Could the “big” news that is supposed to be announced today by the UFC on ESPN‘s “The Hot List” simply be nothing more that the rematch between Matt Hughes and Georges St. Pierre? Take a look at the following quote direct from UFC Welterweight Champion Matt Hughes website:
Sunday, July 16, 2006
I’m in Conneticut right now and we’re supposed to announce my next fight tomorrow on ESPN. Tuesday, I have a photoshoot with Maxim magazine. Wednesday, I’m supposed to be on ESPN’s Cold Pizza show. I’ll go home sometime on Wednesday and get my wife ready to go to the hospital Friday morning. She’ll have a C-section at 9 AM Friday morning and the rest of the week we’ll hopefully be spending quality time with the new family member. -Matt
Big News? Not really if this is what the news is. Most MMA fans already anticipate this rematch to take place at UFC 63 on September 23 in California.
Credit must go to Knockoutzone.com. Jason is the first one to pick up on the Matt Hughes blog post.
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It’d be dumb for them to hype this up and end up announcing Hughes vs. St.Pierre II. They have already announced this fight at a press conference in Toronto a while back and then most recently on UFC 61. Hopefully it is something big like a deal with HBO or more information on this upcoming UFC card in November. But after reading Hughes blog there, Hughes vs. St.Pierre II may very well be the “big” announcement.
I’m wondering if there is some kind of TV deal with ESPN taking place? Maybe, somehow, the Hughes vs GSP rematch will be on some kind of special UFC even broadcast on ESPN?
I have no idea. I don’t think its the HBO deal, because why would the ESPN want an HBO deal announced on their network?
I guess we’ll all know soon enough.
Yeah the whole HBO thing doesn’t make sense considering it’s on ESPN. Either way I’m ready for 3 PM.
Gotta love UFC’s idea of a HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT. Perhaps the next one will be that they will have several shows in Vegas before the end of the year.
Clearly I’m a huge UFC nutrider. But I must say…this…was…retarded…
Fans have known about GSP & Hughes for a couple months now and the people who don’t know aren’t fans…so it meant nothing to them.
Atleast Dana, Matt & GSP were on ESPN for like 20 minutes though. Thats a good thing I suppose.
I think a lot of the commentary, both here and other sites, on the ‘big’ announcement is missing the point. Granted, everyone who follows the MMA blogs or keeps track of upcoming events knew long ago that GSP and Hughes would be fighting again in the fall. But, we shouldn’t forget that the while growing in popularity the number of fans who follow the sport closely is still quite small. The announcement on ESPN for a ‘huge’ fight coming up on pay per view while already technically public knowledge is not known to many many sports fans. The announcement wasn’t for existing fans. It was a way of hyping the sport, trying to mainstream it, and grow the industry.
Todd,
You bring up a good point. And to take note, Bas Rutten appeared on ESPN the following day, and Tim Sylvia will take part in a live chat at ESPN.com today at 3pm EST.