The Ultimate Fighting Championship's first foray into Philadelphia was nothing short of a rousing success. Two of the promotion's top stars got back on track, B.J. Penn defending his UFC lightweight belt from Kenny Florian, and Anderson Silva laying further claim to the mythical pound-for-pound title with a first-round knockout of Forrest Griffin.All this before a stellar crowd.
The early return numbers -- as announced by UFC President Dana White at the post-fight press conference -- put total attendance at 17,411 for a Pennsylvania record gate of $3.55 million.
"(We've) never had a night where the first prelim of the night there were over 11,000 people there," commented White. "Halfway through the prelims there were 16,500 people, and then over 17,000... it was 17,411, $3.55 million gate. The biggest in the history of Pennsylvania."
Now on to the pay-per-view numbers... isn't there some sort of crazy stunt -- like White's commitment to base-jumping off of Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas -- that we can get him to commit too in Philly if UFC 101 tops UFC 100 in PPV buys?
5 comments:
what happened with griffin, why did he quit he didnt seem hurt hes taken worse beatings than that before, he has a great heart he wouldnt quit like that something weird happened
I agree, I watched him run out of the ring pretty fast. Unusual for a guy who just got his bell rung bad enough to stop the fight ...
according to another site, he dislocated his jaw and was having problems hearing out of one ear and he ran off to get medical attention.
Forrest is a great fighter, but he got drawn into a fight he couldn't win. He let Anderson get to him, the taunting got him riled and he charged in, trying to go toe to toe with a guy who is unmatched in MMA for striking. He was rocked twice, and when he charged right into that final hit, it had the cumulative effect to put him on the mat. You can't give a guy like Anderson a stationary target to tee off on, he'll knock it out of the park. Hopefully when Hendo gets his next shot, he won't get his punching fever and forget to wrestle, we'll see.
What are you guys talking about? Forest ran away after Jardine beat him down? So he dives out the cage after his embarrassing showing against Silva. I think Forest is awesome but he seems to freak out when he gets beat down super fast.
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