UFC fighter Chris Weidman, with his defeat of Anderson Silva on Saturday night at UFC 162, "immediately becomes one of the bigger names in the sport by handing the man once thought to be nearly invincible the first knockout loss of his career," according to Adam Hill of the LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL. UFC President Dana White was "on the verge of finally matching Silva against" Georges St. Pierre, Jon Jones or both. White said, "That fight cost (St. Pierre), Jon Jones and Anderson Silva a lot of money." Jones on his Twitter account wrote after the knockout: "This sucks" (LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL, 7/8). YAHOO SPORTS' Kevin Iole notes the event was held “before 12,399” at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. The fight "left a bad taste in the mouth" of those who wanted to see Silva perform and "wound up getting far less than his best" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 7/8). On Long Island, Mark La Monica reported Weidman "earned $24,000 in show money, plus another $24,000 in win money, while Silva earned $600,000 for the fight." That "does not include any fight night bonuses, sponsor money or cuts of the pay-per-view money" (NEWSDAY, 7/7). Meanwhile, in Las Vegas, Ray Brewer reported the UFC Fan Expo on Friday and Saturday was “expected to attract more than 40,000 fans” (LAS VEGAS SUN, 7/6).
SUPER BOWL UNDERCARD: MMAJUNKIE.com’s Matt Erickson reported UFC will “touch down at the Prudential Center” for a Feb. 1 show, the day before Super Bowl XLVIII at MetLife Stadium. The event is “likely to be a pay-per-view with prelims" on FS1. The news "came as part of a Fox Sports 1 promotional video" following a Q&A with Fox' Jay Glazer at the UFC Fan Expo. Newark's "gain will be Las Vegas' loss," as UFC has held a PPV event in Las Vegas "the night before the Super Bowl each year since" '04 (MMAJUNKIE.com, 7/5). In Newark, Eunice Lee noted the Feb. 1 show "puts another big event on the calendar at the Prudential Center, which also will host Media Day on the Tuesday before the Super Bowl" (NJ.com, 7/6). White said of the possibility of a Weidman-Silva rematch, “How fast can we turn this around? How about Super Bowl Saturday?” (MMAFIGHTING.com, 7/7).
STRAIGHT FROM THE SOURCE: In Las Vegas, Alan Snel wrote White has "embraced social media like few other major sports executives, posting more than 21,000 tweets on everything from hyping big UFC fights to cross-promoting his friends." His "unfiltered noncorporate persona comes through in his tweets." White said that Twitter "allows him to take his message straight to the fans without having the media do that." Former UFC Head of PR Jen Wenk said of White, "He listens to [fans], values their opinions, considers them and often acts on them. Dana has created his own news wire in his Twitter account.” Snel noted the UFC YouTube channel has "nearly 1.1 million subscribers and more than 415 million views." ESPN’s YouTube channel has "slightly more subscribers but fewer views with 276 million." UFC Social Media Manager Shanda Maloney said that one UFC strategy on Facebook is "to pinpoint geographic-oriented posts to fighters’ hometowns, which has proven to drive UFC pay-per-view sales in that market" (LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL, 7/5).
