On Tuesday, the phrase 'UFC Summit' became one of the hottest trending topics on Twitter—spending considerable time among the Top 10.
Like I did, you might be asking, "Errrr...what's the UFC Summit?" Just the name sounded exciting, mysterious, ground-breaking and fun.
In a world dominated by up-to-the-millisecond social media, how did we not know this was coming up? And again, what is it?
So I did some research tonight and here's an overview. There's not a lot out there, but this is what I found:
- It's a Zuffa-run deal, so fighters from both the UFC and WEC were involved.
- It's in Las Vegas, home of Zuffa.
- Just fighters were invited, no press. I'm unclear if managers and agents were included but my guess is no.
- Quite an entourage of fighters were present including Urijah Faber, Ben Henderson, Mark Coleman, Demien Maia, Mike Swick, Joe Lauzon, Nick Diaz, the Nogueira brothers, Scott Jorgensen, Red Schafer, and more. Of course, Prez Dana White and co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta were there. In all, an estimated 50 fighters have been in attendance.
- Monday night was a group dinner with everyone getting to interact and hang out with each other. White posted pics to his Twitter account throughout the night.
- From 5 Oz. Of Pain: "Topics at the actual summit ranged in degrees of seriousness, focusing on subjects like fighter-safety (weight-cutting, steroids, recreational drugs), professionalism (thanking sponsors, gambling, individual branding), and show production (swing bouts, etc.)."
- There were some video shoots done, but it's unclear for what.
- If you follow any of the attendees' Twitter accounts, there was plenty of positive chatter about the event. Here's the Twitter search of the topic if you want to see what everyone was saying and as of 1 am EST, were still saying as they headed out to dinner.
- I'm not sure if it's extended into Wednesday.
This sounds like an awesome experience. No word if it will be an annual deal, but my thought is that Dana and the Fertittas would like to do anything they can to keep fighter camaraderie and morale high. Other sports do this on an annual basis (union meetings, etc) so it makes sense for the UFC crew to do the same.
(Thanks to Scott Jorgensen for the pic.)
Josh Nason has published MMA, wrestling and boxing blog Ropes, Ring and Cage.com since 2007. He is a contributor to Fight Magazine and Bleacher Report and appears regularly on Fight Network Radio. Follow him on Twitter .
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