UFC 204 – Michael Bisping v Dan Henderson: House full signs go up at the Manchester Arena as title clash sells out in SIX MINUTES
UFC confirms every ticket sold for the through-the-night world championship event sold just moments after going on general sale on Friday morning
MICHAEL Bisping will be fighting in front of a full house at the Manchester Arena on October 8 when he makes the first defence of his UFC middleweight title.
Tickets for the event went on general sale at 10am on Friday morning and UFC officials confirmed to SunSport they were all gone by 10:06am, giving the UFC's EMEA team their SEVENTH straight sold-out event.
Bisping takes on old rival Dan Henderson in the night's main event, with former world champions Vitor Belfort and Gegard Mousasi slated to appear in the night's co-main attraction.
Other British stars Jimi Manuwa, Brad Pickett, Davey Grant, Arnold Allen and Marc Diakiese are also scheduled to compete on the card, which is being staged in the early hours of the morning in Manchester to accommodate US pay-per-view television.
“We’re thrilled to see this kind of demand for tickets in the UK," said a delighted UFC vice president and general manager for Europe, Middle East and Africa James Elliott.
"With a stacked card and a UK champion in the main event, this really is a night of sporting action you can’t miss.
"Given the timings of the event we realise this wasn’t an easy event to commit to, so as tickets have sold at this incredible rate, we have to say thank you to everyone for their enthusiasm to be ‘Up all night for the fight!’.
"We can’t wait for the event and look forward to sharing the amazing experience with our fans."
Previous sell-out European event locations include; Glasgow, Dublin, London, Zagreb, Rotterdam and Hamburg.
While thousands of fans successfully bagged their seats for the blockbuster show, the sheer speed of the sell-out, and the number of tickets already available on reseller sites, has left some fans feeling disappointed.
A check of reseller sites SeatWave and GetMeIn revealed more than 500 tickets are available for resale already with more being added, and more available on other sites including Viagogo and StubHub, with an upper tier seat being offered for as much as £799 on the latter site. Elsewhere, VIP seats are being offered for as much as £4,400.
One fan tweeted: "It's a farce. Bought up by touts who are now selling them for 7x the price on viagogo, stubhub etc.. Unfair on real fans IMO."
While ticket went on general sale on Friday morning, there were two pre-sale periods, starting at 10am on Wednesday for UFC Fight Club members and 10am on Thursday for UFC Newsletter subscribers, who were emailed an advance-access code to secure their seats before Friday's general sale commenced.
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