The Ultimate Fighter Is Going Global
I think we already know that The Ultimate Fighter franchise is wildly popular, as the ratings will indicate. With that legacy intact, the UFC wants to expand the brand. And by that, I mean on a worldwide basis, not the concept of the program.
During Saturday’s post-fight press conference at UFC 105, organization president Dana White intimated that the show is just months from beginning production around the globe. White indicated that with the launching of The Ultimate Fighter, which has enabled mixed martial arts and the UFC to become real big in the U.S., the international versions of TUF would do the same, adding:
“My job is over the next 10 years, the same game of soccer that we play in the U.S. is the same game they play in Canada, Mexico, Spain Italy, France, etc., and that’s what we’re doing with mixed martial arts right now. Everywhere you go all over the world, it’s the same sport, and everybody plays by the same rules. We’re trying to get these television deals in all these countries, major TV deals exposing the fans to it, then you bring a live event to those places. Then the virus spreads and people start training at it, trying to make a living at it, eventually becoming professional athletes. That’s what we’re going to do over the next 10 years.
“How do we plug this whole thing in with television and how to watch it everywhere? We’re trying to figure that whole thing out and build that now. But the groundwork for this thing is ‘The Ultimate Fighter,’ and we’ve been working it very hard, and we’re making it happen. ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ is going to be all over the world. That’s the goal.”
White also stated that while the international versions of TUF would be aimed towards the regional audiences, they also hope to figure out ways to show the multiple editions of the program worldwide. He also believes that online distribution or something similar will at some point in time play a major role in the UFC ’s success, adding:
“I’m not the brightest bulb on the [expletive] porch, but I think that all television – I don’t know what it was in your country or your home state, but I had channel 3, channel 5, channel 8 and channel 13 when I was growing up. I never dreamed there would be a day where there would be hundreds, maybe thousands of channels to watch. And the world is becoming smaller and smaller every day.
“I believe that there’s just going to be a screen. I’m not saying a TV, and I’m not saying a computer. But there’s going to be a screen, and there’s going to be a lot of different [expletive] that you can do with this screen, and it’s going to be global.”
TUF is a tried and true concept that obviously works both here in the States and in the United Kingdom. Based on that, the proposed expansion of the TUF franchise on an international scale makes perfect sense as not only will it gain a bigger audience, but it will provide a fertile breeding ground for future fighting talent for the UFC stable of combatants.
