UFC 176 Preview: You Weren't Going to Buy It Anyway

UFC 176 was supposed to take place tonight live on Pay-Per-View. Instead, the Ultimate Fighting Championship has decided to cancel the event, rather than put it on and have everyone point and laugh at their tiny buyrate. (I wasn’t planning on buy it. Were you?) UFC 176 was canceled postponed last month after Jose Aldo pulled out of a title fight with Chad Mendes because of injury. While there were still 10 perfectly good fights remaining, the UFC chose to cut their losses and “postpone” the event. With that UFC 176 floated off into the ether, and will never actually take place, despite the definition of “postpone.”

It has been nearly two years since the UFC last canceled an event. Back then, it was because light heavyweight Jon Jones refused to take on Chael Sonnen on short notice at UFC 151. The event was canceled and Jones and coach Greg Jackson were publicly blamed.  UFC President Dana White called Jackson a “fucking sport killer.” Yet here we are, two years later, and the sport still lives and is as expensive as ever.

All in all there will be 44 UFC events this year, with 12 on PPV. (UFC 176 would have made 13) If you’re watching those fights in standard definition, that costs you $599.40. ($719.40 for HD!) Oh, and then there’s the $95.88 it costs for a year’s subscription to UFC Fight Pass which you need to watch select shows. That’s a $700-$800 commitment annually to be a die-hard fan. Yikes.

The reality is that the same issue that actually killed UFC 151 is the same one affecting UFC 176 and a number of the other cards the UFC pushes on their ready and willing fans – they are too weak and dependent on one name at the very top of the bill. Defenders will point to the awesomeness of July which saw some incredible fights – many of them on free TV. So don’t worry. This is the future. Whenever an already weak card deteriorates to the point where it must be cancel – sorry, “postponed”- we’ll just move on to the next one. I mean, we just saved fifty bucks anyway!