UFC's second telecast on Fox will air Jan. 28 at 8:00pm ET from Chicago's United Center, and the organization will "look to build on" its first event on the net in November, according to John Silver of the CHICAGO SUN-TIMES. While Fox for the first event "aired just one fight during the 60-minute time slot, the UFC expanded the January event to a two-hour, three-fight card." UFC slated "only three fights for the Fox broadcast," but the organization "will put on a full undercard" for the United Center fans. It will be the first UFC event in Chicago in three years, and UFC President Dana White said, "When we were looking at cities to bring a big Fox fight to, Chicago was a no-brainer" (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 12/8). MMAJUNKIE.com reported after "counter-programming the first UFC on FOX event and scoring approximately 800,000 viewers, Spike TV also will counter-program the second one." The net "will run a 'UFC Unleashed' marathon featuring UFC on FOX 2 headliners Rashad Evans and Phil Davis on Jan. 28 to counter FOX's live event broadcast that same night." The counter-programming special "runs six hours and begins" at 4:00pm (MMAJUNKIE.com, 12/7).
THE MAIN EVENT: ESPN.com's Dan Rafael reported Showtime on Wednesday "pulled the plug on its scheduled Dec. 31 edition of 'Showtime Championship Boxing.'" The main event "was to have featured light heavyweight titlist Tavoris Cloud against former titleholder Zsolt Erdei, who withdrew last Friday because of a hand injury." Lou DiBella, who "promotes Erdei and former titleholder Gabriel Campillo, said he made a deal with Don King, Cloud's promoter, for Campillo to step in and replace Erdei, but the network balked" (ESPN.com, 12/7).
ENTERING THE RING? CNBC's Herb Greenberg noted there has been "lots of chatter" that the WWE is "really getting ready to launch its own network." Greenberg: "On its earning call last month the company said they would soon make a very big announcement about the network. ... All signs point to an April launch of the network with the company planning to hire as many as 150 to 200 employees." Greenberg noted that a WWE net "would transform the company creatively and financially," and the organization is "actually talking to some cable companies" about distribution ("Street Signs," CNBC, 12/7).
