The following is an excerpt from an article by Kevin Iole on Yahoo! Sports:
BELFAST, Northern Ireland — They sang soccer chants and schoolyard songs. They roared until their lungs were hoarse. They surrounded every arena exit and hotel entrance, hoping to get a glimpse of their heroes.
Rich Franklin and Forrest Griffin were the winners in the Octagon, but the biggest winner in UFC 72 at Odyssey Arena was the sport of mixed martial arts.
MMA proved on Saturday that it is not simply an American phenomenon or a casino driven sport. A sellout crowd of 7,850, which paid an arena record live gate of about $1.2 million U.S., spent about four hours singing, screaming and proving that MMA is a serious player on the world sporting scene.
UFC owner Lorenzo Fertitta said officials overpriced the tickets, which had a top price of $500 U.S., but it didn’t matter. The fans were out in force — long lines snaked around the arena more than an hour before the first fight — and had by all indications the time of their lives.
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