Dana White: Facebook Prelims stop in January

According to UFC president Dana White, it looks like we're going to be seeing a lot more fights on TV and no more on Facebook as soon as the Fox deal kicks in. He said this a month ago, right after the deal went down, but it seemed to not register with anyone at the time. Here is a link to the interview (the Facebook stuff starts at the 3:36) mark, and here's what Dana had to say about it:

Interviwer: One thing we've noticed recently is the Facebook fights. Is that going to continue with the ongoing Fox deal, or is that going to go away with the prelims and all that stuff?

Dana: Yeah it will go away when the Fox deal starts, which is in January. Because all that programming now, I mean the reason we did the Facebook fights was because nobody could see those fights. So we put them up on Facebook as an option for fans, because we always love to give more fights. But with the fact that Fox wants to pick up all these fights, they'll be on television now.

As much as hardcore fans love the idea of the fights streaming on Facebook, it's absolutely better for everyone involved to get them on live TV. The undercard fighters will receive much more exposure, make more money from sponsorship deals, and fans won't have to worry about a possible dodgy stream. It is currently unknown where they'll be aired (my guess would be Fuel), and it will obviously lead to the UFC re-shaping the way they show TV prelims. Will there still be a one-hour main episode with two top fights, like they currently do on Spike TV? Will that air on the same channel as the other prelims? We'll have to wait a while to find out, but it should be interesting.

http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2011/9/19/2436237/dana-white-facebook-fights-to-end-in-january-all-fights-will-be

good, much prefer watching on TV.

As long as we still get all of them, awesome. TV obviously better than sitting in front of a laptop

Liking the Fox deal even more, streams have always been good, but 24" monitor compared to 46" and HD quality vid, bring it on, shit do I have Fuel tv, damn it

Good news, for us and the fighters

Yeah im glad that its switching. Watching fights online is cool but in front of the tv is far better.

bobbitt15 wrote:

As long as we still get all of them, awesome. TV obviously better than sitting in front of a laptop

I agree, the stream always worked for me usually and usually in good quality, but sometimes the quality would crash and Rogan and Goldie would sound very feint.

Damn, 5 bucks a month extra for the package that includes Fuel for me. I'll probably still be watching online

5 bucks is worth all the ufc content id say.

True, depends on how much they end up putting on there

We don't know if it'll be on Fuel at all, thats just conjecture.

Chatroom plus live fights on TV sound pretty badass to me.

Fuel and Fox Sports affiliates are the only places for the undercards.

this news is better than good

Ludo wrote:

We don't know if it'll be on Fuel at all, thats just conjecture.

I think any Fox sports subsidiaries would have to be paid for too unless they will be local. I doubt FX is throwing a full undercard on there practically every other Saturday

Well that sucks AIDS infected donkey dicks!

Please god let the prelims come to FX UK.