UFC exec: Australia, New Zealand markets booming, PPV events could be coming in 2018

(The UFC hosts four events on four continents in four weeks. MMAjunkie is in Stockholm, Rio de Janeiro, Auckland and Singapore from May 23 to June 18 for the 2017 MMA Road Show.)

LAS VEGAS – The UFC returns to New Zealand this week for just the second time in promotional history, and while the company isn’t planning on annual events in the island nation, a senior exec said the region can expect some big fight cards.

“We’ve seen, especially after the last event we had in Auckland, a spike in not only residential buys, but just commercial interest in the bar business and everything like that grow, similar to what we saw after (UFC) 193 in Australia,” UFC Senior Vice President of International and Content Joe Carr told MMAjunkie. “The course and direction of our business in Australia has completely changed since bringing that event there. It’s actually pretty incredible.”

The UFC first visited Auckland in June 2014 for “UFC Fight Night 43: Te Huna vs. Marquardt.” The company has since visited Australia five times, including the blockbuster UFC 193 event at Etihad Stadium in Melbourne in November 2015.

Foreign pay-per-view events are notoriously difficult for the UFC, since the company needs them to air in primetime in the U.S., the organization’s most financially lucrative market. But when the company visits Australia and New Zealand, it hosts events on Sunday morning, which air live in the U.S. on Saturday night thanks to the massive time difference.

Such is the case with UFC Fight Night 110, which sees Derrick Lewis (18-4 MMA, 9-2 UFC) face Mark Hunt (12-11-1 MMA, 7-5-1 UFC) in the Sunday headliner at Spark Arena. It airs on FS1 following early prelims on UFC Fight Pass.

“It’s very difficult to bring pay-per-views or our highest caliber cards (to foreign markets) because you’re doing it in the middle of the night there,” Carr said. “We did Manchester with Michael Bisping last year, but that’s an irregularity, right? That’s not the rule. Whereas in Australia, it’s easy for us to bring pay-per-views because you can do them Sunday there, and it’s still Saturday night primetime (in the U.S.). There’s no conflict.

“It doesn’t matter where the feed is coming from, as long as it’s Saturday night in our timeslot. Even when we thinking about Perth next year, beginning of the year, should that be a pay-per-view? That’s on the table.”

Perth has long been Australia’s answer to New York – the capital city of Western Australia, the nation’s only state that didn’t allow regulated MMA. Recent government changes signaled a reverse in that policy.

“Now we finally have Western Australia over the line, so the hope is that we’re going to be in Perth in the near future,” Carr said.

For now, though, the focus is on New Zealand, a nation with a little less than 5 million citizens. Still, the company’s debut event drew more than 8,000 fans and a gate nearing $1 million, and Carr said the live event helped the company grow in the market. Add in the opportunity to have Hunt fight in front of his birth nation, and Carr said it was the “perfect storm.”

“You make these investments and bring in these events there, and it kind of just completely changes the nature of your business in these markets all the way down from the talent to your revenue prospects, so that’s kind of where we are in New Zealand,” Carr said. “Australia/New Zealand is just on fire for us since UFC 193.”

To learn more about the UFC’s current plan in different markets around the world, also check out:

• With new FOX deal in place, UFC targets December for first non-Brazil event in South America
• What can European fight fans expect from the UFC in the coming years?
• UFC plots more international growth while kicking off 4 events on 4 continents in 4 weeks

And for more on UFC Fight Night 110, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.