Zuffa News
Obviously the biggest news of the week was the historic UFC 100 that took place this past Saturday in Las Vegas.
Brock Lesnar and Georges St. Pierre both retained their titles in dominating fashion. The card drew an estimated 11k fans and earned approximately $5.1 million at the gate which would make it the second biggest gate in UFC history.
Another big coup during the UFC 100 weekend was the success of the first ever fan expo.
They drew an estimated 30k fans (according to Dana White) over the course of two days. The UFC hasn’t confirmed any future expos but after seeing the success of this past weekend and the success they have every year in Ohio with the bodybuilding expo don’t be surprised if another expo is in the works.
Nate Diaz v. Melvin Guillard was announced this week. They will headline Ultimate Fight Night 19 in September. This will be the UFC’s first show in Oklahoma.
Junior Dos Santos was supposed to fight at UFC 102 but instead has been chosen to face the returning Mirko Cro Cop at UFC 103. While the fight with Cro Cop hasn’t been signed Dos Santos is definitely off 102 leading everyone to believe the deal for the Cro Cop fight is imminent. (Editor’s note: the Dos Santos/Cro Cop fight has been signed and is expected to be officially announced shortly).
Ryan Bader, winner of The Ultimate Fighter Eight, will be back in action at UFC 104. He will take on Eric Schafer in October at the Staples Center in L.A.
Dana White has had a very busy week on top of UFC 100 festivities.
First it was announced last week that the UFC will be switching DVD distributors after their next two releases come out on July 21st. They will be switching from First Look to Anchor Bay. They hope that by switching distributors they can cut the production time of their DVD releases in half from live event to street date.
While there are talks about releasing older UFC content that Zuffa owns (UFC 33 forward), considering right now DVD’s are only available from UFC 43 onward, nothing has been confirmed.
White has also engaged in a war of words with video game mega company Electronic Arts (EA), makers of the biggest sports titles in the world.
Apparently White went to pitch EA on a UFC video game almost two years ago before going to THQ, makers of UFC 2009 Undisputed. EA not only shot down White but also added in some digs regarding the legitimacy of MMA as a sport and how they would never get into bed with such a disgusting “sport.”
EA has changed their tune and is looking to put out its own MMA game after seeing the astounding results of the UFC game.
While White cannot do anything to prevent EA from putting out a game but he obviously will not allow any UFC content to be used. On top of that he has threatened that any fighter willing to give their likeness to the game will no longer be welcome in the UFC. This stems from the issues with Randy Couture from last year, as he signed with EA during his stint away from the company and will be included in the EA game.
Also, any sponsor willing to advertise in the game will not be welcome in the Octagon. White is obviously very serious about this and for once I agree with his bully tactics based on the response EA gave him.
Last but not least in the only non UFC news of the week Manny Tapia, the former WEC number one bantamweight contender, will look to rebound from two consecutive losses against former WEC bantamweight champion Eddie Wineland at WEC 43 in September in Youngstown, OH.
