SpikeTV announced today that it will televise a select number of fights from the UFC 104 undercard – including Bader vs. Schaeffer and Hardonk vs. Barry – prior to the PPV.
New York, NY, October 12, 2009 – Spike TV will telecast live undercard bouts from UFC 104 on Saturday, October 24 at 9:00pm ET/PT from the Staples Center in Los Angeles, CA. The fights on Spike TV will include “The Ultimate Fighter 8” winner Ryan Bader, a rising star in the light heavyweight division, taking on “Red” Schafer. The one-hour telecast will run commercial-free. UFC 104 will run on pay-per-view event at 10:00pm ET.
Recently, Spike TV telecast the prelims for UFC 103 on Saturday, September 19 drawing a robust 1.4 million viewers and placed #2 on cable with Men 18-34 in the timeslot.
A two-time NCAA Division I All-American wrestler at Arizona State University, Ryan Bader, fighting out of Tempe, Ariz., is 2-0 in the UFC and a perfect 10-0 in his mixed martial arts career. The 26-year-old light heavyweight, winner of the eighth season of “The Ultimate Fighter,” earned a unanimous decision win against veteran Carmelo Marrero in April. He now faces another experienced grappler in “Red” Schafer. Fighting out of Milwaukee, Wisc., Schafer is a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt and on a four fight win streak, with two of his three UFC wins coming via submission. His most recent victory came via TKO against Antonio Mendes at UFC 93.
Also featured, Dutch kickboxer Antoni Hardonk, a native of Amsterdam, fighting out of Los Angeles, has KOs in all four of his UFC wins. The 6-foot-4, 245-pound heavyweight has won three of his last four fights and is looking to continue his hot streak against veteran Pat Barry, fighting out of Milwaukee, Wisc. A native of New Orleans, Barry looks to repeat the performance he put on against Dan Evensen at UFC 92, an impressive first round KO.
Other bouts on the card might air on Spike TV, determined by length of fights.
Payout Perspective:
The UFC’s strategy with airing prelims is two-fold:
1. They’re hoping to use the preliminary matches as a piece of corollary programming that will push viewers from the free viewing to the pay-per-view.
2. The organization is also trying to increase the exposure of some of its younger, up-and-coming fighters in order to build their status for future main card bouts. TUF 8 winner Efrain Escudero received the spotlight for UFC 103, and his TUF light heavyweight counterpart, Ryan Bader, will now get his turn.
It’ll be interesting to see if, and by how much, the UFC 104 prelim impacts PPV sales. The numbers from UFC 103 indicated that the Spike broadcast didn’t make much of a difference, but the event is operating under a different set of external circumstances this time which could deliver a more fruitful result (i.e., no Mayweather-Marquez to contend with).
I also think, that important factor in doing this is that UFC lately increased a number of fights per card. UFC 103 had 13 fights. That means under old model it would be 5 main card fights and 8 undercard fights (and realistically something like 7 – 6) – most of the fighters would never get chance to be on the TV and UFC would have a hard time propagating and hyping such fighters. (Similar to problem that WEC were having: Because fight from their undercards virtually cannot be watched by normal fans, they are having situations like guys getting titleshots right from the undercard fights without fans knowing, who that fighter is)
When UFC starts doing a Spike TV fights more often, model shifts to 5 – 2 – 6, which will probably in reality ends up around 7 – 3 – 3 which is great (for the fighters, sponsors and fans). And definitely better than 7 – 6.