Fuel TV and Shark Fights announced today an expanded television agreement that adds six more events in 2011, starting with the Shark Fights 15 next month.
FUEL TV (www.fuel.tv), Fox Sports Media Group’s dynamic entertainment and sports network for young males, and Texas-based mixed martial arts promotion company Shark Fights announces an expanded television agreement that adds six upcoming Shark Fights events in 2011, starting with Shark Fights 15 next month. Each fight event airs as a two-part series, creating a total of 12 hours of original Shark Fights mixed martial arts programming for FUEL TV’s Friday Fight Night programming block.
Shark Fights 15 features marquee fighters including UFC veteran Chris Camozzi, Strikeforce veteran Joey Villasenor, and many more. FUEL TV airs the event in prime time on June 17 and June 24 at 10:00PM ET/PT. The remaining events and air dates are to be announced. As part of its original agreement with the promoter, FUEL TV aired Shark Fights 13 on consecutive Fridays in April.
“We’re excited to have Shark Fights as part of our regular line up of fight programming on FUEL TV’s Friday Fight Nights,” says George Greenberg, FUEL TV GM. “These are great matches with exciting fighters who are putting it all on the line every time they enter the ring.”
“Everyone at Shark Fights is thrilled that our FUEL TV network debut was so well received,” says Shark Fight Promotions Executive Wes Nolen. “Now, with the launch of FUEL TV’s Friday Fight Night, Shark Fights fans have a destination for our programming. We’re all thrilled to be part of the growth of MMA on FUEL TV, and it’s truly an honor to be aligned with the FOX Sports Media Group family.”
Shark Fights is produced for FUEL TV by Bud Brutsman and his team at BCII. Brutsman and BCII are responsible for producing all the early King of the Cage pay-per-view programs, as well as bringing the first Pride Fighting Championships programming to the U.S. on DVD.
“By combining the production quality that BCII will provide with the effort and focus that FUEL TV is putting into Friday Fight Night, we have no doubt that FUEL TV and the Fox Sports family will take Shark Fights to the next level and put it on par with the best MMA promotions in the country,” says Nolen.
FUEL TV’s Friday Fight Night features epic “must see” fights every Friday night at 10:00PM ET/PT. For more information on Shark Fight Promotions, please log on to www.sharkfights.com. For more information on FUEL TV, please visit www.fuel.tv.
Payout Perspective:
Back on April 1st, Shark Fights and Fuel TV announced a TV deal that landed the Texas based promotion on Fuel TV’s newly created programming block “Friday Fight Night” series. Today, they announced an expanded deal that airs future Shark Fights events as a two-part series, starting with Shark Fights 15. If you recall, there have been some recent shake-ups with Shark Fights, as previous president and matchmaker, Brent Medley, stepped down nearly one month after signing the TV deal with Fuel TV.
According to MMAPayout sources, Strikeforce MMA veteran and BMX rider Erik Apple will be hosting the events on Fuel TV, who is a great choice for the network and the audience it targets.
Shark Fights and Fuel TV appear to be building on their relationship, and it will be interesting to see if Shark Fights can grow the coveted MMA demographic on the network and be able to build their fanbase on the network, a similar scenario Bellator went through this year with MTV 2.
The lineup for Shark Fights 15 televised event is as follows:
Main Event:
Chris Camozzi (14-4) vs. Joey Villasenor (27-8)
Co-Main Event:
Jeremy May (9-7) vs. Dave Branch (8-2)
Undercard:
Fredrico Lopez (4-3) vs. Bobby Huron (4-1)
Kyle Bracey (8-1) vs. Artenas Young (4-2)
Timothy Snyder (12-7) vs. Frank Gomez (9-3)
Eric McElroy (3-6) vs. Lionel Lanham (2-0)
How will we ever know if they do? Fuel doesn’t even nave enough distribution to be rated by Nielsen….they are in less than 40 million homes. MTV 2 is in 80 million. Seems like Bellator has a huge leg up there.
No doubt. Shark Fights went from a PPV event, to HDNet, now to Fuel TV. A possible move to a Fox affiliate would be the next logical step if they could keep growing. One step at a time… it worked for Strikeforce and Bellator 🙂
According to the last numbers I saw, Fuel TV was was in 31 million homes.
Interesting that they made a deal with themselves (reference to typo in first line of article) 🙂
On the Bellator note, it’s true that MTV2 is available in more homes, but MMA might align very well with Fuel TV’s programming, while Bellator seems like a bit of an odd fit for MTV2.
Machiel Van:
I fixed one thing and broke another, thanks for pointing that out.