The network wouldn’t run itself – and White doesn’t have a history of delegating responsibility easily. It could potentially go a long way in building a base of sports fans. The addition of a weekly fight show would help legitimize MMA as a sport, one that has regular news and results to report, and make it feel less like a monthly PPV spectacle. Owning a television network opens up opportunities to run more shows, smaller shows, even the possibility of sending UFC fighters to smaller regional events events that the UFC would in turn broadcast on their network. There just isn’t room on 20 shows to give hundreds of fighters multiple opportunities. Fighters are limited to two or three bouts a year, often not by choice. The UFC has more fighters than it knows what to do with. With the UFC and Spike apparently on the verge of parting ways, just how savvy is the UFC’s rumored plan to run their own network? Jonathan Snowden opines that there are pros including the UFC controlling its own destiny: Now Spike and MTV 2 are both part of the same family, but even saying that, presenting Bellator’s top star on a Spike special would be like a big awards show on USA where they invited both Kurt Angle and John Cena. But also, on Spike, the UFC network, appearing as a star at the event was Bellator’s top star, Eddie Alvarez. In what has to be considered an interesting political move by Spike TV, they taped their “Guys Choice” awards show on 6/4 in Culver City (it airs on 6/10), which is the one where Dwayne Johnson and Jon Jones are among the list of literally tons of celebrities appearing as presenters. Bellator’s current broadcast deal is with MTV2, which like Spike, is owned by the media conglomerate Viacom.ĭave Meltzer has this nugget about Bellator and Spike TV in the latest Wrestling Observer (subscription required): According to a source, it’s likely that Bellator will return to weekday events, possibly on Thursdays, so as not to directly compete with UFC. Several Spike employees are openly referring to the upcoming season of The Ultimate Fighter as “the last season,” and as MMA Fighting reported recently, Spike executives have been on site at recent Bellator events, familiarizing themselves with the promotion.
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