UFC Halts Today’s UFC 83 Pre-Sale

Due to the overwhelming success of a UFC 83 pre-sale for UFC fan-club members, the UFC has canceled today’s pre-sale for UFC.com newsletter subscribers and has held back “a very limited number of tickets” that will go so on sale to the general public this Friday at noon ET.

The UFC announced the news in an early-morning email to UFC.com subscribers.

UFC 83 takes place April 19 at the Bell Centre in Montreal. UFC welterweight champion Matt Serra meets interim champ and French-Canadian Georges St. Pierre in the night’s main event. UFC 83 will be the country’s first-ever UFC event.

On Monday, during a press conference for the event, UFC President Dana White announced that more than 13,000 tickets had been sold in less than 24 hours to the UFC Fight Club, the organization’s $75-a-year fan club. Thousands more were sold after White made the announcement and during a two-hour pre-sale that the UFC opened up on Monday for fans who attended a Bell Centre autograph signing with Serra and St. Pierre.

Fewer than 22,000 tickets will be available overall.

The pre-sale for UFC.com newsletter subscribers was set for today, but fearing that no tickets would be available for Friday’s public on-sale date, the UFC canceled the sale and held back the tickets for Friday. Unfortunately, a quick trip to eBay shows that many of those who purchased tickets as part of the pre-sale have already listed the tickets for resale, hoping to score a nice profit.

According to the UFC’s email, the organization has already begun looking for possible venues in Montreal to show a closed-circuit-TV feed of the event.

For the latest UFC 83 news, check out the UFC Rumors section of MMAjunkie.com.