UFC 85 to air on pay-per-view
By MMAFighting.com on April 24, 2008
UFC 85 at the O2 Arena in London will air on pay-per-view and not Spike TV.
The official UFC website previously listed Spike TV as the carrier of UFC 85, but late this morning, made the correction. The UFC has confirmed to MMAFighting.com that the correction will stand.
UFC 85 is currently missing a main event and an event title after Chuck Liddell withdrew from his bout versus Rashad Evans due to a torn hamstring. Evan's new opponent is expected to be James Irvin.
The price for UFC pay-per-views is $44.95, which began with UFC 81: Breaking Point last February.
FIGHT CARD:
205 lbs: Rashad Evans vs. James Irvin (not officially announced)
265 lbs: Brandon Vera vs. Fabricio Werdum
185 lbs: Martin Kampmann vs. Jorge Rivera
170 lbs: Mike Swick vs. Marcus Davis
185 lbs: Nate Marquardt vs. Thales Leites
155 lbs: Matt Wiman vs. Thiago Tavares
205 lbs: Jason Lambert vs. Luiz Cane
185 lbs: Roan Carneiro vs. TBA
265 lbs: Antoni Hardonk vs. Neil Wain
I second that notion. Besides Swick and Davis, I don't have any interest in the rest of this card. I don't like Vera and Werdum's fights are . . . . . . . . wait, I fell asleep typing about Werdum. They better get that Bisping-Leben fight signed and that Noguiera-Mir fight that's being rumored to top this card or their will be no PPV buys on this thing. I don't think the UFC wants to follow up that massive UFC 84 card with a SNOOZEFEST like this one. I can give them the title. UFC 85: REM SLEEP, ONLY ON PAY PER VIEW (you have to imagine the announcer with the sinister voice saying only on PPV to get the full effect)
Interesting note for everyone, Mir vs. McCully is no longer listed on UFC.com for UFC 86. Potentially that could be meaning a Nogueira vs. Mir title match for 85.
Yeah surprisingly (for me) i won't be getting this. I've ordered every UFC I could get since they started. I missed one while moving to phoenix but thats it.
But, i'll say this. It's a big mistake to put a lower card on free tv. That's precisely where they need the big fight card to be to attract more new viewers. They did it in the past and it worked great.
Listen, when you run a friggin ppv every 30 days it's going to wear out anyway. Nobody can really think people are going to pay almost 50 bucks per month to watch one fight card per month? it's going to drop sometime. They'll be bringing better cards to free tv sooner or later :P)
I definitely will be ordering UFC 85 regardless of how many "quality" fights are booked. Haven't we learned anything that any fight can be interesting, and you really can't judge an event before it's even happened. Who cares if it's 45 bucks? Seriously, that's three hours of entertainment versus maybe going out to dinner one night. A little food for thought... ha ha
UFC 85 on PPV, not on Spike TV
Linear Mode
