Report: UFC Inks Deal With FOX
- Thread starter B-Buzz
- Start date
I don't think UFC would put big names on that card on a pacquiao date. Maybe a couple pretty decent names and generally a good card but nothing too crazy.
It isn't the first time Pac went against a UFC card on the same night. UFC 105 (Couture-Vera) was on free TV which was the same night as Pacquiao-Cotto (which did 1.3-1.4 million PPV buys). So, unless it's like a Brock Lesnar or some huge name it shouldn't really effect Pacquiao.
Pac & Floyd are two guys that really aren't effected by UFC fights. Now I'm sure other guys could actually be effected, but even then, the crossover fans or fans of both boxing and UFC isn't that dramatic. I think mma fans watch the UFC cards no matter what, and boxing fans watch boxing cards no matter what, except for a few exceptions like Pac/Floyd, or Brock/Silva or whomever.
But anyways, damn, 7 year deal that's amazing for UFC. Props to them for pulling that off. If boxing got a 1 year deal with a major network I would flip out lol.
It isn't the first time Pac went against a UFC card on the same night. UFC 105 (Couture-Vera) was on free TV which was the same night as Pacquiao-Cotto (which did 1.3-1.4 million PPV buys). So, unless it's like a Brock Lesnar or some huge name it shouldn't really effect Pacquiao.
Pac & Floyd are two guys that really aren't effected by UFC fights. Now I'm sure other guys could actually be effected, but even then, the crossover fans or fans of both boxing and UFC isn't that dramatic. I think mma fans watch the UFC cards no matter what, and boxing fans watch boxing cards no matter what, except for a few exceptions like Pac/Floyd, or Brock/Silva or whomever.
But anyways, damn, 7 year deal that's amazing for UFC. Props to them for pulling that off. If boxing got a 1 year deal with a major network I would flip out lol.
^ Mayhem-Bisping's still going to be on Spike. It'll be their last season doing TUF.
Brock announced he's coming back earlier this morning and people are already saying he might headline it just to make Fox excited about their first ratings. If they really want to use him it's the best time, with him coming off a loss and probably looking at a rubber match with Mir which people have already paid for twice.
Also read it's a $100mill/year deal for UFC.
And I just read November 12th 1993 was UFC 1, there you go.
Brock announced he's coming back earlier this morning and people are already saying he might headline it just to make Fox excited about their first ratings. If they really want to use him it's the best time, with him coming off a loss and probably looking at a rubber match with Mir which people have already paid for twice.
Also read it's a $100mill/year deal for UFC.
And I just read November 12th 1993 was UFC 1, there you go.
First UFC on Fox Event Will Only Run an Hour, Feature Two Fights
http://www.mmaconvert.com/2011/08/1...ent-will-only-run-an-hour-feature-two-fights/
Pretty much everyone knew the UFC had signed a major broadcasting deal with Fox when the sun came up today, but hardly anyone expected to see a UFC event on the network so soon. That’s right, in a few short months on Nov. 12, the UFC will make it’s debut on network television.
There is a catch however.
The broadcast is only going to run an hour (9-10pm ET) and feature two fights, similar to how the Spike prelim specials have been set up. Lorenzo Fertitta confirmed the news to the Las Vegas Sun.
“We’ll be out of there before Pacquiao even walks to the ring,” Fertitta said. “This is going to be a perfect night for any fight fan. Get together with your friends, watch two big fights in the UFC and then change the channel to ride into the Pacquiao pay-per-view.”
“It’s going to be a little different with the first one,” Fertitta said. “It’s going to literally be back-to-back action. We aren’t going to mess around with a lot of pre-fight commentary, post-fight commentary. We are going to roll right in, set up the fights and let the action go.”
Fertitta clarified that fans who attend the event in Anaheim will still see a full show and if history is any indication, the UFC will probably find a way for fans to see the other fights as well whether it’s through Facebook or some other outlet. The report also states that future shows will likely run longer, so this is probably just a one-time thing considering the short time frame they have to work with.
It’s still anyone’s guess who will fight on the broadcast, but one fighter who has already been ruled out is Brock Lesnar. Dana White says he won’t be ready to go in time despite what Brock’s comeback video insinuated today.
“It’s impossible,” White said of Lesnar, who is coming off surgery for diverticulitis, where they removed 12 inches of his colon at the end of May. “There’s been all this of that he’s fighting, but he’s not even getting back in the gym for another three weeks. He won’t be back until early next year.”
Title fights have also been ruled out since all seven championship fights have already been scheduled in and around that time.
The UFC did announce the first fight for the card earlier this evening — Dustin Poirier vs. Pablo Garza — but it’s definitely a preliminary fight.
On another interesting note, guess who Fox would “love” to have working the broadcast in some capacity? Gus Johnson! The same commentator Dana White blasted after Gus made his infamous “Sometimes these things happen in MMA” comment during the Strikeforce on CBS post-fight brawl. Between Johnson and his interaction with Josh Gross and Loretta Hunt at the press conference today, it seems Dana is going to be working with some old friends thanks to this deal.
http://www.mmaconvert.com/2011/08/1...ent-will-only-run-an-hour-feature-two-fights/
Pretty much everyone knew the UFC had signed a major broadcasting deal with Fox when the sun came up today, but hardly anyone expected to see a UFC event on the network so soon. That’s right, in a few short months on Nov. 12, the UFC will make it’s debut on network television.
There is a catch however.
The broadcast is only going to run an hour (9-10pm ET) and feature two fights, similar to how the Spike prelim specials have been set up. Lorenzo Fertitta confirmed the news to the Las Vegas Sun.
“We’ll be out of there before Pacquiao even walks to the ring,” Fertitta said. “This is going to be a perfect night for any fight fan. Get together with your friends, watch two big fights in the UFC and then change the channel to ride into the Pacquiao pay-per-view.”
“It’s going to be a little different with the first one,” Fertitta said. “It’s going to literally be back-to-back action. We aren’t going to mess around with a lot of pre-fight commentary, post-fight commentary. We are going to roll right in, set up the fights and let the action go.”
Fertitta clarified that fans who attend the event in Anaheim will still see a full show and if history is any indication, the UFC will probably find a way for fans to see the other fights as well whether it’s through Facebook or some other outlet. The report also states that future shows will likely run longer, so this is probably just a one-time thing considering the short time frame they have to work with.
It’s still anyone’s guess who will fight on the broadcast, but one fighter who has already been ruled out is Brock Lesnar. Dana White says he won’t be ready to go in time despite what Brock’s comeback video insinuated today.
“It’s impossible,” White said of Lesnar, who is coming off surgery for diverticulitis, where they removed 12 inches of his colon at the end of May. “There’s been all this of that he’s fighting, but he’s not even getting back in the gym for another three weeks. He won’t be back until early next year.”
Title fights have also been ruled out since all seven championship fights have already been scheduled in and around that time.
The UFC did announce the first fight for the card earlier this evening — Dustin Poirier vs. Pablo Garza — but it’s definitely a preliminary fight.
On another interesting note, guess who Fox would “love” to have working the broadcast in some capacity? Gus Johnson! The same commentator Dana White blasted after Gus made his infamous “Sometimes these things happen in MMA” comment during the Strikeforce on CBS post-fight brawl. Between Johnson and his interaction with Josh Gross and Loretta Hunt at the press conference today, it seems Dana is going to be working with some old friends thanks to this deal.
Jordan Breen was dropping knowledge on his live chat today, here's some good points he made about the whole thing from an insider's perspective.
I think the biggest positive is that it provides a worthwhile and prestigious middle ground for fighters who are elite MMA athletes, but don't have the power to magnetize a PPV audience. As much as we'd like, not everyone can St. Pierre or Lesnar. Some fighters will always be great, but never be a big draw.
Rashad Evans will probably be a top 10 fighter till the day he retires, unless he hangs on far too long. Is he ever gonna sell 500,000 PPV buys on his name, and his name alone? Not a chance.
Better to have Evans main eventing on a platform like Fox than to go out and do 250,000 PPV buys, which is bad business and demoralizing for the fighter involved. Even though we know that having something like Dominick Cruz-Demetrious Johnson on free TV is the "right" thing to do, it seems like a slap in the face that it's on Versus. Fox can help remedy that, especially with regards to exposure and sponsorship.
If it changes the UFC PPV dynamic, I think it's largely through giving those B-level type main events -- a Rashad Evans-Thiago Silva or a Chris Leben-Mark Munoz bout -- a more legitimate home. Putting them on PPV stinks, and no one wants a delayed card on Spike. So I think that it might alleviate the amount of straight garbage PPV's.
One useful way to think of it: imagine a card like UFC 108 for the UFC on PPV, then imagine if they were running it on Fox. If you know a show ain't gonna top 300-325K, it just makes better sense to have it on the network.
On the flipside, unless Fox renegotiated the deal to give Zuffa a massive amount of advertising revenue -- not happening, by the way -- there would never be any reason for guys like St. Pierre, Lesnar, or at this point, even Anderson Silva, to be on Fox.
Unless it's a Silva-Irvin-type spectacle, it's just not going to happen. The difference in PPV dollars is too radical, and that's a money pile Fox get none of (though providers obviously take nearly half). Also, these guys have PPV cuts in their deals, so they're not going to sacrifice that just to fight on Fox.
Gus Johnson will not be in the booth. There are no plans to change the Goldberg-Rogan dynamic, apart from maybe having Joe Rogan say less questionable things on air, and to make them look like they're not going to a nightclub.
The plan is to use Johnson for a pre- and post-show type stuff. If he does that, I think he'll be fine. That way, he can use his voice and charisma in a capacity that involves zero yelling.
After all, that is the biggest problem with Gus Johnson. It's no different than what happens to almost anyone in the new media space who takes notes from the most public public: they end up overaccentuating what is already accentuated.
The whole Zuffa-Golden Glory situation is messed up right now. They're working together, and I know the golden goose for Zuffa here is to have Overeem fight in the UFC in December.
Unfortunately, as I've mentioned in the past, Golden Glory are one of those MMA entities like M-1 who got by for years on making outrageous demands and having foolish, wasteful and/or irresponsible promoters kowtow to them.
We're not in Kansas any more; you don't get first-class for everyone in your team plus entourage, you don't get a bunch of first-row seats, you don't start trying to hold the promotion hostage with one fight left on your deal and say you want the purse figure from your extension to count on your one fight remaining. These things do not compute.
That said, there's hope. The fact they're negotiating at all is positive, and I think Zuffa realize they handled the initial blowup poorly. Plus, Golden Glory have a lot more to offer in terms of fighters now than M-1 Global.
I think the biggest positive is that it provides a worthwhile and prestigious middle ground for fighters who are elite MMA athletes, but don't have the power to magnetize a PPV audience. As much as we'd like, not everyone can St. Pierre or Lesnar. Some fighters will always be great, but never be a big draw.
Rashad Evans will probably be a top 10 fighter till the day he retires, unless he hangs on far too long. Is he ever gonna sell 500,000 PPV buys on his name, and his name alone? Not a chance.
Better to have Evans main eventing on a platform like Fox than to go out and do 250,000 PPV buys, which is bad business and demoralizing for the fighter involved. Even though we know that having something like Dominick Cruz-Demetrious Johnson on free TV is the "right" thing to do, it seems like a slap in the face that it's on Versus. Fox can help remedy that, especially with regards to exposure and sponsorship.
If it changes the UFC PPV dynamic, I think it's largely through giving those B-level type main events -- a Rashad Evans-Thiago Silva or a Chris Leben-Mark Munoz bout -- a more legitimate home. Putting them on PPV stinks, and no one wants a delayed card on Spike. So I think that it might alleviate the amount of straight garbage PPV's.
One useful way to think of it: imagine a card like UFC 108 for the UFC on PPV, then imagine if they were running it on Fox. If you know a show ain't gonna top 300-325K, it just makes better sense to have it on the network.
On the flipside, unless Fox renegotiated the deal to give Zuffa a massive amount of advertising revenue -- not happening, by the way -- there would never be any reason for guys like St. Pierre, Lesnar, or at this point, even Anderson Silva, to be on Fox.
Unless it's a Silva-Irvin-type spectacle, it's just not going to happen. The difference in PPV dollars is too radical, and that's a money pile Fox get none of (though providers obviously take nearly half). Also, these guys have PPV cuts in their deals, so they're not going to sacrifice that just to fight on Fox.
Gus Johnson will not be in the booth. There are no plans to change the Goldberg-Rogan dynamic, apart from maybe having Joe Rogan say less questionable things on air, and to make them look like they're not going to a nightclub.
The plan is to use Johnson for a pre- and post-show type stuff. If he does that, I think he'll be fine. That way, he can use his voice and charisma in a capacity that involves zero yelling.
After all, that is the biggest problem with Gus Johnson. It's no different than what happens to almost anyone in the new media space who takes notes from the most public public: they end up overaccentuating what is already accentuated.
The whole Zuffa-Golden Glory situation is messed up right now. They're working together, and I know the golden goose for Zuffa here is to have Overeem fight in the UFC in December.
Unfortunately, as I've mentioned in the past, Golden Glory are one of those MMA entities like M-1 who got by for years on making outrageous demands and having foolish, wasteful and/or irresponsible promoters kowtow to them.
We're not in Kansas any more; you don't get first-class for everyone in your team plus entourage, you don't get a bunch of first-row seats, you don't start trying to hold the promotion hostage with one fight left on your deal and say you want the purse figure from your extension to count on your one fight remaining. These things do not compute.
That said, there's hope. The fact they're negotiating at all is positive, and I think Zuffa realize they handled the initial blowup poorly. Plus, Golden Glory have a lot more to offer in terms of fighters now than M-1 Global.
UFC promises "major announcement" on Friday, White says UFC on FOX headliner set
UFC president Dana White has promised to make a "major announcement" on Friday at 1 p.m. ET (10 a.m. PT), officials today confirmed.
What that announcement is, though, remains a mystery.
However, UFC president Dana White subsequently narrowed it down: He's going to announce the headliner for the first-ever UFC on FOX card.
The historic card takes place Nov. 12 in Anaheim, Calif. Numerous names have been bandied about for the network-television debut, though UFC president Dana White recently shot down the possibility of UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva in a recent chat with MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com).
However, everyone from Mauricio "Shogun" Rua to Strikeforce light-heavyweight champion Dan Henderson to UFC vet Vitor Belfort to crowd-pleaser Chris Leben to lightweights Clay Guida and Ben Henderson have been mentioned as additional possibilities for the card, which runs just one hour and features just two fights. The fighters' camps remain tight-lipped, though.
For the next 19 hours, let the guessing games commence.
The card obviously is an important one. After flirting with a handful of potential partners, the UFC ultimately signed a seven-year deal with FOX this past month. In addition to four annual shows on FOX, the UFC will have a big presence on its cable partners, FX and FUEL TV.
The Nov. 12 event broadcast on FOX concludes before the night's HBO broadcast of boxers Manny Pacquiao vs. Juan Manuel Marquez. (Future UFC on FOX events are expected to run two or three hours.)
Be sure to join MMAjunkie.com tomorrow at 1 p.m. for coverage of the announcement.
UFC president Dana White has promised to make a "major announcement" on Friday at 1 p.m. ET (10 a.m. PT), officials today confirmed.
What that announcement is, though, remains a mystery.
However, UFC president Dana White subsequently narrowed it down: He's going to announce the headliner for the first-ever UFC on FOX card.
The historic card takes place Nov. 12 in Anaheim, Calif. Numerous names have been bandied about for the network-television debut, though UFC president Dana White recently shot down the possibility of UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva in a recent chat with MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com).
However, everyone from Mauricio "Shogun" Rua to Strikeforce light-heavyweight champion Dan Henderson to UFC vet Vitor Belfort to crowd-pleaser Chris Leben to lightweights Clay Guida and Ben Henderson have been mentioned as additional possibilities for the card, which runs just one hour and features just two fights. The fighters' camps remain tight-lipped, though.
For the next 19 hours, let the guessing games commence.
The card obviously is an important one. After flirting with a handful of potential partners, the UFC ultimately signed a seven-year deal with FOX this past month. In addition to four annual shows on FOX, the UFC will have a big presence on its cable partners, FX and FUEL TV.
The Nov. 12 event broadcast on FOX concludes before the night's HBO broadcast of boxers Manny Pacquiao vs. Juan Manuel Marquez. (Future UFC on FOX events are expected to run two or three hours.)
Be sure to join MMAjunkie.com tomorrow at 1 p.m. for coverage of the announcement.
