It's been a long time coming for Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and President Dana White in their respective trek to get the promotion on mainstream television.
There have been many bumps and bruises along the way. Unfortunately, it looks like the hits keep coming.
In August, it was announced that the UFC had formally inked a deal with FOX Sports. The agreement would ensure more free events on a popular nationwide network, as well as a move The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) reality television series from Spike to FX.
The inaugural offering of the UFC on FOX will take place on Nov. 12, 2011, in Anaheim, California. It will feature a massive match up between current Heavyweight Champion Cain Velasquez and Junior dos Santos as they square off for the belt.
DirecTV and FOX have been in negotiations for some time now to renew their contract. An agreement has not been reached and DirecTV has taken a hard stance, threatening to pull the network from its available programming if a deal is not struck by Nov. 1.
Luckily for mixed martial arts (MMA) fans, the deal does not affect FOX broadcast stations, thus allowing them to still be able to see UFC on FOX 1.
In a public statement, a spokesperson for FOX had the following to say:
"They have given us no chance to respond before taking an unnecessarily aggressive posture and going public. It is disappointing that they have chosen bad faith tactics over meaningful negotiation. We have proposed to keep the Fox Networks on DirecTV for the same price and on the same terms as they are currently carried while we attempt to work out a fair agreement. Unfortunately, DirecTV has decided that unless they get their way, they are going to pull the plug on their customers Nov. 1."
DirecTV responded, citing a lack of truthfulness on the part of FOX:
"After months of making little progress in our talks with News Corp and Fox to renew our agreement to carry their regional sports networks and other national channels we've regrettably reached a point where we will be forced to suspend the channels as soon as Nov. 1 unless News Corp is willing to move toward a more reasonable price increase."
If the stalemate is not remedied, the move by DirecTV would affect FX, National Geographic Channel, 19 regional sports networks, Fox Movie Channel, Speed, Fuel TV, Fox Soccer and Fox Deportes.
All sources have indicated that the labor agreement issue should have no bearing on the Nov. 12 event.
Stay tuned to MMAmania.com for updates on this story as it unfolds.
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