UFC on Saturday makes its first foray into Orlando with an event at Amway Center, and the level of promotion for the event marks a "drastic change" from previous shows in South Florida that left UC President Dana White "less than pleased," according to Brian Linder of the Daytona Beach NEWS-JOURNAL. White said that the event "will be the promotion's biggest gate for a card televised on Fox." He added, "I told you guys the last time we were in Florida, this is a place where we do incredible pay-per-view buys but we don't sell tickets. All the executives said, 'We think it's the market in Florida that we are missing.' They were right, and I was wrong." White "did not release specific numbers, but, although some tickets remain, a sellout is expected" (Daytona Beach NEWS-JOURNAL, 4/18). White said, "When you have a fight that's live and free on a massive network like Fox and you do the kind of gate we did here ... Orlando is a home run. We're definitely coming back to Orlando." In Orlando, Shannon Owens notes UFC "doesn't typically host bouts at the same venue two years in a row." But White said that he is "not ruling out that possibility" (ORLANDO SENTINEL, 4/18).
INDEPENDENT WOMAN: YAHOO SPORTS' Kevin Iole wrote under the header, "Ronda Rousey's Tiger Woods-Like Domination Not Good For UFC Women's Division." Rousey's ascent is "great in one sense, because fans gravitate toward winners." But it has "cast a pall over non-title women's matches." Miesha Tate will meet Liz Carmouche on Saturday "in a bout that, in other circumstances, might have stirred up a lot of passion and interest." But Rousey has "manhandled both, and that has taken a bit of the significance" out of the match. It "isn't getting the hype that it might have gotten otherwise because of the Rousey effect." But the good news is that Rousey's dominance "will force other female fighters to boost their games, much like Woods did on the PGA Tour" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 4/17).
