It appears as though the UFC on FOX prelims will air on FX from here on out.
MMAFighting.com reported last week that the UFC on FOX 5 and 6 prelims will now air on FX, not FUEL TV, and on Tuesday’s conference call to promote next week’s UFC on FOX 5 event, Eric Shanks, president of FOX Sports Media Group, spoke of the switch.
“The thinking there is, obviously, FX is in a lot more homes than Fuel,” he said, “and it’s a funnel. The more people you have watching the prelims and telling them where to catch the fight, the bigger the fight is going to be. We wanted to do it with this one and get that funnel as big as possible.”
FX is currently available in 98 million homes; while FUEL is in 36 million homes.
FX will air six fights prior to the Dec. 8 UFC on FOX 5 main card beginning at 5 p.m. ET / 2 p.m. PT: Brendan Schaub vs. Lavar Johnson, Michael Chiesa vs. Marcus LeVesseur, Nam Phan vs. Dennis Siver, Daron Cruickshank vs. Henry Martinez, Ramsey Nijem vs. Joe Proctor, and Yves Edwards vs. John Cholish. Prior to the FX prelims, Facebook will also stream three fights beginning at 3:45 p.m. ET / 12:45 p.m PT: Bryan Caraway vs. Mike Easton, John Albert vs. Scott Jorgensen, and Tim Means vs. Abel Trujillo.
The UFC on FOX 5 main card will feature four fights beginning at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT: Benson Henderson vs. Nathan Diaz for the lightweight title, Mauricio “Shogun” Rua vs. Alexander Gustafsson, B.J. Penn vs. Rory MacDonald and Mike Swick vs. Matt Brown.