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Like Affliction, the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) wants to promote events in New York. In fact, they've been pushing to do just that for a long time. Even if they get beaten to the juicy apple by Affliction, they'll still want to go there, and they're likely to receive a warm reception, bringing, as they will, a substantial boost to the local economy. Plus, they have a number of signed fighters who hail from NYC, so no matter what happens in the race, fully expect a UFC event, one day, to be broadcast from The Garden.

In the meantime, the UFC have plenty of other things on the go.

Zuffa, the corporate owner of UFC, have bought, and modified, a smaller MMA promotion - World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC). Anyone savvy to business practices will recognize this tactic. While on the surface, it may appear that Zuffa's products are competing with each other, this is more of an attempt to make entry to the market more difficult for newcomers. The best analogy is washing powder - there are dozens of different brands to choose from. Most of those brands are produced by the same company. This prevents a situation whereby a new company, with an alternative product, will threaten 50% of the market. If there are only two choices - the old, and the new - then a lot of customers are likely to jump ship. But, if you've already got a dozen different sets of loyalties, then one newcomer will only threaten a small percentage of the market.

So here stands Zuffa, wishing to expand. WEC has a smaller cage, but otherwise uses the same rules as the UFC. WEC's main difference to the UFC is that it focuses on the lighter weight classes (155, 145, 135, & 125 lbs). WEC will be staging events every five weeks throughout 2009.

The UFC itself has major international plans that are starting to take shape in 2009: UFC 99, due to take place June 13, will be staged in Cologne, Germany. This marks the UFC's first major inroad into continental Europe.

Fan speculation about this event centers around Randy Couture - his power to attract on-site, and television, viewers would be useful, but when added to his ability to speak German (Couture spent four years on U.S. Army service at the "Fliegerhorst" base in Erlensee, Germany), he seems the perfect candidate for the main event.

As yet, Couture hasn't been penciled in, but even without him, the fight card is taking shape to be pretty spectacular: B.J. Penn is scheduled to face Kenny Florian at lightweight, and Wanderlei Silva will meet Rich Franklin in a 195 lb catchweight bout.

UFC's plans for global expansion do not stop at Germany. Italy will likely see the next European event. Sweden has been mentioned, and there are mission plans to move into the rest of Europe, and Russia, and the Philippines, Australia, India, Brazil....

Six months ago, Lorenzo Fertitta, the chief executive of Zuffa, announced he was resigning as president of Station Casinos to focus full-time on establishing the UFC's global brand.

We're beginning to see the fruits of that labor. In interviews, UFC representatives have been candid about the horrific costs of trying to build a brand in Europe, and among other multiple-language land masses. So far, those costs have cowed the UFC, and seen them pull back on a number of fronts. But now, it seems, they are back in the game, and Germany is the first solid beacon to signify that the are fully behind their own long term aims.

The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) will be back, of course, in 2009, and will air via Spike TV between April and June. Did someone say international expansion? The ninth series of TUF will be called: The Ultimate Fighter: U.S.A. Vs. U.K., and represents exactly that. Michael Bisping will be Head Coach for the UK team, while Dan Henderson coaches the US. At the culmination of the series, Henderson and Bisping will fight each other for the number one contender's spot in the UFC middleweight division. 

Like most reality TV shows, TUF has given viewers an emotional connection, an involvement, with people they previously knew little about. Unlike most reality shows, TUF also popped the lid on an industry that was little understood by curious masses, and did a lot to promote MMA generally. After the first season of TUF, in 2005, the popularity of MMA rocketed in both the U.S. and U.K.

The UFC also want to boost their stable of fighters, particularly internationals, and have been cherry-picking in Japan and the UK. And, would you believe, Dana White has, at last, publicly admitted that he would love to sign up Fedor Emelianenko.

There will be more UFC shows this year than ever before. For the past two years, the UFC have put on nineteen events per year. The plan for 2009 is to add between four and six new events.

As ever, UFC is flying the flag for MMA, but this year marks an incredible surge in their expansion activity. This is going to be very healthy, both for MMA as a sport, and (if they get it right) for the UFC itself.

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