Dana White sat down with Kevin Iole of Yahoo! Sports on Thursday and confirmed the final few events of the 2008 Calendar.
The UFC will make its debut in Oregon with UFC 91 on November 15th at Portland’s Rose Garden Arena. While the majority of the card has yet to be finalized, White confirmed that GSP-Penn 2 is out and Florian-Stevenson is in.
As expected, UFC 92 will take place in Las Vegas on December 27th in what could potentially be the UFC’s biggest fight card of the year – both in terms of PPV buys and entertainment value. It has been heavily speculated that should Chuck Liddell defeat Rashad Evans at UFC 88, he will co-headline the NYE card alongside Forrest Griffin, Antonio Nogeuira and Frank Mir. White also noted that Wanderlei Silva may not appear on the New Year’s Eve card, despite Silva’s earlier statements to the contrary.
And in what should be received as the most signficant portion of today’s announcement, the GSP-Penn super fight has been pushed back to UFC 93 – an event scheduled to take place in Las Vegas on January 31st, Superbowl Weekend.
This of course begs the question, is it too soon? Does scheduling GSP-Penn 2 in January give the UFC enough time to market and build-up the fight to the level it truly deserves? Furthermore, are the potential rewards worth the tremendous risks involved with the bout?
I can’t help but think that this fight would be better served as a December 2009 bout, after both fighters have shown their dominance within their respective divisions. That dominance would assist the UFC in building the event as a true “Super Fight” and also tie in with the UFC’s biggest PPV of the year.
However, to be fair, who’s to say what the LW and WW divisions are going to look like in a year from now, and the UFC might be looking to capitalize on the fight before the window of opportunity closes. There are also marketing advantages to riding the NFL’s wake on Superbowl Weekend.
Regardless of your opinion, this fight finally has a date and what a privilege it will be to watch two of the world’s best pound-for-pound fighters go at it in their primes.