Wise

Report: HBO to Televise Three UFC Cards in 2007

Apparently the current and past president of HBO Sports think of MMA as something akin to professional wrestling.

Kharney19

Doesn't surprise me. Dana has to keep up with the mainstream and showtimes deal w/ Elite.

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Fav Fighters: Arlovski, Filipovic, Franklin, Hughes, Fedor

Future UFC Heavyweight Championship Bout: Cro Cop vs. Arlovski

Wise

Im really happy with it. Hopefully with all the new talent coming into the UFC, this will make it so well be seeing alot more fight nights over the year.

brownpimp88

Great for the UFC. Now they can steal even more boxing fans.

CashKola

When HBO attaches itself to boxing, it attaches itself to Joe Louis, Sugar Ray Robinson, and Muhammad Ali. It attaches itself to history, achievement, and glory. UFC has none of those things, and it will tarnish HBO's boxing franchise. Will UFC get good ratings? Probably. But so would naked boxing." - Report: HBO to Televise Three UFC Cards in 2007

Well it is just a matter of time until the UFC and MMA in general have great and classy fighters that will represent MMA in a good way and be recognizable to the normal person; like a Joe Louis, Sugar Ray Robinson, or Ali.

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"Everybody underestimates the kick in the groin." - Bas Rutten

Shogun

I'd prefer UFC try and go for a wider audience by getting on one of the major networks (FOX, ABC, NBC, CBS). That would be a major win for them.

Part of the reason boxing has declined in popularity is all the good fights are on pay tv (HBO, Showtime, PPVs). People use to be able to catch Ali fights for free on the radio or TV. It's no wonder boxing was more popular back then. Kids don't grow up watching it so they don't who these guys are anymore.

If you really wanna grow MMA as a sport, get it on free TV. UFC has done well now on cable and PPVs, but it could be even bigger.

CashKola

The only problem is you will need A LOT of money to get on one of those networks, and still I doubt they would support MMA. If MMA is to get on one of those networks it will not be for a long time, but for the time being as long as they stay on spike they can keep bringing in new younger fans, because so many people have cable you can still have kids growing up on MMA.

I just hope that the UFC never pulls away form cable and has almost all of the fights on PPV or HBO/Showtime, because then the UFC will just end up in the same boat as boxing.

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"Everybody underestimates the kick in the groin." - Bas Rutten

IowaMFSFan

I think as long as UFC stays on Spike T.V. or a similar standard Cable Station its all good.

Alot of your direct T.V./Dish satelite users dont have HBO/Showtime,but channels like Spike are part of the standard package.

jamlena

Bay steps, this is definitley a big and good move for MMA, look at some of the shows that come from HBO, even people who don't subscribe to HBO know about them.

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You can't have everything. Where would you put it?

Favorite Fighters:

flourhead

now i can pay 20 dollars a month for the HBO package and get ufc and awesome movies instead of paying 40 a month for PPV. this is great except theres only 3 this year.