Dave Shaw insists he is not worried about the poor ticket sales for UFC Perth.
The UFC executive stood in for Dana White, who hasn’t travelled to Australia, at Friday’s pre-fight press conference.
Naturally, Dave Shaw was quizzed on reports of low ticket sales for the card headlined by a light heavyweight bout between Carlos Ulberg and Dominick Reyes.
It’s predicted that the RAC Arena could be ‘half full’ when UFC Perth goes down on Sunday morning local time.
- LATEST NEWS: Low-selling UFC Perth takes another hit as key fight is called off just 48 hours before the event
Dave Shaw defends UFC Perth
Dave Shaw was directly asked if there was a ticket sale issue ahead of UFC Perth.
“Not at all,” he replied, before talking up past successes his company has enjoyed in Australia.
“Listen, from the very beginning, we’ve taken the long run. We’re playing a long game with Australia.
“We mentioned being first here in 2010 with UFC 110. We opened up the office, playing the long game in 2014 when the UFC Australia office in Sydney was opened, and in 2015, we held the biggest event in UFC history with Ronda [Rousey] and Holly [Holm in Melbourne. We overturned the ban of the octagon here in 2017. We had a Fight of the Year in 2023 with your boy (Alexander Volkanovski) and Islam (Makhachev). We will continue to take the long run in Australia.”
“We know that you guys are a sports-mad country, and for us, you often hear Dana talk about how MMA is going to be the biggest sport in the world. Our viewpoint on Australia as one of the top markets that we go to every year is that this is going to be a massive sport in this country.
“This is also a pretty special card. I mean, think about us having more regional athletes, more Australian and Kiwi athletes on this card than we’ve ever had in the past. We’ve got a first-time female athlete from New Zealand. We’ve got a first-time Adelaide-based athlete fighting on the card as well.
“It’s really important for us to build the future in terms of the quality athletes. Guaranteed, someone from this card is going to be the next Jack Della (Maddalena) – and that’s what we’re invested in.”
The reporter doubled down on his question, prompting Shaw to insist: “We do not see an issue for this event.”
Full UFC Perth card
Carlos Ulberg vs Dominick Reyes
Jimmy Crute vs Ivan Erslan
Jack Jenkins vs Ramon Taveras
Jake Matthews vs Neil Magny
Justin Tafa vs Louie Sutherland
Tom Nolan vs Charlie Campbell
Navajo Stirling vs Rodolfo Bellato
Cameron Rowston vs Andre Petroski
Jamie Mullarkey vs Rolando Bedoya
Colby Thicknesse vs Josias Musasa
Michelle Montague vs Luana Carolina
Brando Pericic vs Elisha Ellison
Loma Lookboonmee vs Alexia Thainara