UFC 196 was a pay-per-view event scheduled for Super Bowl weekend and featuring a heavyweight title bout.
UFC Fight Night 82 airs on cable TV and features a non-title welterweight match.
They’re the same event. So it goes in MMA sometimes.
After challenger Cain Velasquez and then-champ Fabricio Werdum pulled out of the main event because of injuries, UFC officials moved the card from pay-per-view to Fox Sports 1 and rebranded the event as UFC Fight Night 82. Officials announced the change in a statement released to media members Wednesday, and it was subsequently reported by MMA Junkie and other outlets.
“UFC announced today that its card on Saturday, Feb. 6 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas will now air live on FS1,” the statement read in part.
The event’s new headliner pits former welterweight champion Johny Hendricks (17-3) against Stephen Thompson (11-1), a multi-time world kickboxing champ who moved to pro MMA in 2010.
The heavyweights will not be entirely absent from the newly reconfigured card, however, as the co-main event features Roy Nelson and Jared Rosholt. Other notable fights on the card include a flyweight contest between Joseph Benavidez and Zach Makovsky, light heavyweight bruisers Ovince St-Preux and Rafael Cavalcante and lightweights Josh Burkman and K.J. Noons.
The first two fights of the evening—featherweights Artem Lobov and Alex White, and welterweights Mickey Gall and Mike Jackson—will air on Fight Pass—the UFC’s subscription streaming service. The rest of the card airs on FS1.
Pundits and reporters on Twitter applauded the UFC for moving the fight from pay-per-view, which can cost $60 to watch, to cable TV, which, though it does cost money through a subscriber’s monthly bill, is less expensive and does not require any immediate out-of-pocket expenditure. Bloody Elbow’s Zane Simon, Bleacher Report’s Jeremy Botter and USA Today‘s Ben Fowlkes shared their thoughts on the UFC’s decision to move the event to Fox Sports 1:
I’m pretty shocked the UFC pulled a card off PPV and still held the card. First time I can remember it happening.
— Zane Simon (@TheZaneSimon) January 26, 2016
Good move, UFC. UFC 196 will air for free on Fox Sports 1. Was the only logical decision.
— Jeremy Botter (@jeremybotter) January 26, 2016
With UFC 196 moved to cable TV, now I don’t have to go over to Chad’s house to watch it only to discover that he has gone to mine.
— Ben Fowlkes (@benfowlkesMMA) January 26, 2016
The next UFC pay-per-view event, headlined by Conor McGregor facing Rafael dos Anjos for Dos Anjos’ lightweight title, has been changed from UFC 197 to UFC 196.
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