International Fight Week was one of the biggest spectacles I have ever had the pleasure of being a part of. From the media workouts to all of the fan events, the UFC was able to put together one of the most interactive events in sports history.
Dana White addressed not just the week, but also what it meant for the promotion to have such a great response from fans and media, who have been busting their tails trying to keep up with Zuffa PR.
“We broke every UFC record there was as far as our business goes. Brazil shut down tonight. We did things for this fight, it will come out on Fuel,” White told Bleacher Report after the post-fight press conference.
White has always been extremely busy at live events. He has to balance running the production with shaking hands and greeting every fan that asks for a photograph. But UFC 148 was on a whole different level. In an unprecedented move, the UFC went above and beyond their normal strategy to track coverage of the event.
“Fuel followed me around all night tonight, but you should see the social media war room that we put together tonight. We were pinpointing and tracking what people were talking about all over the world. What parts of the world were hot and which weren’t. This was one of the biggest sporting events of the year.”
Oh, and that International Fight Week? Turns out it was a huge success.
“The economic impact for Las Vegas, we don’t have all the numbers yet, but it’s somewhere between $93 and $140 million on a week where this town would have been dead.”
Expect for this to become a yearly event. I’ll make sure to mentally prepare for it weeks in advance.
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