Lorenzo Fertitta says UFC will bring "UFC 100-style card" when they can go to Madison Square Garden

By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

The UFC continues to lobby in support of legalizing MMA in the state of New York, and they've got big plans for the state once the state finally comes around. It's been a long, drawn out process, but UFC owner Lorenzo Fertitta wants to make the wait worth it for fans in New York City as soon as they're able to come.

"When we come [to New York's Madison Square Garden], we're going to blow it out," Fertitta said in an interview with MMAFighting.com. "We're going to put on a ridiculous UFC 100-style card, stacked, big, open to the public weigh-ins, press conferences, after-parties, the whole deal. Everybody will be there. This is going to be an event that will remind you of 1971 when Ali fought Frazier for the first time and every celebrity in New York had to be there."

"The biggest problem that I'm going to have is going to be where to sit everybody and who gets seats and who doesn't. It's going to be crazy."

The UFC has had a handful of unusually big events, with UFC 100 still standing out as the biggest pay-per-view event in the company's history. Just last year, they put on literally the largest event they have done to date with UFC 129, which brought 55,000 fans to Toronto's Rogers Centre; but an event at Madison Square Garden is still a majorly desired landmark for the organization, and as soon as legislation passes to allow the sport, Fertitta says they will be there.

"If it passed [by June]," Fertitta said, "we would move mountains to get something done by fall."

Penick's Analysis: They've been wanting to run in New York for so long, and MSG is such an iconic venue, that they'll do whatever they can to put together an absolutely massive card for the first event there. Think two or three championship fights and a couple of huge contender fights or standalone fights. It will be the event of events if they've got the fighters available, and hopefully we can finally see it by either the end of this year or early 2013.

Dave Gomez Keith Hackney Matt Hamill Volk Han Joachim Hansen