The UFC is putting all of their momentum gained over the past 10 years on the line on Saturday night when UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez and Junior dos Santos compete in the first UFC fight on network television.
With that comes nervous energy, and UFC president Dana White has a lot of it with the fight only being a couple of days away.
“This is all about the heavyweight championship that night,” White replied to a question about whether or not any preliminary bouts would be seen on the televised portion. “I’m a mess over this thing. I’m a mess.”
White has good reason to be nervous about how the sport will be received by the majority of the general public. It all comes down to the lone fight on the televised card between Velasquez and dos Santos and how the two heavyweights perform.
Velasquez enters the fight with a 9-0 record, including wins over Brock Lesnar, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Ben Rothwell. Dos Santos comes into the fight with an unbeaten UFC record, which includes victories over Roy Nelson, Fabricio Werdum, Shane Carwin and Mirko Cro Cop.
Many anticipate this to be one of the most evenly matched heavyweights fights in the history of the sport.
“Saturday is our test-run,” White continued. “The show that we have been doing for 10 years, I’m in there rehearsing walk-ins and going through all the stuff, and we’ve been doing it for 10 years. Now, you can imagine what’s going through my head. We’re partnering with FOX. They’ve got their piece of this thing, and we’ve got our piece, and we’re blending them together. I don’t know. It’s crazy.”
It’s all part of a seven-year deal, and first impressions are the most important for White and the premier MMA organization.
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