Head to Head Competition

by Michael Rome on May 21, 2008 9:18 PM EDT in MMA News

To the surprise of nobody, Spike TV announced that May 31 is UFC day. There will be an all day marathon of TUF, followed by a Chuck Liddell documentary special leading into a special unleashed that will center around Liddell v. Silva.

I suppose the idea is to try to get a 1.0 during this special, to pull away a potential million + viewers away from Elite XC. That million may be crucial to the show being a success or a failure. However, this strategy may not necessarily work. It is possible that many of those million fans will skip around channels and find a live fight show on CBS that they were not even really aware of.

Tweet Comment 3 comments | 0 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

It’s a shame that two MMA promotions are choosing to undermine one another during the sport’s debut on network TV. I may be naive in this, but I was hoping that other promotions would see the exposure for the sport as an “all boats rise” scenario. I even imagined the UFC loaning fighters for network events in exchange for some ad plugs for PPV events. Anyhow, back in the real world… I’ll DVR the Liddell show while I take in my Friday Night of Fights.

by Jaydoggydog on May 21, 2008 11:34 PM EDT reply actions

It’s almost as big a shame as the fact that a second rate MMA promotion is making the sport’s debut on network television.

Intentional Blog on Balls

by Richard Wade on May 21, 2008 11:47 PM EDT up reply actions

No argument there.

Okay, one little argument. If the UFC really has a lock on the top-rate promotion spot, they’d be in the driver’s seat with the network deal. Instead, they’re both racing to reduce the sport to it’s most base elements (Lesnar, Slice, standnbang matchups, standnbang matchups w/boobies, etc) in the hopes of grabbing those newbie gawkers and developing brand loyalty over sport interest.

by Jaydoggydog on May 21, 2008 11:56 PM EDT reply actions