***spoilers*** UFC News and Discussion Thread

[Rich]

I'm amazed anybody even mentioned him when I have not heard a peep about him wanting to competet in MMA over BJJ

[Benjamin]

I'm just amazed someone mentioned Buchecha and it wasn't me...

You're really not the only guy who follows BJJ, you know -.-

[Chris2K]

The European shows in Europe and the Asian shows in Asia will be blocked from Fight Pass because they don’t want to hurt their TV providers who are buying the shows. However, for both Asia and Europe, there will be a number of shows that won’t be available on television each year and those will be Fight Pass exclusive, similar to the U.S., where all U.S. shows will be on PPV, FOX, FS 1 or FS 2, but some of the international events will only be on Fight Pass.

WO Newsletter.

I honestly don't think that I'll be buying Fight Pass to see the occasional event from Asia when I'm already paying for BT Sport pretty much exclusively for the UFC as it is.

[Rich]

UFC 168 looks to be a smashing business success according to a report from Dave Meltzer. Meltzer, when speaking on his Wrestling Observer podcast, said that the show will end up doing between 1,000,000 and 1,100,000 PPV buys, with the final tally resting primarily on late buys as well as replay purchases.

Wowzer is all I can say, I believe the last PPV to do north of 1 million buys was when UFC 158 (St-Pierre vs Diaz) did 1.1 million buys, I think there are only 2 other PPVs (UFC 100 did a reported 1.6 mil and UFC 116 1.1 to 1.2mil and they were Brock Lesnar PPVs) , if so that is ridiculously good news, especially if Rousey/Weidman can now draw 500k + buys then losing the pair of GSP and Anderson will be less of a blow, I know I said that PPV buys didn't matter as much as they used to (they don't) but that is a HUGE number

[HC]

While I don't think they're direct competition in the least, the WWE Network deal really shits all over Fight Pass in regards to quality of product offered for its price. UFC gets a lot more buys on their PPVs than WWE so that model makes no sense for them, but it does make FP look pretty weak in comparison. As a somewhat rare follower of both, the choice on what to drop 10 bucks on is pretty easy. (Obscure Asian cards versus PPVs)

[Benjamin]

Jones vs. Teixeira is going down April 26th in Baltimore.

[Chris2K]

From what I've heard from Meltzer the UFC are using Fight Pass at the moment just to get the ball rolling, they have a TV deal with FOX until 2018 so they can't really do much with it at the moment and just want to get it off the ground with the archive shows and add new elements as time goes on. It's the opposite to the WWE network in that the network will be a cornerstone of the WWE's entire business operation for a long, long time and has been planned out and developed in the background for over two years.

Apparently Dana is going to be doing video blogs several times a week to use as exclusive content for Fight Pass.

[EddieG]

Like every time he says "IT'S FIGHT WEEK, BLOG WEEK, and honestly, this time I'll put up more than one video"

And hasn't in a long long time, including when he super seriously extra promised it for UFC 168.

[EddieG]

So apparently Keith Kizer handed in his resignation to the NSAC yesterday, and going back to work in the Attorney General office.

Could potentially be big on who takes over.

[gunnar hendershow]

UFC has announced UFC 172 will be on April 26, featuring a Jon Jones vs. Glover Teixiera main event and will be held at THE BALTIMORE FUCKING ARENA (which seriously, outside of some WWE PPVs and WCW events, has hosted nothing of note since the 80s). If I'm not there it will be because I'm dead.

Below is my actual reaction.

[Benjamin]

No shit or nothing, we're singing that in church tomorrow morning.

[Rich]

So apparently Keith Kizer handed in his resignation to the NSAC yesterday, and going back to work in the Attorney General office.

Could potentially be big on who takes over.

While it is certainly note worthy, does anyone think its going to make any difference what so ever?

[EddieG]

So apparently Keith Kizer handed in his resignation to the NSAC yesterday, and going back to work in the Attorney General office.

Could potentially be big on who takes over.

While it is certainly note worthy, does anyone think its going to make any difference what so ever?

Probably not, which is why I said potentially, maybe, just maybe they'll appoint a guy who's actually aware which judges and refs suck.

[Cymbols]

It does mean that Big John McCarthy might start officiating in Nevada again. So the only change is that low blows will start counting as TKO's now...

[EddieG]

Hasn't Big John been back in Nevada for quite some time now?

[Benjamin]

Nope. Kizer hated him. Or he hated Kizer.

[EddieG]

Oh, I remember, I think.. he got banned from Nevada so he quit reffing altogether, before coming back in non-nevada states/countries.

[Benjamin]

Dana tweeted that Nate turned down a fight with Khabib (which of course Nate is denying), then Guillerme Cruz tweeted that Dos Anjos accepted the fight with Khabilov because he thought it was Khabib

[Rich]

Dana tweeted that Nate turned down a fight with Khabib (which of course Nate is denying), then Guillerme Cruz tweeted that Dos Anjos accepted the fight with Khabilov because he thought it was Khabib

The latter is true, dos Anjos talked about it a few weeks ago. Still, dos Anos is top ten and Khabilov is on the cusp.

McCarthy quit reffing all together and had the falling out with Nevada prior to re-activating.

Also think, how often is the UFC is Nevada anymore? 3/4 times a year for PPV and 2 TUF Finales? They don't have the same impact they used to, and the UFC goes to California almost as much as Nevada now!

[Benjamin]

Yeah, I think you can gradually see the their preference shift from Vegas to California now, even though Dana still claims that Vegas is their number one place to go to, as it's their home. If I remember right they had like 2 Fox cards in Cali last year, right? The Bendo / Melendez card and the one last month.

I think Khabilov versus dos Anjos is a freaking excellent matchup, but as I've been gushing, that 170 card is amazing. Lots of contender fights on there. Ironically it's in Nevada