WSOF announced that it is returning to network television on Saturday afternoon July 11th preceding UFC 189. The show will feature its “Unstoppable” series which will show highlights of WSOF fights rather than offer a live event.
“We are excited to deliver another hard-hitting compilation of the most memorable, recent bouts featuring WSOF’s collection of dynamic world champions and other superstars,” said WSOF President, Ray Sefo in the WSOF Press Release.
According to the press release, all of the WSOF champions will be featured including Justin Gaethje, Rousimar Palhares, Lance Palmer and Blagoy Ivanov.
The two-hour program will air on NBC from 1pm PT/4pm ET giving fight fans an hour or so before the UFC 189 preliminary fights start.
Payout Perspective:
You might recall that WSOF aired a live event last July 5th which drew 781,000 viewers. It went on the same day as UFC 175. This time around we get a compilation show which may be a cost effective measure. I’m not sure if this is good or bad for the WSOF. Certainly, it’s good in that WSOF is able to control its brand by putting on the best fights for presumably its biggest audience of the year. Then again, not having a live events misses out on a chance for the organization’s fighters to showcase their skills.
So they’ll do a “best of” type of thing on big NBC and then save one of their best events for August 1 on NBCSN where they will be going head to head with UFC 190. Dumb decisions, imo.
WSOF doesn’t have any say in the matter, if NBC tell them to run a show on X date, they have to run a show then.