The UFC 120 Debacle: Why English Fans Are Unhappy

With the release of tickets for the 10th UFC event on British shores, it is easy to see why fans on this side of the pond are somewhat unsatisfied with the choice of big names.

It seems as though the powers that be decided when putting the Jon Jones vs. Vlad Matyushenko "On Versus," that their PPV in the same month was to be a massive disappointment for anyone hoping to see their favourite fighter or at least someone they wouldn’t expect to see on the preliminaries on a "Fight Night" card.

This being the case, the UFC has however, only confirmed three fights for the night with five more awaiting confirmation. The announced and signed fights are Bisping vs. Sexyama, Hardy vs. Condit, and Hatthaway vs. Pyle.

I would like to begin by stating that the Hardy vs. Condit and the Hatthaway vs. Pyle fights have the makings of very good fights.

However, the main event boasts two fighters who are struggling to keep their contention for the title alive, with Bisping losing two of his last four, and Akiyama “winning” a decision over Alan Belcher in his debut for the company and being choked out by Chris Leben who fought and won two weeks earlier.

Many believe with Lebens win over Akiyama, it should be "The Crippler" taking on "The Count" to increase the likelihood of a title shot (after Sonnen, Belfort, and anyone else Dana and Joe Silva decide to throw in there before these two) in a rematch which would have been a guaranteed draw in the UK.

But once again, the UFC appear to be riding Michael Bisping’s back straight into London for what will be, no doubt, another sold out event and a massive pay-day.

The Mancunian, although having a torrid time of late, is still adored by the English fans and considering they are putting him up against another fighter who HAD some of the biggest hype in the weight division may still work out in the UFC’s favour.

It is obvious that with the signing of the all-singing, all-dancing Akiyama, the UFC are most concerned with tapping an Asian market that could attract hundreds of millions of new fans to the brand (and with an Asian promo collapsing every day, one can see how this would be mutually beneficial to both the Asian MMA community and the UFC).

However, lacklustre performances in the octagon may mean a short lived span of opportunity to capitalise on the success of “The Sexy-One” in the land of the rising sun and requires putting Akiyama in as many fan-generating fights as possible (see Bisping vs. Akiyama).

As we have now seen, the Main Event from UFC 120 is the simplest form of attempting to tap new markets while sealing closed others and to further any disgruntled feelings the entire show is being aired in the US for free.

While looking after an Asian market by pushing a clearly failing fighter onto an international card and looking after the its home market by providing the entire event for free, it appears as though the only people to get the sharp end of the stick are the ones who are actually paying for the event—the English fans.