UFC Heavyweight Champ Cain Velasquez
FOX & UFC SEND A MESSAGE TO PACQUIAO PROMOTER BOB ARUM & HBO PPV
Welterweight Champion Manny Pacquiao
San Francisco, CA– When I penned the story a couple of weeks ago that the Ultimate Fighting Championships, featuring Mixed Martial Arts fighters, the fastest growing sport in the world, that the UFC was going to the Fox TV Network after signing a $100 million dollar a year (seven years) deal, some people in the boxing world, said, “So what?” Then it was announced that the UFC would go on the same date, November 12, that Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez box on HBO PPV, and that Fox would pull out all the stops when it came to advertising their first UFC show, boxing people, especially Todd du Beof, Vice President of Top Rank, the promotional firm that handles Pacquiao. In short, the announcement blew out a slew of fuses in the boxing world.
UFC HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE FIGHT ON FOX NOVEMBER 12
Although some thought that there was no cause for alarm, especially Top Rank chief Bob Arum, at least that what he was saying, I would bet he soiled his shorts when he found that the UFC’s unbeaten World heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez, a Mexican-American who delivers the goods, will meet Brazil’s Jr. Dos Santos in what will be Cain’s first title defense since he blasted out Brock Lesnar last year on the same night that Pacquiao-Marquez III. The whole idea of this, in my mind, is to show both casual sports fans and boxing fans alike, those not yet enamored with the UFC, that MMA is as, if not more exciting than boxing, and that you won’t have to pay $70 bucks to watch
Velasquez-Santos card in High Definition emanating from the Honda Center in Anaheim, CA. It’s clear what they’re trying to say is that you can watch a thrilling and very important fight for free on Fox!
SUPPOSED TO AIR EARLIER THAN PACQUIAO-MARQUEZ?
Originally, the talk was that the events would not overlap one another. I think that notion may go out the window as well, as it appears that UFC President Dana White is serious about the UFC eclipsing the boxing card on that night. Overall, statistics have proven that MMA passed up boxing in popularity in 2006, and has had the “Sweet Science” in it’s rear view mirror for about five years now. By White, and UFC owners Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta, throwing the UFC heavyweight championship on Fox TV for free, and again on the same night as the Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez HBO Pay Per View show, this is akin to sticking a dagger in Bob Arum’s gut!
BOXING HAS ITSELF TO BLAME, NOBODY ELSE!
With horrendously inept, if not corrupt scoring of major fights, promoters stacking *hit fights underneath their main events, to the fact that the best in boxing don’t fight the best, this and the notion among a great number of Americans that boxing is “fixed” for the most part. The people that have run boxing in the past 30-35 years, have never ever thought about the future. Truth be told, if it were not for the Mexican and Hispanics in the US, boxing would be dead, instead of just being on “life support” in 2011.
Pedro Fernandez