UFC Japan Show gaat niet door ! ** Update **

[Nicky]

LAS VEGAS, NEV., September 23, 2004…Officials of the Ultimate Fighting Championship brand of mixed martial arts today announced the postponement of its December fight card scheduled for Tokyo, Japan. A Japan fight card will be re-scheduled for a later date that will be determined. UFC Heavyweight Champion Frank Mir (8-1-0 in mixed martial arts) from Las Vegas, Nev., was scheduled to defend his title in the main event against top contender Andre Arlovski (8-3-0) from Minsk, Belarus. Mir recently sustained a broken left leg in an auto accident in Las Vegas and will be sidelined indefinitely. “Zuffa has every intent to go to Japan and the December date looked very good until Frank’s unfortunate accident,� said Zuffa/UFC president Dana White. “Our number one concern is Frank’s health. He’s strong and had fought really well in his last three fights. He was lucky and will fully recover, but will not be ready by December.�


The Ultimate Fighting Championship brand of mixed martial arts is the world’s premier series of MMA events. Owned and operated by Zuffa, LLC, and headquartered in Las Vegas, Nev., UFC fight programs feature six live pay-per-view events annually through cable and satellite providers. In addition to its U.S. distribution, UFC fight shows are distributed internationally through WOWOW, Inc. in Japan and Globosat in Brazil. Zuffa, LLC licenses the distribution of UFC video games through Crave Enertainment and Take Two TDK Mediactive, its fight show DVDs through Studioworks Entertainment, a Ventura distribution company, and its musical CDs through Nitrus/DRT Entertainment, the official publisher of UFC music CDs.

“Ultimate Fighting Championship,� “Ultimate Fighting,� “UFC,� “Submission,� “As Real As It Gets� and the Octagon cage design are registered trademarks or trademarks owned exclusively by Zuffa, LLC in the U.S., Japan and other jurisdictions. All other marks that may be referenced herein belong to their respective holders.

[someone]

dit is wel jammer!!!!

[Gulo gulo]

Zund

[ashi76]

Idd jammer.

[Wheelie]

zou echt jammer zijn

[Hollandpride]

jammer maar helaas

[Ronald]

Wel vreemd dat het afgelast wordt omdat Mirr een ongeluk gehad heeft :? .

[Nicky]

Frank Mir being injured really is the real reason they've given me for postponing this event. They feel without the attraction of the UFC Heavyweight title and with no guarantee that Tito Ortiz will be on the event, that they will have no attraction to sell live tickets or to sell pay per views here in the U.S.. The reason this makes very little sense is that Frank Mir vs. Andrei Arlovski, even with the UFC Heavyweight title on the line, means very little for ticket sales in Japan. No one in Japan cares about Frank Mir. If they had brought in a couple of minor Japanese names for the event, Mir vs. Arlovski at best would have gone third or even fourth from the top depending on the Japanese guys they booked. It may have been an issue with the Japanese on-site promoter for the event regarding the lack of a heavyweight title match, but that heavyweight title match wouldn't sell peanuts in Japan anyway so it makes no sense. I can understand canceling it because of the U.S. market, because if Tito got hurt fighting Mezger, then they have nothing for the show at all. But for Japan it's not like ticket sales completely hinged on the ability for Frank Mir to be there. Nowhere even close to that.

Right now they don't have any plans regarding Tito Ortiz vs. Vitor Belfort. I believe this is the third time or so that they have tried to put this fight together, but circumstances keep it from happening. They're most likely returning to Las Vegas for their first event next year, possibly in January or February, and I think it would make more sense to do Tito Ortiz vs. Ken Shamrock when Ken is healthy, if Tito were to beat Mezger. The reason for this is the natural booking progression of Tito defeating Ken's teammate Mezger, leading up to the rematch with Ken. Tito vs. Ken would do much bigger on pay per view than Tito vs. Vitor because Tito and Ken combined have headlined the three most successful pay per views that Zuffa has put on, whereas Vitor Belfort has not headlined a show that has done above 80,000 buys in Zuffa. If Ken can do 110,000 buys against Kimo, and considering Tito vs. Ken in November 2002 did 150,000 buys, then I think there's obviously a very strong chance that Tito vs. Ken II can do above 100,000 buys.