UFC Coming to Foxwoods on Sept. 5
by Brian Woodman Jr. on 06/17/14
- Brian Woodman (opinion/editorial)
Update: Information on the card has started to become available.
The UFC will be coming to the Foxwoods casino and resort on September 5 in Mashantucket. The final card has yet to be determined, according to information at UFC.com. The event will air on Fox Sports 1.
This event is scheduled on the same night as Bellator 123, which will be held at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville. Spike TV will air the event.
It would appear that the two biggest MMA organizations in the country are competing directly for ticket sales as well as television ratings. It raises interesting questions.
Do more people watch Spike TV than Fox Sports 1? Fox Sports 1 is not widely viewed, but the UFC traditionally gets higher ratings than Bellator. That could change now that Bellator has grown and signed recognizable names like UFC veterans Quinton Jackson and Tito Ortiz. But many observers do not consider this likely.
Would more people prefer to go to Mohegan than Foxwoods? The last MMA events at Foxwoods that I can recall were WCMMA I, which was a fine event (I particularly liked the fact that VIP seating was kept separate from the press seats) and a CES event. Mohegan Sun has a bigger arena, is considered more generally popular resort, but will that be enough to attract diehards from a UFC event to Bellator's season opener?
Many people arbitrarily assume that the UFC brand name is enough to trump competing organizations. When Ortiz recently beat Bellator middleweight champion Alexander Shlemenko in a non-title bout, it could well have reinforced the general perception that the UFC's talent pool is still the best despite the undeniable talent in other organizations such as the World Series of Fighting and King of the Cage.
What is initially surprising about Foxwoods as a choice of venue in Connecticut is that many speculated that the UFC would choose a location closer to the New York border. With insurance issues for MMA still being discussed, it makes sense that the casinos are the preferred site for the fights; events have been held their despite the sport being illegal until 2013 because they are on Indian reservations.
Will Foxwoods become the preferred location for UFC events the way that Mohegan Sun has become a home for Bellator? Or will the UFC move elsewhere once legislators resolve the insurance discussion and venues in cities like Hartford learn how to accommodate the MMA industry?
