UFC in the UK (The Truth) Part Two

At the start of this year. I wrote an article concerning the way in which the UFC has tried to get itself onto UK screens.

An article which garnered criticism, albeit from a minority of single minded fans not necessarily looking at the bigger picture.

Thankfully, a big, I told you so "could" ensue, but I'll leave that sort of behaviour for the school playground!

Remember "The brains at the UFC headquarters", think they know their audience and marketplace better than they know themselves, which in some cases they do.

Unfortunately for the UFC, and as I predicted! the gamble to transfer themselves from Bravo (the channel that originally aired UFC broadcasts in the UK) to Setanta which was a newly established "very obscure, Irish-run sports channel", was a gamble which looks as though it will not payoff.

Reports are circulating that the Irish sports channel is on the verge of collapse, with liquidators Deloitte readying to carve up the assets. This will obviously come as a body blow to the UFC, who have supposedly had a payment for UFC rights deferred, although insiders say payments have not been settled for some time!   

Should the people at Zuffa have known about this before hand? well perhaps not, the British F.A. (football association) one off the richest sports organisations in the world, were on the books at Setanta, so you could easily see why UFC were blinded by Setanta's impressive roster of customers!

Are Setantas woes purely down to the current global financial crisis? Maybe, but it has been well documented that Setanta had been built on shaky financial foundations.

Like the UFC, the F.A. are also looking at a black hole where their money should have been! The FA are looking at losses somewhere in the region of £100 million a fair sight more than the UFC, but this situation is more damaging to the UFCs broadcasting options. 

The people at the F.A certainly have bigger brains than Marshall Zelaznik (UFC's man in UK/ Europe) and his team, so you can rest assured that the F.A knew this was coming, even before Setanta did!!

I'd love to see the scene when Marshall Zelaznik has to skulk into the offices at Bravo or newer division Virgin with his tail between his legs, and beg to be put back on air.

Thankfully for UK fans, Good Ol' Marshall has already made the walk of shame for The Ultimate Fighter, which is can now be seen on Virgin 1 on sunday nights at 11pm.