Why does Abu Dhabi get UFC 308 at their local time, whereas fans in the UK attending UFC 304 were forced to stay awake into the early hours of the morning – is there a rhyme or reason for the divisive PPV start times?
Whilst UFC 304 in Manchester delivered some truly outstanding moments, notably Belal Muhammad claiming welterweight gold and Tom Aspinall delivering another lightning-fast KO, the event certainly wasn’t without its controversy.
The main card didn’t kick off until 3 AM local time and despite attendees doing their best to stay awake and alert, there were a fair few of them captured on camera falling asleep; Luckily, UFC Executive David Shaw has now offered fans an explanation.
UFC executive Dave Shaw explains the issue with PPV start times
With Dana White absent from UFC Abu Dhabi this week, VP and Head of International Content Dave Shaw stepped up to deliver the post-event press conference.
Given that Shaw works predominantly with the promotion’s broadcast partners, both domestically in the United States and internationally, it was fascinating to hear him talk more about how the media side of the UFC PPV machine actually works.
Of particular interest, was the fact that Shaw confirmed that the newly announced UFC 308 card in Abu Dhabi in October will be held at ‘prime time’ for the UAE audience.
This, in stark contrast to last weekend’s PPV in Manchester, which kicked off with the early prelims at 11 PM local time, and the main card not getting underway until 3 in the morning.
When asked by The Mac Life’s Oscar Willis about why the UK-based UFC 304 was held at prime time for fans in the US, whereas the UAE-based UFC 308 will be held at prime time for Abu Dhabi, Shaw had this to say.
“That [UFC 308] will be prime time here… So, there are a few things at play, number one – there are only so many off-prime US events that we can have, right… A great deal of revenue for the company is driven by ESPN so we need to make sure that we’re balancing the number of events that are prime-time US vs off-time US.
“Manchester was a Dana initiative, he said ‘We’ve got all these champs, a surging fanbase in the UK, we’ve had a multitude of extremely strong events in the last three or four years in the UK’,” explained Shaw.
“And in order for us to fit this in at the right time, the opportunity was to come with a middle-of-the-night PPV which we’ve done before with Bisping vs Henderson, and so we knew it worked.
“The arena was great; I mean you left, and it was sunny out – I don’t think anyone had left prior to that main event so will we do it again? I’m not sure, but it was also a formula that worked.”
Whilst the arena itself was fantastic, as reported by several members of the Bloody Elbow staff who were in attendance, it certainly can’t be stated that the formula ‘worked’ without issue.
Not only have videos of audience members being fast asleep been circulating online, but even the UFC 304 fighters themselves have come out to state that they felt fatigued as they entered the octagon so late in the evening.
Concerningly, popular featherweight Arnold Allen even revealed that he’d crashed his car after falling asleep behind the wheel, as he tried to adjust his body clock for the ridiculously late start time, in the weeks leading up to his clash with Giga Chikadze.
Dave Shaw on the impact of fight cards being on ABC, rather than ESPN
Back to Shaw, whose 13-minute-long interview is certainly well-worth a listen to in full, and the exec was also asked about the impact of having these Middle East-based cards on the ABC network.
Not only was the first ever ‘UFC on ABC’ card held in Abu Dhabi (Holloway vs Kattar in 2021), but the two most recent cards too; those being Whittaker vs Aliskerov in June, and now Sandhagen vs Nurmagomedov last weekend.
“I think it’s a matter of timing right, if you’re in a position at ESPN and you’re managing your programming schedules, you know exactly what’s going to come up in terms of sports programming two or three months ahead,” explained Shaw.
“For us, we love being on ABC. To have that type of audience even if it’s in the afternoon brings not only a new demographic and new cohort of viewers in, but just the sheer numbers are much more compelling for us – so we love it.”
Shaw also added that the close relationship between the UFC and authorities in the region has resulted in “elevated cards” that are better suited to meeting the higher standards of ABC, as compared to the week-in, week-out schedule they have with ESPN.
“So, when you’ve got more compelling matchups and you get those put on free to air in the US, it’s much more advantageous positioning of our product.”
Interestingly, there was also talk about other locations around the region that could host a future UFC Fight Night event: Bahrain, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Georgia, and Azerbaijan, with Shaw noting “There’s a number of opportunities that we’re currently evaluating but nothing I can report tonight.”