When UFC Fight Pass was introduced, one of the big changes that came along with that announcement was the fact that the UFC would begin holding non-North American events during prime time in those markets. If any North American fans held out hope that this was just an experiment on the part of the UFC, UFC president Dana White recently dashed those hopes.
White, speaking during a media scrum prior to UFC 171, said of the UFC’s new attack on non North-American markets, “We’re going into Europe, and we’re going into these other countries and we’re localizing these shows, putting them on free TV, and doing all these things. That’s how we built the market here (U.S.), that’s how we built the market in Brazil, Canada, and that’s how we will build the market in Europe. We’ve done everything the wrong way out there for the past 13 years, and now we got it right. Now we fixed it, and we got it right.”
In the past, the UFC catered to the North-American television market and fans. With Fight Pass the UFC can still show the events live to those fans, while putting on an event at a more fan-friendly time in the local market.
White said that catering to the North American market in the past put the UFC on the fringes in other markets, but that those days are over, “Now we’re going to localize it, and bring it in – you know, if you want to stay a fringe sport, go on at three o’clock in the morning or four o’clock in the morning on TV,” White said. “That’s how you stay a fringe sport. You go on primetime in their local area on the big networks, and that’s how you build a business, and that’s what we’re doing there.”
The UFC president also had an answer for those that say that adding more events in non-North American markets created too many fight cards. To those fans, White said, “When people talk about too many fights, yeah, maybe there’s too many fights for the Americans – not in Europe, not in Australia, not in a lot of these other countries that are starving for it.”
About the author
