UFC 80: "Rapid Fire" on Saturday, January 19 from the Metro Radio Arena in Newcastle, England, is the first major pay-per-view (PPV) for the promotion in 2008.
It features the "World Lightweight Championship" between BJ Penn and Joe Stevenson, as well as the heavyweight rematch between Gabriel Gonzaga and Fabricio Werdum.
For the complete UFC 80 fight card click here.
Up until this point all indications pointed to a LIVE broadcast at 3 p.m. ET because of the time zone difference. However, in the banner to the left, which is prominently featured on the UFC.com homepage, the start time is 10 p.m. ET.
If that's the case then it would be aired via tape delay, similar to most of the European shows held in 2007 (UFC 72: "Victory" being the lone exception.)
However, the official fight card on UFC.com indicates that it will begin be broadcast at 3 p.m. ET. Therefore, have things changed or is this just one big confusing error?
I don't think it's an error -- just confusing (especially since we're getting loads of emails about the start time.)
I'm fairly confident that it will be available at 3 p.m. (LIVE) and on PPV at 10 p.m. (via tape delay).
Read the header on the UFC official UFC 80 microsite and tell me what you think. For those too lazy to click over it reads like this:
"Saturday January 19, 2008 -- 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT or Watch it at 3 p.m. ET / 12 p.m. PT -- LIVE on PPV"
Long story short, this all means (I think) we have two options come fight day: Watch it LIVE or via tape delay. And as far as I know that would be similar to "Victory," satisfying fans who prefer to watch it LIVE earlier in the afternoon and those who want to wait until later in the evening to catch the telecast.
Apologies if I'm addressing this late but I want to pass along the news (if it's accurate) because there seems to be a ton of confusion. If it is available at both times I will remind our readers that we will share the results as soon as possible.
Therefore, if you don't want to know the results beforehand (whenever you watch it) then don't come to our site until you are ready -- we don't want to spoil the event for anyone.
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