The UK has landed a major pay-per-view event on July 27th with UFC 304 set to take place in Manchester, England, but there’s a catch for those in attendance as the main card won’t start until 3am in the morning local time in order to keep the North American market’s usual timeslot.
UFC interim heavyweight titleholder Tom Aspinall is expected to play a prominent part on the line-up and so the UK star will have to adjust his training accordingly to prepare for the late-night event, but for now he’s more concerned about the fans not being treated fairly by the promotion.
“As an athlete, as a fighter, in all honesty it doesn’t make that much difference,” Aspinall said on his YouTube channel. “Probably for a couple of weeks before I’ll have to wake up and train at that time or stay up or whatever. I’ve flown across the world multiple times and fought in different time zones. So, it’s not as bad as that. As a fan who wants to watch it live, I think it is absolutely terrible. It’s just not fair on the fans, not fair on the U.K. fans.
“Predominantly it’s an American audience, so I understand that they want to sell to them. But why can’t they sell to them in the afternoon, which is our evening time? Why can’t the Americans watch it in the afternoon and the U.K. fans, the Manchester fans, the European fans can all fly to the event and sell out this new arena. I mean, it’s going to sell out regardless.”
That being said, Aspinall is appreciative of the fact he’ll be able to fight on home soil for such a big event.
“We’re very, very, very lucky to have a pay-per-view in Manchester. Very lucky, but U.K. MMA, let’s put it on U.K. time.”
