An Open Letter To Dana White and Joe Silva from Vancouver, BC

Dana & Co.,

This is Chuck Liddell in the photo, the man who is supposed to headline UFC 115, UFC's first event in my beautiful City of Vancouver.  Who's he fighting? 

The man who Chuck knocked out twice, Tito Ortiz.  This main event brings tears to my eyes, and I guarantee they are not the tears of joy.

Do not get me wrong, Chuck and Tito WERE huge stars.  The problem is, they are not anymore.  They are old and slow, the only big win in the last three years for either of them was Chuck's win over Wanderlei Silva, who is having himself a losing record since he returned to the UFC.

Now, they HAD been huge draws even long after their primes.  However, recent pay per view numbers show that their drawing powers are on the decline, with UFC 106 (Headlined by Tito and Forrest) only drawing 375,000 according to Wikipedia.

Let me put in context how bad this main event is.  This is like having Andre Agassi playing Pete Sampras right now. 

Actually, I take that back, this would be an insult to Andre and Pete, they could probably draw more attention playing PING-PONG than Tito and Chuck in an UFC match. 

All I am trying to say is, while Tito and Chuck could be a nice third attraction or at most a co-main event if you really push it, if you pitch it as a main event of a major card, you are probably looking at a GM place that is only 30 percent full, something that we Canucks fans are not used to seeing.

I would like to think that for UFC's first event in Vancouver, they would at least put on a decent card.  God am I wrong. 

If UFC thinks this is the best card they can put together because all the other stars are tied up for other events, then fine.  But if UFC is putting on this card because they are over-estimating these two fighters' drawing power, then I am extremely disappointed with how out of touch the UFC is with what the fans want.

Dana and Joe, I urge you to rethink the main event for your first event in my city.

Yours sincerely,

A concerned UFC fan who lives in Vancouver