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The UFC is set to return to England in July for UFC 304 in Manchester headlined by heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall.
But the card has one major problem.
The start time will remain the same in the United States, meaning that the main card will begin at 3 a.m. BST and the main event, featuring Aspinall, will not begin until sometime around 5 a.m.
Rightfully so, Aspinall thinks it’s bulls—.
“Well, as an athlete, as a fighter, in all honesty, it doesn’t make that much difference — probably for a couple of weeks before I’ll have to wake up and train at that time, or stay up, or whatever,” Aspinall said on his YouTube channel. “I’ve flown across the world multiple times and fought on different time zones, so it’s not as bad as that.
“As a fan who wants to watch it live, I think it is absolutely terrible. I think… yeah, it’s just not fair on the fans, not fair on the U.K. fans.”
It would be just as easy for the UFC to start the main card at 10 p.m. local time and 5 p.m. on the East Coast in the United States. In fact, it might even help the pay-per-view numbers.
“Obviously, it’s predominantly an American audience, so I understand that they want to sell to them,” Aspinall explained. “But why can’t they sell to them in the afternoon — which is our evening time? Why can’t the Americans watch it in the afternoon? And the U.K. fans, the Manchester fans, the European fans, can all fly to this event [and] sell out this new arena.
“I mean, it’s going to sell out regardless, mate. We’re very, very, very, very lucky to have a pay-per-view event in Manchester. Very lucky. But U.K. MMA, let’s put it on U.K. time.”