Dana White: UFC on FOX 1 inspired by boxing's once-glorious past by Dann Stupp on Nov 02, 2011 at 7:40 pm ET Longtime boxing fan Dana White always envisioned an event like UFC on FOX 1. The UFC's heavily anticipated and historic network-television debut is reminiscent of the UFC president's earliest boxing memories, when major fights were must-see events. "This is a throwback to the old days of boxing," he today said. UFC on FOX 1 takes place next Saturday, Nov. 12, at Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif. The main event (and only televised fight) features UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez (9-0 MMA, 7-0 UFC) vs. Junior Dos Santos (13-1 MMA, 7-0 UFC).. The event is a precursor to the big-bucks UFC-FOX deal, which doesn't kick off officially until 2012. So next week's event is a sort of a teaser event of what's to come. That's why only the title fight makes it to air (and why the entire undercard streams on FOX.com and Facebook). While the UFC has been the king of pay-per-view, White always envisioned a network-TV presence. As a kid, he remembers getting together with family members to watch the big boxing matches. This was before PPV, and boxing flourished with its huge reach and mainstream following. White's not one to bite his tongue about how boxing went wrong, but for next week's event, he hopes to take an early chapter out of its playbook. "Our goal has always been to bring big fights back to network television," White said. "We are thinking long-term for the future of this sport. It is an investment in the future of the UFC. Fans that have never seen the UFC before will see this show, and that’s why we decided to put Cain and Junior in this position. "I know for a fact this is going to be an awesome fight. I know it is going to be great. That's why it was these two in this position. I have no worries at all this is going to be a great fight." The broadcast will have some new features. The day before, the UFC will makes it debut on FOX-owned FUEL TV for a live weigh-ins special (7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT). Additionally, on fight night, viewers can expect a crash course in UFC history, as well as interviews with the fighters just prior to their cage entrances. White said he's had countless meetings to fine tune the whole presentation. "This is going to be a different format than we've ever done before," he said. "Obviously this is a show featuring one fight, so we’re doing a lot of things differently." For their part, the headliners are trying to view it all as just another fight. However, the two heavyweights already have appeared on FOX with Sunday's well-received "UFC Primetime" special, and buzz for UFC on FOX 1 has far outweighed this week's UFC 138 event. Additionally, next week's fight likely will be the highest-rated MMA event in U.S. TV history. "It is a great honor to have this fight chosen by the UFC to be the first one on FOX," Velasquez said. "But I am not focused on the event, the hype or the [ratings]. Like any other fight, I am focused on my opponent and not much else." Dos Santos echoed those sentiments. "It was such a long wait for my title shot, but I am not sorry," he said. "This, right now, is the greatest opportunity I could have had, fighting for the world heavyweight title live on FOX for the very first time."
i saw the prime time special on cain vs. jds they aired on fox this past sunday. it was akin to hbo's 24/7 with commercials in between and minus liev schreiber's narration.
He is a huge boxing fan. He just sees a broken product, and learns from its mistakes to market his own. I'm not a UFC fan by any stretch - meaning that while I'll watch an occasional fight, I'm still not fully knowledgeable enough on it to have an informed opinion. I know it doesn't move me like boxing, but don't have anything good or say about the action itself beyond that. What I will say is that when I listen to Dana White speak, I wish that he had a more prominent role in boxing. Maybe he's a better salesman than others, but you get the sense that he's a lot less full of shit than your average boxing promoter, manager or what have you. Put it this way - in the past two days I participated in five conference calls, including the one for UFC on Fox. This was the only one of the bunch that began on time, offered crystal clear audio and didn't carrry the slightest semblance of a negative vibe. Sucks that this show is up against Pac-Marquez III (not to mention the fact that I'll be out of the house until an hour after UFC On Fox ends, anyway!), but am looking forward to tracking this series' progress and see what it does for UFC. Hopefully boxing will be doing the same, rather than simply holding up a crucifix every time anything MMA-related is mentioned. That said, they need better writers. Tom Gerbasi is one of the few whose stuff I'll regularly read. The headline for this article had me hoping the writer would use some other quotes from the call than the ones selected.
This has to be one of the most unbiased posts I have ever seen on this forum. And the fact that it is coming from true hardcore boxing guy like Jake makes it even more impressive in my opinion. Thanks for your input, Jake, you should stop by and post here more often, especially on threads where boxing is brought up. :Thumbs:
They have been doing this for a while. They have 4 shows just like 24/7 to hype the big fights. It doesnt have anywhere near the production value or budget of the 24/7 series, but it's getting there.
Thank you sir, and I will be. A good chance I'll be covering both sports on a full time basis. I'm already there with boxing ever since I was laid off at my "real" job earlier this summer, but where I live boxing is absolutely dead - even club shows are sparse. UFC/MMA isn't much more active down here, but is so in neighboring states that aren't too far of a drive.
