UFC Primetime: GSP vs. Hardy

The UFC and SpikeTV have announced that Georges St-Pierre and Dan Hardy will tape a three-part Primetime segment in preparation for their up-coming fight at UFC 111 on March 27th:

UFC PRIMETIME® GOES BEHIND-THE-SCENES FOR HIGHLY ANTICIPATED GEORGES ST-PIERRE vs. DAN HARDY MEGA-FIGHT

 

New Three-Part Series Premieres On Spike TV
Wednesday, March 10 At 10:00 PM ET

 

New York, NY, January 18, 2010 – In anticipation of their world welterweight title clash at UFC 111: ST-PIERRE vs. HARDY, UFC champion Georges St-Pierre and challenger Dan Hardy will be featured on UFC Primetime®, a weekly, three part series premiering Wednesday, March 10 at 10:00 PM ET/PT on Spike TV.

 

UFC Primetime, produced by the Ultimate Fighting Championship® (UFC®), is a look into the lives of perhaps the world’s best pound for pound fighter, St-Pierre, and Hardy, the man looking to unseat him at the top of the welterweight ladder. As the two prepare for their meeting in late March, Spike TV will present three special weekly installments that will take viewers across the pond to Nottingham, England as Hardy trains with the rest of his Rough House team, and back to North America to Montreal to see how St-Pierre, one of the most beloved athletes in Canada, is preparing for his title defense. UFC Primetime delivers an extraordinary amount of access to two of mixed martial arts’ best, as they head into what could be the signature fight of 2010 at UFC 111.

 

Christopher Martello of Spike TV serves as executive in charge of production of UFC Primetime.

 

UFC 111 will air live on Pay-Per-View Saturday, March 27 from the Prudential Center, in Newark, NJ at 10:00 PM ET/ 7:00 PM PT.

Payout Perspective:

This is absolutely the right move for the UFC. 

There aren’t a lot of people that think Hardy brings a legitimate challenge, but his ability to trash talk and hype a fight is something the UFC can leverage to turn this fight into a must-see. Moreover, the added benefit of the Primetime segment involving Hardy is that it’s going to rapidly raise his profile in Britain to the point where he’ll likely equal or surpass a guy like Michael Bisping.

Note: The last time they ran a Primetime show – UFC 94: GSP vs. Penn 2 – it generated huge numbers (.73 HH with 880,000 viewers in the debut episode). Don’t expect the same number from this debut, but Hardy’s ability to hype a fight could lead to successive increases in the ratings by episode 3.