Here's another sign of the growing popularity of mixed martial arts, and the role that the Spike reality series The Ultimate Fighter has had in that growth: Netflix is unable to keep up with consumer demand for Ultimate Fighter DVDs.I first became aware of this when I put The Ultimate Fighter, season 1 disc 1 at the top of my own Netflix queue. That disc was listed as having an availability of "very long wait," which isn't all that unusual for popular TV shows that have recently been released on DVD.
But when I finally got season 1, disc 1 and tried to get season 1, disc 2, I noticed something strange. It was listed as having an availability of "unknown." Wondering what that meant, I called Netflix customer service, and was told that The Ultimate Fighter demand so far exceeded what Netflix expected that they're simply no longer able to fill orders for Season 1.
A FanHouse reader told me he had the same experience in his attempt to get The Ultimate Fighter from Netflix.
It's entirely possible that this is actually about Netflix incompetence and not about the popularity of The Ultimate Fighter, but I've always found Netflix to be good about stocking enough DVDs that I rarely have a hard time getting the movies and TV shows I want. Consider this another data point -- one more indication of the sport's impressive growth.
Get the latest gear
