Will the Biggest Fights of 2008 Happen Outside the UFC?

by Kid Nate on Dec 16, 2007 3:51 PM EST in MMA News

Randy Couture and Ken Shamrock did interviews at last night's HDNet Fights.

Michael Rome already posted below about Randy's plans to fight Fedor Emelianenko in 2008 -- either in the UFC before October 2008 or outside the UFC later. But the fight he didn't mention was Ken Shamrock's announcement of Ken vs Frank for the Ultimate Shamrock title. Fightlinker picked up the slack:

Hey, I'm all about Randy vs Fedor too, but I'm kinda amazed that barely anyone has mentioned this. Do people not recognize the massive mainstream appeal that will be channeled by a Shamrock vs Shamrock event? While Randy vs Fedor is a match that fans want to see, Shamrock vs Shamrock is the kind of fight everyone and their dumb little brothers want to see. If I had to bet on which one would sell more PPVs, I'd have to chose the Shamrock brothers.

I'd have to agree with him, the Battle of the Shamrocks presents a huge marketing opportunity for whoever signs the fight. Both Ken and Frank are established brandnames and with a decent marketing/advertising campaign some shrewd promotion could put on the first non-UFC MMA event to do significant PPV numbers.

Update [2007-12-16 16:36:59 by Kid Nate]:
It looks like Randy Couture isn't the only top heavyweight who's planning on waiting out his UFC contract. Andrei Arlovsky is apparently ready to leave Dana's ranch as well.

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Re: Will the Biggest Fights of 2008 Happen Outside

Meltzer poured Cold Water all over the possibility of Rand/Fedor happening outside the UFC today.

The problem, even for Shamrock/Shamrock, is lack of meaningful TV build. Neither of those fights is going to break 100,000 buys without the UFC TV infrastructure, making Randy/Fedor a probable money loser.

by Michael Rome on Dec 16, 2007 7:45 PM EST reply actions