The UFC on FOX!

[EmpireWF]

Unless the final decision to have just 1 live fight came from Fox (something to do with selling ad time, ratings, misc. stuff), the only reason I can assume is not wanting to do 2 hours.

Could they have gone 2 hours (8-10 or 9-11) and had 3 or 4 fights? I don't see why not.

If UFC and/or Fox wanted to keep it at 1 hour, there is no room to go in thinking you'll have enough time for a second fight with the title match. Figure for planning purposes, the title fight goes the distance. 25 minutes of fighting + 12 minutes of in between round time (dont forget entrances if they include them).

Right there you have over a half hour taken up. They'll have close to 10 minutes to open up the broadcast and talk, introduce the product to new viewers and then they need their commercial time which could be close to 15-20 minutes itself.

Whole hour is taken up already.

I don't know why they chose to do a 1 hour show.

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If it goes short, they should have a good fight or two to fill up the broadcast time and hopefully end the night on a great note.

[Warner2BruceTD]

I agree you can only do one fight on a one hour show. I'm just surprised Zuffa went all in with a network with one hour, after being such tough negotiators for years when it came to protecting the product over 'just getting on network TV'.

If it goes short, america will groan, and most people will change the channel before Guida or Hendo or whoever else hit the screen, so even if the other fight(s) is good only hardcores and skeptical media will be watching. Boxing taught people prelims don't matter.

[Steel Mamba]

The one hour slot is a good move. First impressions are everything, so you want to make sure that the viewers watching the UFC for the first time receive your best product. That's no doubt Cain vs JDS, there's no reason to put anyone else on before them. Not the first time out.

[calgaryballer]

I have to think that the actual fighting won't start until midway through the show anyway. Lots of talking head analysis, intros to the sport, etc etc It won't be like a Spike event where they just jump in to the fights. Even if it ends early, FOX will probably do something like get celebrity reactions

[Warner2BruceTD]

I have to think that the actual fighting won't start until midway through the show anyway. Lots of talking head analysis, intros to the sport, etc etc It won't be like a Spike event where they just jump in to the fights. Even if it ends early, FOX will probably do something like get celebrity reactions

I'm also not a believer in 'dumbing down' to the audience. Just give people the product, people will either like it or won't like it, dumbing down what you do and 'reintroducing' it won't matter. I know it's not apples/apples, but the NFL doesn't give a crash course in football before the Super Bowl because new viewers are watching who didn't watch all year.

[calgaryballer]

I'm also not a believer in 'dumbing down' to the audience. Just give people the product, people will either like it or won't like it, dumbing down what you do and 'reintroducing' it won't matter. I know it's not apples/apples, but the NFL doesn't give a crash course in football before the Super Bowl because new viewers are watching who didn't watch all year.

I would love that to be the case. FOX's treatment of it's soccer property was not encouraging though

Maybe they do a 5 minute montage about the history of the UFC, interviews with big guns like Randy and Chuck, etc etc