Building UFC 103

Unlike its last pay-per-view offering, the UFC found itself in the familiar position of coming into a new market with ticket sales strong and interest indicators up.

Brass from the UFC and American Airlines Center in Dallas announced at a press conference Thursday that UFC 103 “Franklin vs. Belfort” would set a gross record for any sporting event held in the 20,000-seat arena. Unlike UFC 102, this show was nearly sold out on event week, with some 16,000 tickets purchased. UFC 102 only filled about half of the similarly sized Rose Garden in Oregon last month, a disappointment UFC President Dana White blamed on overpriced tickets.

UFC 103 hype started with a “Countdown” special on Spike TV focused almost exclusively on re-introducing Vitor Belfort to a UFC audience that has not seen him since 2005. It started with UFC 12 in 1997 and included clips of his fights with Tra Telligman, Scott Ferrozzo, David Abbott, Randy Couture and Wanderlei Silva. The special also touched on the disappearance of his sister and the effect it had on his last two matches against Couture. The special included highlights from Belfort’s win over Matt Lindland in Affliction, the first time clips from that promotion have aired on UFC television.

A similar effort was undertaken to re-establish Frank Trigg, who last competed in the Octagon in 2005. The special started with Trigg’s debut in the World Fighting Alliance in 2001 and harped on his memorable UFC bouts with Matt Hughes. Trigg said his goal in this comeback was to find himself a spot in the pantheon of enduring UFC names like Chuck Liddell and Couture. His opponent, Josh Koscheck, was at his smug, trash-talking best, smirking at Trigg’s age and bristling at any comparisons between Trigg and himself. A similar Young vs. Old theme was used for the preview of the Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic vs. Junior dos Santos fight.

A rating for the Countdown show was not immediately available. However, the UFC hopes it rises from the 523,000 viewers drawn for the UFC 102 special last month. According to early estimates reported by the Wrestling Observer, that event drew 435,000 buys on pay-per-view -- a huge dip from the 800,000 to 1,000,000 range for UFC 101.

UFC 103 takes on particular significance because it will go head-to-head on pay-per-view with boxing superstar Floyd Mayweather’s first fight since December 2007. Mayweather has repeatedly taken shots at MMA in interviews, calling it a less lucrative enterprise involving less-skilled fighters. White has fired back by knocking Mayweather’s drawing power and calling his fight overpriced. Though uninvolved in the Mayweather promotion, boxing promoter Bob Arum also jumped into the fray in an interview with MMA Fanhouse, doubting recent UFC pay-per-view numbers and inexplicably calling MMA fans and fighters “skinheads.”

Both sides have taken steps to make their cards more appealing than the standard fare. Promoters of the Mayweather fight stacked the show’s undercard, uncharacteristic for boxing, and cut a deal to air the fight for short money in select movie theaters. The UFC added a live special on Spike TV preceding its event; it will feature Efrain Escudero vs. Cole Miller and Tomasz Drawl vs. Drew McFedries.