Steve Cofield of Yahoo! Sports Cagewriter has confirmed with Dana White that UFC 113 has been moved back one week from May 1st to May 8th in order to avoid a head-to-head PPV battle with Floyd Mayweather Jr.
This afternoon, a UFC source told Cagewriter that UFC 113 was headed for May 8. This evening UFC president Dana White confirmed the date change. The switch was made possible when the Bell Centre was able to move a May 8 concert.
“We were trying to not go the same night as boxing but these [expletive] guys can’t get out of their own way,” White told Cagewriter. “I have never seen anything so unorganized, selfish and disfunctional as boxing. It’s a joke!”
Payout Perspective:
Generally, I believe that competition spurs demand within an industry; it makes everyone better off because the size of the pie grows. But in this case, the direct competition between the UFC and Mayweather isn’t ideal.
The coverage of the weekend will not be head-to-head in nature, but rather focused almost singularly on the return of Mayweather (without Pacquiao, etc.). Moreover, the cross-over fan base will largely have to choose one or the other, and the UFC isn’t going to win that battle when comparing the strength of the main attractions. The argument for Mayweather is likely something to the effect of “how many times does he fight a year or how many does he have left?” versus “the UFC is on all the time and the last time these two guys fought it was bullsh*t.”
The UFC will take some heat – especially from boxing purists – but it’s a smart move. The UFC has to pick its battles.
if boxing could generate a viable heavy weight superstar this silly talk of boxing is dead would be over. ufc is not going to compete with boxings bigger names, makes business sense, but it also shows that dana, despite what he says in public, knows his place
Even if u have a big boxing star in the heavy weight divion they won’t do shit on ppv look how many big name stars they had forman holyfield tyson lewis and they had 3 fights that generated over 1million plus buys boxing dose good only on mega fights and plus boxing f them self buy have so many weight divions and 3 champions in each 1 it b.s there should only be 1 champion in each divion not three that would give u like 70 champs wtf is that jajajajajaja
KInd of off topic but it was brough up a little in the article.
I still do not see how competition is better for MMA. This is a concept that is used outside sport that has no place in sports. If we are talking Coke vs Pepsi you can argue comp is better because both are forces to put out a good consistant product or rish losing customers. But that works because there is an endless supply of both products. Same with Phone service from ATT back in the day and Windowns from Microsoft.
That isnt the case in Sports. Is it better that competition between teams without proper regulation has led to inflated salaries thats is going to cause a hold in the NFL just like that of Baseball in the 90’s? Is it better for NBA if players keep defecting to other countries? NO. Athletes are not a endless supply like other products. When you spread NBA players across China, France, Italy, etc you hurt the NBA and its fans and guys like Marbury wasting away in China dont help basketball, NBA, or fans.
Fighters being spread acorss 15 organization or even 1 causes the talent level in any 1 promotion to drop and the competion in the cage to drop and inflates salaries to where it gets out of control like in other sports and hurts the game even further. Compeition in MMA leads to 70 belts or more like people are complaining about boxing. Making the sports more confusing to someone new. Noone is going to argue that boxing is better with 5 big name Boxing Assosiations awarding belts. IBF didnt make boxing better by giving WBO competition. The same with other created belts. It created barriers in the sport that prevented curtain fights. It causes casul fans not to be able to follow the sport. Even ESPN sportscasters couldnt even tell you whp the boxing HW champ was a couple yearsa go because 3-4 different Russians held the belts.
Monolpolies are not good in the real world for the most part but they are good in sports. That is the case with all the sporting leagues. The one sport that doesnt have one is Boxing and the Barriers like Promoters(Arum vs King), Fighters(Mayweather vs Pacman), Tv Networks (Showtime vs HBO), Boxing councils (WBC vs WBO) all in the name of competion is what is tearing the sport of boxing apart.
Competition is absolutely better for sport, and mma. Competition from external factors is what drives an organization to improve their product, and satisfy the consumer. Players leaving to other organizations or leagues act to drive an organization forward. The process of players leaving isn’t necessarily good for the organization, but the action the league must take to ensure their product is sustainable is. The truth about the nba is that it is a watered down league that could use contraction. Losing a player like Ricky Rubio to Europe hurts in the short term. However, in the long run it helps the league address transfer issues with other leagues, as well as examining its current drafting process. If properly analyzed and dealt with, it will help the league.
A monopoly in the sporting world. The ideal model in my opinion is the European soccer format, where you have each individual league as well as a Champions League. The ideal mma format would have multiple companies operating sucsessful promotions with the possibilty of fighters from different organizations still fighting each other. This drives forward competition while still allowing “super fights” or ideal match ups to take place. Although I don’t see this happening in the near or even distant future, I would like to see it take place for the extended development of mma around the world.
Think of the move interms of movies.
Would you want to release your movie in a crowed market or when you have the weekend all to yourself? Smart move by the UFC. UFC 113 is a great card and it will do good numbers.
Thanks for sponse. Disagree. Will reply when i get to a computer.
Good year for boxing pacquiao vs clottey with the help of mainstream sport the nfl and jerry jones.,,,the fight would be a sucess and the place would be packed…and there would be so many media mileage
(jerry jones paid 6 million dollars with this fight and plans to promote at least 6 x a year in his venue___imagine the mainstream mileage would be phenomenal)
…then mosley vs mayweather would be huge as well…also the new heavyweight champ david haye should fight in the u.s this dude would be the future ppv attraction he can knock people out and knows how to TALK—-kinda like Ali…also amir khan just signed with golden boy and is going to be based in the u.s his an exciting fighter and would be a crowd attraction…then later in the year pacman vs mayweather fight would be off the roof….
also top rank is back on fox cable for a weekly show and is going to copy the wwe and ufc with theyre production lights and sound and would match the fighters equally…which means no more tomato cans….so that the younger generation would see boxing as a very exciting sport!!!
2010 is goin to be awesome!