UFC President Dana White announced that Saturday night’s UFC 103 event drew 17,428 fans to the American Airlines Center for an estimated live gate of $2.4 million.
The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation’s Combative Sports division, the division that handles the official figures from Texas’ sanctioning body, should have the finalized figures within the next couple weeks, however they shouldn’t be too far off of what White professed at Saturday’s post-fight press conference.
UFC 103 was headlined by a 195-pound catchweight bout between former UFC champions Vitor Belfort and Rich Franklin. Franklin was a tad too gracious in welcoming back Belfort to the Octagon, as the former UFC light heavyweight champ knocked Franklin out just before the end of the first round.
This fight card, which was heavily promoted to counter the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Juan Manuel Marquez boxing pay-per-view broadcast last evening, produced the largest sports gate in American Airlines Center history. Only a 2005 Rolling Stones concert produced a bigger live gate than UFC 103. With their impressive performance on Saturday evening, White said that it was highly likely that Dallas has earned themselves another UFC event in 2010.
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