During a conference call today with members of the media, Zuffa President Dana White confirmed that the UFC and HBO have officially signed a deal together. MMAWeekly.com has a full writeup on the call, and instead of rehashing what they and other sites are posting, I’m just going to quote their article. You can read the full article at MMAWeekly.com.
White said that the UFC will be putting on live events for HBO and that the first UFC event on HBO will air this summer. When asked by a reporter if the HBO deal is “signed, sealed, and delivered,” White said, “Yes.” When asked by another reporter if the deal should be reported as official, White said, “Yeah.” White also spoke of struggling to sign the HBO deal in the past tense, as he said, “We would have never signed a deal if we weren’t comfortable with it.”
White said that the UFC broadcasts on HBO will have an HBO production team and HBO announcers, so UFC announcers Mike Goldberg and Joe Rogan will not be doing commentary on the UFC’s HBO events. White said that he doesn’t know who will be on the HBO announcing team for UFC events, but when asked if Jim Lampley would be on the team, White said, “Hell no.”
White inferred that the HBO events will be higher in stature than the Spike TV events but still lower in stature than the pay-per-view events. As an example, White said that you could expect to see the winners from future seasons of The Ultimate Fighter have their first post-TUF fights on HBO after they win the TUF competition, whereas the UFC Fight Night events would be the home for all of the fighters who are on TUF and get UFC contracts even though they didn’t win the TUF competition.
As another example, White said that you can expect to see Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira fight on HBO, and he added that Nogueira “will fight one of the top guys right off the bat.” White said that fans can expect to see top-quality fights whether any given UFC event is on HBO, Spike TV, or pay-per-view.
White said that the UFC’s June 16th event in Belfast, Northern Ireland will not be the HBO debut show, as he said that the June 16th show will be “on Spike TV or pay-per-view.” The UFC web site previously said that the June 16th would be on Spike TV in the United States.
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Great…My cable bills going up again! I can here the wife’s blood pressure rising with the bills…LOL
alright antonio rodrigo nogiera isnt minatauro who they showed this last ppv so is this a mistake or did they sign lil nog to
the ufc 72 event has rich franklin vs. martin kampmann as the only fight so far. i kinda hope this is not the main event. franklin vs. silva 2 that is a main card not this. i get that we get it free here when its an international show but come on we have ultimate fight nights for matches like this. i hope the ufc gets a pay per view deal for over seas shows soon so they keep the good fights comming.
is it true that matt serra will have his 1st title defense against matt hughes?
i think thats what people are saying but i know for sure i aint counting serra out
I don’t have HBO as part of my direcTV package, however, the month of the event I will order HBO and a month later, cancel it. My only requirement is that I keep the programing for a month. Hell, its less than a PPV.
FOOK HBO!
Spike TV played the Hughes/Gracie fight again last night on Unleashed…….
Hopefully, to start building the hype for the Hughes/Serra fight.
@AFAN
THATS THE ROOMER NOT COMFERMED YET??
@aFan & PATRICK,
actually, at the UFC 69 post-fight press conference Dana White did say that Serra’s first title defense would be against Matt Hughes.
Hey Doc!
Did Dana give any clues as to when our T-shirts will be ready?
I WANT MATT TO WIN
AND HOPEFULLY GSP CAN GET HIS TITLE BACK
@Dennis,
I’ll have to call his secretary and ask for you…
YO DOC
HOW BOUT U DO THE UFC 70 PREDICTIONS A DAY EARLY SIR… LOL…. IM AT WORK BORED CUZ I DONT HAVE ANYTHING TO READ
@Patrick
Mine are sufficient.. lol just kidding. The HBO thing, whatever, it will be on YouTube the next day every time so, whatever.. I wont get HBO for a few fights that are mid-range, you can get MMA free on Spike, you can get IFL free, BoDOG for free sometimes, and the headliners will always be on PPV, so HBO is a youtube deal for me.
UFC 72: Victory (6/16/07)
Rich Franklin vs Martin Kampmann
Forrest Griffin vs Hector Ramirez
Tyson Griffin vs Clay Guida
Eddie Sanchez vs Colin Robinson
IF THIS CARD DOES NOT LOOK ANY BETTER IM SO NOT GETTING THIS… WHO PUTS SOME OF THE FIGHTS TOGETHER… SOME CARDS LATELY HAVE BEEN ABSOLUTE ****…. ANYONE AGREE?
@Patrick
Agreed amigo, the GSP/SERRA card was the only fight worth watching, as far as the others went, Diego/Ko’s was the other headliner, but nothing else good, and like I said before the fight, the cards have been mediocre at best.
With all the talent the UFC has a monopoly on now, they should be putting much better fights together in the near future, I am sure Doc would comment something to that direction.
Yep!
With the WEC and Pride buyouts, there’s no reason for any more sucky cards.
One other thing, MMA is taking off bigger than ever. HBO/SHOWTIME are the big “homes of boxing” outside of PPV, so this goes to show that the MMA pie is just getting bigger and bigger, makes me happy that our sport will be on par respect wise with other sports and soon there will be a seperate MMA header on all the sports websites, ect. I guess J. Mcain can shut up now because MMA is mainstream boys. Don’t dislike the guy as a politician, but as a critic, he is very annoying, probably ought to leave things like that alone so as not to stir the voting public against him, especially big MMA fans who vote red.
Let’s put McCain in the octagon with Chuck!
@Dennis
lmao!
Hey have you made your picks for Saturday?
Only the hards ones….
CroCop
Bisbing
Arlovski
Machida
Silva
LOL DENNIS
UR JUST PUTIN ARLOVSKI CUZ U KNOW ILL ***** IF U DONT LOL
No really, I think Andre fells that he has got to re-prove himself here, or lose his credibility.
@@@@@@@@ DENNIS
U THINK HIM AND FABBY WILL GO ALL 3 ROUNDS?
No way! I think Andre will knock him out! Fabby will try to take it to the ground of course.
hey what about sherk he should have a title defense?
@aFan,
Sherk does have a title defense against Hermes Franca currently scheduled for UFC 73 in July