Fans who were on the fence about purchasing Saturday’s Liddell vs. Ortiz 3 pay-per-view were given some incentive last weekend when the announcement came that the fight could be purchased on the FITE app for half-price during a limited window on Black Friday, Nov. 23. The event is priced at $39.99 on traditional pay-per-view and on the FITE app. Potential purchasers who waited all week to purchase the fight will be disappointed to see that the deal has now been scrapped by FITE.
A fan tweeted the app’s Twitter account today to ask about the deal and was told that the special had to be canceled due to contractual obligations.
Unfortunately due to contractual restrictions, we are unable to offer the planned Black Friday discount. We apologize.
— FITE (@FiteTV) November 23, 2018
This is just another blow to what has been a less than stellar promotional effort for Golden Boy Promotions’ first foray into mixed martial arts. There has been little in the way of promotion for the fight this week, save for a press conference that saw promoter Oscar De La Hoya mispronounce his headliner Chuck Liddell’s name, and seem uninterested overall. Both fighters weighed in successfully today, but nothing newsworthy came of the weigh-ins which are essentially the last opportunity to hype the fight.
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The announcement and then retraction of the sale could hurt the sales of a show that was likely going to struggle to garner many buys in the first place. Fans who may have been waiting until the sale to purchase the show are likely to be left feeling discouraged and not purchase the show at all. If the sale had never been announced, many of these potential buyers may have made their purchase during the week, and now may not purchase at all.
FITE provided the following statement to MMATorch this morning:
On Friday, November 16, FITE distributed an announcement about a time-limited Black Friday sale for Liddell vs. Ortiz 3 PPV which was scheduled to go on sale for 2 hours during the Ceremonial Weigh-In stream on FITE.
Unfortunately, upon further discussions with our partners and with reference to our contractual obligations as a distributor of the fight, we were informed that we need to pull the promotion. It took time to assess the situation and to officially confirm on the sale cancellation, which we now sadly confirm.
The promotion was designed with the best intentions to benefit the fight community. We sincerely apologize to fans, friends and media for not being able to deliver and for failing to communicate this at an earlier notice. Apology is due to both our fans who planned on taking benefit from the sale and those who helped us spread the word about it.
Liddell vs. Ortiz 3 will air on pay-per-view Saturday, Nov. 24 at 9 PM ET.
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