Sam Caplan over at Five Ounces Of Pain gives a good overview of what Dana White could possibly announce this Thursday and its definitely worth a read.
When speculating on announcements of this sort, I find it is important to keep a few different things in perspective.
1. Set reasonable expectations. The lead up to this announcement seems different than previous UFC announcements that were deemed huge, but always remain skeptical.
2. Establish some criteria for the announcement based on the information already available; it helps to weed out the seemingly endless possibilities.
3. Remember that major announcements are often preceded by a flurry of external activity from the other parties involved. We see this in business all the time with the way the bond and stock markets signal good or bad news, or coincidental announcements can be made by other firms in similar time periods. In other words, take a look at all the possibilities and see what they’re currently doing.
4. There’s more than one way to skin a cat. A big announcement does not necessarily mean there will be one and only one piece of information released on Thursday. Rather we could see a series of things revealed to us on Thursday.
Not unlike everyone else, I have no idea what Thursday is going to bring for the UFC and MMA, but I will say the following: I find it quite interesting that we’re three days out from this “big” announcement and nobody seems to know anything.
There certainly exists a good precedent in business for huge deals being kept very quiet until they are announced. Often times that means keeping knowledge of the negotiations to a minimum number of individuals. That in combination with the venue rental, as Caplan mentions, would indicate to me that this likely isn’t just another run-of-the-mill fighter announcement.
And to speculate further, this unsourced interview with Dana White in London, the day of UFC 85, would seem to indicate that a network TV deal is not among the possibilities for Thursday’s announcement. Although, I must add that considering the momentum that MMA has been building recently – in particular the good ratings of EliteXC’s Primetime – and depending what is announced on Thursday, the UFC likely now has the negotiating leverage it needs to secure a network TV deal suitable to their tastes.
At any rate, you can expect more from MMApayout in the days to come!
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