UFC 75 Is Huge Success

In a beautifully designed event, UFC 75, free on Spike TV, ended up being the most watched UFC event ever. Is this a good thing or a bad thing for UFC/MMA?

We'll start off with some numbers:

In the United States, UFC 75 drew in 4.7 million viewers. It drew in 5.6 million from England. Among men ages 18-34, UFC was the most watched program on television that night...(which consisted of NASCAR, College Football, and the Women's US Open Finals).

Ad my personal favorite statistic: among men ages 18-34, UFC 75 had more then twice asmany viewers then Oregon vs. Michigan, Notre Dame vs. Penn State, Virginia Tech vs. LSU, and NASCAR. UFC had 8 times the viewers that the Women's US Open Finals had.

These are GREAT numbers (especially for the growing sport of MMA). UFC has gained a ton of fans from this. Not only was it on for free, but it hosted several extremely important fights. I know at least 5 of my friends who didn't even know what MMA was, but after I told them to watch UFC 75, they became hooked. (I think one even has a sherdog account already.) My hat goes off to Dana White.

We all know that MMA is the fastest growing sport in the world. How did this happen so quickly? Dana White put together a careful and systematic plan to skyrocket this sport to the top. And it has worked. When did Vince McMahon put on a free event that was treated as a PPV? The closest the WWE comes to a free PPV is Saturday Nights Main Event which can hardly be called exciting. Even though the fights weren't amazing, the sheer availability to fans without cable boxes should be enough to make this a worthwhile long-term deal.