Just last month Dana White claimed that the UFC would be hosting 35 events in 2014, but now UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta has gone even further and suggested that there’ll be a whopping 46 shows.
Initially Fertitta told reporters yesterday at a press conference in New York that there would be 54 – essentially a UFC event every week – but he later clarified that he’d misspoken and that it was actually 46.
As a quick reminder before we go any further, here’s a list of how their previously announced 35 event line-up in 2014 was to be divied up.
- 13 pay-per-view shows
- 14 FOX Sports 1 ‘Fight Night’ events
- 4 ‘UFC On FOX’ shows
- 4 FOX Sports 2 ‘Fight Night’ events
So where do the extra 11 events that they’ve added to the calender fit in?
According to Fertitta they will comprise the already announced series of European ‘Fight Night’ cards, with six having already been confirmed for 2014, starting in London in March. In addition there’ll also be a series of Asian ‘Fight Night’ cards too, starting in Singapore on January 4th.
These shows are specifically targeted at those markets so there’s no guarantee they are going to be shown on the usual ‘FOX’ channels in the U.S.
Interestingly, Fertitta teased that they have, “ground-breaking ideas as far as where that stuff is going to be available.”
So, it sounds that people outside of Europe and Asia will have access to these shows one way or another, but not neccessarily through the usual channels.
With that in mind, some kind of streaming option over the internet sounds like a possibility, but Fertitta wouldn’t be drawn on the matter just yet, so we’ll just have to wait and see.
If you just can’t get enough mixed martial arts then this will come as good news, but so far the response to the news has been mixed.
The big concern is that with so many shows, there’s going to be a lot more ‘watered down’ fight cards, and for the first time there’s going to be more events available than all but the most hardcore of fans, and indeed perhaps even the MMA media, can reasonably be expected to keep up with.
