UFC 178 - McGregor-Poirier**Tune in from 3:30 onwards to see McGregor

John_D80 wrote: »

There is no pay-per-view market in Ireland bud. The entire event (like ALL UFC events) is free to BT Sports subscribers. BT sports pay a licensing fee to the UFC. In the next few years we will be paying for individual events but for now our BT sports subscription gets us all our UFC events. So saying that they would lose PPV's in Ireland is not a valid argument. And besides that, even if there was a PPV market here, the revenue generated would be tiny by comparison to the total PPV return.

I totally get what you mean by saying this fight has been hyped and invested in heavily but as long as the fight goes ahead at all, none of this effort and investment is wasted.

McGregor is the type of fighter and personality that will always attract fans. Put him on as featured prelim this time round and he will bring in god knows how many new PPVs for his next outing. And if he wins against Pourier his next outing could well be a numbered event that HE will be headlining in a title eliminator.

Am not familiar with the BT set up these days to be fair i usually watch UFC in other ways,usually i pay for an event i want and stream it like i will with this one.

Still think Conors fight is possibly the biggest draw for sales on this card to american buyers,its not just a biased Irish perspective,Conor is making huge waves in the states and i know its a decent card but if they take Conor v Poirer off it there won't be near the same interest,people are major hyped for this fight with Poirer.

Granted Cowboy,Cruz,Might Mouse have been around longer than Conor and i love Cowboys style who doesn't love watching him fight,but the public love grudge matches with personality,where everyone no matter who they are invest a little bit of something into a Conor,Dustin fight,whether they are fans or want to see him lose or just basically wonder what Conor will say if he loses etc.these type of fights sell pay per views and the UFC know it,so i doubt they would bump him onto the pre-lims.

EuskalHerria wrote: »

You do understand that Conor and the UFC, if they are competent in the least, would look at markets bigger than just the UK and Ireland when making decisions? Not having a PPV system here is not an argument against considering the US market and others that would be lot bigger and more financially beneficial.

Yes i do understand that, id say they have nearly zero thought on how it will affect uk ireland. The US market is their bread and butter. I was pretty much making this point to another poster who said it would have an effect on irish ppv which i just pointed out does not exist!

dulux99 wrote: »

Imagine how ridiculous this card would have been if Jones v Cormier stayed on it. Would have to be up there with 92, 100 and 117 for the most stacked cards of all time. It would have been badly needed, after the shocker of a year the UFC have had

I still don't think it would be near them cards,would have been the most stacked since them possibly,and nowadays cards are so light it would have been easily the best of the year.

But it just woulda been stacked in relation to the crap we have getting these days,and since the Fox deal,but i still wouldn't compare it to the greatest cards ever,just it would be like an old UFC event when there was only a few a year, and would just be a decent card with a great Title fight for the main event.

dave1982 wrote: »

Definitely I want 6 - 8 stacked cards a year

Great days,won't see that again,UFC is getting more and more like boxing everyday,back then main events getting pulled for injuries or the like never affected any of the cards because it was always backed up so well.

Mellor wrote: »

The issue with 6-8 stack cards events per year is that it means there only 8-10 fighter per division in a year. The pace would be awful.

People always forget that when comparing current events to the early days. It's easy to put on 6 stacked events when your fighter pool consists of a handful on lunatics with a couple of skilled fighters.

There is truth in what you're saying but they can still showcase more weight divisions,doesn't have to be just 6-8 cards a year,there is a happier medium between what it was,and what it is now,which is too many weak cards.

We never ever heard of events been called off because one fight was pulled till the Jones,Henderson/Sonnen debacle,now its happened again with Aldo/Mendes, so what Dana used to slate boxing for,is now the same as the UFC where they are using one star fight to sell events.