Significance
UFC 40 was a pivotal event for Zuffa. The anticipation for Ken Shamrock vs. Tito Ortiz resulted in a buyrate that was nearly 4 times larger than the buyrates of the previous Zuffa UFC shows. After initially losing a lot of money, UFC 40 showed Zuffa that it was possible to make money with the UFC. This was important for the sport of mixed martial arts because had UFC 40 been a failure, the possibility existed that Zuffa would have eventually sold the UFC and cut their losses; Zuffa was largely responsible for bringing mixed martial arts to the North American mainstream audience in the coming years, and without them, there was a good possibility the sport of mixed martial arts would have remained underground outside of Japan. UFC 40 was a near sellout of 13,022 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena for a gate of $1,540,000, a UFC record at that point.
UFC 40 also gained mainstream exposure for mixed martial arts. Ken Shamrock and Tito Ortiz both appeared on The Best Damn Sports Show Period and engaged in trash talk on live television. Shamrock and Ortiz's fight also gained mainstream media attention from massive media outlets such as ESPN and USA Today, something that was unprecedented for mixed martial arts at that point in time. In fact, Danny Sheridan, the USA Today oddsmaker, was present during the card. UFC President Dana White credited Shamrock for the show's success. White said, "the reason we did so well on UFC 40 was because of Ken Shamrock and the fact that everyone knew who he was."
Long time UFC referee "Big" John McCarthy said that he felt UFC 40 was the turning point in whether or not the sport of MMA would survive in America.
| “ | "When that show (UFC 40) happened, I honestly felt like it was going to make it. Throughout the years, things were happening, and everything always looked bleak. It always looked like, this is it, this is going to be the last time. This is going to be the last year. But, when I was standing in the Octagon at UFC 40, I remember standing there before the Ortiz/Shamrock fight and looking around. The energy of that fight, it was phenomenal, and it was the first time I honestly said, it’s going to make it." -"Big" John McCarthy | ” |
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Famous quotes containing the word significance:
“It is necessary not to be Christian to appreciate the beauty and significance of the life of Christ.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“To grasp the full significance of life is the actor’s duty, to interpret it is his problem, and to express it his dedication.”
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“The hypothesis I wish to advance is that ... the language of morality is in ... grave disorder.... What we possess, if this is true, are the fragments of a conceptual scheme, parts of which now lack those contexts from which their significance derived. We possess indeed simulacra of morality, we continue to use many of the key expressions. But we have—very largely if not entirely—lost our comprehension, both theoretical and practical, of morality.”
—Alasdair Chalmers MacIntyre (b. 1929)