Places to watch UFC 126

Photo courtesy of directv.com

By Lisa Teichner

After contacting many of the “Sports Bars” on the island, we were able to find just 4 places that will be showing UFC 126 Silva vs. Belfort this Saturday, Feb. 5 at 5pm HST.

After hearing a lot of No’s, we started asking “Why are you not showing the event?” We had suspected the universal answer would be because of the cost as we had heard that bars have to pay an outrageous commercial sum to purchase the pay per view event.

Scotty at The Sports Page (who is showing the fights by the way) shared with us that the price a bar pays to show the fights is based on their maximum occupancy. For example, The Sports Page has occupancy of 187 persons and they pay $1,300. This is also why the bars charge a cover at the door. $10 seems to be the going rate on the island. Scotty said that “If a bar isn’t charging a cover, they’re probably pirating off of their friend’s or neighbor’s satellite.”

Cost was definitely a popular reason given to us by several of the bars we contacted (for not showing the event).  A few of the other, less popular reasons we heard were:

“Too much testosterone. We don’t like the rowdy crowd, we like to keep it mellow.” – Maui Brewing Company, Lahaina

“We only order it when the owner decides he wants to watch it here.” – Fat Daddy’s, Kihei

And our favorite, “The UFC, what’s that?” – The Stopwatch, Makawao

So for those of you who will not be mooching off of your one rich friend who orders the fights at their house but rather choose to venture out into the world, make new friends and help keep our local Maui businesses alive, here is the short but awesome list of places that you can go to watch the killer fights on big screen televisions and enjoy a discounted cold one:

CENTRAL MAUI

Ale House Restaurant and Sports Bar

355 East Kamehameha Ave., Kahului (808) 877-9001

$10 cover

30 plus TV’s, 1 super large screen

Drink & food specials vary daily

Fernando’s Mexican Grill & Cantina

Kaahumanu Center, Kahului (808) 871-5333

$10 cover

10 plus TV’s

No happy hour specials

SOUTH MAUI

The Sports Page

2411 South Kihei Rd. (808) 879-0602

$10 cover

$3 Bud Light & Coors Light Draft

Food specials include Oysters Rockefeller

Ocean’s Beach Bar & Grill

1819 S Kihei Rd # A Kihei (Kukui Mall) (808) 891-2414

$10 cover

5-6pm happy hour $2.50 Drafts,  $2 Mai Tais $4.50 Guiness Draft, $2 off specialty drinks such as martinis, lava flow, etc.

No specials after 6pm.

15 plus TV’s and super jumbo screen (technical term)

UFC 126 Fight Card

Anderson Silva vs. Belfort, Forrest Griffin vs. Rich Franklin, Jake Ellenberger vs. Carols Eduardo Rocha, Jon Jones vs. Ryan Bader, Miguel Torres vs. Antonio Banuelos, Donald Cerrone vs. Paul Kelly, Chad Mendes vs. Michihiro Omigawa, Paul Taylor vs. Gabe Ruediger, Norifumi Yamamoto vs. Demetrious Johnson, Kyle Kingsbury vs. Ricardo Romero, Mike Pierce vs. Kenny Robertson

ARE YOU READY?