UFC Planning Event for July 19th?

According to Sherdog, the UFC is currently planning an event for Saturday, July 19th, that would be shown for free on Spike TV.

Why is this significant? It's the same night that Affliction will be hosting their first PPV event, "Banned".

According to Sherdog, the UFC have approached both Wanderlei Silva and Brandon Vera with the idea of fighting on the card. There is some talk that Vera might move down to light heavyweight to take on Silva. Sherdog is reporting that a Silva / Vera fight is one possibility, or they might fight in separate matches.

Both fighters would likely be ready to go on short notice, due to the fact that both of their previous matches ended quickly. Wanderlei "The Axe Murderer" Silva took only 36 seconds to dispatch of Keith Jardine at UFC 84, while Vera was stopped in the first round by Fabricio Werdum at UFC 85.

The UFC doesn't seem shy about the fact that they want to crush rival promotions that are just in their infancy stage. First they aired a multi-hour block of Chuck Liddell programming on the same night of EliteXC's debut on CBS, and now they are looking to air a free event on the same night that Affliction's MMA product tries to get off the ground.

Affliction is shelling out millions of dollars to stage "Banned" in July, and the UFC are clearly trying to inflict as much financial damage as possible on Affliction by minimizing their PPV buys. What better way to do that than with a free UFC event on Spike TV? Dana White clearly enjoys having a near-monopoly on the MMA world, and doesn't want to see that change anytime soon. He's hoping that Affliction takes such a loss with their first event that they are forced to trim their costs for any future events. This would serve to make their cards less appetizing to buyers, plus keep fighter salaries in check across the industry.

According to Dave Meltzer, Affliction was hoping generate between 250k - 300k in PPV buys for their inaugural event on July 19th. This is a laughable number (I would have been shocked if they have broken this number without the UFC show on the same night), but in the face of a free show on Spike TV the same night, it's going to be downright impossible.

Source: Sherdog

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