MMAterial Facts 04/07/10: UFC 111 PPV Buys Update & Abu Dhabi Coverage

• UFC 111 PPV Buys Update
• Vince McMahon seeking to get UFC banned in key European countries
• UFC is caged and ready to rumble, finds its first Arab voice
• Dana White talks to MMA Business about everything!
• First hand look at MMA fails to sway Begel

UFC 111 PPV Buys Update

Updated UFC 111 numbers look to be coming in at around 770,000 buys. With Georges St. Pierre as the headliner, the numbers were strongest in Canada…  (Wrestling Observer Newsletter)

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MMAPayout Note: Previous preliminary UFC 111 PPV trending numbers had the event at 850K PPV buys, which appears to now be downgraded to 770K PPV buys. Coming out of the event, MMAPayout gave a buyrate estimate at somewhere in the range of 700K PPV buys, which may not be too far off the current projections.

Vince McMahon seeking to get UFC banned in key European countries

Sometimes the most intriguing wrestling news stories are broken or teased on the Wrestling Observer / Figure Four Online message boards.  This is one such case, as UFC.com writer/German UFC commentator (and former German WWE commentator/marketing staffer/keeper of savage secrets) Oliver Copp let the news leak that Vince McMahon is attempting to sabotage UFC’s expansion into key European markets in a thread about Dana White’s recent ambition to hold an event at the newly opened largest domed stadium in the world, Cowboy Stadium in Dallas.(Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Cageside Seats)

UFC is caged and ready to rumble, finds its first Arab voice

For Lee Charteris, the director of operations for the event organisers, Flash, and the army of 300 staff and sub-contractors he commands, the work started in early December.

That was when construction of a purpose-built venue that will be able to hold more than 12,000 people at the Ferrari World amusement park on Yas Island began.

He said the structures his company built for the Aerosmith and Beyoncé concerts during the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix last year were impressive enough.  (The National)

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Arab ears may not be accustomed to translations for brutal fight moves such as the “triangle choke hold”, the “clinch” or the “arm-bar technique”.

Come April 10, Mohammed al Housani, a 25-year-old Emirati, will announce those and other combat manoeuvres on Arabic-language television for the first time at the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) event in Abu Dhabi.  (The National)

Dana White talks to MMA Business about everything!

MMA: Let’s talk about television. Spike TV and Pay Per View seem to do very well for UFC events and for The Ultimate Fighter. But the networks or ESPN can deliver even more viewers. Is that a consideration?

White: I definitely consider this. I would love to get UFC together with either ESPN or a major TV network, but we haven’t been able to do that yet. We’ve been close to big deals like this. But I’m not gonna just jump at something. This might be stupid, but I think we’re bigger than HBO or CBS. I really do think UFC is bigger than any of those networks. I’m not gonna go in and cut some deals just because they are who they are. We’ll do what’s right for UFC and for our events.  (MMA Business Magazine)

First hand look at MMA fails to sway Begel

For those who have been keeping score, I’ve been writing about how horrible I think Mixed Martial Arts is for several months. The guys (and they seem to be all guys) who have written in, have all complained that I’ve never even seen a match. They invited me to this one and I took them up.

The very nice guy who promoted the thing made every effort to, as he put it, “change my mind.”

No such luck, although there was one minor change. Instead of not liking MMA because of the brutality and violence, I also now don’t like it because it’s about as boring as a sport could possibly be. I mean excruciating.  (On Milwaukee)

VIDEO OF THE DAY

IMAGES OF THE DAY

QUICK HITS

• Paul Buentello has been officially cut by the UFC after his loss to Kongo. (MMAPayou)
  
• Huerta, Hinton Cleared for Bellator Season 2 Debut (Sherdog)
• Lawal, Mousasi Wage Mental Warfare Heading into April 17 Bout (Sherdog)
• CEO estimates up to 12,000 attendance for “Strikeforce: Nashville” on April 17 (MMAJunkie)
• Strikeforce reserves June 26 for San Jose’s HP Pavilion, Fedor-Werdum talks ongoing (MMAJunkie)
• CBS to air Jason “Mayhem” Miller vs. Tim Stout on “Strikeforce: Nashville” broadcast (MMAJunkie)
• Full UFC 114 fight card released, Duffee and Sanchez on PPV main card (MMAJunkie)
• Tickets for Boston’s Bellator 17, Eddie Alvarez vs. Josh Neer “super fight” now on sale (MMAJunkie)
• White: Liddell vs. Ortiz to Headline UFC 115 (MMAFighting)
• Huerta: Locked In a Cage, But Finally Free (MMAFighting)
• MELENDEZ-AOKI COULD TRIGGER REMATCH IN JAPAN (MMAWeekly)
• ALVES EXPLAINS SURGERY AND DESIRE TO FIGHT FITCH  (MMAWeekly)
• Anderson Silva vs Demian Maia UFC 112 Preview Video (Heavy)

TV LISTINGS

• HDNet Fights Vault: XFL Team Takedown at 8 PM ET on HDNet (04/09/10)
• Fighting Words with Mike Straka (feat. Matt Hughes) at 8:30 PM ET on HDNet (04/09/10)
• InsideMMA (Aaron Simpson, CB Dollaway, Javier Vasquez) at 9 PM ET on HDNet (04/09/10)
• HDNet Fights: K-1 World GP 2010 at 10 PM ET on HDNet (04/09/10)
• UFC 112 : Silva vs Maia at 10 PM ET on PPV (04/10/10)

UPCOMING EVENTS

• UFC 112 : Silva vs Maia at 10 PM ET on PPV (04/10/10)
• HDNet Fights: KOTC Bad Boys Too at 10 PM ET on HDNet (04/16/10)
• Strikeforce Nashville: Henderson vs Shields at 11 PM ET/PT on CBS (04/17/10)
• WEC 48: Aldo vs Faber at 10 PM ET on PPV (04/24/10)
• HDNet Fights: MFC Vindication at 10 PM ET on HDNet (05/07/10)
• UFC 113 : Machida vs Shogun 2 at 10 PM ET on PPV (05/08/10)
• Strikeforce St. Louis: Overeem vs Rogers at 10 PM ET/PT on Showtime (05/15/10)
• UFC 114 : Rampage vs Evans at 10 PM ET on PPV (05/29/10)