UFC Lightweight champion Ben Henderson is set to headline a FOX event for a second time in the space of a few months on April 20th and in a new interview he explains why he prefers that to fighting on pay-per-view.
“A lot of guys talk about pay-per-view buys. I don’t give a crap about pay-per-view stuff,” Henderson tells MMAfighting.com. “I like fighting on the biggest platform and FOX is that platform. I’m excited to be on FOX for the second time in a row. I think that it shows the trust the UFC top brass and the FOX top brass have in me. They think I’ll portray the sport in the right manner.
“I think it’s the cool to have that bigger platform. 5.5 million viewers and the core demographic of males, but it’s great to be watched by soccer moms who are flipping channels, they stop and watch and become fans. I go to the grocery store now, 50-year-old soccer moms say, `I saw you on TV.’ I really dig that, and it only happened after being on that big of a platform.”
There’s no doubt that FOX is currently the biggest platform for a mixed martial artist to compete on at this moment in time, though the downside is that it’s not as lucrative as the PPV market where a champion like Henderson can enjoy a cut of the profits.
On the other hand being in front of millions of fans on FOX provides the opportunity for lucrative sponsorships and helps raise his profile to a wider audience which should in turn lead to more sales on pay-per-view when he does eventually appear on that platform again.
