A year ago, before his knee injury, Georges St. Pierre was the biggest draw on the UFC’s roster. But today, after his long-awaited return to action, the Montreal native seems to be struggling to sell tickets for his fight against Carlos Condit at UFC 154 in his home city.
As the Calgary Herald is reporting, despite the fact that tickets have been on sale since September for the November 17 bout, large groups of seats can be found dotted around the Bell Centre stadium.
UFC director of Canadian operations Tom Wright believes the promotion’s plague of injuries is one reason tickets haven’t sold as expected:
There’s been many examples over the last several fights—UFC 151 and 149 in Calgary is a good example of it—where fighters got injured and there were changes to the card…I think there are fans who are saying, ‘You know what? I’m really excited about GSP’s return and I love the fact that we’ve got [Martin] Kampmann versus [Johny] Hendricks in the co-main event, and we’ve got a bunch of Canadians on the card. But you know what? I bought my tickets 12 weeks out for Calgary and a whole bunch of things happened. I’m going to wait until it’s a little closer.’
Whether fans are expecting injuries or not, outside the main and co-main event, there aren’t many notable bouts taking place at UFC 154.
For instance, few fans are itching to watch Francis Carmont take on Tom Lawlor, Nick Ring take on Costa Philippou or Mark Hominick take on Pablo Garza—the other fights on the main card.
Nevertheless, Wright said that he expects the Bell Centre in Montreal will eventually sell out for the return of St. Pierre.
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