After years of waiting, the UFC and Dana White will finally be making their UFC prime event on English soil. UFC 304 would be a treat for the UK fans, however, this timing appears to be a bit problematic for the European fans. The prime event would witness the clash between Tom Aspinall and Curtis Blaydes 2 for the interim heavyweight belt as well as a welterweight title defense between Leon Edwards and Belal Muhammad.

UF͏͏C Mancheste͏r will be ͏͏taking plac͏e at the ͏͏newly ͏͏inau͏gura͏ted Co-Op Live Manchester Arena in England on July 27th as announced by Dana White. The arena ͏is one of the ͏largest in all of the Unit͏ed Kingd͏om, with a seatin͏g capacity of more than 20,000 f͏ans. The event might happen for the English fans but the timing of the event certainly is dedicated to the American fans. How? Well, reports suggest that the new timings for the event is a bit overwrought for the UK fans.

“UFC 304 will take place in Manchester England. The prelims will start at 11PM (3PM PT). Main Card will start at 3 AM (7PM PT). This is crazy disrespectful, but money talks. USA buys the most PPV’s #UFC #UFC304,” says West Till Death on their Instagram handle. And the new timings were viewed as an insolence towards the UK fans.

Well, UFC as well as Dana White is quite not wrong in their management as the US is the prime market for them. Based on the traffi͏c to i͏t͏s official website, the majority of the UFC’s core audience ͏o͏rig͏inates from the Uni͏ted Stat͏es,͏ con͏tribut͏ing to 31.͏9͏5% o͏f all visits to UFC.c͏om. Fol͏low͏ing the ͏U͏S, Canada accounts for 7.53͏%, ͏the ͏UK for 6.84%͏, G͏ermany ͏for ͏5.2%, and Australia for 3. However, the fans are clearly not having it, and here’s how they reacted.

MMA community asks Dana White and the UFC for injustice as the new timing didn’t amuse them

Well, the fans are not the only ones who are fed up with the timings of the card. UFC heavyweight contender Curtis Blaydes was one of the first people to raise this concern. “You wouldn’t have McGregor fight at 4 AM. Regardless of where it is in the world. That makes it feel a little less, but I don’t care. I’m getting the title fight purse money,” said Blaydes. A fan from the US highlighted that the UK fans should get what they deserve,  “As a fan from the US, i actually don’t mind when the cards are earlier in the day sometimes, sucks for the uk fans.”

Furthermore, some of the fans are in a mood to joke around, “Got them boys fighting at 5am.” For some fans. It was quite disrespectful for Dana White and the UFC to keep the fight at such a time, ” Timing is wild, disappointing and disrespectful to the UK audience.” However, it must be noted that at the end of the day, it’s still a promotion that wants to make money and the US is the biggest market for the promotion.

Moreover, some fans are quite happy with the timings, “Glad they did this now I don’t gotta worry abt being at work during the fights.”

Well, the timing might be a bit hectic and it might have happened due to some miscommunication. Welterweight champ Leon Edwards has a different analogy, “I think they said the pay-per-view was already booked for Utah, right? And then they – so the slot was already booked in so when they changed it to Manchester, they couldn’t change also the time with the TV station.” Regardless, a fan has another option for Dana White, “Genuinely, can we make it like 12pm EST? Like that’s prime drinking hours for a Saturday and it’s so much better to go to bed before 12am. (Sorry Brit’s, at least that’d be earlier than 3 tho.”

Last but not least, a social media user highlighted the difference in the revenue scale between the USA and other countries, ” Duh, they charge americans $80 per ppv but everywhere else in the world is $5 a month.”

We are just days away from the prime event and Dana White appears to have made up his mind about the timings. What’s your take on the situation? State your thoughts in the comments below.