Golden Boy Promotions and Showtime on Saturday announced that they have "consolidated their final three boxing cards of the year into two loaded quadrupleheaders and took the Dec. 14 card headlined by the Adrien Broner-Marcos Maidana welterweight title fight off pay-per-view and moved it to the regular network," according to Dan Rafael of ESPN.com. Broner-Maidana "will headline a network quadrupleheader" at the Alamodome. Showtime Sports Exec VP & GM Stephen Espinoza said, "We have a pay-per-view (worthy) event, but we're charging nothing for it. It will be produced just like a pay-per-view and it will still have its own 'All Access.'" Espinoza added that with the holidays approaching, the "main reason for moving the card off pay-per-view was the time of year." Espinoza: "Any other time of year we would have gone on pay-per-view. The calendar was the only thing that made us hesitant to put it on pay-per-view. This is the right way to end the year. Great matchups, competitive fights, and it's going to be all action" (ESPN.com, 10/26).
FREE SWINGING: Bellator and Spike officials said that with Tito Ortiz withdrawing with a neck injury from his scheduled Nov. 2 PPV bout against Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, the event "will now be free." Bellator Chair & CEO Bjorn Rebney on Friday said that Bellator 106 "will transition to Spike TV for a three-hour block" (MMAWEEKLY.com, 10/25). On Long Island, Mark La Monica noted the event "was to be the first pay-per-view event for Bellator, and the first fight in the promotion for Ortiz and Jackson" (NEWSDAY, 10/26).
