Dana White giving away UFC 104 tickets left and right, is this a good thing?

According to MMA Weekly UFC president Dana White has already given away 3,300 tickets to UFC 104 this Saturday night.

UFC 104 features a light heavyweight title fight between Lyoto Machida and Mauricio "Shogun" Rua at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. The last time the UFC held an event at the Staples Center was UFC 60, which drew 14,765 attendees though only 10,347 paid.

It is no secret to UFC fans that Dana White often gives away tickets to fans usually through rendezvous that are coordinated through Twitter. Viewers of White's video blogs will certainly remember the numerous occasions that an exhausted fan would meet White at a remote location to receive tickets in scenes that bear a shocking resemblance to an addict running to meet his or her dealer.

The fact that Dana himself has already given away 3,300 tickets is a shocking development when you consider that local businesses also provide comped tickets. Will UFC 104 even break the 10,000 mark for a paid audience? (Note: the number that MMA Weekly provided could include comped tickets that local businesses give out though usually they buy tickets to hand out).

Is White's generosity a leading indicator about the drawing power of Lyoto Machida and Mauricio "Shogun" Rua and the overall strength of the card, which Zach earlier bemoaned?

If the live gate is poor could that mean that the UFC is on the verge of a disappointing PPV audience?

Earlier this week WKR speculated on Cage Cast 36 that the inclusion of a Spike broadcast --for a portion of the preliminary card-- was not an application of a new product to please fans but rather an attempt to boost interest and PPV buys for a fight card that appears to have weak commercial drawing power.

MMA observers will have to wait for concrete gate and PPV numbers to appear (not the initial over-inflated, highly optimistic PPV numbers that are leaked) before we will be able to make a judgement on the speculative issues presented above.

There is another factor that WKR would be remiss not to mention; the overall dreadful state of the California economy.

This wouldn't be the first time that the UFC has run into a poor local economy that affected fan response in a city. The most recent example was UFC 102 in Portland, Oregon.

UFC 104: Machida vs. Shogun coverage