UFC moneymaker

Again, it's not football-related, but this time it is sports-related.

A while back, i was talking with someone about boxing vs. UFC (i believe it was Austin), and the topic of money came up. I just found this article at FoxSports.com MMA blog (http://community.foxsports.com/blogs/FOXSportsMMA). It refers to the most recent UFC bout, UFC 66, which took place on December 30, 2006. I'll have this bout on TiVo for the next 2 or 3 weeks, if anyone is interested in coming over--it's a great fight and all are welcome. FYI: If anyone doesn't want SPOILER info regarding UFC 66, I wouldn't click on that link if I were you. I've been careful to not include any SPOILER info in the following article:

"*If UFC 66 hits its predicted buy rate of 1.2 million homes, Ortiz and Liddell would likely end up with somewhere around $3 million each when all is said and done. UFC reportedly pays out 25% of their share of the PPV gross (the amount left after the cable and satellite companies take their half off the top) as a bonus to their PPV headliners. Under this formula, Liddell and Randy Couture both ended up with about a million for their UFC 57 match, which drew about 400,000 buys. That doesn't include whatever sponsorship and endorsement money Ortiz and Liddell lined up.
*Attendance at the MGM Grand was a sellout 14,607, with a gate of $5,397,000, the biggest North American MMA gate in history and nearly $2 million more than the previous mark. "

UFC 57 (Liddell/Couture) took place on February 4, 2006, if that tells you anything about how much the league has grown over the course of 10 months. What is sure to draw even more viewers was recently announced--UFC just signed a six-fight, two-year deal with Mikro Cro Cop, arguable the most exciting fighter in the PRIDE and K-1 organizations (both UFC-competitors). One need only "youtube" his name (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABfm8ofsYFc) to see how powerful this Croatian soldier-turned-police officer-turned-kickboxer-turned-MMA fighter has been.

Cro Cop's UFC debut is against Eddie Sanchez on Feb. 3 and should be a fairly easy fight, leading to his eventual title shot (UFC has a tendency to do that--bring in a big shot from a competitor league with the promise of a quick title shot--that's how Anderson Silva became the UFC Middleweight champ after only his first fight). The question is, will Cro Cop (6'2", 218 lbs.) opt for challenging 6'8", 265 lbs. Tim "The Maine-iac" Sylvia for his Heavyweight title, or will he instead choose to cut 13 lbs. and do battle with the Lightheavyweight champ (who shall remain nameless in this post in order to avoid SPOILER information from UFC 66--it's either Chuck Liddell or Tito Ortiz). The world has been calling for a Cro Cop/Liddell fight for over a year now. A Cro Cop/Ortiz fight would be equally entertaining.