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[Sakara=Excitement]

UFC officially announces Ion Television to carry three UFC 125 prelim bouts | MMAjunkie.com

Ion Television is now officially the UFC's newest broadcast partner.

UFC brass today announced that a trio of UFC 125 fights will air live on the network on Jan. 1 at 8:55 p.m. ET/5:55 p.m. PT.

"I am excited for our fans because I’ve been looking for ways to broadcast UFC prelims free and to as many homes as possible," UFC president Dana White stated in today's release. "Ion is the largest broadcast television station group in the U.S., and this deal will put the UFC prelims in almost 100 million homes."

MMAjunkie.com (UFC blog for UFC news, UFC rumors, fighter interviews and event previews/recaps | MMAjunkie.com) first reported the deal on Monday night.

Featuring a lightweight title fight between current champion Frankie Edgar and top challenger Gray Maynard, "UFC 125: Resolution" takes place Jan. 1 and airs live on pay-per-view.

Marcus Davis vs. Jeremy Stephens, Josh Grispi vs. Dustin Poirier and Phil Baroni vs. Brad Tavares will be featured on the Ion Television broadcast.

The New Year's Day broadcast marks the first time the UFC has guaranteed three fights on a preliminary card broadcast. On Monday, UFC president Dana White said he knew he was making a risky move, but he was exciting at the prospect of an action-packed special.

"The prelims we do air, there's only supposed to be two," White said. "Time-wise, it's impossible to pull off three if they all go to the distance. I'm going to roll the dice on this thing."

Ion Television, which was launched in 1998 as PAX TV, was rebranded as Ion Television in 2007. The channel was also known as i from 2005 to 2007.

It's unknown if the new deal extends beyond the UFC 125 broadcast, but White seemed optimistic the network may carry future UFC programming, as well.

"We're going to talk to these guys and see what's up," White said. "This might be a regular thing.

"Listen, it's a ballsy move to go on network with prelims, but the Ion guys are the real deal. We're going to see if we can make it happen with them."

With the official announcement, the UFC 125 lineup now includes:

MAIN CARD
Champ Frankie Edgar vs. Gray Maynard (for lightweight title)
Chris Leben vs. Brian Stann
Thiago Silva vs. Brandon Vera
Nate Diaz vs. Dong Hyun Kim
Takanori Gomi vs. Clay Guida

PRELIMINARY CARD (Ion Television)
Marcus Davis vs. Jeremy Stephens
Josh Grispi vs. Dustin Poirier
Phil Baroni vs. Brad Tavares

PRELIMINARY CARD (Un-aired)
Mike Brown vs. Diego Nunes
Daniel Roberts vs. Greg Soto
Antonio McKee vs. Jacob Volkmann

[SimpleJack]

I don't see how airing a Baroni fight is ballsy at all.....

He'll either be KO'ed in spectacular fashion or KO someone in specatcular fashion. Stephens/Davis should go similarly.

[beau420]

"The prelims we do air, there's only supposed to be two," White said. "Time-wise, it's impossible to pull off three if they all go to the distance. I'm going to roll the dice on this thing."

I guess Dana's math of 5 x 3 = 15 x 2 = 1 hour.....hmmm

I don't know why they want you to think the prelims are live. Why they need promos for the prelims as well as their entrances to the ring....and a stupid fucking pre-fight interview with the people in the main event for last minute PPV hype before the fight.

Make it about the fights, not the event. 45 minutes of straight up fights....followed by 15 minutes of prefight hype (smoke/food/bathroom break) then PPV.

I mean if they want to make it more of a tease...tape the most entertaining prelim and only show the first round or two (or before the fighter is submitted or KOd) then stop playing it and say if you want to continue watching this fight, tune into the PPV....that would be a jerk move....but at least it would make for more fights on TV.

I am pissed that the past WEC event....they still haven't released most of the prelims...for UFC fights I have to wait several hours before I can watch the prelims....sucks....wish we could have 5 hour PPV events....kinda why I like Sengoku/DREAM....they have the whole event...announcers and guests actually have to fill in time and talk about the events....but I think that might reveal to the rest of the world that Goldberg is a useless tool.

[mma #1 fan]

any one know what chanel this is in the for comcast in the NW ?

[U shut ur FACE]

Well this is great! Now what the HELL is Ion television lol.

[Xanatos]

so how do I watch this in Canada

[HillbillyDeluxe]

MODS: please combine these 2 threads and merge the title, there is a ton of channel numbers for ION and details for several major satellite/cable providers in this thread below

http://www.mmanews.com/forums/genera...announced.html

[mma #1 fan]

Its channel 3 for me

[Daellusx]

Originally Posted by U shut ur FACE

Well this is great! Now what the HELL is Ion television lol.

No kidding. I had never heard of ION before today. Time to check my comcast listings to see if they even carry the channel.

[Rumble]

Originally Posted by mma #1 fan

any one know what chanel this is in the for comcast in the NW ?

It's channel 3 for me (Tacoma), but I'm not sure if the channels are the same in Bellingham or not. Hope this helps man.

EDIT: Nevermind, I see you figured it out already haha