At the HP Pavilion on Wednesday to promote UFC 139 in San Jose, Californian, UFC President Dana White let a huge cat out of the bag: as UFC continues to grow internationally, there will be shows occurring simultaneously around the globe, perhaps as early as February.
“When we go to Japan next year, we are going to be putting on a show at the same time in Las Vegas,” he said.
While the Japan date has been mentioned as the likely first target, the date has not been set in stone. It is, however, rumored to be February 26th at the Saitama Super Arena in Japan. With the time differential here in the US, the show would occur in the early afternoon in “The Land of the Rising Sun” so that it could air live here in the US on the 25th of February (Saturday night) live in the usual 9 PM ET PPV slot. When pressed as to how the UFC will address the dual-show from a broadcast perspective, White replied; “You’ll see.” He also admitted that the dual-location shows is something that they’ll be looking to do a lot of in the future.
As pointed out by Dave Meltzer at Yahoo! Sports:
The most notable attempt was World Wrestling Entertainment’s WrestleMania II in 1986, which ran one-hour segments each in Uniondale, N.Y.; Rosemont, Ill.; and Los Angeles. The show was such a logistical nightmare that promoter Vince McMahon never attempted it again. But White, who didn’t know about the event that took place in 1985, said the idea of airing fights from another location into the live venue as part of the show was not part of the plans.
Also, WrestleMania II is a train wreck and McMahon & Co. really overextended themselves.
