The UFC will show two live undercard fights on Spike TV during its UFC 104 show, once again giving fans a couple of fights for free to whet their appetites for pay-per-view.Spike said today that it will air two preliminary fights -- Ryan Bader vs. Eric Schafer and Antoni Hardonk vs. Pat Barry -- live at 9 PM ET on October 24, an hour before the UFC 104 pay-per-view broadcast begins. The one-hour broadcast will air without commercials and could include other fights on tape delay, time permitting.
Spike TV also broadcast some preliminary fights before UFC 103 on September 19, and that was considered a success: The network said its 1.4 million viewers made it the No. 2 show on cable in its time slot among men ages 18 to 34.
Putting Bader on the Spike card makes a lot of sense; he won Season 8 of Spike's The Ultimate Fighter, and he's a popular fighter whose battle with Schafer fans wouldn't want to miss. Hardonk vs. Barry isn't quite the marquee match-up that Bader vs. Schafer is, but it's still a solid heavyweight fight featuring two dangerous strikers. Fights that could make the Spike broadcast if time permits include Yushin Okami vs. Chael Sonnen, Jorge Rivera vs. Rob Kimmons, Kyle Kingsbury vs. Razak Al-Hassan and Stefan Struve vs. Chase Gormley.
Overall, the recent practice of putting a few undercard fights on Spike has to be considered great news for MMA fans. There's only room for five live fights on UFC pay-per-view shows, but the UFC has reached the point where its fight cards typically feature more than five fights that fans want to see. This is a win-win-win for the UFC, for Spike and for the fans.
















Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
10-12-2009 @ 4:53PM
piprocks666 said...
Let me guess, they're doing this cause they care about the fans...
I'll even bet that bader does more than wrestle and smother. Please, ufc has a long way to go before I can say the fan is something they could care less about.
Strikeforce is gonna blow the sport up. With quality and class. Not this tito crap. Seriously, how could anyone wanna pay to watch tito fight anymore??
Reply
10-12-2009 @ 8:39PM
piprocks666 said...
strikeforce on cbs with their stacked card in something to be happy about. not this crap.
10-12-2009 @ 9:41PM
chilly16 said...
I agree with the tito stuff but is this part english? "Please, ufc has a long way to go before I can say the fan is something they could care less about."
Only 3 out of 9 of Bader's fights have gone longer than 1 round. Thats a boring wrestler? LOL
Its pretty obvious most people will watch the free card over the PPV one. Competition is a good thing.
10-12-2009 @ 4:58PM
richardbikle said...
i've been waiting to see bader again, i like this guy.
Reply
10-12-2009 @ 9:43PM
neozoo said...
uhh pip, tito is not on this card.
and let me get this straight,
a non-title mousasi/sokoudjou is more credible than lyoto/shogun.
hhmmm, i think this is a great move by zuffa and definately a fan friendly move.
why are you ripping them for doing this?
this is a perfect example of where hate gets in the way of logic.
if you think it sucks then don't buy it.
i think ufc 104 will be worth the price, i hope it turns out that way and that my expectations will be realized.
imo, other than me thinking cain should beat rothwell, there is nothing easily predictable and that's what i like.
whereas, as stated before, sf's card especially the 2 main fighters most mma people will be tuning in to see fedor and mousasi are hugh favorites to win easily. additionally, if either of them loses it will be a big blow to them.
in essence, you/we are tuning in to see them show off their respective dominance. we are totally expecting them to win.
i, personally prefer to watch events that i'm not sure what the outcome will be.
obviously, i'm jacked for this(ufc 104), as i've previously stated i really wanted to see this bout
bader/schafer.
and i am also looking forward to nov. 7 as well.
hey rich, i've noticed alot of so-called mma fans don't really appreciate/understand the wrestling aspect of mma.
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10-12-2009 @ 11:46PM
richardbikle said...
theres only two types of people that dont like wrestling, those that have never tried it and those that have....
10-12-2009 @ 9:51PM
neozoo said...
uhh pip, tito is not on this card.
and let me get this straight,
a non-title mousasi/sokoudjou is more credible than lyoto/shogun.
hhmmm, i think this is a great move by zuffa and definately a fan friendly move.
why are you ripping them for doing this?
this is a perfect example of where hate gets in the way of logic.
if you think it sucks then don't buy it.
i think ufc 104 will be worth the price, i hope it turns out that way and that my expectations will be realized.
imo, other than me thinking cain should beat rothwell, there is nothing easily predictable and that's what i like.
whereas, as stated before, sf's card especially the 2 main fighters most mma people will be tuning in to see fedor and mousasi are hugh favorites to win easily. additionally, if either of them loses it will be a big blow to them.
in essence, you/we are tuning in to see them show off their respective dominance. we are totally expecting them to win.
i, personally prefer to watch events that i'm not sure what the outcome will be.
obviously, i'm jacked for this(ufc 104), as i've previously stated i really wanted to see this bout
bader/schafer.
and i am also looking forward to nov. 7 as well.
hey rich, i've noticed alot of so-called mma fans don't really appreciate/understand the wrestling aspect of mma.
Reply
10-13-2009 @ 12:19AM
piprocks666 said...
ah yes my good friend neo, and let me tell u why i'm so quick to 'hate' on this.
btw, yes i know tito is fighting ufc 106, still it's a gay move to hype up a ppv card. tito blows. i love pointing out all the lame things about ufc lately. they'll do anything to sell ppv's. tito's name on a card=more buys. not more quality mma.
ok, so this airing prelims on spike was originally a 'so called' move to give back to the fans when in reality it was dana begging his fans to come thru after talking all that trash about how he was gonna do more ppv's than floyd mayweather. he was so convinced that after ufc 100 he'd continue doing 1 million plus buys. schmuck. that totally blew up in his face as his card did no where near what floyd did. making him look like a trash talkin donkey, as usual. i can't accept anymore lame attempts for him to 'give back to the fans'.
you know, this site is a little quirky. i must've wrote 5-6 well thought out responses on my g-1 phone and for some reason they don't always post. so the last post was a quick, 'hey let's see if it works.' pardon the poor english.
in one of those post's, i was questioning whether you've actually seen how gegard went thru the dream mw tourney as an underdog. man, it was something else. this guy is for real. anytime this guy fights, it's well worth watching. free... awesome. if you haven't, hit me up and i'd be happy to give you the website where you can watch. i'd put money on this guy against any lhw in the world. that's how good this guy is. believe that.
and there's nothing predictable about fedor vs rogers. you've got a misunderstanding there my friend. look what brock did to mir. these are big boys, they're capable of doing serious damage. you see what rogers did to arlovski?? went thru him like a bullet train. gegard, yeah he should win easy. it'll look great though, not some boring gsp style wrestler. real martial arts.
hey if you wanna pay for ufc 104, please by all means help yourself. i'm never paying for another one ever again. i'd rather pay for a strikeforce ppv in the future than support dana's trickery anymore. i've paid for enough. this all started when i almost puked after ufc 94. the card blew chunks. waste of money. my gf's first ufc experience was a total letdown. clay guida was awarded and rewarded for the most sorriest display of mma i've ever seen against a promising young fighter, nate diaz. and bj vs gsp 2, i knew it live, in the 2nd round, that bj looked discouraged and stopped going for the triangle. i was not surprised at all when all the greasing sh*t went down afterwards. i knew something was up.
years ago, i paid to see them fight the first time, and was a big gsp fan. i was telling everyone he was gonna be the best, and looked like a real-life van-damme. i have to say thats when i started changing my mind about him. first off, i saw gsp get scared, really scared. AND i thought bj won. and then to see how gsp celebrated after successfully cheating in the rematch, and clay guida boasting 'another w!!' before they even called the scorecards. everything, i was livid. then dana hypes up guida's next fight saying he just came off a 'HUGE!!' win over nate diaz. what 'HUGE!!' win?? i was like, wait a minute. this m'er f'er. he's straight up lying out of his a$$. then ufc 98 was doodoo. no way serra 'lost'. and ufc 100, which kinda sucked and the brock vs mir fight lagged so bad on my computer, i missed the whole first round!!
anyway's, i've always had something against boring wrestlers since watching tito back in the day. even further back to when dan severn became champ. they aren't entertaining to watch at all. nick diaz said it best before his fight with shamrock. wanna know what's up?? watch his interview on sherdog, there's someone who tell's it how it is. i've always agreed too, i prefer the ring over the cage. and 2 rounds- 1st is 10 min's and judges scored the fight as a whole. the cage is so american, not my preference at all.
and another thing, i was really glad nate diaz put a halt to dana's little dream of making his druggy comeback tyson style flashy hair-do poster boy melvin guillard a big star for him. and i have reasons out the wah-doo to hate on everything ufc until mma becomes bigger than ufc. don't believe the hype neo, it's all for money. not you, the fan.
10-13-2009 @ 3:34PM
richardbikle said...
pips, wrestling isnt boring if you know whats going on. even if the diaz brothers are your spokesman and the one who thinks most like yourself, wrestling at a high level is pretty exciting. this is mixed martial arts. kickboxing doesnt include grappling and to me its boring. wrestling and grappling are what make mma -mma. seriously, how can you consider yourself a mma fan.
10-13-2009 @ 10:57AM
neozoo said...
hey pippy,
i'll have a nice probably long reply later tonight for you.
gotta go to work now.
Reply
10-13-2009 @ 11:36AM
M13 said...
Somehow, I really get the feeling that Neo has met his antithesis. This is going to be real interesting.
Reply
10-13-2009 @ 2:12PM
Eric said...
Haha ... you're not kidding. It's the battle of the "longwinded" arguers.
No offense guys.
10-13-2009 @ 3:19PM
M13 said...
That's a good one Eric.
10-13-2009 @ 2:45PM
richardbikle said...
harr har...
Reply
10-13-2009 @ 3:26PM
MidnghtRider21 said...
Okami V. Sonnen should be decent.
Reply
10-13-2009 @ 3:45PM
Eric said...
I agree ... Sonnen is just the kind of fighter (a good wrestler) to give Okami problems.
I still think Okami will win though.
10-13-2009 @ 4:17PM
piprocks666 said...
i like wrestling effectively combined with an art that leads to fights ending in submissions or crisp striking finishes. boring grinded out decision wins have got to go. and he-man brute strength ground n pound aren't very artistic either. i know this love/hate for wrestlers will be forever. it's about 50/50. u either love em or hate. i f'in hate em.
Reply
10-13-2009 @ 4:22PM
piprocks666 said...
and how long does it take to show 2 prelim undercard fights?? 1 hour of commercial free...??
seems more like a 1 hour commercial to get another $45 out of us...
i love keyboard pirating this ufc crap.
maximo blanco is more exciting than 99% of ufc's fighters.
Reply
10-13-2009 @ 6:10PM
M13 said...
Wow. Your distaste for the UFC is undeniable and extraordinary.
10-13-2009 @ 6:20PM
M13 said...
I think so too.
Reply