I don’t like MMA or UFC and I didn’t watch UFC on Fox this weekend, but I follow a lot of people that do on twitter. Many are boxing writers who also cover MMA. Writers and normal people alike were commenting that the UFC fight on Fox lasted only a minute. Meanwhile, I was waiting for the Manny Pacquiao fight to begin while I was watching the Oregon destroy Stanford in football. Anyway, I don’t know many people from back east that care for MMA, but since I moved to Vegas I realized that there is a lot of pride in the MMA thing.
UFC is partially owned by the Ferritas brothers who also own Station Casinos. UFC came to prominence in Las Vegas before the rest of the world began catching on. People here treat UFC like their little brother that they helped build up. Like with just about everything in Las Vegas, the locals are very protective of their little brother. However, it may be time where big brother has grown up and entered the real world. Michelle Steele (that can’t be a real last name) from Bloomberg News reported that almost 6 million people watched UFC on Fox. I don’t know the TV world, so I asked if that was good and evidently it is good. Very good.
Meanwhile, if 1 million people watched the Manny Pacquiao fight, that would be considered good. I will always have a soft spot for boxing and don’t see myself ever getting MMA, but there’s a connection that UFC has been making for years with fans that cannot be denied as the UFC has grown from a $2 million business to $2 BILLION business in 10 years. Not bad.