UFC seems at a distinct disadvantage in a pay-per-view battle against the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Juan Manuel Marquez fight. Both sides have added new promotional twists. The boxing promoters added a nationwide network of movie theater showings at a relatively low price. UFC has added a one-hour live block on Spike TV (9 p.m. ET) just before the pay-per-view starts. A couple of live preliminary fights from Dallas will be aired to attempt to get people to choose the MMA event.
Few will argue that the boxing side has the stronger headlining fight. It also may be that combat sports fans are simply ready for a high-profile boxing fight. There has not been a major boxing event since May’s Manny Pacquiao-Ricky Hatton fight. Meanhile, UFC has had big pay-per-view attractions every month.
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The last time boxing and MMA went head-to-head with major events was Nov. 18, 2006, when UFC presented a Georges St. Pierre vs. Matt Hughes main event that did 500,000 buys, compared to a Manny Pacquiao vs. Erik Morales boxing match that did 350,000 buys.
Bad Left Hook has a round up of the smack talk and hype leading into the Mayweather fight:
We also know that Floyd and Marquez will have direct PPV competition from UFC 103, a card that excites the MMA diehards even without a big, blow-away main event (Rich Franklin and Vitor Belfort headline the show). Mayweather, Dana White and a totally uninvolved Bob Arum have chimed in about this, and none of it has been particularly high-brow stuff.
We’ve heard that there’s been trouble selling tickets, that the PPV buyrates may limp across the finish line instead of the arms-raised, victorious sprint that a Mayweather return to the ring theoretically should have brought, and that the fight wasn’t moved from July 18 to September 19 entirely due to bumps and bruises on Floyd Jr. thanks to tough training.
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