Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) officials insists that the August 17th "UFC on Fox Sports 1.1" event will go on as scheduled despite problems licensing foreign fighters scheduled to compete that night.
"The show will definitely be taking place," said UFC Vice President of Regulatory Affairs Marc Ratner.
The UFC card is a linchpin in the launch of Fox Sports' new all-sports network, Fox Sports 1, which is looking compete with ESPN's dominance in the market. White has been very emphatic about the importance of the Boston event since it was announced the UFC was an integral programming commodity for the fledgling sports station.
"It means a lot to me. When you think about the fact that we couldn't get, we couldn't get on pay-per-view 11 or 12 years ago," said White, at the time of the announcement. "Now Fox is looking at us as a key piece of this puzzle to build their sports network. It means a lot. I'm going to work hard and do everything that I can to make it work."
Despite the importance of the event to both UFC and Fox Sports, Massachusetts officials are adamant about not licensing foreign-born fighters to compete without social security numbers. While exceptions are made by the Social Security Administration, the UFC has not filed the paperwork in a timely manner, according to Terrell Harris, spokesman for Massachusetts Department of Public Safety, which regulates combat sports such as mixed martial arts and boxing.
UFC officials would to have to expedite the process, making sure competitors have visas for 10 days before they can get a Social Security number and be eligible to fight in Massachusetts.
"This law has been in existence since we legalized mixed martial arts in the commonwealth of Massachusetts," said Thomas to the Boston Herald. "It's been brought to the attention of the UFC more than a few times since we legalized the fighting here. But they've chosen basically to ignore the law and hope that they could skirt it somehow."
The card features a main event of Chael Sonnen versus former UFC light heavyweight champions Maurício Rua of Brazil with European heavyweight Alistair Overeem taking on Travis Brown in the co-main event. Irishman Conor McGregor, Englishman Andy Ogle, and Brazilians Yuri Alcantara, Thiago Alves, and Diego Brandao are also scheduled to compete TD Garden event.
With MMA being so popular in Brazil and Boston being home to one of the largest Brazilian populations in the United States, the card was stacked and headlined with some of Brazil's best fighters with the hope of getting a large gate at the TD Garden. One state official told the Herald that the 'UFC on Fox Sports 1.1' event could bring in as much as $50 million in revenue to the city.
"The Speaker was not aware of the problem and has not been in touch with UFC officials, but would be eager to learn more about it," said Seth Gitell, spokesman for Massachusetts House Speaker Robert F. DeLeo.