MMA Uncensored Live Debuts Tonight on Spike TV

MMA Uncensored Live is set to make its long-awaited debut tonight on Spike TV, where it will focus on UFC 144 and the demise of one of MMA’s greatest promotions, PRIDE Fighting Championships, with former PRIDE champion Dan Henderson as the honorary first guest of the show.

Spike’s Press Release:

Coming to you from the heart of New York City in Times Square, MMA Uncensored Live will feature debate and discussion, interviews, in-depth features, highlights and interaction with the viewers through Twitter, Facebook and other social media channels.

We’re gearing up for a premiere on Thursday, February 23 at 11/10c, right after IMPACT WRESTLING. What’s more, we have three fine gentlemen to help you navigate all the news, opinion, interview and rumors we can fit into a half an hour. Let’s meet them now.

Craig Carton – Host
Craig currently co-hosts one of the most popular morning sports radio shows in the country, WFAN’s “Boomer & Carton” alongside NFL great Boomer Esiason. He’s been in the sports broadcasting game for over twenty years, having started at WGR Buffalo in 1991. Since then, Carton has worked in sports strongholds like Cleveland, Philadelphia and Denver, and has brought his irreverent energy to sports fans across the country through syndicated radio networks.
We’re happy to have Craig back, as he also used to host Weekend Pre-Game on Spike.

Mike Straka – Fight Expert
Mike is a familiar face to any fan of MMA, considering he was the first mainstream media broadcaster to cover the sport. He’s the host of “The MMA Experience” on Fight Now TV, as well as “TapouT Radio” on SiriusXM Sports, and was the host of HDNet’s Fighting Words With Mike Straka.

Prior to that, Mike served as vice president and executive producer of FOX News Digital, as well as a FOX News Channel on-air personality. He’s the author of two books, most recently 2011’s “Fighting Words”, published by Triumph Sports.

Nate Quarry – Fight Expert
Nate “Rock” Quarry is no stranger to Spike audiences. The founding member of Team Quest was Team Couture’s first pick during the first season of Spike’s “The Ultimate Fighter”. He followed up his tenure on TUF with three UFC wins before being stopped in his quest for the Middleweight Title by then champion Rich Franklin.

Nate won four of his last six fights, including a fight of the night win over Tim Credeur in September of 2009.

We’re excited to have these guys on board, and can’t wait for February 23, when we kick off “MMA Uncensored Live” at 11/10c! We’ll see you there.

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Spike TV announced this morning that one of the true legends of mixed martial arts, Dan Henderson, will be the first guest on the new primetime magazine show “Spike’s MMA Uncensored Live”. “Hendo” is a former Strikeforce and PRIDE champion, and most recently defeated Shogun Rua in an all-time classic at UFC 139.

The premiere “MMA Uncensored Live” will also take a look at the rich history of mixed martial arts in Japan as the UFC descends on Saitama for UFC 144. The show will explore the roots of modern MMA, the sport’s meteoric rise, and how the corrupt business practices led to its downfall in Japan.

The panel will then breakdown UFC 144, which features a light heavyweight match between Ryan Bader and Japanese favorite Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, as well as a lightweight championship match between Frankie Edgar and challenger Benson Henderson.

 

Payout Perspective:

MMA Uncensored Live’s debut will focus tonight on the demise of PRIDE and their dealings with the Yakuza, where corrupt practices eventually brought down the biggest MMA promotion at the time. The project was lead by long-time Japanese MMA reporter Daniel Herbertson, whose work was aided by the years of coverage provided by Zach Arnold of FightOpinion.com. Dan Henderson as the honorary first guest is a great choice for the show, as I’m sure he will be able to tell his own stories regarding PRIDE and Japan as a former PRIDE champion.

Another interesting storyline here is that initially, Spike TV announced the name of the show as “MMAJunkie Live”, where MMAjunkie.com would be involved in producing the show.  In the last month or so, Spike TV changed the name to MMA Uncensored Live and MMAJunkie’s affiliation with the show was no more. MMAJunkie made the official announcement yesterday via Twitter:

We’re no longer involved with @Spike_TV‘s new MMA show but sincerely wish them the best of luck with tomorrow’s #MMAUncensored Live debut

— Dann Stupp (@MMAjunkieDann) February 23, 2012

We just couldn’t make this project work (sorry for lack of details), but @Spike_TV will do a good job. Definitely check it out tomorrow.

— Dann Stupp (@MMAjunkieDann) February 23, 2012

 

There was some talk a few weeks ago that not only will MMA Uncensored Live focus on covering MMA, but they would heavily feature the Viacom owned MMA promotion, Bellator Fighting Championships, to condition the Spike TV MMA fanbase to the product. UFC programming will cease to air on Spike after 2012. The plan is for Viacom to move Bellator from MTV2 to Spike TV in 2013. MMAPayout sources inform us that “creative differences” was the official reason for the split between MMAJunkie/Spike.