After weeks of speculation, MMAWeekly.com has confirmed that UFC 70 will air on Spike TV. Zuffa was unable to reach a deal with HBO in time, and the deadline for pay-per-view advertising has long since passed. This left Zuffa with no choice but to air the show on Spike, but that’s not a bad thing.
This is probably the most stacked UFC card I’ve seen in a long time. This is the show that should be on basic cable. It’s the perfect gateway event to bring in a new crop of fans. Granted, the exposure on HBO would have been fantastic for UFC, but it’s really HBO’s loss.
If HBO would have wised up to understanding the product and just gave the UFC the greenlight on using their own crew and announcers, they could have had themselves one hell of an event, and a nice feather in their cap. Unfortunately many at HBO Sports have a bug up their ass about MMA. They have absolutely no understanding of the sport and don’t want any part of it. While HBO Chairman and CEO Chris Albrecht is very interested in MMA programming, it looks like a deal with UFC is dead in the water for the time being.
The upside here is that the fans ultimately win. Unless a heavy amount of advertising is done, other than on Spike TV, it might not bring in too many new viewers, but this should be an extremely memorable event for UFC fans.
UFC 70 will air live on Spike TV on April 21st with a likely start time of 2pm EST (subject to change). The card is as follows:
