WWE officially acknowledged that UFC was a "major competitor" and threat. Linda McMahon brought it up at the annual investor conference where she spoke of an upswing in UFC PPV buys. This was the first time WWE publicly stated that MMA was gaining ground. This was the same time that IFL was about to go public with a stock offering.
BodogFIGHT has just finished an August taping in Costa Rica. A private movie set designed to look like a jungle with almost no audience. It was rumored that bodog had spent nearly $2.7 million on the 13-week series that debuted on an obscure Dish Network channel. Bodog had flown in Fedor for a contract signing……he didn’t sign…but eventually did.
BodogFIGHT made formal offers to Randy Couture (7 figures), Brock Lesnar and Kurt Angle all in the same month. A proposed $6,000,000 was talked about in private as an offer for Chuck Liddell to fight Fedor.
Semmy Schilt captured the 2006 K-1 Grand Prix by defeated Jerome LeBanner, Ernest Hoost and Peter Aerts.
UFC was preparing to make Mirko Crocop a sizeable offer to join the promotion once PRIDE was acquired.
275+ showed up for the Ultimate Fighter tryouts in Hollywood, Florida (much more than expected). Many were turned away before every getting to show their skills.
PRIDE’s final U.S. PPV on 10/21 did 47,800 buys (this was the largest buy rate they would ever get on U.S. PPV). Pride brass boasted 100,000 buys but on 12/3 the real numbers came out.
