenty of crying already

 

[CasualBot]

PPV model is such a joke.

Easiest way to scam numbers and launder money.

UK doesn't even have PPV,
it's baked into their television packages.

This was the usual
Dana "you'll take i give you" White.

Entire event was a waste of time.

Tom, still champ.
B-LOL dethrones boring ass NeonLeon.
Another wrestler got released.
Young star beat a renamed journeyman.

On to the next one...

 

[NoBiasJustMMA]

I really don't see what would be wrong with having the Saturday Cards start at 8:00 p.m. eastern time it's not like most people work on Saturdays anyway so there isn't this big need to have it start at like 6:00 7:00 p.m. for the West coasters that will be coming home from work like it would be on a weekday.

 

[CasualBot]

I know I’m beating a dead horse here, but Dana's post-fight tantrum during the press conference was mind-blowing. His behavior was embarrassing and disrespectful towards the fighters and UK fan base. With two champions from the UK headlining the event, as a promoter, you’d think he’d want to maximize their chances of winning in front of their home crowd. Making Leon Edwards fight at 5AM and hiring sleep specialists is absolute nonsense.

They claim to cater to the UK market, yet they make loyal, ticket-paying fans sit in an arena until 5:30AM. For UFC 267 in Abu Dhabi, the main card started at 2PM EST, 10PM local time. They had no problem making accommodations for that market, likely due to that oil money.

It's clear they don’t prioritize the fans. It’s always been and always will be about money. The only reason they brought this card to the UK was because they knew the UK fan base would buy overpriced tickets and stay up until 6AM. Otherwise, they wouldn't have bothered.

Rant over.

 

[TeenageMutantLesnarTurtle]

If its the norm going forward they might as well not bother running any halfway decent cards in any market that doesnt suit the US PPV audience honestly. You are not going to grow the fanbase or generate any buzz in a market when the event is held in the early hours of the morning there.

Its especially shitty in this particular instance because with two UK champs going in + Paddy they could have run it in prime time in the UK and filled out a football stadium and it would have been electric and probably gotten more attention than any UK card ever. Dont think the most likely sub 200k buys this card did is really worth sacrificing that tbh.

Another thing, not that I really enjoy the concept of even MORE oversaturation, but if the UFC is concerned about the US market couldnt they just run an international card AND US card back to back on the same day to milk things harder and appease their ESPN overlords even more? tbh im suprised they havent already tried doing stuff like that (regularly having multiple cards a week etc)