But that’s playing semantic games. The sport isn’t regulated in every state in the US, but that hasn’t prevented it from becoming more than a niche sport, and being quite profitable. As long as you have enough locations that you can hold a show and make a lot of money, you’re good to go. Montreal seems likely to be a location that UFC can return to frequently, and based on discussions I had at a bar in Toronto during UFC 76, Montreal is a location that’s close enough to Toronto that at least some people are willing to make the trip.

I think Montreal is Ohio level or better. You can go there two or three times a year without tapping that market out, IMHO. Mexico City, maybe not. You can do it once and get big numbers though.

UFC’s not building a sports league here. They are doing events, and they’re just trying to expand their stable of available venues so that they can keep their number of events level without tapping out the demand for live events in any one place.

The kind of interesting thing to me is that UFC doesn’t typically gate as high at these arenas as they do in Vegas at smaller venues. We know that that is in large part due to the fact that in Vegas you can do casino contract deals instead of actually selling tickets to individuals.

There has to be a business reason related to expanding brand footprint and improving buy rates on PPVs, sell rates on DVDs, etc, but when you’re passing on half a million or a million dollars in gate, and you have the expense that is involved in going mobile, it’s an interesting question to ask as to why UFC is engaging in touring at all.

If by Canada, you mean Quebec, yes. As of right now, I’m pretty sure MMA is still outlawed in Ontario.

Mexico will be interesting if it really does happen this year. Chances are good that they can sell out a very large venue in Mexico City or Guadalajara based on EVENT! alone.

Even if they sell out a bullring, they’re not gonna get a big gate because its Mexico. Plus, there’s been no shows beyond club level in that country. Seriously, the only major permanent group I can think of is MMAX, and they’re on a satellite station for one hour of taped bouts Saturday nights running MMA events from nightclubs. Europe as a whole is still a pipe dream. They need way, way better TV coverage than what they currently have there.

Whether they can do it on a regular basis or not is hard to call. It certainly shouldn’t be as costly as England, and stands a good chance of being profitable (assuming a big big venue, and low ticket prices).

I don’t have the actual figures, but I’d suspect that they’re particularly good in the 18 to 30-something male demo, they seem to have a good following with females in the same age bracket, and it seems like there is a solid cadre of older fans developing who have come from old skool wrestling or boxing.

Due to the nature of the sport, I assume we’re not going to be seeing Li’l UFC Adventures on Saturday morning anytime soon, although superdeformed Tito Ortiz getting knocked out by SD Chuck Liddell could be entertaining.

The far east and european expansions of the pre-Zuffa era were pretty much busts. The attempt to get into the Japanese market by taking over the Pride brand obviously didn’t work because of adverse conditions on the ground that Zuffa SHOULD have been aware of, but apparently wasn’t (they must have had an angle though, it would have taken Pollyanna to have made that deal in good faith).

The new Euro push is expensive, but does seem to be taking reasonably well at least in the UK. Canada is going very well, probably because we have a bounty, a cornucopic plethora of Canadian fighters who have shown that they know what they’re doing. Mexico will be interesting if it really does happen this year. Chances are good that they can sell out a very large venue in Mexico City or Guadalajara based on EVENT! alone. Whether they can do it on a regular basis or not is hard to call. It certainly shouldn’t be as costly as England, and stands a good chance of being profitable (assuming a big big venue, and low ticket prices).

As for UFC “dying to get” in with boxing folks, I suspect that if it is the case, it’s less about the business than it is a case of “look at me, Dad, I’m fucking filthy rich, I did it!” Nothing like getting zero attention and approval from the folks who sired your biz.

This is will never happen.

Its all for cheap publicity to get people talking. Mayweather should probably thank UFC for getting him that WWE gig. Maybe they will bring in Roy Jones since WWE has proven they don’t know how to market to MMA fans but they want to. UFC has done an equally shitty job in getting their sport ‘over’ to “die hard” ( read the old generation) boxing fans.

UFC is dying for any angle to get publicity in boxing circles.

As my article Zach so kindly linked to says, asking for Jones just reeks of ego.

Okami is a good opponent, and they can build a story around their last fight which ended in a DQ.

Both Wanderlei and Shogun could easily make 185, and both pose a significant threat to Anderson’s title reign.

Bisping is still popular both in North America and in the UK, so if he’s established with a couple wins at 185 it could set up a big title match in London later in 2008, or early 2009.