FOX is raising some doubts regarding their partnership with the UFC by announcing that they will not broadcast any other fights on Saturday whether or not the main event lasts ten seconds (of the 1-hour slot allotted). I guess they will cut to reruns of The Cleveland Show or something. Since the UFC's deal with FOX doesn't really begin until next year, this show is being used as some kind of teaser for next year's broadcasting. Try not to be excited for those, though--next year's shows won't be much longer. FOX have allotted the UFC 90-minutes per event for the four primetime FOX shows in 2012, the official UFC on FOX shows, giving them enough time for "two to three fights", according to FOX Sports co-President Eric Shanks. To put that into context, 3 15-minute fights, if they all run long, is 45-minutes of programming, not including walk-outs and in-ring interviews that can easily be chopped. A typical one-hour television show runs 48-minutes without commercials. Yikes. That is a lot of bloat, especially since a regular fight + a title fight would take even less time (45-minutes vs. 40-minutes). It isn't going to affect the UFC's PPV programming, and the UFC will still be running Fight Night's and such on FX, but dang--you know? Doesn't show a lot of faith in the UFC. I'll be the first one to admit that watching a UFC event front-to-back from prelims to the main event takes all night. Especially in person. Showing "two to three fights" is a good start but maybe not the kind of treatment the UFC was promised. An NFL game gets what, 1-hour of preamble, 1-hour of post-game, and as long as it takes (3-4 hours) for the event? Ditto for NASCAR, golf, etc.. Bit of a disparity there for something they do two-three times every weekend vs. once every three months.
Kevin Iole says the UFC on FOX events will be more than just one fight in the future. They'll have two. *sad trombone sound*
Presumably the FX and Fuel TV shows will be full cards, especially since Fuel will be showing all the prelims, too. As far as the UFC being treated on par with other sports on FOX... doesn't look like it.
Both fights on FOX better be fucking Super Bowl worthy, 4th of July worthy, and NYE worthy main events. Silva/Sonnen II is a good start.
