The 7 Steps June
1. CONTEXT
Mindmap
anything you
know about thetopic, including
vocabulary. Do
some research
online to help.

UFC
Listening Questions 1
1. Who did Muhammad Ali fight in 1976 and what kind of fighter was he?

2. QUESTIONS.
2. What kind of tournament was UFC1?
.

Read the listening
questions tocheck yourunderstanding.
Look up any new
vocabulary.

3. How many rules were there for UFC1 and what were they?
.
4. What part of UFC has remained the same?
.
5. How much did WME-IMG pay for the UFC in 2017?
.
Listening Questions 2

3. LISTEN

1. What is pay-per-view?
.

Listen and answer
the questions
using full
sentences. Circle
the number oftimes and % you
understood.

2. Who is one of the UFC’s biggest stars and where is he from?
.
3. How many PPV purchases did UFC229 sell and what was the cost of one?
.
4. Where was UFC 229 held and how much money did it sell for attendance?
.
5. How much of the UFC’s total revenue came from PPV earnings in 2016?
.

1

Listening 1
2 3 4

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1

Listening 2
2 3 45%%%%%%%

Discussion Questions
1. What benefits are there to doing martial arts? Do you think theyshould be taught to children?
2. What are some big events broadcast on Japanese TV? Do youthink the pay-per-view model will become more popular?

4. CHECK ANSWERS

TRANSCRIPT 1
What is the most effective martial art in the world? Is it karate or perhaps wrestling? Over theyears many people have tried to answer this question. Perhaps one of the most famous of suchoccasions was when professional boxer Muhammad Ali fought Japanese professional wrestler
Antonio Inoki at the Nippon Budokan arena in Tokyo in 1976.

Read through thetranscript andunderline theanswers. Checkthem against yourown answers.

5. CHECK VOCABULARY
Read thetranscript andcircle any new
vocabulary youfind. Look themup and add themto your list.

Read thetranscript aloudat least 5 times,
focusing on
intonation andpronunciation.

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7. SHADOWING

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3

4
4

Flashforward

Questionable

Discipline

Attribute

Controversial

Specialty

FearedTransmit

BroadcastMove ahead

CreditFormidable

TRANSCRIPT 2
In the early days the UFC relied heavily on its pay-per-view (or PPV) business model. PPV is aservice by which a viewer can purchase events to view by private telecast, typically combat
sports such as boxing or MMA. If there was an upcoming boxing event that wouldn’t be
distributed on public TV, you would need to pay $50 on PPV to watch the live broadcast.
In order to sell a lot of PPVs, the UFC needs star power to get people’s attention. In recentyears there has been no bigger star than feared Irish striker Connor McGregor. As of 2020, thetop 3 best-selling UFC PPVs of all time had McGregor as one of the main event fighters. At thetop of the list is UFC 229 which was held on October 6th, 2018. It took place at the T-Mobile
Arena in Las Vegas and had over 2.5 million PPVs sold at an average cost of $64.99 perpurchase. The ticket gate revenue for those who attended the event was $17,200,000.

Say the transcript
aloud at the sametime as the audio
without reading
it. Circle how
many times
below.

11

Over time the UFC, which stands for Ultimate Fighting Championship, kept its caged octagon
but reformed its rules and created a new sport known as MMA, or Mixed Martial Arts. However,the promotion struggled financially and eventually two casino executives, the Fertitta brothers,bought it for $2 million and created Zuffa, LLC as a parent company to control the UFC. They
expanded the brand and the UFC surged in popularity. On July 9th, 2016 they sold it for over $4
billion to WME-IMG, which renamed itself to Endeavor in September 2017.

MATCH THE SYNONYMS BY DRAWING LINES BELOW:

6. READ ALOUD

1
1Flashforward to Denver, Colorado on November 12th 1993, the night of UFC1. UFC1 was an
8-man elimination tournament featuring martial artists from different disciplines facing eachother to determine the best martial art. The show proved itself to be extremely successful with
86,592 television subscribers on pay-per-view. However, it was extremely controversial as
there were no time limits, no weight classes, and only two rules – no biting and no eye-gouging.
In addition to this, the fights took place in a caged octagon which added to the violent theatrics.

55In the past few years the UFC has been able to diversify its earnings. In 2016 the company
reported that 42% of its revenue came from PPVs, while also crediting media rights, tv shows,and more for its other earnings. This shows just how far the combat sports giant has come inestablishing MMA as a popular sport.