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[Submissionist]

by Ken Pishna

The Ultimate Fighting Championship held a conference call on Thursday to promote its upcoming lightweight title bout between B.J. Penn and Joe Stevenson – the bout is scheduled to take place on Jan. 19 in Newcastle, England – but UFC president Dana White spent much of his time fielding questions about the direction of the promotion.

He confirmed that the UFC intends to continue expanding its territories in the U.K., specifically pointing to Scotland.

“Scotland is definitely in our plans for the future. This last year when we went into the U.K., we went to a different place every time. Scotland is next. We’ll be there soon. I guarantee it.”

White did clarify though that the expansion into Europe, at least at this time, isn’t because it’s lining the promoter’s pockets, saying, “I don’t think there is anything profitable about the European market right now. We’re getting our ass kicked over there.

“But the bottom line is, and I'm always yapping about the boxing promoters and how they don't spend the money to build their sport and secure the future of the sport, for this sport to grow, we need to move out to Europe.”

It hasn’t been easy though as White reflected, “When we first bought this company ... inDemand pay-per-view, DirecTV and EchoStar were our three options. Everybody said there is no way this is going to get on free television, etc., etc.”

But he does believe that there are characteristics of mixed martial arts that appeal globally. He feels that the sport has the potential to be much bigger, on a worldwide scale, than possibly any other sport in the world and that is a large part of his reasoning for the UFC’s European invasion.

“Look at the NFL. There's nothing bigger in this country than the NFL,” White stated. “They've been spending billions of dollars trying to break into Europe and they can't do it, because nobody gives a (expletive) about football in Europe. They didn't grow up playing football, they don't know about it.

“I take two guys and put them in the Octagon and they can use any martial art they want. It translates through all different cultural barriers, language barriers... people love fighting.”

He continued, “I think that this thing can be global. I think that this thing can be the biggest sport in the world. I already know it's the most exciting sport in the world.”

Of course, there still has to be something tangible, something real that justifies taking such a tactic with the European market.

“My light at the end of the tunnel?” pondered White. “We're going into Newcastle for the first time and there's like 700 tickets left. The thing is going to be sold out, 10,000 fans there. And everywhere we've gone in the U.K., we've sold out.”

Still, he had to admit to the difficulties faced when venturing outside of the promotion’s comfort zone in the U.S.

“You've got to have television and the television market and pay-per-view market is completely different over there. So we're stomping through this thing until we can figure it out.”

White also indicated that they are still working on other areas for the future. A strongly rumored date has been March 8, returning to the U.K., reportedly with a main event featuring Michael Bisping in his 185-pound debut against Charles McCarthy.

“We're still working on it right now actually,” he said, verifying that it is a strong possibility.

Other areas of interest that were brought up were New York and Hawaii. In MMA’s brief history, much of it has occurred in Hawaii, and the state is regarded for its rabid fan base. And New York has a storied history in combat sports, particularly in boxing, but has yet to be officially opened up to mixed martial arts.

“The last fight that we did (UFC 79), we did a closed circuit in Madison Square Garden,” said White. “It was a very successful event. We're focusing on New York and I'm very confident that we'll have New York done by 2009.”

He also indicated that there really aren’t any huge roadblocks in the way, it’s just that the UFC has been growing at such a rapid pace, New York hasn’t been dialed in yet.

“The thing is, it's not like New York is trying to keep us out,” he said. “We just started to focus on New York. We have no bad history with New York at all. So, I'm very confident that we're going to get it done.”

He also stated that in Hawaii, it’s just a matter of the state going through the process it needs to, to properly regulate MMA before the UFC can make its move out into the Pacific.

“Thirteen new states regulated MMA last year and Hawaii is one of them, so we want to come there, but the regs aren't done yet. We're not like all these other ‘cheese ball’ shows; we can't go there until the regs are done.”

With the UFC’s addition of former Nevada State Athletic Commission executive director Marc Ratner, White indicated that the UFC has made major progress in opening doors across the United States, helping get the sport regulated and sanctioned. He also doesn’t see U.S. acceptance of the sport slowing down anytime soon.

“There're 32 states total in the United States that regulate MMA. Thirteen of them opened up last year. At that rate, we're knocking them down quick. We've done a lot of big things over the last seven years and I think the next seven are going to be even better.”

http://www.mmaweekly.com/absolutenm/...=5436&zoneid=2

[BigBanda]

Thirteen new sanctioned states alone in the year of 2007 and a total of 32 currently. Thats really bad ass they are growing at that rate. Cant wait until there is an even in Madison Square Garden.

[jlruthven84]

Not suprising that they're still trying to toss some easy wins Bisping's way. McCarthy's no slouch, though, he could pull the upset. I'm interested to see how the Count fares at MW.

Good news about their expansion, though. I seriously think that the only major markets the UFC is not going to have a hold of by 2010 are eastern Europe and Japan.

[TomRed]

speaking of major markets for the UFC internationally, where do you guys think those places are?

The way I see it, the only real major international markets right now are Japan, Eastern Europe and maybe Brazil and Korea. If they don't have two of the three by 2010 that could mean trouble.

I hope the UFC is working their way into Japan asap. With all these formers pride stars now fighting for them, putting them on a card in japan would scream success, assuming they get past whatever barriers there were with reestablishing Pride.

[markzabin]

Would really like to see a USA vs. Brazil or Japan show.

[iverbure]

Expansion into Europe and japan and brazil can all wait imo. They are just getting into Canada now. A market which right now, isn't fully opened. They need to get Toronto open to them also. Ontario currently has mma banned. There is basically the entire country of Canada, you can go Toronto-Vancouver- Montreal- Ottawa- Edmonton.

Its scary that the UFC is this big right now, and New York hasn't legalize it, the ufc is just getting into Canada now. Eventually London could be a place to go.

[sodium_nitrate]

they need to have mma as an olympic event in order for it to become a 'globally accepted' sport.

[foundstarr]

Dana has repeatedly said that Japan is an almost impossibility. Foreigners cannot own property over there without major strings being pulled.

The japanese market is almost closed to American companys, trust me, my firm deals with a Japanese agency constantly. The paper work and legwork required to do ANYTHING in Japan is ridiculous.

IMO western Europe and Northern America are the only markets currently accesible to the UFC. Who know in 10 years but for right now thats it.

[iverbure]

Originally Posted by Queefer

they need to have mma as an olympic event in order for it to become a 'globally accepted' sport.

I'm going to rep you because thats excatly what i was going to say in my above post right before this one but i forget about it.

[maxp84z]

Thats great but I'm still unhappy with the UFC/NSAC rule set. I wanna see knees to the head of a downed opponent at the very LEAST, soccer kicks and stomps would be nice but i'm not holding my breath,. 10 minute first round. basically PRIDE rules with the UFC's elbows.