UFC is coming out guns-a-blazing for its network television debut Nov. 12. Dana White announced today that the UFC's heavyweight title fight between Cain Velasquez and Junior dos Santos, tentatively planned for UFC 139 on Nov. 19, will be moved to the UFC on Fox card.
In a unique twist, the Fox show will be just one hour long and feature one five-round fight.
"It's the most prestigious championship in all of sports, the heavyweight title. There's nothing more exciting than when you know it's going to be great heavyweight fight," said an excited White.
The UFC president said the early part of the hour will be used to introduce the sport to the new viewers. If the fight turns out to be a quick victory for either fighter, Eric Shanks, president of Fox Sports, confirmed that the broadcast may show a replay of an earlier fight to fill the back end of the time slot.
This is the most excited we've heard White sound in a long time. That said, he's also grounded enough to realize that the work ahead is just as important as the work he's done over the last 10 years to get his company in a position to make it to network television.
"We're getting the opportunity from Fox to become mainstream. We're not sitting around patting ourselves on the back saying 'look we made it!' Now's the time to work. Now's the time to deliver," White said. "Everything we've done the last 10 years, we actually need to step it up to another level and deliver even bigger and better now that we're on the No. 1 network in the country."
The show at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Ca. will feature a full fight card for the ticket buyers in attendance. The rest of the card will be televised somewhere.
Shanks said Fox is going to pull out all the stops for the live show in Anaheim.
"[We're] launching the UFC on Fox with a Super Bowl-style red carpet and tailgate party with every star in Hollywood and every dignitary we need to get out there ... outside the event."
White said the goal is to blow away the EliteXC/CBS debut of Kimbo Slice on network television. That card did a peak of six million viewers. Fox Sports chairman and CEO David Hill said he wouldn't predict numbers, but he sounded confident in his new product.
"One of my golden rules is never predict ratings because it's a zero sum game," said Hill. "If I was a betting man, which I am, I'd probably put a couple bucks on the fact that we will [surpass the CBS numbers]."
White was even more blunt about expectations.
"I'm not going to be too cocky here and trump what David Hill said, but I'm expecting to blow that number out of the water," said White.
Shanks confirmed that promotion for the card across the Fox family of networks will start tomorrow during FX's college football games. Fox only found out about the fight in the last 36 hours.
UFC 139 loses its main event, but the card is still scheduled to move forward in San Jose. White said the cards at both UFC on Fox 1 and UFC 139 are still major works in progress. White didn't sound worried.
"Having a free fight on Fox leading into a pay-per-view the week before sure doesn't suck," said White.
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