UFC Withdrawals? They Were Once much Worse

If you can’t sit still, have a tick in your neck, or you’re yelling, “And it’s all over,” or “That’s crazy!” at really inappropriate times, then you might be experiencing UFC withdrawals.

Sure there’s been TUF 10 over the last month, but it isn’t the same as a live event, and the last UFC event was way back on September 19th. We are now less than a week away from UFC 104 on October 24th and you might be having withdrawals because that a pretty big gap between shows.

There are 35 days between UFC 103 and UFC 104 and it got me thinking that it is probably the promotion’s biggest break in quite some time. So I did a little research and found out some interesting stats.

The 35 days is the longest in a while, but oddly enough, the break between UFC 97 on April 18th and UFC 98 on May 23rd was also 35 days. When we turn the clock back almost exactly a year we find the next big break between events. It came between UFC 83 and 84, April 19th to May 24th, exactly...35 days.

“That’s crazy!” right? So by some coincidence with the calendar or by some super in depth study that revealed 35 as a magic number, the UFC has topped out at 35 days between shows in the last two years. Even crazier, Lyoto Machida has appeared (will appear) on each of the three cards after the long break. He decisioned Tito Ortiz at UFC 84, KO’d Rashad Evans at UFC 98, and he’ll now defend the belt against Mauricio Rua at UFC 104.

Picture of Lyoto Machida (left) and Mauricio “Shogun” Rua

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Yeah this break may seem long, but before 2008 we fans had to endure much longer time between shows:

UFC 73 and UFC 74 – 49 days between (Jul 7, 2007 to Aug 25, 2007)
UFC 61 and UFN 6 – 40 days between (July 8, 2006 to Aug 17, 2006
UFC 59 and UFC 60 – 42 days between (Apr 15, 2006 to May 27, 2006)

This takes care of 2006 and 2007 and now we’re at the year when the UFC took off thanks to the April 9, 2005 TUF Finale and Forrest Griffin and Stephan Bonnar. But how few and far between were the shows after TUF 1?

UFC 56 and UFN 3 – 58 days between (Nov 19, 2005 to Jan 16, 2006)
UFC 53 and UFN – 63 days between (Jun 4, 2005 to Aug 6, 2005)
UFC 52 and UFC 53 – 49 days between (Apr 16, 2005 to Jun 4, 2005)

As you can see, there were a lot of huge gaps after The Ultimate Fighter Season 1 Finale. As a matter of fact, UFC 52 was a week after TUF 1 and following it there was only one event (UFC 53) in the next 112 days! It is amazing that the promotion was able to maintain its momentum after TUF 1.

Sure some fans may be suffering from withdrawals right now, but just a few years ago those withdrawals were probably much worse. Really the breaks between shows in 2005 and 2006 weren’t so bad when you consider that between UFC 4 on December 16, 1994 and UFC 5 on April 7, 1995 there was a 112 day break. And even worse, between UFC 17 on May 15, 1998 and UFC Brazil on Oct, 16, 1998 there was a whopping 154 days!

The game has obviously changed since then and now the UFC is settling on about 20 shows a year. Mathematically this comes out to an event about every 18 days. I suspect we won’t see anymore breaks of even 35 days, let alone 154.

And hey, for everybody struggling through October, don’t worry you’re about to get your fix. The promotion will put on four shows in November and December and they will all be held in a 30 day stretch.

UFC events held by year:

2009 – 20
2008 – 20
2007 – 19
2006 – 18
2005 – 10
2004 – 5
2003 – 5
2002 – 7
2001 – 5
2000 – 6
1999 – 6
1998 – 3
1997 – 5
1996 – 5
1995 – 4
1994 – 3
1993 – 1 (Promotion’s first event on Nov. 12, 1993)

From 1993 to just before The Ultimate Fighter 1 Finale on April 9, 2005, the promotion held 56 events. Beginning with TUF 1 through 2009, the promotion is scheduled to hold a total of 86 events. Think the Forrest Griffin vs. Stephan Bonnar fight had an impact?

Picture of Stephan Bonnar (left) and Forrest Griffin at TUF 1

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