No UFC show for Columbus, Ohio in 2010
by Zak Woods on Sep 17, 2009 4:03 PM EDT
in Ohio MMA
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Horrible news Ohio MMA fans.
Dana White had some cryptic information regarding the UFC's annual show in Columbus, Ohio at today's UFC 103 press conference. White told the press that the UFC is not planning to return to Columbus in 2010.
Since 2007 the UFC has come to Columbus, Ohio on the first weekend of March three times. This date coincides with Columbus' popular fitness festival The Arnold Classic or as it is now referred to the Arnold Sports Festival. The Classic is the largest multi-sport festival in the nation with over 700 business booths, 17,000 athletes and 170,000 visitors (why are they skipping this market?!).
Columbus and the Arnold Sports Festival are right in the UFC's roundhouse. This news is extremely disappointing and someone needs to talk Zak off the ledge.
The UFC first came to Columbus, Ohio for UFC 68, which featured a heavyweight title bout between Tim Sylvia and Randy Couture. Many fans thought that this was the fight of the year as Couture came out of retirement and upset Sylvia.
In 2008 the UFC returned for UFC 82 in a clash of champions. Pride middleweight champion, Dan Henderson, fought UFC middleweight champion, Anderson Silva, in the second unification bout between the two organizations.
The UFC came back for UFC 96 which didn't feature a title fight but Ohio fans were treated to Quinton "Rampage" Jackson face off against Keith Jardine.
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I’m not surprised by this. There’ve been diminishing returns on those Columbus cards, in terms of gate, although it shouldn’t be surprising since this year’s was a weak card. Part of that has to be blamed on the economy though. Being from nearby Pittsburgh, I know that eastern Ohio has been struggling. Perhaps a move to a more economically stable north-eastern city would be more profitable, like, I don’t know, Pittsburgh (hint-hint). Yes, I know. We won’t get UFC until the new arena is done.
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