The last time Spike television and the UFC decided to show UFC 120 on a tape-delayed basis in the United States, many fans were irked. The frustration was inflamed when ESPN decided to reveal the results on the bottomline newswire/scoreboard before the show hit U.S. television sets
Get used to it folks. It's going to be the same tomorrow for UFC 122 in Germany and commonplace in 2011 when the promotion looks to double the amount of international events we saw this year.
"I think definitely in the next few years that there's a real prospect that we're going to be running more and more events that you might not see live on U.S. television, or even close to live," Marshall Zelaznik told USA Today.
The UFC's managing director of international development added that the promotion is planning for up to eight shows around the world in 2011.
"I think that we can really see ourselves hitting our stride in the next five years internationally, that we can see our percentages (of UFC's) overall revenue increasing twofold," Zelaznik said. "If we effectively double what we're doing now internationally over the next five years, it's going to be a massive number for the company overall."
The plan for the first quarter of next year calls for shows in Sydney, Abu Dhabi and possibly Dublin. Further down the road, UFC officials expect an event in Scandinavia and possibly Italy. UFC eventually could find itself running parallel circuits around the world.
Zelaznik (pictured on the far right) said UFC 122 is within 1,000 of a sellout of 9,400.
UFC 122 weigh-in (Courtesy Bloody Elbow):
Spike television
Nate Marquardt (186) v. Yushin Okami (185)
Jorge Rivera (185) v. Alessio Sakara (186)
Dennis Siver (155) v. Andre Winner (155)
Amir Sadollah (170) v. Peter Sobotta (169)
Krzysztof Soszynski (206) v. Goran Reljic (205)
Preliminary card:
Alexandre "Cacareco" Ferreira (204) v. Vladimir Matyushenko (205)
Pascal Krauss (170) v. Mark Scanlon (170)
Duane Ludwig (170) v. Nick Osipczak (171)
Rob Kimmons (184) v. Kyle Noke (185)
Seth Petruzelli (205) v. Karlos Vemola (205)
Kris McCray (171) v. Carlos Eduardo Rocha (170)
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