The World Series of Fighting is pulling out all the stops for Madison Square Garden.
WSOF President Ray Sefo told broadcaster Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour Monday that it would cancel two shows prior to its December 31 debut in New York City and that its four biggest stars all will appear at the Theater at MSG.
According to Sefo, the promotion has canceled the WSOF 35 event scheduled for December 3 and WSOF 34, which was originally slated for November 12 in Colorado. The main event of WSOF 34—featuring UFC veteran grapplers and title challengers Jon Fitch and Jake Shields—will be moved to WSOF 36 in New York.
"After a few weeks of discussion...we have decided to move our main event, which is Jon Fitch and Jake Shields for that card, and move it to our New Year's Eve card in Madison Square Garden's theater," Sefo said. "We've just decided to merge those two cards together and have an even bigger show in New York City."
Fitch vs. Shields will serve as the co-main event in New York City, Sefo said. The main event pits lightweight champion Justin Gaethje against Joao Zeferino, who knocked out popular UFC veteran Jason High at WSOF 33 earlier this month. Gaethje (10-0) is considered one of MMA's most powerful and exciting lightweights in any promotion.
Likewise, WSOF champ and highly ranked bantamweight Marlon Moraes (17-4-1) will also appear on the card, facing an opponent still to be revealed.
WSOF putting their eggs in the basket of a NYE show that will likely face logistical nightmares due to it BEING IN THE CENTER OF NYC ON NYE.
— jim genia (@jim_genia) October 17, 2016
According to Sefo, the move to cancel and consolidate cards was motivated by two factors: the fact that November 12 is now the same date as the UFC's epic Madison Square Garden debut and WSOF's desire to make its own New York offering as strong as possible.
Sefo confirmed that WSOF 35 would be canceled because of an injury suffered by heavyweight champ Blagoy Ivanov, who was tentatively scheduled to headline that card.
Sefo responded to those who wondered why WSOF would have that date on the schedule in the first place: It turns out the UFC scheduled UFC 205 for November 12 months after WSOF scheduled its Colorado event.
"My answer to that is we already had that date," Sefo pointed out. "So them going there, we think it's gonna be their night, and so New Year's Eve is gonna be ours."
But Sefo wasn't done with the WSOF 36 announcements. UFC veterans Yushin Okami and Paul Bradley are now set to face off on the evening's undercard.
Probably the best and most popular fighter in WSOF, Gaethje had originally engaged in a war of words with popular UFC veteran Jason High, but High's knockout loss to Zeferino scuttled that matchmaker's dream. A Gaethje-Zeferino match is still promising for fans but does not carry the same marketability as Gaethje-High.
WSOF is a prominent American MMA promotion but lags well behind the UFC and Bellator in just about any metric of popularity. It appears leadership at WSOF and NBC, which airs WSOF cards on NBC and the NBC Sports Network, all agreed that making a concerted push for success on New Year's Eve was worth sacrifices elsewhere.
"This is huge for us," Sefo said.
